The Restaurant That Changed How I Think About Business Forever
Last week, I walked into a restaurant that made me want to burn my entire business to the ground and start over.
Not because the food was terrible. Because it was too good at too many things.
Let me paint you a picture.
This place had a menu thicker than a Stephen King novel. Italian. Mexican. Sushi. Thai. Burgers. Vegan bowls. Hell, they even had a whole section dedicated to "Molecular Gastronomy Experiments."
I watched the owner — bags under his eyes, phone glued to his ear — rushing between the kitchen and a supplier argument about wrong deliveries. Three different chefs working three different stations. Inventory spreadsheets scattered across the bar.
The food came out 45 minutes later. It was... fine.
Across the street?
A burger joint. One burger on the menu. Fries. Shake. That's it.
Line out the door at 2 PM on a Tuesday.
The owner? She was sitting at a corner table, laptop open, probably looking at her third location's numbers while her machine ran itself. Same burger recipe for five years. Same supplier. Same three-person crew who could make that burger blindfolded.
That night, I couldn't sleep.
Because I realized I'd been running the 300-item menu restaurant in my business for years.
And maybe you have too.
More Offers = More Poverty
I'm about to say something that'll piss off half the internet marketers you follow:
You're not allowed a second offer until you hit seven figures with one.
Not six figures. Seven.
I know. I know what you're thinking. "But Scott, diversification! Multiple revenue streams! Don't put all your eggs in one basket!"
Here's what nobody tells you about that basket metaphor — it assumes you have eggs worth protecting in the first place.
Most of us? We're juggling empty baskets, hoping one accidentally catches something valuable.
Let me share something embarrassing. At my lowest point, I had seventeen different "offers." Seventeen. I could help you with copywriting, Facebook ads, email marketing, course creation, webinar scripts, sales funnels, social media strategy, personal branding, YouTube optimization...
You know how much I was making?
About $3K a month. On a good month.
My friend Marcus? One offer. "I help SaaS companies reduce churn." That's it. Nothing else.
$187K last month.
The math is backwards from everything we've been taught, but the evidence is everywhere once you start looking.
Your Brain on Jam (And Why It Matters More Than You Think)
There's this study that changed how I think about everything.
Researchers set up a jam tasting booth at a grocery store. Some days, they put out 24 different flavors. Other days, just 6.
Here's where it gets interesting.
The 24-jam display attracted more browsers. People loved looking at all those options. So many possibilities! So much variety! So much to taste!
But when it came time to actually buy?
The 6-jam display sold ten times more.
Not double. Not triple. Ten times.
30% of people bought jam when there were 6 options.3% when there were 24.
Your prospects' brains work the same way.
When you offer coaching AND courses AND templates AND done-for-you AND consulting AND workshops AND masterminds?
Their brain shorts out.
It's not that they don't trust you. It's that they literally cannot make a decision. The mental effort required to compare and evaluate all your offers is so exhausting that their brain takes the easiest path:
Do nothing.
Buy nothing.
The confused mind doesn't buy. It Netflix-scrolls your services page for twenty minutes, then closes the tab and orders takeout instead.
The Hidden Math Nobody Wants to Calculate
Here's what kills me — entrepreneurs think adding offers is simple addition.
"I have one $2K offer. If I add another $2K offer, that's $4K potential per client!"
No. God, no.
Each offer you add doesn't add complexity. It multiplies it.
Let me show you the real math of multiple offers:
Offer #1 needs:
- Sales page copy that converts
- Email sequence to nurture and sell
- Onboarding process
- Delivery system
- Support documentation
- Testimonial collection
- Content strategy to attract the right people
- Objection handling for sales calls
That's eight systems for one offer.
Add offer #2?
Now you need 16 systems. But here's the kicker — they can't be the same systems. Different offer means different ideal client, different pain points, different objections, different everything.
Offer #3? 24 systems.
Offer #4? 32 systems.
But wait, it gets worse.
Because now these offers need to work together somehow. Do they complement each other? Compete? Cannibalize? Who knows! You're too busy drowning in complexity to figure it out.
I watched a client named Sarah map out her "simple" three-offer business on a whiteboard once.
By the time she drew all the connections, dependencies, and systems, it looked like she was trying to solve string theory.
She started crying.
I'm not joking.
The Compound Effect Nobody Talks About
Here's what happens when you pick one thing and go all in:
Month 1: You suck at selling it.
Month 2: You're slightly less terrible.
Month 3: You notice patterns in objections.
Month 6: You can handle any objection in your sleep.
Month 9: Your positioning is razor sharp.
Month 12: You're the obvious choice for this one problem.
Month 18: You can charge 5x what you started at.
Month 24: People refer others to you without you asking.
Month 25: You're a precision-guided missile in your market that’s dominating!
You know what happens when you have five offers?
Month 1: You suck at selling all of them.
Month 24: You still suck at selling all of them.
Month 25: You add in another offer thinking that’s going to help and around we go!
Because you never get enough reps with any single offer to achieve mastery. You're perpetually amateur at everything instead of world-class at one thing.
The specialist brain surgeon makes $2M+ a year.
The "I do everything" general practitioner? $250K if they're lucky.
The market rewards depth, not breadth.
How to Choose Your One Thing (Without Losing Your Mind)
"Okay Scott, I'm convinced. But how do I choose?"
Stop overthinking it. Here's your filter:
What pisses you off that you can fix?
Not "what am I passionate about." Passion is overrated. Anger is underrated.
I'm genuinely angry that smart people are broke because they don't know how to package their knowledge. It pisses me off every single day. That anger fuels my focus.
What makes you angry enough to fix it a thousand times?
Next filter: What do people already come to you for?
Not what you wish they came for. What they actually ask you about at parties. In DMs. In "quick questions" that turn into hour-long conversations.
That's your market telling you what your one thing should be.
Final filter: What can scale without killing you?
Some offers require you to show up live every time. Others can run while you sleep. If you're going to do one thing for the next three years, pick something that won't require 2x the effort to make 2x the money.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Why We Complicate Everything
You want to know the real reason entrepreneurs add seventeen offers?
Fear.
Fear that our one thing isn't enough.
Fear that we're leaving money on the table.
Fear that we'll be bored.
Fear that picking one thing means we're not really entrepreneurs, we're just... specialists.
But mostly? Fear of going all-in on something that might not work.
Because as long as you have seventeen offers, you have seventeen excuses for why you're not successful yet. "I just need to dial in my systems." "I'm still figuring out the right mix." "Once I optimize all of them..."
One offer?
One offer has nowhere to hide.
It either works or it doesn't.
And that's terrifying.
It's also the only way to build something real.
Your Confusion Is Expensive
Every time a potential client has to decode what you actually do, you're lighting money on fire.
Every time you have to explain how your seven offers fit together, you're paying a confusion tax.
Every time you say "I do a lot of things" instead of "I solve this one expensive problem," you're subsidizing your competition.
The burger joint across the street doesn't need to explain anything.
"We make the best burger in the city."
Done.
No decoder ring required.
But What About...
I know what you're thinking.
"But Scott, what about diversification? Isn't one offer risky?"
You know what's risky? Being mediocre at seven things when your competitor is world-class at one.
"But I'll get bored!"
Boredom is a luxury problem. Broke is a real problem. Make money first, then worry about being bored.
"But my clients keep asking for other things!"
They ask because you haven't drawn clear boundaries. The burger joint gets asked for pasta all the time. They still just make burgers. And people still line up.
"But I see other people succeeding with multiple offers!"
No, you see people who ALREADY succeeded with one offer adding others. Cart, horse, order of operations.
The Vision Nobody Sells You
Picture this:
It's 18 months from now.
You do one thing. You're known for one thing. Your entire business is built around solving one expensive problem better than anyone else.
Your sales calls are 30 minutes because everyone already knows what you do.
Your content writes itself because you're always talking about the same core problem.
Your testimonials all say versions of the same transformation.
Your systems are so dialed that your business runs without you for weeks.
Your prices have tripled because you're THE person for this problem.
You wake up knowing exactly what you're building. No decision fatigue. No shiny objects. No confusion.
Just clarity.
Just focus.
Just profit.
The Decision
The restaurant with 300 items is still there, across from the burger joint. Still struggling. Still complicated. Still exhausting.
The owner added breakfast last month. "To capture the morning crowd."
The burger joint? They perfected their fries. That's it. Same burger. Better fries.
Their third location opens next month.
So here's my question for you:
Are you going to keep adding items to your menu, hoping something sticks?
Or are you going to make one perfect burger?
Because the market doesn't reward entrepreneurs who can do everything.
It rewards the ones who do one thing so well that people cross town — hell, cross states — to buy from them.
Your second offer isn't a growth strategy.
It's a distraction you can't afford yet.
Pick one thing.
Go all in.
Let everything else burn.
And watch what happens when you stop trying to be everything to everyone and start being everything to someone.
The complexity isn't impressive.
The simplicity is profitable.
Choose accordingly.