The only 5 skills you need to build a $1B company

Ever wonder how these 20-year-old tech CEOs

can build billion-dollar companies? After selling my first company for millions in 2008, I moved to San Francisco to find out. And I met a guy named Naval Ravikant who introduced me to the four Cs of leverage.
And since then, I've added a fifth C. See, time multiplied by leverage equals output.
So without more explanation, these are the five Cs to get more leverage. Welcome to the Martell Method.
I went from rehab at 17 to building a hundred million dollar empire and being a Wall Street Journal best-selling author. In this podcast, I'll show you exactly how to build a life and business you don't grow to hate.
And make sure you don't miss anything by subscribing to my newsletter at martellmethod.com. Starting with the first C, content.
Content is systems. Content is process.
It's checklist. And systems in a business stand for save yourself time, energy, and money.
Think about it. I can spend 20 minutes creating a training video that could be seen by millions of people that I've trained up.
Even my best-selling book, Buy Back Your Time, took me two years to write. Now it gets read by thousands of people and it takes me no extra time.
Every billion dollar company has the way document. They have a

way of operating their business that they've written down, they've documented, they create

content around it. And that is how they're able to grow and scale.
That's how they create massive

amounts of leverage. So to build a billion dollar business, you need playbooks.
So this breaks down

my camcorder method for you to create playbooks very easily. Step one is create an outline.
Ask yourself, what would a 10 out of 10 outcome be for this piece of work I want somebody else to follow? What's the criteria? Collect all the information you have. Decide what would be good and bad examples of that work being done.
Write down the five principles that you believe you've adopted to create this work. Put that in one outline to help you navigate yourself to creating the playbook.
Number two is record. And I use everything to record.
I record on my iPad using the screen record. I use Zoom all the time by myself on a call.
You can literally just use your iPhone camera and record yourself. But the idea is to record yourself following the outline and talk out loud what you're doing.
You have to say to the camera, to the person that might be watching the recording, why you're doing what you're doing and why you do it in that order so that they can learn from your example. Number three is you got to create it.
Now you take the training, the recording, the outline, and you can sit down and you can write out the playbook. You can transcribe it and actually take the transcription, give it to AI and AI will write it for you step by step.
It is beautiful and it creates a piece of content that is now repeatable that you can get massive leverage from. Number four is testing.
This is where you give your playbook to somebody else to follow to see if it makes sense, if they get tripped up, if they actually complete all the tasks. If you don't test it first and you give it out to the wild then you will have inconsistent outcomes from that playbook number five is feedback and this is one of my favorite things to incorporate into your playbook is once people have been using it you can do some q a and answer questions for them and those questions become feedback for you to change the document and or add an FAQ, frequently asked questions section in the document that makes the whole thing just really land for new people.
So a playbook is a complete process for how you teach, train somebody how to get something done. But the difference between a playbook and a checklist is actually quite dramatic.
Playbooks are for training people. Checklists are for doing things.
Think about it. There's a checklist when you're about to take off as a pilot that you follow.
That is not making up for the fact that you have to go learn how to be a pilot. There's this great book called The Checklist Manifesto, and the author does an incredible job breaking into these four specific parts.
For example, I was visiting my friend's restaurant the other day, and they have this red light that goes off every hour. And when that light goes off, somebody has to go check all the different product in the station to make sure it's clean, it's been turned over, and there's no issues.
He uses a checklist manifesto in that. So step one is a pause point.
Where in the process do you need to insert a checklist to make sure that it removes any defects? So he was finding issues with the food not being properly heated. So he added this pause point every 60 minutes that red light goes off tells the whole staff somebody go check it and they actually manually turn the light off to signal to everybody it's been done.
Two is it needs to be speedy meaning that checklist has to be less than 60 seconds to execute so it can't have more than five to nine items on it that they go through. Three is it has to be supplemental knowledge, not a complete playbook.
When the pilot's checking the air pressure in the tires before he takes off, that's a quick glance, and it's a checklist, it's not teaching them how to check the air pressure. Number four is you have to test and update it.
You have to put it into practice, see if it works, does it resolve the issue, and update it or add stuff to the checklist to make sure that people are properly following the process? Most people have a hard time delegating and let it go because they're worried that somebody is going to make a mistake that's going to cost them a lot of money or embarrass them. But the way I overcome that is in a department, I implement sensors.
Sensors is the idea of measuring the outcome from that process so that if there's a defect, I get notified. So for example, in my basement in my home, there's a water sensor.
If for whatever reason, while I'm traveling, something happens and water leaks in my basement, it turns off all the water in the house. Same thing if I have a sensor in my marketing funnel or my sales process, or even amongst my employees where I might send a survey every 90 days, asking them a question that gives me a feedback loop, letting me know if the culture is still good.
Those sensors have to be in place. Billion dollar companies have sensors in place to allow the CEO to pull themselves out of being involved in every department, but still feel confident that it's running right.
So here's the thing. Now that you understand content, this next C could transform your business.
Before we get back to the episode, if you actually want to know what my real life looks like and see the people and the businesses and the companies I buy and my family and just like how I make it all work, go follow me on Instagram, Dan Martell, 2Ls and Martell on Instagram. It's where I show the behind the scenes, the real deal, real time.
I'd love to see you there. Have an amazing day.
Which brings us to the second c code code is software code is ai code is automation see at martel media we believe that having tooling to help our different departments is the only way to scale i don't want to have hundreds of people that do the work that 12 could do with the right software so we leverage software and ai custom built for our different departments to allow them to be more productive. And if you're scared of AI, just understand this, AI won't replace you, but someone using it will.
So at all billion dollar companies, they've built on the backend of automation. They've built on the processes of workflow.
They've looked at opportunities to increase their throughput by using technology or code. If you don't, it's impossible for you to be able to scale.
With today's information systems and best practice software, you can hit the ground running and build a massive business. Naval used to say this back in the day.
He sees a hundred person company generating a billion dollars in profit. The only way to do that is have massive amounts of leverage using software.
The most powerful software that you could adopt is AI. And that's why I created this thing called the AI amplifier for you to understand how to integrate it into your life.
Number one is you got to connect to a trigger. See, most people know that there's AI out there, but they don't use it.
So how do we connect that to a trigger of something you already do right now? I would encourage you to replace your default browser to open up to an AI app, not to Google or whatever you use for search. The other thing you can do is connect your morning routine to a trigger to force yourself to use the AI app.
So for me, every time I sit in my chair, I open it up and I try to do three prompts. That way it gets built into my muscle memory of using it on a daily basis.
Number two is you want to integrate it to workflow. Think about the things you're currently doing.
You can automate that. Integrate it to your email, integrate it to your marketing system, integrate it to your billing system.
With Zapier and other automation tools and the AI APIs, the way they're connected, you can automate those workflows. So it's just happening behind the scenes all the time.
Number three is you wanna make it your own. You wanna understand the language that AI talks.
So it talks in prompts, it talks in libraries, it talks in projects, but you gotta make it your own. You gotta integrate it into your life and be able to use it in a way that nobody else even understands.
The reason why companies that generate billions of revenues use code is because every department has a best practice. And when you buy software to run that department, it doesn't matter if it's marketing or sales, you get those best practices with you.
You get the language, the terminology, the workflows, but coding content alone won't get you to a billion without this next C. Which brings us to the third C, capital.
When I started my second company after moving to San Francisco, we needed capital to scale. We got to ramen profitable, but we were going after a massive market.
We wanted to build a $100 million company in seven years, and that was gonna require deploying capital at a pace that neither my co-founder or I had ever done before. Now, I don't believe that it takes money to make money.
I think it takes resourcefulness. I think it takes creativity.
I think it takes you trying to figure out who's got your money and how do you create an offer that they want to then participate in. So I've broken it down to four ways to get capital so that you don't have to be at mercy of not having the money to actually scale.
Number one is borrowing. And borrowing may sound simple and kind of basic, but it kind of is.
You have banks, you have revenue-based financing, you can borrow money from other people. If you have a business model that's scaling and you need to borrow money, borrowing is a real option.
Number two is funding. And funding is where people give you money to buy equity in the business.
Usually that's angel investors, venture capitalists, private equity firms. They're giving you capital to get a piece of the business.
That's what equity means. Number three is partners.
This to me is like the sweat equity side of it, where you have co-founders, you have people that are the opposite skills, and they're coming into your business and their capital is time and sweat capital. This is them putting their own time and energy that normally you'd have to pay for.
because you have partners, they're coming into your business and their capital is time and sweat capital this is them putting their own time and energy that normally you'd have to pay for because you have partners they're giving you either access to distribution or specialized knowledge advice and that advice instead of paying for it you get it for free through those partnerships and number four is customer financing easily my favorite way to finance a business by pre-selling what you're about to build to customers

to build the business off their capital. The coolest part about this is you don't have to

give up any piece of your business to grow. And if you do it right, the more customers you get,

the more cashflow you'll have to be able to invest in growth. But all of these frameworks

don't mean anything without the next C. Before we get back to the episode, if you're enjoying it so

far, could you go ahead and do me a huge favor and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify?

I really saying that because it reminds me that the better I get at the fourth C, collaboration. Business would be easy if it wasn't for people.
And I love saying that because it reminds me that the better I get at the fourth C, collaboration, collaborating with other people, the more the opportunities come to me. If I want to build a billion dollar business, I need to learn how to attract, develop, retain top talent.
Every specialist out there, doctors, lawyers, social media experts, real estate agents, if they don't learn to play nice with other people, they usually get stuck at about 300,000 per year because they don't learn to delegate. And if I've learned anything, your company will only scale to the level of your ability to work through people.
Billion dollar companies were not built off $10 tasks. They weren't even built off $100 tasks and honestly not even $1,000 tasks.
When you scale, you have to be willing to trade money or capital to hire talent. You need to be able to pay to have people find that talent.
Your job is to get on a phone call with somebody that's capable, that's already working somewhere else, and convince them to give that up to come join you. The thing about these 20-year-old tech CEOs in Silicon Valley, what they understand that most people don't is they understand how to buy back their time, how to get leverage with the money they've raised to be able to do more.
They know that anything that isn't talking to customers, getting them to buy, innovation, working with the product team, all the other stuff is just distractions as keeping them from doing the thing that only they can do. Learning to work with people.
The way I think about it is we build the people and the people build the business. The CEO needs to be focused on doing that.
If you want to be a billionaire, build a billion dollar company, then you got to learn to let go and give up things that you actually might enjoy to create the space to go learn to solve the bigger problem that needs to be solved for the business and for you to get to that next level. That's why I created the replacement ladder.
It's a undisputable sequencing of hiring in the right order that gets you the most amount of time bought for the least amount of money spent. So level one is an administrative assistant because if you don't have this, you're probably feeling stuck.
Now the key though is to have them manage 100% of your inbox and calendar. If you do that right, then your inbox is actually there to do and then managing your calendar keeps your mind free for solving big problems.
If you want my complete playbook for managing my executive assistant, just find me on Instagram, Dan Martell. I'm verified.
That's me. And message me the word YouTube EA and I'll send you the direct link

to my complete playbook for free.

Level two is delivery.

And this is where you might be feeling stalled right now,

but if you sell something to somebody,

you need somebody else to support you to onboard them

and to support them.

You might still be doing the work,

but having somebody else manage the account

and the conversation is the second level

that will unlock a lot of leverage for you. Level three is marketing.
and you might be feeling friction in your growth because every time you grow you do a little marketing then you stop and the business slows down what you want is somebody wakes up every day focus on two things one is campaigns are people monitoring the timing the product what needs to be sold what's the creative angles those are the campaigns and then also traffic are you getting eyeballs on your website on your ads if somebody wakes up every day to be sold, what's the creative angles, those are the campaigns. And then also traffic.
Are you getting eyeballs on your website, on your ads? If somebody wakes up every day to be creative about the marketing campaigns and also drive traffic to your website, that's how you build a great marketing system. Level four is sales.
And I call this the freedom level because at this level, you can actually go on vacation and come back and make more money because somebody else created the awareness you existed. Somebody else had the conversation with that buyer and sold them.
And then somebody else brought them into your world, took payment and onboarded them waiting for you to get back. The key for sales is somebody to own the calls and the follow-up.
If you're still involved in the calls or doing follow-up, it's not a good scenario. Give it to somebody else so you can create some freedom in your business and grow.
Level five is leadership, and this is where you start to feel flow. The key, though, is hire leaders that can do these two things.
One, design the strategy to win, and two, own the outcomes. If you're showing up to fix problems because they're not accountable, or you're telling them what to do because they don't have the strategy, then the whole thing falls apart and you don't truly have leadership and flow.
That replacement ladder and that sequence is how billionaires go from zero to hero as fast as freaking possible building their businesses and then teach it for their team members below them so they also get leverage because that can multiply. Those are the four C's that Naval taught me, but the next C is the most important thing that people overlook when building a billion dollar company.
Before we get back to this episode, if you prefer to watch your content, then go find me on YouTube. I have this episode on YouTube.
I'm Dan Martell on YouTube. Just subscribe to the channel, turn on the notification bell because then you'll get notified in real time.
It'll tell YouTube to tell you. I got a new episode, so you'll never miss anything.
Now let's get back to the episode. Which brings us to the fifth C, culture.
Recently, I visited First Form HQ. A guy named Andy Frisilla is the CEO and founder.
And First Form sells nutritional products. But what they actually have created is a culture of winners, a culture of warriors, a culture of people that have standards, not that they're asked to follow standards, that it's ingrained in who they are.
They celebrate those kinds of people. And what I've discovered, having built several businesses, being involved in developing teams, is that the environment is more important than the rest of it.
If you don't create an environment that attracts top talent, retains top talent, develops top talent, makes your life fun to go to work, if you don't have that place without culture, you don't have leverage. See, culture isn't what you tell people it is.
Culture is what people do when no one's looking. And this is a hard one, especially if you're a first-time CEO, because you're gonna want to involve everybody else in the decisions and try to co-create with them and create this inclusive business where everybody's welcome.
But the truth is, at the end of the day, when you win, and you will win, you'll be the only one that's guaranteed to be there. And if you change your culture for other people that aren't even top performers, then you're going to wake up and come to work someday and not enjoy the place you see.
I heard this from Peter Drucker a long time ago. Culture each strategy for breakfast.
A lot of people think they have the right sequencing, the right strategy. The execution of a team is everything.
And your standards for how the team acts and the culture you want to create isn't what you say it is. It's what you accept.
It's what you reward. It's what you fight fight against if somebody doesn't step up and you don't remove them from your team then you've communicated silently your actual standard not what you say it is the only way to do great work is to love the people you do it with work is a creative process it's an energetic process to build these billion dollar companies it requires requires a level of admiration of the people you work with to push back, to have that trust, to build something that's never been built before.
Right now in the market, there are a lot of managers that have been managing these software companies and they lost their soul. And the founders like Airbnb have to step back in to rebuild the culture because it's not about a checklist.
It's not about the code. It's not about the content.
It's not about the collaboration. It's not about the other four Cs.
It's the soul of the business. And that's what builds billion dollar companies.
That's why Mark Zuckerberg is still the CEO of Facebook. And they continue to compete in one of the most aggressive competitive markets out there social marketing social media platforms they

are being attacked from all sides and the founder has designed a culture of people that want to win

because he's leading the front thanks for listening to Martell method if you like this

episode could you do me a huge favor and go leave a review this helps us get the podcast