COSIGN

If you don’t understand acquisitions, you’ll never be truly wealthy. Here’s what you need to know about how the rich buy businesses:

I’m on a plane back from a week in Los Angeles and some lessons there shocked me. I met w/ a billionaire, Bryan Johnson, a top 10 podcaster, an A24 movie exec, and a Presidential candidate. 12 learnings from too many meetings to count in Hollywood: 1. LA is not dead. Far from it. I ran into 5 people who I needed to meet with at one hotel in 4 days. The epicenter of media may be disaggregating to Austin, NY and globally... but the density is still here. 2. @bryan_johnson is now one of my favorite humans. I hung with him at his house, tried his 20,000 crunches in 30 minutes machine, and talked about the purpose of life. The internet is a sad state that they don’t give him more credit. 3. Digital media today is like distributed news before cable news. We are at a tipping point for expansion in this digital industry. It feels somehow played out to those of us in it, but it’s just starting. 4. Hollywood is watching creators and UGC closely. I met w/ one exec who said in the not so distant future Netflix will have UGC on it. 5. @markmanson may be this generation's Anthony Bourdain for thinking. I sat down with him and I think the work he’s doing on youtube is going to be something to watch... closely. 6. Buying boring businesses is not at all interesting to those in LA. BUT - asset accumulation and portfolios are. They buy assets (film rights, etc) all day. They are starting to think about the business of celebrities, creators and their work similar to how I think of investment management. 7. LA is a tale of two cities. I spoke at the convention center that was surrounded by derelict minority businesses and houses, then hung out at private members-only clubs that are all over West Hollywood where Lebron, Chris Voss and all the big timers play. The two places are 10 minutes away but an absolute world apart. 8. The mental health and drug crisis is out of control. Stroll along a downtown street and zombie after zombie trails. I saw people shitting and eating next to one another and across from a Starbucks. I asked our corporate host if this was “normal?” They replied, you stop noticing it after awhile. 9. Offices are completely empty. A friend got an office space for 50% off and more than 40% of the highrise is unoccupied. How odd that home prices are high, housing is really tough to come by, but office space is a blue ocean. 10. Met up with @TulsiGabbard, a friend who was traveling to the border to see the situation live. I am grateful to have people fight for the truth even when it is unpopular. We need more leaders like her. 11. Every time I meet with a billionaire I realize all over again that to achieve that level of wealth, you cannot be normal. Truly. He’s weirdly comfortable with discomfort and complete lack of people pleasing. 12. The more I learn about the Kardashians in some ways, the more I respect them. I got the onion peeled back on their business dealings and they are some of the smartest dealmakers I’ve ever seen. Also I hate saying it because I believe gender games are net negative, but I wonder if they’d get so much hate if they weren’t females? I liked the idea of keeping a travel diary like my friend @gregisenberg does… Otherwise these moments pass like sand through my fingers. What do you think? I’m going to name it Where Have Ya Been or Lessons from the Road. Which do you like more?

You want to change your crowd... Change yourself. You want to know CEOs - go build something. You want to hang with fit people. Go ham at the gym. You want to be around the rich. Go try to sell something expensive. Changing your crowd all starts with changing you. As they say eagles just don’t hang with sparrows.

If you don’t know dealmaking… I think you’re f*cking up. We’re at all-time low levels of ownership in this country. The big keep getting bigger, the little guy gets hammered. The solution? Fewer businesses owned by institutions, more owned by people like you. This is a speech I gave a few months ago to a group of owners. It's a crash course on business buying. I wanted to share it with you, too. Timestamps you might find useful: Intro 1:04 - Secrets the richest people in the world know 4:30 - What’s an LBO? 9:30 - Cross vertical building / some biz's I’ve bought 12:32 - How to buy during a recession 15:30 - Stats on conglomerates vs local biz’s 20:36 - Personal P&L Review 7 income streams on 1 of my businesses: 21:45 - Platform Acquisition 22:49 - Add-on Acquisition 22:51 - Vertical Acquisition 25:38 - Asset Acquisition 26:43 - Satellite Acquisition 28:48 - Horizontal Acquisition 30:04 - Hard Asset Acquisition How to get financing 31:10 - No cash? Maybe you don’t need it… 34:46 - SBA loans 36:31 - Seller financing 37:24 - OPM Other dealmaking basics 38:54 - How do you find deals? 43:10 - What type of business to buy? (SOWS & BRRT) 45:19 - Who do you need to do this? 46:12 - 10 steps to buy a business 47:57 - The deal calculator → contrarianthinking.biz/dealc…