How my meetup with Hormozi changed HIS life // Next Level Pros Podcast

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Gym Launch, Acquisition.com, Next Level Pros, Vanderbilt
2. 30:00 – 40:00: Acquisition.com, Gym Launch
3. 40:00 – 50:00: Acquisition.com, Gym Launch
4. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Gym Launch

Notable quotes from "How my meetup with Hormozi changed HIS life // Next Level Pros Podcast"

• Of mine, Mr. Alexi. Alex is in the middle of building a massive empire with acquisition.com.

  about Acquisition.com · at 0:44

• Shifted gears in your career. You went and built this amazing business with gym launch. Now you're now you're buildingacquisition.com. You got a really cool podcast. What is pushing and motivating you right now?

  about Gym Launch · at 2:34

• Don't love that word, but yeah. So, I, I graduated three years from Vanderbilt. because I just did extra credits and did summer work and whatnot so I could get ahead.

  about Vanderbilt · at 9:53

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Alexi — Person · 3 mentions

Companies & orgs

• Gym Launch — Company · 8 mentions · first at 2:39
• Acquisition.com — Company · 4 mentions · first at 0:50
• Next Level Pros — Company · 1 mention · first at 0:09
  Recorded back when I was running my first podcast, the founder podcast. It was before Next Level Pros even existed.

Places & events

• Vanderbilt — Place · 1 mention · first at 9:57

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Real quick before we dive in, I want to give you some context on this episode. This conversation was originally recorded back when I was running my first podcast, the founder podcast. It was before Next Level Pros even existed. I sat down with some serious heavy hitters entrepreneurs operators leaders, and we unpacked real tactical stuff that still holds up today. So, instead of letting these episodes collect dust, we're bringing them back here on the Next Level Pros channel. You'll notice the branding is a little different, maybe the style, too, but the lessons still gold. Especially if you're in the trades or home service space and trying to build something real. Let's get into it.

0:38 What's up everybody? We today we are joined by a good friend of mine, Mr. Alexi. Alex is in the middle of building a massive empire with acquisition.com. Many of you guys have seen him in his social media, his YouTube, Instagram stories, all the goodness. He never skips dessert. The man is a protein fiend, but more importantly, a business phenom. So, uh, the one one of the best ways I've ever introduced Alex, if anybody ever asked my opinion on Alex, I say, "Man, this guy has an Ivy League type knowledge with street mixed with street smarts," which is a a very rare breed indeed. And uh, I think on top of that, I love I love the fact that he doesn't look like that at all. uh the fact that he just doesn't care what anybody thinks. Always rocking the the tank top, the the mixture. He he doesn't care what anybody thinks. Welcome to the show, Mr. Alex.

1:43 Thanks for having me, man. I uh I appreciate the intro. That was a one of the most succinct ones, and I'm I'm proud of both sides.

1:53 Good deal, dude. So, um dude, me me and you, Alex, we we go back. I was looking through my text messages. We met about four years ago at a uh at a mastermind down in down in Utah of all places. And uh got to know you and your wife. And you know, the the thing that that always impressed me is just how just like straightforward, to the point, never beat around the bush, you know, very logical. And uh I I love I love that about uh your relationship with business, your relationship with people, your relationship with everything. So dude, obviously you've completely shifted gears in your career. You went and built this amazing business with uh with gym launch. Now you're now you're buildingacquisition.com. You got a really cool podcast. What uh what is pushing and motivating you right now?

2:54 I just enjoy playing the game. I think that's like the biggest part of it. And so like I write books about business. I make content about business. And when I'm not doing those things, I'm doing business. Um it's like that's what I think about all day. And probably like you, like you go to a restaurant, you're like, "Man, how many tables do you think they turn through here?" And like, you know, what do you think they get these, you know, these shrimp at? And then you're like, "Huh?" Like I wonder where they're recruiting the the staff from and like I wonder how they market like because how did we hear about this? Was it the Y outbad? No. How do we hear? No, somebody told us that. And you you know like you start reverse engineering stuff and I remember listening to I think it was a Lil Wayne interview. Uh and he was like I can't stop rhyming. He's like I just I can't stop rhyming.

3:39 He's like it's this like obsession. And I feel like it's kind of the same thing um for me with business in general. It's like I just I just like it a lot. And it it happens to be uh happens to have a monetary outcome, but uh I know I would do it if it didn't make money because I do lots of things that are business related that don't make me money.

4:01 Absolutely. Absolutely. When you talk about you you do a lot of things, dude. That's that's sweet. I I love I love uh your you know what you bringing up like hey I go into a restaurant I start thinking about things which by the way dude there are some places that have to be coverups for the mafia because like uh for example Arby's dude Arby's in my like there is never a car there and I go there and I'll eat a turkey sandwich because it's like one of the only quick things that I can get that are you know somewhat good just like, "Dude, there's no way. There's no way these guys aren't a cover up for for drugs, for the mafia, because this has got to be a laundering scheme.

4:48 I definitely have seen some things in like shopping centers. This does not make sense." Uh

4:54 uh. But yeah, man. It's I mean that that's what I've been up to primarily. We've been, you know, massively investing in media overall because, you know, the overarching idea like when I when I decided to uh step down from Gym Launch was that Gym Launch in my opinion was going to eventually become an investment company. So, you know, at a certain, you know, there's 50,000 micro gym owners in the US and so we had already talked to 20,000 when I stepped down. So like you know and I followed a lot of the advice that you know actually I'll rewind for a second because I'll tell you a story that you may you may not know this. So when I went to we had that little meet up it was like you me and like

5:32 six other people at your your cabin right and so some of my audience listen this like when I talk about that meetup that was actually with Chris

5:41 um and together it was like the eight of us were doing half a billion a year in revenue which I thought was uh pretty cool. You know what I if you just added up all the business, it might even been higher than that, but it was at least half a billion a year in revenue. Um, and it was interesting from an experience for me because that that meeting was actually one of the reasons I decided to sell Gym Launch. Um, and the big takeaway for me, like even though we talked about lots of stuff, yeah, we talked about lots of,

6:05 you know, you know, strategies, tactics, hiring people, scaling, blah blah blah, all that kind of jazz, but the biggest takeaway I had was I looked at everybody in the room who was doing more revenue than I was. And you know, I was like, "Okay, is it is it there a skill set that I'm lacking? Like what what am I missing?" Right? And the biggest thing that I saw as my takeaway was I was just in a pond and everyone else was going after an ocean. And so I just needed to it like I mean VC guys know this because they look at you know tech companies they're going to invest in and the first question they ask is what's TAM you know what's total addressable market? And I'd never asked that question because when I come into the business game everybody was like niche niche niche niche niche.

6:42 Um, and I do think that's 100% the right advice when you're starting out. Um, but at some point you have to expand. And so I had two directions I could have expanded in. So one is like I continue to expand more broadly in fitness. So I go after health clubs, which is exactly what Gym Launch is doing now is they're going after big, you know, bigger, you know, big chain gyms, uh, what I call like facility leasing gyms. It's like lots of equipment, lots of treadmills, that kind of thing. We were all service- based facilities. Um, or we could go down market, go after like uh personal trainers and fitness fitness enthusiasts. And so like those are like kind of the directions there. But at that point I've been in fitness for a decade. Um and I think you know if I hadn't sold then I I could have continued to go down that path but I didn't want to be known as the fitness guy. Like I already had felt kind of

7:25 tired of being known as the gym guy. Um and you can make an argument that that would have been a better move because I've known the space and you just get deeper and deeper knowledge and that becomes your competitive advantage. Um, but in September of 19, I started making general business content. And I stopped making content about gyms. And so, um, and it was actually almost at that time that, um, things started growing for me. And so, like my podcast, I went from talking about only gyms to talking about business. And then it started growing even though I'd been doing it for like two or three years at that point. Um, and then, uh, and then I think a year later after that, I started making my first YouTube videos. Um, and so those were kind of like the first things that I started doing from a general business perspective. um because the general business market's a lot bigger than the gym market. Um and I wanted something

8:07 that could that would never stop compounding. That was like one of the big lessons that I had from um gym launch. I've talked to a lot of, you know, business owners that have a not like the perfect vehicle when they start their first business because they didn't think about it. Like I didn't think about it. I was just trying to not be broke. Um but like playing playing it out and thinking like what's the uh like you have to have one or multiple compounding mechanisms within the business in order for it to be able to reach like you know I mean reach without force right like could I could I you know get to a thousand cold callers like sure I could but like could I take that same effort and allocate it somewhere else and get a higher return and so that's that's ultimately why we started doing all the content stuff I saw that media has a huge compounding effect like your audience itself compounds. So it's like

8:53 10% more people find out about me every month and like when you have 10 people you go to 11 but when you have 10 million you go to 11 million. Um and it just takes time and so that was kind of that

9:03 right that was one of the big reasons. Super super cool. So dude for for my audience that may not know your your whole story. Let's let's rewind. I know I know there was like a big factor like you went to the Ivy League school. You were planning on following in in the footsteps of your father as far as being a professional, right? I I know your dad was in the medical field, but you were going to go I think you worked for like a government contractor or whatnot. And uh like walk us walk us through kind of some of those defining moments that got you to launching a gym and then ultimately becoming a a business.

9:43 Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. So, I uh I was I was gonna say guru, but I'm like, you know,

9:52 you're good. Don't love that word, but yeah. So, I, you know, I I graduated three years from Vanderbilt. Um, because I just did extra credits and did summer work and whatnot so I could get ahead. Um, and then, uh, and then I got a consulting job, uh, at a at a boutique strategy firm that did defense contracting. to the space cyber intelligence or at least those are the projects that I worked on. Um it looked really good on paper. It sounded great at at Coxo parties. Uh but I uh really did not enjoy the work. And you know being where I'm at now I would look back and probably just tell myself like maybe you just need to switch companies. Like you know what I mean? Like it's not that I didn't necessarily enjoy the work. It could have just been like the three people I saw all the time or maybe like you know there's a lot of other variables but I extrapolated that to like I don't want this to be my life

10:36 which was true. Um, and I I saw what the the partner of the firm was, you know, what their life looked like. And I was like, if that's what 20 years from now looks like or 30 years from now looks like, I don't want that life. And so, um, I was pretty I was pretty depressed at that point. Um, just just sad that like life wasn't working out the way I thought it was going to, even though I had done all the things that I thought I was supposed to do. Um, and so I I started thinking, what do I actually like? Um, and I knew I wanted to start a business. And so I started applying to business schools. And the first question on uh the Harvard or it was either Booth or whatever one of the schools was um how will a you know Booth MBA help your long and short-term goals? And um it's like a standard question. It's not like I mean it's not a complicated question, but I ended up staring at it for like

11:22 three days. Yeah. And staring at it for three days and being like I don't know if this is going to help my short and long-term goals where I was at right then. Right. I was two years out.

11:31 I was two years out of college. You know what I mean? So I was 23 not even. I think I was 22 um when I was thinking about applying because I just wanted to change. But I thought about for a few days and I was like, you know what? I think I think rather than foregoing two years of income and incurring $120,000 uh you know in in debt uh to do this, I could take the 50 grand I have saved up and start a business and like learn you know that amount. And median income coming out of business school uh at the time was 120 grand. And so I was like, I just got to get to 10 grand a month from my own savings with a business to then like kind of equate the two. Um, and so, you know, I was like, I if I have no kids, I have no wife, like if I'm afraid to take a risk now, like I'll never be able to take a risk later. And transparently, I still think the hardest decision I've ever made was quitting my job today. Like for sure, it was still

12:21 the hardest. How old were you at that time? I was 22 when I quit. So, I was 22 years old.

12:29 Didn't want to disappoint that. You got through school pretty quick. I mean, so you're 22. You're considering going to uh getting your NBA or whatnot, and that's that's when you and you said that that's the hardest decision. Like, talk talk us through that. Like, why was it the hardest decision?

12:46 Well, for me it was just I didn't want to disappoint my dad. You know, it was interesting because like the happiest time in my father's life was the saddest of mine. You know what I mean? like I had done everything that he had told me to do up to that point. Um, and I was living 100% the life that he wanted me to live rather than the life that I wanted to live. And so, I mean, and for anybody who has like a parent or an uncle or a brother or whatever it is that you're trying to live up to, um, I mean, it was tough because like, you know, I always wanted the approval of my dad and it was like the closest time that I've ever had to like having it.

13:17 Um, and he was pumped. you know, we we'd go out to get lunch like two days or three days a week cuz I moved close enough to home that uh that we could do that. And so he was like he got to, you know, brag about me to his friends and and that was like that was it for him, you know, and uh

13:32 every time I'll talk about opening a business, he was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah like

13:36 do this and then go to business school and then you know, whatever." And and I was like

13:40 because he was always for formal education, so he was like, "Yeah, business school that makes sense. Like go do that." Um, but every time I bring it up, you would keep like, you know, like, "Hey, yeah, yeah, like come over. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about over lunch." And so it was just like months and months and months of like kind of always having that kind of pulled away. And then um when I decided to quit, it took me six months from when I thought I wanted to quit to when I actually quit. And it was like six months of like really tough every day like pacing like rid, you know what I like I lived alone just like calling everybody I knew probably to the point where everybody I knew like was sick of hearing me like talk about this debate over and over again. Um and finally uh

14:18 decision already. Yeah, exactly. And finally I just figured there there's two there's there's lots of little micro moments but one of them was like I was reading all these self-help books at that time. So, I was reading like, you know, a few books a week because I was like trying to like, you know, invest in myself. And I realized after like my 20th self-help book that like my life was the same. And some of the books said things that contradicted one another. You know what I mean? Some of them were like manifest everything. Other ones are like don't manifest anything. And I was like [ __ ]

14:47 And so, sorry if I cut you out. Um, and so finally it was actually like downside

14:56 Yeah. just like downside decision-m which is like what what ended up driving it for me just saying like okay well worst case scenario is I lose all the money that I've saved up and my business fails and then I can go to business school with like a real world experience and I can write essays about it or whatever. So that was like it sounds so simple now but like that being my worst case ended up being the thing that I decided to like lean a lot on. Um and so I still knew my dad wasn't going to be game for it so I um I basically left without telling anyone. Um, and I called my dad when I was halfway across the country because I drove to California.

15:29 Um, and I called him up and I was like, "Hey, you know, just uh want to let you know I want to start that business." And he was like, "All right, well, come over. We can talk about it." And I'd already had, you know, I'd already knew that he would just talk me off the ledge again. And so I was like, "No, I I can't." He was like, "Why?" He's like, "I'm I'm in Ohio right now." I was like, "What?"

15:46 And then uh and then obviously at that point he, you know, was very upset. Uh and I said, "Why are you so extreme? you always, you know, like you're never balanced. Like you need to be more balanced, blah blah blah. And then um and the thing is a lot of people will hear that story and be like, "Oh, well, it's cool. Your dad's probably happy with you now." But like we weren't cool for a while. Uh like a long while, not like months, but like years. Um you know, we stayed in touch like I'm his son. I was alive. You know, I shoot the occasional text like two, three minute call like once a month or something. But

16:16 um what Yeah. So I I I looked at three different businesses I thought about starting. uh a frozen yogurt stand, uh a test prep because I was good at taking standardized tests. Um and I mean because I because I' I'd gone from like a 630 I think on the GMAT when I took it the first time uh to a 730 or 740 uh which was like 20 points higher than Harvard's midcore at the time um to get it actually. So you you just did yours. So like yeah, so you're you're probably familiar with this. So I got a 730 or 740 on it. Um, and all I did to prep for it was I bought every GMAT book at Barnes & Noble,

16:54 uh, in like the test prep section. They're all like these phone book thick things because I found this research study that said, uh, there's this line on a chart that said the more problems you do, the better your score is. Like it was just straight up just like problems, score. And so I was like, great, I can like input out output equations for like success. Like I can do that. And so I did four hours a day of problems for 16 weeks. Um, and that's what got my that's what got my score above Harvardman score. And so I was like, okay, I could I could teach people how to do that. And so anyways, I couldn't afford the yogurt thing because when I called up like franchises and stuff, they were like, it's 250 grand. I was like, I don't have that kind of money. And so then it was just test prep and gyms because I was into fitness already. So I was like, I kind of have a little bit advantage there. And then um

17:36 I was going to do a test prep thing and then I prepped all this stuff and I gave it to somebody who's going to be my partner and then they ended up taking it and just doing it on their own. And so I kind of had like a bad taste in my mouth from that. So, I was like, I guess I'm going to do fitness. And I had this lady uh at the gym that I was working out at ask me to meet her for lunch like a month, like much older. And I was like, it wasn't weird. So, anyways, I met her for lunch because she wanted to ask me about nutrition. So, I was like, "Sure."

17:58 And so, um, I talked to her for an hour about like what she could do with her food or whatever. And then she handed me a check for 100 bucks. And I didn't I didn't like I didn't, you know, it wasn't I wasn't in business, but the idea that this lady just gave me a check for $100 for like sitting down with her, I was like, whoa. like I could make money doing this. And so there was a lot of like little things that happened. And then um when I finally decided to um leave was because I I reached out to 40 different gym owners uh who looked like they were doing okay. And I just said like,

18:27 "Can I just work for you for free?" And no one got back to me. Uh except for one guy. And he said, "Uh,

18:33 yeah, you can work for me for free." And so I d So I drove across the country uh to his gym and I like showed up at the front door and he was like I was like, "Hey, I'm here." And he was like, "I'm doing [ __ ] right now." Like, "What's up, man?"

18:46 Yeah. Like she was like, he was like, "Well, where are you staying?" I was like, "I don't know yet." He's like, "You mean you literally like drove directly to my gym?" I was like, "Yeah." Like I was I didn't know. You know what I mean? And so, uh, he was like, uh, he's like, "You can stay at my place tonight, but like you need to find some place." I was like, "Ah, I'll figure it out." And so the next morning he like went like stand stood on a box and was like, "Hey, does anybody have an extra bedroom for this kid?" And he's like pointing at me like in the think of like a gym. And this dude came up to me uh and I like worked out with that gym owner. He had like a crew of three or four guys that he trained with in the morning at like 4 a.m. And so one of the guys I worked out with was like, "You can stay one of my spare bedrooms." And so uh you know, I paid a few hundred bucks a month in rent for one of these

19:27 this guy's bedroom. He wanted to get in shape. He was like, "Hey, just make sure I don't eat like crap." And I was like, "Okay, I could do that." And um that's that was that was how I how I got my you know, got my foot into fitness. And as a as a as a fun side note for the audience, like like I was I was working a white collar job, you know, on pace to be able to make, you know, 100 grand plus. Um, and then, you know, obviously two years after business school, you know, scale up from there. Um, and I went all the way back to basically being a trainer, which doesn't even require a college education, uh, or the experience I had for I think it was like, I don't know, 12 bucks an hour or something like that. I don't even know what I was getting. Um, and so like a lot of times I think you have to take some steps back if you wanna if you want to start something new.

20:20 I dude I think I think that's such a a key principle that a lot of people don't quite understand is like the value of experience and education in in doing what you want to go and build is worth so much more than the short-term dollars that you're going to get paid. And so the like I I love the idea of like going and working for somebody for free, especially if that somebody is like an incredible mentor that can really catapult your career, right? And and uh there's not a there's not a successful entrepreneur in the world that would turn down a hungry guy or girl that's like, "Hey, let me come learn and work for you for free and just just mentor and I'll do whatever you say." Right?

21:01 like that. I mean, everybody's going to take a piece of that. And, you know, actually, I want to give some caveats to this. I think you'll you'll agree with me because I've I've given this advice a lot. And I had um my training partner uh I was talking about a kid who came up to me and was like, "Hey, can I work for you for free?" Um and probably, you know, with your your stat station and status that you're getting right now, you you'll you probably already do, but like I have, you know, I probably get 50 a day of people saying like, "Can I work for free for you or do something for free for you?" Um, and so two two or three big caveats around this. Number one is that I recommend that if you're going to try and do this approach, you want to go to somebody who's one or two steps ahead of you.

21:41 Like you're not like Elon Musk, if you're like, "Hey, Elon, can I get your coffee for you?" Like Elon doesn't need you to get his coffee.

21:49 Like it's not like he's going to sit down with you every morning, give you a one-hour coaching call because you gave him his coffee. Like people don't think about this, right? And there's this there's this issue I that I see um amongst poor people that think that their time is worth something.

22:02 And it's not. There's no shortage of lowskilled labor, right? And so um they have this idea that like if I'm willing to do $30,000 a year of work for you, you now owe me all of your time because I'm giving you my time. So my minutes are the same as your minutes. But they're clearly not because you're pursuing me and I'm not pursuing you,

22:21 right? And so caveat number one is like you want to go to somebody whose supply demand of of free labor is in your favor. So somebody who's one or two steps ahead of you, they probably don't have a lot of people saying they want to work for free. Right now that person might not have all the skills that Elon Musk has, but they got more skills than you,

22:36 right? And so it's like, okay, so number one is go after people who are just a couple steps ahead.

22:41 Number two is you want to make them an offer that's so good that they feel stupid saying no because like I don't want people to get this twisted. like you were getting the better end of the deal, right? Like if someone starts working with Chris and just shadows you every day, right? Or shadows me every day. Like let's not pretend here. Like my life is not better off because you're in it now. Your life is going to be significantly better because I'm in it.

23:04 I'm just like I don't want to sugar coat it. Like let's be real for a second, right? And so

23:09 in order to to do that, like you have to provide value. And so one of the things that I see and I get this in my DMs all the time which is like hey I'd like to do this in exchange for working you know alongside you and I'm like no first off like the whole principle of giving first isn't an offer to give first. It is giving first period without expectation of something back. So it's like what does Chris need? Well Chris probably wants somebody to edit and cut his podcasts or take his podcast clips and redistribute them. You don't offer to do that. You just do it and then send it to him. And then you keep doing it and keep sending it to him. And I'll bet you that if you do that for 10, 50, 100 days straight, Chris be like, "Damn, this kid is like really, really hungry." Like he's willing to continue. He took the initiative, figured out what I wanted, etc. The because the alternative of that, right, is that you come up and you

23:58 say, "Hey Chris, I want to work for you for free." And he says, "What what's the next thing he's going to say?" He's going to be like, "What can you do?" Right? And now what do you what are you asking Chris to do? You're asking Chris to work for you. because we now have to figure out what you're good at and we have to think all this like I'm doing all this work for you, right? Instead, it's like you have to show the initiative. You have to have some skill. You have to demonstrate that you have the skill and that you can identify a need for another person. Like it's basic level, but that that basic level is a hurdle that most people won't jump over.

24:26 So, I'm just like I'm I'm I'm a little lit on this because I it just happened yesterday.

24:30 That is that is the best explanation. Oh, dude. I I freaking love that. That is probably the best explanation I've ever ever been given with like the two caveats like because yes, I've I've always believed the principle of like, hey, add value and and whatever, but man, those freaking two caveats are 100% true because yeah, if I have somebody come and be like, to your exact point, I I have guys in my DMs or whatnot all the time, but the people that actually create the value and give it to me, you cannot deny that, right? Just can't deny it. It's it's absolutely phenomenal.

25:07 That's that's a great great concept. And one of the costs that they don't quantify is how your time is worth. Sorry.

25:13 Yeah. I was like one of the costs they don't quantify is how much your time is worth, right? So let's say right now market rate like any, you know, any CEO who wants a big exit says, "Hey Chris, I'll pay you 25,000 an hour to like have your time, right?" And so for you, it's like an hour of my time market rate is 25 35 grand, whatever it is, right? And if the work that this person is doing for a whole year is $35,000 worth of work, if you ask me or you need an hour a week of my time, right? I have to think about the opportunity cost of what my time is worth. And so like you're actually inc like you have to make sure that the value you're providing is in excess of the time it's costing me. And the higher up the person is, the less of their time you're going to be able to take. Not only because like it's really valuable, but like it's going to be a cost that you're never going to be able to overcome. If you spake an hour of my

26:02 time, it's like you got to be able to make a million a year and that's just at cost. That's break even. Like I would like to get a return on my time, right? So you got to be able to make 10 million a year for me for me to give you an hour a week of my time. I'm not gonna like I'm not being a dick here. I'm just saying like that's just the math, right? And so the real real is the higher up.

26:20 Yep. Yeah. the higher up the person is that you're trying to go after, you might have to do what we just said for somebody who works for Chris. So, for one of Chris's leaders, and then you prove to that person that you're worth it, and then you get a seat, and then you have then you get two or three steps closer. And that's the idea is you keep trading up so that you can get closer to the person. Like, I I can't reach out to Elon Musk and say, "I'll work for you for free." Because he wouldn't care. Like why is he gonna care for you?

26:51 He'd be like, "Alex who? Alex who?" No. No. I don't want I don't want him. Right. Yeah. That's That's such such good good freaking love it.

27:04 Oh man. So, uh, dude, I I love I love how your stuff is just so black and white, right? Like 1 plus one equals two or we ain't doing it, right? Like it's just there there's no there's no beating around the bush. It it it makes it work. So dude so how how does somebody how does somebody get to Alex or Mosy, right? Like like who what value are you lacking that if like somebody offered? Holy crap, man. I I would give that guy an hour of my time.

27:36 All right. Two easy ways that you can identify what somebody ahead of you might want that you could offer them for free, right? So, number one is look at what they're currently doing and think, is there a way that I can do more of what they're doing or can I help them do it better? Now, I wouldn't say, "Hey, I think your stuff sucks. I can help you do it better." The amount of people who say that about my social media, like in my DMs, they're like, "Hey, I think you're really missing the mark here on this." They say from a an account that has 500 followers to my million person account. And I'm like, really though?

28:04 Like, do you think that's the angle you're going to try and take? Like, probably not the best strategy, right? And so it's like you want to see what I'm currently doing, do more. So like, hey, you like you might need more clips of you, right? So I can help do that. And instead of saying it, you do it first, right? You don't say, I can do more clips. Just do it.

28:23 Or you say, I think we can do them better because there's some some trends that you're missing out on. Again, do it and show it, right? Show don't tell. So that's number one is looking what they're currently doing and can they do more or can they do it better? The second thing is looking at what they're not doing, but you think they should be doing. All right. So, for example, I don't have I don't I don't really email my list at all. Like, we have thousand people every day that join email list onacquisition.com and it's because I do want to make sure that anything I provide is exceptionally valuable and I haven't had time to do it. So, like I've sent like two emails in the last year.

28:56 Uh, and so like somebody who could help take my words from other places and then craft them in the emails that are valuable would be something that would be great for me. They might notice that I'm not on Pinterest, right? Like I'm not on Pinterest because I don't understand the platform. And so like if you understand Pinterest and you want like then start making Pinterest posts for me like talk about easy opportunities, go somewhere I'm not and help me like take the stuff I already got and repurpose it. Like how much time is that for me? Zero. How much value is it for me? More than zero, right? Because I'm not doing anything there, right? And so it's more better of what they're currently doing. And then looking at are there places that we can add new into the current mix without them having any cost, right? So, I'm incurring the cost of sifting, sorting, understanding the platform, and posting it on Alex's

29:42 behalf. Now, I'm using this as an example, but the person you might be going after might not be an influencer or whatever. Like, they might have other needs. I'm just giving you like simple examples that someone can think through of like, okay, how do I make an offer for Alex?

29:58 What are yours? So, yeah. What do you perfect, dude? Man, like Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so right now, man, you to to your exact point, like like I'm not phenomenal at YouTube, right? Like I'm I'm just just getting going just getting going on YouTube. Really starting to understand that platform. It's a platform that I've avoided for for so long, right? Instagram, Facebook, known that for a while, known how to to do the marketing and whatnot. But yeah, Pinterest, I mean, a lot a lot of the things that you're you're saying, email, I mean, dude, me me and you operate a lot ve very similar, right? I don't email a list. I don't I don't post on Pinterest.

30:35 I don't, you know, all these all these things really starting to to get into, you know, and and for me, it's like if you if somebody could come and help me figure out how to, you know, better better leverage my my time in in a lot of ways as far as like identifying deals, like bringing me deals to the to the table, right? Because because I'm I'm in a in a similar position as you where I'm I'm in deal mode, right? Like looking and evaluating and whatnot. If somebody went and actually sifted through a deal and said, "Chris, this is the reason like, hey, not only am I bringing you a deal, but I did all the due diligence and the research and here it is, right?" Like, and and can cut out a lot of the the my time, my my effort or whatnot, and and would actually physically bring it to me. I mean that that right there, you know, when when everybody whenever somebody like shows up and and does something that is of

31:31 high value, like it's it's really hard to turn that person down, especially if like you said, they are one to two steps behind you, right? If it's some some employee that's never done a deal, that's never done whatever and they're trying to bring a deal from me, no way. But if somebody's got a track record and it's like, hey, you know, oh, I I've done a thousand transactions over the last three years and I've done transactions with Alex. I've done transactions with, you know, this that and the other person and this is why you're going to want you're going to look at what I have to offer or what I'm bringing you, the value I'm creating.

32:08 Like I'm paying attention, right? And so, um, yeah, man. Like there's there there are so many so many different ways and and people just aren't creative enough, right? Like it's they just go and they do the stupid DMs that they copy and paste across a 100 different influencers platforms and and they expect results, which you know, you got to applaud the the hustle, but it's like, dude, just just think for a minute. Think like would this if I was sitting in your shoes, would this appeal to me? and uh you know and so it's uh it's it's interesting dude. So acquisition.com obviously a big shift from from gym launch like what what are I I love your play right now is like just create value and basically have the natural like people reach out and then where you just have your your picking. Um, what what are you what are you focusing on with acquisition.com as far as like if you had the ideal company to invest in? What

33:11 would that look like? So, an ideal company to invest in, you know, for us is going to be doing, you know, two to$10 million in IBIDA. Um, they're going to have a founder that wants to wants to scale. It's a big one. A lot of times people think they want to scale, but then like they don't actually want to scale. You know what I mean? like they double or triple their income and then they're like, "Oh, wow. I'm good." Like we had a company that we tripled the the profit for and then all of a sudden like the the CEO was golfing every day and I was like, "Bro, what's up?" He's like, "Dude, I'm making more money than I've ever made in my entire life." I'm like, "Yeah, but like I'm not in this for this triple. I'm in this for a a 20x or 50x. Like that's why I want to do this, right? Like we want to do big stuff." Um, and so it's like they have to have big eyes. They have to have big dreams of what they want to

33:55 accomplish. Uh, they have to be coachable. Uh, and that's a big one because, and this is actually probably one of the hardest ones to find is that anyone who's achieved a certain level of success has some level of confidence that they're good, right? But the problem is like if you've never, you know, the difference between and you you can appreciate this, the difference between a million a month and 10 million a month is oceans. You know what I mean? It's and they're like, "Oh, I'll just do 10 times of what I'm currently doing."

34:22 It's like, it's not because if it were, then you wouldn't be stuck right now. Um, and so they they they have to like because there there's really two aspects of this. So like I I'll rewind real quick. There's the business component and there's the founder, right? Like who are we doing the deal with? Now for us, the founder matters a lot more than to like a traditional private equity firm. And because traditional private equity firms exclusive almost exclusively by majority, we sometimes buy majority, but if we buy majority, it's like a micro major, like you know, we're like 51, you know what I mean? Um, and that might be because we have some sort of brand element that we're tying into it or whatever reason, right? like of all the holdings, we only have one majority. We will probably do more because that one's doing really, really well. Um, but most of our deals are like, you know, 33, 49,

35:03 51, you know, I mean, that's kind of the range that we we do. We have a couple early deals I did at 20. Um, but there's the founder in the business. The founder is coachable. They are have big dreams. Uh, we like actually hanging out with them because this is like if I don't look forward to talking to somebody, like to me, that's a big red flag. like if during the process like any of us have any hesitations like we have it we have this thing called the five flags which is like if any of these five red flags come up we stop the deal immediately so we don't need like three strikes we just need one

35:33 right um and so we we just try and codify who is looking at these things right like if there's any kind of dishonesty or any discrepancy between numbers um if we feel like they have like a a culture of like fear within their organization um those are all like signs for us that we're like okay this is probably not a good fit. On the business side, it's it's the more traditional stuff like it needs to be of a certain size, which for us is Yeah.

35:58 So, yeah, if the business certain side's like two to 10. So, I want to dive I want to

36:04 go for it. Go for it. Sorry, we lag. Sorry. I think there's a little lag here, but I want to I want to You're good. You're good, dude. Uh, so I want to dive a little bit deeper into because you said you want to have somebody that has big goals, not someone when they triple they're going to go be on the golf course. So obviously, um, that can't be motivated by money because both you and I know that like money is essentially oxygen, right? Like once you have enough, it it no longer motivates or pushes or or whatnot. So like how do you identify the person that really is able to be driven past money, past accomplishment, past, you know, a certain uh level of achievement? What how are you identifying that person?

36:48 So it's usually in in the language patterns that they'll present with. And so I'll give you a couple different examples that are different but still would accomplish the same thing. So some of them might be like, I really want to create an amazing place to work, right? That would be one where like that's going to continue to grow. like they might want to continue to get more and more people in and create an amazing place to work. If they said, "I want to change this industry," it's like, "Okay, if you want to change an industry, it's gonna like you have to have a big vision for it." Um, if you want to change a community, same thing. Like if you want to change a local area, like again, big big impact. Some some of them it's like I just want to do something big, right?

37:21 Like their desire is to see what they're capable of. Like they they want to test their own metal. And so the whole point of the game for them is to continue to move the bar, right? That would be another example. Um, and some of them just straight up say like, I do want to make a ton of money. And to me, that's fine as long as that's true, right? Like, uh, you know, if they're like, I want to get to a billion dollar company, that's badass. Like, that's fine. I totally respect that. Uh, but it's it's that they actually want that and they already have all their their personal needs uh fulfilled. Like, if they already have their monetary needs fulfilled and they still say that, to me, I'm like, "Okay, this guy wants to run."

37:58 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So uh so what are the what are the red so those are like the positive flags what are the red flags that that you see of like somebody that will be satisfied usually they just talk in small numbers they talk in small numbers and this is from the business perspective the majority of our flags are actually about the founder so like the red flags for the business are you know just like okay is if it's going down if it's not profitable uh if we don't see a path for growth. If it feels too complicated, if the if the founder has like shiny object syndrome, so like they can't focus on one thing, they're like, "Oh yeah, I've got this other business I want to start." This actually happens all the time. Somebody comes to us, they're like, "I've got this business I want to partner with you on. I've got these other three businesses, too." And I'm like, "Close all those and I'll work

38:45 with you on this." And so it's like, and sometimes guys will do that. And then they come back and I'm like, "This guy's in it." Other guys are like, "I can't do that because of X, Y, and Z." And I'm like, "Cool. Then go go chase chase five rabbits and hope you catch one." You know? Um, and so like are they focused? Are they coachable? Um, are they honest? And honesty is like, you know, a lot of people think about it in terms of like black and white, like honest or dishonest, but it's really like how honest are you? Like if I hear a lot of exaggeration at all points in time, like everything just seems to be rounded. You know what I mean? Like, oh, we're amazing. Everything's like if you don't know where the bodies are buried, you're not close enough.

39:17 Like you should know where the bodies are buried in every single department, right?

39:21 And that's actually one of my limits test as a CEO. Um, not that I am anymore, but when I was CEO, if I don't know what's going wrong in every department, I'm too far away. Like I should know like if if something's just good, it means I don't I don't know what's going on because of course there should always be opportunities for improvement. So I got to know what's what's happening. So if I hear that kind of language, um those are red flags. And then just the big one of just they they seem um they talk in small numbers in terms of growth and they talk in small numbers in terms of uh the ultimate size that they want to grow the thing.

39:51 because like I can't I can't make you believe more than you do. Right. Right. You know, you you bring up you bring up a great point of not only knowing where the bodies are are buried in different departments, but being willing to admit where the body bodies are buried, right? I think I think there's there's an aspect of business owners where uh they want to lie to themselves whether whether you're in sales whether you actually own the business what whatever you're managing a department right like one of the most important things in order to enact change in order to improve and is actually being able to admit we're weak here we suck at this this that and the other like getting real you know non-self deceived right selfdeception I think is like the greatest downfall of any CEO, any manager, any salesperson, right? Like I I'm sure you'd agree with me on that. Um,

40:48 so if they if they're super micro tell me, go ahead. If they're like microcontrollers, right? Like they they want to micromanage everything like that's another example of like because the equal opposite, right? There's the pendulum like on one side they're too far away, they're too disconnected. The other one is they're too close to everything. And I want to make a point that I think is worth making, but they also have to have realistic expectations of value and they have to be willing to have a smaller slice of a bigger pie. Like a lot of people think they want that and so they're like lot they want to have the the round shape of the pie, right? And I know you probably can can preach to this more than anyone that like the more people who are trying to build something, the bigger it can get, right?

41:27 Like you didn't have a 100% circle of your circle and guess what? Elon Musk has 20% of Tesla, right? But that still made sense. it made sense for him to give 80% to other people to help him build it and he could still become the wealthiest man uh you know on the planet. And so like having to shift that belief in someone is really hard if someone doesn't already come in believing it. Like I'm willing to part with a chunk of the business in order to have a 10 times or 100 times more valuable thing, right? Like if they don't believe that. And then part of it is also um unrealistic expectations of valuation. So this is actually a pretty big one. So they hear about your exit, right? They hear about my exit and they think, "Oh, that multiple applies to my $2 million profit, you know, company that is basically me with a couple of helpers uh running around and if I die tomorrow, the whole thing dies." Like,

42:18 no. Like it it doesn't apply to that business because and here's here's a stat that might astound your audience. for businesses doing less than 10 million in sales and two million in bottom line. All right, so those are the two numbers top line and two million in bottom line. The average like the median trading value is two and a halfx on profit. That's the median.

42:40 All right, so like that's that's the that's the middle, right? And and over 80% depending on the source. So this is SBA, so small business administration is one who comes out with these stats. um have a have a have a huge component of seller financing. And so that two and a halfx is also not cash like that two and a halfx is the total enterprise value and the person who's buy like so like let's say you did a hypothetical deal with somebody doing $1 million a year. Okay, so one in profit. All right, so $1 million a year in trailing 12 months and let's say they got the median valuation.

43:11 So the person who's buying is adding no value. They're just buying the asset. They're coming in to do nothing, right? Because that's who is buying this, right? If you and I might want to buy something, I would expect to get a discount on something because I'm going to be doing a little work to grow the thing, right? Like I don't want to pay you to work, right? So the idea is like, okay, let's think through this. Million dollars, two and a halfx is the is the median. And let's say 90% of them have seller carry. Okay. Well, if you're selling half the business, then now we're at 1.25 and let's say and you have a seller carry. So you you might only get a few hundred,000 for half the business. Now again, the part of it is that people then in that situation, and this is where deals don't happen, is that they're like, I'm I'm worth at least 10. It's like, you're not, bro. Like, you're not because you can't walk away like you

43:58 could walk away from business and it still grows. Like, gym launch continues to grow and Alex is on a podcast with Chris right now, right? The idea is that you have to build an asset that can grow on its own and that takes time. And the thing is is that people really impatient or they feel like they're getting um I mean and to be fair that's the nature of deals is that both people have to agree, right? Um but like that's that's a big one is that a lot of founders will have unrealistic expectations about how valuable the company that built is because they're measuring it based on the effort they've put in rather than the output of what's been created.

44:34 Right. Yeah. It's it's so interesting how many people are selfdeceived on on the actual uh total enterprise value. I I had a guy uh give me an offer the other day for he's got an Instagram profile with a ton of followers and and he's and he's pro he's netting like 350 a year and everything like that and he wanted it was something like five or six multiples on a social media platform like a social media account that is dependent on him as the face and it's just like dude what in what world is this worth five to six multiples you're you're Crazy, dude. Like you get out of here, man. And uh it's it's so it's so amazing like how how self deceived people are. Dude, I want to I want to dive into to one other thing that you kind of mentioned and I know that you're phenomenal at is like walk me through how you get to know, right? How do you how do you tell yourself no, right? and and get away from like the shiny objects

45:37 and how do you keep digging in the same hole that is boring or or whatnot? Like what are the mental exercises for you as an entrepreneur that keep you disciplined to continue to say no and only say to the one yes to the one thing that is giving you the most value?

45:54 It's a really good question. Um and I think that this is probably like if there's a single trait of entrepreneurs that can make them successful, it is if they can master this. And it's also probably the hardest one to master because we're the e we're the we're the best people at deceiving ourselves when it comes to this. Like we convince ourselves that this new opportunity is gonna be worth more. Um and there's a lot of natural, you know, followup questions like, well, when do you know when to pivot? Like when do you know you've tried enough? Like when do you need to change your idea? Things like that. I would say that post product market fit. All right, so this is a big caveat and this is why advice gets hard because it depends on the season you're in. If you don't have product market fit, meaning people don't want to buy your thing, right? Or they don't like the thing you're selling, then yeah, you

46:32 should iterate. You keep trying keep trying new things until eventually you start getting buyers. At that point you lock in and then you say if I only did this thing for the next 10 years would I get this outcome? And if that outcome is a yes then anything that's not that like you already have the deal with yourself that you're willing to get that big outcome. So like for acquisition I mean imagine the amount of opportunities that we get right now that are like dude could you like dude if you built this thing and and like the people are like dude you should sell a course.

47:02 like and you know what if I did I probably would make more than all course creators like if I did that but would that detract from the one thing that mattered most right and I think most times the focus is that

47:14 people can't say no to the fast money and by doing that they say no to the big money which is the long money which is the money you got to wait for

47:24 right because like no big things love that are built fast like I'm very convinced about this like almost everybody goes this like five to seven years of eating period where you just don't it doesn't feel like you're making progress and as as as tacky as this may sound like your overarching strategy is hope like unshakable faith that it was going that it's going to happen but being paranoid about the present that it's going to die

47:47 right so it's it's and I think Jim Collins he has some sort of just position that he said more elegantly than me um but it's maintaining both those things and so for me my my ultimate vision is that like acquisition.com compounds into a billion or or higher uh company and we do it doing it our way, right? And like that's that's what I want to do. And whether it takes five years, 10 years, 20 years, like it's a game that I'm I'm dedicated to playing and anything like I know the plan that we set out for because we spent 18 months thinking of all the different things we could do. What do we want to do? We said we want to combine social media and investing. That was the big that was the like something old and something new. And we figured if we create proprietary deal flow and do significant value ad to businesses that they like we could we could we could buy at good rates and we could add value to

48:33 them too because typically investing is one or the other. Either you buy really cheap uh like you buy like that's Warren Buffett's strategy is buy really cheap. right now. He says wonderful companies at fair prices, whatever.

48:43 Um or you you've got somebody who's like a really niche like if you bought solar stuff, right? You can't because you have your non-compete, but you know, like if you if you didn't have your non-compete, like you going into a solar business, it's like well, you have expertise there and you'll immediately be able to grow, right? And so you don't even need to buy at a great multiple because you know if you 10x it, it doesn't really matter what you bought it at because you're gonna it's going to be worth way more, right? And so for us, we try to combine both those things to create an investment thesis. And the problem with and and I like you're you're in this season now, right? Is that switching from business to investing is a massive change in mindset because when you're in business, you're used to selling all day, right? It's selling and promoting and selling and selling and selling and selling. But when you're

49:24 doing deals, it's actually about trying to get to know, which is so counter everything that we've like you and I have had ingrained in our minds is like, God, I want this person to say yes. The thing is is that like if you keep upping the price and changing the terms, then you can get someone to say yes, but it might be a terrible deal for you. And so like it no longer is about yeses. It's about, you know, coming to agreements within a defined box that you define for yourself that like this is a deal that makes sense for me, right? And so um that's been probably one of the the hardest transitions for me uh going from business owner to investor. But an investment vehicles also doesn't give you the quick hits that business does.

50:01 Like you and I could rattle the sales team and then boom, we'd see sales hours later, you know, coming in same day. I can't rattle the deal team and then like get a deal closed, right? Like it just doesn't work that way, right? And so there's this huge lag on when we start doing stuff and we start seeing the results. And so you think about like even improving a process. It's like it might it might take 90 days or six months to get through from beginning to end on a deal. And then we don't even know how the deal went. it's going to take us another year or two before we really even see like, okay, this was a good deal. This was a good company, this was a good pick. So, your feedback loops are so long, you have to figure out games to play in the meantime so that you can let the big machine work. And so, like right now, we have a snowball, but I'm in I'm in I'm in in investor years. We're like I did my first deal in

50:51 20 in summer 2020. So, I'm three years in. So, like like in in investor years, three years is like nothing. It's nothing. it's child's play. And so I had to really change my perspective of like

51:03 business versus investing. Um, and that's been that's been a very hard thing to do, but it's changed me a lot. And I think hopefully for the better.

51:13 I I I love the I love the distinction between, you know, running a business or being in sales or or whatnot versus versus investing because you're exactly right. It's drastically different. I love I love uh the phrase in regards to what you're talking about uh aggressively patient, right? Like just being aggressive in the moment, but very patient on any results, any lag, any any anything that's going and and I think that that drastically applies to both sides of of owning a business and also in in the in the investment world, right? like I'm doing I'm doing everything to increase deal flow and increase opportunities on one side and the the other I'm I'm creating as many transactions but not caring about the results and just getting and it may be boring and maybe it may maybe be long and maybe you know suffering on day-to-day and and and the interesting thing is like you don't have to be an

52:07 entrepreneur to apply these principles right like you can be in sales you can be in a in a career path you can be in in any one of these things uh where where you've just got to fall in love with the boring work, not get easily distracted, not looking for another opportunity. Uh where you know, wherever they pop up a and because it's it's the compound effect as as you talked about earlier as far as like increasing your audience size. Same thing as far as skill set, right? like every every month, every year that I'm I'm, you know, hammering down on this one skill set, man, it's just compounding and then all of a sudden the results come fast and and and quick at the end.

52:50 Yeah. The amount of growth that your company had in the last year is probably more than it did in the first five years right?

52:59 And so like that's the thing is expect Yeah. like and and it's a it's a tough gear shift pro. I mean, like I this is me just share. I know you're you're in in the process of this, too, but like when you go from comparing your year seven to year eight growth of a business that you owned to a year two to year three growth of a newer thing that you're doing, it's like we can't compare the two. Like this is this is I'm just telling this is what's been hard for me that I've had to like wrap my head around is that like I'm like god like it's so it'd be so easy for me to add another like 10 million in IBIDA uh you know to to to the solar business, right?

53:32 versus like or or in gym launch like add another like six or add another 10 whatever it is right like adding that kind of like IA like that can happen pretty quickly right whereas uh you know when you're in the new thing like you have to think in percentages rather than in in absolute amounts because otherwise you'll just get way too bogged down like you'll get way too sad about how things aren't working as fast as you want them to and so that's that's been helped too is shifting from absolutes to percentages to relative changes Um and uh and also just at least for me thinking that like different businesses have different pain at different times.

54:08 And so like I'll give you a quick extreme example. It's like on one extreme you got like info businesses, right? There's lots of people who have those. The pain that you experience is when you want to get past a million a month, 2 million a month, three million a month. So you basically pick a vehicle that's easy to start, easy to make money fast for, but you're not going to make massive money, right? It's very hard to do it. Not to say you can't, it's very, very hard. On the flip side, you start a software company and like if you do it the right way, you're probably not going to make any money at all for a long period of time. And so all your pain is frontloaded, but once you achieve critical mass, then the thing just starts compounding on its own month over month over month and at no incremental cost to you and the thing becomes a profit monster, right? And so it's like those are completely opposite sides of

54:52 the spectrum. And it's really just like where do you want your pain? And if you know, if you know ahead of time, this is where the pain's going to happen. Not being surprised when the pain comes,

55:03 right? You know, I that that is one of my favorite principles that I I believe applies to every area of life, your your fitness, your relationships, everything is choosing pain now versus versus later, right? If I choose if I choose pain now, I experience real longlasting fruit later. If I choose pain later, I get fake fruit, short bursts, quick, you know, quick hitters, right? Like I I hit the I hit the alarm clock in the morning, right? Hit the snooze button, I get a quick hitter in the morning, right? Like I I get I feel I feel good sleeping a little bit longer or whatever it is, but I miss my I I miss my fitness routine or whatever it is, you know, which belong pain is way way more enduring, way worse. And so this this principle applies to literally everything. Um, I want to I want to get your your take on on one thing. So I asked uh I asked Grant Cardone. It's it's really really similar to to this uh

56:03 kind of perspective that that you're talking about is like so the the question I asked Grant and and this and I'll give you what he he answered and I want to hear your your thoughts on it was a young young guy. He's wanted to launch his wanting to launch his first business. He's thinking about taking taking the leap away from corporate America going and do it. What do you what do you advise like what advice do you have for that guy? Grant said he said don't do it. He said don't don't go and launch a business. He said go and find somebody that has put in the years of essentially compounding and is pumping the brakes. go and figure out how to partner up with them and leverage that compound that's already been created, right? And and and participate in the upside. And and I think it's a lot of like what you're what you're talking about as far as like year seven through eight is way easier to wait make

56:58 way more money than 0ero to one, one to two, what whatever it may be. And so with that, like what what are your thoughts? What are your thoughts on that question, on that advice?

57:08 So this is a really um great question. And I think that I will have slightly a slightly different take than the brand. And it's not because I disagree with his advice, but because I think it depends on the context that it's given. And so I think that for me to start over or for you to quote start over, I have a lot of experience in business. And so for me, it makes sense to go partner with those companies and, you know, let them have incurred that first cost so that I can walk with them to the much bigger upside, right? It's just that if you have no business experience, one, it's tough to get that business owner to say, "Yeah, you're going to be a huge value ad to my business." And number two, you also pro like and if that person doesn't say that and you want to go the the finance route of like, "I can route my some friends and family and get a bank loan and then try and buy this business because I took a

58:01 course on acquisitions or whatever." um you still don't know what you're doing and you don't know how to analyze what is a good business because you don't have a baseline. And so a lot of these things are and again I I agree with the advice from my like what is the best opportunity vehicle? I mean like private equity is literally based on this like you get into private equity you start a fund and you can go make a billion dollars in five years, right? Like right sure all you got to do is raise a billion dollars, go buy five companies for 200, you know what I mean? Let them double naturally over time and there you go. You made yourself a billion dollars.

58:32 Like sounds easy to do. Significant. Yeah. Right. What are we doing here? Right. Why Why do we suck so much, right? Um but it's a lot easier said than done, right? And so like Grant at his station in life. Um because I had a conversation with Grant. I'll give you I'll give you a micro example of this. And so um I was thinking about what I was going to do with our big hunk of money, right?

58:53 And I want to give you two very different perspectives on the advice. All right. So I talked to Dave Ramsey and I talked to Sorry, I didn't talk to Dave. I watched the video of Dave Ramsey when he was talking about this and I and I had a conversation with Grant about this. So Grant said, "Go buy a massive building." He said, "Go buy the biggest building you can possibly buy." That's that's that's what you should do. And I think the caveat there is that's what Grant should do because Grant's been doing real estate for 30 years. And so for him, him putting all his eggs in one basket, he's like, "Yeah, I can't lose." He's like, "Yeah, you just pick it and uh get a manager in there. It's done." Right?

59:23 Dave had slightly different perspective. Um Dave said if your experiences and your skills were a pie, right? So think about a pi 100%. He said how would your experiences break down between like investment assets? You got like stocks and bonds, you've got like you know the skills you have, you've got business, you've got crypto, whatever it is, right? Like where how does that pie circle out for you? Right? When I look at my pie, it's 100% business. It's all business, right? And so when I heard that advice and I talked to a lot of people when I was in the like really the season that I think you're you're you just entered right now, which is like the post uh transaction season, right? I talked to every single guy I know who was worth over 100 million. Every single guy I probably had I don't know I want to say minimum 40 conversations with guys who were worth hundred hundreds to multiple billions, right? And was like

1:00:17 what should I do? And what the tough part was is that all of them gave me different advice. And so what they what many of them gave me is they gave me what they would do. And that's and that's to be fair that's fine. They're like this is what I would do. This is what I did. Right?

1:00:30 But the thing is is like you're not them. And so for me I'm good at business. That's where all my experience is. That's where I can recognize risk. I can recognize value. I can see where I can add value. Like I can see all that stuff. If you put an apartment building that's worth 20 million in front of me and you put a business that's worth 20 million in front of me, dude. I like I I got to the end of like four different real estate transactions that were in in the neighborhood of like 15 to 30 million, right? And I would get right to the end, you know, like I would do all the deal. I had the Excel sheets, the projections, all this stuff, right? And right before I need to write the check for like three million or five million.

1:01:02 I was like, ah, I don't know. I don't know. I've never done this [ __ ] I don't know. Right? And I didn't want to buy a tiny house. Who gives? Right. Right. Why am I going to buy $100,000 house? It's a waste of time. Right. Whereas me pulling up to a business that's worth 20, me writing a check there for five million, I can do it in an instant. I don't even need the complex project. Like I know I I get the business. Like I know it's I know where the risks are. Like I get I I know the termites, the toilets, the tenants, whatever it is for that business. And so um I absolutely agree that the the best opportunity is leveraging what already exists and then go going more. Right? That's the entire private equity industry. The hard part is how do you have how do you develop the skill set to get to that point? And so I think that's the that's the nuance that I would add to which is like once you have five years or 10 years and this

1:01:49 is why in my opinion most businesses at on a long enough time horizon become investment firms like they become on some level of it they have to reallocate capital. Now the first and obvious place that you reallocate capital is within the business. You look at how can we bolster out new new product offerings or new business lines or whatever it is, right? And then the second kind of layer of investing is that you look at strategic acquisitions. You see if you can buy other companies that are that are accretive or value ad to your own business, right? If you can vertically integrate, I mean your business is like an obvious perfect example. It's like, okay, well, if I can buy the financing company, Yeah. and I can buy the manufacturer of the solar pieces and not just to have the sales team, I'm gonna have a way more valuable business. Like that's a it's an accreative acquisition, right? Um the third level is just saying

1:02:32 is there another place that I can allocate capital that will get me a higher return than my current thing right and so all businesses once they are successful enough become investment firms they have to make decisions based on returns on capital and so um I figured if that's where I if that's where all businesses eventually lead then that's what I'm going to focus on at scale and so that's my two cents is like you got to learn the bit you got to learn a game and then once you learn the game, then you can recognize where the arbitrage opportunities are so that you can unlock all the upside. And I'm sure that the many people who who gave it specific advice would probably agree with me on that if given an extra two minutes to answer the question.

1:03:14 Dude, I love it. So, you know, the the interesting thing is like exactly to your point, right? In order to get to a point where you can go and leverage a big business, you have to have the experience, you have to have the skill set. And there's really two different routes that you can go to get there, right? You can go the employment route. You can go as an employee. And I think if you're going to be as as an employee, you're going to want to be an entrepreneur and in and in and typically that's that's in in a sales aspect, right? Like go and learn the product, learn how to sell, learn how to elevate it, try to participate in in some long-term incentive plan or whatever it is. But you're building a skill, right?

1:03:51 getting up to a point where then later you can leverage and where somebody could look at you and say, "Hey, this guy can add value. I'd be willing to share in some upside to help me scale up or you can go the entrepreneurial route, go and fail, figure out things, what whatever it may be." And so it's it's really I I love I love your advice that like yes, Grant, that's perfect advice after you have positioned yourself to be able to do so. and and so um that that's that's absolutely yeah just just phenomenal stuff. Well uh last last piece last piece of advice that I want and then we'll let you go. Um so somebody is is just going through a tough time whether it's in a relationship business like really really struggling wondering you know can I keep going like is this even worth it? What advice are you giving to that person?

1:04:49 Whenever I have the thoughts like why do I even bother? Like why should I keep going? I just remind myself that this is the point where most people quit and that's why they don't quit.

1:05:04 Love that. Love that. So just keep going, man. I I I Dude, I Alex, dude, thanks for your time. I love everything you stand for as far as just like being a player in the game, falling in love with with the the boring work. Heck, I even I even love uh your desserts. I can't uh I can't participate the same way that you do with desserts, though, dude. I eat a a piece of bread. I gained five pounds. Um wish uh wish I had the the natural uh ability to even participate, but uh dude, appreciate you. Love you. Thank you so much for your time. Until next time.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "How my meetup with Hormozi changed HIS life // Next Level Pros Podcast"?

In order: 0:00 Gym Launch, Acquisition.com, Next Level Pros, Vanderbilt; 30:00 Acquisition.com, Gym Launch; 40:00 Acquisition.com, Gym Launch; 50:00 Gym Launch.

What is mentioned in this Next Level Pros episode?

5 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Gym Launch, Acquisition.com, Alexi, Next Level Pros, Vanderbilt. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "How my meetup with Hormozi changed HIS life // Next Level Pros Podcast"?

The episode runs 1 h 6 min; the transcript is about 14,470 words in 128 timestamped sections.

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