Lessons from Closing $300,000 Deal (Part 2)

Mar '23 (edited) in Other

In Part 1 I explained that the consequences of every action you take are much larger than you realise, due to 2nd, and 3rd order consequences.

But like Stoicism taught me:

In life, there are some things you can control and other things you can't control.

So in this post I want to talk about one of the things the led to me closing this deal that I couldn't control.

---

For the past decade, the META for consultants/internet marketers/coaches was "to make money, run ads".

One of the most prominent figures in this space, Sam Ovens, scaled to $36,000,000 year through Facebook Ads.

And did all of this WITHOUT creating ANY content.

In fact, content was considered time-consuming and a 'treadmill' that you didn't want to hop on.

But then things started to fall apart.

Sam revealed that although he was MAKING $36m/y, he was also SPENDING $36m/y.

That means that when things were the most stressful and complicated... he took home $0 profit.

---

Very interesting, but is it cool if we zoom out for a second?

No business operates in a vaccum. Every business operates in a macro market.

Sam is part of the "online business" market.

And this market is an absolute red ocean.

The best of the best marketers find themselves in this space.

And many have had decades to cement their name as the market leader.

Tony Robbins
Grant Cardone
Jay Abraham
Dean Graziosi
Sam Ovens
Iman Gadzhi
Alex Becker

You'd think it would be near impossible for a new entrant to join the market and take up market share.

But yet, when I asked my friend Bas (who, for credibility, makes $1m/m) , "who is best positioned in this market to make the most money?"

He replied: "Alex Hormozi"

WHAT!?

How on earth did all of these top-tier marketers leave such a huge crack in the marketplace that could allow Alex to join and dominate?

A foolish mistake, but one that was formed due to the belief I mentioned at the start of the post: "to make money, run ads".

---

It was Hormozi's growth that planted the seed for online entrepreneurs to realise that maybe content wasn't such a waste of time after all.

But that seed was watered when:

Sam, the ads guy, told everyone to start a YouTube channel
Cole Gordon (who grew from $0 -> $2m/m in a couple years using ads) said he was going to stop running ads
Iman Gadzhi completely stopped running ads, and went all in on content
The All-In Podcast, with four billionaires, called "content the dominant distribution channel

All of this combined led many online business owners to the realisation: "If I want to win, I need to start creating content. And I need to do it before it's too late".

All of a sudden the Demand for content-creation skills skyrocketed.

It turns out Gary Vee was right after all.

---

To go viral you have to make content people want.

To have a successful business you have to have a solution people want.

But what people want changes over time.

In content, we call this trends. In business, we call this market timing.

And this market timing is THE most important determinant to the success or failure of a business.

More important than your team, or even your product.

Warren Buffet says "what boat you are in is more important than how hard you row". This is completely true, but this takes it one step further.

---

So me closing this $300k deal was largely a part of me being in the right place, at the RIGHT TIME.

I would not have closed this deal 6 months ago.

But when you find yourself in the right place at the right time, take advantage of it as much as possible.

That's why, in 2023, I will be building a team and taking on more clients who are looking to dominate their market using content (DMs open).

---

To summarise, here's the lessons learned in Part 1 and Part 2:

Work hard on something you enjoy, knowing that it will create opportunities you can't comprehend. This will put you in the right place.

Then don't give up. Keep working hard until you find yourself in the right place at the right time.

And also, ask yourself "what market am I in?" Because "In a great market—a market with lots of real potential customers—the market pulls product out of the startup."

40 comments