How I Got $1M+ in Ad Funding, a Celebrity Partner, and 174 Leads for $500… Without Losing Equity

Diego Velazquez

Oct 26 • Share Your WINS!

"𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 - 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 - 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 - 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

If you’re constantly broke, it’s typically because you lack one of those 4 things."

I’ll never forget the day when

@Travis Sago

posted that on one of his Facebook posts.

I was having a rough month, as a series of bad events had happened in my life within less than a 30‑day span…

#1 My dad had 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐲.

#2 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐳𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐚, since foreigners were having a hard time there due to the political situation.

#3 My vehicle’s 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 and almost exploded.

#4 My niece, who I’ve raised like a daughter, 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝.

#5 When my 𝐦𝐨𝐦 came back to the country, the first thing that happened to her was that she fell down the stairs and 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐠, limiting her ability to work and giving her A LOT of pain.

And the worst part? 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 any of those things, so I had to practically cover ALL of those expenses.

Fortunately, I had the means to respond, but damn, I left my bank account waaay emptier than I wanted. It was a wake‑up call to realize how life can change in a second if you don’t have the financial means to deal with emergencies that might occur at any time.

And 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐦 𝐈 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? Because this realization made me remember that post I mentioned at the beginning, and how I was missing one of those without realizing it for a loooong time. In my case, the one that was missing the most?

The “𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧” aspect.

Historically, every time I had a new business idea, I would do the following:

• Spend several 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 saving money (or sometimes using a bit of debt).

• Spend a massive amount of time on 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 “𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐢𝐠.”

• Only to realize that by the time it’s ready, the idea wasn’t as good as I originally thought, since it wasn’t solving a deep enough 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧 and/or the market conditions had changed.

(This is what happened to a blog I created a couple of years ago called https://yourdominicanguide.com/, which by the time it got ranked by Google, the AI stuff came up, and Google started giving AI answers, drastically reducing the traffic and making the blog less needed.)

So, after this realization, 𝐈 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡. I started to wonder, how can I use more “leverage” to get things moving FAST? 𝐈 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 “𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭,” LOL.

So, I was working on a project called the Top Score Challenge, which was about helping students boost their test scores in under 90 minutes (I came up with the idea after helping my niece with her exams by creating thousands of mini‑tests with ChatGPT to help her at her new school, where she was really struggling, and I really wanted to help students around the world with that).

So, what did I do? I was like, ok, if I REALLY want to scale this fast, what’s "𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐲” to get this going? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐨 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 that would get things moving fastest?

I thought, well, I’ve been the media buyer of a law firm for over 7 years. Why don’t I make a deal with them to let me use their ad accounts (after all, using a brand‑new ad account slows down the process considerably due to the spending limits that FB puts on new ad accounts).

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐦𝐚…

𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬, with them putting in the money, but how could I do it 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲, while making it a 𝘯𝘰‑𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳 for them, and setting it up in a way that everybody wins?

After thinking about it, I proposed the following structure:

Hey, check out this project. If it works, the growth potential is this [blank]. Why don’t we do the following?:

𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩; you simply let me use one of your ad accounts with your credit card attached.
𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝟓𝟎/𝟓𝟎 𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐋 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 $𝟏,𝟎𝟎𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬.
And 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, if you want to keep funding the ads, you can keep doing it and 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝟏𝟎% of the profits.

Their response?

“𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥, 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 10% 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 25%, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦’𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭.”

And we did.

In other words, thanks to a combination of 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 with 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 in the deal, I was able to not only get access to over a 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 to run my project, but I was able to do it 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲, while making everyone super happy about it.

I’m telling you… these “Creativity - Commitment - Courage - Collaboration” principles are powerful.

Then, here’s what happened…

After reading Travis Sago’s second book, 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐬 & 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚, I found an even more interesting application of the “collaboration” aspect.

You see, the CEO of that law firm kept telling me:

“Hey Diego, have you heard about this guy called Bob Sapp? We should probably do something together with him.”

I barely knew who the guy was. I had only seen him in one of the videos of a show called Fight Circus that I was running ads for (since the law firm guy is co‑owner of that show).

So, I told him:

“Hey, thanks for the proposal, but 𝐈’𝐦 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐲 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰. I might be happy to run ads for him at some point, but I definitely don’t want to build anything right now.

Why don’t we do something? 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐨𝐛 𝐒𝐚𝐩𝐩 that has a lot of questions about who he is, who his ideal clients are, and what he’s done before and what he offers, and ask him to fill it out. It’ll be super useful for whoever builds a funnel for him.”

So, he did that, and I had 2 surprises:

𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 #𝟏: The guy filled out the document FAST. He filled out 54 pages about the story of his life, descriptions of his clients, and case studies in under one week (I was expecting him to fill it out in over a month).

𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 #𝟐: It turns out that the guy was one of the biggest celebrities in MMA and had even made movies — and I didn’t even know!

So, after seeing this, I thought, ok, this guy moves fast, has a HUGE following, a CRAZY story, and is REALLY good at helping people with their fitness. So, I thought…

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐦? And so, since he was famous for doing 1,000 reps, I came up with this idea called The 1,000 Reps Challenge, which was a challenge about making people do 1,000 reps in under 5 days to get their fire back.

Now, the guy did NOT know me at all. So, what did I do? I remembered this principle from the Fans & Fortunes Formula book (I'm paraphrasing here):

“𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 ‘𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥’ 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐁𝐔𝐓 ‘𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐟𝐮𝐥’ 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐧.”

So, what did I do? Instead of building something sophisticated and complex like I would have done in the past, all I did was:

Step 1: Create a 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫-𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐭-𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞, “𝐌𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬” course style.

Step 2: Create a Facebook 𝐚𝐝 to that opt‑in page 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭.

Step 3: 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 what to do from there. If there’s enough interest, continue. If not, move on.

So, here’s what I did…

𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 to Bob — NOT selling myself, not overdoing it, not writing super‑long messages trying to convince him of the idea, and keeping it simple (like Travis Sago talks about all the time in many convos in this group).

This is literally what I wrote to him:

“Hey Bob, thanks for filling that out!

I went through everything in detail and honestly, 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 by what you put in there. I love what you're building.

I saw that you mentioned something about building a retreat for people who are looking to think outside the box, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚 that I think could be the perfect offer to pre-sell the retreat (or whatever big-ticket offer we want to roll-out):

https://www.facebook.com/61577602123935/posts/122106065318920070/

I showed it to Keith and he loved it. He said it's one of those ideas that'll either crush or bomb, but there's only one way to find out ;)

He told me to email you first to get the green light before we test it.

>>> 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐮𝐬 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?

If it works, we probably got a home run here, and if it doesn't, we'll still get a lot of valuable data from the feedback questions I added to the thank you page (you'll see them if you sign up through the link). That'll help us build the right thing either way.

Either way, please let me know. If you're ok with it, I got everything ready to get this going right away :)”

𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞: “𝐘𝐄𝐒!!!”

So, we spent $500 on a test and got over 174 leads, which is a $𝟐.𝟖𝟕 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝!

From there, setting up that deal was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done.

We got on the phone — the three of us: the law firm guy, Bob Sapp, and I — and out of the gate, the law firm guy started to talk and said,

“Hey Bob, out of all of the millions we’ve spent on ads, 𝐰𝐞’𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐩! There’s really a lot of potential here.”

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐛 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 and REALLY wanted to do this…

And the best part? 𝐈 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤. 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲.

And now we’re also talking about running a Fun Auction and doing all of the interesting stuff.

It’s incredible how powerful that principle of giving the “𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭” can be — especially when you combine it with the “𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧” aspect of the “Creativity - Commitment - Courage - Collaboration” principle from above.

@Travis Sago

, thanks for all you do! 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 with your teachings!

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