Großes aufbauen heißt, nicht alles haben zu können

0:00So last year my company made a million. I've already made a million this year, so I think I'm on track for four, but I hope to hit 10. Um so here's the deal. Okay. >> I get really bored. Okay. And so I'm also really amazing visionary and so I've built a lot of different things and what I'm needing right now is I need clarity. Mhm.

0:23>> Okay? And I need you to I would love for you to help me focus. Uh-huh. Okay? So I'm going to share with you I'm going to share with you what I've done. I'm going to share with you what I have and then I would love for you to show me is how do I get clarity. Okay. What do you sell? Yeah. So I have a publishing house, okay? >> Okay. But really what I've sold is that I take people on these five-day adventures like luxury adventures and I can help people channel their books in five days. Okay. And that's what's filled my pocket, but it's also just not scalable.

0:52Uh-huh. And so >> not scalable? Well, because one week a month I'm on these adventures and I love it, but it's like there's like a ceiling. And so then I like rented this island in the middle of the British Virgin Islands. I took 15 people there. We all write their books for five days and so that was like scalable. Which that landed me a TV show. So now I have like this TV show, but then I have like like my publishing house and then like I have this business school for women.

1:18Yeah. >> Yeah. And then like I'm also like a single mom of five kids. Jeez. Also I like write books on the corner. Also I did a live event in January and closed 1.25 million in five minutes to a crowd of 30. So I was like I have all these things. I just like I just need some sh- Yeah, you got to pick. You got to pick one of your five kids.

1:44>> [laughter] >> The 10-year-old all day. There you go. So you just got to you got to think about which one's the 10-year-old of your businesses. >> [sighs and gasps] >> It's just like the the the roofing thing that I said. Like the thing is is the more talented you are, the more opportunities you know you could crush. Which just means more things you have to say no to. And it's just like it's the reality of it. I mean the thing is is there's a price to that which is um if you continue to do what you're currently doing, you pay a price on either side. On if you continue, you pay the price of how big the impact you want to have and how big of a business you ultimately build.

2:23That's the price. What you get for that trade is you get to have the novelty and the excitement of new things happening all the time. On the other side, you build something really big um that has teams and systems and it just, you know, grows really large probably maybe maybe not bigger than your vision, but large much larger than what you have right now. Uh and what you give up for that um is all of the novelty that's associated with doing new things.

2:49Yeah. So which one? >> [laughter] >> Well It sounds like you know which one you should do and you want to do something different. I feel like when I when I've been looking at like okay, well what has brought people to me? It's always the books and I keep trying to get out of it because there's so many people and there's so many things and all these systems in publishing and I'm like, but if I just ran the business school like I don't have to have all these like editors and formatters and book covers and right? But then I look at like well what do people always come to me for?

3:20It's always books. >> [sighs] >> Yeah. So you run the business school, right? Yeah. So imagine I come to you Mhm. and I'm saying, "Hey, I've got this business that everybody wants to buy from me. It has good margins. That sells like crazy. Um but I have like four other businesses that I want to start. They don't grow as quickly as this other one. Mhm. What should I do?" >> [laughter]

3:45>> Weird. Sounds so easy, wouldn't you say? Yeah, obviously. Right, right, right. >> [snorts] >> Yeah. Yeah, okay. No, I mean like that's the I mean the thing that what what you're encountering is a is a problem I think everybody in this room has dealt with, right? It sucks. It's like and I I I was crude earlier and I apologize to them in the room. Um but like it's like you have to realize that like you can't pursue every opportunity. Not only can you not pursue every opportunity, you basically have to say no to every opportunity to be able to make one opportunity worth pursuing. And if my ooh That sounded good, didn't it?

4:21Yeah, it was. That was really good. Yeah. If if my TV show is on Amazon Prime and I'm helping people write books Mhm. and then I'm like, "But I'm pushing my business school." Like that doesn't even make sense. Yeah, wouldn't push the business school. Just have the media asset of Prime that pushes you writing books and then help people write more books and then have a second season of Amazon Prime and helping you you know, people writing books and then sell more people writing books. Yeah.

4:47All right. Like I'm like it's >> advisor in the front shaking her head. We got this, Julia. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, Julia's like, "I've seen the financials on the book one. Like do more of that, right?" No, but for like um I I I want to hit on this one cuz I think I I'm I'm not really talking to you. I'm talking through to everybody else. Um like the I I've stayed I stayed I had these these massive multi-year plateaus where I just stayed stuck because I wanted to pursue every single thing. Yeah. And so you have to trade novelty for loyalty.

5:21And so it's like you become loyal to the business. I also think that it occurs with relationships. Like you make the trade. The new person every one, you know, every week, every month, every whatever for somebody that you know that you've built something meaningful that's deeper, right? And I think that you it's kind of like I think business in a lot of ways is like a fine wine where like you understand it at a different level um as the years go by and you go through different seasons. And I think that you miss out on that opportunity if you're going after, you know, one-night stands and flings from a business perspective. Do you know my life?

5:51>> [laughter] >> I'm just kidding. >> [snorts] >> Just kidding. I know the wife earlier. That actually came out way wrong. [laughter] Um but uh uh no, but like I I'm keeping you up here because I just know that >> helpful. Thank you. Yeah, you have to. Um but it's okay like life will not give you what you want if you want everything. >> [sighs]

6:16>> Damn. Like we we have to make trades or we get nothing. And it's tough and I think there was a big a big realization I want to say a few years back where um once I realized how much work it takes to make something truly great and something big, I had this moment of like deep sadness where I realized that I could only do a few things throughout the rest of my life. I was like, "Oh, I only have like two maybe three entrepreneurial seasons left in me." Yeah. Which is kind of like crazy to think about. It's like I only get two or three more big swings. That's it. And the real real is that if the swing just keeps going, which is what I plan on doing acquisition.com, it's like this is it. I'm going to do this until I get too old to do it and that's it. Yeah.

6:57That's all it is. Now what I want to do is give you something tactical, all right? Cuz that's this is we're all the way up here. Mhm. So um I'm going to make a a video on this cuz I think it's really helpful. Which is that you have to take your creative energy and I have a lot of that, too. Um and you have to channel it into something that is accretive to the business, something that adds value rather than something that detracts value. And so what are the components of the business that need novelty on a regular basis?

7:24Um I think I'll give you a hint. What? Marketing. Marketing. I was just going to say sales and marketing. >> Yeah, like So if you want to build and you want to create, I have the same itch. Yeah. I put all of my ADD into content. I've become a significantly better entrepreneur by making content because it distracts me from [ __ ] up my business. >> [laughter] >> This is legit. I just wrote a BOOK ABOUT THIS.

7:50I JUST wrote a book about when leaders get bored, they just [ __ ] it all up and burn down the city. >> Yeah. And I just keep doing it over and over. >> So instead just like just paint the city. Okay. Just paint it. Don't destroy it. Just paint it a different color. Got it. And so that like and that goes for everyone. Like my my ADD like I put it into ads. I put into like the reason I write books is mostly for me. Like Leila's like, "Can you just write another book?" Because she's like, "You're just getting into all of these things that you should just not get into, right?" And so the thing is is that when I am in writing mode, the business does exceptionally well cuz I do so little. Yeah. [sighs] Right?

8:22>> this. Yeah. I I don't normally um talk about this, but I think this this feels incredibly relevant. So this is going to feel real for you. Yeah. Uh and everyone else. So let's imagine the business like everyone's revenue here represents this like this this line. Your revenue, not the aggregate, but like this is that's your business that's normal business that's happening. What I realized, this is me, so this is anecdotal, is that whenever I decide to make a change in the business, I see about a 20% decrement or decrease in performance um from whatever that change is. So I change a sales process, I change a lead nurture process, I change an onboarding process, I change something that I have to train people up on something new. Now even if that change is something that I think is superior, I'm still going to have an immediate decrease in performance. Mhm.

9:09What what if if I if I assume this to be true, which in my experience it's been about 20%. So if you're like, "What's the data research behind it?" It's Alex doing this, all right? Now if I think that this improvement is going to make, let's say, a 5% improvement in the business. Like I think it'll you know, improve our our closing rate by 5% or something like that, then I'm going to take a guaranteed 20% loss for a potential 5% increase.

9:36Bad trade. Now how many months is it going to take me in order to make up for the 20, you know, 20%? It's going to take four, five months, right? And it's going to Now here's the really fun thing is that on an alternate timeline, you have this thing, but when you leave people alone, they tend to just get better at their jobs. So you'll get the 5% improvement. And so what's happened is that I've actually created this rule which is that if I don't see a an adjusted a risk-adjusted 20% improvement. So, let me explain what I mean by that, which is I need to see a 40% improvement that I think has a 50/50 shot at happening for me to make any change at all. Damn.

10:19And so, I have a list right now. Mhm. Um it's Alex's big list of ideas. Yeah. Which I encourage you to have. >> Okay. And I have it. It's on my phone. Um where every time I think of something else that we could do to improve this business, Mhm. instead of messaging the team and saying, "Hey guys, emergency meeting. We're going to do this. This is such a great idea." [laughter] I just write it down. >> Yeah. And I just keep living my life. Okay.

10:45>> [laughter] >> And every once in a while, I'll have one where I'm like, "This is actually a 40-50% you know potential move." Then, I'll go to the team and say, "Here's my reasoning behind this." And then they'll say, "Cool. You have four other 50% return moves that you've told us about in the last 30 days. Is this better than those ones?" And then I'll look at it and be like, "No, it's not better than those ones." And so, then I'll keep it on my list. And in the event that the entire team has bandwidth and they're all breathing a little too easy, then I can go destroy their worlds. Right?

11:19>> [laughter] >> But, what's ended up happening is that my businesses have improved so dramatically by me just saying, "Let's just Let's just let people do their jobs." And so, I'm going to be crude yet again just to emphasize this point, which is that I have grown to accept that some [ __ ] stays [ __ ] Yeah. And so, there are tons of things about the experience that you guys went through today. Hopefully, it's been really positive between yesterday and today. I hope it has been. The team was great. But, there's probably a hundred things that I want to improve about it.

11:48But, every time I want to go improve one of those things, four others drop. And it's not worth the cost of change. And so, most of us just don't factor in the guaranteed 20% decrease for the potential which we're usually overly optimistic on. I think this will be 40%. But, then after it's all said and done, it's five. Was that worth it? No. And so, hopefully this is not you know this is not I'm not just talking to you.

12:14I can see a lot of heads nodding. Um this has been one of the most useful razors that I've used as an entrepreneur and it has made all of my business significantly better. And so, tactical takeaway for you is number one, channel your ADD into the stuff that benefits the business by being creative. Yeah. Number two, make a list of all your crazy ideas when they come up and don't tell anyone about them. >> Okay. And [laughter] if it seasons for two or four weeks and you still think about it, it's like maybe when you go to the store, you're like, "Maybe I'll buy this dress." I don't know. I'm just pretending to be a girl for a second.

12:44And then you decide not to and it's like if you still think about the dress a month later, then go back and buy it. >> Yeah. But, in the moment if you buy it, then it's usually a terrible decision. And so, it's the same thing with this. Put the list down, sleep on it. If you're still thinking about that idea a month later, it probably has some legs. Yeah. Right? And then number three, if I am going to pull something off of my big list of crazy ideas, it better be worth it because I'm going to absolutely detonate a bomb in my business and it better be worth what's going to happen when the dust settles. Wow.

13:12This was hard for me to hear. And like everything I needed. Thank you. Cool. 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 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 deconstruct 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 at 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.