Please enjoy this transcript of my interview with founder and CEO at Gym Launch Secrets, Alex Hormozi.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Alex Hormozi
If you and your business are kind of like in symbiosis, like side by side, one of you is grown. And so either your business is growing or you are growing. And so then it kind of happens back forth. Ideally, you can have both at the same time, but when your business is growing, you’re growing a lot.
Apple Crider
Today we are sitting down with Alex Horne mosey to talk about how he was able to turn gym lunch into a business that had $60 million in revenue in about 24 months, grow to a team of about 80 full time employees toss in like 20 or so contractors. And you’ve got a picture of what gym lunch looks like. So Alex is someone who I’ve looked up to for a while. He’s somebody who one of the reasons I actually look up to him is because of his his lack of emphasis on his social media channels. Okay, on the vein that we were talking about last episode on how I want to create a show that focuses more on people who are growing real businesses, rather than people who are just trying to be famous on Instagram, or create or boost their ego and whatnot, I really look up to Alex because of his lack of use of social media. We talked about that in the episode why he chooses not to utilize social media and why he hasn’t needed it to grow his business. Additionally, we’re gonna dive really deep into sort of the mindset that Alex has adopted when it comes to one, just really taking advantage of the time that he has at his disposal. He’s gonna tell a story about how when he was in college, he went to Vanderbilt graduated in three years, but while he was there, he was able to really recognize how much time he was wasting. And he’s going to really dive into what he was able to do as a result of of realizing that and the actions that he takes today to audit his environments and dictate his behavior in order to allow him to really get the most out of each and every day and Alex is somebody who really does get a lot done. He’s got some systems processes, a lot of systems and processes in place to allow him to do that. And then lastly, we’re going to wrap it up and talk about some of the biggest lessons that Alex has learned throughout building this company and his business beforehand, which was brick and mortar gyms that he was running. So without further ado, I’m very excited for this episode, Alex again, he’s somebody who I have been watching for a long, long time, and I’m extremely honored to have him here on the podcast today. I know you guys are gonna get a ton of value out of this episode. So without further ado, sit back, relax and enjoy this episode of young smart money with Alex hormoz he Alright, Alex, welcome to young smart money. How are you doing today?
Alex Hormozi
I’m good. I’m good, man. Everyone’s absolutely Happy Wednesday.
Apple Crider
So Alex, our listeners got to hear a bit about you in the intro to this episode, what you’re currently doing. But for those of you that don’t know where you are, what you’re working on, give us like a 62nd snapshot of where you’re at right now.
Alex Hormozi
We run a business that helps gym owners make more money. So brick and mortar process boot camps are required facilities, larger training centers, that is our main target and We’ve helped over 2000 of them, the average person that works with us makes over 240,000 per year in added revenue. So from where they were at adds an extra quarter billion a year, triple their profit, we increase their lifetime value to customer by two, three x and we 3.03 x. So we do
Apple Crider
sweet and you guys are providing some some massive value in this space. You guys have gone through some crazy growth, especially in the last like two years, which I’m stoked to dive into. But before we do, I kinda want to flashback in time since we got a younger listener base here. I want to hear what Alex Rosie was up to, in like the middle school high school days. So what were you What were you doing in that time period so our listeners can now start to relate with you, man.
Alex Hormozi
Trying not to get in trouble. I was
think I was just figuring myself out. You know, I think I think at least If I remember, if I remember correctly, you know, when I was in middle school in high school is just kind of like tasting a lot of stuff and just figuring out what you like, what you don’t like, what you’re about, you’re not about, and I know that when you’re younger, at least when I was it was like, I can be whoever I want to be. So what does that mean? You know, I mean, a lot of people take that it’s like, what is my identity, you know, you could process when you’re an early adult, but then you kind of settle on, you know, the things that you believe in, you know, the skill sets you have, and you start investing in, in some ways you do choose to go down some paths, and that takes the opportunity cost of time. And so some of those skill sets get more developed, others don’t. And that’s part of the choices.
Apple Crider
What were some of those initial skill sets and beliefs that you started sort of settling into during that that time period of like experimentation and tasting?
Alex Hormozi
Well, when I was in high school, I am. Things like the beliefs that you adopted that point in time were so so many of the times are just limiting beliefs, their beliefs that aren’t true that you think are true. Because you don’t know any better yet. And so like, for example, I never thought I was good at math. And so that’s like, you know, I didn’t get to math teachers, whatever it was, it wasn’t that I was a great guy. I did okay, but I wasn’t, I was never It was my weaker subject. I was editor of the newspaper as a creative literary magazine, though. Sorry, gv, editor of the newspaper. I was looking back, but either way, though, now, if you were to ask me in my company, or any of my clients, like is Oxford a math book, it was looking like a, like a Superman, dude. Right. But I didn’t know that because I just thought I told myself a story about myself. And a lot of times, I think when you’re in middle school in high school, you you have these traumas that are really fresh for you, right? It’s like, man, my dad did like me, my mom doesn’t. My siblings, my brother used to do this. Like it’s really fresh for you. Right? And so, people get really traumatized by that because they’re their children and adults that have the coping mechanisms of children in a world that has adult Trump. You know what I mean? And so but they don’t have that defense up yet. And that’s why most people have their traumatic stuff in their kids, because they’re not prepared for it. Right. And they spend the rest of their lives trying to untangle that. But um, I think if you dive into that stuff and you want to leave it, you’re like, this doesn’t define me. You know what I mean? I think a lot of people move past that some people just keep reliving the childhood never. But, um, the people that I know who succeed, and then they choose to let that experience beat the strength into them rather than out of them.
Apple Crider
Hmm. Can you talk more about about making bad decision to to let that be strength into you?
Alex Hormozi
I think that’s 100%. What it is, it’s just a decision. So you can have the months that lead into that decision, but the moment you make the choice, you decide, like I’m not going to and sometimes it’s an emotional experience. Sometimes it’s a really boring experience. You’re sitting around and you’re like, fuck this, I’m not doing this. Here. I mean, or it’s, it’s the flip side, right? It’s, it’s, you know, you see your mom pass out on the floor because she’s she’s drunk again, or whatever it is, and you’re like, I’m not going to be Like, I’m not gonna, like you can either choose to follow, you know, follow in those footsteps, or you can choose to be the opposite. You know, it depends. Everyone everyone comes from their own. You know, they’re Everyone has their own story. But most people have had traumas in their past. And this is because everyone experiences pain the same. And so that’s one that I think, especially with like, my younger self, it used to be this, like this measuring stick of like, how much pain Have you been through? Right? Like, who’s legitimate? Yeah, thing is, is that the human experience a 10 out of 10 pain for everyone’s the same, right? But it’s just that for some people attendance and payment have been their uncle raping them and no one knowing or having to keep it a secret. But for someone else, it just means that like their dad missed the recital, that meant a lot to them. The pain is still the same, right? And so one person tried to just cut another person’s pain is irrelevant, because their subjective experiences identical. So then once you realize the subjective experience is identical, then you can just really just choose to make the decision that anyone or anyone can choose to make, which is to step out
rather than be like, well, healing went through this. I went through this well good for you goofy right over there.
Right? Yeah, what are you going to do? Right? No one cares. It doesn’t matter. And the truth is no one gives a shit. No one. No one cares about you. Like the only person cares about us you right? And to some degree your parents but that’s because they care about themselves three Hmm. Interesting talking about that? Well think about it. Humans are selfish, right straight up nature and so many humans have babies is because they’re selfless people all of a sudden that’s the one choice they make that selfless? No, because it makes them feel like they have purpose. It gives them purpose to a life that’s for some people doesn’t have purpose and it gives them something beyond themselves. They have a legacy. Right? And there’s obviously biological biology that push through that too. Yeah, but a lot of times, it’s just how do you make your parent feel about themselves? Right. If you make your parent feel about themselves that they are successful, they’re a good parent. They’re a great person because you have accomplished Things may make them feel accomplished so that they can talk to Mrs. Jones to the Rotary Club. And when they say, Well, my daughter’s a dentist, my daughter is a funnel hacker, right? Like, it’s like, whatever you get my point, right? Yeah, that they don’t care. Like, it’s not about you. And so once you realize that no one else cares, then you can stop feeling bad for yourself, because it doesn’t matter. So it’s either you want to live a life and feeling bad for yourself, you just won’t decide to just move on. Use it, make it make you stronger, or let it make you weaker. Just decide that cool, I’m gonna, I’m gonna just pitch in my whole life about this thing that someone else did. And then I’m going to choose to give them the power over my life, because I blamed them for all my failures. Right? And so I remember distinctly when I was younger, I was like, Am I going to give my parent that power over me, which is the things that they have done whether knowingly or unknowingly. Will I let that be the thing that defines my life. And if I do that I’m giving them all the power of my life in that myself.
Apple Crider
That’s a decision that we all got to make but a lot of people just just choose to just sit on the sidelines and not even think about it. Are you under percent i appreciate I appreciate you bringing that up. Now. I’m curious, transitioning a little bit into sort of your entrepreneurial career when did you first get exposed to the world of entrepreneurship? Were you somebody who was like selling candy bars in the back of the classroom or did that come later?
Alex Hormozi
I don’t know. I don’t have any of that stuff. You know, many people are like, man I failed out of school never fit in. I was always swing in and like doing all this stuff. I was always hustling. Like, no, I was I was I crushed your MBA. I did really well in school. I studied hard. And I I went to Vanderbilt graduated three years took GMAC, Harvard’s would score like I like that. That was the path I was and I just really didn’t like the job. I took College. And I knew that I always said, I want to eventually own a business I was when people were like, what are you gonna do to grow up? I was like, I’m gonna do this. And I like eventually go my own business. And then I just remember hearing myself say like, eventually. What is what is this going to do to help me firt like to have that happen? And so I was like, well, it would only be harder as I get older, because I’ll have more things that’ll have to be responsible for, right family of kids mortgage payments, things like that. And it’s like, well, if I can’t do it now, I’ll never be. And so that was kind of like my flaw. I had nothing to lose. And so, I mean, I had a job. But I mean, I left that it was a good job. But um, I left that and then drove across the country and started my first one.
Apple Crider
I love it. So I’m curious. What made you What made you say that you wanted to start a business? I mean, you were saying this to yourself. You’re saying this other people? Was there some kind of driver behind that? Or was it just kind of something you thought would be fun to do?
Alex Hormozi
Probably like people would say like, I want to be a doctor when I grew up. You don’t mean like, I think it was something that’s like a business owner. Like I didn’t want to be a doctor. So I was like, Business Owner sounds cool. Like that sounds nice. Um, but I mean, I’d like because I knew that so the the actual decision that came into it was that I realized that there was going to be no way that I was gonna make the amount of money that I wanted to make and have the freedom that I wanted to have, in any position, any company, because if I went down the investment banking route, right, and decided to go and sell companies and deals right, and make 3 million a year, whatever it is familiar, you know, the higher up you go, and it takes takes time to get that, right. You know, if you work at Goldman Sachs, and you make 5 million a year or 10 million a year, and you’re the managing director, like you have put in 20 actual years of work a but realistically you put 40 years of work in because you worked 80 hours a week for that whole 20. And so despite the fact that it seems like you’re 40 like you literally have not lived any part of your life. And so when I realized that was like the only way for me to make the amount of money that I want to make is to live a life that I don’t live like them, the only way for me to be able to do the things that I love and have a life. I want us to To make money. And so once I actually came to that conclusion, it just became really clear that that was the only way. Like that was it like I actually had no other option. Otherwise I was going to be dissatisfied and make less than I wanted to make. I wasn’t.
And so once it was very clear, for me, that was the path that
Apple Crider
was established that that amount of money that you wanted to make, was there certain things that you wanted to do things you wanted to have, or was it just kind of a number?
Alex Hormozi
No, I think it was mostly status driven, to be candid with you. Okay. I think that, you know, I remember when I was in high school, people were like, make $100,000 a year and I was like, 100,000 a month. Right? You know what I mean? Like to say these things, you don’t even know what it means. 100,000 month even means, but I think that’s where that’s where that came from. You know, I’m pretty competitive. I think I am. And I think that was probably the original driver. But I also just, it’s like, it’s always been about at least when I started the journey was about freedom. You know, I wanted to have temporal freedom, time, you know, time freedom or geographic freedom or to have fun Freedom. So I wanted to be able to do what I wanted what I want, wherever, right with. And so that was kind of the thought. And so whatever that number is, is different for everyone. But for me, it was actually not about how much money I was going to make, but how much money I needed to have. And so it was like the fast like, and the faster that I get to that number, then the faster I’m in kind of like gravy, like doesn’t really matter what I do. I’m covered and now you’re, you know, I don’t know another already custom much times already. So I guess, but you know, the fuck you money like that hole that better? That amount is the amount where you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, right. And once the scarcity of money is removed from your life, then you truly are like, I don’t think people don’t work. People will always work. They just do the things they enjoy doing, right that you get engaged with. And so if money work, if I could get money out of the equation as fast as I could, which was my goal that I’d be able to do the things I wanted to do, but the reality is that doing things I wanted to do is the They got the money out of the equation to continue to do so my life doesn’t really change even though I far surpass what my retirement number was.
Apple Crider
Hmm. So So at this point, do you I mean, cuz you said that the decision to or rather the actions that were making you money with actions that you were enjoying as of right now is is your enjoyment The only thing that dictates your decisions or does money still play a factor in that?
Alex Hormozi
It’s a good question. Um,
the thing is, is that money stops the the meaning around money changes, it doesn’t become less important, it becomes important in a different way. So for me, a lot of times I’m like, currently, I would measure my growth as a business person with the objective measure of how much money the business is making, right? So I’m measuring my personal growth with the growth of the business whereas in the beginning, money had actual monetary value to me, but now it doesn’t. There’s literally nothing Other the state can only get so expensive. Like it’s just like, once you buy a Lamborghini, and then you have the house and they’re all paid for in cash, what do you buy the next? Read? Like, what, what then? Right? And then it’s like, it’s just, it’s it’s food. You’re I mean, like, there’s not a lot that you actually like most people, if you actually think about what you would spend your money on, there’s not a ton to spend money on. And so really, it’s just I desire to learn the lessons that I know are necessary to learn to achieve this level of success, organization, size, scale, etc. And I just know that those are victims. So I do care about those things, but for different reasons.
Apple Crider
Reminds me of a gym quote, Jim Rohn quote, rather, where he said that his mentor told him to set the goal of becoming a millionaire, not because of what he could do with a million dollars, but because of what pursuing that goal and achieving that goal would make of him so I think that that is that’s really insightful. I think for the younger audience especially.
Alex Hormozi
Yeah, and I mean, you’re gonna fail a bunch of times on the way there and that like I think, at least for the younger audiences, like just not, I’m sure they hear all the motivation mantra all the time, like, don’t give up. Like, it’s just, it’s really reframing. And it’s just, it’s a character trait, like you either start adopting or you don’t, like, I have no question that I will always be in business, or like, I’m always gonna do this and like, do different things, but I’m not gonna stop. Because like, they’re not, they’re just lessons. To me. It’s just like, what, like, it’s just you have wins, and you have lessons. That’s it. And in the beginning, you learn more than you win, and then eventually start winning more than you learn. And then when you start winning too much, then you learn a really big lesson, right? And then it hurts more. And so that’s kind of the balance. One of the things I was telling some of our some of our clients is like, if you and your business are kind of like in symbiosis like side by side, one of you is grown. And so either your business is growing or you are grown, and so then it kind of happens back for ideally you can have both at the same time, but when you’re busy is growing, you’re growing a lot. And when you’re when your business is growing a lot, sometimes you’re not growing sometimes you sometimes are growing too. But a lot of times you grow to this point of incompetence, right, your level of incompetence, and so you have to level up.
Apple Crider
I’m curious to hear what some of your learning lessons were in that beginning phase when you decided to go out there and start this thing. I mean, the first iteration Actually, let’s just dive into that really quick. What was the first sort of vision? I’m assuming it wasn’t what you’ve created now?
Alex Hormozi
This is Jimmy. It was just my first in
general, yeah, just my first gym in Huntington Beach, California.
But right before that, you asked a question that I was going to say something about, um,
Apple Crider
yeah. The early the early lessons.
Alex Hormozi
Yeah. I think the biggest lesson that is necessary that I took it took me until I was 19. Some people learned earlier some later but was actually understanding and I can’t even convey it because there’s nothing that’ll make it real. For the audience, but everyone thinks they work hard. Right? But not a lot of people actually work hard. People think they work hard. Most people think they’re above average drivers. We average and half the people are below average, by their nature, right? Half of you listening to this or below average. Think about that. Just math, right. But at the same time, so half of you have below average work ethic. And so but you probably think you have above average work ethic. And I think for me, the biggest lesson was, maybe I have luck, right? But I’m learning how to work. Like when you’re in high school, maybe you work an hour a night you feel like you’re you’re like if you’re working hour night in high school, maybe you’re working a ton, right. Do you read the book? Cliff Notes, right? I skim them two seconds for me. Like that’s maybe where you’re at. And the thing is, is that like at that point, I used to be proud of that. how little I worked. Yes, x score. Yes, but I just want to let anyone who’s listening, it’s fucking stupid as shit. Because ultimately, you’re not cheating anyone and like some people might hear like what you’re like your parents, like you’re just cheating yourself like you are, and you’re being an idiot if you think you’re not, but that’s okay. Because you know, you’re just gonna, you’re gonna believe it, you’re gonna believe, but you are wrong. So like, you have to learn how to work because your work works on you more than you work on it. So you have geography and you’re like, I’m never going to use this. Of course, you’re not, you’re never going to fucking use it. You’re never going to use history. You’re never going to use calculus, you’re going to use jack shit, but you will use your work ethic and the traits that you’ve developed. Right? That being said, Do you need school for that? No, absolutely not. I agree with you. But if that’s the only vehicle that you have to be able to build those character traits. And that doesn’t include your rec soccer team, right to do shit you don’t want to do to have to figure things out. That is the skill set that you’re acquiring. Same thing in college, you’re not going to you know feed women’s literature of the 1800 If you’re never going to use it, but you will learn how to work hard, and people sit down and be able to consistently move things forward for five hours, eight hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, be able to actually get things done. And it took me until I was 19. To figure that out, actually was pledging a fraternity at the time. And they forced us to we had to be out at the house or doing work right for all of the day. Like it was it was nine nine until like midnight, we had to be there. Right and I didn’t took like 15 hours a day. And then three hours a day we were allowed to go to study. And but I had to work during all three hours because if I only had those three hours, but what I realized when I only had those three hours was more work than I’d ever done before. And I started getting a head on I started reading ahead and chapters and doing homework ahead of time. And then my grades went through the roof available. And then once that process finished I realized how much time I had. And I was like man if I got a 385 this semester with just three hours a day of work. Cuz like, if I just worked from nine to nine, I would be unstoppable. And that was where I kind of made the pivot and realizing how much time we waste or how much time I was wasting just fucking around, just doing stupid shit. And just like, that’s when I decided I really wanted to be an adult, you know, it’s just and that happens for everyone at different times. Some people never get there. Some people just say children, some people, some people listen to this know their uncle who’s 45 and acts like a child, right? That no one respects that you don’t even respect, right? It’s just do you want to be that guy?
Huh? You know, yeah, you decide at some point. It’s like, well, I don’t know is my child Whatever, man, you’re no one cares.
Apple Crider
So for you when it comes to really getting stuff done and maximizing your time, do you focus more? Or do you place a higher emphasis on your environment, or just like your decision to work hard and you’re just focused on what you’re doing?
Alex Hormozi
I mean,
I think than there are like, there are basics of working hard, right? Like, there are studies that if you’re listening to music, you are not as productive. If you are put put a Netflix movie on and you’re trying to do your homework, it will literally take you three times. Why are you bothering to do this? Right? It’s just like it’s just stupid, since you’re not enjoying either. What’s the point? Right? So like to say that, like, I laughed, because like, it seems really basic to me. Like, I haven’t thought about my work environment, because it’s been assumed for such a long time that obviously it’s silent. Obviously, I have no interruptions. Obviously, my phone is shut off. Those are obvious things to me. But I guess one audience isn’t that like doesn’t do that. Then it might not be like no, I don’t instant message people. I’m not on Facebook Messenger. Oh, do you ever be like, I’m not doing this? I can’t think straight and neither can you.
Apple Crider
So that is assumed.
Alex Hormozi
Right beyond the environment, then? Yeah, I mean, it’s prioritizing the tasks that need to get done a lot of times the thing is, is if I’m talking to an audience that hasn’t started learning to work it then that’s gonna be different than somebody who already has a business. And I’m saying like, what you need to do is stop doing useless work. Because usually somebody who has a business, they have a degree of work ethic, they’ve learned some lessons. And so it’s like, how can we optimize this right? Rather than like going from zero to one ROI from one to two? That makes sense?
Apple Crider
Yeah, absolutely. So as far as like eliminating those tasks that are low value are worthless. What are some of the things that you see a lot of you’re wasting time on, especially like earlier on?
Alex Hormozi
I’m trying to think about how to answer the question for the audience that you have. Sure. The difficulty with giving someone an answer like this, is that the perspective that you need to have the perspective from which to make a judgement? So let me give you an example that may be relevant with a lady walks into a gym, right? And she says, I want to lose weight, and she talks to 10 trainers, but one trainer says can you cut out carbs so you guys need to cut calories. So the guy says you need to count your macros where the guy says you need to eat keto, whatever right.
Apple Crider
They will also sounds right.
Alex Hormozi
She does not have the perspective from which to make the judgment on who’s full of shit. She does not know. And so to the same degree, how do you know, as somebody who’s starting out what which of the things you are doing is worthwhile versus not? It’s difficult. And you honestly, it’s difficult to even listen to other people, because they probably don’t know either. Unless you have access to somebody who’s like, anything is better than nothing, some things are better than others, and nothing works forever, is one of the things I had earlier on in my life. And that applies for fitness that applies for business like, so. Anybody who’s ahead of you has done something that you do not have, well, you have to figure out is which thing they did not all of the things they did, right, because each of those 10 trainers or whatever, all of them are in shape. And what you have to figure out is what are the commonalities that they did to get there, and so if you have somebody who’s ahead of you, it might not be the fact that he wakes up at 4am Right, it might not be the fact that he pulls on items, it might not be it could be a sheet, whatever it might not be. The fact that they have a great idea might not be the fact that in great marketing, but one of those things is probably something that you can learn from. And then take one step forward. And that’s why in the beginning, you were going to suck for a very long time before you get good, right? And the pet like if you consider the path of success to be building a bridge, every every, every step of that bridge across the chasm is to get to your first dollar, right? And every one of those steps is something that doesn’t yield you anything, but you do get closer but you don’t actually see any material difference, right? And then finally, when you make your first dollar, making the second dollar happens, a meet up and so much faster than it took you to make the first one. Right. And so but it’s understanding and having that perspective that you are working on you and you’re acquiring a plethora of skills. If you let me pontificate on something, it means a lot to me. One of the concepts that we talk about our company, a lot of top talent stacking, right? It’s one of my favorite concepts to tell people who are starting out. What they want, is the ability to make it ready. They want to be able to make money, right? But the reason that the one course that you bought the one book that you read did not result in you making money is because it was one of many skills that you needed to acquire. And so it’s not just you buy the copywriting course, and then all of a sudden you make money. Now you have words on a page, cool. How do you design the page, and then you learn funnels design, right and page optimization, cool, but you’re still not making money because you need to learn how to place ads, right and get clicks. Okay, now you’re getting clicks to the page. Fantastic. What am I selling? What’s my offer? Right? And so you can continue to walk your way down this path until eventually, you saw all of them in the pipeline from beginning to end. Use your first hour But it’s just understanding that each one of those things is a talent that has to get stacked on top of each other. What’s even more interesting is that when you start out when you start stacking stacks, and so in the beginning, you might think I’m good at math, right? That might be something you’re on. It’s like, I’m good at reading. I’m good at whatever it is. You’re good at math. That’s kind of a skill. Not really. monetizable not yet. Right? Then you’re like, I’m gonna learn how to book you, right? That’s a monetizable skill. That’s one additional stack that you add on top. Then you go and you get your master’s in accountancy. Now you have something that’s a little bit more valuable, right? Then you get a specialization in taxes. Right now you’re helping people save money on taxes, that’s significant value to the right people, right, then you learn about insurance, but how you can use insurance vehicles to protect assets to invest, you start using that, right. And then you see where I’m going with this. And then you start learning whatever it is corporate strategy, like in terms of investor strategy, and you can see that this one person who has a single skill Knowing how to do math, the more stacks they have on top of it, you don’t get a one to one return. So it might be one, it’s like one plus one plus one equals 12. But with each additional skill, you get disproportionate amounts of value. Jay Z, you knew how to rap. That was a skill. But rapping didn’t make him money, rapping and learning how to promote himself made him money. Right now there’s lots of sub skills underneath of there. But then he learned how to make a label for himself and made even more money. Then he learned how to promote other people and made even more money. And so for each one of those additional skills, he was making significantly more money than just the amount that he had prior. And so most people acquire one or two and then wonder why they’re not making money when all of the returns are at the end. And for those of you who I think I think I read a research study that was like, the average kid in high school thinks they’ll be a millionaire by 25 which is like frightening.
Right is fighting right? It’s just Instagram. That’s okay. Because the world will smack you either wet doesn’t really matter. what you think. But if you learn the way the world does work, which is just about not how many how to encourage you, though, it’s not about how many miles, all the cars, but it’s how many miles you have on it. And the beauty is that if you start super young, you can get your reps in. Right? And so if you start selling when you’re 15, by the time you’re 25, you’re a veteran salesperson, like a really stud veteran, whereas some guys are jerking off in college, I forget what they want to do with their lives, and then they realize when they’re 27, and there’s done barhopping that they have no actual skills and then they start and then for them, they’re 3738 eight are significantly less impressive. They’re way more likely to get passed up. No one sees them as like like a player, right? Whereas you started when you’re super young, because you got your reps in but the reps still have to get made. Right You have to put your time into the bar either way.
Apple Crider
I’m curious when you started putting putting your I guess your business reps in because it sounds like this. This gym. I’m curious to hear more about about where that went, and then eventually how it transformed into into gym lunch.
Alex Hormozi
So
I’ll say the real reps happened when I signed the lease either. I mean, I was really fortunate that I didn’t know anything. And so because of that,
I had no preconceived notions about what I was supposed to do. And so I spent a disproportionate amount of time learning from people who had done who had been successful or more successful than me. And I didn’t know anyone in Huntington Beach, which is where my gym was, I was from Baltimore, Maryland, it was literally across the country like I didn’t know and so once the gym, you know, the time was over the weekend started or whatever. My phone didn’t ring, like no one wanted to hang out, like I didn’t know. And so I spent all my time reading about how to sell memberships, how to market how to sell all these types of things. And, and the biggest thing that I did was I would just go I would drive to other gyms and I would message them and say, Hey, can I Like just hanging out, see what you do. And I would pick up little things here and there, pick up little things. And I was and I would go there with like pen and paper. And I was just relentless. Just ask him all these questions. And I would try stuff, right? I can’t tell you many times that it amazes me. Someone asked me for advice for something, and then I’ll check in six months later, and they haven’t done. Don’t waste my time. Right. But I mean, I don’t even do that anymore. Because I don’t take any calls. But like, at earlier life, I would do that and get frustrated. But for those of you listening, like Don’t be that guy, like, you won’t know what works until you try it. Try it fails, it fails, and you learn it and it fails. And sometimes it’s bad that it succeeds. Because you don’t know why. Right? If you fail 20 times, you’ll know why something right, because your skeletons didn’t like I think, um, what’s his name? Charles Koch Koch Industries to do 100 10 billion year, his dad so I hope that your first business deals a failure because you’re gonna think you’re smarter than you are. And so it’s kind of like, in some ways, you kind of want someone to fail a little bit in the beginning because that’s how you learn You get better?
Apple Crider
Yeah. What were some of those those failures, those roadblocks that that you hit early on
Alex Hormozi
every day, man, I mean, there’s tons. I mean, I changed so many things so many times in terms of pricing, what my promotions are gonna be how I sold people.
How I build continuity, like, what I would do for fulfillment. So here, let me give a framework for everyone to think through their, like their potential business, right? You have five things, especially if it’s a service or information based business, which most people who are listening to this would do because you don’t have money, right? So you have to know how to generate leads of some sort, right? You have to know how to nurture leads, which for a phone, so it’d be like scheduling and getting to show for a digital sale, the nurturing them through email sequences that are pushing them to action, right, then you have to get them to convert which would be a sale of some sort, either that’s getting the car on the phone, or that’s buying on a page, right, then you have to know how to retain them. So if you have a recurring business model, that’s what it would be if you have a one time thing that it would be limited Right fulfillment of some sort, and keeping them if it’s if it’s recurring. And then the fifth is essentially how do you get them to buy more stuff? Right? It’s all of this. And so if you look at those five, then like, what are the early failures? Well, I marketed plenty of times and promotions that didn’t work right I ran ads that didn’t give me any ROI ran copy that didn’t work or images that didn’t get approved, right I pages that didn’t, that didn’t convert, right. And then I had I tried text only options and I tried the message only options and I tried double dialing and I tried whatever I could do to get people to schedule and then show up right I tried reminders night before in the morning up, I tried two days on five days on emails only text up like you, I try, like what are the failures I failed at? All? Right? It’s just you just keep going and you take one step closer. And the biggest thing is that people try things and they don’t give it enough time to work. And they also don’t track their stats don’t even know if it works to try to like shoot from the hip of like, I think the sequence works like it’s been 24 hours. How the fuck do you know and you don’t even have a baseline from your own. Right? So like what mistakes that I made You know, I got into partnerships really early that I shouldn’t have. That’s a big one. Tons of guys get into partnerships with a friend of theirs. Somebody either has to have a skill that you do not have, or money that you do have. And a skill that you do not have has to be a niche enough skill that you cannot acquire. Right? Well, my friends kind of better at selling, that’s not a skill, not at your age, you can learn how to sell, right? It has to be like, if he can code an entire website and build an app on his own and then you are taking the other half. Okay? Like there’s enough deep differentiated knowledge that you can make that argument me, but it’s still very hard. So most people that I see who are younger, I’m like, Don’t partner with them. Just learn the game. Be solely responsible. So you can’t blame anyone for your failures.
As you’ll blame each other. Yeah, but yeah.
Apple Crider
Now I clearly you did. You did some things right. I mean, you are one of like clickfunnels top success stories. You massively scaled Jim launch in under two years. So I’m curious to hear what you contribute that to, I mean, obviously, work ethic, we talked about that a lot, and making those decisions. But I mean, what sets you apart from all the other people who tried to scale
Alex Hormozi
our products was better.
I mean, the thing is our people like it’s easy to promise, right? Like every single information marketer in the world promises things. The only difference is the guys who actually fulfill our promises. That’s the only difference, right? And so when you fulfill your promises, and you solve the main pain, then then you grow. And then the next thing is that the skill set that it took you to make your first series of dollars, your first million, your first hundred million, whatever it is, is not the skill set that it takes to get to 10 4050 plus hundred like it doesn’t. It’s a different skill set. You have to learn how to operate a business and that’s not fun. Interesting, especially for entrepreneurs, rarely you have to learn how to like have one on ones and have group meetings and set project tasks and manage them. And like those are things that no one wants to do. Everyone wants to just build a new funnel build a new product. But if you think about it from a big picture, when you see these guys who have because I’m just saying this because you’re in that world,
who, like always are launching a new product, right?
Why was in your last product good enough that people told their friends about it and your business grew? and it continued to grow? Right? Why wasn’t it? Right now part of that subproblems just being an information based business information businesses are very high margin, but they’re not very sellable, or there’s no enterprise value, right? Yeah. On the flip side, like a software business is something that has tremendous amounts of enterprise value, lots of lots of margin, but they typically run at a loss and then you make less your money on the actual sale of the business itself. Information businesses, you make zero money on the business sale itself and you make your money while you’re running the business. So an information business is a great place to start. But it’s not placed that long term you want to set it is a good place to get money, because it’s really high margin and very simple to do. It doesn’t take any money to start, you just have to be good at something. And that’s the piece that most people miss. They’re actually not good at the thing. They’re trying to say that most people suck at most things, including the things they think they’re good at. And so that’s that’s a big problem, right? I’m a Facebook expert. No, you’re not. Right, you learn how to place an F Do you really think that makes you an expert? No. Which is why you guys get mediocre results, which is why no one refers, which is why you are mediocre, right? Like I need a new funnel. It’s like no, you need to be better at the thing. Right? Like our gyms on average increase by 240,000 a year on average, no one releases their averages. They have five testimonials from 1000 fucking clients, right? My average gym goes up by 240,000 a year
right. So then
So the reason we made more money than everyone else is because we made other people more money than everyone else.
And that’s really what it comes down to. Right? Like we’ve done 60 million in revenue in the last 24 months. And if you feel think about how much money we made our clients in that same period of time, if you were to just add the additional incremental revenue, which be half a million, by times 2000 a billion dollars of revenue that we generate. So we got 6%, right, of the money that we were able to generate, which you could, you could argue was actually a small percentage of what we were able to do. I would argue that a lot of people were able to capture more, right, and that was because the vehicle that we use was an information base, which is not the best fit time origin makes a ton of profit, but long term, and that’s that’s where you can have short term. When I started the business, the intention was to make a shitload of money. Right, that was the goal. As I’ve gotten, as I’ve already stated, Almost all of our lifetime goals and we’ve hit all the big money that we want, but it’s like I want to build something that has enterprise value, but it has value independent of information, which is not, which is a very commoditized thing that has to constantly refresh.
Apple Crider
with you on that man. One thing that I’m curious about as well, is your decision to not become like a social media guru. I mean, a lot. A lot of guys who are selling information products are all over social media all the time talking about how great they are. And that’s, that’s not what you do. So when when did you make that decision that you weren’t going to basically be one of those those guys?
Alex Hormozi
Um, it’s just it was a dollars and cents thing. I don’t think it makes you more money.
I mean, it didn’t make me more money. So for looking at the five things that I talked about, does it increase the amount of leads I get? No, I mean, No, it doesn’t. Compared to me just spending $1,000 in ads, not even close, right. So it’s just the You know, I’ve had a ton of guys in this space who are like, dude, you need to have a fine, I just don’t give a shit. You know? Like, if you look at there’s so many billionaire, like if you look at Reed Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, kind of like 2000 followers, right? Like the guys who were doing it. Warren Buffett does I mean, maybe he does. I don’t think that is your right to the mat. It’s the point like, it’s, you get what I’m saying here, like, what was the decision? It didn’t make me more money. And so some people are like, what about your brand? Like? Some people want to be famous and some people want to be rich, and there’s a difference and there’s nothing wrong with either one of them. The problem is when you when you mistake one for the other, let me say something for your crowd.
Apple Crider
A lot of people think that they need to gain a following to make money.
Alex Hormozi
When in reality when this whole game started, people made money and then gathered a following for making money. The thing is, is that when you only learn how to gain a following you don’t know or you don’t learn how to run a business or make money. You just learn how to get people’s attention and like shake your ass, like better. And so I have I got tons of fitness people messaged me, they got a million followers. They’re like, dude, like, I really need help, like, making money. I know how if I had a million followers, what I would do tomorrow is make more money. Right? Because I have acquired that skill. They never did it. So they thought that, I mean, sure, push everyone to a $37 ebook. When you get 1000 clicks a day, you’ll get someone, right. But there’s so many better ways to monetize that audience that they just don’t know any better because they’ve acquired the skill. And so most people have it flipped. They want to learn they want to get the followers for their ego, but they don’t learn the game. Right in the game, at least for me is all about.
Apple Crider
man that was that right? There was like
a nugget that I think will really impact especially this young audience, man. I think a lot of people just just get confused about that distinction. Yep. between making money and being famous, and think that those things are one in the same when in reality,
Alex Hormozi
it’s not the case you look at like mega pop stars, right? Like, if you look at like net worth of I mean, some of the huge pop stars that are out there, it’s like 100 million hundred and 50 million, like, go sell a piece of software for 150. They don’t mean like go sell for half a billion. Like, there’s so many more Ted like errors. Yeah, there are like pops up. But it’s a question of like, do you actually like do you think you want that? Or do you want that? And the reality is that most people listen to this are not good. Right? Most people listening to this are not good enough to have a following. And so instead, like if I could wish something for people, I would say I want you to do two years of door to door sales. If you do that, you learn how to sell shit. If you know how to sell shit. You will never go hungry and you’ll be able to usually make as much money as you want in your life. And the only thing that dictates what how much money salesperson makes because everyone is always selling, right? Somewhere if they are, is how expensive the thing you are selling is. So do you want to sell Windex door to door? You make some money, right? You’ll make you make 5060 grand a year. Your hustle, right? Do you want to sell cars? More money ready to make 250? You know if you’re if you’re really, really hustle, do you want to sell houses? Do you wanna sell apartment buildings? Do I sell skyscrapers? Right? Do you wanna sell companies? Like, the only thing that changes the amount of time that it takes to sell? But a lot of times it’s still conversation, right? The only thing that changes is the dollar sign and the thing that you were selling, and so then you make more money, right? And you learn more about like, and most people end up selling really cheap shit in high volume, getting the reps in, and then learning how to sell and moving up. And I don’t know because I think one of the questions that I get from you or people when they ask is like How are you so confident are you so certain x y&z it’s like you have to outwork yourself down. Like there’s no, there’s no like, there’s not like motivation manifest. So you look in the mirror like I am confident, I am powerful. And you don’t say that it doesn’t matter. Because you know, it’s not true, right? You’re not otherwise you wouldn’t be saying shoot yourself in the mirror look like an idiot. Right? Maybe it works for some people, that wouldn’t work from it. Right? But I do know that if I did a year of door to door sales, and I stepped on the sales floor of a new place, and there’s 10 of us and they’re like, Look to your left look to your right, one of you guys can be gone. Like it’s y’all. I just did door to door sales for you’re like, this is fucking nothing. And they’re like, How are you so certain? Right? How are you? So right. It’s just because not because what I’m about to do, because what I’ve done, right? And so that’s where that reps comes in. Most people just don’t do anything. They just sit there and they listen to stuff and it’s like, start, you know,
Apple Crider
yeah, I mean it. Yeah, it’s starting because like you said, Man, people are just listening. They’re just watching. They’re not doing anything. They’re sitting on the sidelines.
Alex Hormozi
Most people are they’re afraid because They think their friends will make fun of Homer.
Yeah. And they will cares, right? Because they’re not going to do shit either. Okay. And the thing is, is on some level, they respect you for doing something. Right. They respect you for having balls.
And they’ll try knock you down because they don’t have it. But they don’t actually disrespect it.
You know, you own a car and they don’t have one. It’s like, well, exactly.
Apple Crider
Well, Alex, man, you’ve been dropping so much value on the podcast. I’m extremely grateful for that. I have a couple quick questions. I like to ask all my guests before we wrap up. You ready for those?
Alex Hormozi
Let’s do it
Apple Crider
Sick, first of which is what is something that genuinely has you excited right now.
Alex Hormozi
We have some software that’s rolling out in the next six weeks that’s really big for us. It’s gonna automate a big part of the business for them. It’ll decrease their cost decrease their run pretty sweet. Sweet. That’s what has He actually said,
Apple Crider
I’ll stay tuned. Do you have any habits that have served you particularly well, either in your life or your business?
Alex Hormozi
Yeah, I’ll give you the example earlier about waking up before him, that might not be the thing. But for me it off the top. When I wake up before every day, I can work for six hours before anyone ever bothers me. And so when those first six hours I can get all of my major work done, I can push the big boulders forward, I can move things forward that that need to get done before like the the day to day things, you know, come up. So for especially, you know, kids are in high school, most whatever, if you have things that are not under your control, it’s like you have other hours in the day to like wake up earlier, do shit or go to bed later because that seems to be easier. When you’re like do it doesn’t really matter.
Apple Crider
What’s something that you feel is overhyped right now?
Alex Hormozi
What is override right now.
Apple Crider
Like as a as an opportunity or opportunity, technology, just something that you feel is is
In blown up to big
Alex Hormozi
you know, I don’t actually pay attention to a lot of stuff.
I just, I’m just in our thing right now. So when we think about our business and how we manage customers, I don’t.
Yeah, I really don’t think I couldn’t tell you something. Right. That’s a fair answer. That’s a fair answer. Building a following. You know, that maybe that’s that’s, yeah, that’s kind of overhyped, I think just without following. Yeah, fair enough.
Apple Crider
Alex working here, where can our listeners go if they want to follow up with you learn more about what you’re doing over a gym launch and just learn more about the business?
Alex Hormozi
Honestly, the best thing you do is go to Alex’s book calm. It says a step by step.
blueprint on how to build a massively profitable gym. 95% of that book, is how to sell and how to fulfill a service. And so 5% of it is related to a gym. 95% of is how to run a business. I put what I charge $100,000 for our coaching into that book, and it’s free. So you should buy it. Well, it’s free, it’s free plus shipping and return nine bucks. Get your parents to give you the numbers. Um, read it for real, it will give you a holistic understanding of lead generation lead nurtures, how to get people’s schedule, how to get them to show for appointments, how to walk through those first conversations that you don’t know, like, right now, if you’ve never sold before you even know what that means, right? It’s like, what’s the favorite questions that I can get somebody give me money as you have to do in a way that doesn’t just say like, please give me money. I promise I’m gonna do everything. Like that’s not. That’s just weird, right? And so there’s frameworks for this from other people who’ve already done it before that you can just follow and learn and not have to like, you don’t have to fail as much.
So there’s that
stuff. So that’s Alex’s book.com.
Apple Crider
All right. I’ll link that up in the show notes for our listeners as well. Alex has been an absolute pleasure, man, extremely grateful for your time. Any last question? parting thoughts, words wisdom or anything you want to leave the listener with here today?
Alex Hormozi
Yeah, there are no rules. There’s no law that says you can’t do anything. Like there’s literally none. Like besides actually getting arrested, you can pretty much do whatever you want. So all the things that you put on yourself are usually just your own.
Apple Crider
That’s empowering man. Let’s get after it. I appreciate you Alex. It’s been a pleasure. Thanks, man.
Well, there we go. Another episode of young smart money in the books. Glad you guys were here to spend it with us and really soak up as much value as possible from the guests of the day. Now, if you guys haven’t already left us a review on iTunes. I know I said at the end of every single episode, but I really do love those reviews. We’ve got nearly 200 at this point, which is absolutely amazing. It’s crazy to see that we’re reaching hundreds of thousands of people with the podcast and some of you guys have actually chosen to go out of your way. Take five seconds and ready to serve you means the absolute world to me. And again, if you guys don’t know where to find the review sections, A lot of us hit me up and you’re like, I want to write your review. I love young, smart money so much. But I don’t want to write the review. You just scroll all the way down, you go to young storm and you scroll all the way down past all the episodes past nearly 200 episodes. And you finally write a review section, you leave me all of your thoughts, all of your genuine, heartfelt comments about the show, I read them all and I just them all, they get me going every single day. So I really appreciate that. And the last thing that I’m gonna say to you guys, before we wrap up here is I want you guys to take action, okay? You just spent nearly an hour, maybe more than an hour consuming this content. And I want you guys to take action, okay? I really encourage you to while you’re going to the show, be mindful, take notes, really soak in the information. Don’t just be there and let the information flow through you like let it soak into who you are. And really, really find something find one thing that you can take away from this episode that you go out there and actually apply right now in your day today. Okay, I want you guys to stop listening for the podcast for the next little bit here, maybe the next 15 minutes and just think about how you can start to take action Okay, think about one thing that somebody said in this podcast today, you can apply it to your own life and go out there and implement it. Okay, and then let me know how it went because, guys, I had so many people just listening to content, soaking up content all day long, but they never do anything with it. Okay, so I want you guys, I don’t want that to be you. I want you to be the person who actually takes action. So go out there, take some action. Let me know how it goes. And I will see you in the next episode.
