0:00

Welcome back to the game. Today

0:02

I talk about how I made my

0:04

first million and the big difference

0:06

was focus, honestly. There was a clear

0:08

transition point in my life where I

0:11

went from doing business, and I've

0:13

been doing this for years, and becoming

0:15

a, I mean, crazy side of

0:17

this, but a millionaire, seems so cringed

0:19

to say it. I think even saying

0:21

cringe is cringe now. I think it's

0:23

like old people stuff now. Anyways, how

0:25

I made my first million and there

0:27

was significant changes in my behavior and

0:29

this podcast zooms in on that exact

0:31

moment and the shift in behavior and

0:33

then the resulting outcome and I think

0:35

you'll probably be able to take one

0:37

two maybe more things from this episode

0:39

that could potentially help you out.

0:41

I want to talk to you about how

0:44

I made my first million dollars in profit.

0:46

Mind you, the reason I'm so big on

0:48

profit rather than revenue than revenue. I was

0:50

already making a couple million dollars a year

0:52

between all the different things that I was

0:55

doing, but I was taking home basically nothing.

0:57

Because I was so desperate then, I wasn't

0:59

paying attention to profit, I was just looking

1:01

at revenue, trying to beef myself up and

1:03

feel status rather than thinking about what I

1:06

was actually taking myself up and feel status

1:08

rather than thinking about what I was actually

1:10

taking home. And I told you in a

1:12

different video how I got in a head-on

1:14

collision in a DUI at 60 miles an

1:16

hour on the highway and walked away and

1:19

walked away from it. and make hard calls

1:21

that I didn't want to make to force

1:23

myself to focus on one thing. And so

1:25

what I want to do in this video

1:27

is talk to you about the result of

1:29

that decision and what kind of happened and

1:31

transpired in the next six to 12 months,

1:33

which is anything but a Cinderella story. I

1:35

made the calls. I went all in on

1:37

gym launch. I basically fire sold my other

1:39

businesses. And just as a quick tangent on

1:41

that. Like a lot of times I think the

1:44

great thing that we have is sitting right in

1:46

front of us after we let go of the

1:48

things that are holding us down. I'm a big

1:50

believer in the theory of constraint which is you

1:52

know a system will grow to up to it's

1:55

basically it's bottleneck right and then until you relieve

1:57

that like systems will grow as long as they're

1:59

not constrained. many ways, and we just do not recognize

2:01

them, which is why we have things called limiting beliefs that

2:03

is a constraint, right? And for me, in a very real

2:05

way, I had constraints in terms of all the different things

2:07

that I was allocating my attention to. I had, you know,

2:09

I think literally like nine or 10 businesses I'll use business,

2:11

I'll use like getting my attention to. I had, you know,

2:13

I think literally like nine or 10 businesses, I'll use businesses,

2:16

I'll use, like nine or 10 businesses, I'll, I'll, like, like,

2:18

like, like, like, like nine or 10 businesses, like, like, like,

2:20

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

2:22

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

2:24

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

2:26

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like the next move

2:28

which was going all in on gym launch. And this is

2:30

the beginning of yet another hard road

2:32

ahead. And so at this time, for

2:34

those of you don't know, I started

2:36

flying around and doing... done for you gym launches.

2:38

And so what that was was basically Lail and I

2:40

would go and do a gym turnaround. I didn't like

2:42

to use that word because I didn't think gym owners

2:44

liked it. I was originally going to call it gym

2:46

rescue, but no one wants to be rescue. So I

2:48

called a gym lunch, and everyone was to be rescue,

2:50

so I called a gym lunch, and everyone was okay

2:52

with that. Everyone was to be rescue, so I called a

2:55

gym lunch, and everyone was okay with that. And everyone was

2:57

okay with a gym lunch, and everyone was okay with that,

2:59

and I would, and I would, and I would, and I

3:01

would, and I would, and I would, and I would, and

3:03

I would, and I would, and I would, and I

3:05

would, and I would, and I would, and I would,

3:07

and I would, and I would, and I would, and

3:09

I would, and I would, and I would, and I

3:11

would, and I would, and I would, and I would,

3:13

and I would And the deal is I just get

3:15

to keep the up front cash that I collect and

3:17

then everything afterwards that's contract value You get to keep

3:19

it was a pretty compelling offer, right? They didn't have

3:21

to do anything, right? They would just say yes, and then

3:24

I would show up I think I'd ask them for

3:26

$500 to reserve the date just to make sure that

3:28

they just make it for $500 to

3:30

reserve the date just to make sure

3:33

that they wouldn't like not be like

3:35

not being and then we would take,

3:37

you know, then we'd fly to the

3:39

next one. This is kind of what

3:42

we had been doing in 2016, and

3:44

I was doing this while also having

3:46

six gyms and two agencies, and, and,

3:48

and, all these other things that were

3:51

going on, and I was spread wildly

3:53

too thin, and that's when I got

3:55

in the DUI, and then decided to

3:58

end everything except for gym. the

4:00

two agencies and then I had one

4:02

gym that was left over and I

4:04

put the money from the sale of

4:06

those other businesses which was not a

4:08

lot into kind of the last facility.

4:10

The partner that I had at that

4:12

facility ended up feeling like I had

4:14

been taking distributions somehow from the business

4:16

which I hadn't and then he took

4:18

what he believed was rightful compensation for

4:21

him not being involved in that gym

4:23

anyways. I basically took the rest of

4:25

the money out of the account. And

4:27

so I basically was left with nothing. So

4:29

I was truly at this rock bottom

4:31

moment of just got in the DUI.

4:33

I just got rid of all my

4:35

gyms. I put all the money from

4:37

those gyms into this last facility. That

4:39

money got taken. And I then decided

4:41

to close that one gym down. And

4:44

then when I did that, I couldn't

4:46

sell anymore at that facility to generate

4:48

cash flow because I wanted to close

4:50

it down. I didn't want to be

4:52

involved in that gym anymore. And so

4:54

I basically stumped rent and payroll out

4:56

of there with no new cash flow

4:58

coming in and I watched my bank

5:00

count basically go from some money to

5:02

no money. And so at the end

5:04

of that, we shut the gym down,

5:06

I got tons of refunds and things

5:08

like that that ended up happening afterwards

5:10

because people are weird when you shut up

5:13

business down. So heads up. And so we

5:15

just kept, but the coach that I had

5:17

at the time was just like, just write

5:19

the checks, do write by everyone and you'll

5:21

be able to escape this thing. unscathed emotionally

5:24

and more or less I did I was

5:26

able like that was some of the best

5:28

advice ever got like I just I didn't

5:30

try and pursue anything with the partner I

5:32

just wrote the checks for all the the

5:35

the customers who even if even if we

5:37

had fulfilled the services which I just wrote

5:39

the checks and I actually didn't Layla wrote

5:41

the checks because I was I was

5:43

so like destroyed by this entire decision

5:45

you know process but anyways I was

5:47

completely you know clean slate at that

5:49

point I think all in all I had 23

5:51

thousand dollars left over at that point. And so

5:54

after having six businesses and all the stuff I

5:56

had like nothing left. And this was hard for

5:58

me because I just meant four. four years

6:00

building six facilities and all that stuff and

6:02

I almost had nothing to show for it.

6:05

And that was one of the biggest lessons

6:07

that I've had is that like you have

6:09

all these skills and experiences and character traits

6:11

that you developed to show for it. Like

6:13

the entrepreneurial journey is one that improves you,

6:16

not anything else. And so that's why I'm

6:18

such a big believer in that stuff because

6:20

I had these things, these assets that I

6:22

did not value. And what's crazy is that

6:25

in the next 30 days or so we

6:27

did a hundred something thousand in sales.

6:29

Anyhow, actually I think what ended

6:31

up happening is I had almost no

6:33

money and then we did a launch

6:36

and then I, after all the costs

6:38

and everything, I think I had 20-something

6:40

thousand in money for me. The next

6:43

month, Layla and I said we were

6:45

just focusing purely on this business. She

6:47

told all of her friends from high

6:50

school that all we're doing, MLM, shake

6:52

mix stuff, and she said, hey, you

6:54

know. you should quit that and start selling this stuff we can make a

6:56

hundred bucks a pop instead of you know making five dollars on shake mix

6:58

and they were all like awesome in between month between uh... i think it

7:00

was like novemberish going into january which is when we wanted to slate the

7:03

six gyms that we're gonna launch at the same time that we're going to

7:05

slate the six gyms that we're gonna launch at the same time which of

7:07

course we're gonna launch at the same time that we're gonna launch at the

7:09

six gyms that we're gonna launch at the same that we're gonna launch at

7:11

the same time that we're gonna launch at the same time we're gonna launch

7:13

at the same time where we're gonna launch at the same time where we're

7:15

gonna launch at the same time where we're gonna launch at the same time

7:17

where we're gonna launch at the same time we're gonna launch at the same

7:19

time we're gonna launch at the same time we're gonna launch at the same

7:22

time we're gonna launch at the same time we're gonna launch at the day

7:24

you know launch I get a text from a guy and

7:26

he's like, hey, my brother lives in the

7:28

same city as where you're starting your new

7:30

gym. And I was like, or not starting,

7:32

doing a launch. I was like, okay, and

7:34

he's like, yeah, he's a salesman, he

7:36

really needs a job. He's got a

7:39

baby, and he's got another one on

7:41

the way, and it might be a

7:43

good fit. And so anyways, I knew

7:45

I needed to take a month to

7:47

kind of put all the resources together

7:49

to start doing the launches at six

7:51

at a time and training those sales

7:53

guys and everything. So I was like,

7:55

okay, that might work, because then I

7:57

don't have to spend all day selling.

7:59

in sales in December, which is like, A, a hard month to

8:01

do it in, and B, it was a great first, you know,

8:03

launch for somebody who's new, which also kind of proved the model

8:06

to me because I had done it, Layla done it, but we

8:08

never had someone else who wasn't like super tied to me doing

8:10

it. Obviously, Layla was more invested than just, you know, just an

8:12

employee right at the time. And so it was awesome. So I

8:14

was like, super excited, I was like, this 100 grand is going

8:16

to be the launch money for the launch money for the launch

8:18

money for the next thing for the next thing for the next

8:20

thing for the next thing for the next thing for the next

8:22

thing for the next thing for the next thing, this will, this

8:24

will, this will, this will be the next thing for the next

8:26

thing for the next thing, this will, this will, this will, This

8:28

guy's a winner. I'm going to take him home to meet my

8:30

family, which is hilarious because I was not

8:32

a winner at that time. And so anyways,

8:34

I'm at her family's house, Christmas

8:36

Eve, and we had been selling for three weeks

8:38

at this point. So we had, you know, 70,

8:41

80,000 in sales at this point. And what was

8:43

weird was I was running all the money through

8:45

just my gym processor, because I still, you know,

8:47

maintained the processing, like my POS. And so anyways,

8:50

I always got deposits on Tuesdays and I was

8:52

like, huh, this is weird. We haven't gotten a

8:54

deposit since like, I didn't get a deposit last

8:56

Tuesday and I was like, okay, that's odd. And

8:59

I called them and they're like, hey, you know,

9:01

I gave it like three or four days because

9:03

I was like, you know, maybe it's delayed or

9:05

something and it had been a holiday because it

9:08

was in the holiday season, whatever. And so the

9:10

deposit supposed to hit, it doesn't. I wait some

9:12

days. keep checking doesn't hit I call them they

9:14

say hey you're in an annual review it's standard

9:17

nothing to worry about and I was like that's

9:19

weird I've been with you guys for five years

9:21

I've never had an annual review interesting and then

9:23

waited a couple days called again was like

9:25

hey man like we're really gonna need these

9:27

funds like I need you to deposit these

9:29

and they're like yeah we're just working through

9:31

some final things blah blah blah blah I

9:33

was like all right and so Christmas Eve

9:35

I call them I call them and we're

9:37

supposed to launch six gym starting on the

9:39

26 so two days later I called the

9:41

guys up and I was like, I'm not

9:43

getting off the phone until you send me

9:45

the money. Like I'm not, like, I need,

9:47

there's a hundred grand that's sitting there, like

9:49

I need that money. The guy was like,

9:51

sorry, you know, we've seen some regular activity

9:54

in your account, and this is because we

9:56

had written all these refund checks for clients

9:58

when I was closing down the gym. last

10:00

gym that I had. So there's been some

10:02

regular activity. This isn't the way that, you

10:04

know, you're not, it seems like you have

10:07

a virtual business now. That's not what this

10:09

is intended for. This is supposed to be

10:11

for a single brick and mortar location. So

10:13

we're gonna hold on to all the funds

10:16

for six months and I. I lost it.

10:18

I lost it. And for those of you

10:20

who don't know me, when I lose it,

10:22

I don't actually get explosive. I just get

10:25

incredibly cold and very mean. And so I

10:27

probably said some of the meanest things. Like

10:29

I didn't cuss. I was just like,

10:31

I destroyed the person's character that I

10:33

was talking to on the phone. Like

10:35

that person questioned like why they were

10:37

alive. And so anyways, I got a

10:39

little stressed. She's like, is she always

10:41

this way? And of course I was

10:43

a little bit stressed at that time.

10:46

And so here's what was crazy is

10:48

that as we're going to the movie

10:50

theaters, I'm just like completely numb. I

10:52

just was like, I feel dead on

10:54

the inside. And so we go to

10:56

the theaters, the movies playing in front

10:58

of me, I'm not even watching the

11:00

movie, Layla. Holds my hand and she's like

11:02

what's going on. I was like until you later

11:04

She takes my pulse my resting pulse was like

11:06

120 in a dark movie theater at age 27

11:09

I was stressed out of my mind and so

11:11

we left the movies And I told her I

11:13

was like the money's and I told her I

11:15

was like the money's not coming and she was

11:17

like what do you mean? And I was like,

11:19

can they do that? I was like apparently like

11:22

this was the first time I'd even known this

11:24

that a processor can hold money And so, anyways,

11:26

I got home, I still owed the salesman from

11:28

the last month who had done that huge launch,

11:30

like this, all these sales that had happened,

11:32

somebody had sold them, right? But I didn't

11:35

collect the money from it. And so I

11:37

owed a $22,000 commission check and I had

11:39

$23,000 left and it was on money that

11:41

I never received. And so, in congruence with

11:43

the the lesson that I had learned from,

11:45

you know, the clean exit of all these

11:47

other things, which was like, like, just do

11:50

right by right by everyone, and then you

11:52

right by every emotional scars that you carry

11:54

with you. And so I wrote the check,

11:56

actually I wired it for $22,000 and I

11:59

had $1,000 left. And that's when we

12:01

got home. And I told Layla, you

12:03

know, everything that I had done. I

12:05

was like, I have $1,000 left. And

12:07

we were supposed to want, she told

12:09

her six friends to quit their jobs.

12:12

And we were going to start launching

12:14

gyms two days later on the 26th.

12:16

And I was like, I have $1,000.

12:18

And I have a credit card that

12:20

has $100,000 limit. I was like, I

12:22

will do this. I was like, but

12:25

this could go horribly go horribly wrong.

12:27

That was like this was the moment for

12:29

me that I that I knew I was

12:31

going to marry Layla And she said I

12:33

would sleep with you under a bridge if

12:35

it came to that She's like we'll get

12:37

through it and that was what I just

12:39

like I wanted to like you know I

12:41

would I would have been teary But I

12:43

was so emotionally numb at this point that

12:45

I just wanted to just like keep moving

12:47

forward and keep keep getting through it and

12:49

so anyways 48 hours later I make all

12:51

the ads I set up all the campaigns

12:53

all the everything and I remember turning the

12:56

campaigns on for all the six locations that

12:58

we're going to do. It's like off to on,

13:00

off to on, off to on, off to on,

13:02

off to on. And I remember I was sweating.

13:04

I was literally sweating when this was happening because

13:07

I just felt such dread. I was like, this

13:09

could literally just ruin me. Like, right now I

13:11

have no money, but I'm not in debt. And

13:13

I'm going to be going in debt at a

13:15

rate of $3,300, $3,300 per day of money that

13:18

I do not have. And so anyways, I turned

13:20

it on and the six guys were at the

13:22

locations. And it was $3,300 a day because I

13:24

was paying for hotel, airfare, food, car, ad spend,

13:27

and commissions every single day for six guys.

13:29

And I had, remember, $1,000 dollars. And so

13:31

it was all coming out of a credit

13:33

card. And the next 30 days, and we

13:36

ended up getting canceled by the processor,

13:38

right? I told you this at the

13:40

beginning of the beginning of the story.

13:42

So I started all this, and I

13:44

had no way to process money. So

13:47

these guys are getting leads, they're making

13:49

calls, they're closing deals, and I

13:51

can't process the money, all right?

13:53

And so we're sitting there, right? And

13:55

these contracts are just coming in, right?

13:58

And we had them scan. So we

14:00

had this mobile app and we had this

14:02

central drop box, which of course is not

14:04

PCI compliant. I had no idea what PCI

14:07

compliance was. And so we had this one

14:09

lady that we used to work at FIJIB

14:11

that I was paying part-time to processes. Mind

14:13

you, I didn't understand how much work this

14:15

was, because we were doing like 50 sales

14:18

a day. right? Between these locations at like

14:20

500 bucks a pop and I was paying

14:22

someone for part-time four hours a day of

14:24

contract work which was just insane it was

14:26

like it was probably two people's worth of

14:29

work and I was paying somebody part-time. It

14:31

ended up that ended up blog because she

14:33

couldn't do that in her full-time job so

14:35

and and we didn't even have a way

14:37

to process the money anyways right? And so,

14:40

anyways, I'm calling everybody I know to try

14:42

and figure out. I was like, hey, can

14:44

you process this? And then you can keep

14:46

10% and just send me the rest of

14:48

the money. And people were like, I don't

14:51

know, man, like, I don't know if I

14:53

want to do that. And so no one

14:55

would process the money for me. And so

14:57

I called every person I knew and then

14:59

I finally got in touch with a guy

15:02

named Alex Roy at the time who specialized

15:04

and like. high-risk processing, which is basically the

15:06

category I was in at that time. And

15:08

he said, I can get you set up.

15:10

And I was like, OK, cool. He said,

15:13

but given the record that you have right

15:15

now, because you just refunded all those people

15:17

at the last location, he's like, they're going

15:19

to want a reserve, which means they keep

15:21

a certain percentage no matter what, and they're

15:24

going to put a reserve, which means they

15:26

keep a certain percentage no matter what. And

15:28

they're going to put a limit on how.

15:30

And so the last week of January, all

15:32

right, so we were doing, you know, we're

15:35

doing five, six, you know, a thousand a

15:37

day in sales, maybe more than that, and

15:39

I had no way of processing it, right?

15:41

And the last week, I get this processor

15:43

for $50,000, and I run 50,000 dollars in

15:46

a day, right? He's like, okay, here's the

15:48

good news is that it's per month. So

15:50

it was the end of, he's like, so

15:52

this week can do 50 and the next

15:54

week you can do 50. And then I'll

15:57

see if I can get more lined up,

15:59

more processors at 50K to allow you to

16:01

start processing for them. And I was like,

16:03

okay, fine. Hey guys, love that you're listening

16:06

to the podcast. If you ever want to

16:08

have the video version of this, which usually

16:10

has more effects, more visuals, more graphs, you

16:12

know, drawn out stuff, sometimes it can help

16:14

hit the brain centers in different ways. You

16:17

can check on my YouTube channel, it's absolutely

16:19

free. Go check that out if that's what

16:21

you are into, and if not, keep enjoying

16:23

the show. So next week we do 50

16:25

on that same processor. And then we set

16:28

up another one and another one and another

16:30

one and I was able to like catch

16:32

this this falling plane as it's going and

16:34

we ended up somehow I think we ended

16:36

up processing a hundred grand actually that first

16:39

month. I think he got two people he

16:41

got somebody like the last day of the

16:43

month and I processed another hundred. Sorry another

16:45

fifty to get a hundred for that first

16:47

month and the next month I had three

16:50

processors so I was able to process a

16:52

hundred and fifty. which is doing 3,300 a

16:54

day, right? So I just, boom, I'm back

16:56

to zero again. But at least I had

16:58

a way of getting out of this thing,

17:01

right? So the next month, I think we

17:03

did 150 or 180. I have the chart

17:05

in my book, $100 million offers. But it

17:07

was somewhere in there. And so a process

17:09

that February, and we actually had a profit

17:12

that month. I was like, holy cow, like,

17:14

I think we made like 30 or 40

17:16

grand. And I was like, oh my God,

17:18

I think we might, we might get out

17:20

of this, we might get out of this,

17:23

right. But wait, there's more. There's more to

17:25

the story. It gets worse. And so I

17:27

think we're, I think I'm in the home

17:29

stretch, right? And so then March rolls around.

17:31

All right, so at this point, people that

17:34

we had sold in January, we were selling

17:36

six week weight loss programs at local gyms.

17:38

All of a sudden, I see this massive

17:40

hit on the bank account for a hundred

17:42

grand. And I was like, whoa, what's going

17:45

on, what happened? And it turned out that

17:47

two of the facilities that we had launched

17:49

in January, and this is now at the

17:51

end of February, beginning of March, they told

17:53

a number of their clients, hey, if you

17:56

refund, you can just sign up through me.

17:58

And I'll do it for less. And

18:01

so we had already paid for the airfare,

18:03

the flights, hotels, commissions, ad spend, for all

18:05

these sales. So the margin on this was

18:07

lowish, right? I was probably running 20% margins.

18:09

And that $100,000 completely wiped out all of

18:11

the savings that I had over the last

18:13

month or two, right? And it was actually

18:15

more than I could even handle. And so

18:17

we had to sell more to cover the

18:19

refunds. And so this is where things got

18:21

even more fun. And I say that sarcastically

18:23

so this is what happened next February we

18:25

do more money March I know that we

18:27

have to sell even more So I hire

18:29

two more sales guy. We do eight launches

18:31

that month and that's to cover the refunds

18:33

that are starting to come in from January

18:35

All right? You can probably see where this

18:37

is going the refunds start getting worse. There's

18:39

more and more and more it turns out

18:41

after everything 35% of all of our of

18:43

our sales that we were making we're getting

18:45

refunded which is an astronomical number that is

18:47

hard to even comprehend And it was because

18:49

we had no control over the fulfillment, right?

18:51

So we were selling and then other people

18:53

were filling on contracts that we had sold.

18:55

And so, and there was a lot of,

18:57

you know, hey, just refund, sign up through

18:59

me, don't worry, because we'd be gone, right.

19:01

We'd already left the location and these people

19:03

were getting fulfilled on contracts. And so we

19:05

didn't have the relationship with the customer, the

19:07

business owner did. And so it was a

19:09

really dumb model from that perspective. I learned.

19:11

And so anyways, the next month, we have

19:13

to sell more. And so I think we

19:15

did 280,000 the next month. And I was

19:17

like, OK, cool. But all of the excess

19:19

cash that came from that from the profit

19:21

went into funding these refunds from the month

19:23

before. And then refunds just kept going up.

19:26

And so I knew that in April, I

19:28

was going to have to sell even more

19:30

to cover the refunds from February and March.

19:32

And I felt like I was in a

19:34

death trap. I was like, I don't know

19:36

how to get out of this. Like every

19:38

month I have to sell more to cover

19:40

the refunds from them a month before, but

19:42

then the cash from these things somebody needed

19:44

to cover the next month and sell even

19:46

more. And honestly, I had no idea what

19:48

I was going to do. And so all

19:50

of a sudden, Layla at this point, because

19:52

she still has one foot out the door

19:54

a little bit, because she was like, I

19:56

don't know about this guy. And so this

19:58

whole time, she'd been living on like $3,000

20:00

a month that she was getting from her

20:02

like online coaching business. So she had transitioned

20:04

her personal training clients to online, and she

20:06

had transitioned her personal training clients to online.

20:08

And she was doing like three grand a

20:10

month from that. We know how to mark

20:12

and sell weight loss, let's, let's, let's just

20:14

sell weight loss, let's, let's, let's just sell

20:16

it, let's just sell it, let's, let's just

20:18

sell it, let's, let's just sell it, let's

20:20

just sell it, let's just sell it, let's

20:22

just sell it, let's just sell it, let's,

20:24

let's, let's, let's, And so I wrote one

20:26

of the best sales pages of my entire

20:28

life out of just sheer need. Took me

20:30

two days to write the sales letter, maybe

20:32

three, and I didn't even get up for

20:34

the computer. I was just writing the sales

20:36

letter. And so... I started running traffic to

20:38

it and we started doing a thousand bucks

20:40

a day of just online. So there was

20:42

no, there was no, it was all margin,

20:44

right, minus ad spent. And I was like,

20:46

holy cow, this could work, right? And so

20:48

we had eight sales guys and so I

20:50

was like, okay, we can tell these guys,

20:52

they don't have to sell gyms anymore, they

20:54

can sell from home, they can see their

20:56

wives, and we can sell from home, they

20:58

can see their wives, and we can do

21:00

8,000 today. And so I told the guys

21:02

the next month, the gyms that were lined

21:04

up to launch the next month, hey, we're

21:06

not going to, we're not going to be

21:09

doing this anymore. Sorry, we're going to be

21:11

going another direction. And they were like, hey

21:13

man, like, we need this. And I was

21:15

like, sorry, man, like, I'm not, I'm not

21:17

doing that model anymore. And they were like,

21:19

well, can you show us what you're doing?

21:21

Because like, my friend told me that you

21:23

signed up, like, like, 200 people, 200 people

21:25

at his gym, like, like, And I was

21:27

like, I'm not flying out there man, I'm

21:29

sorry, I'm not doing it. And so anyways,

21:31

push comes to shove, I was like, fine,

21:33

I'll show you how to do it. I

21:35

was like, but I'm not flying out there

21:37

to save your ass, you can't sell. He's

21:39

like, no, no, no, that's fine. He was

21:41

like, well, how much? To show me how

21:43

much? To show me how much? To show

21:45

me how much? To show me how much.

21:47

To show me how much. To show me

21:49

how much. To show me how much. To

21:51

show me how much. To show me how

21:53

much. To show me how much. To show

21:55

me how much. To show me how much.

21:57

To show me how much. To show me

21:59

how much. To show me how much. To

22:01

show me how much. To show me how

22:03

much. To show me how much. To show

22:05

me how much. To show me how much.

22:07

To show me how much. To show me

22:09

how much. To of these experiences leading up

22:11

with us. And the guy said, OK. And

22:13

I looked at the phone and was like,

22:15

you've got to be kidding. And I was

22:17

like, holy crap. And so it was $6,000.

22:19

And then I had seven more guys that

22:21

I was supposed to call, you know, to

22:23

tell them that I wasn't going to do

22:25

their launch the next month. And so the

22:27

next conversation I had, I was like, well,

22:29

shoot if I'm going to do it, I

22:31

guess I have to make it now that

22:33

I have to make it now that I

22:35

sold one of one of one of one

22:37

of one of them. Now that I sold

22:39

one of one of them. Now that I

22:41

sold one of them. Now that I sold

22:43

one of them. Now that I sold one

22:45

of them. Now that I sold one of

22:47

them. Now that I sold one of one

22:49

of them. Now that I sold one of

22:52

them. Next guy same conversation went the same

22:54

way and he was like well how much

22:56

I was like eight grand and he was

22:58

like okay, and I was like holy cow

23:00

and then Every single one after that said

23:02

yes and ended up doing 60,000 dollars in

23:04

sales in a day and I I looked

23:06

at Layla and I was like we might

23:08

be able to get out of this and

23:10

At that time as much as people talk

23:12

about the romantic like vision and strategy and

23:14

and impact and saving lives and all this

23:16

stuff like it wasn't any of that I

23:18

was just trying to be able to not

23:20

be in debt and pay the bills that

23:22

were mounting every single month off. And so

23:24

I knew that I needed to make like

23:26

$150,000 in profit in the next like 30

23:28

days or so in order for this to

23:30

work, right? And this was the only way

23:32

I could do it. And this was the

23:34

only way I could do it. And so

23:36

what I did was I called, you know,

23:38

those guys, they all bought. And then I

23:40

called up every gym that we had launched

23:42

at that point, which was like 32. That

23:44

would be great. That's exactly what we did.

23:46

And so I ended up doing like 300,000

23:48

in sales the next month selling a digital

23:50

product, which was actually more like a consulting

23:52

type thing. And here's what's crazy. The next

23:54

30 days, the average gym that used the

23:56

consulting program, Jim Launch, did $30,000 in collected

23:58

cash. Not contract, not contract, not anything like

24:00

that, but $30,000 in sales. in the next

24:02

30 days. And then that is when everything

24:04

took off like a rocket because every single

24:06

one of those guys told every person that

24:08

they I knew that was in the gym

24:10

space like, dude, I just did this thing

24:12

and it killed. That was what gave birth

24:14

to Jim Launch as it became the consulting

24:16

company, the licensing company, where we licensed out

24:18

all the materials, all the ads, all the

24:20

copy, all the scripts, how to set up

24:22

the lobbies. And the thing is that when

24:24

people asked me about the story, and this

24:26

is, you know, now we're six months into

24:28

2017 at this point, I've gone through like

24:30

the hardest 18 months of my entire life.

24:32

That is when we just went from, I

24:34

think we just went from, I think we

24:37

did. a hundred grand that first you know

24:39

month or last few weeks, and then we

24:41

did 300, then 480, then 780, then 1,

24:43

2, then 1, 2, 2, 2, like we

24:45

just kept, we just grew like a rocket.

24:47

And a lot of people think it was

24:49

because of the marketing that I was running

24:51

at that point, but it wasn't. There was

24:53

a lot of it was just the word

24:55

of mouth and the actual product worked, you

24:57

know what I mean? And I used that

24:59

as an example, because like right now I

25:01

launched the book, 100 million dollar offers, it's,

25:03

it's, it's 99 cents. with one post on

25:05

my Instagram, which is not that big, of

25:07

a following. And right now it sells about

25:09

a thousand copies a day with no funnels,

25:11

no ads, no whatever. And it's because the

25:13

product was good. You know, and people talk

25:15

if the product's good. And with this product,

25:17

I was able to charge an egregious amount

25:19

of money, but it was because we were

25:21

making people so much money. Like if I

25:23

gave you a system that made $30, on

25:25

average in the first 30 days, how much

25:27

is that system worth? Right, most guys charge,

25:29

you know, for franchises, they'll charge 500,000 first

25:31

system that does something like that, right? And

25:33

I was just charging 16 grand because I

25:35

was like, holy cow, like... they're going to

25:37

make double their money in the first 30

25:39

days if they just do this, right? And

25:41

I was so, I knew every aspect, every

25:43

piece of this process because I had done

25:45

it, not only for my six gyms, but

25:47

for the 30 plus that we had launched.

25:49

And so like I knew the differences between

25:51

different markets. I knew how to train sales

25:53

guys to get them to do it. I

25:55

knew how to position the offer. I knew

25:57

how to do the layout of the sales

25:59

room in the lobby so you can maximize

26:01

the amount of people that you could sell.

26:03

I knew how to do the nutrition consultations

26:05

the next day so you can cover all

26:07

the ad spend just with product sales, right?

26:09

Like I knew all these things because I

26:11

did it. And so I tell the story

26:13

to illustrate one thing. One is that what

26:15

you were going through now doesn't mean like

26:17

your work works on you more than you

26:20

work on it. I was developing skills, character

26:22

traits and beliefs through this entire three, four,

26:24

five, six year period of just of just

26:26

eating shit that I did not know was

26:28

for me. And so we think that the

26:30

first business, the second business, the fifth business

26:32

you started is going to be the business

26:34

that's going to be it for you. But

26:36

like the journey is long, you know what

26:38

I mean? And you accumulate these skills and

26:40

these beliefs and these traits over time. And

26:42

those become the things, those are your actual

26:44

assets, right? The businesses are just manifestations of

26:46

those assets in reality. And so as these

26:48

things took off, right? My life radically transformed.

26:50

And the piece that I get a lot

26:52

of questions about is like how can I

26:54

do what you did in my space or

26:56

in my niche or my whatever. And the

26:58

thing is is people want to skip the

27:00

first five years of the story, right? The

27:02

first five years was that I didn't sell

27:04

a first five years of the story, right?

27:06

The first five years was that I didn't

27:08

sell a portion of how to make $10,000

27:10

a month from a gym when I had

27:12

my first gym. I didn't do that when

27:14

I had a second. It was only, and

27:16

even then, I started doing the launches as

27:18

the next thing, because I wanted to make

27:20

sure that everyone always got way more value

27:22

than they paid me, which was zero. They

27:24

paid me nothing, and then I would fill

27:26

their gym up. Pretty good deal, right? No

27:28

risk for them. And so I did that

27:30

for almost two years, doing the gym launches,

27:32

right? And so I did that for almost

27:34

two years, doing the gym launches, right, where

27:36

we'd fly out. We went from zero to

27:38

30 million in the next year in revenue

27:40

because I had accumulated all of these skills

27:42

in these character traits that I would but

27:44

not otherwise have had. And so a lot

27:46

of people want to just jump to that

27:48

part, but they don't have the skills, they

27:50

don't have the character traits, they don't have

27:52

the beliefs that align with what they want

27:54

to achieve. And so I'm a big believer

27:56

that the foundation that you set is going

27:58

to dictate the height of the peak of

28:00

the peak of the peak of the pyramid

28:03

that you want to build within your life

28:05

and the business that you want to grow.

28:07

And so most people have a very small

28:09

foundation. They took a course, and then they

28:11

took a course, and then they want to

28:13

start selling, and then they want to start

28:15

selling how to start selling how to start

28:17

selling how to selling how to selling how

28:19

to, how to selling, how to, how to,

28:21

how to, how to, how to, how to,

28:23

how to, how to, how to, how to,

28:25

how to, how to, how to, how to,

28:27

how to, how to, how to, how to,

28:29

how to, how, how, how, how, how, And

28:31

so the reality is that they're just not

28:33

good enough. And that's why. The thing that

28:35

they have just doesn't work that well, which

28:37

is why it doesn't make money, which is

28:39

why they don't make money, right? Because the

28:41

amount of money that you'll make will be...

28:43

will be predicted by the value that you

28:45

provide to the marketplace. That's always what it

28:47

is. I know this is a longer story,

28:49

but I think that hopefully it illustrates one,

28:51

that the path is not straight. Two, it

28:53

is fraught with difficulty. And mind you, me

28:55

telling you the very, the quote, end of

28:57

this story is that like, oh yeah, then

28:59

you know, everything took off like a rocket.

29:01

all of these types of problems there was

29:03

different problems that we had to solve then

29:05

just like how do you double every month

29:07

and somehow keep up with high quality service

29:09

and and support and train talent while also

29:11

bringing new people in and keep a culture

29:13

and all of these things but at the

29:15

end of the day the product brought us

29:17

so much forgiveness from our customers because they

29:19

were just all making so much money using

29:21

the systems that we had laid out that

29:23

we were able to build the infrastructure as

29:25

as the plane was flying you know during

29:27

the journey and so anyways that was um

29:29

that was the transition of me going from

29:31

uh... broken looking at bankruptcy lawyers to uh...

29:33

we did three million in profit just in

29:35

the last like four five months of that

29:37

year and then the next year we did

29:39

seventeen million in profit uh... and that was

29:41

because i switched from a a service to

29:43

media, which is no cost of reproduction. So

29:45

there's significantly higher gross margins on it, which

29:48

is a better opportunity vehicle. And what's interesting

29:50

about this, and I'll just, I'll hit this

29:52

because I can probably make a video on

29:54

this one concept alone, and I think it's

29:56

worth highlighting. is that when I had my

29:58

gyms, right, that I had relatively the same

30:00

skill set, right? I knew how to help

30:02

people lose weight, I knew how to market,

30:04

I knew how to sell, I had these

30:06

locations, all of that. From there I transitioned

30:08

to a done for you, sales model, right?

30:10

From there I transitioned to a done-for-you sales

30:12

model, right? And I made more money, right?

30:14

Now I had some issues, and it's funny

30:16

because I could look at that model now

30:18

and fix it in two seconds, because it's

30:20

what I would need what I would need

30:22

what I would need to do to do

30:24

to do to change to change to change

30:26

the model, to change the model, to change

30:28

the model, to change the model, to change

30:30

the model, to change the model, to change

30:32

the model, to change the model, to change

30:34

the model, But I made more money in

30:36

terms of revenue and you know in terms

30:38

of net margins I was making more But

30:40

there was holes in the in the actual

30:42

way the model was designed which is why

30:44

I had to do with all these other

30:46

things And then finally we switched to licensing

30:48

Code and media right and that is where

30:50

you know the highest gross margins exist and

30:52

so I had the same skills right But

30:54

as my belief changed and my character traits

30:56

changed and developed I was able to switch

30:58

into better and better opportunity vehicles for the

31:00

same set of skills. And that is what

31:02

ended up creating the fortune that Layla and

31:04

I were able to amass in this period

31:06

of time. And it was because of that

31:08

transition through different vehicles repackaging the same skills.

31:10

And so the first step in this is

31:12

getting the skills to repackage. And I think

31:14

most people just want to skip that part,

31:16

which is the rocky cut scene that every

31:18

single person that I know is successful does

31:20

that no one wants to talk about. great

31:22

big business owner that I know have these

31:24

years of thankless work where they develop these

31:26

skills these traits in these beliefs that end

31:28

up setting them free and everyone wants to

31:31

just take the the one course and things

31:33

they're going to become a millionaire in six

31:35

months and it's just not the case and

31:37

so many people are far ahead of me

31:39

in their entrepreneurial journey you know that I

31:41

was in my first two years three years

31:43

five years and so I tell the story

31:45

to hopefully give anyone hope who's like two

31:47

years in and isn't making money it's like

31:49

well Multiply that by three and then that's

31:51

about where I was where I started making

31:53

real money. So anyways lots of love Mosie

31:55

Nation. I love you all. My name is

31:57

Alxra Mosie. I'm an acquisition.com. We did about

31:59

$85 million a year in revenue and I

32:01

have absolutely nothing to sell you. Keep being

32:03

awesome. If you did enjoy this the subscribe

32:05

button and I'll see you in the next

32:07

video and if you didn't like this then

32:09

I love you the other way. All right

32:11

lots of love I'll see that. Bye. Real

32:13

quick guys I have a special special gift

32:15

for you for being loyal

32:17

listeners of the podcast. Layla

32:19

and I spent probably an

32:21

entire quarter putting together our

32:23

scaling roadmap. It's breaking scaling

32:25

into 10 stages. and across

32:27

all eight functions of the

32:29

business. So you've got marketing,

32:31

you've got sales, you've got

32:33

product, you've got customer success,

32:35

you've got IT, you've got

32:37

recruiting, got HR, you've got

32:39

finance. We show the problems

32:42

that emerge at every level

32:44

of scale and how to

32:46

graduate to the next level.

32:48

It's all free and you

32:50

can get it personalized to

32:52

you, so it's about 30-ish

32:54

pages for each of the

32:56

stages. Once you have to

32:58

watch the part that's relevant

33:00

to you. which will probably

33:02

be about 90 minutes. And

33:04

so if that's at all

33:06

interesting, you can go to

33:08

acquisition.com/road map.