November 24, 2025 • 32 mins
Aaron Sansoni went from blowing $180,000 in his first year to building an empire worth over $250 million. But this episode isn’t a highlight reel. It’s the raw, unfiltered reality of what it actually takes to build something that lasts. Aaron opens up about the early mistakes: debt, unpaid taxes, failed businesses, and the painful cash flow lessons that shaped his philosophy.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How Aaron went from early failures and financial mistakes to acquiring companies and building real wealth through equity.
- The key lessons about cash flow, action, and surrounding yourself with the right people.
- Why uncommon outcomes require uncommon behaviour and how to apply that mindset in your own business.
Connect with us:Follow The Lazy CEO Podcast: @thelazyceo_podcast Stay updated with Jane Lu: @thelazyceo Follow Aaron Sansoni: @aaronsansoni
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the Lazy Ceo Podcast. I'm Jane Lou. I
escaped the corporate grind in twenty four and started my
own business, Choupo, a global nine figures online fashion brand,
and now I want to share my learnings here with
you every Tuesday, so join my conversations with the entrepreneurs
behind the iconic brands we all know and love. In
between interview weeks, you'll find me talking about hot topics
(00:29):
that fascinates me in the world of business and personal development,
alternating with Help my Small Business episodes, where I deep
dive into a small business every month to help them grow.
And why the Lazy Ceo You ask, Well, give a
lazy person a problem, they'll find the simplest way to
solve it. Hey, potty fam My next guest is Aaron Sosni,
(00:51):
also known as Mister Empire. Aaron's journey hasn't been smooth.
He had one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and blew
it all in his first year. He went from debt
multiple failed businesses to building an empire worth over two
hundred and fifty million dollars. Everyone talks about signing a business,
but very few talk about the real work of building
something that lasts.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Aaron explains how a job gives you money but no time,
but business gives you neither, at least at the start.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Anyway, we dive into how he started buying businesses, taking
equity and scaling multiple incomes, and the lessons he learned
about action and surrounding yourself for the right people. Aaron
also shares the hard lessons from unpaid taxes and cash
flow struggles and trusting the wrong people to freaking out
what really matters and picture the businesses. He talks about
his philosophy, if you want uncommon things, you had to
(01:39):
be prepared to do uncommon things. Let's get into it, Okay,
Party VAM.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I have a very special guest, Aaron. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So we're like colleagues. Now we're like we're going to
it all week. So I actually now already know everything
about your life. But you have an amazing stories which
I want to tell the party fam. So if you
have fingers and lots of ices in your own ways,
how do you describe what you do right now?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I run SAMSONI Management, which is a private equity firm.
We've got about eighty different businesses that we have under management,
about two hundred and fifty million dollars of deals, and
a private equity firm, a family office as well for
those that understand and know that sort of sort of stuff.
So I'm an investor, really, that's what I do. And
then on the side of kind of doing it, I
hang out with kind of cool people like you. We
(02:29):
go and travel around and I try and share what
I've learned on the journey along the way, because I
wouldn't be sitting here today with my success or hanging
out with you and doing this if I hadn't learned
from other people along the way. And I think the
business is one of those unique things that you just
can't get it from a book, you can't get it
from uni. You kind of need to be around those
to create success. So I actually feel this bit of
a deep obligation to share and others. So my life
(02:52):
kind of professionally two speed. It's spending kind of ninety
percent doing it running and building my private equity firm,
and then kind of ten percent going out there sharing
and trying to help others on their journey.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It's kind of like why I also have the podcast,
and I also loved speaking as well. And I think
like something that you said that really resonated with me
is you're, like, you remember what it's like to be
sitting in the audience like this is that you know
the conference that Aaron's just run that I was a
keynote at. You know, you remember it's like to sing
in the audience and just to be like mind blown
and absorbing all the stuff. And just like just when
(03:25):
people were talking, it's the littlest thing that can be
said that can just change your mindset, that could just
change your life.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I grew up I was shit at school, right, Like,
I just wasn't good at school, right. I wasn't like
I think you got you know some high ninety nine.
I see, I married someone very intelligent that was maths
that I did. I outsourced.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Keep marry well.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, And so for me, I did really crap in
school and I didn't get into UNI. I didn't kind
of know what I was going to do, but I
just always knew I wanted to do something that wasn't
working in a job. I grew up in a family.
My parents divorce when I was twenty two months old.
My mum was a single mum. Dad, drugs, alcohol, all
that kind of stuff that you know, was not great
(04:06):
for a family, and so we had a really challenging upbringing.
And so for me when I started to kind of
get out of school, I was like, okay, well what
am I going to do? And I was like, I
really like this idea of business. I like this idea
of kind of I think. First honestly, it was like
uncapped earning, like I can make more money than just
to stand it. Then I was a bit like I
never really liked to listen to other people, you know,
(04:27):
and follow the rules. I was like, okay, well the
job's going to suck then, right, because I can't make
more money and I kind of have to follow the rules.
But I think for me, you know, unlike a lot
of people like yourself, you're so successful in the retail space,
and you know, I know, you know, we know so
many mutual friends together. You know, it's AI or it's this,
or it's that, or it's marketing. I didn't know what
I wanted to do, and I actually started so many businesses.
(04:49):
I was launching three at once. Nine businesses later, I
struck my kind of my first winner and that was
a media company about fifteen or something years ago, doing
websites and you know, brand and all that kind of stuff.
And then from there I was like, Okay, what else
do I want to do. I wasn't just happy with
that growth is my number one value, and so for me,
I wanted to lean into that value. And also as
(05:10):
a kid growing up with ADHD, yeah, I'm a bit
like what's next, What's next? I suppose it this leaned
into this kind of wanting to be more of an investor.
And I think for me, to your point about us
going beyond tour, I'm a slow reader. I'm a slow learner.
I find it really hard to kind of sit there
and concentrate and learn from unengaging, uninspiring stuff. So when
I found like these rooms of people sharing and stuff,
(05:32):
I was like, oh my god, this is so good.
I can learn. And I sat there, went to all
the free events, and yet you have to listen to
people like some have no idea, some you know, have
no success. But when I found the ones that actually,
like us, had success, had done it, I was lazer focus.
I'd go home. I was like, let's take action, let's go,
let's go let's go. Let's go. I did this sort
(05:53):
of same thing a lot of people do. I had
some side hustle businesses. I'm still working. I was kind
of trying to cross fade between the two things, and
so then eventually I just hit a point I was like,
all right, let's just go full till I jumped in.
I was doing it. I actually saved a bunch of
money before I started in business, and I like, technically
should have been successful at like one hundred and eighty grand,
and I blew it all in the first year on
(06:14):
just bullshit that didn't work. Like it was just incredible.
I made so many bad mistakes and I was broke.
I had no money. I was like shame embarrassed. I thought.
I was like, I'm going to knock it out of
the ballpark. You know. I came from sales, right, sales
and marketing, so in sales're gonna have this z ego,
you're gonna be I can do that, and so when
I came into business, I was like, I'm going to
crush this thing. And when I didn't crush this thing,
it was this whole identity crisis that I had. Then
(06:36):
I was like, Okay, I was finding myself living at
my girlfriend's place, broke debt, like what am I going
to do? Kept going, then eventually got some success and
then the reason why I still to this day try
and find time to go on tour and kind of
hang out with people like you and go hey, come
and learn and build empires is for two reasons. One,
I wouldn't be here if I didn't go to those events. Two,
(06:59):
no one talks about building empires. They talk about getting
into our business because the statistic is only ten percent
of people in Australia own a business, and of that
ten percent, seventy percent of those people are solopreneurs. They
work for themselves, which means they've gone from a job
and replaced it with another job.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I feel like when you first start the business, early days,
you feel like you're working for yourself.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You have a little team, and now I feel like
I work for the gen zs.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
As shop because you do right. But I think, as well,
here's what I'd say. A job will give you money,
but no time you sacrifice your time for money, you
get sold the idea that if you get in business,
you're going to get time and money, and that's bullshit,
because the first thing to go is time and money. Right.
Then eventually you'll get some money, but you'll have no time.
(07:46):
A business will give you money, and it can give
you a lot, but it won't give you time. And
I don't know, but for me, the definition of life,
I want to have time and money. Is that greedy?
I don't know, but that's what I want. So I
worked out that I've got to have more than our business,
and I do three things. Start businesses, I buy businesses,
and I get equity in businesses. Right, that's how I
build my empires. There's three secrets to building an empire,
(08:07):
and those three secrets as what built me a two
hundred and fifty million dollar empire. It's those three things,
starting buying and getting equity in Then once you have
those businesses, getting them under management. So I'm not there
the whole time. I can be here hanging out with you.
I can go on these holidays with my family. I
can you know, I can do the experiences I want
to do. Empire buildings not easy, but it's worth it.
(08:28):
When you clock getting time and money and you start
to have multiple businesses, multiple income streams, things are under
management and then you can really start to go out
there and build and effectively a private equity firm now
and anyone can.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Do it like now when people take the step like
they're like, okay, I would love to build an empire.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
What does that mean for someone listening who has maybe
a business?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, yeah, so I caught the empire movement right, And
the empire movement is this business is prismatic. Right. If
you speak to business one oh one business at school,
they tell you this, save up all your money, come
up with a unique idea that doesn't exist, and then
go and try and launch a company. All of that
is slow and it's expensive. So that's one way you can.
You can launch businesses, but you can be launched. But
(09:09):
there's three things that you can do. So first of all,
you can start a company, but you don't have to
have money to start a company. You can find a
friend of yours that's involved in some sort of you know,
maybe they're working for somebody else. You're working for somebody else. You, Hey,
why don't we combine our skills on something. Let's do something.
You got to find another buddy that maybe is okay
at marketing. You go find another buddy that'll give you
a couple of thousand bucks suddenly your own twenty five
(09:30):
percent of a new business, and he can still be
employed and you don't have to come up with all
the cash and all the stress, so you don't have
to do it all yourself. The second that you can
do is buy. Now, when you buy businesses, people think
they hear the word buy Jane, they go, oh, I
do that, like I grew up poor. I can't do that.
You can buy businesses with cash, but you can also
buy businesses without having used any of your own money.
(09:51):
The reality is this the biggest deals out there. Like
when Elon Musk went in sport Twitter for forty four
billion dollars. He didn't use his cash, he didn't go
to the ATM and forty four billion dollars. He put
a deal together in terms and investments and leverage his debt.
He created a way to buy it without using cash.
So you can buy businesses without having to use your
(10:11):
own money. When you understand how to structure deals financing terms,
then door terms of other people, you can acquire businesses.
And we live in a world right now where a
huge majority of the businesses in Australia are owned by
people over the age of sixty five and they want out.
We are in a buyers market right now. So you
could be thinking, oh, I want to build an empire.
(10:32):
Your first step could be buying a company that's making money,
that's under manage em he's boring businesses out there, these
businesses that are doing really well but they're sixty five.
Is to reach the one out right or the last
thing is equity. You can go get pieces of businesses.
You're allowed to go and buy into a piece of
a business. If you bring value, Now what's value like
(10:53):
knowledge or brand or connections or a database, you can
leverage that to then get a piece of equity in
somebody else's business and that could be your empire movement step.
It could be getting equity. So, in other words, if
you want to be an empire build up, you don't
have to start by starting. You could start by buying
or equity. You've got all these different empire plays is
(11:14):
what I call them, that you can run. You can
do it however you want. But ultimately the goal I
think is this an empire, which is multiple businesses with
multiple income streams that will give you time and money.
With time and money. I think you're going to have
a better life by design. What life by design is.
We've got young kids, right, so right now we're in
(11:35):
like the hectic like you know last night, right hanging you,
your kids hanging out. We're trying to balance. I'm the
same amount.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, the kids kept coming up, they kept waking up.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Like, oh my god, go but you know, I got
a cuddle, so I was happy about that.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
They love to she loves you.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
But you know, so for me, it's balancing all those things.
And I'm actually not that money driven, and even come
from a kid that nap, I'm actually not that money driven. Yes,
I want to have money, but I honestly just want
to be able to go to dinner tonight, Jane. I
want to pick up the menu. I don't want to
choose what I want to eat and not the price.
I just want choice. So choice comes from having that
life by design. Life by design comes from having money
and time. Money in time doesn't come from a business
(12:14):
or a job. It comes from an empire. Information right
is what you need. You need to be around great
people and you need to have those right mentors around you.
Then you need to take massive and immediate action until
you get there because you and I and I agree,
I'm not special. I got forty two on my end
to score Jane forty two point five. But I'm not special,
(12:36):
like I'm not meant to be here. But I just
decided what I wanted to do, found those that had it,
listened and learned, and did exactly what I had to
do until I got there. The challenge that people have
is they're not prepared to put up with latency. They're
not prepared to put up with the time it takes
where you push the accelerated down and say I want something,
(12:58):
until when the engine kicks in and you're hitting one
hundred miles an hour. That latency period, that weight period,
that shitty bit of business, that shitty bit of life
where you go, hey, I want to lose twenty kilos.
The first time you go to the gym, you hate it.
We'll wake up the next body of your body's like,
what are you doing. Don't go to the gym. You're
going to die, right. Only after a while you start
to lose the weight when you start the business. Only
(13:20):
after a while you start to get the money, you
start to get the time. But a lot of people
quit because latency is shit like that weight period, that
like hard bit. I think if you just can get
clear on what you want, get around the right people,
keep doing it and be prepared to go through those
shitty bits that latency until you get where you want
(13:41):
to go, it will happen. It just won't happen as
fast as you think.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
That's exactly actually the bit that I added into the speech.
When I was doing my keynote, I added, people underestimate
what they do in a day. I mean they're overestimate
what they do in the day, and they underestimate what
they do in ten years. You just need to commit
and focus. Everyone leaves will leave an event feeling motivated.
But motivation can only get you so far.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
It's that discipline to just keep focusing.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Motivation comes from motive, right, It's the motive that you find, Oh,
I want to achieve something. I believe what people actually
need is activation. Activation is where they feel excited, but
they understand how to get there. My goal when I
put an event on right is I want people to
be educated. I want education, experience, and empowerment. I want
(14:29):
them to walk out going. I can do this and
even if I walk out and someone in my life says, no,
you can't. You're as motivated because you leant an event.
No you can't, you can't do that. I want to
go Watch me. I can still do this. Watch me.
Because if they don't feel this deep level of empowerment
to keep going that The reality is this, only ten
percent of the Australians have a business and only a
(14:51):
small percent have an empire. So most people out there
don't get you, won't understand you, and because you're doing
something different to the normal, will probably start to try
and move against you or not really embrace what you're
all about. But we look for validation. That's what we
look for. And when we stop looking for that, I
say to people, the only thing you need to get
(15:12):
validated in your life is parking. That's it. Don't think
you need to get but we seek validation to begin with.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Wold even says you're a consensus builder, like even me
at this stage. If I have an idea, I've looked
for something. He's like, you look for someone that will
agree with you.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
You look for Yes, we will call a confirmation bias.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Confirmation bias, that's what you're looking for. Pay body BAM.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
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Speaker 2 (15:50):
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Speaker 1 (15:52):
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your business your way. You've advised on hundreds of businesses
(16:17):
in your time, Like, what do you think is the
thing that's the biggest mistake that you find that businesses make.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's different mistakes depending on what stages are at.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Okay, let's just start off and then let's do what
do you think is the biggest thing that's holding people
back from scaling?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Got it? I'll do you one better. I'll tell you
what I look for. I get pitched like you. I
get pitched a dozen times in the airport in my Instagram,
like er I pitched it. Here's what I look for
A right I call this game on G. G stands
for the business. Is it in a growing industry? Is
it growing or is it dying? A agony? Is there
agony in the market? In other words, the product you're
(16:53):
trying to sell, are they.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Probably that you're solving?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, so is there agony? Because you know when you
see something like you see a product and you're like,
oh my god, that will be so good because you're
problem aware. But listen to me, if you're not problem aware,
there's two sales you need to do. You have to
sell you the idea you have.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
A problemate the market.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Then you have to sell the product. Two sales. We
want to make one sale. Agony. Let me solve it.
So game on G growing market A agony? Are they
in agony? M money? Can that market afford your solution?
Because you might have a great product or a great service,
but the market you're trying to serve they can't afford
(17:30):
your solution. So do they have the money? E E
stands for ease to market? How can I easily market
this product those people? How can I get my product
into their hands. How can I do that? Is that?
Are like to have it on LinkedIn? Is it a
content thing? Is it a Facebook thing? Is it radio tea? Like?
What is it? How easy is because some products are great,
but it's really hard to actually get it in front
(17:51):
of the ideal customer profile. Right, So G growing agony,
money easy to target O N game on O stands
for this. This is more of a gut check test.
Do you feel like there's an opportunity for you in
this business? Do you feel like I feel like there's
an opportunity? I like this. That's more of like a
feel end's interesting. N stands for nexus. Nexus is does
(18:17):
this business have a potential to be able to connect
into what I already do? Can I see a nexus
a connection in my empire? So for example, synergies with exacts,
So like, for example, obviously with the Melbourne United, if
I was to start another company, let's say we started
like an athletic sports band company or a sports where company. Well,
(18:38):
we've got you know, ten thousand people watching a game
on a Sunday. I reckon that's probably a target market.
So that would be more interesting to me because there's
a nexus opportunity so growing market advantage in some way exactly,
So grow market agony, money, easter market opportunity nexus. That's
my game on for a new business. I'm looking at
(18:59):
for an existing business, There's only two ways to scale.
One marketing, spend more money on marketing. Understand your return
on your AD spend or your return like what does
you what's your cost for lead and your cost for acquisition? Right,
because if you work out your cost, your customer acquisition
costs your CAC. If you work that out, it's paid
by numbers. Jake. If I spend one hundred bucks and
(19:20):
I make five hundred bucks, my goal is where do
I get a thousand from? Then when do I get
one hundred thousand? Then want to get a million. There's
two ways to scale. One marketing. Once you know your numbers,
you've got your dashboards, you know your numbers. Then it's
about spending that money and then incrementally growing that thing
until you get to the scale. The second way to scale,
and it's even faster than marketing, and that is acquisitions.
(19:43):
People think, if you want to scale the business, you've
got to go out there and you've got to spend
a lot of money on marketing. If you own a
hotel and you want to have another hotel, is it
faster to find the land, purchase the land, get the permits,
build the thing you years and years and years. The
fastest way to go from one hotel to another is
to acquire another hotel. And when you can do it
with little to no money down, what's the barrier to entry?
(20:06):
There's none. So the fastest way to actually scale an
existing business is to acquire other businesses that are doing
what you do. Do a bigger if you want to
do it's called a roll up. You do a lot
of them. Big kind of private equity VC firms do this.
But you can scale through acquiring other businesses and either
a merger, which means you buy a business like yours
and it goes under your brand, or an acquisition where
(20:28):
it stays under its brand, but then but it's still
part of your group. So for example, you might be
like Showpo might be visitioned here. You go find a
brand that's here or here, and you buy that brand,
and you could still have those brands separate to show Po, right,
but you now own that market, that market, and that
market you know what's like, have the really nice hairdresser,
and then if there's like a just Cuts down the road,
(20:50):
go buy the just Cuts for ten bucks, and that
way you know, now you own the right now. Now
for those of you that need might just need the
barber that to shaves, it's easy, right. I think when
you're an existing business, the best way to scale marketing acquisitions.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I want to go back to your early stage. So
because you had, you know, nine businesses before you made
your first million, you had success, what do you think
was like a game changing move that what actually changed
in you? Do you think you just found the right
business or was there anything game changing?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I think I think one of the things I don't
even think I planned for it, but I just kind
of did it early on is I was not married
to the idea of which business would be the successful one.
So some people it's like the game into a relationship
and they're like this isn't working, but they.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Will just keep it going. And I see people now
who I'm like, you're a great entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Your business is just like it's not that if you
found another business you would be killing it.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
So I think for me, I really early on I
was like, hey, I want to be an entrepreneur. But
I was like, I was happy to try that, try that,
try that. Like I wasn't like I have to do it,
I have to do it through this thing. I was
happy to try lots of different things, and then like
I didn't worked in me. I had no idea about
media before I got into the media business. I had
never built websites or done branding or done magazine. I
(22:08):
had no idea. But what I did is that sounds
like a pretty game on it. It kind of made sense.
I was like, Okay, So I got involved in it.
And then I think one of the things I did
really early on a while ago, in media, you had
to get to all these different places to get this done,
this done, this done, this done. I was like, why
can't we all do it in one place. What's stopping me? Well,
I can't afford to hire everybody. I can't afford to
hire everybody to do it. But I could afford a
(22:30):
web designer. So I hired a web designer. I hired
a graphic designer to do the logos and the websites.
But I wanted to do everything. So then I went
out there and I built partnerships with everybody else, I
brought them under our label. We white labeled them under
our label, and we became one of the biggest full
service media agencies in the country at the time. But
you would come in and go, I need a website,
but you need a website. What else you need? Photos? Videos, copywriting,
(22:54):
you need this, you need that, so we could do everything.
So I kind of worked out early on, how do
I serve somebody in a deeper way inch whye mile deep.
If someone's buying something from your business, they're probably buying
something before they meet you, while they're with you, and
after your product or service, how do you get involved
in the whole life cycle of that customer. And I
(23:16):
kind of worked that out kind of early on. But
I think for me, I wasn't married to the idea
that this business has to be the one. I was
married to the idea that Aaron wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I like that, And I think it's like I tell people,
you know, go and start an okay business, learn how
to do it, and then when the right idea comes,
you'll be better at it.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
And faster and cheaper than to do this, you know.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And so were there any failures that kind of really.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
You know, because you've had lots of success, which comes
with lots of failure, like anything that really like impacted
the way you look at life and business.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Look, I've had lots of challenges. I've had so cash
flow challenges. I early on, well, I talked to also,
you can get early on, but when I start to
get into business. It's funny people think the challenges only
happen when you're going down. Challenges also happened when you're
scaling up. And I remember a scaling up and we
were crushing it. We will grow on like, you know,
thirty percent quarter on quarter, and we're like, yeah, we're
(24:13):
the best. And then I was like and then my
account's like, hey, we're running out of cash. I'm like,
obviously we can't be. Look at me, your sales, we're
going it's thirty percent growing. And then the first time
I had to get introduced into something called a cash
flow statement, I was like, the cash flowing statement. You know,
I didn't realize Jane, that you're on your P and L.
I didn't realize that the income colum wasn't cash necessarily.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I still, honestly, I'm a fucking accountant. With an accounting degree,
I can't read.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I still don't know how to do a cash flow. Yeah. Actually,
I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I when to see someone about getting business advice to
my business a year into show pro and he's like, yeah,
we'll show me a p and ol.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
I'm like, I don't have one. You used to be accountant.
I don't have one.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
But I think though, so for me that not understanding
of that meant that I had cash flow challenges. But
the second thing that happened, and one of the big
challenges that I had early on, I actually had an
account and I had for four years, and he decided
to sell this business to somebody else, and then the
new account took on the business. And then a new
account contacts me a couple of weeks and he says, hey, Aaron,
(25:22):
we need to sort out some of your unpaid tax
to the ATO. And I said to him, but I
don't have any unpaid tax yet, you are we pay
all that tax. He's like, oh, no, you did. I said, okay,
can you send me the statements? Right? So he sends
me the statements, and then what he sends me sent
shock waves through me. He said, Aaron in the last
four years across all of your companies. We had about
(25:43):
six at the time, six or seven. He goes, you
haven't paid a dollar of tax in four years?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
What how?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
No tax, no BASS, no GST, and no payroll tax.
I was like, this new accountant has no idea, you know,
are you even an accountant? My last account was way better.
He's like, no, no, here's all the reports.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I'm like, well he was imbezzling.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
So that he emails my ex accountant and he goes, hey, buddy,
and he sees me in and I'm sitting there and
we're doing work. You know how like every every like
time management system tells you close your emails when you're
trying to do like good hard work. But you know
how like Outlook has like the like the like clickbait
pop up and it says the name in the first line, yeah,
I've got a reply from my ex accountant. And the
(26:25):
first line said I've been waiting for this day.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I was like, I'm going to click on that email.
So I opened it up and it said I've been
going through challenging times and he used my money to
prop up his life in business. And then he declared bankruptcy,
and he gave me his bankruptcy number. So so I
hadn't paid any tax in four years, and he didn't
(26:52):
negotiated with the ATO because his address was the official
address and he's the accountant. He'd embezzled all of my
money for four years. He'd been negotiating with the ATO
to do a payment plan that he wasn't paying, and
I was lump with the bill and I worked out
a few things. Number one, I worked out you can't
really see someone that's bankrupt because you can't really get
much from him. But you know, I really worked out
(27:14):
that was my fault. You don't want to know why.
I came from sales and marketing, so I didn't care
about finance. I didn't care about that stuff, so I
didn't inspect what I expected. I just thought it was
being done. After having an account in Bezel and still
all my money for four years, I had ninety days
to come up with a ton of money so that
(27:36):
I wouldn't have to lose everything. I also learned about
my resilience. I learned about my ability to make shit happen,
which is one of your core values here at tropop.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It's on one of the walls out, you'll see.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, I wasn't having fun though, that's your third call.
I was having fun at the time, but I realized,
I realized that I had to do something. I was
not willing to go back to what I had come from,
and I kicked himTo gear. And it was a real
wake up call for me because I I got into
that predicament because I didn't understand a P and L
(28:11):
cash flow and balance sheet, and because I understand those
three things, and I ignore those three things, and I
just thought it was going okay. I didn't inspect what
I expected. Someone stole all of my money and I
had nothing, and that was a huge wake up call
for me. I'm actually funny enough glad that that had
happened earlier on I had six or seven businesses.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
This is the thing I always tell people, when there's
a mistake that happens, you're still always learning it. At
that stage, you've got if you're you're wired to make
that mistake, if not now later because that's how you're
wired already.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah. Yeah, so I love failing now, Like I'm did
he go to.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Jail, because surely that's like still no.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Because he left to he left. He left to go
be a teacher and not be an accountant, so he
didn't care about his license anymore. But but you know,
the system doesn't work that way, right, So so yeah,
it was it was. It was hard. I'm glad I
learned it, and that was one of many lessons. The
faster you can fail and learn the mistakes of failure,
(29:14):
the better you get, and the better you get, the
more winners you're going to create. So I think I
say to people all the time one of the most
important steps to success is you've got to give yourself permission.
That permission has two sides to it. The first permission
is to say I want to be and do and
have more, Like I want to make more money. I
want to do more. I'm okay to make more money.
(29:35):
I'm okay to step up. Like I remember the first
time I started to make some money, right, And I
bought it like a bit of a nice watch, like
a gift to me, And I was going to to
a relative's house. I got to the door and instinctively
I took my watch off and put it in my pocket.
Oh right, because I didn't really I was like, why
did I? Aaron why did you do that? And I was, like,
(29:56):
I realized I was embarrassed with my success. I was
I didn't give myself permission to like really like I
was okay, okay, and I was almost embarrassed or shamed.
It was weird. And so you've got to give yourself
permission to succeed. Like it's okay if you want to
have a really big gus, it's okay. If you want
to have that property overseas, it's okay. If you want
to sit in the front of the plane, it's okay,
if you want to buy that car, like And then
(30:18):
I think the second part of permission is you've got
to give yourself permission to fail, because too many people
don't say I'm okay to fail. If I do, that's okay.
But if you give yourself permission to fail, you're like,
you know, I might fail. Like if they're Sidney listening
to this right now and they're like, oh, I want
to start a business. The first business you start probably
(30:40):
won't work. So if you're only here listening to this
to then hear a piece of gold from me or
you that changes and makes you a billion dollars, then
you're not here for the right reasons.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
If you haven't failed yet, you probably haven't tried hard enough.
You've gotta give yourself permission enough risks.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Because here's how I think about it. If you give
yourself permission to win and to fail, what is there
to be scared of? What door won't you go through?
When you know that you might walk into a door
and have the big chant that was going on outside,
right the Hudson cham for the TikTok, Or you might
walk in the door sometimes and you get punch in
the face. But if you're okay to be punching the face,
(31:18):
and you're okay to go into the fan fare, if
you're just okay to do stuff, you'll step into more
doors to do more things. I think you have to
give yourself permission to win. You've got to give yourself
permission to fail because this whole, the whole point of
life is the journey. I just want people to really
be proud of who they are, because if they're not
(31:41):
proud of who they've become when it's their time to go,
that's going to be the single biggest regret that they're
ever going to have.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
I love that, thank you so much. I think this
has been you know, love chatting to you. We've had
lots of chats this weekend. I will see you in
part I'll see you in perpose continues, Well, thank you
so much.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
For having me and I appreciate it and you're doing
some cool things. Keep going. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Okay, that's it from me for now. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
If you're loving the podcast, don't forget to follow, and
I would love it if you can do me a
favor and leave us a review and if you are more,
joined the conversation on a podcast Instagram at the Lazy
CEO on the Score podcast all link in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Catch you next Tuesday,
Welcome to the Lazy Ceo Podcast. I'm Jane Lou. I
escaped the corporate grind in twenty four and started my
own business, Choupo, a global nine figures online fashion brand,
and now I want to share my learnings here with
you every Tuesday, so join my conversations with the entrepreneurs
behind the iconic brands we all know and love. In
between interview weeks, you'll find me talking about hot topics
(00:29):
that fascinates me in the world of business and personal development,
alternating with Help my Small Business episodes, where I deep
dive into a small business every month to help them grow.
And why the Lazy Ceo You ask, Well, give a
lazy person a problem, they'll find the simplest way to
solve it. Hey, potty fam My next guest is Aaron Sosni,
(00:51):
also known as Mister Empire. Aaron's journey hasn't been smooth.
He had one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and blew
it all in his first year. He went from debt
multiple failed businesses to building an empire worth over two
hundred and fifty million dollars. Everyone talks about signing a business,
but very few talk about the real work of building
something that lasts.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Aaron explains how a job gives you money but no time,
but business gives you neither, at least at the start.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Anyway, we dive into how he started buying businesses, taking
equity and scaling multiple incomes, and the lessons he learned
about action and surrounding yourself for the right people. Aaron
also shares the hard lessons from unpaid taxes and cash
flow struggles and trusting the wrong people to freaking out
what really matters and picture the businesses. He talks about
his philosophy, if you want uncommon things, you had to
(01:39):
be prepared to do uncommon things. Let's get into it, Okay,
Party VAM.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I have a very special guest, Aaron. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So we're like colleagues. Now we're like we're going to
it all week. So I actually now already know everything
about your life. But you have an amazing stories which
I want to tell the party fam. So if you
have fingers and lots of ices in your own ways,
how do you describe what you do right now?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I run SAMSONI Management, which is a private equity firm.
We've got about eighty different businesses that we have under management,
about two hundred and fifty million dollars of deals, and
a private equity firm, a family office as well for
those that understand and know that sort of sort of stuff.
So I'm an investor, really, that's what I do. And
then on the side of kind of doing it, I
hang out with kind of cool people like you. We
(02:29):
go and travel around and I try and share what
I've learned on the journey along the way, because I
wouldn't be sitting here today with my success or hanging
out with you and doing this if I hadn't learned
from other people along the way. And I think the
business is one of those unique things that you just
can't get it from a book, you can't get it
from uni. You kind of need to be around those
to create success. So I actually feel this bit of
a deep obligation to share and others. So my life
(02:52):
kind of professionally two speed. It's spending kind of ninety
percent doing it running and building my private equity firm,
and then kind of ten percent going out there sharing
and trying to help others on their journey.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It's kind of like why I also have the podcast,
and I also loved speaking as well. And I think
like something that you said that really resonated with me
is you're, like, you remember what it's like to be
sitting in the audience like this is that you know
the conference that Aaron's just run that I was a
keynote at. You know, you remember it's like to sing
in the audience and just to be like mind blown
and absorbing all the stuff. And just like just when
(03:25):
people were talking, it's the littlest thing that can be
said that can just change your mindset, that could just
change your life.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I grew up I was shit at school, right, Like,
I just wasn't good at school, right. I wasn't like
I think you got you know some high ninety nine.
I see, I married someone very intelligent that was maths
that I did. I outsourced.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Keep marry well.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, And so for me, I did really crap in
school and I didn't get into UNI. I didn't kind
of know what I was going to do, but I
just always knew I wanted to do something that wasn't
working in a job. I grew up in a family.
My parents divorce when I was twenty two months old.
My mum was a single mum. Dad, drugs, alcohol, all
that kind of stuff that you know, was not great
(04:06):
for a family, and so we had a really challenging upbringing.
And so for me when I started to kind of
get out of school, I was like, okay, well what
am I going to do? And I was like, I
really like this idea of business. I like this idea
of kind of I think. First honestly, it was like
uncapped earning, like I can make more money than just
to stand it. Then I was a bit like I
never really liked to listen to other people, you know,
(04:27):
and follow the rules. I was like, okay, well the
job's going to suck then, right, because I can't make
more money and I kind of have to follow the rules.
But I think for me, you know, unlike a lot
of people like yourself, you're so successful in the retail space,
and you know, I know, you know, we know so
many mutual friends together. You know, it's AI or it's this,
or it's that, or it's marketing. I didn't know what
I wanted to do, and I actually started so many businesses.
(04:49):
I was launching three at once. Nine businesses later, I
struck my kind of my first winner and that was
a media company about fifteen or something years ago, doing
websites and you know, brand and all that kind of stuff.
And then from there I was like, Okay, what else
do I want to do. I wasn't just happy with
that growth is my number one value, and so for me,
I wanted to lean into that value. And also as
(05:10):
a kid growing up with ADHD, yeah, I'm a bit
like what's next, What's next? I suppose it this leaned
into this kind of wanting to be more of an investor.
And I think for me, to your point about us
going beyond tour, I'm a slow reader. I'm a slow learner.
I find it really hard to kind of sit there
and concentrate and learn from unengaging, uninspiring stuff. So when
I found like these rooms of people sharing and stuff,
(05:32):
I was like, oh my god, this is so good.
I can learn. And I sat there, went to all
the free events, and yet you have to listen to
people like some have no idea, some you know, have
no success. But when I found the ones that actually,
like us, had success, had done it, I was lazer focus.
I'd go home. I was like, let's take action, let's go,
let's go let's go. Let's go. I did this sort
(05:53):
of same thing a lot of people do. I had
some side hustle businesses. I'm still working. I was kind
of trying to cross fade between the two things, and
so then eventually I just hit a point I was like,
all right, let's just go full till I jumped in.
I was doing it. I actually saved a bunch of
money before I started in business, and I like, technically
should have been successful at like one hundred and eighty grand,
and I blew it all in the first year on
(06:14):
just bullshit that didn't work. Like it was just incredible.
I made so many bad mistakes and I was broke.
I had no money. I was like shame embarrassed. I thought.
I was like, I'm going to knock it out of
the ballpark. You know. I came from sales, right, sales
and marketing, so in sales're gonna have this z ego,
you're gonna be I can do that, and so when
I came into business, I was like, I'm going to
crush this thing. And when I didn't crush this thing,
it was this whole identity crisis that I had. Then
(06:36):
I was like, Okay, I was finding myself living at
my girlfriend's place, broke debt, like what am I going
to do? Kept going, then eventually got some success and
then the reason why I still to this day try
and find time to go on tour and kind of
hang out with people like you and go hey, come
and learn and build empires is for two reasons. One,
I wouldn't be here if I didn't go to those events. Two,
(06:59):
no one talks about building empires. They talk about getting
into our business because the statistic is only ten percent
of people in Australia own a business, and of that
ten percent, seventy percent of those people are solopreneurs. They
work for themselves, which means they've gone from a job
and replaced it with another job.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I feel like when you first start the business, early days,
you feel like you're working for yourself.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You have a little team, and now I feel like
I work for the gen zs.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
As shop because you do right. But I think, as well,
here's what I'd say. A job will give you money,
but no time you sacrifice your time for money, you
get sold the idea that if you get in business,
you're going to get time and money, and that's bullshit,
because the first thing to go is time and money. Right.
Then eventually you'll get some money, but you'll have no time.
(07:46):
A business will give you money, and it can give
you a lot, but it won't give you time. And
I don't know, but for me, the definition of life,
I want to have time and money. Is that greedy?
I don't know, but that's what I want. So I
worked out that I've got to have more than our business,
and I do three things. Start businesses, I buy businesses,
and I get equity in businesses. Right, that's how I
build my empires. There's three secrets to building an empire,
(08:07):
and those three secrets as what built me a two
hundred and fifty million dollar empire. It's those three things,
starting buying and getting equity in Then once you have
those businesses, getting them under management. So I'm not there
the whole time. I can be here hanging out with you.
I can go on these holidays with my family. I
can you know, I can do the experiences I want
to do. Empire buildings not easy, but it's worth it.
(08:28):
When you clock getting time and money and you start
to have multiple businesses, multiple income streams, things are under
management and then you can really start to go out
there and build and effectively a private equity firm now
and anyone can.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Do it like now when people take the step like
they're like, okay, I would love to build an empire.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
What does that mean for someone listening who has maybe
a business?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, yeah, so I caught the empire movement right, And
the empire movement is this business is prismatic. Right. If
you speak to business one oh one business at school,
they tell you this, save up all your money, come
up with a unique idea that doesn't exist, and then
go and try and launch a company. All of that
is slow and it's expensive. So that's one way you can.
You can launch businesses, but you can be launched. But
(09:09):
there's three things that you can do. So first of all,
you can start a company, but you don't have to
have money to start a company. You can find a
friend of yours that's involved in some sort of you know,
maybe they're working for somebody else. You're working for somebody else. You, Hey,
why don't we combine our skills on something. Let's do something.
You got to find another buddy that maybe is okay
at marketing. You go find another buddy that'll give you
a couple of thousand bucks suddenly your own twenty five
(09:30):
percent of a new business, and he can still be
employed and you don't have to come up with all
the cash and all the stress, so you don't have
to do it all yourself. The second that you can
do is buy. Now, when you buy businesses, people think
they hear the word buy Jane, they go, oh, I
do that, like I grew up poor. I can't do that.
You can buy businesses with cash, but you can also
buy businesses without having used any of your own money.
(09:51):
The reality is this the biggest deals out there. Like
when Elon Musk went in sport Twitter for forty four
billion dollars. He didn't use his cash, he didn't go
to the ATM and forty four billion dollars. He put
a deal together in terms and investments and leverage his debt.
He created a way to buy it without using cash.
So you can buy businesses without having to use your
(10:11):
own money. When you understand how to structure deals financing terms,
then door terms of other people, you can acquire businesses.
And we live in a world right now where a
huge majority of the businesses in Australia are owned by
people over the age of sixty five and they want out.
We are in a buyers market right now. So you
could be thinking, oh, I want to build an empire.
(10:32):
Your first step could be buying a company that's making money,
that's under manage em he's boring businesses out there, these
businesses that are doing really well but they're sixty five.
Is to reach the one out right or the last
thing is equity. You can go get pieces of businesses.
You're allowed to go and buy into a piece of
a business. If you bring value, Now what's value like
(10:53):
knowledge or brand or connections or a database, you can
leverage that to then get a piece of equity in
somebody else's business and that could be your empire movement step.
It could be getting equity. So, in other words, if
you want to be an empire build up, you don't
have to start by starting. You could start by buying
or equity. You've got all these different empire plays is
(11:14):
what I call them, that you can run. You can
do it however you want. But ultimately the goal I
think is this an empire, which is multiple businesses with
multiple income streams that will give you time and money.
With time and money. I think you're going to have
a better life by design. What life by design is.
We've got young kids, right, so right now we're in
(11:35):
like the hectic like you know last night, right hanging you,
your kids hanging out. We're trying to balance. I'm the
same amount.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, the kids kept coming up, they kept waking up.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Like, oh my god, go but you know, I got
a cuddle, so I was happy about that.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
They love to she loves you.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
But you know, so for me, it's balancing all those things.
And I'm actually not that money driven, and even come
from a kid that nap, I'm actually not that money driven. Yes,
I want to have money, but I honestly just want
to be able to go to dinner tonight, Jane. I
want to pick up the menu. I don't want to
choose what I want to eat and not the price.
I just want choice. So choice comes from having that
life by design. Life by design comes from having money
and time. Money in time doesn't come from a business
(12:14):
or a job. It comes from an empire. Information right
is what you need. You need to be around great
people and you need to have those right mentors around you.
Then you need to take massive and immediate action until
you get there because you and I and I agree,
I'm not special. I got forty two on my end
to score Jane forty two point five. But I'm not special,
(12:36):
like I'm not meant to be here. But I just
decided what I wanted to do, found those that had it,
listened and learned, and did exactly what I had to
do until I got there. The challenge that people have
is they're not prepared to put up with latency. They're
not prepared to put up with the time it takes
where you push the accelerated down and say I want something,
(12:58):
until when the engine kicks in and you're hitting one
hundred miles an hour. That latency period, that weight period,
that shitty bit of business, that shitty bit of life
where you go, hey, I want to lose twenty kilos.
The first time you go to the gym, you hate it.
We'll wake up the next body of your body's like,
what are you doing. Don't go to the gym. You're
going to die, right. Only after a while you start
to lose the weight when you start the business. Only
(13:20):
after a while you start to get the money, you
start to get the time. But a lot of people
quit because latency is shit like that weight period, that
like hard bit. I think if you just can get
clear on what you want, get around the right people,
keep doing it and be prepared to go through those
shitty bits that latency until you get where you want
(13:41):
to go, it will happen. It just won't happen as
fast as you think.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
That's exactly actually the bit that I added into the speech.
When I was doing my keynote, I added, people underestimate
what they do in a day. I mean they're overestimate
what they do in the day, and they underestimate what
they do in ten years. You just need to commit
and focus. Everyone leaves will leave an event feeling motivated.
But motivation can only get you so far.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
It's that discipline to just keep focusing.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Motivation comes from motive, right, It's the motive that you find, Oh,
I want to achieve something. I believe what people actually
need is activation. Activation is where they feel excited, but
they understand how to get there. My goal when I
put an event on right is I want people to
be educated. I want education, experience, and empowerment. I want
(14:29):
them to walk out going. I can do this and
even if I walk out and someone in my life says, no,
you can't. You're as motivated because you leant an event.
No you can't, you can't do that. I want to
go Watch me. I can still do this. Watch me.
Because if they don't feel this deep level of empowerment
to keep going that The reality is this, only ten
percent of the Australians have a business and only a
(14:51):
small percent have an empire. So most people out there
don't get you, won't understand you, and because you're doing
something different to the normal, will probably start to try
and move against you or not really embrace what you're
all about. But we look for validation. That's what we
look for. And when we stop looking for that, I
say to people, the only thing you need to get
(15:12):
validated in your life is parking. That's it. Don't think
you need to get but we seek validation to begin with.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Wold even says you're a consensus builder, like even me
at this stage. If I have an idea, I've looked
for something. He's like, you look for someone that will
agree with you.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
You look for Yes, we will call a confirmation bias.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Confirmation bias, that's what you're looking for. Pay body BAM.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
For those of your dreamers out there ready to start
building your own online business, the Lazy Ceo Business Course
is for you. It's ten modules packed with visuals, live examples,
covering everything from sourcing product to marketing and scaling.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You can go at your own pace, re.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Visit lessons whenever you need, and actually see results. I've
even stuck wondering where to start or what to do next.
This course it gives you the step by step guide
to finally make it happen. And because you're part of
the pottyfam, grab twenty percent of with the Code podcast
twenty head to the lazyceo dot com and start building
your business your way. You've advised on hundreds of businesses
(16:17):
in your time, Like, what do you think is the
thing that's the biggest mistake that you find that businesses make.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's different mistakes depending on what stages are at.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Okay, let's just start off and then let's do what
do you think is the biggest thing that's holding people
back from scaling?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Got it? I'll do you one better. I'll tell you
what I look for. I get pitched like you. I
get pitched a dozen times in the airport in my Instagram,
like er I pitched it. Here's what I look for
A right I call this game on G. G stands
for the business. Is it in a growing industry? Is
it growing or is it dying? A agony? Is there
agony in the market? In other words, the product you're
(16:53):
trying to sell, are they.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Probably that you're solving?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, so is there agony? Because you know when you
see something like you see a product and you're like,
oh my god, that will be so good because you're
problem aware. But listen to me, if you're not problem aware,
there's two sales you need to do. You have to
sell you the idea you have.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
A problemate the market.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Then you have to sell the product. Two sales. We
want to make one sale. Agony. Let me solve it.
So game on G growing market A agony? Are they
in agony? M money? Can that market afford your solution?
Because you might have a great product or a great service,
but the market you're trying to serve they can't afford
(17:30):
your solution. So do they have the money? E E
stands for ease to market? How can I easily market
this product those people? How can I get my product
into their hands. How can I do that? Is that?
Are like to have it on LinkedIn? Is it a
content thing? Is it a Facebook thing? Is it radio tea? Like?
What is it? How easy is because some products are great,
but it's really hard to actually get it in front
(17:51):
of the ideal customer profile. Right, So G growing agony,
money easy to target O N game on O stands
for this. This is more of a gut check test.
Do you feel like there's an opportunity for you in
this business? Do you feel like I feel like there's
an opportunity? I like this. That's more of like a
feel end's interesting. N stands for nexus. Nexus is does
(18:17):
this business have a potential to be able to connect
into what I already do? Can I see a nexus
a connection in my empire? So for example, synergies with exacts,
So like, for example, obviously with the Melbourne United, if
I was to start another company, let's say we started
like an athletic sports band company or a sports where company. Well,
(18:38):
we've got you know, ten thousand people watching a game
on a Sunday. I reckon that's probably a target market.
So that would be more interesting to me because there's
a nexus opportunity so growing market advantage in some way exactly,
So grow market agony, money, easter market opportunity nexus. That's
my game on for a new business. I'm looking at
(18:59):
for an existing business, There's only two ways to scale.
One marketing, spend more money on marketing. Understand your return
on your AD spend or your return like what does
you what's your cost for lead and your cost for acquisition? Right,
because if you work out your cost, your customer acquisition
costs your CAC. If you work that out, it's paid
by numbers. Jake. If I spend one hundred bucks and
(19:20):
I make five hundred bucks, my goal is where do
I get a thousand from? Then when do I get
one hundred thousand? Then want to get a million. There's
two ways to scale. One marketing. Once you know your numbers,
you've got your dashboards, you know your numbers. Then it's
about spending that money and then incrementally growing that thing
until you get to the scale. The second way to scale,
and it's even faster than marketing, and that is acquisitions.
(19:43):
People think, if you want to scale the business, you've
got to go out there and you've got to spend
a lot of money on marketing. If you own a
hotel and you want to have another hotel, is it
faster to find the land, purchase the land, get the permits,
build the thing you years and years and years. The
fastest way to go from one hotel to another is
to acquire another hotel. And when you can do it
with little to no money down, what's the barrier to entry?
(20:06):
There's none. So the fastest way to actually scale an
existing business is to acquire other businesses that are doing
what you do. Do a bigger if you want to
do it's called a roll up. You do a lot
of them. Big kind of private equity VC firms do this.
But you can scale through acquiring other businesses and either
a merger, which means you buy a business like yours
and it goes under your brand, or an acquisition where
(20:28):
it stays under its brand, but then but it's still
part of your group. So for example, you might be
like Showpo might be visitioned here. You go find a
brand that's here or here, and you buy that brand,
and you could still have those brands separate to show Po, right,
but you now own that market, that market, and that
market you know what's like, have the really nice hairdresser,
and then if there's like a just Cuts down the road,
(20:50):
go buy the just Cuts for ten bucks, and that
way you know, now you own the right now. Now
for those of you that need might just need the
barber that to shaves, it's easy, right. I think when
you're an existing business, the best way to scale marketing acquisitions.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I want to go back to your early stage. So
because you had, you know, nine businesses before you made
your first million, you had success, what do you think
was like a game changing move that what actually changed
in you? Do you think you just found the right
business or was there anything game changing?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I think I think one of the things I don't
even think I planned for it, but I just kind
of did it early on is I was not married
to the idea of which business would be the successful one.
So some people it's like the game into a relationship
and they're like this isn't working, but they.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Will just keep it going. And I see people now
who I'm like, you're a great entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Your business is just like it's not that if you
found another business you would be killing it.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
So I think for me, I really early on I
was like, hey, I want to be an entrepreneur. But
I was like, I was happy to try that, try that,
try that. Like I wasn't like I have to do it,
I have to do it through this thing. I was
happy to try lots of different things, and then like
I didn't worked in me. I had no idea about
media before I got into the media business. I had
never built websites or done branding or done magazine. I
(22:08):
had no idea. But what I did is that sounds
like a pretty game on it. It kind of made sense.
I was like, Okay, So I got involved in it.
And then I think one of the things I did
really early on a while ago, in media, you had
to get to all these different places to get this done,
this done, this done, this done. I was like, why
can't we all do it in one place. What's stopping me? Well,
I can't afford to hire everybody. I can't afford to
hire everybody to do it. But I could afford a
(22:30):
web designer. So I hired a web designer. I hired
a graphic designer to do the logos and the websites.
But I wanted to do everything. So then I went
out there and I built partnerships with everybody else, I
brought them under our label. We white labeled them under
our label, and we became one of the biggest full
service media agencies in the country at the time. But
you would come in and go, I need a website,
but you need a website. What else you need? Photos? Videos, copywriting,
(22:54):
you need this, you need that, so we could do everything.
So I kind of worked out early on, how do
I serve somebody in a deeper way inch whye mile deep.
If someone's buying something from your business, they're probably buying
something before they meet you, while they're with you, and
after your product or service, how do you get involved
in the whole life cycle of that customer. And I
(23:16):
kind of worked that out kind of early on. But
I think for me, I wasn't married to the idea
that this business has to be the one. I was
married to the idea that Aaron wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I like that, And I think it's like I tell people,
you know, go and start an okay business, learn how
to do it, and then when the right idea comes,
you'll be better at it.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
And faster and cheaper than to do this, you know.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And so were there any failures that kind of really.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
You know, because you've had lots of success, which comes
with lots of failure, like anything that really like impacted
the way you look at life and business.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Look, I've had lots of challenges. I've had so cash
flow challenges. I early on, well, I talked to also,
you can get early on, but when I start to
get into business. It's funny people think the challenges only
happen when you're going down. Challenges also happened when you're
scaling up. And I remember a scaling up and we
were crushing it. We will grow on like, you know,
thirty percent quarter on quarter, and we're like, yeah, we're
(24:13):
the best. And then I was like and then my
account's like, hey, we're running out of cash. I'm like,
obviously we can't be. Look at me, your sales, we're
going it's thirty percent growing. And then the first time
I had to get introduced into something called a cash
flow statement, I was like, the cash flowing statement. You know,
I didn't realize Jane, that you're on your P and L.
I didn't realize that the income colum wasn't cash necessarily.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I still, honestly, I'm a fucking accountant. With an accounting degree,
I can't read.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I still don't know how to do a cash flow. Yeah. Actually,
I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I when to see someone about getting business advice to
my business a year into show pro and he's like, yeah,
we'll show me a p and ol.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
I'm like, I don't have one. You used to be accountant.
I don't have one.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
But I think though, so for me that not understanding
of that meant that I had cash flow challenges. But
the second thing that happened, and one of the big
challenges that I had early on, I actually had an
account and I had for four years, and he decided
to sell this business to somebody else, and then the
new account took on the business. And then a new
account contacts me a couple of weeks and he says, hey, Aaron,
(25:22):
we need to sort out some of your unpaid tax
to the ATO. And I said to him, but I
don't have any unpaid tax yet, you are we pay
all that tax. He's like, oh, no, you did. I said, okay,
can you send me the statements? Right? So he sends
me the statements, and then what he sends me sent
shock waves through me. He said, Aaron in the last
four years across all of your companies. We had about
(25:43):
six at the time, six or seven. He goes, you
haven't paid a dollar of tax in four years?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
What how?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
No tax, no BASS, no GST, and no payroll tax.
I was like, this new accountant has no idea, you know,
are you even an accountant? My last account was way better.
He's like, no, no, here's all the reports.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I'm like, well he was imbezzling.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
So that he emails my ex accountant and he goes, hey, buddy,
and he sees me in and I'm sitting there and
we're doing work. You know how like every every like
time management system tells you close your emails when you're
trying to do like good hard work. But you know
how like Outlook has like the like the like clickbait
pop up and it says the name in the first line, yeah,
I've got a reply from my ex accountant. And the
(26:25):
first line said I've been waiting for this day.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I was like, I'm going to click on that email.
So I opened it up and it said I've been
going through challenging times and he used my money to
prop up his life in business. And then he declared bankruptcy,
and he gave me his bankruptcy number. So so I
hadn't paid any tax in four years, and he didn't
(26:52):
negotiated with the ATO because his address was the official
address and he's the accountant. He'd embezzled all of my
money for four years. He'd been negotiating with the ATO
to do a payment plan that he wasn't paying, and
I was lump with the bill and I worked out
a few things. Number one, I worked out you can't
really see someone that's bankrupt because you can't really get
much from him. But you know, I really worked out
(27:14):
that was my fault. You don't want to know why.
I came from sales and marketing, so I didn't care
about finance. I didn't care about that stuff, so I
didn't inspect what I expected. I just thought it was
being done. After having an account in Bezel and still
all my money for four years, I had ninety days
to come up with a ton of money so that
(27:36):
I wouldn't have to lose everything. I also learned about
my resilience. I learned about my ability to make shit happen,
which is one of your core values here at tropop.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It's on one of the walls out, you'll see.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, I wasn't having fun though, that's your third call.
I was having fun at the time, but I realized,
I realized that I had to do something. I was
not willing to go back to what I had come from,
and I kicked himTo gear. And it was a real
wake up call for me because I I got into
that predicament because I didn't understand a P and L
(28:11):
cash flow and balance sheet, and because I understand those
three things, and I ignore those three things, and I
just thought it was going okay. I didn't inspect what
I expected. Someone stole all of my money and I
had nothing, and that was a huge wake up call
for me. I'm actually funny enough glad that that had
happened earlier on I had six or seven businesses.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
This is the thing I always tell people, when there's
a mistake that happens, you're still always learning it. At
that stage, you've got if you're you're wired to make
that mistake, if not now later because that's how you're
wired already.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah. Yeah, so I love failing now, Like I'm did
he go to.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Jail, because surely that's like still no.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Because he left to he left. He left to go
be a teacher and not be an accountant, so he
didn't care about his license anymore. But but you know,
the system doesn't work that way, right, So so yeah,
it was it was. It was hard. I'm glad I
learned it, and that was one of many lessons. The
faster you can fail and learn the mistakes of failure,
(29:14):
the better you get, and the better you get, the
more winners you're going to create. So I think I
say to people all the time one of the most
important steps to success is you've got to give yourself permission.
That permission has two sides to it. The first permission
is to say I want to be and do and
have more, Like I want to make more money. I
want to do more. I'm okay to make more money.
(29:35):
I'm okay to step up. Like I remember the first
time I started to make some money, right, And I
bought it like a bit of a nice watch, like
a gift to me, And I was going to to
a relative's house. I got to the door and instinctively
I took my watch off and put it in my pocket.
Oh right, because I didn't really I was like, why
did I? Aaron why did you do that? And I was, like,
(29:56):
I realized I was embarrassed with my success. I was
I didn't give myself permission to like really like I
was okay, okay, and I was almost embarrassed or shamed.
It was weird. And so you've got to give yourself
permission to succeed. Like it's okay if you want to
have a really big gus, it's okay. If you want
to have that property overseas, it's okay. If you want
to sit in the front of the plane, it's okay,
if you want to buy that car, like And then
(30:18):
I think the second part of permission is you've got
to give yourself permission to fail, because too many people
don't say I'm okay to fail. If I do, that's okay.
But if you give yourself permission to fail, you're like,
you know, I might fail. Like if they're Sidney listening
to this right now and they're like, oh, I want
to start a business. The first business you start probably
(30:40):
won't work. So if you're only here listening to this
to then hear a piece of gold from me or
you that changes and makes you a billion dollars, then
you're not here for the right reasons.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
If you haven't failed yet, you probably haven't tried hard enough.
You've gotta give yourself permission enough risks.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Because here's how I think about it. If you give
yourself permission to win and to fail, what is there
to be scared of? What door won't you go through?
When you know that you might walk into a door
and have the big chant that was going on outside,
right the Hudson cham for the TikTok, Or you might
walk in the door sometimes and you get punch in
the face. But if you're okay to be punching the face,
(31:18):
and you're okay to go into the fan fare, if
you're just okay to do stuff, you'll step into more
doors to do more things. I think you have to
give yourself permission to win. You've got to give yourself
permission to fail because this whole, the whole point of
life is the journey. I just want people to really
be proud of who they are, because if they're not
(31:41):
proud of who they've become when it's their time to go,
that's going to be the single biggest regret that they're
ever going to have.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
I love that, thank you so much. I think this
has been you know, love chatting to you. We've had
lots of chats this weekend. I will see you in
part I'll see you in perpose continues, Well, thank you
so much.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
For having me and I appreciate it and you're doing
some cool things. Keep going. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Okay, that's it from me for now. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
If you're loving the podcast, don't forget to follow, and
I would love it if you can do me a
favor and leave us a review and if you are more,
joined the conversation on a podcast Instagram at the Lazy
CEO on the Score podcast all link in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Catch you next Tuesday,
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