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There's no way to strike out. You just have to wait and wait and wait until you get the perfect pitch, that fat pitch that's in your sweet spot. And then you step up and you knock it out of the park. And if you look at the people who are the wealthiest in the world, invariably the vast majority made their money with one vehicle. The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game. This podcast, the game, is my attempt at documenting the lessons I've learned on my way to building acquisition.com into a billion dollar portfolio. My hope is that you use the lessons to grow your business and maybe someday soon partner with us to get to a hundred million dollars and beyond. I share and enjoy. I want to tell you a story that was really impactful for me earlier on in my life and my business career. And it was when Layla and I went to the Pirates who have Mastermind now. If you've ever, you know, listened to my podcast or you've been on this channel, I've talked about this before, but it was one of the most impactful experiences of my life. And it was because I had multiple mentors who made more than me speak belief into me and also made sure that I capitalized on the fat pitch. All right, and so I'll tell you how this went. So I was Layla and I just got married. This was 2017, May. We had just gone from, you know, me almost losing everything to this business that we had just shifted from a done for you, flying out doing gym turnarounds to a consulting service teaching other people how to do our model. And we were doing, we were like in our second month and doing 350,000amonth. It was insane. And it was just Layla, me and an assistant over the. Selling over the kitchen table. It was absolutely bananas. I didn't even know we made more money than I knew what to even do with. It was, it was, it was crazy. You know what I mean? We're living on $1,200 a month and taking home 340 of 350,000amonth. It was crazy. And so anyways, I got invited to an eight figure mastermind. And clearly, if you're doing the math there, I'm not making eight figures. And I felt like really out of place. I was like, are you sure you want me to come? And he was like, yeah, dude, you're going to like. He's like, you're going to blow past eight figures. Like, really? And so first person that spoken to me was Russell, which is why I'm Always grateful for that. And so he saw something in me that I couldn't see for myself, which is why I think it's so valuable to. To pay for mentorships and pay for, you know, people who are ahead of you, to give you perspective that you lack. Because a lot of times it's beliefs, the things that you don't see that kill you. Right. And that prevent you from succeeding. And so anyways, we get to this event super nervous this week because all these guys are like, titan, and they're all doing, you know, 10 million, 20 million, 30 million. And I think Russell, at the time, I think they were doing 35 to show you how long ago it was, because now I think they're doing 150. And I got up there, it was finally my turn. And I, you know, I wrote on the board and I told how our whole process worked and how much money our gyms were making on average. And Jason Fladlan. Actually, I'll start with what Alex Charfen says. Alex Charfen was in the room and he's like, you have $100 million business right now and you don't even know it. And I remember feeling like the air was sucked out of the room because I felt all of a sudden I was, like, really proud of what I had accomplished. But all these guys made so much more money than me that they were like, dude, you need to, like, you need to step on the gas. And I was like, what? They're like, you've got a huge thing in front of you if you, if you like, like, you need to take advantage of this. And at the time I was saying how, I was like, okay, we're making 350amonth and I'm going to start a supplement company. And they were like, why would you want to start a supplement company? Just double your ad spend because you're not spending anything on ads right now. And I was like, okay, I guess I'll do that. Because I listened to these guys because they made more money than me. I was like, all right. And so that was my end all. So rather than starting another business, I just kept doing the thing that I was doing, which ended up being an amazing piece of advice for them to give me. And I probably would have sabotaged myself. I had not paid for that. So it's like, if you ever have the opportunity to spend more than you're probably comfortable with, to be surrounded by people who make a lot more money than you, you will almost always disproportionately and every time in My life, I've always disproportionately moved up faster when I can surround myself and figure out I want them to speak into me and tell me what I cannot see, right? I'm like, tell me what I'm missing. What am I not seeing that you can see, right? Because for whatever your business is, right, or whatever your skill set is, I'm sure that there's. If someone who's, who's doing something that you are very good at, you can immediately see what's going on. It doesn't take. It takes you two seconds, right? You're like, oh, this is what's wrong. This is wrong, this is wrong. When I look at a business now, I can be like, ah, this is the issue, right? It's immediate. But I. When you don't have the context, you just run your head in the wall wondering what's going on, right? So anyways, after the. My little presentation was over, Jason Fladling came up to me and he had done $100 million on webinars. And I was like, man, this guy's super smart. He was, you know, he was really aggressive and bright. And I was like, man, we gotta figure something out or I don't wanna say anything stupid. And so anyways, he comes up to me and he said, you need to 10x overnight. And I was like, what? He said, if you. What you're saying is true and you're making gyms this much money, he's like, someone bigger than you, who already has all your customer base is going to take everything you have and distribute it. I was like, what? He's like, they're going to take everything you have and just destroy you before you even have a chance. And I just felt even worse after this, right? I felt this pit in my stomach. And then he leaned into me and he said, when it gets easy is when you go hard. And I remember how much I was shaken by that. And Layla was right next to me and I was like, when it gets easy is when I go hard. When it gets easy is when you go hard, huh? And the biggest gift I got from those guys there was that this was my fat pitch.
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Real quick, guys, if you can think about how you found this podcast, somebody probably tweeted it, told you about it, shared it on Instagram or something like that. The only way this grows is through word of mouth. And so I don't run ads, I don't do sponsorships, I don't sell anything. My only ask is that you continue.
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To pay it forward to whoever showed you or however you found out about.
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This podcast, that you do the exact same thing. So if it was a review, if it was a post, if you do that, it'll mean the world to me and you'll throw some good karma out.
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There for another entrepreneur, right? There are only a handful of opportunities that present themselves in the course of, you know, entrepreneur's career where you have the opportunity, you have the skill, and like, basically the stars align right?
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Now.
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That being said, you have to develop the skills so that when the opportunity presents itself, you can knock it out of the park and step up to the plate. But when I listen to Warren Buffett and he talks about the investments, right, they. They choose very sparingly what things they're going to invest in, but when they do, they back, they load the truck up, they go all in. You know, you find your sphere of confidence in and you just get pitches all day long, right? Just like a baseball analogy. You get pitched over and over, but you have no strikeouts, right? There's no way to strike out. You just have to wait and wait and wait until you get the perfect pitch, that fat pitch that's in your sweet spot, and then you step up and you knock it out of the park. And if you look at the people who are the wealthiest in the world, invariably the vast majority made their money with one vehicle. They made all of their wealth or the vast majority of their wealth with one vehicle. And then after they made their wealth, then they diversified, right? And so this is one of the big issues that I feel like I see in the Internet culture and the Instagram culture is they're like, you gotta, like, the billionaires have seven, you know, revenue streams. Yes, but they didn't have that to get there, right? Now I have lots of revenue streams, but I didn't have that building this, right? And so the idea is it looks much more like an umbrella. You've got one straight path all the way up on one vehicle where you're all in invested, which is your business most of the time, or your career, and then it balloons out, then it umbrellas out, and then you sprinkle those investments and other things because you're overly leveraged in one business. But every single one of them, most of the guys that you see, all of them came from one one thing that made their money, and then they sprinkled it out on top of the other vehicles. And so if you listen to Gary Vee, even he talked about one of his biggest regrets was how when Google Ads were really Cheap that he should have spent more for wine library. And all of these things kind of collided at the same time in my life where I had, you know, I'm listening to Gary, he was saying, you know, I wish I had spent more, right? And I had Jason saying, hey, when it gets easy is when you need to go hard. All these guys are going to take all your stuff. And then, you know, Charfen saying, hey, you've got $100 million company and you don't even know it's. And then, you know, Russell's like, you're going to blow past eight figures. And all of this stuff was spoken into me when I was just a kid. Like, you got to understand, like, I didn't know anything. Like I knew Nothing. We're doing 300,000amonth. And I was like, holy crap. Like, what is going on? Is this legal? I don't want to mess it up. Like it was just like, holy. And so. But because of their encouragement, rather than a distract myself and start another business, right, all we did is we. I followed what they said. I 5x my adsman and. And then it just took off like a fricking rocket. You know what I mean? We went from, you know, 350 to 1.5 million in the next like five months, as in per month. And so it was just bonkers. And I just listened to what they had said. And so my, my, my takeaway from this and me sharing the story is that I don't know what pitches you have in front of you. There are only a certain amount of times where we're going to get that fat pitch. And I think we. My, the point of this is that if it is easy for you right now, this is the time to step up. I was talking to some entrepreneurs that were younger not that long ago, and they went from, you know, next to nothing. I think not next to nothing. I think they were doing that. That sounds horrible what I'm about to say. So they were doing like one or two million dollars a year. I didn't mean it like that, but their last month they, they made like 20 or $30,000 in their last month of the year. And then the next month they, they'd hit this offer out of the fricking park and they, they did 3 million and they did 5 million the next month in revenue. I mean, that's insanity. I mean I've, I've never heard of anything growing that fast without like a jv, you know, like some sort of joint venture thing. Like never in my Life. I've heard something grow that fast. And they were like, yeah, you know, we're trying to, like, enjoy the fruits of our labor and not spend a ton of time on the business. On the business. And I wanted. And I got to have the opportunity to be the. The older person in the situation because I could see in them what I imagine people saw in me, which was like, you've got a hot one right now. Like, you need to ride it hard. Like when. Strike when the iron is hot, right? When the fat pitch comes, you step up and you put everything you've got into it. And so, like, this is not the time to try and figure out work, life, balance, because you're going to have this finite window where you're going to make disproportionate amounts of money, where you're going to make your generational wealth in this short gap. And we just have to hope that when that opportunity presents itself, we take full advantage, right? If you're going to California and during the gold rush in 1849 and you start panning for gold and you start getting gold, that's not the time to say, you know what? I've made it. I'm going to stay home. I'm only going to pan for gold an hour or two a day. Of course not, right? Because you'd be like, I got to pan. I got to try and take as much gold out of this river as humanly possible. It seems obvious to us from the outside, but when you're in it, you have all these other things that are going on in your mind, right? And the thing is, is that opportunity, like many are finite, right? There's a defined period of time where you're going to be able to ride that wave and be early on it and crush it. And so most people who are very wealthy had one big pitch that they swung hard on, and. And then after they've made it, then they sprinkle their other investments. Just don't try and reverse engineer the wrong sequence.
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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.com roadmap R O A D map Roadmap.
Podcast Summary: The Game with Alex Hormozi - Episode 875: "Throwback: When It Gets Easy, Go Hard"
Release Date: April 28, 2025
In Episode 875 of The Game with Alex Hormozi, titled "Throwback: When It Gets Easy, Go Hard," host Alex Hormozi delves into a pivotal moment in his entrepreneurial journey. This episode offers listeners a deep dive into the lessons learned from mentorship, strategic decision-making, and capitalizing on golden opportunities that can propel a business from substantial success to extraordinary growth.
Alex Hormozi opens the episode by framing business success as akin to a game, where strategic plays and seizing the right opportunities lead to monumental achievements.
Alex Hormozi [00:00]: "If you look at the people who are the wealthiest in the world, invariably the vast majority made their money with one vehicle. The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game."
He emphasizes that his podcast serves as a documentation of the lessons he's accumulated while scaling Acquisition.com to a billion-dollar portfolio. His mission is to equip other entrepreneurs with these insights to help them achieve and exceed the hundred-million-dollar mark.
Alex recounts a transformative experience in 2017 when he and his wife, Layla, attended an eight-figure mastermind event. At the time, Acquisition.com was transitioning from a consulting model to a more scalable service, achieving $350,000 per month—a significant leap from their precarious financial situation of living on $1,200 monthly.
Alex Hormozi [00:00]: "I just got married. This was 2017, May. We were doing 350,000 a month. It was crazy."
Invited to a mastermind predominantly composed of entrepreneurs generating $10 million to $35 million monthly, Alex initially felt out of place. However, the interactions and advice he received fundamentally reshaped his approach to business.
During the mastermind, Alex encountered several mentors who recognized his potential beyond his self-perceived limitations. Russell, one of the mentors, highlighted the importance of mentorship in overcoming limiting beliefs that hinder success.
Alex Hormozi [전02:25]: "Russell saw something in me that I couldn't see for myself, which is why I think it's so valuable to pay for mentorships and pay for, you know, people who are ahead of you, to give you perspective that you lack."
This mentorship underscored the necessity of surrounding oneself with successful individuals who can provide clarity and guidance, ensuring that entrepreneurs capitalize on their "fat pitches"—those rare, high-impact opportunities.
Alex describes his experience presenting his business model at the mastermind, where seasoned entrepreneurs provided candid feedback and high expectations.
Alex Hormozi [02:40]: "Alex Charfen was in the room and he's like, 'You have a $100 million business right now and you don't even know it.'"
Facing pressure from mentors like Jason Fladlan, who pushed him to "10x overnight," Alex grappled with the intensity of their expectations.
Jason Fladlan [04:35]: "When it gets easy is when you go hard."
This advice, though initially overwhelming, became a cornerstone of Alex's strategy moving forward.
The mantra "When it gets easy, go hard" encapsulates the episode's core lesson. Alex interprets this as the ideal moment to amplify efforts and scale operations when business processes become streamlined and opportunities for exponential growth emerge.
Alex Hormozi [04:55]: "When it gets easy is when I go hard."
This philosophy encourages entrepreneurs to maximize their momentum during periods of ease to build substantial wealth before diversifying their investments.
One of the significant pieces of advice Alex received was to concentrate on scaling the existing successful business rather than branching out into new ventures prematurely. Initially considering starting a supplement company, he was advised to double his ad spend instead.
Jason Fladlan [03:15]: "Just double your ad spend because you're not spending anything on ads right now."
Following this guidance led to a surge in revenue, propelling Acquisition.com from $350,000 to $1.5 million per month within five months.
Alex Hormozi [06:40]: "We went from 350 to 1.5 million in the next like five months, as in per month. And so it was just bonkers."
This experience reinforced the importance of focus and strategic scaling over diversification during critical growth phases.
Alex emphasizes the rarity and significance of the "fat pitch"—a prime opportunity that can dramatically elevate a business. Identifying and capitalizing on such moments requires preparedness, the right skills, and the courage to commit fully.
Alex Hormozi [08:30]: "You have to wait and wait and wait until you get the perfect pitch, that fat pitch that's in your sweet spot. And then you step up and you knock it out of the park."
He draws parallels to the gold rush, urging entrepreneurs to exploit lucrative opportunities fully rather than approaching them half-heartedly.
The episode highlights how mentorship accelerates growth by providing insights and strategies that entrepreneurs might overlook on their own. Alex credits his mentors for helping him identify and act on pivotal opportunities that significantly increased his business's revenue.
Alex Hormozi [09:50]: "If you ever have the opportunity to spend more than you're probably comfortable with, to be surrounded by people who make a lot more money than you, you will almost always disproportionately and every time in my life, I've always disproportionately moved up faster."
This endorsement underscores the value of investing in mentorship and being open to learning from those who have achieved higher levels of success.
Alex discusses the concept of a finite window where entrepreneurs can make substantial strides and build generational wealth. Recognizing and acting within this window is crucial, as delaying or dilly-dallying can result in missed opportunities.
Alex Hormozi [10:45]: "This is a finite window where you're going to make disproportionate amounts of money, where you're going to make your generational wealth in this short gap."
He advises against trying to maintain a work-life balance during these peak growth periods, advocating instead for full commitment to leveraging the moment.
Wrapping up the episode, Alex reiterates the importance of strategic focus and relentless effort when prime opportunities arise. By sharing his journey and the invaluable lessons from his mentors, he provides a blueprint for entrepreneurs aiming to scale their businesses effectively.
Alex Hormozi [11:00]: "Every single one of them, most of the guys that you see, all of them came from one one thing that made their money, and then they sprinkled it out on top of the other vehicles."
Alex encourages listeners to recognize their own "fat pitches" and invest wholeheartedly to achieve remarkable success, emphasizing that foundational wealth is often built through singular, focused efforts before diversification.
Strategic Mentorship: Surrounding oneself with successful mentors can provide invaluable insights and help overcome limiting beliefs.
Focus Over Diversification: Concentrate on scaling the core business before branching out into new ventures.
Seize the "Fat Pitch": Recognize and fully commit to significant opportunities when they arise to maximize growth.
Relentless Commitment: During periods of ease and growth, intensify efforts to capitalize on momentum.
Finite Windows of Opportunity: Act decisively within limited timeframes to build substantial and lasting wealth.
Alex Hormozi [00:00]: "If you look at the people who are the wealthiest in the world, invariably the vast majority made their money with one vehicle."
Alex Hormozi [02:25]: "Russell saw something in me that I couldn't see for myself..."
Jason Fladlan [03:15]: "Just double your ad spend because you're not spending anything on ads right now."
Alex Hormozi [04:55]: "When it gets easy is when I go hard."
Alex Hormozi [08:30]: "You have to wait and wait and wait until you get the perfect pitch, that fat pitch that's in your sweet spot."
Alex Hormozi [10:45]: "This is a finite window where you're going to make disproportionate amounts of money..."
This episode of The Game with Alex Hormozi serves as a compelling narrative on the importance of focused effort, strategic mentorship, and the relentless pursuit of opportunities that can transform a business from success to unprecedented growth. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to heed these lessons, seize their defining moments, and commit fully to leveraging their most promising opportunities.