Wer ist Alex Hormozi?

0:00I spend several hours consuming all of your content across multiple channels. What is the aim? What is the mission? What is the the intent if you were to try and summarize the content you're producing and the value you're trying to add and to who are you trying to add it to? To make business accessible for everyone.

0:24That was the mission of the company. And so our whole idea was we'll put everything out there uh for free. So no pay walls. So there's like we have courses on the site. The books I have for 99 cents um so that anyone can get them. And you know we'll continue to produce as much as we can. And we share the learnings that we have from our portfolio companies in order to keep the stuff that we are putting out there relevant, new, fresh, cutting edge because this is what's working today.

0:53And by doing that, it also brings other companies to us because they get value from the stuff. And our goal is always to hopefully provide more value to a company before they've ever spoken to us. Um, like kind of pay for ourselves in advance is kind of like the thought process, even though we're buying it. Um, and that's that was kind of the thesis when we started it. I didn't know if it was going to work. Uh, but it seems to have gone pretty well. Uh, and it was just kind of just like if we just give and keep giving and keep giving, we just focus on the value and delivering to the audience, um, it'll come back eventually.

1:27>> What are you giving them and who are you giving it to? >> Entrepreneurs at all stages. Um, we've surveyed the audience. 25% of the audience uh, has a business, 75% does not have a business but wants to start a business. And so that's just kind of overall um, and then within that 25% it just kind of categories all the way up to, you know, businesses doing 100 million plus a year. And so it's everyone. And so we try and our one of the things that we talk about is like going wide and deep is like how can we figure something that is relevant to somebody who's you know launching their first product and also make it accessible or interesting to somebody who's launching a new product line within a division of their conglomerate, right? And just trying to think about both people at the same time which becomes more challenging but it's also kind of fun.

2:08>> It's kind of like a funnel, isn't it? In some respects. Um that's [clears throat] exactly what I saw from your content. You're you're making great content that's helping people that are at the start of their journey or you know 100 employees deep into their journey trying to figure out how to scale. You're making content that's bringing down some of the barriers whether psychological or practical to enable them to reach whatever dream they have. Let's go way upstream then.

2:33What do I need to know about you to understand the life you've led? Take me way back to your childhood in the early context. Both parents are im immigrants to the US. Uh mother was born in France, came here, but father was born in Iran. Um they met in medical school in Europe. Uh and then my mother brought him back with her to the US. And then uh they had me and uh they split. My mom had a lot of demons. She had a lot of things she struggled with when I was coming up. So I pretty much was raised by my dad. Uh had no siblings. It was just me and my dad for until I was about 15. um he got remarried. It was a short stint in terms of uh how long I was like kind of in the house, you know, like right at that stage is when you can drive and

3:17>> I was kind of on my own almost at that point. Um as soon as I could work and drive, I was kind of out of the house. Um and then from there did the thing that most people try and do, which is uh I I I worked hard at school mostly because I just didn't want my dad to be upset with me, which was uh the main driver for most of my achievement of my career for the first half. um was all just trying to gain his approval. Um did all the things that I thought he would want me to. Uh got a job at a government contracting uh consulting firm uh defense contracting.

3:50It was space, cyber, and ISR. Uh so it's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance uh for the military. Sounded really cool. Was less cool when you were in it. Um and I was very very sad um at that point in my life. And so it was very much like I didn't I always hoped I wouldn't wake up the next day. Um and >> you mean that >> truly >> you really mean that? >> 100%.

4:15100%. Cuz I remember when I was looking at um because a lot of people have like rock top moments. Sorry, rock bottom moments. I think I had more of a rock top moment which was um I was 22. I had done everything that my dad had wanted me to do at this point. I was looking out from the condo that I had been able to buy with this job that I had and um I was like, "Is this it?" And the whole time I just really didn't enjoy my life. Um and it was just, you know, not wanting to wake up. And it was the the decision to leave Baltimore, which is where I was from. To quit that path, to decide to start a business of my own, was still to this day the hardest thing I've ever done by far. All the things we've been through to to build what we have, the hardest decision was taking the leap for me. Uh, and it was because like I knew that my dad so much wanted me to do what I was doing because he was so happy that I was doing everything he wanted me to do at that point. And I had told him over and over again that I wanted to do this other stuff. And he's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, later." You know, later. Um, and so I knew that it would probably put a big dent in our relationship um if I left. But for me, it was actually confronting the fact that I didn't want to be alive anymore, which was the thing that gave me enough courage or whatever you want to call it to actually make the decision to leave home. And so I started driving across the country. I mean, it took me six months to do this. Like when I between when I decided I really wanted to do this and when I actually did it, it took me six months. And uh I called him when I was like halfway across the United States and I was like, I'm going to California. I'm going to open a gym.

6:00I'm gonna get into fitness. And he was like, why are you so extreme? And he like lost it. And then we didn't really talk much for a long time. >> When you started realizing that your life um was one where you didn't want to wake up in the morning when you had that job in management consultancy? >> Mhm. >> Did you experience suicidal ideiation? Is that what you're saying when you say I don't want I didn't want to wake up into my life every day.

6:25>> It was never like I've never had a like this is how I'd kill myself. Nope. Never had that. I just always like the idea that I could not wake up the next day sounded good. >> When you look back in hindsight from that moment backwards, what are the series of decisions or the the things that led you to find yourself in the position? And I asked that because there's a lot of people that can probably relate to >> and and there's probably quite a consistent set of frog pads or stones that one has walking down for whatever reason that lead you to a position where you go, "What the [ __ ] Whose life is this?"

7:03I think the like the oneline summary for me was that like I felt like I had to let my dad's dream die for mine to live. And I felt like my entire life it had always up to that point had been like go to this school do these studies you know I mean it's it's a common thing like it's not like I had something that a lot of people don't have many people and to be fair I'm very grateful for the skills discipline etc that that instilled in me um because I think you you you have the the hard hand of an authoritarian um parent when you're growing up and it teaches you a lot of skills and then you know the flip side is if you have a very less affair parent like you never learn those skills which then benefit you later so you know who knows Um but for me um I knew that he just wanted me to be a doctor. That's what he was. That would have been his dream. I went to school as premed. Um and then I it was like even changing my degree from premed to just a business degree was like a huge deal. Um but he was okay with that as long as I followed like the business path. And so when I did my two years of consulting, which is kind of the typical like two to four years you do consulting and then you apply to go to business school. Um, when I was going through that process, I was answering the question for like the Harvard MBA and it was like, "How will Harvard MBA help your short and long-term goals?" And I sat there for like two days trying to answer the question and I was like, "It just isn't.

8:20I want to start a business." And so that was when I kept trying to, you know, start that conversation with my dad and it just wasn't really happening. Um, and so that's what that was kind of the breaking point for me was like I just felt terrible about my life and I just didn't didn't like the way it was going. And I for me it was such a key point because the biggest line of reasoning I had for myself in order to convince myself to confront my father or at least disappoint my father or the version of myself that he wanted me to be was to say that like I have to be comfortable dying in his eyes. And a lot of people like and many people might think that it's hyperbole but for me it was very true. like I I knew that I would die in his eyes and I did.

8:59Um to give you context, so I had the gyms and I opened up multiple after that. Got to about six locations, sold those, started a gym turnaround business, did that for two years. Um all the while we weren't really in, you know, we were like okay in touch. Um, and then we started the licensing business, which is gym launch. And that's the one that like really took off. And we hadn't been super in touch.

9:24And I get a call out of the blue. And he wasn't like a cold call. You know what I mean? I was like, "This is weird." So, I pick up the phone and he's like, "You're going to want to sit down for this." And I was like, "Okay. Uh, what's up?" I was thinking like cancer, you know? I mean, I'm just like, "What? What is it going to be?" He was like, "I'm sorry." And I was like, "For what?" He was like, "You know, everything." I was like, "Okay."

9:52And I was very angry still because and this is what I told him. So I was like, I like you know that point when people like get on stage and they accept the awards and mind you at this point I think we're doing we're probably taking home one and a half million a month, you know what I mean? And take home like personal income from the license. It was a it was a decent like is it I'm not you know conglomerate like public but it was a decent sized business and I was like you know when people get on stage and they accept awards for things I was like the first thing they always say is like hey I just want to thank my mom and dad for always believing in me. I was like I'm not going to say that. I was like cuz you didn't. I was like you're only saying this now once everyone believed because it's not belief anymore. It's fact. It's evidence. I was like so you're I was like this apology means nothing to me. And besides that, I stopped caring what you thought six years ago, which is why I left. And so I had like that's like I I could have just accepted it and I and I I didn't do that. Um

10:52>> how do you feel about that? >> I pro like today I probably would have just said thanks. I appreciate it. I know where he was trying I he was trying to extend an olive branch. Um and I just wasn't there. I was still seething. I was still very angry that I had not gotten any support during that process. And maybe that was very woe is me. Um, but I was still very angry at that point. And you know, to give also a little bit of context, you know, his response to that was like, well, we'll see how long it lasts.

11:19>> You're joking. >> No. So, like my father and I like he is a very strong personality and so do I and we both think we're right. >> Are you angry about it now? >> Honestly, >> no. Well, I mean, like I think I can still feel the emotions, but I feel like I've, you know, thought about it enough to say that I can logically say I think he absolutely did the best he could with what he had. He's a single dad, another country, raising a kid, trying to get that kid to fit in and do the things that like one of the things that I think my dad always wanted me to be able to do is like cuz he's darker skinned than I am. He's Middle Eastern. um he always wanted me to like have access to like the back rooms where like deals were made that he felt like he wasn't a part of. And so he just wanted me to have that. And so I think he just drove me as much as he could to to get that. It's just like when you're on the other side of it, like all you feel is never succeeding.

12:16But I can appreciate it now in retrospect. Um but it definitely was still it hardened me a lot. But that hardness I think has has benefited me a lot in business. >> I had someone on the the podcast say a quote which I've never managed to forget. They said, "You've got to realize that everybody you encounter, everybody that does you wrong, if you were them and you'd been through what they've been through and you had their brain, you'd be doing the exact same thing."

12:43>> Yeah. >> And it sounds it's obvious on one hand, but it's also very kind of illuminating that think about the person that's wrong you the most. If you've been through their shoes and you had their genetics, you'd be doing the exact same thing. >> Doesn't mean you have to let them off, but at least it evokes some empathy. >> If you hear um you cannot both hate and understand someone at the same time. >> True. >> Like if you truly understand someone then you can't hate them because you understand why. Like a lot of times the hate is from the unknown and not like because you hate because I mean you almost say you're like how could like it's it's literally a statement of not understanding. M

13:17>> like how could you if you understood then you would know how >> and that resentment is a byproduct of just not understanding as well. I was just thinking about resentment that I've had in my life when I think someone's wrong me. >> That sense of injustice. You're right. How could Yeah. >> How dare you? >> Did you ever manage to get your fuel to burn less dirty? Are you burning less dirty now? >> Yeah, I think so. >> You think so? >> Yeah, I think so. I My my team tells me um that that's true. And if you look at like because I do have some older videos that I made from like you know years ago. Um and there's definitely a different vibe. [laughter] I'm I'm significantly friendlier now than I was then. Um I mean even the way I interacted with customers and you know the team was like purely fear driven.

14:00Like I was absolutely because I didn't understand influences well yet. Um so only only the stick I had was like if I if people are afraid of me then they will immediately comply and it's effective for short durations but not for long durations. Um and but I didn't know any better at the time and then I slowly that's when I you know right around that point is when I met my wife and then she just you know changed my life. Um and she started running all the businesses and I'd see her and everyone loved her and I was like man [laughter] should do more more of that stuff and less of my stuff. Um

14:32>> she changed your life. Oh yeah, for sure. Bar not. I mean, she's like the best. How did she change you? >> She has brought out the absolute best in me, like in in just about every way. Like, didn't think we were going to go here.

14:57Um, she just she believed in me. And I think that's what most guys want truly. At least for me, that's what I want or needed.

15:22I'll tell you a story to illustrate it. So, we met, talked for four hours on the first date only about business because that's all I wanted to talk about. And I pitched her on working for me. I was like, "Quit your job. Work for me." And she was like, "I just met you." [laughter] Logically makes sense. She was a personal trainer. I had a bunch of gyms and I was like, "If you're this good, you should totally work for me." She was like, "Well, let's, you know, let's see how this goes." Um, and so I had this idea for the turnaround business. And it was right as I had five five locations at that point and I wanted to try this thing out. So I flew out, did three turnarounds, flew back and they started working and then um I sold all my gyms because it was like, "Okay, this this makes even more money." I took all the money and put it into uh this gym that one of the guys I was doing a turnaround with was like, "Dude, you just crushed this. Like I'm a really good operator.

16:13Instead of turning these gyms around and walking away with just the money, he's like, "You should just keep owning them and I'll just fill up fill them up behind you." So, I could I could launch one, two, three gyms a month and then own them all. He's like, "You're leaving so much money on the table." I was like, "Okay." So, we did this first launch. I put all the money in. He's like, "Of course." He had financial difficulties and I had to personally, you know, personally guarantee the lease, normal stuff. Um, and so I crushed this launch and then I wake up one morning, I check the bank account, and uh, it's completely empty. And I was like, "What's happening?" So, I called him up and he was like, "Well, I know you're you're skimming from the business." And I was like, "What?" He's like, "I know you're I know you're you're skimming." I was like, "I'm I'm we just what? No." Um he's like, "Well, that was my half." Uh and so I was like, "What is happening?" So I I printed all the bank the bank statements. I went line by line. I was like, "Let me I'll I'll walk you through all the bank statements. Let's just let's get to the bottom of this." And I remember we went sat to the meeting and he was like, "I don't need to see that."

17:10And he pushed it off the table and I was like, "Oh, okay." I immediately was like, "Oh, he I just got fined." And he'd already been indicted for fraud. Um, and I knew this getting into business with him and it was just a big misunderstanding. And you know, the saying goes like, uh, when experience meets money, money gets the experience and experience gets money. Um, very much live that. And so after I had all my gyms, I sold them, put all the money in this thing, and then they all got taken. Um, and so I had nothing. And um Leila's with me at this point for this like this exciting period. So I was like, "Okay." She's like, "Hey, you know, maybe we should keep doing these turnarounds instead of this weird launch and go thing you side sideline for." I was like, "Okay, we'll do that." And so I was going to launch a gym the next month. Um and there was a guy who was local to that gym. And since I was refocusing, I was like, "All right, I'm going to build all the infrastructure. I'll send this sales guy up to do this thing." And uh he crushed the launch. did like 120,000 which for us was a big launch um in like three day in three weeks. And so now I'm at Leila's parents house because uh like we don't really have a house at this point.

18:18Um and I'm the guy that she met from the internet that she quit her job for uh who just lost everything. And uh I was I was I needed this 100 grand to come in from this launch so that I could recapitalize. And the money wasn't hitting. I was checking the bank account. I was like, "Where's this money?" Like, and I I could see the processing, the transactions, and it was all success. What's going on? So, I called the the processor up and I was like, "What's up?" And they uh they said, "It's a routine check." I was like, "I've known you guys six years.

18:46It's never been a routine check." And they were like, "Call again later." And I was like, "Okay." So, I call back the next day. Next day, nothing. And then finally, it was Christmas Eve and I owed this guy money for the commissions from the sales. And I was like, "I will not get off this phone until you send me the money that I am owed." and uh >> to the payment processor. >> Mhm. >> And they were like, "Long story short, uh you were doing stuff in different locations and I was running this all through a local gym business even though I was all over the nation." And they were like, "This is a little irregular.

19:16We're just going to hold on to this for 6 months." >> [ __ ] >> Right now, I owe the guy $22,000 in commissions. I in total now had $23,000. So, I wired him the money and I had $1,000 left. And it was December of 2016. And I was like, I screenshotted because I still have the screenshot of my bank account. So I went from like six gyms, turnaround business, all this stuff to $1,000. I was like, this sucks.

19:41And Ila had just got six of her friends to quit their job to come do this turnaround business with me. And they were starting two days later from the 24th, so the 26th of December because I planned on getting this 100 grand in and then being able to launch six gyms because they took about, you know, whatever. Uh it was $3,300 a day in cost to have six guys out there in the field selling. 3,300 a day that I did not have. And so I still had a credit card that had $100,000 limit on it. Um and so I'm at her parents house like in in an extra bedroom having lost everything. And the my one hailmary play of this launch, the money did not come through. And I was like I I think you should leave me. Um, I I think I am a a sinking ship right now and I would respect you. Like, we're cool if you want to walk away. Like, we're good.

20:37Like, I won't think less of you. Like, I would walk away from you right now cuz this could this has a very high likelihood of not going right. And um she pulled my chin towards her and she was like, "I would sleep with you under a bridge if it came to that." And it's hard to comprehend, but like I had nothing, you know, like for her to have that kind of belief was was very um it was deep for me. So I was like, "Fuck it. Let's go." You know what I mean? And so then we we launched the gyms doing $3,300 a day. And uh mind you, I had no way to process money still. So I'm collecting 60 to 80 contracts a day that I can't process. And so we're getting calls from customers like, "Hey, why haven't you run my card? Why haven't you ruined my card?" I'm calling all these processors to be like, "Hey, can you please?" And as soon as you get shut down from a processor, it's like a black market. It's like going bankrupt for credit cards. Um they're like, "Oh no, something's weird. We They just won't.

21:29They have other people they can process the money for." Finally, I get like a high-risisk processor that does like porn and casinos and stuff to like give me. And they're like, "Yeah, so it's going to be like 8% processing and we're going to hold 10% as like safeguard." And I was like, "Jesus." Okay. Yes. And they're like, "And we can only give you $50,000 as your limit." And I was like I was like, "I need like 200." And he's like, "Well, and I got this on the 29th of January." So this whole time, 3,300 a day is running on this card and I have no money and I have no way to process it. And 29th of January, I can run 50 grand. I run 50 grand in a day. And he's like, "But it's by month." He's like, "So February 1st, you can run another 50." So February 1st, I run another 50.

22:08That 100 covers my cost from the month before. And then I get two more processors for 50. Boom. Boom. Run those. And then like I got a third one or fourth one like two weeks later and I was able to like start moving things around. Um and at the end of February uh we had made like a $30,000 profit and um I was like okay I think we might be out of this. The next month we did a little bit more and I was like okay I think this is working. And then all of a sudden, Leila taps me on the shoulder one morning and she's like, she like turns her laptop towards me and it's our bank account and has all these negative transactions, like hundreds of them. And I was like, "What's going on?" She's like, "Well, all these clients are calling me saying that the gym that we did this launch at month and a half ago, the guy got in his chair and was like, "Hey, there's too many of you here.

22:57Like, just go home. Just refund." Because I was the one who held the money. They had to do the delivery. That was the model is like I would fill a gym up. I would sell. I'd keep the money. and then they deliver on the services and after that they could keep the customers. That was kind of like the the setup. And then another gym the next week said, "Hey, this guy made hundred grand out of my gym. The average gym owner makes $36,000 a year takehome." Like, "This kid from the internet took 100 grand out in a month. Screw that kid." And so he told all the customers who were there after we had left, "Hey, I'll keep delivering your thing. Refund him. Just pay me half what you paid him."

23:29>> So you out, >> right? [clears throat] It was a flawed model. Like I didn't understand. Like I didn't get it at that point. And so we had $150,000 in refunds that I had to cover and I had no way of doing it. Mind you, like Ila's like, "We're gonna do this. I believe in you." And so I'm like I'm like I can't sleep. I remember because what would happen is like the more we sold the more the refund like it was a vicious cycle. So I had to sell more to cover the refunds from the ones that were coming in. And so our sales were going up and it was just like I just I couldn't breathe. And I was just I would wake up at night anyways. And so I'm like writing down all these ideas of like what I think I could do. We had eight launches that were supposed to launch next month. So I said, "Hey Laya, you have this little weight loss business." Because she had her personal training business. She converted her on her inerson clients to online during this whole process. So she's making like three or $4,000 a month and mostly cuz like I'm not stable. I'm like making all this big money and losing it all and then making it and then losing and she's just like paying groceries and actually like making sure that I can eat. And I was like, "Tell me more about that." I was like, "What's your overhead? How much time does it take you?" And then blah blah blah. I was like, "We're going to we're going to do your thing. We're going to we're going to call Queen Transformation. I'm going to start running ads for it and we're going to take the sales team and we're going to put it on your thing." And so within 14 days, she starts taking the phone calls cuz she was a good salesman. Um she's doing a,000 bucks a day online. No, no, all margin.

24:49>> What's her product? >> It was a 16week like weight loss program that she Yeah. Online. Exactly. >> And so it was 500 bucks. She was selling two of them a day. And so I was like, man, if we get the eight eight guys going, we'll have 8,000 a day, 240 after ad spend. I was like, I can make 150 in profit and like we'll be in the clear. So I called the eight guys that were supposed to launch the next month, the the gyms. So I get on the phone with the first guy and I was like, hey, we're going another direction, you know, we're going to we're going to be a weight loss company, sell direct to consumer, and he was like, dude, you launched my buddy's gym like two months ago and like he he can't stop talking about you. It's like it's packed. Um cuz there there are other gyms that everything went fine with. Just the ones that didn't is the ones that crushed the business. He's like, "I know you can do it." Um and I just refinanced my house and I maxed out my credit cards to to to make this gym happen and I I'm going to lose it. And given what I had been through up to this point, I was like, "That's tough, man.

25:45[laughter] Um sorry about that." And then finally he was like, "Can you okay, instead of flying, can you just show me what you did to to help my buddy out? can you just give me like the system? And since I was like, I'm going to get out of this gym business, I was okay like selling my secrets. And so I was like, all right, man. I'll I'll give you everything I have, but I'm not going to fly out there to save your ass if you can't sell. And he said, no, no, it's fine. And so I picked the highest number I could think of because he already told me he was broke. So I figured I could just get him off the phone so we could move on. And I said, $6,000. And he was like, six grand? I was like, yeah. He was like, oh, done. And I remember like looking at the phone and being like, "Holy [ __ ] $6,000."

26:27And I was like, "Oh, what card do you want to use for that?" [laughter] Wrote on like a cardboard box. And then the next call had the same thing. And I was like, "Well, shoot. I have to make this thing now." And I was like, "Same conversation." He's like, "How much?" I was like, "Eight grand." And he was like, "Yeah, okay." And I each of the calls I was like, "Next call, same thing, 10 grand. Next call, same thing, 12 grand." And then the next, you know, the end of the day, I sold $60,000 in in licensing packages for all of the stuff that we did to do the turnarounds.

26:52>> Is that monthly or is that just one? >> It was it was a it was a I didn't even have any. I was just like, I'm just giving you everything I do. Yeah. It it became more [laughter] like more uh it became a recurring model over time. But >> it was a PDF or something. >> Um it was actually all my internal stuff. So it was like what I used to train my sales teams that would fly out and like what I would use to train them on how to do the nutrition orientation. Like it was all the internal stuff. The only thing I actually made was I had to create the uh the advertising material.

27:19So I had to basically make a white label landing page for the gyms that they could put their logo on. And then I gave I licensed them the ads themselves that we already knew converted, >> right? >> So like the videos, the copy, everything. They used like videos of me that we knew converted and I taught them how to run them. And then that's that's what it did it. And uh we made $60,000 in a day and I like Laya came in from doing her two sales for weight loss and I was like I think we're still in the gym business. And she was like what? I thought we were doing weight loss. Like you just told me you sold me on weight loss being like the next thing.

27:50[laughter] I was like I just I just think we were doing it wrong. And so I explained what had happened and she's like so is this what we're going to do now? And I was like I guess. I was like I can call the other 30 gyms that we did the turnarounds for. I was like, they know we can do it cuz we just did it for them. And so I called all those guys up and we did like $300,000 in sales that month and it was basically all profit and I covered the refunds and I covered the everything and we were like in the clear. And then and then it was just and then all those gyms that we did that we sold, the average gym did uh $30,000 in extra cash collected in their first month using our our system. And so the key was that like if they didn't have to pay the overhead of the sales guy who was there every day at the hotel, the commission for that guy, like the rental car, the prod like all the stuff that you have to incentivize and just like rent it out of their own gym and work the leaves themselves. It became incredibly profitable uh for them. And um and then it just took off like wildfire. Like we went from like our first full 12 months of uh like January to January uh we did 26 million topline.

28:56>> Wow. 17 million in Ibida our first 12 month. Like it was it was insane. Like it's hard to comprehend that. Like I like that was the the moment I had been like dead broke in her parents' house and then like six months later I have $3 million in the bank account and then like 12 months after that I've got like 20 mill. It was it was it was insane. And um I didn't even know how he could pay taxes. Like I didn't like I was figuring all this stuff out. But through that whole thing, Ila was just like, "You can do this. Like, we can do this.

29:28Like, we've got this." Um, and I think sometimes you just need one voice behind you that just just keeps believing. >> What happened then? So, that's 2016. Um, you turn things around >> over the next couple of years. >> What happens, you know, leading up to where we are today in terms of your business? Can you give a topline summary in terms of what's >> Yeah, I'll give the TLDDR. um continued to grow gym launch. Uh two years later, we started a supplement company called Prestige Labs. At this point, we had thousands of gym owners that had licensed uh the business model and the ads and all the stuff that we were doing. And so, we sold through that distribution base. That company grew pretty good, pretty big pretty quickly.

30:04Um a year after that, we started a software company that um also helped gyms get leads in the door. It's just like an automated lead thing. And then, um 2021, we sold all three of those companies. uh the supplement and the licensing company we sold to American Pacific Group which is a private equity firm out of uh San Francisco for uh 46.2 million for uh we sold twothirds of the company and then um the software company we actually sold to a strategic buyer who had like a massive base and we just had a better monetization system than they did. Um and that was an all stock deal. Um so we're just it's continuing to grow under their umbrella and they'll probably sell in four or five years. Um but from that and what we had taken in dividends um during the licensing business for the five years that it was rock and it still is rocking and rolling. Um we started acquisition.com. So that became kind of our family office. And so we started our first investments. I think the first investments we did was in 2020. So there is some overlap there. Um and part of the reason that I was willing to sell it was because the the investments the first three or four investments we did really well. Um, and I was like, "Okay, I this is what I want to do is the next thing." Because I, you know, I didn't want to be the gym guy for the rest of my life. Um, because I'd been, you know, at this point it had been, I think, more than a decade. Um, that I'd been from like sleeping on the gym floor to having multiple occasions to doing the turnaround business to doing the licensing, like I'd been in that game for a long time. And I think that maybe I could have stayed there and could have just continued to compound it and started doing acquisitions under that fitness umbrella, but I wanted to do more general business stuff. And so that was uh that's what we did. And so uh now we now we buy chunks of companies usually uh usually minority stakes 25 to 49ish percent. I mean we have one that we're in the talks of that we were originally minority stake in and we're going to take majority because it's been a great company and they want to the founder in the same position as I was like just wants to do other stuff and it's a great business. Um and so but that's kind of how we we see it as like growth partners. Um we come in, we write a check, we add value, we help grow the business. What are you brilliant at? You know, you kind of you kind of come to learn what you're good at based on comparison, but you kind of understand your area of expertise. What is your area of of brilliant brilliance or expertise? I

32:19>> like really want to ask Caleb. Um >> Caleb, where's Caleb? We can barely see. So, Caleb sat over on the sofa in the corner of the studio. He is um friend and creative director of Alex. And I'm asking Caleb what Alex is good at. What's his era of brilliance?

32:44I like it. Solving problems um for companies, simplifying complex things into more digestible, actionable um solutions as well. And how would you answer that question if you were answering it for yourself? >> I feel like I fundamentally a lot of times don't understand the world. And so I think the reason that some people have found the content and things like that um good or useful is because they feel like they can understand it. It's just because like I didn't get it right like terms like value, right? People like provide more value. I'm like what does that mean? And so I just make a make an attempt to define the terms that a lot of us use every day and then it makes a lot easier to solve for those things in business. And so you know a lot of people are like I want to grow my business. I'm like all right what does that mean? Like well get more customers make them worth more. Okay. So, it's one of those two things. All right. Well, how do I make get more customers? Like, well, there's eight ways to do it. Here are the eight ways. Which one do you feel like you're best at? And just like kind of thinking through frameworks that way is it's just for me, it's just been my way of being able to be relatively competent in a world that feels confusing. Like there's a few things I feel like I can understand and I just hold on to those. Real quick, if you're a business owner and you are not growing as fast as you'd like, I'd like to give you a free gift. So my team and I put together the $100 million scaling roadmap, which is basically 200 hours of us looking over all the portfolio companies we've had and what stages of growth they went through and more importantly where they got stuck and how they got past it. And so we broke it in these 10 stages and we made this little kind of quiz thing where if you put in your business information, it'll tell you where you're at and the most important part for you, what to do for each of the functions of the business across product, marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, IT, human resources, and finance. And so no matter what you're struggling with, someone else has already struggled with it and solved it. And so I'd like to give you this thing absolutely free. You can go to acquisition.com/roadmap, plug in your business information, and if you want us to actually help you deconrain the business and you're trying to scale, we'd love to help you out on the thank you page. You can just book a call with my team and we will look into the business, see if we can help. And if we can, we'll invite you out to Vegas and we'll do this in person live.