The Hard Truth About Growth Most Founders Avoid. Hormozi Hotline feat. Leila Hormozi | Ep 918
episodePreviously titled “The Hard Truth About Growth Most Founders Avoid. Hormozi Hotline feat. Leila Hormozi | Ep 976” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
Transcript
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What is the special treat introduced at the beginning of the episode?
Guys, I have a special, special treat for you. This has only happened one other time in human history. This is historic, so you guys are gonna get this. And it's from downtown Vegas. My lovely wife, Lady Layla herself, Queen Lay, is coming to join us and spit some fire on Ramosi Hotline. And we're going to be taking the calls together.
First of all, thank you for this opportunity.
Thank you.
So, yeah. My name is Joshua. I run a performance-based marketing agency called Asset Access for kitchen and bathroom remodels and outdoor living companies. Currently at 8K per month, it's profit at 7K. We work on a paper show model and positioning for high-end projects, so not like discounts, et cetera, without retainers or ad spend on their ads. So we take the risk there. Right now, it costs me around $250 to acquire a customer. On the last stat where I ran the app, I have a $1,000 setup fee and I charge $500 to $600 per qualified opponent's shell. To get them one opponent's shell, it costs at the worst time, like I'm aiming for $210. If I don't get them at least 10 appointments in the first month, I refund them the setup fee.
Now, currently, to let you know, I do have two clients on this, but I have three other clients still in tree service, which I kept for cash flow because that's what I ran before. And my question is from just what I told you guys now and from your experience, what do you see, which I currently don't see?
How does the guest describe their current business model?
So what would you do in my position to absolutely like scale this or maybe Do differently.
Are you keeping the customers?
Until I'm basically, I wanted to keep them until I'm at 10K sufficiently in the modeling and then completely ditch.
So the question was, I mean, I don't think you should cut your cash flow. You only have like four customers, right? Currently at five. Okay, so you have five customers. And that means that if you're doing $8,000 a month, you said 8000 top line 7000 bottom line, but you said your cost of getting a show is 210 on 500. Those margins don't make sense. What am I missing?
So for the AK, I'm not basically counting in the $200, which is lost and just counting the stream. Okay, the one guy I'm currently the one guy I'm currently onboarding. So I only have one guy currently on it. Yeah, the other guys currently on onboarding.
And when you say guys on onboarding, you mean a client?
Yeah. The one company I'm currently onboarding to get them into the $5,000 thing, I got his $1,000 setup fee, basically. He's not actively involved with the app. Yeah. Currently, I'm looking to scale this now, but... I mean... Go for it.
I know you're going to say what you're going to say. Well, I was just thinking that we have to run some more water through the well.
So I need to get more data.
Yeah, you need to get more data. I mean, at that point, that sample size is so small. I think we need to focus on getting a bigger sample size. And then we can go from there.
I understand. Okay. Well, what would you say, what is just your opinion about the model, the offer? I'm running it because all other agencies are basically running the pay-per-appointment, and they pay for the ads, but the trust is really low in that market, so I was thinking about doing that.
Dude, I think everything's fine.
I think everything's fine. I'd say one risk that I see that's relatively significant is your cost per show relative... to the revenue per show is kind of low. I would say the guys who I see like really murder it are at like 20%. So you're at like 60, sorry, 40. So I want to see if we could drive that down because my fear of the business is that when you take this to scale, you'll be less efficient and your margins are going to compress. That's like, I would say like, that's kind of like my biggest red flag.
What strategies are suggested for scaling a marketing agency?
Overall, the model of lead costs and arbitrage, there's nothing wrong with it. I've seen some massive agencies that run that model. The next issue that you're going to run into is the types of businesses that you're serving. So you're going to want to go upmarket for people who can spend $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 a month in ads.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the special treat introduced at the beginning of the episode?
0:01–1:45
2
How does the guest describe their current business model?
1:45–4:12
3
What strategies are suggested for scaling a marketing agency?
4:12–7:46
4
How can you improve customer retention in a service business?
7:46–9:37
5
What are the challenges of switching from a bundled to an unbundled service model?
9:37–11:38
6
How can you effectively communicate pricing to clients?
11:38–14:12
7
What advice is given about choosing the right market for your business?
14:12–15:49
8
How can you leverage existing skills to pivot into a new business opportunity?
15:49–1:12:26