100M Leads by Alex Hormozi PDF
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2023
Alex Hormozi
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This book, "100M Leads", by Alex Hormozi, details how to generate leads and boost sales through effective advertising. The author shares techniques learned from personal experiences and the success of his holding company Acquisition.com which generates over $250 million in annual revenue. The book covers strategies, including warm and cold outreach, free content posting, paid advertising, customer referrals, employee involvement, and affiliate programs, aiming to get strangers interested in the products being sold.
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Acquisition.com Volume II $100M Leads How to Get Strangers To Want To Buy Your Stuff Alex Hormozi Copyright © 2023 by Alex Hormozi All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, r...
Acquisition.com Volume II $100M Leads How to Get Strangers To Want To Buy Your Stuff Alex Hormozi Copyright © 2023 by Alex Hormozi All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief questions embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below. Acquisition.com 7710 N FM 620, Building 13C, Suite 100, Austin, Texas 78726 Guiding Principles Do more. Thank Yous To Trevor: Thank you for your true friendship. Thank you for your tireless effort to extract the ideas out of my head. And, for your continued support in slaying the nihilism monster. People say you are lucky if you have one real friend in your entire life. Thank you for being the best friend a man could ask for. To Leila: Even though Lady Gaga said it first, it doesn’t make it any less true. “You found the light in me that I couldn’t find. The part of me that’s you will never die.” Table of Contents Section I: Start Here How I Got Here The Problem This Book Solves Section II: Get Understanding Leads Alone Aren’t Enough Engage Your Leads: Offers and Lead Magnets Section III: Get Leads #1 Warm Outreach #2 Post Free Content Part I #2 Post Free Content Part II Free Goodwill #3 Cold Outreach #4 Run Paid Ads Part I: Making An Ad #4 Run Paid Ads Part II: Money Stuff Core Four On Steroids: More Better New Section IV: Get Lead Getters #1 Customer Referrals - Word of Mouth #2 Employees #3 Agencies #4 Affiliates and Partners Section IV Conclusion: Get Lead Getters Section V: Get Started Advertising in Real Life: Open To Goal The Roadmap - Putting it All Together A Decade in a Page Free Goodies: Calls To Action Section I: Start Here “It’s hard to be poor with leads bangin’ down your door” - Hormozi family jingle You have to sell stuff to make money. It seems simple enough, but everyone tries to skip to the ‘make money’ part. It doesn’t work. I tried. You need all the pieces. You need the stuff to sell - an offer. You need people to sell it to - leads. Then you gotta get those people to buy it - sales. Once you put all those in place, then you can make money. My first book, $100M Offers, covers the first step and gives you the stuff. It answers the age old question “What should I sell?.” Answer - an offer so good people feel stupid saying no. But strangers can only buy your stuff if they know you exist. This takes leads. “Leads” mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But most agree that they’re the first step to getting more customers. In simpler terms, it means they’ve got the problem to solve and the money to spend. If you’re reading this book, you already know leads don’t magically appear. You need to go get them. More precisely, you need to help them find you so they can buy your stuff! And the best part is, you don’t have to wait…you can force them to find you. You do that through advertising. Advertising, the process of making known, lets strangers know about the stuff you sell. If more people know about the stuff you sell, then you sell more stuff. If you sell more stuff, then you make more money. Having lots of leads makes it hard to be poor. Advertising lets you have a terrible product... and still make money. It lets you be terrible at sales…and still make money. It lets you make a ton of mistakes and still. make. money. In short, having this skill gives you endless chances to get it right. And in the unforgiving world of business, second chances are hard to come by. So you might as well load up. Advertising is a skill worth having. And this book, $100M Leads, shows you exactly how to do it. *** $100M Leads sits atop the foundation of my first book, $100M Offers. It assumes you already have a Grand Slam Offer to sell - the stuff. Once you have an offer to sell, it creates the next problem–Who do I sell it to? This book is my answer to that question. Leads. Lots of leads. And before you know how to get leads, life sucks. You don’t know where your next customer will come from. You scramble to cover rent and pay bills. You worry about laying people off, putting food on your table and… going under. You work your hardest to succeed, and others laugh at you for trying. It feels like death. I’ve been there. I get it. This book puts you in a better situation. One where you’ve got more leads than you can handle and more money than you can spend. Here’s How: First, it explains how advertising works. Second, it reveals the four core ways to get leads. Third, it shows you how to get other people to do it for you. Finally, it wraps up with a one-page advertising plan you can use to grow your business today. *** Once you know how to get leads, life gets easier. As for why you should blindly listen to me about getting more leads - don’t. Make up your own darn mind! But, in the spirit of “walking the talk,” here’s my track record: I advertise in a variety of industries through my holding company Acquisition.com. Our portfolio includes software, e-commerce, business services, consumer services, brick & mortar chains, digital products, and plenty of others. Together, they make $250,000,000+ in annual revenue. And they do it by getting 20,000+ leads per day selling offers from $1 to $1,000,000+. On the personal side, I have a lifetime average return on advertising of 36:1. That means for every $1 I spend on advertising, I get $36 back. A return of 3600%. Some people built their wealth in the stock market. Others in real estate. I built mine advertising. This year I surpassed $100,000,000 in net worth at age 32. And if you’re from the future, that’s in 2022 US Dollars. Which, much to my dismay, came with no flyers. No awards. No parades. I’m still 2000x poorer than the richest man in the world. My life is pretty much the same. I’m still the same height, married to the same woman, and graying faster than when I was poor. In these pages, I share the skills responsible for the bulk of my material success. I did it all using the advertising methods in this book. I left nothing out. This isn’t a book of theories or armchair analysis. This book is built on what worked for me. And I wrote it hoping it’ll work even better for you. To answer a question I got after releasing my first book: "Why do your books look like they’re written for kids?" The answer is simple: my books must be books I would read. And I have a short attention span. As such, I liken my reading preferences to that of a child: short in length, simple in words, and with lots of pictures. These books are my attempt to do that. $100M Leads is about getting strangers to show interest in the stuff you sell. And once I transfer that skill to you, it’s your turn to use it. With that out of the way…let's get rich, shall we? How I Got Here “Hope is being able to see the light despite all the darkness” - Desmond Tutu March 2017. I felt hurried taps on my shoulder while working at my desk. It was Leila, my (then) girlfriend and business partner. “What’s up? You alright?” “We have a problem.” She said. What now? I thought. “Look at this.” She shoved a stack of books out of the way to make room for her laptop. “What am I looking at?” I squinted. “A disaster.” She ran her finger down the screen to direct my gaze. -$99… -$499…-$499… -$299…-$399… -$499…-$499… Every other number was more than my rent. “What are these?” She started scrolling. “Refunds. All of them. From the two gyms we launched last month.” “Wait. How? Why?” She scrolled more. “I got lots of weird texts last night from the members we sold at the Kentucky gym. I guess the owner stood up on a chair and told everyone to refund and go home. He didn’t want to deal with all the new customers.” "That's insane," I said. She was still scrolling. "Yeah, and the other gym owner told his new customers he would take them for half price if they asked for refunds from us and paid him instead.” “Wait what? They can’t do that.” I said. “Well, they did.” She scrolled faster, the numbers blurred. “Have you called them? That’s not allowed in the agreement." I said. “Yea. I know. They’re ignoring my calls.” I put my hand on hers. The refund waterfall froze in place. Hundreds of droplet-size reminders of how much I sucked. “How bad is this? How many refunds? Just cutting profits? Or enough to go negative and owe money?” I tried to keep my voice steady. I failed. Leila paused before answering. “It’s a hundred and fifty grand.” The number hung in the air. “...we won’t be able to pay my friends.” Their faces flashed through my mind, and the little hope I had drained from my chest. A month earlier, I got her friends to quit their jobs for this. Now I had to tell them I didn’t have the money to pay them. She continued. “We can’t sell our way out of this either. It’ll just create more refunds to deal with. And we’re out of money.” Her eyes met mine, looking for the answers she deserved. I had nothing. I felt sick. A year earlier- I was good at getting leads for my gyms. I scaled to five locations in only three years. My claim to fame was opening my gyms up at full capacity on the first day. So, I opened as many as I could as fast as I could. My fast pace started getting attention. I got asked to speak at a conference about my advertising method. To me though, I didn’t think my process was special. I figured everyone was doing it. So, I walked through my presentation hoping I wasn’t boring the audience. They were silent. The moment I stepped off stage, a mob formed around me. They hurled questions at me left and right. I could barely keep up. They even followed me into the bathroom. I felt like a celebrity. It was wild. To this day, I’ve never been more bombarded in my life. Everyone wanted me to teach them how to do what I had just presented. They wanted my help. Me. But I had nothing to sell them. Although, over one hundred people left me their phone numbers and business cards in case I did. Then a wild idea came to me. I could make some money doing this… 3 months later–an idea turns into a business Since I used advertising to launch my gyms at full capacity I thought, maybe, I could “launch” other people’s gyms to full capacity, too. I called the company Gym Launch. Original, I know. My offer was simple. I’ll fill your gym in 30 days for free. You pay nothing. I pay for everything. I sell new members and keep the first 6 weeks of membership fees as payment. You get everything else. If I don’t fill your gym, I don’t make money. You spend nothing either way. It was an easy offer to sell. I’d fly out. Turn on my lead machine. Work the leads. Then sell the leads. Except, instead of selling them into my gym, I’d sell them into whatever gym I was camped at for the month. Every month I’d go to a new gym. Rinse and repeat. It worked. Word of this kid who’d fill your gym for free got around fast. Unless I hired help, referrals would’ve booked me out for more than two years straight. I couldn’t keep running my gyms and doing this, so I sold my gyms and went all in on Gym Launch. I saw a problem though. I filled their gyms, and they got to keep all the long-term profits. I left so much money on the table. But, if I were part owner of some of the gyms, I could stack revenue month over month. Bingo. Not much later, one of the gym owners made such an offer. We’d be fifty-fifty. I would fill the gym with members, and he would fill it with staff. With this new model, I could open up 1 to 2 gyms per month and own them all. This would work much better than only collecting the upfront cash. A win-win partnership. A slight hitch in the plan, though. My new partner had “poor financials.” So nice guy Alex offered to pay all the expenses and take on all the liability for the first launch. I personally guaranteed the lease and would spend my time and money to fill it with members. Once filled, I would hand the gym over to him. I put all the money from selling my gyms, including my life savings, into this "launch and go" model. It took everything I had. A few weeks later, halfway through the launch, I woke up to find all the money in the account gone. All of it. The partner accused me of stealing and took the money as “his share” of the profits. But, we hadn’t made any profit. Then, he sent the money to a foreign contact and filed for bankruptcy. That's what he told me anyway. When I offered to walk through the financials and account for every dollar, he refused. That’s when I knew I had made a terrible mistake. It turns out he had been indicted for fraud a few years earlier. And to make matters worse, I already knew. He told me it was “just a big misunderstanding.” I believed him. As the saying goes, when money meets experience... the money gets the experience, and the experience gets the money. Lesson learned. In three months, I went from a successful multi-location gym owner. To selling all my gyms. To a cool new launching gyms thing. To completely broke. Everything I made from selling my gyms was gone. My life savings was gone. Wiped out. All of it. Four years of work, saving, sleeping on the floor– erased in a…oh no… Leila. Leila quit her life as she knew it to do this with me. She weathered my constant changes. She supported me in the half-baked partnership even though she opposed it. Even with this huge failure, she never once even hinted, I told you so. Instead, she told me, “The Gym Launch model is still good. Let’s do more of those.” So we did. I put $3,300 per day on a credit card to pay for ads, airfare, hotels, rental cars, etc. for six sales reps. Leila’s friends. I say this lightly, but I covered what a nightmare it was in the first book. So I won’t repeat it here. In the first month, we launched six gyms and collected $100,117. We made enough to cover the $100,000 credit card bill. And for the record, that meant I was still broke. The next month we made $177,399 with $30,000-$40,000 in profit. It gave me some room to breathe. Finally. And that’s when Leila tapped me on the shoulder to share $150,000 worth of bad news. Now you’re caught up. The morning after Leila told me we had $150,000 in refunds and lost all our money. Again. A honking horn startled me at 3 AM. My problems flooded back. Welp. I’m awake now. I pulled myself out of bed and slinked to my work corner. I walked over out of habit more than desire. I slid the chair out and plopped down - notebook and pen at the ready. I had to make $150,000 in profit, not revenue, in thirty days. And I had to do it with no money to my name, and no experience making that much profit in a month. Ever. So I started scribbling ideas: …Charge an upfront fee for new gyms …Ask for a percentage of revenue from old gyms …Get gyms I already launched to pre-pay for a future launch …Call every old customer and sell them supplements over the phone I kept penciling the math. None of these would make enough money. Not in thirty days anyway. I felt glued to the chair. I have to figure this out. I stared at the notebook, hoping it knew something. It didn’t. God I suck. A few hours later, Leila woke up. Like clockwork, she walked into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. She got straight to work at the kitchen table behind me. “Whatcha doin’?” I asked, trying to distract myself. “Check-ins with online fitness clients.” she said. “What does that bring in again?” “$3600 last month.” “What do you charge?” “300 bucks a month. Why?” “How long does it take you?” “A few hours a week” “And there’s no overhead? just time?" “Yea…why?” I plowed on “I know these are old personal training clients, but do you think you could do it with strangers?” “I don’t know…probably…what’re you thinking?”. “I think I have something.” I said. “Wait, for what?” “To come up with the hundred and fifty grand.” “What, my online training? How?” She looked skeptical. “We just cut the middleman and sell direct. I think I can just run ads to a sales page that books phone appointments. Then we can sell the fitness programs we’ve been selling at the gyms, but sell it as an online program. We already have the materials. We already know the ads work. And there won’t be any cost to fulfill. Plus, no more flights. No rentals. No motels. And no gym owner telling them to refund...” She hesitated. “You think it could work?” “Honestly…no idea. But every day we don’t do something is one less day to come up with the money.” She thought hard. “Alright, let’s do it.” That was all I needed. I worked thirty-eight hours straight to make the offer go live. A few hours later, leads started flowing. She took her first call the next day. I walked in as the call finished: “$499...yea…and what card did you want to use?” she had the candor of a pro. A few minutes later, I asked with anticipation, “Was that a sale??” “Yep.” Dang, she is a pro. I even snapped a picture of Leila closing our first sale because it felt so momentous. Within days, we were doing $1000 per day in online fitness sales. We also got the cash up front with almost no risk of refunds. This was working. But, we were still way short of the $150,000. At lunch, she listened to my master plan between mouthfuls. “Okay, the sales guys can stay home and sell this over the phone. If they do the same $1000 per day as you, with eight guys, we should hit $8,000 per day. In thirty days, we’ll make $240,000. After ad spend and commissions, we'll have enough to cover the $150,000.” “What about the gyms we’re supposed to launch?” “I’ll call 'em and tell ‘em we’re going in another direction. They haven't paid us anything, so there’s not much they can object to. I’ll start calling them after lunch.” The first call was to a gym owner in Boise, Idaho. “Hello?” I looked down to read the bullet points on my little script. “Hey man - we’re not doing launches anymore. We’re selling direct-to- consumer weight loss. So we won't be coming out and–” He interrupted. “But I really need this right now. I just refinanced my house and maxed out all my credit cards to keep my gym afloat. I put my life savings into this place. Is there any way you can help me? You launched my buddy’s gym. I know what you can do.” Given my worse than yours situation, I didn’t care how bad his finances were. So I tried to sound polite. “I get that it’s a hard time, but we’re not flying out. I’m sorry.” “Okay, okay. I get you can’t fly out. But is there any way you can just show me what to do? We really need this." I was beat up, exhausted, broke, and felt betrayed by the entire industry. I should have said “no” but instead, I said… “Fine. I’ll show you how to get leads, but I'm not flying out there to save you if you can’t sell.” “Totally get it. It’s on me. I can close. I just don't have anyone walking in the door. I need LEADS. How much to show me how to launch?” I looked down at my script. This is not how it was supposed to go. I wanted to say no and hang up. Our weight loss offer was working, and I didn't want distractions. He’d already told me he was broke, so I said the biggest number I could think of to get him off the phone. “$6000. Consider it my ‘selling my secrets’ sale.” “6k?” “Yes. Six thousand.” I said, articulating the whole number, hoping to scare him off. “6k? Okay - done.” What. I stood there slack-jawed, frozen in disbelief. Six. Thousand. Dollars. I floated out of myself and watched the conversation happen. I still get choked up thinking about it. “Oh…uhh…great…what card do you wanna use?” Now, trying not to scare away the Six. Thousand. Dollars. Panicked, I wrote his card information on the flap of a cardboard box. “When do I start?” he asked. “I’ll send you everything Monday morning.” Giving myself the insane task of packaging my entire gym leads and sales system in forty-eight hours. He agreed. I hung up and sat in shock. Once I came to my senses, I ran the credit card. $6000…success. Is this real? I desperately wanted to tell Leila, but she was on a sales call. Fifteen minutes later, she walked in. “Got another one,” she said. “You won’t believe this. I just sold our Gym Launch system for $6000 to the gym in Boise.” “What? I thought we were doing weight loss.” "Yea, I know. So did I, but…” She waited. “…I think we’re still in the gym business…I think we were just doing it wrong.” She needed more details. I didn’t have any yet. “I’m gonna call the gyms we planned to launch next month and see if they’ll buy it too.” “Uhhh…okay.” She said. The next call went the same except when he said “How much?” I said, “$8,000.” He agreed. Next call, same thing, except I said, “$10,000.” He agreed. All eight gyms we planned to launch said yes to licensing the launch materials instead. In a single day, I collected $60,000 selling something with zero cost to fulfill. In a single day, I was a third of the way out of my $150,000 prison. I spent five years developing that advertising system. It finally paid off. Doing the thing that scared me most - giving away my secrets - led to the biggest breakthrough in my life. “I can’t believe it,” I said. “I think we can get out of this.” “So… are we not doing the weight loss thing?” “No. I guess not…I think we’ve had something here all along. We just had to put the pieces together.” “Do you think anyone else will buy it?” “I’m gonna call the thirty gyms we already launched. They know our system works because we did it in front of them. We also have some gym owner leads from that conference. That should cover the $150,000 and give us a clean slate.” “Ok, then what? Is this what we’re gonna do?” She looked for some well-deserved stability. “I mean - I think so? It makes more money than the other thing, and it’s way easier to deliver.” She agreed. “So after I call those leads, I’ll start running ads. I'll post our success stories in a few gym groups to get leads from there. And I’ll also tell the gyms I’ll pay $2000 cash for any gym they send that signs up. That gives us ad leads, content leads, and referral leads.” *** In the next 30 days, we made $215,000 in profit. We covered the $150,000 in refunds with cash to spare. We did so well because the average gym using our advertising system added an extra $30,000 in cash in their first 30 days. It made them more money than they paid for it. It delivered - in spades. Plus, they got to keep all the cash. They loved it. Referrals poured in. I found the processing records from May-June 2017, the month it all happened: We finished that first year at $6,820,000 in revenue. The next calendar year we did $25,900,000 in revenue and $17,000,000 in profit. Yea, tens of millions. It was insane. Like, nuts. The company continues to this day with 4500+ gym locations and counting. And no one is more surprised than me. Something I made actually worked... finally. In 2018 we started Prestige Labs to sell supplements through our gym client base. We used Prestige Labs and the gyms as an affiliate network to generate weight loss leads for each other. In 2019, we started ALAN. A new type of software company that worked leads for local businesses. In 2020, we founded Acquisition.com as a holding company for our business interests. In 2021, we sold 75% of ALAN to a bigger company. I’m not allowed to say for how much, but ALAN did $12,000,000 in revenue in the prior twelve months. So you can use your imagination. We sold 66% of our supplement and gym licensing business to American Pacific Group at a $46,200,000 valuation. And that was after taking $42,000,000 in owner pay over the first 4 years. I share this because I can still hardly believe it. All this was because of a girl who believed in me, a credit card, and the ability to get leads. Important Disclaimer Knowing how to get leads saved my business, my reputation, and likely my life. It was the only way I stayed afloat. It was the reason I kept getting second, third, fourth, and fifth chances. I advertised a lot of different things, in a lot of different ways. I advertised to get member leads for local gyms. I advertised to get online weight loss leads for Leila. I advertised to get gym owner leads to sell business services. I advertised to get affiliate leads for our supplement company. I advertised to get agency leads for our software. And so on. Getting leads has been my get out of jail free card with no expiration date. And at this point, it’s faded and worn with use. I’d like to share this skill with you. I can show you how to get more leads. And here is your first piece of good news: by reading these words, you’re already in the top 10 percent. Most people buy stuff and never crack it open. I’ll also throw out a spoiler: the further you read, the bigger the nuggets get. Just watch. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for allowing me to do work I find meaningful. Thank you for lending me your most valuable asset—your attention. I promise to do my best to give you the highest possible return on it. This book delivers. The world needs more entrepreneurs. It needs more fighters. It needs more magic. And that’s what I’m sharing with you ― magic. The Problem This Book Solves “Leads, lots of leads.” You have a problem: You're not getting as many leads as you want because you're not advertising enough. Period. As a result, your potential customers are ignorant of your existence. How sad! This means less money flows your way. So now that you know you have a problem, unless you hate helping people and making money, you kinda have to solve it. How this book solves it: To make more money, you’ve gotta grow your business. You can only grow your business in two ways: 1) Get more customers 2) Make them worth more That’s it. I grow our portfolio companies with this exact framework. $100M Leads focuses on number one - getting more customers. You get more customers by getting: 1) More Leads 2) Better Leads 3) Cheaper Leads 4) Reliably (think ‘from lots of places’). Bottom line: All else being equal…when you double your leads, you double your business. This book shows you how to transform your business into a lead- getting machine. Once you apply its models, you instantly increase lead flow. And, like cash flow, when leads flow, it’s hard not to make money. This book will solve your “not getting enough leads” problem for good. In a nutshell: I will show you how to get strangers to want to buy your stuff. What’s In It For Me? In one word: trust. I give this book and the course that comes with it for free (or at cost) in hopes of earning your trust. I want this book to provide more value than any $1000 course, $30,000 coaching program, or $100,000 degree. Although I could sell these materials that way, I don’t want to. I have a different model. I explain it below. Who am I looking to help? I want to provide value to two types of entrepreneurs. The first is under $1,000,000 per year in profit. My goal is to help you get to $1,000,000 in profit per year (fo’ free) and, in so doing, earn your trust. Try a couple of tactics from this book, get some leads, then try a few more, and get more leads. The more leads you get, the better. Do it enough, and you become the second type of entrepreneur: the type making over $1,000,000 in EBITDA (fancy word for profit) per year. Once you get there, or if that’s you now, it would be my honor to invest in your business and help you scale. I don't sell coaching, masterminds, courses, or anything like that… I invest. I buy equity in growing, profitable, bootstrapped companies. Then, I use the systems, resources, and teams of all my companies to fast-track the growth of your company. But don’t believe me yet...we just met. My Business Model My business model is simple: 1) Provide better free products than the marketplace’s paid products. 2) Earn the trust of entrepreneurs who make over $1,000,000 per year in profit. 3) Invest in those entrepreneurs to fast-track their growth. 4) Help everyone else for free, for good. Our process reverse-engineers success. The winners know my models will work for them because they already have. And I know the winners will use them because they already do. So, we operate on shared trust. This approach avoids failures and increases the likelihood of success. Win-win. Easy to say, but let me show you how much of a difference our process makes… Within the first 12 months, our average portfolio company 1.8x’s revenue and 3.01x’s profits. And we partner for the long haul, that's just the first 12 months. Our average portfolio company who's been with us between 12 and 24 months, 2.3x’s revenue and 4.7x’s profits. As a fun exercise, plug your numbers in to see what that would look like for you. This stuff works. That's how I know the models I'm about to show you work. They already have. Acquisition.com’s Mission To make real business accessible to everyone. Businesses solve problems. Businesses make the world better. There are too many problems for any one person to solve. And I can’t cure cancer, end hunger, or solve the world’s energy crisis (for now). But I can provide value to the entrepreneurs who build the businesses that will. I want to help create as many businesses as possible so we can solve as many problems as we can. So I share these business-building frameworks rather than hoard them. Fair enough? Cool. Let’s press on. Basic Outline of This Book I laid this book out from zero clients, zero leads, zero advertising, zero money, zero skills (Section II) to max clients, max leads, max advertising, max money, and max skills (Section IV). We learn more skills as we progress in the book. And when we have more skills, we can get more leads in the same amount of time. So, we finish with the most complex skills that get us the most leads for our time spent. We save them for the end because they take lots of skills and money. And, getting good and having money takes time. I want this book to help a person get their first five clients and crack their first ten million-dollar month and beyond. This order also reminds those with skills and money, me included, of the basics we stopped doing. Our businesses deserve better. Respecting the tried-and-true methods that got you to your current level will probably get you to the next one. Masters never don’t do the basics. So, we go from getting your first lead all the way to building a $100,000,000+ leads machine. Here’s the breakdown: Section I: You’re about to finish reading it right now. Section II: I reveal what makes advertising really work. Most entrepreneurs think about advertising the wrong way. Since they think about advertising the wrong way, they do the wrong stuff to get leads. You want to do the right stuff to get leads. This is the way. Section III: We learn advertising’s “core four.” There are only four ways to get leads. So if there is a most important “how to” section, it’s this one. Section IV: We learn how to get other people (customers, employees, agencies, and affiliates) to do it all for you. And this completes the assembly of your fully functioning $100M Leads machine. Section V: We wrap up with a one-page advertising plan you can use to get more leads today. Section II: Get Understanding Advertising. Simplified. In this section, we cover three things to make sure advertising does exactly what we want it to do. First, we talk about what a lead actually is. If we want more of them, then we better be darn well sure we’re talking about the same thing. Second, we learn how to separate leads that make you money from leads that waste your time. Third, I show you the best ways I know to get the leads that make you money to show interest in the stuff you sell. Let’s dive in. Leads Alone Aren’t Enough “If you cannot explain something in simple terms, then you don’t understand it.” - Dr. Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics I’ll let you in on a little secret. This book started because somebody asked me what a lead was. You’d think it would be simple, but I couldn’t give a straight answer. And after six months of trying to figure it out, I was more confused than before. It became clear I didn't know as much about leads as I thought. My search for a clear definition of “a lead” snowballed into the massive project that became $100M Leads. All this to say, we’ve got to agree on what the heck a lead is before we dive head first into getting them... So what’s a lead anyways? Someone who clicks an ad? A phone number? A person that schedules a call? A list of names? A door you knock on? A walk-in? An email address? A subscriber? A person that sees your content? Etc… You see, words matter because they affect how we think. How we think affects what we do. And if words have us thinking the wrong way, then we will probably do the wrong stuff. I hate doing the wrong stuff. So to do the right stuff more and the wrong stuff less, it’s best we know what words mean and use them. To cut the suspense, a lead is a person you can contact. That’s all. If you bought a list of emails, those are leads. If you get contact information from a website or database, those are leads. The numbers in your phone are leads. People on the street are leads. If you can contact them, they are leads. But what I came to realize was - leads alone aren’t enough. We want engaged leads: people who *show* interest in the stuff you sell. If someone gives their contact information on a website, that is an engaged lead. If someone follows you on social media and you can contact them, that is an engaged lead. If people reply to your email campaign, they are engaged leads. The leads showing interest are the leads that matter. Engaged leads are the true output of advertising. Getting more engaged leads is the point of this book. But I couldn’t call the book “engaged leads” because no one would get it. But now you do. So the next question is: How do we get leads to engage? Engage Your Leads: Offers and Lead Magnets “I don’t do drugs. I am drugs” - Salvador Dali April 2016. I paid $25,000 to be in this group, and everyone told me to do a webinar. In fact, my mentor at the time told me, “Do a webinar every week until you make a million dollars. Until then, don’t ask me about anything else.” This is my only path to success. I’ve got to figure this out. A webinar, as I understood it, was a magical presentation with a zillion slides. If somebody watched, it would hypnotize them into buying my thing. There was so much I didn't know. Landing pages. Registration pages. Follow-up emails. Replay emails. Cart close emails. Presentation software. Website integration. Writing ads. Making ad creative. Figuring out where to put the ads. Who to show the ads to. Building a payment page. Processing payments. Never mind making the actual webinar. The list overwhelmed me. So, I started with what I understood most, the landing page. I built a few of those for my gyms. My mentor made millions with webinars, so I modeled his landing page. But I didn’t need it to make millions. I just needed it to make something. Okay...now the “thank you” page. An entire Sunday later, the “thank you” page went live. Now for the big test. I put my email into the landing page, clicked “sign me up,” and waited. My brand new thank you page loaded. Success. I still wasn’t a millionaire, sad face. But it was something. The following Sunday, I sat down for my regular ‘work on the business, not in the business’ ritual. I had ten hours to figure out the next piece of this webinar puzzle. After my first cup of coffee, I decided I didn’t really want to work, but I still wanted to feel productive. So I went to my advertising group’s forum to get some tips. “Just got off my webinar. $32k in an hour! I ROI’d the entire tuition in my first week! Webinars rock!” I’m never gonna make this work. He joined the same month as me. He was in the same industry as me. He figured out how to make money with his webinar before me. He was stealing all the clients before I even got a chance. Everyone is making money except me. Desperate, I called other people in the group. “I will do anything for your business: build a sales team… write your sales scripts… fix your sales process… anything… just help me finish this webinar…please?” One person agreed to help me. Thank God. Eight Sundays later, and the little circle next to my ad campaign turned green. It’s alive! I was officially spending $150 per day on ads. All I had to do now was watch the money pour in. I was gonna be rich! Three days, $450, 80 leads, and 0 sales later… I shut it all down. I suck. No one even watched my webinar. Meanwhile, that guy posted again about how much money he was making off this webinar stuff. Why do I suck so much? I spent most of my money to join this group, and I just set another $450 on fire. I didn’t have the money to fail again. I needed the next thing to work. And if I couldn’t even get anyone to watch, what was the point? The case study: I scrolled my newsfeed to see what other people were doing. An ad caught my eye. “Free Case Study on How I Spent $1 and Made $123,000 in a Weekend” or something like that. I punched in my email, and the page sent me to a video of walking through a successful advertising campaign. Nothing fancy. No slides. No “presenting.” Just a dude explaining how his stuff worked. This, I can do. I fired up my screen recorder: Okay everyone. So here’s the ad account of a gym we just launched. Here are the ads we ran. This is how much we spent. We sent them to this page with this offer. You can see how many leads we got here. They got this many people scheduled. This many showed. This is how many they sold. This is how much the gym owner made. This is everything we did. If you want help setting something like this up, we’ll do the whole thing for free. And we only get paid off the sales you make. If that sounds fair, book a call. It took maybe 13 minutes. Simple. I swapped the webinar out for this video and changed the headline: “FREE Case Study: How we added 213 members and $112,000 in revenue to a small gym in San Diego.” They would book a call on the next page. I set up a fresh ad campaign and went to bed. The next morning… “Alex…what did you do?” Leila asked. “What do you mean?” “Strangers have booked my calendar solid for like the next week.” “Really?” “Yea. Did you start a new campaign or something?” “Yea… but I didn’t think it would go live so fast. Wait. People booked calls!?” “Yea. Tons.” Seeing Leila’s calendar stacked with appointments filled me with joy. It’s working! I learned an important lesson. They didn't want my webinar. But they did want my case study. This accidental discovery showed me how getting leads actually works…you have to give people something they want. The best part is - it’s easier than you think. Lead Magnets Get Leads to Engage Offers are what you promise to give in exchange for something of value. Often, a business promises to give its product or service in exchange for money. This is a core offer. If you advertise your core offer, then you go straight for the sale–the direct path to money. Advertising your core offer might be all you need to get leads to engage. Try this way first. Sometimes, though, people want to know more about your offer before they buy. This is common for businesses that sell more expensive stuff. If that’s you, then you’ll often get more leads to engage by advertising with a lead magnet first. A lead magnet is a complete solution to a narrow problem. It’s typically a lower-cost or free offer to see who is interested in your stuff. And, once solved, it reveals another problem solved by your core offer. This is important because leads interested in lower-cost or free offers now are more likely to buy a related higher-cost offer later. Think of it like salty pretzels at a bar. If somebody eats the pretzels, they’ll get thirsty and order a drink. The salty pretzels solve the narrow problem of hunger. They also reveal a thirst problem solved by a drink, which they can get, in exchange for money. The pretzels have a cost, but when done right, the drink revenue covers the cost of the pretzels and nets a profit. So your lead magnet should be valuable enough on its own that you could charge for it. And, after they get it, they should want more of what you offer. This gets them one step closer to buying your stuff. A person who pays with their time now is more likely to pay with their money later. Good lead magnets get more engaged leads and customers than a core offer alone, and do it for less money. So let’s make a lead magnet, shall we? Seven Steps To Creating an Effective Lead Magnet Step 1: Figure out the problem you want to solve and who to solve it for Step 2: Figure out how to solve it Step 3: Figure out how to deliver it Step 4: Test what to name it Step 5: Make it easy to consume Step 6: Make it darn good Step 7: Make it easy for them to tell you they want more Something to keep in mind before we start - Grand Slam Offers work for free stuff as much or better than they do for paid stuff. So make your lead magnet so insanely good people will feel stupid saying no. And yes, this means you may have a few insanely valuable offers (even if some are free). But that’s a good thing. The business that provides the most value wins. Period. So let’s get started. Step 1: Figure out the problem you want to solve and who to solve it for Here’s a simple example we can walk through together…this book is a lead magnet. You are a lead. I want to solve an engaged lead problem. And I want to solve it for businesses making less than $1,000,000 in annual profit. With enough engaged leads, they can make more than $1,000,000+ in annual profit. Then, they qualify for my core offer: me investing in their company to help them scale. The first step is picking the problem to solve. I use a simple model to figure this out. I call it the Problem-Solution cycle. You can see it below. Every problem has a solution. Every solution reveals more problems. This is the never-ending cycle of business (and life). And, smaller problem-solution cycles sit inside larger problem- solution cycles. So how do we pick the right problem to solve? We start by picking a problem that’s narrow and meaningful. Then, solve it. And, like we just learned, when we solve one problem, a new problem reveals itself. Here comes the important part- if we can solve that new problem with our core offer, we’ve got a winner. This is because we solve this new problem in exchange for money. That’s it. Don’t overthink it. Example: Imagine we help homeowners sell their homes. That is a broad solution. But what about the steps before selling a home? Owners want to know what their house is worth. They want to know how to increase its value. They need pictures. They need it cleaned. They need landscaping. They need minor things fixed. They need moving services. They may need staging. Etc. These are all narrow problems–great for lead magnets. We pick one of the narrow problems and solve it for free. And although it helps, it makes their other problem more obvious–they still have to sell their home. But now we’ve earned their trust. So we can charge to solve the remaining problems with our core offer and help them achieve their broader goal. Action Step: Pick the narrowly defined problem you want to solve. Then, make sure your core offer can solve the next problem that comes up. Step 2: Figure out how to solve it There are three types of lead magnets and each offers a different type of solution. First, if your audience has a problem they don’t know about, your lead magnet would make them aware of it. Second, you could solve a recurring problem for a short amount of time with a sample or trial of your core offer. Third, you can give them one step in a multi-step process that solves a bigger problem. All three solve one problem and reveal others. So your three types are: 1) Reveal Problems, 2) Samples and Trials, and 3) One Step Of A Multi-Step Process. 1) Reveal Their Problem. Think “diagnosis.” These lead magnets work great when they reveal problems that get worse the longer you wait. ○ Example: You run a speed test that shows their website loads at 30% below the speed it should. You draw a clear line between where they should be and how much money they lose by being below standards. ○ Example: You do a posture analysis and show them what their posture should look like. You draw a clear line to what their pain-free life would look like if their posture were fixed and how you can help. ○ Example: You do a termite inspection that reveals what happens when the bugs eat their home. If they do have termites, you can get rid of them for cheaper than the cost of… another home. If they don’t, they can pay you to prevent the termites from coming to begin with! You can sell ‘em either way. Win-win! 2) Samples And Trials. You give full but brief access to your core offer. You can limit the number of uses, time they have access, or both. This works great when your core offer is a recurring solution to a recurring problem. ○ Example: You hook them up to your faster server and show their website loading at lightning speed. They get more customers from your faster load times. If they want to keep it, they need to keep paying you. ○ Example: You give a free adjustment for their bad posture and they experience relief. To get permanent benefits, they must buy more. ○ Example: Food, cosmetics, medicine, or any other consumables. Consumables, by nature, have limited uses and solve recurring problems... with recurring use. So single serving, “fun sized,” etc. samples are great lead magnets. It’s how Costco sells more food than other stores–they give out samples! 3) One Step Of A Multi-Step Process. When your core offer has steps, you can give one valuable step for free and the rest when they buy. This works great when your core offer solves a more complex problem. ○ Example: This book. I help you get to $1,000,000+ per year in profit. Then you’ll have new problems we can help you solve, and scale from there. ○ Example: You give away a free wood sealant for a garage door. But the sealing process requires three different coats to protect from all weather conditions. I do the first one free, explain how it only gives partial coverage, and offer the other two in a bundle. ○ Example: You give away free finance courses, guides, calculators, templates, etc. They are so valuable people really can do it all themselves. But, they also reveal the time, effort, and sacrifice of doing it all. So you offer financial services to solve all that. Action Step: Pick how you want to solve your narrowly defined problem. Step 3: Figure out how to deliver it There are unlimited ways to solve problems. But my favorite lead magnets solve them with: software, information, services, and physical products. And each of those works great with the three types of lead magnets from step two. I’ll show you what I’ve done to attract gym owners using each lead magnet type. 1) Software: You give them a tool. If you have a spreadsheet, calculator, or small software, your technology does a job for them. Ex: I give away a spreadsheet or dashboard that gives a gym owner all their relevant business stats, compares them to industry averages, then gives them a rank. 2) Information: You teach them something. Courses, lessons, interviews with experts, keynote presentations, live events, mistakes and pitfalls, hacks/tips, etc. Anything they can learn from. Ex: I give away a mini course for gyms on how to write an ad. 3) Services: You do work for free. Adjust their back. Perform a website audit. Apply the first layer of garage sealant. Transform their video into an ebook. Etc. Ex: I run gym owner’s ads for free for thirty days. 4) Physical Products: You give them something they can hold in their hands. A posture assessment chart, a supplement, a small bottle of garage door sealant, boxing gloves to get boxing gym leads, etc. Ex: I sell a book for gym owners called Gym Launch Secrets. With three different types of lead magnets and four ways to deliver them, that's up to twelve lead magnets that solve a single narrow problem. So many magnets, so little time! I make as many versions of a lead magnet as I can and rotate them. This keeps the advertising fresh and low effort. Plus, you see which ones work best. Like my case study story at the beginning of the chapter, the results are often surprising. And you won’t know until you try. Action Step: As a thought exercise, think of a lead magnet and then a version of it for each delivery method. You always can, I promise. Then, pick how to deliver your lead magnet. Step 4: Test What To Name It David Ogilvy said, “When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents of your (advertising) dollar.” What that means is, five times more people read your headline than any other part of your promotion. They read it and make a snap decision to read further… or not. Like Ogilvy hints, leads have to notice your lead magnet before they can consume it. Like it or not, this means how we present it matters more than anything. For example, improving the headline, name, and display of your lead magnet can 2x, 3x, or 10x your engagement. It’s that important. Besides, if no one shows interest in your lead magnet, no one will ever know how good it is. You can’t leave it to chance. So listen up. Here’s what you do next - you test. The three things you’ll want to test are the headline, the image(s), and the subheadline, in that order. The headline is the most important. So if you only test one thing, test that. For example, I had no idea what to title this book. So here’s what I did to figure out which name would do the best - I tested. The results may surprise you as much as they surprised me. Headline Tests Round I: Advertising ✔ vs. Promotion Round II: Advertising vs. Leads ✔ Round III: Marketing vs. Leads ✔ Image Test ✔ Real vs. Cartoon Subheadlines Round I: “How to get more people to want to buy your stuff” “How to get strangers to want to buy your stuff” ✔ Round II: How to get more strangers to want to buy your stuff” “How to get strangers to want to buy your stuff” ✔ Round III: “How to get as many leads as you darn well please” “How to get strangers to want to buy your stuff” ✔ Round IV: “Get strangers to want to buy your stuff” “How to get strangers to want to buy your stuff” ✔ Note two things with the subheadline tests: 1) “How to get strangers to want to buy your stuff” overwhelmingly beat “Get strangers to want to buy your stuff.” The only difference is two little words: “how to.” And it also beat “how to get more strangers to want to buy your stuff” with a single word removed ‘more.’ Small changes can make big differences. 2) Since so many people asked, I figured I’d answer it here. I didn’t subtitle the book “How to get strangers to buy your stuff” because that’s sales, not getting leads. The point of this book is to get strangers to show interest, not to buy (yet). A raised hand is where this book ends. ‘$100M Sales’ or 'Persuasion' (I haven't decided yet) will be a future book. One problem at a time. Action Step: Test. If people engage in droves, you’ve got a winner. And if you have any following at all, you can run polls like these. You don't need a lot of votes to get a directional idea. If you can’t do that, make a post on every platform and ask people to respond with a ‘1’ or a ‘2’, then count ‘em up. If you still can’t even do that, then just message people and ask. There’s always a way, and this is one of the highest leverage things you can do with your time - make sure how you package it gets engagement and you give yourself a big head start. Bonus Points: If people respond to the poll and ask when they can get their hands on it, you have a mega winner. Step 5: Make it easy for them to consume People prefer to do things that take less effort. So if we want more people to take us up on our lead magnet, and consume it, we gotta make it easy. You can see 2x, 3x, and even 4x+ increases in take rates and consumption simply by making it easier to consume. 1) Software: You want to make it accessible on their phones, on a computer and in multiple different formats. This way, they’ll pick the one easiest for them. 2) Information: People like to consume things in different ways. Some people like watching, other people like reading, others like listening, etc. Make your solution in as many different formats as you can: images, video, text, audio, etc. Offer them all. That’s why this book comes in every format people consume. 3) Services: Be available at more times in more ways. More times of day. More days of the week. Via video call, phone call, in person, etc. The easier you are to get a hold of, the more likely people will become engaged leads to claim the free value. 4) Physical products: Make it super simple to order and fast to get to them. Make the product itself fast and easy to open. Give simple directions on how to use the product. Example: Apple made its products so well they didn’t even need directions. And the packaging is so good, most people keep the boxes. Action Step: Package your lead magnet in every way you can. It dramatically increases how many engaged leads come your way. And more leads engaging with your lead magnet means more leads getting value from it. This is huge. Fun fact: My book $100M Offers has a near perfect ¼, ¼, ¼, ¼ split between ebooks, physical books, audiobooks, and videos (free on Acquisition.com). Making the book available in multiple formats is the easiest way I know to get 2-3-4x the amount of leads for the same work. If I only made it available in one format, I’d miss out on the 3-4x the people who wouldn’t have read the book otherwise. What a shame that would’ve been and what a waste. Step 6: Make it darn good: Give Away The Secrets, Sell The Implementation The marketplace judges everything you have to offer - free or not. And you can never provide too much value. But, you can provide too little. So you want your lead magnet to provide so much value people feel obligated to pay you. The goal is to provide more value than the cost of your core offer before they’ve bought it. Think about it this way. If you’re scared of giving away your secrets, imagine the alternative: You give away sucky fluff. Then, people who might've become customers think this person sucks! They only have sucky fluff! Then, they buy from someone else. So sad. Not only that, they tell other folks who might’ve bought from you, not to. It’s a vicious cycle you don’t want to ride. But remember, people buy stuff based on how much value they think they’ll get after they buy it. And the easiest way to get them to think they’ll get tons of value after they buy is… drum roll please… to provide them with value before they buy. Imagine a company scaled from $1M to $10M just by consuming my free content. The chance they’ll partner with Acquisition.com is huge because I paid for my share before we even started. Action Step: 99% of people aren’t gonna buy, but they will create (or destroy) your reputation based on the value of your free stuff. So, make your lead magnets as good as your paid stuff. Your reputation depends on it. Provide value. Stack the deck. Reap the rewards. Step 7: Make it easy for them to tell you they want more Once the leads consume the lead magnet, some of them will be ready to buy or learn more about your offer. This is the time to give a Call To Action. A Call To Action (CTA) tells the audience what to do next. But, there’s a little more to it than that. At least, if you want your advertising to work. Good CTAs have two things: 1) what to do and 2) reasons to do it right now. What to do: CTAs tell the audience to call the number, click the button, give information, book the call, etc. There are way too many to list. Just know CTAs tell the audience how to become engaged leads. Good CTAs have clear, simple, and direct language. Not “don’t delay” but instead “call now.” Read the next paragraph to learn more (see what I did there?). Reasons to do it right now - If you give people a reason to take action, more people will do it. But a couple things to keep in mind: first, good reasons work better than bad reasons. And second, any reason (even bad ones) tends to work better than no reason at all. So to get more people to take action, I include as many effective reasons as I can. Here are my favorite reasons to act now: a) Scarcity- Scarcity is when there is a limited amount of something. Especially when there is a small supply compared to demand. When something is scarce, like your lead magnet or offer, people also tend to want it more. And this is why they’re more likely to act right now. The fewer you have, the more valuable people think it is. But there’s a catch- the fewer you have, the fewer engaged leads you can get before running out. So the best strategy I know for scarcity is - reality. Let me explain. If you sold 1000x the customers tomorrow, could you handle it? If not, you have some limit to how much you can sell. Maybe you’re limited by customer service, onboarding, inventory, time slots per week, etc. Don’t keep it a secret - advertise it. This gives you ethical scarcity. If you can’t handle more than five new customers per week, say so. Draw attention to the natural scarcity in your business. If you have limitations you may as well use them to make money. Ex: “The most convenient class times fill up fast. Call now to get the one you want.” “I can only handle five people per week, so if you want it solved soon, do xyz…” “We only printed one batch of shirts and will never reprint this design, get one so you don’t regret missing out forever…” b) Urgency. You can have unlimited units to sell, but let’s say you stop selling them in an hour… on purpose. I bet more people than normal will buy your thing in that hour. This is urgency in action. Urgency is when people act faster because they have a short amount of time. And the less time people have, the faster (more urgent) they tend to act. So if you make the time they can act on your CTA shorter, you can get more of them to act on it faster. You can also use the same urgency with discounts or bonuses that go away after X minutes or hours. After which, this offer will never be available again. Ex: “Our July 4th promotion ends Monday at midnight, so if you want it, take action now.” “Our Black Friday promotion ends at midnight. There are only four hours left. Get it while the gettin’s good.” “Through Friday, I’ll also throw in a free hat to anyone who buys more than three books. So if you wanna look slick in an Acquisition.com hat, buy now.” c) Fraternity Party Planner (my favorite) - Make Up A Reason. Fraternities don’t need a reason to party - but they sure make up some doozies. “John got his wisdom teeth removed…kegger!” “Margherita Monday!” “Toga Tuesdays” “Thirsty Thursday!” etc. Your reason doesn’t even have to make sense, and it will still get more people to act. In fact, Harvard ran an experiment showing that people were more likely to let someone cut in line if they only gave a reason. The number of people that let others cut increased if the reason made sense (like scarcity and urgency). But any reason still works better than no reason. So I always try to include one. Think ‘the stuff you say’ after the word because. Examples: Because…moms know best. Because…your country needs you. Because…it’s my birthday, and I want you to celebrate with me. Action Step: Give a clear, simple, action-oriented CTA. Then, give them a ‘reason why’ using scarcity, urgency, and any other reasons you can think of. And, do it often. Don't be clever, be clear. Even if your lead magnet costs money to deliver, it should still lower your cost to get a new customer. This is because more engaged leads means more chances to get customers. And the extra customers more than cover your costs. That’s the point. Let’s say you make $10,000 of profit on your core offer. And it costs you $1000 in advertising to get someone on a call for it. If you close one out of three people, it costs you $3000 in advertising to get a customer. Since we have $10,000 in profit to work with, that’s fine. But we’re savvy, we can do better. So, let’s do better. Imagine you advertise a free lead magnet instead of your core offer. Your lead magnet costs you $25 to deliver, and because it’s free to them, more will engage. The extra engagement means it only costs $75 in advertising to get someone on a call. All in, it’s $100 per call. By delivering value before they buy, you get ten times more engaged leads for the same cost. Note: this happens all the time when you nail the lead magnet. Now, let’s say one out of ten folks who get the lead magnet buys your core offer. This means your new cost to acquire a customer is $1000 ($100 x 10 people). We just cut our cost to get a customer by 3x. So instead of spending $3000 to get a new customer, by using a lead magnet, we spend only $1000. Given we make $10,000, that’s a 10:1 return. So if we keep our advertising budget the same, and use a lead magnet, we triple our business. Remember: the goal is to print money, not just make our “fair share.” This is where experienced business owners beat newbies. With a $25 budget to deliver your lead magnet, you can provide FAR more value than a $0 budget. Crazy, I know. You attract more customers because your lead magnet is more valuable than other people’s. Oftentimes, by a lot. This translates into more strangers becoming engaged leads. It also translates into more sales because you provided value in advance. Win. Win. Win. Action Steps: Step 0: If you’re struggling to get leads, make an amazing lead magnet. Step 1: Figure out the problem you want to solve for the right customer Step 2: Figure out how you want to solve it Step 3: Figure out how to deliver it Step 4: Make the name interesting and clear Step 5: Make it easy to consume Step 6: Make sure it’s darn good Step 7: Tell them what to do next, why it's a good idea, do it clearly, and do it often Section II Conclusion My goal with this book is to demystify the lead-getting process. In the first chapter, we covered why leads alone aren’t enough–you need engaged leads. In the second chapter, we covered how to get leads to engage - a valuable lead magnet or offer. And a good lead magnet does four things: 1) Engages ideal customers when they see it. 2) Gets more people to engage than your core offer alone 3) Is valuable enough that they consume it. 4) Makes the right people more likely to buy So, more people show interest in our stuff. We make more money from them. And we deliver more value than we ever have–all at the same time. Next Up: We’ve armed ourselves with a powerful lead magnet. Now, I’ll show you the four ways we can advertise it. In other words, now that we have “the stuff,”–we gotta tell people about it. Let’s get some leads. Section III: Get Leads The Core Four Advertising Methods. We get engaged leads by letting people know about our stuff. And there are two types of people we let know: people who know us and people who don’t. And there are two paths of letting them know about it: one-to-one and one-to-many. Those combine into the four basic ways one person can let other people know about anything. Let’s break down how we can use those four ways to get us leads. Two Types of Audiences: Warm and Cold Warm audiences are people who gave you permission to contact them. Think “people who know you” - aka - friends, family, followers, current customers, previous customers, contacts, etc. Cold audiences are people who have not given you permission to contact them. Think “strangers” - aka - other peoples’ audiences: buying contact lists, making contact lists, paying platforms for access, etc. The difference matters because it changes how we advertise to them. Two Ways To Communicate: One to One (Private), One to Many (Public) We can contact people 1-to-1 or 1-to-many. Another way of thinking about this is private or public communication. Private communication is when only one person gets a message at a time. Think “phone call” or “email.” If you announce something publicly, many people can get it at the same time. Think “social media posts” or “billboards” or “podcasts.” Now, automation can make this seem confusing. Don’t let it. Automation just means some of the work is done by machines. The nature of the communication stays the same. Email, for instance, is one-to-one. Emailing a 10,000 person list “once” is more like one- to-one really fast by a machine. Automation, which we cover later, is one of the many ways we can get leads on steroids. Like audiences, the difference between public and private communication matters because they change how we advertise. Section III Outline: Get Leads Combining warm and cold audiences with 1-to-1 and 1-to-many leads us to the only four ways we can let anyone know about anything: the core four. I combined them below for you. 1-to-1 to a Warm Audience = Warm Outreach 1-to-many to a Warm Audience = Posting Content 1-to-1 to a Cold Audience = Cold Outreach 1-to-many to a Cold Audience = Paid Ads These are the only four things you can do to let other people know about the stuff you sell. And each method takes us one step closer to the land of overflowing leads. I refer to the core four throughout the rest of the book - so get to know them. In fact, make them part of yourself. Once you do, you will have your own “get out of jail free” card to carry around forever. It will give you as many chances to succeed at business as you could ever want for the rest of your life. Or at least, it has for me. So if you aren’t getting as many leads as you want, you’re not doing the core four with enough skill or with enough volume. We cover all this stuff in lots of detail. How they work. How to do them. When to do them. And show how to measure your progress along the way. This simplifies the overly confused world of advertising into four core actions. Either do them and get as many leads as you darn well please, or get crushed by those who do. #1 Warm Outreach How To Reach Out To People You Know “The world belongs to those who can keep doing without seeing the result of their doing.” May 2013. Starting out. For the third time that day, I pulled out my phone and checked my bank account. $51,128.13. I let out a small sigh of relief. It’s amazing how years of work and saving can fit into such a tiny screen. Feeling good for the moment, I switched over to social media to get more dopamine. Friends from college were applying to business school. Acceptance letters filled my newsfeed. I, too, started the business school application process. I had a choice: I could either quit my job and go to business school, or I could quit my job and start a business. The application stared at me - How will a Harvard MBA help your short and long-term goals? That question changed my life. I spent three days trying to answer it. At the end of the third day, I saw the truth - it wouldn’t. $150,000 in loans and two years without income wouldn’t help me start a business. At least not as much as starting a business and taking two years to figure it out. I could make the same amount by the time I graduate and skip the debt. Or at least, that’s what I told myself. So I quit my job and took the steps to start my business. I set up Impetus Group LLC. Check. I set up a business banking account. Check. I set up a merchant account to process payments. Check. There still wasn’t any money coming in, but at least I felt ‘legit.’ Impetus Group LLC. (say it out loud...) The first person I told about my new business said, “Impotence?” God, I suck. No wonder the name was available. I immediately changed it to ‘The Free Training Project.’ Name that doesn’t suck? Check. I was in business. But I had a problem - I didn’t know anything about advertising or sales. But I did know I needed clients. So, I just asked around where I could. I called, texted, and sent Facebook messages to a bunch of people I knew. “Hey, do you know anyone who’s trying to get into shape? I'm training people for free for twelve weeks. On top of that, I'll make them a custom nutrition plan and grocery list. All they have to do is donate to a charity of their choice and let me use their testimonial.” Only six people said yes. Six. Two high school friends. One college friend. And three people they referred. I emailed everyone fitness plans and we got to work. We texted during the week to keep tabs on progress. Thankfully, they were all friends of mine, so they gave it their all. They encouraged me more than anyone in the beginning. A decade later, I still have their before and after pictures. And this is where the decision to skip business school started coming back to haunt me. A few months into this, I was less sure of myself. My ‘pile’ of money didn’t look as big without new money coming in every month. And it started turning into a real problem. So, after twelve weeks of the “pay a charity period,” I asked them to pay me instead. I was the charity now. Ha. I worried they’d be upset to pay me instead, but they didn’t seem to mind. Once they got results, I asked them to send their friends over. To my surprise, I got another five or six clients from their referrals. I asked the referrals to pay me directly. Again, none of them minded. That little business made about $4000 per month and replaced the income from my first job. It gave me enough money to live on (and some). My savings started to grow again. Sigh of relief. If this business sounds straightforward, that’s because it was. I emailed clients their plans and they texted me the questions they had along the way. That’s about it. So if you’re starting, you don’t need a lot. All you need is a tax ID, a bank account, a way to take payments, and a way to communicate with people. But, that last part - a way to communicate with people - is the most important part. It's how you get leads. So even though I had no idea I was doing warm reach outs, one of the core four, it’s how I got my first leads. I still get leads this way (just with bigger numbers). And I’ll show you how you can too. How Warm Reach Outs Work Warm reach outs are when you make one-to-one contact with your warm audience - aka - the people who know you. It’s the cheapest and easiest way to find people interested in the stuff you sell. It’s super effective–and most businesses don’t do it. Don’t be like most businesses. Also, you do have a warm audience, even if you don’t know it. Everybody knows somebody. So your personal contacts are the easiest place to start. Warm reach outs usually come in the form of calls, texts, emails, direct messages, voicemails, etc. And like we learned in Section II, you advertise one of two things. You let them know about your lead magnet (something free and valuable), or you let them know about your core offer (the main thing you sell). When you start doing warm reach outs, you don’t get many engaged leads for your time. You do everything on your own and make each message personal. But, for that reason, it is reliable. As certain as the sun rises and sets, it works. Note: Reaching out to your warm audience works whether you have 100 contacts or 1,000,000. So as your business grows, you will use automation and employees to make it more efficient. The systems start small, with you, but they scale all the way up. I detail how to scale these systems to larger audiences in Section IV. How To Do Warm Reach Outs in 10 Steps Warm reach outs are a fantastic way to get your “First Five Clients” For any new product or service. Advanced Folks: Think re-engagement and new product lines. Here’s how to do it: Step 1: Get your list Step 2: Pick a platform Step 3: Personalize your message Step 4: Reach out Step 5: Warm them up Step 6: Invite their friends Step 7: Make them the easiest offer in the world Step 8: Start at the top Step 9: Start Charging Step 10: Keep Your List Warm (Step 1) “But I don’t have any leads…” → Everyone Has A List You know other humans. Let me prove it to you. Grab your phone. Inside you have contacts. Each contact has subscribed to communication from you. They have given you the means and permission to contact them. Pull up all the email accounts you’ve used over the years. Pull your contacts and address list from each. Bingo! Look at all them leads. Now, go to all your social media profiles. See your followers, subscribers, friends, connections, or whatever kids call ‘em these days...eureka – you got more leads! Add up all your contacts from all the platforms. Seriously, figure out the number. Between your phone, email, social media, and other platforms you will have more than enough contacts to get started. For many of you, this will be your first 1000 leads. Would ya look at that! “I don’t have any leads.” Psh. Just found some. And if you’re terrified you’ll have to talk to people. Relax. You’ll like what I’m gonna show you next. (Step 2) “But I don’t know where to start…” → Pick A Platform Pick the platform you have the most contacts on. Phone, email, social media, mail, carrier pigeon, etc. It doesn’t matter. Just pick the one with the most contacts. You’ll hit ‘em all eventually anyways. (Step 3) “But what do I say?” → Personalize your greeting Use something you know about the contact as your actual reason to reach out. If you don’t have much personal info, you can check their social media profiles etc. to learn a bit about them first. Don’t be a weirdo. Pay your social dues. Remember, you haven’t asked for anything. You’re just checking in and providing value. So…relax. Ex: Saw you just had a baby! Congrats! How is the baby doing? How are you? (Step 4) “Now what?” → Reach. Out. To. One. Hundred. People. Every. Day. “To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.” - Charlie Munger Now, reach out to 100 of them per day with your personalized messages. You’ll call, text, email, message, send a postcard, etc. And you will reach out to them up to three times. Once per day for three days* or until they respond. Whichever comes first. *Once per week with physical mail. (Step 5): “What do I say when they respond?” → Act like a human. Now we can break the ice without sounding icky. Reply using the A-C-A framework: Acknowledge what they said. Restate it in your own words. This shows active listening. Ex: Two kids. And you’re an accountant… Compliment them on whatever they tell you. Tie it to a positive character trait if you can. Ex: …Wow! Supermom! So hardworking! Managing a full-time career and two kids... Ask another question. Lead the conversation in whatever direction you want. In this case, to a topic closer to your offer. Examples: Therapy/Life Coaching: …Do you get time for yourself? Fitness/Weight Loss:...Do you have time to get workouts in? Cleaning Services:...Do you have anyone who helps you keep the house tidy? The ACA framework is great because it helps you talk to anyone. It just so happens it’s also useful for letting people know about your stuff. This means you can learn about the person and guide the conversation toward your offer. People love talking about themselves. So let them. They also love to be complimented, so do that too. And if people feel good when talking to you, they’ll like and trust you more. You want people to like and trust you more. Besides, it’s solid practice to find the good in everyone anyway. Speaking of practice, this will take practice. And that’s OK. (Step 6) “How do I know if they’re interested?” → Make them an offer. Get through a ‘normal’ amount of conversation. Think 3-4 exchanges if on the phone or messaging and 3-4 minutes if in person. Then, you’ll make them an offer to see if they’re interested. When I make an offer from scratch, I refer to the value equation. If you’re wondering ‘what’s the value equation?’ - it was the core concept of my first book $100M Offers. Value, as I define it, has four elements: 1) Dream Outcome: what the person wants to happen, the way they want it to happen State the best possible results your product can get. Big bonus points if those results come from people like the one you’re talking to. 2) Perceived Likelihood of Achievement: how likely they think it is for them to achieve their goal Include results, reviews, awards, endorsements, certifications, and other forms of 3rd party validation. Also, guarantees are huge. 3) Time Delay: how long they believe it’ll take to get results after they buy Describe how fast people start getting results, how often they get results when they start, and how long it takes to get the best results possible. 4) Effort and Sacrifice: The bad stuff they'll have to endure and the good stuff they'll have to give up in their struggle to get the result. Show them the good stuff they can keep doing, or get to do, and still get results. And show them the bad stuff that they can get rid of, or avoid doing, and still get results. The goal is to maximize the first two and minimize the second two. So all you have to do now is show someone: You have exactly what they want They’re guaranteed to get it Insanely fast Without lifting a finger or giving up anything they love No biggie, right? Obviously, that’s ideal. We gotta get as close to that as we can without lying or exaggerating. So let’s do just that with a real-life offer:...By the way, do you know anybody who is (describe their struggles) looking to (dream outcome) in (time delay)? I’m taking on five case studies for free, because that’s all I can handle. I just want to get some testimonials for my service/product. I help them (dream outcome) without (effort and sacrifice). It works. I even guarantee people get (dream outcome) or I work with them until they do. I just had a girl named XXX work with me (dream outcome) even though she (describe the same struggle your contact has). I also had another guy who (dream outcome) and it was his first time. I’d just like more testimonials to show it works across different scenarios. Does anyone you like come to mind? (Pause if on the phone) …and if they say no…Haha, well…does anyone you hate come to mind? (ha) This helps break any awkwardness. There’s an important feature here. We’re not asking them to buy anything. We’re asking if they know anyone. And of the people who say yes, most say they are interested. This entire thing is engineered to boost their perceived likelihood of achievement. It’s why we show struggles and results from people like them who have struggles like theirs. But, we let them connect the dots. Since you didn’t ask them to buy anything, you don’t come off as pushy. Some people will show interest in your stuff. Some will refer you to those who might. Some will do both. In all three outcomes, you win. And you win without pushing anything on anyone. If you have even less time or space to deliver it, just use the value elements back to back: I help (ideal customer) get (dream outcome) in (time period) without (effort and sacrifice) and (increase perceived likelihood of achievement–look at the pro tip below). Note: These work well for emails, texts, direct messages, calls, and in-person. Just fill in the blanks. (Step 7) “How do I get them to say yes?” → Make it easy for them to say yes. Make it free. After people show interest, make your offer easy to say yes to. I like to start with the easiest offer enhancer in the world - FREE: And don’t try to look advanced if you’re not. People aren’t dumb. Just be honest and keep it simple: Since I’m only taking on five people, I can give you all the attention you need to get brag-worthy results. And I’ll give it all for free so long as you promise to: 1) Use it 2) Give me feedback and 3) Leave a killer review if you think it deserves one. Does that sound fair? This sets reasonable expectations upfront. And boom. Now, you’re just helping people for free. Winning. My recommendation - whenever you launch a new product or service - make the first five free. The exact number matters less than knowing why you benefit from it. Here’s why: 1. You get the reps in and become comfortable with making offers to people. It’ll calm your nerves knowing you’re just helping… for free…for now (winky face). 2. You probably suck (for now). People are far more forgiving when you haven’t charged anything. 3. Because you probably suck, you need to learn how to suck less. You suck less by doing more. It’s better to have a few guinea pigs to get the kinks out. You’ll learn a ton from the people you help for free, I promise. Even though it may not feel like it now, you’re getting the better end of the deal. 4. If people get value, especially for free, they’re far more likely to: a. Leave positive reviews and testimonials. b. Give you feedback. c. Send their friends and family. And if that’s not awesome enough, free customers can make you money in three other ways: 1) They convert into paying customers. 2) They send you paying customers via referrals. 3) Their testimonials bring in paying customers. So no matter what, you win. What if they say no? Often, the most expensive part of what you sell isn’t the price–it's the hidden costs. Hidden costs are the time, effort, and sacrifice it takes to get results from the thing you sell. In other words, the bottom part of the value equation. If you struggle to give your stuff away for free, it means either people don’t want it (dream outcome), they don’t believe you (perceived likelihood of achievement) or the hidden costs (time, effort and sacrifice) are too high. In short, your ‘free’ stuff is too expensive. So figure out the hidden costs. Once you do, you unlock even more value–that you’ll eventually be able to charge for. To build your understanding of hidden costs… ask. So when someone says “no” ask “why?”: “What would I have to do to make it worth it for you to continue?” Their answers give you a chance to solve their problem. And if you solve that problem, they’ll probably buy from you. And even if they don’t buy from you, they’ll give you the ammo to get the next person to. And remember, failure is a requisite for success. It’s part of the process. So rack up failures as fast as you can. Get them out of the way to start paying down your “no tax.” If you get thousands of nos, you will get your yeses, I promise. I always tell myself: Yeses give me opportunity. Nos give me feedback. Either way, I win. (Step 8) “What Do I Do Once I’ve Reached Out To Everyone?” → Start Back At The Top After reaching out to all the leads on one platform, switch to the platform you have the second most leads on. After you reach out to those leads, go to the platform you have the third most leads on and so forth. Let’s say you follow this to the tee because being poor sucks more than helping people for free. If between all platforms, you have 1000 leads, that gives you ten solid days of work. A month of work including follow-ups. By this point, I promise, five or more people will have accepted your free offer. And some will have converted into paying customers. If you did a good job, they’ll send friends, and they’ll become paying customers too. So, let’s make our first dollar. (Step 9) “But I can’t work for free forever…” → Start Charging. This is important. This is your litmus test to know when you’re “good enough” to charge. Once people start referring, start charging. When that happens, swap out ‘… free…’ in the script above to ‘80% off for the next five’. Then ‘60% off for the next five.’ Then ‘40% off for the next five,’ and so forth. The “I increase my prices every five” rule also adds urgency because prices actually go up. And if you’re curious, you don’t have to stop raising your price. Feel free to keep raising it by 20% every five until you find your sweet spot. It’s your business. You can do what you want. Charge more as you get more experienced - a nice reward. (Step 10) “But what do I do from here?” →Keep your list warm. Give regular value to your list through email, social media, etc. to keep it warm. A warm list stays primed for your warm reach outs in the future. We cover exactly how to give that value in the next chapter. Once you’ve given value for a while, or see who wants value, probe your list with Dean Jackson's timeless "9-word email" template”: Are you still looking to [4 word desire]? No images. No frills. No links. Just a question. Nothing else. This message is money for getting leads to engage. And it’s among the first things I do when I invest in a new business. Here are a few examples: Are you still looking to …buy your dream home? …get more sales leads? …tone up your arms? …open an online store? …start a YouTube channel? You get the idea. Swipe and deploy. You make the ask to see who replies - aka - engaged leads. And these replies should be your top priority for warm reach outs. I’ll end step 10 here because I break down this “give-ask” process in the next chapter. The main point is that a warm list is a huge asset because it’s a consistent and growing source of engaged leads. If you treat them well, your audience will feed you forever. Advertising Checklist Summary Now let’s look at this in ten lines because it took ten pages to get here. Benchmarks: How well am I doing? Warm reach outs should get about one in five contacts to engage. So one hundred warm reach outs should get about twenty replies. Of the twenty who reply, another one in fiveish will take you up on your free offer. So, four people. Of the four who take your free offer now, you should be able to convert one into some sort of paid offer later. Hooray - money. This framework allows you to predict how many customers you get per 100 warm reach outs. In the example, you would get one customer per 100 reach outs. These numbers vary based on the value of your offer and how much they trust you. But, no matter what, with enough volume, you will get a customer. And the more you do it, the better your numbers will get. It just takes effort. You’ll also learn a lot about what engages your audience: what they value and how to make offers to them. This knowledge can make you millions. You get to learn while you earn - score. This process alone can take you to $100,000+ per year with nothing else. Wild, I know. Here’s the money math: This assumes 1% of your list buys a $400 offer using only warm reach outs. 500 reach outs per week = 5 customers per week $400 product → 5 customers per week x $400 each = $2000/wk $2000/wk x 52 weeks = $104,000…bingo. Which, as of this writing, is still two times the median household income in the US. Not bad. You’ll learn more in the first ten days of doing 100 reach outs than you did from everything you’ve ever read or watched. Get that learning done as fast as you can. Remember, we want to get rich, not just “get by.” What’s Next? Warm reach outs have two limitations. The first is time. When you're starting out, getting new customers should take the majority of your time. Think four hours per day, minimum. It should be the first thing you do when you get up. And you shouldn’t stop until you achieve your goal. Embrace the work. It will be part of the story you tell one day. It has been for me. The second limiter is the number of people who know you. You’ll eventually “run out.” Don’t worry though. We can get more. A lot more. Now we add the second of the core four advertising activities: posting free content. #2 Post Free Content Part I How To Build An Audience To Get Engaged Leads No one’s ever complained about getting too much value. January 2020 “Did you hear about Kylie Jenner?” Leila asked. “No, why?” I replied. “She’s now the youngest female self-made billionaire.” “Wait, what?” “Yea, she’s twenty. Forbes just put her on the cover.” I was ten years older than her and not a billionaire. Why do I suck so much? How could she make so much more than me? I thought I was pretty good at business–we took home $13M in personal income the year before. But, I was clearly missing something. And I felt horrible about it. My ego protected me… Well, Kris Jenner is her mother and she must have organized all this. I wrote it off as “rich parents” and moved on. A few months later… Leila looked up from her computer. “Dude - Huda just sold a minority stake in her company at a $600M valuation.” “Huda, the makeup girl?” I replied. “Yea.” “Holy cow.” Again? How have I been screwing up so bad? How was someone so young making so much more money than me? …She’s in beauty, she can do that, I can’t. I told myself, then carried on. A few months later… A headline caught my eye: “Conor McGregor’s Proper 12 whiskey hits a $600M valuation within 12 months of launching.” Seriously!? - Another person making gobs of money in what felt like seconds. A few months later… I saw another headline. “With an Insane $3.5 Billion Worth, Dwayne Johnson’s ‘Teremana’ Sweeps the Floor With Conor McGregor’s ‘Proper 12′.” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was now a multi-billionaire. And he never even talked about business! What am I doing wrong? A few months later… at a famous friend’s house… Up to this point, I stayed behind the scenes for the most part. I did not want to be famous. I wanted to be rich. And I succeeded at that. But seeing these successes chipped away at my beliefs. Could building a personal brand be that powerful? Simple answer - yes. But, I wanted my privacy… We sat around his kitchen table, and I asked him, “You get all these weird messages from strangers. People threaten your family. Are you still happy you became famous?” He replied with something that changed my life forever: “If getting weird messages and hate from people I don't know is the price I have to pay to make the impact I want to have, I’d pay that price any day of the week.” I felt exposed. I was being a pansy. I claimed I wanted to make the impact, but wasn’t willing to pay the price for it. After that conversation, Leila and I went all in on building personal brands. *** I have a core belief I’d like to transfer to you. If someone is making more money than you, they are better at the game of business in some way. Take it as good news. It means you can learn from them. Don’t think they had it easy. Don’t think they had a shortcut. Don’t tell yourself they broke some moral code. Even if it’s true, none of those beliefs serve you. None of those beliefs make you better. Years ago, I was vocal about “making content.” I didn’t see the point. Why would I waste my time making something that would disappear in a few days? I thought it was a stupid waste of time and let everyone know. I was wrong. It really wasn’t about the content at all - it was about the audience. What I didn’t understand was - the content you create isn’t the compounding asset - the audience is. So even though the content may disappear in time, your audience keeps growing. This was a lesson my ego prevented me from learning for too long. It took an entire year of getting hit in the face with solid evidence before I changed my ways. Building an audience is the most valuable thing I’ve ever done. I saw Kylie Jenner, Huda Kattan, Connor McGregor, and The Rock become billionaires “overnight.” My famous friend said a massive audience was crucial to his success. The overwhelming evidence broke my beliefs, so I rewrote them. I now saw the power of having an audience. But, I didn’t know where to start. So, I did what I always do. I paid for knowledge. Buying somebody else’s experience saves the time it would take to figure everything out yourself. Leila bought me four calls with a big influencer who had the type of audience I wanted to build. She paid $120,000. On my first call, he told me to post regularly on every platform. So, that's what I did. Twelve months later, my audience grew by more than 200,000 people. On my second call, he noted the progress. But I wanted more, “Do you have a blueprint for your personal branding? How do you put out all that content?” He said, “Bro, anyone telling you there’s some secret is trying to sell you something. We just put out as much as we possibly can. Pull up your Instagram and pull up my Instagram... Look. You’ve posted once today. I posted three times. Pull up your LinkedIn… Look. You posted once this week. I posted five times today.” He went platform by platform. I grew more embarrassed with each comparison. “You just gotta do more bro.” Simple. Not easy. Over the next six months I put out ten times the content. And over the next six months, I added 1.2M people to my audience. Also, when I put out ten times the content, my audience grew ten times as fast. Volume works. Content works. A growing audience is the result. And in this chapter, I’ll break down how I did it so you can too. How Building An Audience Works - You Post Great Free Content Warm reach outs don’t get a lot of engaged leads for the time we invest. If we want to reach ten people, we have to repeat ourselves ten times. Lots of effort. By posting free content, we can say it once and reach all ten. So, posting free content can get a lot more engaged leads for the time we invest. Hooray. The people who think it’s valuable become part of your warm audience. If they think other people will find it valuable, they share it. And if the people they share it with like it, they become part of your warm audience too. Rinse and repeat. The sharing can go on infinitely. The more they share your stuff, the larger your warm audience gets. And once in a while, you’ll make them an offer. If your offer has enough value, they’ll take it. When they do, you make money. And the bigger the audience, the more money you make. Look at it this way: Posting free content grows your warm audience. So constantly posting free content means you’ll have a constantly growing audience of people more likely to buy your stuff. Free content makes all other advertising more effective. If you reach out to someone and they can’t find content related to your services, they’re less likely to buy. On the other hand, if they find lots of valuable content, they are more likely to buy. This is what my ego prevented me from learning. Now the headlines with Jenner, Huda, McGregor, and The Rock all made perfect sense. But, posting free content is not all sunshine and rainbows. It has trade-offs. First, it is more difficult to personalize your message. So fewer people respond. Second, you compete with everyone else posting free content. This makes it harder to stand out. Third, if you do stand out, people will copy you. This means you need to constantly innovate. That being said - A bigger audience means more engaged leads. More engaged leads means more money. More money means you more happy. Just kidding - it won’t do that. But it’ll give you the resources to remove stuff you hate. Anyways… This chapter covers only two topics. First, we demystify audience- growing content by showing it’s all made of the same basic units. A content unit has three components - Hook, retain, and reward. Second, how linking basic units together will make audience- growing content for any platform or media type. The next chapter (Post Free Content Part II) shows you how to weaponize this content to make money. But for now, you can?