7 1 Iterative Darwinian Acquisition (@MR - Strategist)

Iterative Darwinian Acquisition
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Introduction
Welcome to Iterative Darwinian Acquisition. This module explains how understanding

biology can help us build successful client acquisition systems. Might sound strange, but
give it a shot (it’s a karate kid wax on, wax off type deal here, trust me).
The first part of this module will explain the fundamentals of evolutionary biology & genetics.
Then we’ll cover how these ideas apply to client acquisition & discuss the scientific method.
Common Descent 🧬👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology. It states that all species of organism
originated from a common ancestor. Basically, all living things, from redwood trees, ants &
that weird neighbour you have, all descended from a common ancestor.
It looks something like this...
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Descent with Modification 🐤🐦
Descent with modification means that parents have children, but their children will be slightly
different from their parents. Every ‘generation’ of offspring is slightly different from its
descendants.
With thousands (or hundreds of thousands / millions) of generations, one species can give
rise to a new species, sharing a common ancestor.
For example…
Natural Selection 🧬🦅
Natural selection is a theory proposed by Charles Darwin. It explains how all living
organisms have evolved over generations & with time.
It’s a very simple idea: organisms with traits that are better adapted to the conditions of their
environment are more likely to survive and produce more offspring, producing offspring with
the same heritable characteristics that enable them to survive.
Organism: a living thing
Offspring: an organism's children
Traits: distinctive characteristics or qualities that living things have (e.g. blue eyes)
Heritable: a trait that an organisms passes onto its offspring (genetically, e.g. blue eyes)
Environment: surroundings & conditions an organism exists in (predators, temperature etc)
Offspring vary in their heritable traits.
When organisms reproduce, it’s typical that more offspring are produced than can survive,
because organisms are capable of producing more offspring than their environment can
support (for example, some turtles lay up to 200 eggs).
Because organisms produce more offspring than the environment can support, there is
always competition for survival, in the form of food, resources and mates.
Offspring with traits better adapted to their environment are able to out-compete offspring
with less desirable traits, thus securing food, resources and mates - meaning offspring with
more adapted traits can reproduce to make more offspring.
For example:
Fitness 🦖🪺
Fitness is the term used to describe whether or not an organism can survive and reproduce.
An organism with high fitness has a better chance of surviving and passing on its genes to
its offspring.
An organism's fitness is determined by how well adapted to its environment. How well
adapted it is is determined by its traits.
Traits 🌷💐
All organisms have traits. A trait is a characteristic, quality or attribute an organism has. That
distinguishes it from other organisms in the same environment.
For example: Darwin’s Finches
In the 1800’s, Darwin took a trip to the Galapagos islands.
He found that different species of finch existed on different

islands. Depending on the food source of the island, the
dominant species of finch would have a beak adapted to
the consumption of that particular food source.
Finches with long & sharp beaks were found on islands

where the primary food source was insects. Shorter, blunt
beaks were found on islands where the primary food
sources were seeds & nuts. Beak shape & size is a trait
that determines fitness.
DNA & Genotypes 🧬🔬

DNA is the carrier of genetic information. It’s self replicating and contains all the information
needed on a genetic level to create an organism.
A genotype is the complete set of genetic material (DNA) an organism has. An organism's
traits are determined by its genotype.
For example:
Different finches have different beak shapes, this is because they have different genotypes
that ‘code’ for different beak structures. Or, different people have different eye colours, this is
because they have different genotypes that ‘code’ for different eye colour. Simple!
So what determines an Organism's genotype?
Variation 🎲🍀
The environment sets the conditions for which traits produce fitness, and therefore which
heritable genotypes produce fitness.
Organisms with fitness are more likely to reproduce and pass on their genotype to offspring.
When an organism produces offspring, its offspring will slightly VARY in genotype, and
therefore, in traits. This is because of descent with modification.
The key word here is VARY. Variation is the key to natural selection. For a species to be
successful and survive for a long period of time, variation must be present.
Species without variation are more susceptible to extinction. Not good.
Variation is produced by random mutation, whereby the genotype of an organism randomly

mutates during the mating & embryonic development process.
It’s basically through random mutation (which is basically genetic iteration) and common
descent that any species is created.
DNA Fractals 🦠🪲
DNA is fractal. A Fractal exists as patterns that are identical across scale.
Once a species has fitness, nature will scale it as a fractal. This is done by reproduction.
This means exponential population growth until an equilibrium is hit where the environment
cannot support further population growth.
Over many iterations (generations in evolutionary biology), successful species are created.
That’s the evolutionary biology & genetics lesson over.
In short:
Scale is determined by reproduction

Reproduction is determined by fitness
Fitness is determined by adaptability
Adaptability is determined by traits (characteristics)
Traits are determined by genotype (DNA)
Genotypes are determined by variation (random mutation)
Now let’s talk about how these terms & ideas explain client acquisition.
Applied Biology 🔬📝
We’ve now established the key terms needed to understand genetics and evolutionary
biology. Now I’m going to explain how these terms apply to client acquisition, then I’ll break
them down individually.
Scale: when a system produces desired outputs and we increase the input volume of it
Reproduction: when a stimulus works so well we use it as a model to create new stimuli
Fitness: when a stimulus is in KPI in a system
Adaptability: when a stimulus is well adapted to the latent conditions of the market (niche)
Traits: the traits of a stimulus (long form, short form, soft pitch, hard pitch, funny, etc)
Genotypes: the DNA of a stimulus (the core variables that make it up)
Variation: random or calculated iterations or changes made to variables of a stimulus
Stimulus Genotypes (DNA) 🧬📧

From previous videos we know that client acquisition can be understood on multiple levels.
Macro: the ‘big picture’ of client acquisition, the overarching system of client acquisition
Micro: the ‘little pictures’ of client acquisition, subsystems that make up the macro system
Stimuli: tangible assets we use to get humans to take action towards becoming a client
We can observe DNA ‘genotypes’ present at the Stimulus level.
DNA genotypes in acquisition are basically strings of variables making up a stimulus that, if
combined, create results and produce outputs in KPI.
Stimulus genotypes are combinations of variables that work in strings (like DNA), like this:
Variable 1 + Variable 2 + Variable 3 + Variable 4 = Stimulus
A variable is a component of a stimulus that can be changed.
Variables are important to understand because they are the building blocks of a stimulus.
Stimulus: Loom email = Email copy + Loom Script + Delivery

Stimulus: Sales pitch = Content + Conviction + Offer
Stimulus: Facebook ad = Creative + Copy + Headline + Audience
Stimulus: YouTube video = Hook + Content + CTA
Stimulus: Sales rebuttal = Empathy + Argument + Conviction
Stimulus: YouTube thumbnail = Title + Face + Design
Stimulus: Quantity cold email = subject + preview + body copy + CTA
The Client Acquisition Shell 🥥🐚
Client acquisition works like a shell.
Macro = shell containing micro sub-systems

Sub-system = shell containing stimuli
Stimulus = shell containing variables
The overarching system is simply made up of smaller systems that are made up of stimuli, that are made up of variables.
So it all comes down to variables.
** See PDF in the resources section for a larger image.
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but not for any other purpose.
Next time you say ‘my ads don’t work’, it’s best to consider which variable (or variable
combination) isn’t working. It’s not that something does or doesn’t work in client acquisition,
it’s just the combination of variables you’ve tried does or doesn’t.
When building a stimulus, ask yourself ‘what are the key variables / components of this
stimulus?’. Pick the 2-4 most important ones (some stimuli can have 10+ variables, but there
are only 3-4 ones that really move the needle).
Traits & Adaptability 🐟🐠

Traits: the variables of a stimulus manifest traits.
There are endless traits a stimulus can have. Here are a few examples:
long, short, permission based, clickbaity, bait n’ switch, transparent, humorous, serious,
urgent, captivating, ironic, nonchalant, desperate, captivating, memorable, dry, mysterious,
passive, aggressive, punchy, in your face, subtle, playful, original, emotional, encouraging,
formal, informal, familiar, calm, fresh, friendly, relaxing, cheerful, pessimistic, upsetting,
simple, complicated, alarming, offbeat, frightening, bossy, dark, commanding, weird, odd,
strange, likeable, shocking, too good to be true, honest, direct, indirect, boring, etc.
Traits are simply adjectives used to describe the nature of a stimulus.
Traits are not good or bad on their own. They are only good or bad when the humans with
the right latent conditions to become a client in your niche act or don’t act because of them.
Some niches will act on stimuli with certain specific traits, others won’t.
Traits can be contradictory and non-binary. What this means is that in any given niche,
contradicting traits can work. E.g. funny and serious, formal and informal, long and short,
can both work.
If you understand your niche really well you’ll be able to predict which traits they’re more
likely to respond to, and adjust your variables accordingly.
Adaptability: A stimulus with traits conducive to action means the stimulus is well adapted
to the environment.
For example: lawyers will react differently to certain traits than gym owners. However there
are usually universal traits all business owners will react to (e.g. transparent, confident).
Traits are pattern based. If a cold call script contains certain traits and works really well,
usually you can use those traits in your ads and see a similar response.
Trait effectiveness changes over time. Traits that get great results today may not in a year.
This is because the psychology of your niche changes over time.
If you understand your niche really well you’ll be able to predict which traits they’re more
likely to respond to, and adjust your variables accordingly.
Adaptability is determined by traits, but also by specific nuances in your stimuli. For
example, let’s say funny & simple are two traits that lead to your niche usually taking action.
Just being funny and simple in your stimuli isn’t enough to get an action. It makes it more
likely, but you still need to carefully design your stimuli. Also, too funny or simple won’t work.
Fitness & Key Variables 🏋🏼 🧩

A stimulus with variables that produce traits conducive to action & with nuances conducive to
action has fitness.
Fitness is measured against whether or not the stimulus produces metrics in KPI (and how
far above KPI).
For example: Loom Cold Email minimum KPI’s:
LVR (loom view rate): 15% (15% conversion rate from email sent > loom viewed)
PRR (positive reply rate): 5% (30% conversion rate from loom view > reply)
ABR (appt booking rate): 3.5% (70% conversion rate from positive reply > booking)
These metrics each measure the effectiveness of certain stimuli:
LVR: Subject line, body copy, offer, loom thumbnail, loom title, followup emails
PRR: loom script, loom delivery, case studies, CTA
ABR: PRR variables + followup process, omnichannel followup, reply style
Each stimulus represents a variable - something that can be changed to improve results.
Above we can see 12 different variables contributing to the fitness of this sub-system. It’s
simply impossible to account for and test 12 variables at any given time, so instead we
select the most important ‘key’ variables to determine what we should focus on.
Key variables are variables that ‘move the needle’ and determine fitness the most. You can
have a boring loom title and stay in KPI but if you get the offer wrong, you’re fucked.
Key variables: Offer - Body Copy - Loom Script - Loom Delivery
If ABR (Polaris) is in KPI, we know our variable combination of offer-copy-script-delivery has

fitness.
If LVR is in KPI, but PRR is not in KPI, we know our combination of offer-copy-script-delivery
does not have fitness and requires adjustment. If LVR is in KPI but PRR isn’t, it’s likely that
the script-delivery variables aren’t conducive to fitness, as they are upstream of offer-copy.
If LVR & PRR are in KPI, but ABR is not in KPI, we can look at the variables that influence
PRR > ABR in isolation (followup process, omnichannel followup, reply style, etc)
Once you have fitness for your Polaris Star metric, you have a genotype (DNA string) you
can scale.
(Note that specifically for Loom that the above metrics & KPI’s are benchmarks and
guidelines. We have some clients who get 40% LVRs & others who scale with 1.5% ABRs!)
Playing God 👼🏼 🕌 ⛪️
In nature, organisms do not have the ability to engineer their genotypes to change their traits
& fitness level. They’re born with a set of traits that they cannot control, and that’s it. It’s luck.
As we know, each stimulus we create consists of a genotype - a DNA string of variables

which looks like this: Variable1-Variable2-Variable3. Unlike organisms in nature, we are in
control of these variables and we can actually adjust and change them to better suit the
environment. We can test different iterations of DNA strings to find a genotype within KPI.
When we do this we are quite literally ‘Playing God’ as we are directly influencing the
survivability and success of our ‘Organisms’ (stimuli) in spite of the environmental conditions
set for them.
In farming this is known as ‘artificial selection’, whereby farmers select certain genes that
produce desirable traits. We can do the exact same thing with our client acquisition stimuli.
When building a stimulus, ask yourself ‘what are the key variables / components of this
stimulus?’. Pick the 2-4 most important ones (some stimuli can have 10+ variables, but there
are only 3-4 ones that really move the needle). Once you have those, you have a string of
DNA that you can artificially ‘manipulate’.
Over enough ‘generations’ of playing God, farmers (and we) can create an adapted species.
God’s Tool: The Scientific Method 👩🏻‍🔬 🧪
How do we actually go about playing God & find variables for stimuli that get results? We
use the scientific method, whereby we run iterative experiments to achieve stimulus fitness.
Every single stimulus Bau & I have created for client acquisition came from this method.
In simple terms the scientific method works like this:
Step 1: Formulate Hypothesis
Hypothesis = guessing which combined key variables are going to produce stimulus fitness.
Step 2: Test Hypothesis
Combine those variables into a stimulus and expose the stimulus to a number of humans.
Step 3: Observe results
Collect data and observe the effect of the variable combination.
Step 4: Iterate Hypothesis
Use the data to create a new hypothesis with a slightly different set of variables, then repeat.
This thing works for everything in client acquisition. Sales scripts, body copy, ads, funnels,
the lot.
The best client acquisition experts are just the best scientists. You can iterate your way to
anything.
All that stands between you and your desired client acquisition state is versions of iteration.
V1 = the current version of your client acquisition system
V(X) = how many versions of client acquisition systems you need to test before getting to
where you want to be.
Fortunately for you, you had the intelligence to invest in this Program, so you get to take our
current V(X)’s and apply them to your own business.
It took me about 3 ½ years of testing and iteration to find V(X) that could get me to
$100k/mo.
Scientific Method Step 1 👨🏼‍🔬🥼 (Formulate Hypothesis)
This is where we essentially take a guess as to which variable genotype has fitness.
1.1: Define the key variables
Ask yourself ‘what are the 2-4 key variables making up this stimulus?
Once you have defined them, you can construct a hypothesis with a mix of variables. For
example: the genotype of a video initial cold message would look like this:
Content - CTA - Delivery = Initial Video
Variable 1: content - the actual pitch of the video message

Variable 2: CTA - what action are you asking them to take?
Variable 3: delivery - are you delivering enthusiastically? Seriously?
1.2: Define the metrics & KPIs
Ask which primary & secondary metrics will reflect the performance of this stimulus.
Primary: PRR (positive reply rate) - PRR is directly attributable to the stimulus in question,
so that’s how we’ll be measuring it’s effectiveness.
Secondary: ABR (appointment booking rate) - the video initial message will influence the
overall ABR in addition to our follow-up sequence, evergreen videos, calendly structure, etc.
If secondary (ABR) is in KPI, we won’t be looking at the primary (PRR) conversion rate. This
is because ABR is Polaris, upstream of PRR.
Primary (PRR) KPI: 5% / Secondary (ABR) KPI: 3.5%
1.3 Establish sample size
Decide how much data you will need to know whether or not your metrics have validity to
see an accurate representation of the average KPI against regression to the mean.
Most people send 15 cold messages, get emotional when they get no response, then
change everything. You cannot afford such irrationality. Example suggested sample sizes for
cold outbound organic:
Loom video on cold email: 30 looms viewed (perfectly tracked + all follow-ups done)
Video cold message: 30 videos viewed (perfectly tracked + all follow-ups)
Cold calling decision maker pitch: 30 pitches made (perfectly tracked + all follow-ups)
1.4 Establish latency & time frame
Ask yourself how long you will run the experiment for & how much delay you will give the
system to produce results.
Example: when sending cold emails, the test won’t be fully complete until all cold follow ups
have been sent. When testing cold messages, the test won’t be fully complete until a follow
up has been sent to everyone who didn’t view the video.
In this example, we’ll give it 1 week, sending 20 messages & simple follow ups to people that
don’t reply per day mon-fri, then sending friday's follow ups on saturday leaving sunday for
latency (at least 30/100 people should watch the video, if it takes more, so be it)
Remember: all systems have latency. Don’t judge results on the final day of testing, account
for a delay in results.
1.5 Make the test airtight
Ask yourself what could go wrong during this experiment (what could influence the outcome
in a biased way) and make sure it doesn’t.
For example:
Testing ads: form on funnel doesn’t redirect people to scheduler

Testing email: deliverability means you enter spam 30% of the time
Testing message: videos don’t actually deliver 25% of the time
Testing anything: data isn’t tracked correctly (human error)
1.6 Create your version(x) variables
Next, create your variables.
The first version of each variable you create is V1.
Variable 1: V1 content
Variable 2: V1 CTA
Variable 3: V1 delivery
The stimulus genotype will now look like this:
Content(V1) - CTA(V1) - Delivery(V1) = (Initial Video V1)
** This is where the upcoming module on Psychology helps. Using Psychology and
knowledge of human nature we can craft better variables.
** This is where the rest of the program helps. We’ll provide you with scripts, CTA’s, copy,
examples and everything you need to construct good variables. It’s imperative to your
success that you don’t just copy & paste our variables. You MUST introduce some variation
and originality. If you don’t you will always struggle.
1.7 Establish the constants
Now we need to establish the constants of the experiment.
Constant: a part of the system that directly or indirectly affects the systems ability to perform
that is held constant - meaning it is not changed, while the experiment is running.
For example, here are the constants in the cold messaging example:
Profile, profile headline, cover photo, content style, platform, lead source (big one), time of
day, follow-up consistency.
It is crucial to the integrity of the scientific method & your success that you do not vary
constants while running an experiment, because then we don’t know what variables cause
what results (more on this later under ‘Ceteris Paribus’).
Scientific Method Step 2 👨🏼‍🔬🥼 (Test Hypothesis)

This is where we test our genotype in the environment. Does it produce fitness?
2.1 Run the rest
Take the actions to run the test. Send the messages, launch the ads, get started.
2.2 Do nothing
While running the test, just run the test. Don’t start messing with the experiment, changing
shit or making any adjustments. Ignore all emotions and resist the impulse to act on any
changes, no matter how tantalisingly good they may seem. DO NOTHING but run the test.
2.3 Log the data
Every day, log the metrics. Spend as long as you need to verify the data input in a
spreadsheet. Do not make any judgements on the conversion rates until the test is done.
When logging data you should always report on YESTERDAY’S results. This is because if
you log your data for today at 3PM, 24 hours haven’t elapsed and it isn’t a true test.
Scientific Method Step 3 👨🏼‍🔬🥼 (Observe Results)
A test is only complete once:
1. Data for the sample size has been collected & metrics are attributed to their source
2. Latency is accounted for
3. The test is airtight (nothing went seriously wrong)
4. All constants remained the same
5. You changed NOTHING throughout the test
6. You logged the data every day with 100% accuracy & attribution
These are the rules of running a test. If you can say you’ve followed rules 1-6, while
completing your test we can move on to step 3, which is to observe the results of the test.
3.1 Verify data
Before we make any decisions on the data, verify it again. Go back to your data sources and
check.
3.2 Determine success
Answer the following questions:
1. What was the conversion rate for the Primary & Secondary metrics?
2. What was the KPI for the Primary & Secondary metrics?
3. Were you above or just slightly below KPI of the secondary metric? By how much?
3A: If yes: change nothing and scale
3A: If no: ask question 4
4. Were you above or just slightly below KPI of the primary metric? By how much?
4A: If yes: change nothing about your variables for the tested stimulus and move on to the
next stimulus that has a large impact on the secondary metric. If there is strong latency
downstream of the next stimulus genotype, then wait to make changes.
For example: in cold messaging you could have a 5% PRR but a 0.7% ABR after 1 week. It’s
possible that this discrepancy is due to long latency - it takes 6 follow-ups on average to get
someone who’s replied positively to schedule a call, which can take 2 weeks to complete
(too much latency to add into this test).
If, after latency, ABR is still weak, consider what other variables need changing. (E.g. how
you reply to positive replies, how quickly you reply to them, your follow-up sequence style).
4A: If no: ask question 5
5. Is the primary conversion rate way below KPI?
The answer is probably yes at this point. If that’s the case, don’t fret. This isn’t the end of
your business or life, you’ve just established a truth that gets you one step closer to your
goal. Believe it or not, this is actually a good thing.
** Remember KPI’s are just broad measuring sticks for scale, they aren’t hard rules. If KPI is
3.5% and you only get 2.7%, I’d consider that good enough for scale. Don’t become
emotionally or binarily attached to the KPI.
I can’t stress enough: you can scale ‘poor’ metrics. A 1% ABR is enough to get you a call a
day with 100/day volume. That’s 20 meetings a month. Even at a 10% sales conversion rate,
that’s 2 clients per month, or 12 over the course of 6 months (enough for $100k/year).
Scientific Method Step 4 👨🏼‍🔬🥼 (Iterating Hypothesis)

Once you’re sure your stimulus genotype has not produced fitness, it’s time to iterate it.
4.1 Re-define key variables
Go back to the original Hypothesis (V1 of your stimulus) and re-note the Key Variables.
Content(V1) - CTA(V1) - Delivery(V1) = Initial Video V1
4.2 Pick the ‘needle mover’ variable
Which variable moves the needle (impacts fitness) the most in your stimulus genotypes?
Out of the key variables, which variable do you think, if iterated positively, would have the
biggest impact on fitness? Pick one. You can only pick one.
Use your knowledge from the Program & our guidance to select the variable. Ask the
community if your delivery sucks, if the content is bad, or if the CTA is asking for too much.
Let's say for this example you establish that your delivery is great and the CTA is fine, so you
pick the content variable of the video message.
** The needle mover variable won’t always be the same variable in future tests.
4.3 Recognise new constants
Now something happens. The key variables not defined as ‘the needle mover’ (Delivery and
CTA) become constants.
With the scientific method, we only ever iterate one variable at a time. If you test two or more
variables at the same time and the result changes, it’s impossible to know which change
determined the result.
We’ll discuss cause & effect and Ceteris Paribus shortly to help you understand.
4.4 Pick modification level
Iterate the needle mover variable to create a version 2 of it. This can be done in 3 ways:
1. Slight modification, next version has lots of affinity to existing version

2. Moderate modification, next version has some affinity to existing version
3. Complete modification, next version has no affinity to existing version
Affinity = similar to.
How do you know which type of modification to pick?
1. (Slight): pick if out of KPI but not far off (e.g. KPI, 3.5%, result = 2.3%)
2. (Moderate): pick if out of KPI but not dead in the water (e.g. KPI, 3.5%, result = 1.3%)
3. (Complete): pick if out of KPI but totally dead in the water (e.g. KPI, 3.5%, result = 0.3%)
4.5 Modify needle mover accordingly
Once you’ve picked how heavily you need to modify your needle mover, modify it.
Once done, your genotype will look a bit different, consisting of the original 3 key variables, 2
of which are now constants & V2 of the needle mover.
Variable 1(V2) - Variable 2(V1) - Variable 3(V1) = Stimulus V2
With our example:
Before:
Hypothesis V1: Content(V1) - CTA(V1) - Delivery(V1) = Initial Video V1
After:
Hypothesis V2: Content(V2) - CTA(V1) - Delivery(V1) = Initial Video V2
4.6 Repeat step 1
Take your new Hypothesis and run it through the same test you ran V1 through. Remember
to follow all 6 of the rules laid out at the start of step 3 before drawing conclusions.
1. Data for the sample size has been collected & metrics are attributed to their source
2. Latency is accounted for
3. The test is airtight (nothing went seriously wrong)
4. All constants remained the same
5. You changed NOTHING throughout the test
6. You logged the data every day with 100% accuracy
Managing Future Experiments 🧮🎬

As you run more experiments, it’s important to bear in mind we want to move further towards
KPI. Every test should get you one step closer to fitness. If it doesn’t, you need to backtrack.
After every test ask yourself these questions:
Does the latest version regress from KPI more than Hypothesis V(x)-1?
If yes: go back to Hypothesis V(x)-1 and iterate in a different direction

If no: continue iterating in this direction
Does the new Hypothesis regress from KPI more than Hypothesis V(x)-1?
If yes: go back to the hypothesis V(x)-1 and iterate in a different direction

If no: continue iterating in this direction
What we’re attempting to do here is

create a feedback loop between
inputs and outputs.
With every test, our current

Hypothesis produces a new
Hypothesis that can feed back on
itself towards iterative success.
This is the secret to client

acquisition. Just lots of iteration
over time. No joke or exaggeration.
Scientific Method Step Summary 👨🏼‍🔬 ✍🏻
Step 1: Formulate Hypothesis
1.1 - Define the key variables

1.2 - Define the metrics & KPI
1.3 - Establish sample size
1.4 - Establish latency & time frame
1.5 - Make the test airtight
1.6 - Create your version(x) variables
1.7 - Establish the constants
Step 2: Test Hypothesis
2.1 - Run the test

2.2 - Do nothing
2.3 - Log the data
Step 3: Observe Results
3.1 - Verify data

3.2 - Determine success
Step 4: Iterating Hypothesis
4.1 - Re-define key variables

4.2 - Pick the ‘needle mover’ variable
4.3 - Recognise new constants
4.4 - Pick modification level
4.5 - Modify needle mover accordingly
4.6 - Repeat step 1
Now you see what it takes to actually build your own client acquisition system. Next time a
marketing guru tells you ‘all you need is an A/B split test’, run for the hills.
If you follow all 18 of these steps properly, you literally cannot fail, and I mean literally in
every sense of the word.
The only variable is time. You just need to give the scientific method enough time to work
and shuffle variables to find fitness. It can take a while, man.
Ceteris Paribus 🤓💡
Ceteris Paribus is a fancy latin term that means ‘all other things staying the same’. It is so
important to this process because we want to establish cause and effect.
When you test a stimulus Hypothesis, you must hold everything else in that test constant.
That includes everything, from the other initial variables to the controllable environmental
factors.
For example, let’s say you’re trying to test new ad copy for Facebook Ads.
1. You run the new ads, but in the process you also add a new interest to the audience
& change the headline on your funnel.
2. Results get worse, but now you don’t know if it was due to the change in copy or the
change in audience, or the new funnel headline.
3. What’s worse, the change in copy could’ve actually got you closer to KPI, but the
audience change held you back. Or, the new funnel headline could’ve been the next
best thing for you, but it didn’t resonate with the new audience selected.
It’s impossible to make good decisions for your client acquisition system when iterating more
than one variable. This is because good decisions come from good data, and good data
comes from the scientific method. If you iterate more than one variable, the data is fucked
and not truly, objectively representative of the variable you wanted to test. Start over.
This is because our objective when running experiments is to establish the cause and effect
relationships between our stimulus key variables and the fitness level of the overall stimulus.
Cause & Effect 🍺😴

Cause and effect: when something causes something to happen.
Cause: going out in the sun

Effect: getting sunburn
Cause: watching netflix til 4AM

Effect: being tired at work
Cause: eating salad for lunch

Effect: feeling pretty good about yourself
Cause: Taking my advice on how to cook a lasagna

Effect: A true kitchen nightmare
Or in the case of client acquisition….
Cause: stimulus genotype exposed to a human in our niche with the right latent conditions
Effect: action from human, converting them to the next stage in our client acquisition system
The whole point of this is to establish cause and effect between stimulus and action. A
stimulus is the cause, and the action it elicits is an effect. If we know what stimulus causes
the effect of an action, client acquisition becomes easy for us.
The entire universe works on cause and effect.
Understanding it is intelligence. Wielding it is power.
Ceteris Paribus allows us to have this intelligence and wield this power. Pretty cool!
Common Descent Stimuli 🧬 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

At the start of this video I explained Common Descent & Descent with modification.
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology. It states that all species of organism
originated from a common ancestor. Basically, all living things, from redwood trees, ants &
that weird neighbour you have, all descended from a common ancestor.
Descent with modification means that parents have children, but their children will be slightly
different from their parents. Every ‘generation’ of offspring is slightly different from its
descendants.
With thousands (or hundreds of thousands / millions) of generations, one species can give
rise to a new species, sharing a common ancestor.
Your V1 stimulus is the common ancestor shared by all future generations, provided the
original genotype has heritable traits that indicate some level of fitness.
Darwinian Stimuli 🦉🪳
Natural selection is a theory proposed by Charles Darwin. It explains how all living
organisms have evolved over generations & with time.
It’s a very simple idea: organisms with traits that are better adapted to the conditions of their
environment are more likely to survive and produce more offspring, producing offspring with
the same heritable characteristics that enable them to survive.
Every new version of your stimulus is a new generation. Over time, with plenty of
generations and iteration, it’ll evolve into the most adapted version imaginable.
Random Mutated Variation 🎲🍀

Variation is the key to evolutionary success. It’s the random mutation of genes that has
brought about humans, owls, willow trees & all other successful species we know today.
This Program will give you the variables you need to succeed, but I implore you to introduce
your own calculated & random variation.
There are countless combinations of variables that we can combine as a DNA string to test
to see if our stimulus has fitness. There is no end to variation, you can apply almost anything
to client acquisition to see if it works.
My best ever systems haven’t been copied and pasted. They’re the result of relentless
iteration of random variables.
You know on game shows like who wants to be a millionaire where you get to phone a
friend? When it comes to client acquisition, that friend is randomness.
If you’re ever stuck in a corner, or snookered, when it comes to building a client acquisition
system, try randomness. I’m not even joking, turn to a random page in a random book, pick
a random line and see how you can apply that to your stimuli. Learn from nature.
Petri Dish Tests 🧫🦠

Once you have a system or stimulus that has fitness it will function properly and produce
results. If you want to improve it, don’t fuck with it.
Duplicate all variables and constants and replicate the system into the same environment,
then begin the scientific process again on the replica while running the main system.
Think: if a scientist found the cure for cancer and it worked over a 12 month period, they
wouldn’t just suddenly change all variables, losing the integrity of the experiment to try and
get it to work in 6 months. They’d run the 12 month cure and keep testing for a 6 month one.
Initial Conditions 🦋🌪
The closer your V1 genotype is to having fitness from the get-go, the better your results will
be in the long term. This is because of something called the law of sensitive dependence on
initial conditions (AKA the butterfly effect)
It took me 3-4 years of iteration to get consistent results. I was basically blind at the start. If I
had better initial conditions, I could’ve got there faster.
This is why a strong understanding of your niche will be extremely important and helpful
when you start designing your stimuli. If you know what makes them tick and what’s more
likely to get action, you can bias your initial Hypothesis in this direction and massively speed
up the process of predictable client acquisition.
Complex systems are extremely sensitive to initial conditions. Tiny changes in parts of a
system can have a huge impact on it’s outcome, over time and with scale.
As above, the law of sensitive dependence on initial conditions is best explained by

visualising ships travelling across the world.
Let’s say two ships set sail from south Argentina, aiming for Australia, however their initial
direction differs by 1 degree, which isn’t even 0.5% of 360 degrees. No biggie, right?
Well, this tiny difference makes a big difference over enough distance (in systems, it’s time).
Ship 1 ends up docking in South Perth…

Ship 2 ends up docking in Western Tasmania…
That’s a 2850KM difference (Google reckons a 50 hour drive), all because of a tiny
difference in the initial conditions. Another degree and ship 2 would’ve ended up back in
south Argentina!
Understanding your niche 5% better than the average business owner in your market might
not seem like a big deal, but if you stick to that niche, it’s a disgusting advantage to have.
Small change = big difference when time is applied. The more time, the bigger the difference.
Advanced Genetic Ideology 🧬💡

We can use advanced principles from Genetics to get more clients.
Stimulus Splicing 🧬✂️

Once we have a DNA string that produces fitness we can create iterations that are even
better than their original descendant, regardless of whether they’re part of the same system.
Splicing: a scientific term for genetic manipulation. It’s where you take a gene variant of DNA
(ideally one that produces a desirable trait than the existing strand) and then insert it into the
genetic code of the organism in question.
This is self explanatory. If you have a cold

message with key variables that are producing
fitness well within KPI, you can take the traits from
those variables & the key variables themselves
and ‘splice’ the genes into genotypes of other
stimuli in the system, or other systems.
Example: I learned early on that my niche

responds well to transparency from YouTube. So I
spliced that trait into the genotype of lots of other
stimuli in my client acquisition systems.
System Cross Pollination 🌻🌼

Cross pollination occurs in nature when one plant pollinates a plant of another variety.
When this happens, the DNA of both plants combines to create a new variety of plant.
If you have two different stimuli genotypes working in two different systems, you can
effectively ‘breed’ them by cross-pollinating their DNA together to produce a new, potentially
more powerful, variant.
Network Effect Conjugation
Scientists that study bacteria understand a principle called conjugation. This is where
bacteria in an environment are able to share DNA that has fitness with each other.
1. Bacteria carry their DNA in a plasmid - a

circular ring containing their genetic
material (genotype)
2. A donor (bacteria with genotype that

produces fitness) can connect with a
recipient (bacteria lacking the genes that
produce fitness)
3. Once connected, the donor cell unravels

the plasmid, transferring a portion of it’s
genotype containing the gene that
produces fitness it into the recipient cell
4. The recipient now has the donor’s

genotype, and has fitness.
Note: this is a simplified model of how it actually works.
As a community of organisms (businesses) in an environment (the market), we can leverage

DNA conjugation to create a network effect.
Network effect: phenomenon where a system gains additional value as more people use it.
If you use the scientific method to discover your own variables, stimuli & systems, you’ll find
new, unique & original combinations of variables that produce fitness across multiple stimuli.
This is powerful, but what’s more powerful than one scientist running 1 test is 100 scientists
running 100 tests, and all the scientists telling each other about their results and what
variable combinations are winning.
Doing so will encourage other people to share their winning experiments. With enough
contribution, sharing will reach a critical mass, where we have a self-sustaining flow of
shared experiments & winning stimuli.
You might think it’s within your best interest to keep your cards close to your chest, but when
you share something that works, someone else will share what’s working for them. That way,
we can all come together to share what wins. Imperium can become a Hive Mind.
I implore you to share your experiments, especially the winning ones, with the community.
This document took me 2 weeks to complete, and I hope you can return the favour of me
making it by sharing your winning experiments with other people.
Doing so allows us to birth a New Epoch and accomplish Imperium Acquisition’s mission -
make client acquisition easy.
Be a donor! :)
** Thanks to Sebastian Forster (Imperium Team) for this idea ❤️
It’s easier, faster, and much more fun with friends. Share! 😊 ❤️
Summary 📑
🧬👨‍👩‍👧‍👧
🐤🐦
Common Descent
🧬🦅
Descent with Modification
🦖🪺
Natural Selection
🌷💐
Fitness
🧬🔬
Traits
🎲🍀
DNA & Genotypes
🦠🪲
Variation
🔬📝
DNA Fractals
🧬📧
Applied Biology
🥥🐚
Stimulus Genotypes (DNA)
🐟🐠
The Client Acquisition Shell
🏋🏼 🧩
Traits & Adaptability
👼🏼 🕌 ⛪️
Fitness & Key Variables
👩🏻‍🔬 🧪
Playing God
👨🏼‍🔬🥼
God’s Tool: The Scientific Method
👨🏼‍🔬🥼
Scientific Method Step 1
👨🏼‍🔬🥼
👨🏼‍🔬🥼
🧮🎬
👨🏼‍🔬 ✍🏻
Managing Future Experiments
🤓💡
Scientific Method Step Summary
🍺😴
Ceteris Paribus
🧬 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧
Cause & Effect
🦉🪳
Common Descent Stimuli
🎲🍀
Darwinian Stimuli
🧫🦠
Random Mutated Variation
🧬💡
Petri Dish Tests
🧬✂️
Advanced Genetic Ideology
🌻🌼
Stimulus Splicing
🦠📈
System Cross Pollination
Network Effect Conjugation

7 1 Iterative Darwinian Acquisition (@MR - Strategist)

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7 1 Iterative Darwinian Acquisition (@MR - Strategist)

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Iterative Darwinian Acquisition

Welcome to Iterative Darwinian Acquisition. This module explains how understanding

Common Descent 🧬👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

It looks something like this...

Organism: a living thing

Offspring: an organism's children

Environment: surroundings & conditions an organism exists in (predators, temperature etc)

Offspring vary in their heritable traits.

For example: Darwin’s Finches

In the 1800’s, Darwin took a trip to the Galapagos islands.

He found that different species of finch existed on different

Finches with long & sharp beaks were found on islands

DNA & Genotypes 🧬🔬

So what determines an Organism's genotype?

Species without variation are more susceptible to extinction. Not good.

Variation is produced by random mutation, whereby the genotype of an organism randomly

That’s the evolutionary biology & genetics lesson over.

Scale is determined by reproduction

Stimulus Genotypes (DNA) 🧬📧

We can observe DNA ‘genotypes’ present at the Stimulus level.

Variable 1 + Variable 2 + Variable 3 + Variable 4 = Stimulus

A variable is a component of a stimulus that can be changed.

Stimulus: Loom email = Email copy + Loom Script + Delivery

Macro = shell containing micro sub-systems

So it all comes down to variables.

** See PDF in the resources section for a larger image.

Traits & Adaptability 🐟🐠

Traits are simply adjectives used to describe the nature of a stimulus.

Fitness & Key Variables 🏋🏼 🧩

For example: Loom Cold Email minimum KPI’s:

These metrics each measure the effectiveness of certain stimuli:

Key variables: Offer - Body Copy - Loom Script - Loom Delivery

If ABR (Polaris) is in KPI, we know our variable combination of offer-copy-script-delivery has

As we know, each stimulus we create consists of a genotype - a DNA string of variables

In simple terms the scientific method works like this:

Step 1: Formulate Hypothesis

Step 2: Test Hypothesis

Step 3: Observe results

Collect data and observe the effect of the variable combination.

Step 4: Iterate Hypothesis

V1 = the current version of your client acquisition system

1.1: Define the key variables

Content - CTA - Delivery = Initial Video

Variable 1: content - the actual pitch of the video message

1.2: Define the metrics & KPIs

Primary (PRR) KPI: 5% / Secondary (ABR) KPI: 3.5%

1.3 Establish sample size

1.5 Make the test airtight

Testing ads: form on funnel doesn’t redirect people to scheduler

1.6 Create your version(x) variables

Next, create your variables.

The first version of each variable you create is V1.

The stimulus genotype will now look like this:

Content(V1) - CTA(V1) - Delivery(V1) = (Initial Video V1)

1.7 Establish the constants

Now we need to establish the constants of the experiment.

Scientific Method Step 2 👨🏼‍🔬🥼 (Test Hypothesis)

2.1 Run the rest

2.3 Log the data

3.1 Verify data

3.2 Determine success

Answer the following questions:

3A: If yes: change nothing and scale