When to Use
Use this framework when you’re:
- Trying to decide where to spend your marketing time and money
- Spread across too many channels and getting mediocre results from all of them
- Starting a new business and need to know the fastest path to customers
- Evaluating whether to hire someone (agency, sales rep, affiliate) vs. doing it yourself
- Wondering whether to invest in content, outreach, paid ads, or referrals
The Framework
Hormozi’s Core Four is the thesis of $100M Leads: there are only four ways to let people know about your stuff. Everything else is a variant of these four.
“You can talk to people one-on-one, you can make content, you can run ads, or you can get affiliates and referrals.” — Alex Hormozi, “I Helped Business Owners Overcome Their Fear of Failure”
The 2x2 Matrix
The four channels are organized by two axes: who does the work (you vs. others) and whether the audience knows you (warm vs. cold).
| You Do It | Others Do It For You | |
|---|---|---|
| Warm (Know You) | Warm outreach, Post content | Customer referrals, Affiliate promotions |
| Cold (Don’t Know You) | Cold outreach, Create content for new audiences | Paid ads, Agency/employee sales teams |
“There’s really only eight ways to let other people know about the stuff you sell. Four of those ways, you do yourself. Four of those ways, other people do for you.” — Alex Hormozi, “8 Ways To Get Customers”
Channel 1: One-on-One Outreach (Warm + Cold)
Warm outreach: Reaching out to people who already know you - phone contacts, past customers, LinkedIn connections, social media followers.
Cold outreach: Reaching out to people who have never heard of you - cold email, cold DM, cold calling.
Hormozi’s starting point for every business:
“Content, you reach out to people, and you do that for four straight hours every day. You reach out to 10,000 people, you’ll have the business you want.” — Alex Hormozi, “I Helped Business Owners Overcome Their Fear of Failure”
The math: 100 outreaches/day x 100 days = 10,000 contacts. At 1% conversion = 100 customers. At 2% = 200 customers.
Channel 2: Content (Warm + Cold)
Warm content: Posting for people who already follow you. This is lead NURTURE, not lead generation.
Cold content: Creating content designed to reach new audiences. This is lead GENERATION.
“The purpose of having the organic content is lead nurture, not lead generation. Phase one and phase two, if you’re in one of those camps, you don’t need to do anything else.” — Alex Hormozi, “1.2M Followers in 6 Months”
Critical distinction: in phases 1-2, content supports outreach. In phases 3-5, content becomes its own lead generation engine. Most businesses confuse these.
Channel 3: Paid Advertising
Running ads on Meta, Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc. This is the “cold, others do it” channel - you pay a platform to put your message in front of strangers.
Prerequisite: a proven offer. Running ads to an unproven offer burns money.
“If a business cannot pay $100-200 to get someone in the door, they don’t have a marketing problem, they have a business problem.” — Alex Hormozi, “4 Steps to Maximizing Revenue Generated Per Customer”
Channel 4: Affiliates, Referrals, and Employee Sales
Getting OTHER people to advertise for you:
- Customer referrals: Happy customers tell friends
- Affiliates: Other businesses promote you for commission
- Agencies: You hire someone to run marketing
- Employee sales teams: You hire salespeople
This channel requires existing customers and a proven product. It is the scaling channel, not the starting channel.
The Progression
Hormozi’s recommended order for most businesses:
- Start with warm outreach (free, high conversion, proves the offer)
- Add one content platform (supports outreach, builds long-term asset)
- Add cold outreach (scales beyond your personal network)
- Add referral system (leverages happy customers)
- Add paid ads (only after offer is proven and unit economics work)
- Add affiliates/agencies (only after you can manage external partners)
The cardinal sin: trying to do all four at once and doing none well.
“Given your financial situation, it’s going to be making content and reaching out to people - that’s it.” — Alex Hormozi, “I Helped Business Owners Overcome Their Fear of Failure”
Example Application
A new coaching business ($0-10K/month):
| Channel | Action | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Warm outreach | 100 personal contacts/day | 2 hours |
| Content | 1 post/day on primary platform | 1 hour |
| Cold outreach | Skip until warm is working | — |
| Paid ads | Skip until 20+ customers | — |
| Referrals | Ask happy customers after each engagement | 15 min |
Total: 3-4 hours/day, $0 budget, expected timeline to first 10 customers: 30-60 days.
Output
After reading this framework, you should be able to:
- Identify which of the four channels you’re currently using
- Determine which channel to prioritize based on your stage and resources
- Avoid the trap of spreading thin across all four
- Understand the progression from warm outreach to full multi-channel marketing
Source: “8 Ways To Get Customers,” “I Helped Business Owners Overcome Their Fear of Failure,” “8 Proven Ways to Get New Leads,” “Alex Hormozi’s Lead Generation Strategy for 2026,” “1.2M Followers in 6 Months”