Fast Growth Marketing Strategies Reference Guide

CORE MARKETING PRINCIPLES

PRINCIPLE #1: Nobody Knows You Exist (The Obscurity Problem)

The Reality:
- Under $1M revenue? Virtually everyone on Earth doesn't know you exist
- First 4 hours of every day should solve this problem
- Going from obscurity to awareness is job #1

The Core Four (Pick One, Go All In):
1. Outreach (cold or warm)
2. Content creation
3. Paid ads
4. More of the above

Key Point: Don't need to do all of them. Pick one, go all in, spend first 4 hours daily on it.

Why Advertising is a BOOM (Business Order of Magnitude change):
- Optimizations are capped at 100% (close rate +10%, conversion +10%, etc.)
- Advertising can 100x the people who find out about you
- Small business owners get stuck in optimization mouse trap
- Example: I need to move from 10.1:1 to 10.2:1 vs. Just get 100x the leads

The Marketplace Misconception:

Most think: [Small pie with 3-4 competitors fighting over it]

Reality: [Massive marketplace where you're a tiny speck on one method, one platform, one slice]

Tactical Reality Check:
- Gym owner example: There's another guy running Facebook ads in my area
- City population: 1 million
- Gym needs: 200 members to be profitable
- That's 0.02% of population
- Even with 100 competing gyms, plenty of room

Application: Stop worrying about competition eating your pie. The pie is vastly bigger than you think.

PRINCIPLE #2: Shrink Your Competition (Don't Beat Them)

The Eminem Strategy (Two Options):

Option 1: Who?
- Grow so big they can't be heard
- Overwhelm the marketplace so you drown them out
- Be so loud no one else can be heard
- Shrink them into irrelevance by comparison

Option 2: Kill Them with Kindness
- Claim your flaws first (8 Mile strategy)
- Yes, I'm flawed. Yes, I'm trying to make money. Of course I am.
- When you claim negatives, critics have nothing left to say
- Respond to hate with: You're right, I'm super flawed. That said, congrats on your success.

The Two Building Strategies:
❌ Knock everyone else's buildings down
✅ Build the biggest building so your shadow blocks out the sun

The Book Launch Reality Check:
- Spent months promoting $100M Leads book
- 7M+ audience across platforms
- Massive email campaigns, ads, affiliates, outreach
- In Vegas (where he lives), gets stopped ~3x per hour-long walk
- During launch month, asked everyone: You going to the book launch?
- 19 out of 20 people: What book launch?

Critical Insight:
When you get tired of your advertising, most people don't even know your first name.

The Repetition Fallacy:
- Small business owners think repetition itself is bad
- Example: Philosophy accounts posting dead philosophers' quotes
- People LOVE seeing same Seneca quotes repeatedly
- You serve as REMINDER more than teacher
- People need to be more reminded than they need to be taught

Application: Don't stop using what works because YOU'RE bored with it. Your audience hasn't seen it nearly enough.

PRINCIPLE #3: Clear Not Clever

The Presidential Election Study:
- President who spoke in lowest grade language won election repeatedly
- Presidential campaigns = massive brand campaigns
- Lower barrier to comprehension = more people understand = more people respond

The College Words Problem:
- Big fancy words feed ego, not bank account
- Marketing rule: CLEAR NOT CLEVER

The Grade Level Test:
- Does a third grader understand this?
- Counter-argument debunked: I don't want to talk down to my audience
- Reality: Broken down manner helps experts understand MORE easily AND helps beginners for first time

Why This Works:
- Experts don't reject simple language
- Example: Big companies come to acquisition.com for investment
- Those CEOs are intelligent, but videos made simple by design
- Real business education accessible for everyone requires comprehensibility

Self-Editing Example (From This Video):
- Says distilled → catches self → says broken down
- Says comprehensible → catches self → says fancy word for understandable
- Constant self-correction to maintain simplicity

Visual Simplification:
- Books use stick figures
- Look, here's a guy walking on a path. Little apple, orange, big dollar sign, little dollar sign.
- Make it as simple as possible so people understand what's happening

Richard Feynman Principle:
If you can explain it to a third grader, then you understand it. If you can't, you don't—and you need to understand it better.

The Analogy Matching Framework:

Narrow Audience → Specific Analogies:
- Mechanics → Car analogies
- Realtors → House analogies
- Baseball people → Baseball analogies

Broad Audience → Universal Analogies:
- Food, sleep, driving
- Human experiences everyone has (assuming not children)

Match analogy to learning history of your audience

The 50% Conversion Increase Test:
- Ran email follow-ups through reading grade level app
- Worked to get below 5th grade (minimum), 3rd grade (ideal)
- Sent new version
- Result: 50% increase in conversion
- Didn't change WHAT was said, just HOW it was said
- 50% more people understood

Elements of Value Impacted by Complexity:
- Speed (complex = slower to understand)
- Ease (complex = more effort)
- Time (complex = takes longer)

Application: Run all marketing copy through grade-level checker. Target 5th grade max, 3rd grade ideal. Test and measure.

PRINCIPLE #4: Proof Over Promise

The Hierarchy:
Offer is important, but PROOF > PROMISE

The Two-Business Comparison:

Business 1:
- Sells Thing One
- Promise: We'll do X, Y, Z, W
- Guarantee: X, Y, Z
- Reviews: 5 stars, 1 review

Business 2:
- Sells Thing Two

- Promise: We'll do X
- Reviews: 11,382 five-star reviews, 4.7 average

Who do you buy from? Business 2, obviously.

Why? You BELIEVE them.

The Proof Process (Before Launching Anything New):

Get beta users
Work for free in exchange for:
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Feedback
- Sometimes referrals (if lucky)

Counter to Never Work for Free:
You only hear that from people who don't make that much money.

Why Free Work is High Leverage:
- Makes product right through feedback loops
- Develops conviction through results
- Collects positive feedback to advertise
- Creates proof before needing to promise

The Most Compelling Advertisement:
Show, Don't Sell

The Pasta Restaurant Example:
- Option 1: 11,382 reviews, 4.7 average, I make pasta really good
- Option 2: One review from my mama, super fragile-calistic-expialidocious pasta guaranteed

Which wins? Obviously option 1. The proof IS the pudding.

The Messenger = The Message:
The most important part of a message is the messenger themselves. They're inextricably linked.

The YouTube Channel Origin Story:
- Started with commitment to vendor: 3 videos/week
- Was busy, just hit webcam and talked
- Why did people listen? Sold company for just under $50M
- Proof enabled the promise
- Others might have beautiful studio but forgot: Why should I listen to you?

Two Types of Proof:
1. Proof you generated yourself (your achievements)
2. Proof from others saying you helped them achieve (testimonials)

Application: Before scaling marketing, obsess over collecting proof. Work for feedback and testimonials before working for money.

PRINCIPLE #5: The Hook is Greater Than Everything

The Paradox:
Wait, I thought proof was greater than everything?
- Proof is IN the thing
- But no one sees the proof without a good hook
- Hook > Everything else (because it determines if they see anything)

Time Allocation Shift:
Greater and greater percentage of my time is allocated towards this one part of advertising

The Hook Search:
- Search for best hooks
- Don't convince yourself you're more creative than you are
- Keep using the ones that work

The Core Four & Hook Impact:

Every method has a hook opportunity:
1. Warm outreach (1:1, people you know) → Subject line/opening
2. Cold outreach (1:1, people you don't know) → Subject line/opening
3. Paid ads (1:many, people you don't know) → First frame/headline
4. Content (1:many, people you do know) → Title/thumbnail/first 5 seconds

Hook Multiplication Effect:
- Improve click rate from 1% to 5% = 5x business
- Improve from 2% to 10% = 5x business
- Can 2x-5x entire business with hook alone

Why Hooks are a BOOM (Order of Magnitude Change):
- Shortest part of the whole thing
- Highest leverage point
- Opens flow to entire business

David Ogilvy Quote:
If you have written your headline, you've spent 80 cents of your advertising dollar.

Advanced Advertisers' Obsession:
- Most obsessive about first frame
- First impression determines everything
- Changes perception of what follows

The Speaker Intro Study:
- Changed 1-2 minute intro before 60-minute presentation
- Same presentation, different intro
- Net Promoter Score (audience rating) changed massively
- Framing changed how everything afterward was perceived

Two Hook Dimensions:

Visual Hook: What's happening that people can see
Verbal/Auditory Hook: Actual words communicated

The Hook Formula (From Top YouTube Videos):
PROOF + PROMISE + PLAN

Force multiplier on any advertising when includes these three

The 3-Second Test (Real Example):
- Video got 40,000 views
- Chopped out first 3 seconds (getting into video before real hook)
- Started where hook really was
- Same video now: 780,000 views
- 19x improvement from 3-second edit

Application: Spend 80% of creative time on first 5 seconds. Test hooks ruthlessly. When you find winner, reuse it everywhere.

PRINCIPLE #6: Master More (The 70-20-10 Rule)

Three Growth Strategies:
1. More - Do more of what's working
2. Better - Improve what you're doing
3. New - Do something entirely new

The Entrepreneur's Disease:
- Love doing NEW stuff (shiny object syndrome)
- It's a cancer and you should get that looked at

The Boring Answer:
Master MORE. Master the mundane.

Zero to One vs. One to End:
- Most people love 0→1 (I finally got it to work!)
- Actual scaling requires 1→End (Do this as many times as humanly possible)

Why More is Highest Risk-Adjusted Return:

The Control Principle:
- Once you have a control (landing page, ad, email that converts)
- Likelihood next variation beats it = LOW
- Deviation from working thing = likely to break it

The Math:
- One sales guy closing at 30%
- Could obsess to get him to 35-40% (25% improvement)
- OR hire 3 more guys = 4x = 300% improvement

The Change Cost:
When you change anything, you GUARANTEE you incur the cost of change, but you do NOT guarantee you get the benefit of change.

How to Do More in Each Core Four:

Outreach: 100 → 200 reach-outs per day
Paid Ads: $100/day → $200/day spend
Content: 1 post/day → 2 posts/day
All methods: Scale volume

The Back Room Conversations:
Experienced advertisers laugh about this: People just don't know how much MORE they can do. That's the real secret.

The Mental Limitations (Not Real Limitations):

I'm already running $1K/day on ads
Reality: Businesses run $2M/day
Will it hurt my account? No, platforms want you to succeed
Will people know I sent to more people? No, they're strangers

The Flyer Story (Critical Lesson):

Setup:
- Started first gym
- Mentor: Successful local marketer using flyers for tanning salons (thousands of customers quarterly)
- Decided to copy the strategy

Test:
- Put out 300 flyers
- Waited by phone for flood of customers
- Phone rang ONCE: You damaged my Mercedes click

Debrief Call:
- Mentor: How'd the flyers work?
- Alex: They didn't work at all (with attitude)
- Mentor: What was your test size?
- Alex: 300
- Mentor: You can't know ANYTHING with 300
- Mentor: I test with 5,000
- Mentor: Then we put out 5,000/day for 30 days

The Comparison:
- Alex's data: 300 flyers in 1 day
- Mentor's data: 150,000 flyers over 30 days
- 500x difference in volume

The Lesson:
I was on the right path. I just didn't do enough.

Volatility = Symptom of Low Volume:
- I get a sale every week or two, it's volatile
- Appears volatile because volume so low
- 12 customers/year = 1/month
- To get 12 customers/DAY: 365x more advertising
- Take your year calendar horizontally, flip it vertically for a day

The 1000x Reality:
People who are crushing it are literally doing a THOUSAND times more than you.

Application: Once something works, 10x it before trying to optimize it. Volume solves most problems optimization can't.

PRINCIPLE #7: Word of Mouth (The Negative Multiplier)

The Asymmetry:
- Positive word of mouth: Customer tells 5 people
- Negative word of mouth: Customer tells EVERYBODY

The Disney Study:
Takes 37 magic moments to make up for 1 tragic moment
- 5x multiplier for positive
- 37x multiplier for negative

The Cost Increase Mystery:

Scenario:
- New business gets customers cheaply initially
- Then costs start rising

The Diagnosis:
- CPM (cost per thousand impressions) stays same
- CPL (cost per lead) doubles, triples, quadruples
- Not costing more to reach people, fewer people responding
- Reason: Negative word of mouth working against you

The Math:
- Previously: Reach 100 people → 10 respond
- With negative WOM: Reach 300 people → 10 respond (2 out of 3 heard it was bad)
- Over time: Neutral audience shrinks, negative audience grows

The Invisible Killer:
No business owner ever claims they have negative word of mouth, but I can tell you: Half of you are below average. That's a fact.

Connection to Proof Over Promise:
- If starting out, negative WOM is inevitable
- Keep it concentrated and quiet as possible
- Don't charge money (don't have their money WHEN they're upset)
- Trade: You get stuff (probably not great), I get feedback
- Build positive feedback before going public

The Feedback Loop:
1. Work for free/cheap with beta users
2. Get feedback: Tell me how I can make this right, make it better
3. Iterate until positive feedback consistent
4. THEN introduce to strangers
5. THEN scale

Next Problem After Positive WOM:
How do I keep that consistent now that I have a team?
(Sets up need for systems/operations, covered in other frameworks)

Application: Protect against negative WOM by perfecting product in private before scaling public marketing.

PRINCIPLE #8: Steal From Yourself (The 70-20-10 Portfolio Rule)

The Portfolio Company Story:

Setup:
- Large portfolio company hired new advertising director
- Director came in with lots of new ideas
- Founder (teaching a lesson): Sure, let's do all your ideas

Execution:
- Spent days recording new scripts, new ads
- Ran all the new creative

Result:
- Ads didn't work

The Test:
- Founder: Crazy idea—what if we use the same hook that's been working for 3 years?
- Used proven hook
- Ads worked

Nike Example:
Nike on its second year after 'Just Do It' wasn't like 'Hey, Just Do It is kind of old, let's switch it up.'
- When you find message that converts, keep hammering it
- You get bored FAR before customers do

The Sergey Brin / Larry Page Formula:

70-20-10 Rule (Proven by Google founders' math):

70% - Carbon Copy
- Exact replication of what works
- No changes, straight duplication
- Applies to: Sales scripts, products, ads, content, reinvestment

20% - Adjacent
- One degree removed from core
- Close to what normally works
- Variation examples:
- Original hook: Starting a School community is the fastest way to start an online business
- Adjacent: ONE of the fastest ways to start an online business is starting a School community
- Different background/setting, same hook
- Different shirt, same message

10% - Brand New
- Completely out of left field
- Total experiments
- New crazy ideas

The Typical Mistake (Inverted):
Most businesses do:
- 70% new crazy things (what excites them)
- 20% kind of different from before
- 10% proven stuff (maybe, if forced)

I speak from experience. This is what I would do.

The Building Metaphor:

Building a Building:
- Takes 2 years to construct
- Specific placement of every brick and beam
- Only ONE configuration creates functional building

Demolishing a Building:
- Takes 5 minutes (bomb it)
- Because unlimited wrong placements
- Only one RIGHT placement

The Marketing Application:
- Unlimited options for how to arrange elements
- ALL of them wrong except one
- Something can literally go anywhere except the right place
- When you find what works, changing it = high likelihood of destruction

More options doesn't mean better options—usually means more ways to break what works

Application: Implement 70-20-10 across all marketing. When tempted to change working element, resist unless in the 10% experiment budget.

PRINCIPLE #9: High-Info vs. Low-Info Buyers (Not Emotional vs. Logical)

The Traditional Misconception:
- Marketing world says: Logical buyers vs. Emotional buyers
- Alex's revision: Doesn't actually exist that way

The Actual Continuum:

High-Info Buyers ←——————————————————→ Low-Info Buyers
(Require more information) ————————— (Require less information)

Two Dimensions:
1. Their information requirement (inherent trait)
2. How much info they've received (variable state)

The Distribution:
- Low-info buyers (buy immediately): TINY pool (everyone fights over these)
- High-info buyers: Order(s) of magnitude LARGER

The Reality Check:
Only crazy people buy immediately. It's very normal to want more information before making a decision.

Why Direct Response Hits Ceiling:
- Direct response targets low-info buyers only
- That pool is SMALL
- Can't build very large businesses this way

Why Brand Building Works:
- Invests in moving people DOWN the continuum
- From high-info need → lower-info need
- Takes longer but unlocks massive audience

The Eugene Schwartz Framework (5 Levels of Awareness):

1. Unaware
- No idea about anything
- Broad curiosity hooks needed
- Example: Arizona State has this new breakthrough...
- Could lead to: supplement, weight loss, equipment, insurance (any direction)

2. Problem Aware
- Know they have a pain
- Example hooks:
- Do you wake up to pee 3x per night?
- Does it hurt when you bend over to tie shoes?
- Do you get out of breath playing with your kids?

3. Solution Aware
- Know potential things they could buy
- Helping them select between options

4. Product Aware
- Even more micro level
- Aware of specific products/brands

5. Most Aware
- Typically existing customers
- This is where offers work
- This is why $100M Offers starts here (the TINY audience)
- Make direct offers to get them to buy

The Scaling Problem:
- Can make money quickly with most-aware audience
- But you cap quickly
- Need to move UP the awareness ladder to scale

Application: Allocate budget across awareness levels. Don't just target bottom of funnel.

PRINCIPLE #10: The 70/30 Give-to-Ask Ratio

The Ben Francis & Chris Davis Conversation:

Setup:
- Ben Francis: CEO of Gymshark
- Chris Davis: CMO of New Balance
- Chris helped New Balance skyrocket sales

The New Balance Strategy Shift:

Before Chris:
- 30% budget → broad awareness/storytelling/emotional
- 70% budget → direct response (buy these shoes)

Chris's Change:
- 70% budget → big high-level pairings, endorsements, athletes, brand stories
- 30% budget → actually telling people they have shoes for sale

The Timeline:
Took 18 months to see return on that budget flip.

The Patience Required:
If you're in a rush, this isn't going to work. But if you're in a rush, you're never going to get big anyways.

The 3.5:1 Ratio (Studied Across Industries):

Television:
- 3.5 minutes content : 1 minute advertising
- Maximum ads before people stop watching

Facebook Newsfeed:
- Every 3 posts : 1 ad
- Platforms that grow fastest have larger give percentage

TikTok Example:
- Had ZERO ads for years
- Pure give strategy
- Acquired more users than anyone
- Give first, give all the time strategy

The Universal Truth:
70% give : 30% ask = ratio to not lose audience

B2C Application (Business to Consumer):
- Emotional stories
- Associations
- Endorsements from athletes/influencers
- Organizations representing values
- Place product NEXT to associations
- Pairing creates desire to buy

B2B Application (Business to Business):

Three Types of Content:

1. Aspirational Outcomes You Achieved
- Two degrees of separation
- Alex had big exit, now has portfolio → Cool, but distant

2. People Like Them You Helped
- One degree of separation
- Other companies that look like mine that he helps scale

3. They Use Your Stuff Themselves
- ZERO degrees of separation
- ALWAYS stronger than anything else
- Takes longer but most powerful

How to Facilitate #3:
- Free content and education (why Alex makes videos)
- Free products and services (why books are free on site)

The Corporate Executive Trap:

What Happens When Founder Leaves:
- New CEO needs quarterly earnings
- Switches to direct response (lots of ads)
- Cuts give budget (books, free content)
- No ROI in a book. Books don't make money.
- Works for 1-2 quarters
- Then slowly declines

Why It Fails:
- Not today, but books bring people into our world
- When they have next billion-dollar company, they'll hit us up first—that's the goal
- Corporate guy: Recapture marketing spend, focus on direct response ads, tell people to buy buy buy
- Eventually calls founder back: Help us
- Founder: Can't fix it in a quarter. Need year, year and a half to dig wells again. You sucked them dry.

Application: Allocate 70% of marketing impressions to giving value, 30% to asking for sale. Measure in impressions, not just dollars.

PRINCIPLE #11: State the Facts and Tell the Truth

The Philosophy:
Forces you as advertiser to CHANGE REALITY

The Two Approaches:
1. ❌ Have something normal → Tell exaggerated story
2. ✅ Do something epic → State facts and tell truth

Why #2 is Better:
- Best long-term strategy
- Makes truth MORE compelling by changing reality
- Show only what you can show

The Martial Arts Example:

Setup:
- Martial arts studio owner: How do I stand out? Lots of competitors.
- Alex: What's your specialty?
- Owner: I'm a double-secret black belt of [specific thing]
- Alex: How many of those exist?
- Owner: Six in the nation
- Alex: Any in your area?
- Owner: No
- Alex: Well why don't you SAY that?

The Slicing Principle:
Every business, if you get narrow enough, has something unique

Ways to Slice:
- Best parking
- Fastest introduction/onboarding
- Most locations
- Most customers
- Most customers at certain price point
- Most [anything] in [specific category]

The Mad Men Cigarette Story:

Setup:
- Don Draper pitching cigarette company
- Client is 3rd or 4th in category
- Highly commoditized, competing on price, losing

Discovery:
- Don: Explain how cigarettes are made
- Client (rolling eyes): Explains process
- Client: ...then we let it sit out in sun
- Don: What do you mean?
- Client: To dry out the leaves
- Don: So you toast them?
- Client: Yeah, we toast them
- Don: It's toasted.

The Key:
- Unique part: Sliced down, got narrow on one part of process
- Maybe other companies also toast, but THEY DON'T SAY IT
- Perception: Still different even if same

Two Versions:
1. Best: Find something truly unique
2. Second best: Say something unique about what everyone does but customers don't know

Show What Only You Can Show + Say What Only You Can Say:

Showing Examples:
- Black belt certification → Show the belt, handshake getting certified, winning tournament
- Toasting → Show bed of tobacco getting toasted, smells wafting through air

Saying Examples:
- Describe in way only you can
- Use your unique perspective/experience

The Rockefeller Story:

Setup:
- Early in oil empire
- Bid to buy biggest oil refinery in Cincinnati
- He had second biggest
- Overpaid for the business

The Seller's Reaction:
- Laughed his way to the bank
- You completely overpaid

What Rockefeller Did After:
- Combined #1 and #2 refinery
- Now could say he was THE BIGGEST
- Next 30 days: Over 20 M&A deals
- Consolidated entire rest of market

Why It Worked:
- Became the gorilla
- Strong-armed smaller competitors
- Difference in value between fair deals and forced deals > what he overpaid

Rockefeller's Reflection:
Competitor didn't see the bigger picture. Was willing to overpay for the STORY. Saw it as investment in brand and reputation, not just overpaying for product.

The Asymmetry:
- Seller: Saw overpayment for product
- Buyer: Saw investment in story that unlocked 20+ deals

Application: Find your unique truth by slicing narrow. Then state it clearly and show it visually. Consider: What would you overpay for if it gave you the story?

PRINCIPLE #12: The List (Targeting Comes First)

The Winter Coat Example:

Scenario:
- Selling amazing winter coats
- Great offer, killer product people love
- Look amazing
- Nothing sells

What Happened?
- Showed advertisement to South Florida residents
- Wrong audience (tropical climate)
- Nothing to do with offer, creative, pricing—WRONG PEOPLE

The Core Truth:
Many smaller businesses think marketing doesn't work when in reality they were showing to the wrong people.

First Thing to Get Right:
TARGETING THE CORRECT AUDIENCE

Targeting by Method (Core Four):

1. Outreach (Cold/Warm):
- Reach out to people suffering from problem you solve
- Or high likelihood of suffering from it
- Narrower the problem = smaller the list

2. Paid Ads:
- Platform targeting gets more important
- Some platforms more profitable because of targeting quality
- Facebook was SO GOOD they had to roll it back (privacy laws)
- Was so effective at targeting it felt creepy

3. Content:
- Algorithm serves based on how you look and what you say
- What you look like impacts who sees content
- How you talk impacts distribution

The Gender Targeting Discovery:

The Problem:
- Want to get more women to buy product

The Solution:
- Don't have HIM (bearded fitness guy) in the ad
- His presence attracts 89% male audience
- For my 11% females, keep rocking, appreciate you

Why This Happens:
- Maybe topic (money/business) attracts males
- But female entrepreneurs talk about money without male-dominated audience
- It's HOW he says things and/or algorithm displays to dudes

The Rule:
Make sure person in ad LOOKS LIKE the avatar

The Gym Launch Thank You Page Test:

Version 1: Plain thank you page with phone number
- Response: Mediocre

Version 2: My name's Alex, I'm going to be calling you from this number + Alex's picture
- Response: Better

Version 3: Leila's picture + Leila is going to be the one contacting you
- Response rates went through the roof
- People immediately responsive
- Showed up to appointments
- Oh yeah sure I can make 5pm vs. I don't give a [care]

Application: Match how you talk and who appears in ads to avatar. This determines targeting more than platform settings.

PRINCIPLE #13: Masters Have More Ways to Win

The Definition:
Masters understand many different ways to measure progress

The HR Professional Example:

Amateur HR Person:
- What do you do?
- Vague answers: Payroll... benefits... stuff

Master HR Person (First Interview):
- What's your time-to-fill?
- Alex: I don't know
- What's your two-sided fit?
- Alex: I don't know what you mean
- What's your cost to acquire talent?
- Alex: I don't know

The Metrics Master:
- Cost to acquire talent (like CAC for customers)
- Time-to-fill a role (like cash conversion cycle)
- Two-sided fit at day 90 (both manager and employee rate as 10/10)
- Employee satisfaction / retention metrics

The Revelation:
Oh wow, there's a total other level of understanding this that I had no idea about.

Why This Matters:
- Beginners: Binary outcomes (Sold or didn't sell, Got leads or didn't)
- Masters: High quality and quantity of metrics
- Milestones and progress markers allow you to fix things incrementally