The Ultimate Persuasion Technique To Make More Sales | Ed Mylett

22:47I think it's always going to be. I think being Cambodian is part of your story. But I don't come from that kind of a community, but I have many friends who do, especially the athlete guys, especially, by the way, some of them from Long Beach. Long Beach Poly is like one of the great football, basketball schools in the country, right? And I think that sometimes a lot of the people that grow up in those communities, at least my sense is, their actual family isn't intact all the time. And so there's almost a family relationship to the community. Like they're all rooting for you. Is that true? I know exactly what you're talking about.

23:18Yeah. Yeah. No, I can relate for sure. I think there's a lot of people out there that are just like literally proud and rooting for you all the time. There's people you see every day that I used to skate with or just hang out with like on the streets. Like they almost become family just because our actual family is working or doing something to put food on the table, you know? And I think that's part of the success of your brand. I think that the great brands now, and we're going to get into that in a minute, they're not just communities or cultures. They're almost like a family of people that all sort of support the same culture, the same way of thinking, the same thought processes.

23:49I think that's what you have, brother. Yeah, 100%. I do. I think it's almost like a family. I don't think it's a, I think brand is like minimizes what it is. Like the people I know that wear your stuff, like they're proud of it. Like a dude you grew up with. Like they're, they, it's not like, Hey, I, when I meet guys at the gym that wear your stuff, they're aware they're wearing it. Like once a while people walk up to me like, Hey, nice hat. I'm wearing some Clover hat. I'm like, is that what I'm wearing? You know, it's nothing to me. Right. But when guys wear your stuff, I'm like, Hey, I'm about to interview that dude.

24:15They're like, oh, bro. Like, they go right into it. They know they're wearing it. They're proud they're wearing it. Yeah, yeah. It's like a family brand. It's like, and by the way, that's huge in business. That's crazy. Okay, so let's get into it. Bally's, you end up eventually, how do you end up getting to where you have, you like start a store or something, don't you? Yeah, so after Bally's, obviously, I realized I was making good money, but I'm like, dude, I can make a little bit more if I left and, you know, went into private trading. Private personal trading. Private personal trading, yeah.

24:43So running my own business, training multiple clients at one time, running boot camps, maximizing my time and money. So I learned that actually looking up Bedros. Bedros, the boot camp idea. Exactly. His business model and all that stuff. So this was before he even knew who the fuck I was. So I took that model and literally fucking nailed it to the T. I was in college making way more fucking money than anybody I knew around me. And I was like, fuck, what am I doing? you know yeah so i mean i just kind of was doing it for my parents at the time yep so i stayed stayed doing that and then this random opportunity came up with my buddy bruce soth he owned this t-shirt store in in long beach off of molino anaheim okay not not a good area by the way yeah not again it's fucked up over there and it's still fucked yep um he still owns it it's pretty good yep or he he does pretty well but it was like a shop that offered just like five or ten dollar like blank t-shirts or you'd make like custom one-off shirts you know that people go in and buy and sell like so retail yeah retail store okay um and at the time he gave me this offer to like buy into it i was like all right sure so you're entrepreneurial then okay so you buy into a t-shirt store in a pretty rough area where you grew up yeah because i've seen them but people would just see like that's a rough area i've seen the money because and over there in the hood what people do every morning this is a trip every morning uh they would go in our regular customers and buy a fucking a brand new white t-shirt every morning they don't wash it so this is maybe something new you learn they don't wash their it's their pro 5 t-shirts okay just buy a new one every day every day and throw it out yeah buy another on the next day so you have like regular traffic like someone's going to a starbucks to buy a cup of coffee they're buying a white t-shirt from you yep i never knew that yeah it's crazy okay so weird as shit when i tell people i'm like yeah no that's why when you see like you know some some like gay main views that wear a white t-shirt They'll still have the crease just from the packet.

26:35I was going to sound stupid. I'm like, how is this guy such a beautiful shirt every freaking time? So that's why. It's a brand new shirt that's worn once. It's a brand new shirt. Exactly. They'll just open it. Okay. So that's why that location works. That's why it's actually a pretty damn good location. I saw it all the time. I was like, cool. And you knew that because you grew up in it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay. I'm learning a lot here. Okay. So then with that, I obtained the T-shirt store with my buddy Bruce. And then I wanted to do this whole Long Beach brand as well in there. I was like, I think I can sell some cool fucking Long Beach logo stuff.

27:03Because Long Beach has a lot of pride. People within the city like to rock Long Beach. So I started making the designs and created this LB clothing brand. And it took off in the store. People would just come in. Inside the store. Inside the store, yeah. And I obviously started marketing it on Facebook and MySpace at the time. There was no Instagram yet. So you were already dabbling in the social media deal, which is huge to your success now, which we'll get to. But okay, so now you're, were your training clients wearing this stuff or this was like a local brand thing? Into what stuff? So in your store, the shirt you were selling in your store that you created, right?

27:39Was that something the people you trained wore or like local dudes? Just local dudes. Yeah, local Long Beach dudes. Okay. Yeah, but then over time, when I was running my private training business, I had all this graphic design skills. I had all these other like video editing skills, photography skills. I had my training business as well. I was like, okay, I'm going to design some stuff for my clients. What can I, what's a catchy slogan? Okay. I was like, all right, LiveFit. You're kidding me. Yep, so I fucking designed. Are you serious? Yeah, this is how I started. LiveFit started for the people you were training?

28:08Yep, I'm on my clients. So I had RP Fitness, and then my slogan was LiveFit. So I just made this collection of like a t-shirt design and a black zip-up hoodie that we still sell today. that were the first, I guess, line that was offered to my clients first. So then they started wearing it. And then at the time, there was only, what, Facebook? Yeah. So I was like, all right, this is fucking cool. Let me film this. You know, when we're doing, like, boot camps or group training, because everyone's having fun and everyone's wearing the same shirts, this and that. And not only did I post it, but because they were my clients that were part of the community or my training business, they wanted to post it, too, because they were wearing the shirts.

28:51like they wanted to show off to their friends like look what i'm a part of so it just kind of went in viral in the local community and then it just snowballed from there because then people were like okay i'm not training with you but i want that shirt how do i get it you're kidding me yeah so then it kind of just what was this what year are you talking about probably 2011 okay so you're like all this stuff we see today that everybody does is acceptable which is film their brand make it fun you did before most everybody was doing it way back what makes you think how How did you know to do that?

29:18I don't know, I just thought that shit was cool. You thought it was cool? You kidding me? I was like, hey man, this shit's tight. I want to fucking, let's film it, you know? You know that that's genius, right? Like that's, no, no, no, not I guess. I didn't know that. Yeah. I was always like a marketing person. Yeah, you are. Everything, if you wanted to look at my brand or whatever I'm about, I wanted to make it look, as cliche as it sounds, I wanted to make it look perfect or make it look cool, you know? So how do I do that? I think I'm gonna film this, you know? Oh my gosh. Show my friends what I'm doing, you know?

29:47that I'm, you know. And it went a little bit viral through their posts and them wanting it. Then people who don't train with you want a little piece. So you have that going on the sort of viral social media virtual world. And you have this physical store that you're selling local stuff to as well. Right. Tell them the, um, tell them real quick, like, cause I didn't know this and you would get business spikes at the store through tragedy almost. Right. Like, And I want people to understand this because there's all these brands that are massive that are what I don't know the right word for it, but I'll just call it like urban-driven or city-driven or culturally-driven brands, right, that a lot of people don't understand, whether that be even like music like Jay-Z or we were talking about Dame and John earlier with FUBU or what was Russell Simmons' brand, Baby Fat, right, or these other brands.

30:39So you would have a spike in business in your store and in your shirt when what type of stuff would take place? When murders would happen. When murders would happen. Why? Like I said, there's heavy gang activity. So one of the things we did too were just one-off custom shirts. And a lot of that was rest in peace or in loving memory. Because in gang culture, if someone dies, what happens usually? They retaliate or whatnot. They retaliate, but they also make some, I didn't know this, there's like rest in peace shirts. Yeah, they'll make rest in peace shirts just for the lost ones, the loved ones, you know?

31:10So you would hear like there's noise like someone was killed, there's gonna be retaliation and you'd literally be thinking business is gonna spike. Yeah, me and my buddy Bruce were like, dude, we're gonna be busy in the next couple days, man, because this person got smoked, they came in, made a bunch of shirts, but we know this other person has a green light on them and we're like, fuck, alright, he's about to die and then sure enough, it sucks, but he dies like a week later. and it's just that, you know, that cycle of bubble, dude. That's amazing to me. And so you, what an unreal story, by the way.

31:42So I'm going to carry, I don't know this. So you have this store, you got your, it's interesting, you got all these things going. So you're training, you got this culture going where now LiveFit's starting. You got the store. Guys are coming and buying their shirts every single day. Plus someone dies business spikes because you're making those shirts. Plus your normal brand that's local. Plus the other stuff you sell. Like, you ever get, I don't know, I always think about this. I go into, when I'm driving home from L.A. back here, right? Or when I was even a kid, I'd go out and play baseball at Long Beach State.

32:11I'd go to a game there, or I'd go to, or even Cal State L.A. You know, you drive back from there, you go get gas at a gas station. You grew up in Diamond Bar, where I grew up. It's like, hey, man, this is a rough gas station. This is a rough, I'm more careful, right? Like, I go into where you grew up. And did you ever get robbed? Yeah, actually, when I was, he'll rob you. They don't care what fucking age you're at. I was, I think, 13, 14. It was on 11th and Temple. It's funny you ask me. I was with probably 12 of my friends just hanging out in front of my buddy's house. These two Asian guys, they're Cambodian as well.

32:45Because there's two gangs in Long Beach, two Cambodian gangs. And they beef with each other, too. Okay. Still to this day? Yeah, still to this day. There was these two gang members. They walked by, and they looked at me. They were a little older. And I was like, that's kind of weird. You know? How the fuck did they look? And they walked to the end of the block and they decided to walk back. I was wearing this gold Buddha necklace I didn't know at the time, you know, my mom gave it to me and then your mom gave it to you Yeah, and then these two guys came up and then one of them the second time to walk back He took a knife out put on my neck He snatched it and all my friends were just like we kind of just knew we're like fuck our fuck we do You know, yeah, I even call my friend that was in in that gang, too I was like hey man, can you get my fucking necklace back?

33:23My mom's gonna fucking kill me, you know, mm-hmm She's gonna beat my ass cuz that's just what yeah, if you get jacked, they're gonna get mad at you yes but they're like nah dude i can't if they're just doing that that's just part of the work i was like did you ever get it back no i never then it was funny because when i went back home i guess i never said anything to my mom dude this is weird i never talk about this um she never asked where the necklace was and it was years later i was like hey mom remember what i thought she's like i knew you got robbed i was like are you serious yeah because she's i was like how you know she's like she's just new i guess i was too quiet or something you know but your mom but we're gonna get to live fit now but your mom's like a central piece of your life huh yeah no for sure you talk about your mom a lot why like what what why is that she was probably like the only person that now that i realize when i'm older yeah she gave me everything i wanted even though we didn't have the fucking funds for it or the means for it if i wanted new skate shoes she would buy it she'd find a way when i was young i didn't know what the fuck housing was i didn't know what section i didn't know what food stamps was i knew you buy this fucking food and this greenbacks you buy other shit that's what my mom said you know so but i didn't know i thought i was fucking part of life right everybody had that yeah so and then everything i wanted skate shoes uh fucking wheels whatever it was i was like mom i'd have to fucking have it i was that dickhead kid you know i was like i fucking have to have this shit right now i'm fucking not cool whatever you know yeah so she'd fucking make it happen she found a way you know so now i realize like fuck dude i'll go to beat my ass if i was looking yeah you know what's amazing that y 'all don't know is that now that live fits bill one of the first things you do when you got money was you took care of your mom retired retired my mom yeah now she doesn't have to work nothing yeah got in her spot she's chilling that makes me that's that's my favorite part of your whole all the wealth you're gonna make man all the cars you already have you're gonna sell live fit for a couple hundred million someday or whatever you're gonna do my favorite thing about it is that the first thing you did when you made some money she took care of your mom yeah i got and that's everyone watching this like it's one of their dreams like wouldn't you love to take care of your mom all the stuff he went through being robbed as a kid I'm pretty sure your store probably I don't know did your store ever get robbed or almost robbed try to get robbed yeah try to get robbed at one time we're talking about with uh with on Andy's thing man what happened what happened there I don't know about that some guy tried to buy a t-shirt with a fake five dollar bill this Mexican dude okay and he was just from a gang that just didn't like Asian people okay so I was like fuck so he comes into your store with a fake five dollar bill five tries to buy it and I'm like dude I can't I can't sell you this he's like why because I'm a donkey I'm like no dude because this is a fucking fake$5 bill.

35:51I think he was all drugged up. He was like, I'm going to come back and fucking kill all you guys, kill all the fucking nips. That's what they call us, nips. And then I was like, fuck, I knew he was serious. I'm like, all right, man, fuck this shit. Oh, my gosh. So then my buddy, we had a shotgun. In the store. In the store, yeah. He had a shotgun and a Glock. But we fucking had, we loaded the shotgun, cocked it back, and just had the safety on. That's how fucking scary the shit was. And my friend Bruce was like, if this fool comes back, just point that shit that way. You don't have to aim. Just fucking point and shoot.

36:18it'll fucking blow the whole fucking window off. I was like, oh, fuck. Were you scared? I was scared. I was fucking about to shit my pants. But I was ready. That's the thing. I was fucking ready, dude. I was like, all right, this will come back. The whole day you're going to ever do the walk through the door. You literally have a gun right next to you. Under the keyboard. Just get this, everybody. We're going to segue now into where he is now. But just so you get this. And I'm not exaggerating when I say this. On some level, I am, and I'm not. What's happened now is the modern-day Nike. if the modern-day Nike came from this.

36:51Do you understand that? Like, when you go Google him or you research him, it's the modern-day Nike. It's like you're – and by the way, I think you're more viral and innovative and creative and have a more loyal following than them. So you're talking about somebody who grew up in a band skating. He drops out of Long Beach State, just so you know. I mean, like, pretty close to graduating. You probably could have graduated if you went, like, what, six more months or something probably, right? He leaves Miami State. He's in a store where he's getting robbed with fake$5 bills. His business would spike initially when people were killed, right?

37:28And he ends up building this modern-day massive brand. So just think about what you're capable of when this man's done this. And there's this combination of unique things you've built. You've got this artistic. I think everyone who wins in business takes advantage of some birth blessing and then builds skills after it. So like for you, my analysis is you were born with a birth blessing of artistry, of creativity, right? Like skating's an art to me. I skated too. So skating's an art. Playing in a band is an art. Creating these designs you've created is an art. I think at your heart you're an artist.

38:03But that's not enough. Then you learned how to close. Then you got some mentoring. Then you learned to be an entrepreneur, which you already had that kind of desire because you come from nothing. So you want to make money, right? Like scarcity, I want more of this. World-class mom who sows belief into you and love all the time. Like just loving a child like you were loved by your mom gives you confidence. Like even as I say that, just so you know, badass tattoo guy, your face just changed, right? When I talk about how much your mom loves you, right? Like that's the story of your life and you're engaged in this beautiful woman you're going to marry.

38:39The central figure of your life till this moment is your mom. She's the one. If I turn the pages of the book of your life, it's your mom, right? And so I love that, bro. And your mother went from, like, I've read about, like, literally no food, eating, like, anything she could find to eat, right? Like, is that not true? Yeah. Your mother would, like, what would she do, like, to eat? I remember the story, because I asked her. I remember her mom, my grandma, during when they were at the labor camps. Yes. Because they only get fed one time or twice. they would try to get they see a fucking lizard and she would snag it and fucking like kill it and put it in their pocket and then later distribute it to the rest of the kids later just so they can eat.

39:19I've heard that. Knowing though that if they did get caught execution right away but it's like fucking eat or fucking you know survive every day. Isn't it amazing that your mother that bro like No it's fucking trippy dude. And her son becomes this like I just like I hope people listen to this are like, if this is possible, what's possible for me or my children, right? Like, or my future, like your past, your, your upbringing, your, the tragedies you've gone through, they don't define you. Like, look what this man's become. Very short intermission here, folks. I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far.

39:57Don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Now onto our next guest. Welcome back, everybody. This person sitting across from me has been on the show before. You guys all went nuts when he was on. But I got to tell you, he's probably the person whose content I share the most on the planet because I think it's that good. I really, really like a lot of people in the business space. I admire and listen to very few. And he has risen up the list for me of the people that I admire and I listen to the most because his content is so good, his message is so good, because it's based in actual results and actual experience.

40:46My guest today is Alex Hermozzi. Welcome back, brother. Thank you for having me and such a gracious introduction. Just to apologize ahead of time to the audience, there's no way I will live up to that, but I'll do my absolute hardest. I'll try my hardest. He will. 15 minutes in, he will have exceeded it. By the way, he's got a new book out called 100 Million Dollar Leads, how to get strangers to want to buy your stuff. And I think it's the book launch. I told you this off camera. I've heard the most about ever. He had a few people participate in it. How many did you have? Tell them. Yeah, we had 500 ,000 people who signed up for the event.

41:21We had just under 200 ,000 who clicked to join live. The moment we launched, it was wild. It was a whole city. And I said to him, I said, well, how'd you do it? He goes, actually, I did the stuff in the book. Give us a couple specifics of what that means. I'm going to give a little bit more context, and I'll give the better answer. So$100 million offers, which was my first book, was an offer about making a proposition to somebody that they would say yes to. So how to make offers so good people feel stupid saying no. And the first question that you need to answer when you're an entrepreneur is, what do I sell?

41:46And so you make an offer. And that's why that was the first book. And so the offer book itself was what I would consider a meta book, as in it both, the goal was that I demonstrate the concept while also with the book, while also teaching about it in the book. And so the book itself, I permitted for$1.99 and it came with a course that most people charge$5 ,000 for. And I gave that away for free and did no paid advertising whatsoever. And it continues to sell 25 ,000, 30 ,000 copies a month this month, obviously way more than that because the launch and whatnot, but, uh, but it does more every month than it did the month before.

42:20And it's still top 102 years later. Now the next book answers the next question. So once you have something to sell, then you're like, well, who do I sell it to? Yeah. As you need leads. And so that was why the second book is a hundred million leads. And so leads, I mean, a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but most people agree that they're the first thing that you need to have to get new customers. And so the thing that creates a lead, and when I was trying to go through this book, I was like, what is a lead? And so I had a buddy of mine asked me that question and I stumbled for, I was like, a lead.

42:49And he was like, no, what's a lead? And so I was like, it's someone that you get name, phone number, email address. And he's like, okay, if someone follows you on Instagram and you can message them, are they a lead? I was like, well, yeah, I guess they would be a lead. He's like, okay, well, if I subscribe to YouTube, am I a lead then? I was like, no, I guess not. It wouldn't be because I can't contact you in any way. And so we started going through all these things. If I knock on someone's door, are they a lead? And so we started going through it. And so we come up with a lead is a person you can contact.

43:20Now from there, you're like, well, there's a lot of people I can contact, which then gave me the conclusion that what people say they want is leads, but what they really want are engaged leads, which is a person you can contact, comma, who's shown interested in the stuff you sell. So would you call it qualified lead? That'd be the next level. Okay. So yeah, if you're looking on the lead continuum, you've got unengaged lead, engaged lead, a qualified lead, and then, yeah, and then you go into customer and whatnot. And so, so then the question is, how do you go from an unengaged lead to an engaged lead?

43:46And that one, that one flip just from there to there is the entire book. After that point where if someone raises their hand and says, I'm interested in your stuff, that is where the book ends. And so I wanted to show people how to get strangers to want to buy their stuff, not to buy it because that would be sales, but how to want to buy their stuff. And so in going through this, um, we made two, four boxes and this took a hundred iterations to get here last night. It's awesome. It was really hard. It like as crazy as it sounds, because I came into it with a lot of the preconceived. I was like, what about earned media?

44:15What about owned me? Like I had all these, and I had to deconstruct everything into simply, you can talk to people one-on-one and you can talk to people one-to-many. And there are people who know who you are before you talk to them. And there are people who don't. And those are the, those are the four variables. So if you're one-to-one to friendlies, that's a warm reach out. If you're one-to-one to strangers, it's a cold reach out. If you're one-to-many to friends, it's when you post content, it's your audience who knows you. And if you're doing one-to-many to people who don't know you, it's paid ads.

44:42Gosh, that's good. Okay. And so those are the only four ways that a person can let other people know about stuff, anything at all. Like if a girl is like, I just slept with six guys, she's advertising what she did. She let people know about it. Right. And so advertising is the process of making known. That's how we define it. And so then you're like, well, if those are the only four things that I can do to let other people know about stuff, are those the only four ways to advertise? And so the answer is kind of like, yes and no, because the other four are what I call lead getters. And so lead getters are people who let other people know on your behalf.

45:13And so they are where you get the greatest amount of leverage in advertising. Because for example, if I were to say, okay, I'm going to hire a recruiter who brings me affiliates every month. And so I hire one person. So I do whatever amount of work it takes me to hire one person. And then I go and I sip my ties on the beach, which we know that's not true, but just for the example. Now that person works every hour of every day, bringing affiliates in. And then those affiliates, then either they do one of the core four, they reach out to their friends, they reach out to strangers, they post content, or they make ads to their audience to tell them about my stuff.

45:47For money, free stuff, or both. That's the incentive. And so that is an example of a lead getter and how one day's work might create zillions of dollars on the backend by just having leverage, getting more for what I put in. And so there are four. The first is customers. So you do the core four. Right. I was going to ask you. Yeah, you do the core four to get a customer. Now that customer can then do the core four again to get you other customers. Do you feel that there's a priority among others? In other words, when you were saying it, I'm like, customer might be the best one. Oh, yeah, for sure.

46:16The reason I would say customer is more important isn't as much about the customer, but about what would make a customer want to refer is typically an exceptional product. And so if you have a better product, like you can incentivize any affiliate. Better product or better experience. Right, exactly. So I'll quickly go through the four lead getters, and then I'll explain the whole cycle in total. So you have customers, you have affiliates, which I talked about just a second ago, which looks like a customer referral, but it's a little different because it's another business who refers their customers to you.

46:43You've got agencies who can do the core for on your behalf. They can run as, they can post content, they can do outreach all for you because there are agencies who do all those things. And then you have employees. So like I didn't, I don't make my content. I have a team of people who make content for me. And so you can see how the first four things are the only things a human can do to let other people know about stuff, to advertise. The other four are the people you get from advertising who can then do the advertising on your behalf. And so the long-winded answer for like how did I get 500 ,000 people there is that I purposefully took the 24 months leading up to that.

47:17Because once offers launched, everything was about leads. So I knew that. The audience didn't know that. But everything that I was doing was knowing that in 24 months I was going to have my next book come out. And so I wanted to use every tactic or method in the book to advertise, to advertise the book. So that's the whole meta concept. The first one was I had to make a meta offer. Like the book itself was an amazing offer. So good people were so stupid and saying no. And then$100 million leads, I wanted to get as many strangers to want to buy my stuff using warm outreach, cold outreach, posting content, running paid ads, getting customer referrals, affiliates, agencies, and employees.

47:53So the launch itself is validation of the book itself. Yes. Keep going. And so the thing that always grinds my gears, and I think what I've strived really hard to do with the content that I make, et cetera, is that I always want the proof to be undeniable. And so I started the presentation for the book launch with this little picture of a book that says how to market a book, and it has 14 reviews on Amazon. And whoever wrote this book, I hope I'm not just destroying you. That's not my goal. I blacked out the name. I don't know who it is. but I don't need to read the book because I already have evidence that the person doesn't know how to market a book because if they knew how to market a book, they wouldn't have 14 reviews.

48:29So like I have real world evidence that the contents of the book are irrelevant. And so I wanted to do the exact opposite of that, which is if you're going to have a book about advertising, it should be advertised better than anything. And so that was exactly what I wanted to do was just lean really hard on that and purposefully use only the things that I have in the book. And so, which was actually kind of fun for me. So like when we scripted out the ads, I have an ad creation framework that I just used the framework that I introduced in the book only. And with the affiliates, I had the structure that I set up in the book, I used only.

49:01Like I call it whisper T-Shot, which is kind of like the method that you do to launch anything, or at least that I used to launch anything. You know, like we used agencies when we didn't have to because I wanted to have an agency run it so I could talk about that. And then obviously the team did all the content. And so we used all eight methods to promote the book, and then that is what resulted in. We had 137 ,000 people who came from paid ads. We had 104 ,000 people who came from affiliates. We had 27 ,000 affiliates sign up to promote the book launch. We had just under, sorry, just over 200 ,000 people came from content.

49:32And then we had, what am I missing? And then referrals, the rest were referrals. Do you, by the way, everyone hearing this right now, it's amazing to me. Obviously, the detail of the book and all of that is one thing. The other thing is that how many people all the concepts you just described to them Even if they were at the book launch is still foreign of them meaning they still look at business almost like a linear transaction in other words there This is a simple analogy Look here's how I got wealthy. I don't play Checkers in business. I'm playing chess. I've got multiple moves that I'm already making in front of the other one That's set up something else most people like I just got to get this client and then once I get that I'll breathe out loud and then I'm gonna go through this arduous grinding debilitating horrific self-loathing process to get one more right the power of one more that my let says yeah and do you agree with that though does it still blow your mind how many people still don't get progressive marketing that stacks on top of one another funnels a terrible word but there's multiple funnels happening here meaning you've got the affiliate funnel you've got the paid ad funnel if you choose to do it that way.

50:43You've got your content or client referral funnel. But most people in their businesses, they're still, what you just did is so brilliant. It's like washing over them still, even of the half a million people that were there. You and I know this. It's they're picturing how business works fundamentally incorrectly. Would you agree with that? I think so. And I think part of it is, so I would say it's more like, at least from my perspective, like an incomplete picture. Um, so they, they, they can usually, you can only see as far as like what's in front of you. And so if you are barely making rent, you know what I mean?

51:18And you're barely making payroll, it's really difficult to think about brand. And so it doesn't make it less important though, but it's just really hard. And so, you know, for at least the prescription that I have in the book for advertising is pick one method. You can pick warm reach outs, you pick cold reach outs, you can pick, you can pick making content, you can pick, running paid ads. And those are all the things that you can do. And I start there because most people reading anything in business are usually the ones doing it for the most part. And so we start with the core four that a person can do.

51:49But of course, all four work better together. Now you can just do cold calls and you can build a business. You can just run paid ads, you can build a business. But if you do cold calls, run ads, and have content that people consume when they click your ad, they consume some content and then they complete the transaction, or they, you do a cold call, they take the set call and between the set and the close, they go to your profile, they read some stuff, they watch a video, and they're like, oh, this guy's legit. Now, if you didn't have that, the likelihood that you closed them would be way lower, but you would attribute the failed close to bad cold calling, but you could have given the assist with brand, with content.

52:24Let me ask you a hard question. I bet no one's asked this, and if they have, cool. But I was thinking at your work, and I was going through all of it last night again, and I was thinking, okay, I want to ask them the tough stuff, like the stuff no one's going to ask them in an interview. I want two entrepreneurs pushing one another to figure this out even together. So what if the sales cycle of your product is different? Does that dictate which way you should go? So let me give you an example. I'm marketing a book that's a tangible product that can be acquired instantaneously. Let's switch it.

52:52Let's make it a hard one. I'm a realtor. I'm in the mortgage business. I'm in the insurance business. This sales cycle is a little bit different. It's not necessarily A to B, bam, we've got a client. does that change your methodology and let's walk through a real world one i'm a realtor let's use what i think is maybe the hardest one to make the application fit on some cycles sure do you pick a lane all of the lanes and does that matter that the product isn't a consumable can of coca-cola or a bottle of water but it's a transaction experience that you're going to have to go through in the sales cycle i don't think it matter at all okay so if we were to just let's fill in the fill in the boxes if we, if we will.

53:31So like if you're a realtor, warm outreach is going to be you reaching out to your friends and family saying, do you know anybody who's interested in buying a house? Now, ideally you'd probably not start with that because that's what every realtor says. So it might be something like, Hey, what's your dream home or something like that. And then you can start talking about something more interesting. Believe me, I'm not in the real estate space. So hopefully there'd be a better hook, but that would be the idea. Cold reach outs is you're, you're just dialing numbers that are close to your cold emailing, or, you know, that is, that is cold reach out.

53:55Uh, if you're making content, you're talking about the houses that you're selling and many realtors do that. And then you have paid ads, which also plenty of realtors either generate buyer or seller leads that they call and then they can help them sell their house. So either they list houses and they show these six or seven carousels of cool houses and they get buyers, or they talk about recent sales and use them as case studies for like, here's the 17 steps in the process we took this house from the owner thought they could sell for 500. I sold it for 575. And this was the 60 day process we ran through.

54:24If that sounds interesting, I can walk you through what I would do for your house, whatever. So that would be the core four. But a good realtor should also have friends who are ancillary to the industry. So it might be, you know, lawn care people. It might be, I know there's regulations around loans and kickbacks and things like that, but like still cleaners, anybody who's does home services, you can still get referrals from them, which would be an affiliate, right? Now, customer referrals is you sell the house and you ask them for friends or before you sell the house, you ask them for friends, or sometimes they just do it on their own because they actually like you and you did a good job.

54:56From an agency perspective, you could hire agencies to do any of those things. And then if you're a bigger realtor and you have a team of people, then you can use your employees to do any of those things on your behalf. And so the core four and the four lead getters work independent of whatever business you have, because they are simply the only ways that one human can tell other human about stuff. It's a fact. So let me give you an example. I have several homes listed right now, just different things I'm doing. I'm just thinking through what you just said. One of the homes I have listed, they literally knocked on my door as a cold call.

55:23And the fact that they did that, they make a lot of money too. I was like, this is my lady. So that's one of them. The other one I have, an interior designer referred me the realtor that is now listing my house. Isn't that interesting? And the third one just literally had a digital footprint that I saw their digital footprint, went to their brand, was validated by other significant properties they had sold, and they're listing that property. So what he just said, I just gave you in my own life validation of all three of those methods right there off the top that I'm currently using, currently in the MLS with three people in that industry, exactly the way that he just described.

55:56But I wanted to push you to describe it first. Oh, yeah. That's the theory. Here's why. I think you're this way, too. There's validation, and then I want to push the theory to the extreme most difficult measure to see whether it passes the taken on water test. Yeah. And that's what it does for me. Number one thing I want to ask you, someone's an entrepreneur, they're listening to this, and they're not getting enough leads in general. And they're... They're literally thinking that what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna continue to do just posting stuff on my Instagram over and over again and people are gonna magically appear.

56:31If there's one step now I should take to change my tactic, first thing I should do, aside from get the book, get the book, would be what? So if I needed to make money tomorrow and I was that guy, it's the first of the core four in the book, which is warm outreach. And so what that means is I go through my email and I look at every single contact that I already have already in my email list. I open up my iPhone or my Android and I go down my contact list and I download that and I export it. And then I look at every one of my social media profiles. I've got 700 followers on Instagram. I've got, you know, 400 friends on Facebook.

57:03And I list out all the people into one Mondo Excel sheet. That is my first leads list. And I reach out to them and I open with something that has nothing to do with my profession, which usually has something to do with their life. And so I take the 30 seconds before I message everyone because you only have a fixed amount of people. And I would say, what's new in Sarah's life? Sarah just had a kid. Sarah just moved. Sarah just had a baby. Sarah just competed in Tough Mudder, whatever. and then that would be my opener and then then it's house things right and then once you have house things then you transition you can you can move the conversation into whatever direction you want if i'm selling fitness i would say oh well how do you have time to you know cook cook food and get in shape if if it was uh you know i was career coaching i'd be like how are you making time for work and your career goals if i was talking about if i was selling therapy i would say like how's your mental state with like crushing all these goals but like are you taking time for yourself.

57:58Like I could, you know what I mean? Like I could sell anything from once I just know, once I have their attention and we use something that I call the ACA framework, which we learned from the gym world, but it works with anything. It's really just how to talk to a human being, but it's acknowledge whatever they said, compliment them on a legitimate compliment, and then ask the next question. And so a lot of people just don't know how to have a conversation. And so whenever someone says, you know, I, you know, I did the tough mutter, I would say, it's so cool that you did the tough mutter compliment, which would then say something like Like, that's so tough of you.

58:31It's so cool that you take that time to push yourself. You must be that type of person. I would label them with something that I want to use later in the sale. And then the ask is, let me move the conversation forward. And so I then have my big list of every single contact that I have. And I start with the open hook that's personalized to them. And then I move them through ACA. and then I set them up for a 10 minute qualification call of some sort to just to make sure that they like whatever it is. And then I would set up for a real conversation. So, and if you're curious, what does that 10 minute call look like?

59:02Yes. It's a, so I use something called the closer framework. It's not that this is the perfect way to sell. It's just, it's a, it's a simple acronym that I use to organize sales scripts. And so C is clarify why they're there, right? Cause they got on the phone for a reason or they decided to respond back to you for a reason. And so it's the first obstacle that comes up in any sale is someone says, I just wanted more information well no they didn't they got there because they have a problem like you're not just hopping on phone calls for information all day of course you're not right like you can make that joke if you want to really good right and it's like well what because then you just clarify like what problem do you want to solve like six months from now what do you want to have happen and then then the person's like well i you know i can't fit in my jeans anymore you're like right boom i've clarified whether they're then you restate it with l label them with a problem so to be clear you're not the weight you want to be you're currently how much 200 pounds what would you like to be?

59:49My high school weight. What's that? 130. Got it. Gap. Okay, cool. So then we go CL. Now we go to O. So this is the closer framework. O is overview their past experiences. This is what I call the pain cycle. So you say, what have you tried so far? How did that work for you? What did you like? What did you not like? Whenever they say the things that they like, you mental note of that so that when you present your solution, you're going to talk about and tie the things that they liked about it. It's part of their buying map. Uh-huh. And then the pain part is where they're like, oh, this was terrible.

1:00:16It's too hard to follow. They didn't pay attention to me. No one followed up, blah, blah, blah. And so then it's like, well, what else have you tried? And so we just keep doing until we've exhausted all the pain. And whenever you bring up past experiences, it always aggravates and increases in importance. So like in the political world, whatever the news cycle is on, people will say is the most important issue of the election. And it's really just whatever the media chooses to, whatever piano key they want to play on everyone's emotions that month. But it works the same way on a micro level and a sale.

1:00:42So whatever you're talking about in the pain cycle is going to be the thing that they now think is more important. Even my health is more important. Maybe the cleanliness of my house is more. Maybe I do need insurance, like whatever it is, right? And so in a set call, we stop there. So you basically go clarify, label, overread the past experiences. They're in the middle of pain. And you're like, I think I can totally help you. I don't have time right now. Let's put a much longer, because this is like a cold, like basically it's a set call. Now, if someone has, if you're selling a smaller ticket thing, then you can go cradle to grave, right?

1:01:09You can go to close if you want to. But if you're selling an insurance product, you're trying to buy, you know, get them to do a house or do a longer sale, then cool. Then let me put some stuff together for you so I can give you a much more informed answer, but I think we can really help you. Can I ask you a question before you do that? Do you get any commitment from them? Like if I can end up helping you, are you open to me solving the solution for you or do you not get any hook close at that point? Yeah, we call it the integrity tie down. So yeah, yes, we have this big checklist that we call the lead nurture checklist, but it's like 17 things that we do, whatever we take on a portfolio company.

1:01:39We always look at their show rates on appointments and we can usually take all show rates, even in the coldest prospects to 85%. But it's like everyone's like, there isn't one thing. You have to do like 17 things that each bump you by 5 % to 7%. But I like it. So you're going to end the conversation there with some probably minor commitment. If you can solve the problem, they're going to move forward when you get back together. 100%. And so then when you go to the second call, we still go through CLO again. And you'll be like, again? You're like, sure will. And you just dive a little bit deeper into all of them.

1:02:07And then you go SER. So S is sell the vacation. and I use this acronym, this moniker, because I say you want to sell the vacation, not the plane flight. And so a lot of people, when they want to sell stuff, they talk about the widgets, right? They talk about TSA. They talk about checking their bag and taking their shoes off and who they're going to sit next to on the plane and the seat and how long the flight's going to be and the modules and the services and whatever. But people just want Maui. Yes. And so you should be describing the beach and the ocean and what they're going to experience the moment they get into the hotel room, right?

1:02:35And they can open up the curtains and they look out the window. Like, That's what we should be describing, not how they're going to get there. So you sell the vacation. And then ER is explaining what their concerns. So once you sell the vacation, that's when you make the ask. And then E and R is, okay, if they don't say yes immediately, totally reasonable. Most people don't. Expect no. Train for no because that's where you make the money. And then we explain what their concerns. And so for us, I train on three major obstacles, which is they correspond to the distortions of reality. from Dr. Albert Ellis.

1:03:10And so you've got people who are upset at the universe. So circumstances, that's on the outermost layer. And then the next level underneath, and this is like an onion. So if someone says no, and they say time, money, this isn't the perfect fit for me, all of those are circumstantial. And that's the easiest thing to say. And that's the first thing people say when they say no. The second level underneath of that is other people. So first people are upset and distorted about the universe. Everything's unfair. Nothing goes my way. The next level is because of insert person, blame finger goes out. My kids, my husband, my coworkers, my mom, whatever it is, won't let me do this thing.

1:03:46And so they put all the power in the other person. And so we have to break that apart and get somebody who's in power who can actually make a decision. And usually I am a big believer in sales being an actual empowerment conversation, because if you're talking to an empowered decision maker who's informed, that's the only person you want to talk to. And I believe a well-structured sales conversation can increase the number of people who are that person. And so the final layer, the deepest one is, is themselves, right? And so they, they have their own fears that they have to overcome and doubts about what's going to happen.

1:04:22And so we work through those, those layers until we eventually have a person who has now made a decision. And so when we can do that, I'm a big believer in like try and get yes and no, not, not to be, not to be like hard closing, but just so that if someone doesn't give a decision, then we want to walk them through how they make decisions so that they can make a decision about your product. And so as we're going through it, so that's, that was basically just like the explainaway concerns. And then finally R is that the person says yes, and you reinforce the decision. And so a certain percentage of sales, especially in high, high volume transactional sales organizations, people back out, they get cold feet, et cetera.

1:04:59And so what we try and do is the moment someone closes, we want the next 24 hours to be unbelievably choreographed. And so like, and we're talking immediate. So the moment they signed or the moment the credit card goes through, they get a text from the onboarding person, or we do a warm handoff. Like, Hey, this is Shirley. Shirley's going to be taken from here. Like I said earlier. And so what we want to always do is set expectations, meet expectations, set expectations, meet expectations. And I have changed my tune about this. I used to always say over deliver, but I've, I've come to the point now where I genuinely believe that if you just keep your word, they will trust you more.

1:05:31And ideally, and this is a little hack for everyone. If you're any, any type of services business, let's say you're an agency that does SEO, whatever. And it takes you 14 days to on-ramp somebody rather than saying, we're going to touch in every week, right? Which would be fine. And that's what most people do in that week. You probably do like 25 things, right? But you're going to have one meeting. If you want to be really clever every day, send an email that says, Hey, no need for reply. Just want to let you know we did these three things. We'll recap at the end of the week, but I just want to let you know where we're at.

1:06:01If you send progress reports every day, what happens is you create multiple reinforcement cycles. And so you're setting and completing, setting and completing. And so at day seven, when normally your competitor has only talked to them, this is the first time they talked to them since the sale, you had a warm handoff and they've received communication from you every single day. So this is like the eighth touch point. for them. And now their trust in you is so much higher, which then translates to way lower backouts, way higher ascensions into whatever your next revenue thing is, or the next product or expansion revenue, and more referrals and testimonials.

1:06:35And so we try and choreograph that process. And that's the R. And so close your framework, clarify where they're there, label them with a problem that you can solve, overview their past experiences, the pain cycle, sell the vacation, not the plane flight, explaining where their concerns, and then reinforce the decision. Okay. A lot to unpack there. Okay. So hang on. First off, this is one of those notes, a segment on the show, rewind it and go listen to it again. Go rewind seven minutes back or whatever that was and listen to it again, because there's genius in there. I just want to unpack a couple of the things.

1:07:02Most of you make the mistake in whatever it is that you're doing, even doing it with your kids. You're, you are selling the plane flight. You're selling the process. You're selling the steps as opposed to the beach. That's a biggie. Number two, this, this notion of the 24 hours post, I cannot get over how many people think the sale just got closed. I'm done. I cannot get over it. Number one, you're probably going to lose the sale. Number two, you're definitely diminishing the amount of leads you're going to generate from it. I just did a very significant transaction with somebody. I had a very laid out process in my company.

1:07:30It's a very major exit type decision for somebody. I told my team, the second we hang up this phone, he is going to begin to doubt this decision. If he's an airplane, he's freaking losing altitude. We need to be doing X, Y, and Z, but it's already a predetermined process. I was just taking them back through reminding them why. Some of the businesses you have, it is just a 24-hour process. Some of you, to your other point, it's a week or eight or ten days and whatever it might be. Sure enough, what was supposed to happen the next morning didn't. By midday, we were behind. Then he messages us with a question, which we replied to.

1:08:13Then he messaged with another one. When the second question came in, I messaged the entire team. This deal's over. We're losing this deal. No, no, no, we can get it back. We've lost the deal. He has switched. He's got downward momentum, and it's our fault. Sure enough, massive, like close to nine-figure mistake that was a process that was involved. Some of you are making a$800 mistake when this happens. Let me ask you a hard question, because this is something I've done in my career. It's not process-driven, but it's important. You went through this process. Sometimes I think that somewhere in that flow, tell me if intuition works or you would just stick to the process.

1:08:50Somewhere in that flow before you get to close, I've had the intuition, this person's ready right now. I can go to this step. That's not necessarily something that's able to teach on scale. Do you know what I'm saying? But I've also watched a lot of people go, you have them here, and now you're beginning to layer objections in it, and it's taking longer than their tolerance level is. I see a lot of people, especially the longer they're in sales, they unsell them. They give them more. Let me tell you one more thing. One other thing you should know. One other thing. By the way, my checklist says step four is I then do this.

1:09:22Do you, because scaling this isn't as easy as, but I also know the real world. Should someone still have sensory acuity when they're in the process and go, we're ready now? So the way that we train sales is that one, we start, you might love this. So we try and think back to front, which is if someone, a lot of people train rapport building first. They train the script top to bottom. But if someone knows how to do the first half of the script and they don't know the second half of the script, the likelihood that they can close is zero. Yes. That's true. If you train people from the back of the script to the front of the script, if someone doesn't have rapport and they don't know the opening questions but they know how to close, the likelihood they could close is greater than zero.

1:09:55100%. 100%. And so for us, my belief from a selling perspective is that if you follow the closer, right, clarify whether they're, all we're doing is asking questions. Labeling them is just asking for agreement on one statement that they have the problem. Overviewing past experience is just questions. We haven't said anything else. We're just asking questions. And then the only time you actually make a statement is when you sell the vacation. And then after that, you ask. And so for us, the E only comes out after they've said no. And so we explain it through obstacles and objections. And so objections, as I see them come up after the ask, obstacles come up before the ask.

1:10:32And so if someone says, I'm just here for more information, that's an obstacle. So we handle that up front. if you know like an upfront again it's like is there any other decision makers that need to be on the call and we ask that in the nurture process before we're on the call and we'll reaffirm that at the beginning because if they say no or yes i do need someone then like cool let's just reschedule there's no point in going through this objections happen which is universe like time money fit uh i need the other decision maker or i don't know how to make a decision which is the personal thing the doubt part and so then we walk them through making the decision making process but each one of those we always loop back.

1:11:05So they give us the thing, we overcome it and we say, great. So now you're ready or make sense. Fair enough. Let's ready to move forward. Do you have your idea on you? Whatever the closing question is. And so that way, as soon as someone says yes, that is when we stop selling. So that's the big, to your point of the unselling is because people then get like really excited. It's like, dude, take credit card. Like as soon as they say yes, great. What card do you want to use? That was a great conversation. And if you want to hear the full interview, be sure to follow the Ed Milet Show on Apple and Spotify.

1:11:37Links are in the show notes. Here's an excerpt I did with our next guest. All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. So I'm so excited about today because you're going to learn from somebody who is currently in the hunt doing something great in business in their life. And, you know, I've been asked a lot lately, you know, why is it that I don't always just have celebrities on the show? Because we've had lots of celebrities on in the past. And one of the reasons, that's just for other shows, to be honest with you, I want to put out podcasts every week that can impact and change your life. And oftentimes I feel like when I have someone super well-known, it's just sort of platitudes and general statements.

1:12:10That's not always. You can look at Matthew McConaughey's episode we did and others. They're just incredible. But I want people that can change your life that are doing it right now. And this man fits the bill big time. So my guest today is Ryan Bartlett. He's the CEO and founder of True Classic. It's a men's apparel line. Listen to this, guys. He scaled his company in three years over$150 million in revenue and is in the hunt of building a billion-dollar brand and a billion-dollar company. He does it every day, including today. And so I want you to be able to have me pick his brain for you about business and life, balance, all these other things that he's clearly mastering right now in his life.

1:12:48So Ryan, welcome to the show, brother. Thank you so much for having me, Ed. Customer service is like 90s. Everything today is about, and you call it the customer experience, right? What, what is the customer experience and why does that matter so much in today's world? It's something I'm obsessed with and probably a little too obsessed with, but I will tell you that when I started this thing, I was definitely on the same page with my co-founder, Nick, that we were going to be Ritz Carlton and we were going to create such unbelievable moments for people that they were going to tell those stories forever.

1:13:23And so like we would be talking to a lady, we would hear a baby in the background and we would send them some sort of baby gift along with their refund. And so there's just like, there's so many nuanced moments that I can think about. I've sent a guy, a Tom Brady Jersey, cause I found out he, he, he lived out there and he was a huge Tom Brady fan and he was having a bad experience with us. So like, those are the kind of things where if you go above and beyond for people, they're just always going to remember you, right? They may not even end up buying your product, but someday they'll tell a story when they see that advertisement and they'll tell somebody in the room, that guy sent me something one time and he just really made my day.

1:14:01And I think a lot of that is lost today. I think people are trying to really automate customer service as good as they can with AI. And they're trying to create all these chat bots. And I just think having a human be able to make an impact on your life in a moment where you're frustrated and you really need someone to show up, that is really the time to do that. And I think people ultimately just don't want to deal with customer service. I see it as an unbelievable opportunity to show up in that moment when they need you most and over index for them so that they can just become a fan for life of the brand and really say, you know what, this is definitely lost in this era.

1:14:40And this one company did show up for me that one time so that when they consider us in the future, that's just something that's ingrained in their memory about us. And I, and that's the feeling I want them to take away, which is just, like I said, look good feel good it's feel good on the ads it's feel good on the product it's feel good in customer service you name it there is a feel good component to every part of this business and that's why it operates at a 10 in every facet and how you're able to grow so fast like we have funny this is so good my kids are going to watch this today for a business course i'm telling you you guys uh i think ryan the reason that customer experience isn't something most ask yourself if you're listening by the way one to ten how is your customer experience based on what he just described because I think it's a separator because you really almost can't teach it.

1:15:27Like you can go to any business course, you go to any seminar, but you actually have to think through customer experience. It has to be part of your culture. Like you have to bleed it. And it is the separator. And the other cool thing about it is nowadays it's the advantage to the small business over the big business. Cause you're more nimble. You can have more listening skills. You can move faster. You can create culture easier. Small businesses have huge advantages if they take advantage of them over big ones. Now, one of the advantages they don't have, though, and this is what I want to ask you because you've done this, you've scaled really big really quickly.

1:16:03I mean, that's electric, like meteoric growth that you've had. What's been the hardest part of scaling so big, so quick. And can you scale too big and too quick and harm your company when you do it? Absolutely. So we're up to about 600 million now. We did 200 million last year. We're in year five. We just got valued at 950 million. So to get to a billion in five years in terms of just enterprise value is pretty mind blowing. And it still feels pretty surreal, to be honest with you okay so i completely undersold you at 150 we're we're it's all good nine times that thank you for fixing by the way it's more impressive keep going yeah so absolutely you can i mean there there's this could be just an hour in itself i mean we've made every mistake under the sun i would say that we always have to burn every department all the way down before we figured out how to rebuild it back up so i would say most of the challenges we've had in the early days were over betting on inventory, which is like the classic mistake of every e-commerce company where they just over bet.

1:17:09And now they have all these receipts coming in that they can't fulfill because the sales aren't there. And so like in year two, I made a$40 million inventory bet. Cause I just, I was like, Hey, we're going to the moon guys. And we're, and we're just going to keep going. So that was right after we had hit a hundred million in year two. So we did 15 million the first year and 90 the second year. So right after the second year, I was feeling really confident. And I was like, look guys, and I'm sitting around the table with our executives. And I'm just like, let's just make a bet. What do you guys think?

1:17:39And this is the, so after music, by the way, just going back, I, after I kind of gave up on music, I got into poker and that took over my life for a good amount of years. And I became a, I guess what you would call a pro is really just not having a job and trying to gamble. But that really built my risk tolerance. And it showed me that what, what it feels like to lose and just getting numb to that losing feeling, which in hindsight was a huge advantage in entrepreneurship because as you know, you have to go from kind of failure to failure without with no loss of enthusiasm, which is one of my favorite quotes.

1:18:12I think that really sums up entrepreneurship. So what I did was after, you know, doing poker for a while and also failing at that, it definitely built up my risk tolerance. And one of my other co-founders, it was also a poker pro at one point, which does not help us by the way in business. It just, it really, you know, we had no fear for better or worse. We had no fear, but ultimately, even though we made that$40 million bet, I think what we were telling ourselves was even if this doesn't go well, like let's just play out the worst case scenario, even if it doesn't go well, what's going to happen?

1:18:44We're going to have to go back and renegotiate with our manufacturers, right? Like we're going to have to hold some safety stock. We're gonna have to pay some interest, whatever it is. We just believed in our ability to negotiate with these people and level with them on a really human to human basis and say, look, you see us going to the moon. Do you want the business or not? I know we overbought this time, but stick with us and you'll be our preferred vendors in the future. So that was kind of our pitch to them. And it worked out. All the people that stuck with us in those early years when we overbet and couldn't pay our bills on time, ended up eating it for a short term for the greater good later because they just knew that we were going to figure out a way.

1:19:20Plus, it was like inventory that it wasn't like I was, you know, holding yellows and oranges. This was like sellable inventory. So they all like could see that they're like, okay, this is core product. They're going to get through it. But I would say that is a very easy way to sync the business. And, um, that has been the hardest part. It's called demand planning in our business. And we still don't even have it perfect. And we're in year five. It's still a nightmare. We run out of stuff all the time. And then I would say outside of that, now in year five, what I'm dealing with in terms of, you know, what are the biggest problems I have?

1:19:56It always goes back to people, you know, and I love people to a fault and I'm overly empathetic, which is why I win in business because it really works for the customer. But where it doesn't really work in business is employees. And I have had to learn to put the business first in a lot of situations. And when you move as fast as we do, and you're a startup and you're scaling fast, one of the problems with people is that when you hire a person for a role, they quickly, the business outgrows them very quickly. And when we were at a hundred million, that CFO is a different level than at 500 million.

1:20:32Right. And now we're looking back and we're going, well, where do we put this guy? Like we, we, there's no other spot for him to go. And a lot of times we will find a spot. Like if it's wrong person, wrong seat here today, we will try to shuffle them around and make it work ultimately. Because if they're here, they're here for the right reasons, which is they have the right DNA. They're gritty. They hold all our core values. But, um, you know, we really try to now look and say, you know, I got a guy who works for kitsch. Maybe you can go over there. Let me just ask him if he's looking for a CFO, CFO, because he's doing, you know, X amount of revenue and you're perfect for that bracket.

1:21:07And so it's really tough though, because you have to have insanely hard conversations with people and people are going through their own stuff too. You know what I mean? Like a lot of times it's not even about work. I mean, ultimately the someone that doesn't work out here, it's for one of two reasons. I always tell our employees, cause a lot of employees will come to me and they'll go, why didn't it work out with so-and-so? And I'll have to have these hard conversations. But what I always say is like, it's two things. It's either wrong person, wrong seat and they're just really not qualified for that job because the business needs them to really move at an absolute 10 to make it work.

1:21:41We don't have the luxury of having 20 people for one job and they can just kind of chill and let things go. Like this isn't that environment. Like if you're here at True Classic, you are building legacy. You're working with an insane startup and you better be providing real value for the business. So if you can't live in that world, we're just not a good fit. But people know that by now they've seen enough podcasts or they've listen to us and they know how we roll. So it's not a big surprise anymore, but it's been really tough to watch all the OGs of true classic kind of make their way out of the business because you start with one group and you end with a completely different one.

1:22:17And, but it's for the better. I mean, I look back now and all these people are thriving in different departments. So when I let people go, or I have to let people go for the sake of the business, I always tell them, look, I'm going to help you. I'm going to be an amazing referral. This is not, this doesn't have to be a negative. You know, there's always severance, obviously, like you can help people land softly. It's not just like, let me cut the cord and never see you again. It's like, no, I'm going to see you again. And I can promise you when you go start interviewing, they're all going to be pinging me about you and saying, hey, how did this person work out?

1:22:47And I'm going to give a great review because I just know that you're a great person. You work hard, you're gritty and you provide value. So I'm going to show up for you there. But that's those two things take up all the you know, what's the hardest part of the business in my brain? It's just, it's those two components are always the toughest. Before we start the interview with my next guest, just want to remind you all that you can subscribe to the show on YouTube or follow the show on Apple or Spotify. We have all the links in our show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Now on with the show.

1:23:20All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. I have been looking forward to this interview for a few weeks. Mutual friends of ours that turned me on to Alex said, you need to get with this young man and get him on your show. And then when I dove into his content and his work, I was blown away. He is brilliant. I don't say that very often when I introduce people. I think he's probably got one of the highest IQs of anybody I've ever had on the show. And his content as it relates to personal success and particularly entrepreneurship is very unique, very special, very detailed. And I wish we had three hours today like other podcasts have because we could use that entire three hours and still have a bunch of time and stuff left over.

1:23:56So he is the host of The Game with Alex Ramosi on all these different platforms. He's a serial entrepreneur. By the way, he's built brick-and-mortar businesses, virtual businesses. He's written incredible books. He's got another one coming out. So Alex Ramosi, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for the introduction. I will do my very best to live up to it. You better live up to it. One of the things you've been pretty good at doing, though, is using leverage. And leverage to most people typically means borrowing money from other people. But you define leverage freaking brilliantly. So talk a little bit about what real leverage is and the way you define it.

1:24:30So leverage is the difference between the inputs and outputs in a system. It's the discrepancy between what you put in and what you get out. So if I have a lot of leverage, then it means if I put a little bit in, I get a lot out. If I have low leverage, I have to put a lot in to get a little bit out. If I'm working at a Froyo shop, I have to put a lot of time in to get a very little amount of money. So I have very low leverage. If I put a deal together, right, and I make a couple phone calls, and then that deal yields me$10 million from connecting parties and then maybe underwriting something, all of a sudden, that's a lot of leverage.

1:25:04So I put a very little bit amount of time in, I get a lot of money. And so the idea of using more leverage is looking at what my inputs and my outputs are and figuring out how I can create bigger and bigger discrepancies between those. Are there different types of leverage other than just money? Yes. which are so um anything that increases your output okay without per unit of effort is leverage and so that can happen in the physical space so like a literal lever is increases your leverage if i take this we take this podcast and you put it on youtube that was leverage because we put the same input in but then we get more output if i have a cold calling system and i'm able to now dial 10 phone numbers per minute because I have a dialer that's doing outbound, I have more leverage per unit time.

1:25:50If I, um, take a form of media and then I transcribe it. And then I also make an audio version that is leverage. So all of those are different versions of just getting more out for what you put in. Hard question. So I, uh, let's, let's, let's dig deep. I'm an entrepreneur and I'm listening to this. It doesn't matter. I can even be self-employed. I sell life insurance. I'm a mortgage broker. I'm in real estate. I've got a cannabis business. I've got six people working for me. And I now kind of get from listening to this dude and listening to Ed regularly, like this idea of leverage is what successful and wealthy people do, right?

1:26:23They do it better than other people. This is a really big deal, everybody, listening to this right now. They do this better than you. They understand the concept of this better than you. And to the extent that you can understand it and most importantly apply it is where you make a shift. So it's a hard question because you've answered it, but I want to push you harder on this. If I have any type of business right now and I've evaluated the concept that you've described here, how do I apply it? What do I look at in terms of buttons I could push to get more leverage? Yeah. So Naval Ravikant does a really good job of defining his four types of leverage.

1:26:56Now, within those, I described a lot of different leverage around one, which is media, right? But you have leverage around labor, which is you buy other people's time. So that is a first version of leverage. So is there something that I'm currently doing that I can pay someone else to do to gain time back and then use the excess time I have to make up the difference? So if I can pay someone$10 an hour and I know that I can make$50 an hour on the phone selling, then I can pay somebody to do any of my tasks for$10 and then I make up the time selling. Stay on that. Brilliant. We're going to go to the other three.

1:27:23Just stay on that. This is something I struggled with young. I don't know if you did. When I was young, I didn't have a lot of capital. I used to think, no, I'll just – I will do these things because I can't afford the expenditure right now. Were you ever that way when you were young in business? Totally. I just held on. 100%. Because I'm like, I had the scarcity idea that this may be the$2 ,000 a month that keeps me in business, yet it was the very thing that kept me in the small business I had. I think there, I mean, you got to work double time. There's no real sexy answer that I have for that, which is just like, you have to work the normal amount you would to make your money.

1:27:54And then you have to make enough, and then you work again to make someone else's money. And that's in the beginning. So it's like, I'm making my job and I'm making someone else's job so that I can buy that time that I used to work to pay someone else. Very good. to then make more money in that period of time. Really good. And the big thing that I think a lot of guys, because on the flip side of the entrepreneur space, the influencer or whatever space, people are always talking about buying your time back, but then they don't talk about what you do with the time you bought back. So if you just buy your time back and don't do anything, you're going to make less money.

1:28:19I just want to be clear. But because I had an entrepreneur who was talking, he was like, I bought all my time back. He's like, but I'm really not making it. I was like, you're not doing anything. Like you still need to work. You just got to now work on higher leverage opportunities, more dollars per time. So in that, that input is my time. My output is my money. So it's a higher leverage thing in my time. What are the other three? So you got labor, which is the most operationally complex and heavy of the types of leverage. The next one is capital. If you can raise money, leverage other people.

1:28:44That's the one that the mortgage brokers are more familiar with, real estate guys. Because if I don't have to put any money up and I can buy something and then I can sell it for more money, then I get to make the difference between those two things. And I used it on basically someone else took the time to earn the money. And then they just gave me that time. If you think of money as a, as a tradable unit of time, um, that I got to borrow and then make the difference on something. The third, um, one, and I think three and four kind of go hand in hand, but it's, you've got software or code and then media.

1:29:16Uh, so code is just, you know, you write code and it, it takes you one time investment to get the thing to do something. And then every additional time. So the input was the time I took to build once. And then every additional person who uses the software and gets a benefit from it, I I get almost no incremental cost. And so that's leverage. And then with the media side, we said it earlier, if it takes the amount of time for us to make this one podcast, if one person listens to this or a million people listen to this, it's the same amount of effort. Yeah. I told you guys when I introduced them that this would be stuff you've not heard before.

1:29:45So, and it is. There's another type of leverage. And I really related to this. I'm 20 years further down the road than you on some of these things, but I very much relate to some of the things you talk about. But obviously you have this relationship with your dad. Maybe we'll go there. But you were just trying to prove him wrong all the time. But you said something in one of your quotes. You said, I found out later that I was constantly trying to prove a fictitious person wrong. Meaning the type of leverage that I got on myself when I was young was I'm going to prove them wrong. I'm going to prove them wrong.

1:30:16And it was like this. I mean, I think the best way to describe me as an early entrepreneur was a little bit angry. And I leveraged intensity. I leveraged anger. I actually leveraged fear of losing to this fictitious person, of them being right. And by the way, some of that probably served me really, really well. But I don't know that it was healthy long term. So what about that getting leverage on your self idea? Would you recommend someone operate out of that space and talk about your own journey on it? I would recommend you use the resources you have to create the life you want. And so if the cards that you have dealt right now are anger and fear and disappointment, then you can either wallow in those or you can turn something good out of it.

1:31:01And so, I mean, I love the saying, you can either let life beat the strength out of you, or you can let it beat it into you. And I think that you can use that. You could put pain, you could put disappointment, you could put fear, you could put whatever that life thing is. And so it's just a decision of whether these circumstances are going to serve me or I'm going to serve them. And so I think that whatever your raw materials are, a lot of people lament what cards they're dealt, but you don't have control over those cards. You only have control of how you play the hand. And so I think everyone just needs to move past that and stop the pissing contest on who had a sadder upbringing.

1:31:36Yeah. I also think though, that you have to be, if you're making progress, you know, one of the things that's made Jordan great or Brady great is changing the leverage they get on themselves. So it's not that Tom Brady still isn't playing football to prove the fact that he was a six-round draft pick, right? But this notion that that's what he gets up every single day, that's the chip on his shoulder anymore, is not true. He's now playing for greatness. He's playing because it's his standard. He's praying to... And I find with a lot of entrepreneurs, they don't ever change the leverage. And so when they get to where they have proved that fictitious person wrong, or they have gotten to where they are no longer starving, they don't have any mechanism to drive themselves any further.

1:32:15Do you know what I'm saying? I do. I think a lot of people are just oblivious to the fact that you've lost leverage. I'm not motivated anymore. I'm not inspired. It's because the old lever you pulled that worked at one stage, you need to now find. Jordan used to say, listen, I play every day. Jordan didn't take a bunch of games off. He'd say, because there's a kid in the stands who it's the one time he's ever going to see me play is that night in Sacramento. And even though it's the Kings, I'm going to play all out because that kid's going to tell stories about seeing me play. that's different than his motivation his rookie year to prove he belonged in the league right entrepreneurs don't find that new lever you obviously have i i so i don't i've made some content on that specific thing that michael jordan said so i like super resonate on that like that was my biggest of the whole series that i watched that was like the point where i like had to pause and like chew on it um but it really made me appreciate like every every podcast every every opportunity that we have to share something to really try and bring it rather than call it in.

1:33:14You know what I mean? Um, but yeah, for me, my, my leverage has changed. I think I was really angry, um, younger and more fearful than angry. Um, just really, just the idea of the disappointment and him being right was just like unbearable. Him being dead. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it? Do you think, I think that anger is typically the manifestation of fear. And so I, when I say angry, I wasn't throwing chairs all the time or anything like that, but there was this almost like game day intensity type anger every day to the way I approached my life and my business. That was a great conversation. Be sure to follow the Ed Milet show on Apple and Spotify.

1:33:54Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Welcome to the Ed Milet show. Fired up today. I've got one of the great young entrepreneurs in the United States here with me that I've been following on social media for a long time. We've got a bunch of mutual friends and so I'm honored to have the great Brad Lee here today. Brad, thanks for being here brother. I'm honored. It's great to have you. We've been having great conversations off camera, very interesting conversations and I'm hoping that transfers to on camera now too. Many of you probably follow Brad on Instagram or on Twitter through social media and you've seen the unbelievable post that he makes.

1:34:26I think he's one of the most creative and innovative, unique people on social media. I've told you that. That's interesting. I want to drill into that. Okay, we will. I'll tell you why it's unique, too. So I encourage you to begin to follow him, too, as well, if you're not. But what I want to do today is get to know you better. And then there's all these young entrepreneurs out there, salespeople. I consider Brad to be an expert with how to teach people how to become more productive entrepreneurs and especially great at teaching people how to sell and close and persuade people, too. And so I want to pick your brain on some of that stuff today.

1:34:55Okay. Brad's built an amazing company. We're actually at his headquarters today called Lightspeed VT. It's an unbelievable virtual technology that he's got that you see a lot of people on his platform often that you would know very well in personal development. But I want to go back prior to that. Let's do it. So how does Brad Lee become Brad Lee? So you grew up where? You grew up in the Pacific Northwest? Yep. Did you grow up in a super successful family, like entrepreneurs around you, wealth around you? How did you grow up? No. Originally, we were kind of, I wouldn't say poor, but low middle class at best.

1:35:30We lived in a little tiny house on a hill surrounded by bigger houses. It was kind of unique because, you know, there's a lot of stories from that that I've learned back in those days that I can now see the lesson. Where there, I didn't really realize. But, no, we grew up lower middle class. You did. mom and dad married and you didn't my my dad and mom were divorced and then my dad remarried so i had my stepmom at that time okay so you live with your dad and your stepmom yeah well originally we all went to an orphanage and then my grandmother bless her heart told my dad to get off his ass and come get us because we were basically about to get shipped off to different families you're kidding me no when my mom and dad divorced my dad said screw you and my mom said well here take the kids she kept the baby so me and my brothers and sister went to an orphanage and was about to get shipped off and then my grandmother told my dad you better go get them so fortunately he came and got us well what how I was I was two you're two so you don't really remember this happening necessarily my brothers and sisters do but I was two my brother was probably seven Wow and then in between have you covered that before no but you want something new don't you I do.

1:36:45I want stuff new. I always make them cry. Crying a little bit. That's what my goal is. Come on. Come on. That's interesting. You're this little guy. You're growing up. You live with your dad. Mom's sort of in a different place. Were you always... Were you an athlete? Were you a competitive... Did you have this background of winning in competition your whole life? Well, actually, yeah. I didn't know it at the time, but I excelled at sports. For example, I joined a swim team. I first year joined a team called the Guppies. You had to start there. And the only sporting event my dad ever came to watch was my first swim meet with the Guppies.

1:37:22And I beat the other swimmers so badly they disqualified me. Really? They said, he shouldn't be in this league. And my dad basically told him, you know, you guys are stupid. He left and he never went to another sporting event of mine. But I excelled at swimming at first. And then cross country, did that for a minute and kind of beat the competitors without even really trying. So you're a natural athlete. Ran a 440 in junior high. A 4-4-40? 4-4-40 in junior high. I mean, people say bullshit or bull crap. That's okay. And it's the truth. It's the dead ball's truth. But I didn't have a lot of parental guidance when it came to sticking to something.

1:38:10So ultimately, I ended up quitting over something stupid, and no one made me go back. So I didn't finish with sports. A lot of people relate to that, though. A lot of people had some potential when they were young. They didn't have a lot of supervision. They end up kind of flaming out on their first dream. So you had all these gifts that you end up not using. So after high school, you go to college? No. You didn't? Dropped out of high school. You dropped out of high school? Beginning of 11th grade. So you're a high school dropout who's built this massive company. Yeah, baseball, either home runs or strikeouts.

1:38:36There was no in between. There was no in between with you? No base hits. So you're a high school dropout, and then you end up becoming this. How's that happen? So I know this, just to speed something up here. You end up getting into the sales business eventually, right? And so how long were you in sales? What type of sales were you in? And is that when you first started to get your taste at, hey, I can control my time. I can make some money. How old were you? When did all that start? At 17, I couldn't decide between movie star and a job. Everyone was telling me, get a real job. Weren't you an actor though?

1:39:09You were also an actor, right? Yeah, I technically still am. I'm just unemployed. Okay. So if you guys are looking for one, I'm a thespian. Trained thespian, by the way. But at around 17, early 17 years old, I went and got a job with a forest service company. and I thought I was going to be fighting forest fires. Sounded cool. Went around bragging like I'm cool. Paid like$22 an hour. First day on the job, realized I wasn't a forest firefighter. I was the dude that had a 10-pound bag of water put on my back, and I went and squirted water on stumps that were smoldering so they didn't reignite a fire.

1:39:46They called it a piss bag. Got poison oak and went and basically said, hey, I got poison oak. I'm not going to be able to come in tomorrow. And they laughed and said, yeah, you'll be in tomorrow at 4 a.m. That's part of the job. Everyone had Poison Oaks, supposedly. So that's ultimately when I said, dude, this manual labor shit, I'm not into it. So I opened the newspaper to get another job, and there was an ad for selling cars. So I went and applied for selling cars at 17 and basically lied to get the job because you had to be 18. 17 years old. Yeah, and you had to be 18. So I got the job at 17, lying, which, again, you learn.

1:40:24People say you can't change. I think you can, by the way. Anyway, BS'd my way into the job. Went around bragging to everybody. I was 17, so the other salesmen were haters because I was kicking everyone's ass. And they told management, so management brought me in and said, how old are you? And he said, don't lie to me. I said, I'm 17. He said, well, you lied and said you were 18. I said, yeah. He said, how many cars you got out? I said, like 26. and at this time, the closest person might have had 10. And he said, when do you turn 18? I said, like, another two months. He said, can you keep your mouth shut that long?

1:41:01Of course, they don't want to lose the golden goose. Yeah, so I started Excel. They gave me a car to drive. You got to wear a suit. I was home. No poison oak, no hard work, a pen. And the way I looked at it, this individual paid for all the cars, paid for the building, paid for the advertising, gave me a pen and let me have my own little business without investing a dime. That's the way I looked at it. And so I was aggressive and started selling. Talk about it for a second because I don't think most salespeople think that way, especially if they're not in something where they do have some ownership of it.

1:41:34But you treated selling, this is important, by the way, because I did too young. I started out just in the selling business too. But you treated selling like it was your own business. Well, it is. Elaborate. What do you mean? When you're on commission, you don't have a limit. So if you're going to give me cars, let's use cars or art, because I've sold art, cars, RVs, ridiculous vacuums. Really? Candy bars. Yeah, I've sold everything. Matter of fact, at six years old, there's a story about selling candy bars that is pretty funny. Give me it. I want to hear it. Well, I was six years old, and they gave out the boxes of candy, world's finest chocolates.

1:42:14Yeah. You remember those? Yes. They were delicious. They were. I mean, still to this day, I think they're probably the best actual chocolate with almonds you can find. So I went out and I started selling candy bars. And all the other kids that couldn't sell their candy bars, normally they would ship them back to the company and that was it. Well, they just gave me all of the candy bars everyone else couldn't sell. And I literally sold every candy bar that the school received. Like how, knocking doors? Yeah, I went and knocked on doors. They'd open the door and I'd have it behind my back. and when they answer the door, I would say, do you have the phone number to a good roof repairman?

1:42:50And they'd always be like, no. At six years old, you're saying it. Six years old, and I developed it all by myself. I don't know how, but I said, do you have the phone number to a good roof repairman? They said, no, why? And I said, because when you taste one of these, you're going to go through the roof. And people were just buying... Little six-year-old little face saying that, Adam. You can't say no. And people were just buying boxes at a time. I'll take 20 of them. So I learned selling then. Okay, I'm going to point this out, what you just did. I told Brad before we went on the camera, because you just did it again, that he has an interesting way of communicating.

1:43:24Remember when I told you this earlier? Yeah. And you just did it again. You started it at six years old. And this is why I want you to follow him, because a lot of people speak the same way. They'll say, here's what I'm going to tell you, then they tell you. Brad's communication style is it ends up a punchline. So you don't know where you're going, and then boom, you land somewhere. Whether that's a joke or a sales pitch or a close or a statement, You watch when you watch him and you just so you know you did it at six years old You start with the candy bar behind your back, right? Yeah, do you need a roof?

1:43:49You know and boom then you come back at him So if you always take them down an interesting road when you communicate is very unique to this dude The way that you talk it is that's why I think your social media stuff is interesting because it's not like Let me tell you what you need to think and then you say it you start out somewhere I don't know where we're going that boom there's a punchline and we land somewhere I say punchline it may not mean something funny It just may mean you take me where you're gonna take me. It's almost like going around the corner and I find the prize Yeah, and that's what you were doing when you closed then too.

1:44:16So that's awesome By the way you started that at six started at six, you know So let me ask you question you're this good closer at six you become a great car salesman young You've gone on to sell other things and been successful Then you built this huge training thing that we're gonna talk about in a minute But I'm a salesperson mm-hmm, which by the way the first thing is the first step of that is admitting it that I actually close, I actually sell. Give me a couple things that someone out here just got into sales or is in it and struggling. What's a couple real keys of being great at closing?

1:44:47One, you've said you own it like your own business because not everybody does think that way. But give me a couple things. What makes a good closer, a good salesperson, a good persuader? The ability to listen, first of all, because a lot of salespeople really don't listen and they're not even prepared to ask good questions in order to get good answers. So I'll give you an example. When I used to train people, I would carry around a quarter, a dime, and a nickel. So they can put this on the screen if you're editing this, but pretend this is a quarter, okay, and this is a dime, and this is a nickel.

1:45:25Now, I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to listen, okay? Bob's mom has three kids. The first one is Nicholas. The second one is Demetrius. What's the third one's name? I don't know. What is it? Okay, well, I'm going to have you listen again. Okay, do it again. Bob's mom has three kids. The first one is Nicholas. The second one is Demetrius. What's the third one's name? I don't know. See, that's because you're not really actively listening. Okay. Now, actively listen to me. Okay. Bob's mom has three kids. The first one is Nicholas. The second one is Demetrius. What's the third one's name?

1:46:05You got me. I don't know. Listen closely. Stop it. Give me the answer. Bob's mom. Bob's mom. It's Bob. There you go. It takes me a while. See, you notice that doesn't take you a while. You're not listening actively. I'm struggling with my IQ issues, but I got it eventually. I guarantee it's not that. And people do it all the time. They're not listening actively because we're having a conversation, and you're not trying to sell me anything. Right. But when someone says, what makes the best salesperson? Were all of you just watching and going, what the hell is wrong with me? Or were any of you with me on that?

1:46:39Like, is at least 5 % of you with me that you did not know Bob's damn name? I'd say 90%. Because what it is, the trick is there's a damn N, a D, and a Q. So you're throwing me off with the Q. Yeah. Well, that's why I'd have a dime, a quarter, and a nickel. Yeah. So people are trying to, because they're not listening. So if you want to be great in sales, First of all, you need to learn to listen closely and actively. And then secondly, learn to ask the right questions. Wow, that is such an awesome illustration right there. My whole audience now just unfollowed me because they know how low my IQ is.

1:47:11Well, watch this. Well, you can edit it. But trust me, 95 % of the people I do that with never get Bob. Sometimes they'll get it on the third one. Occasionally on the second one. Hardly ever they're listening. No, I'm leaving that in there. That's too damn good. however knowing the right questions to ask you know when people start selling things like if I say you know go ahead and sell me that you know people will start saying oh it's quality leather and it's gonna last a long time and that's not really selling that's telling selling I have to know what it is about you that values that and I do that through questions so if I were gonna sell you that I wouldn't just start selling it like most people that's what they'll do.

1:47:53Like next time you talk to a salesperson that says they're top salesman, say, okay, well, sell me that chair. And they'll say, oh, this chair is constructed this way and it's the greatest fabric and it's going to last the best. And they're not asking you, you know, who's the chair for? You know, are you replacing a chair? You know, what do you like about the chair you're replacing? What didn't you like about the chair you're replacing? So by the time I explain that chair, I can provide value and explain to you why it's valuable. Now, let's say, for example, you tell me that chair is so quality and it's going to last forever and I find out you're getting a divorce and you have to provide your ex-wife a replacement chair.

1:48:31I just unsold you the chair not even knowing it. Why? Because I didn't ask you some questions and listen to the answer. Well, that's the big thing. Cardone said this to me. Grant Cardone and I were talking about this very topic off camera also and he said, because it's what you just did with me, it's not just asking the question, it's getting the answer. So a lot of people ask questions but they never get the answer. You forced me to finally get me to get the answer, right? And that's what a good closer gets also. They don't just ask the question, they actually get the answer. I think some people think, all I gotta do is ask a bunch of questions.

1:48:58Well, no, you have to get the answer and get them actively listening. That's why that is really powerful and why I want to absolutely leave that in there. So, very, very good. If you want to be good in sales, listen and ask good questions. Okay, so that's huge by the way. Very, very good.

1:49:18Hahaha.