The Game with Alex Hormozi - Part 1: Welcome to $100M Money Models

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

This is part 1 of Alex Hormozi’s new book $100M® Money Models. In this section, Alex (@AlexHormozi) lays the foundation for how money is actually made in business and why most people play the wrong game.Welcome to The Game w/Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast, you’ll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned and will learn on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Wanna scale your business? Click here.Follow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | AcquisitionMentioned in this episode:Get access to the free $100M Scaling Roadmap at www.acquisition.com/roadmap

Acquisition.com publishing is proud to present Acquisition.com, volume three, $100 million money models, How to Make Money, Written and Performed by Alex Hormosey. Dedication. What people have said about Alex Hermose. Alex is my husband. Lela Hormosey. I have known many people. Alex is one of them. People who know Alex. Alex has said things people have heard. Friends. Alex is better at some things than others. Alex's favorite teacher.

Alex wrote a book. I have read many books. magazine critic. Guiding principles. Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. Warren Buffett. More important than the will to win is the will to prepare. Charlie Munger. A quick word.

Layla. I wrote this dedication six years ago. I want to thank my partner, my ride or die. Layla. You found me at my absolute worst, and you have fought beside me, shoulder to shoulder, ever since. You said you would sleep with me

under a bridge if it came to that, and I have not forgotten. You stood tall when everything was crumbling around me. I would go to war with you. I would die for you. If the world were a hurricane, standing with you is like being in the eye, calmly observing the storm raging around us.

There's no one else I'd want by my side to fight the battles that come. Being with you makes the stars look within reach. Here's to a life filled with the impossible. And six years later, nothing's changed. Trevor. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Proverbs 2717. It's a rare and wonderful thing to have the smartest man you've met, call you a friend.

If ignorance is the only true evil and knowledge the only true good, you, my brother, are a force of good. The world is better with you in it, and I will fight to keep it that way. My life wouldn't be the same without you. I wouldn't be the same without you. I doubt I will ever be able to repay the favor that you have given me by being in my life, but I'll live trying. Thank you for giving me a gift far more than a paragraph. at the beginning of a book can never repay. We will put our brick in the wall.

Here's to a once-in-a-generation friendship. Philia. Start here. The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. Ernest Hemingway. The first picture you see inside my book is a picture of me standing in front of my gym,

and a picture of where I used to sleep on the gym floor. I stared at the ceiling in the dark alone. I had no one to go to. It sounds cool when you tell the story later, but it didn't feel that way. I was terrified. I went against my father's wishes. I skipped out on business school.

I spent all my savings. Everyone I cared about told me not to do it. I was the idiot that gave up on a good career. I thought I would look forward to the struggle, but it got real, fast. Kids partied all night in the parking garage above me. They'd race over the steel dividers. It sounded like gunshots echoing in my concrete bedroom.

And as soon as I started to pass out, I'd get jolted awake by another. Bang, bang, bang. I finally gave up trying to sleep at night. I settled for midday naps in the Utah. closet. Then, in the dead of night, I worked. I had to make money. My gym sat across the street from a large storage unit business. The owner became one of my few members, only out of convenience. A few weeks after he joined, he pulled me aside after his workout. I've been doing a little math,

he said, it looks like you're struggling. I tried to hide my embarrassment, but I failed. All right, kid, let's grab breakfast tomorrow. I hesitated thinking about my bank account. Before I could answer, he said, don't worry, my treat. Relief. the next morning we met at the local diner around 5 a.m. As the waitress brought our coffee, he asked, how much time you got left to live? Huh? How much cash you got saved up?

About five grand. How much time does that give you before you run out? I thought about it for a moment. About a month? Tough. How are you getting customers? I have a $39 six-week special on a discount site. How many customers have you gotten?

Four. Looks like you've got a problem. that you need to solve. Fast. He let the statement sink in. Then I saw a grin spread across his face. Let me ask you a question. How much does a free month of storage cost?

I shrugged. Uh, nothing? He took note of my confusion and said, All right, let's go for a ride. I'll explain it at my facility. As soon as we walked in, the girl at the front desk greeted us. Good morning, gentlemen.

Good morning, Judy. How much does a free month of storage cost? He asked. 127, sir, she replied, cheerfully. He smiled, and he turned to me. Want to know how? I nodded. He took me through the office and down one of the rows of freshly painted units. So we advertised the first month is free, and it is. But what's the first thing you need after you get a storage unit? I don't know, I shrugged. Exactly. Nobody really does, but I do, and I help him out. So let me give you a hint.

He pointed towards the lock on the door. Right, a lock. Yeah, and not one of those flimsy locks that kids use on their lockers. Those won't fit here anyways. Besides, any goon with bolt cutters can get through those in a second. But not one of these bad boys. He tapped the lock to emphasize his point. Yeesh, it looks like it. Where do you even get one of those? I asked. Funny you should ask, I've got a whole storage unit full of these. Yours today for just 47 bucks. Okay, okay, I get it. They come in for the free month, but what good is a storage unit unless you can lock it? Exactly, he said. I get it. So where does the other 80 bucks come from? Great memory. So what else are you going to want? I shrugged. Well, if you have stuffed to store, you're going to need boxes to store it in.

But never fear. We've got boxes with tons of different shapes and sizes to fit all your storage needs. We also offer tape, labels, and heavy-duty markers to make sure you know exactly what's in every box and where you put it. Super handy. Oh, duh. That makes perfect sense, I said. What else are you going to need? He asked. I don't know. moving it? Yes. Now, we don't actually offer in-house moving services, but we have an affiliate relationship with a local moving business and make a kickback. And if you want to move all your stuff yourself, that's fine too. We have dollies, hand truck, straps, and other useful tools available for a fee. After all, why buy a bunch of stuff you only use once? What a waste. Oh yeah, I didn't think of that,

I said. What else are you going to want? He asked. Uh, I really don't know. Well, what you store is valuable, right? At least valuable to you in some way. I mean, if it wasn't, you'd send it all the dump. So you're going to want some insurance in case something bad happens. Now, I already give $500 of free insurance to all customers, but if you have one of the special locks only I offer, I'll bump it to $100,000 for only an extra $10 a month. He puffed with pride. Dang, and all that adds up to $127? Yep, but we're not done yet. You know what always seems to happen? On to his game now. I played along. Beats me. What happens? Everyone has way more stuff than they think, and they always rent too small of a unit.

In fact, it happens so often, we always offer one size up. They get the space they need, and we make a few extra bucks. It works out for everyone. Wow, this is pretty cool. I didn't know any of this stuff. Of course not, he said. Why would you? Fair enough.

But how do I use this to grow my gym? I asked. Yeah, I've been playing this game as long as you've been alive. And when you figure out how to make money in one business, I mean really figure it out. You see ways to make money in any business. And one thing's for sure. The longer you play, the more you learn. Wow, so you've had this place for 23 years?

This place? No. This is just one of my newer locations. You have more than one? I asked. I have 27. Oh, crap. I felt two inches tall. Anyways, I gotta get to work. You know your way out?

You pointed to the door. Yeah, I chuckled. I think I could make it across the street. Two and a half years later. I now had six gyms. I had leveled up. I wanted to level up again, so I paid $25,000 for an hour of time with the famous marketer. I had never spoken to him, but I knew his stuff like the back of my hand.

I had one goal for this call, for him to help me scale my gyms. After brief introductions, we dove in. So, yeah, and that's how I opened my gyms in full capacity on day one. I put $3,000 down for a lease, and then run a few days worth of ads. I sell customers in the empty building. Then the cash from those signups goes towards more ads, equipment, paint, flooring, furniture, signage, and whatever else the location needs. Doing it this way, I've opened up a new location every six months with no debt.

Wow, so cool. Explain to me in a bit more detail, would you? His business was making millions of bucks a month. Those numbers blew my mind, and he wants to hear how I advertise? I beamed with pride. I advertise a free six-week challenge until I got about 20 leads a day. Got it. Keep going, he said. About half the lead show up for appointments,

I sell half of those who show into a $600 program, so about 25% of my leads become paying customers. I also get about another 80 bucks in profit per customer from supplement sales. Not too shabby. Agreed. He grunted. So you make like 680 bucks per customer before even open your doors. Pretty dang good, but you left something out.

What did I leave out? How much you pay in per lead? Oh, five bucks. If a deafening silence ever happened in my life, this was it. He stuttered a bit. So you put $1 in and get $34 out in 48 hours? Yeah, is that good? I asked.

It's amazing. He said, do you have anything happening on the back end? I grinned ear to ear. Yeah, a few weeks later, I'd tell them that they can get their $600 back as credit if they choose to sign up for a year. Two-thirds of sign-ups convert into memberships. So I end up with a full gym and $20,000 a month of recurring memberships for $3,000 down. Then I rinse and repeat. Wait a second.

You do all this in 30 days? Yeah, pretty cool, right? He rubbed his eyes. You shouldn't be running gyms. Oh, God. I thought he was going to compliment me. But he told me I should quit. my mind erased.

Alex, he said, snapping me back into reality. You have a level 10 skill set in a level two opportunity. Okay, well, what should I do? I asked. You shouldn't be running gyms. You should be showing other gym owners how to do what you just showed me. I hated the idea of giving up on what took years to build, but he made a lot more money than I did. I figured, if I ignored his advice, I may as well burn my money.

So I took his advice. Over the next nine months, I closed down my newest gym and sold my other five. that gave me all the time to go all in on my new company, gym launch. Over the next two years, I flew around the country turning gyms around. Then, after 30 plus turnarounds, I switched to a licensing model. I no longer flew out in person. Instead, I helped them follow our proven model to fill their gyms and increase profits. A small market, to be sure, but they were starving, some literally.

But once they filled their gym in 30 days, they told their friends. Gym launch took off like a rocket. It was wild. Over the next five years, I took over $43 million in owner distribution. Then I sold 66% of the company at 46.2 million in an all-cash deal. With that deal, I crossed $100 million in net worth at age 31. And to be clear, no one was more surprised than me. From there, my wife and I founded our family office, acquisition.com to invest in businesses

we know how to grow. Our portfolio at the time of this writing is over $200 million per year in annual revenue. It spans brick and mortar chains, software, services, and e-commerce. And even though we worked in many different niches, our companies have, all grown using the same principles I share in this book. So, what's in it for you? In a few pages, I took you from sleeping on the floor to crossing $100 million in net worth. So the natural question is, how? Answer, by making more money from customers than it costs to get them. And that's what this book, $100 million money models, is all about. Since I've been in business, the landscape has changed

more than once, and it'll keep changing. The good news is, sound principles help you print money no matter what. I've learned a lot of money models. I cover my favorites here. $100 million money models shows already proven offers that you can use today, and the instructions to make them happen. Think of $100 million money models as a book of winning lottery tickets. All you have to do is cash them in. Also, I want to make something clear. These are my private notes. If it's here, I've made money with it. These chapters contain my observations and experiences with different businesses, from local chains to physical products, to services, to education, to software, and so on. And they were scattered everywhere over the years, until now. This is my cookbook for making

money. How this book is structured. This book teaches you one insanely profitable thing, how to build a $100 million money model. With a $100 million money model, you make so much money in the first 30 days that the cost of getting more customers will never be a problem again. With so many customers, you'll be forced to work on everything else in your business just to keep up. A problem for another book to solve. Winky face. Here's the book outline. Start here and a problem this book solves. You just finished it. Section 1. What's a money model? Coming up next. Section 2, attraction offers. Section 3, upsell offers. Section 4, downsell offers. Section 5, continuity offers. Section 6, make your money model. That's it. Easy peasy. Pro tip. Faster, deeper learning by reading and listening at the same time.

Here's a life hack I stumbled on years ago. If you listen to an audiobook and read the physical book or ebook same time, you read faster and remember more. You store the content in more places in your brain. Nifty stuff. This is how I read books worth reading. I also do both because I struggle to stay focused. If I listen to the audio while reading it, it helps me avoid zoning out. It took me two days to record this book out loud. I did it, so if you struggle like me, you don't have to anymore. If you want to give it a try, go ahead and grab the audio version and see for yourself. I've made my books as cheap as the platforms let me, so this is an employee to make some extra coin. I promise. I hope you find it as valuable as I have.

I figured I'd put this hack early on. This way, you'd have a chance to do it if you found the first chapter valuable enough to earn your attention. Pro tip. Hack for finishing books. I get distracted easily, so I need little tricks to keep my attention.

This one helps me a lot. Finish chapters. Don't stop in the middle. Completing a chapter gives you positive reinforcement. It keeps you going. So, if you meet a tough chapter, finish it so you can start fresh on the next one. Real quick, guys,

I have a special, special gift for you for being loyal listeners of the podcast. Layla and I spent probably an entire quarter putting together our scaling roadmap. It's breaking scaling into 10 stages and across all eight functions of the business. So you've got marketing, you've got sales, you've got product, you've got customer success,

you've got IT, you've got recruiting, you've got HR, you've got finance. We show the problems that emerge at every level of scale and how to graduate to the next level. It's all free and you can get it personalized to you, so it's about 30-ish pages, for each of the stages. Once you enter the questions, it will tell you exactly where you're at and what you need to do to grow. It's about 14 hours of stuff, but it's narrowed down so that you

only have to watch the part that's relevant to you, which will probably be about 90 minutes. And so if that's at all interesting, you can go to acquisition.com forward slash roadmap, R-O-A-D map, roadmap.