Dan Go

Body transformation coach to entrepreneurs. On a mission to help 1 million people transform their bodies by 2027. Follow me for posts on high performance & health optimization.

You didn’t build your business on motivation.

You built it on systems, identity, and becoming the kind of person who does the work whether they feel like it or not.

But when it comes to your body? You’re still trying to willpower your way through it. And it keeps failing.

That’s not a discipline problem. It’s an approach problem.

I’m Dan Go. I help entrepreneurs and executives build bodies that match their ambition — not through harder workouts or stricter meal plans, but by changing the way they see themselves.

Sound familiar?

You’re waking up tired no matter how much you sleep. The brain fog hits by 2pm and you’re running on caffeine and adrenaline. You avoid photos. You dread the beach. You tell yourself “I’ll start Monday” but Monday never comes. You’ve tried every diet, every app, every 30-day challenge — and none of it stuck because none of it was built for how you actually think.

You know what it feels like to operate at 60% when your business demands 100%. You know the quiet frustration of crushing it professionally while your body tells a completely different story. And you know, deep down, that the gap between where you are and where you want to be isn’t about information — it’s about something else entirely.

That’s what I solve.

I work with entrepreneurs who are ready to stop treating their body like an afterthought and start treating it like their most valuable asset. The energy, the focus, the confidence, the presence — it all changes when your body is finally working for you instead of against you.

My work has been featured in GQ, CNN, Entrepreneur, and Fortune. I write The High Performance Journal, read by over half a million entrepreneurs every week.

If you’re done being the smartest person in the room with the worst body, I built this for you.

→ Apply: https://www.dango.co/dan-go-coaching-landing-page-1

Chief Executive Officer

We specialize in helping entrepreneurs lose the excess weight, build muscle & increase energy with ease and minimal stress.

At High Performance Founder, we are client-obsessed helping entrepreneurs become the healthiest versions of themselves.

Our "North Star" is our clients results with a big focus on sustainability. Our standard is helping clients reach their fitness goals within 12 weeks.

We've spent the last 18 years dialling in a process that just works!

Don't take my word for it — check out our Case Studies below from our successful Clients.

Want to learn more? Watch free training:
→ https://highperformancefounder.com/testimonials/

7 non-obvious reasons why everyone needs to walk at least 30 minutes a day:

30 minutes of walking just 3x a week increases the size of your hippocampus. That's the part of your brain responsible for memory and learning.

Here's what else walking does that nobody talks about:

1. It kills visceral fat without cortisol spikes.
Running and HIIT elevate cortisol. Walking burns fat while keeping stress hormones low. For busy entrepreneurs already running on fumes, that matters more than you think.

2. It regulates blood sugar after meals.
A 15 minute walk after eating reduces glucose spikes by up to 30%. No supplement does that.

3. It enhanches your creativity.
Stanford research found walking increased creative output by 60%. Every stuck feeling you've had in front of a screen could've been solved with a 20 minute walk.

4. It protects your heart better than you'd expect.
Walking 30 minutes a day cuts cardiovascular disease risk by 35%. Not running. Walking.

5. It's the only exercise you can do every single day without recovery.
You can't deadlift daily. You can't sprint daily. You can walk daily for the rest of your life. Consistency beats intensity. Always.

6. It improves sleep quality.
Regular walkers fall asleep faster and get more deep sleep. And deep sleep is where growth hormone does its job. That means better recovery, better body composition, and sharper thinking.

7. It compounds everything else you're doing.
Lifting? Walking speeds recovery between sessions. Dieting? Walking increases your deficit without triggering hunger. Stressed? Walking lowers cortisol in 20 minutes.

Walking is the foundation most people skip because it feels too simple.

My best performing clients all walk 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. Not because I told them to. Because once they started, everything else got easier.

Your brain gets sharper. Your body gets leaner. Your stress drops. Your sleep improves.

Want a free walking protocol to improve your brain and burn belly fat?

Grab it for free at the link below → https://lnkd.in/gyEmMMsa

I help entrepreneurs get lean, focused, and high-performing without sacrificing their business. Body Transformation Coach to Entrepreneurs. Apply below ↓

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I'd rather walk 2 miles than run 2 miles. And it burns more belly fat than most people realize.

Everyone thinks you need to destroy yourself in the gym to lose stomach fat.
Sprints. HIIT. Burpees until you see God.

Meanwhile, walking is sitting right there torching visceral fat better than almost anything else. And nobody respects it.

Here's what most people don't know:

Belly fat is different from regular fat. It's visceral. It wraps around your organs. And it responds to cortisol.

Know what spikes cortisol? Intense exercise you can't recover from.
Know what lowers it? Walking.

That's why runners with six-day-a-week habits still carry belly fat. They're overtraining and under-recovering. Their cortisol stays elevated. And their body holds onto the exact fat they're trying to burn.

Walking flips the script.

Low intensity. Low cortisol. High fat oxidation.

Your body actually prefers to burn fat as fuel when you're walking. Not carbs. Fat.

I lived in Hong Kong for years. People there walk everywhere. Up hills. Through markets. To the train. Back from dinner.

Nobody calls it "exercise." It's just life.

And they carry almost zero belly fat compared to Western countries built around cars and couches.

When I came back stateside, I felt the difference in weeks. More bloating. Worse sleep. Midsection thickening despite still lifting 4 days a week.

Nothing changed except how much I walked.

My clients who finally lose the stubborn belly fat aren't the ones adding more gym days. They're the ones who start walking with intention.

Fasted morning walks. Post-meal walks. Incline walks. Walking meetings.
Simple. Boring. Effective.

I put together a free walking workout designed specifically to target belly fat. No running. No equipment. Just a protocol that works with your biology instead of against it.

Grab it free here: https://lnkd.in/gyEmMMsa

My client was crushing it in business. 8-figure company. Team of 40. Deals closing left and right.

But his health? Falling apart.

40 pounds overweight. Blood pressure meds. Couldn't run a block without gasping.

He wanted to change but didn't know where to start. Too many conflicting opinions. Too many "experts" telling him different things.

Here's what I told him:

Look at what the average person does. Then do the opposite.

He was contrarian by nature. Built his business by zigging when everyone zagged.

So we applied the same thinking to his body:
• Started lifting 3x per week
• Hit 10,000+ steps daily
• Prioritized 7-8 hours of sleep
• Got outside in natural light every morning
• Cut the processed garbage and ate real food

90 days later:

27 pounds gone. Energy levels doubled. Blood pressure meds? His doctor took him off them. And he started running again for the first time in 15 years.

The uncomfortable truth?

Being average is a choice. So is being a high performer.

You already know what average looks like. You see it everywhere.

The question is: are you willing to do the opposite?

♻️ Share this with someone who needs to hear it

- Dan

PS. Want to transform your body without sacrificing your business? Join 500,000+ high performers in my newsletter 👇

https://lnkd.in/gSFC9CMU

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5 cheat codes to living longer than 99% of humanity:

1. Lift weights using proper form. This improves quality of life.

2. Do both low-intensity and high-intensity cardio. This improves V02 max, which lengthens life.

3. Eat a Mediterranean-based diet. Lots of fish, veggies, and nutrient-dense foods. This helps improve both length and quality of life.

4. Fix both your quality and quantity of sleep. This gets rid of the waste build-up in your brain and body.

5. Surround yourself with a good community. Friends are what make life worth living. Find ones that fit your vibe and share space with them.

Focus on these 5 pillars, and you'll be fit and energetic well into your 80's and 90's.

✍🏼 Agree or disagree?
♻️ Reshare if this was helpful. 
 
- Dan 
 
Ps. If you liked this post you'll enjoy my newsletter. 
 
Every week I share tips on how to get lean, boost energy, and live longer. 
 
Join 495,000+ subscribers here 👇

https://lnkd.in/gSFC9CMU

You overestimate what you can do in 6 weeks but underestimate what you can do in 6 months.

You can transform your health in 6 months.

You can build a business in 6 months.

You can practically get started on creating your dream life...in 6 months.

But this requires effort, consistency, and a will to improve.

You have what it takes. Can you believe in yourself enough to get started?

I'm helping 5 high-performing entrepreneurs build lean, energetic bodies that match their level of success.

If that's what you want too...

Follow me and DM "ENERGY" and I'll see if you're a good fit 🤝

(Must be an entrepreneur, founder, or executive)

If you want to get your shit together in 2026 do this

The 30-Day Science-Based Protocol To Lower Inflammation

Heart disease. Diabetes. Alzheimer’s. Accelerated aging. It all traces back to inflammation.

The scary part? You can be inflamed for years and feel “fine.”

In tomorrow’s newsletter, I’m breaking down the 4 hidden warning signs and the exact 30-day protocol to fix them.

Click below to join 490,000+ readers and get it first ↓

www.dango.co/newsletter2

7 health cheat codes I know at 46 I wish I knew at 26: 
 
1. Avoid drinking tap water and, if possible, drinking water in plastic bottles. They contain endocrine disrupters that may affect your hormones. Instead, drink water from glass or metal bottles. 
 
2. Intermittent fast the opposite way: In the morning, eat a protein-rich meal and have an early dinner. This helps build muscle and improve your sleep quality. 
 
3. Get morning sunlight upon waking. When sunlight hits your eyes, it turns on your circadian rhythms, which wakes you up and also helps you sleep later on. 
 
4. When eating a meal, eat your protein first, vegetables second, and carbs last. This regulates your blood sugar and insulin levels. 
 
5. Become a nose breather. This helps filter out dust and allergens, boost your oxygen uptake, and humidify the air you breathe, while mouth breathing can have negative effects on your health. 
 
6. Cold exposure for mood and recovery. Cold exposure, like cold showers or cold plunges, has been shown to reduce inflammation and improve recovery while boosting your mood. 
 
7. The water test for hunger. When people are hungry, they may be dehydrated. Instead of reaching for a snack, drink 500ml of water and stay busy for 20 minutes. If you're still hungry, then go eat. If you forgot about it, you were either bored or dehydrated. 
 
Try any of these out and see how they affect your quality of life. 
 
One small change can result in a compounding effect of good health throughout your years. 
 
Which one hit the hardest for you? 
 
- Dan 
 
Ps. If you liked this post, you'll enjoy my newsletter. 
 
Every week, I share tips on how to get lean, boost energy, and live longer. 
 
Join 495,000+ subscribers here 👇

https://lnkd.in/gSFC9CMU

Swimming is an underrated form of cardio. 
 
It’s a full-body workout. 
 
It increases lung capacity. 
 
It has a low impact on the joints. 
 
I’d much rather prefer to swim than run a few miles. 
 
What about you? 
 
✍🏼 What are your thoughts on this? 
♻️ If this helped you, spread the word. 

- Dan 
 
Ps. If you liked this post you'll enjoy my newsletter. 
 
Every week I share tips on how to get lean, boost energy, and live longer. 
 
Join 500,000+ subscribers here 👇🏼

https://lnkd.in/gSFC9CMU

The 5 Worst Foods For People Over 40

There are 5 foods most people are eating but are silently driving visceral fat storage, inflammation, and faster aging.

Most 40+ year olds are eating at least 3 of them daily.

In tomorrow's newsletter, I'm breaking down all 5 and showing you simple swaps that fix them.

Click below to join 500,000+ subscribers and get it first:

https://lnkd.in/gzyviRFf

13 steps to losing 30+ pounds and get into your best shape by the summer:

1. Stop drinking alcohol
2. Eat 3 nutrient dense meals a day
3. Lift weights 3x a week
4. When lifting use progressive overload
5. Get a walking treadmill and do walking meetings
6. Aim for 7500 steps a day
7. Fix your sleep environment (cool room, blackout shades)
8. Get 7-9 hours of sleep
9. Sleep on a schedule
10. Track your weight every day (get a weekly average)
11. Start being appreciative for what your body can do
12. Bake all these into your identity
13. Follow me on LinkedIn 😉

That identity shift is exactly what we engineer inside our coaching program for entrepreneurs.

In the last 12 months, we've helped 200+ founders lose 30+ pounds while scaling their businesses...without living in the gym or eating like a monk.

Inside, you get:

· Your custom nutrition protocol (built around your travel schedule)
· 3x/week training programs designed for busy founders
· A dedicated private coach
· Direct access to me and my coaching team
· Guaranteed results

We're opening 10 spots this month. DM me "COACH" and I'll send you the details to see if it's a fit.

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At 46, I lose fat without losing muscle using three simple workouts.

Walking: 7-10K steps daily. Burns calories, lowers stress, aids recovery. Sneak it into calls, meetings, errands.

Strength training: 2-3x weekly. Preserves muscle in a deficit. Keeps metabolism high. Non-negotiable.

HIIT: Once weekly. Spikes calorie burn. Torches visceral fat. Just enough to boost results without killing recovery.

Most people do too much cardio and lose muscle.
Or lift too much and burn out.

This combo strips fat while keeping you strong.

Simple beats complicated every time.

I created a FREE guide with a 30-day protocol to help you lose 14+ pounds of fat. Follow me and DM “POUNDS” and I’ll send it to you.

My client was dealing with serious hunger. He could control his diet, but would mess it up at night until he ate breakfast.

John came to me desperate. CEO of a tech startup. Skipping breakfast for 3 years because "intermittent fasting burns fat."

The reality: He was binging at 9pm. Every. Single. Night.

His hunger hormones were so screwed up that his body thought it was dying.

Here's what actually happened when he skipped breakfast:

• Cortisol spiked (stress hormone)
• Ghrelin exploded (hunger hormone) 
• Willpower crashed by 3pm
• Metabolism slowed to preserve energy
• Muscle disappeared (body ate itself)

By dinner, he wasn't hungry. He was possessed.

The "healthy" salad turned into wine, bread, cheese, dessert. Another 2000 calories of "just a bite" while watching Netflix.

The fix was stupidly simple:

40g protein within 90 minutes of waking.

That's it. 3 eggs and Greek yogurt. Or a protein shake with berries.

Week 1: No more 9pm binges
Week 4: Down 8 pounds
Week 12: Lost 27 pounds eating MORE food
Month 6: Best shape of his life at 44

He's in full control of his diet. Losing fat. Building muscle. Closing deals without brain fog.

The uncomfortable truth:

Skipping breakfast doesn't make you disciplined. It makes you metabolically broken.

Your ancestors didn't fast because they were optimizing. They fasted because they had no food. When they found food, they ate immediately.

You're not fasting. You're starving yourself into storage mode.

Then wondering why you can't stop eating kid's goldfish at midnight.

Protein within 2 hours of waking:
- Kills cravings
- Preserves muscle
- Stabilizes blood sugar
- Makes fat loss automatic

Stop trying to outsmart your biology.

Feed the machine properly. Watch it work.

💪 When do you eat your first meal?

- Dan

P.S. Want to get lean, healthy, and energetic in a way that fits your lifestyle?
 
Each week, I share tips on how to get lean, boost energy, and optimize the body.
 
Join 500,000+ subscribers here 👇🏼

https://lnkd.in/gzyviRFf

View newsletter: The High Performance Journal

Welcome to 4 Minute Fridays, my weekly newsletter, where I reveal cutting-edge tips to help you get lean, boost energy, and live longer. What's In Sto

Open article: 4 Minute Fridays: The Harsh Truth About Counting Calories, Eat This Jelly To Boost Your Brain Power & The Tea I Drink Every Night To Go To Bed by Dan Go • 5 min read

4 Minute Fridays: The Harsh Truth About Counting Calories, Eat This Jelly To Boost Your Brain Power & The Tea I Drink Every Night To Go To Bed

The only supplement that makes you stronger AND smarter.

Creatine.

What it does for muscle:
- 5-15% strength boost
- Faster recovery
- More muscle, less fat
- Works in 7 days

What it does for your brain:
- Sharper memory
- Better focus
- Fights depression
- Protects neurons

$10/month.
5 grams daily.
Most studied supplement ever.
Zero downsides.

Yet 90% of people skip it.

They’ll spend $200 on pre-workout garbage. But won’t take the one thing proven to work.

Here’s the kicker:

Your brain uses 20% of your body’s energy. Creatine is cellular energy. Do the math.

Not just for meatheads. For anyone who wants to think clearly at 70.

Start today. Thank me in a week.

I created a FREE guide that breaks down exactly how to take creatine the right way to maximize results. Follow me and DM “CREATINE” and I’ll send it to you.

Codie A. Sanchez

Investing millions in Main St businesses & teaching you how to own the rest | HoldCo, VC fund, Founder

On a mission to create financially free and free-thinking humans.I founded a advisory and investment company called Contrarian Thinking that helps owners buy and scale businesses.Our newsletter has over 1M+ weekly readers, here → contrarianthinking.biz/liOur community has taught 9,000+ members biz buying, biz growing, and doing deals. We value experience over degrees.Betting on yourself over building someone else's dream.Main Street over Wall Street.My mission is less suits, more boots. Meaning: we the people holding the power… and the purse strings.🔗Join 1M+ others who get our free newsletter: contrarianthinking.biz/li🔗YouTube: @CodieSanchezCT🔗Instagram: @codiesanchez🔗Twitter: @Codie_Sanchez🔗Weekly business-buying newsletter Main Street Minute: contrarianthinking.biz/minute-li

Founder

We help free minds and build bank accounts.

I have no energy for hate. Love you, wish you well, or hope you heal. That's it.

Investing millions in Main St businesses & teaching you how to own the rest | HoldCo, VC, Founder | NYT best-selling author

The best advice that no one follows:

- Wake up at 5:45am.
- Marriage done well is a huge superpower.
- Trust God.
- Be careful what you read, it becomes the way you think.
- No going out on a school night.
- If you have to drink to hang out with someone, you probably shouldn't be buds.

Feel free to share if you agree ♻️

You will make 10x more money if you present ideas like this to your clients or leaders.

Underrated superpower:

Just dumb enough to believe in yourself, just smart enough to execute.

You don’t have anxiety because you think you CAN’T do it.

You have anxiety because deep down you know you CAN be doing bigger things.

People overestimate business plans and “genius.” They underestimate irrational inability to quit.

Dumber people than you have done it.

Let's get after it 💥

Follow for more & repost if you need this to be your new mantra.

You don’t get lucky.

You make your luck.

There are 3 ways to increase your odds of luck:

1. Do, repeatedly. Try, then iterate.
2. Be consistent. Resist the urge to give up.
3. Gain knowledge. Invest in yourself.

Knowledge without action is worthless. So is acting without knowing what you’re doing.

Say you want to buy a business.

You could get the best advice in the world from the smartest people in acquisitions… But if you don’t act, you’ll never buy one.

OR

Your could have all the drive in the world, the right mindset… But ruin yourself financially because you didn’t learn the right tactics.

Harsh truth:

Running a company is simply a game of prioritizing problems.

Here’s how to become the Chief Problem Solver in your business:

Want to know Elon Musk's "secret" to running Tesla, SpaceX, and 3+ other billion-dollar companies?

According to Marc Andreessen, it's simple:

"He shows up every week, identifies the biggest problem, fixes it, and does that 52 weeks in a row."

Most companies hide from problems:

• They reframe them as "challenges"
• They create layers of abstraction
• They delegate them into oblivion

But problems aren't biohazards—they're your biggest opportunities.

Bigger the problem? Bigger the potential.

There’s a reason SpaceX is able to send a 400-foot skyscraper into the sky knowing it might explode.

Because they want to know exactly what breaks, when, and why.

Every failure incapacitates dozens of future problems.

This approach works because running a company is simply prioritizing problems.

Your earnings directly reflect what you solve...

Big problems pay better.

Another great example of this is Brad Jacobs.

He built 7 billion-dollar companies in logistics, waste, and warehousing - industries most people find boring until they see his bank account.

Here’s how he evaluates risk vs reward on different deal sizes:

• Small, low-risk deals: exist but limited reward
• Small, high-risk deals: limited reward with high risk (avoid)
• Big, low-risk deals: unicorns (don't exist)
• Big, high-risk deals with solvable problems: "the bingo quadrant"

One of my favorite lines from his book is:

"If you want to win, you have to rearrange your brain to lean into those big, hairy problems and figure out how to cut off the hair and de-risk."

This is exactly what your job is as a CEO.

It’s simple: hire the smartest people in the world... and solve the problems they can't figure out.

That's it. That's the whole job.

Not avoiding problems, but identifying and selecting the right ones to solve.

Becoming a Chief Problem Solver requires you to create your own weekly problem-solving loop:

1. Identify your single biggest constraint
2. Focus all resources on solving it
3. Measure the result
4. Repeat next week

1 problem. 1 solution. 52 weeks in a row.

The best entrepreneurs don't just "think differently" about problems. They actively build muscles for problem identification and execution.

Then they do it again and again.
Fair warning though, this isn't glamorous work. It means:

• Living inside friction
• Facing uncomfortable truths
• Fixing things no one else wants to touch

But it's where all the leverage is.

If your business is stuck, your unlock is often solving ONE big problem.

Maybe you know exactly what it is, but don't know how to solve it. Or maybe you're not sure what the problem is yet...

P.S. If you want to see how we think about solving these problems for our own businesses, you might want to check this out: https://lnkd.in/enaBvipE

A reminder to myself and you this Saturday...

It’s really just you against the mirror. You vs you. No one else can win at a game of one. I know it’s hard not to get distracted, race horses wear blinders for a reason. Your lane you’re game. LFG.

13 other unreasonably simple habits to change your life:

1. Waking up at 5:45am solves 99.9% of daily issues.

2. Grab your to-do list. Do the thing you want to do least, first.

3. Stop all 60 min meetings, make them 45 minutes. Tighter meetings, more time.

4. No social media, email, or text when you wake up. Write something, read something, or create something before you get sucked in.

5. Do the $1,000/hr Test. Group work in 3 buckets based on return: $10, $100, $1,000. Offload one low ROI task per day.

6. Change one meeting a week to a walking call. Watch how excited the other meeting member becomes.

7. Add a How vs Won't check-in. When you say, "that WON'T work." Instead ask, "How could that work?"

8. Be the dumbest one in your friend group, then move on when you’re not. As they say, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.

9. Take a picture of your net worth. What gets measured gets managed. Check finances daily.

10. Always the stairs, never the elevator. Pick the hard option. See how much stronger you are than you think.

11. Never write to-dos in stone. You're 10x more productive if you reprioritize daily.

12. Meditate. 10 minutes a day. For a twofer - do it in the sauna. Sometimes hacking culture gets it right.

13. Get intimidated. Everything you want is on the other side of fear. Do something every day that scares you a little bit.

Life is the small things repeated daily.

Change one daily habit, and beautiful things start to happen...

So pick one.

↓↓↓

Also...build the habit of getting ownership, not income. 

Come to MSM Live to learn how: https://lnkd.in/gf6hPHdF

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Erica Sinner

Underrated quality of awful leaders:

They try to please everyone & lead by committee.

The hardest parts about leadership:

• Telling truths people don’t want to hear
• Watching decisions people will regret
• But you can’t force mentorship
• No one cares about your business as much as you do
• Micromanaging means YOU hired wrong

Doesn't mean you have to be a jerk.

But often trying to please everyone is the worst thing you can do for your people.

What do you think?

Wall Street has one rule:

Never start what you can buy.

Here’s everything you need to know about buying a biz in 2025: 

While 90% of startups fail, 80% of acquisitions survive the first year.

88% of people worth $30M+ have done at lease one acquisition.

That means the best way to get rich isn’t to start a business like they love to tell us.

The best way to wealth with the highest degree of certainty is through acquisitions.

Right now, the average small business owner in the US is 67 years old. When you’ve run a business for 10+ years, you're bound to be exhausted.

These owners are motivated to sell by what I call the 7 D's:

• Departure
• Divorce
• Disease
• Disagreement
• Distress
• Death
• Dullness

They’re desperate to exit the game but don't know how. 

Most people think they need millions in capital to buy a businesses.

But they don't realize 60% of all business sales involve seller financing.

Instead of going to a bank for a loan, the seller becomes your bank.

You put some money down, and they get paid over time from the business profits.

There are 3 reasons why a seller would agree to this:

1. Cash

Let’s say the bank offered the seller $750,000 for their biz but you offered the seller $1.15 million paid over time.

They’ll make an extra $400,000 by being the bank.

2. Taxes

Lump sum payments hit the seller with massive tax bills.

Installment payments spread over 10 years means lower tax brackets and potentially hundreds of thousands saved.

3. Speed

Bank loans take 3-9 months to close. Seller financing can close in 2-3 weeks.

Now which businesses to target? 

Ones under $10 million in revenue with at least 15% profit margins.

Blue-collar service businesses fit this bill - HVAC, landscaping, cleaning services.

They're cash-flowing, recession-resistant, and boring enough that private equity ignores them. 

BUT, before searching anywhere, create what I call a deal box. Define exactly:

• How much cash flow you need annually
• Maximum purchase price
• Geographic preferences
• Industry focus
• Must-haves and can't-stands

If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’ll never find it.

Next up, how to find businesses to buy? 

1. Venmo Challenge

Pull your payment history and filter out friends and big companies. What's left are small businesses you already pay - cleaning services, handymen, landscapers.

2. Personal P&L Review.

Open your credit card statements and look at small businesses you spend with. These are owners you can reach out to.

3. The 9-5 Strategy:

One of our community members bought her coworker's $1.5M business with full seller financing after he decided to retire to go skiing with his wife.

↓ ↓ ↓

As a thank you for sticking around to the end, I want you give my "Deal Clarity Workbook."

It helps you figure out what business is right for you.

Grab it here: https://lnkd.in/enPdVi_D

What I wish I was told before I had success.

The “Hate Us ‘Cuz They Ain’t Us” Curve:

When you first start out, they tell you...

You’re lame.
You’re crazy.
That’ll never work.
Oh, she’s a one-hit wonder.
She probably has a rich dad.
Or slept her way there.

THEN, we hit the top of the curve. Your success is obvious. And things start to change... They say…

Oh yeah, I know her.
Hey, long time no talk!
Love to meet up and pick your brain.
How did you do that?

And the grand finale...
They ask you for a job.

If success is your goal, expect people to talk a lot of crap for a long time. Let them. Because one day, you’ll just get to point at the scoreboard.

↓↓↓

FYI 

If you're ready to step out of your comfort zone this year and buy a business, come to my live event this week. 

I'll teach you how (over 3 days): https://lnkd.in/eEye_qd6

Is talking about vanity superficial? Maybe.

Is it effective? Absolutely.

Being well-dressed and well-groomed is a massive edge in any negotiation. It’s hard to push back on someone who looks like they’ve already won. Own your 2026 look.

The richest people in the world don't just build companies...they buy them.

Here’s how you can too (without their millions): 

Three reasons why buying beats building a business from scratch:

- 45% of new businesses fail within 5 years
- Most entrepreneurs make only $67k/year
- First 3-4 years are unprofitable

Compare that to when you buy...

You inherit customers, systems, and profits from day one.

"But Codie, I genuinely can’t afford one."

That’s what I thought too when I started. 

There are 3 ways to buy any business (without needing millions):

1. Experience
2. Sweat equity
3. Money

You only need ONE of these three to pull off a deal.

1. Experience

This is perfect for people who know the industry inside and out.

Maybe you've been a plumber for 20 years and want to buy a plumbing company.

Sellers value genuine knowledge over $$ because they know you won't destroy what they built.

2. Sweat Equity

If you’re thinking about working in the business and growing it, this is for you.

Many retiring owners care more about their legacy than maximizing the sale price.

They want someone who'll take care of their employees and customers, not just squeeze the biz for cash.

3. Money

This doesn't have to mean YOUR money.

I've bought plenty of businesses with 0-15% down using other people's money. You can:

- Use SBA loans (government-backed with low rates)
- Get investors to fund the deal
- Or structure seller financing

Seller financing often works as a win-win too. 

Banks tend to lowball business valuations and charge high interest rates.

But when sellers finance you directly, they get a premium price AND earn interest on the loan.

They make MORE money by cutting out the bank.

Just make sure you show what’s in it for them:

- Higher purchase price (ex. 15%+ premium)
- Tax advantages (spread over time vs lump sum)
- Faster close (30 days vs 120 days)

A win-win.

So what businesses should you target?

A few strategies I use: 

1. SOWS method:

- Stale: Revenue hasn't grown in 3+ years
- Old: Been around 5+ years
- Weak: Competitors are terrible
- Simple: You can explain it to an 8-year-old

2. The Venmo Method

Look at your personal P&L:

- Who do you pay every month?
- Who are your competitors?
- What vendors do you use?

These are the businesses you should buy.

Instead of paying to get your problem solved, why don’t you get paid to solve it for other people? 

Right now, boomers own $5-10 trillion worth of businesses.

And when these owners retire…

It’s either we buy these businesses, or BlackRock does.

I’d rather see more of us own our local than have PE swallow everything up.

If you want to learn how to buy a biz, you should come to my masterclass today. 

It's completely free & solely focused on teaching you how to buy a biz for a little as $0. 

Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/e86jsivr

I asked my mom & dad for advice recently from raising me and my brother...

This is what they told me, maybe you’ll find it useful too:

1. Your kids are not your friends. They’re yours to safeguard and support, but set rules. Biggest problem with most kids in our generation, their parents wanted to be liked not respected.

2. Psy ops are underrated. My mom had this line for whenever I got into trouble. She’d say, “When I ask you a question like this, I already know the answer. I am giving you a chance to come clean...” At which point I’d sing like a canary because I’m a scaredy cat. I found out today she rarely knew the answers. Brilliant and maniacal.

3. Always on the same page. My mom and dad rarely fought in front of my brother and I. They would never go back on the word of the other. United front to deal with us mini terrorists.

4. Make time. My dad had this silly line that is actually not silly: “You can make money, you can make a cake, but you can’t make time.” So they made allllll the time for us.

5. Four chairs. We have these four chairs in our living room, no tv. Growing up, we’d sit and debate and talk for hours. Politics. Opinions. Our days. Only thing not allowed was an opinion you couldn’t defend unemotionally. We still do this today.

6. Mi Sangre mi siempre. They’d always say, blood comes first. They meant it. I hired my brother, my dad, my mom, my cousin at times. We stick together and we may fight like hell but never in front of others.

7. Once you decide, you don’t quit. We could play any sport or instrument BUT if we committed we had to play the full year all out. No 3 lessons and quit. Taught us to choose thoughtfully and keep going even when it hurt.

8. Always call. They still pick up the phone nearly every time it’s family. My dad in a meeting will pause to answer my mom. My husband taught me this too, and I try to do the same. If they’re your first priority this is an easy way to prove it.

9. You’re not a princess, you’re a president. My dad always used to say that line. He told me this week that I lived up to it. Gutted me. He taught us we didn’t need to be saved, instead we could save ourselves and help others.

10. Hug often and seriously. If you’ve ever hugged my parents, they mean it when they do it. Such a simple, free gesture. My mom always gives you a hug and says vaya con dios… go with God. How can you not do big things with parents that hold you like that?

Just some Lessons from the Road from parents I happen to think are some of the best in the world.

Moms and dads everywhere, I’m in awe of you.

Hardest job I’ve ever seen.

*This is one of my favorite pics of me and my dad. Doesn’t get old.

How to be unrecognizable in 90 days:

1. Be obsessed

Every outsized outcome I’ve seen came from people who genuinely enjoy the pressure. Not motivated people. Obsessed people. It’s almost impossible to compete with someone who treats the thing you dread as fun.

2. Clean out your closet

Get rid of anything that doesn’t fit the person you’re becoming. Cluttered space creates cluttered thinking, and cluttered thinkers don’t make money. Changing how you show up physically is one of the fastest ways to change how you behave.

3. Clarify your ONE thing

Not five ideas. One. Put a number on it and give yourself 90 days to get there. You have to prove to yourself that you keep your word.

4. Tell a better story about yourself

Not a vision board. Write down the words. If your life were a book, what’s supposed to happen next? What goes wrong and how do you react to it? When challenges show up, it’s much easier to keep going if you already decided they were part of the plot.

5. Start a not-to-do list

Becoming elite means cutting distractions aggressively and doing fewer things better.

6. Eliminate distractions

Most distraction is optional so make it harder to waste time and easier to focus. Small changes here create outsized results.

7. Outwork people

If you wake up earlier, protect the first part of your day, and eliminate distractions, you will get ahead faster than you think. Because most people just aren’t willing to work hard.

8. Move in silence

When you’re actually changing your life, you don’t need an audience. Do cool shit. Then talk after the result.

Do this for 90 days and your life will look different.

Because you WILL be different.

Why you never get what you want...

- You don’t ask.
- You don’t make it a win-win.
- You don’t know when to walk away.

Here's how to avoid these negotiation mistakes (& get the deal you deserve):

If you want to fail in negotiating and alway overpay... don’t read this.

Buyers with experience only negotiate on three variables that determine the value of a business.

Most sellers don't even understand these concepts, which gives you a massive advantage if you can educate them on how deals really work:

1. EBITDA/SDE

Contrary to popular belief, this isn't about the number on their P&L.

It's about the cash flow you’ll actually get when you take over.

Here’s an example:

If a seller says "we made $500k last year" but half of that came from a one-time contract that won't renew…

You can't pay for income that won't exist for you.

That's like buying a house and paying for the furniture they're taking with them.

Most buyers get destroyed here because they don't adjust for:

- Salary to replace owner
- Revenue concentration risks
- One-time events that won't repeat
- Expenses that will increase under new ownership

2. Multiple

Think of this as a direct reflection of risk.

Everything that increases risk lowers the multiple. Everything that decreases risk raises it.

That’s why some businesses trade at 15x while others struggle to get 2x.

Lower multiples come from:

- Revenue trending downward
- Business depends entirely on the seller
- Messy financials
- High employee turnover

These are red flags screaming "this could fall apart tomorrow."

Conversely, higher multiples come from the opposite:

- Documented systems and processes
- Diversified revenue streams
- Strong management team
- Clean books
- Consistent YOY growth

You can’t negotiate the multiple arbitrarily. It’s calculated with hard numbers.

But you can influence it by identifying and addressing the risks contractually rather than just pushing for a lower price.

You're buying the future but paying for the past.

The multiple reflects how confident you are in that future.

3. Terms

Price is what you pay, terms are how you pay.

You can give a seller their price IF you get your terms. Or you can give them their terms if you get your price.

But you CAN’T give them both.

It’s the law of price and terms:

Terms are how you hedge against every risk you identified in the deal. For example:

- If there’s key employee risk → Add retention bonuses to the deal
- Seller wants higher valuation? → Use seller financing
- Documentation not in place? → Long transition and training period

The idea is to use the contract to protect against your biggest fears.

At the end of the day, negotiation isn’t about winning.

It’s about getting what you want while keeping the other side happy enough that they don’t sabotage the deal.

It’s an art and next week I’ll be teaching everything I’ve learned about deal making LIVE, more info in the comments...

Everyone should be obsessed with chasing their first $500k.

Capitalism has pulled more people out of poverty than any system ever created.

Stop pretending it’s evil.

↓↓↓

And one of the most important skills to learn to hit your first $500k? 

Sales. 

Read this to learn why now is the perfect time to get great at sales: https://lnkd.in/eqESyABe

How MBAs look at a 27 year old HVAC business in Omaha with no website.

Harsh truth on scaling businesses: 

Your goal as CEO is to build a team that runs your entire company better than you.

5 other lessons I’ve learned the hard way from 15+ years of being an owner:

1. Operating Systems Win

The difference between McDonald's and your local burger joint isn't the food.

It's that any 16-year-old can run McDonald's because of their systems.

If your business needs you to be the hero every day, you own a job, not a business.

No systems = Everything breaks when you aren’t there

The most effective systems I’ve seen all had the same four features.

I call it the PEIC framework:

1. Proven (battle tested)
2. Explicit Processes
3. Implementation
4. Continuous Improvement

Apply them across your core functions and your business will pretty much run on autopilot:

2. Your Revenue Is A Reflection Of Your Vision Distributed

Every time you say your employees don’t care about your business, you're admitting you failed at distributing your vision.

When your team can't see where you're going, they can't help you get there.

Your business needs two guiding metrics. 

At Contrarian Thinking, we call them “Oars.”

One needs to be quantitative and one qualitative. These act as our north stars to drive prioritization and resource allocation. 

Our left oar? Revenue. Our right? Followers. 

Everything flows downstream from those two numbers. 

3. Successful People Make Quick Decisions

Not only that but they move fast, in the right direction.

It always sounds simple but it comes down to knowing exactly what you want and having systems to execute on it.

That’s where planning in layers comes in:

Annual → Quarterly → Monthly → Weekly

Once you're clear on direction, decisions become obvious.

All that’s left is to track:

- What team
- What goal
- Who
- Percentage Done
- Status

 Keep an eye on all five and you’ll always have a pulse on what’s going on in your biz.

4. Successful People Hang Out With Other Successful People

Your success as an owner is determined by who you surround yourself with.

If you're the smartest person in your business, you're doing something wrong.

Your goal should be to build a team that runs your company better than you do.

5. Find 1-1 Mentors To Hold Your Hands

I used to turn my nose at masterminds.

But then I realized my only other option was to figure sh*t out with years of expensive mistakes.

That’s why I have coaches for everything now.

Most wealthy people got rich by paying for shortcuts whenever they saw one.

There’s no shame in stealing someone else’s 10,000 hours.

Time is the only thing you can't buy more of.

Get in rooms with people who've already solved what you're facing.

↓↓↓

I'm running a masterclass this week on how to grow any business faster. 

Sign up here to reserve your seat: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

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