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"Why Is My Mind Working Against Me?" | 1 Hour of Alex Hormozi — Transcript

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0:00I sell dreams and I built an ecosystem
0:02to make it happen essentially. What does
0:03that mean? [laughter]
0:04>> Let's get into it. I started off
0:06flipping homes.
0:07>> Okay, thank you.
0:08>> And then uh [laughter]
0:10>> Okay.
0:10>> I started off flipping homes and it got
0:12to a point where [snorts]
0:13>> that's a hope and opportunity.
0:14>> Hey, it works. [laughter]
0:18>> I flip houses. Got to a certain point.
0:19We got about 30 40 consecutively every
0:21year market revenue is about 4 mil.
0:23>> Okay.
0:24>> Just that line itself. It got to a point
0:26there's too much competition. had a hard
0:28time being profitable per flip.
0:30>> So I developed a model where we
0:32>> convert competition to collaboration.
0:34Start a contracting company instead of
0:36buying the product becoming the product
0:38and then started a coaching channel
0:40where I feed this ecosystem vertically
0:42integrated HVAC company, roofing
0:44company, uh dumpster company,
0:46contracting, the whole nine yards. So
0:48teaching people how to do it and I'm
0:49giving them the process and how to do
0:51it. All that is different revenue drips
0:52for me. Uh what's stopping me? I got too
0:56busy too fast and uh owner operator for
0:59a long time up until about three months
1:00ago. Hired a COO now transitioning a lot
1:03of the operation stuff onto her. Really?
1:06I don't know what the [ __ ] I'm doing
1:07because like I'm trying to transition
1:08myself out. I don't know how to run a
1:10COO.
1:10>> Why are you trying to transition out of
1:12the role or out of the company?
1:14>> A little bit of both. So out of the role
1:17because to be honest, I don't really
1:19care about the revenue uh growth factor.
1:22I care more about the impact. So, a
1:24promise I made myself is I want to
1:26impact at least five like one million
1:27lives before I die. So, how do I do
1:29that? I'm not going to be doing it
1:30flipping homes at a small scale. But, I
1:32built a company that's so based in
1:34locality that I'm trapped within it
1:37because it's so local. My team is there,
1:38my resources, my companies. The coaching
1:41program only makes sense because it's
1:44local. But because my market size,
1:46there's only so many people I can get
1:47consecutively every time, unless I keep
1:49dropping prices. The opposite of
1:50increasing price.
1:51>> So, what does that mean? I have to go to
1:53a national stage is how to how do I take
1:55this coaching at a massive scale and
1:58that's where I'm stuck at because I'm
1:59too busy in the operations and that's
2:01where Amy came in as a COO to kind of
2:03help me get out of it and focus on the
2:06next phase of you know the origin story.
2:10[snorts]
2:10>> So you're not trying to get out of the
2:12business, you're just trying to expand
2:14the business from local to national.
2:16>> Exactly.
2:17>> Okay. I want to make sure I understand
2:19this well. So, I'm guessing you run some
2:21sort of local workshops, you sell people
2:23on you helping them find homes that they
2:26can flip, and then you have local
2:28contractors, etc. that you own.
2:31>> I literally give them my entire team
2:33that I use to flip my own homes.
2:35>> I give it to them at discounted pricing.
2:37>> So, essentially creating a community.
2:38It's each class goes on, the community
2:40gets bigger, we exchange deals within
2:42it. So, everyone benefits. They get
2:44access to my pricing from Lowe's that
2:46they don't get anywhere else because of
2:47my volume pricing. Mhm. [snorts]
2:48>> Same thing goes for my subcontractors
2:50and the crews that I do own and manage
2:52on payroll. So, they get the benefits of
2:55all of that. Um, for the sake of price
2:58and they get the education of exactly
3:00how I do it, kind of like what you're
3:02doing, but at a much smaller scale,
3:03>> very different than what I'm doing. Um,
3:08okay. So,
3:10you have
3:12contractors.
3:14So, do you own these contractors or not?
3:16>> I do. Okay. So you own the electrician
3:18and you own the HVAC and all the other
3:20[ __ ] Okay.
3:21>> It was cheaper to integrate them as
3:23opposed to paying a GC or general
3:24contracting fee. So I kind of just
3:26>> Okay. Um what's So revenue is four
3:30>> roughly about 4 million right now
3:32>> including everything.
3:35>> No, not the HVAC company roofing company
3:36is fairly new. I don't know those
3:37numbers yet,
3:38>> but they're roughly about 200k each.
3:42>> And you feel like you've ran out of your
3:44local market?
3:45>> Not yet, but Right now I'm doing uh
3:48every three months. So I'm not
3:50>> What market are you in?
3:50>> What's that?
3:51>> What market?
3:51>> Uh Fableville, North Carolina.
3:53>> Where in North Carolina?
3:54>> Fadeville. Fort Bragg.
3:55>> Fadeville.
3:56>> Fadeville. Yeah.
3:57>> Oh, Fetville. Or you would say it
3:59correctly. Okay. Got it. Okay. I've read
4:01it, not heard it. Yeah. Keep going.
4:02Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
4:03>> It's about an hour from Raleigh.
4:04>> Okay.
4:05>> That's like the next big
4:06>> heard of that one. Yeah. Um Okay.
4:09Gosh, so much. Um, hence my point.
4:13>> So, you have like seven businesses.
4:17>> I lost count.
4:18>> Yeah.
4:18>> Yeah. They're all kind of They all feed
4:20off of each other in some way.
4:22>> Yeah. [snorts] It's a platform.
4:23[laughter]
4:24>> Um, God, man. Uh,
4:29>> I know. The only reason I did it is
4:30because like you you say you increase
4:32pricing. I can't increase pricing on a
4:34home that's based on that's regulated by
4:35appraisals, right? There's [snorts] a
4:37there's a cap there. Uh, that's what
4:39makes my little market a little
4:40different than
4:42sell. So, are you selling the houses?
4:46>> I was and I still am. I still am, but
4:49I'm focusing more.
4:50>> Did you get the realtor license to make
4:51sure you don't pay the percentage?
4:53>> What's that?
4:54>> I'm kidding.
4:55>> Wouldn't leave money on the table. Yeah.
4:57Yeah. Okay. Um, damn, dude.
5:01>> What did you guys say? Oh, man. Okay.
5:05Um,
5:07dude, this is a lot, man. Uh
5:13you like
5:17it's stressful. Um I'm stressed. I feel
5:20stressed for you.
5:22>> So
5:24Jesus. Uh like I don't even like where
5:27do you go from here? I mean I you
5:30probably are demand constrained within
5:32your existing local market because $4
5:33million for the type of business and the
5:35average ticket that I'm guessing you
5:36charge for this. What are you charging
5:37right now?
5:38We started off the first class as a
5:39guinea pig for like 10k. Nearly not
5:42enough. Like the value they were getting
5:43is just stupid.
5:44>> Yeah.
5:45>> And I was essentially training my own
5:46competition. Hence why I did the whole
5:48vertical integration thing to maximize
5:50on that to compensate for
5:51>> to use all these words. And it's like,
5:53dude, you're doing 4 million bucks a
5:54year. Like
5:56like it's like there's so there's so
5:58much. You know what I mean? Because like
6:00you'd need to sell 400 people at 10K and
6:01you'd make $4 million and do none of
6:02this [ __ ]
6:03>> Um or you could sell 100 people at 40K,
6:05which is two people a week. It's a 15K
6:08right now and it's getting filled every
6:09time without any like paid marketing. So
6:11like the word of mouth is pretty strong.
6:13The proof is strong enough. So
6:14>> you have no paid marketing?
6:16>> Not for the coaching program. No, I do
6:17like little seminars every 3 months.
6:19>> And how do you fill those?
6:21>> Uh just they know it's just I don't know
6:24how else to say it. Like you become like
6:26the industry guy, the small little town.
6:28>> It's like big fish, small pond kind of
6:30scenario.
6:31>> Yeah. Um jeez, dude. What's the What's
6:34the population of Fagetville? [snorts]
6:37>> Uh roughly around 300,000. It's
6:39transiting because of Fort Bragg, one of
6:41the largest army installations. So, it's
6:43kind of going, but
6:44>> yeah,
6:44>> it's about 3 to 400,000. But Raleigh,
6:47it's about an hour and a half.
6:48>> I'm trying to pull from that market much
6:50larger demographic.
6:51>> Yeah. But
6:52>> I mean, you haven't capped the 3 to
6:54400,000 people in your market to be very
6:56clear.
6:57>> No, I haven't.
6:58>> Right. Okay. And so you're selling how
7:00many units a month
7:02>> in homes
7:04>> or whatever.
7:04>> Yeah. I don't even know. Of
7:07>> of the thing of the thing
7:09>> for the coaching program, I got about 10
7:11students right now every three months.
7:13>> Okay. So dude, like I I I appreciate the
7:17national scale vision. I think you could
7:20probably get to given the ticket size
7:22and how you can monetize the customer in
7:25all these hundreds of ways. Like the the
7:27reason you would do that setup is so
7:29that you could dominate a local market.
7:31You're not dominating a local market
7:33right now. You're barely getting
7:34started. And so you could probably
7:35realistically get between Fagville um
7:39and Raleigh, you could probably get to
7:41100 million a year
7:43>> just in that market alone.
7:44>> Yeah. And I think if you just take your
7:45eyes off of like I want to conquer the
7:47entire world, it's like maybe. But like
7:50in order to conquer the world, you have
7:51to conquer a country first, right? And
7:53before you conquer a country, you got to
7:54conquer a city. And right now you
7:55haven't conquered a city. And so what
7:56happens is when armies overexpand they
8:00collapse. And so you need to fortify
8:01your base better because 10 dude 10 a 10
8:03a month is nothing.
8:05>> So what do you recommend? Do I try to
8:06automate what I have?
8:09>> Or do I just put myself more into it and
8:11double?
8:12>> Yeah. I think you should just ignore the
8:13national thing.
8:14>> Yeah.
8:15>> And
8:17let me just ask the simple question. Can
8:18you could you sell 20 people a week
8:21right now? Not like let me say it
8:24differently. Can you handle 20 people a
8:26week?
8:28>> We will be soon. CO has kind of taken.
8:30>> So you could have an 8x increase in
8:33sales within your current
8:34infrastructure. So that would take you
8:36from four to 32.
8:40>> That solves a revenue problem, not the
8:42impact problem. [snorts]
8:47>> Do you make content?
8:49>> I don't have time. Hence why. Yeah, if
8:51you couldn't tell. Yeah, but that's
8:53where I'm slacking the most.
8:55>> So,
8:55>> yeah, it's the content.
8:57>> Um,
8:59>> it would be far easier for you to just
9:02make content about the stuff you're
9:03doing and impact millions of people that
9:05way.
9:06>> Yeah.
9:07>> Than
9:08every single person in America to be a
9:10home flipper.
9:11>> And that's not achievable anyway.
9:13>> I agree.
9:13>> It's more about the financial education
9:15like selling the the dream of like you
9:17could be something more than just what
9:18you think you are and where you came
9:19from. And you can make content about
9:21that and you can distribute it for free
9:22with leverage. It's a beautiful thing.
9:24And so like you can be legit because you
9:27have a legitimate business and then you
9:29can talk about it and help all these
9:32other people and then you just keep
9:33growing this thing.
9:35>> Okay. So double down locally.
9:37>> Yeah. Yeah. You already have all the
9:38like you went through whatever the hell
9:40you did to go through and build all that
9:42stuff. It's like you just built it and
9:43you're like, you know what? I'm going to
9:44leave it now and I'm going to do another
9:45thing. It's like no. like I'm glad you
9:47brought the COO in, but it's probably so
9:49that she can do some of the stuff you're
9:51doing now so you can do the stuff you
9:52know you should be doing, but you're
9:53not. And so like you want to do the
9:54impact, so you don't have time. You have
9:55the COO, go make some content. It's not
9:56going to take that long anyways. And
9:58that way you can scratch your impact
9:59itch. And then for everything else, it's
10:01like you need to learn how to run paid
10:02ads and sell [ __ ] because like you for
10:04sure can sell 20, 50, 100 people a week
10:06in a local market, no problem for the
10:08offer that you have.
10:09>> Should I increase pricing to make it
10:12better or should I keep it where it's at
10:13given that it does feed my other
10:15channels? like a face value is 15K, but
10:17the lifetime value of that student for
10:19as long as they stay in my market
10:21because they're going to be flipping
10:22multiple homes in one year.
10:23>> Sure. What's LTV?
10:25>> The what?
10:25>> What's LTV right now?
10:27>> Uh,
10:28it's fairly new. So, I'll have a better
10:31idea in about a year when I have a full
10:33cohort going through it. But right now,
10:36one student, 15K, I let's say they do
10:38one flip. I make about another 5 to 10k
10:42on the contracting. I make about a K in
10:44the dumpsters. Uh, what else? The HVAC,
10:46maybe make 3K.
10:48Um,
10:49>> what else?
10:50>> Dude, I'm exhausted listening to this
10:51business. Um,
10:53>> yeah,
10:54>> but
10:55>> multiply that across maybe 10 flips
10:57they'll do in a year if they're a good
10:58student.
10:58>> Yeah.
10:59>> The first year the stragglers maybe
11:00they'll do like
11:01>> you probably have a better time just
11:02like charging 100 grand and saying
11:04you'll do that stuff for free or at
11:05cost.
11:08>> Yeah.
11:10>> Um, but yeah, I mean, can you raise
11:12prices? It's just like can you sell and
11:14can you like Yes, you could. Typically
11:17an offer like this is 100 grand.
11:19>> Yeah.
11:19>> So, usually they have a done with you
11:21style offer that's between 15 and 25 and
11:23then there's a uh total turnkey offer
11:25which is $100,000.
11:27>> No one in my market can afford that.
11:29That's the problem.
11:29>> That is just not true.
11:31>> If I no one in your market that has
11:34heard of you through word of mouth of
11:35you emanating your presence into the the
11:37the workshops that you run once a
11:39quarter or whatever have can afford it.
11:42If you run ads, yes. It's just that like
11:44how many people show up to your thing?
11:46>> The venue holds 55 is packed out every
11:49time.
11:50>> Yeah. 50. So you have 55 people a month
11:52that come in the doors
11:53>> every three months. Yeah.
11:54>> Every three months. Right, dude. So it's
11:57like the way this looks in reality is
11:59you'll bring a 100 people in the room
12:01and you'll do three of those in a day
12:04and you'll pitch and you'll close 10 15
12:07you'll close three or five at the you
12:09know like the 100k and you'll close a
12:11handful at the you know call it 15 to
12:1325k and that's that's the business. So
12:17you like you're you're you like you see
12:19200 people a year and you're like my
12:21market can't afford it. It's like well
12:22those 200 can't. It's like look at
12:242,000. And I'm sure there are some. Let
12:26me give you a stat. 9% of people in
12:28America have a million dollars in terms
12:31of their net worth. So if you include
12:33the ass like value their home like 9%.
12:35It's significantly higher than you think
12:37it is. They just look older.
12:41>> Real.
12:41>> Okay. What do you think about a tiered
12:43structure?
12:44>> Uh what?
12:46>> Like instead of just having one program
12:48like have different pathways, different
12:50>> Yeah. You could have it done with you
12:51and you could do the turnkey thing which
12:53is much higher. Yeah. Okay. All right.
12:56Thank you,
12:56>> dude. That was insane.
12:59>> It's constant. [laughter]
13:01>> Thank you.
13:03>> In the beginning, we have to start
13:04defining terms of like what's the what's
13:06the meta concept that I kind of operate
13:08off of? And the biggest one is
13:10fundamentally that like what is
13:11learning, right? Like what is learning
13:14>> adaptation?
13:16>> So it's it's same condition, new
13:17behavior. That's fundamentally like from
13:19a from a behavioral science perspective.
13:20It's like if you were so if you're you
13:22know person is condition A and then we
13:24teach them something when they reenter
13:26condition A they change their behavior.
13:27So it's observable. So same condition
13:30new behavior. If you the phone rings and
13:32you say XYZ and then I say hey don't say
13:34XYZ say ZW the phone rings again you say
13:37XYZ you haven't learned. If you say Zyw
13:39you have learned. If you say something
13:40else you've learned but the wrong thing
13:41right but fundamentally it's a change in
13:43behavior within the same condition. And
13:45so it's like okay if we say that as as
13:46kind of like tenant number one. The next
13:48thing is like okay then what is
13:49intelligence? So intelligence is going
13:51to be rate of learning. So if I have to
13:53do that you know example 10 times with
13:55you know Jack and five times with Graham
13:57then Jack has less intelligence than
13:58Graham does in this context. This is a
14:00hypothetical Jack and hypothetical
14:01Graham. These names are completely taken
14:02at at random. Um [laughter] but then
14:05it's like that but but the reason I
14:07think that's important is because then
14:08it allows people to have um direct
14:10influence on their own intelligence. So
14:12if you learn faster, you change your
14:13behavior faster than somebody else then
14:14you can in a very real way be more
14:15intelligent than them. And so when we
14:17asked originally like you know do you
14:18have to have real intelligence? I think
14:19it depends on what type of intelligence
14:20we're talking about when it comes to
14:22learning behaviors. This is how to
14:23define it. But beyond that it's like
14:24okay well then uh like a lot of words
14:27like so what's an excuse? So like an
14:29excuse is a statement to avoid
14:30punishment which is very simple. It's
14:32like okay that's what it's a statement
14:33that like someone says something like
14:34what's an excuse like show me when an
14:35excuse has occurred. And by by looking
14:38at like you know patience I've defined
14:39this plenty of times because I had to
14:40use it all the time which is figuring
14:41out what to do in the meantime. So if
14:43you say to a young kid be patient they
14:44don't know what that means. It's a
14:45bundled term. It means nothing. Be
14:47patient. It means nothing. So, how would
14:48I give some directions on how to be
14:50patient? Figure out something else to
14:51do. That's all you have to do. We are
14:53all being patient right now for our S&P
14:54500 accounts. We're being we're doing
14:56something else. That's all we have to do
14:57is just something else. And so, it makes
14:59patience uh operationalized, right?
15:01Like, how can I do patience? I have a
15:03very
15:03>> So, you're really just kind of
15:04redefining all of these words or at
15:05least simplified
15:06>> the words that are important and and by
15:08defining them, it's more putting them
15:09into a context that
15:11>> we're all talking on the same plane.
15:12Well, it's it's it's it's it's defining
15:15them within the observable universe.
15:17>> Oh, it's that way we can all agree these
15:20are the things that we see. When someone
15:21has exhibited resiliency, it means that
15:23they've returned to a baseline of
15:24behavior. And how resilient they are
15:26depends on how quickly they do that. If
15:27someone's not very resilient, it means
15:29that they extend the the change in
15:30behavior for a long period of time. If
15:31they're permanently quote traumatized,
15:33it means they never change their
15:34behavior, right? So, it's like what's
15:36trauma, right? Trauma is a permanent
15:37change of behavior based on an aversive
15:39stimulus, a negative stimulus, right?
15:41But then the question is okay if we have
15:43this trauma right and then people are
15:45like I store trauma in my spine it's
15:47like what where is there is there a hard
15:49drive in your like where what cell is
15:52this being people just say things and so
15:54it's just it's a permanent change of
15:55behavior from something bad happening
15:58okay now if you're a little baby and you
15:59touch a stove and it burns your hand and
16:02that's an aversive stimulus and you
16:04change your behavior don't touch hot
16:05stoves again was trauma bad
16:08>> I love that I actually like once you
16:10said that you're redefining everything
16:12into terms of the observable universe. I
16:14think that that I think it'll be my most
16:16I think it'll be my most successful.
16:18>> I'm curious though for something as I
16:21would say like
16:21>> like what's courage? What's courage?
16:23Right.
16:24>> So the interval of time a potentially
16:25bad thing affects whether you do it.
16:27>> What about something that's so like like
16:29like purpose or meaning? Those I feel
16:31like are really like I can't imagine how
16:34to define those.
16:35>> No, I think they're they're definable.
16:36It just takes a long time to really
16:37think like
16:39>> the the the question you have to answer
16:40is what would someone do for me to say
16:42purpose has occurred.
16:43>> I guess maybe
16:44>> that's why it's so hard. That's why you
16:45have to because you have to completely
16:46shift how you're seeing things and be
16:48able to observe them kind of like
16:49firsthand.
16:50>> And so it's like what's authenticity?
16:52It's how you behave when you have no
16:53risk of punishment
16:55>> and someone that obeys all of the terms
16:57that you've outlaid in that book.
16:58>> It's not of obeying. It's just like this
16:59is t like I have to define these terms
17:01in order to talk about them because
17:02they're also amorphic if I never define
17:04them. Then I would just be making face
17:06noise and other people would be
17:07perceiving my face in whatever way they
17:09think it means which they haven't
17:10defined anyways and so then there'd be a
17:11lack of communication. I think
17:13fundamentally like good communicators
17:14are able to transfer ideas efficiently
17:18because they use language that everyone
17:19understands and ideally things that
17:21everyone can observe with their own two
17:22eyes. And so that's I try and stick to
17:24everything being observable. And so as a
17:26result it's made persuasion way easier.
17:28It's being the most important one is
17:30that like if I want to train, which is
17:32happens a lot in a business setting.
17:33It's like how do you train someone and
17:35you're like be more confident? What does
17:37that mean? Tell a six-year-old be
17:39confident. It means nothing. It means
17:41nothing. They might just say like that
17:42means talk louder. I don't know what
17:43that means. Right? And so it's a bundled
17:45term. And so we have to break the term
17:47down. It's like, okay, well, this is
17:48actually a series of many behaviors
17:50underneath of confidence that when taken
17:52in aggregate, we then describe that
17:53person as confident. So maybe they look
17:55at you in the eyes when they talk. Maybe
17:56they nod their head when they're
17:57listening. Maybe they repeat back the
17:58last thing that you said. Um maybe when
18:00um when [snorts] there's uh when there's
18:03something that has potential risk or
18:04downside, they're willing to do it. Like
18:06these are all things that we can observe
18:07and they say, "Okay, well, if you have
18:08these these you exhibit these traits,
18:11these skills in this setting, people
18:13describe you as confident. Does that
18:16make sense?" And so being able to break
18:17things down like that has allowed me to
18:20um help my team when I'm like, "Hey, you
18:23know, I've told the story before, but
18:25basically I I had a guy who um you know,
18:28a lot of people were saying, "Hey, this
18:28guy's acting like a dick, but he was a
18:30star performer." So we're like, "Okay,
18:31well, let's see if we can save him." You
18:32know, and so we talked to three or four
18:34of the leaders in the company and he was
18:35still a dick. And so I was like, "What
18:37did you tell him?" We're like, "Oh, we
18:38told him to stop being a dick." And I
18:39was like, "Okay, well." So I ended up
18:40meeting with him and I was like, "I want
18:41to be clear. I don't really care if
18:42you're a dick or not. Um, I do care if
18:45people describe you as a dick. Um, and I
18:47want to like the purpose of this meeting
18:48is to decrease the likelihood that
18:49everyone talks to me about you again in
18:51a negative context. Cool. Great. So,
18:52that was the, you know, agenda. It's
18:53like, all right. So, in order for that
18:55to occur, um, let's talk about the
18:58things that when you do them, people
18:59don't like them and they call you a
19:01dick. So, it's like when you interrupt
19:02people during a meeting, they they think
19:04you're a dick and they call you a dick
19:05later. Uh, when you tell someone how to
19:07do their job, uh, they call you a dick
19:08and you try and force your agenda,
19:10whatever. It was two or three examples.
19:12And he was like, "So that's all I have
19:13to do." I was like, "Yep, that's all you
19:14have to do." He's like, "But what if uh
19:16you know, I present this thing and then
19:18they they don't execute on it." I was
19:20like, "Then that's not on you. That's on
19:22the manager and I'll talk to the manager
19:23and make sure that they're executing,
19:24but that's not on you. That's not your
19:25role." And so, um, once that got clear,
19:29all of a sudden, he just stopped doing
19:31the three things that everyone the three
19:33behaviors that people then laded up to
19:35saying he's a dick and then they stopped
19:37calling him a dick. And then everyone's
19:38like, "Oh, he's like night and day,
19:40totally different." But it was just like
19:41no one's specific with their language
19:43and so no one knows what anyone's
19:44talking about. And I think the vast
19:45majority of people don't communicate
19:47well with one another because both
19:48people are saying words that neither
19:49person understands and no one's to find
19:50anything. And that's why most people
19:51can't communicate at all. And that's why
19:52most people are satisfied with their
19:53life and that's why they can't manage
19:54their relationships because they like
19:55both people get upset. No one knows how
19:56to communicate and then that's it. They
19:57just like they want the other person to
19:59guess what behavior they don't like. And
20:02so it's like even if I said, "Oh, you
20:03know, John's lazy." You have to think
20:05and this is why most people don't do is
20:06because it takes work. You have to
20:07think, "Okay, I think John's lazy. Why
20:10do I think John's lazy? What what
20:12occurred? What did I observe that then
20:13made me think that? Now, you might find
20:15out it's like, you know what, he's
20:16actually just slow to respond. Okay. Is
20:19there anything else? There was one
20:20meeting he came ill prepared. Is there
20:22anything else? No, I think that was
20:24actually it. Okay. So, when I go to
20:25John, instead of being like, "Hey,
20:26you're lazy." I'm going to say, "Hey, I
20:28need you to speed up your responses to
20:30under five minutes, and when you come to
20:32a meeting, have your notes ahead of
20:33time. Just send them to me." All of a
20:35sudden, John's not lazy anymore. but
20:36it's because it was this very micro
20:38thing that we then ladder up to this
20:40amorphous term that no one can
20:41understand. And so this is this has been
20:44uh a huge area of interest for me um in
20:47defining reality. And I think that
20:50honestly it's helped me navigate reality
20:51really well um and make higher quality
20:54decisions.
20:55>> If someone reads his book, how would it
20:56be actionable for them to get those
20:58ideas across with somebody else who
21:00hasn't read the book and
21:01>> they would have to have to define the
21:03terms. That's it's it's it's getting a a
21:05complicated word and then simplifying it
21:06into the
21:07>> lay well they're not they're currently
21:09not communicating with that person.
21:12>> So like how would they talk to somebody
21:13who hasn't read the book the way they
21:15always do which is nothing which the
21:16thing is is the point that you hit on
21:18underpins the fact that most people
21:19can't communicate well at all.
21:21>> Right. And so if a lot of people want to
21:25be different than they are and I am, you
21:28know, first in line on that. There are
21:29many things that I I've wanted to be
21:31different about myself for a very long
21:33period of time. And this book and these
21:37ideas have been the culmination of
21:38trying to change these things about
21:39myself. I would say, I want to be more
21:41authentic. And I'm like, well, what's
21:43authenticity? How do I be more
21:44authentic? What do I do? Well, it's
21:47like, okay, well, authenticity is how
21:49you behave when there's no risk of
21:50punishment. And so if there's no risk of
21:52punishment, how you behave, basically if
21:53you're alone and no one can find out
21:54about what you do, that's you
21:55authentically. Now the problem is that
21:57in society, we also have rules that
21:59govern other people's uh behavior,
22:01right? Which means that the only truly
22:02authentic person is someone who behaves
22:04the exact same way alone as they do in
22:06public, which will probably have
22:08something to do with your preferences.
22:10And so can you be truly authentic only
22:12in that subset of people who act with
22:14complete freedom? And when they act with
22:16complete freedom, act within the rules
22:17of the law. anyone else who has any
22:20inclinations to do anything that's
22:21outside of society's preferences or the
22:23rules that govern um how we interact
22:25with each other uh or the laws right has
22:28to by their very definition not be
22:30authentic or be less than 100% authentic
22:32and I see many of these traits as not
22:34binaries are you authentic or not
22:35authentic but how authentic are you and
22:37also in the setting and if it's like man
22:39this sounds like it's a little bit more
22:40complex it's like yeah welcome to
22:41reality
22:42>> so how have you been holding yourself
22:43back in terms of authenticity
22:46>> well it's also the question of uh
22:49Is being 100% authentic something that
22:51is I should be?
22:53>> I mean, realistically, probably not,
22:55>> right? And so again, but but but the
22:56thing is once we define the term, we
22:58actually can have a discussion about it
23:00because now we're all talking the same
23:01language
23:02>> and it's much more productive. And it's
23:03also way less charged from a like if we
23:06had never defined the term, then you
23:08would have maybe been like, "What do you
23:09mean? Like you don't think you're
23:11authentic?" I'd be like, "Well, not 100%
23:12of the time." It's like, "Wait, so
23:13you're lying to people, right?" It's
23:14like we don't define the term and then
23:16all of a sudden we're attacking each
23:17other rather than just saying like well
23:19no I I act differently in private than I
23:22do in public
23:23>> to a certain degree. I walk around
23:25naked. [laughter]
23:26Like if I walk if walk around naked in
23:28public that would probably be but I'm
23:29being a little bit inauthentic right
23:30now. I'm wearing clothing. I normally
23:32wouldn't wear clothing, right? You
23:33[laughter] know what I'm saying? Like
23:34and so again that what it does is it
23:36adds nuance. But BF Skinner who's a
23:39famous behavioral scientist said um if
23:41many variables exist, many variables
23:42must be studied. And so a lot of people
23:44want a very neat box with clean lines
23:46and say like this is the way it is. And
23:48um I don't think reality is that way.
23:51Like it's not is this person honest or
23:52dishonest, it's how honest are they? How
23:54loyal are they?
23:55>> I'm curious. You take a blank slate
23:57person. They read and apply everything
23:59that you write in this book. What does
24:01their life look like a year down the
24:02road, five years down the road?
24:04>> Great question. So it's the book will by
24:07no means be a here is how to live life
24:09because that assumes that I know and
24:10that I think they should do something. I
24:13think it's more if you want these things
24:15these are the recipes for achieving
24:18them. So if you want to be perceived as
24:20patient figure out things to do in the
24:22meantime. If you want to be perceived as
24:23authentic behave more in a way that you
24:25were that you do in private and public.
24:27If you want to um you know be perceived
24:30as more courageous then decrease the
24:31time between uh when you perceive
24:33something as risky and when you take
24:34action on it like all of a sudden it's
24:36like oh so I want these traits and so
24:39this would in my opinion be the first
24:40way that at least the first place I've
24:42seen where there's like a recipe like do
24:44this how would you explain it to a child
24:46who doesn't know what the words mean and
24:49I think that's what allows well I mean
24:52it's it's what allowed me it's what has
24:54allowed me to exhibit more traits
24:56um that I that I wanted to have versus
24:58traits that I didn't want to have. And
25:00until I had that, I just was like, why
25:02do people describe me this way? Just
25:03because I couldn't break down what I had
25:05to change about what I did
25:07>> um to change basically reality.
25:08>> You're in a great position to talk about
25:10it, too. It's interesting because I've
25:11you've mentioned this years ago that you
25:13had an issue, I think it was with anger,
25:15>> and you also had the patience thing.
25:17>> Yeah.
25:17>> But it does appear as though you've made
25:19pretty significant strides in applying
25:21corrective behavior.
25:22>> Yeah.
25:22>> To those.
25:23>> More on patience, less on anger. but
25:25better.
25:27>> And and how does [clears throat] anger
25:28affect negatively maybe your business or
25:31your life? Like what have you noticed?
25:33>> Um,
25:34okay. Well, I'd say that the negative
25:36effects of anger for me have probably
25:38just come in in almost entirely from the
25:40way that people treat me, not in terms
25:43of negative outcomes business-wise. I
25:45think the reason that I still have anger
25:46is because it has served me. So, I think
25:48we repeat things that have served us in
25:50the past. And so I think one of the
25:51reasons that people misunderstand why
25:53they do things is because people ask the
25:54question what triggered that. You ever
25:56heard that? It's like oh something
25:57triggered this behavior.
25:59>> But it's not about what happened before.
26:01It's about what happened after the last
26:03time you did it.
26:04>> So I'll give you I'll give you a real
26:06example. So if I get upset and this is
26:09something that I've I've really actively
26:10worked a lot on. If Ila gets upset and
26:13she gets like she cries if we're having
26:16some you know whatever.
26:18I had a tendency um to try and comfort
26:22comfort for a short period and then if
26:24that didn't work, I would get angry.
26:26When I would get angry, she would get
26:28scared. When she would get scared, she
26:29would stop crying. And so when I got
26:31angry, she stopped crying. And so I
26:32learned that if I got angry, I got my
26:34wife to stop crying.
26:36And so it was a very reinforced. I only
26:38figured that out later.
26:39>> And so it's a very reinforcing thing.
26:40It's like, oh, if I can I this gets
26:42Leila to stop crying, right? Um and so
26:46to the same degree. So I've been
26:47rewarded in that setting but obviously
26:49she's like longterm it derodess you know
26:51so then I have to work on that right um
26:53if I value the relationship which I do
26:54um but the same context with uh my team
26:57right if I am quick to anger be cold or
27:01sharp with someone and it doesn't even
27:04have to happen often like if you do it
27:05once or twice or even if you do it in
27:07front of somebody not directed towards
27:08them they're like well I never want
27:10because modeling is a great way that
27:11people learn if someone shows up late
27:12and I yell at that person then that
27:14everyone else is still afraid of me and
27:15doesn't want to show up late either.
27:16Right? And so what happens is the flow
27:19of communication from other people to me
27:21slows down because they're afraid of
27:23getting punished by me. And so I see
27:25that as not positive for the business is
27:28me not having the information. Now, how
27:29do I cover for that? Well, I have
27:30somebody like Ila who always gets all
27:32the information and that's why she's CEO
27:33and doesn't have direct reports. And so
27:34we've been able to man manage that um
27:36within the business operationally, but
27:38in terms of me personally, like I want
27:39to be better about that. And so that's
27:42like an example of something that I'm
27:43working on. What's interesting is I I
27:45kind of have a similar thing in terms of
27:48like if I if someone's emotional to me,
27:50I have very very little patience
27:51unfortunately for it and it's one of my
27:53shortcomings.
27:54>> Since you fixed that, how have you
27:55noticed
27:56>> fixed, you know, Sure. Okay. Since you
27:59uh try to improve upon that, how have
28:01you noticed that that change in in real
28:03observable ways? Well, I mean Leila has
28:06now also because she understands how
28:08this stuff works too because we talk
28:09about all the time like she has tried to
28:10reinforce whenever I'm not angry and
28:12she's upset and so either in the moment
28:14or immediately afterwards, she's like,
28:16"Thank you for not getting upset and
28:18thank you for being there for me and
28:19thank you for just hugging me and you
28:20know just waiting it out essentially."
28:22Um, and so I just have to remember that
28:25when I'm in those settings and the more
28:26time she reinforces it, the less strong
28:28the other reinforcer is, the stronger
28:30the the the new one is. A lot of this
28:32stuff has has come from suffering like
28:36being like why can't I be this way? Like
28:38I want to be this way and I can't. Like
28:39why can't I? And it's like because I
28:40don't know how. Why don't I know how?
28:42Because I have no words that have
28:43described how to do it well. So how do I
28:45change this in reality? And so it's been
28:47it's been the result of of of a lot of
28:50seeking and a lot of pain. And that's so
28:53I don't I don't see it as logical. I see
28:55this as just descriptive like this is
28:56this is how it works. But but you're
28:59able to to to assign a new timeline in
29:03terms of when you learn something
29:05>> to to to a longer period of time rather
29:08than most people which assess things
29:09over a shorter period of time. For
29:10example, like you know when you would
29:12get angry at Ila like she would quiet
29:14and they're like okay like this works.
29:16But then you're able to then see way
29:18deeper into the future and then make
29:19decisions based off of that.
29:20>> Even that this isn't going to work long
29:21term.
29:22>> Yeah.
29:22>> Well yeah I'll get feedback I mean to be
29:24fair I'll get feedback immediately
29:25afterwards where you know she might not
29:27be happy.
29:28You know what I mean? And so,
29:29>> um, I think like it comes down to what
29:32are the things that we want to change
29:33and then how do we change them? And
29:35ideally, we want to have some sort of
29:36reward cycle as fast as possible with
29:38that new behavior. And that's I think
29:41that's how fundamentally you can change.
29:43Charlie Mer in one of his seinal
29:45speeches, he talks about how to
29:46guarantee failure, how to make sure that
29:49you are a failure. And he inverts the
29:51the concept of success. It's like, what
29:53could you do to make sure that you were
29:54a failure? It's like, well, you would
29:56definitely get involved in drugs,
29:58drinking. He says, was it leverage
30:00liquor and women, that's, you know, the
30:01Charlie's Charlie's big one, right?
30:03[laughter]
30:03But one of the ones that he has, I think
30:05he has seven in his in his in his
30:06speech, is
30:09consistency. He's like, you have to make
30:11sure that you're inconsistent. He's
30:13like, because if you are consistent and
30:15you have none of the other attributes,
30:17he's like, it's you still might be
30:19successful. He's like it's it's very
30:22tough for people who are consistent to
30:23not be successful. And he makes an
30:26especially pointed point about
30:27consistency because in my opinion it's
30:29one of the most difficult of the virtues
30:31for humans to do because we're so
30:32attracted to novelty. And so like I mean
30:36I used to deal with this with you know
30:37people on their diets all the time. I
30:38remember I ran gyms. And so someone
30:40would come in and I would always ask the
30:42question so have you been following the
30:43meal plan? And then they would say yes.
30:45And so then I started changing the way I
30:46asked the question. So I'd say, "Out of
30:48the 21 meals that you were supposed to
30:50eat, how many of the 21 did you have
30:52exactly the way it was on the meal
30:53plan?" And then they would be like, "Oh,
30:55I mean, at least half." And they would
30:57say it as though that was a mark of
30:58success. And right now, the meal plan
31:01could be your content plan. It could be
31:03your it could be your showing up to work
31:05on time plan. It could be the time that
31:06you want to put towards your side
31:07hustle. It doesn't really matter. But if
31:10there's one muscle that you can flex,
31:12it's learning to do the same thing over
31:14and over again. Like one of the one of
31:16the values that we had at gym launch is
31:17do the boring work because boring is
31:19what makes you rich, right? It's it's
31:21it's it's writing the follow-up sequence
31:24to your to the purchase page that you
31:26don't feel like doing but you know you
31:28should do. It's running the split test
31:30for the 10th time. It's it's actually
31:33going through and prepping for 20
31:35minutes before you have the meeting
31:36because
31:38it's amazing how much smarter you can
31:40appear with 20 minutes of preparation.
31:42like you can appear 50 IQ points smarter
31:45if you just prepare for meetings for 20
31:46minutes. I remember I did a consulting
31:48day which I've only done three in my
31:49entire life. And when I showed up uh to
31:53the day cuz I always want to make sure
31:54that everyone always gets more for me
31:55than I than they give me. Um I had taken
31:59I don't know 4 hours not a long time but
32:02a long time for I think some people but
32:04for me four hours is nothing. I counted
32:05hundreds so this was irrelevant. And so
32:07I put took four hours and actually took
32:09the time and put it in to do research on
32:11the individual. So, I looked at every
32:12single page they had, every landing
32:14page, every offer, every everything. And
32:16I had seven pages of things that I
32:18thought would make them more money. And
32:20so, when I started, I was like, "This is
32:21what we're going to go through today,
32:22and I'll walk you through line by line,
32:23and you'll have this as a take behind so
32:24you can execute it with your team." It
32:25was a bigger company.
32:27And the guy was shocked. He was like,
32:30"Never in my entire life has anyone had
32:33this much preparation." And that's when
32:35it goes back to like you need 20
32:37podcasts to be in the top 1%. the the
32:41bar for excellence. Like I have this
32:43timer that I have on my desk which it's
32:45it's the easiest purchase you can make.
32:47I think it was like seven bucks on
32:48Amazon. It's a little twist kitchen
32:49timer. It's very easy. And it's been
32:52probably my biggest focus hack, you
32:54know, to date, which is I turn it when I
32:56want to start working. And part of it
32:57allows me to think how long I I get
32:59better at predicting how long it's going
33:00to take me to do something. So I think I
33:01think this will take me 35 minutes. So I
33:03turn the clock to 35 and I click on and
33:05then I start working on the thing. And
33:06the moment my phone rings or I look at
33:08Slack or whatever, I stop the timer. And
33:10so you actually see that your time on
33:12task is usually significantly less than
33:14you think it is. And I think that in my
33:16early days, I would spend a very long
33:19time in front of a computer telling
33:21myself that I was working with very few
33:23minutes actually on task. And that's why
33:25I think that most things are actually
33:27significantly easier than people think
33:28they are. They just don't know how to
33:30try hard. Because the harder that you
33:32try, the easier it gets. And so it's
33:35like if you can just learn to love what
33:37trying hard feels like then all of a
33:39sudden it becomes unreasonable that you
33:41can't win. So like for the presentation
33:44that I'm giving, I explained a little
33:45bit earlier about what my process looks
33:47like. If you were to say what would it
33:48take for somebody to be unreasonably
33:50good that it would be impossible for
33:51them to not be a top 1% salesman or a
33:53top 1% content creator and you said what
33:55would that person need to do irrelevant
33:57from outcome? What would be the actions
33:59or evidence that they would have to do
34:00prior to that thing that would make it
34:01unreasonable that they couldn't succeed?
34:04And then you do those things, what
34:06happens is you realize that it's
34:07actually not that hard because you put
34:08so much work into it and the bar from
34:10other people working is so
34:12embarrassingly low that they then ask
34:14you how you did it and it must be easy.
34:18Consistency
34:21doesn't guarantee that you'll be
34:22successful,
34:24but not being consistent will guarantee
34:26that you won't reach success. You have a
34:29productivity hack, an easy productivity
34:31hack. Instead of spending time getting
34:33in the mood to work, just start working.
34:36Confront the work. People think they
34:38need perfect conditions to start when in
34:40reality starting is the perfect
34:43condition.
34:45I'm married to that. I love that because
34:50if you think like I, you know, I
34:52obviously am somebody who always wants
34:54to optimize how much work I do per unit
34:55of time. And so I I was, you know, there
34:58was definitely times earlier in my life
34:59I was really romanticized by these like
35:01very extensive morning routines and
35:03supplement rituals and like all this
35:05stuff of mental masturbation around the
35:06work that needed to be done. But when I
35:08looked at 2 hours later and nothing had
35:10actually gotten done,
35:12the moment you begin working is when
35:15your output per unit of time goes up.
35:17And so that makes beginning the single
35:21greatest hack that you can have
35:23>> for everything else that you do in work.
35:25Because thing is when you start working
35:26you start getting in the mood to work
35:28right like everything else is
35:29procrastinating around the work that you
35:30think you should do but like I have
35:32noticed for me at least I have these I
35:34have some big mental tasks you know what
35:36I mean like big content piece or big
35:37thing that you need like you know it's
35:38going to take real mental effort it
35:40takes me like five minutes of actually
35:42being in it to then get a a little bit
35:44of a lay of the land to then get into it
35:47but I used to take hours to delay to
35:50start the first five minutes and so my
35:52time compression of when I thought I
35:53should start doing something and when I
35:54started doing it. Over time, it's just
35:56compressed to the point where it's like
35:57the moment I think that I need to start
35:59doing it. Sometimes I just start it
36:00because then what happens? I get this
36:02open loop. And so rather than complete
36:04work at like cuz a lot of people are
36:05like, I want to complete it at this
36:06really nice clean point. Stop halfway
36:08through the sentence cuz it'll drive you
36:10mad.
36:10>> It's always harder, takes longer, and
36:13costs more than you think it will. That
36:15is a reflection of poor expectations,
36:19not that that reality is bad. And so it
36:22makes sense that it would be harder,
36:24take longer, and cost more because if it
36:26didn't, then everyone would have it and
36:28everyone had it, then it wouldn't be
36:29worthwhile. And so literally, the
36:31difficulty of the task that you embark
36:33on is proportional to the reward that
36:35you ultimately get because you are the
36:37asset that you build more than the
36:39achievement. And so if it's hard, that's
36:41amazing because it will make you that
36:43much harder once you conquer it. And it
36:44will also make it harder for anybody
36:46else who wants to follow in your
36:47footsteps. And so the higher up the
36:49mountain you climb, the thinner the air
36:51gets and the rarer the climber or
36:54explorer must be in order to get there.
36:56And so I don't know about you, but I
36:58would so much rather climb a mountain
37:00that so few people have been able to
37:02climb so that I can see a view that
37:03other people haven't seen. And so
37:05speaking of expectations, let me talk
37:07about the worst expectation of all,
37:08which is entitlement, which is the
37:10expectation of life or other people to
37:13give you something without earning it.
37:14And I think that this is is a is a virus
37:17in today's culture right now. And so
37:20there's the famous quote, "Hard times
37:22create strong men, strong men create
37:24good times, good times create weak men,
37:27and weak men create hard times." It
37:30makes sense that right now we have a lot
37:32of weak men because it's been pretty
37:34good times. The good news about that is
37:36that it's so easy to beat them. You just
37:39have to show up, be on time, prepare the
37:42night before, remembers people's names,
37:44actually follow up when you say you were
37:46going to, and try like you mean it,
37:49rather than trying like you want to get
37:51credit for trying. And I see this is
37:54this this thing that's that that's
37:56pervasive right now is that people will
37:59comment or they'll DM me and they're
38:00like, "Hey, I'm trying really hard." As
38:03though I'm supposed to give them credit
38:04for trying. The world doesn't work that
38:07way. It gives you credit for achieving.
38:09And the reason that you want credit for
38:11trying is because you want it to cost
38:13less, take shorter time period, and be
38:16easier. And so if you restate your
38:18complaint about the difficulty as, "Oh,
38:22I have false expectations about the ease
38:24or the price tag of this goal," then all
38:26of a sudden you realize that the only
38:28real problem was that you expected it to
38:30cost less. It's like going to the store
38:32and being like, "Oh, I've got these
38:33Jordans that I really want to buy. I got
38:35$50. I'm so excited to buy them. You go
38:37to the store as and see that they're
38:39$300. At that point, you can just say,
38:41"Jeans aren't for me." Or you can say,
38:43"Oh, I will have to keep working and
38:46keep saving so that I can afford this."
38:48And so, it's a lot about affording the
38:50goals that you want to achieve. And a
38:52lot of things that we have to spend in
38:54order to get them is the time and the
38:56rejection of not achieving what we want
38:58on the timeline we originally thought.
39:01Like what makes success hard is that the
39:03expectation that society puts because we
39:05only see the highlight reel. You
39:06actually only see people after they
39:08finish the race. People think success is
39:11like watching a marathon, not running a
39:13marathon. When you watch a marathon, you
39:15look at the beginning and you look at
39:17the end. It only takes you a couple of
39:19seconds to see both of those. But
39:21running a marathon is four, five, six
39:23straight hours of breathing heavy,
39:26wondering when it's going to end,
39:27counting, starting to play games in your
39:29mind of like, okay, I'm I'm 2/3 of the
39:31way there. I'm two two more quarters of
39:33that. I'm only 1/5if of the of 1/8 of
39:36the way there. And you keep doing this
39:37to play tricks on your mind to keep
39:39going. But the thing is is that in a
39:41mile marker race, it's very clear to
39:43know how you're going to get to the
39:44finish line and how long it's going to
39:46take. The only difference with success
39:48is that you just have to keep running
39:49and you don't know where the finish line
39:50is. And people will only cheer you on at
39:53that finish line that they don't know
39:54where it is either. Which means you have
39:56to get used to running alone. And so the
39:57difficulty is you have to start running
40:00and you have to keep running, but you
40:02just don't know whether you're running
40:04for a mile or 300. And so this is where
40:07the pacing is important. So a lot of
40:09people will run really hard. They'll
40:11they'll think because they only saw the
40:14beginning of the marathon on TV and the
40:16finish of the marathon on TV that they
40:18can just sprint because both of those
40:19clips only lasted a couple of seconds.
40:22So, they start their marathon of success
40:24of whatever it is they're going after by
40:26sprinting as hard as they can. And then
40:29they realize that there's no one around
40:31and there's just a bunch of open road
40:32ahead of them and they're like, "How
40:34long is this going to take?" And that's
40:35when reality sets in. And so I make
40:38these videos to say that a lot of times
40:40it's going to take right now there's the
40:42person you are and there's probably
40:44hopefully the person you want to be and
40:46there's a gap, right? We agree on that?
40:48Okay. So that person that you want to be
40:51has traits and has skills that you don't
40:54have, right? And I think that traits
40:57have been a word that we use as
41:00shorthand for bucket of skills. And when
41:03I say it that way, it I think it'll help
41:05make more sense. And so we might make
41:07the argument that if you were more
41:09charismatic, you would make more money.
41:11Let's say that that was that was the
41:13argument we were going to do. We're
41:14like, "Okay, for whatever profession I'm
41:15in, that would be true to me." Okay,
41:17fantastic. Be charismatic.
41:22What does that mean? And so right now,
41:25if so, the more skilled you are, the
41:28more general a command can be given to
41:29you and you can still be effective. So
41:32someone can at this point say, "Hey,
41:34Alex, can you start this business?" And
41:36I would say, "Sure." That's a very
41:38general command. Now, one level below
41:40that, it might be like, "Can you
41:42advertise this product?" And I would
41:44say, "Yeah, I can do that." One level
41:46below that would be, "Do you think you
41:48can make a post that people would click
41:50on to buy this thing?" And I would say,
41:52"Yes." And we can keep going down. But
41:55the point is is that if you have a skill
41:58set that you want to attain and you
42:00don't know how to attain it, it's
42:01because you are using a bucketed word
42:03that represents many smaller skills. And
42:07so I'll use charisma as the example. So
42:09if we say this guy's so charismatic,
42:12you have to ask yourself or at least I
42:13ask myself why. Well, I describe him as
42:17charismatic because when he walks in the
42:19room, he greets everyone immediately. He
42:22uses people's names. He shakes their h
42:24hand and he makes eye contact. When
42:26someone's talking to him, he makes eye
42:28contact and he nods his head. When he
42:30talks, he looks there and he looks at
42:32them and he bounces back and forth. Um,
42:35he asks questions up to the other person
42:38about themselves when he's talking. Now,
42:40that's like seven things.
42:43If I said, "Do you think you can nod
42:46your head when someone else is talking
42:47and keep eye contact?" You'd probably
42:49say, "Yeah, I can do that." It's like,
42:51great. That's one of seven skills that
42:54it takes to master until eventually
42:57people will describe you as charismatic.
43:00And so if you don't understand how to do
43:02something, you just need to break it
43:03into a smaller chunk because like we
43:05teach toddlers how to speak by
43:07approximating sound. It's like and then
43:10they they're like they and you're like
43:12ah clap clap clap clap clap clap and
43:14they're like ah. And then we keep doing
43:15it until eventually they're like and
43:17you're like yeah right and so that's
43:19their first word and then you start
43:21comparing things between what they know
43:22and what they don't know and making an
43:24association. You say bottle, right? And
43:27then they're like bottle and so they
43:30like they can see with their eyes
43:31something they know and then they don't
43:32know the word. And so that's how we
43:34teach things. And so if we consider I
43:36like to think of myself as a toddler
43:37from a learning perspective because it
43:39allows you to take your ego away from a
43:41skill. So a lot of times the skills that
43:43we need to learn are on the other side
43:44of just kind of like humbling ourselves
43:46and saying you know what if someone said
43:48go advertise I don't think I would be
43:50able to do it. It's like okay well let's
43:52break it down into six things. Do you
43:54think you can message someone? I can do
43:57that. Well that's that's a component of
43:59advertising. Do you think you could make
44:01a post that talks about something that's
44:04interesting? Maybe. Okay. Well, do you
44:07think that you could ask a question in
44:09the beginning of a video that someone
44:10would find interesting? Yeah, I can do
44:11that. Okay. Well, then after that
44:12question, we then would make some sort
44:14of explanation around why we asked that.
44:15Okay, I think I can do that. Right.
44:17Okay. Then at the end, we want to reward
44:18them for the ultimate thing that we
44:19asked them to begin with. Great. Well,
44:21great. If you record that and you post
44:22it, that's a piece of content. Okay, I
44:24can do that. And so the reason that like
44:26I write the books that I do and I try
44:28try to try to make the content in that
44:29way is that if you can if there's
44:33something that a trait you want or a
44:34skill you want and you don't understand
44:36how to get it, it means you just need to
44:37break it into smaller pieces. Because if
44:39you break it down low enough, you'll be
44:41able to do it. And then when you have
44:42that, this is I'm I'm going to go full
44:44180 here. So remember when I talked
44:46about the beginning of it, you just need
44:47to figure out how much money you want to
44:48make every day, right? I need to make
44:49$3,000 a day. Okay, that means I need to
44:51sell this many units. Well, then you
44:53connect that and you sell this many
44:54units to whatever activity or input you
44:57have to do. Because if you look at your
45:00calendar in terms of the things that you
45:01actually have to do with your time, then
45:04it gets a lot easier to plan and
45:06allocate because your time is your only
45:07resource, especially if you're starting
45:09out. And so it's like, I need to make
45:12100 DMs because that will get me one
45:14customer. And one customer is worth
45:16$200. Great. That means that if I do
45:19this every day, I'll make $6,000 this
45:22month. Okay. Based on the economics,
45:25will will those people buy again next
45:26month? If so, then great. The next month
45:28I do 12. Next month I do 18. At that
45:30month I hire somebody who who's going to
45:32do it for $3,000 a month and then I can
45:34keep stacking and then now I've got one
45:36person doing the same thing and the
45:37business keeps stacking. I'm like, "Wow,
45:39I'm a businessman." Right?
45:42But that's the idea is that like I I
45:44believe in in breaking things down to
45:45the absolute lowest level so that you
45:47can make it manageable. And then the
45:49more skilled you become, the more you
45:51can bucket all of those activities. Like
45:52if someone's going to say, "Hey, Alex
45:53advertiser." If Aubryy's like, "Hey, I
45:55want to do this this thing with you,
45:57this new supplement."
45:59Do you think you could write an email
46:01and this is the headline for the email
46:02and this I'd be like, "I got it. Like
46:04I'm good." You know what I mean? Like
46:05understood. Um, but if he was talking to
46:07somebody who was super junior, that's
46:09probably how he would describe it. But
46:11the only instance is that you are the
46:13person who's junior in this conversation
46:14and you are the one talking to yourself.
46:17And that's that's the gap. What does
46:20this person that I want to become have
46:21in terms of skills and traits? Can I
46:23break those things down into
46:24individuals? And then can I break that
46:26into activities that I can do on a daily
46:27basis? And does that ladder up to the
46:29amount of money that I ultimately want
46:30to make? If so, great. What's stopping?
46:34>> Let's go. What's a belief or maybe a
46:36behavior that you had let's say 10 or 15
46:40years ago that you now see as misguided?
46:45>> Um not committing.
46:47>> Not committing. Interesting. Tell me
46:48more. Say more about that.
46:49>> So I mean I I define commitment as the
46:51elimination of alternatives which was I
46:54had the misconception that I will work
46:56on multiple things and see which one
46:57works when in the reality any of them
46:59would have worked if I had worked on it.
47:00And so I would just never get past the
47:03point of critical mass. And so the
47:05easiest analogy I have for this is
47:07imagine you uh want to start a party,
47:10right? It's very hard to start a good
47:11party. Like you have to invite a lot of
47:12people, you have to prepare, you have to
47:13do all this stuff. Um but if you are
47:15successful enough and get enough people
47:16to the party, the party can't eventually
47:18take off on its own and kind of become
47:19its own thing. Now to the same degree,
47:21imagine you try to start four parties on
47:22the same night at the same time. It's
47:24almost impossible because you only have
47:26you only have the same resource. You
47:27have the same number of people. You
47:28know, you have the same amount of money.
47:29It's very very hard to do that. And so
47:30this is what I see the vast majority of
47:32you know smaller entrepreneurs uh doing
47:34is that they're trying to start four
47:35parties and say well whatever party
47:36takes off is the one that I'm going to
47:38I'm going to invest more in. But none of
47:39them will take off. That's why in the
47:40beginning it feels very manual, very
47:42like push. You're like I promise the
47:43party is going to be great. It's going
47:44to be awesome but who else is coming?
47:46>> No you. No one. Right? But if you just
47:48put all you're like if you're like I'll
47:49be there. I'm not doing anything else.
47:51This is all I'm going to be doing is
47:52trying to make sure this part is
47:53amazing. the likelihood that party one
47:55is good and then two gets good enough
47:56that you don't have to push to keep
47:58growing it is good. It's just kind of a
48:00microcosm for a business just on a much
48:01you know shrunken time scale. But I
48:03think for that reason that's that is
48:06probably the number one reason that
48:07people don't get what they want is
48:08because they spread themselves too thin.
48:09You have such limited resources in the
48:11beginning. It's like I think this is the
48:12piece that people misunderstand like you
48:13have functionally no money. If you're an
48:16individual you have basically no money
48:18when it comes to a corporate scale,
48:19right? You have almost no money and you
48:21have almost no time. uh again compared
48:23to 100 people right
48:25>> you have no no money no time and so you
48:27have such such such limited resources
48:29that the actual skill that's missing is
48:31strategy
48:32>> and so strategy is prioritization of
48:33resources so said simply like what do we
48:35do and more importantly what do we not
48:37do with the few things that we can do
48:39out of the few things that we can do and
48:40so just being able to just say you know
48:43what all four of these parties could be
48:46good it could be a pirates theme it
48:47could be a it could be a Greek theme it
48:48could be a you know whatever theme but
48:50I'm just going to try and make this
48:51pirate theme one That's all I'm going to
48:53do. And the thing is is that we then
48:55think, oh, well, this succeeded because
48:56it was pirate themed. No, it just
48:58succeeded because I was the one that you
48:59worked on. So, as long as fundamentally
49:00like you let people know about your
49:01stuff, you have a conversion mechanism
49:02and the thing that you sell cost
49:04significantly less than the thing you
49:04saw at the price you sell it for, you'll
49:06probably be okay.
49:07>> But people just spend forever trying to
49:09figure out which party theme is going to
49:10be the best theme and you just don't
49:12need to do that because as soon as you
49:13picked, you eliminate the alternatives.
49:14You commit and then you're good to go.
49:16How did you figure out that that was the
49:18problem that was keeping you from
49:19success or did something just eventually
49:21take off through sheer brute force and
49:23you realize that you wasted your time
49:24with the other initiatives?
49:25>> No, nothing took off.
49:27>> I um I and people may be surprised by
49:30this, but I was probably making a few
49:31million dollars a year, not income,
49:32revenue,
49:33>> uh between like
49:36nine different businesses.
49:37>> Yeah. O that's stresses me out just
49:39thinking about it.
49:39>> I was 20 26
49:43>> at the time. Uh, and I like to tell
49:45people I, you know, nine businesses, but
49:47like that's because I thought that's
49:48what successful entrepreneurs did when
49:49in reality it's like no, you make one
49:51business extremely successful and then
49:52you just make investments and you don't
49:53spend your time. You can only be CEO of
49:54one thing. And so I was CEO of nine
49:57businesses and almost I almost died. Um,
49:59got DUI head on collision whole thing
50:01like like Yeah. And then I had somebody
50:03uh thankfully say, "Hey, uh, you were
50:04spread too thin. The stress will kill
50:06you quite literally and you need to make
50:07decisions." The difficulty was for me I
50:09was the rain maker in all the
50:10businesses. And so I basically was just
50:12killing myself to generate income for
50:15all of them.
50:16>> Um, and almost nothing was left over
50:18every month because I had to pay people
50:19to do everything else because that was
50:20the only thing that I was doing. And so,
50:22uh, Leila obviously came into my life,
50:24not obviously came into my life. Um, and
50:26she said, "Hey, you know, genius,
50:27wouldn't it be cool if there's this one
50:29thing that you do that seems to work
50:31better than the others, but we haven't
50:33given it a chance because you're only
50:35giving two hours a week to it?"
50:37>> Uh, what if you spent all your time on
50:38that? And so, uh, I thought that logic
50:40made sense. And I, clearly what I was
50:42doing was not working. And so I, um, I
50:45had to have all the hard conversations
50:46and I lined them up over 48 hours. I
50:48literally called every partner that I
50:49had with all the other businesses and
50:51said, "I'm out and you can have
50:52everything." And, you know, when I when
50:54I made that call, you know, the people
50:56that were in my life were like, "You
50:57worked for years to build these
50:58businesses and like what are you
50:59thinking? Like, why don't you why don't
51:00you sell them for more money?" Um, and I
51:04Yeah, exactly. So, cuz I fire sold fires
51:06it all. What was really interesting is
51:07that over the next six months, I made
51:09more money than I would have made from
51:10the sale of all those businesses uh put
51:12together by just focusing on one thing,
51:13which is why I've been such an advocate
51:14of it. And I repeat that theme because
51:16the thing is is that focus never gets
51:17easier. It's kind of like an addiction.
51:20There is a lot of judgment
51:22online about how people choose to work,
51:27what fuels them, which fundamentally is
51:30it reward or punishment? Are they are
51:31they going away from aversive stimula
51:33towards, you know, a positive one?
51:36The answer in my opinion doesn't matter.
51:39And what I mean by that is I think the
51:41first rule of all entrepreneurship is
51:44use what you have because that's not
51:46going to change today. You have what you
51:48have. Those are the only resources you
51:50have available to you. You must become
51:52more resourceful. And that means that if
51:54you have shame and people tell you shame
51:57is bad,
51:59in what world could shame be good? If
52:01the shame you have creates this
52:04amazingly positive thing in your life,
52:06was it bad? If your dad not hugging you
52:09enough created the catalyst for you to
52:11go to the gym and live 20 years longer
52:13because you work out regularly, was it
52:15bad? Do we need to label it at all? All
52:18we know is that it happened. And so
52:20what? There are these actions that
52:21increase the likelihood that you get
52:23what you want. Whether you do them
52:25because you had some negative thing or
52:27because you're going towards some
52:29positive thing. I think for the vast
52:30majority of people is narrative. They
52:32only they create the story. If I said,
52:34"Hey, why did you do this thing?" We are
52:37trained to give an answer, but that
52:40answer may have zero grounding in the
52:42truth. Not because you lie, but because
52:43you have no idea. Because most people
52:45don't know why they do what they do.
52:46They just do it and then they ascribe a
52:48reason afterwards. We know that it's
52:50mostly BS and you're not going to have a
52:52double blind controlled placebo study on
52:54your life to be able to determine what
52:56the true root cause of was this the
52:58dependent variable. If you're not going
53:00to be able to do that anyways, who
53:02cares? Use whatever you've got to get
53:05whatever you want. Give you a
53:06behavioral, you know, thing for this is
53:08like you might be going through
53:09something difficult or a hard season or
53:10a bad day or a bad moment, right? And
53:12I've heard this saying and it drives me
53:13absolutely bananas, which is that bad
53:15things come in threes. Anyone heard this
53:17before? Right. I so wholeheartedly
53:19disagree, but I will explain why I
53:20believe that saying is a saying. Bad
53:22things do not come in threes. Bad things
53:24occur. People do not know how to cope.
53:27They allow one bad thing to snowball
53:29into more bad things. And bad stuff
53:31sucks. And the only thing worse than
53:33letting one bad thing be a bad thing is
53:35to let one bad thing ruin many good
53:37things. If you think about a bad thing
53:38as a cancer, it's like, well, we want to
53:40isolate that cancer as fast as possible
53:42and not let that cancer of you losing
53:44your job affect your marriage and then
53:46let you affecting your marriage affect
53:47how you're, you know, a parent and let,
53:49you know, how you're a parent affect how
53:50you were going to pursue this new
53:52endeavor. People just basically give
53:54themselves an excuse for misbehaving. I
53:58had a bad day, therefore, I now have a
54:00legitimate excuse for being a bad
54:01husband or not being nice to my wife.
54:03They use it as an excuse to not exercise
54:05self-control. And that is when things
54:08snowball. This is why resilience is so
54:10important. Can something bad happen and
54:12I recover before I talk to somebody
54:14else? When things get bad, it looks like
54:16this. Something bad happens, something
54:18else bad happens, something else bad
54:20happens, and it keeps going down until
54:23eventually everyone in your life that is
54:24good has removed themselves. And then
54:25you slowly recover or you don't recover
54:28at all. And you've seen these people. He
54:30lost his job. He gained weight and man,
54:32he's just never been the same. Pull your
54:34head out of your ass. Like this has just
54:36been a very hard lesson learned for me
54:38is that what you think should take you 6
54:40weeks, often times six takes six months,
54:42sometimes a year. And so what what you
54:45realize the longer you do business is
54:47that there are just far fewer things,
54:48fewer new things that you can take on
54:50than you really think. And so there's
54:53always going to be an issue with
54:54translating these things to your team so
54:56that they can actually execute. and
54:58forget about new people coming in who
54:59haven't even gone through this process.
55:01They're just adopting this final
55:02solution, but they don't know how you
55:03got here and how you derived it. And so
55:06being more patient about the idea and
55:08I'll I'll give you I'll give you a pro
55:10tip. This is a little side quest for
55:11you. So in any given function, let's say
55:13that this is your baseline of
55:15performance. All right. Now, whenever
55:17you change anything, in my experience,
55:19you get about a 20% decrease in
55:20performance immediately. All right? So
55:22if you change a sales script, you get a
55:23decrease in performance. You change your
55:24your ad copy, you're going to decrease
55:26in performance often time. change your
55:27landing page. Most times the page that
55:28you had probably was working and so
55:30something that's not that has a lower
55:31likelihood of succeeding than something
55:32that is more of that, right? And so a
55:34lot of times when you make a change and
55:36this is especially operational changes
55:37more so than anything else, often times
55:39you get a decrease or decrement in
55:41performance. And so if I know that I'm
55:43guaranteed to have this 20% decrease,
55:45then it means that I need to make
55:46changes that I have a very strong idea
55:49that they're going to have at least a
55:5020% increase effect. And so the result
55:53of this line of thinking which has made
55:54me a significantly better entrepreneur
55:56this is a huge breakthrough for me is
55:58that number one some things will never
56:00get fixed and that means that some
56:02things you're like man this could be 5%
56:04better the cost of the change if you are
56:07constantly changing things because
56:08here's the thing is you're like well
56:09it's still I would I'd be willing to
56:10give the 20 to four months from now have
56:13that you know return to baseline and
56:14then get the 5% improvement. Yeah, but
56:16that assumes that you're going to change
56:18nothing else in that f fourmonth period,
56:20but you might be an add entrepreneur and
56:22you might just change it, which means
56:23that you're actually permanently kind of
56:25sitting at this 20% decrease in
56:26performance because you've never given
56:28anyone a chance to get good at their
56:29job. You're always changing [ __ ] And so
56:32I traditionally will overindex now on
56:36stability because we get consistent
56:39improvements in performance across the
56:40team because people just get better at
56:41their job, right? And then if I really
56:44think that something's worth changing,
56:46it better be north of 20%. And so it's
56:49like, man, I keep doing the math, like I
56:51think this is like a 30 to 50% boost for
56:53us. If that's the case, then it's
56:55probably worth the bet. But most of the
56:57small changes that I used to mess around
56:59with my company where I'd be like, "Oh
57:00no, I'm Steve Jobs. Every detail has to
57:02be there." Like, if you're building a
57:04physical product that is manufactured,
57:06that's different. If you're building
57:07software on one time change different in
57:09a service business if you're changing
57:11process that people have to execute very
57:13tough make sure that it's worth it. I
57:16end these podcasts with a challenge. Ask
57:17the guest for a challenge of the
57:19audience to do something and take the
57:21action from the hour and a half we've
57:23spoke. Does a challenge come to mind?
57:29define the input output equation that
57:31gets you closer to where you want to go.
57:35And then 10x the input. [snorts] So
57:38whatever your thing is, like if you're
57:39like, I want to be an editor, I want to
57:41be an agency owner, I want to be a
57:43whatever, whatever the thing is, the
57:45first thing you have to do is figure out
57:47the input output equation, which is what
57:49do I have to do that will get me closer
57:50to where I want to go. Step one, if you
57:52can't define your input output equation,
57:54then you need to define your input
57:55output equation because otherwise you're
57:57working for no goal. Once you define
57:59that, then do 10 times more. This is the
58:02flyer story. Like you probably you might
58:05be doing the right stuff. You might be
58:07working out, but you're working out five
58:08minutes a week and being like, I don't
58:09know why I'm not losing weight. It's
58:11like you're not even close. You're like,
58:12no, I think I need to double it to 10
58:14minutes a week. It's like, no, you're
58:15not even close. The thing is, in
58:17fitness, we have some context, right?
58:19But in business, you have no idea.
58:21And that's the big disconnect is that
58:23people might be doing the wrong the
58:25right stuff but doing the wrong amount.
58:27They're doing way too little of it. And
58:28they think you they think in doubles,
58:30not in orders of magnitude as in 10x,
58:33100x, but like the like you want to make
58:36a hundred times more money than you are,
58:37you need a 100 times more input.
58:40Like hold on, I'm I'm going to hit this
58:41home real quick because this is this is
58:43this is important.
58:46I have right now 10,000 times the input
58:50that I used to used to have when I was
58:53running my gyms.
58:55I just have leverage on my input.
58:59And so, for example, I could do 200 cold
59:03calls a day. I could double that to get
59:05to 400 400 cold calls a day. I could
59:09also do 200 cold calls a day to get
59:11someone to recruit for me. and then that
59:14person starts. Sorry, I I'm gonna rewind
59:18real quick. So, I could do 200 cold
59:20calls a day and get a certain amount of
59:22sales. The next level is I could go get
59:25somebody to do those 200 phone calls for
59:27me and then I make the same amount of
59:29sales, but that'll do anything. More
59:31leverage. Another leverage above that is
59:34I go call do 200 phone calls a day until
59:37I get a recruiter and then that
59:38recruiter brings me a new person every
59:39week and then every week I get another
59:41added 200 phone calls per day that keeps
59:43stacking and the number of customers
59:44that comes from that. But what did I do
59:46there? I made calls for a week to get
59:48one recruiter and then from that point
59:49going forward every single month I get
59:51more and more sales.
59:54And so that's three levels of leverage.
59:57There are more than that. And so what
59:59you unlock in the game of
1:00:01entrepreneurship
1:00:03is leverage. And the way that you un
1:00:06unlock leverage is through relinquishing
1:00:08control.
1:00:10And so the tough part about the
1:00:11entrepreneurial journey is that the
1:00:13thing that got you to quit your job is
1:00:15the very thing that you have to stop
1:00:17doing. And so what happened is you felt
1:00:20out of control. And so you quit your job
1:00:22so you could take complete control of
1:00:23your life. And when you're
1:00:24self-employed, you take complete
1:00:25control. You are, you hunt, you kill,
1:00:27you produce, you do everything, right?
1:00:30And then the thing that you got the big
1:00:32massive reward for because you quit your
1:00:34job, you started making money, living
1:00:35life your own terms. You now have to
1:00:37unlearn that and you have to say, "Now
1:00:39I'm going to give up control again." And
1:00:41then the rest of the journey is
1:00:42unlearning the control that you so
1:00:44hardcore were rewarded for on that first
1:00:46action.
1:00:48Because in the beginning, you have to
1:00:49give up doing production or doing
1:00:52delivery, right, on the back end. And
1:00:54then you have to give up doing admin
1:00:55work. And then you have to give up doing
1:00:57sales. And then you have to give up
1:00:59doing marketing. Then you have to give
1:01:00up doing management. Then you have to
1:01:01give up doing leadership. Then you have
1:01:02to give up doing financing. Then you
1:01:04have to do like you have to give up all
1:01:05these things until eventually you're
1:01:06like but I'm not needed. And then you
1:01:08have to give up the desire to be needed
1:01:12by your business.
1:01:14>> Because many people make their business
1:01:15to to fulfill personal desires. But the
1:01:18business doesn't need to do that. It
1:01:20doesn't exist for you. It exists for the
1:01:22customer. you're not required.
1:01:25You think you are because it makes you
1:01:26feel more important.
1:01:28And so that's the unlearning experience
1:01:30and that's where leverage comes from.
1:01:32And so right now to answer the question,
1:01:34the challenge for the people is figure
1:01:35out what the input output equation is
1:01:37and do 10 times more. And if you can
1:01:40figure out how to do 10 times more,
1:01:42figure out how to do a hundred times
1:01:43more. And the secret is that if you're
1:01:45trying to do 100 times more, it's
1:01:46probably not just you. Here's something
1:01:48that's taken me way too long to learn.
1:01:50Staying focused is like beating
1:01:52addiction. It's not a one-time victory.
1:01:54You have to fight it all day, every day,
1:01:57then wake up and do it again tomorrow.
1:01:59Because the thing that's going to
1:02:00distract you is going to change every
1:02:02day. The thing that's going to trigger
1:02:03your addiction to distraction is going
1:02:05to keep morphing and changing its form
1:02:09so that it can steal or rob you of your
1:02:12future. And so, you have to be adaptable
1:02:14in knowing that you have to fight it
1:02:15every day. And so, it's not good enough
1:02:17to just say, "I was focused for this
1:02:18week." You've got to wake up on the
1:02:20eighth day and the ninth day and do it
1:02:22again. And so, you remember that guy who
1:02:24uh got rich drop shipping and day
1:02:26trading and uh buying crypto and
1:02:28wholesaling all at the same time? Yeah,
1:02:31me neither. Focus. To win in business,
1:02:35you need to be able to say no without
1:02:37remorse and hear no without a loss of
1:02:40enthusiasm. which means that you have to
1:02:44keep feeling rejection, keep failing,
1:02:46and keep going while being willing to
1:02:51reject basically everyone else. And that
1:02:53seems so counter because you're right
1:02:54there and you're like, man, I don't want
1:02:56to reject this person because I know
1:02:57what it feels like to be rejected. You
1:02:59need to be able to maintain this
1:03:00discrepancy so that you can create the
1:03:02space to do the work that needs doing.
1:03:04So, there have been a couple of lessons
1:03:06that I have learned over and over again
1:03:10in my career. I've had to relearn. So,
1:03:11it's a lot like a like a fine wine. It's
1:03:14like it it gets better with age and
1:03:16there's more nuance to the flavor. So, I
1:03:19think focus is not a are you focused or
1:03:21not. It's how focused are you and you
1:03:23can measure someone's focus by again the
1:03:24quality and quantity of things that they
1:03:26say no to. Which means that as you get
1:03:28better, more opportunities will emerge,
1:03:31which is interesting because people who
1:03:33start out can't see opportunity
1:03:34anywhere. And it's because they have so
1:03:36few skills and so there's very few
1:03:37opportunities for them. When you have a
1:03:39lot of skills, there's so many
1:03:41opportunities that are in front of you
1:03:43that you feel like you're missing out.
1:03:45But the real opportunity is actually in
1:03:48solving the problems in front of you. I
1:03:50was able to, in my opinion, become
1:03:53another order of magnitude greater in
1:03:55terms of entrepreneurship, which I would
1:03:57just measure by wealth. Once I was able
1:04:00to learn to say no and accept that I
1:04:04would not be able to pursue the many
1:04:06things that I know I could crush because
1:04:09once you realize how much actual work it
1:04:12takes to make something good, you
1:04:14realize how few things you're actually
1:04:15going to be able to do in your entire
1:04:17life. And so this is why picking becomes
1:04:20so important. Right now, the things that
1:04:23you're going to have to say no to are
1:04:24really the distractions and kind of in
1:04:26some ways easy. Say no to fantasy
1:04:28football. Say no to drinking beers with
1:04:30the boys, going out with the club,
1:04:31whatever. But in a year from now, once
1:04:33you have more skills, there will be more
1:04:35opportunities. You're going to have
1:04:36multiple $10,000 a month income
1:04:38opportunities that you're going to have
1:04:38to say no to to stick with the one that
1:04:40you have. And then once that thing
1:04:42becomes a $100,000 a month thing that
1:04:43you're doing, you're going to have to
1:04:44start saying no to multiple $100,000 a
1:04:46month opportunities. And here's the
1:04:48thing with opportunities that come up.
1:04:50They only show you the upside and not
1:04:51the downside. You have to know where the
1:04:54skeletons are buried. You have to know
1:04:55where the bodies are. If you don't know,
1:04:58and I've gone through this this this
1:04:59visual because I think about it every
1:05:01single time I have to walk through not
1:05:04doing something. You are here. You see
1:05:07this new opportunity here. Then you
1:05:10understand the downsides here. Then you
1:05:12live the downsides. Then you experience
1:05:15the upside. Then you achieve your goal.
1:05:17And so this is the starting point. This
1:05:20is called uninformed optimism. This is
1:05:22now informed pessimism. This is the
1:05:25value of despair. And this is where most
1:05:27people quit. But what they do is they
1:05:30don't even quit because they don't want
1:05:31to say they quit. What they do is they
1:05:33start another one of these things and
1:05:34they say, "Oh, this is now my uninformed
1:05:37optimism." And then, "Oh, now I
1:05:39understand this more." But the thing is
1:05:40is that they never actually get through
1:05:42to this upside. And so they just keep
1:05:44jumping from thing to thing to thing
1:05:47over and over again. And so the reason
1:05:49it takes so long is because you're in a
1:05:51rush. Big things don't happen on small
1:05:53timelines because you have to start from
1:05:55zero over and over again. And if you
1:05:57actually stick with it, it's actually
1:05:59the shortest way to get to where you
1:06:00want to go. It just takes longer than
1:06:02you think. Must be easy for you to say
1:06:04is probably something that you might
1:06:06think by watching this or listening to
1:06:07this. And I like to tell this story
1:06:11because in July of 2017 is when I
1:06:14started my podcast. And it was 90 days
1:06:17after I lost everything the last time.
1:06:20And from that point until now, it's
1:06:24taken that period of time to get to over
1:06:26a million downloads a month. And for the
1:06:28first three years, and I was making
1:06:30multiple podcasts, so we're talking
1:06:31three 400 episodes. For the first few
1:06:33years, I never really cracked 3,000
1:06:36downloads a month. And so I could say,
1:06:38man, why is this taking so long? But the
1:06:40real real is that it took me that long
1:06:43to get good. It also being extra real
1:06:47took me that long to have proof on the
1:06:48outside that what I was saying was true
1:06:50on the inside. And right now, no one who
1:06:53listens to my podcast cares that it took
1:06:55me seven years to get here. They just
1:06:57cared that it's good today. And so
1:06:59people quit here when things get hard
1:07:01because the thought of something being
1:07:02hard forever is unbearable. They think
1:07:05that this line is just going to keep
1:07:07going this way forever. But it's not
1:07:09because once you fully understand all
1:07:12the bodies where the skeletons are
1:07:14hidden, then you can actually start
1:07:16solving them one by one. The thing is is
1:07:18that that distraction only is
1:07:21distracting because you don't know what
1:07:22sucks about it. You might think you know
1:07:24what sucks about it, but you don't know
1:07:26what sucks about it. And so the big
1:07:28difference is you have something called
1:07:30declarative versus procedural knowledge.
1:07:33And so there's two types of learning and
1:07:35this is actually formal. This is uh this
1:07:36is from academia. So you have
1:07:38declarative knowledge which is knowing
1:07:40about something.
1:07:42So if you go memorize a fact or you you
1:07:44you learn how private equity works,
1:07:46right? This is knowing about. The other
1:07:49type of knowledge is procedural
1:07:52which is knowing how to.
1:07:56And so a lot of people mistake
1:07:58declarative knowledge for procedural.
1:08:00And so they mistakenly think that if
1:08:03they watch 10 videos on doing a private
1:08:05equity deal that it means they
1:08:07understand how to do a private equity
1:08:08deal. Or they watch 10 videos on cold
1:08:10outbound and they think it means they
1:08:12understand how to do cold outbound or 10
1:08:14videos on sales and so forth. But you're
1:08:16never really going to learn how to do it
1:08:18until you do it. And so you're going to
1:08:21learn more from your first hundred cold
1:08:23calls or 100 cold knock on doors than
1:08:26you will from a hundred books or videos
1:08:28that you watch. But I have good news.
1:08:31Nothing hard lasts forever. There's only
1:08:34three things that can happen. You either
1:08:36quit, it gets easier, or you get better.
1:08:40So no matter what, it always ends. You
1:08:42only lose when you quit before you see
1:08:44it all the way through. And I think
1:08:46that's incredibly encouraging. So no
1:08:48matter how hard whatever it is that
1:08:50you're doing is, which by the way just
1:08:52means that your expectation doesn't
1:08:53match reality. But no matter how hard it
1:08:55is, you either quit, it gets easier
1:08:58because something changes externally or
1:09:01you get harder. Something changes
1:09:02internally. But no matter what, it will
1:09:05end. Think about it like you're you're
1:09:07mining for gold, right? You're you're
1:09:08chiseling away underground and you've
1:09:10got this pile of gold. You don't know
1:09:11how far away it is, but it's underground
1:09:13and you're digging towards it. This
1:09:14difficulty of swinging the the the
1:09:16pickaxe can end when one, you walk out
1:09:18of the mine and say there's, you know
1:09:20what, marketing doesn't work. Sure. The
1:09:23second is that all of a sudden you hit a
1:09:25soft patch and then you're like, "Oh my
1:09:26god, I'm digging so much faster now.
1:09:28This is great." And then you get to the
1:09:30gold or you just start swinging the axe
1:09:33harder because you get more muscled. You
1:09:35get more efficient with your movements
1:09:37and you just keep chiseling away, even
1:09:39if it goes from dirt to rock. You just
1:09:41keep chiseling away at a slower pace,
1:09:43but you eventually break through and get
1:09:45there. If you like this video and you're
1:09:46a business owner who wants to break
1:09:47through your current revenue ceiling, I
1:09:49distilled every lesson from scaling 10
1:09:50businesses past 10 million and three
1:09:52businesses past 100 million into a
1:09:54completely free scaling road map that
1:09:56I've used to go from 0 to 1, 0 to 10,
1:09:58and 0 to 100 plus. And so you can click
1:10:00here and you can check it out. Again,
1:10:01absolutely free. And since you're a
1:10:03business owner, appreciate you and uh
1:10:04enjoy.

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