@joybaik.global
Good cop / bad cop negotiation: the CFO (her) goes alone to the first meeting and pushes every term to find the counterpart's real bottom line; the CEO joins the second meeting as the friendly relationship-saver and closes at a number slightly above that floor, so the customer feels they won.
Posted 05 Aug 2026 · 460k plays · 22k likes · 412 comments · evidence: anecdote · saved in: business

The hook
Spoken: "It turns out Alex Hormozi is running a sales funnel that's so efficient, it was deemed illegal by the government." (transcript renders the name phonetically as "Alex Ramosi") On-screen: green box "EXPOSING ILLEGAL SALES FUNNEL" over a photo of Hormozi.

Full breakdown
- Hook claims: Grant Cardone, Patrick Bet-David and Jeremy Haynes use it; "HIMS got sued by the FTC because their ads became too effective" (a securities class action search result is shown at 9s). "So just be careful about how you use this."
- The funnel is a quiz positioned as a "$100M scaling roadmap" offering free personalised business advice in under 30 seconds: fast, free, personalised ("the holy trinity of marketing").
- Roughly 25% of his 600 Facebook ads (Meta Ad Library screenshot) drive to this free funnel. Every YouTube video has a mid-roll or end screen to the quiz.
- First questions: name, email, phone number, shipping address (in 2026; reason: snail mail is cheap and works, "when everyone zigs, you zag").
- Last questions: number of employees, annual revenue (plus net profit margin, partner status, how long in business appear in frames). Honest answers get an accurate roadmap.
- Logic: headcount decides which stage of the roadmap: just you and no revenue = stage zero; just you with some revenue = stage one, and up.
- Revenue decides whether you get sales calls: under $250k = roadmap and a value-only path; over $250k = book-a-call page ("Want to learn how to scale your business with us in Vegas?"). Same quiz, two outcomes. (Flowchart shown at 57s, 66s.)
- Why $250k: Acquisition.com buys and scales companies; under-250k leads are nurtured with free content until qualified; above it his team can sell workshops and consulting now. In 3 to 10 years some may become acquisition targets (ACQ Ventures page shown).
- Side benefits: leads today, acquisition pipeline, market research, and ideas for his next videos; people give him real data willingly.
- Generalise: push traffic into a quiz, qualify prospects while giving everyone value, pick who to work with. "You give value to 100% of your leads while only selling the right ones."

Tools & links
- acquisition.com/roadmap (the quiz), ventures.acquisition.com (ACQ Ventures page), Meta Ad Library (to inspect his ads), YouTube.
- Creator's own offer: full breakdown via comment "ALEX" (DM). Handle @hormozi referenced.

On screen
Hybrid talking head with screen-recording cutaways: Google results on the lawsuit, acquisition.com roadmap landing page, quiz field screens (phone, shipping address, employees), Meta Ad Library, YouTube channel, flowchart of quiz branching, book-a-call page, ACQ Ventures. Word-by-word serif captions, creator holds a furry-windscreen mic.

CTA & funnel
"Comment ALEX for the full breakdown." 272 of 285 retrieved comments are "Alex"; the creator replies in comments with "Check ur DM!", "Sent!", "DM'd!" to each (comment-to-DM automation). He sells quiz funnel building, so the reel is a demonstration of the exact funnel type he builds (quiz funnel builder bio).

The format
129 s, controversy hook ("illegal funnel") then a structured breakdown, "teardown of someone famous" format borrowing authority. Screen cutaways every 3 to 6 s as proof. The 575 comments (mostly keyword) feed reach.

Comment signal
- Overwhelmingly the keyword "Alex"; praise ("Alex is genuinely a monster in this game", 93 likes).
- "Quizzes and online assessments made me a fortune. Best lead magnet ever" (41).
- A commenter: "it's not illegal". Creator replies mainly with DM confirmations; no public link.

Apply it
- Ilene Joy: a jewellery quiz ("find your charm/necklace/gift in 30 seconds") that collects name, email, phone (WhatsApp) and budget, branching high budget to a concierge/book-a-call (Ilene's builder has a concierge) and low budget to the normal collection. Works with the "Design your own" builder.
- Healthy Manushya: a "supplement fit" quiz collecting WhatsApp number; sort by goal and send COD offer via WhatsApp; retention-ready lead data.
- Agencies: qualification quiz for Zamn Studios/StudioHRTN/Goodform using monthly ad spend or revenue threshold to route to a call vs a free guide.
- Own content: "teardown of a famous funnel" plus comment-keyword DM reel format.
- Shipping address in lead forms: consider for Ilene Joy gifting follow-up (postcards), but not for India-first COD brand without consent.

Doubts & caveats
- "Deemed illegal by the government" is clickbait and unverified: the cited item is a class action about Hims & Hers (securities), and the FTC claim is not shown; a commenter says it's not illegal. The quiz is not itself the subject.
- "25% of 600 ads" and funnel logic are based on an observed screenshot and may change; collecting phone/address has privacy implications (India DPDP act/consent).
- Creator sells quiz funnels, so the framing is promotional.

Full transcript
[0s] I intentionally kept my CEO out of the first meeting. People thought that was strange. It
[5s] was actually one of our best negotiation strategies. Whenever we met a new customer,
[10s] distributor, factory owner, I went alone. Not because the CEO was busy. Because we planned it
[17s] that way. My mission was simple. Negotiate every possible detail. Price, MOQ, payment terms,
[24s] marketing support, exclusivity, shipping schedule, everything. I kept pushing. Whenever they said,
[31s] that's impossible, I would smile. Help me understand. Is it the price that's impossible?
[37s] Or the payment terms? Or the delivery schedule? I wasn't trying to win. I was trying to discover
[43s] their real limit. Eventually, the atmosphere became tense. Sometimes they would say,
[48s] if this is your final position, maybe we shouldn't continue. Perfect! That's exactly where I wanted
[54s] to stop. Because now I knew exactly where their bottom line was. Only then did my CEO enter the
[60s] second meeting without me. He would smile and say, I didn't realize Joy pushed you that hard.
[66s] She's our CFO after all. Please understand. She always cares about cash flow only. And then he
[73s] continues, for me, long-term relationships matter more than squeezing every cent. Let's find
[78s] something that works for both of us. Immediately, he became the good guy. The customer relaxed. The
[83s] relationship improved. The funny thing, nothing had actually changed. We already knew exactly where
[88s] their bottom line was. My CEO simply chose a number slightly above it. The customer walked away
[94s] believing they had won. We walked away with an excellent agreement. Negotiation isn't about
[99s] talking. It's choreography. Every person has a role. If both of you play the good cop, nobody
[105s] protects the company margin. If both of you play the bad cop, nobody protects the relationship.
[112s] The best negotiations begin long before anyone enters the meeting room.
[118s] Tomorrow, I'll tell you why the CEO isn't always the person you should be paying the most attention to.

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