Million $ Dollars in 90 days!

‘Undercover Billionar’ is a reality TV series by Discovery. The plot: You have 90 days to build a One Million USD business. You are given $100, A mobile phone without any contacts and a Car. You are put in a town that you have never been to before and nobody knows you there. You can not use your real name. 2 Camaramen following you around.

This week I watched the Grant Cardon compilation. It’s 6 hrs in total if you are wondering. You can find direct links at the end of this.

Grant Cardon aka Louis Makes 5.5 Million $ Valuation and here are my top 10 takeaways from this experiment. This is to prove that you make money without any connections, past track records or any money. This is also a demonstration of the 10x philosophy and book of Grant.

Confidence and Self Bealief. To ask someone for a place to stay you need confidence even if you don’t have money. When they offer one night you need confidence and a bit of shamelessness to ask them for 3 nights. Confident to go back and talk again after the first rejection (When Louis goes back to Matt). Self-belief is what helps you in ‘Committing first and Figuring later’ (this is a reoccurring theme in the 10x book). Confidence is infectious. People pay money to confident people.
10x thinking. When you have a target of 1 mil, you think of 10mil and take 10x massive actions to achieve it. Your mind works at a different frequency then. Even if you don’t land the 10x target you are at least better off than your initial target. This was a real-life demo of what he actually talks about in his book.
Owner financing: the biggest technical takeaway! A creative way of buying a commercial real estate property without spending a penny. Don’t go to the bank, you take the loan and pay the mortgages to the owner/seller of the property. (A Lease purchase option contract). Benefits: The seller gets extra interest money and you gain flexibility. The seller does not have to pay taxes on this income because the sales deed will be done after receiving the complete payment sever months later. The seller can show these receipts as advances, not income. Next step: you fill the property with tenants. These are your tenants. The rent you collected will go as your mortgage payment to the seller.Another big opportunity comes when you increase the rent amount of the tenants. Which in turn increases the value of the property. You can resell it and make another million in profit. Boom!For me, it seems, studying commerce in college wasn’t a bad decision after all. Heads up, the Fundamental works but there is also risk and hard work involved in it. The laws might differ based on countries hence do your own research.
Get Contracts for the year: Don’t just do a month. Get a contract for 12 months. Keep the contract ready during the meeting. The purchaser of your service can cancel the deal if he does not like it in 4 months. Having the contract increases your Business valuation. Future earnings are a big metric in calculating the valuation of any business. eg. 10k per month contract amounts to 120k for the year but will be considered 400-600k in valuation.
People are good: Louis got to seep and got paid for food when it just asked for it. Matt gave him a second chance. The barber helped him with contacts. People are good. Ask for help and you will get it. I have experienced this on my Ladakh trip. I got food and shelter from a family in a remote village in Rajasthan at midnight. I would have never expected that. Well, that gives me the confidence to ask people for sponsorship for the Rocklaz Radio podcast. My sponsorship proposal is ready. I will be just reaching out to other people in the upcoming week. If you are interested, contact me, I have a special offer for folks reading my newsletters.
Never Quit: Quitting is like stopping one foot before you hit the gold. Don’t make decisions when you are hungry and tired. Quitting at these times. It is like going to a super mart with you are very hungry you will hear all the wrong stuff.
Don’t depend on one single plan: Louis pitched 3 plans to Matt. 1st was a promotions company, 2nd was a food franchise business and 3rd buying 10mil worth of real estate complex. The 10mil property purchase failed but they still make it with the promotions business.
Its valuation is not cash in the bank. In the show 1 mil was not a target for cash in the bank it was the valuation of the business. That’s how it is IRL. The Forbes billionaire list counts the Net Worth not the money in the bank. So when you read Elon Musk’s Net worth is $250 Billion It is the value of his share in all his business and not the money in his bank.
Best Known is better than best works: Money follows attention. Whoever gets most attention wins. You got to talk about your work. Put it everywhere.
Work for big opportunities, not small commissions: Doing the sales campaign for free for Snooze Mattresses got Louis the trust and big opportunities from Matt. Not to forget the $10k advance payment check Louis received from Mat for the future business partnership.

I was wondering. How to get the confidence? I believe it took him 30 years to be able to make a million in 90 days. eg Louis wrote the 55-page Marketing SOP overnight, Grant spent his entire life learning that. So Confidence too is built with deliberate practice and Massive actions.

Picasso is sketching at a park. A woman walks by, recognizes him, and begs for her portrait. Somehow, he agrees. A few minutes later, he hands her the sketch. She is elated, excited about how wonderfully it captures the very essence of her character, what beautiful work it is, and asks how much she owes him. “5000 francs, madam,” says Picasso. The woman is incredulous, outraged, and asks how that’s even possible given it only took him 5 minutes. Picasso looks up and, without missing a beat, says: “No, madam, it took me my whole life.”

All is not done yet. We know now from this experiment that we can do it too. Let’s Start today.

I am looking forward to watching the other episodes to see what the other billions do it. Let me know about your favourite part and favourite episodes in the comment. Here is a direct link to the 6 hr episode and here is to the behind the sean commentary by Grant.

This Whole episode and joining Grant’s Live call yesterday sparked an idea in me. I could actually do a Marketing business on the side to support my podcasting endeavour. I studied marketing in college. I am a keen observer of market and product psychology.

See you all in the next Rocklaz Newsletter

Stay Happy, Do Crazy!

Regards

Tanmay

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