Podcast Summary: The Game with Alex Hormozi

Episode 977: "If I Started A Business in 2026, I'd Do This"
Date: December 11, 2025
Host: Alex Hormozi

Episode Overview

In this episode, Alex Hormozi shares his strategic blueprint for starting a business from scratch in 2026. Drawing from his journey—from sleeping on a gym floor to building a $100M-plus empire—Alex drills into the importance of business economics, the pitfalls of mediocrity, and why any founder should begin by selling either extremely high-ticket products to a few or very inexpensive products to many. With practical stories and frameworks, Alex illuminates how to structure offers, set prices, and create outsized value, especially in early-stage businesses.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Start at the Extremes: Expensive or Cheap, Never the Middle

• [00:40] Alex suggests the most viable startups either:
  • Sell very expensive things to a few, or
  • Sell very inexpensive things to many.
• "The middle is where people die." (A, 00:28)
• The reason: customer acquisition cost is fixed, and margin for error is thin in the mid-market.

2. Case Study: Tesla’s Market Entry Strategy

• [01:50] Tesla as an example—starting with a $250,000 Roadster (premium, limited audience).
• This approach funds development for later, mass-market offerings (e.g., Model S, Model 3).

3. Why Start Expensive? The Power of One-on-One Unscalable Offers

• [02:50] Personal example: One gym client paid Alex $4-5K/month in cash, giving him working capital and allowing business revenues to be reinvested.
• High-touch, high-ticket offers let you bootstrap by improving cash flow and learning directly from best-fit customers.
• "You will learn more from fewer high-value clients." (A, 05:00)

4. Countering Limiting Beliefs About Time-for-Money

• [06:10] Dispelling the myth that selling your time is only for "poor people."
  • Everyone has an hourly rate—just often disguised behind salaries or project fees.
  • Even investors like Warren Buffett trade time for money through exertion, research, and due diligence.

5. Benefits of High-Value, Unscalable Offers

• Flexibility: You can adjust, iterate, and improve quickly since you serve fewer clients.
• Leverage Supply and Demand: Limited supply (your time) allows premium pricing.
  • "When you have demand, cut supply." (A, 11:40)
• Brand Elevation: High-ticket offerings increase perceived brand value, even if rarely purchased.
  • "You lift your entire brand." (A, 19:50)
• Marketing Advantages: Even a seldom-purchased $10,000 offer reinforces your brand’s authority and sets an “anchor” effect for your other products.

6. How to Create Premium Offers

• Three Frames for Offer Creation:
  1. 10X-100X Thinking: If you had to sell your current offer for 10-100x the price, what would you include?
  2. Word-of-Mouth Only: If you could only get more clients by word of mouth, what experience would you create for a single customer?
  3. Remove Scalability, Add Value: How could you make your offering worth 10x more by making it less scalable and more bespoke?
• [27:30] Practical Action: List a premium price (even if very high) and directly confront it in sales conversations. "You must confront the high price." (A, 20:10)

7. Calculating the Financial Impact

• Adding a high-ticket offer can double or triple business profits, even if only 10% of customers opt in.
• "Three quarters of what you make comes from this thing. That’s why people miss it." (A, 23:40)

8. Target the Right Avatar

• Don’t try to upsell low-ticket customers—design your high-ticket product for a different avatar with more resources (wealthier, more urgent needs).
• Research pain points by analyzing book reviews and extracting exact language from your ideal client’s complaints.

9. The True Value Proposition: Outcomes, Not Time

• High-ticket buyers are seeking certainty and outcomes, not your time.
• "They don’t really want your time, they want to buy an outcome." (A, 37:00)
• One-on-one format increases perceived likelihood of success.

10. Speed as a Differentiator

• Promise faster outcomes for premium pricing—latency matters more than magnitude.
  • "Latency beats magnitude seven days a week and twice on Sunday." (A, 43:50)
• Speed motivates buyers, especially at the top end of the market.

11. Operationalizing Premium and Speed

• Charge more, pay vendors more, deliver priority (which justifies the higher fee and improves service).
• If delivery relies on third parties, a larger budget can buy their priority for your clients.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Market Positioning:
  • "All businesses have the cost of getting customers… The middle is where people die." (A, 00:28)
• On the Unscalable Path:
  • "The simplest way to create an expensive offer is to sell your time one on one, even if it's unscalable." (A, 03:40)
• On Mindset:
  • "It is worth your time if I give you a trillion dollars… Let people live a little bit. Let them be wild, let them be a little spicy." (A, 17:20)
• On the Power of a Premium Anchor:
  • "Even if you charge that and no one ever buys it, they still assume… that value gets transferred to the lesser thing." (A, 19:55)
• On the Math of High Ticket:
  • "Three quarters of what you make comes from this thing. That's why people miss it, is they don't get the math behind it." (A, 23:40)
• On Customer Outcomes:
  • "They don’t really want your time, they want to buy an outcome." (A, 37:00)
• On Speed:
  • "Latency beats magnitude seven days a week and twice on Sunday." (A, 43:50)
  • "You're not going to sell someone who's wealthy on saving money, you'll sell them on saving time." (A, 44:20)
• On Tactical Takeaways:
  • "Charge more money." (A, 53:25, closing line)

Key Timestamps

• 00:00 – Alex’s $1,000-to-$100M+ story and the two paths for new businesses
• 01:50 – Tesla case study: building from expensive to affordable
• 03:40 – Selling time one-on-one as a launch strategy
• 05:00 – Lessons from high-value clients & market perceptions of money
• 06:10 – Debunking the “don’t sell your time” myth
• 11:40 – Supply, demand, and the acquisition.com logo
• 19:55 – Premium offers and their effect on brand/positioning
• 23:40 – High-ticket offers doubling profits
• 27:30 – How to create and price premium offers
• 37:00 – Outcomes versus time: what customers truly buy
• 43:50 – Speed, latency, and value in offer design
• 53:25 – Closing message—“Charge more money.”

Practical Frameworks

Create a High-Ticket Offer:

• Frame Offer at 10x-100x Price
• Design “Word-of-Mouth Only” Experiences
• Add Unique, Unscalable Value

Maximize Persuasion:

• Identify (and market to) the right customer avatar
• Articulate their pain better than anyone else
• Emphasize speed and outcome certainty

Operational Advice:

• Publicly list your premium price and confront it in sales
• Make high-ticket offers available alongside scalable offers
• Use prime client stories in marketing content

Takeaway for Entrepreneurs

Start your business by charging more for a one-on-one, high-value, unscalable offer. This maximizes learning, cash flow, brand authority, and marketing material in the early days while letting you fund scalable growth.
As Alex puts it: “Charge more money.”