By Alex Hormozi
A friend of mine who excels in business once told me, “If you’re not making money, it’s just a hobby.” On that Business-Hobby continuum, I was trending hobby. So, when I saw Alex Hormozi’s $100M Leads: How To Get Strangers To Want to Buy Your Stuff, I figured I could learn a thing or two.
Underthought of the year!
This is a book to read, but it is much more a book to put into practice. Sir Francis Bacon wisely remarked,
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Is this book worth my time?
$100M Leads is one-hundred acres of fresh grass to a hungry cow. This book is an education and a gateway to improvement and impact. Hormozi has provided LOADS of time-tested proven content for free on his site, Acquisition.com.
At that site you’ll find these words:
Their mission at Acquisition.com is to make real business education accessible to everyone.
This book fulfills that promise by a factor of X. And if you think this is just for entrepreneurs, it is not. At least that’s the way I am approaching it. Sure, I am learning how to better operate my little enterprise, but what I learned and am learning has direct impact to my primary role as President of Lancaster Bible College, to reaching more prospective students, and accomplishing our mission.
If I shared all I leaned, I would border on copyright infringement, so let me leave you with five of my takeaways and a strong encouragement to buy this book, visit his site, and make application to your business context. $100M Leads IS that good!
FIVE TAKEAWAYS (pulled from my wheelbarrow of learnings)
Pick a strategy and stick with it.
”You have to forget the idea that everything is going to work out the first time. If you think you’re going to become a millionaire the first year you go out on your own, you’re probably wrong. It’s very unlikely. And an obsession with “getting rich quick” will likely ensure it never happens. People try shortcuts for a decade until they realized they should have picked a strategy and stuck with it for a decade. 245 (italics mine)
”If you master one [strategy], you will be able to feed yourself for the rest of your life. They all work if you do.” 169Failure is a requisite for success.
”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.’” 62Build your audience.
Hormozi highlights four delivery mechanisms to solve problems, a key to creating strong lead magnets. The four: (1) Software, (2) Information, (3) Services, (4) Physical Products. His advice, pick the one you are best at and go all in. Master it before attempting to add to it. This hit home. I am a content creator. Discover, Create, Equip is the engine that drives my content efforts. I’ve always felt when it comes to content, consistency and quality over time is absolutely essential. Alex Hormozi put his big AMEN on that thought. In doing so, he whacked me upside the head. I have let myself drift into the enchanted land of excuses. I’ve been telling myself (and to some degree, legitimately so), that my work is too important and to demanding to “indulge myself” in “personal” content creation. But when Alex wrote, “Building an audience is the most valuable thing I’ve ever done,” it was like Prince Charming kissing Snow White. I woke up! My audience was diminishing because I was not building it — one content piece at a time.
He adds, “Remember, we can only control inputs. Measuring outputs is only useful if we are consistent with inputs. So, pick the posting cadence you want to stick with on a particular platform. Then pick your ‘ask’ cadence on that platform (how you will direct people to become engaged leads). Then, start, and … DO. Not. Stop. 98
SIDE NOTE: I reflected on this principle for LBC as well. Our team is “on it” when it comes to content creation. But we have a radio station that enables us to push out great content which in turn enables us to build leads for the amazing service we offer. With almost 2800 students and thousands of alumni worldwide, we need to work that deliver mechanism better.Become a student of the game.
Do you like watching ads? Not me. I usually stream, skip, take a snack break, turn down the volume, visit the restroom, or check email. Anything to avoid being bombarded by an ad. Hormozi changed my perspective on this. He encouraged me to practice by making ten or so new ads every week, but to do so by changing the call out at the beginning; that work limited to one sentence; or about five seconds of airtime. Then he notes, “Action Step: I’m always impressed with the clever and innovative ways advertisers call out their prospects. So instead of muting or hitting “skip ad” look for the call outs. Become a student of the game. My goal is that for the rest of your life when you see an ad you turn up the volume.” 137It’s all about trust.
One aspect of $100M Leads that hooked me better than any catchy title or savvy plan (and believe me, he has PLENTY and they are very good), is Hormozi’s emphasis on building trust. “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. . . . My goal is to help you get to $1,000,000 in profit per year (fo’ free) and, in doing so doing, earn your trust.” 16
Thoughts to ponder:
Content length: There’s no such thing as too long, only too boring. 84
Quiet the ego: If someone makes more money than you, they are better at the game of business in some way. Quiet the ego, look for the lesson. 72
Headlines: When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents of your (advertising) dollar. David Ogilvy 35
On Free Content: Give-give-give, give-give-give, until they ask. Give until they ask. 87-88
On Advertising: Get in the game. Place one ad for $100. . . Spend the gosh darn money. . . . You’re no longer an observer, you’re in the game. . . . Expect to lose it. You won’t be earning, you’ll be learning. 155
More, Better, New - a key to more leads than you can possibly imagine: (1) You can do more of what you’re currently doing. (2) You can do what you’re currently doing better. (3) You can do it somewhere new. 160.
The rule of 100: The rule of 100 is simple. You advertise your stuff by doing 100 primary actions every day, for one hundred days in a row. That’s it. I don’t make many promises, but this is one. . . . Commit to the rule of 100 and you will never go hungry again. 161
On value: I am compensated tomorrow for the value I provide today. 197
I guess four million people could be wrong
The last I checked, the $100M series has sold more than 4 million copies. About that point of quieting the ego. Yeah! There’s a lot of green grass in this book. Taking a cue from Sir Francis Bacon, it’s time to chew and digest.
