Lead Gen vs. Closing: Which One’s Broken? | Ep 913

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Game with Alex Hormozi - "Lead Gen vs. Closing: Which One’s Broken?" | Ep 913

Release Date: June 23, 2025
Host: Alex Hormozi

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Introduction

In Episode 913 of The Game with Alex Hormozi, entrepreneur Alex Hormozi delves deep into the perennial business dilemma: Lead Generation vs. Closing Sales. Through engaging conversations with various business owners, Alex explores common challenges in acquiring and retaining customers, optimizing sales processes, and scaling businesses effectively. This episode is a treasure trove of actionable insights for entrepreneurs seeking to refine their strategies and achieve sustainable growth.

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Guest Discussions

1. Ricky – B2B Cocktail Mix Sales

Background:
Ricky and his partner, Ben Potts, sell a bar cocktail mix to B2B clients, specifically Country Club Resorts. Despite achieving $3.5 million in revenue last year, Ricky faces challenges in scaling beyond the current customer base.

Key Challenges:

• Reliance on his father as the main salesperson with over 20 years of industry relationships.
• Limited brand awareness, primarily driven by word-of-mouth and referrals.
• Uncertainty about expanding marketing efforts to increase brand visibility.

Alex's Insights:

• Mechanizing Sales Processes: Alex suggests Ricky consider developing an outbound sales strategy by mechanizing existing successful sales processes. This involves creating standardized scripts, defining initial contact methods, and training a team to execute these strategies effectively.

  "What's initial contact look like, what's first message, what's second message... Once we have that conversation, ... we can insert ourselves." (Alex, [02:15])

• Focus Over Branding: Emphasizing that expanding the current B2B model is more prudent than diverting resources to new branding initiatives at this stage.

  "I don't think you should go brand now. Especially since you built the whole business off B2B." (Alex, [02:59])

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2. Sam Tierling – Transportation Company Owner

Background:
Sam owns a transportation company specializing in delivering chemicals to fracking companies, with revenues growing from $5 million to $10 million over three years. He is contemplating whether to expand the existing trucking business or diversify by selling products directly to end-users.

Key Challenges:

• Balancing cash flow between transporting existing products and investing in buying and selling new products.
• Managing receivables that constrain the ability to purchase inventory for end-user sales.

Alex's Insights:

• Risk of Diversification: Alex warns that adding product sales introduces complexity and cash constraints, potentially slowing the core business's growth.

  "If you keep focusing on that which is a very cash intensive business... Then you have to pay constraints." (Alex, [04:26])

• Focus on Core Strength: Drawing from his personal experience, Alex advises prioritizing the existing successful model rather than diluting efforts across multiple ventures.

  "There's no reason to not just become even better at the thing that you're currently doing and compound the competitive advantage that you have." (Alex, [05:38])

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3. Chase – Exhausted Cleaning Business Owner

Background:
Chase runs an exhaust hood cleaning service for restaurants in San Diego, boasting $6,000 in monthly revenue with an annual recurring revenue of approximately $100,000. His primary hurdle is developing a clear and compelling offer that differentiates his service in a commoditized market.

Key Challenges:

• Competing primarily on price, making it difficult to maintain margins.
• Struggling to articulate unique value propositions beyond standard service offerings.

Alex's Insights:

• Decommoditizing the Service: Alex emphasizes the importance of distinguishing the service by eliminating friction points that make competitors' offerings subpar.

  "Good is basically the absence of hard... What are all the reasons that somebody who sucks at this sucks? And let's fix all of those things." (Alex, [13:01])

• Enhanced Offers: Suggesting strategic pricing and value-added services, such as offering semi-annual cleanings at higher prices to improve cash flow and perceived value.

  "I'd prefer to start at 4 down, sell to 2 if you can, and then probably play with payment terms, which is like, can I stack more of that cash up front?" (Alex, [13:56])

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4. Kira Brinton – Outdoor Lighting Services

Background:
Kira operates an outdoor lighting business for homeowners, generating $880,000 in revenue, with 40% coming from the holiday season. She struggles with lead generation during off-peak months.

Key Challenges:

• Seasonal demand peaks limit consistent lead flow.
• Difficulty in sustaining business operations outside of the holiday season.

Alex's Insights:

• Year-Round Sales Strategy: Alex recommends focusing on selling permanent lighting solutions year-round, thereby smoothing out revenue streams and reducing dependency on seasonal projects.

  "I prefer the keeping the holiday season business year round... You just collect commitments all year round, and then you go back into the sales cycle." (Alex, [16:10])

• Improving Lead Magnets: Enhancing lead generation efforts by offering compelling incentives, such as free installation of specific lighting elements to attract and qualify leads.

  "We'll do the install for free. You just cover the cost of the lights for this tiny amount." (Alex, [20:05])

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5. Layla – Publishing and Business Education

Background:
Layla runs multiple ventures, including a publishing house, luxury adventure book-writing retreats, a business school for women, and has recently launched a TV show. Despite impressive revenues, she faces scaling challenges due to spreading her focus across too many projects.

Key Challenges:

• Lack of clarity and focus due to managing multiple business lines.
• Difficulty in scaling operations without compromising quality and growth.

Alex's Insights:

• Prioritizing Core Business: Alex advises Layla to focus on the most profitable and scalable aspect of her business—in her case, the publishing and book-writing services—while letting go of or minimizing involvement in less scalable ventures.

  "You have to realize that like you can't pursue every opportunity. Not only can you pursue every opportunity, you basically have to say no to every opportunity to be able to make one opportunity worth pursuing." (Alex, [24:12])

• Channeling Creative Energy: Emphasizing the importance of directing creative efforts towards business areas that add tangible value rather than diluting resources across multiple projects.

  "Channel your creative energy into something that is accretive to the business, something that adds value, rather than something that attracts value." (Alex, [26:56])

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Alex's Foundational Rule on Business Changes

Throughout the episode, Alex shares a critical framework he uses to evaluate business modifications:

• 20% Rule: Whenever implementing a new change, expect a 20% temporary decrease in performance due to the costs and disruptions of change.

  "Every time I want to go improve one of those things, four others drop... It's not worth the cost of change." (Alex, [00:02])

• Risk-Adjusted Improvements: Only pursue changes that promise at least a 40-50% potential improvement to justify the initial performance dip.

  "If I have to make a change that guarantees a 20% loss for a potential 5% increase... Bad trade." (Alex, [28:30])

• Idea Management: Maintain a "Big List of Ideas" where all potential improvements are recorded but not immediately acted upon. This list helps prioritize high-impact changes without overwhelming the business operations.

  "Keep the list down, sleep on it. If you're still thinking about that idea a month later, then it probably has some legs." (Alex, [29:51])

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Tactical Takeaways

1. Focus on Core Strengths: Prioritize and optimize the aspects of your business that are already performing well before venturing into new areas.

2. Decommoditize Your Offer: Differentiate your services by removing friction points and adding unique value propositions to stand out in a crowded market.

3. Manage Change Strategically: Use the 20% rule to evaluate the potential impact of changes, ensuring that the benefits outweigh the temporary setbacks.

4. Streamline Business Operations: Avoid spreading resources too thin across multiple projects. Concentrate on scaling core businesses that offer the highest returns.

5. Enhance Lead Generation: Develop compelling lead magnets and offers tailored to your target audience to sustain steady business growth.

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Conclusion

Episode 913 of The Game with Alex Hormozi offers invaluable insights into the intricacies of lead generation and sales closing. Through real-world examples and Alex's strategic guidance, listeners gain a deeper understanding of how to balance these critical aspects to drive business success. Whether you're grappling with scaling challenges, optimizing sales processes, or striving to differentiate your offerings, this episode provides the tools and mindset needed to navigate these challenges effectively.

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Notable Quotes:

• "Every time I want to go improve one of those things, four others drop... It's not worth the cost of change." – Alex Hormozi ([00:02])

• "There's no reason to not just become even better at the thing that you're currently doing and compound the competitive advantage that you have." – Alex Hormozi ([05:38])

• "Good is basically the absence of hard... What are all the reasons that somebody who sucks at this sucks? And let's fix all of those things." – Alex Hormozi ([13:01])

• "You can't pursue every opportunity. Not only can you pursue every opportunity, you basically have to say no to every opportunity to be able to make one opportunity worth pursuing." – Alex Hormozi ([24:12])

• "If you don't see an adjusted, risk-adjusted 20% improvement... then make no change at all." – Alex Hormozi ([29:29])

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the core discussions, insights, and actionable strategies presented in Episode 913, providing a clear roadmap for entrepreneurs aiming to optimize their lead generation and sales closing processes.

Transcript

[Alex]

But there's probably a hundred things that I want to improve about it. But 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. But then after it's all said and done, it's five. Was that worth it? No.

[Ricky]

My name is Ricky. We have a bar cocktail mix that we sell to B2B Country Club Resorts.

[Alex]

Partner Ben Potts, who's on the cash guys.

[Ricky]

Yeah, we do 3.5 last year and revenue. And our biggest thing that's stopping us was my father. He was the main salesman that he had a position. He's doing this full time as well as trying to focus on whether we should try to grow the business awareness just because a lot of people don't know about it unless they know us or referrals or just try to just get more accounts.

[Alex]

Can you explain a little bit more about the product?

[Ricky]

Yeah. So a pina colada, strawberry daiquiri, margarita, stuff like that. It's mainly, it's a frozen product. Something frozen last two years. Once you thawed, it lasts a week. But it's mainly for people who are high volume. So you can spat out like cruise.

[Alex]

Shifts and things like that.

[Ricky]

Yeah, mainly like a frozen drink machine or like a blender.

[Alex]

So. Got it. Okay. And so the question is whether you should focus on awareness.

[Ricky]

Oh, like growing the brand because it's like not very public. It's only mainly people that know us. We talk about it. Or just people who guess are like, this is amazing.

[Alex]

Are you currently all word of mouth?

[Ricky]

Yeah, basically.

[Alex]

Okay, so you have no. Well, you have your father who's. Who does sales. Yeah. And how does he do sales?

[Ricky]

Previous relationships from being in the industry for over 20 years.

[Alex]

Yeah. Okay, so what stops you from mechanizing physics using outbound motion and then getting like 10 guys to do it?

[Ricky]

We haven't done it.

[Alex]

It's just, you know, so like, I mean, if, if I had to pick between more of that thing. Right. And this brand new thing that you've never done, I definitely would mechanize the existing thing. Yeah. So yeah, it's going to be a conversation that you're gonna have with your father. Obviously we can help but like breaking down like, okay, let's take this thing and break into 50 pieces. Because it's not like, hey, how do you do outbound? Like that doesn't work. Yeah. It's like, okay, what's initial Contact look like, what's first message, what's second message, what's going to, what's the script, what's the opener, what's the offer to get them kind of enticed. Once we have that conversation, what's the thing that we can increase the pain between where they're at and where they want to go. So we can insert ourselves. Yeah.

[Ricky]

One of the biggest things at least is with getting them to actually try the product. Because it's like I was like, oh. It's just, it's another mix. So once they taste it, it's different. But you know, getting to that person a decision is.

[Alex]

Yeah. First thing. There are so many ways to do that. But yeah. I mean you, you need an outbound motion. There's probably a combination of conference slash trade show. That would work really well too. Especially because you are at Pete like literally tasting.

[Ricky]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And it would probably crush in that setting. Probably be very easy to sell.

[Ricky]

Yeah.

[Alex]

I just don't. I don't think you should go brand now. Especially since you built the whole business off B2B.

[Ricky]

Yeah.

[Alex]

I would just do more of that for now to start. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

[Sam Tierling]

My name is Sam Tierling. Is I sell a service. I own a transportation company. Cool. We deliver chemicals to the fracking companies. Last mile transportation revenue wise, we did 10 million last year. Year before that was 7, year before that was 5 and it just kept growing.

[Alex]

Awesome.

[Sam Tierling]

And this year decided to slow it down a little bit. Not like get myself out of the day to day.

[Alex]

Okay.

[Sam Tierling]

And it's worked. While doing that I realized that can make more money taking and selling to customers that my customers don't sell to the same product that we're transporting.

[Alex]

Sit that last part again.

[Sam Tierling]

All right. So I'm more of a specific type of person. I transport polymers virtual inducers. SNF is one of the biggest. They make it. There's 40% of customers they won't deal with that want to deal with me that want to buy from us. My struggle is, is I figured out how to continue to replicate the trucking industry like the trucks and grow that. So do I keep focusing on that which is a very cash intensive business. I can actually put a lot of money up front. Or do I use my trucks to sell the product, the end user. But I also struggle with that because how do I balance the two. So if I like I'm regularly floating million and a half 2 million in receivables for VKT.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Sam Tierling]

And I want to start buying the product. Well, I Have to pay in 30 days, not going to get paid.

[Alex]

So basically if you're buying the stuff that you're going to sell to the end users, like you're going to add cash constraint to the business. Okay, right, yeah. So then they would further constrain. It would basically pile on these constraint. So said differently, why do it versus just doubling the existing business? Because like the way that I'll explain where my thinking is. So I had a good friend of mine from high school, actually that's a strong statement. An acquaintance of mine from high school who had a, had a general contracting business and in his general contractor business he realized he was, he was pretty good at roofs. And so he started doing roofs. And I called him up, I was like, hey, how's the business going? He's like, ah, we're growing, it's great. And so he was explaining. So he's like, so we, we do roofs primarily. I was like, okay. And he's like, we also do, you know, some contracting work. And I was like, okay, that's another thing. He's like, we also kind of buy and flip houses. I was like, okay. He's like, but that's, he's like, you know, I didn't want to leave money on the table, which is like my favorite entrepreneur statement ever. And I was like, so what stops you from being a billion dollar a year roofing company? And the answer is the general contracting and the real estate flipping. I was like, well, what stops you from being a billion dollar a year real estate flipper Answers the roofing and the general contracting. And so basically, if you already have a winning model, to me, I'm like, there's no reason to not just become even better at the thing that you're currently doing and compound the competitive advantage that you have. There's always going to be better, there's always going to be opportunities.

[Sam Tierling]

I guess I looked at it as a more of a control thing because there's for the most part our customers we've started with have been with us for six or seven years.

[Alex]

On the trucking side?

[Sam Tierling]

Yes, on the trucking side, but they also do dictate the rates. Like I can, you know, continue to raise my prices and eliminate customers, which we have done. But you, they're only willing to pay so much. And it's like, well, if I'm selling the chemical, I'm still going to get what I want for transporting it and then you're getting paid to sell it too.

[Alex]

The only reason I hesitate is like, it's adding it's, it's just, it adds complexity to the business. Again, given the limited context that I have five minutes of hearing about the business, like, it's a huge decision. But from my personal experience, when I had gym launch and prestige labs, I basically said, oh, I've got this distribution base of gyms and so why don't I just sell supplements through my distribution base? Which on the service level seems like a smart idea. But what it ended up doing is that it completely slowed down the growth of my main business, which was the license licensing business. And so it felt like, oh, there's this big pot of gold right here. But if I took all the attention that I put into starting this supplement company and manufacturing it and distributing it and, you know, testing it and the flavors and the marketing and all that stuff and the support team that I had to do for the product, I could have taken all of that energy and just gone double down into the thing that I should have done. It was one of the bigger mistakes that I've made. And so if you already have a business that's gone from 5 to 7 to 10, I'm like, well, maybe next year you're at 13, year after that you're at 17. That sounds like a pretty good business.

[Sam Tierling]

I guess it was more of what I wanted to do something if you.

[Alex]

Want to do it. That's a, that's a life question more than a business question. Yeah.

[Sam Tierling]

How do I make it make sense to not screw my first business up?

[Alex]

Well, yeah, that's always the. I mean, like, there's always opportunities. And the thing is, is the bigger distribution base is which it will continue to grow, the more enticing the other opportunity will be. Right. Woman in the red dress. She just always is more and more attractive. The more distribution you build, the more skills you have and the more opportunities you see. Like, believe me, the amount of opportunities that I have to turn down now is sickening. But it's just like taken to the natural extreme. Can I build a hundred million dollar per year trucking business? If the answer is yes, then what risks that? Everything that isn't that that's fair. I mean, it seems like a simplistic way of viewing the world, but it's also really hard. But I also think it's probably the right call.

[Sam Tierling]

I guess I was more or less thinking of it in transportation most of the time for Hazmat's companies. Once you get to where you do 15 to 20 million revenue, you get bought out.

[Alex]

Okay.

[Sam Tierling]

Quantics, NF.

[Alex]

Dana, do you not want to get bought out.

[Sam Tierling]

No. I started this because a lot of.

[Alex]

You could always just keep owning it because they can't force you to give. They can't force the money down your throat. No, I'm just being real. Like, no. I mean, a lot of people take the exit then, because at that point they probably have, you know, between. I know, what are margins? Okay. Yeah. So 20 got 4 million in EBITDA, maybe 5. Right. And so at that point they maybe give you eight or ten on it. And so most people are like, okay, well, for 40 million bucks, I'll walk away. And that's why a lot of people, like, usually that's. I mean, I think part of the reason that institutional investors come in at that 5ish million is that at that point is where most business owners are like, okay, this is enough for me to be done forever. And that's probably why there's a ton of M and A activity. This is me just speaking speculatively. So I don't think there's anything inherently like, okay, if a lot of people get bought out at 20, like, fine. But there's also companies that get to a hundred and it's usually just a. A more stubborn founder who does it for different reasons, which I actually think is a good thing. Okay.

[Sam Tierling]

No, that gives me peace of mind. Thank you.

[Alex]

Yeah, you bet.

[Chase]

My name's Chase. Own an exhausted cleaning business in San Diego.

[Alex]

So we sell like exhaustive exhaust hood cleaning. Yeah.

[Chase]

So we do like grease removal from ducks, fans, hoods and restaurants in San Diego.

[Alex]

Cool.

[Chase]

Where we're at right now, just hit month six.

[Alex]

Is that like 18 wheelers, like semis that you do that on? What is that?

[Chase]

We just have like a van with a hot water pressure washer, chemical roll in the restaurants, guy water and truck.

[Alex]

Okay. Oh, so restaurants.

[Chase]

Okay, got it. So like in all the restaurants, there's a hood system above where they cook three degrees in there. It's like a fire hazard. So everyone has to legally do it.

[Alex]

Yeah, it's a great business. It was described to me differently in a different setting. So yeah, it's very.

[Chase]

That's why I kind of pun intended. Or else people are like, the hell are you talking about?

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Chase]

So we just hit month six. We're doing like 6k a month right now.

[Alex]

Okay.

[Chase]

But we have people on. It's a subscription based business. So our book right now for like yearly recurring revenue is like right around 100k.

[Alex]

Cool.

[Chase]

I think what's stopping us right now is just like not a clear offer Right. Because I deal with restaurant owners who only care about their bottom line, a money thing. They're business owners.

[Alex]

Yeah, true.

[Chase]

They're like, well, if you can give me a better price, I'll give you a shot. And right now I'm just like, hungry, kid. That's like, yeah, I'll beat your price easy. Right? So I think what's stopping us is figuring out pricing and offer with a service that more or less is the same no matter who you go with. But we have added value adders with, like, customer portal streamlining, backend support, things like that.

[Alex]

So you say that to the business owner.

[Chase]

Say that to the business owner.

[Alex]

How so there's good, fast Jeep pick two. And so the problem is you can have somebody else who can do this. Like, to your point, like, you started with the premise that this is a commoditized service. I would just erase that from your memory. Because at the end of the day, like, you have to believe before anybody else that it's not a commoditized service. And so I would say, what are all the reasons that somebody who sucks at this sucks? And let's fix all of those things. And so what's really interesting about good? Like, what does good even mean? Right? So good is basically the absence of hard. Right? And so I think about this when I'm creating a product or service, and this has actually been really helpful for me in terms of, like, how you operationalize value in terms of quality is you think, what are all the things that suck about the existing services? What are. What. What makes it hard? And so a lot of people use the term friction, right? And so something that is easy, you can't make something easy. You can only make it not hard. Right? Like, if I said make it easy, it's like, when something's easy, all the hard vanishes and all that's left is the outcome. Right? And so if we want to make our products or services easier, which then means more valuable, we have to remove all of the elements that make it sucky real quick. Guys, I have a special, special gift for you. For being loyal listeners of the podcast, Layla and I spent probably an entire quarter putting together our scaling roadmap. It's breaking, scaling into 10 stages and across all eight functions of the business. So you've got marketing, you've got sales, you've got product, you got customer success, you've got it. You've got recruiting, hr, you've got finance. And we show the problems that emerge at every level of scale and how to graduate to the next level. It's all free and you can get it personalized to you. So it's about 30ish pages for each of the stages. Once you enter the questions, it will tell you exactly where you're at and what you need to do to grow. It's about 14 hours of stuff, but it's narrowed down so that you only have to watch the part that's relevant to you, which will probably be about 90 minutes. And so if that's at all interesting, you can go to acquisition.comforward/roadmap, r O, a D map roadmap. And so if we're thinking about the competition that you're competing against, like, maybe a lot of them are, you know, not that personable, maybe terrible service. Maybe they don't do a complete job. Maybe they're not willing to come back if something happens. Is there, like, what risks does the restaurant incur? If it's a shoddy job, is there a cadence that they have to like? Maybe we can treat it in a way that allows us to come half as frequently so we're more per cleaning, but they, they don't have to pay it as often. Right. So we have higher gross margins, and that actually works fine for us and it's less for them. Like you're. I'm going with this. Yeah. And then from an economies of scale perspective, it's like, how can we increase. Now you're super early on this, but, like, over time it'll be, how can we increase route density so that, like, we don't waste as much time and so we get more efficient with the routes and we can ultimately make more than our competitors or at least increase our gross margins even. We keep our price fixed. Right.

[Chase]

No, that makes sense. One more question.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Chase]

So everybody has to get it done at least twice a year. So we're signing people a year agreement anywhere from twice a year. Some people do quarterly, some people do like three times a year. So based on what you just said, would you recommend potentially going more towards just pushing semi annually, but keeping price higher so that they feel like they're paying less over the years?

[Alex]

Yeah, I would. Look at my gross march. I mean, real, real. I'd rather sell someone more. Yeah, right. Start at 4 down, sell to 2 if you can, and then probably play with payment terms, which is like, can I stack more of that cash up front? Right. Versus getting paid quarterly?

[Chase]

Pay in full, upfront.

[Alex]

Yeah. Okay, gotcha. Cool. The big picture, I mean, I like, if I'm you, I'm putting all my effort into trying to figure out how to decommoditize my service. Because it is probably the most important thing. Otherwise you're right. You will just consistently be dealing with. If you are the same to the customers, the first chapter of offers, right? Like do the same thing to the customer. These two things are about the same. I'll buy the cheaper one. It's the worst comparison. It's not the fight you want to fight. So it's like I put all my effort whenever I start any business or any product line into like, why is this different? Like, that's my full. Like, I don't even think about pricing. I don't think about anything until I answer that question. And I have to at least be able to articulate it to them really simply, which is like, here's the five things that happen that suck. Here's how we don't have any of those five. And for that, in exchange, instead of paying this, you pay this. But this is why it's worth it, right?

[Chase]

And then in that our only form of outback right now is just like door, door knocking restaurants and then cold email. So then building that offer out with the decom decommoditized that's even commodified and then put that into the offers, the emails, the text, the cold outreach basically and just sell the shit.

[Alex]

Sol, thanks, Kyle.

[Kira Brinton]

I sell outdoor lighting to homeowners. We do 880,000 revenue. About 40% is in the holiday season doing Christmas lights. The problem is we don't have enough leads in the not holiday light time of year. So the first half until basically now.

[Alex]

Fix this business so many times. So I just walk you through it. Yeah. Okay, cool. So basically you have, you have one kind of existential decision that you need to make, which is are we going to be full time lighting? Which there's nothing wrong with that. Look, the Hollywood store, like they're open two months a year and they just murder it. And that's all they do. Right. The alternative is that you basically have a home team that goes from lawn care and other home services to, you know, lighting. The lawn care guys have the equal opposite issue. They're like, okay, well there's grass that's growing nine months of the year and then it's holiday season. And what do my guys do for three months or four months depending on whatever geographic area you're in. Right. And so I tell you which one I prefer. I prefer the keeping the holiday season business. Yeah. Year round. And I'll explain why, but either Option works. I shouldn't be really clear about that. I like thinking about it. How many months of the year are you doing the lights? Three. Yep.

[Kira Brinton]

45 days.

[Alex]

Perfect.

[Kira Brinton]

Yeah.

[Alex]

So the way I think about it is how can I take. How can I equip my existing team with as many skills as possible so that the other 10 months of the year, all they're doing is getting business? And so like the perfect business in the world is you sell all year and then you have to deliver for this much. Yeah. It's an amazing business. Yeah, you just collect cash all day long. Collect cash, collect commitments. Collect cash, collect commitments, collect all year round, and then you, boom. You basically earn the living over the next 45 or 60 days and then you go back into the sales cycle. And so that's one way of doing it. I like that because it's such a simple. Like you just have to think about one thing for 10 months, which is marketing and sales. Yeah. And that gets pretty nasty. And the cash flow is really good. The alternative obviously is you're like, okay, well, these guys don't have these skills. Which then begs the next question is what type of talent do I need to facilitate model A versus model B? But if you have model B, which is maybe you have lower skilled people who work for you right now, then it's like, okay, can I buy some lawnmowers? Can I buy some landscaping stuff so that I can give them something to do for the other nine months of the year?

[Kira Brinton]

Yeah. So we were doing lawn care and picked up Christmas lights to fill that gap. Well, where I live in October you.

[Alex]

Have to do both.

[Kira Brinton]

So I got rid of the lawn care. Okay, well, just do just Christmas.

[Alex]

And you made better margin.

[Kira Brinton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was awesome. So what we're doing now is project based permanent lighting jobs with the exact same team. So we can literally just shut it down as soon as Christmas time starts.

[Alex]

Cool.

[Kira Brinton]

So I guess from what you're saying would be just sell Christmas all year, which is like really hard to sell this time of year. Really, like super easy to get leads in Christmas.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Kira Brinton]

So my thought was sell permanent lights and then also 50% of them still get Christmas lights.

[Alex]

But why not do that?

[Kira Brinton]

That is what I'm doing.

[Alex]

Well, great.

[Kira Brinton]

Well, so the problem is the leads problem. Okay, so I'm running out of Christmas light customers to sell landscape lights too, because that was a natural first. Like, easy to get them. Well, I'm running meta ads, so Legion for permanent lights. Yeah, exactly. Is the problem. So what I'M trying to figure out is the problem like lead magnet issues or landing pages use is where I'm at.

[Alex]

Right. So now we're, now we're in the beat of it, right? Yeah, yeah. No, I'll bet you that the crate is probably not that good because I think it's a pretty easy thing to sell. Yeah. The permanent lighting, like you show a house before and after, you show the dark before and after, like, oh look, lights. I think it's very visual.

[Kira Brinton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alex]

I think that, I actually think that the ads is probably the issue. What's the lead magnet you're offering right now?

[Kira Brinton]

Yeah, we come to your house, do a free demo so you can see how it looks.

[Alex]

Yeah, I'd probably try and enhance that offer. The nice thing is in local markets it's very offer driven. I'd have to think more than three minutes, you know, two seconds about it because it'll be the front end of the whole business. But it would probably be some element of some amount of lights that come for free. Free. So like, like I think something that would murder would be like, can I light someone's like not their deck but like maybe they're the side like from the sidewalk to the house or can I just light the driveway like some small element. So we talk about in the, in the leads book, a lead mag can either be a trial of something, it can be one part of a multi step process or it can be a third thing. But for yours, I think the one step in a multi step process. That's why I wrote, I wrote it down. So I remember it because like I'll prefer to start with a banger offer and then add friction. Because the thing is, is like you could say I'm going to give this away, but you don't have to give it away to everybody. You can say I only give it away to houses that are over X. And you can have people put their address in and then run an API to Zillow, look at home value and then rank order the leads based on value of home and then basically prioritize those leads ahead of time. And so you can go to those, you know, those houses first and probably sell much bigger, bigger packages overall. But I think if I'm struggling to get leads, I just need them to say they want lighting. I don't really care how they say they want lighting. Yeah, I just need them to say they want it and then the sales process takes care of the rest. Cool. Do you like that?

[Kira Brinton]

I'm just trying to process. Yeah. Yeah, like how that would go. I mean, you're 100% right. That's the problem is people, once they say they want lighting, selling it is easy.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Kira Brinton]

So I just got to get them to say it and put their phone numbers on.

[Alex]

So give them a crazy. So give them a much better offer than I'll give you your free sales pitch. No, I'm just being real. Like, yes, fundamentally, that's it. So I think you say like, we'll, we'll do the install for free. You just cover the cost of the lights for this tiny amount. See how I'm developing? I like it. All right. Now you put the markup on the lights and put zero on the labor. It doesn't matter either way. You just basically mix and match how you're showing the money. And that way you'll still break even on that first thing and you'll just know that one out of two or whatever it is who buy the first thing by the 10 times bigger package. And then that's just math. Cool.

[Kira Brinton]

That's it.

[Alex]

I like it. I like that.

[Kira Brinton]

Awesome. Thanks.

[Layla]

So my name is Kira Brinton.

[Kira Brinton]

Embrace myself.

[Layla]

We're going to clean out my closet for a minute.

[Alex]

Okay.

[Layla]

So 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. So here's the deal is that I get really bored, Right. 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. Okay. And I need you to. I would love for you to help me focus. 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?

[Alex]

Okay. What do you sell?

[Layla]

Yeah. So I have a publishing house. 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 and in five days. And that's what's filled my pocket. But it's also just not scalable. And so.

[Alex]

Not scalable.

[Layla]

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. Yeah. And then like I'm also like a single mom of five kids 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 it's like I have all these things. I just like, yeah, you got to.

[Alex]

Pick, you got to pick one of your five kids.

[Layla]

The 10 year old, all day.

[Alex]

There you go. So you just gotta, you gotta think about which one's the 10 year old of your business. It's just like the roofing thing that I said. 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. 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 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 built. That'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 that has teams and systems and it just, you know, grows really large. Probably maybe not bigger than your vision, but large, much larger than what you have right now and what you give up for that is all of the novelty that's associated with doing the things.

[Layla]

Yeah. So which one?

[Alex]

Well, it sounds like you know, which one you should do and want to do something different.

[Layla]

I feel like when I, when I've been looking at, 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? It's always books.

[Alex]

So you run the business school, right?

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

So imagine I come to you and I'm saying, hey, I've got this business that everybody wants to buy from me. It has good margins, I sell it like crazy. But I have four other businesses that I want to start. They don't grow as quickly as this other one. What should I do?

[Layla]

Weird. Sounds so easy when you say it. Yeah, obviously. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah.

[Alex]

Okay. No, I mean, like that's the, I mean the thing that what you're encountering is, is a problem I think everybody in this room has dealt with. Right. It sucks. But like you have to realize that like you can't pursue every opportunity. Not only can you pursue every opportunity, you basically have to say no to every opportunity to be able to make one opportunity worth pursuing.

[Layla]

If my TV show is on Amazon prime and I'm helping people write books and then I'm like, but I'm pushing my business school, like that doesn't even make sense.

[Alex]

Yeah, I 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 helping you people writing books. And then sell more people writing books.

[Layla]

Yeah. All right. That's my financial advisor in the front shaking her head. We got this. Julia.

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah. Julia's like, I've seen the financials on the book club. Do more of that. Right. I want to hit on this one because I think I, I'm not really talking to you, I'm talking through to everybody else. 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.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And so you have to trade novelty for loyalty. And so it's like you become loyal to the business. I also think that occurs with relationships. Like you make the trade a 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. 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 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. No, but like I, I, I'm keeping you.

[Layla]

I feel this, know that this is helpful. Thank you.

[Alex]

Yeah. You have to. Life will not give you what you want if you want everything.

[Layla]

Ah, damn.

[Alex]

Like we have to make trades. Well, we get nothing and it's tough. And I think there's a big, at a big realization. I want to say a few years back where 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.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

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. That's all it is. Now what I want to do is give you something tactical. Right. Because it's. This is. We were all the way up here. So I'm going to make a video on this because I think it's really helpful, which is that you have to take your creative energy, and I have a lot of that, too. And you have to channel it into something that is accretive to the business, something that adds value, rather than something that. Which attracts value. And so what are the components of the business that need novelty on a regular basis?

[Layla]

I think I can give you a hint. What?

[Alex]

Marketing.

[Layla]

Marketing. I was just going to say sales and marketing. Yeah.

[Alex]

So if you want to build and you want to create, I have the same niche.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

I put all of my add into content. I've become a significantly better entrepreneur by making content because it distracts me from fucking up my business.

[Layla]

This is legit. I just wrote a book about this. I just wrote a book about when leaders get bored, they just fuck it all up and burn it in the city.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Layla]

And I just keep doing it over and over.

[Alex]

So instead, just, like, just paint the city.

[Layla]

Okay.

[Alex]

Just paint it. Don't destroy it. Just paint a different color.

[Layla]

Got it.

[Alex]

And so that, like. And that goes for everyone. Like, my add, like, I put it into ads. I put it into, like, the reason I write books is mostly for me. Like, Layla'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 because I do so little. Yeah. Right.

[Layla]

Feel this.

[Alex]

Yeah. I don't normally talk about this, but I think this feels incredibly relevant. Yeah. This is going to feel real for you.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And everyone else. So let's imagine the business like, everyone's revenue here represents this like this line your revenue, not 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 from whatever that changes. So I change a sales process, I change a leadership process. They change an onboarding process. I change something that. 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. Now, 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 so, 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. Bad 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 or 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 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.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And so I have a list right now. It's Alex's big list of ideas.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Which I encourage you to have.

[Layla]

Okay.

[Alex]

And I have it. It's on my phone where every time I think of something else that we could do to improve this business, instead of messaging the team and saying, hey guys, emergency meeting. We're gonna do this. This is such a great idea. I just write it down.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And I just keep living my life.

[Layla]

Okay.

[Alex]

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, 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 is bandwidth and they're all breathing a little too easy, then I can go destroy their worlds. But what's ended up happening is that my businesses have improved so dramatically by me just saying, 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 shit stays fucked. 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. But 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 5. Was that worth it? No. And so hopefully this is not, you know, this is not. I'm not just talking to you. I see a lot of Ted's nodding. 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.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Number two, make a list of all your crazy ideas when they come up and don't tell anyone about them. And 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. And 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.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Alex]

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.

[Layla]

Wow. This was hard for me to hear and, like, everything I needed. Thank you.

[Alex]

Cool. Thank you, guys.