There's usually this massive gap between what people think is required to get the outcome versus what is. And they're like, what if I double it's? Like, dude, it's not even ten x. A lot of times it's like 50 X the amount of volume.

Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more per customer and how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe. I watched your video on training your calves, because my calves and my traps weren't growing.

And I watched the video and I was like, well, this makes sense. So I started doing it. I started literally doing calves, ten sets of calves every single day, as well as shrugs.

And lo and behold, it's only been like a week and a half, and I can literally see them growing. I was like, this dude was right. Yeah, everyone works out, like three sets a week.

And they're like, My calves aren't growing. I'm like, no shit. Like, you walk around all day long, your calves can take a lot more than three sets, right? Well, I saw another older video you did.

It wasn't a video, it was a post. And I think you said you did, like, 30 sets every workout, full body, every single day. That was your workout.

I was like, Holy crap, that's a lot of set. I've been doing it for a decade. I've been training that way for a decade.

I've been training for almost 20. Yeah, and that makes sense. Like, a lot of times people and it's sort of like business, because a lot of times people are like, well, why aren't I bigger? Why am I not a bigger person? Why don't I have bigger muscles? And it's like, because this guy over here is doing 30 sets a day and you're doing three.

And then it's the same thing with business. Like, why am I not making more money? And you're doing one 10th of the work or one 10th of the effort. That the people who are even a 10th.

A lot of the times it's like 100, but you know what I mean? Like, that's one of the things I tell this story all the time because I think it drives it home, so hopefully the audience will appreciate it. So I was really early in business, and I had my gym, so I like, you had, like a brick and mortar that I kind of started out with. This is my first gym, and I was told to put flyers out, right? And I was like, okay, I'll put some flyers out.

So I put some flyers out from a guy who was a really successful business owner, and I ended up meeting up with him a few months later or something, and he was like, oh, how did those flyers work out? I was like, they didn't really. I got one call from a guy who said I dinged his car and he was going to sue me. And that was it.

That's all I got from the flyers. He's like, well, what was your test size? And I was like, what do you mean? He was like, what was your test size? What did you test before you did the main amount? I was like, I didn't do a test size. He's like, well, how would you put out? I was like, 300.

He's like, 300? He's like, I don't even test with less than 1000. I was like, what? He's like, yeah. And then when we start doing it, we do 5000 a day.

And I was like, Fuck. And he was doing 5000. So he was doing 150,000 flyers a month to drive business into his small business.

And I was here jerking off about 300, you know what I mean? And so he did 45 times, I think, the effort that I did to get the outcome. And it's the same thing with DMs and phone calls. And it's like, I know you had your rule of 100.

And so over the last I literally got a message that said, so over the last eight weeks, I sent 100 DMs. And I was like, bro, it's 100 a day. 100 a day.

You did 100 over eight weeks? That's 156 the amount of effort that is required. So it's just like, there's usually this massive gap between what people think is required to get the outcome versus what is. And they're like, what if I double it's? Like, dude, it's not even ten X.

A lot of times it's like 50 X the amount of volume or same thing with phone calls. I make ten phone calls a day. I'm like, bro, our guy's minimum quote is 200 a day for the call team.

Do you know what I mean? So people just don't get I'll give you a different story because this happens all the in time. I had one of our portfolio companies who were scaling up their traffic. And I was like, bro, you need to make more creative and you need to do it on a more consistent basis.

And he was like, okay, that's fine. And I was like, dude, we make creative every I was like, you need to start every 14 days. You need to have a full creative day.

Like, create new ads, all that kind of stuff. And so I got an end of day thing. And he was like, hey, man, the first creative day went awesome.

Recorded four ads, really excited. I was like, what the fuck you do all day? Four? I was like, dude, we would do like 40, you know what I mean? Like minimum. And when we were at full swing because right now for us, cold calls on the gym on side is now like 75% of the business.

But when ads were the vast majority of the business. We were running like 30 to 40 new ads every three days. He was like, what? I'm like, yeah, bro, I don't know.

There's just a massive difference. He thought four was a lot, and doing four every two weeks he thought was a lot. And so I'm like, what was he doing before? You know what I mean? But that's the thing, is people have just had this massive discrepancy between what is required and what they think will make them successful.

You think that's always been that way or it's being further perpetuated by society? Because I used to work for DirecTV, and I remember we were expected to make 200 dials a day. And if the phones went out or something like that, there was a tech issue. And we called up and we were like, hey, the phones are out.

Our boss would be like, why aren't you already on the phone with the cable company getting it fixed? Why are you calling me? And the expectation was so much higher, and nobody was sitting there saying, well, you got to pander to people's emotions and feelings. You just did your job. And I recall in today's world, I've had a conversation with a sales rep who wants to make all this money being a sales rep? And I'm like, how many dials did you do today? And they're like, oh, I didn't.

And I'm like, Why did you do at least 30 by lunchtime? And they're like, 30 by lunchtime? There's not enough hours in a day. And I'm like, Dude, not everyone's going to answer. You could do 30 in the next hour.

What are you talking about? Just the fundamental lack of understanding and acceptance around that. Do you think that it's worse today because of society and culture, or do you think it's just always been that way? No, I mean, I think there's a slight degradation over time, but I think it's cyclical. There's lots of macro stuff, but I think it's like every 80 years or so, there's like the big pendulum that swings.

And so it's like hard times build hard people. Hard people build good times. Good times build soft people.

Soft people build hard times, right? And so I think that we're in the hard people built we're at soft times built soft people stage right now. And I think that we will have another hard time and it will build more hard people. I think it's very likely that we will be the like, our generation will be the one that will have to step up in the next decade or so and become a harder generation, which I think will rise to it.

I think people are amazingly resilient when they have no choice. If we think about human capacity versus what is societally accepted. I think a lot about really dark times.

I think a lot about Auschwitz and slavery and things that were really horrific kind of human experiences and huge populations were able to go through it. And those same people prior to well, obviously slavery wouldn't work. But prior to that experience, you might have people who were softer and then they go through things like that and it really fundamentally changes them.

And to the same degree, if I were to think to myself, the difficulty of my life compared to a lifetime of slavery is different, right? It's a different level of difficulty. And so I think knowing that that is possible gives us a lot more potential for effort because it's like we're so untapped in the amount of effort that we put forth into the endeavors that we pursue. Awesome.

That makes a lot of sense. So let me ask you this kind of feeding off that, because one thing that I've noticed is there is effort. There's lack of acceptance around how much effort.

But then I've seen a lot of people, including myself, we put effort into the wrong places. Like, we started talking before we began recording. And your companies, you and your wife are doing $100 million a year, and you're in a hallway right now with no art on the wall.

I thought it was the camera angle, but do the thing with your hands. Literally, you can touch both sides of the wall. You're in this hallway in your obviously beautiful condo in Vegas.

But dude, most people, they have this big office with this nice views and this over the top stuff, and maybe they have like crazy lighting and stuff. They just go overboard. But you're just like, screw it, I'm in this hallway and I'm just building this billion dollar play.

Would you say that part of your success is the fact that you're basically just the ultimate minimalist? Everything that I see from you is ultimate minimal, right? It's like iPhone videos for your YouTube. Your logo is just acquisition.com and your website is just like, blah.

You just intentionally don't give a shit about any of the stuff that most entrepreneurs obsess over. Do you think that's part of your success? Rather than minimalism, I would say it's form over function. So it's not just because I think it can look similar, but I think it's a shade different.

You know what I mean? This tank top, this particular white tank top that I wear, I bought 40 different brands and I tried different sizes on so that I could find the right white tank top for me. And I bought all the highest rated barefoot shoes on Amazon because I was trying to eliminate because I realized I don't wear T shirts. I was like, I wonder if I could eliminate T shirts from my life.

So I don't wear T shirts. I either wear I have a Beater or I put like a Flannel if it's cold or I put a Hawaiian if it's hot. And that's it.

And so that's just like what I wear up top most of the time. And then with shoes I was like can I eliminate socks? So I tried all the barefoot shoes on and then I ended up realizing that I liked my crocs the best but now I'm just informed on it. So I got rid of all those and I wear crocs just about everywhere I figured out I can work out in them.

So I was like great, I don't have to have workout shoes. Anyways, all that to say, I think it's just like what's the function that's required? And I think a lot of times people miss the forest for the trees, you know what I mean? I think the YouTube video stuff works even though the quality is poor because the stuff is useful for people. And then also for me from a form over function standpoint, if it takes me more effort to do the other thing and I become less likely to do it as a result then the overall function goes down.

So it's like if I do one third the videos and they're prettier, will I get the same output as three times the videos that are kind of quick and dirty? And for me at this point I do that. I'm not to say that I wouldn't like if I can figure out a way to get the function down where it's really effortless for me to do nicer ones, I'll do nicer ones. It's just that right now I don't make my money from being an influencer or whatever.

Right, well I mean the quality, you got to look at the categorization of quality because from a content perspective your videos and the content you put out is better than virtually everybody else. Most people are like the four hour work week and stupid shit and you're literally giving actual hardcore advice that makes sense and that is stuff that most people charge for and it isn't even that good. In that case, would you say that the ability to focus solely or at least focus the most on the content is just any view of fancy cameras and all that stuff is just a distraction from creating amazing content and ultimately that's what people care about.

I think it comes second. It's exactly that. I think there is some benefit to it.

I just think it is less benefit than people give proportional to their focus. So it's like let's say it's 80 20. 80% comes from the content, 20% comes from the touch.

I think people put 80% on the touch and 20% on the content. I think if you allocate the focus appropriately then you'll get the outsized outcomes and I think fundamentally the people that move fastest in life are the ones who employ the most leverage. And so a lot of employing leverage in business and whatever relationships is understanding where the points of leverage are.

And that means that being able to look at a lot of variables and identify which of these ones has the most influence over the outcome and then ruthlessly focusing on that one variable and driving it. And I think most people will focus on a lot of other variables that they don't see, don't have a huge effect on output. And the easiest litmus test for this and this is for anybody in the audience, is if right now you're working most of your hours of the day, for example, it's not that you need to work more.

It's that fundamentally what you are working on is not effective. Like, you might be doing stuff and you might be producing things. Like, you might actually be getting things done.

It's just that the things that you are getting done are literally irrelevant. It's kind of like cutting grass with scissors. You can do it.

It just doesn't make it meaningful, which is really disheartening for some people, but it's also the truth. You. Hey, Mozination, quick break.

Just to let you know that we've been starting to post on LinkedIn and want to connect with you. All right, so send me a connection request, a note letting me know that you listen to the show, and I will accept it there's. Anyone you think that we should be connected with? Tag them in one of my or Layless posts, and I will give you all the love in the world.

All right, so let's get back to the show. So then let me just dig a little deeper there. What would you say are two things that most entrepreneurs, and especially online entrepreneurs do that they don't need to do? And what's two things that they're not doing that they absolutely need to do? I can answer the second one better than the first one because my answer for the first two would be anything you're doing that's not these things.

People do a zillion crazy things. And so with regards to the things that people need to be doing more, if you boil everything again, what are the points of leverage? What are the things that actually grow a business? Number one, you can get more customers. Number two is you can make them worth more.

It's literally it so everything flows down from that equation at the top. And every time we have quarterly with the portfolio companies and things like that, I always write it on the board as a reminder to just be like, guys, we're either making this number go up, we're making this number go up. What is all of these quarterly objectives that we're doing? How is it going to drive that versus how is it going to drive that? Right? And so the two most important things are getting more customers and making them worth more.

And so then it just depends on which of these things is the bottleneck within the business. And in the beginning, and this is where a lot of people fuck up, is that like zero to 1,000,001 to 3 million ish in that range? Is you have to learn how to sell Something to someone. It's one product, one avatar, one channel.

Very simple process which is really just finding product market fit, which is what they call from the software world, is do people want the thing you're selling? That's it, right? And can you get them to give you money? All it is, but going from like three to ten, for example, you can gas marketing. You can just keep acquiring Customers. The thing is that in order to keep doubling down on that, you have to double your sales velocity every time you want to double the business.

So It's Like, I go from selling 50 Customers A month to 100 customers A Month, and I sell from 100 customers A month to 200 customers A Month, and I go from 200 to 400. And then it becomes really untenable at a certain point to keep selling more people. And then that's where the business will plateau.

And so instead, the better way of growing the big business is as soon as you have product market fit, which is selling that people want and they're actually buying from which usually you're making one to 3 million ish at that point you pause an acquisition and then you focus all of your effort on, how do I retain these people? How do I get them to never leave? How do I extend the LTV per customer so that even if I sold the same amount, my business continues to grow, right? And so, usually, if you fix that properly, during that period of time, you can keep the same acquisition numbers and then expand the business from three to 10 million with a lot less effort. Think leverage. And then when you go and jam more marketing into the business, then it just boom, you're at 30.

Boom, you're at 50. You know what I mean? And it's just that most people just think, oh, I started marketing. That made me some money.

So I'm going to market more to make me more money. And it's not that. I mean, you will make what I would consider like.

You will become rich doing that. If you just want to market a lot. But you will not become wealthy because you will not build assets that are valuable.

Because people will not want to buy a thing that's purely built on just front end and not tons of, like, word of mouth and higher LTV metrics. And then what happens is the media arbitrage that most people figure out in order to acquire the customers usually shuts down. And then all of a sudden, their margins compress, and then it becomes untenable for them to acquire the amount of customers that they were.

And then overnight they disappear. You know what I mean? And that's what usually happens. Whereas if you have a stable base of customers that continue to pay you because they like the thing that you're doing, it gives you the gross profit margin to then weather those storms and then build other channels.

Got it. So then let me ask you this. You probably have a lot of data on this next question already.

How many portfolio companies do you have currently? If you don't include the three that Leila and I still have big chunks of that we sold majority of, but we're still 25% to 40% owners in those companies. We have eight companies. So I would say that's not one or two.

That's a pretty fair amount to be eleven between all of them. Okay, so eleven. So then let me ask you this.

When you start working with the portfolio company, I imagine that you've probably helped or coached or somehow interacted with a lot of lot more companies than that. My question is you probably are seeing patterns, right? Like as soon as you start working with a company, you probably see the same mistakes over and over again. Or you start changing the same things over and over again and they repeat.

Can you expand on what are those repeated patterns or what is the first thing you usually change that you just consistently see? I would say that there are different archetypes of entrepreneurs. So just as a hair to that like a shade of gray or nuance, is that there are product driven entrepreneurs and there are promotion driven entrepreneurs. And then the best ones can do both, but most of them tend to have a leaning one way or the other, right? And so if we have a product driven entrepreneur, usually we have to focus on acquisition stuff, right? And I would say that's probably the majority of the time.

I'd say that's maybe like 25% of the time. The other 75% of the time, it's usually promotion driven entrepreneurs. At least the ones who come to me are maybe attracted to my stuff.

And to be fair, my company is called acquisition.com. So maybe the promotion guys are more attracted to the stuff that I talk about, right? And so with the promotion guys, it's usually we have to fix back end stuff. And so it really depends on what they're presenting with.

Because the way I see it, it's like imagine you have a Mona Lisa painting that's the embodiment of like a 50 or 100 million dollar business. And then we've got whatever their current business looks like, which is Mona Lisa that has like gunshot and bullet holes all over it. It's like, okay, how do we look at this? And then just systematically fill in the holes.

And so two different businesses might have gunshot holes in different areas of the painting that they currently have that has potential to be a Mona Lisa, but it's not there yet. And so we just kind of fill in the holes based on that. But big, big picture.

Most companies at that size, they have really, really shit data tracking. So usually they don't have consolidated metrics and that's a big one, because it affects everything that you're trying to improve. Like if you don't have all the metrics and tracking around customer lifetime value and your acquisition metrics from click to close, then it becomes really difficult to make decisions.

And so then you're just shooting from the hip, which is just not that effective. So getting the right data in place, second one, and this is probably pretty universal, is that the talent at that stage is low. So usually it's the genius of the thousand hands model.

You've got one guy who's kind of like really pushing and driving everything, and then a lot of people just help him out or her out, right? And so what's required at that point is that we need to have the first true mid level leaders that's kind of like directors and managers that need to get put into place. And sometimes those directors and managers can level up even beyond that to go from ten to 30. And sometimes we have to replace them, and it just depends on whether they're willing or able to grow.

And so it's a data problem, it's a people problem. And then there's usually some sort of this is one that's not necessarily a problem, but what we're really good at is figuring out the best ways to monetize businesses. And so it's like, how can we reconfigure how we price? How can we reconfigure the thing that we're selling or create some sort of ascension or some sort of tiding continuity to increase the lifetime value per customer? Those are, like, I would say, the three bigger buckets that we look at is like, we got to get the data right so that we can make the strategic decisions.

And then once we have the strategic decisions we need to do to build the beautiful Mona Lisa painting that we want to paint, then who do we need on the bus? Who is either there and then who need to get off the bus? Because I would say it's more than a third and less than half the time. So in that range, we also have to fire a bunch of key people, or I would say, like, their key roles in the business, but they are actually sabotaging the business. And so we've had two instances or three instances, and not necessarily even fire is a strong word, but we have to fundamentally move the chart a lot.

Sometimes we have to let somebody go, but sometimes it's like it has to be a major move. Like maybe the CEO is actually a really good CMO, and he's not really a CEO, he's a founder. But if you look at Shopify, the Founder, I can't remember his name now, I feel like an idiot.

But anyways, the founder, he's a product guy. And so he's not CEO of Shopify, even though he's the founder, he's just Chief Product Officer because that's what he loves doing and that's what he's really good at, right? And he found a CEO to run the business. He recognized his own deficiencies.

But a lot of times, people's egos cannot take that. And the thing is, it's always like, what does the business require? Period. And then that's what it requires.

So whether it's you or something like that is what is required. And then it's just having the conversation of like, do you want to become that person, or do we want to find that person? So what do you mean by their ego gets in the way? People have attachments to the title of CEO. They're like, I want to be CEO.

It's my company. Like, well, I mean, it's a business that requires a CEO. Like, you do not need to be that person.

Like, Warren Buffett's not CEO of any of his companies. You know what I mean? Does that lead into playing to your strengths a lot? Because for me, I've always thought if I was going to be anything, it would be a CMO, not a CEO, because the operational aspect of business is the part I like the least. I mean, it needs to be done, but it's the part I like the least.

I grew up watching Mad Men and thinking that was the greatest show on the planet and just coming up with the best ad campaign. To me, that's like art. It's like painting, but you're painting with products.

Totally, yeah. The best people see whatever they do as art. So the best product guys talk about product like it's art.

The best operators talk about culture and meeting and onboarding and leading like it's art. I'm so glad to hear you say that because I have always, my entire career said that. I grew up an artist.

I was a poor musician, played guitar, and I never could get that to be successful. And so when I started learning sales and marketing and building a business, I didn't really view it as a business because I was that anti corporate guitar player and I was like, Fuck these guys. But then I realized that it's just a different canvas, it's a different stage.

And I always viewed building the business and ads and marketing and creating products as art. Not as obviously it's a business, but I viewed it as art, and I've said that a lot. So to hear you say that, it just lets me know I'm on the right track with that thinking.

I think it has to be art. You don't need more money, you know what I mean? And so it has to be something that you would do. Like if you would play music all day long, if you didn't need anything ever, then it's just and a lot of people won't like what I'm about to say, but I'll say it anyways, to compete against the people.

If you're like, I really want to make money. But you don't really like business. I started in fitness.

And then I realized I had a deeper passion for business. I liked it more than I liked fitness. And I was obsessed with fitness for a long time.

But the day I started my gym was the day fitness became number two. And then business became my first love. And I'm still in my love affair with business, my long term relationship with business.

And it's because the only way you're going to beat everybody else is to truly love it. And if you don't, I think it's very difficult to do that. And I think it's just like, maybe picking another metric or different bone to gnaw on.

But I have one quick thing. I was pulling it up while we were talking about the art thing earlier. So a lot of marketers will talk about how their products are amazing, right? How many times have you heard people like, no, our course is awesome.

Our program is awesome. Whatever, right? They say that. But the thing is and I've done this at a couple of workshops I've been invited to, and I'm like, all right, who here knows what their CPM, their CTR, their CPL, their set percentage, their close rate, their CPA, their CAC? Who knows all those numbers? Everyone's like, oh, yeah. 100%. I'm like, cool.

I'm like, what's your TTV? What's your CHS? What's your NPS? What's your churn? What's your activation points? What are CRC? And they're like, what? I'm like, right? So how can you set you a fucking good product and you don't even know what the fucking metrics are to track good product? Well, I mean, I think that just goes to the fact that most entrepreneurs in the room, right? Yeah.

Wow. And that makes sense because if you think about it, most entrepreneurs are full of shit. And even if they're like no, I mean look, I'll just say this, okay? I've personally worked with and you've worked with a lot.

I've worked with tons of entrepreneurs. One of the biggest things is online coaches, course creators, even agencies. And I've always given blunt, direct advice.

And I can't tell you, if I had to sum up my experience with most people, and I was probably this way, too, when I came up, so I'm not, like, judging, but it's really like, hey, you are currently full of shit, and you need to understand how to not be full of shit. And now you can sort of really see the forest through the trees and see what needs to be done, because you have this cloud over this lens. Your glasses are dirty.

You can't see the real world because you're stuck in this alternate reality that you've created. And I like how you just broke it down. You're like, Listen, you feel that you have a good product, but that is a feeling.

That's an emotion. That's some shit you need to talk to your therapist about. What are the metrics? What is the data telling you? Is the data telling you it's good or do you just feel it's good because you just want to wake up and think life's great? So I think that's a great point because as an entrepreneur, isn't it about that? Isn't it about the data and analyzing the situation and making decisions and not about just feeling a certain way? Wouldn't you say that that ultimately is that next level is detaching yourself from that and just looking at it as it is? Yeah.

And most people just don't know what ideal scene looks like. The biggest threat that most people I would say the biggest threat to all entrepreneurs is that they are ignorant is that we are ignorant of what it takes to be successful at whatever the next level is for us. And so this concept is one that has just frightened me for my whole life, which is I think I heard myron say this on stage and it was really impactful for me.

It was a close for him. But I just think it's a great concept. He said it's costing you a million dollars a year every year.

You don't know how to make a million dollars. And to me that's the tax of ignorance. So like, everyone who's listening to this, who's not making a billion dollars a year is getting taxed by life far more than the government is for just the ignorance that you have to not knowing how to do it.

And so that's always been the biggest tax. I've tried to pay down as fast as possible, which is like every person who makes more than me knows more than me in some way and I just have to try and figure out what am I ignorant of that they are not ignorant of. And a lot of people will throw stones and be like well, that guy doesn't have ethics or that guy doesn't have morals.

One of the big pieces is that there's always the compounding effect of time, right, is that might be on the right path as long as you are making progress. And that's a big one, right? You might be on the right path to a billion because like Warren Buffett at my age, I think was worth 10 million in those days, dollars. I have to figure out what that is in today's dollars.

But he was worth 10 million at my age and I'm like so maybe it is the right path. I don't know, you know what I mean? But also the world's changed. Do you think one of the big things is to just expand on that people assume they need to like someone to learn from them.

And I've never understood why someone sets a requirement to personally like someone to gain value or knowledge from them. Oh yeah, I wrote that down because it's a really good tweet. You don't need to like someone to learn from them.

That's great. Well, I'm glad I could contribute to your Twitter somehow amen. I love that.

It's a great statement. But Naval said something that I thought was really impactful and it's like, this is something that took me a very long time to understand. So before I explain what that quote is, most small business owners suck.

And that is why they are small business owners, because they are so bad at virtually all aspects of business that that's why they are small, right? Like the thing that separates small business from big business is skill, right? And market opportunity, et cetera. But you can even get into like, well, picking an opportunity is a skill, right? And so we were like, well that's easy, he's selling B, two B. It's like, well then why don't you sell B, two B or whatever? I mean, I don't think it's that easy, but you get the understanding, right? And so Naval said, you only do sales or good at selling because you don't know how to market, and you only market because you don't know how to build product.

And so I think there's a tremendous amount of truth to that, which is like, if you build the product good enough and it takes a tremendous amount of effort to build an exceptional product that grows on its own via word of mouth. Because of all acquisition channels, only one of them is quadratic in nature, right? Only one of them can multiply and compound on its own. Every other acquisition channel, you get an affiliate.

It's a one to one relationship. You get you dollar in, dollar out. Same thing with ads.

It's like you put a dollar in, you get a fixed amount out. Maybe it's ten to one, but it's fixed. So I put another dollar in, I get another $10 out.

But for something to be quadratic, it's like if I put ten in, I get 100, and then I get 1000, and then I get 10,000 and it multiplies. And the only thing that does that is word of mouth, right? And one of the things that's really interesting about the Internet space specifically, is a lot of people will start their business, they'll shoot up because they'll figure out how to get ads to work or whatever, whatever their acquisition channel is, they'll figure out how to do that and they'll shoot up in revenue, right? And this is particularly for paid ad people, right? And within six months or twelve months, all of a sudden they're like, man, my CPMs are out of control. My cost of acquisition is way above KPI.

Google's changed. YouTube's change. Facebook's change.

Right? They throw that out there. And the thing is, it may have gone up by like 10%, it may have gone up by 15%, but your cost of acquisition has quadrupled. And so the thing is, what is the invisible hand behind the scenes pulling the strings against you? And it's the same people who are like, well, word of mouth doesn't exist it doesn't work anymore.

And that's horseshit. Word of mouth 100% completely exists. It's social media, for God's sake.

Of course word of mouth works. It's just working against you. And so right now, everyone has word of mouth that is about their business.

The question is, is it neutral? Is it positive or is it negative? And then actively destroying your business the way positive word of mouth can grow your business. And so the guys who have positive word of mouth, they see their cost of acquisition to continue to decline, even if their cost per impression remains the same or even goes up slightly because they have that quadratic compounding. That's happened behind the scenes, whereas the other guys are having that compounding that's happening behind the scenes, which is like, oh, I saw this ad from Johnny so and so.

I think it looks cool. And then they message a friend. They're like, oh, dude, heard that guy's a complete his product shit.

He doesn't respond to you. The team sucks. He just has a bunch of VAS in the Philippines who are like, your support.

And it's terrible. And they're like, oh, wow. And then that person, the person who said the negative thing gets asked the question again about Johnny.

Another situation tells people he prevented that sale. No one knows why he prevented that sale, but that sale was prevented. And then the guy who tells it to gets another message like, hey, are you going to do that Johnny thing? And he's like, oh, no, I actually heard from Frank that it's actually a really bad product.

And they're like, okay, and that's enough. It doesn't take a lot to get people to not buy. And so it's just like you have this machine that compounds.

And the easiest way to prove it is like if your cost of acquisition has gone up three X, but the cost per impression has only gone up 30%, you have another thing that's working against you, which is like, how is Jimmy still here six years later? Seven years later, right, and still growing. It's only there because it has at least neutral or positive word of mouth behind it. Otherwise it wouldn't exist.

We wouldn't be to acquire customers.

