Why This 7-Figure Opportunity Will Explode in 2025 — Don’t Miss Out

Name: Why This 7-Figure Opportunity Will Explode in 2025 — Don’t Miss Out
Uploaded: 2025-09-06T20:01:07+00:00
Duration: 43 min 58 s
Channel: Shine Star

00:00If you want to get rich, you shouldn't start a business, you should buy one.

00:03What is going to happen to you guys after you learn how to buy a small business?

00:07You're going to see them all around.

00:08The truth of the matter is there's 2.5 million small businesses for sale right now in the U.S.

00:13And so what if we can learn how to find and buy businesses in a market in which people are closing them instead of selling them?

00:19In this market, you're going to find a bunch of people talk to you about all the reasons why we should be scared,

00:25all the reasons why we should be careful.

00:27And in my mind, this is the time to learn how to push.

00:30Buy when there's blood in the streets, especially if that blood is your own.

00:34Here is how I found one of my very first businesses to buy that basically cost me no money and made my ROI in one month.

00:40My goal by the end of this is that you have something so actionable and you can make moves

00:44and you can feel confident that the things that you learned today could actually make you a few more zeros.

00:49The message that I'd like to try to bring to rooms like this is that it is not easy.

00:53I am not saying this is a get-rich-quick scheme.

00:56In fact, if that's what you're interested in, I'm not your girl.

00:59But I do think that there is a way to have income on day one.

01:03With the lowest failure rate mathematically, and they keep it from us,

01:07how do you find a business to buy where the owner says, thank you,

01:12when you buy it and they help you fund it?

01:15No banks.

01:17Nobody in the middle.

01:18That is the idea today.

01:19We'll see if we can actually do that together.

01:21When I think about what's stopping most people from buying businesses, it's this.

01:26They're like, I don't know where to find a business to buy.

01:29I don't know where to look.

01:30Nothing's come across my plate.

01:32The truth of the matter is there's 2.5 million small businesses for sale right now in the U.S.,

01:36which is wild.

01:38And it's actually bigger than that.

01:39We have the entire baby boomer generation aging out of owning these small businesses.

01:44Look at these stats.

01:4661% of owners don't know how to sell their small business.

01:49We got 10 million that will sell in the next decade.

01:52We've got 75 million baby boomers going to retire.

01:56And we've got 10 trillion, with a T, in assets that's going to change from one generation to the next.

02:02Here's the problem.

02:03Lots of people think that that generation is going to hand down money.

02:07Do you know the percent of net worth that most business owners have tied up in their business?

02:1490.

02:16So if we don't buy their small businesses, $9 trillion of wealth gets dispersed or gets bought by BlackRock or Blackstone.

02:26This is the opportunity we have in front of us.

02:29And it's really, really important.

02:31Because the way we will take over that wealth is through business generation.

02:35And how do I know?

02:37Because I use these four rules I'm going to talk to you guys about today to build my portfolio.

02:41Of a bunch of businesses that have nothing in common with each other for the most part.

02:45That are all small businesses in my local community.

02:48I want you guys to do the same thing.

02:50And then I thought, you know, okay, Cody, I did these huge hundred million plus dollar deals when I was in finance.

02:56I bought these businesses for myself.

02:58Little tiny guys up to bigger businesses.

03:01Could I teach other people how to buy a business?

03:03Like, could anybody buy a business?

03:05Or there, you know, there are a few people out there that you're like, buddy, it's better you get a job.

03:08You know, I was nervous.

03:10I didn't know.

03:10And then we went out and we taught 5,000 people how to buy a business.

03:14And just last year, they did $262 million in businesses bought.

03:19It is totally possible.

03:26It is totally possible for hardworking people who are willing to be a little bit of a masochist

03:33and do the miserable thing that is business ownership for you to buy a small business.

03:38And so I want you to break that first belief if you've ever been concerned.

03:42There's also something really weird happening this year.

03:45Look at this number here for a second.

03:48356 companies have filed for bankruptcy in 2024.

03:53This is higher than in 2020.

03:56What does this mean?

03:57It means we have businesses all over this country.

03:59How many of you guys have felt this in real estate is hard out there right now, right?

04:03Feel a little harder this year than it has before?

04:05Feel a little harder on business overall?

04:06Well, definitely.

04:09But when do we make money?

04:10Do we make money buying at peak markets or do we make money buying in troughs?

04:16Troughs.

04:17Baron Rothschild.

04:18Buy when there's blood in the streets, especially if that blood is your own.

04:22The idea that I see percolating here is that this year is going to be really tough.

04:26And so what if we can learn how to find and buy businesses in a market in which people are closing them instead of selling them?

04:34Every single business that closes has some value.

04:38You can't get out of them.

04:40We call them baby with the bath water businesses.

04:42So how many of you guys have ever had a business and you've shut it down?

04:47I have.

04:48Mm-hmm.

04:49When you look inside of your business, what's inside of there?

04:52There's client lists inside of that business that you could cross sell to.

04:55There's assets inside of that business.

04:57Maybe equipment.

04:59Maybe there's a lease that's at a lower rate than it ever was before.

05:02Hey, there's employees inside that business that already know how to do X and Y and Z.

05:06Every single business has a value and if you guys know how to buy it, that's when you become really, really wealthy.

05:12I'm going to break this down real technically about how to buy businesses.

05:15Everybody cool with us getting a little technical?

05:17Woo!

05:17All right.

05:18I like it.

05:20You're into spreadsheets.

05:20You're an accountant.

05:21Are you ready for this?

05:22No, I'm just enjoying it.

05:23Okay, good.

05:24All right.

05:24I like, you know, you never know.

05:25Accountants are cool too.

05:26All right.

05:27I call this the are you into blondes or are you into brunettes?

05:31Before you go and buy a business, a lot of people ask me this question.

05:34They say, how do I know which business to buy?

05:38I don't know what business I should buy.

05:39I don't know what I should do next.

05:41What's the best business to buy, Cody?

05:43And I tell them this, that your biggest problem is actually you don't know what the fuck you want.

05:48You're this guy.

05:50You're walking around like Neo in the Matrix on your mission, girl in the red dress, he looks, and then you die.

05:56And the thing that kills you is not your competitors, but it's your lack of focus.

06:00And by you, I mean me too.

06:01It happens to every single one of us.

06:03So we call this deal clarity or your deal box.

06:06If you know what you want, it's a hell of a lot easier to find it.

06:10The problem is that for most people, we think that confusion is good because clarity limits, right?

06:17Clarity seems to put some sort of ring around what we want.

06:21And that might be scary because what if I want the wrong thing?

06:23But I want to push you a little bit on here to go narrow, not wide.

06:27And let's talk about why.

06:29Remember this guy, this rich guy?

06:30This is Charles Koch, one of the richest guys in the world.

06:33And interestingly enough, one of the biggest funders of politics in the U.S., him and his brother and his father.

06:39What's interesting about Charles is look how he made his billions.

06:45Toilet paper.

06:46What else we got?

06:49We got napkins.

06:51We've got some energy down here at the bottom.

06:55We've got household products.

06:57Does any of this scream sexy or Silicon Valley?

07:01No.

07:02Does this scream tech dating apps?

07:05No.

07:06What did this guy know?

07:07How did he make so much money on something that has a margin of less than 3%, which is what napkins and toilet paper have?

07:15Could you please imagine that for a second?

07:17Imagine for a second that your business, if your client gave you a dollar, you only got three cents back.

07:24Would your businesses right now survive?

07:26Fuck no.

07:27That's terrible.

07:28Even Walmart has a 6% margin.

07:30But he was able to grow an empire.

07:32Why?

07:33Because he knew exactly what his deal box is.

07:37And that is what I want for you guys.

07:39Now, the better question to ask instead of what kind of business should I buy is what kind of business is right for me?

07:46I call this the Goldilocks effect.

07:49So there's sort of four main things that matter in figuring out a business to buy.

07:53The first one is how much time do you want to spend both finding the deal and inside of the business?

07:58The second question is how much money do you want to put up or do you want somebody else to put up for the business?

08:04The third is risk.

08:06What percentage of what you already have and what you may have in the future are you willing to sacrifice for this business?

08:12And the fourth is what does that combination look like in a little soup just for you?

08:18A lot of people confuse business buying with these big spreadsheets trying to figure out what future forecast and cash flow looks like.

08:24But they don't actually understand the main ingredients to the thing they're making.

08:27And that's not going to be you guys.

08:29Now, this is slightly technical.

08:30But here's how I think about deal clarity.

08:32And this is a decent point to take a picture with your phone if you want it.

08:36So when you go to buy a business, three things that matter.

08:39What you want personally.

08:41Like what kind of business do I want to run?

08:43Where do I want it to be located?

08:45Second, how much money do I want to make?

08:47How many of you guys do business and lose money?

08:51It's just your charity.

08:52Nobody, right?

08:53Your business has to make you a certain amount of money.

08:56And third is can it better the things that you already do?

08:59If everybody in here already has a business, a job, etc.

09:02What if you buy a business that gives you an unfair advantage in the thing you already do?

09:06So you start out with your ideal owner experience.

09:09Then we go to your zone of genius.

09:11And then you go to your current business and figure out how can we pull the two together for one plus one to equal three.

09:17This is how pros buy businesses that are profitable to them even at a 3% margin.

09:23So we're going to start with this.

09:25And here's how this goes.

09:27Most people give me a goal that's really broad when they say I want to buy a small business.

09:32They say I want to leave my nine to five.

09:33I want $100,000 in income from my business.

09:36I want a million dollar business.

09:37I want you to replace your deal clarity with something like this.

09:42I want to replace my income with a cash flowing business because we buy realities and profits, not hopes and dreams.

09:50That will pay me $120,000 plus, let's say, insert your number.

09:54Whether you want to operate the business or not, for what period of time, with what kind of plan to exit.

10:02And finally, what is the why that drives the fact that we all sit in this room?

10:07At some point, you're going to have enough cash and you want to make sure that the business doesn't just support your ego.

10:11It supports whatever your bigger vision for life is.

10:15So before you even think about buying a business, I want you to have a little paragraph like this.

10:21And then we go into what I call your zone of genius.

10:24It's three things.

10:25When you buy a business, it's what skills and experience do you bring?

10:29What can you not sleep for the want of doing, aka your passion?

10:33And who do you know that can make this a fuck yes no matter what happens in the business?

10:38How can you make your first acquisition so seamless that you do a second and a third?

10:44Here's how I think about it.

10:46When you think about passion here, here are the questions you should ask yourself.

10:49Most people, when they go to buy a small business, they go,

10:52Cody, you bought laundromats and car washes.

10:53What do you think I'm going to buy?

10:55Laundromats and car washes, right?

10:57It's what everybody says to me.

10:58But in fact, what I want you to do is think about who are you uniquely as a human?

11:03And ask yourself these questions.

11:05And then I want you to ask yourself something a little bit deeper.

11:09So let's take you, for instance.

11:11What's your name?

11:12Jonathan, what are you good at?

11:15I'm pretty good with repairing garage doors manually with my hands.

11:19I love it.

11:20So he says I'm pretty good with repairing garage doors with your hands.

11:23First of all, pretty good, or are you really good?

11:25I can do it with my eyes closed.

11:27You can do it?

11:28He says he can do it with his eyes closed.

11:29I like that.

11:30I like that line better.

11:31Okay.

11:31So you are very handy.

11:33Yes.

11:34And is that something you use in your business right now?

11:37Yep.

11:37Okay.

11:38And so in your business today, one of your main skills is, hey, I can actually do the

11:43work.

11:43I can operate this business with my hands.

11:45Yeah?

11:46Okay.

11:46What's your second main skills?

11:48Are you really good at sales?

11:49Are you good at marketing?

11:50Customer service.

11:51So when you get one customer, they want to stay with you because you treat them right.

11:56Maybe you treat them like the only customer you might ever have.

11:58Good value.

11:59Yeah.

11:59I like it.

12:00Okay.

12:01So for you, when you're looking at a small business, what would one of your businesses

12:05that would be interesting for you look like?

12:07It might be one.

12:08What is the business you do again today?

12:10Garage door installations, repairs, and replacements.

12:12I love it.

12:12So what's the name of your company?

12:14All Roads Garage Doors.

12:15All Roads Garage Doors.

12:16He does garage replacement.

12:18So right now, if I'm looking at your unique skill set, it's going to be, one, I already

12:24run a boring business, Cody.

12:26Two, in a nation of people where they don't even know who to call when something gets broken,

12:31I actually know how to fix shit.

12:32Right?

12:33That's you.

12:34Three, you can probably talk to the operators who are every day inside of a business doing

12:39the fixing.

12:40Right?

12:40How many other people that don't do what you do come into your guys, try to talk to them,

12:45and your guys don't respect them at all because they don't actually know how to

12:47fix things.

12:48That's not you.

12:49So that's three.

12:50And then four, you know how to bring a customer in and keep them.

12:53Cool.

12:54So when you're out looking at a new business, would you want to do a business that is a

12:58tech business?

13:01No.

13:02Not in your skill set and zone of genius.

13:04Would you want to do a business that has no sales at all?

13:09Probably not because you're actually good at keeping clients but maybe not getting them.

13:14So you might want a business where they're really good at getting them and you get to

13:17keep them.

13:18Right?

13:18This is what it means to understand what your skill set is.

13:21And then finally, your network.

13:23And this is a game you guys can play in this room today.

13:25Which is, if you wanted to buy a maintenance or a garage installation business, you now got

13:33a guy in this room.

13:34When you go and buy a small business, there are three people you need on your team.

13:38You need an accountant.

13:39You need an accountant, you need an attorney, and you need a subject matter expert in your

13:43sector.

13:45So if I was going to go buy an accounting firm and I don't know any accountants, I'm going

13:50to have a lot more risk.

13:52So I want you guys to think about who is in your network.

13:54And like they say, six degrees of Kevin Bacon, most humans can triangulate their way to another

13:59person.

14:00So now we understand our deal clarity sheet.

14:02There's a QR code at the end.

14:05All of these little sheets on here are going to be for free for you guys at the end.

14:11If you take a picture of the QR code, it'll get sent to you.

14:14This is called our deal clarity worksheet.

14:16And what this basically does is ask you all the questions, just like a dating profile for

14:20you to find the business that you want to buy.

14:22But the last thing that I want you guys to think about with the type of business you want

14:25to buy is this line from, do you guys know who this is?

14:29The sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett, eating a popsicle.

14:32Which just to me, you know, kind of, I feel like that's what he does.

14:36I feel like that's what he does on the weekend.

14:38So as he says, never invest in a business you can't understand.

14:42Now, let's play a little game.

14:43I bought a company that built autonomous ships or I bought part of it.

14:47Is that a good deal or a bad deal?

14:51Do I look like I know autonomous ships?

14:53I should go straight to jail for this business.

14:56This business is in Forbes.

14:58It's an incredible business.

14:59It's going to do millions in revenue.

15:01No, the answer is straight to jail because I don't know anything about autonomous ships.

15:07So I should never buy this business.

15:08What about this?

15:09I bought a company that fuels athletes using new protein synthesis techniques.

15:14Is that a good business?

15:15Not if I don't know shit about new protein synthesis techniques, which I do not, or have

15:20a fitness background.

15:21That's also straight to jail.

15:23Cody should not buy this business.

15:24The moral of the story is, your second biggest business buying problem is that you think

15:29you're smarter than you are.

15:31This is why most people lose money in deals.

15:33And you see it again and again and again.

15:35We fall for the sexy and we forget about the profitable.

15:39And so when you're buying a business, I want you to think, can I explain it in one sentence

15:44to my grandmother?

15:44Father, I fix garages, Nana's got it, she understands.

15:50I buy and build autonomous ships, I don't know, probably not.

15:56You need an accountability buddy to hold you responsible for this.

15:59And you need what's called a deal box.

16:01We've talked about this, right?

16:03So your deal box helps you constrain the things you want in your life.

16:07First, in my deal box, I like to obsess on how much money I'm going to make, the first

16:13couple segments.

16:14Then I like to obsess on how much money I'm going to spend.

16:18If I make sure at the end of the day that the amount of money that I'm going to make

16:21and the amount of money that I'm going to spend are correct, I have negated about 80%

16:26of the risk in buying a business.

16:27So you can seal my homework and you can take a picture of the deal box.

16:31The truth of the matter in investing is, if you remember one thing, it's that the right

16:35tools limit mistakes.

16:36So every time you can get your hands on somebody else's spreadsheet, you take it.

16:41Now there's one other aspect of buying a business that most people don't think about.

16:44So in real estate, you have on-market and off-market deals, right?

16:47You could go to Zillow, you could go to MLS, or you could go door knock.

16:50It's the same in buying businesses.

16:52There's a difference between the two, though, for everyday humans.

16:55If you want to buy an on-market deal, what do you think the difference is between the two?

17:01More options if you go off-market, right?

17:04Way more options.

17:05Less options if you go on-market, but a lot faster.

17:09So when you're thinking about your business to buy, a lot of people obsess on this idea

17:13of, I got to go find an independent business.

17:16I have to find an unlisted business.

17:18So the truth of the matter is, do you want to take a lot of time up front, or do you want

17:21to take a lot of time on the back end?

17:23And that is how you determine which avenue you're going to take for buying your business.

17:26Now, I want to reap one more time on this narrow your deal box idea.

17:32So this guy's name is Brett.

17:34He was in our community.

17:35And he said this line, which is, the biggest pivot for me is when I realize that it doesn't

17:41really matter the size.

17:42It matters exactly what business I want to buy.

17:45The second you know what you want, it comes into your life.

17:48The yellow Ferrari comes your way.

17:50And so if you leave with nothing else today but an idea to buy a business and a specific

17:55range, you're farther than 99% of people.

17:58I really think of this just like searching for a house.

18:01You can use filters to slim down what you want.

18:03And you can narrow your business search.

18:06But if you don't actually know what you're looking for, it's a hell of a lot harder, which

18:10is why a lot of people in life run around like what my mentor talked about.

18:13That famous chicken in the head.

18:15The reason why you don't have what you want isn't you're not working hard enough on it.

18:19It's that you haven't clearly defined and then taken action to get what you want.

18:23One of my favorite mentors told me a story once.

18:25He was like, I sat down.

18:27You guys do this at the end of every year?

18:30I do an annual goal review, right?

18:31So I sat down and every year me and my husband, we write out our goals.

18:35And we say, here's what we're going to accomplish this year.

18:37You guys do that?

18:38Okay, great.

18:39I do it too.

18:40And then I realized one year that I was only hitting about 60% of my goals.

18:44Does that relate to anybody else?

18:46So I thought about what was the difference between the two.

18:48And I was talking to my mentor who's a billionaire about how he does it.

18:51And he said this to me.

18:52He was like, you write down your goals.

18:55He's like, don't show me what you want.

18:58Write down what you're willing to sacrifice to get it.

19:01I thought about that for a second.

19:04And I was like, you're right.

19:05The world is full of people who want things.

19:07And the world is short on people willing to do what it takes.

19:10And so I changed my strategy.

19:12Now every year when I write goals, I write sacrifices instead.

19:16And that one change made me millions of dollars.

19:20Because the truth of the matter is, most people make decisions.

19:24And they never turn them into habits.

19:26So they never become skills.

19:28And they never change their life.

19:29If right now you said, Cody, I need to find a business in the next 30 days to buy.

19:34I want to find a business where the seller will give me seller financing in order to buy the business.

19:38How would we do it?

19:39Ready, go.

19:40Here's what we're going to do.

19:42First, we're going to determine do I want an on or an off market deal.

19:45Am I willing to go do the quote unquote door knocking?

19:47Or am I going to find an on market deal?

19:49If we're going to find an on market deal, that means these businesses already know they want to sell.

19:54They're listed.

19:56And they're on sites like Zillow.

19:58Which is biz buy sell.

20:00Biz scout is a business that we own.

20:03Flippa, e-commerce flippers.

20:05And then the second is off market deals.

20:08This is a business like, let me play this game really quick.

20:11How many people in here own a business?

20:12Keep your hand up if you own a business.

20:14Okay.

20:15How many people who own a business would sell your business at the right price in the right terms?

20:19Look around the room right now.

20:21Nobody lowers their hand.

20:22One person does.

20:23Liar.

20:24Just kidding.

20:24But seriously, every single business owner has a dark night.

20:28Right?

20:28How many of you guys have had your business for a while and you have had that moment where you can't make fucking payroll?

20:33Anybody had that before?

20:35Had that moment where the worst thing in your life was this business that you started?

20:41Had that moment where you're ready for the next thing but you are tied to it like a woman you don't want to date?

20:48How many of you have had that moment?

20:49Of course you have.

20:51That is the moment in which you find your seller of a small business.

20:54That's called an off market deal.

20:56All an off market deal necessitates is some funny looking dude willing to go do the uncomfortable thing.

21:01Which is to say these words.

21:03Hi, I'm Cody and I buy businesses.

21:06What kind of businesses?

21:07Small businesses located in Austin, Texas.

21:10A lot of laundromats, car washes.

21:12Businesses that do less than a million dollars where the owner is looking to sell.

21:16They've been in business for like 10 years or more.

21:18I like to make sure the businesses are profitable.

21:21Do you run a business like that?

21:23Oh, you do.

21:24We should talk.

21:26You're going to find this fascinating thing which is that most business owners have never talked to somebody about potentially selling.

21:33And then you come into their lives.

21:36And that's a really special moment.

21:38So at this point, you've realized, all right, am I going on market or am I going off market?

21:44That's the easy part.

21:46That is the easy part.

21:47But if we're searching for on market deals, here's what I want you to think about.

21:51One, go use other people's homework.

21:54These two business sites are the number one places to find small businesses for sale if you want to go find them.

22:00You do have to dig through them like a needle in a haystack, especially biz by sell.

22:04We are building something to compete against biz by sell.

22:07It's called BizScout.

22:08That should be out in the next six months or so.

22:10You can get on the wait list on there.

22:11It's not something I talk about publicly yet.

22:13But the idea is we make the off market short chain a lot easier for you guys.

22:18Once you find your business listings on sale, there's this beautiful thing that's very easy.

22:25And I want to get to it really quickly.

22:27I call it the 2060-120 method.

22:28Almost everybody I've ever taught to buy a business can do it within 120 days.

22:34And here's how.

22:3520 minutes a day for 60 days until you look at at least 120 high-level businesses.

22:42And once you've looked at 120 high-level businesses, you'll screen them down to about 10 businesses that fit inside of your deal box.

22:4820, 60, 120.

22:51There's a wild truth to this, which is you creating a habit is contagious.

22:57And if you do that every single day for an extended period, I think your life will change.

23:02Look at this number here for a second.

23:0465% more likely to meet a goal after committing to a partner to do it with.

23:09How many of you guys ever try to work out, get in shape, doesn't really do much, you hire a trainer, all of a sudden you fit?

23:15Does that happen to you guys?

23:17If you actually want to buy a business, if you actually want to make whatever change you decide from these last two days that you've been here, I urge you to leave with one thing.

23:25A human who's going to call you a piece of shit if you don't do what you say you're going to do.

23:29Okay?

23:30So find your accountability partner.

23:32Now what does good accountability look like?

23:34It's not that crazy.

23:35I call it the P's.

23:38You need a partner.

23:40You need a plan, which could be following up once a week every Friday.

23:43You need a purpose in order to buy a small business inside of the next nine months.

23:47It needs to be periodic, once a week, twice a month.

23:51You've got to have some goal that feels worth it to you.

23:54And I like when you put money on the line.

23:56Hey, if I don't do this, I owe you 100 bucks.

23:59You've got to have some benefit if you do the thing you say you're going to do.

24:02Hey, if I do this, I'm allowed to go out and have a wild night.

24:06And finally, you've got to have some ability to pass on whatever you've learned to somebody else.

24:11That's where you hand it off to the next accountability partner.

24:14If you want a change in your life, you have to have the P's.

24:16You're 65% more likely to do the thing you say you're going to do.

24:20Now let's talk off-market deals for a second.

24:22I was taught by my mentor in private equity that my secret weapon was finding businesses before they knew they wanted to sell.

24:29I just did it with you guys.

24:30Guys, theoretically, if I wanted to, I could have kept all of your hands up and said go around and tell me what businesses you do.

24:35And by the end of it, with all of you guys in the room, I probably would have a deal that was interesting to me.

24:42And you guys could do that in every single interaction.

24:45Because the truth of the matter is this is a numbers game.

24:47How many of you guys would be successful in sales if you didn't have high reps every day, at least in the beginning of your sales career?

24:54Love it.

24:55Not a single hand.

24:56Look around the room.

24:57Not one.

24:58And yet the biggest reason why most people aren't successful is they don't know what they want.

25:04They don't tell you what they're willing to sacrifice to get it.

25:07And then they don't make the discipline, the habit to do it.

25:11That's not going to be you guys.

25:12So I truly believe this line.

25:15You either search or you attract.

25:17The first to search is pretty easy.

25:20You're already here.

25:20If you want to find a chick and you're trying to date somebody, do you think you go to a Muay Thai gym or a BJJ gym to go find somebody to date who's a woman?

25:32Not if you're good at math.

25:33Have you been to those places?

25:34It's like 10% chicks.

25:3690% really testosterone-filled dudes.

25:39Where would you go if you wanted to find a woman when you were single?

25:44Pilates.

25:45Yoga.

25:45Not rocket science.

25:46And yet what do most dudes do?

25:48They're like, I'm on Tinder and it's not working out, right?

25:51We're not going to do the same thing when we buy businesses.

25:53We're going to get into rooms like this where owners already are because you are now in a Pilates studio as a single man being here.

26:00The more you do this, the more likely you are to buy a small business because you've already seen that all around you are owners ready to sell right now, today.

26:09It's like you're walking a neighborhood full of houses that are unlisted.

26:12Think about this for a second.

26:14In the U.S. right now, there are 11 businesses for sale on average.

26:19How many businesses of those 11 do you think sell in one year?

26:25How many of the 11?

26:26Two, one, one.

26:30Can you imagine a street, even in like Detroit, right?

26:34Where there's 11 houses on a block and only one sells in a year?

26:39It doesn't happen and yet all around you, you are sitting at a generational wealth creation event.

26:43Now I want to play one really quick little game.

26:46You guys want to try a challenge with me?

26:48Okay.

26:49The game is called your personal P&L review.

26:52So I know there's a bunch of owners in this room right now.

26:54Here is how I found one of my very first businesses to buy that basically cost me no money and made my ROI in one month.

27:02Here's what we're going to play.

27:03Okay.

27:04The idea is this.

27:05What if you made money every time you spent money?

27:07That would be cool, right?

27:08I like that idea.

27:09So, where are there small businesses that you can get to the owner that you already spend on?

27:15How do you think you could do that?

27:17Go to your dry cleaner.

27:18Go to your dry cleaner.

27:19I like that.

27:20So he's using what I call my geographic COI strategy.

27:24So where's my center of influence and can I go around to my geography?

27:27It's an interesting idea.

27:28What else could you do?

27:30Call local businesses.

27:31Call local businesses.

27:32So I would sort of think about that like this.

27:34He's going concentric circle, people I already know.

27:37You're going a little bit wider.

27:38You're going people I don't really know.

27:39Check your transactions.

27:41Fuck yeah.

27:41That's exactly right.

27:42You're already spending.

27:44You're already a customer.

27:45When you guys have customers, do you typically answer your customers' emails and telephone calls?

27:51Do you respond back to them?

27:52You have a group of people all around you that you are already engaging with that you could potentially buy their small business.

27:59So let's look at what this looks like.

28:00You could pull up your Venmo right now.

28:03You could pull up your PayPal.

28:04You could pull up your Amex bill.

28:06This is a fake Amex bill in case any of you guys want to get crazy and try to take all my money.

28:10So here's what you do.

28:11You'd open up your credit card statement.

28:13You'd see what do you spend on.

28:15You'd see which one are vendors, local businesses.

28:18Which ones can you get to the owner?

28:19Probably not Bezos.

28:20We're going to have to go a little bit lower.

28:22Are they profitable?

28:24So for instance, if you reach out to your dry cleaner, are they profitable or not?

28:29Well, they've been in business for 20 years.

28:30That's probably a pretty good sign.

28:32Which one of these would you want to own?

28:33And then you start working the process.

28:35And the process goes like this.

28:36You have a little spreadsheet.

28:38Who do spend revenue value add?

28:41So in this particular instance, who?

28:43I'm going to walk through what these are, but this is the business name.

28:46What do they do?

28:46Podcast production.

28:47How much monthly, or apparently I don't speak English, do you spend $3,000 with them?

28:53Total revenue.

28:54How much revenue do they make in general?

28:56And what do they do?

28:57And what value can you add to the business?

29:00And I want you to run this down your Amex bill.

29:03Now, a couple different parameters are size.

29:06Can I get to the owner?

29:07Do I want to own it?

29:08To simplify.

29:10This is how I bought 50% of Strike Fire Productions for $10,000.

29:14And I'll show you the transaction.

29:15So I told you we were going to get to spreadsheets.

29:18So this was 2021.

29:20I bought Strike Fire Productions for $10,000 for 50% of the company.

29:25I ended up making, you can see it down here at the bottom, the payouts.

29:30So anywhere monthly from, let's call it $5,000 to $8,000.

29:35I was making about every two weeks in the company.

29:39Why would somebody sell me a business for $10,000, 50% of it,

29:44that's going to ROI back to me completely in 30 days?

29:47Why do you think he would do that?

29:50Super dumb?

29:51No.

29:52What else?

29:53Doesn't know how to run his business.

29:58Desperate.

29:59Missing a team.

30:00What's that?

30:00Missing a team.

30:01Missing a team?

30:03Could be.

30:03No SOP.

30:04What's the number one reason you will do something in your business?

30:09Greed.

30:10You want to make more money, right?

30:12You want your business to grow.

30:14There's three ways to get a business for almost $0 with just a little bit of your time.

30:19The first way is make them more money.

30:22The second way, what do you think it is?

30:25Cut costs.

30:26Save them money.

30:27The third, decrease pain, which is operations.

30:31Make it not miserable to run their business.

30:34In this instance, I said, hey dude, you've got a podcast production company,

30:38and it makes, you know, let's call it $30,000 to $40,000 a month profit,

30:42and how's business going?

30:45Jonathan's like, ah, business is kind of like okay, it's not great.

30:48I'm like, what's not great about it?

30:49He's like, I'd like more clients, but I hate selling.

30:52At which point I'm like, ding, ding, ding, all the salespeople in the room.

30:55I hate selling.

30:57Interesting.

30:57Okay.

30:58How much do you do in revenue a month?

31:01You know, I run a business and I do X.

31:03What do you do?

31:04You give them a little bit, they give a little bit.

31:05He goes, well, you know, we do, I don't know, $70,000, $80,000 a month in revenue.

31:10I have a 50%-ish margins on that business.

31:12I'm like, that's pretty good.

31:14But you don't want to grow the business.

31:16He goes, I do, but I'm really bad at it.

31:17I really like the actual operations and podcast or production of the business.

31:21Cool.

31:22Hey, Jonathan, what would you say if I doubled your monthly revenue in your small business?

31:27Would you let me invest in the business and own a percentage of the amount that I bring

31:33in for your business?

31:35If I bring in nothing, I'll give you 10K, I own nothing.

31:39If I bring in a lot, I own a commensurate percentage of the business and you didn't make

31:45any money on that anyway.

31:46What do you think he said?

31:47Let's go.

31:48Yeah, let's do it.

31:50And this is a tiny little business.

31:53But I show this example because you can do this with huge businesses and you can do it

31:58with small businesses as long as you understand the game.

32:02It's also how I bought out half of my partner at Unconventional Acquisitions over six months

32:06and used the company's revenue to pay for it.

32:08Now, I like to show this image because most times in business, there is something dragging

32:16us back.

32:18And one of my favorite lessons from my dad is your biggest mistake in business will be

32:22an action taken.

32:23It'll be a human chosen.

32:24How many times have you had a huge mistake in your business but it had a face and a name?

32:31A lot.

32:33That's right.

32:33Anybody who's been in business knows the hardest part about a business isn't profits, it's

32:37people.

32:39And so the one caveat I want for you guys before you buy a business is make sure you're

32:43not Leia chained to Jabba the hut.

32:46And so before you go out of here being like, Cody told me how to buy a business.

32:50It turns out I don't know at all how to do diligence on a business but I know how to find

32:54one.

32:55I don't want you to buy a Jabba.

32:56The worst thing that you could do in life is buy a business badly and have your first

33:02deal go wrong.

33:03Why?

33:03If your first deal goes wrong, are you ever going to do a second?

33:06No.

33:07You're going to think you're bad at doing deals and deal making is bad.

33:11So I want you to watch out for Jabba.

33:13But if you were going to buy a business with a personal P&L review, you guys could pull out

33:16your credit card right now and you could follow your process.

33:20You pull up Venmo or your credit card.

33:22You pull the list of all the people you pay currently.

33:25You ask yourself, would you want to own part of their business?

33:28You have a combo with them about how big their business is.

33:31What are their pain points?

33:33And you write up an offer for the small business.

33:38And this is how you buy businesses without any cash.

33:41I think the truth of the matter is most people think that to invest money you have to have

33:45money.

33:45But you don't.

33:47You can show up with zero dollars if you want to learn, if you want to network, and if

33:51you want to do the work.

33:52The problem is most people don't want to do the work.

33:56Okay, the last thing that I'm going to tell you about is called the nine to five or strategy.

33:59The nine to five, how many people here are employed?

34:01Like a W-2 employee?

34:03Okay, we got a couple of you guys.

34:05So the cool part about the nine to fiver strategy is you have right now in your hands potentially

34:11a business to buy.

34:13It might be the business that you work in.

34:15My uncle, Eb, for instance, he had a business called Eb Homes Plumbing.

34:19The business did three million, no, no, did five to six million dollars in revenue, about

34:24three million dollars in profit per year.

34:26One year, my uncle, Eb, got a phone call.

34:28The phone call was a terrible six-letter word, cancer.

34:32He was in his 70s.

34:34He didn't have very long to live.

34:36He had a profitable business.

34:37And what do you think he decided to do with it when he got that phone call?

34:42Closed it.

34:42He shut down a business that did three million dollars in profit, which was probably worth

34:49six to nine million dollars.

34:51Why?

34:52He had no fucking idea anybody would buy this thing.

34:55He was an old school guy with a plumbing business that had no idea.

35:00If he had one employee that came to him and said, hey, Eb, I want to continue your legacy.

35:06I don't have the money to buy this business, but man, I respect what you've built.

35:11Is there any way that you would help me fund the acquisition of this business through future

35:15profits and I'll take on the liabilities of the business?

35:18What do you think Eb would say?

35:20Yes.

35:21Beautiful.

35:22Carry on my legacy.

35:23And instead of that, a business shut down, and that is happening all around this country.

35:27So I want to show you one more.

35:29This is Jade.

35:30She just bought a business that makes 1.5 million dollars a year in revenue.

35:34How much money did she put down for that business?

35:37Zero dollars.

35:39Jade is former military.

35:41Do they make a lot of money?

35:43No.

35:44Why could she buy a business like this?

35:46Because she was trusted, because she respected, and because she would carry on somebody else's

35:52legacy.

35:52If you guys in the audience are an employee now and you are with a small business, but

35:56you are not talking to that owner about legacy and transition, I think you're missing out.

36:01Anybody know who this guy is?

36:03This is Bill Perkins.

36:05Bill Perkins is close to a billionaire.

36:07He wrote a book called Die with Zero.

36:09He's become a mentor and investor in a bunch of deals alongside me.

36:12And something crazy happened to me the first time I hung out with Bill Perkins.

36:16We're walking along the lake.

36:18Like, do you guys think I've been pretty successful with the stuff that you have heard from me

36:22before?

36:22Does it seem like I've done okay thus far, right?

36:24I've done all right.

36:26I think...

36:26And I'm like, oh, no, stop, stop.

36:34So I thought he was doing pretty good, right?

36:37This is just a few years ago.

36:38I'm walking along Bill's lake house, lakefront.

36:42He has this beautiful, like, I don't know, $30 million property on Lake Austin.

36:45We're walking along, and I'm explaining to Bill my huge idea, my big idea.

36:50Have you guys ever, like, gone home to your partner, your wife, or your husband, and you

36:55have, like, some really exciting, crazy idea for them, and you are all amped up, and you

36:59explain to them your idea, and they just, like, shit all fucking over it?

37:04Anybody done that?

37:05You know, I think it's our job as wives, you know?

37:07My husband calls me Captain No.

37:10So anyway, so I have this big idea.

37:12I tell it to Bill.

37:14Bill pauses, and he looks at me, and he goes,

37:18Do you think that you have been around small businesses for so long that small has infected

37:24your thinking?

37:27Yikes.

37:28Yikes.

37:29And so I kind of paused, and initial reaction is like, oh, well, you can go suck a goat

37:34or something like that.

37:36And instead I paused, and I said, I'm not sure, I want to think about that for a second.

37:41But Bill did a huge favor to me that day.

37:44He planted this, like, little seed in my head that said, don't you think you're

37:48capable of more than that?

37:49Like, with what you have and what you're willing to do, can't you do more?

37:54I think this day and age, we have all these people who get on stages, and they tell us,

37:58like, you're so good.

37:59Go, queen.

37:59Keep going.

38:01And in fact, sometimes the best thing you can have happen is be in a room like this

38:05and have somebody look you in the eye and say, you are not doing enough, that when you stand

38:11before God at the end of your days, you will not be able to say, I gave it all I got.

38:17I have nothing left.

38:18And that is my biggest fear in life, and what I do not want for all of you.

38:25I want you to wring dry every single ounce of talent that you have, because it's a beautiful

38:32feeling when you do, and probably because I think this country needs it.

38:36And if we don't do it, who will?

38:38So, how many people, how many people in the U.S. own a business?

38:43Do you guys know what percent?

38:46Three.

38:48Three percent of people in the U.S. own a small business.

38:52Only 10 percent of any small business will hit a million dollars a year in revenue.

38:5710 percent.

38:580.4 percent will ever hit $10 million revenue.

39:03You are already incredibly rare for being in this room.

39:06If you do not wring dry, what happens?

39:11Who shows up?

39:13And when I go around today, and I see what is happening to business storefronts in this

39:18country, I see what the sidewalks look like.

39:22I see how much they take in your tax dollars, and the potholes are bigger than the fucking

39:26Sierras.

39:28Not okay.

39:30And yet in a room like this, are all of you humans with the ability to change it?

39:35Let me tell you what sucks today.

39:37You couldn't pay me enough money to go into politics.

39:40You couldn't pay me enough.

39:42It's a miserable job.

39:45And so, if we don't want to be in politics, we got to at least fund the people who are going

39:50to believe in your ability to be sovereign yourself and to be an owner.

39:55Remember, you guys don't need babysitters.

39:58You guys don't need politicians who have never built anything telling you what to do, telling

40:02you where to put your money.

40:05And so, I want to press upon you this one kind of crazy idea, which is, when the market

40:13continues to fall, as it will, be the people who buy.

40:18Become the next Cerberus.

40:20Push back on the black rocks and black stones of the world, and become better than the people

40:25on high who want to push us all down.

40:27Because I think the truth of the matter is really this.

40:31Nobody is coming to save us.

40:34Nobody.

40:35And no matter who's president on either side of the line, they're not coming either.

40:40And so, if we know that to be true, what are we going to do about it today?

40:45My answer is buying businesses.

40:46Your answer may be something else, and that is okay as long as you wring it dry.

40:51And so, as much as I don't want to get up here and proselytize to you guys about more

40:55work because it sucks being an owner often, nobody else is going to do it.

41:00We, as a country, are not where we want to be because we have not done what is necessary

41:05to get there, individually and collectively.

41:10I'm really public on social media, and I was telling a few people backstage, I have a mission

41:15that by the end of my days, when I stand before my God, and I see that tombstone, I want on

41:21it that I created owners in this country.

41:23That's my mission.

41:28I want on it that I created owners, and so I want to know, when you buy that business,

41:32when you do your next deal, when you win, my whole point is to celebrate you, and then

41:38for you to reach your hand down and pull that next motherfucker up.

41:41And so, please reach out to me as you build, and as you grow, I want to know you.

41:46You are rare.

41:48And I don't want you to ever forget that because every single moment, they're going to make

41:52you feel like you're not enough, you can't, you won't, and they are lying.

41:57For the first time ever in this country, and I get goosebumps thinking about it, can't you

42:01feel it?

42:02They're a little scared, aren't they?

42:04They're scared of us because this country is starting to wake up, and we are now able

42:12to see what's going on with a media that's not controlled.

42:16And so, I think for the first time ever, we are at a tipping point of how we will decide

42:19how this country goes.

42:21And where I'll end is, you know, is anybody here from Venezuela or Argentina?

42:26Okay, you know.

42:27I was in Argentina when Cristina Fernandez took over.

42:30Remember, I had a business there that did hundreds of millions of dollars in assets

42:34under management, not revenue, and I was building it up.

42:36I wanted to build one of my first billion dollar businesses there.

42:39Cristina Fernandez took office, and maybe 60, 90 days later, she outlawed our business.

42:48We had to flee the country, and it became illegal to have external investments, which was U.S.

42:55dollar-denominated investments.

42:56In 90 days, my business was gone.

43:01Gone.

43:03And sometimes, I think with this country that we're in right now, that we have moments where

43:08we get a little close to that.

43:10And I think we're actually, for the first time ever, in what I would call, I am optimistically

43:16discontent that in this room, we have the weirdest of things.

43:21We have a generational wealth creation event in that the baby boomers are transitioning their

43:25businesses.

43:25We have a market that's falling a bit, which means prices are coming down.

43:30We have an elite that, for the first time ever, are getting revealed because the media

43:33is no longer centralized.

43:35And we've got a group of humans who now know how to buy businesses without banks, and we

43:40know that ownership is the answer to everything because money is what creates political power.

43:44And so I want you to sit with that and know that you are powerful beyond measure, and I hope

43:49you wring every ounce dry.

43:50Thank you so much for having me today.

Why This 7-Figure Opportunity Will Explode in 2025 — Don’t Miss Out

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