Transcript
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You've made and lost your money twice.
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You have to make big bets in order to win big.
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You have to be willing to go to 0.
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How'd you get here?
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It's this healthy appreciation for risk that's
completely contrasted with the utter comfort
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with losing it all.
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Not all bets are gonna be good ones.
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What you've done is incredibly rare and
impressive.
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You've gone from a couple $1,000 to now worth
$150,000,000.
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So you've more than a 100x, what's the next
step?
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Are you starting a fund?
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Alex Ramozzi, welcome to 10x Capital podcast.
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Thank you for having me.
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Honored to be here.
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It's great to have you.
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So you have one of these stories where you've
made and lost your money twice.
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You went from hero to 0 and now back to
$150,000,000 net worth.
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How'd you get here?
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Jeez.
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I'll give you the shortest version possible.
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So I was a management consultant right out of
college.
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Did well in school, did 2 years of that.
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I went to go apply to, you know, all the big
Ivy Leagues, to get an MBA.
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And, one of the questions on the test was, how
will, you know, a Harvard MBA help your short
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and long term goals?
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And I sat there for, like, 4 days trying to
answer the question, and then I just came to
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the conclusion that it wasn't going to help my
short and long term goals, which is probably
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why they asked these questions on the
application.
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So I was like, I guess I'm gonna do fitness.
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Basically, what I would do is I would sign a
lease and then start running ads before I even
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had anything built out.
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And the model that I had was not very difficult
to get the equipment for.
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I would generate enough presales from the
launch to cover the entire opening of the gym.
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From there, started doing gym turnarounds.
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It was during that process that I lost my money
twice.
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Once was with a partner at the very beginning
who was like, I filled his gym up and he said,
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hey.
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I'll come behind you and I'll just operate all
the gyms.
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Then you don't have to give anything away.
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You'll just own them all.
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And then promptly took the money out of the
business that I had saved up from selling the 6
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gyms that I had.
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And so that sucked.
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But I learned a valuable lesson, which is, in
general, if you have the option between getting
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into business with someone who's already been
indicted for fraud All things being equal.
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Yeah.
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If you have no option to everybody that you
know has been indicted for fraud, then, you
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know, you have to just choose the best one.
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But for me, that was big lesson number 1.
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Honestly, it was like 4, 5, 6 months later, it
happened again.
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So I called the next gyms that we're supposed
to launch and, told them, hey, we're getting
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out of the business.
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We're gonna do something else.
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One of the guys says, hey.
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Launch my buddy's gym.
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And so I picked the highest number I could
think of because I wanted to get him off the
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phone, and he already said he was broke.
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And so, I said, $6,000.
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And he said, 6 grand?
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Done.
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And I remember just, like, looking at the phone
being, like, holy crap, like, what just
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happened?
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I had 7 more calls that day.
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And next call, same thing.
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How much?
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8 grand.
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Next call, same thing.
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How much?
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10 grand.
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And I'm doing $60,000 in sales in a day.
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I could finally breathe again.
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I was officially just broke again, but no debt.
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And then from that, the next month I think we
did 220 then 380 then 480 then 780 then 780
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then a 1000000 then 12 then 15 then I think it
was like 182, 252 and it went all the way up to
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4,400,000 a month within 20 months.
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We ended up packaging those companies and
selling them to American Pacific Group.
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I sold 2 thirds at a 46,200,000 valuation in an
all cash deal.
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That was your first big exit.
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That was the first big exit.
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And during the 5 years, we took out 42,000,000
in distributions.
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So that was, like, still a very cash flow
positive business, but I just didn't wanna be
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I'd been in gyms for, like, a decade at that
point.
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So I was I was ready to just not be the gym guy
anymore.
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And on Christmas day, I officially started
acquisition.com.
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The thesis I had was everybody wants
proprietary deal flow, and everybody wants
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people who trust them when they get into a deal
process.
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I wonder if if somebody has merged like a
influencer social media brand with the
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traditional private equity model.
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Tell me about the social media ramp up.
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Year 0, year 1, year 2.
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How quick of that ramp?
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The Jim Secrets podcast.
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Was that an interview style?
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No.
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Just me.
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Just talking ahead.
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So I lost all my money the second time, April
of 2017, and my first podcast episode is July
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of 17.
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You can follow the whole thing from 0 back
again 90 days after I was at 0.
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We both know many people that make a lot of
money then lose it, and oftentimes make even
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more on the come up.
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Why is losing all your money a prerequisite for
success?
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I hope it doesn't have to be.
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3rd time's the charm for me.
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Probably 50% of the people I know are worth 100
of 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 of dollars have
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gone through this arc.
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There's something there.
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What is it?
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That makes me feel better.
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I think I would say there's 2 completely
dichotomous things that come out of it.
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On one hand, you earn a very healthy respect
for risk.
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Not everything's going to work out.
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On the other hand, you know that you've lost
everything and yet you are still here.
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And so it's this healthy appreciation for risk
that's completely contrasted with the utter
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comfort with losing it all anyways because you
got there and, you know, I joke about this, but
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Leila and I were happy when we were poor.
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We're just about as happy now.
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Makes you anti fragile.
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That's perfect.
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Exactly.
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And how does that practically help?
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With the healthy appreciation for risk, we are
willing to take fewer but more strategic big
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swings.
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You have to make big bets, so you have to be
willing to go to 0.
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But at the same time, knowing that not all bets
are gonna be good ones, I feel like that is
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fundamentally the basis of good investing.
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There's some huge power laws when it comes to
venture capital.
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One of the investments.
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And because of that, you don't have to make
huge investments.
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You can make small checks.
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Jason Calacanis invested 25,000, made a
$100,000,000 for Sequoia.
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Is that the same thing in your private equity
business?
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Are you able to make small bets and make huge
returns?
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Or do you really have to have more of a
concentrated portfolio?
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The concentration for us right now is because
we're super operationally involved.
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And So this is something that we're, to be very
candid, we're actively looking at.
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Is there a way that we can maybe do less?
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So on one hand, we've considered opening up a
venture arm, which is something that we're
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strongly considering right now.
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On the more traditional private equity route,
we have made small bets relative to the amount
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of money that we've made.
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So we've had monster returns from a percentage
basis, but the amount of work that has gone
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into those companies, the company that was at
2,000,000 that went to 110, we've done a lot of
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work.
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To be fair, the founders have done an amazing
job.
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They're awesome people.
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The credit should go to them, but we've done a
lot of work too.
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And the same thing with the the brick and
mortar chains that we have.
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We have tended to go towards operationally
complex businesses that just require lots of
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people, and I think it's just because Leila and
I are very comfortable in those types of
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environments.
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We both came from a service based background.
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But one of the big kinda, like, arbitrages we
were talking right before we started the show,
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40% of our portfolio is software and we don't
talk about it as much.
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And part of the reason I don't talk about it in
my content as much is because I think 78% of
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all businesses are service businesses.
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It applies to such a small slice of the
demographic that I'd rather just talk about the
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thing that applies to most people.
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But we take a lot of the best practices that
we've learned from traditional service
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businesses and that apply them to software as a
service businesses because a lot of the same
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things work.
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It's just a lot of it's automated, and that's
where you get, you know, huge returns on it.
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I wanna double click on something.
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So I read your book, 100,000,000 Offers.
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Incredible book.
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Basically, it's a book on how to create value.
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You talk about how you would go to a company,
and they would give you 30% of the company with
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almost no investment.
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And you've done this over and over dozens of
times or so.
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You've never really explicitly talked about how
you construct that value proposition for the
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business owner.
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So tell me how you get somebody to give you 30%
of your business with no money down.
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We do a combination.
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To be fair, the deal has evolved over time, and
I wrote the book, I want to say 3 or 4 years
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ago, between 20 24 deals in similar structures.
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So we had an element of cash flow, which is
either a profit share or a revenue share,
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depending on how volatile the business was.
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And then we had a profits interest, based on
some agreed upon basis that we had or above a
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basis that we, you know, mutually agreed on.
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And usually that that number was very low
because the companies didn't really have a ton
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of intrinsic value.
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And so that was more or less the combination of
what it was.
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It's like, okay, your business is worth
$2,000,000.
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We get 30% of everything above that.
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And for the work that we do in the meantime, we
need cash flow because we have a huge team
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helping you put all these things together.
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And so that's pretty much how the deals work.
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Over time, I started writing checks into
companies because I noticed it changed the
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dynamic a little bit favorably for us, and it
was less like we're consultants for hire.
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Now we only do cash in deals.
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That's probably more traditional.
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We look for a lot of majority covenants even if
we're not in a majority position just because
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we wanna have a good amount of operating
control on the business.
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Honestly, in some ways, it's just, you know,
keeping the emotionality of it from the founder
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from making, like, a really poor decision.
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Every one of the covenants that we're gonna ask
for are not thing like, when we explain them,
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they're like, okay.
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I get that.
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The biggest companies we have are, you know, 4
4 plus years that we've had with us.
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And some of those we're looking for, you know,
liquidity events right now.
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And I think we're kind of at a point of like,
okay.
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Where to from here?
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Right now with our holdings and kind of like,
okay, what went well from this last round?
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What are we gonna
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do differently next time?
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And I'd say the big the big one is that we're
just going to buy fewer bigger businesses at
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the onset
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because we've learned that a lot of times the
bigger the business, the more we can help.
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Because when it's a smaller business, it's like
we have to build so much infrastructure.
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A lot of times there's there's no CRM.
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So it's, you know, it's all it's all Google
Sheets and things like that.
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So we have to implement a full CRM so we can
get data pushed to us.
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We even know what's going on in the business.
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Finances are typically a mess.
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It's just, you know, his mom's bookkeeper
that's been doing it, you know, across the
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kitchen table, that's been that's been doing
the finances.
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There's typically no leadership team in place.
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It's usually a founder and, like, maybe a first
follower, somebody who's really loyal and kinda
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like an integrator for them.
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But oftentimes, they don't even have that.
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And so when we've looked at the more and more
mature businesses, it's like they have a lot of
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these pieces in place, and so then we can get
straight to value creation.
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There's no leaking bucket.
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Yeah.
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Or less.
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Just to double click, you're really good at
deconstructing processes.
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So you go to a founder and you say, okay.
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Your company is worth $5,000,000.
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I'm gonna go and invest, and then I want 20% of
the upside or 30% of the upside.
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How do you ensure to the founder that you're
not just freeloading on the upside?
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And do you create milestones?
232
00:09:10,054 --> 00:09:12,794
Do you what construct do you use to align
yourself?
233
00:09:12,855 --> 00:09:13,674
Not milestones.
234
00:09:13,815 --> 00:09:15,334
It's been pretty much straight up.
235
00:09:15,334 --> 00:09:16,774
We get 30% of the upside.
236
00:09:16,774 --> 00:09:17,514
Just trust.
237
00:09:17,575 --> 00:09:17,735
Yeah.
238
00:09:17,735 --> 00:09:20,934
And that's, I mean, and that's been the whole
point of building the brand and building the
239
00:09:20,934 --> 00:09:23,355
the presence that we have has been to have that
trust.
240
00:09:24,540 --> 00:09:24,673
Lubricated the deal process overall.
241
00:09:24,686 --> 00:09:26,683
We don't need to do nearly as much diligence,
you know, as a as a traditional PE, so we can
242
00:09:26,683 --> 00:09:28,259
we can move a lot faster on deals.
243
00:09:28,259 --> 00:09:30,540
And we've generated a lot of cash anyways in
the meantime.
244
00:09:30,540 --> 00:09:33,920
So that now if we do wanna write bigger checks,
we can do that.
245
00:09:38,625 --> 00:09:40,945
I can't write the the check sizes that I would
like to write.
246
00:09:40,945 --> 00:09:44,544
But at this moment, we can stroke a 10 or a 15
or $20,000,000 check if we really like
247
00:09:44,544 --> 00:09:44,945
something.
248
00:09:44,945 --> 00:09:48,065
I can't write multiple of those $100,000,000
checks for a company.
249
00:09:48,065 --> 00:09:51,745
When we got introduced a month ago, we started
talking about this crossroads that you're at.
250
00:09:51,745 --> 00:09:51,985
Yeah.
251
00:09:51,985 --> 00:09:55,570
You've engineered this model that works where
you're owning large percentage of slightly
252
00:09:55,570 --> 00:09:56,129
smaller businesses.
253
00:09:56,129 --> 00:09:56,629
Yeah.
254
00:09:56,850 --> 00:10:00,049
And you're thinking, should we continue
building this kind of Berkshire holding
255
00:10:00,049 --> 00:10:01,970
company, or should we go the private equity
route?
256
00:10:01,970 --> 00:10:03,409
What are the pros and cons in your opinion?
257
00:10:03,409 --> 00:10:06,309
If anyone who's listening is like, he doesn't
sound decided, I'm aware.
258
00:10:07,089 --> 00:10:07,409
Yeah.
259
00:10:07,409 --> 00:10:10,825
You know, on one hand, we could raise, you
know, outside funds transparently.
260
00:10:10,825 --> 00:10:12,585
I'm just so afraid of losing someone else's
money.
261
00:10:12,585 --> 00:10:15,305
I've made mistakes in the past for me, and it's
like, okay.
262
00:10:15,305 --> 00:10:16,264
That's an Alex mistake.
263
00:10:16,264 --> 00:10:16,745
I'll own that.
264
00:10:16,745 --> 00:10:17,945
And it was all my money.
265
00:10:17,945 --> 00:10:21,865
Losing someone else's money, it makes me feel
sick to think about because I just know how
266
00:10:21,865 --> 00:10:25,350
hard it is to make money and to just lose it
for somebody else just like it kills me.
267
00:10:25,350 --> 00:10:28,389
It's definitely an irrational fear of mine, but
that's road 1.
268
00:10:28,389 --> 00:10:31,910
Road 2 is that we continue to still write our
own checks, and we still to go after bigger
269
00:10:31,910 --> 00:10:33,190
companies, but we just take smaller chunks.
270
00:10:33,190 --> 00:10:36,230
So we actually go back to the minority thing
that we started with, but just with much
271
00:10:36,230 --> 00:10:37,269
bigger, companies.
272
00:10:37,269 --> 00:10:40,524
And I think we'd be able to get pretty good
valuations on those companies if we're coming
273
00:10:40,524 --> 00:10:42,705
in as a minority position with value add.
274
00:10:43,325 --> 00:10:47,565
The 3rd bucket is we just continue to do what
we have been doing and just continue to level
275
00:10:47,565 --> 00:10:51,565
up slowly over time the size companies that we
have with not necessarily the desire to sell
276
00:10:51,565 --> 00:10:55,889
them, but some of the companies are really,
really cash flow positive, and I don't need to
277
00:10:55,889 --> 00:10:56,370
sell them.
278
00:10:56,370 --> 00:10:59,329
Like, some of the software ones, we're
absolutely looking to have liquidity event from
279
00:10:59,329 --> 00:11:02,370
an exit because we just plow all the money back
into the business, which it should do.
280
00:11:02,370 --> 00:11:05,569
So those are kinda, like, the 3 doors that we
have in front of us for, like, where to from
281
00:11:05,569 --> 00:11:05,730
here.
282
00:11:05,730 --> 00:11:09,009
I've been honestly split because I'm also
continuing to run what we're currently doing.
283
00:11:09,009 --> 00:11:12,784
I would say that the likely that Lael and I
raise a fund is high.
284
00:11:12,845 --> 00:11:13,964
I just don't have a timeline.
285
00:11:13,964 --> 00:11:18,924
You're rationally being very slow in your
decision making because institutional capital
286
00:11:18,924 --> 00:11:21,404
and outside capital is in for penny, in for
pound.
287
00:11:21,404 --> 00:11:25,289
You take that dollar, you're basically beholden
to those LPs for a decade.
288
00:11:25,370 --> 00:11:26,409
What's coming through your pipeline?
289
00:11:26,409 --> 00:11:27,690
Are you getting $1,000,000,000 deals?
290
00:11:27,690 --> 00:11:29,209
Because I think that should really factor in.
291
00:11:29,209 --> 00:11:30,250
Our deal flow's absurd.
292
00:11:30,250 --> 00:11:31,449
How do you even process it?
293
00:11:31,449 --> 00:11:37,129
So we get about 3,000 companies, a month, about
a 100 a day that come inbound that are trying
294
00:11:37,289 --> 00:11:40,815
that specifically apply for, like, we wanna be
a portfolio company.
295
00:11:41,695 --> 00:11:46,174
We have many more than that that just, like,
want help and want information and things like
296
00:11:46,174 --> 00:11:46,414
that.
297
00:11:46,414 --> 00:11:51,294
But a 100 a day come in that fill out a full
mini question application, and then those go to
298
00:11:51,294 --> 00:11:52,014
my deal team.
299
00:11:52,014 --> 00:11:55,534
So we have automated sifting that kind of just
in the background based on the application
300
00:11:55,534 --> 00:11:57,660
questions that automatically you know, remove
95%.
301
00:11:58,519 --> 00:12:02,440
We don't do any deals outside of the US, so
that takes off half because 55% of my audience
302
00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:03,160
is international.
303
00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:04,519
So we have 45% left.
304
00:12:04,519 --> 00:12:06,919
From there, it's like we don't want other
investors on the cap table.
305
00:12:06,919 --> 00:12:08,120
That takes another half out.
306
00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:11,985
From there, we've got it just we just kinda,
like, whittle our way down to what are the kind
307
00:12:11,985 --> 00:12:12,945
of investable deals.
308
00:12:12,945 --> 00:12:18,384
We probably get 2 to 3 deals a day that are
legitimate businesses, that are of size, that
309
00:12:18,384 --> 00:12:19,424
are US based.
310
00:12:19,424 --> 00:12:23,105
They're all over the place because the content
I have helps a lot of different businesses.
311
00:12:23,105 --> 00:12:29,450
So we'll get, you know, a florist with a
commercial cleaning company with a, you know,
312
00:12:29,450 --> 00:12:30,090
SaaS company.
313
00:12:30,090 --> 00:12:34,830
And then tomorrow, it'll be a logistics broker
with like, it just it's all over the place.
314
00:12:34,889 --> 00:12:36,584
What's the revenue split on that?
315
00:12:36,584 --> 00:12:39,225
So 50% are 0 to a 1,000,000.
316
00:12:39,225 --> 00:12:43,544
25% are 1 to 5,000,000 in top line, and then
25% are 5,000,000 plus.
317
00:12:43,544 --> 00:12:47,644
And, obviously, there's, you know, a lot above
5,000,000 plus in terms of I mean, it's 25%.
318
00:12:47,704 --> 00:12:50,959
But I wanna say it's somewhere in the
neighborhood of, like, 5% of deals are doing
319
00:12:50,959 --> 00:12:51,439
over 20.
320
00:12:51,439 --> 00:12:55,519
So that's where that taking a 100 whittling
down to, like, 2 ish, 2 to 3 deals a day.
321
00:12:55,519 --> 00:12:59,360
Those ones are usually companies that are doing
over 10,000,000 and have all these other kind
322
00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:00,720
of things that are interesting about them.
323
00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:03,504
But sometimes we just hop on the phone with the
founder, and then we're like, this guy's No.
324
00:13:03,504 --> 00:13:06,704
A lot of times on the first call, we
disqualify, like, 90% of companies because
325
00:13:06,704 --> 00:13:10,625
they're like, this is hairy or this feels weird
or I don't really like the business or whatever
326
00:13:10,625 --> 00:13:10,865
else.
327
00:13:10,865 --> 00:13:13,824
A lot of times, there's businesses that don't
have any, like, compounding vehicle.
328
00:13:13,824 --> 00:13:17,830
And so that's what we look a lot for is I have
this theory that a business can only compound
329
00:13:17,830 --> 00:13:20,870
if you have a product that people never stop
buying or you have a network of people that
330
00:13:20,870 --> 00:13:21,850
never stop selling.
331
00:13:21,990 --> 00:13:23,509
And so it's like if you have a real estate
brokerage.
332
00:13:23,509 --> 00:13:24,009
Right?
333
00:13:24,149 --> 00:13:26,389
You have a network of people that never stop
selling for you.
334
00:13:26,389 --> 00:13:29,509
You have some reoccurring that comes from, you
know, somebody sells a house and 4 years later
335
00:13:29,509 --> 00:13:29,990
they come back to you.
336
00:13:29,990 --> 00:13:31,524
But for the most part, it's onesie twosies.
337
00:13:31,524 --> 00:13:33,845
On the customer side, you have a SaaS software
that's super sticky.
338
00:13:33,845 --> 00:13:35,845
You know, you sell IT services and people don't
really churn out.
339
00:13:35,845 --> 00:13:38,665
Those are the types of services that we focus a
lot more on now.
340
00:13:39,365 --> 00:13:43,285
In our first round of companies, we basically
had to take companies that were really
341
00:13:43,285 --> 00:13:46,500
profitable or had, like, they had something
that we really liked about them, but they
342
00:13:46,580 --> 00:13:49,220
almost none of them had really good revenue
retention.
343
00:13:49,220 --> 00:13:53,620
And so we spend a lot of time building that in
so that we can get that compounding.
344
00:13:53,620 --> 00:13:58,259
But we just wanna see that people keep buying
and that there are good gross margins as they
345
00:13:58,259 --> 00:13:59,174
continue to buy.
346
00:13:59,254 --> 00:14:02,534
And so then those are the businesses that we
can just knock out of the park because we know
347
00:14:02,534 --> 00:14:04,294
how to build acquisition out really well.
348
00:14:04,294 --> 00:14:05,894
We know how to build delivery out really well.
349
00:14:05,894 --> 00:14:09,575
The things that Leila and I are probably not
the best at is, like, we're not the best at,
350
00:14:09,575 --> 00:14:10,855
like, super techie stuff.
351
00:14:10,855 --> 00:14:16,259
Like, even though we have 40% of our portfolio
is software based, we heavily rely on the
352
00:14:16,259 --> 00:14:19,940
recruiting side of who we bring in, who is good
at that stuff, so that we can then just do all
353
00:14:19,940 --> 00:14:22,019
the business fundamentals to that model.
354
00:14:22,019 --> 00:14:25,379
And you're a big believer in demand constrained
business, not supply constrained business.
355
00:14:25,379 --> 00:14:28,679
If I want to put my brand behind something, I
want something that's demand constrained.
356
00:14:28,899 --> 00:14:32,285
If we're gonna work on something, then I prefer
the opposite.
357
00:14:32,285 --> 00:14:33,725
Yes, is the answer to the question.
358
00:14:33,725 --> 00:14:36,125
So on both those situations, we like demand
constrained.
359
00:14:36,125 --> 00:14:40,045
So either we can generate it or if it's
something that I have a huge amount of my
360
00:14:40,045 --> 00:14:42,445
audience that I could push towards, then that's
something that'd be interesting.
361
00:14:42,445 --> 00:14:44,659
So you're a big student of compounding.
362
00:14:45,039 --> 00:14:45,440
Yeah.
363
00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:46,639
You talk a lot about it.
364
00:14:46,639 --> 00:14:49,279
What skills have you compounded over your
career?
365
00:14:49,279 --> 00:14:51,519
And talk to me about why compounding is so
important.
366
00:14:51,519 --> 00:14:55,600
So I came from the gym business and probably
one of the simplest reoccurring models that
367
00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:56,240
people understand.
368
00:14:56,240 --> 00:14:59,205
A lot of people don't know about the gym
business, especially in the service based gym.
369
00:14:59,205 --> 00:15:02,004
So, like, personal training, semi private
training, large group, which is where I came
370
00:15:02,004 --> 00:15:02,245
from.
371
00:15:02,245 --> 00:15:05,445
That was my bread and butter, is that people
cancel all the time.
372
00:15:05,445 --> 00:15:09,764
Whereas, like, a $10 a month membership, it's
lower and it tends to be more like a facility
373
00:15:09,764 --> 00:15:12,165
usage business than it is actually like a
service business.
374
00:15:12,165 --> 00:15:14,690
I remember the first time I looked at churn and
saw that.
375
00:15:14,690 --> 00:15:15,330
I was like, okay.
376
00:15:15,330 --> 00:15:15,970
10% churn.
377
00:15:15,970 --> 00:15:16,690
That's the industry average.
378
00:15:16,690 --> 00:15:17,730
And then I just did it for a year.
379
00:15:17,730 --> 00:15:20,049
And I was like, oh, I lose 70% of my customers
every year.
380
00:15:20,049 --> 00:15:23,649
That means that basically every month I have
to, like, go hunt, and I never get credit for
381
00:15:23,649 --> 00:15:24,690
what I did 3 months ago.
382
00:15:24,690 --> 00:15:27,809
And so I wanted to have businesses where I
could get credit for the work that I did 5
383
00:15:27,809 --> 00:15:28,404
years ago.
384
00:15:28,404 --> 00:15:32,164
To ladder up to the first question you asked,
which was, you know, what what has been
385
00:15:32,164 --> 00:15:33,125
compounding in my life?
386
00:15:33,125 --> 00:15:35,524
The skills has been the biggest investment I've
made in my entire life.
387
00:15:35,524 --> 00:15:39,845
And so, you know, when I first started, I got
pretty good at sales.
388
00:15:39,845 --> 00:15:42,644
The I mean, I didn't know anything about it,
but I got pretty good at it just from taking
389
00:15:42,644 --> 00:15:44,899
4,001 walk consults in person.
390
00:15:44,899 --> 00:15:48,019
I learned enough about the other stuff to have
that just not be the limiter.
391
00:15:48,019 --> 00:15:50,179
So I learned how to run Facebook ads in 2013.
392
00:15:50,179 --> 00:15:53,139
I went to a workshop, and somebody taught me
how to do it, and that ended up completely
393
00:15:53,139 --> 00:15:53,699
changing my life.
394
00:15:53,699 --> 00:15:55,699
I mean, that's how I was able to fill all these
gyms up later.
395
00:15:55,699 --> 00:15:58,819
But then I didn't know how to do, like, more
advanced stuff, so then I paid somebody else to
396
00:15:58,819 --> 00:15:59,985
teach me the more advanced stuff.
397
00:16:00,144 --> 00:16:06,544
And so what I have noticed is that with each
kind of new set of skills that I acquire over
398
00:16:06,544 --> 00:16:11,105
time, it just makes the former skills that I
learned way more valuable.
399
00:16:11,105 --> 00:16:13,424
I like telling the story of Jay z as a simple
example.
400
00:16:13,424 --> 00:16:13,904
It's like, okay.
401
00:16:13,904 --> 00:16:16,379
So he had a natural proclivity towards, like,
beats and rhythm.
402
00:16:16,379 --> 00:16:16,860
Okay.
403
00:16:16,860 --> 00:16:18,460
Then he learns how to rap.
404
00:16:18,460 --> 00:16:18,700
Okay.
405
00:16:18,700 --> 00:16:21,200
Well, he's got some skill there, but then he
learned how to promote.
406
00:16:21,340 --> 00:16:23,600
So now that made his rapping skill more
valuable.
407
00:16:23,899 --> 00:16:29,420
And then he learned how to, sign other people
on or create a label and then he learned how to
408
00:16:29,420 --> 00:16:30,540
sign other people on and then promote them.
409
00:16:30,540 --> 00:16:33,945
And so all of a sudden he just gets more and
more leverage on the original skill set.
410
00:16:33,945 --> 00:16:38,504
He still needs to be able to recognize good
music from his original days, but learning how
411
00:16:38,504 --> 00:16:42,524
to promote on top of that just gave him huge
leverage and then doing it with other people
412
00:16:42,584 --> 00:16:43,384
more so.
413
00:16:43,384 --> 00:16:44,924
So just to deconstruct that,
414
00:16:45,065 --> 00:16:46,184
let's use Jay z.
415
00:16:46,184 --> 00:16:47,384
So he's good at beats.
416
00:16:47,384 --> 00:16:49,519
So let's say you want to acquire the skill of
rapping.
417
00:16:49,519 --> 00:16:49,920
How would
418
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:50,800
you go about that?
419
00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:54,240
How do you, a, identify the skills needed and,
b, acquire those skills?
420
00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:56,800
Well, I'll walk you through something that we
like to think about.
421
00:16:56,800 --> 00:16:58,500
Everything we do is off the theory of
constraints.
422
00:16:58,639 --> 00:17:00,720
We say, how do we do more of what's working?
423
00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:04,134
And we continue to do more of what's working
until something else gets in the way of us
424
00:17:04,134 --> 00:17:05,255
doing more of what's working.
425
00:17:05,255 --> 00:17:07,414
And then we ask the question, why can't we do
it?
426
00:17:07,414 --> 00:17:09,815
And the answer to that question is typically
the constraint.
427
00:17:09,815 --> 00:17:13,734
And then all of our resources will get deployed
towards relieving that constraint.
428
00:17:13,734 --> 00:17:16,954
And then we go back to doing as much of that
thing that made us money as possible.
429
00:17:17,015 --> 00:17:20,210
And if you don't know how to relieve that
constraint, that's your lack of skill, and then
430
00:17:20,210 --> 00:17:20,929
you gain that skill.
431
00:17:20,929 --> 00:17:22,450
Let's say you have to gain that skill.
432
00:17:22,450 --> 00:17:24,129
Let's say you have to become a promoter.
433
00:17:24,129 --> 00:17:24,369
How would
434
00:17:24,369 --> 00:17:24,929
you go about it?
435
00:17:24,929 --> 00:17:26,210
I'll do a microcosm of this.
436
00:17:26,210 --> 00:17:29,730
So the ads thing I was saying earlier, I didn't
know how to run national ad campaigns.
437
00:17:29,730 --> 00:17:32,450
So I knew how to run them locally, but then
when we wanted to scale gym launch, I was like,
438
00:17:32,450 --> 00:17:33,585
I gotta learn how to do this nationally.
439
00:17:33,585 --> 00:17:34,025
I have no idea.
440
00:17:34,025 --> 00:17:35,384
How do you target gym owners?
441
00:17:35,384 --> 00:17:42,744
And so I, got on the phone with, agency owners,
and, I didn't have a ton of money at the time.
442
00:17:42,744 --> 00:17:43,865
And so I just said, hey.
443
00:17:43,865 --> 00:17:46,984
Can you, run my ads but also show me what
you're doing?
444
00:17:46,984 --> 00:17:48,240
And they all said no.
445
00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:52,559
Until finally, I was like, on the 6th call, the
guy said no.
446
00:17:52,559 --> 00:17:55,059
And I was like, dude, it's America.
447
00:17:55,119 --> 00:17:56,559
Like, just name a price.
448
00:17:56,559 --> 00:17:57,279
Like, what would it take?
449
00:17:57,279 --> 00:17:58,740
And it's one of my favorite questions.
450
00:17:58,880 --> 00:17:59,200
Yeah.
451
00:17:59,200 --> 00:17:59,839
I was like, woah.
452
00:17:59,839 --> 00:18:00,494
That's a good line.
453
00:18:00,575 --> 00:18:00,734
Yeah.
454
00:18:00,734 --> 00:18:01,375
What would it take?
455
00:18:01,375 --> 00:18:02,734
I use that line all the time.
456
00:18:02,734 --> 00:18:03,934
Like, what would it take to get a deal done?
457
00:18:03,934 --> 00:18:07,295
What would it take for us to do 5 YouTube
videos a week that are 10 out of 10 quality?
458
00:18:07,295 --> 00:18:09,454
And then we can just decide the trade off if
it's worth it.
459
00:18:09,454 --> 00:18:14,174
That particular agency owner said, I don't sell
my time, but I would do it for 7:15 an hour.
460
00:18:14,174 --> 00:18:15,240
And I was like, okay.
461
00:18:15,319 --> 00:18:21,079
And so I bought 8 hours from him for 6 grand
and I showed up to every call with like notes
462
00:18:21,079 --> 00:18:23,480
and recordings that I need I needed to learn
how to do this.
463
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:25,799
We go document, demonstrate, duplicate.
464
00:18:25,799 --> 00:18:27,960
So I have to figure out the checklist of all
the things they do.
465
00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:28,859
What are the behaviors?
466
00:18:29,305 --> 00:18:32,845
And then, you do it in front of me and then I
do it in front of you.
467
00:18:32,904 --> 00:18:36,025
And then as long as I can duplicate, then I
have the skill now.
468
00:18:36,025 --> 00:18:40,904
I learned this from Layla was when we wanna
learn a new skill, we also interview people for
469
00:18:40,904 --> 00:18:41,644
the skill.
470
00:18:41,980 --> 00:18:43,980
Usually it's a company that has a void.
471
00:18:43,980 --> 00:18:49,019
We'll get on the phone with 10 or 20 people
with the intention obviously of hiring, you
472
00:18:49,019 --> 00:18:50,139
know, somebody who's really good.
473
00:18:50,139 --> 00:18:55,214
But if you talk to 10 or 20 people that are all
like senior director of customer success, You
474
00:18:55,214 --> 00:18:59,934
say, hey, walk me through some of the metrics
that you track for this.
475
00:18:59,934 --> 00:19:01,294
And then how do you move these metrics?
476
00:19:01,294 --> 00:19:03,054
So what activities do you do to change them?
477
00:19:03,054 --> 00:19:06,654
My belief is that you can tell someone's skill
by the quantity and quality of metrics they
478
00:19:06,654 --> 00:19:06,894
track.
479
00:19:06,894 --> 00:19:09,329
Easier thing is sales because most people who
are listening get what that is.
480
00:19:09,329 --> 00:19:14,130
If I talk to a sales director and I say, first
off, how do you make this company more money?
481
00:19:14,130 --> 00:19:16,450
Now, if they say something like, well, I'm
going to increase sales, it's like, no, but
482
00:19:16,450 --> 00:19:17,829
you're not going to be on the phone.
483
00:19:17,890 --> 00:19:19,910
So how do you increase sales?
484
00:19:20,049 --> 00:19:23,404
And so then it's like you start to put a little
bit of pressure and then because if they can't
485
00:19:23,404 --> 00:19:27,085
tie the activities that they do to revenue
generation on the interview, then for sure
486
00:19:27,085 --> 00:19:28,605
they're not going to do any work for you.
487
00:19:28,605 --> 00:19:29,005
Yeah.
488
00:19:29,325 --> 00:19:31,804
And some guys like, oh, you know, I'm just
going to I'm going to rile up the team and I'm
489
00:19:31,804 --> 00:19:32,765
going to, you know, get them excited.
490
00:19:32,765 --> 00:19:33,904
We're going to do some training.
491
00:19:34,044 --> 00:19:35,644
That's not going to be a good sales manager.
492
00:19:35,644 --> 00:19:36,144
Right?
493
00:19:36,380 --> 00:19:39,820
If someone says, well, I'm going to look at,
you know, the offer percentage that we have and
494
00:19:39,820 --> 00:19:41,580
look at our scheduling rates and look at our
show rates.
495
00:19:41,580 --> 00:19:43,180
If show rates are low, I'm going to do this.
496
00:19:43,180 --> 00:19:46,059
If off rates are low, we're going to look at
marketing, make sure the messaging's right.
497
00:19:46,059 --> 00:19:49,259
If we're struggling with whatever, a specific
obstacle, then what I'm going to do is I'm just
498
00:19:49,259 --> 00:19:50,700
going to isolate that obstacle and then we're
going to drill it.
499
00:19:50,700 --> 00:19:53,555
I'm going to look at that particular rep's
closing percentage and make sure that it gets
500
00:19:53,555 --> 00:19:54,035
up to KP.
501
00:19:54,035 --> 00:19:58,275
If he starts breaking down all of these pieces,
then I'm like, okay, not only is he tracking
502
00:19:58,275 --> 00:20:00,055
the metrics, but he knows how to affect them.
503
00:20:00,195 --> 00:20:05,130
And so then also when I talk to 4 other guys
and I get onto the 4th call, that first guy
504
00:20:05,130 --> 00:20:06,650
might have said something that I didn't know
about.
505
00:20:06,650 --> 00:20:09,630
But when I go to the 4th call, I'm like, So
what do you think about this?
506
00:20:09,930 --> 00:20:11,230
And then how they responded.
507
00:20:11,369 --> 00:20:11,609
Right.
508
00:20:11,609 --> 00:20:12,570
I get better and better at it.
509
00:20:12,570 --> 00:20:14,570
And so then I start to know what to look for.
510
00:20:14,570 --> 00:20:17,450
And then if I still have no idea, then that's
when I'll pay somebody.
511
00:20:17,450 --> 00:20:20,154
I mean, I'm still the biggest fan of 1 on 1
tutoring.
512
00:20:20,154 --> 00:20:23,035
It's like out of vogue now, but I'll pay
anybody to learn something.
513
00:20:23,035 --> 00:20:24,955
I offered someone $350,000 for dinner.
514
00:20:24,955 --> 00:20:25,355
He said, no.
515
00:20:25,355 --> 00:20:26,075
I offered 250.
516
00:20:26,075 --> 00:20:26,955
And then we offered 350.
517
00:20:26,955 --> 00:20:27,515
He's like, fine.
518
00:20:27,515 --> 00:20:28,315
He didn't even take the money.
519
00:20:28,315 --> 00:20:31,434
He's like, I'll just meet you for dinner now
because you're so desperate.
520
00:20:31,434 --> 00:20:35,240
But I wanted to understand branding because I
it was it was this thing that I I realized that
521
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:36,059
I didn't understand.
522
00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:39,400
So in gym launch, it was very much an arbitrage
business, like a media arbitrage business.
523
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:40,839
And so everything was quant based.
524
00:20:40,839 --> 00:20:42,559
And that was kinda like how it was all all I
cared about.
525
00:20:42,559 --> 00:20:44,039
It was just like, what are CTRs?
526
00:20:44,039 --> 00:20:44,839
What are CPMs?
527
00:20:44,839 --> 00:20:45,734
What's our cost per lead?
528
00:20:45,734 --> 00:20:46,615
You know, what what schedule?
529
00:20:46,615 --> 00:20:47,255
What show?
530
00:20:47,255 --> 00:20:47,894
What's close rate?
531
00:20:47,894 --> 00:20:48,855
And that's all I cared about.
532
00:20:48,855 --> 00:20:51,575
I was just blowing as much money through that
that that funnel as possible.
533
00:20:51,575 --> 00:20:54,535
The moment that changed my life around this,
and this is ultimately the the beginning of my
534
00:20:54,535 --> 00:20:58,394
path down to building a personal brand, was
this is gonna sound embarrassing.
535
00:20:58,535 --> 00:20:59,414
It's very embarrassing.
536
00:20:59,414 --> 00:21:03,549
I saw Kylie Jenner on the cover of Forbes, and
I think she was 19 or 20.
537
00:21:03,549 --> 00:21:07,069
And I think I was 27 at the time, and I thought
I was hot shit because I was like, I'm taking a
538
00:21:07,069 --> 00:21:08,509
1000000 and a half a month, like, personally.
539
00:21:08,509 --> 00:21:09,630
And it said she was a billionaire.
540
00:21:09,630 --> 00:21:10,990
And I was like, she's a girl.
541
00:21:10,990 --> 00:21:12,029
She's 7 years younger than me.
542
00:21:12,029 --> 00:21:13,390
And because at the time, I was still young.
543
00:21:13,390 --> 00:21:14,384
Now I'm just a white dude.
544
00:21:14,384 --> 00:21:16,384
But, like, before this, I was at least a young
white dude.
545
00:21:16,384 --> 00:21:16,884
Yeah.
546
00:21:17,105 --> 00:21:20,945
And so when I saw that, I have this fundamental
belief that if someone makes more money than
547
00:21:20,945 --> 00:21:23,505
you, then they know something about business
that you don't know, and then they're better
548
00:21:23,505 --> 00:21:24,224
than you in some way.
549
00:21:24,224 --> 00:21:25,664
And so you have to figure out what it is.
550
00:21:25,664 --> 00:21:26,704
And so I looked at everything.
551
00:21:26,704 --> 00:21:28,464
I was like, I gotta figure out this brand
stuff.
552
00:21:28,464 --> 00:21:29,500
Like, it's it's the brand.
553
00:21:29,500 --> 00:21:30,380
I don't have a brand.
554
00:21:30,380 --> 00:21:33,599
And so then I went through this long process,
like, do I wanna be known publicly?
555
00:21:33,740 --> 00:21:38,460
Fame has pros and cons, and at this point in my
life, it has more pros than cons.
556
00:21:38,460 --> 00:21:41,660
Thing is is that the pros of fame, there were
some pros that I didn't expect.
557
00:21:41,660 --> 00:21:43,335
The biggest one is recruiting.
558
00:21:43,634 --> 00:21:47,795
Our ability to attract talent now is
unparalleled, and that has probably driven more
559
00:21:47,795 --> 00:21:49,555
alpha from the investment than anything.
560
00:21:49,555 --> 00:21:53,715
The companies we started investing in, there is
no way that some of the top talent that we put
561
00:21:53,715 --> 00:21:57,315
in those companies would have even taken a call
with those companies, but we recruit from
562
00:21:57,315 --> 00:21:57,795
Holdco.
563
00:21:57,795 --> 00:22:00,109
They see a private equity firm slash family
office.
564
00:22:00,330 --> 00:22:02,970
They can look at a whole bunch of our content
and be like, These people seem okay.
565
00:22:02,970 --> 00:22:03,690
They don't want to work
566
00:22:03,690 --> 00:22:07,369
at a $10,000,000 revenue business, but if it's
part of a family office where you could grow
567
00:22:07,369 --> 00:22:07,690
and
568
00:22:07,690 --> 00:22:08,650
grow your skill set, that's a Yeah.
569
00:22:08,650 --> 00:22:10,170
And if you prove yourself, we can move you
over.
570
00:22:10,170 --> 00:22:12,570
And if you want to be in a different industry,
we've got different industries.
571
00:22:12,570 --> 00:22:17,585
And if you crush it, then you can come up to
Holdco and then basically act as an advisor for
572
00:22:17,585 --> 00:22:19,265
all of those roles across the portfolio.
573
00:22:19,265 --> 00:22:24,225
And so, like, our director of CS directs all
the directors of CS in all the portfolio
574
00:22:24,225 --> 00:22:24,545
companies.
575
00:22:24,545 --> 00:22:28,305
Our director of sales directs and recruits the
sales directors for all the portfolio
576
00:22:28,305 --> 00:22:28,625
companies.
577
00:22:28,625 --> 00:22:33,900
Now, what this does is it gives us a huge
amount of leverage and kind of like inside man
578
00:22:34,039 --> 00:22:34,920
for all the companies.
579
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,160
And so because we recruit some of the leaders,
they have a good relationship with us.
580
00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:40,840
So we're not like this the board.
581
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:41,575
You know what I mean?
582
00:22:41,575 --> 00:22:42,055
They're like, oh, no.
583
00:22:42,055 --> 00:22:44,215
It's Alex and Leila, and they're the they're
the ones who brought me in.
584
00:22:44,215 --> 00:22:47,735
My first three interviews were with
acquisition.com, and then they put me into this
585
00:22:47,735 --> 00:22:49,275
business as my last two interviews.
586
00:22:49,414 --> 00:22:53,015
And so that's more or less the process that
that we run-in order to place talent.
587
00:22:53,015 --> 00:22:58,390
So that's been a huge that's been probably the
biggest unforeseen benefit from fame has been
588
00:22:58,390 --> 00:22:59,690
our ability to recruit talent.
589
00:23:00,309 --> 00:23:03,349
Obviously, the deal flow stuff is I mean,
that's the the obvious benefit.
590
00:23:03,349 --> 00:23:04,789
Those are probably the 2 biggest ones.
591
00:23:04,789 --> 00:23:05,669
Access to people.
592
00:23:05,669 --> 00:23:07,875
To be candid with you, I don't reach out to
many people.
593
00:23:07,954 --> 00:23:08,275
Why?
594
00:23:08,275 --> 00:23:10,275
Take this the way I mean it to everyone who's
listening.
595
00:23:10,275 --> 00:23:11,714
I'm pretty sure I know what I need to do.
596
00:23:11,714 --> 00:23:15,555
What activities I need to do in order to hit
the goals that we have the next 12 to 24
597
00:23:15,555 --> 00:23:16,035
months.
598
00:23:16,035 --> 00:23:16,855
It is straightforward.
599
00:23:16,994 --> 00:23:19,795
And so the only thing that separates me from
that is doing it.
600
00:23:19,795 --> 00:23:21,830
And so I concept of efficiency versus
effectiveness.
601
00:23:21,830 --> 00:23:22,115
Yeah.
602
00:23:22,115 --> 00:23:22,687
And you're
603
00:23:22,687 --> 00:23:23,544
clearly very efficient.
604
00:23:23,544 --> 00:23:24,755
How do you know that you're effective?
605
00:23:24,755 --> 00:23:25,681
How do you have such certainty
606
00:23:25,681 --> 00:23:25,990
around that?
607
00:23:25,990 --> 00:23:29,369
The outcomes that we've generated so far, you
know, in December of 2016, I had $1,000.
608
00:23:34,144 --> 00:23:35,585
We have a lot more than a $1,000 now.
609
00:23:35,585 --> 00:23:36,224
How much of your success
610
00:23:36,224 --> 00:23:39,605
is based on thousands of hours of hard work
versus high IQ?
611
00:23:39,664 --> 00:23:40,704
You deconstruct everything
612
00:23:40,704 --> 00:23:44,384
on a skill set basis, but isn't there a minimum
IQ that you need to be successful in business?
613
00:23:44,384 --> 00:23:46,944
I think it depends on the business, and it
depends on the timeline.
614
00:23:46,944 --> 00:23:50,809
I've seen all manners of business owners walk
through our doors here at acquisitions.com.
615
00:23:51,109 --> 00:23:55,349
I've seen some guys with janitorial businesses,
and 40, $50,000,000 a year, and I wouldn't say
616
00:23:55,349 --> 00:23:56,869
that they were super high IQ.
617
00:23:56,869 --> 00:23:59,029
They just stuck with it for 20 years.
618
00:23:59,029 --> 00:24:03,130
I think the the narrower the field of focus,
the lower the IQ requirement.
619
00:24:03,190 --> 00:24:08,924
Because fundamentally, if you have a sound
original model and you continue to try on a
620
00:24:08,924 --> 00:24:12,765
long enough time horizon, eventually you try
something and it does work, and then that gives
621
00:24:12,765 --> 00:24:15,805
you the next, you know, peg, you know, up on
the on the ladder.
622
00:24:15,805 --> 00:24:17,769
And I think where a lot of entrepreneurs get in
trouble is that they try too many things.
623
00:24:17,769 --> 00:24:19,315
So you just don't get enough failures in a
narrow enough
624
00:24:19,315 --> 00:24:19,478
scope so that you can move forward.
625
00:24:19,478 --> 00:24:19,850
I've been really thinking about this paradigm
of transactional versus
626
00:24:19,850 --> 00:24:20,410
relational businesses.
627
00:24:20,410 --> 00:24:22,890
I'm very much a straight shooter.
628
00:24:22,890 --> 00:24:23,529
And sometimes people are put
629
00:24:23,529 --> 00:24:34,105
off by that, by the transaction nature, but
it's meant to be an honest trade.
630
00:24:34,105 --> 00:24:36,505
And sometimes, historically, I would feel bad
about that.
631
00:24:36,505 --> 00:24:40,345
And then I noticed an interesting thing that
anytime that somebody pushes back on that and
632
00:24:40,345 --> 00:24:42,045
says, I'm like I'm not transactional.
633
00:24:42,424 --> 00:24:43,465
They have never executed.
634
00:24:43,465 --> 00:24:44,605
Not a single time.
635
00:24:44,664 --> 00:24:48,609
Somebody that pushes back on this construct, on
this kind of, like, explicit exchange, have
636
00:24:48,609 --> 00:24:49,670
they actually executed?
637
00:24:49,730 --> 00:24:52,289
So it makes me feel a little bit more confident
in that.
638
00:24:52,289 --> 00:24:55,269
I think that great relationships are built on
great transactions.
639
00:24:55,410 --> 00:24:56,690
What what do you think about this?
640
00:24:56,690 --> 00:24:59,970
So I'm glad that this is where we went because
that's wholeheartedly agree.
641
00:24:59,970 --> 00:25:02,144
I mean, Leila and I have an explicit agreement
of our exchange.
642
00:25:02,144 --> 00:25:05,105
We we visit that agreement if we feel like one
of us is out of exchange with the other or
643
00:25:05,105 --> 00:25:06,465
we're not meeting the other person's needs.
644
00:25:06,465 --> 00:25:10,305
But I genuinely believe everything is
transactional, and there's just people who
645
00:25:10,305 --> 00:25:11,984
realize it or admit it and people who don't.
646
00:25:11,984 --> 00:25:14,945
Fundamentally, if you are not rewarded for a
relationship on a long enough time horizon, you
647
00:25:14,945 --> 00:25:15,424
will leave it.
648
00:25:15,424 --> 00:25:16,950
I think there's two aspects there.
649
00:25:16,950 --> 00:25:21,269
One is the transactional aspect is only
highlighted when it's really out of sync.
650
00:25:21,269 --> 00:25:26,069
So, for example, if if we have a relationship,
you know, I make you a $100,000,000, you make
651
00:25:26,069 --> 00:25:26,650
me $200,000,000.
652
00:25:27,029 --> 00:25:28,095
I don't think that's a problem.
653
00:25:28,255 --> 00:25:28,494
Yeah.
654
00:25:28,494 --> 00:25:30,255
I think we're gonna be best friends.
655
00:25:30,255 --> 00:25:30,654
Yeah.
656
00:25:30,654 --> 00:25:35,855
I think but over enough of a time, if it's so
lopsided, then people naturally kind of go to,
657
00:25:35,855 --> 00:25:36,174
like, hey.
658
00:25:36,174 --> 00:25:39,775
There needs to be more transactionalizing for
for me or more benefit for me.
659
00:25:39,775 --> 00:25:41,829
That's where it really gets off sync with these
extremes.
660
00:25:41,829 --> 00:25:43,109
And you look at partnerships too.
661
00:25:43,109 --> 00:25:45,049
You look at co founders, they're 5050.
662
00:25:45,190 --> 00:25:49,109
I don't think if somebody's doing 55, 45, I
don't think there's I've never seen a problem.
663
00:25:49,109 --> 00:25:50,630
It's when it becomes, like, 90, 10.
664
00:25:50,630 --> 00:25:53,589
The other person tries to kind of guilt the
other person saying like, well, I thought we
665
00:25:53,589 --> 00:25:54,149
were co founders.
666
00:25:54,149 --> 00:25:55,450
I thought we started this together.
667
00:25:55,644 --> 00:25:55,884
Yeah.
668
00:25:55,924 --> 00:25:58,924
But I I think you need a pretty wide disparity
before it becomes an issue.
669
00:25:58,924 --> 00:26:02,365
Something I learned from Leila that helped me
out a lot in the earlier years is she said
670
00:26:02,365 --> 00:26:03,644
never count anybody else's money.
671
00:26:03,644 --> 00:26:07,500
That's proven so profitable for me to just say,
what do I have available to me?
672
00:26:07,900 --> 00:26:10,140
And does this does this deal make sense for me?
673
00:26:10,140 --> 00:26:16,960
If this guy makes 20,000,000,000 on this deal,
but the economics based on my side work, fine.
674
00:26:17,500 --> 00:26:21,734
And comparing those economics to the similar
amount of activities or effort that I have to
675
00:26:21,734 --> 00:26:23,734
put in all the other vehicles that I could
consider.
676
00:26:23,734 --> 00:26:27,414
If I get the best return on this thing, then
I'm good with it.
677
00:26:27,414 --> 00:26:32,775
And so I've I've had this, construct for value
creation, which has been well, rather value
678
00:26:32,775 --> 00:26:38,309
capturing, which is there's the the value that
you add, which is thing 1, your ability to
679
00:26:38,309 --> 00:26:42,009
negotiate that against that value, how much of
that can you capture.
680
00:26:42,549 --> 00:26:46,069
3rd vector is how many other people can do it,
that thing.
681
00:26:46,069 --> 00:26:48,045
And then 4th is what's the risk you take on.
682
00:26:48,525 --> 00:26:54,045
And I think that with those four elements, you
can usually look at most deals and kind of know
683
00:26:54,045 --> 00:26:55,965
the major levers that are at play.
684
00:26:55,965 --> 00:26:56,924
So walk me through one
685
00:26:56,924 --> 00:26:59,424
of your private equity deals using that
framework.
686
00:26:59,484 --> 00:27:05,289
If I bring brand to a deal, then that's gonna
be a huge amount of value.
687
00:27:05,349 --> 00:27:09,190
The ability that I have to negotiate to capture
as much of that value as possible is predicated
688
00:27:09,190 --> 00:27:13,269
on the idea that I have many other deals that I
could do as well that are lined up behind this
689
00:27:13,269 --> 00:27:13,750
other person.
690
00:27:13,750 --> 00:27:15,109
And your negotiation skill set.
691
00:27:15,109 --> 00:27:18,565
I still believe that all negotiation happens
before you sit sit down at the table.
692
00:27:18,884 --> 00:27:19,605
The big stuff.
693
00:27:19,605 --> 00:27:21,924
It's fundamentally supply, demand.
694
00:27:21,924 --> 00:27:23,284
I just have always seen it that way.
695
00:27:23,284 --> 00:27:27,365
So it's like, if I wanna have crazy terms to
get into a relationship with a girl, for
696
00:27:27,365 --> 00:27:31,019
example, if I have no demand for me, it's gonna
be very hard for me to get my terms.
697
00:27:31,019 --> 00:27:34,779
If I have a line out the door, I can ask a 100
people, and one of them will say yes to my
698
00:27:34,779 --> 00:27:35,259
terms.
699
00:27:35,259 --> 00:27:35,580
Right?
700
00:27:35,580 --> 00:27:37,519
So one is what's the value that I bring?
701
00:27:37,660 --> 00:27:41,039
2 is what are my skills at negotiating,
capturing as much of that value as possible?
702
00:27:41,180 --> 00:27:45,295
3 and this also hints out supply demand, which
is how many other people are available who can
703
00:27:45,295 --> 00:27:46,015
do that same thing.
704
00:27:46,015 --> 00:27:47,695
This is like a common one with, like, a sales
guy.
705
00:27:47,695 --> 00:27:47,934
Right?
706
00:27:47,934 --> 00:27:48,494
So it's like, okay.
707
00:27:48,494 --> 00:27:50,894
Well, I'm I brought in 3,000,000 this year for
the business.
708
00:27:50,894 --> 00:27:51,455
It's like, okay.
709
00:27:51,455 --> 00:27:53,455
Well, your ability to negotiate the value,
fine.
710
00:27:53,455 --> 00:27:56,184
You might be good at sales and be able to, you
know, go back and forth.
711
00:27:56,184 --> 00:27:57,259
But selling Candida Baby.
712
00:27:57,259 --> 00:27:57,885
You were selling something very, very
attractive.
713
00:27:57,885 --> 00:27:57,961
Right.
714
00:27:57,961 --> 00:27:58,725
And then finally, it's what's the risk that's
taken on.
715
00:27:58,725 --> 00:27:58,954
And that's actually
716
00:27:58,954 --> 00:28:01,279
the the most recent one, which sounds silly on
an investor podcast to bring that
717
00:28:09,224 --> 00:28:09,304
up.
718
00:28:09,304 --> 00:28:12,664
But we were talking to a high level employee
that we wanted to bring in, and he was like,
719
00:28:12,664 --> 00:28:16,345
hey, I would like shares of the business
upfront because I'm going to be foregoing this
720
00:28:16,345 --> 00:28:16,825
other stuff.
721
00:28:16,825 --> 00:28:21,304
Basically, the TLDR was you want to be
compensated as a business owner without taking
722
00:28:21,304 --> 00:28:22,259
on the risk of a business.
723
00:28:22,420 --> 00:28:25,940
Unless you're willing to put the same amount of
skin in the game as I am or a business owner
724
00:28:25,940 --> 00:28:26,740
would in your position.
725
00:28:26,740 --> 00:28:27,539
When you started.
726
00:28:27,539 --> 00:28:27,859
Yeah.
727
00:28:27,859 --> 00:28:28,180
Exactly.
728
00:28:28,180 --> 00:28:29,079
7 years ago.
729
00:28:29,140 --> 00:28:29,380
Right.
730
00:28:29,380 --> 00:28:29,859
Well, yeah.
731
00:28:29,859 --> 00:28:31,299
Then that's that's not appropriate.
732
00:28:31,299 --> 00:28:34,500
So from your perspective, it should be about
their opportunity cost to one of your
733
00:28:34,500 --> 00:28:37,759
competitors, and you don't have to offer much
more just because they're they're
734
00:28:37,944 --> 00:28:39,791
I want people to be happy, to be very clear.
735
00:28:39,791 --> 00:28:40,715
Like, what would it take?
736
00:28:40,715 --> 00:28:42,932
It still is always one of my one of my favorite
questions.
737
00:28:42,932 --> 00:28:46,626
If if I have somebody who's one of 1 who can
create a ton of value, then the supply demand
738
00:28:46,626 --> 00:28:47,365
shifts in their favor.
739
00:28:47,365 --> 00:28:50,875
You've taught me, by the way, about a players,
not, like, giving them what they want at the
740
00:28:50,875 --> 00:28:51,059
margins.
741
00:28:51,140 --> 00:28:53,380
Don't be cheap with a players even though they
negotiate hard.
742
00:28:53,380 --> 00:28:55,240
I've learned so much from Leila about business.
743
00:28:55,539 --> 00:28:58,600
She was really the one who's pushed me to be
like, let's pay above market.
744
00:28:58,740 --> 00:29:00,100
And I was like, why pay above market?
745
00:29:00,100 --> 00:29:00,920
Let's pay market.
746
00:29:01,140 --> 00:29:01,380
Yeah.
747
00:29:01,380 --> 00:29:02,420
Like, why pay above market?
748
00:29:02,420 --> 00:29:03,674
Because you get so much more.
749
00:29:03,755 --> 00:29:07,295
So on one level, you'll be able to attract the
a players if you're paying above market.
750
00:29:07,355 --> 00:29:11,515
But I think that once the person comes in the
door, all of their behavior is gonna be
751
00:29:11,515 --> 00:29:14,075
predicated on the the reinforcement loops that
you have within the business.
752
00:29:14,075 --> 00:29:17,055
And so I I think that it's the ticket of entry.
753
00:29:18,349 --> 00:29:21,869
But all their performance is gonna be based on
how well they are managed and led and their
754
00:29:21,869 --> 00:29:22,929
opportunities for growth.
755
00:29:23,230 --> 00:29:26,109
And honestly, just, like, how much they sync
within the culture of the business based on how
756
00:29:26,109 --> 00:29:26,829
we do things.
757
00:29:26,829 --> 00:29:29,470
And if they're rewarded frequently for doing
things the way we want them to be done that
758
00:29:29,470 --> 00:29:32,484
make us the most money, then they're gonna be
they're gonna really like working here.
759
00:29:32,484 --> 00:29:37,045
And then that will ultimately, like, the big,
Vegas headlights for a plus talent is unlocking
760
00:29:37,045 --> 00:29:38,025
discretionary effort.
761
00:29:38,164 --> 00:29:40,565
I want someone's shower time, and I'm open
about that.
762
00:29:40,565 --> 00:29:45,059
If someone works based on threat of punishment,
which is that you lose your job, right, then
763
00:29:45,119 --> 00:29:48,480
you will get as much effort as required to not
lose your job.
764
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,720
For the most skilled people, that requires the
least effort for them to do as little as
765
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:56,240
required to keep their job, and those are the
people that you lose the most alpha on in terms
766
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:58,720
of how much they could add if they really
tried.
767
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:02,625
I mean, if you wanted to zoom all the way out,
like Layla and I's purpose of of all of this
768
00:30:02,625 --> 00:30:08,384
stuff is to show that having a way of running a
company that is off a praise not punishment is
769
00:30:08,384 --> 00:30:12,789
a more profitable way to run a business, and
people don't hate you.
770
00:30:12,789 --> 00:30:16,069
But no one's gonna believe us until we have
multiple billions and then people will then
771
00:30:16,069 --> 00:30:18,009
ask, but that is our entire thesis.
772
00:30:18,069 --> 00:30:18,789
Daniel's here.
773
00:30:18,789 --> 00:30:19,829
He'll he'll vouch for it.
774
00:30:19,829 --> 00:30:24,765
And the unlocking discretionary effort, is that
only captured through equity?
775
00:30:24,765 --> 00:30:26,365
Could that be captured through salary?
776
00:30:26,365 --> 00:30:26,765
And how do you
777
00:30:26,924 --> 00:30:27,164
Oh, yeah.
778
00:30:27,164 --> 00:30:27,325
Yeah.
779
00:30:27,325 --> 00:30:27,565
No.
780
00:30:27,565 --> 00:30:28,684
It doesn't have to be equity at all.
781
00:30:28,684 --> 00:30:29,964
I think it's just how you treat people.
782
00:30:29,964 --> 00:30:32,044
And whether they're rewarded for going above
and beyond.
783
00:30:32,044 --> 00:30:34,845
And I think reward cycles are way too latent in
most people's business.
784
00:30:34,845 --> 00:30:35,505
An arbitrary.
785
00:30:35,659 --> 00:30:35,980
Yeah.
786
00:30:35,980 --> 00:30:37,579
Well, latent in terms of, like, delayed.
787
00:30:37,579 --> 00:30:40,079
If someone does something, we want a reward in
minutes.
788
00:30:40,299 --> 00:30:43,339
A paycheck is so hard to attribute a behavior
that you did.
789
00:30:43,339 --> 00:30:47,179
My closest friend, doctor Kashi, is, like, a
behavioral scientist, you know, genius guy.
790
00:30:47,179 --> 00:30:50,095
He showed me this chart, and it, like, it
changed the way I saw everything.
791
00:30:50,095 --> 00:30:52,174
He said, this is a chart of how to train a dog
how to sit.
792
00:30:52,174 --> 00:30:56,494
On one vector it had, yeah, a number of
attempts to until they learn the trick and how
793
00:30:56,494 --> 00:31:00,355
delayed the trainer was before they gave them a
treat when they sat.
794
00:31:00,894 --> 00:31:05,430
And so if you gave the dog the treat
immediately, it took a couple of times and they
795
00:31:05,430 --> 00:31:07,750
learned how to sit because we reward them
immediately after they did.
796
00:31:07,750 --> 00:31:09,529
So they could they could tie the 2 together.
797
00:31:09,830 --> 00:31:12,549
If you waited 5 seconds, it would be like 20
tries.
798
00:31:12,549 --> 00:31:15,930
If you waited 45 seconds, it was a gazillion
tries.
799
00:31:16,150 --> 00:31:18,410
After a minute, the dog was untrainable.
800
00:31:19,244 --> 00:31:20,785
It would never learn how to sit.
801
00:31:20,845 --> 00:31:24,765
Now what where it gets, like, the 201 version
of this is, but that you still continue to give
802
00:31:24,765 --> 00:31:26,204
them a treat, which means you were training
them.
803
00:31:26,204 --> 00:31:28,204
You were just training to do some them to do
something else.
804
00:31:28,204 --> 00:31:32,285
And so I think about this a lot within the
context of compensation systems, but comp with,
805
00:31:32,285 --> 00:31:36,549
you know, Paychex is at such a delay that it's
a very effective way of getting someone to join
806
00:31:36,549 --> 00:31:39,349
your company and a very terrible way of getting
them to work as hard as they can.
807
00:31:39,349 --> 00:31:43,049
Without us sounding like psychopaths, do you
believe in operant conditioning?
808
00:31:43,109 --> 00:31:45,750
So somebody does something, you give them bonus
on Friday?
809
00:31:45,750 --> 00:31:46,409
A 100%.
810
00:31:46,470 --> 00:31:48,549
And do you think there's any exceptions to
operant condition?
811
00:31:48,549 --> 00:31:48,789
I don't
812
00:31:48,789 --> 00:31:49,815
even believe in free will.
813
00:31:49,815 --> 00:31:50,454
Tell me more.
814
00:31:50,454 --> 00:31:53,654
Well, we behave in ways that we have been
rewarded for in the past.
815
00:31:53,654 --> 00:31:56,454
If you can control all the variables, you can
control someone's behavior.
816
00:31:56,454 --> 00:31:59,894
Now that sounds like psychopath stuff, but I
don't see it that way.
817
00:31:59,894 --> 00:32:01,414
I just see it as more of a statement of fact.
818
00:32:01,414 --> 00:32:04,534
If I wanted everyone in here to take all of
their clothes off, I could guarantee that I
819
00:32:04,534 --> 00:32:04,980
could do it.
820
00:32:05,779 --> 00:32:07,753
I would just raise the temperature of this room
into a point, and we just stay in here until
821
00:32:07,886 --> 00:32:10,579
I'd lock the doors and erase the temperature,
and then eventually all of us would take our
822
00:32:10,579 --> 00:32:11,140
clothes off.
823
00:32:11,140 --> 00:32:15,619
And so if I can change the conditions to get a
behavior, then did that person have free will?
824
00:32:15,619 --> 00:32:19,105
And so BF Skinner is one of the, you know, the
the forefathers of this behavioral.
825
00:32:19,105 --> 00:32:22,625
He has this quote that I just love, and it'll
be at the beginning of one of my books.
826
00:32:22,625 --> 00:32:26,224
But everyone says that you can lead a horse to
water, but you can't make it drink.
827
00:32:26,224 --> 00:32:27,365
He said, false.
828
00:32:27,505 --> 00:32:31,740
He said, if I salted the horse's mouth and I
dehydrated the horse for weeks and then I put
829
00:32:31,740 --> 00:32:34,779
its mouth right in front of water, I can
variably guarantee that it will drink.
830
00:32:34,779 --> 00:32:38,460
When I think about, like, sales processes for
that reason is that there is a perfect sales
831
00:32:38,460 --> 00:32:38,859
process.
832
00:32:38,859 --> 00:32:42,700
There is a way that we can get it so that we
can control all of the variables and every
833
00:32:42,700 --> 00:32:43,740
single person would buy.
834
00:32:43,740 --> 00:32:47,684
Now it may not be worth the return on
investment, which is a separate question, to
835
00:32:47,684 --> 00:32:50,244
create that, and then you have the trade offs
that you have within a business.
836
00:32:50,244 --> 00:32:52,724
But the same things exist when you're when
you're when you're hiring someone.
837
00:32:52,724 --> 00:32:55,204
So, like, if I know we're getting into a little
bit of the the ops side of business.
838
00:32:55,204 --> 00:32:56,904
It's hard for me to to to stay away.
839
00:32:56,964 --> 00:33:01,369
But there's this whole concept of, you know,
hire for attitude and train for aptitude, and
840
00:33:01,369 --> 00:33:02,490
you've heard plenty of these things.
841
00:33:02,490 --> 00:33:02,890
Right?
842
00:33:02,890 --> 00:33:04,909
You hire for the smallest skill deficiency.
843
00:33:05,529 --> 00:33:06,029
Period.
844
00:33:06,250 --> 00:33:10,089
It's just that attitude has bundled terms in
terms of language.
845
00:33:10,089 --> 00:33:15,130
And so if I say I want someone who has
charisma, charisma, if I say be charismatic to
846
00:33:15,130 --> 00:33:19,554
a child, even if they understand what the word
means, they can't be charismatic.
847
00:33:19,694 --> 00:33:23,855
They have to then translate that into smile
when you walk into a room, nod your head when
848
00:33:23,855 --> 00:33:25,634
someone's listening, speak louder.
849
00:33:25,934 --> 00:33:28,414
When someone says something, say it back to
them.
850
00:33:28,414 --> 00:33:33,320
You know, it's a bundled term for 30 sets of
behaviors, and then those behaviors are
851
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:33,820
trainable.
852
00:33:34,119 --> 00:33:39,960
Now I believe in the concept of hire for
attitude, not aptitude, because to teach
853
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:45,000
someone to be kind may be 50 different micro
skill sets that I would have to teach, and
854
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,934
that's probably not worth the return on
investment.
855
00:33:47,174 --> 00:33:51,255
Now in a higher level role, it might be easier
to teach someone to be kind than to teach them
856
00:33:51,255 --> 00:33:53,575
20 years of finance or just find someone else.
857
00:33:53,575 --> 00:33:54,075
Right?
858
00:33:54,375 --> 00:33:59,095
We believe at acquisition.com that everything
is trainable, but everything is not worth
859
00:33:59,095 --> 00:33:59,519
training.
860
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:00,820
What about coachability?
861
00:34:01,119 --> 00:34:01,920
Do you construct that?
862
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:03,359
What makes somebody more trainable?
863
00:34:03,359 --> 00:34:07,119
Someone who is coachable, I would use at least
our internal definition around this, which is
864
00:34:07,119 --> 00:34:07,940
just intelligence.
865
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:09,199
Intelligence is rate of learning.
866
00:34:09,199 --> 00:34:14,605
If we define learning as same condition of
behavior, then if I say, hey, answer this phone
867
00:34:14,605 --> 00:34:17,885
and say the script and the phone rings and then
you don't say the script and I say, now read
868
00:34:17,885 --> 00:34:21,405
this script, phone rings again, same condition,
and then they read the script, new behavior,
869
00:34:21,405 --> 00:34:22,204
they have learned.
870
00:34:22,204 --> 00:34:25,889
If I can do that in one repetition with
somebody and it takes somebody else 5
871
00:34:25,889 --> 00:34:29,109
repetitions, the first person is more
intelligent, some people say more coachable,
872
00:34:29,329 --> 00:34:30,469
than the other person.
873
00:34:30,609 --> 00:34:37,030
And so I think you aptly pointed out that one
of the number one things that we look for now
874
00:34:37,089 --> 00:34:38,309
is just general intelligence.
875
00:34:38,369 --> 00:34:45,565
Basically, our return on investment for what we
put in to train someone, we can get down 1 5th
876
00:34:45,864 --> 00:34:47,785
if the person has higher general intelligence.
877
00:34:47,785 --> 00:34:52,824
And so this is where, sometimes you have people
who come in with lots of experience, and so
878
00:34:52,824 --> 00:34:55,465
they have a lot of skills, but they're actually
not very intelligent.
879
00:34:55,465 --> 00:34:59,599
And so what you see is pretty much all you're
going to get because the amount of effort it
880
00:34:59,599 --> 00:35:04,260
takes them to teach 1 or 2 more skills, you
could probably teach a younger, junior,
881
00:35:04,319 --> 00:35:09,039
hungrier, more intelligent person in, you know,
the same period of time.
882
00:35:09,039 --> 00:35:12,695
But then once I've matched that person or once
that candidate has matched the more experienced
883
00:35:12,695 --> 00:35:13,974
one, they blow past them.
884
00:35:13,974 --> 00:35:17,835
Then a subset of intelligence is ego and
ability to to take feedback.
885
00:35:17,894 --> 00:35:18,295
Sure.
886
00:35:18,295 --> 00:35:19,494
But you don't believe in trauma?
887
00:35:19,494 --> 00:35:19,735
No.
888
00:35:19,735 --> 00:35:20,534
I do believe in trauma.
889
00:35:20,534 --> 00:35:23,255
I believe in in defining it, which is a
permanent I'll say it this way.
890
00:35:23,255 --> 00:35:24,375
I don't believe trauma is bad.
891
00:35:24,375 --> 00:35:27,650
It's a permanent change of behavior based on an
aversive stimulus.
892
00:35:28,429 --> 00:35:33,949
So if I was a kid and I touched the stove and I
burned my hand, that is something that taught
893
00:35:33,949 --> 00:35:34,510
me something.
894
00:35:34,510 --> 00:35:38,269
Now if I never touch a stove again from that,
then the stove traumatized me.
895
00:35:38,269 --> 00:35:40,364
The follow-up question is, was that bad?
896
00:35:40,364 --> 00:35:43,965
Fundamentally, you can imagine me with like a
room of like holistic healers who are like
897
00:35:43,965 --> 00:35:47,085
doing bell things and like, I think you're
storing your trauma in your back.
898
00:35:47,085 --> 00:35:48,684
I'm like, how do you know that?
899
00:35:48,684 --> 00:35:49,164
Where?
900
00:35:49,164 --> 00:35:50,125
Point to the anatomy.
901
00:35:50,125 --> 00:35:52,949
Please tell me where I'm storing trauma.
902
00:35:52,949 --> 00:35:53,750
What does that even mean?
903
00:35:53,750 --> 00:35:57,750
And so by seeing this world the world this way,
at least, as we do it, and I'm not saying
904
00:35:57,750 --> 00:36:00,630
everyone should, this is just it's helped me
see the world more clearly.
905
00:36:00,630 --> 00:36:05,804
I think it's taken a lot of the gobbledygook,
out of the many things that are on social media
906
00:36:05,804 --> 00:36:06,525
and the Internet.
907
00:36:06,525 --> 00:36:08,925
And it's also, I think, helped a lot of our
team in some of these things.
908
00:36:08,925 --> 00:36:15,644
I had an interview with, a candidate, that we
ended up hiring, and he's like, you know, I
909
00:36:15,644 --> 00:36:16,684
just have a lot of demons.
910
00:36:16,684 --> 00:36:18,385
And I was like, what does that mean?
911
00:36:18,819 --> 00:36:23,059
And he was like, I just, you know, sometimes,
like, I can I can sabotage my success because
912
00:36:23,059 --> 00:36:24,139
I'm, like, afraid of being successful?
913
00:36:24,139 --> 00:36:26,280
I was like, you're underskilled.
914
00:36:26,659 --> 00:36:28,599
You don't know how to behave in conditions.
915
00:36:28,659 --> 00:36:29,799
That's all this is.
916
00:36:30,260 --> 00:36:33,619
So when this new condition occurs, we're gonna
do a different behavior than you've done in the
917
00:36:33,619 --> 00:36:33,945
past.
918
00:36:34,025 --> 00:36:35,465
If you can do that, we're fine.
919
00:36:35,465 --> 00:36:36,985
And he was like, I can do that.
920
00:36:36,985 --> 00:36:37,864
I was like, okay.
921
00:36:37,864 --> 00:36:42,184
Both could actually be true that you could have
this fear, but but you desensitize the fear
922
00:36:42,184 --> 00:36:43,885
through repetition in that condition.
923
00:36:44,105 --> 00:36:44,505
Totally.
924
00:36:44,505 --> 00:36:45,005
Habituation?
925
00:36:45,385 --> 00:36:45,885
Yeah.
926
00:36:46,039 --> 00:36:50,119
So you talk about the one meta skill that's
overshadows all of the meta skills.
927
00:36:50,119 --> 00:36:51,000
What is that meta skill?
928
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:51,119
I mean,
929
00:36:51,119 --> 00:36:52,839
I think the ability to learn is the meta skill.
930
00:36:52,839 --> 00:36:54,599
And, you know, intelligence is like your rate
of learning.
931
00:36:54,599 --> 00:36:55,880
I think that's the big thing.
932
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:59,400
From a business perspective, I think the big
meta skill is being able to get other people to
933
00:36:59,400 --> 00:36:59,800
do stuff.
934
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,614
Because fundamentally, if you only had that
skill, you get everyone else to do everything
935
00:37:02,614 --> 00:37:03,094
else you need.
936
00:37:03,094 --> 00:37:05,094
At least in the small business world, which is
where I live.
937
00:37:05,094 --> 00:37:07,755
So, you know, sub sub 200 employees, whatever.
938
00:37:08,534 --> 00:37:13,355
The vast majority of business owners conflate
CEO and business owner.
939
00:37:13,409 --> 00:37:14,609
They see them as 1 and the same.
940
00:37:14,609 --> 00:37:21,170
And so fundamentally, an owner, a good owner
rather, can bring all of the people who can run
941
00:37:21,170 --> 00:37:21,569
the business.
942
00:37:21,569 --> 00:37:25,569
Like, right now, if I own a share of Apple,
then that business functions without me.
943
00:37:25,569 --> 00:37:28,934
If I can get other people to do basically, a
business doesn't require
944
00:37:28,934 --> 00:37:29,414
some leverage.
945
00:37:29,414 --> 00:37:29,894
Yeah.
946
00:37:29,894 --> 00:37:30,775
Some form of leverage.
947
00:37:30,775 --> 00:37:31,015
Exactly.
948
00:37:31,015 --> 00:37:31,335
It's a 100%.
949
00:37:31,335 --> 00:37:32,535
What are the different forms of leverage?
950
00:37:32,535 --> 00:37:34,375
So I think I'd be stealing from Naval here.
951
00:37:34,375 --> 00:37:36,375
But, I mean, he has I I remember with c.
952
00:37:36,375 --> 00:37:40,055
So it's like code, content, collaboration,
which is what I say, so getting other people to
953
00:37:40,055 --> 00:37:41,015
do things, and capital.
954
00:37:41,015 --> 00:37:41,159
Right?
955
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:42,199
Those are the 4 that he brings up.
956
00:37:42,199 --> 00:37:44,920
But I think there's I mean, fundamentally,
leverage is just getting more for what you put
957
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:45,420
in.
958
00:37:46,119 --> 00:37:49,079
And so in any situation where you get more for
what you put in, then you have leverage.
959
00:37:49,079 --> 00:37:50,940
You have several dozen companies.
960
00:37:51,159 --> 00:37:56,385
Does basically managing hard or micromanaging
ever work, or is it about aligning incentives?
961
00:37:56,465 --> 00:37:57,264
Really good question.
962
00:37:57,264 --> 00:37:58,324
I wanna say yes.
963
00:37:58,385 --> 00:38:03,025
I think aligning incentives is people can't
have incentives that are against the benefit of
964
00:38:03,025 --> 00:38:03,585
everyone else.
965
00:38:03,585 --> 00:38:04,704
So that feels like number 1.
966
00:38:04,704 --> 00:38:06,465
We don't wanna have something that gets in our
way.
967
00:38:06,465 --> 00:38:12,966
But, like, micromanagement and applications sit
on, equal opposite sides of If you tell someone
968
00:38:12,966 --> 00:38:13,865
to do every single thing, like, at some point,
you've lost all of your leverage and why
969
00:38:13,865 --> 00:38:13,876
bother?
970
00:38:13,888 --> 00:38:17,019
On the other hand, if you delegate something
and stats go down, you abdicated it.
971
00:38:17,019 --> 00:38:17,820
You did not delegate it.
972
00:38:17,820 --> 00:38:21,119
If you delegate it and stats remain the same or
go up, then you have properly delegated.
973
00:38:27,315 --> 00:38:31,534
And so that gives us a very easy litmus test
for when people move up in the business and
974
00:38:31,534 --> 00:38:33,976
they replace themselves in a role that helps us
do that.
975
00:38:33,976 --> 00:38:37,085
From the micromanagement perspective, this is
probably, like, recency bias, but I just read
976
00:38:37,307 --> 00:38:39,083
have you seen the whole Founder mode?
977
00:38:39,083 --> 00:38:39,305
Yeah.
978
00:38:39,305 --> 00:38:40,860
I think there's some truth to it.
979
00:38:40,940 --> 00:38:41,019
It.
980
00:38:41,019 --> 00:38:46,380
I think it's less about micromanaging and more
about what are the behaviors that a founder is
981
00:38:46,380 --> 00:38:49,579
doing that are not duplicated when they leave.
982
00:38:49,579 --> 00:38:51,420
I'll give you a really micro example of this.
983
00:38:51,420 --> 00:38:53,099
Caleb, who's directs all of our media.
984
00:38:53,099 --> 00:38:56,295
He was the first person we hired, when we
wanted to get into this content game.
985
00:38:56,375 --> 00:38:57,734
He was so good to film with.
986
00:38:57,734 --> 00:38:59,655
You know, he moved up and he replaced himself.
987
00:38:59,655 --> 00:39:00,934
I was like, I hate filming.
988
00:39:00,934 --> 00:39:01,734
This is not good.
989
00:39:01,734 --> 00:39:03,114
I don't wanna do this anymore.
990
00:39:03,174 --> 00:39:04,614
And so then we're like, okay.
991
00:39:04,614 --> 00:39:07,335
What is it that because really, he just has
such a great vibe.
992
00:39:07,335 --> 00:39:08,934
I was like, vibe is not a thing.
993
00:39:08,934 --> 00:39:13,599
So what are the behaviors that he does during a
shoot that other people are not replicating?
994
00:39:13,980 --> 00:39:19,019
And so it turned out, one is when we were
talking, he would be nodding his head behind
995
00:39:19,019 --> 00:39:19,599
the camera.
996
00:39:19,819 --> 00:39:23,500
And when we'd make a good point, he would be
like he would throw his thumb up like, that was
997
00:39:23,500 --> 00:39:24,000
awesome.
998
00:39:24,139 --> 00:39:29,025
And immediately after the the podcast or what
you know, whatever the recording session was
999
00:39:29,025 --> 00:39:33,025
over, he would give us a fist bump, and then he
would have notes on his phone that he'd be
1000
00:39:33,025 --> 00:39:34,485
like, hey, follow-up question.
1001
00:39:34,545 --> 00:39:35,425
Hey, follow-up question.
1002
00:39:35,425 --> 00:39:36,405
Hey, follow-up question.
1003
00:39:36,545 --> 00:39:38,719
And so I was like, this is so enjoyable.
1004
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:42,980
So he had some basic business context so that
he could ask good questions.
1005
00:39:43,359 --> 00:39:48,400
He was being reinforcing very low latency while
I'm actually doing the recording in multiple
1006
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:50,719
ways, but visually from how he's nodding and
raising his thumb up.
1007
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:53,775
And then at the end, basically had another
reward cycle where he gave me a bump saying,
1008
00:39:53,775 --> 00:39:54,335
like, awesome job.
1009
00:39:54,335 --> 00:39:54,894
You crushed it.
1010
00:39:54,894 --> 00:39:59,215
Once we took that checklist, that became the
videographer training checklist.
1011
00:39:59,215 --> 00:40:00,494
Has he even fist bumping the
1012
00:40:00,655 --> 00:40:01,375
Oh, every time.
1013
00:40:01,375 --> 00:40:05,949
We then duplicated all of those activities with
other videographers that before this we did not
1014
00:40:05,949 --> 00:40:06,670
enjoy filming with.
1015
00:40:06,670 --> 00:40:08,269
All of a sudden, we enjoyed filming with them
as well.
1016
00:40:08,269 --> 00:40:10,289
And all of a sudden, they all had great vibes.
1017
00:40:10,829 --> 00:40:16,109
And so I say that as a microcosm of the founder
mode question that we began with, which is I
1018
00:40:16,109 --> 00:40:21,514
think that soft skills are hard to quantify,
but they are still skills.
1019
00:40:21,815 --> 00:40:25,974
And so it just means that there are more
subskills underneath of them that we have to
1020
00:40:25,974 --> 00:40:28,135
learn and observe so that we can duplicate it.
1021
00:40:28,135 --> 00:40:31,655
Your deconstructing skill sets, probably some
people think you're crazy, other people
1022
00:40:31,655 --> 00:40:32,375
probably love it.
1023
00:40:32,375 --> 00:40:32,855
Like, how
1024
00:40:32,855 --> 00:40:34,777
did people adapt to the style of management?
1025
00:40:34,777 --> 00:40:34,989
I
1026
00:40:34,989 --> 00:40:38,163
wish my team was here because I think they
would answer the question even better.
1027
00:40:38,163 --> 00:40:40,703
But I would say that this is our view of the
world.
1028
00:40:40,703 --> 00:40:43,454
If this is a view that you don't agree with,
that's totally okay.
1029
00:40:43,454 --> 00:40:44,724
You just won't do well here.
1030
00:40:44,724 --> 00:40:48,195
One of the benefits doing a callback to the
same thing is that almost everybody who comes
1031
00:40:48,195 --> 00:40:52,114
in the company has consumed a lot of my stuff,
and so they kinda know how we operate.
1032
00:40:52,114 --> 00:40:52,434
Mhmm.
1033
00:40:52,434 --> 00:40:58,195
And so we have such a speed up on the cultural
kind of assimilation and or rejection.
1034
00:40:58,195 --> 00:41:02,070
So if someone doesn't fit in like, we had
somebody who just started, 3 days ago, and it
1035
00:41:02,070 --> 00:41:02,470
was the 3rd day.
1036
00:41:02,470 --> 00:41:03,590
He was like, I don't think this is for me.
1037
00:41:03,590 --> 00:41:04,390
And we're like, cool.
1038
00:41:04,390 --> 00:41:08,390
Do push out Tony Zappos famously from from
Vegas, how he would give people a bonus to
1039
00:41:08,390 --> 00:41:09,670
quit, I think, after that 1st month.
1040
00:41:09,670 --> 00:41:09,990
I think
1041
00:41:09,990 --> 00:41:10,869
it's a brilliant idea.
1042
00:41:10,869 --> 00:41:15,474
I think that the skills that everything is is a
skilled efficiency perspective is incredibly
1043
00:41:15,474 --> 00:41:18,934
refreshing for the vast majority of the team
because that is how we manage.
1044
00:41:19,234 --> 00:41:23,954
And so instead of being like, you suck or you
are this way, insert label, which then feels
1045
00:41:23,954 --> 00:41:24,675
out of their control.
1046
00:41:24,675 --> 00:41:25,234
You say, hey.
1047
00:41:25,234 --> 00:41:26,054
You're a dick.
1048
00:41:26,275 --> 00:41:28,614
Very hard to teach someone to not be a dick.
1049
00:41:28,809 --> 00:41:30,010
But if you say, hey.
1050
00:41:30,010 --> 00:41:34,089
These are 5 things that you do that people
complain about, and we, under these conditions,
1051
00:41:34,089 --> 00:41:35,549
we need you to change your behavior.
1052
00:41:35,849 --> 00:41:37,869
And then all of a sudden they're like, oh,
thank you for the clarity.
1053
00:41:38,170 --> 00:41:41,804
And so the difficulty in managing this way is
that it takes more work.
1054
00:41:41,885 --> 00:41:46,625
We have to be more precise with our language,
and we be more precise with the deficiencies
1055
00:41:46,684 --> 00:41:47,744
that someone is exhibiting.
1056
00:41:47,804 --> 00:41:51,244
This whole everything focused on behavior
permeates through the entire business.
1057
00:41:51,244 --> 00:41:55,030
And so I'll give you an example of the team
thing, and then I'll example the 1 on 1 thing.
1058
00:41:55,030 --> 00:41:59,190
From the the team perspective, most business
owners or teams are accustomed to reporting
1059
00:41:59,190 --> 00:42:00,150
data on performance.
1060
00:42:00,150 --> 00:42:02,869
And then when they get into that loop, they
start to providing more and more and more and
1061
00:42:02,869 --> 00:42:03,429
more data.
1062
00:42:03,429 --> 00:42:07,605
I had to do a breakdown for the team and say,
hey, if this goes up, what do we do?
1063
00:42:07,684 --> 00:42:09,204
If this goes down, what do we do?
1064
00:42:09,204 --> 00:42:12,484
If we don't do anything based on if this data
moves, we do not need it.
1065
00:42:12,484 --> 00:42:15,445
And so all of a sudden it took this these
massive sheets and then just simplified them to
1066
00:42:15,445 --> 00:42:17,045
3 or 4 pieces of data that we look at.
1067
00:42:17,045 --> 00:42:19,284
It's like, great, because these affect our
behavior.
1068
00:42:19,284 --> 00:42:20,820
Now we can have productive meeting.
1069
00:42:20,980 --> 00:42:25,380
And so from a from a large perspective, then we
say, this is the this is the the data that's
1070
00:42:25,380 --> 00:42:25,699
off.
1071
00:42:25,699 --> 00:42:27,460
These are the behaviors that we're gonna do to
fix that.
1072
00:42:27,460 --> 00:42:30,099
And that's what we're gonna start doing
tomorrow with the team doing x, y, z.
1073
00:42:30,099 --> 00:42:33,539
From a 1 on 1 perspective, it's addressing the
skill deficiencies that they have.
1074
00:42:33,539 --> 00:42:36,360
They may have 10 things that are off that
they're working on.
1075
00:42:36,454 --> 00:42:37,414
Who determines that?
1076
00:42:37,414 --> 00:42:38,934
Manager or the leader, whoever the leader is.
1077
00:42:38,934 --> 00:42:40,454
So it's not meant to be like, here.
1078
00:42:40,454 --> 00:42:41,835
I think you should be more charismatic.
1079
00:42:41,894 --> 00:42:43,255
It's based on outputs.
1080
00:42:43,255 --> 00:42:43,815
On the metrics
1081
00:42:43,815 --> 00:42:45,094
that you that you're responsible for.
1082
00:42:45,094 --> 00:42:46,695
And we would never say be more charismatic.
1083
00:42:46,695 --> 00:42:48,054
It's just say you need to smile more.
1084
00:42:48,054 --> 00:42:48,695
Is there yeah.
1085
00:42:48,695 --> 00:42:50,289
Is is there a speed of feedback?
1086
00:42:50,289 --> 00:42:51,730
Is there, like, a natural speed?
1087
00:42:51,730 --> 00:42:55,730
Like, I try to it goes back to negotiation, and
there's a negotiator, Chris Vossey, says, if
1088
00:42:55,730 --> 00:42:58,049
you need to let the air out of a balloon, do it
slowly.
1089
00:42:58,049 --> 00:42:58,530
Mhmm.
1090
00:42:58,530 --> 00:43:02,204
Even within a hostage negotiation, if you have
3 hours, do it, like, 10 minutes at a time.
1091
00:43:02,285 --> 00:43:02,445
Time.
1092
00:43:02,445 --> 00:43:02,965
Do you believe in that?
1093
00:43:02,965 --> 00:43:05,644
I think giving one piece of feedback at a time
is incredibly important.
1094
00:43:05,644 --> 00:43:06,364
But I'll give you an example.
1095
00:43:06,364 --> 00:43:09,565
We started running workshops here at our
headquarters, and a lot of our team, although
1096
00:43:09,565 --> 00:43:11,644
subject matter experts, are not good at
presenting.
1097
00:43:11,644 --> 00:43:12,925
That wasn't a skill set that they had.
1098
00:43:12,925 --> 00:43:17,289
We had to teach the whole team how to present
in a way that other people liked and would
1099
00:43:17,289 --> 00:43:18,670
continue to watch and learn from.
1100
00:43:18,730 --> 00:43:23,130
And so the way that we did that was, you know,
someone would get on stage and they would, you
1101
00:43:23,130 --> 00:43:27,130
know, begin their presentation and they'd be 30
seconds in and we'd base, stop, say it this
1102
00:43:27,130 --> 00:43:28,670
way, change your tone, do it again.
1103
00:43:28,969 --> 00:43:30,775
Stop, Go back to beginning.
1104
00:43:30,775 --> 00:43:31,574
One more time like this.
1105
00:43:31,574 --> 00:43:32,135
Go back
1106
00:43:32,135 --> 00:43:35,255
to positioning them at the behavior, not, like,
30 minutes later and
1107
00:43:35,335 --> 00:43:35,974
Oh, it's useless.
1108
00:43:35,974 --> 00:43:36,934
It's completely useless.
1109
00:43:36,934 --> 00:43:41,494
I genuinely believe that 95% of businesses have
no idea how to train.
1110
00:43:41,494 --> 00:43:43,015
They mostly survive on luck.
1111
00:43:43,015 --> 00:43:44,829
They plow 20 people in.
1112
00:43:44,829 --> 00:43:48,750
They see that 5 people work because those 5
people came in with a small enough skilled
1113
00:43:48,750 --> 00:43:52,909
efficiency at baseline that they could be
successful in the role, the other 15 fall off,
1114
00:43:52,909 --> 00:43:53,949
and that's how they run their business.
1115
00:43:53,949 --> 00:43:54,109
A lot
1116
00:43:54,109 --> 00:43:56,829
of people are on Zoom calls, and they wanna
give feedback to somebody.
1117
00:43:56,829 --> 00:43:58,784
Do you just record that and then go over it?
1118
00:43:58,864 --> 00:43:59,105
We
1119
00:43:59,105 --> 00:43:59,984
Slack them in real time.
1120
00:43:59,984 --> 00:44:01,025
It's way faster that way.
1121
00:44:01,025 --> 00:44:01,744
So it'd be like, hey.
1122
00:44:01,744 --> 00:44:02,304
Bring this up.
1123
00:44:02,304 --> 00:44:02,464
Hey.
1124
00:44:02,464 --> 00:44:03,105
Your tone's off.
1125
00:44:03,105 --> 00:44:03,585
Try this.
1126
00:44:03,585 --> 00:44:06,464
Do you self select for employees that wanna
develop themselves?
1127
00:44:06,464 --> 00:44:09,264
It's actually the number one thing that people
come to Acquisition.com for.
1128
00:44:09,264 --> 00:44:11,664
The number one thing that people say they're
coming here for is growth.
1129
00:44:11,664 --> 00:44:12,464
People follow my stuff.
1130
00:44:12,464 --> 00:44:14,579
They know that I'm a big skills guy.
1131
00:44:14,579 --> 00:44:15,079
Yeah.
1132
00:44:15,139 --> 00:44:18,900
And so they usually want more of them, and we
do our very best to provide them.
1133
00:44:18,900 --> 00:44:20,420
You're obviously highly skilled.
1134
00:44:20,420 --> 00:44:22,659
I mentioned you're worth 100 of 1,000,000 of
dollars.
1135
00:44:22,659 --> 00:44:24,019
What skills are you working on right now?
1136
00:44:24,019 --> 00:44:25,299
Let's break this into 2 buckets.
1137
00:44:25,299 --> 00:44:28,574
Knowing about and knowing how to is basically
the 2 big buckets.
1138
00:44:29,614 --> 00:44:33,214
And where the biggest blind spots that I've had
in my career are me not knowing about.
1139
00:44:33,214 --> 00:44:34,815
I didn't know private equity existed.
1140
00:44:34,815 --> 00:44:36,335
I didn't know that was a thing.
1141
00:44:36,335 --> 00:44:36,815
Right?
1142
00:44:36,815 --> 00:44:39,934
So that was like, I couldn't get good at
private equity until I learned about private
1143
00:44:39,934 --> 00:44:40,434
equity.
1144
00:44:40,494 --> 00:44:45,280
Knowing about private equity and how it works
is very different from knowing how to run a
1145
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:49,839
private equity fund, raise funds, deal with
LPs, negotiate deals, do deals, source deals,
1146
00:44:49,839 --> 00:44:51,839
all of the micro things that occur underneath
of that.
1147
00:44:51,839 --> 00:44:56,719
I would say that for me right now, from the
learning about side, I'm still learning more on
1148
00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:58,094
the fund stuff.
1149
00:44:58,094 --> 00:45:00,014
I'm still very, very green there.
1150
00:45:00,014 --> 00:45:04,494
And then the how to is really going to come
from that would be like my second kind of order
1151
00:45:04,494 --> 00:45:06,014
of skills that I'll have to break down.
1152
00:45:06,014 --> 00:45:09,215
The thing that we have right now is we have
tons of deal flow and we know how to create
1153
00:45:09,215 --> 00:45:09,534
value.
1154
00:45:09,534 --> 00:45:10,734
So those are the 2 things we have.
1155
00:45:10,734 --> 00:45:14,140
The things that we've been lacking have been
the funds to execute, honestly, the amount of
1156
00:45:14,140 --> 00:45:15,980
deals that we could do at the size that we
want.
1157
00:45:15,980 --> 00:45:18,940
So what's the largest deals that that you get
from a deal flow standpoint?
1158
00:45:18,940 --> 00:45:21,019
We have I mean, we've got companies doing
300,000,000 a year coming
1159
00:45:21,019 --> 00:45:21,340
to us.
1160
00:45:21,340 --> 00:45:22,539
And what are they looking for?
1161
00:45:22,539 --> 00:45:24,800
Honestly, most people come to us for expertise.
1162
00:45:24,940 --> 00:45:29,824
They watch some of our deep stuff on, you know,
scaling a sales team from 0 to 40 guys in 90
1163
00:45:29,824 --> 00:45:29,985
days.
1164
00:45:29,985 --> 00:45:31,344
And they're like, how did you do that?
1165
00:45:31,344 --> 00:45:32,465
Can you do that for me?
1166
00:45:32,465 --> 00:45:34,724
And we're like, yeah, but not for 5%.
1167
00:45:35,184 --> 00:45:35,684
Yeah.
1168
00:45:35,985 --> 00:45:38,820
And so then that's really where the
negotiation, you know, kinda gets in.
1169
00:45:38,820 --> 00:45:39,460
It's like, okay.
1170
00:45:39,460 --> 00:45:42,900
Well, if we do do this, then we're going to 5 x
the value of the company.
1171
00:45:42,900 --> 00:45:45,300
People come to us because they have some
constraint.
1172
00:45:45,300 --> 00:45:46,660
They either have identified or haven't.
1173
00:45:46,660 --> 00:45:49,619
Do you have a vesting schedule where you grow
it 5 times and you're like, okay.
1174
00:45:49,619 --> 00:45:50,260
My job is done.
1175
00:45:50,260 --> 00:45:51,885
Do you continue to stay with the business?
1176
00:45:52,045 --> 00:45:57,965
So my CFO gave me this, and, and I've I've been
trying to to stick with it, which is, one of
1177
00:45:57,965 --> 00:46:00,224
his friends was a very successful VC.
1178
00:46:00,764 --> 00:46:04,525
And what they figured out was that when they
doubled down on the ones that they did really
1179
00:46:04,525 --> 00:46:05,985
well on, they did even better.
1180
00:46:06,445 --> 00:46:12,019
And so, you know, I would say if you'd asked me
5 years ago Feed the winners, starve star
1181
00:46:12,019 --> 00:46:12,500
losers.
1182
00:46:12,500 --> 00:46:12,739
Exactly.
1183
00:46:12,739 --> 00:46:13,460
But I mean, again
1184
00:46:13,539 --> 00:46:15,220
It's harsh, but it's it's the venture.
1185
00:46:15,220 --> 00:46:15,619
Yes.
1186
00:46:15,619 --> 00:46:16,500
It's kind of the same thing.
1187
00:46:16,500 --> 00:46:19,380
I mean, we absolutely pay more attention to the
companies that are the biggest ones in the
1188
00:46:19,380 --> 00:46:19,880
portfolio.
1189
00:46:19,940 --> 00:46:24,664
And in terms of us kind of, like, letting off
the gas pedal once we have a 5 x, it's, like,
1190
00:46:24,664 --> 00:46:25,625
kind of the opposite of that.
1191
00:46:25,625 --> 00:46:26,985
The better they do, the more we push.
1192
00:46:26,985 --> 00:46:29,704
So I don't often do this, but what questions do
you have for me?
1193
00:46:29,704 --> 00:46:31,945
If you were in my position, what would
1194
00:46:31,945 --> 00:46:32,265
you do?
1195
00:46:32,265 --> 00:46:36,599
So I think there's a general situation where
it's the ultimate grass is greener.
1196
00:46:36,599 --> 00:46:40,280
Every private equity person that you talk to
will say, do your own thing.
1197
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:42,920
And every person that says do your own thing
will say private equity.
1198
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:44,280
I think there's a couple of ways.
1199
00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:49,094
First of all, a meta comment, I would say, is I
think you're very right to take your time on
1200
00:46:49,094 --> 00:46:49,735
this decision.
1201
00:46:49,735 --> 00:46:50,695
I had a friend.
1202
00:46:50,695 --> 00:46:51,335
He went around.
1203
00:46:51,335 --> 00:46:54,295
He's actually my co host, Eric Thornburg, and
he spent 18 months.
1204
00:46:54,295 --> 00:46:56,055
I would see him ask the same questions to
people.
1205
00:46:56,055 --> 00:46:57,974
I'm like, this guy, he's just not executing.
1206
00:46:57,974 --> 00:46:58,775
Like, what is he doing?
1207
00:46:58,775 --> 00:47:00,375
Just do something and, like, figure it out.
1208
00:47:00,375 --> 00:47:03,700
And then he built this incredible business and
he had this huge launch in it.
1209
00:47:03,700 --> 00:47:04,660
It was very successful.
1210
00:47:04,660 --> 00:47:08,760
I was just blown away by, like, how somebody
could consciously gather information.
1211
00:47:09,059 --> 00:47:13,239
So I commend the thoughtfulness because it's a
very big decision, and it's irreversible.
1212
00:47:13,380 --> 00:47:13,539
Yeah.
1213
00:47:13,539 --> 00:47:15,460
It's one of those things to quote Jeff Bezos.
1214
00:47:15,460 --> 00:47:15,940
It's a door.
1215
00:47:15,940 --> 00:47:17,380
It's a non revolving door.
1216
00:47:17,380 --> 00:47:17,880
Yeah.
1217
00:47:18,094 --> 00:47:18,994
So first of
1218
00:47:19,135 --> 00:47:20,514
all, it is a very big decision.
1219
00:47:20,734 --> 00:47:25,635
2nd of all, I would think about one of my
mentors, Eric Anderson, who's on the podcast.
1220
00:47:25,855 --> 00:47:28,414
He's developed more drugs than anybody else in
history.
1221
00:47:28,414 --> 00:47:30,355
He started his last company, Alloy
Therapeutics.
1222
00:47:30,849 --> 00:47:32,690
What is the last business that I wanna start?
1223
00:47:32,690 --> 00:47:35,809
What company do I wanna work with in the next
20, 30 years?
1224
00:47:35,809 --> 00:47:39,730
So I think there's a founder product fit
question, which is what does Alex Ramosi want
1225
00:47:39,730 --> 00:47:41,170
to do over the next 30 years?
1226
00:47:41,170 --> 00:47:45,284
Because you're so good at operationalizing, you
look at everything from a number standpoint,
1227
00:47:45,284 --> 00:47:46,644
but you're also a human being.
1228
00:47:46,644 --> 00:47:51,445
And I think the question is, especially after
you gain a certain amount of wealth, is your
1229
00:47:51,445 --> 00:47:51,844
lifestyle.
1230
00:47:51,844 --> 00:47:53,684
What do you wanna be doing day to day?
1231
00:47:53,684 --> 00:47:58,429
And you can make those decisions not only from
the perspective of private equity or non
1232
00:47:58,429 --> 00:48:00,429
private equity, but also which LPs do you want?
1233
00:48:00,429 --> 00:48:04,670
One of the other things which I didn't mention
is really door 4, which has been a strong
1234
00:48:04,670 --> 00:48:05,170
consideration.
1235
00:48:05,230 --> 00:48:06,589
I don't know why I didn't mention it.
1236
00:48:06,589 --> 00:48:09,704
Has just been raising around at our Holdco
level.
1237
00:48:09,785 --> 00:48:13,864
And just doing a minority round there that
would allow us to get the funding to then just
1238
00:48:13,864 --> 00:48:16,985
do all the stuff that we're currently doing,
the way we do it, the way we already know
1239
00:48:16,985 --> 00:48:18,765
works, and just do it on bigger deals.
1240
00:48:18,825 --> 00:48:21,545
That would then capture all of the brand growth
that I have.
1241
00:48:21,545 --> 00:48:22,985
So those LPs would be like, oh, wow.
1242
00:48:22,985 --> 00:48:24,664
You know, I guess it wouldn't be an LP
structure.
1243
00:48:24,664 --> 00:48:27,900
I guess they would be owners of, you know, my
Holdco.
1244
00:48:28,119 --> 00:48:33,800
And that's something that's actually been, very
interesting to me because it's the the original
1245
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:34,119
point.
1246
00:48:34,119 --> 00:48:38,119
Like, I've structured my day for the most part
to do exactly what I wanna do and what I think
1247
00:48:38,119 --> 00:48:38,760
I'm good at.
1248
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:40,244
And what does that look like?
1249
00:48:40,244 --> 00:48:41,605
I have a pretty empty schedule.
1250
00:48:41,605 --> 00:48:43,684
I work all the time, but I have no commitments.
1251
00:48:43,684 --> 00:48:46,964
In my way of saying it is I end up working on
that which matters most every day.
1252
00:48:46,964 --> 00:48:50,164
And so sometimes that which matters most is
something that's gonna come to fruition in a
1253
00:48:50,164 --> 00:48:50,324
year.
1254
00:48:50,324 --> 00:48:54,840
But I have one day a week on Mondays that I
have all my meetings, and then I have basically
1255
00:48:55,380 --> 00:48:57,079
media stuff.
1256
00:48:57,219 --> 00:48:59,619
So content, me writing books, things like that.
1257
00:48:59,619 --> 00:49:03,380
Basically, the rest of my week is predominantly
deep work, and that has worked really well for
1258
00:49:03,380 --> 00:49:04,019
Leila and I.
1259
00:49:04,019 --> 00:49:07,380
And the only way that I can live that lifestyle
is because of Leila.
1260
00:49:07,380 --> 00:49:09,545
Leila's schedule is the inverse of mine.
1261
00:49:09,545 --> 00:49:14,105
She has one day a week of deep work and then 4
days a week where she has 20 plus meetings a
1262
00:49:14,105 --> 00:49:14,505
day.
1263
00:49:14,505 --> 00:49:19,144
She has many indirect reports that she's soft
touching, you know, 2 levels down, 3 levels
1264
00:49:19,144 --> 00:49:24,089
down to continue to develop good talent, bring
up rising stars, get good feedback on their
1265
00:49:24,089 --> 00:49:26,170
leaders so that she can give them feedback
directly.
1266
00:49:26,170 --> 00:49:29,849
Like, she will never get the credit that she
deserves because she's a woman and because I'm
1267
00:49:29,849 --> 00:49:30,730
so vocal in public.
1268
00:49:30,730 --> 00:49:30,969
Mhmm.
1269
00:49:30,969 --> 00:49:33,369
But she's absolutely the reason that we have
what we have.
1270
00:49:33,369 --> 00:49:36,010
Like, I had only made up to $3,000,000 a year
before I met Leila.
1271
00:49:36,010 --> 00:49:37,934
What was constraint blocking tackling?
1272
00:49:37,934 --> 00:49:39,454
I ruled through fear, to be honest.
1273
00:49:39,454 --> 00:49:40,095
That's what it was.
1274
00:49:40,095 --> 00:49:40,974
I know a lot better now.
1275
00:49:40,974 --> 00:49:45,454
But when I met Leila, she told me on one of our
first dates, she said, I just wanna build a
1276
00:49:45,454 --> 00:49:46,575
place that people love to work.
1277
00:49:46,575 --> 00:49:48,575
And I was like, well, I just wanna make a lot
of money.
1278
00:49:48,575 --> 00:49:52,110
And she said she wanted to do that, but she was
very, like, anti money when we met.
1279
00:49:52,110 --> 00:49:53,159
She was like bleeding heart.
1280
00:49:53,159 --> 00:49:54,208
I just wanna help everybody.
1281
00:49:54,208 --> 00:49:57,354
And I was like, well, you won't be able to help
anyone if you're poor.
1282
00:49:57,354 --> 00:50:00,081
And so what if we can merge kind of these two
thought processes?
1283
00:50:00,081 --> 00:50:03,858
And that's been kind of like the journey of our
our working relationship is that she has been
1284
00:50:04,067 --> 00:50:07,784
and I don't wanna say the soft side because I
think that does a disservice to the fact that
1285
00:50:07,784 --> 00:50:08,585
she's made of iron.
1286
00:50:08,585 --> 00:50:09,644
It's really impressive.
1287
00:50:09,784 --> 00:50:13,964
No one has ever left any company that we've had
and been like, Leila is unfair.
1288
00:50:14,025 --> 00:50:18,184
She's a matriarch in terms of how everything is
run within all of our portfolio companies.
1289
00:50:18,184 --> 00:50:21,420
I would say all the founders have tremendous
respect for Leila, and they know that.
1290
00:50:21,420 --> 00:50:24,860
She's the one you go to when you have to have
the hard conversation with someone, and she'll
1291
00:50:24,860 --> 00:50:25,980
be like, this is how you do it.
1292
00:50:25,980 --> 00:50:29,980
You have such a high performing culture, and
not everybody fits with it, and they leave.
1293
00:50:29,980 --> 00:50:31,340
What do they say when they leave?
1294
00:50:31,340 --> 00:50:33,039
We have very low turnover.
1295
00:50:33,179 --> 00:50:35,224
Was that because of a good screen processor?
1296
00:50:35,445 --> 00:50:39,765
Our ability to create culture and
operationalize culture has just improved so
1297
00:50:39,765 --> 00:50:43,125
much between businesses because it's still on
on such a short timeline if you think about it
1298
00:50:43,125 --> 00:50:50,250
from a biz I mean, I started my first business
when I was 20 2, and that was 13 years ago.
1299
00:50:50,250 --> 00:50:53,609
You know, in the investor timeline, it's like
I've had one funds worth of time.
1300
00:50:53,609 --> 00:50:54,109
Right?
1301
00:50:54,170 --> 00:50:55,849
10 plus plus 1 plus 1.
1302
00:50:55,849 --> 00:50:56,089
Yeah.
1303
00:50:56,089 --> 00:50:56,409
Right.
1304
00:50:56,409 --> 00:50:56,909
Exactly.
1305
00:50:57,049 --> 00:50:58,569
And so it's been a very short timeline.
1306
00:50:58,569 --> 00:51:02,675
And so, like, you know, how I built my gyms was
very different than how we built Gym Launch,
1307
00:51:02,675 --> 00:51:05,015
which is very different from how we've built
acquisition.com.
1308
00:51:05,474 --> 00:51:11,650
And, this I mean, this has been my favorite
business, to run, and I feel like it's Leila
1309
00:51:11,650 --> 00:51:12,929
and I are both in our stride.
1310
00:51:12,929 --> 00:51:15,170
We are doing what we are both very good at.
1311
00:51:15,170 --> 00:51:19,409
We've given each other the protection or space
to just do what we do best.
1312
00:51:19,409 --> 00:51:24,070
So Leila basically runs everything, and I'm in
charge of rainmaking.
1313
00:51:24,324 --> 00:51:26,164
That's always the best division of labor.
1314
00:51:26,164 --> 00:51:28,244
You told Leila, I just wanna make more money.
1315
00:51:28,244 --> 00:51:30,164
Is that really what drives you, or is that kind
1316
00:51:30,164 --> 00:51:30,885
of more Mark?
1317
00:51:30,885 --> 00:51:34,485
I always like saying that because I never wanna
be one of those people who, like, says they're
1318
00:51:34,485 --> 00:51:35,445
trying to do Yeah.
1319
00:51:35,445 --> 00:51:36,724
That's my reputation insurance.
1320
00:51:36,724 --> 00:51:37,045
Like, yep.
1321
00:51:37,045 --> 00:51:37,739
I'm here to make money.
1322
00:51:37,739 --> 00:51:39,395
I say that in all my content.
1323
00:51:39,395 --> 00:51:41,286
Like, not here to be a good guy.
1324
00:51:41,286 --> 00:51:42,232
Here to make money.
1325
00:51:42,232 --> 00:51:45,070
So I'll give you a longer answer than you
probably asked for.
1326
00:51:45,070 --> 00:51:48,853
When we sold Gym Launch, we'd taken 42,000,000
in distributions, and then we got a $31,000,000
1327
00:51:48,853 --> 00:51:50,508
check for the 2 thirds at 46.
1328
00:51:50,508 --> 00:51:50,744
Right?
1329
00:51:50,825 --> 00:51:53,785
And I'd invested a little bit and so the the 42
had grown or whatever.
1330
00:51:53,785 --> 00:51:55,565
At that point though, we had zero
responsibilities.
1331
00:51:56,184 --> 00:52:00,105
And the year during the sale, I wasn't, you
know, typically you don't, like, change
1332
00:52:00,105 --> 00:52:02,425
anything while you're in the middle of a deal
process.
1333
00:52:02,425 --> 00:52:06,010
And so the whole company pretty much just ran
and we just got checks every month, basically,
1334
00:52:06,010 --> 00:52:06,570
and that was it.
1335
00:52:06,570 --> 00:52:10,570
And it was the saddest year of my life because
I couldn't start something new because I didn't
1336
00:52:10,570 --> 00:52:13,769
know if the deal was gonna happen, you know,
like things can fall through, whatever.
1337
00:52:13,769 --> 00:52:15,369
But I also couldn't work on the business.
1338
00:52:15,369 --> 00:52:20,025
I basically just had to sit idly for a year,
then I had a lot of time to just think.
1339
00:52:20,025 --> 00:52:23,784
And the conclusion that that came for me was
that hard work is the goal.
1340
00:52:23,784 --> 00:52:28,664
For a very long time, it was hard work so that
I can, and then it was just insert whatever
1341
00:52:28,664 --> 00:52:29,164
thing.
1342
00:52:29,464 --> 00:52:33,784
But when I looked back on my favorite days of
my life, it was when I left nothing on the
1343
00:52:33,784 --> 00:52:36,079
field, when I was completely used up at the end
of the day.
1344
00:52:36,079 --> 00:52:39,760
And the 1st boss that I had, the management
consulting firm that I had right out of
1345
00:52:39,760 --> 00:52:41,840
college, she said this thing to me that, like,
a good weekend.
1346
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:43,920
Then I came in on Monday, like, in a good mood
or something.
1347
00:52:43,920 --> 00:52:46,880
She asked me why, and I said, I just, you know,
I had a great weekend.
1348
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:51,484
And she said, I'm pretty sure the secret to
life is living as many days in a row like that
1349
00:52:51,484 --> 00:52:51,964
as you can.
1350
00:52:51,964 --> 00:52:52,924
I always remembered that.
1351
00:52:52,924 --> 00:52:57,484
And so in trying to structure my life, I
actually use the same process that we use to
1352
00:52:57,484 --> 00:52:59,565
improve everything in everything we do.
1353
00:52:59,565 --> 00:53:02,844
So whether it's media, whether it's ads,
whether it's it's it's sales teams, it's CS,
1354
00:53:02,844 --> 00:53:08,450
whatever, we just look at what did we do in the
past, what were the top 10% days or outcomes,
1355
00:53:08,450 --> 00:53:10,450
what did those look like, and what were the
bottom 10%.
1356
00:53:10,450 --> 00:53:14,130
And then the bottom 10% tell us what not to do,
and the top 10% we do more of that.
1357
00:53:14,130 --> 00:53:19,704
And so when I look at my life, my top 10% days
had the same 2 or 3 things that were involved.
1358
00:53:20,085 --> 00:53:27,045
I ate food with people I liked, I worked out
hard, and I worked and accomplished something
1359
00:53:27,045 --> 00:53:28,724
meaningful for the day.
1360
00:53:28,724 --> 00:53:31,559
And I usually have nothing left at the end.
1361
00:53:32,039 --> 00:53:35,579
And so I pretty much just try and do that every
single day.
1362
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:37,320
That's my that's my goal.
1363
00:53:37,320 --> 00:53:40,440
And the things that I enjoy working hard on is
business.
1364
00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:41,160
I love business.
1365
00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:42,920
It's like almost like a romantic love of mine.
1366
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:43,320
I love it.
1367
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:44,199
I draw pictures about it.
1368
00:53:44,199 --> 00:53:44,840
I write books about it.
1369
00:53:44,840 --> 00:53:46,155
I make videos about it.
1370
00:53:46,315 --> 00:53:47,594
I do business every day.
1371
00:53:47,594 --> 00:53:48,635
It's the thing that I love.
1372
00:53:48,635 --> 00:53:50,795
I could talk to you for 10 more hours about
business stuff.
1373
00:53:50,795 --> 00:53:52,094
I interviewed Steve McLaughlin.
1374
00:53:52,235 --> 00:53:57,675
He's considered the world's richest banker, and
he spends 80% of his time dealing with clients.
1375
00:53:57,675 --> 00:54:03,469
And how do people like like you and Steve say
no to other things that you may not want to do,
1376
00:54:03,469 --> 00:54:05,390
but that quote unquote need to be done?
1377
00:54:05,390 --> 00:54:06,670
I get emails like Mhmm.
1378
00:54:06,909 --> 00:54:10,670
How do you operationalize 4 days of deep work?
1379
00:54:10,670 --> 00:54:11,969
I have no direct reports.
1380
00:54:12,030 --> 00:54:12,530
0.
1381
00:54:12,755 --> 00:54:16,195
Like, if you look at the org chart, it's me and
then dotted line to Leila, and then Leila has
1382
00:54:16,195 --> 00:54:16,835
the whole company.
1383
00:54:16,835 --> 00:54:18,295
What about bills?
1384
00:54:18,434 --> 00:54:20,994
There's a long tail of things that just hit
your email.
1385
00:54:20,994 --> 00:54:26,515
REAs check my email, and they route things and
make decisions based on just, like, decision
1386
00:54:26,515 --> 00:54:26,835
frameworks.
1387
00:54:26,835 --> 00:54:27,335
Responses.
1388
00:54:27,394 --> 00:54:27,635
Yeah.
1389
00:54:27,635 --> 00:54:28,035
Exactly.
1390
00:54:28,035 --> 00:54:28,515
How long did
1391
00:54:28,515 --> 00:54:29,849
it take for you to create that system?
1392
00:54:29,849 --> 00:54:30,809
We have 3 EAs.
1393
00:54:30,809 --> 00:54:35,529
Senior A just became director of ops, but it's
been 7, 8 years that we've had that team.
1394
00:54:35,529 --> 00:54:38,029
And so What were the biggest fails in that
system?
1395
00:54:38,170 --> 00:54:42,190
I have had 10 EAs personally and have failed
all of them.
1396
00:54:42,305 --> 00:54:45,825
And so then we realized after the 10th trial,
it's me, not them.
1397
00:54:45,825 --> 00:54:49,364
Leila paired us for a quarterly to give
feedback to one another.
1398
00:54:49,505 --> 00:54:54,385
And she said, I feel like when I message you,
I'm bothering you.
1399
00:54:54,385 --> 00:54:58,230
I'm assuming with the hope that I would say, oh
no, it's fine.
1400
00:54:58,769 --> 00:54:59,489
Message me.
1401
00:54:59,489 --> 00:55:01,010
And instead I said, you are.
1402
00:55:01,010 --> 00:55:01,650
I'm working.
1403
00:55:01,650 --> 00:55:05,190
And then when you take away from that work, you
make us less money.
1404
00:55:05,329 --> 00:55:10,164
And so I do see it pretty much always as a
punching event for me to basically have to stop
1405
00:55:10,164 --> 00:55:13,224
doing something that I'm enjoying doing to do
something that I enjoy less doing.
1406
00:55:13,444 --> 00:55:18,005
And so over time, the EAs now, they'll come in
when I eat lunch because it's the same 15
1407
00:55:18,005 --> 00:55:18,724
minutes every day.
1408
00:55:18,724 --> 00:55:21,204
And they'll just like they'll be like, I have 6
things for you.
1409
00:55:21,204 --> 00:55:23,444
This thing, this thing, and it's while I'm not
working anyways.
1410
00:55:23,444 --> 00:55:24,164
Self manage.
1411
00:55:24,164 --> 00:55:29,059
But honestly, my lifestyle is only I'm only
able to do this because Leila's lifestyle is
1412
00:55:29,059 --> 00:55:30,260
the inverse of mine.
1413
00:55:30,260 --> 00:55:32,099
Together, we are one good CEO.
1414
00:55:32,099 --> 00:55:34,179
She is a work funnel.
1415
00:55:34,179 --> 00:55:36,119
Like, she just swallows work.
1416
00:55:36,179 --> 00:55:36,260
Mhmm.
1417
00:55:36,260 --> 00:55:36,420
And
1418
00:55:36,420 --> 00:55:39,135
then she brings people in and trains them,
brings people in and trains them.
1419
00:55:39,295 --> 00:55:41,474
Her her rate of operating is just unbelievable.
1420
00:55:42,094 --> 00:55:44,815
And so she allows me to think really big and
have the space to do it.
1421
00:55:44,815 --> 00:55:45,614
It's all because of her.
1422
00:55:45,614 --> 00:55:46,655
What are your special skills?
1423
00:55:46,655 --> 00:55:47,934
I think it's actually just education.
1424
00:55:47,934 --> 00:55:50,175
Like, I love teaching, which sounds terrible.
1425
00:55:50,175 --> 00:55:54,900
Like, saying that you love teaching is kinda
lame, but I see sales as an education process.
1426
00:55:54,900 --> 00:55:58,500
You educate a prospect and if they educate
enough and if you have a product that really is
1427
00:55:58,500 --> 00:56:00,420
good, if they believe what you believe, then
they will buy.
1428
00:56:00,420 --> 00:56:02,339
I see marketing and sales as the same
continuum.
1429
00:56:02,339 --> 00:56:05,460
Like, you just need a certain amount of
information for someone to make a purchasing
1430
00:56:05,460 --> 00:56:05,779
decision.
1431
00:56:05,779 --> 00:56:07,539
And so I see them as one thing.
1432
00:56:07,539 --> 00:56:09,434
That's what I spend a lot of time doing.
1433
00:56:09,515 --> 00:56:15,035
And so if we define education as, changing
someone's behavior, then that is that is what
1434
00:56:15,035 --> 00:56:16,235
has been the passion of my life.
1435
00:56:16,235 --> 00:56:20,315
Hopefully, everybody who's listening to this
who's an LP, I hope I didn't bore you to
1436
00:56:20,315 --> 00:56:23,594
absolute death not talking about too much
investing and just talking way more about
1437
00:56:23,594 --> 00:56:23,994
business.
1438
00:56:23,994 --> 00:56:27,619
If you were to do a fund, like, tell me about
what you would want in LP Partners.
1439
00:56:27,619 --> 00:56:28,739
I probably want 1 of 2 types.
1440
00:56:28,739 --> 00:56:33,139
I'd either want completely passive LP who just
let me do what I think we're good at, or
1441
00:56:33,139 --> 00:56:36,179
somebody who had some strategic benefit that
they could bring to the table.
1442
00:56:36,179 --> 00:56:39,380
Probably wouldn't be deal flow, but it'd
probably be relationships around whatever the,
1443
00:56:39,380 --> 00:56:40,875
you know, investment thesis thesis that
1444
00:56:40,875 --> 00:56:41,954
we were going to build it off of.
1445
00:56:41,954 --> 00:56:44,755
As you've evolved your private equity business,
have you narrowed down?
1446
00:56:44,755 --> 00:56:48,914
Do you have a very specific kind of hit lane on
these are the types of deals I wanna do, or are
1447
00:56:48,914 --> 00:56:49,815
you more opportunistic?
1448
00:56:50,034 --> 00:56:53,559
I would say Layla and I both like service and
software businesses.
1449
00:56:53,559 --> 00:56:55,639
Those are the 2 when we've looked at all the
deals that we've done.
1450
00:56:55,639 --> 00:56:58,839
Those are the ones that we do the best with,
and especially ones that are demand
1451
00:56:58,839 --> 00:56:59,239
constrained.
1452
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:01,639
Those are the ones that we just can absolutely
murder it for.
1453
00:57:01,639 --> 00:57:05,239
Someone has really good, you know, user
retention and they have, you know, good
1454
00:57:05,239 --> 00:57:06,139
ascension processes.
1455
00:57:06,359 --> 00:57:08,414
The best guys are the ones who are just
obsessed with product.
1456
00:57:08,414 --> 00:57:11,855
Like, the reason that I did the school deal was
when I saw the best interest of the business, I
1457
00:57:11,855 --> 00:57:13,155
was like, this thing's a monster.
1458
00:57:13,295 --> 00:57:14,335
Like, it's just early.
1459
00:57:14,335 --> 00:57:15,375
They just need demand.
1460
00:57:15,375 --> 00:57:20,175
And I think all products cease distribution and
all distribution seeks good product.
1461
00:57:20,175 --> 00:57:21,875
And so I see myself as distribution.
1462
00:57:22,015 --> 00:57:24,449
And so that was just, like, such a no brainer
because it's perfect.
1463
00:57:24,449 --> 00:57:25,089
It's school.
1464
00:57:25,089 --> 00:57:25,829
It's education.
1465
00:57:25,969 --> 00:57:28,849
It worked with the 70% of my audience that want
to start a business.
1466
00:57:28,849 --> 00:57:30,609
So only 30% of my audience have a business.
1467
00:57:30,609 --> 00:57:33,650
Now if I talk about business, then everybody
wants to start a business, still gonna listen.
1468
00:57:33,650 --> 00:57:33,809
Right?
1469
00:57:33,809 --> 00:57:37,589
And so I can't I don't I don't try and, you
know, kick them out or anything.
1470
00:57:37,905 --> 00:57:41,344
But it took me 3 or 4 years of looking at a
zillion different businesses.
1471
00:57:41,344 --> 00:57:41,905
I was like, okay.
1472
00:57:41,905 --> 00:57:45,025
What's the easiest thing someone can start
who's just trying to go from 0 to 1?
1473
00:57:45,025 --> 00:57:45,985
Build their confidence.
1474
00:57:45,985 --> 00:57:46,224
Yeah.
1475
00:57:46,224 --> 00:57:46,545
Exactly.
1476
00:57:46,545 --> 00:57:46,785
Yeah.
1477
00:57:46,785 --> 00:57:48,644
Just about basic skills of business.
1478
00:57:48,785 --> 00:57:51,585
And so that was a perfect vehicle for me to to
help.
1479
00:57:51,585 --> 00:57:54,269
And so, like, that type of business is those
are the ones that I love.
1480
00:57:54,269 --> 00:57:55,710
People that wanna learn more about you.
1481
00:57:55,710 --> 00:57:58,769
What's the best on ramp to learning more about
Alex Rumazi?
1482
00:57:58,829 --> 00:57:59,550
That's probably YouTube.
1483
00:57:59,550 --> 00:58:01,869
Or if you're actually, if you're a podcaster,
then I have a podcast.
1484
00:58:01,869 --> 00:58:02,510
What is it called?
1485
00:58:02,510 --> 00:58:02,750
You can
1486
00:58:02,750 --> 00:58:04,030
just search my name, and it'll come up.
1487
00:58:04,030 --> 00:58:04,349
Excellent.
1488
00:58:04,349 --> 00:58:06,284
Well, Alex, this has been a masterclass.
1489
00:58:06,284 --> 00:58:08,204
I've been following your work for a year.
1490
00:58:08,204 --> 00:58:08,844
I learned a lot.
1491
00:58:08,844 --> 00:58:12,864
You have an incredible way to deconstruct
concepts and teach millions of people.
1492
00:58:12,925 --> 00:58:14,525
You're making a big difference in the world.
1493
00:58:14,525 --> 00:58:15,885
Appreciate you jumping on podcast.
1494
00:58:15,885 --> 00:58:16,844
Thank you for having me.
1495
00:58:16,844 --> 00:58:17,423
I appreciate
