https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KfuQwB5rIs&ab_channel=MyFirstMillion

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i have come to accept that i love
working and i don't need to judge myself
for that or
or take in other people's judgment on
how much i should quote do
like this is my life and this is what i
like doing
[Music]
because i never heard of you before and
i was like hey this guy is popping up
all over my youtube all of a sudden what
the hell is going on and b he's saying
that this gym i don't know
i call that a course which actually is
incorrect
if there's like one thing that i could
make just for the almost for the
audience's sake because like
we were we were much closer to what a
franchise would be
um and
overall in the very beginning that was
what the big decision was like am i
going to go the franchise route because
i had six working locations i was 26
years old
and they you know they worked and that's
when a mentor was like you should stop
owning all these gyms you need to
license the model out and so that was
when i kind of transitioned from b to c
to b to b
um
what you might not know is that for two
years i actually because i wasn't

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confident i was like i know it works in
my six markets i was like but does it
work in all of these markets so my wife
and i actually did 32 gym turnarounds in
the next two years so we'd fly out in
person fix their pricing change how they
did their layout change their sales just
like a consultant like like a management
consultant for a job it's exactly that
and then um from there we you know we
figured out we cleaned it up to just
like completely dial it in
um and then
it i would love to say with some stroke
of brilliance of like and then in my
master plan i decided to start licensing
um that was not what happened uh we
ended up
doing these launches and the flaw of the
business model was that i didn't control
the fulfillment so we would go in we
would charge nothing
it was pure performance we'd fly in and
i would charge 100 of the upfront cash
collected
uh that we would do while we were there
so we averaged about 100 000 in cash
collected in 21 days and that's what we
would average per gym that would come
into
so that means each gym is making an
incremental 100 grand a month from your

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so if i were launching eight gyms in one
month we would make eight hundred
thousand dollars
got it right oh that and this was when
the model before you were like exactly
doing gym live and so what ended up
happening though was like and it started
scaling really quick i was like [ __ ]
this is this is the game like this is
what i need to be doing this is awesome
and they didn't have to spend money on
ads they like they did literally nothing
they gave me a place to go market and
sell is basically what happened and so
what happens we would dip out and then
all these customers that we sold would
then be fulfilled by a facility that was
struggling because that's why they
called us so they typically had pretty
poor product and i didn't have the
bandwidth to stay there for six weeks on
top of that and retrain trainers and
show them how to set up like i didn't
have the time to do because we were
marketing some of those times were there
and so
anyways we would fly out and then what
happened in an unfortunate percentage
they basically were like hey you signed
up and paid this guy 500
i would give you the same thing for 200
refund with him and just sign up and
i'll do everything through me
and so within a matter of months i had

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uh like 150 000 in refunds between like
three facilities because they talked to
each other and then i was like [ __ ] yeah
and i already incurred the cost of the
marketing the flight the sales guy the
hotel rental car everything what was the
name of this gym franchise this this gym
okay but i'll tell you this the original
concept was gym rescue
um it's like bar rescue that was kind of
the idea um but you said jim motors
didn't want to be rescued bingo so who
doesn't want to get launched though
right so it's gym launch even though
you're already open um it's a nice
branding switch uh and so anyways
we were like okay this is not the model
something's wrong here so i had to you
basically keep selling more every month
to cover the refunds from the month
before it was horrible very stressful
um and so my wife had a little side
training business that she had kept she
was doing like three or four thousand
dollars a month um
and i was like you know what
screw the gym thing we know how to sell
weight loss uh you know direct consumer
that's what we're good at i was like why
don't you become the face i'll go in the
back and i'll just run the you know i'll
run the acquisition side and it will

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00:04:00.000 --> 00:05:00.000
sell like 16 week transformations just
over the phone and so we started doing
that that's it that that doesn't seem
like a good idea does it
right i mean it it started working 14
days we're doing a thousand bucks a day
uh switching it
and um well i just thought it was so
crowded
we're yeah i mean
we're good like we're good at that you
know like we that space we understand
very well um and so we were able to do
that and i was like all right the eight
sales guys can come in we could do 8 000
a day selling these like the the the
transformation programs great and so i
had eight gyms i was supposed to launch
the next month
um and so i called him up and i was like
hey we're not doing the thing we were
doing before you know you didn't pay
anything so best of luck you know i mean
basically it was kind of what it is and
then um the first guy was like dude i
just refinanced my house i just maxed
out my credit cards like i need this my
buddy like filled his gym up with you
like i know your thing works like i just
need i please like help me
and so um we heat and hog and finally i
was like all right man listen i'll show
you what to do i was like but i'm not
flying out there to save your ass if you
can't close and he was like
no no that's fine that's fine and he was

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like well how much and this that was
like the magic moment where i was like
uh and so just to show you where i was
at the time i picked the highest number
i could think of
with the intention of getting him to say
no because i didn't want to do it
and so i said six thousand dollars
and he was like done and i was like i
just remember looking at the phone and
be like holy [ __ ]
six thousand dog and so i hung up the
phone and then i called the next guy who
i was supposed to cancel on same spiel
he was like how much i was like eight
thousand dollars and he was like what
are you giving these guys so that you're
giving them a playbook to sell in their
market which included what what did they
do but you probably actually didn't even
know what you were going to give them
well so we had already had the entire
the entire front end process was super
super uh lubricated so like these are
the ads these are the pages here's how
you place them here's the targeting once
they come in these are the five texts
that you send here's how the reminder
sequence works once they walk in the
door here's how you set up your lobby
here's where you need to sit this is
that's the stuff that a gym owner would
send to a client who wants to get
trained so it's not a course it's also

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not like eos it's not like a back-end
operations thing it's it's like a
marketing machine you would you'd
basically like i licensed the
acquisition so we were the ads so it was
ads that i was in
because i was like these ones work so i
would run these ads that i had written
to pages that i had built and i would
and so what i was doing but on on their
url you basically were you were a
services business 100 were a services
business and the training component was
like okay well how do you sell so
instead of getting one on one i was like
one and so what i did was i actually
gave them my internal sales training so
it was this thing that i put my guys
through and like a lot it's kind of
interesting because i fell into this
where i think a lot of the the
e-learning space try and create
stuff
to have stuff
rather than creating
uh as
as short of a time commitment to get
someone from point a to point b which is
i needed to get a guy in who used to be
selling shape mix from mlm and get him
to close 500 deals day one with two

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00:07:00.000 --> 00:08:00.000
hours of training and so that training
is what i gave to them so i already had
everything i just didn't have the
marketing part so all i did was i built
the marketing part over the weekend
because i already had the ads i didn't
make a training for it but the training
for like how do you weigh them in how do
you do the food stuff how do like all
that stuff already made because i had to
do that during the gym rescue side so i
literally just added in how to run the
ads and then the whole product was there
and um
we helped them implement it implement
the acquisition system within the
business and the average gym collected
thirty thousand dollars in additional
cash in the first 30 days so we would do
a hundred
but them not being as good as us still
did thirty thousand dollars additional
cash in the first 30 days and so the
price point for the for the system was
was 16 grand so
they were stoked and then at that point
we signed three-year licensing
agreements for 42 000 a year um so they
were like what else do you have
and what would happen and what didn't
bring their gym because all of a sudden
they go from 100 members to 250 in
two months and be like how do i hire

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trainers how do i scale a sales team how
do i it'll be like and then all of the
other problems emerged and we already
had done this because i had six gyms so
i was like here's my ads for trainers
here's how i train them here's how we
set up the classes to maximize square
footage here's how we do the ascensions
into semi-privates here's and so we just
we just did the whole thing
what could i google to see one of these
gyms i i want to see like like did you
do that i know you use click funnels i
think i could tell by the favicon
because i like click funnels too but you
what like can i google something to see
one of your
uh clients
one of your students i don't know what
you call them yeah one of their channels
look different because they're all they
don't they don't take my brand
so franchise is system fee name right so
we were just system and fit
otherwise i'd be operating as an illegal
franchise
and so let's zoom out for a second so
you basically go from
for those who don't know the story and i
i only barely know the story but the
story is you open up a couple gyms
yourself so you open up a gym

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and you get to six locations
you're sleeping on the gym floor which
is always you know any business i do i'm
just to sleep in a garage at least one
night so i could say that but uh but you
know you know maybe you did the real
deal where you actually had to sleep
throughout i don't know
nine months all right so you're sleeping
on the gym for nine months uh you end up
getting six locations off of cash flow
so you know you're not like you know
getting a bunch of investors to come in
or whatever
and somehow someway you stumble into
this like i don't know like a mastermind
or a retreat by russell brunson the or i
don't know if he hosted or he was just
there um who's the clickfunnels guy how
did you even get to that event and then
i want to ask you a couple questions
about it yeah so for for avoidance of
doubt i had two partners that after i
had my successful gym uh one was the
ex-ceo of broadcom
number two at broadcom 10 billion dollar
company
and the other guy had 22 tanning salons
and so the broadcom guy brought in the
tannic salon guy and was like hey let's
scale this thing and i was like awesome
long story short the partnership didn't

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work out um and so i ended up opening
the next
full three on my own um and i opened up
two more with them and then i ended up
buying out uh both of them over time so
just did you have a job before this
because you're only 29 32
i was a management consultant uh before
that
so i quit my major
and then and then started this um the
question that you asked though
originally was so how did you end up at
this thing where it's at this hangout or
this mastermind or this meeting where
you you realize i'm in the wrong
business i shouldn't be running gyms i
should be teaching other people how to
run run their gyms right uh how did you
even end up at that thing it was it was
and it was like russell's idea right at
least i saw the video it was wonderful i
um so the the long story compressed was
two years before i went to that
mastermind i went to traffic and
conversion summit because i knew i
needed to like learn more about
marketing and like
i'm a gym over like i'm not internet
marketer i was like
not this is not my world you know i mean
i was like i got to learn more about
marketing so i'm gonna go to this

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marketing event so i go there and one of
the side rooms is russell and he goes
and pitches click funnels but he
couldn't actually do the stack because
they weren't allowed to sell so he did
his entire sales presentation and then
literally just stopped before the buy
button and i was like
i want whatever i was like screw the
gyms i want to learn how to do this
stuff and then like most things because
i couldn't buy there was nothing that i
did and i went back to my life for two
years and that was it and then when i
was having some sort of existential
crisis because i was now 26 or 27 at the
time um you know all the gyms were you
know they were making money and i
remember like texting one of my managers
and i was like hey do you need anything
he was like uh i think we're good i need
some ink you know and i like ordered my
amazon cinnamon ink and then i was done
for the day and i was like trying to be
useful but i needed to be useful so i
googled i was like you know what that
russell thing was really cool so out of
the blue i google his name and the first
link that comes up is are you one of my
dream clients or something which was
directly to his mastermind so i applied
to the mastermind i got sold to the
mastermind and transparently i should
never have been sold into this
mastermind it's for internet marketers
and i was the only one and it's like 30
grand right and i was the only brick and

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mortar business owner there
they're like oh yeah tons of motors
and i've already told him we laugh about
it now but like anyways i show up and
i'm like all right all the guys show
their funnels and all stuff and i was
like yeah i own a bunch of gyms i'm
trying to get to ten i've got six so
that's kind of i'm just here to learn
you know yeah that's where i'm at yeah
yeah and so i walked through my
acquisition process because we were we
were getting 30 to one on the front end
so 31 ltv to calculation in the first 30
days right not including my my recurring
on the back end and i walked through
everything which basically means
which means you're making 30 30 x what
you were spending on average you get
thirty dollars out on cash in the first
month yeah so the university launches
which is which is like absolutely a good
for a lot of brands like one to three
over a year would be all right it was
insane i mean
so it would cost us three dollars to get
a lead and one out of five leads would
give us five hundred dollars
and the reason that it wasn't more than
31 is that that's me giving the average
with the sales guys but like when we ran
it and i was selling and we were working

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leads like we'd get 100 it was insane so
anyways he saw these numbers and was
like what is going on um and so anyways
i walked through it and he said the
sentence that changed my life which was
alex um
you shouldn't be running gyms you should
be showing gym owners exactly what you
showed me and right now you're in a
level two opportunity with a level 10
skill set
and that would those were the exact
words that he said to me and it honestly
hit me like a ton of bricks is i was
like this is my vision united fitness
we're going to be america's next gym
we're going to make more healthy like
we've got this and um
but you know i he he made more money
than me at the time and so i was like if
i don't listen to someone's advice then
why am i paying for it um and i saw an
interview with you you said something
that i've had this exact moment before
which is you meet people who are doing
you know on whatever the scoreboard is
they're they're they're richer their
business is bigger their valuation's
higher they're younger whatever so
they're more successful quote unquote
and uh
you meet them and you're like
all right there's nothing
more special about them than me okay so

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that's the first realization i want what
they have
and they're not
they don't have something i don't all
right so then you know how do i do this
and
it seems to me like that's what kind of
shattered the glass of that whole like
business plan that you had was that
realization is that right
yeah 100 i mean i didn't even know what
an opportunity vehicle was
i was like what do you mean he was like
you should like and i didn't
same was that
same yeah
let me know what that means either
yeah i remember i remember when i didn't
know what that meant either yeah well i
mean i
i define that now as uh the number of
potential units to be sold and the gross
margin per unit possible
so it's just one times the other and
then the third multiplier would be
supply and demand dynamics within the
space so like if i were to try to get
into telecom
amazing tam amazing potential gross
profit per unit sold terrible supply
demand ratio for me to enter right so
it's like how do i measure the
opportunity vehicle so those are the
three that i used to measure that
vehicle and so in this instance uh he

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was like okay you have
all these gems that you can sell
you have a huge and the big one that he
saw was like the amount of potential
gross margin per unit sold was enormous
right and so for context our second year
of business was in the licensing
business we did 26 million top lines 17
million in ebitda
amazing
wait
say those numbers again it was 25.9
million in top line and 17 million in
ebitda for the life first i've got a
bunch of questions about that that was
in year one
okay first of all what made you you said
that you were getting this thirty to one
um
uh ltv the cac what
what were you doing that was so good
just good copywriting are you just a
good salesperson on the phone what was
so good about you well first off
facebook was way cheaper in 2013.
you know i mean when this whole thing
started right so i mean like just the
cost per lead was insane the percentage
of people would convert on landing pages
was higher everything was more
responsive et cetera
but from uh from from like what we were
doing is we were offering an
irresistible offer so we had a free

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six-week challenge is what we'd offer
people when they would come in uh we'd
walk them through you know what the
program was etc and then the shtick and
the reason it was so cool and compelling
was that if they lost 20 pounds uh in
six weeks we'd give them the entire
amount of money back and that's what
made it so cool and that's why we got
crazy results we had like 70 80 success
rates which for a weight loss program is
insane
and it's because people were basically
wagering money um and that was because i
didn't know that like wagers are managed
by lotteries and like i did like i just
it was like you put 500 bucks down you
lose the weight you get it back but the
reason it works so well is that someone
come in so i'd pay i'll walk you through
the math so
let's say at this point i'm probably
paying
10 bucks you know cpm so like
and you know so i'm getting and probably
like four percent five percent ctrs
because it was like back then so i'm
getting 50 clicks for 10 bucks
right i'm like okay and now my landing
page is converting half
okay
so like it was it was just you know like
bonkers like and that's why some of

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these in some markets we're getting 25
cent leads you know what i mean in some
markets like the highest markets back
then were like five bucks right and so
you've got an average cost per lead of
like two dollars which was no you're
getting what their phone number was that
yeah name phone number email
um
and so from there we'd schedule usually
like 50 to 70 of those people half of
them would show and then we'd close um
and depend on you know the skill of the
sales guy the average gym closes 35 our
team averaged about 50 when layla and i
sold we averaged 80.
um and so there's a big range there but
we'd collect the cash up front for 500
bucks and then 24 hours later they'd
come in for a nutrition consultation
which was complimentary we'd average 200
a ticket in supplements you know
creatine pre-workout etc that we'd sell
them right after that so we get another
200 pop
three weeks later what we do is say hey
listen you lost 12 pounds sandy um
is that your ultimate goal and then
she'd be like well no i want to like get
an amazing shape and blah blah blah
we're like all right so you understand
that it's not about the six weeks it's
about six years from now right and she

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would say yes then i'd be like
congratulations you won the challenge
you got the point of this and so what i
want to do is i'm aligned with your
long-term goal too so i want to do is
because you won the challenge don't take
that 500 i want to spread it over the
next year so you get a discount for
doing it so we can align with you all
fair enough she said sure three weeks
after that she gets billed for her first
billing so if you follow the money 500
200 and then she gets billed right for
the eft even though she won the
challenge
right right yeah and then
six weeks after that we'd say hey
wouldn't you like to like have a little
bit more attention instead of being in
this large group we can put you into a
one-on-four scenario we can give you
even more stuff we can show you cooler
more advanced exercises blah blah
and so that was that was how we did it
and were you just um
but but then this parlayed into the
actual product that you really crushed
it on right so
which was when you were doing 27 million
in year two or whatever 20 something
million with like 17 million in ebitda
on year two that product was the was gym
launch right
yeah

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and what was that what did that look
like was it what software were you using
and how did you package this like that's
because i want to get really nerdy on
this stuff because i think about that
i'm like that's a great idea but
packaging a service
is that's a challenge that's interesting
and i want to so i want to ask you what
you did and then i'm going to ask you
um
what other industries would you do it
for so i mean that's what
acquisition.com is
so it's like it's exactly that like i
know how to do this within a within a
niche so like b2b services if someone's
like i know how to help a lawyer make
more money with their law firm i know
how to help a bookkeeper make more money
with their bookkeeping business i know
how to help hair salon you know people
make more money with their salons like
that's what i'm looking for is niche
e-learning service companies um that we
can invest in our our good friend jack
butcher has a phrase called um build
once sell twice and that's basically
what you were doing um you were like
people who were selling one to one
they had to sell then do sell and do you
were like no f that we're gonna build
one cell a bunch of times and and that

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like process is what i'm asking about
that's interesting yeah i mean
that was when i'm sure you're familiar
with naval because i know you're on
twitter um
like i i kind of fell into like it's
like you realize why you start making
money like i'd love to say it was a
master plan like you realize later why
something worked so well it's like i had
zero incremental cost i was selling cars
over the phone and i had no cost of
goods like it was insane
um and so
we basically would onboard people you
know we had a concierge service back
then this is i mean it's five years ago
you know it's been it's been a while um
but we do an onboarding process we kick
their ads off we basically check in with
them we had calls every single day so i
would hop on a call with every new
customer every day um i did it as a
group call but i was always available
and then we had a 35 person tech support
team that would help them with like the
pixels and setting the landing pages up
and all that kind of stuff and so
because that was that was the issue they
would get stuck with was the tech
so they could understand the sales they
could understand the nutrition stuff
they got both of those things for the
most part the tech is where they
struggled so we really ramped up like
our implementation hump

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um and then on the strategy side i would
be there every day to take calls and i
took 400 calls over the first year
um
and so like that was kind of how we did
the fulfillment and then but it was like
a set of videos yeah there's a set of
videos you watch along with like a file
a folder a file yeah it'd be like here's
how you set up that you know i'd be like
here's why you set up the lobby this way
this is what they need to see when they
walk in you have them sit down here give
them this ipad here's the download for
the the swipe file of the presentation
that they should be leafing through
before they come to the office when you
come like when you're ready say these
things make this joke do this thing when
you come inside like sit on the corner
don't sit across from them because it
seems confrontational uh have them step
on the scale make sure they step on it
make sure they look at the weight then
she cries and you're like okay sit down
now listen we're here to help you let's
figure this out what have you done so
you know i mean like it was very
scripted so it's like here's the video
explaining it here's the script that
does it and then here's six examples of
guys in different gyms with different
styles of selling because that's one of
the things that like we started to learn
early on is that i was attracting guys
originally like in my team i just had
everybody selling my way more or less

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right and then i realized that a lot of
people over time as i learned more about
sales like people have different styles
of selling and they're just as effective
some people are more you know very
analytical in terms of like their
approach like basically make a logical
argument some people just very emotion
driven some people just do it off the
poor like and so i showed different
styles of selling but still following
the same framework and so we went away
from scripted process to more of a
question-based framework which is what
we've pretty much stuck with since then
and if somebody wants to get good at
selling
what uh
like you know there's a
go out there and you know try to sell a
thousand times it's one way to get get
better
but if you wanted to improve your rate
of learning what books
courses
whatever what what youtube videos
uh like do you remember that like that
really clicked for me and that was like
kind of like a game changing uh thing
for me and getting better at selling i
have relatively stronger beliefs about
the topic um so i think first off a lot
of people read books before they start
selling and i've thought a lot about it
and i don't think that's the right path

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because you don't know what they're
talking about yeah like you only know
like what the concept of building
rapport is until you've not had rapport
and like oh
okay now i understand how this works but
like until you like until you
confront the reality like you can't you
can't bucket the knowledge into
something that's actionable so i'm a
proponent of doing first realizing the
deficiencies and then going to find the
information now to match the the real
life scenarios that you have encountered
the second part of the question is like
which books or things like made things
click
so um there's one moment that made
things click which was i said this in
the book sam which is like make people
offer so good they'd feel stupid saying
no which was the secret of selling right
it's like if you just make it so good
that they won't say no then it makes
your job a hundred times easier and so i
did work really hard on that side to
make my job easier
yeah and i agree with that my problem
when i i'm a copywriter a former
self-talk copywriter and i knew i know
all about that but i'm like uh if people
want to refund this is going to be a
pain in the butt like if like in order

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00:24:00.000 --> 00:25:00.000
to make this like in order to make an
offer irresistible you could you could
go a couple different routes but one of
them is you just do lots of stuff and
when i think about that route i'm like
oh my god that's going to be a lot of
work i don't know if i can actually
execute on that what's an example of
that so uh give an example of where you
see uh people with a kind of substandard
offer and how you would give me and how
you would switch it to be a more
irresistible offer i mean a simple one
we did within the agency space and the
software company that we started um was
we helped them transition from a
retainer model to a pay performance
model so that was an implied guarantee
and we just said listen pay us one time
up front which by the way for most of
them was what their ltv was because most
of them sucked so it's like if you're
charging 1500 a month which would be
probably the standard small business b2b
you know i would say commoditized price
point for a generic lead gen
um
they're charging 1500 bucks a month we
said hey charge a person 5 000 up front
day one and say you'll never charge them
again unless someone walks in the door
and so they'll cover the ad spend after
that and you don't get any percentage of
it unless someone walks in the door so

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you generate the leads and work the
leads and when the person shows up you
charge x and that was based on a pricing
survey that we ran internally to our
customers where i said if we worked your
leads for you
what would you
be willing to pay as a flat rate and so
there was a big pricing curve and the
the concentration of like 75 were
willing to pay between 300 and 400 a
month for that just as a flat service
and i was like okay
now i asked the exact same scenario same
result same everything
later on in the survey and i said if we
just said hey
uh pay per show what would you be
willing to pay for somebody who walks in
the door
for the same exact performance they're
willing to pay four times as much and so
i said well i'll be why don't we price
it that way and so we did it on a paper
show model and so that's what we
transitioned and it also makes it way
easier to sell we could cash flow the
acquisition because we were making the
ltv that we're not we but like the
agencies could make normally upfront day
one in cash and what's cooler is that
the first 30 days they had people show
up so they get cash up front and then in
the first 30 days they're still getting

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00:26:00.000 --> 00:27:00.000
cash that they can use to finance the
acquisition of the customer right and so
that's a much more irresistible offer
from a chiropractor it's like well how
do i know it's going to work it's like
you pay us one time just get all the
[ __ ] set up and then from this point
going forward only when someone shows up
you have to pay
and so people understand this you said
software company and so i look i mean i
watch a lot of your videos so i know
this but you basically had like three or
four or five businesses the first one
was this main one which was gym launch
and that was doing like 30 40 50 million
seconds down to 26
uh you're so we did 6.8 million year one
that was the hybrid between me doing gym
rescue and transitioning the licensing
model so about halfway through your one
i was like this model is not working and
so we flipped it and then that's when we
shot out like a gun like the first month
we did 120 the next month i think we did
like two something then it was 360 then
480 then 780 then a million then million
two million five like that was literally
the next like six months

28
00:27:00.000 --> 00:28:00.000
and so that crossed us into the second
year of business and then that year we
did
uh 26 million
um
so we did six point eight with three
million e but a year year one uh the
second year we did uh
20 25.9 with 17 million and then year
three and this is why i'm a big advocate
and this is maybe just my own deficiency
but um we did 37 million top line 13.4
million in ebitda so
alex made a big [ __ ] up um and was like
hey
because at this point even though it may
sound like there's a short period of
time i was like i had heard that i could
sell this for like a hundred million
dollars so i was like [ __ ] yeah let's do
that
um
three year [ __ ] journey but um
anyways and there's this flu that went
around people lost their minds it didn't
affect the gym space at all that was
good um i'm joking uh
so anyways uh we started the supplement
company prestige labs in december of
in december of

29
00:28:00.000 --> 00:29:00.000
18.
and you're basically selling supplements
to your clients well it's through the
clients so they never actually purchased
from us directly what we did was we
created a drop shipping model because
one issue that small business owners
have is cash flow so i said what we did
was we sent out retail kits that had 130
bottles on them or empty so the result
was like 100 bucks and they could stock
their whole wall because all consumer
research shows that like the more stock
the wall is the more likely they are to
purchase and they would only have one
sampler of all of them out and then we
sent them a kiosk with a with an amazon
fire on it right that was pre-loaded
with their affiliate link so someone
would
oh my god and they would make the
purchase right there and say hey this is
so much better because now to go
straight to your doorstep you don't need
to take it home with you and better yet
you won't miss a month because it'll
automatically ship to you so we gave the
gyms a second recurring revenue stream
through the supplement so when someone
walks in when i was telling you earlier
like
some service and we sell them product
we'd sell two eft so that's the gym word

30
00:29:00.000 --> 00:30:00.000
for electronic fund transfers or
recurring revenue so we'd sell them a
service recurring and then we'd sell
them a product recurring so that we'd
have two different streams that would
come in the nice thing with the product
recurring is there was no there's no
operational drag for the gym they don't
have to do anything they just have to
make the one sale one time and they're
gonna make 80 bucks a month from that
point going forward pure profit for them
like just straight to the bottom line
and so what you know interestingly uh a
lot of gyms made more money selling the
supplements they did on their service
because service is low margin but the
the product was like almost all marching
for them and we paid really aggressively
so we paid 40
um commissions to them because they were
paying for the cost of acquisition and
doing the sale so i said you know you
guys should get disproportionately
rewarded in the first month we launched
that uh so we beta launched in december
and then january of 2019
is when it kind of officially launched
in the first month we did 1.7 million
and so um because i figured i was like
okay if we've got you know
800 active gyms if each of those guys
sells and who's actually under my
projections because i was like we're
gonna be you know so wealthy i was like

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00:30:00.000 --> 00:31:00.000
if all of these guys just sell five
thousand dollars a month
i was like we'll do a million a week um
it didn't work out that way but uh we
ended up doing that year 37 but my
licensing business came down and i think
it went to like 20
ish
and then the supplement company was like
17.
and part of the reason the oopsie that i
did was two big oopsies number one was i
started a second active company when i
already had one which to me i think was
a mistake uh given the skill set i had
at the time
and then the second uh oopsie was that
because i thought potential acquirer
would want lower churn which is true
um i lowered the price and so i thought
that if i lowered the price that would
get more people stick and so i cut my
top line price by 25
and saw absolutely no change and just
lost what what was it and what did you
reduce it to it went from uh the it went
from 800 a week which is the licensing
uh on the back end to 600 a week

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00:31:00.000 --> 00:32:00.000
what's 800 a week times 52 i don't even
know like what's the annual cost 42.
what is it
so it costs 42 grand to be
a part of your election
what do you call it part of your not
court
yeah but what do you what's like the
noun that you use to describe this uh
like your the program was called legacy
the people were called gym lords and so
we would sell launch as a front-end
program and then they would go into the
continuity which was legacy
so if you're if you're if you're
following on from home for anyone in the
podcast i've copied the exact same model
so i sold a six week defined in program
for a lot of money and then i down sold
the continuity because 16 000 for 16
weeks is a thousand a week and so i said
now you're gonna get more for less for
eight hundred dollars a week you're
gonna get what you have before plus all
this other stuff for less money than
were currently paying and they're like
what a deal at the gym i'd say hey it's
100 a week 600
and if you stay we're going to drop you
from 250 a month to 200 a month because
we'll take your 600 and we'll spread it
over 12 months we'll go 50 a month in
credit and so then you get to 199 a

33
00:32:00.000 --> 00:33:00.000
month and so it was front end to
liquidate the cost of acquisition so
they wouldn't need outside capital to
acquire customers and then the back end
i would down sell the upsell so that we
could keep the continuity and make it
which is all like the most classic
internet marketing [ __ ] which like a lot
of like tech startup stuff they don't do
this in their fools for not doing it in
tech startups we do the opposite
typically so we say hey we want to get
you in we want to make you don't know us
we don't know you let's make the cost of
trying so low so free free trial don't
even put a credit card on file and then
try to put the bar as low as possible
you did the exact opposite you said okay
i'm gonna put
actually more friction up front i'm
gonna ask for five hundred dollars or
sixteen thousand dollars a huge number
up front and then over time i'm going to
actually be selling you on more value
for less cost why do you think that
works or why do you think that worked
for you
to charge have such a big kind of commit
up front when
you know that's usually when people are
you know hesitant i think there's a
couple pieces um
one is most software companies have

34
00:33:00.000 --> 00:34:00.000
funding not all but a lot of them have
funding i did not have that and so i
could not afford to be in the negative
and incur
caught i did i couldn't have a burn rate
burn it was alex's bank account so that
wasn't going to work for me
from a psychological and behavioral
standpoint it always made sense to me to
sell someone when they're the most
excited so you're the most excited day
one before you've gone to your first
workout because once you get your first
workout you're like [ __ ] this is gonna
be work
so and i'm gonna have to start dieting
and not eating the stuff i want sell
them when they're excited about the
bikini and not about the tsa and the
airplane they have to go through to get
to maui right and so i followed that and
then the reason that we decrease cost
over time is because it's my belief that
information decreases in value over time
and so
the longer someone has it and exposure
to it the less valuable it is you know
marginally and so we tried to
accommodate that with the pricing and
since our our gross margins were still
basically 100
it still made sense for us
so let me try something this might be a

35
00:34:00.000 --> 00:35:00.000
bust we can go back to the gym stuff
this is a bus but let me try something
you've said a couple things
that
i thought were really interesting
nuggets i want to kind of rapid fire
just say i'm going to just quote you and
i want you to riff on it for as long as
you feel like doing and then we can
switch to the next one all right so i'm
going to take one of yours
let's let's start with this one
uh as an entrepreneur you never arrive
you just enter a new club as the
smallest member
the guy
who lives above me um is andrew turn and
he owns panda express 100 outright and
they did 3.8 billion last year in top
lane revenue with a 26 net margin he
took home 950 million dollars in income
and i was like
i'm a peasant that's all that that's all
this means you know what i mean
and so i wrote that right after um i did
the math on how much he was taking home
and he's been doing this for 45 years he
owns this building the cosmo uh and so
he he owns the the waldorf and he owns
the cosmo he was both built he just

36
00:35:00.000 --> 00:36:00.000
bought cosmo for 5.6 billion he bought
it from blackstone people were trying to
get acquired by blackstone he bought it
from blackstone
so like you know you're vegas that was
i mean i'm sure you like
wait is that i are you in austin or is
that no i mean i'm in business
yeah um
and so i i i think you know as the
marginal utility of money goes down
because you just don't need any more it
just you know becomes whatever silly
storyboard if that's meaningful to you
and so i was like all right well there's
just a lot bigger games than i've been
playing and i've been a very small pond
let's do another one passive income is
overrated we seek freedom but what we
really want is options for engaging
activities what does that mean and
how did you come to that organization so
2021 uh we sold three companies so we
were
like i didn't it was
interestingly my cfo was someone who was
really engaged in those activities and
like i was not so i pretty much like
took a really passive seat in 2021 uh
because i didn't want to really go start
hardcore on on scaling acquisition.com

37
00:36:00.000 --> 00:37:00.000
um until that was done and so i was
bored out of which which three companies
so allen prestige labs and gym watch
so those are my three majority holdings
right now i have all minority holdings
so between 20 and 33 percent are the
holdings that we target
for acquisition um and so i had this i
don't say existential crisis but more
like i'm bored out of my mind
i thought this is what i was always
optimizing towards which was you know
quote freedom which is like you're
always you're always outsourcing all of
your activities and buying your time
back and then you have all your time
back and you have nothing to do and i
was like this sucks and i look back on
the times when i was building each of
those companies with lots of nostalgia
and i was like man that was like some of
the happiest times of my life and so
that i'm in this position i'm getting
back into the game and like right now
we're heavily recruiting like we're two
days a week we're just doing interviews
uh to build the core team out and um i
honestly i'm i'm happy as [ __ ] doing
this uh and so it's like but the
difference between this time and last
time is that i have the option to do it
that i'm choosing rather than uh because

38
00:37:00.000 --> 00:38:00.000
if i didn't have this business i
wouldn't have the option to work
so i have to create the option for
myself and so it's like for me the shift
was going from freedom to optionality at
least for as i had to understand the
word
right first you start you do what you
have to do to pay for life then you take
that money you buy back your time but
then you need to spend your time on the
thing you want that's the thing and
acquisition.com is basically you're
buying other you're going to buy
businesses and
deploy your model what are you what are
you doing 100 yeah so we buy an interest
and we buy minority interest in the
business um and we deploy the model i
mean that's sorry the business is
somebody who's doing like what you did
for gyms they're doing it for legal or
hair salons or something else or
photographers that's your latest right
yeah yeah that was the that was the
fourth company that one we still yeah we
have a 20 interest in that company and
you say hey i just had a business just
like this and i scaled it up i know what
it's going to take for you to go
national with your kind of like with
your business let me take a minority
seat
and uh let me like help you grow this
thing yep

39
00:38:00.000 --> 00:39:00.000
yeah service what's a great model what
niches
interest you
i mean really it's just services like i
and it's silly because like everybody's
like really hot on software and there's
all the valuations and stuff but like i
may just be a simpleton which is very
possible um
i just like high cash flow businesses so
i just really like service businesses
are super malleable i can chase price
points i can change a product i can
change client experience without a ton
of devwork or engineer or ux and and i
just like that i feel like they're
simple businesses it's very easy to get
tons of margin in them if you know how
to you know deliver value and so uh
right now the the four kind of they're
all related but the four targets are
e-learning businesses that are in a
niche uh brick-and-mortar chains that
already have multiple successful
locations so they're probably looking at
do i do i go national and own them all
which is what we we did with the
photography business so ironically we
actually own we own all of them
um which is different with that one
which we have i think 13 locations and

40
00:39:00.000 --> 00:40:00.000
when we started we had one and that was
like a year ago so like we're just it's
an awesome business that one i think is
gonna be worth more than all the
businesses that i put together um
uh software as a service or tech enabled
services uh more tech enabled services
that could potentially have some mini
you know software component but not as
the the main thing necessarily um and
then uh and there's a fourth one that
i'm just forgetting because i'm on a
podcast
so you you said that might be the best
business what what people are like
photography what what is it so what does
that do and why is it going to be such a
good business
so
it's a great business um
the
it's children's photography first off um
it has an awesome mission we donated a
million dollars last year um to kids
stuff uh
and so the founders are super mission
driven
the the short story is their daughter
got told at school to shut up
um because she was stupid or something
and she didn't talk for like nine months
and so
they couldn't figure out how to get her
to talk again and so they did was they

41
00:40:00.000 --> 00:41:00.000
started taking their photographers so
they started taking pictures
um and put it into like a story
experience and read her a story where
she was her own hero
and so in the story that they put
together for her she like gets her voice
back and like whatever and so that
actually like their daughter started to
talk again and so that's why they're
like super mission driven around like
the donation stuff that they do but the
actual business model itself is really
really good um i mean people come in and
we take you know take pictures and it's
really about the
it's called magic you know a chain of
fairies but it's a magical storybook
experience um and so it's kind of like
the idea of like taking disney um and
putting it you know in some in in other
areas but they walk out with a book but
then what's with you in it
that's water and you're one of the
products we sell there's opportunity and
you're gonna now like teach
photographers how to do photographers
oh i got it so that so this business was
interesting so he at the time when he
came to me he had one location and he
had i think about 100 customers who were

42
00:41:00.000 --> 00:42:00.000
b2b
who were doing like some sort of like
hybrid agency
business coaching thing
and i really hated the model um and i
was like well how much extra does like a
photography studio make i'm not going to
share the numbers i'll just say it was a
lot um
uh
and i was like how much you charging it
was like five grand and i was like all
right we're never doing that again so
how much does it cost to open a
photographer studio and he was like a
lot less than it makes and i was like
okay well why don't we just front all
that and build them all
and so that's what we learned
sean he uh alex maybe i don't remember
how long ago i think recent had a call
the headline was like grant cardone just
made me a billionaire or something like
that it was like a funny headline and he
did this he paid grant cardone 30 grand
for an hour time
oh yeah pretty crazy
and basically on it he record he
youtubed the call and on the call he
basically you know how like you and i
will talk to each other or our friends

43
00:42:00.000 --> 00:43:00.000
and you're like hey i'm in the middle of
selling this company what do i do and
then you also be like by the way like
here's my net worth portfolio like is
that enough like you just asked all
these questions like you know like what
do i do now like once i have this like
how much should i expect you know like
all these like the things that you ask
like your rich uncle like as you're
growing
he asked all these questions and he was
so transparent it was uncomfortable
almost he said um he was well look like
right now i've got 21 million dollars in
the bank after this i should have like
54 after taxes um and he like this is
all on youtube it's it's wild why why
are you so open about that i think
that's that's um cool but uh
uncomfortable for you
yeah um
i
it feels like the right thing to do
um i think like what are what are the
things i'm most afraid of
and
but usually they're the things that i
should do and so it's like i'm afraid of
saying this because i
it because i know that when i say those
numbers people can immediately judge me
in one direction or the other but in my

44
00:43:00.000 --> 00:44:00.000
mind all the people that i want to talk
to
think that's a really small number
and so i feel insecure saying those
numbers but i want to like i'm a big
believer that like shame only exists in
the darkness and so like if i can shed
light on it then i can hopefully quell
some level of the insecurities that i
have right so yeah but the panda express
guy wasn't doing that when he was 32.
what are the numbers
yeah no like he he didn't like you're
saying you think it's small or they they
think it's small
um age is a fact age and liquidity are
huge
multiples to net worth so like the fact
that you had that at age 30.
and cash is way different than owning 10
restaurants
it also seems like you know for your
model with acquisition the more you go
out there as the entrepreneur's friend
and entrepreneur's helper and you
provide a bunch of value by giving out
free content and stuff like that then
you're basically creating your own deal
flow because of that right like people
when they think god what do i do with

45
00:44:00.000 --> 00:45:00.000
this business i've learned so much from
this guy maybe i could reach out to him
maybe maybe acquisitions would be a good
partner for me like as the next phase
like
to me that's the model right that's the
why to me aside from like you know
like okay this podcast is similar in
that sense right we go on here every
week we risk getting canceled we risk
getting judged as idiots for saying
stupid things off the cuff about stuff
we barely know about
you know we risk all kinds of stuff but
the gain is a it's kind of fun to do it
and b
um you get either people thanking you or
opportunities coming your way and you're
like all right net net i think that the
combination of the the good feels and
the good deals uh you know makes it
worth it
i would i would have to quote that the
the big thing with like feels and deals
that's right the mission and like this
is might be like my personal mission and
i don't
understand and stuff but like i think
people do like really
people just put generic ones and they
don't like resonate
um
like my mission through acquisition.com
and really my life is like i want to
document and share the best practices

46
00:45:00.000 --> 00:46:00.000
building building wonderful businesses
like that is what i want to do and
i'm like i will die and the [ __ ] that i
accumulate is irrelevant and so like
it's a travesty to me that like elon and
bezos and warren
like they they don't they didn't write
any books like
like that's
i mean
that's the point you don't even like is
for me for me you know i mean that's
real for me uh is like sharing that um
and so the businesses are just there to
lend credence to what to to the books
and the topics and the lessons and give
me real stories to drive
real fundamental truths on um and
candidly to discover them as i go
because like
i mean i'm horrified at the things that
i i you know said five years ago that i
thought were true
but you know the only thing short of
that is not saying anything which is is
something that i consider every day of
like
is this this is this is as strong as i
can think of it currently
you know and maybe i will think of it

47
00:46:00.000 --> 00:47:00.000
less wrong in the future
were you um you seem like a grinder when
you were building these businesses
were you just like uh doing 80 hour 100
work weeks and what about now because
you're like
yolked you're a huge you're like a
bodybuilder so so like how did you
balance like uh being fit and getting
married and you but
i don't know you well but you seem like
you'd be grinding hard so my wife works
in the business with me so we are true
50 50 partners like
it's very rare i like i recognize how
rare it is she actually is 100 matched
with me
and like should just as much be on this
call because she runs the other half
like she from a work standpoint she has
more output than i did um she is the
operator so she builds the
infrastructure she does the recruiting
she sets the they are the hr stuff she
does the culture she like she does i
mean she runs everything um i just you
know occasionally come up with a good
idea and try and stick with it long
enough um to see it come true but in

48
00:47:00.000 --> 00:48:00.000
terms of grinding
we this is what we like i love business
like i love this and there's nothing
that really stimulates me like this and
so i do as much of it as i can and if we
want to go to dinner we'll go out to
dinner you know but like we're we're i
was just saying we're single so we don't
have kids and so we work from like
five-ish to
four
ish you know um
and then
you know usually in the middle of the
day we'll probably go to the gym for an
hour or two and then come back and keep
working and go out to dinner at night
and that's that's kind of our lives
you seem pretty um
this isn't i would say i'm a little bit
i'm i'm definitely this sean has a
little bit of it too like
manic's not the right word but like
neurotic maybe he's a better word
um where it's like uh
you're there's something that's deep
rooted inside of you that's kind of
it's not like you want to do something
necessarily it feels like you're it's
more compulsive

49
00:48:00.000 --> 00:49:00.000
um or obsessed you're obsessed about
stuff which i am as well
um
where if that's true what's that rooted
in what are you trying to get done
so i think originally the drive was from
just crippling insecurity and needing
approval right
um and then i think from like a
behavioral conditioning standpoint i got
immediate feedback that was positive and
then i was conditioned to continue those
actions now
uh i continue to do them without the
original catalyst that got them going to
begin with so i don't i don't think i
suffer you know from the insecurities as
much as i used to i'd say i'm probably
30 better than i was at the beginning
and it might just be because i have this
massive big pile of money that i can use
as an emotional crutch to why i'm not a
piece of [ __ ]
um
that would help i'm just being like i
mean if it were all disappeared i'd find
out how much actual growth i had or if i
just compensated by circumstance and you
know compensate for the division yeah i
don't know you can send it to me and
we'll we'll find out we'll see
let's run the experiment

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i like
so there's the compulsion and like this
last year i pretty much took off like i
did not work that much um
and so i saw the difference and like i
have i have come to accept that i love
working and i don't need to judge myself
for that or
or take in other people's judgment on
how much i should quote do
like this is my life and this is what i
like doing
and their
ideals that they've arbitrarily made up
as what they define as balance are
irrelevant to me
you said you took last year off what'd
you do
what'd you get up to we went out to
dinner every single night to a five-star
restaurant for seven straight months we
went to i mean we we moved to vegas
temporarily
we traveled a lot uh went to cabo went
to scottsdale went to sedona went to
flagstaff
traveled all over um
went out
did stuff um
felt honestly pretty empty like you can
only eat so many times like there's just

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not a lot to do um
it feels good having that rest though i
mean when i sold my company which was a
year ago last week the first six six
months i was like i need to decompress
it felt good to have it and then and
then i was like and i'm in that phase
now where i'm like all right no i'm
ready for war again you you can't like i
i like you can't be in the trenches i
think like or rather you need breaks
from from being in the from being at war
i think and maybe even phrasing it i'm
just throwing this out there like
phrasing it is instead of like a break
is a shift in how you're thinking
because like it's really like it's going
from dirt to clouds but i still think
it's high leverage
activity you know what i mean or like
output it's just a different type of
output
you said something on one of your videos
that um you're one of the only other
people that i have heard say this phrase
i use it a lot which is
yeah i had a season like or this season
i'm doing this or i had a season where i
was really just focusing on x and that's
been like a game changer for me my
personal trainer and kind of coach she's
like my mindset coach plus trainer he

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does this all the time but he's like
he's like i'm in a season right now
where i'm
i'm just uh he'll be like you know i'm
practicing not waiting and he's like hey
he comes over these little themes or
he'll be like right now i'm in a season
where i'm going to eat whatever i want
and it's kind of like in the
entrepreneurial world it's like time
boxing's like all right i'm going to
give myself two hours to get this [ __ ]
to done or i'm going to launch in the
next two weeks no matter what right like
we i've used time boxing for
productivity and now the seasons thing
it makes every like decision you're
making less
heavy of a commit because you're like
it's okay yeah because there's yeah
there's beginnings and ends and this
season is gonna feel a little different
just like winter feels different than
summer that's how i use it do you do you
use it like that i just noticed you said
that phrase
100
yeah and maybe it's a fitness thing i
have no idea um i i've yeah i i have no
ownership already
yeah i mean i i think about it in terms
of entrepreneurial seasons um and i at
least for me might have been like five
year chunks
and so this is gonna be my fourth season
um and they've roughly been about the

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same length so i think that it probably
takes me like
three ish years to like
really see something through and then
two years to figure out
how i'm going to transition from that
thing or realize or monitor you know
whatever that's right it's kind of like
a pe cycle almost
how much of your look do you think is a
lot for your success accounts for your
success because your face are on a lot
of ads and on your youtube videos it's
like you looking jacked you've got this
in a lot of videos you've got this
badass handlebar mustache for the people
listening not watching you look i don't
know what your what your heritage is but
you've got like cool jet black hair you
look like uh
i don't know you look like a like a like
a like an italian lumberjack like i
don't know what
yeah like you drive a you drive a g
wagon but there's an axe in the back
so i read a book
by dan kennedy five years ago that said
that people who have noticeable facial

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features are more easily uh recognized
and remembered and so i read that and
then i grew a handlebar mustache and
that actually actually i sold the
likeness of the mustache with the
company
um because it was still a core part of
the branding like you know at the events
everyone would have stashes and it was
like money you know stat you know stat
cash money stash or whatever you know
there's a bunch of things like hashtags
you had to stop having your mustache
after that
you had to stop having just the
handlebar mustache because you stole
them
no but but they're allowed to use it
yeah i got tired of having the mustache
after five years
but but what about like just because all
right again what do you weigh what do
you know how tall are you when you're
right you're huge i'm five eleven two
twenty
okay so uh just when you're getting
getting big is it like do you think this
is going to look awesome
[Laughter]
before he started internet marketing
right you were built but when you
started the gym business i saw a video
or a photo of you like starting your
first gym and you're already jacked so

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00:54:00.000 --> 00:55:00.000
it's not like yeah well i i watched i i
was i've been working on my squat and i
was trying to figure out how what what i
can make how what the gains i can get in
three months and i came across an
article that you had
when you were in your early 20s i bet
and this article the gates that you had
in like
nine weeks
that was the craziest [ __ ] i've ever
seen
what was that sean you gotta like look
at this that was natural i like i'll
tell you because i'm on trt now um me
too yeah so i was i was that was 100
natty um
and no in the comments they do not think
that that is like trend much you know
what i mean um but the
that training methodology is pretty much
what i've done since then so
i had a i had a roommate whose name was
greg knuckles he's really big in the
strike space [ __ ] amazing name
where's his real name greg knuckles
and he's he's one of the two smartest
people that i've ever met from a pure
processing power standpoint like
sounds like a mafia guy i mean you know
he's you know got a perfect sat score he

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00:55:00.000 --> 00:56:00.000
was 14. like very very bright but also
stupid strong like when i met him we
were in our 20s and he was pulling 800
like
stupid strong and natural and so anyways
he was like i read this research paper
what if we had you lift six times a day
but for like 10 minutes each time and i
was like
cool and i lived at the gym so i was
like sure whatever so i set a timer and
every 45 minutes i would go and do one
set on three exercises then i'd go back
to work which side note is actually an
amazing productivity hack because like i
had this nice uh timing i like cadence
and i got this nice like boost from my
nervous system every 45 minutes to like
wake back up
and so i did that and that's when i
gained just a tremendous amount of
weight
but coupled that with another thing that
he had done research on which was like a
pure carbohydrate diet
with no fat and so basically the
efficiency of fat conversion to fat
that's stored is almost 100

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00:56:00.000 --> 00:57:00.000
the efficiency of carbohydrate storage
into fat is lower um and so if you don't
have because you're going to have a
calorie surplus and so to give yourself
a smaller percentage of that surplus
that gets stored as fat you would want
100 of the surplus to be carbohydrate
carbohydrates and so the idea was like i
had you know 200 grams of protein and
like 800 grams of carbs and basically
zero fat besides
yeah i saw what you were eating it
looked like it would be awesome for a
day and then horrible after that
horrible anybody was like it didn't work
i'm like just try eating that now the
big caveat to this is like i have what i
you know i think i have elite genetics i
think like
dr cashy who's my closest friend he's a
biochemist he's a national strong man
he's like you have potato chip genetics
he's like you shouldn't give advice to
people he's like you can just like drink
coca-cola and work out like you'll have
a six-pack so like i had that plus i was
doing everything maxed out like as i
possibly could and like it was not
sustainable like my knees were shot my
elbows felt like [ __ ] like by the end i
was sleeping terribly because i was i

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was bordering on over training um but i
put a ton of weight on and i put a ton
of strength to all my main lifts and uh
from there what i did was i dialed back
the total volume but i kept the split
not to get into fitness stuff but
instead of doing uh seven sets of every
exercise every day
um i just dialed it down to like five
and then well i was reading that article
while i was listening to your videos and
i was like oh man this guy carries this
[ __ ] over to everything i understand
like it was super precise
very like well obviously i think what's
interesting about you is you don't have
a uh or maybe you do but you've overcome
it a self-limiting belief that a lot of
people have and you're like well of
course this is going to work you're
going to do this you're going to do this
you're going to do this you're going to
do this and it's going to be hard but
that's the outcome is going to be blank
and and here's the plan attack and you
took that same process to business yeah
i could i could hear it in your voice
when you're my business and fitness and
that's why i thought it was cool thanks
let's do like uh one thing you one of my
favorite things from you is uh these

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little tick tocks or shorts i see where
you're giving like a sales tip or a
little sales trick or whatever and um i
would love for you i think most people
probably you know most people who are
listening to this just
you know the bell curve of people
listening to this
probably have spent you know zero time
trying to improve their sales and have
not seen some of these things so i want
to give them the opportunity where they
don't got to go click and find this
random tick tock that i'm talking about
in the ocean of tick tock i want to role
play a little bit um
give us kind of like
give us an example of
normal like here's the default way
people are doing something and then
here's the rephrase of the reframe that
has better results um i would love to to
give get two minutes of learning sales
from alex
sure and just as a quick caveat to
complete the loop from like 40 minutes
ago
you said like what was the book or
training or whatever that
so it's my belief if you look at belford
you look at bradley you look at grant
cardone some of the big sales trainers
that are out there almost all of them

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00:59:00.000 --> 01:00:00.000
invariably have the same story which was
i started selling and was the best guy
on the team by a [ __ ] mile and then i
tried to figure out what i was doing and
so i do think that some people
naturally based on their childhood their
upbringings their whatever are just have
a higher proclivity for selling which
yeah just a gift of gab and and empathy
yeah and i think it carries over into
how you recruit for selling too because
we've built a lot of sales teams and i
actually have a very short allowing for
people to fail at sales cycle probably
much shorter than most people and it's
just because i've never had a killer
sales person who didn't do pretty well
the first week and so for me we you know
we turned through this quickly but as a
result of that the team is just killers
and they know that so i like this quote
from from grant cardone he says you know
my sales team is a dangerous place to
work and
i i love that so in terms of uh sales
stuff i think that i think people don't
know how
people are really freaked out about the
idea of selling right and so i think the
first reframe is like you're not selling
you're helping someone make a decision

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01:00:00.000 --> 01:01:00.000
that's going to help themselves and the
the the front part of that is that i do
think that the number one predictor of
good sales is conviction and so
fundamentally you have one person who
should believe in something
another person who does not believe it
yet and trust is the thing that
transfers that conviction so if
fundamentally there's the two things you
need you need trust and need conviction
most times sales people don't have 100
trust i'm sorry 100 conviction and so
the also the idea of conviction as a
binary is false so it's not like i
believe it or i don't believe it is to
what extent do i believe it right and so
that's why like in terms of if i want to
improve a sales team i can do the drills
which we do and that's like blocking
tackling but the thing that really
juices the sales team is hearing the
testimonials of the people that they
sold last week and what they're doing
today and how their lives have changed
and so i noticed this because on my
sales teams when we were in person
whenever i did weigh out day which is
when everyone finished their challenges
and everybody was crying and so excited
i tried to stack as many sales
appointments as i could while people

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01:01:00.000 --> 01:02:00.000
were weighing out and during those days
we closed like 100 because people were
like dude how can you not think this
works it's right there and so the thing
is is like you can either trick yourself
into having the right tone or you can
train yourself and i think that it's
much easier to trick yourself into it by
just simply believing because if you
talk if you truly believe in the product
you will talk about it differently
and so in terms of an understanding of
selling if you need to have conviction
you need to have trust trust is going to
come from expertise and
some level of rapport right and so um
i think that
overarchingly to help someone sell we
just have to ask the right questions to
get someone to come to the conclusion on
their own and so most sales
conversations follow more or less the
same framework
if you know what you're doing otherwise
people are just chasing their tail and
trying to chase a prospect to an outcome
that the prospect doesn't know how like
we've had this conversation a hundred
times they have only had it once we
should be the one knowing how this
conversation is supposed to go right we
should also come in with a massive
advantage to how to have this

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01:02:00.000 --> 01:03:00.000
conversation go the way we wanted to
because we do it on [ __ ] day right
and so you know big big front end pieces
is like
why are they there
what's the problem what have they done
so far understanding where they failed
seeing why our product is different from
the things that they failed
asking for permission to explain about
the product explaining the product not
in any way based on features but only
based on the experiences that they will
have as a result of it and using
analogies to explain those experiences
right um
and then and then having a close uh at
the end which
the the tick tock i think that you he
referenced was like a no-base close and
i think a lot of natural sales people do
this anyways like if i want something i
might be like hey can you do this for me
i'm like hey would you mind and they say
no they don't i don't mind right like
it's natural communication dynamics that
most people who naturally know how to
persuade people or at least influence do
that on their own this is just
retroactively looking at and saying what
did i do different like why is this
different and um

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01:03:00.000 --> 01:04:00.000
in terms of like overcoming because
people are afraid of confrontation right
that's what they're afraid of and so i
believe that you can sell without ever
having confrontation and you can do that
with what i like to call childlike
curiosity and so if someone says
um
well my husband's not going to approve
that i'm like
why wouldn't he
like huh that's so interesting tell me
more about that
rather than like all right let's like
your husband's an [ __ ] like that's
not going to work because in arguments
no one wins right and so like why why
would he think that because because i
would think that he wants what's best
for you right
yeah he wants what's best does he know
you're struggling with this right now
well i mean yeah he knows i'm struggling
with it okay so he wants a special he
knows you're struggling with it so why
do you think he would be opposed to
solving something that that you're
currently struggling with
so
just so i understand would he be happier
if you continue to struggle
well no it's like well great
then would you be opposed to moving
forward today and that way and hey if
you go home to your husband and you make
a joke in the light of scenario then you
close it right and so it's i think

65
01:04:00.000 --> 01:05:00.000
childlike curiosity is the immediate
that you have to train because people
get defensive so that is one thing that
like
fighters talk about when they're in the
ring like in the beginning you breathe
in too much right i don't know if like
if you've been like sparring and stuff
like you breathe in you breathe too much
you hyperventilate and so the guys
who've done it enough they slow down
their breathing because when they get
things get intense they can slow it down
and so i think sales is a lot the same
way where you're like your adrenaline
kicks in start breathing faster it's
fight or flight so you gotta be able to
slow down and be like huh
that's crazy i wouldn't have thought
that okay tell me more about that and
like now you're interested and then they
don't feel like you're
combating them they feel like you
genuinely are interested and want to
help them which is what you should be
doing because you should be
only if it makes sense
you're exhausted
you are full of like interesting
insights and
like it's like you're you just you you
just have you have a you know a lot of
[ __ ] and like you've clearly packaged
this in really easy to understand ways
it's almost exhausting listening because

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01:05:00.000 --> 01:06:00.000
it's like every it's like when you read
a really good historical book or
something it's like every sentence is
packed with a fact yeah and it's like oh
my gosh like i because i got it i want
to pay attention
i was like exhausting this is awesome uh
but then i now i know
there's a picture of reading right now
that's like like one of the best books
i've ever read literally the first 10
pages have more insight than any book
i've ever read and i'm only on page 30
because i'm like i'm like rationing this
not to like not because i don't i think
i'm gonna run out it's like i can only
it's like i can only have my mind blown
so many times per minute and so i gotta
like chill out with this book right now
and i'm reading 10 pages at a time then
i hand it to my trainer and he reads 10
pages just so i have a two-day break and
then we bring it back that's our book
club right now and i think it's more
like that like what you what you just
said which is how many lessons are there
to learn right so there's like
there's the lesson of like you know guy
goes from sleeping on the gym floor to
you know like hustling but then
realizing i'm hustling a hundred percent
or i'm hustling level 10 at a level two

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01:06:00.000 --> 01:07:00.000
opportunity okay how did he recognize
that wait what and then people got to
ask themselves what level is my
opportunity that i'm at right now and
you had that formula of like number of
units sold times gross profit per unit
times like you know uh supply demand
dynamics of the market that's like that
one nugget alone isn't all these things
put down the
and go [ __ ] reassess your life all
right then we go to the next next phase
so it's like the part where you're like
yeah we charge 500 up front and then we
had this continuity thing where we would
actually say hey great congrats you've
made awesome progress we're actually
going to offer you more for less because
we want our ltv to go longer and
we know that that reduces churn blah
blah blah
and i'm going to do that because the
best time to sell somebody is when
they're most excited boom nugget two go
rethink your sales and pricing strategy
you're probably doing it backwards or
you know you're not maximizing the
opportunity because you just sold to
them once you've never figured out how
to sell the back end
then three is you know like you've had
five in this session and that that's my
explanation of sam's sam's weird
compliment sam is the king of backhanded
compliments he'll be like
you're like a you're like the weirdest

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01:07:00.000 --> 01:08:00.000
looking handsome dude i've ever seen and
you're like the guy you know the guest
doesn't know what to do they get frozen
by the uh the backhanded compliment it's
so good
well i pay i bet your dear friends when
you're with your your non-work buddies
buds are they just like dude alex chill
i don't care let's just like make a fart
joke
i don't have many non-uh entrepreneurial
friends honestly
so you're always able to kind of shoot
the [ __ ] with them i guess a little bit
and that's how i am mostly with my
friends but everyone's wrong i'm like
i'm like i i got i can't talk
money-related stuff today like i i do i
i purposely have to take breaks
sometimes one of the things i want to
mention that you had said that resonated
with me um
conor mcgregor has this quote where he
goes
some people will look at my success and
get bitter most will get bitter and a
few will get inspired and he's like you
know that says more about you than it
does me
and um and similarly you had something
in one of your talks where you're like
you know if i share you know how much
money we make or you know how we did it

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01:08:00.000 --> 01:09:00.000
whatever it's like some people get
envious some people get angry some
people are skeptical and want to say is
this guy a scammer some people get
confused like i don't know what the hell
this guy's talking about
and some people get inspired and i'm
here to talk to that group at the end
like that last bit whoever you are in
this room of a hundred people like the
four people who are here to get inspired
that's why i'm doing what i'm doing
and i think that's just a great like
question to ask yourself if because we
all get stories all day about elon musk
and about whatever's going on and you're
gonna have some kind of reaction i have
it myself sometimes i get envious why
should i get envious uh you know like i
gave this example i went to
i went to vegas and i visited somebody's
house who has a eerily similar sim story
to you they're in the gym business
uh 60 gyms that were super successful
then transition their bigger opportunity
was real estate they owned the real
estate around the gyms and have since
made a ton of money
and i felt envious because their house
was the most baller house i think they
lived near the panda guy by the way uh
he has a house in the neighborhood
that's that's big as well um and you
know

70
01:09:00.000 --> 01:10:00.000
unbelievable houses like you know you
gotta [ __ ] swim in a river to get to
the door type of thing uh
and you're and i was like and then my
trainer helped reframe it he goes he
goes oh man he heard me saying i was
like yeah i'm feeling you know a little
bit envious
he goes he just kind of ignored what i
said he goes man that's so cool you get
to sample
you know what you like and dislike so
when you make your money you're going to
know what you want to spend it on is it
their cars or is it the pool or is it
that he's like that's so cool you're
getting to sample it and just switching
switching the reaction to you know
instead of envy that i don't have
excitement that oh i'm getting to play
with all these toys to figure out what i
want what i really like what you know i
could think about it or look at images
on google but like this is way better i
get to drive the car instead um and so
you know i just think that's a good
thing for people i want to leave people
with that is like
study your reactions and then also if
you are sharing information
just speak to those who are going to
take the positive and don't get so
caught up in all the people who are
having the other types of reactions to
it
that's good
um even without the hair i still got the
guru sean no that was good i i'm

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01:10:00.000 --> 01:11:00.000
learning you cut the hair but you can't
cut it away
i gotta ask you one last question for
being a you i don't know you're a
business guy who's having a great time
on youtube and you're succeeding a lot
why is your setup so bad
like how do you you are in a room right
now that like doesn't have a carpet i
think so it's like i could hear the echo
you um don't have a microphone you're on
your oh my god nice quads
uh you're sitting on a
[Laughter]
baby that was a lot of thigh um but your
setup your setup thank you your setup is
horrible for such a
uh someone who does this for a living
what the hell i think i don't do it for
a living um
you know what i mean
the first answer um honestly all the
technical i i spent like 80 grand on a
studio on in my house in vegas i started
in austin
and i couldn't get the damn thing to
work half the time so i was just like

72
01:11:00.000 --> 01:12:00.000
and then i ended up like getting just
like
immediate annoyance around the idea of
having to [ __ ] with it again and so then
i realized that i stopped making stuff
because i was just annoyed by the idea
of having to fix it and so then i was
like is it better that i just make the
stuff and that'll just be it is what it
is and hey if i could dance yeah if i
can figure out a way to not have it be a
pain in the ass then i will do it but up
to this point like i'm literally my
video guy i got on today he's like dude
your video is stopping and freezing for
half seconds like 13 times during this
video and i was like
i don't know and he was like can you
just do the laptop when you do the
laptop it doesn't freeze and i was like
sure whatever you know what i mean and
so like it it at the end of the day i
think it's like the
in gym launch when we started uh it's
probably maybe a good wrap up point but
like
we didn't have a website until we did 20
until after our second year we'd already
done
40 million in sales before we even had a
website and then we didn't i didn't send
my first email until we crossed like

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01:12:00.000 --> 01:13:00.000
70 or 80 million collected you know what
i mean and so
like we've i don't know we kind of just
do things our own way and if people are
down with it they're down with it and if
they're like you know what i'd rather a
really polished guy who says less in
more time then like go you know i mean
that's it's all good
badass thanks thanks for coming i i've
learned a lot sean what do you think
this was fun thanks for coming on dude i
uh i think people are gonna really like
this
i'm honored you guys decided to have me
on the platform i know that you guys
don't take uh the time of your attention
of your audience attention lightly so
i want to say thank you for for thinking
that
whatever i had was worthy of their ears
[Music]

