What is the Core Four in $100M Leads?
The Core Four is Alex Hormozi's name for the only four ways to let people know about what you sell. Hormozi, a managing partner of Acquisition.com, sets it out in $100M Leads, which Acquisition.com's shop lists as a 2023 release. Hormozi also reads the warm outreach chapter aloud in an episode of The Game with Alex Hormozi dated 19 August 2023 (transcript), the main source for this summary.
The framework rests on two splits. Audiences are warm, people who gave you permission to contact them (friends, followers, customers, contacts), or cold, people who haven't. Communication is one-to-one, private like a phone call or an email, or one-to-many, public like a social post or a billboard. Cross the two and you get four methods. The last column is our own B2B example.
| Core Four method | Audience | Communication | Example for a B2B startup (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warm outreach | Warm | One-to-one | Messaging former colleagues, investors and past clients one by one |
| Posting content | Warm | One-to-many | LinkedIn and X posts your connections and followers see |
| Cold outreach | Cold | One-to-one | Personal emails and DMs to people who fit your ideal customer |
| Paid ads | Cold | One-to-many | LinkedIn or search ads shown to people who don't know you |
Hormozi's diagnosis is blunt: if you aren't getting as many leads as you want, you aren't doing the Core Four with enough skill or enough volume. Automation doesn't change the category either. In the book's example, emailing a 10,000-person list once is more like one-to-one, done really fast by a machine.
How does warm outreach work in $100M Leads?
Warm outreach is one-to-one contact with people who already know you, done in ten steps. Hormozi calls it the cheapest and easiest way to find interested people, and says this is how you get your first five customers. The chapter opens with Hormozi's own start in 2013: an offer of 12 weeks of free fitness training, sent by call, text and Facebook message to people Hormozi knew, in return for a charity donation and a testimonial. Six said yes: two high school friends, one college friend and three people they referred.
- Get your list. Phone contacts, every email account you have used, and your followers and connections on social media. Add them all up. "Everyone has a list," Hormozi says.
- Pick a platform. Start with the one where you have the most contacts. You will reach the others later.
- Personalise. Use something you know about the person as your reason to get in touch. The first message only checks in and asks for nothing.
- Reach out. 100 people a day, each up to three times: once a day for three days, or until they respond.
- Warm them up. Answer replies with ACA, covered in the next section.
- Invite their friends. After a normal amount of conversation, which Hormozi puts at three or four exchanges by phone or message, make an offer framed as a question about who they know.
- Make the easiest offer. Free for the first five, in return for using it, giving feedback and leaving a review if it deserves one.
- Start at the top. When one platform is done, move to the one with the second-most contacts.
- Start charging. Once people start referring, replace free with 80% off for the next five, then 60% off, then 40% off.
- Keep your list warm. Give regular value by email or social media, then send Dean Jackson's nine-word email, a one-line question asking whether the person is still looking for a specific result.
On email, Hormozi says to be more up front: a personalised opener of two or three sentences, then straight to the offer.
What is the ACA reply?
ACA is Hormozi's three-part reply for when a contact answers your check-in: acknowledge what they said by restating it in your own words, compliment them on it, tied to a positive character trait if you can, then ask another question that leads toward the topic of your offer. The reasoning in the chapter is that people love talking about themselves and being complimented, and they like and trust people who make them feel good.
The chapter's ACA examples are consumer ones, such as asking a busy parent whether they find time for workouts. Here is the same pattern for a founder selling software that helps small sales teams find leads.
The ask moves the conversation toward lead targeting, the problem the product solves, without a pitch. After three or four exchanges like this, the next step in the method is the offer.
How does Hormozi's referral ask work?
The offer is a question about other people. Hormozi's script describes the struggle and the result you deliver, says you are taking on five case studies for free because that's all you can handle, mentions someone in a similar situation you have helped, and asks whether anyone comes to mind. If the answer is no, the book's line is to ask, as a joke, whether anyone they hate comes to mind.
The design is deliberate. In Hormozi's words: "We're not asking them to buy anything. We're asking if they know anyone." Some people show interest themselves, some refer you, some do both, and you don't come across as pushy.
Two more pieces complete the method. For introductions, Hormozi recommends the hinge method: turn a referral into a three-way introduction. In person, take the customer's phone, photograph the two of you and text the photo from it to the referral and to your own number; on a video call, use a screenshot; failing that, get a three-way conversation that the customer starts. The signal to start charging is referrals: once people send you others, the free spots end and prices rise in steps of five customers.
In our adaptation for B2B, the five free spots become design-partner pilots. Ask for the same three things (use it, give feedback, review it if it deserves one) and agree up front what a review means for a business buyer, such as a quote for your website or a reference call.
What numbers does Hormozi expect from warm outreach?
About one customer per 100 warm reach-outs, as a rough rule. Every figure in this table is Hormozi's, from the warm outreach chapter, which says the numbers vary with the value of your offer and how much people trust you.
| Item | Hormozi's number |
|---|---|
| Daily volume | 100 attempts a day, done by you |
| When | The first four hours of your day; at least four hours a day when starting out |
| Reach-outs per person | Up to three, once a day for three days or until they respond |
| Replies | About 1 in 5 contacts engage: about 20 replies per 100 |
| Free offer taken | About 1 in 5 of those: about 4 people |
| Paying customer | About 1 of those 4, later: about 1 customer per 100 reach-outs |
| A 1,000-contact list | About 10 solid days of work, or a month including follow-ups |
Hormozi names two limits: time, and the number of people who know you. In our view both bite harder in B2B. A founder's list mixes possible buyers with friends who will never buy, and a business purchase often needs more than one person to agree. Treat one in 100 as a starting guess and replace it with your own numbers after the first week.
A two-week warm outreach sprint for B2B founders
This is our adaptation of the ten steps as ten working days. The 100-a-day volume, the three touches, ACA, the referral ask and the five free spots come from Hormozi; the B2B tasks and targets are ours.
| Days | Hormozi's step | What you do | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 1 and 2: list, platform | Count contacts on LinkedIn, email, phone and X. Tag anyone who could buy or knows buyers: former colleagues, investors, past clients, people from your last industry. Pick the platform with the most. | One number: your warm list size |
| Days 2 to 10 | 3 and 4: personalise, reach out | Send 100 personal check-ins a day in your first four hours. No pitch. Log each one in a sheet or CRM. | Up to 900 people reached |
| Days 3 to 10 | 4: follow up | Follow up anyone who hasn't replied, once a day, up to three touches in all. | No one left at one touch |
| Every day | 5: ACA | Answer every reply the same day with acknowledge, compliment, ask. | No reply left overnight |
| From the first replies | 6 and 7: offer | After three or four exchanges, make the referral ask and offer five free pilots. | Five pilots agreed |
| When a platform runs out | 8: start at the top | Move to the platform with the next-most contacts. | Whole list worked |
| Day 10 | 9 and 10: charge, keep warm | Count replies and pilot takers per 100. Ask each pilot for a three-way introduction. If referrals have started, price the next five at 80% off. Plan one useful email a month to the list. | Your own numbers per 100 |
If your list is smaller than 900, the sprint is shorter. Don't top it up with strangers: that turns it into cold outreach, a different box of the Core Four. For the daily habit after the sprint, use our routine for founder-led sales in 30 minutes a day.
What comes after warm outreach?
The other three boxes. In the audiobook, Hormozi's next chapter adds posting free content, and the book's later section, as Acquisition.com's shop describes it, covers getting customers, employees, agencies and affiliates to bring in leads for you. For a small B2B team, our suggested order is content to the people who already know you, then cold outreach to people who fit your ideal customer, and paid ads last, once you know which message converts.
Siela's AI SDR covers the cold one-to-one box. It finds people who fit your ideal customer and messages them on LinkedIn (up to 50 people a day), X (up to 50 a day) and email (up to 150 a day per Gmail mailbox), sending on its own within your daily goals once you press Save and start. The Social Media agent covers warm one-to-many, posting in your voice at the pace you set.
Neither replaces the warm list. The people who already know you are still the first 100 to message, because they are the one audience that has already given you permission.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Core Four in $100M Leads?
Alex Hormozi's Core Four are the only four ways to let people know about what you sell: warm outreach (one-to-one to people who know you), posting content (one-to-many to people who know you), cold outreach (one-to-one to strangers) and paid ads (one-to-many to strangers). They come from crossing warm and cold audiences with private and public communication.
What does ACA mean in Hormozi's warm outreach?
ACA stands for acknowledge, compliment, ask. When a contact replies, you restate what they said in your own words, compliment them on it (tied to a positive character trait if you can), then ask another question that moves the conversation toward the topic of your offer. Hormozi says to make the offer after about three or four exchanges by phone or message.
How many warm outreach messages a day does Hormozi recommend?
One hundred. The warm outreach chapter of $100M Leads says to reach out to 100 people a day, each up to three times, once a day for three days or until they respond. Hormozi suggests doing it in the first four hours of the day, and says a 1,000-contact list is about ten solid days of work.
What results does Hormozi expect from 100 warm reach-outs?
About 20 replies, about four people taking a free offer, and about one of those converting to a paid offer later, so roughly one customer per 100 warm reach-outs. Hormozi presents these as rough benchmarks and says they vary with the value of the offer and how much the contacts trust you.
What is the hinge method for referrals?
It is Hormozi's way of turning a referral into a three-way introduction. In person, take the customer's phone, photograph yourself with the customer and text the photo from it to the referral and to your own number. On a video call, do the same with a screenshot. Failing that, get a three-way conversation that the referring customer starts.
When should you start charging after giving the first five away?
Hormozi's test is referrals: once the people you helped for free start sending you others, start charging. The chapter suggests replacing free with 80% off for the next five customers, then 60% off for the next five, then 40% off, and you can keep raising the price in steps of five until you find the right level.
Sources
- The Game with Alex Hormozi, Part 3: Warm Outreach, $100M Leads Book (transcript, Podscripts) (episode dated 19 Aug 2023; checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Acquisition.com shop: $100M Leads (checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Acquisition.com: Alex Hormozi books (checked 20 Oct 2026)