0:01

Welcome to $100 Million Leads,

0:03

the audiobook, episode one, podcast

0:06

version. So this is multiple chapters put

0:09

together into one 31 minute episode. And

0:11

that's because I figured you guys wouldn't want to hear, you

0:14

know, have to download many chapters

0:16

at once and blow up your inbox. So we

0:18

put five chapters in one for

0:20

this episode for you. I hope you enjoy.

0:23

And if you want to not miss the next episode

0:26

of $100 Million Leads, just hit subscribe

0:28

and you'll be notified by the gods of technology.

0:36

Acquisition.com

0:39

Volume 2 $100 Million Leads How to get

0:41

strangers to want to buy your stuff by Alex Hermosi.

0:44

Narrated by Alex Hermosi. Guiding

0:46

principles. Do more. Thank

0:49

yous. To Trevor, thank

0:52

you for your true friendship. Thank you for your tireless

0:54

effort to extract the ideas out of my head. And

0:56

for your continued support in slaying the nihilism monster.

0:59

People say you are lucky if you have one real friend in your

1:01

entire life. Thank you for being the best

1:03

friend a man could ask for. To

1:05

Layla, even though Lady Gaga said it first,

1:08

it doesn't make it any less true. You found the light

1:10

in me that I couldn't find. The part of me that's

1:12

you will never die.

1:16

Section 1. Start Here. It's

1:18

hard to be poor with leads banging down your door. Hermosi

1:21

Family Jingle. You have

1:23

to sell stuff to make money. It seems simple enough,

1:26

but everyone tries to skip to the make money part. It

1:28

doesn't work. I tried. You

1:30

need all the pieces. You need the stuff to sell.

1:32

An offer. You need people to sell it to.

1:34

Leads. Then you gotta get those people to buy it. Sales.

1:37

Once you put all those in place, then you can make

1:39

money. My first book, 100 Million

1:42

Dollar Offers, covers the first step and gives you the

1:44

stuff. It answers the age old question,

1:46

what should I sell? Answer. An

1:49

offer so good, people feel stupid saying no. But

1:52

strangers can only buy your stuff if they know you exist. This

1:55

takes leads. Leads mean a lot

1:57

of different things to a lot of different people. But

1:59

most agree. they're the first step to getting more customers.

2:02

In simpler terms, it means they've got the problem to solve

2:05

and the money to spend. If you're reading this book,

2:07

you already know leads don't magically appear. You

2:09

need to go get them. More precisely, you need to

2:11

help them find you so they can buy your stuff. And

2:14

the best part is, you don't have to wait. You can

2:16

force them to find you. And you do that through

2:18

advertising. Advertising, the

2:20

process of making known, lets strangers know about the stuff

2:22

you sell. If more people know about the stuff

2:24

you sell, then you sell more stuff. If you sell

2:26

more stuff, then you make more money. Having lots

2:29

of leads makes it hard to be poor. Advertising

2:31

lets you have a terrible product and still make money. It

2:33

lets you be terrible at sales and still make money. It

2:36

lets you make a ton of mistakes and still make money.

2:38

In short, having the skill gives you endless

2:41

chances to get it right. And in the

2:43

unforgiving world of business, second chances are hard

2:45

to come by. So you might as well load up. Advertising

2:48

is a skill worth having. And this book, 100 Million

2:50

Dollar Leads, shows you exactly how to do it. 100 Million

2:54

Dollar Leads sits atop the foundation of my first book, 100

2:57

Million Dollar Offers. It assumes you already

2:59

have a grand slam offer to sell, the stuff. Once

3:01

you have an offer to sell, it creates the next problem. Who

3:04

do I sell it to? This book is my answer

3:06

to that question. Leads. Lots

3:08

of leads. And before you know how

3:10

to get leads, life sucks. You don't

3:12

know where your next customer will come from. You scramble

3:14

to cover rent and pay bills. You worry about

3:16

laying people off, putting food on your table, and

3:19

going under. You work your hardest to succeed,

3:21

and others laugh at you for trying. It feels

3:23

like death. I've been there. I get it. This

3:26

book puts you in a better situation. One where

3:28

you've got more leads than you can handle, and more money than

3:30

you can spend. Here's how. First,

3:33

it explains how advertising works. Second,

3:35

it reveals the four core ways to get leads. Third,

3:37

it shows you how to get other people to do it for you. And

3:40

finally, it wraps up with a one-page advertising

3:42

plan you can use to grow your business today. Once

3:44

you know how to get leads, life gets easier. As

3:47

for why you should blindly listen to me about getting leads, don't.

3:50

Make up your own darn mind. But in the spirit of walking

3:52

the talk, here's my track record. I advertise

3:55

in a variety of industries through my holding company, acquisition.com.

3:58

Our portfolio includes software, e-commerce, and marketing. commerce, business

4:00

services, consumer services, brick and mortar chains,

4:03

digital products, and plenty of others. Together

4:05

they make $250 million per year in annual

4:08

revenue. And they do it by getting 20,000

4:10

plus leads per day, selling offers from $1 to $1 million

4:13

plus. On

4:15

a personal side, I have a lifetime average return on advertising

4:17

of 36 to 1. That means for every $1

4:19

I spend on advertising, I get 36 back. A

4:22

return of 3600%. Some people built their

4:25

wealth in the stock market, others in real estate. I

4:27

built mine advertising. This

4:30

year I surpassed $100 million in net worth at age 32.

4:33

And if you're from the future, that's in 2022 US

4:35

dollars. Which, much to my dismay, came

4:37

with no flyers, no awards, no parades. I'm

4:40

still 2000 times poorer than the richest man in the world.

4:42

My life is pretty much the same. I'm still the same height, married

4:44

to the same woman, and growing faster than when I was poor. In

4:47

these pages, I share the skills responsible for

4:49

the bulk of my material success. I did

4:51

it all using the advertising methods in this book. I

4:54

left nothing out.

4:55

This isn't a book of theories or armchair analysis.

4:58

This is a book built on what worked for me, and

5:00

I wrote it hoping it'll work even better for you.

5:03

To answer a question I got after releasing my first book, why

5:05

do your books look like the written for kids? The

5:08

answer is simple. My books must be books I

5:10

would read, and I have a short attention span. As

5:13

such, I liken my reading preferences to that of a child.

5:15

Short in length, simple in words, and with lots of pictures.

5:19

These books are my attempt to do that. $100 million

5:21

leads is about getting strangers to show interest in the stuff

5:24

you sell, and once I transfer that skill to you,

5:26

it's your turn to use it.

5:28

With that out of the way, let's get rich, shall

5:30

we? Pro tip.

5:32

Faster, deeper learning by reading and listening

5:34

at the same time. Here's a life hack

5:36

I stumbled on a year ago. If

5:39

you listen to an audiobook and read the physical book or ebook

5:41

at the same time, you read faster and remember

5:43

more. You store the contents in more places

5:45

in your brain. Nifty stuff. This is how I read

5:47

most books worth reading. I

5:50

also do both because I struggle to stay focused.

5:52

If I listen to the audio while reading, it helps me avoid

5:55

zoning out. It took me two days to record

5:57

this book out loud. I did it so if you struggle like

5:59

me, you don't have to.

5:59

to anymore.

6:01

If you want to give it a try, go ahead and grab

6:03

the alternative version that you don't have in your

6:05

hands right now or listening to right now to see for

6:07

yourself. I've made my books as cheap

6:09

as the platforms let me, so this isn't a ploy to make

6:11

some extra coin, I promise. I hope you find

6:13

it as valuable as I have.

6:15

I figured I'd put this hack early

6:17

on. This way you'd have a chance to do it if you

6:19

found the first chapter valuable enough to earn your attention.

6:22

Pro tip,

6:23

hack for finishing books. I get

6:25

distracted easily, so I need little tricks to keep

6:27

my attention like this one. This one helps

6:29

me a lot.

6:30

Finish chapters, don't stop in the middle.

6:32

Completing a chapter gives you positive reinforcement, it

6:34

keeps you going. So if you meet a tough chapter,

6:37

finish it so you can start fresh on the next one.

6:41

How I got here.

6:43

Hope is being able to see the light despite all the

6:45

darkness. Desmond Tutu. March 2017.

6:50

I felt hurried taps on my shoulder while working at my

6:52

desk.

6:53

It was Layla, my then girlfriend

6:55

and business partner. What's up? You all

6:57

right? We have a problem, she said.

7:00

What now? I thought.

7:01

Look at this.

7:02

She shoved a stack of books out of the way to make room for her

7:05

laptop.

7:06

What am I looking at? I squinted.

7:08

A disaster.

7:09

She ran her fingers down the screen to direct my gaze.

7:12

Minus $99. Minus $499. Minus $499. Minus $299. Minus $399. Minus $499.

7:19

Minus $499. Every other number was more than my rent. What are these? She started

7:24

scrolling.

7:27

Refunds. All of them. From the two

7:29

gyms we launched last month. Wait, how?

7:31

Why? She scrolled more.

7:34

I got lots of weird text last night from members we sold

7:36

at the Kentucky gym. I guess the owner stood up

7:39

on a chair and told everyone to refund and go home.

7:41

He didn't want to deal with all the new customers.

7:44

That's insane, I said.

7:46

She was still scrolling. Yeah,

7:49

and the other gym owner told his new customers he would take

7:51

them for half the price if they asked for refunds

7:53

from us and then paid him and said.

7:55

Wait, what? They can't do that, I said.

7:58

Well, they did.

7:59

She scrolled faster. The numbers blurred.

8:03

Have you called them? That's not allowed in the agreement, I

8:05

said. Yeah, I know. They're ignoring

8:07

my calls.

8:08

I put my hand on hers.

8:10

The refund waterfall froze in place.

8:12

Hundreds of droplet-sized reminders of how much

8:15

I sucked.

8:16

How bad is this? How many refunds? Just cutting

8:18

profits? Or enough to go negative and owe money?

8:21

I tried to keep my voice steady.

8:22

I failed.

8:25

Layla paused before answering.

8:27

It's 150 grand. The

8:29

number hung in the air.

8:31

We won't be able to pay my friends. Their

8:34

faces flashed through my mind, and the little

8:36

hope I had drained from my chest. A month

8:38

earlier, I got her friends to quit their jobs for this. Now

8:41

I had to tell them I didn't have the money to pay them.

8:43

She continued, we can't sell our way out

8:45

of this either. It'll just create more refunds to deal

8:48

with, and we're out of money.

8:49

Her eyes met mine, looking for answers she deserved.

8:52

I had nothing. I felt sick. A

8:55

year earlier, I

8:56

was good at getting leads from my gyms. I

8:58

scaled to five locations in only three years. My

9:01

claim to fame was opening my gyms at full capacity

9:03

on the first day. So I opened

9:05

as many as I could as fast as I could. My

9:07

fast pace started getting attention. I

9:10

got asked to speak at a conference about my advertising method.

9:12

To me, though, I didn't think my process was special. I

9:14

figured everyone was doing it. So I walked

9:17

through my presentation, hoping I wasn't boring the audience. They

9:19

were silent. The moment I stepped

9:21

off stage, a mob formed around me. They hurled questions

9:24

at

9:24

me left and right. I could barely keep up.

9:28

They even followed me to the bathroom. I felt

9:30

like a celebrity. It was wild. To this day, I've never been more

9:32

bombarded in my entire life. Everyone

9:36

wanted me to teach them how to do what I had just presented. They wanted my

9:38

help. Me. But

9:39

I had nothing to sell them. Although,

9:42

over 100 people

9:43

left me their phone numbers and business cards in case

9:46

I did. Then a wild idea came

9:48

to me. I could make some money doing this stuff.

9:50

Three months later, an

9:53

idea turns into a business. Since

9:55

I used advertising to launch my gyms at

9:57

full capacity, I thought, But

10:00

maybe I could launch other people's gyms to full capacity

10:02

too. I called the company GymWatch.

10:05

Original. I know.

10:07

My offer was simple.

10:08

I'll fill your gym in 30 days for free. You

10:10

pay nothing. I pay for everything. I sell

10:13

new members and keep the first 6 weeks of membership

10:15

fees as payment.

10:16

You get everything else.

10:17

If I don't fill your gym, I don't make money.

10:19

You spend nothing either way.

10:21

It was an easy offer to sell.

10:23

I'd fly out, turn on my lead machine, work the

10:25

leads, then sell the leads. Except instead of

10:27

selling them into my gym, I'd sell them into whatever gym

10:29

I was camped out for the month. Every month I'd

10:31

go to a new gym. Rinse and repeat. It

10:33

worked. Word of this kid who'd

10:36

fill your gym for free got around fast. Unless

10:38

I hired help, referrals would have booked me out for

10:41

more than 2 years straight. I couldn't keep running

10:43

my gyms and doing this, so I sold my gyms

10:45

and went all in on GymWatch.

10:47

I saw a problem though.

10:49

I filled their gyms and they got to keep

10:51

all the long term profits. I left

10:53

so much money on the table. But if

10:55

I were part owner of some of the gyms, I could stack revenue

10:58

month over month. Bingo. Not

11:00

much later, one of the gym owners made such an offer.

11:03

We'd be 50-50. I would fill the gym with members

11:05

and he would fill it with staff. With this new model, I

11:08

could open up 1-2 gyms per month and own them all.

11:10

This would work much better than only collecting the upfront

11:13

cash. A win-win partnership.

11:15

A slight hitch in the plan though.

11:17

My new partner had poor financials.

11:20

So nice guy Alex offered to pay all the

11:22

expenses and take on all the liability for the first launch.

11:25

I personally guaranteed the lease and would spend my time and

11:27

my money to fill it with members. Once

11:29

filled, I would hand the gym over to him. I

11:31

put all the money from selling my gyms, including my

11:34

life savings, into this quote launch and

11:36

go model.

11:37

It took everything I had.

11:39

A few weeks later, halfway through the launch, I

11:41

woke up to find all the money in my account gun.

11:44

All of it. The partner accused me of stealing and took the money as

11:47

his share of the profits. But we

11:49

hadn't made any profit.

11:50

Then he sent the money to a foreign contact

11:53

and filed for bankruptcy.

11:54

That's what he told me anyway.

11:56

When I offered to walk through the financials and account for every dollar,

11:58

he refused.

11:59

I knew I had made a terrible mistake.

12:02

It turns out he'd been indicted for fraud a few years earlier,

12:05

and to make matters worse, I already knew.

12:07

He told me it was just a big misunderstanding.

12:10

I believed him,

12:11

and as the saying goes, when money meets experience,

12:14

the money gets the experience and the experience gets the money.

12:16

Lesson learned.

12:18

In three months, I went from a successful multi-location

12:20

gym owner to selling all my gyms to

12:23

a cool new gym launching thing

12:25

to completely broke.

12:27

Everything I made from selling my gyms was gone. My

12:29

life savings was gone. Wiped out. All

12:32

of it. Four years of work, saving, sleeping on the floor,

12:35

erased in.

12:36

Oh no. Layla.

12:39

Layla quit her life as she knew it to do this with me.

12:42

She weathered my constant changes. She supported me

12:44

in the half-baked partnership, even though she opposed

12:46

it. Even with this huge failure, she

12:48

never once hinted, I told you so. Instead,

12:51

she told me,

12:52

the gym launch model is still good. Let's do more of

12:54

those. So we did. I

12:56

put $3,300 per day on a credit card

12:59

to pay for ads, airfare, hotel, run to cars,

13:01

etc. for six sales reps. Layla's friends. I

13:03

say this lightly, but I covered what a nightmare it was in the first

13:05

book. So I won't repeat it here.

13:07

In the first month, we launched six gyms and collected $100,117.

13:12

We made enough to cover the $100,000 credit card bill.

13:15

And for the record, that meant I was still broke. The

13:17

next month, we made $177,399 with $30,000 to $40,000 in profit. It

13:23

gave me some room to breathe. Finally.

13:25

And that's when Layla tapped me on the shoulder to share

13:28

the $150,000 worth of bad news.

13:30

Now you're caught up.

13:32

The morning after Layla told me we had $150,000 in refunds and lost

13:34

all our money. Again.

13:37

A honking horn startled me at 3am. My

13:40

problems flooded back to me. Welp,

13:43

I'm awake now. I pulled myself

13:45

out of bed and slinked in my work corner. I

13:47

walked over out of habit more than desire.

13:49

I slid the chair out and plopped down.

13:51

Notebook and pen at the ready.

13:54

I had to make $150,000 in profit, not revenue, in 30 days. And

13:58

I had to do it with no money to pay.

13:59

to my name and no experience making that much profit

14:02

in a month, ever. So I started

14:04

scribbling ideas.

14:06

Charging up from free for new gyms, asked

14:08

for a percentage of revenue from old gyms, get

14:10

gyms already launched to prepay for a future launch, call

14:12

every old customer and sell them supplements over the phone.

14:14

I kept penciling the math.

14:16

None of these would make enough money. Not

14:18

in 30 days anyway. I felt glued to the chair.

14:21

I have to figure this out.

14:23

I stared at the notebook, hoping it knew something.

14:25

It didn't. God I suck.

14:27

A few hours later, Layla woke up.

14:29

At the clockwork, she walked into the kitchen and poured a cup

14:31

of coffee. She got straight to

14:34

work at the kitchen table behind me.

14:36

What you doing? I asked, trying to distract myself.

14:39

Check-ins with online fitness clients, she said.

14:42

What does that bring in again?

14:43

3600 last month. What do

14:45

you charge? 300 bucks a month.

14:46

Why? How long does

14:48

it take you? A few hours a week. And

14:51

there's no overhead. Just time?

14:53

Yeah, why?

14:55

I plowed on. I know these are old personal training

14:57

clients, but do you think you could do it with strangers?

14:59

I don't know. Probably. What

15:01

are you thinking? I think I have something. I

15:03

said, wait for what?

15:06

To come up with the 150 grand.

15:08

What? My online training? How?

15:11

She looked skeptical.

15:11

We just cut the middleman and sell direct. I

15:14

think I can just run ads to a sales page that book phone

15:16

appointments.

15:17

Then we can sell the fitness programs we've been selling at the gyms,

15:19

but sell them as an online program.

15:21

We already have the materials.

15:23

We already know the ads work, and there won't be any cost

15:25

to fulfill. Plus, no more flights, no rentals,

15:27

no motels, and no gym owner telling them to refund.

15:30

She hesitated. You think it could work?

15:33

Honestly, no idea. But every day

15:35

we don't do something is one less day to come up with the

15:37

money.

15:38

She thought hard.

15:40

Alright, let's do it.

15:42

And that was all I needed. I

15:43

worked 38 hours straight to make an offer

15:45

go live.

15:46

A few hours later, lead started flowing.

15:49

She took her first call the next day. I walked

15:51

in as the call finished. Yeah.

15:55

And what card did you want to use?

15:56

She had the Candover Pro.

15:58

A few minutes later, I asked with anticipation. Was

16:00

that a sale?

16:01

Yep, dang, she is a pro. I

16:04

even snapped a picture, for those of you who were listening to audio, of

16:06

Layla in this exact moment when she closed the first

16:08

credit card. Just because it felt like a big

16:10

moment.

16:11

Within days, we were doing $1,000 per day in

16:13

online fitness sales. We also got the cash

16:15

upfront with almost no risk of refunds. This was

16:18

working.

16:19

But we were still way short of the $150,000. At

16:22

lunch, she listened to my master plan between mouthfuls.

16:25

Okay, so the sales guys can stay home and

16:27

sell this over the phone. If they do the same

16:29

thousand per day you are, with eight

16:31

guys, we should hit 8,000 per day. In 30

16:34

days, we'll make 240,000. After

16:36

ads, many commissions will have enough to cover the 150 grand.

16:40

What about the gyms we're supposed to launch?

16:42

I'll call them and tell them we went in another direction.

16:45

They haven't paid us anything, so there's not much they can

16:47

object to. I'll start calling them after lunch.

16:50

The first call was to a gym owner in Boise, Idaho.

16:53

Hello?

16:55

I looked down to read my bullet points on my little script.

16:57

Hey man, we're not doing launches anymore. We're

17:00

selling direct consumer weight loss, so we won't

17:02

be coming out. And he interrupted. But

17:04

I really need this right now. I just refinance

17:06

my house and max out all my credit cards to keep the gym

17:09

afloat.

17:09

I put my life savings into this place. Is

17:11

there any way you can help me? You launch my buddy's gyms. I

17:14

know what you can

17:15

do. Give my worse than yours situation. I

17:17

didn't care how bad his finances were, so I

17:19

tried to sound polite.

17:21

I get that it's a hard time, but we're not flying out. I'm

17:23

sorry.

17:24

Okay, okay. I get you can't fly out. But

17:27

is there any way you can just show me what to do? We

17:29

really need this.

17:31

I was beat up, exhausted, broke, and felt betrayed

17:33

by the entire industry.

17:34

I should have said no, but instead I said,

17:37

fine.

17:38

I'll show you how to get the leads. But I'm not flying

17:40

out there to save you if you can't sell.

17:43

Totally get it. It's on me. I

17:45

can close. I just don't have anyone walking the door.

17:47

I need leads. How much to show me

17:49

how to launch?

17:51

I looked down at my script.

17:52

This is not how it's supposed to go. I

17:54

wanted to see no one hang up.

17:56

Our weight loss offer was working, and I didn't want distractions.

17:59

You'd already told me.

17:59

who was broke, so I said the biggest number I could think of

18:02

to get him off the phone.

18:03

Six grand. Consider it my selling

18:05

my secret sale.

18:07

Six K? Yes. Six

18:09

thousand.

18:10

I said articulating the whole number, hoping to scare

18:13

him off.

18:14

Six K? Okay, done. What?

18:17

I stood there, slack jawed, frozen in disbelief.

18:20

Six thousand dollars?

18:23

I floated out on myself and watched the conversation out.

18:25

I still get choked up sometimes thinking about it.

18:28

Oh, great. What card do

18:30

you want to

18:31

use? Now, trying not to scare away the six thousand

18:33

dollars, panicked, I wrote down his card information

18:36

on the flap of a cardboard box. When

18:38

do I start? He asked.

18:40

I'll send you everything Monday morning.

18:42

Given the insane task of packaging my entire

18:44

gym leads and sales system in 48 hours, he

18:46

agreed.

18:47

I hung up and sat in shock. Once I came

18:49

to my senses, I ran the credit card. Six

18:51

thousand dollars.

18:53

Success. Is this real?

18:56

I desperately wanted to tell Layla, but she was on a sales call. 15

18:58

minutes later, she walked in.

19:01

Got another one. She said,

19:02

you won't believe this. I just sold our gym watch system

19:05

for six thousand dollars to a gym owner in Boise.

19:08

What? I thought we were doing weight loss. Yeah,

19:10

I know. So did I. But she

19:13

waited. I think we're still in the gym

19:15

business. I think we're just doing it wrong.

19:18

She needed more details. I didn't have any yet. I'm

19:21

going

19:21

to call the gyms we plan to launch next month and see

19:23

if they'll buy it, too.

19:24

OK. She said.

19:28

The next call went the same when he said, how

19:30

much?

19:30

I said eight thousand. He agreed.

19:33

Next call. Same thing, except I said ten

19:35

thousand.

19:36

He agreed. All eight gyms we plan

19:38

to launch said yes to licensing the launch

19:40

materials instead.

19:41

In a single day, I collected sixty thousand

19:44

dollars selling something with zero cost to fulfill. In

19:46

a single day, I was a third of the way out of my hundred

19:49

fifty thousand dollar prison.

19:51

I spent five years developing that advertising

19:53

system.

19:54

It finally paid off

19:55

doing the thing that scared me most, giving away

19:57

my secrets. I did the biggest breakthrough in my life.

20:00

I can't believe it. I said I think we can

20:02

get out of this

20:03

So are we not doing the weight loss thing Layla

20:05

said

20:06

no, I guess not I think I

20:09

think we had something here all along. We tried to put the pieces

20:11

together Do you think anyone else will buy

20:13

it?

20:14

I'm gonna call the 30 gyms We already launched they know

20:16

our system works because we did it in front of them

20:18

We also had some gym owner leads from that conference that

20:20

should cover the hundred fifty grand and give us a clean slate

20:24

Okay, then what is this what we're gonna do. She

20:26

looked for some well-deserved stability. I Mean

20:29

I think so it makes more money than the

20:31

other thing and it's way easier to deliver

20:33

She agreed

20:35

So after I call these leads I'll start running

20:37

ads I'll post our success stories in a few gym

20:39

groups to get leads from there and I'll also tell the

20:41

gyms I'll pay 2,000 in cash for any

20:43

gym. They send that signs up

20:45

that gives us ad leads constantly leads and referral

20:47

leads in

20:48

The next 30 days we made two hundred and fifteen thousand

20:50

dollars in profit

20:52

We covered the hundred fifty grand in refunds with cash

20:54

to spare

20:55

We did so well because the average gym owner using our advertising

20:57

system added an extra $30,000 in

21:00

cash in their first 30 days

21:02

and made them more money than they paid for it It

21:04

delivered in spades plus

21:06

they got to keep all the cash. They loved it referrals

21:08

poured in

21:09

I found the processing records from May to June of 2017 the

21:12

month it all happened.

21:13

You can see them below

21:17

We finished that year at six million eight

21:19

hundred twenty thousand in revenue

21:21

the next calendar year we did twenty five point

21:24

nine million dollars in revenue and seventeen

21:26

million dollars in profit Yeah, tens

21:29

of millions. It was insane

21:31

like nuts

21:33

The company continues to this day with 4,500 plus

21:35

gym locations and counting

21:36

and no one is more surprised than me

21:39

Something I made actually worked finally

21:41

in 2018 we started prestige

21:43

labs to sell supplements through our gym client base We

21:46

used prestige labs and the gyms as an affiliate

21:48

network to generate weight loss leads for each other in 2019

21:51

We started Allen a new type of software company

21:53

that worked leads for local businesses in 2020 We

21:56

founded acquisition comm a holding company for

21:58

our business interests

22:00

In 2021, we sold 75% of Allen to a bigger company. I'm

22:03

not allowed to say for how much, but Allen did $12 million

22:05

in revenue the prior 12 months, so you can use

22:07

your imagination. We

22:10

sold 66% of our supplement and gym licensing business

22:12

to American Pacific Group at a $46.2 million

22:14

valuation.

22:15

And that was after taking $42 million in owner

22:17

pay over the first four years.

22:20

I share this because I can still hardly believe it.

22:22

All of this was because of a girl who believed in me, a

22:25

credit card, and the ability to get leads.

22:27

Important disclaimer. Knowing

22:29

how to get leads saved my business, my reputation, and

22:32

likely my life.

22:33

It was the only way I stayed afloat. It was the reason

22:35

I kept getting second, third, fourth, and fifth chances.

22:38

During my hardest days, I repeated the same phrase to myself.

22:41

I cannot lose if I do not quit.

22:44

I advertise a lot of different things in a lot of different

22:46

ways.

22:47

I advertise to get online weight loss leads for Layla.

22:49

I advertise to get gym owner leads to sell business services.

22:52

I advertise to get affiliate leads for our supplement company.

22:55

I advertise to get agency leads for our software, and

22:57

so on.

22:58

Getting leads has been my get out of jail free card with

23:00

no expiration date. And at this point, it's faded

23:02

and worn with use.

23:04

I'd like to share this skill with you.

23:06

I can show you how to get more leads. And

23:08

here's your first piece of good news.

23:10

By reading these words, you're already in the top 10%. Most

23:13

people buy stuff and never crack it open.

23:15

I'll also throw out a spoiler. The further you get,

23:17

the bigger the nuggets get. Just watch. Thank

23:20

you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for allowing

23:22

me to do work I find meaningful. Thank you for lending

23:24

me your most valuable asset, your attention. I promise

23:27

to do my best to give you the highest return possible on it.

23:29

This book delivers. The world needs more entrepreneurs.

23:31

It needs more fighters. It needs more magic.

23:33

And that's what I'm going to share with you.

23:36

Magic. Hey,

23:39

I hope you're enjoying the book right now. If you don't

23:41

know this, the mission of acquisition.com is to make real

23:43

business education accessible to everyone. And

23:45

the only way we can reach everyone is if you choose to

23:48

share this. And so if you've been enjoying this, you've been getting

23:50

value from this chapter and any of the rest of the podcast

23:52

episodes, if you could just take a second and

23:55

ship this to a friend, just click the one button

23:57

and send it to somebody or share it on your stories. It would

23:59

mean the world to me.

23:59

it would ultimately send this message to more people. So

24:02

if you could do that now, it would mean a lot. The

24:05

problem this book solves,

24:07

leads, lots of leads. You

24:11

have a problem.

24:11

You're not getting as many leads as you want because you're not advertising

24:14

enough, period. As a result, your potential

24:16

customers are ignorant of your existence. How sad.

24:19

This means less money flows your way.

24:21

So now that you know you have a problem, unless you hate helping

24:23

people and making money, you kind of have to solve it.

24:26

How this book solves it.

24:28

To make more money, you've got to grow your business. You can

24:30

only grow your business in two ways.

24:32

Number one, get more customers. Number two,

24:34

make them worth more. That's it.

24:36

I grow our portfolio companies with this exact framework.

24:39

When $100 million leads focuses on number one, getting

24:41

more customers. You get more customers by

24:43

getting number one, more leads, number

24:45

two, better leads, number three, cheaper

24:47

leads,

24:48

number four, reliably. Think from

24:50

lots of places.

24:52

Bottom line,

24:53

all else being equal, when you double your leads,

24:56

you double your business. This book

24:58

shows you how to transform your business into a lead getting

25:00

machine. Once you apply its models,

25:02

you instantly increase lead flow. And like

25:04

cashflow, when leads flow, it's hard

25:06

to not make money. This book will solve your

25:09

not getting enough leads problem for good.

25:11

In a nutshell,

25:12

I will show you how to get strangers to want to buy your

25:14

stuff.

25:16

What's in it for me?

25:17

In one word, trust.

25:19

I give this book and the courses that come with it for free

25:21

or at cost in the hopes of earning your trust. I

25:23

want this book to provide more value than any $1,000 course, $30,000 coaching

25:25

program or $100,000 degree.

25:29

Although I could sell these materials that way. I

25:31

don't want to. I have a different model. I'll explain

25:33

it below.

25:35

Who am I looking to help?

25:37

I want to provide value to two types of entrepreneurs. The

25:39

first is under $1 million per year in profit.

25:41

My goal is to help you get to $1 million per

25:43

year in profit for free and in doing

25:45

so earn your trust.

25:47

Try a couple of taxes from this book, get some leads,

25:49

try a few more and get more leads. The more

25:51

leads you get, the better. Do it enough

25:54

and you become the second type of entrepreneur. The type making

25:56

over a million dollars of EBITDA, fancy word

25:58

for profit, per year. Once you get there,

26:00

or if that's you now, it would be my honor to invest

26:03

in your business and help you scale.

26:04

I don't sell coaching, masterminds courses, or anything like

26:06

that. I invest.

26:08

I buy equity in growing, profitable bootstrap

26:10

companies. Then I use the systems, resources,

26:12

and teams of all my companies to fast track the growth

26:15

of your company. But

26:16

don't believe me yet.

26:17

We just met.

26:19

Author note. Our investment criteria

26:21

have changed since the last book.

26:23

If you noticed some changes in our investment criteria, you're

26:25

right. We changed our minimum investment threshold

26:28

from three million in revenue to a million dollars in

26:30

profit.

26:30

On top of that, we used to primarily invest

26:32

in education and service businesses.

26:34

But our portfolio has expanded.

26:36

We've done quite well outside of those

26:38

industries.

26:39

So now, as long as business

26:41

meets our size requirements and is profitable, cash

26:43

flowing, and growing, we consider investing in it.

26:46

My business model.

26:47

Acquisition.com. The

26:49

business model is simple. Number one, provide

26:52

better free products than the market's paid products.

26:54

Two,

26:55

earn the trust of entrepreneurs who make over a million

26:57

dollars in profit per year. Then, invest in

26:59

those entrepreneurs to fast track their growth. And

27:02

then finally, help everyone else for free, for good.

27:05

Our process reverse engineers success. The

27:07

winners know my models work for them because they already

27:09

have.

27:10

And I know the winners will use them because they already

27:12

do.

27:13

So, we operate on shared trust. This approach

27:15

avoids failures and increases the likelihood of success.

27:17

Win-win. Easy to say, but let me show you how much of

27:20

a difference our process makes. Within

27:22

the first 12 months, our average portfolio company, 1.8X's

27:25

revenue and 3.01X's profits. And

27:27

we partner for the long haul. That's just the first 12 months.

27:30

Our average portfolio company, who's been with us between 12

27:32

and 24 months, 2.3X's revenue and

27:34

4.7X's profits.

27:36

As a fun exercise, plug your numbers in to see what

27:38

it would look like for you.

27:40

This stuff works.

27:41

That's how I know the models I'm about to share with you work. They

27:44

already have.

27:46

Acquisition.com's mission,

27:47

to make real business accessible to everyone.

27:50

Businesses solve problems.

27:52

Businesses make the world better.

27:53

There are too many problems for any one person to solve.

27:56

And I can't cure cancer and hunger or solve

27:58

the world's energy crisis.

27:59

But

28:00

I can provide value to the entrepreneurs who build the

28:02

businesses that will.

28:04

I want to help create as many businesses as possible

28:06

so we can solve as many problems as we can.

28:08

So I share these business building frameworks rather than

28:10

hoard them. Fair enough?

28:12

Cool.

28:14

Let's press on. Basic outline of this book. I laid this book out

28:16

from zero client, zero lead, zero advertising, zero

28:18

money, zero skills – section 2 – to max

28:20

clients, max leads, max advertising,

28:22

max money, and max skills – section 4.

28:25

We need to learn more skills as we progress in the book.

28:27

And when we have more skills, we can get more leads in the

28:29

same amount of time. So we finish with the most

28:32

complex skills that get us the most leads for our time

28:34

spent.

28:35

We save them for the end because they take lots of skills

28:37

and money. And getting good and having

28:39

money takes time.

28:40

I want this book to help a person get their first 5 clients

28:43

and crack their first $10 million dollar month and beyond.

28:45

This order also reminds those with skills

28:47

and money, myself included, of the basics we stopped

28:49

doing. Our businesses deserve better. Respecting

28:52

the tried and true methods that got you to your current level

28:54

will probably get you to the next one. Masters never

28:57

don't do the basics. So we

28:59

go from getting your first lead all the way to building a $100 million

29:01

dollar plus leads machine.

29:03

Here's the breakdown.

29:04

Section 1.

29:05

You're about to finish reading it right now.

29:07

Section 2.

29:08

I reveal what makes advertising really work.

29:11

Most entrepreneurs think about advertising the wrong way.

29:13

And since they think about advertising the wrong way, they do

29:16

the wrong stuff to get leads. You want to do the

29:18

right stuff to get leads. This is the way.

29:20

Section 3. We learn advertising's core 4. There

29:23

are only 4 ways to get leads. So if there's

29:25

a most important how-to section, it's

29:27

this one.

29:28

Section 4.

29:30

We learn how to get other people, customers, employees, agencies,

29:32

and affiliates to do it all for you.

29:34

And this completes the assembly of your fully functioning $100

29:36

million dollar leads machine.

29:38

Section 5.

29:39

We wrap up with a one-page advertising plan you can

29:41

use to get more leads today.

29:43

Golden Ticket.

29:44

We invest in companies doing over a million dollars in profit

29:46

to help them scale. If you would like us to invest in your

29:48

business to scale, go to acquisition.com. You

29:50

can also find free books and courses so good

29:52

they'll grow your business without your consent.

29:55

I

29:56

hope you enjoyed the first chunk of $100 million

29:58

dollar leads. I wanted to make this book... free

30:00

for everybody independent of whatever

30:02

your financial means are. If

30:05

you want to, the next

30:07

chunk is going to be how you can engage

30:09

your leads, what types of leads are

30:11

the ones to be going after, and ultimately

30:14

how to 10x the amount that you get

30:16

for the work that you put in. And unlocking

30:18

this one concept was what

30:20

dramatically enhanced my brick-and-mortar locations,

30:23

it's what enhanced my licensing business,

30:25

and has been key to the amount of

30:27

leads that we've been able to generate today at acquisition.com

30:29

across

30:29

our portfolio.

30:33

This has been 100 million dollar leads

30:35

written by Alex Rammozi, read by

30:37

Alex Rammozi, copyright 2023

30:40

acquisition.com audio production, copyright 2023

30:44

acquisition.com media.