Not Breaking the Bank & An Individual's Hard Work (w Billy Rickman) Pt. 1 Apr ‘19 Ep 463

In a throwback podcast episode, Alex Hormozi and Billy Rickman delve into the challenges of running profitable gyms and small businesses, debunking the misconception that passion alone leads to success. They discuss the high failure rates in the fitness industry, emphasizing the importance of grit, effort, and the ability to learn from failures. Hormozi, who has grown his company to over $4 million in monthly revenue, shares insights from his book "Grit" by Angela Duckworth and his own experiences, revealing that consistent hard work and learning from multiple business attempts are crucial for achievement. The conversation also touches on the psychological aspects of business, the role of strategy, and the importance of evolving from a technician to a business owner. Hormozi promotes his book "100 Million Dollar Offers" as a valuable resource for listeners aspiring to grow their businesses.

• Mosy reflects on a past podcast appearance discussing small business strategies.
• He emphasizes the importance of hard work and leveraging it in business.

So this is Young Mosey. This is preacquisition.com. This is in the middle of gym launch. I went on a show with Billy Rickman and we talked about how to do business without breaking the bank and how to leverage hard work within the context of a small business. I think you guys will dig it and enjoy.

The quote introduces Mosy as a business entrepreneur who has experience in building a business before a significant acquisition. He highlights the core topic of his past discussion, which focused on cost-effective business strategies and the value of hard work.

• Alex explains the common pitfalls in starting restaurants and gyms.
• He points out the misconception that personal interest equates to business acumen.

It's like restaurants is number one and then gyms are number two for the highest failure of businesses. And I think typically it's for the same reasons. People are like, I like cooking, I'll make a restaurant. And people are like, I really like fitness and health, I'll open a gym. And the skill set that it takes to like fitness and health couldn't be further apart from actually running a profitable gym.

Alex provides insight into the high failure rates of restaurants and gyms, attributing it to individuals mistaking their passion for a skill or hobby as the necessary skills for running a successful business in that field.

• Billy Rickman expresses interest in the psychological aspects of business success.
• He notes Mosy's charisma and confidence as potential factors in his success.

So, like following you online, listening to your podcast, watching your videos, reading blogs and articles about you and things like that, and even chatting to you now for about 5 minutes, I can see you have a certain level of charisma and confidence. Well, you know what I mean. Sometimes those things come into it.

Billy Rickman comments on Mosy's personal qualities, suggesting that psychological factors such as charisma and confidence might play a role in an individual's business success.

• Mosy discusses the rapid growth of his company.
• He addresses the challenge of scaling a business without financial ruin or personal exhaustion.

How did you grow so rapidly without bankrupting the business or without going nuts? Either way.

Billy Rickman asks Mosy about the strategies employed to achieve quick growth without leading to bankruptcy or overwhelming stress, highlighting the delicate balance required in scaling a business.

• Mosy shares the recent financial achievements of his company.
• He humorously comments on the inflation rates in different markets.

So this last month we did over 4 million, like 4.1 or something like that.

Mosy provides concrete figures to illustrate the company's financial performance, with a recent milestone of over 4 million in revenue.

That's like 25 million Australian, right?

Mosy makes a light-hearted remark about currency conversion rates, emphasizing the impressive nature of the company's financial success when viewed from different market perspectives.

• Alex cites Angela Duckworth's book "Grit" and its relevance to success.
• He argues that grit, rather than intelligence or emotional intelligence, is a key predictor of achieving significant accomplishments.

Recently, I recently read through the book Grit by Angela Duckworth in one sitting. I read half the book, and I was like, all right, I get the point. But basically they looked at super successful individuals and they were able to tease out, because it wasn't intelligence. We already know that IQ doesn't really do it. EQ is like a little bit better, but they're like, what is it to predict someone becoming. Being able to achieve massive things? And they just call it grit.

Alex discusses the concept of grit as described by Angela Duckworth, emphasizing its importance over intelligence and emotional intelligence in predicting significant achievements. He suggests that perseverance and passion for long-term goals, or grit, is what sets apart highly successful individuals.

• Grit is defined as the perseverance to continue pushing through difficult situations.
• The equation of achievement includes two components: talent and effort.
• Effort is emphasized as being more significant than talent in the long run.
• Consistent practice over time, regardless of innate talent, leads to greater skill and achievement.
• The discussion suggests that perseverance and effort can outweigh natural ability.

"But it's basically like, how long will you hold on and keep pushing when things suck? And so I think that grit is what creates skill level, that then creates the achievement..."

This quote emphasizes the importance of grit in developing skills and achieving success. The speaker believes that the willingness to persist in the face of adversity is a key factor in building proficiency and reaching goals.

"Talent times effort equals skill. And then skill times effort equals achievement. And so effort counts twice."

The quote outlines an equation for achievement, highlighting that effort is a critical component that influences the outcome twice as much as talent. This underscores the value of hard work in the development of skill and the attainment of success.

• People often overestimate the importance of talent or intelligence in achieving success.
• The speaker argues that the actual potential is rooted in consistent effort and practice.
• A comparison is made between someone who practices a skill for an extended period versus someone who relies solely on talent.

"A lot of people put too much weight on how talented or how smart they perceive themselves to be, rather than what their actual potential is based on actually just consistently doing something."

This quote suggests that individuals may focus too much on their perceived natural abilities and not enough on the potential they could reach through consistent effort and practice.

• The speaker has started multiple businesses, with each venture offering valuable lessons.
• Persistence through failure is seen as a way to accumulate experience that leads to better decision-making.
• The speaker's proficiency in sales is attributed to experience rather than innate talent.

"And so the original question was, how much do I think strategy and hard work contributed to the rapid growth? The strategy came from the fact that this isn't my first business, this is my 7th business."

The speaker attributes their strategic approach to business growth to the lessons learned from starting several businesses, implying that experience has been a significant factor in their success.

"I also did 4001 on one closes. And so is it that I'm really talented or that I've just done it a lot of times and it would be unreasonable for me to not be if I weren't decent at it at this point..."

This quote illustrates the speaker's belief that their ability to sell is the result of extensive practice and experience, rather than natural talent alone.

• The metaphor of gym training is used to exemplify the principle that consistent effort leads to stronger results.
• The number of repetitions in exercise, like bench presses, is compared to the effort put into any skill or business venture.

"The guy who goes and does 1000 bench presses or the guy who goes and does 20 bench presses, the guy's going to be stronger who's done 1000, right?"

The quote draws a parallel between the effort put into physical training and the effort required to excel in any discipline, suggesting that more effort leads to greater strength or proficiency.

• The host promotes their book, "100 Million Dollar Offers," which took over 1000 hours to write.
• The book is presented as a gift to the community, with the hope of building goodwill and potential future partnerships.

"I have a book on Amazon. It's called 100 million dollar offers... You can get it for Kindle... I put over 1000 hours into writing that book and it's my biggest give to our community."

This quote serves as a self-promotion for the host's book, which they describe as a significant investment of time and effort intended to benefit the community of listeners and readers.

• Billy Rickman and Alex Sharp discussed their shared passion for addressing failure in their respective industries.
• Billy Rickman's background includes military service and experience in the hair, beauty, and cosmetics industry.
• After selling his franchise business, he began coaching others, identifying a high failure rate in his industry.
• Many individuals start businesses out of love for the industry but struggle to transition from technicians to business owners.
• The failure to make this transition leads to personal and financial stress, causing them to fall out of love with the industry.
• Alex Sharp noted similar patterns in the gym industry.

"So when I did an interview with Alex Sharp and he said that you and I were similar in a way because we were both passionate about failure in our industry." "How many people were in love with the industry? And they go, I'm going to start a business in the industry. They start it and they never transition from technician to business owner."

The quotes highlight the common issue of industry professionals starting businesses out of passion but lacking the skills to manage the business effectively, leading to high failure rates.

• The restaurant and gym industries have some of the highest business failure rates.
• People often start these businesses based on their interests, such as cooking or fitness, without the necessary business acumen.
• This lack of understanding about the difference between enjoying an activity and running a successful business leads to many closures.

"It's exactly like that. I would say, mean, it's like restaurants is number one and then gyms are number two for the highest failure of businesses." "To like fitness and health couldn't be further apart from actually running a profitable gym."

These quotes emphasize the disconnect between personal passion for a hobby or skill and the realities of running a successful business in that field.

• Business owners often do not realize the unique challenges of their industry until they are deeply involved.
• Many assume that the steps they are taking are common practice and not innovative.
• There is a lack of awareness about the "unknown unknowns"—things they are not aware that they do not know.
• The focus tends to be on successful businesses, with failing ones often overlooked or forgotten.

"And then halfway through, I convert three out of four into a year long membership, and then we're good for the year. It seems simple, but a lot of things is like, you don't know what you don't. It's like unknown. Unknowns. You don't know what you know or you don't know what you don't."

This quote reflects the speaker's initial belief that their practices were standard and not particularly innovative, highlighting the common ignorance of the complexities involved in running a successful business.

• Consistency is seen as a positive trait in business.
• Gym owners are perceived to have an advantage due to their discipline and motivation.
• The fitness industry demands long hours and a strong work ethic.

"They were there all the time. Well, they must be doing something well." This quote emphasizes the importance of consistency in maintaining a successful business presence.

"They've got an advantage over my industry because you've got usually, typically when you look in, you say, well, they must be self disciplined, they must be self motivated, they've got high energy, all of these things." This quote suggests that the discipline and motivation commonly found in gym owners are advantageous traits that could benefit other industries.

• Gym owners work extremely long hours, often from early morning to late evening.
• The demanding schedule leads to exhaustion, impacting the quality of their own workouts.
• Despite the hard work, gym owners still need to find time for meal prep and personal care on their limited days off.

"Because also in the fitness industry, it's super common to work from 04:00 a.m. Until 09:00 p.m. It's normal." This quote illustrates the demanding and rigorous work schedule that is typical in the fitness industry.

"And so from an advantage standpoint, from a work ethic side, yes, I don't know how hard salon owners work, but I know the gym owners work their ass off." The quote highlights the exceptional work ethic of gym owners, which is acknowledged as possibly greater than in other industries.

• Industry professionals, especially mothers, struggle to balance their career ambitions with family responsibilities.
• Parent guilt and the desire to be a good spouse and parent can conflict with career goals.
• Cultural expectations may lead to different experiences of this struggle between genders.

"It's not like the people in the industry don't work hard. I think they work really hard, but I think a lot of people in my industry who'll be watching this and listening to this, they're mums and they have to do the kids school runs and they're trying to figure out how to balance work and their career and their ambition with the personal life at home as well." This quote addresses the challenge of balancing a demanding career with family obligations, particularly for mothers in the industry.

"I'm not saying that fathers don't struggle with it the way moms do, but I would say that if I'm being candid, they probably don't struggle with it as much because there's a certain expectation culturally that guys are going to be putting bread on the table and doing everything you can to work while wife, mom, et cetera stays at home." This quote discusses the cultural expectations that may lead to differing experiences of work-life balance between men and women.

• The speaker reflects on how their business perspectives have evolved over time.
• There is an acknowledgment that strategies and views on business can change.

"Hope you guys enjoyed some throwback mosey way back when preacquisition.com got to hear me. Probably be a little bit more tactical than I normally would be about business stuff. That's actually before 100 million dollar offers, so you can see how my perspectives have changed over time." This quote provides context for the speaker's evolution in business thinking and suggests that their strategies have developed since the time before significant business offers.

• The importance of using customer experience to transition clients to high-end offers is highlighted.
• The approach to up-selling should be appealing to the customers.

"The next half of this podcast, part two is coming up where we'll talk about how to use a back end customer experience to ascend customers into high." This quote introduces the upcoming discussion on leveraging customer experience for business growth, specifically in relation to high-ticket offers.

"Ticket offers in a way that is beautiful that you will dig." The quote suggests that the method of introducing high-ticket offers should be attractive and engaging to the customer.