Core Four: Alex Hormozi's Four Ways to Get Leads

What It Means

The core four is Alex Hormozi's name, in $100M Leads (2023), for the four ways a business can get leads on its own: warm outreach, cold outreach, posting content and running paid ads. He sorts them with two questions. Does the person already know you or not, and are you reaching people one at a time or many at once? Each answer pair gives one of the four.

Try It: Find Your Core Four Channel

Pick who you want to reach and how. The grid follows the two questions in Hormozi's $100M Leads.

WhoHow

Core four channel

Warm outreach

Message past customers, friends and contacts one by one.

How People Say It at Work

"We've only ever done warm outreach. Time to try ads."
"Which of the core four is actually bringing people in?"
"Content works, but it's slow. Cold outreach is faster for us."

The Breakdown

The grid

	One at a time	Many at once
People who know you	Warm outreach	Post content
People who don't know you	Cold outreach	Run paid ads

The book counts eight ways to get leads in total. The other four on that list, referrals, employees, agencies and affiliates, involve other people bringing leads to you.

How to work through it (Buhata's suggestion)

Write down the one thing you want a lead to do, such as booking a call or asking for a quote.
Start in the top left. List people who already know you and contact a set number each day, one by one.
Add one form of content for the same people, on a schedule you can keep.
When you know what message gets replies, try it on strangers, one by one.
Spend on paid ads only after the message works, and track what each new customer cost.

Try it today. A small bakery (made up) sends a short note to 20 past catering customers offering a holiday order slot, then counts the replies by Friday.

Where It Comes From

The term comes from Alex Hormozi's book $100M Leads: How to Get Strangers To Want To Buy Your Stuff, published August 19, 2023. Acquisition.com, his company, publishes separate $100M Leads downloads for warm outreach and cold outreach, and a page on paid ads.

Good to Know

Commercial email, calls and texts to strangers are regulated in the US, so read the Federal Trade Commission's business guidance before contacting people who haven't asked to hear from you. Paid ads cost money before they bring anything in, so measure customer acquisition cost from the first week.

FAQ

What are the core four in $100M Leads?

Warm outreach, cold outreach, posting content and running paid ads. Alex Hormozi groups them by whether the person already knows you and whether you're reaching one person or many at once.

Which of the core four should a new business start with?

The book covers all four. Warm outreach costs nothing but time and reaches people who already know you, so it's a low-risk first test, while paid ads cost money before they bring anything in.

What are the other four ways to get leads in $100M Leads?

Referrals, employees, agencies and affiliates. Acquisition.com's pages list them beside the core four as eight ways in all, and each of these four involves someone else bringing the leads to you.

Related Terms and Categories

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
The average amount a business spends on sales and marketing to win one new paying customer.
Dream 100
Russell Brunson's method from Traffic Secrets (2020): list 100 people and places where your ideal customers already gather, then earn or buy your way in front of them.

Business and entrepreneur terms

Sources

Alex Hormozi, $100M Leads: How to Get Strangers To Want To Buy Your Stuff (2023); Google Books, "$100M Leads: How to Get Strangers To Want To Buy Your Stuff"; Acquisition.com, "$100M Leads"; Acquisition.com, "$100M Leads Warm Outreach Downloads"; Acquisition.com, "$100M Leads Cold Outreach Downloads"; Acquisition.com, "How to Do Paid Ads"; Acquisition.com, "Affiliate Black Book: $100M Leads"

Last updated October 1, 2026.

Core four (advertising)