If I Started A Business in 2026, I'd Do This

In 2016, I had $1,000 to my name,

sleeping on a gym floor. Nine years

later, I broke the Guinness World Record

for the fastest selling non-fiction book

and generate over $16 million in sales

in a weekend. In this video, I'm going

to show you how I'd build a business if

I started all over. So, first, either

sell extremely expensive stuff to a

select few or sell something super cheap

to everyone. The middle is where people

die. So fundamentally all businesses

have the cost of getting customers and

what you make from those customers as

the core economic arbitrage that makes a

business a business. You have a more

efficient way of taking resources and

allocating them to get superior

throughput on the other side. That's

literally what a business is. Why did I

start with sell really expensive stuff

or sell really cheap stuff? Let's dive

in. So having worked with thousands of

businesses now, I can tell you that it

is significantly easier when you're

starting to sell extremely expensive to

a select few. And the reason for that is

that you have to make enough money to be

able to serve the masses. So if you look

at Tesla as a great case study for this,

Tesla started with a $250,000 Roadster,

clearly selling to a select few, and it

was like a beta test car. So like it

definitely wasn't like completely street

ready, all this stuff. But from the the

few that they were able to make, they

were able to get enough money or enough

proof of concept to then eventually get

to making the S, right? And then after

making the S for a few years, then they

were able to work their way down and

make the Model 3. And so the idea is

that you start high and then you can

work your way down. And so despite what

most people believe, one of the simplest

ways to create an expensive offer is to

sell your time one-on-one, even if it's

unscalable. Now, I'll give you a

personal story and then then I'm going

to sell you on why I think this is

actually useful. When I started my

personal training business, which is a

gym on Huntington Beach, I had a client

who wanted personal training. Now, my

gym wasn't a personal training gym. It

was a large group training and

semi-private training gym. I did all

group. there wasn't any oneonone, but

this one guy got referred to me because

he had some like specific mobility

things and like whatever he liked me and

so he he ended up doing personal

training with me. Now this guy would do

5 days a week of 90minute training

sessions which is huge for a personal

trainer, right? So I'm making I think I

was I think I was charging 125 an hour

or something. So I was getting almost

like 180 a day for that whole period. So

I just remember that I got something in

the like $45,000 a month in cash. He

paid me in cash. It was amazing. Um that

I would get per month from this one

client. And the thing is is that me

having that one-on-one time gave me the

cash flow that I needed nothing from the

business so I could just keep

reinvesting the business's money to

growing it faster. And so a lot of

people have this fear around like, oh,

it's not scalable. It's like it doesn't

have to be scalable. Like when I speak

to business owners, they have a lot of

limiting beliefs around charging a lot

of money or selling their time. And so I

want to drive this point home and give

you a lot of reasons to show why it is

superior, especially when you're

starting out to sell your time

one-on-one even if it is unscalable. So

let me kind of sell you on this. So

number one is that you will learn more

from fewer highv value clients. All

right? And if you're around those higher

value clients, you will work with better

people and it will shift your belief set

about who really is in the market.

Right? Like if you've ever struggled to

sell a $50 membership as someone who

has, it's insane when all of a sudden

someone's like, "Here's 15 grand."

You're like, "What just happened? 15

grand? That's $3,50 sales that I'd have

to make in order to get 15 grand."

That's how absurd that is. But when that

happens again and again, it shifts how

you see money and what services you

think about creating. The next one that

people get hung up on is like, "Well, I

don't want to sell my time because uh

selling your time is what poor people

do." Let me learn you some stuff. All

right, which is every single person on

planet Earth earns money per hour. They

just don't necessarily denote it per

hour, but all you have to do is take

what you made last year, divided by

2,000, and guess what? Voila, you have

your hourly rate, which means you worked

40 hours a week, assuming you work 40.

And so even if you work project-wise,

you spent a certain amount of time on

that project and you were remunerated.

Little fancy word, you got paid based on

that work. And so even something like an

investment where people like, well, you

know, investors don't trade their time

for money. Of course they do because you

think, oh, Warren Buffett bought this

company. He just wrote a check and then

that was it. He was done. But what we're

not taking into consideration is the

amount of analysis that he does on macro

markets, the amount of research that

he's doing on a regular basis, the

thousand other deals that he did all the

due diligence on then to say no to only

decide to do this one deal. So when you

take all of that work in aggregate, for

sure he's working. Now, after he makes

the investment, assuming he has no

effort inside of it, which isn't always

true, um, but assuming he had none, then

at that point he would get increasingly

larger returns, but still on a fixed

amount of time that he put in. So, the

proof point is you live in time and you

earn money in time, which means everyone

has an hourly rate. And so, the idea

here is that as long as the thing that

you sell your hourly rate for is more

than you currently own, you will make

more. Next point, when you were doing

one-on-one, especially in the beginning,

you have significantly more flexibility

in delivery. That means because it's

oneonone, you can change things on the

fly. And also, when you have fewer

clients, you can make these kind of

quick iterations. So, this kind of

relates back to the first point of like

you learn a lot faster when you can just

have these tiny little pivots. You don't

have to change these systems. You don't

have to retrain staff. You don't have to

look, you don't have to recode, you

don't have to have the scalable solution

fixed perfectly. It's a great way to

beta test ideas. The next one is that

because you can still cap the time that

you choose to spend with clients, you

can still make sure that you're

allocating as much time as you need to

to do everything else. And one of the

big lessons that I've learned in terms

of making more money is that when you

have demand, cut supply. And so when you

cut supply, what does that do? Why is

why is the acquisition.com logo two

concepts? Leverage, which is a

fullcrumb, and then a supply demand

curve. Because those are, in my opinion,

the two most powerful concepts in

business. And so when you have supply

and demand at work, which we do, the

reason 101 is so powerful is because the

supply is so is so contracted, so fixed,

it's so small. And so it forces, as long

as you don't have limiting beliefs,

which is why I'm trying to make this for

you, it forces you to raise your price.

And so the next one, and this is

controversial, you make the money.

Nobody else does. If you trade your time

for the money, you have a 100% margin.

It's fantastic. Now, some people are

like, well, hey, well, my hourly rate,

it's not, though. You're awake. Your

hourly rate is the food that kept you

alive. That is your hourly rate. Beyond

that, the rest of it goes in your

pocket. And so what I think what people

lack uh consideration of is like every

business can have five one-on-one

clients. Now, when you're like, how

would I do this in a in a lawn care

business? Well, it's just who's going to

be your account rep? You can say some

people get your cell phone and some

people get the account rep's phone.

Who's going to lead the you know, like

who's going to actually design the whole

garden? Is it just one of my guys or is

it going to be me? There's always an

opportunity to make yourself the super

premium version of whatever it is that

you have. Now, here's a fun one. This is

I want to I want to break this loop

because I know the next one that comes

up, which is it's still just not worth

my time, bro. It is worth your time if I

give you a trillion dollars. And so, the

idea here is not is it worth my time,

it's you have to fix the price so that

it is worth your time. Not you would

begrudgingly do it or think to yourself,

well, no one would ever buy that or no

one would ever spend that money or I

think someone would be crazy. Fine, let

them be crazy. Let people live a little

bit. Let them be wild. Let them be a

little spicy. If they want to pay you

more money, you should give them the

opportunity to do so. That's the point

here. Now, what else happens when you

have a super high ticket unscalable

premium one-on-one experience? You lift

your entire brand because if you charge

$10,000 an hour, something absurd, it

doesn't matter. And the thing that you

have is $100, you can then have a very

natural narrative of, listen, a lot of

people can't afford to work with me

one-on-one, and that's totally cool.

I've taken the lessons I have here and I

put them in a scalable format for

everyone. It literally increases the

perceived value. Not just from the

anchor effect, but from the narrative,

the association, the branding that

occurs as a result. Because even if you

charge that and no one ever buys it,

they still assume because that is the

narrative and that's what you put in

front of them. That that big price tag,

the value associated with it still gets

transferred to a degree to the lesser

thing that you have that might be

scalable. Every business can do this.

Like, this is the action step before we

get into like tactics on like how we can

make something be perceived as more

valuable. The action step is this. Just

have the price listed wherever you sell.

And if you don't list it anywhere, say

the price when you offer. And here's the

thing that people mess up about this.

You must confront the high price. You

have to confront it. If you just say

like, "Oh, yeah. Working one means like

$10,000." But anyway, what most people

want to do is no. In order for an anchor

to work, you have to allow the prospect

to make a full consideration of the

decision, which means you have to say,

"Hey, would you like to work with me

oneon-one? It's 10 grand an hour."

Right? And that's, I think, the highest

likelihood thing that I can do to help

you get to where you want to go. Now,

the thing is is at that point, what do

we do? We shut up. We let them talk.

Why? Because talking might result in

them saying yes. And if they say yes,

you get money. And that's amazing,

right? And so, we're at this point right

now. If they then bulk, you say, "Don't

worry. I'm going to pull out a couple of

the components of this and give you this

thing that has 90% of the elements of

this first thing, but it's significantly

more scalable. How's that work for you?

They're like, "Oh my god, thanks so

much. This sounds amazing. This is

exactly what I need." And they buy. But

the thing is is even if and let me do

the math for you because this is

important. Let's say you have a $100

thing and you have a $1,000 thing. And

let's say of the 100 people, 10 of the

hundred are buying the really expensive

thing. So 90% of people buy the $100

thing. What does that do to your

business? Guess what it does? It doubles

the revenue of your business. And not

only that, all of that incremental

revenue, the stuff that came from those

top 10 people, is 100% margin. So let's

say that on your 100, you make 40%

margin. So you're actually making 40

bucks on those 90 people. So you're

making $3,600 in profit off of 90 of

your 100 buyers. Now, of the other 10,

you make 10 * a,000, so you make

$10,000. So you actually make three

times the profit on your expensive

thing. and one times the profit on your

cheaper thing. So threearters of what

you make comes from this thing. That's

why people miss it is they don't get the

math behind it. You have the expensive

thing because even in tiny tiny volumes,

lots of zeros still add up. And so if

you're getting started, I would strongly

recommend if even if you have a scalable

thing, even if you're on school, you

have a community, you charge 100 bucks a

month, whatever it is, have something

that's $1,000 a month. Have something

that's $10,000 one time. Have it up

there. just make it available. And so

I'm going to give you three different

frames to working through this. The

frame number one is what if we charged

10x or 100x more than your current

thing? What would you include? Just go

crazy with it. Just think if instead of

$1,000, if someone gave me $100,000,

what would I do? Just write down

everything you would do. And then look

at the cost of doing all those things.

What you'd be amazed by is many of the

things that you have these ideas for

don't actually cost that much. And so

cross out the ones that have hard costs

and then look at what's left and then

say,"Well, I think I could do that." And

then we ask the question, would you be

okay doing that for a,000 or $10,000?

You might say like, "Well, yeah, for 10

grand I would do that." Make it

available. The second way to think about

this is if I had to make a service or a

product that was only grown off of word

of mouth alone and all you have is this

one customer in front of you. And the

only way that you will be able to get

more customers is if you get that

customer to tell their friends about

your stuff. What would that customer's

experience, what would the service, what

would the components of the offer look

like if that was the requirement? Write

down all of that stuff. And if you're

willing to do that for a higher price,

present it. An amount greater than zero

will say yes. And I'll give you a third

frame. This is different than the other

two, but I think that still very

valuable when you're thinking through

how do I make something um well more

valuable. If we had to take everything

out of it that is unscalable, but we

have to make it worth 10 times as much.

Now, how do we do it? So this gives you

three different intellectual attack

vectors to think through the value

creation for making your more expensive

101 unscalable thing that in many times

will make you more money especially in

the beginning than your less expensive

thing. And the other part of this is

that it's it makes for great marketing

one because you can say this one of my

clients, one of my private clients, one

of my my individual clients. And what

that does is people like, "Oh, this guy

must be a little bit, you know, has more

authority." Right? On top of that, when

you share the learnings from those quote

private clients, it gives you marketing

material to actually talk about, right?

And where do you think your best case

studies are going to come from? There.

And so, you're going to get amazing case

studies. You're going to have amazing

marketing materials in terms of the

learnings and lessons that you're going

to have. And then one of the things that

I personally prefer is that these people

are way cooler and they will be people

that you actually end up being friends

with that you like. and they're the ones

who actually shift your worldview

because you actually will spend more

time with these people than all of these

people and that will shift you in the

correct direction. Now, let's

deconstruct value in a tactical way so

that we can take that the three frames

that I just gave and do even more with

it. Here are the two steps, very

straightforward. Pick the right avatar.

Do not try to make your unscalable

expensive thing and then think about the

person who is currently buying your

thing for $100 and think what would this

$100 person uh be willing to spend

$1,000 for. Do not think that. Likely

the person that's going to spend the

$1,000 is a different person. So you

have to think about that person, not the

person underneath. Next, once you have

this avatar, they have the money, they

feel the pain, they're easy to reach,

right? Then we have to think, how can we

describe their pain more accurately than

they can describe it themselves? And so

the big hack, and this is also new with

some of the AI stuff that's out there,

is go into the books that people are

buying in your niche and then extract

the reviews and then get the quotes that

are specific to their pain. And so one

of the really interesting things about

copy is that if you can articulate

someone's problem better than they can,

they will inherently believe that you

can solve it. So this is what we're

talking about the dream outcome. It's

like make sure we're talking about the

right avatar about what they really want

in the [music] way that resonates with

them specifically because pain and

persuasion only exist in the specific,

never the vague. And if you do this

successfully, their pain and your

description of their pain can be a

better motivator of persuasion and

action than a greater promise. So, how

do we then reverse engineer what someone

actually wants? They don't really want

your time. They want to buy an outcome.

Now, why is oneonone a valuable vehicle?

Because the perceived likelihood of

achievement when you do something

one-on-one in an unskillable way

actually goes through the roof. So, if I

had a meal plan that I gave you as a PDF

or I said, "I will talk to you oneonone

every day." the outcome is still I want

to lose weight, but the likelihood that

they're going to get there is going to

be significantly higher. The likelihood,

the ease, how easy it is for them is

going to go up. And all of these

components play with one another. So

that's the outcome side. Underneath of

that, we have perceived like of

achievement, which I touched on briefly

within the vehicle of oneonone. But

within this case, your reputation over

time acts as almost an implied

guarantee. and the nature of the

delivery also has some level of

implication that they're going to get

the completeness of you. And so as long

as they believe you are competent,

number one, and two, have strong

intention to help, the likelihood that

they believe that giving you money will

help them get what they want goes really

high. And so that's why I like 101.

That's why I like unscalable. And to be

clear, just cap it. It doesn't mean you

have to do it all the time because that

will get in your way long term, but in

the short term, it can it can allow you

to live on this and then cash flow all

the growth. And so this is me giving you

kind of like the the bootstrap

strategies to growing a big business is

like be willing to take 5 10% of your

time, charge 10 times more and make

enough income from that that you can

take all the other money and go

aggressive, go on the offense with it.

So third one is speed. Now if I had to

pick one thing that I could do to

maximize persuasion, it is speed or the

inverse latency. How do I decrease

latency? How do I increase speed so I

can make sure the outcome happens as

fast as possible? because latency beats

magnitude 7 days a week and twice

[music] on Sunday. The reason that this

is important is that it will motivate

someone's action to buy more than just

about anything else. So, you're not

going to sell someone who's wealthy on

how much money you're going to save

them. You'll sell someone who's wealthy

based on how much time you're going to

save them even more. Because money has

an implicit value. Their time is the one

that over time will become significantly

more value than the money. One of the

things that anyone can do to sell that

expensive thing is just take whatever

the delivery time you currently have is

and cut it in half. Cut it in 2/3. And

if you have a 101 service or a higher

tier service, that should add a zero or

more. You can just say, "You will always

have priority. You will always be first

in line. When I have a new thing, you'll

be the first one to see it. Whenever

there's an emergency, you'll be the

first to respond. I'll pull someone off

a job to come to your house." All of

these things are about speed. those

things like think about the vectors of

value. The higher the number, the more

done for you, the more turnkey someone

expects something to be. This is how you

reverse engineer ease. You go through

the customer experience and you take a

note every time you have to do

something. Now, you might find out that

in order for someone to get the outcome

that you want, they might have to take

10,000 actions. And so then what we do

is we systematically go and reverse and

delete friction point by friction point

actions that they need to take. And so

this is the process of making an

exceptional product. Now it might cost

you more money to make this product

which is why you charge more money for

it. So if you have of course there's

technology that can automate some of

this but for many services that exist in

the real world which 70% of people or

80% of people in the US at least are

service based businesses then you're

going to spend some more money. Now

here's the magic of this. Well some of

my business relies on other vendors or

other parties. Guess what happens when

you charge 10 times as much? You can pay

them more to prioritize your customers.

And so this allows you to make your own

priority ring on top of that. That

allows you to consistently out compete

competition because you pay your

vendors, you pay your partners better

than anyone else does because you have

this service tier. And so the TLDDR big

picture is that no matter what, no

matter how many customers you have, if

you simply make a 10 times more

expensive offer, you will have a

percentage likelihood that is greater

than zero that someone will buy it. And

when that happens, you will be

reinforced for doing so. And I think you

will actually see how powerful adding

one, sometimes two zeros to your price

tag really is. Thank you for coming to

my TED talk.