[00:01] >> What's up, Michael? How's it going, man? >> Doing well. So, I run a consulting firm here in Vegas that implements project management software for enterprise ops and PMO teams, okay, with Fortune 500 clients. Uh, we're at 1.4 million,
[00:15] tracking towards 2 million. We're demand constrained because almost all of our pipeline comes through software vendor referrals and a subcontractor relationship. However, I've built some serious uh AI enablement in the business
[00:28] genuinely feel I'm ahead of most consultants in the space. My concern is the avatar's fuzzy, but I'm a top 1% architect of the software. You're going brand new business with my wife with the crystal clearar avatar in healthcare,
[00:44] a clear avatar is worth walking away from a business I think I already know from a business I think I already know how to run? Um,
[00:56] I am less okay with the trying to serve two masters or ride two horses with one ass. Um, and so if you really really feel confident about it, then I would encourage you to go allin. Um, and I think the way to do that would be just
[01:10] get your first customer from the new stream from a channel that is reliable. going to be an outbound method uh or an adbased motion that you're probably going to run. It could be an affiliate motion um as well if you like know two
[01:24] in the space who help healthcare businesses. That'd be a great first place to go if you wanted to have like a speed to money. Um but I think you'd have to pick one of those three um business models. I understand the
[01:37] difficulty of the enterprise play. It's mostly just that the sales cycle is so clients do you have right now? about 12. >> Yeah. I think you're also just wildly underpriced um on the enterprise side.
[01:49] So, it makes sense that it it makes sense that you wouldn't want to charge SMB prices and go through a Fortune 500 sales process. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah, for sure. And part of it is we
[02:02] when we go direct, we have like a killer offer model thanks to your books. And like that does 83% margins, but because of the referral subcontractor >> we're capped an hourly, which is killing us to like 17% margins. So, we're trying
[02:17] to move away from it. >> But the avatar Yeah. The avatar in that space though is like, >> do you use this software? Yes. Cool. No. Okay. Let me explain what it is. It's not really uh industry or vertical
[02:29] based, which is our our struggle. >> Dude, I'm I'm I'm all good with the healthcare thing. My my biggest thing on that side is you should be able to size healthcare providers are you looking for?
[02:43] physicians. >> I think you'll I think you'll print. It's very easy to get to sell to those customers. Like almost every motion owners. They typically prefer done for you solutions because they don't like
[02:57] they're they're very hours constrained because they literally like make money because they literally like make money by trading their time. Um, and so but it's it's TLDDR. I'm good with the move. My my only counsel here is that you go
[03:10] confident. So, do you have savings saved up? >> We do. So, part of it is we have like multi-year contracts in the current >> And some of it is just like pass through reseller transactions that we do. So, we
[03:24] followup would be >> what would because it's a time and just making sure that >> we're keeping the current business afloat enough while the two kind of you know switch off essentially from the
[03:37] >> Well, so the a float enough part is the part that I don't like which is what are business are passive versus what are the things are still active. I would say be willing to cut out the active to the degree you can and also those contracts
[03:52] your side whenever you want and so it feels like the appearance of being stuck but you could stop it whenever unless did they prepay? >> Uh so it's in in most cases it's like three-year deals and they pay annually
[04:07] subcontractor relationship. So we're just getting like a commission check in >> again. So just separate out what's the stuff that I'm doing work for? what's the stuff that I'm just being, you know, a sub, you know, overwrite on um to the
[04:20] trying to go for here is I'm trying to minimize your workload because to say and then also start this other business, I think is the recipe like that is the >> right? >> Um and it's what everyone wants to do.
[04:35] And so I think that if you could clear your calendar to the like basically to be successful in this new endeavor if you have all your resources deployed towards it. And I'll give you a different frame on this, which is that
[04:47] want to make sure I'm paying my bills might come at the expense of two years of growth. So like you might be able to grow basically what would be your year two if you went all in might be your year four
[04:59] with the quote downside production because of split attention. That again successful which might not be true because you're not going to be able to fully allocate time towards it. And so if anything, maybe I'd prefer your wife
[05:11] stays behind, fully does that one, and then you can go uh and start the healthcare thing, but I do not like split focus. It's just very hard to win who are fully allin. >> Yeah. She would most likely be the brand
[05:24] impressive than I am and would be a better brand authority in in that space. I'd be more the technical operator. >> Yeah. But you like do you get my because this is what you're saying is I want to
[05:37] other thing and this other thing is still full-time right now but I want to other thing's better. If you think the other thing's better then like do the other thing. >> Yeah. No, to totally makes sense. I
[05:52] the current business just got to a place where uh we're no longer founder dependent on delivery. So I can go focus on marketing and sales. And I think for like I don't care about earning for the
[06:06] marketing and sales skills. Yeah. the wrong time investment gap because I'm going to have to develop those skills in the new business anyways. It's just I have to start it all over from
[06:18] scratch to get it to that that level. >> Yeah. I mean, you you describe the cost >> Yeah. [laughter] But it sounds like what you want is affirmation for a decision, not a problem to solve.
[06:34] >> Yeah. I mean, I guess my my fear is being a top 1% in like one technology skill set with a fuzzy avatar >> is like, okay, can I overcome that avatar gap to get to 10 20 million versus, you know what, I'm okay being a
[06:49] versus, you know what, I'm okay being a top 20, top 30% um operator with a very clear avatar. That should allow us to scale a lot quicker. And again, it's really the kids is the big thing is that I don't want to make a
[07:01] it's just going to be a little bit longer for, you know, this business to take off. It just feels like starting over is a is a pretty big gamble and I kids. >> It is a gamble.
[07:15] And so you ask a question of risk, which is entirely personal. >> Yeah. So, like, you know, let's say I put $300 million into your account tomorrow. Uh, and then you say, "Hey, I'm going to put, you know, a hundred
[07:28] sleep on the couch." I'd be like, "That's very risky." That's what Elon people to do that, but that would have been then we wouldn't have SpaceX, Tesla, and everything else. And so, like, risk is entirely personal. I think
[07:41] certainty from a world that will give you none. Um, and I wish I could just say like it's all going to be okay, but I have no idea. Um, I think it makes sense that selling to an avatar that is easier to target and has a shorter sales
[07:54] cycle uh will be easier to acquire customers. You'll also have to deal with all of the pain in the asses of that specific avatar.
[08:07] that's the big piece I was, you know, uncertain about is the how important is clarity of avatar to to grow a business? >> Extremely. Yeah, that's kind of what I >> Yeah. I mean, perfect world is you sell one thing to one person. Uh less than
[08:24] perfect is you sell one thing to lots of people. Uh worst case is you sell people. Uh worst case is you sell everything to everyone. of different people. That's the fuzziness, right?
[08:37] >> And so you're trying to transition to selling one thing to one person, which I think is a good idea. >> Yeah. Cool. No, that that's that's great. No, it's been very helpful. It's uh I think my big fear or hesitation is
[08:49] honestly it wasn't until the marketing workshop that >> this idea came up and it's like oh I think we might want to go all in on this >> do I want to end one row to pursue another uh that you know I've already
[09:02] put a bunch of time and effort in. But no, this has been very helpful. whatever your line of comfort is, I would just go past that in terms of what you need to be willing to give up on the other one because again, I will say this
[09:16] is my final word before we get to the next faller. Um the idea that you're start another business is typically a failing formula. failing formula. So you like I here's my tactic for you.
[09:30] Create a plan that gets you out and monitor how many more hours you're going to have in your week by what you remove from the other side. You're not going to just be able to add. You have to remove first. So, think
[09:45] to remove and then with the time that's left over, if you think that you can then go for it. If you still don't think you can with the amount of time that every single thing takes, they're going to be able to do it, then you have a
[09:59] should just, you know, reinvest in the business that I have and see like is million in that business if you sell to Fortune 500 companies. I think it's charging enough for that level of avatar.
[10:12] And I think last thing I'll say because I do want to be respectful of time is through subcontractor relationship which we don't control and it's just very an offer that does print. >> Yeah. You just don't have an acquisition
[10:26] >> Exactly. >> So instead of starting a new business, channel in the business you have. That would be a different alternative.
[10:39] create the plan. figure out how many hours you got and then make the call. >> We'll do. >> All right. Thanks, brother. All right. Let's see here. What do we got in luch chat? I believe that's
[10:51] French for chat. Um, spontets, can you Google that? Make sure it's French for chat. Is luch chat. Um, all right. Let's see. Please fix sound to be stereo. It's really sure. Don't read the chat. Says me. Maybe I said that correctly. By the
[11:06] over and over again in the chat, I guarantee you I will not read it. Um, okay. Let me see who can just put one up. This is now getting mental. Uh,
[11:20] scroll this one up? Said that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. position where you can afford to take risks? It's just what your downside is because most people overestimate the downside as
[11:35] homeless and not be able to eat food. Most times you can crash at somebody's place. You can live in a bedroom for a couple hundred bucks a month. Um, if you shelters. I'm being very extreme here, but we usually catastrophize this idea
[11:48] that that like failure means that we're going to die. But most of the time it just means that people who you know that have not taken risks will try to exert their status above you by reminding you that they are better than you in this
[12:00] very narrow slice of life in this very narrow time period for you. And so I would encourage you to ignore them. Um because at the end of the day I think you should ignore all naysayers including yourself
[12:17] you believe that getting what you want is an important thing, then you shouldn't listen to anyone who tells you you can't. There's literally no return. All right. Um, let's see here what else we got. Uh, lack of focus is a form of
[12:31] cowardice. You don't believe in yourself enough to go allin. Yeah, that's one of enough to go allin. Yeah, that's one of my one of my favorite quotes of my own. Um, let's pause somewhere. Just give me one to read. Here we go. Sean uh
[12:44] on pure commission for two companies uh this summer going into senior year deciding between big tech sales and building sales firm from postgrad. Um I'll give you a piece of advice Sean. I think that you'd be better served trying
[12:57] to find a product that has very low churn that benefits from outbound sales of thinking, "Oh, I know how to sell. I'll either sell for somebody or I'll create a sales firm." Just go find a
[13:12] different products that are out there that you don't have to like build, you can get into, you know, you can get into banking, you can get into uh M&A, There's lots of different businesses that are kind of salesoriented that have
[13:27] customers are sticky if they're big enough. Um, where you can create core scale. Um, also you could sell you alarm systems. All of these things are salesoriented and you just basically,
[13:41] you know, you just go find the product and then install it. Um, which is not you'll get you'll capture a significantly larger portion of the upside than just doing like a sales agency, which I promise you like it's
[13:53] not going to be as good as you think it is. I've yet to see any sales agency get just because it's too painful, right? Anybody who's big enough brings it in outsource. And sales is such a core part of the business. You're going to be
[14:06] part of their business. And that's not the business you're going to want to be in. All right, Colin. Can I get a pause these? All right. Um, someone just paused it
[14:20] for me. There we go. Silus running private. Ah, well, Silus, I missed your question. All right, let's go. Moving to whatever. Uh, if you were in crippling debt with
[14:32] $20,000 in cash, would you work a sales job to pay off the debt or would you had the promise of getting out of debt faster? It's an interesting question. faster? It's an interesting question. Um, crippling debt is a very emotionally
[14:45] Um, crippling debt is a very emotionally laden weren't willing to tell me how much debt you had. Uh, and so if you had like $100,000 in debt and you had $20,000 in cash, um, it's an interesting question
[15:00] that I was just answering, which is it's a risk based question. Like what is the correct amount of risk to take on? Depends if you win or not, right? Um, somebody says, well, is there really a big difference between taking out, you
[15:14] know, a loan for $500,000 versus $400,000 to start this new business? basically get the other hundred that I would pay off, which is my personal debt? probably uh on the other hand there's probably a strong argument for
[15:27] it off. It does depend on how much debt it is and how good your skill set is, right? And so there's a there's a big fat it depends and both of them are one is on your skill. The second is on your risk tolerance. The true downside is
[15:40] credit gets dinged and then you start from scratch again. So it's not death if you fail. That is the true worst case. All right, FBA dimes. Last one and then had one profitable business funding another business, my god, this is g this
[15:55] is such a common question. If you had one profitable business funding another potential, how would you allocate your time, capital, and attention between time, capital, and attention between them, dude or do that?
[16:11] Everybody everybody thinks I mean like the call I was just on right is you get doesn't grow as fast as you want you realize all the crap that's inside of it everything I've learned I thought there's a better business than the one
[16:26] and then you're like well I don't want to start there from scratch because this is my cash flow so you know I should take this cash flow to put in this other thing I will just tell you from experience that the new thing will grow
[16:39] five times faster if you go all in on the new thing than if you try and straddle two. Like it's it's it's it's virtually impossible to run two businesses. Well, right. Um and one of the one of the most unfortunate things
[16:53] that I've seen is people are like, "Well, what about Elon? You're not Elon. You're not. If you were, you would already had an exit for whatever hundred first company. It was like 24. You're not Elon, right? It's the same people
[17:07] Buffett." I'm like, "Dude, you're 30 and you're buying your first stocks." He bought his first when he was seven. You're not Warren Buffett. Like, hey, I Mozart. Well, did you write your first concert at whatever nine? Probably not,
[17:21] right? And so, it's like some level of self-awareness is useful. Most people Now, you can own more than one company. Very different, right? I can own shares in Apple. Not a big deal. I don't run Apple. Right? So if you if you buy
[17:36] something and it runs and you have an operator that works. If you are the operator of two businesses, there's just not enough bandwidth. There's too many things going on. And you have to make a call. And I think
[17:50] try to split their attention um don't succeed in either is because there's actually a larger character trait that they're lacking, which is decisiveness. would be able to make the call and say, "This is what I'm going to And then that
[18:03] would repeat throughout the business because that lack of decisiveness also businesses that decisions are not made fast enough. They're not made decisively enough. And as a result, they do not grow. And so I will tell you this, the
[18:16] speed of the company is based on the speed of decision-m of the boss. I'm growth in your business is based on the speed of your decision-m. So it's not not like you're going to type faster. You're going to be more erratic. Like we
[18:29] the things that take the longest time in business are the decisions that you And the thing is is that you can do the decision to begin with because you can delay and sit in a decision for
[18:43] situation right now. So what I would encourage you to do is burn the boats. businesses. But what you will notice is that at each of the punctuated periods boats and get rid of the one that I had before. And it's usually because uh I
[18:58] time, but then they still they take off in. All right, next caller. Let's do this. Hey, Alex. My name is Benjamin. I run an
[19:11] agency. We provide lead generation and SAS solutions for life affirming crisis pregnancy centers. Uh side note, your book helped us create our grand slam Hell yeah, baby. It's helped us reach
[19:24] like thousands more mothers and a lot more babies alive today because of that. So, congrats on your own baby, too. >> But we we generate uh 2 million per year uh plus 550 on the SAS side. >> Um we want to get to 5 million in two
[19:38] >> Uh and we're growing consistently. But what's stopping me is that despite is still >> mattering to me a lot, I have lost the motivation to do the work. So, I've been doing this almost nine years. I turned
[19:52] 30 on the 18th. Um about a year ago it started. I've been feeling increasingly jaded. I'm trying to determine whether I'm burnt out, bored, miscast in my role, or just genuinely ready to move on.
[20:06] >> I think so. So So I I define burnout as the reward that you got for doing the work before either comes now at a greater delay or no longer satisfies the change the variety or intensity of reward. All right. So you said in plain
[20:22] speak uh you're not getting out of it what you used to for the same work. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So I'll give you two frames to think through this with. Number one is all businesses are the same when you
[20:37] succeed at a high enough level, which is that if you play this out until it's at going to have a director of marketing, a director of sales, director of IT, a going to be managing those seven people. on the widget or the product that you
[20:49] doesn't really matter. I mean, it matters from a like big goal, mission, that's already fine, but your actual day-to-day is not going to change that day-to-day is not going to change that materially.
[21:04] is that I think that you are not thinking big enough. thinking big enough. Like you seem like a uh a cogent person. Like you seem like you have relatively clear thinking. Um, and so I think that
[21:18] you have higher potential than you have aspirations, at least stated just now. said I'm at two, you know, whatever, two and a half, I think we get to five in the next two years. Like why not get to 10
[21:32] 10 in in in 12 months, right? Like why not >> Yeah. >> Like what would it take? >> So it's tough. Our our TAM we we are TAM size limited. I think there's, you know,
[21:46] size limited. I think there's, you know, we have about 20% or 15% of the market share. Um, there's probably 800 pregnancy centers out there that would >> Okay. >> Um, and so unless we added like lots
[21:59] >> Um, >> you know, which we could do. over the last two years, well, this isn't a problem. I've delegated a lot. So, my team's handling like all the dayto-day. Yeah. And um so I cleared
[22:13] that up my schedule so I could focus on the things that only the CEO could do. I days. I carved out two days for just maker activities. >> Uh yeah, it was a great video. Um but I've been doing that for about two
[22:26] months now and what I've ended up doing is just sitting at my desk and it just barrier just keeping me from doing the work. And that work being like writing content, filming content. This is essentially the I went to the scaling
[22:39] "Yeah, you're your problem is you need to be more famous." So, launch the podcast. You're Yeah, good. >> Um, launch the podcast. It's going well. Um, but, you know, I know I'm not a lazy person, but for some reason, I feel very
[22:52] don't want to do it. And so, my Christian CEO group said, "You need to it either. >> It means the work itself is no longer >> [clears throat] >> And so to me, what creates reward? What
[23:07] creates reward for me is challenge. And I'm going to put a big one here is I'm going to put a big one here is stakes. you're not thinking big enough is like like here's my equivalent for you. You
[23:22] table because I'm in Vegas, right? You're at a blackjack table and you have $10,000 saved up. If you're playing $100 hands, like you could lose your entire fortune in in a in a night in Vegas, right? If you're a billionaire and
[23:37] you're playing $100 hands, you make a $100 faster than you can even play the hand. It becomes meaningless. And so when billionaires at the casino, they have to bet with big enough zeros that it
[23:51] actually has real stakes for them. And so the thing is is like I think you've become successful enough that you must raise your stakes. raise your stakes. It's like you have to make bigger bets.
[24:04] on about the same amount of clients like targeting 25 new ones for the last two years. We've saved up half a million in the bank and kind of figuring out how do we want to spend this to to grow. Yeah. um you know my so we're hiring like
[24:21] the past it would have been demand is my constraint but I know you're just going setter which is we could get more proposals so we get more business >> good >> um but you know I've I looked at you
[24:34] frameworks for burnout is like it's the wrong type of work so if you're doing like the menial stuff you should have delegated then you know delegate that >> so I realized you know I love negotiating pitching communicating those
[24:47] high stakes conversations. Yeah. But the ops, keeping organized, stuff like that, I dread. Is that realistic for me as a CEO to say, "How can I get to just doing >> Dude, you can do whatever the [ __ ] you want.
[24:59] >> dude. It's your business. You can do whatever the [ __ ] you want. There are no rules. It's the You like the You like the offers book. The first line in that book is there are no rules. Toby from And this goes all the way up.
[25:11] Toby from Shopify, who's the founder, he just works on product. He's not even the That's all he likes doing. So that's what he does. >> So would that mean like trying to hire a COO level? Um when do you know because I
[25:27] later at your company. When do you know you're ready to just have an ops person >> It's just I would say this is that you don't want an ops person because ops actually run [ __ ] What you want is a leader. And I would prefer you use that
[25:40] it'll be much closer to the person you actually need because like right now some way. They admire elements of who you are. And so you need someone who people also admire that they will then go to to solve their day-to-day
[25:55] the the best leaders are excellent decision makers and excellent with people. And that's what makes somebody who's a quote good operator. And no good operators. Just as a little tidbit I've learned
[26:07] from placing operators. [laughter] They don't call themselves operators. >> So it could be another visionary type as well. It doesn't have to be just more of >> No, I'm saying the a people manager again people manager sounds like a
[26:20] manager. I think you want a call it a director and up because you want somebody who the whole team looks up to and then can go to them rather than you so that you can go promote. It sounds like you like winning business.
[26:32] >> Right. So it's like right now you're a hunter and you're in the farm boring. It's like yeah no [ __ ] Especially if you're a hunter. >> It's like dude you got to go hunt. >> Like you got to go hunt not because the
[26:47] it. >> Yeah. So larger deals. >> Yes. Why do you think I did the launch the $und00 million launch? I didn't like there's no per like the business that I have makes a shitload of money, right?
[26:59] shitload of money. I don't need to do $100 million launches. I made up a goal >> Yeah. >> Entirely made up. >> Find bigger deals. My deals right now are 3K a month and
[27:11] >> Um I mean these are nonprofit versus pregnancy centers, so it's hard. I mean niche. I could find people who could spend more, but I don't know what to offer them because it feels like I'd be selling uh you know vanity marketing
[27:25] Google Ads, SEO, AEO because that's really where they get the leads from. That's where women go to find info. And so I could add all these other marketing that it'll help. So I'm not sure. >> That's fine. I would rather you just
[27:38] velocity. >> So I'll tell I'll tell you I I'll give backdoor baseball or something like that. Um there's a deal that I'm working on. Um I I I have to be very careful about what I'm sharing. Um
[27:54] but we have goals for that company, right? And the goals that we have talked business have been okay this is what we're going to do over the next five and seven years. As soon as we agreed on those numbers and we went back and forth
[28:07] involved with both of those things on both sides. As soon as I met up with uh my team internally I was like how the [ __ ] are we going to do this in 12 the entire model to getting it done in 12 months. And so that's what we started
[28:22] at like what would it take? And so so it's my favorite question in the world. would it take? And I think that if you look at what it would take, that will stakes will go up. Because right now, you growing by 20% or 30% two years in a
[28:36] Because the thing is is it changes nothing about your life. So like for a goal to be meaningful, we have to think what happens after I accomplish this I translate the next level of what does it change about my life every day? If
[28:50] nothing changes about my life every day, then the goal has no value. And so if it must have value because otherwise then I'm doing work I don't care about to get a goal that doesn't change anything about my life. That sucks.
[29:03] on that natural >> No, this is good, dude. This is a lot of it. >> I appreciate you. Yeah, if I ramp up >> I appreciate you. Yeah, if I ramp up sales, we quickly run into a fulfillment
[29:17] um >> uh gap where we're constrained there because we're dealing with a hyperiche. I mean, there's literally like 20 people who know how to run ads with our target avatar. So, we could go out and find
[29:30] >> Google Ads people who are know how to do like just local small businesses and >> Um, but it all comes at a time that's just it's very uncertain where like our cost per lead has almost doubled in the
[29:42] last year from like inflation and AI and things like that. So, we don't even know five years from now as Google, which we're heavily reliant on as a channel, >> if it's still going to be around. So, what's your advice on scaling?
[29:56] channels. >> Don't worry about it. And I I I'll tell you why. Because that conversation has happened every single year since I've >> Because what you're saying is that marketing is changing. Marketing is
[30:08] literally always changing because attention changes. 10 years ago, people weren't starting YouTube channels. Things change, like the thing is is the thing that you have to bet on is that you will figure
[30:22] and the [clears throat] writing on the wall will be obvious. I think more entrepreneurs kill businesses out of anxiety and worry than reality does. it's not going to last forever. No business lasts forever. Doing exactly
[30:38] the business will change over time because the world changes. It makes sense. >> Yeah. So said differently, if you have a understand very deeply, you understand their problems, you understand to help
[30:51] them, then the services that you offer them are basically limitless. It's just that in exchange for money. Now, I'm not saying do everything for that person. I business model, but like you generating leads, like they're going to still need
[31:05] having leads will not go away. And so then the question is just do you think you'll be able to figure it out when things change? >> I do. I think we're in that transition right now because you're right, we've
[31:17] but this is the first year we actually see like CPL significantly affected by we're here now. >> Yeah. Then and great. And you've worried it's actually here and now you can make the shift. And you're going to do it
[31:31] over time when you just put 30% of your ad budget over here, 50% of your budget and over time you're just going to elegantly switch over. No big deal. that >> and AEO is the future for local
[31:45] >> I think it's one of I think there's a lot of pieces to it but like I don't don't think it matters for your decision-m process right now. Um >> you just have to believe that you have the ability to solve this better than
[31:58] >> Do you feel like that's true? >> Yeah. >> Then yeah, dude, I wouldn't sweat it. I just think so takeaways here. I think to bet bigger. I think you need to shorten your timelines so that they're
[32:12] the [ __ ] off your plate that's farming and you get back to hunting and promoting. Like go close some business and I think you'll feel better about it because you'll actually be like making meaningful progress towards a goal that
[32:24] it actually has a change an impact on your life. You growing 20 or 30% is not where you live. If you grow by 300% it will. Love it. >> Appreciate you. No, you bet, dude.
[32:38] >> Appreciate you. All right, the chat. That is French for All right, the chat. That is French for chat. Uh, it's also Spanish. L chat. All going to get a little international today, but here we are. Um, let's go
[32:52] be a good one. If Alex doesn't answer your question, just know you already know what you need to do. You need to go do it. Yeah. Done. I guess that I guess that's the chat of the day. Um, all right. Lucky seven flips. How can I
[33:06] lazy. I think I just did I literally there I just broke that entire thing down. Um you need bigger stakes. That's it. You either need some big incentive that excites you or something behind you that scares you or both. But doing what
[33:20] you're currently doing is not working. So change it up. All right. Uh all the tell you right now, I'm not going to answer your question for the rest of the day. So don't post it in there because I told you don't repeat it. All right. Uh
[33:33] let's see what else we got. Oakley Blade, I am the most anticipated VR game in the world. That sounds a bit bold. Uh cuz I haven't heard of it. Um so Nitriel maintain two versions. Need to kill one
[33:46] and disappoint thousands to survive. I'm scared. Um why don't why don't you just let the people like I don't actually understand this. Why don't you just maintain the old version uh and then start a new one
[33:59] old one basically be on break fix because you have people already happy with that one. Um if that's actually true just a consideration. Uh the talking about this very specific problem on the founders podcast. Uh I would
[34:13] encourage you to listen to that listen to that podcast uh episode because he had four versions of base camp and he said one of the big mistakes that a lot of software companies make is that they force all users to up to take the new
[34:25] version when they were very happy with the old version just because the founder wants something new not the customer. And so if you want to do this new thing they're already paying you so just let them pay you and then start something
[34:39] them pay you and then start something else. consideration. Um, XL Dave Barnett, I'm trapped in the UK. Wages are low. Do you think it's worthwhile focusing on selling internationally? Okay, bro. Strong words. You're trapped
[34:53] in the UK. Are you in a cage? Is someone holding you down? Like, it's 70 million people. It's like one of the largest economies in the world. There's ton there's billionaires in in the UK. I honestly don't think that I I you have
[35:08] I think that selling internationally is a good idea? Yes. Do I think that the the thing that's limiting you? No. I think the fact that you're saying that you're trapped uh is the thing that you are believing like you are you're you're
[35:22] selling yourself on that lie. That's not true in any way. Like fundamentally, you money to do stuff for them. That's literally how you start a business. And you're saying you're trapped in in a low wage job. I understand that. you just do
[35:34] then as soon as you make more on the other hours of the day, here's the cool part about being in a low wage job, you will be able to replace your income faster because you have less to replace.
[35:46] Real. And so the bar of what you got to make is lower. Where you run into issues is that the way that you measure money is flawed. especially when you're poor, is that you sell from your own wallet. like you're
[36:00] not imagine someone spending more money than this. And I'll tell you a really interesting secret for me. Um, the biggest prices that I've ever sold in my life proportional to what my income was was during times where I made offers
[36:14] was during times where I made offers that I hoped the person would say no to. launch business where I was flying out to gyms and the business didn't work for a variety of reasons. I mean, it made money, but like I I there was there was
[36:28] flaws in the model. And so, we were switching to selling uh weight loss over the phone. And so, in the transition period, I was going to call or I called owners that were we were supposed to fly out and do the launch the next month and
[36:40] able to do it anymore. And so, when the first one asked me, hey, well, you know, really saved his gym. Like, I know you can do it. You know, he asked me, what would it take functionally? He said, well, how much? And so I made up a price
[36:53] sold. Like I'd never sold something for $6,000 before. It was crazy. I was $6,000 before. It was crazy. I was broke, dude. Um, and the guy said 6K. I yesterday. He was like 6K. And I was like, "Yeah, $6,000."
[37:05] Like I enunciated it. And he was like, "Done." And I remember like floating above my body being like, "What the [ __ ] just happened?" And then I was like, want to use for that?" And I wrote down his credit card and I ran a bill for
[37:19] $6,000. And I was like, "Holy shit." And then I had seven more calls The next one I was like 8,000. Next one was 10,000. I just kept uping. I was thing is is like the thing that got me out of that was that I didn't want him
[37:33] didn't want him to say yes. And then he did. And it shattered my view of reality in terms of how much you can charge for things. And so right now, the biggest that you will sell to broke people and you sell using broke prices. And if you
[37:46] it is because the hardest barriers in entrepreneurship are psychological, not ideas that you have about reality that are flawed. Your model of how the world works is not true. It is why you're not getting what you want out of reality.
[38:00] All right, let's do the next uh next punta. That's Spanish, by the way. >> All right. >> Hey, Alex. I'm Aaron Smith and I run a creative studio that publishes board
[38:13] games. My first product uh generated about 1.3 million last year. >> Yeah. >> Is it digital or like cardboard? Board >> Cardboard. >> No [ __ ] Okay. What's the name of the
[38:25] >> It's called Sea Beasts. >> See? Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. We did a Kickstarter and then I did ecom pre-sales uh right after >> Um so I I still haven't even delivered it. We're like in the final stages of
[38:41] fulfilling it. >> Um, but in the meantime, I've also going to be launching over the next 6 >> Um, and my long-term goal is to build a multimedia entertainment company built
[38:55] around the original IP >> expanding into books, animation, film. >> Uh, but right now it's just me and a handful of contractors. Okay. >> So, deadlines are getting harder, margins getting tighter, tighter.
[39:09] >> Um, yeah. I just feel the weight of it all. Um, and so I need I know I need a higher, but the tricky part is I've reinvested all of my profits into these next launches. >> So, yeah. So, I need to
[39:24] uh make sure that, you know, the right I get the right hire first, basically. Um, we also found out on Sunday we're pregnant with our fourth kid, too. So, now.
[39:38] >> Yeah. Uh so if you were in my shoes, what would you what would your first few what would you what would your first few hires be to uh scale the company to 5 million 10 million next couple years? >> What's your hard cost in a game?
[39:50] >> Beyond >> hard cost uh the base base game would be like 12 bucks. Uh like the more deluxe version I have tons of like add-ons that stack onto it. >> Uh goes up to about $33.
[40:03] >> Manufacturing. Uh, I'm selling base game 80 bucks. Uh, my biggest package is 250. >> Uh, AOV is probably 130 to 180.
[40:15] >> Uh, AOV is probably 130 to 180. >> Got it. You asked what I would do. I would tell all the people who gave you
[40:30] that 1.3 million that if they buy one of your next games, they get a second game free. So I could double the cash that I have. Given your cost basis, a lot of that should be gross profit. Then you'll have some p
[40:44] gross profit. Then you'll have some p some some padding. Number one, >> it's a BOGO offer. So now because like think of it like this, who do I think would like to buy games? People who have already bought games. And if you could
[40:56] game, you get two more games. I think many of them will say yes because also ago. They don't even remember it anymore. It's gone, get a bigger Christmas present sounds attractive. So that's thing number one.
[41:11] >> Thing number two, um, is I have to get clear on what your constraints are, but before I do, what's the big mistake you made so that we can name it so that you don't do it again? I mean, I made a ton of mistakes.
[41:25] We've already gone over. What's the big one? one? >> Uh, just me, like not hiring people or made. >> Oh, boy.
[41:38] Uh, not delivering it yet or finishing the first one. >> Oh, right. >> Yeah. That you're like, "Bro, I'm so stressed." It's like, "No shit." You now
[41:51] trying to deliver five games with the sales from one. trying to get of course you are, but you're still working on them, dedicated to these other four games, if you just dedicated the first game and
[42:06] have cash and that would be it. >> And then you've complete the loop. You is is you built these other games and this I'll tell you some truth that you don't want to hear. You're going to get feedback from the first game that you're
[42:19] do that. I should incorporate that in game two, three, four, >> Your game hasn't actually encountered reality yet. Like, fundamentally, you just built you built a VSSL. [laughter]
[42:34] You drove traffic to a video that got people to buy. That is what you've succeeded at. You actually haven't built a good game yet. You've sold a game. We'll find out whether you delivered on it well. Okay,
[42:46] >> true. So, >> so big picture, I want you to erase the other games from your mind for a moment. I want you to make an offer to the that are coming down the line so you can generate some cash. I want you to not
[43:00] those two other games with this extra cash. Then, uh we have to look at what is the thing that is taking the majority >> Mhm. [clears throat] >> And that's going to be that first hire.
[43:12] taking most of your time that that makes you the least money? >> Most of it was customer support for like the first four months. Um, yeah, it was intense. So, I got a contractor that could answer emails, but still like a
[43:28] >> So, I think that's the lowest hanging fruit. Um, also running ads. Like, I'm actually not very good at running ads. actually not very good at running ads. Um, I've ran the same same uh creative
[43:40] >> Yeah, >> thank God. >> thank God. >> So, yeah, I know. Uh, so that that's time and I'm also not the best at it, too. Like, I know that.
[43:54] >> Yeah. >> Um, and then, uh, just other operational like trying to get the business like actually up and running. Um, as far as just all the backend operations, fulfillment, logistics,
[44:07] time being distracted because right now you have no employees and you >> like you have added complexity to your life and I think you spent a lot of time not sure what to do and that is what's eating your time.
[44:21] act. >> Yeah. Which means you need clarity, right? Anxiety comes from a lot of different actions and no priorities. comes from. That's what you're feeling right now. And to eliminate anxiety, you
[44:35] do that through subtraction. You need to take things away. you get some cash up front, but that does increase the load because you're
[44:47] on. Right? So, that's the that's the trade there. The alternative version of this, like if Ila were sitting next to me, what she would probably say is forget the other four games exist. I'll tell like I I can play both hats because
[45:00] good enough at this point. I'm I'm a yes which is why we work well. She would probably say, "Hey, don't do anything going to suck because you're going to get feedback from the first one. Uh how
[45:14] much cash do you have of that 13?" >> Uh the three uh about 150. >> Geez, bro. How much did you spend on these other four games?
[45:26] these other four games? The other four I'm probably about The other four I'm probably about over probably about 150 as well >> Well, then what did you I mean can you deliver the games that you promised with
[45:39] >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Well then, bro, deliver the games. >> Paid for all of it. Yeah. >> Well, just like your entire objective of >> Yep. >> All right. Absolutely.
[45:52] It's like dude, you have no employees. What is the operations? your thing is shipping, which you're not probably handling. >> Yeah. I I have some fulfillment partners that I'm managing, but then also the
[46:07] >> Well, yeah, but that's But you hear what I'm saying here. Like you've added business where people made a purchase. You send them a cardboard box with toys >> Yep. >> Right. And so you got some people in
[46:20] Great. Hire a virtual assistant. They can respond to the emails. Now what? Yeah. Oh, virtual assistant. Yeah, that's >> What else we got? >> I mean, uh, longterm though.
[46:37] You're worried about long-term. And longterm is killing your short term, >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> You need You made a promise. You got to deliver on the promise. Once you do
[46:49] much cash you got left. Then you can spend that extra cash on these other will probably tweak based on the feedback you get from your customers, >> right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we are going to be delivering in the next month or
[47:03] so. So, like manufacturing is wrapping up and it's going to be on boats. So, it's it's practically there. Um, >> so I'm basically looking at the next >> Yeah. >> And I'm mid Kickstarter right now for
[47:15] that second game. Um, and and it's performing exactly the same as the first one. Um, so that's that's also >> I think you should join a community >> that uh like join something specific to Facebook ads if you want um so that you
[47:30] is by far the biggest lever that you are missing right now. Obviously you can look at Qualium in terms of how we do our like mass production of ads and content. Um like there's tons of stuff inside of Vantage about that. Um,
[47:43] like I don't like you said you said ads are taking a lot of your time, but you that's converting. So like it sounds like you're just staring at saying like need to go learn and experiment. You have to try [ __ ]
[47:57] >> right? Yeah. I've been doing some experimental stuff but um not at mass scale that answers. >> Here's something tactical. Give yourself a learning budget on ads. Pick a number that you don't care about too much. to
[48:11] that you don't care about too much. to a,000 2,000 5,000 $10,000 a month and take that number and be willing to lose 100% of it learning how to run ads. >> And that means that you can experiment. So of that of that X dollars per month,
[48:26] take 70% put it towards things that are almost identical to the winner. 20% is adjacent and then 10 is just wild [ __ ] ideas. All right, that's your tactical thing. Do not worry about the other four games.
[48:39] the first thing. And you as an entrepreneur, you need to focus on one thing at a time, dude. Like you will like Hulet or Packard had this quote um which is businesses die from indigestion, not starvation. We take on
[48:52] too much, not too little. That is how businesses die because you get spread anything. That's where the anxiety comes from. You have to eliminate. >> All right. Appreciate you, brother. >> Appreciate it.
[49:05] >> We'll see you. >> All right. >> All right. Okay, Melissa Gumroki, uh, I burned out hard work became a habit. I rebuilding and willing to make the sacrifices. How
[49:18] do I break the plateau uh without how to break the pattern without returning to unhealthy habits? Man, you've got a lot of words in there uh that feel very heavy. Um, I think this is really important. So,
[49:33] because I'm I'm going to repeat Melissa's question. I burned out chasing means here. And [clears throat] over time, avoiding hard work became a habit.
[49:45] So, you just didn't do [ __ ] Okay, I'm rebuilding now. But it's like you're not rebuilding. Like, we're not building a house, right? Again, I I I'm so so anal with language because we we weave ourselves into these traps uh and we
[50:00] create handcuffs with the words that we use that don't mean anything, right? Right? And so we create these visual words like handcuffs that chain us to our present. But there is no chain. You are not a prisoner. You can just do
[50:15] you're rebuilding now willing to make sacrifices. Like what sacrifices are we talking about? How do I break the pattern? So in this condition I behave a specific way without returning to my unhealthy habits, my other patterns
[50:28] which let's define healthy, right? And so, all right, zooming out, Melissa, you just have to do stuff that gets you the outcome you want. And if you're not
[50:41] doing that stuff, then it means that you are more rewarded for doing nothing than doing the thing, which makes sense. And so, you will need to have something that motivates you in a good way that you can go towards or something that motivates
[50:54] you in a bad way that you can run away from. You can use both, you can use one. It doesn't really matter. But I think that chasing success, I hit this one earlier. Like you need I think some people need
[51:07] to I need to make bigger risks. You need to make bigger bets. Like it's like uh if it does work, it doesn't matter. It's like well then why do it? Like make a bigger bet. Make a bet that you're like a little nervous about because that's
[51:21] what's going to motivate you, right? Is the stakes. I think stakes are not spoken enough about like you have you have you've reached a certain level of yourself and and and and and go to work every day. Congratulations. That's good.
[51:33] That's an accomplishment. Nothing wrong with that. Um but I think that like you my life I spend looking backwards from a future version of myself saying what will I be dissatisfied about the person that I am today? Like what will that guy
[51:47] say about today? What will he nitpick me for that that I would be ashamed of in the future? And then I let that shame of my future? And then I let that shame of my future self motivate me today to move.
[52:05] about all these words that you're using because I think they are just keeping because I think they are just keeping you down. All right. Arin Katra Katri. All right. Uh, Alex, I want to start my own agency, but due to AI, I'm afraid to
[52:17] start it. Man, everyone's so afraid. Uh, I've been planning on it for two years, [laughter] I was 12.
[52:37] switch? All right, dude. You're not switching because you haven't started, right? Um, that was all time, by the way. That was great. Um, dude, start start 100%. Be like, if you're 16 and you're watching my stuff, you're way
[52:51] ahead of the game, man. Um, and again, there's this fear, right? You keep seeing I keep seeing this this return, this fear around the future. And it's in the future prevent me from taking something that is known today.
[53:06] We have like so little faith in our ability to figure things out. Like if I could wish one thing for you, it's that you will figure it out. So let me give you an idea. Think back. So this is this is actually really good.
[53:19] right? They're like, I want to have more confidence. Okay, confidence is domain specific, but over time can generalize. So what does that mean? So if I am good
[53:31] So what does that mean? So if I am good at singing, I sing and then eventually uh I don't have any stress about singing. Now, I might have stress about singing. Now, I might have stress about public speaking, but if I sing enough
[53:44] times and I talk between my acts, I might get to a point where I say, "Huh, I don't I I don't think I should be nervous for speaking. I've I've kind of done something really close to that before. So, this should kind of carry."
[53:57] you don't get nervous and you could do a good job. So then you start to think to yourself, huh, whenever I do new things, I prepare like I did for singing and general when I dedicate time and effort towards an endeavor that I find
[54:11] meaningful. And so I haven't done this thing yet, but I am confident that I done so in the past. And so I'll give you a little example of this. I was very might hear this and be like, Alex, how could you be nervous to public speak?
[54:26] right? Which to be fair, this is like Cameron. I got like two dudes behind me. over, you know, get get hot and bothered about it. But um when I uh was in high
[54:38] presentation where you like get up and and there's like 12 people in class and you're like uh Abraham Lincoln, you know, like whatever, right? And so I assumed that I just was very nervous to do public speaking. And the first public
[54:51] do public speaking. And the first public speaking I did as an adult, so post business was to a,200 person room. So I went from high school with 30 people or whatever people are in the room to 1,200 40x big delta. And what was interesting
[55:06] is I remember right as I was about to go on stage I was like I'm not that that nervous? And so I thought to myself I was like well I've spoken in front of people with a mic a lot of times. And so my aha moment was two things. Number one
[55:20] was talking about something I didn't understand. I'm just telling [ __ ] I did. because they don't know what I did. I know what I did. So there's no there's no discrepancy. Now before this, there was a guy uh who was a teacher who was
[55:33] Abraham Lincoln better than me. And the answer was he did, right? Because I did it the night before and he's he was a history teacher. That's literally what course he'd be better at it. And it would make sense for me to be nervous
[55:46] thinks the potential is. He's seen a hundred students and I'm probably not going to be the best one. So number one, I knew the subject. Second was that I generalized. This is really important. This is like honestly if you guys can
[55:59] take away this thing towards all futures endeavors it would be worth it for just podcast or whatever. I realized that I had
[56:11] when I was a trainer had a mic and a group of people and I was telling them hours a day and I never thought much about it because I was like well that's I mean this was my job right and so all I was like all I'm going to do is get on
[56:25] stage again with a mic and tell people what to do. It's the same thing. And so I know what I'm talking about and I'm going to do a mic and I've done this a hundred times before. And so, the idea is that you might not have done that
[56:40] something that you have done before towards that thing, which allows you to towards that thing, which allows you to extrapolate or stand a top your past history. And so, one of my most quoted tweets of all time was um outwork your
[56:56] yourself a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are. Right? And so the idea again is not the affirmations in the mirror. It's the of undeniable proof doesn't mean like the perfect world is that you've done a
[57:10] thousand sales calls before. But if I had never done a sales call before, what would I think? So I'm going to give you a frame. This is a a mindset. I don't This is a lens to see through reality through.
[57:23] Have I spoken on the phone a thousand times? Yes. Have I spoken to strangers before on the phone? Yes. In what conditions? I've made for doctor's offices. I've called for restaurants. I've called for mechanic
[57:37] shops to ask if XYZ. I have spoken to strangers before. I've spoken a thousand times on the phone. So, I've done things that approximate this really close. So, why do I have this tremendous fear? I shouldn't because it is not as unknown
[57:50] as I think it is. For sure, there are some unknowns, but it's not 100% I would encourage you whenever you're about to start something new, don't anything like this before." Of course, you haven't done something exactly like
[58:03] that before, but you have done things like it before. And so all you have to terms of the things that you generalize. So the example I started with was the she talks in between and then she could extrapolate that to public speaking.
[58:15] Okay? But if she then said, "I want to code on a computer," that would be different in terms of core skills. But do we believe that she has learned to approach any new thing with the same process of doing
[58:31] repetitions beforehand so that she prepares ahead of time and then when she has done it. She has stacked the reps and the answer is yes. And so when she does her coding bip she can succeed because and this is in my opinion I I
[58:44] thing is how you do everything. But I do like the idea of how you approach one you will approach other things that you All right, with that, let's do the next caller.
[58:58] Let's do it. Let's dance. >> Hey, Alex. >> That's Spanish for Let's Dance >> a little. Go for it. >> Hey, my name is Jason. I'm the technical
[59:12] founder of Starter School. We do online courses for tech education for >> Cool. >> And we run uh a bunch of webinars. Basically, we're 100% paid ads on Facebook. Uh we have a direct toart
[59:27] model >> currently priced at 297 for a batch of like seven courses. >> Uh we do a couple order bumps. Uh and then we have a post-purchase upsell for 189 which is like you know everything we
[59:39] have basically under the think. Um, we did about 700,000 topline in May. >> Good. >> And the profit on that was about two or reason that was possible was because the rorowaz that we were getting was like
[59:55] >> Yeah. >> But since then, the rorowaz has dropped a lot closer to a one >> and we mined down to about 150k. Uh, top >> So, we're on [clears throat] track to lose about 60 grand. We've got 180 grand
[01:00:11] >> And one of the things that we've learned from watching Jason Flattley in and your we need a high ticket offer, >> but the only thing we can come up with high ticket is like this idea of, hey, well, you know, we'll do like a a white
[01:00:25] glove like coaching service and maybe actually really get some hands-on with >> Um, because we know that time spent with us is pretty valuable. us is pretty valuable. >> Um, and so my question to you is, is
[01:00:37] you tell so many people, hey, don't go off and do this totally different thing, right? Stick to your main business. Is that a different arrow or how would you something that can be automated as a higher ticket to fix our problem or
[01:00:52] should we be really considering this other manual arrow? >> Okay, so first off, congrats. Second off, sorry about the current situation. Um, couple different ways to approach this. So, one is like if you went from
[01:01:05] bet that it's a creative issue, right? We just need to pump more good creative like the in 30 days the algorithm changed, right? The other thing, and might have to look at the pixel event because uh you know, meta might be
[01:01:19] in the funnel or not getting the ideal customer and so found a new pocket of um and so the pixel is getting trained on the wrong the wrong audience. So like gut checks that I would do before changing the business model. All right
[01:01:33] now if I were to change the business model it really reverse engineers from is like there's nothing wrong with having a business that is that has almost entirely automated uh delivery. Um you can add a lot of leverage to
[01:01:46] delivery by just keeping it group and still selling high ticket where you will then uh encounter uh kind of like an operational still going to be pretty high leverage. So, how many tickets are you sell? When
[01:01:58] I say tickets, like how many um how many how many widgets are you selling uh per how many widgets are you selling uh per week?
[01:02:10] are ripping. >> Okay, got it. So, that's fine. So if I had like basically if you had call it threeish sales guys that all they did was on the thank you page after they uh buy the the product uh they get a
[01:02:27] complimentary call it onboarding call right you would be able to set them up for a call it $5 to $10,000 purchase um on the back end and that would question is who's making the purchases? Is it teenagers is it parents?
[01:02:44] because I I was dying to ask you this question, too. So, like parents, we're advertising mostly to moms. That's our >> Perfect. [snorts] Between like 32 and 55.
[01:02:56] >> But when we sell to the moms, the moms then go talk to their kids and they're like, "Hey, I got this really cool thing. I think you're gonna like it." And then the kids are like, "No, AI uses too much water. No, AI is this. AI is
[01:03:08] days? right now. >> Yes, sir. water. >> Dude, you are going to be sucked into
[01:03:21] the world of AI. Whether you like it or not, every service you use is going to be using it. You're going to participate unless you want to become Amish. So, like, how do we get that across to the kids, you know?
[01:03:33] kids, you know? >> Got it. Um, I would say this is that So, if I wanted to have the simplest fix of a backend, right, in terms of delivery and sales team and whatnot,
[01:03:46] that, which is what I built a lot of businesses around. So, like I can talk done it before, probably wouldn't be my first solution set. So, my first solution set would be the the following three things. So, number one is I would
[01:03:59] the most high quality avatar. Number one. Number two, look at um I don't know if you have this level of attribution, but um you should be able to see uh which ads specifically are generating the highest LTV cohort. So the people
[01:04:13] who are taking the upsell at the 189. I would want my pixel event not just to purchase post upsell because then we can train the pixel on the best quality audience. And I um think that your upsell is likely mispriced that $189. Um
[01:04:28] I think you could probably get away with something that's like $1,500. take it, it's going to make a much what's your take rate on the 189 right now?
[01:04:40] >> It's pretty good. Like 30 40%. >> Yeah. So it's like you get 70 on top of your what 2297.
[01:04:56] >> Yeah. The average order value is around four3 to $400. Yeah, like if you had like a $1,500 upsell, even you had a 5% conversion on it, right? Well, 5% would be equivalent, but if you had a 10% conversion on, you
[01:05:10] get 150. It would be something that I would look at. Um, and I would just do it as a group cohort. Like if I like you could probably just test all my other courses for 1,500 and see what happens. Um, as option one. Option two is you do
[01:05:24] all my other courses plus, you know, a 12week accelerated boot camp on the back know, one call a week in a community that's very light on the delivery side. Um, and that wouldn't require you to
[01:05:36] build a sales team. Uh, and so I said in sequence, number one, more and better customers that the highest LTV. Number two, put the pixel behind the uptake rate so that it still takes 14 days for the pixel reset, but that's like I would
[01:05:49] I would look at that. Um the third test I would run or the third thing I would do is that I would run uh a high ticket uh Otto as my as my immediate thing because that we don't have to build anything else. And if one, two, and
[01:06:03] would consider increasing lifetime gross profit by adding kind of the heavy stuff which is let's add a sales team. Let's call the customers. Let's sell them a5 call the customers. Let's sell them a5 or $10,000 thing on the back.
[01:06:19] Congratulations on the business. Uh, I think you had a bad month, man. And I and actually make like instead of going like, I'm going to make a pure AI ads, here's a little ask for you. Here's bonus number five. Make five ads from
[01:06:33] scratch manually yourself that you think are [ __ ] bangers But I think there's this been this big loss of like the art of marketing that's
[01:06:46] happened because everyone's AIing [ __ ] and it's just the the quality is still and it's just the the quality is still not there. founder. So I have another uh founder. He's doing all the videos and actual
[01:07:00] ads. >> But you know on my end I'm like all right I got to nail attribution. So I built my own pixel. I'm like predicting refunds and and upsells and LT reporting that back to Facebook. Like I'm doing
[01:07:14] good. >> So, >> so I would I would encourage you to not and see what sticks, but make a handful that you actually like I really think
[01:07:26] these will work >> and run those two because I'll bet you if you go for broke on the ads on the creative, it'll make a significant difference for your next webinar. All right. Thank you so much.
[01:07:39] >> Appreciate you, brother. All right. Ashka Aridha. Nah, man. It's just a sad reality of how media is brainwashing people with exaggerated facts. Truth. M. Bailey, data centers and AI data. Absolutely. A
[01:07:55] lot of water. I'm an AI. All right. Whatever. I'm done with AI water. Okay. building a tight audience in socials to attract high ticket clients or build a low ticket? blah blah blah. I run a CR agency. Talk about the [ __ ] you do and
[01:08:10] you will get people who are interested about the [ __ ] that you do and then they will pay you to do the [ __ ] that you do for them. And so fundamentally, you just you find interesting. So I think that if you think like your personal brand
[01:08:24] should be reflective of your life. So, if you work 8 hours a day and you've got four hours of extra [ __ ] and let's say that the four hours of extra [ __ ] is maybe split between two or three things, then proportionally your content should
[01:08:38] represent you. And so, I work a lot and so the majority of my content is about business because that's the majority of my life. I do have some stuff with Ila don't spend as much time with Ila as I do working. I work out every day and I
[01:08:53] I guess that's permanent. There's nothing I can do about that. It's what a warning, by the way. If you do get too muscular, people will find out. get too muscular, people will find out. And it's it's it's terrible. Uh
[01:09:06] um but the TLDDR is if you want people to buy your thing, then make stuff about if part of that is you, that's fine. I would just make sure that represent in terms of how you're representing your content by by quantity, it should be
[01:09:20] about the stuff uh that you want to sell. All right. Uh white 5933. I'm Al Alex. Alex, I'm 20. I dropped out of college two years ago due to college, go on business? Go on business, do like what what is a what is college
[01:09:35] going to do you? Like that ship has sailed. And I'm guessing that it was not dropped out of because they either have financial aid or you're rich for going there. So probably not your issue. Uh so yeah, I would just learn. There's so
[01:09:47] and then do it for somebody else in exchange for money because people are the laziest person. Think about this. All you have to do is be less lazy than All you have to do is be less lazy than your customer.
[01:10:03] lazy than your customer or serve someone so rich that they want people to they'll pay anyone everyone to do everything. In which case, great. That works, too. Uh, which case, great. That works, too. Uh, all right. George Paladichuk.
[01:10:15] Is selling to enterprise clients the same as selling to SMB, just different same as selling to SMB, just different messaging? Uh, not really. So I'll give between selling to enterprise and selling to SMB is actually the sales
[01:10:28] conversation itself is not that dissimilar. It's just that you have to do it 10 times in a row. So it's kind of like you sell person A to get you to using the same pitch to get you person C. You sell person C to get you person D
[01:10:40] decision maker, right? And then you get the sale. And so that is the big sales being like it's a longer sales cycle. What it really just means is you thing. That's what it is. And so I would not
[01:10:54] overly distract yourself about like, oh, enterprise sales is X, Y, or Z. You just to get someone on the hook to respond. And then once you get your foot in the which just means that person refers you to somebody else who has more authority
[01:11:06] budget so they can say yes and then give you money. But you're basically doing there's this magic arc that you've cover all this stuff, all the key holders and right? But it's just you're gonna you're going to pitch a lot of people to get 20
[01:11:20] people to say yes to make one big sale. That's the difference. Okay. I think a lot of people. [cough and laughter] [cough and laughter] All right. Um
[01:11:32] Which one you feeling? >> Biz. >> Biz. >> Biz. Biz. All right. Biz. I'm 25 and I All right. I've lost motivation because
[01:11:44] I don't think this vehicle can grow. 3 to 10x. Yes. Uh, how do I know when to fully express my potential and skill? understand how to do direct response. You understand probably how to do
[01:11:56] webinars, probably understand how to do high ticket sales teams. So, you attached uh a really valuable skill set to a a low leverage opportunity. Now, to be clear, you can make money doing it. You know, um no
[01:12:09] question there. uh you know it's very rare for bisop to get over $100 million a year and typically they don't last uh because they are arbitrage opportunities terms of like how they're acquiring customers or by the very nature of the
[01:12:22] selling. So there's just there's leverage that expands and explodes for and disappear. So it's more of like a it's like a popup business that like another one. That's why people go from launch sorry from offer to offer to
[01:12:36] the bisop world talks that way because they talk in products and businesses, but bisop is about offers. Um, so that being said, uh, you're losing motivation build things and I understand why because you have a churn factory where
[01:12:51] of them aren't successful because the nature of who is attracted to a business that what would make sense is like you take your very, you know, good acquisition skills and tie it to an actual business opportunity for you to
[01:13:04] Like the fastest money you can make is selling ladders. The biggest money you can make is climbing them, right? Like the fastest money you make you make is actually finding the gold mine. It just takes longer and is more
[01:13:19] mine. It just takes longer and is more work. profound. All right, let's do the next one. Sir Kevin, let's rock.
[01:13:35] >> Uh, barely. What's Say it again. Say it louder. >> Barely. >> Uh, one. >> All right. >> So, my name is Mahi. I'm 19 years old. I
[01:13:48] Started a bunch of businesses and failed. Right. >> And then I stumbled into my my previous successful business where I built the software that nice people's accounts. So I'd have clients log in with 20 to 50
[01:14:01] accounts and then my software would post these clients all over the these accounts. So I'd save them time and effort. I ran this business for about two years and then the media companies basically patched what I was losing. So
[01:14:16] my business went from doing 100,000 a month in profit to zero. That being said, I built a massive network of influences. So I was able to bounce back and leverage those contacts. And now I run a management company where I get
[01:14:30] cheap labor from Asian countries to where they get paid a good salary from the countries and it's still enough for me to make a profit. So now my income is about 20 to $30,000 a month in profit. It's still good money, but I basically
[01:14:45] cut down to 70% loss. I was able to save up around $700,000 up to now. What do you think I should do? Do I continue running this business over or do I try
[01:14:57] and find another software that I can build to scale like my previous my previous business? The only reason I'm having issues scaling right now is because my management company is labor intensive. So I rely on the the
[01:15:12] >> the labor I hire from outside. >> You have a service. >> you have a service. >> So it's hard to find competent people to work for me. Well, I mean, welcome [clears throat] to business.
[01:15:25] >> Yeah. Another thing is with me being 19 years old, with this much of money, I've basically lost most of the relationships I had because everything now revolves around my money is what I think is happening.
[01:15:39] >> What would you do or change in my scenario considering my age? And where amassed to where I'm financially free by the age of 25? on a good set, but you're not like, "Okay, I can retire now." Um, so I would
[01:15:53] true. Um, it might make you feel better, but it's not true. Um, that being said, first off, kudos. Second off, um, I think that you're in a service business, I would stop thinking from the perspective of what can I do with the
[01:16:08] you've started, you haven't needed the money for. And so, it's not like you're a a coal mining plant, right? like the $700,000 in some ways it limits you. Um
[01:16:20] answer your question which is a lot of times people think about business up the door of the refrigerator. They look inside and say okay I've got and they try and think okay what do I want to eat from these things? But the
[01:16:32] eat is just ask yourself what like what do I want to eat? And then you can go buy the food and figure it out. And so I think it sounds like you will always preferred the software business to the one you have. I'm guessing and
[01:16:47] >> because if it was easier I could control the fact like the outcome. >> I understand. Yeah. And so I think that it makes sense for you to like again all old. You don't have a lot of downside. Even if you lost everything today you'd
[01:17:01] just be a poor 19-year-old which is just the same as most 19 year olds. So like have big experience and skills which you already have. And so I am an advocate of you uh betting big on you and not settling for this particular business
[01:17:13] do something bigger and better. And so if you are kind of worried like don't going down if the income from your service business goes to zero because you have the cash like I'd rather you live on the cash you have so that like
[01:17:25] I'd rather you just live on that so you can go aggressive on the bets that you're going to make in the business that you really want to run than have business that you don't want to keep forever.
[01:17:39] >> Yes. I'm trying to keep my costs down to 2 to $3,000 a month so I don't have to 2 to $3,000 a month so I don't have to worry about expenses in the future. worry about expenses in the future. The 20 to 30,000 is kind of upsetting me
[01:17:52] because I was doing 100 to $120,000 a month in profit before. So, I'm not sure if I should shut down this current business and take a year off or >> software that I develop. >> I don't think it's going to take I don't
[01:18:06] distractions, you'll figure it out pretty quickly. pretty quickly. Do you think I should uh pivot from business or do you think I should still stick to social media because that is my
[01:18:21] main speciality right now? >> Well, yeah. I mean also you're you're from zero today and it doesn't really matter. So I would look at the seems like you're sharp. You're not going to have done what you did by your
[01:18:33] age without being intelligent and hardworking. Um, and so I think you thinking what what do you want to have happen? happen? >> Um, I want to scale to two to $300,000 a
[01:18:48] >> Yeah, dude. Let me just let me just pop a balloon for you. It's going to happen really fast as soon as you get your next thing. And it like let me just let me One of the biggest mistakes I've made as an entrepreneur has been that I think
[01:19:02] only add one zero to my income and then I think how do I go do that? And then I more zero on my income and then once I get there I'm like [ __ ] if I had thought this at all. I would have done something totally different. So I would prefer
[01:19:17] that you think how do I get to 2 million a month or 10 million a month and then would get me there and then look at the market size. Look how many customers it look like and think can I actually do
[01:19:30] present me prevent me from doing that? If there's nothing prevents you from that I would start. And so, the answer to your original question is uh do I service business to go pursue a more scalable opportunity? Given the fact
[01:19:44] you live on $200 or $3,000 a month, and that's what you ultimately want to do to make the bet. Obviously, that decision is yours, but I think that from a risk perspective, it makes sense. >> So, you're saying go extreme?
[01:19:57] don't have a wife, you don't have kids that are relying on you, like you can advantage of having a nest egg is that you can make bets and like the bet is if you spend $3,000 a month living, great. You just can spend time fully focused.
[01:20:13] opportunity cost to your skill set getting wasted on a service business is nothing wrong with that. I think many people would would love that h that that can do more than that and so go do more than that. Just do not put your
[01:20:26] self-worth in your cash flow. which will be hard. I can kind I can kind of resonate to the point where you said you could get get to that point very >> of course
[01:20:39] >> of course >> spike from 20,000 to 100,000 and I got next >> right so look for 10 million a month >> look for a business that can do that >> and then build one that way all right
[01:20:52] >> and then build one that way all right >> I have one more question uh make it fast >> me me having traditional talents that's wanting to going to uni. >> What do you think I should do >> when that decision pops up?
[01:21:07] that you're going to be your own man. It's either before college or after college, but at some point you're going to have to make your own decisions. >> You bet, brother. And uh I don't know,
[01:21:20] this live will be live for them. So, give me two seconds. What's your What are your parents' names? Uh, my parents name is Ahmed. >> I'm gonna have messed that up. All right. So, if you are MDI's parents,
[01:21:35] Um, you probably don't know who I am. My name's Alzi. Um, I have this portfolio immigrant parents. Um, I understand the you want to make sure that Mahi is is successful. And you think, like my
[01:21:48] has a degree is a great downside protection. It's like, okay, if he has a promise you he's unemployable. He will no longer be able to get a job. He's had a taste of the freedom that comes from business and the stakes. He will be more
[01:22:00] and then gets a normal job than he is if he if you just let him live on his own and actually pursue his own things. He will also fail multiple times between encourage you to do is not say, "I told you so," but be willing to just support
[01:22:14] incredibly rare, which is you have you have an incredibly talented and motivated son. And I think that getting in the way of that would be a great absolutely appreciate your attention which is that you want to serve and and
[01:22:28] know possible. It's just that the world has changed and I think that the advice parent has to change with it and I think you will best equip him um by basically giving him the freedom without judgment to pursue his passions because he knows
[01:22:42] the he will not not be able to feed plenty of ways to make money. He already has enough skills in order to do that. But the thing that he is more at risk of doing is settling for a goal that is too
[01:22:54] small in order to appease you and then in so doing be miserable. And I only know this because I did it. >> Cool. You can play this for them. All >> Sounds good, Alex. Thank you. >> Appreciate you, brother. All right.
[01:23:08] >> Appreciate you, brother. All right. What do we got here? Um, Reaper Kills Hey, Alex, your back's against the wall and you had no money. How would you make as much money with digital marketing in 48? Dude, this is a terrible question.
[01:23:21] Um, with digital marketing agency in 48 hours, you know what what should what outbound should I focus on? Reaper kills, you are killing me. Um, all right. I'm going to give everybody the the the the secret. All right. If you
[01:23:36] lot of money in a short period of time, which sometimes happens because you've unexpected tax bill, a big piece of machinery breaks, and you have to pull cash forward to buy a new piece. things happen. And so there are three places in
[01:23:50] a business that you can find money fast and they are in order. Number one, you ask them to prepay for future services or f future products. So if you have "Hey, can I get you to prepay for a year? Can you give them additional
[01:24:04] services at no cost in order to get them to prepay?" If they aren't willing to do future services the same level at a discount, which I don't I'm not a fan pull cash forward than give discounts. But either of those, if you need the
[01:24:16] is you go to existing customers, get them to prepay. Number two is you go to likely people to give you money are people who have already given you money. in the past, and what you do is you give
[01:24:30] is an email or text that says, "I owe you money." And what you do is you take credit that towards future purchases." So, if someone spent $200 with you, you know, if you're if you do phone sales, uh, or you could do it via email and
[01:24:43] say, "Hey, I will credit you this $200 towards $2,000 worth of services in the you a bigger package of the stuff that I'm selling right now. Um, and I'm owed you the money uh, as my way of like, hey, I made these promises before
[01:24:58] think I can now. And so I want to give you all of what you've spent with me already towards working with me again because I'm so confident of the things you. That's the second source. So existing customers and then past
[01:25:11] leads list, right? So you have each of these is small, medium, large, right? actively paying you. The next biggest chunk is people have already paid you. people haven't paid you yet. But that is the order that you would approach. And
[01:25:24] at the bottom, you're going to want to do one of the attraction offers that I you don't have any money, you can go to my site. It's free. You can watch the video and the audiobook's free on my podcast and it goes through buy one get
[01:25:36] have a very sexy, compelling offer that pulls cash forward. And those are the if you have to get make cash in 48 hours.
[01:25:49] question? >> The streetear question. You like street >> The streetear question. You like street wear? All right. Uh, Geo Arts, I don't know. Uh, how would you sell a street wear brand in a developing country where
[01:26:02] most people prioritize necessities like food? How do you create enough value and non-essential apparel? Really good question, man. Um, I think the question you ask is how do you sell umbrellas in the desert? So, you don't want to like
[01:26:18] the number one requirement for demand is a starving crowd. You have to have create demand. You want to channel demand. Now, there's two scenarios that Model number one is that you sell to the rich. And so, what I mean there is that
[01:26:31] country that has many poor people, but there are wealthy people. And the wealthy people want everyone to know that they're wealthy. And so, you want smaller slice, but those are the people willing to pay a premium to demonstrate
[01:26:43] that they have status in that community. All right? So, your streetear brand is premium and targeted towards the people who have the money rather than trying to convince people who don't have money to spend money they don't have. Okay, thing
[01:26:55] one. Thing two, you can also consider because of the internet, we're here developing country, but you are. And so we're still talking. Um, is that you sell not where you live and so there's tons of different resources out there in
[01:27:09] order for you to drop ship, design, ship, cut, 3PL, all of that out of the US to the US if you needed to. And so you could very well basically do all your business in the US, sell to people who have discretionary income and live
[01:27:22] your life in a country that uh is developing and live like a king because in US dollars to live in most other countries very comfortably, especially those scenarios working. Door number three, because you didn't ask for it, is
[01:27:35] you could always just sell stuff in that country that those people want. But I'm not a big fan of trying to for I do not want to educate an entire I'd rather find what they already want and then solve it in a new way. Much
[01:27:48] better. All right, let's go. Rachel, is that what you're looking at? Which one >> Rachel. All right, Raquel. All right. Maybe it's Raquel. You don't know. Um, Maybe it's Raquel. You don't know. Um, mocking machin matchin Garcia. All
[01:28:03] right. 21 IOsych, which I think stands for industrial organizational psychology make sense because you studied industrial organizational psychology.
[01:28:15] Say that 10 times fast. Uh, sold insurance before, not for me, but I love the systems behind sales. What's a business that I can start and scale to 100,000 a month in profit and where to start? Honestly, there's more businesses
[01:28:28] that can get to 100,000 a month in profit than ones that don't. but I would honestly point to you and say, what what business can't get to $100,000 a month? Tik Tok shot, you get to 100 grand a
[01:28:44] just make it on ad revenue, you can make 100 grand a month. You want to you want a month in profit. You want to you want to start sell a course, 100 grand a community, you can get to 100 grand a month. You want to sell insurance, get
[01:28:57] to 100 grand a month. Like all of these businesses get to 100 grand a month. Um, and so I think what what what might be helpful for you because the thing is is to have a goal of 100 grand a month and then once you have 100 grand a month,
[01:29:09] month. Like it's just what it is, right? Um, think a couple steps ahead. Um, and unfathomable to you, but it's just like it's going to be really painful to then should change everything." Um, so some of the triedand- trueue businesses that
[01:29:25] exist, industries that have been around 100 years, um, taking a more modern approach to an old business is still one of my favorite ways of making money. Um, fundamentally, you're probably going to either need to learn to either do cold
[01:29:38] run ads, or make content, and then funnel it towards an offer that you can sell over the phone if you're good at sales. And that probably the fastest way because you said which companies but the fastest is just sell something expensive
[01:29:51] to a small amount of people for a lot of money. That's basically it. reality of it. Like every business can do it. You just have to pick one. And I would encourage you to pick sooner because you can always pivot. All right.
[01:30:04] to do the next question. All right. Sufan Okatu. All right. Hello Alex. I sell SEO services to dentists but can't guarantee frame. How should I phrase and guarantee the offer without making promises I
[01:30:18] can't control? Okay. Um answer and then I will give you an answer to your question. The honest answer is that I have seen a lot of SEO agencies over the years and I can say
[01:30:33] almost to a man the ones that make the most money actually can guarantee those things. Now, part of the guarantee is is a math problem, which is let's say you get 80% of people to an outcome, not 100%. Well, we just have to do the math.
[01:30:47] three times more people because of the guarantee, you'll make more money even if 20% of people don't hit it. Now, of the 20% of people don't hit it, if you move them up in the rankings, they still get leads, they might not care. And so
[01:31:00] you can either guarantee around ranking, you can guarantee around traffic, you guarantee around sales, you can guarantee around ROI. So there's a lot do. You could just say, listen, by by month six, if you're not making enough
[01:31:13] sales to cover our uh, you know, the cost of us with SEO, we will keep That is a great initial offer for people. Um, if you want to make it have the money back. uh you could give it for a longer period of time because the more
[01:31:28] you're actually good to make it work and so you would just push it over a longer around that is that they have to be on time with each of their payments and so say it's a 12-month agreement if they pay all 12 of those months then they
[01:31:41] would only then and only then would they be qualified to uh earn the guarantee months the likelihood that they actually are getting a return is really high and nature of a guarantee is you're shifting risk from the customer to yourself. And
[01:31:56] sure you're actually good at the thing. biggest SEO agencies that I've ever seen are all really good at SEO. You got to can put all the business stuff around it, but the food's got to be good. It
[01:32:08] there's a lot of different things you can ROI, and you can change the terms of can over extended periods of time. all of those things that can still make the of those things that can still make the the offer very compelling um without uh
[01:32:21] and and do math around it so that it actually is not going to be oh if I sell them back. If you got even 50% of people to a an ROI you would not refund 50%. I'm just telling you the math. You might refund 10%. But you might get a 3 or 4x
[01:32:35] fundamentally the the nature of why this is important. All right. Thanks Rachel. Thanks for thank you. I appreciate that. All right with that next caller. Let's rocky road, baby. >> Hola, Alex from Spain.
[01:32:50] Where are you, >> Kal? Boston area and I decided to diversify my portfolio and open a health
[01:33:03] So, >> are you in our place? >> Valencia. Okay. >> Yeah. So there's definitely a gap for the health market here. So that's something I definitely jumped on. I saw
[01:33:17] of created the business plan after that. Um so it's like sweet greens meets air but with a huge Spanish terrace. So >> it's been really good. We've had collabs with Porsche, High Rocks, all the wellness brands in the area.
[01:33:31] >> But we're getting all the things that restaurants have to happen in one month. So we've had a kitchen fire. I've had managers punch my employees in the face. their culture and they don't like to work hard and I'm American. I have too
[01:33:45] high of expectations. Um, the dishwasher can break on the weekend and it's a weekend. So, your dishwasher can't get fixed until Monday. >> Um, the list honestly is keeps going on and every day it's something. I feel
[01:33:58] like with my American work ethic, it is super difficult to feel supported in this country and the shock. I definitely have a high pain tolerance. Um, and I feel like I recite your sayings in my head every day about you can suffer.
[01:34:12] Suffering is normal. It's part of the process. But I feel like I'm at my end with this. So my question for you is going to be given how you talk about how failure and suffering are mandatory for success, where you draw the line between
[01:34:27] failure and the suffering that you need to push through to get to that success. or you pivot which is an eternal question for entrepreneurs which is um somewhat personal but I would say from an objective perspective you
[01:34:43] original business model that has been disproven if there's no fundamental assumption that underpins how demand and the monetization works then I would say that things are hard if it's the wrong kind of hard which is that like no one's
[01:34:57] buying the thing no one like I thought doggy skateboards was going to be a big That's not one where I push it. So like I do not try to push where there is no demand. If there is demand and then things suck. That's where we have to
[01:35:09] like take it one step at a time and just like breathe and just solve one problem kitchen fires. That sucks in terms of the employee punching the other We got to you got to hear both sides. You know what what you know what did she
[01:35:23] say? I don't know. Right. >> Calked out. So you know it's just another day in the restaurant. >> Yeah. Um, I 100% uh recognize the issue way that you should see it is that you're going to have to kiss a lot more
[01:35:36] totes to find someone who's willing to work. Um, it's not that the work ethic there is uh not present. It's just that it's rarer uh because it is, you're right, it is absolutely cultural norm. When I lived in France, which I did, um
[01:35:49] I I I mean I can appreciate the country, but I [ __ ] love America. Um and I was like, this is insane. I get off at work at 5 and all stores close at 5. How the [ __ ] do you buy anything here? Like, >> how do you eat on a Sunday? You can't.
[01:36:04] >> Yeah, it was ridiculous. I I hated it. I hated everything. And I just wanted to go home. Um and so I 100% understand. I was like, all you'd have to do if you be open. That's all you'd have to do. Just be open, [laughter] right? Um and
[01:36:18] think what you should look for is that you should be very aggressive in terms of how you're advertising to get employees and then state very clearly um that this is the working environment. This is an American culture and one of
[01:36:30] is that we also win. >> And I think there's going to be a fair and this is really important. Winning isn't for everyone. It is the nature of winning that is it it is exclusionary by definition. And so it
[01:36:44] people in order to find people of winning characteristics and who who are attracted to winning behaviors. And so I agree with you that mediocre people in a country that has a mediocre uh economy just measured by GDP um you're going to
[01:37:00] have a higher prevalence of mediocre work work ethic. But I do not think by that you'll have to do more of them because what is your alternative right because what is your alternative right now?
[01:37:16] to fund it and yeah doing it all. So that's not possible, >> right? So you can't really leave right now, right? So I mean like let's actually walk through the actual doors. Door one is that you could lose your
[01:37:29] savings, shut it down, right? And then have bankruptcy in Spain. I don't even know how that works, right? But there's some version of that in Spain. That's some version of that in Spain. That's option one. Um, option two is you, you
[01:37:41] know, make it work. All right. Option three is that you sell it at a loss, which is similar to number one, but just you probably recoup something. Um, is there like what would you do if you didn't do this? Do you still like the
[01:37:54] business? Like the idea of the business? Yeah, I think playing into like the health factor definitely makes this feel like just a space for me to like grow my community being a foreigner and having a place where everybody comes and cares
[01:38:07] about their health, meets for workouts and stuff. So, I do find the passion that. But I feel like my focus is completely on catching up on the next that. >> Yeah. Um,
[01:38:22] but what do you want to do? today. I think that I want to push through. Um, but I'm being told by a lot >> Well, okay, hold on. >> I listen to you and I really I know what
[01:38:38] validation. >> Well, let let's This is this is really good. I'm glad you said that. Um the people who told you that you have suffered enough have those people accomplished the goals
[01:38:51] that you have want to accomplish. >> One is my business partner unfortunately. >> Well that's that person is the question want. >> No the answer is no. But yeah it's hard
[01:39:04] have that in your ear. >> I totally understand. I think that it two options there. either you cannot talk about work with those people talk about work with those people because they're going to piss on it um
[01:39:17] because they're not helping. >> Um they're my partner in the project. >> So it's just this one partner. Well, I mean the question I mean this is real, right? This is real. Um I think you have to have a conversation. Like I think you
[01:39:32] your partner's name? >> Phillip. >> Phillip. All right. Got it. one of the things that makes, so this is partially addressed to Philip, but also
[01:39:45] business, you know, partners out there. Um, the people who succeed in life are a delusional optimist is that you have to ignore reality to some degree, which see that things are going to be pure afterwards and we're going to be able to
[01:40:00] make it exactly the way we want it, right? uh through an altercation, you're house and reset the the cultural standards. Like whenever, you know, a narrative that makes it work for you. And so there's the classic story of the,
[01:40:17] know, the wise men and and and the and the child where, uh, you know, hey, uh, a baby is born, uh, you know, he's gonna have a blessed life. The wise man says, we'll see. And then they uh you know buy the kid a horse and they said uh you
[01:40:33] know we'll see uh whether it's good or bad. Then the kid falls from the horse and they say oh everything's [ __ ] now. He says we'll see. And then the army recruit the kid. Uh but he can't because he has a bad leg. And he says we'll see.
[01:40:46] And the issue is that like there's a framing for every single situation that think the people who are entrepreneurs are able to always frame something that something that is positive or an opportunity, right? And so you never
[01:41:01] of the first rules of marketing. And so you have a lot of crises. And the thing is is at the end of the day, what story do you want to tell when you're older quit when it got hard? And if you really do believe in the business, like the
[01:41:14] there a demand? Do people actually like this? Are you making money? And these are one-time expenses. Um, and they're just emotional inconveniences. Um, like you didn't have these call it oneoff whatevers?
[01:41:28] created a community here. I have some like wallets and I mean cards in your wallet. So, I have about like 100 to 200 regulars that come about three or four times a week. So, it's definitely and
[01:41:40] 1.5 million this first year. >> Are you going to make money like outside of the the kitchen fire or whatever, but like will the business make money >> after year one? Yeah, we should be netting about 20k a month.
[01:41:52] >> Okay. Was that something like was making that like a goal that you had? >> This is kind of just like my passion project. I have uh properties and I have >> yeah, this is my fun thing.
[01:42:04] you never did it for the money to begin with. And so, >> I mean like beautiful things come from chaos. Like, and I don't even think you'd care for it as much if you if it came easy.
[01:42:17] >> I agree. Right. And so like that's what makes things else does them which is why they're worth doing. >> Right. So I think that there's probably a conversation that has to happen with
[01:42:30] Philip which is like listen this is my viewpoint of the world. Um and in order both need to be delusionally optim optimistic. You've already obviously cracked something because you know you're you're you're pacing 1.5 and
[01:42:43] you're in your first year for a restaurant. Really good. Um, so like might do three or might do two and a half. And if it does that, like you'll be really making money, right? Um, and so it's just like I like I would give
[01:42:56] him instructions on how you would like him to behave. Meaning when bad things happen, I would prefer if you did this instead of this. Like when I like and also it's on you too, which is that you need to reward him for not being
[01:43:09] negative. And also you can't start it. Meaning if you complain, you are So just stop complaining to him because on some level you might say those things
[01:43:21] and then he reinforced that loop with you and then you feel bad afterwards, fine with the suffering that I don't feel that I'm complaining. I think it's and being like, "How does someone do
[01:43:36] this? Like I'm Spanish. We take naps. Why are you not napping today?" It's >> we must persevere. >> Well, yeah. And I think there's probably a conversation there where it's like, hey, if you want like why don't you just
[01:43:48] 75%. You have to worry about it. Like I think you I think you do need to have a going to become an issue especially if you have differences like part of the that one of the owners is not modeling what good looks like, right? So if they
[01:44:00] the one the pick the view of the world that they prefer which is going to be the not hard hardworking one. have a business problem. I think you have a partner problem.
[01:44:18] >> Like, did you did you expect this to be fast, easy, and risk-f free? where I'm supposed to be right now. >> Right. And this is what hard feels like. And so, it is exactly what you expected. It's just this is what it feels like.
[01:44:33] person. Um, and so I think that you just need to have that conversation with what next steps look like, which is either like you behave in this way and succeed. And if you don't want to do that, I understand that and let's come
[01:44:45] that, I understand that and let's come up with an exit plan for you. cash into it that you payment plan him back out almost as like a bank note five years or three years or whatever and then he doesn't have to participate
[01:45:00] over but I get all the upside and that's the trade." >> Perfect. >> Appreciate you. >> Let us know. >> Let us know. All right. Okay. I'm going
[01:45:16] >> Let us know. All right. Okay. I'm going to do one or two more lhats or elch chat up? >> Time is so gra and then we'll be
[01:45:28] >> All right. Well, I'm gonna answer one of these and then we'll do it. All right. Prism Dev, I am a solo Roblox developer handling coding, art, marketing. How do most and decide whether to automate it, outsource it or stop doing it entirely?
[01:45:47] outsourcing or stop doing it is is a is a secondary and less important question to how to identify what is limiting your growth. Um, once you identify what is limiting your growth, it then just comes down to how do I allocate all my
[01:46:00] resources to the point in the business that gets the highest return and whether you need to do it manually or not is just a question of what your return on a point like if you had to, you know, sign checks to make a billion dollars,
[01:46:12] just go make a billion dollars. And so I use that as an extreme example to say something is actually important can we then decide how do we make it even more efficient aka even have higher leverage than the existing. But by far the reason
[01:46:26] is that they're working on the wrong [ __ ] and they're just doing stuff that doesn't matter very fast. All right, last caller. last caller. What up?
[01:46:40] >> I can hear you. What's cooking? >> Hi. Uh my name's Roman. So um I bought a nail salon about eight months ago. >> Uh it's in one of the biggest shopping malls in Austria, Europe. Um this year's projected revenue is around 600k.
[01:46:55] >> Okay. >> My goal is 3 million in the next two years uh at full capacity for this location and then after that, you know, >> Mh. >> Uh the average ticket is about 65. Um I
[01:47:10] have five technicians including myself. There's room for 10. What I need fixed fast is demand in winter or slower months where more traffic is slower besides December. >> I basically don't have a money model
[01:47:24] right now. Um, no front end offer, no track channel, over half of new clients found out about us walking by. >> Instagram is smaller than they believed, but I don't post at volume standards, so not very surprised there.
[01:47:39] >> Okay. Uh retention is being fixed right now with my receptionist only manam >> Okay, that's good. >> So my question my question is basically if this was your studio what front end offer and acquisition acquisition model
[01:47:55] would you run to fill um the slower months or basically the um the slower months or basically the whole year?
[01:48:17] and I made a giveaway actually >> from the Money Models book. >> Yeah. What did you give away? >> Uh a full year of service. >> Of nails. About €2,000 worth. >> Yeah.
[01:48:29] >> Um it it was pretty successful, >> but um I haven't really I don't really >> but um I haven't really I don't really have Sorry. I haven't had the back end have Sorry. I haven't had the back end yet to capture all of that demand or
[01:48:43] attention. So, people signed up. >> I offered them, you know, 50% off basically of the main main price. >> Yeah. As the second place offer. Is that what you're saying? >> Exactly. Exactly. But I didn't have the
[01:48:58] >> Yeah. >> So, when people came in, I didn't do bam fam or, you know, upsell them to the company and everything. So that was a missed opportunity opportunity. Yeah. >> Okay. Well, what are your what are your
[01:49:10] uh call it ascension or retention rates now compared to then? >> Well, I didn't really have tracking attribution but at that point I just
[01:49:22] hired the receptionist this month. >> So, um what I have from you know just >> So, um what I have from you know just the the um the calendar the >> I'm going to cut you off.
[01:49:36] better than it was before, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Got it. So, if you redid the math on the first the first uh giveaway, if that you fixed the back end, would it have been even more profitable than it
[01:49:49] >> Of course. >> Okay. Then just run it again, dude. >> That's it. Just run it again. >> Yeah. Um, so I have a question about that because I was at a marketing workshop and the attorney actually told
[01:50:03] >> he likes to to run, you know, a front end like $139 uh offer, you know, two two visits and then roll it up into continuity. >> Sure. >> Would you think that's better to market
[01:50:16] the best? >> It doesn't matter, man. Like so so I market will answer for you the moment you run the ads. So, I cannot tell you you that giveaways do really well and they already did. Even though you didn't
[01:50:30] which is like pretty good, you know, data for you. >> but fundamentally, you just need to make the offer, run it to a landing page, and and scheduling. And then as soon as you have a good attach rate from the people
[01:50:43] continuity or doing bam fam on the back, like that's probably all you're going to two front-end promotions to your point, like if Ed gave you a different front-end promotion, just alternate them. Just do one one month and do the
[01:50:57] simple. Like the more front end offers you have that convert, the better variety in the in the marketing, especially in a local market. Um, but exist. So we have this big fear of like I don't want to saturate the market.
[01:51:10] It's like dude, no one even knows that you are here. So um, you can either until the wheels come off. Both of them work. It doesn't really matter. It's just what's LTV to CAC? If both of them are profitable, run them.
[01:51:23] are profitable, run them. >> Mhm. Okay. Um, so the next question is, uh, you talked and even had talked about you were looking into buying an also on >> Yeah. >> So, would you mind telling me a bit more
[01:51:36] model, the comp structure, and everything like that? The biggest thing that separates the businesses that you have like from some other business is have like from some other business is that you have low skilled labor, right?
[01:51:49] Nail techs. And so the big problem with your business um and businesses like yours is that people become very loyal to the nail techs and less so to the because their book gets full enough, they just do the math and they say,
[01:52:01] "Hey, I could just do this on my own and not have to pay a split or whatever to >> Yeah. And so in order for your business to be successful long term and that's what the the chain that I was looking at had nailed was that they had figured out
[01:52:16] uh a very elegant career path for nail techs to make like 70,000 plus per year. Now it took obviously time for them to do that. It might take two or three nail jobs in order to level up in the level and type of nails that they can
[01:52:29] do. But every x amount of, you know, nail sessions they ran, they would qualify to learn another more valuable skill set so they could upsell that and then make more money per hour. And then as they develop more skills, uh they can
[01:52:42] their hourly would continue to get up go up. And so too would their split. And so you have to be able to paint that career path so that it's it's you don't need to people to leave. You want to make it easy for them to stay,
[01:52:56] I'm just telling you right now like I actually don't think like finding demand like finding demand for cleaning. It's it's it's very easy to find people who want their houses clean. It's very hard to find labor that is willing to clean
[01:53:09] English blah blah blah blah blah at least in the US right and so you are in the same type of business which means that your true model is going to be around talent retention like the the you know the frontends for your business is
[01:53:22] especially if you're following the stuff that we're outlining, which it seems improved it. Um, but long term, you need a a talent model so that uh people can eventually, and this is the goal, you can put people into new locations where
[01:53:38] you know, five or 10% of the profit. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying they're owner like. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. Yeah. I basically I know already all of this long term. Yeah. Yeah, >> but I didn't really know how to fix the
[01:53:52] >> Yeah. >> To, you know, even survive through the >> my basically my limiting beliefs till now was my entire family holds nail salons actually in Germany.
[01:54:04] >> Um they say always like you know winter and slow months and everything. You got to just survive and like and when Ed told me that this isn't a seasonal business, it just broke everything. It shattered
[01:54:17] my, you know, belief and but I still didn't know how to do it. So, it was. You ran a giveaway play. You didn't have a back end. You need to run it again. Like, there's enough people in Germany or in your area to fill your one
[01:54:29] do is make everybody else who has a nail salon feel like winter is a bad season. right? >> If you know how to generate demand, that for a second. If you know how to generate demand profitably, you're never
[01:54:43] capacity. Yeah, that's true. >> And Stephen Queen, it's Austria, not Germany. No one gives a [ __ ] All right. The point is is that the country like nail salons work like nail salons.
[01:54:57] >> Yeah. Yeah. My my time is 10 times higher than I can handle at full >> So let's go get that. >> Go bring them in. Make it rain. >> Appreciate you. >> Thank you very much. Thank you.
[01:55:11] >> All right, my people. Happy uh what day is today? Tuesday. Happy Tuesday. >> Happy Tuesday. Hopefully you enjoyed the second of our 30-day experiment on uh going live every day. And we made a couple tweaks from yesterday to today.
[01:55:24] And I think they were favorable. I think they were good. If you guys like this, you know, tell us. If you don't, we're still probably going to do it for the next 30 days. So, you just deal. But either way, uh if you're curious,
[01:55:37] Vantage, which is our uh our group for million dollar plus business owners. Um, and so if you are in that in that bucket, you can check it out. I'm sure there's a link somewhere u and go see it. And uh that's when you heard him
[01:55:50] of our guys on our team who was helping them with the offer. And so yeah, if want, happy to help. Otherwise, hope you enjoyed the show and I'll see you guys enjoyed the show and I'll see you guys on the next one. Bye.