The Rise of Adrian Portelli and LMCT+

Jason · 00:00Welcome to The Numbers Game, episode 139. I'm Jase and I'm joined by Nick and Marty, and we're excited to be back for another new season. Boys, how we going?

Marty · 00:10Uh, feeling good. Thanks, Jase. Great to be back, as you say. And you know, I've just been tripping the life fantastic in the off-season. Uh, went to the Paul McCartney concert. When you're over 50, you can enjoy music like the Beatles, harmony stories. Fantastic.

Marty · 00:26But what a great night. It was 3 hours of just hit after hit. My son loved it. My wife loved it. 50,000 people just had a ripping time. But as you know, I get impressed by some of the subtleties and what I worked out that each concert Paul McCartney does generates $6 million in revenue.

Marty · 00:48So I'd like to be in that yellow submarine. That is a ripping effort by Paul. But what a great night. Uh, parking was crap around trying to get out of the joint, took me 2 hours. But yeah, had so much fun. And, uh, Beatles have their last final hit that came out, Now and Then, and it knocked off Taylor Swift, uh, off the top spot in the UK and the US.

Marty · 01:13So sorry, all you Swifties. Uh, yeah, the Beatles are back. So yeah, very, very excited. Great to be back. Nick, how are you, my friend?

Nick · 01:22Uh, refreshed, very refreshed. And geez, what a time to be in Melbourne. Of all the, uh, all the bad things that have happened in Melbourne over the last few years, it's, um, times like these where you, you realize why we're here. So it's— Spring Carnival is coming up by the time we're recording this, and, uh, it's Monday in the office here.

Nick · 01:42There's about 3 people in the office, 2 of them are kicking a footy around. Um, so it's pretty much a day off in Melbourne, let's be, um Let's be honest, unless you've, uh, you've got a podcast in high demand and you need to just push episodes out. So here we are grinding when everyone else is, uh, at home and looking at the form guide for the next few days.

Nick · 02:02So how are you, Jase?

Jason · 02:04Mate, I'm not too bad. You said you're refreshed and recharged. I wish I felt the same. I made the unfortunate, or had the unfortunate happenings of going to Bali to have 7 business days of recharging and getting some sun, and unfortunately spent half of those with the worst Bali belly my life.

Jason · 02:22Ended up in a medical clinic with a drip hanging out of my arm and a bunch of medicines. So I think it was 5 or 6 days of not being very well. But anyway, we're back. I will bounce back. I will recover. You're right though, Spring Racing Carnival, it's exciting times in Melbourne.

Jason · 02:41There's not a lot going on when you're talking about kicking a foot in the office. I think we've got 3 people out of 28 in the office as well. And yeah, I don't think there's much more than a bit of footy throwing around and there's basketball on the TV and a bit of talk about who to bet on tomorrow. So what a time to be in Melbourne.

Jason · 02:57I'm excited to be back and this episode off the back of the weekend, The Block was on. We're going to be talking about some, what happened at The Block and who was the main man on the show who had everybody talking and buzzing online.

Jason · 03:12But before we get into that, guys, in more exciting news for The Numbers Game, which is in high demand and the reason we've come back in action to crack out another season before Christmas, we actually have our first our first major sponsor who's come on board.

Jason · 03:28And I'm very excited to announce that Dashboard Insights is going to be the first major sponsor of The Numbers Game. Obviously some good synergies when we talk numbers and Dashboard Insights is a business that throws together real-time dashboards for business owners to have a visual representation of their business's performance.

Jason · 03:46So it takes all that data and all those numbers and puts it into a neat, easy place for you to see what's happening in your business. We use it ourselves at Future Advisory. So speaking from personal, personal experience, the business dashboards provides clarity, direction, and motivation to our team who can see their numbers as well.

Jason · 04:05And when we're seeking to pursue a high-performing culture, business performance has been absolutely critical for us to share with our team to show them how their day-to-day operations affects the greater good of our organization. So if you're in business and you're interested in checking out Dashboard Insights and how they may be able to throw together some epic dashboards to help you empower your business, head over to dashboardinsights.com, show some support, go and give them a follow on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Jason · 04:33And Ryan Richardson and the team there will be more than happy to talk to any of our Numbers Game audience about how they might be able to do some work with you. So thank you to Dashboard Insights for coming on board. We're excited for another great season.

Nick · 04:45And Joe, so I think you mentioned we're probably going to get Ryan to come on and talk about dashboards at some stage, which would be awesome. Because I think Marty can attest to this, as a, as a business that's grown rapidly over the last few years, one of the things we learned and learned really quickly is that we needed to be over our numbers and, you know, what is happening day to day.

Nick · 05:07Um, you know, the old saying, what's, what's measured is managed, is so true. And you'll attest to this as well, Jase, because you're a reasonably young growing business and 100%. You can get pulled in a thousand different directions without coming back to focusing on what, what you really needed to.

Nick · 05:26And I think from what I understand about Dashboard, it brings all that together and makes that a really easy process to be across what's going on day to day.

Jason · 05:33This day and age where you're using multiple different apps and technology to run your business as well, it's really about centralizing all that information into one place. So whether you're using HubSpot, Xero, a different CRM, stuff in Google Sheets, there's all different areas you keep your data. And as we know, data is pretty powerful stuff.

Jason · 05:51You can get into one place and make decisions from it. It's going to definitely empower some great things.

Marty · 05:56Yeah, that's fantastic. Welcome on board. And I think again, like there's always high-level numbers, but those micro numbers that sometimes can get missed can be very, very costly. So, you know, just having a clear read on all the subtleties around the data really makes you much more efficient on conversion.

Marty · 06:15And where you should be spending your time, energy, and money. So, um, yeah, it's great that we have a sponsor, but such a great sponsor given that we're talking numbers all the time. So welcome.

Jason · 06:26Very excited to crack into today's episode too. A few numbers to unpack and a bit of a story and some background. Guys, you probably heard the name Adrian Portelli. It is— he is everywhere at the moment. Um, and if you haven't heard the name Adrian Portelli, we're going to go into a bit of a background about who is Adrian Portelli and why he's, uh, on everyone's lips at the moment.

Jason · 06:45But The Block finale aired the weekend. I'm going to be honest and share that I watched zero episodes of The Block for the entire season, but I did happen to tune in for the auctions because I thought that would be pretty exciting and just a good way to kind of round out catching the whole season capped into one episode.

Jason · 07:04And Adrian actually bought 3 of the 5 properties last night on The Block. While we're recording this, it was on last night. So we wanted to discuss who is Adrian Portale and how did he come along to have all this wealth that he was able to buy Buy 3 Outta 5 Block Properties.

Jason · 07:21But before we unpack Adrian Portelli, have you guys heard of him before and what's your basic knowledge so far?

Nick · 07:28Definitely heard of him. I know he's from Coburg, from what I understand, and had a, oh well, really had no idea about his business. I thought it was almost like a lotto setup. But obviously talking about it in the last few hours with you a little bit deeper this morning, understand it's far more than that.

Nick · 07:47So I also know that he's got a rare McLaren in his lounge room, which he had lifted, craned into his apartment, which is pretty incredible. So I think that's when people first came to know him really, as this guy getting McLaren craned into his lounge room.

Jason · 08:04Popped in and out of the media over the years. But if there's one way to really promote you or your business or who you are, it's crane a $3 million McLaren into your $39 million apartment, 57 stories above Melbourne. That's not a bad way to start to be recognised and have your name spread around town.

Jason · 08:21So a bit of background also to, you know, why he would just rock up to The Block and buy 3 out of 5 homes. Back in 2022 season, he had bid on Oz and Omar's property. This is out at Gisborne. He'd bid something around $4, $4.25 million.

Jason · 08:38And Danny Wallace, who's another well-known bidder at The Block auctions, absolutely in what I'd describe as a dick swinging contest, came along and bid $5.5 million. And Adrian Portelli went, bugger this, I'm out. And he didn't end up buying a property or that property at the time.

Jason · 08:54There was a lot in the media who said he was a dummy bidder. He was mates with Oz and Omar. He was only there to drive the price up and that he never really had the money to buy the property anyway. So I think when you get a bit of this negative press come out about you that, you know, you're not who you say you are and that, you know, you don't have what it takes to do it.

Jason · 09:13I think the reason he came back to this Block season was to come back with a vengeance to go, I'm going to prove all the people wrong and watch what I can do. So he did end up buying one of the last season's houses for about $4.5 million from Sharon and Anker, and he ended up giving that away as part of his LMCT giveaways, which is his promotions business that he has, which we'll unpack a little bit further on.

Jason · 09:39And that ended up also in the media too, because the people who won the property ended up doing negative press saying that him and his mates had stolen $100,000 worth of furniture from this property. So I don't know if you saw that in the news as well, Marty. Not across that either?

Marty · 09:53No.

Jason · 09:54Mate, Marty, I'm obviously in, I'm reading different newspapers to you.

Marty · 09:57I'm just waiting for big brother tonight. So, you know, it's.

Nick · 10:01Yeah.

Jason · 10:02So, you know, I think, you know, they say, you know, any press or any media is good media for business, even if it's negative. So, you know, when, and And when Adrian's got the business he has, you can probably understand as we unpack it. But a little bit of background, people may not know that Adrian actually went over to LA.

Jason · 10:19He was born in Malta and then they came to Australia, him and his family. He did some time in LA when, as a young tech entrepreneur, and he created some cutting-edge businesses called Exclusive Hire, which is a hire business for luxury cars in LA, and Konekt.

Jason · 10:35So if you're going to book trips, vehicles, yachts, and you're in LA, you're likely to come across Exclusive Hire and a business called Konekt. They were Adrian's original startups back in LA. His media company was behind founding those, the Exclusive Hire and the Konekt business.

Jason · 10:53So if you want luxury bookings in LA, that's where you're going to end up landing. But obviously over here in Australia, he's probably more well known for LMCT Plus. Now, Nicky talked about it being a bit of like a lottery business or a raffle business, but what it ends up being is an online club.

Jason · 11:10Now, this is how we, Adrian, and the business has been able to get around certain gambling and regulatory rules. But by offering shopping discounts and giveaways, people subscribe to a membership through LMCT Plus, this online club.

Jason · 11:27And then what happens is you get free entries into giveaways for cars, boats, houses, cash, all these sorts of things. So a lot of people have kind of sucked up, complained, like the tall poppy syndrome.

Jason · 11:42They've dobbed Adrian's business into all the different gambling commissions and said there's a problem. And over the last couple of years, he's been investigated by the VGCCC, which is Victorian Gambling Casino Control Commission. He's been investigated by New South Wales. And most of— and all these investigations so far have come back and gone they're doing nothing wrong.

Jason · 12:02So, um, the numbers behind this is crazy though. It says that there's potentially 100,000 members and reported revenues are at least $70 million per year for the LMCT Plus business. Now, his $1 billion net worth was recently reported on the Young Rich list through the AFR, and most of that is said to have been made up of the paper valuation of LMCT Plus.

Jason · 12:29So you can imagine if you've got a $70 million turnover business, which is dropping quite a lot of that to the bottom line. Doesn't require a big multiple to get you to a billion-dollar valuation. So thoughts so far, guys? Any questions on what I've discussed? There's probably a little bit to unpack there on how it all works.

Marty · 12:47I'm already impressed and you've got my attention. It's, again, I think that would be running pretty lean, that business. And again, there's a set of rules and parameters for people to follow. And if you are good enough to create a business that honors that and does what it does, then that's just intelligence at the end of the day.

Marty · 13:07And I love seeing entrepreneurs go and collect ideas from other countries and then reshape them in their own way in Australia. So again, I think we've got to get outside of that tall poppy thought and think about how do we create these types of businesses in Australia more often?

Marty · 13:24So yeah, I'm a I'm a big advocate of that, but yeah, you've got my attention, Jase.

Jason · 13:30So unpack LMCT a little bit. So why, why would people subscribe to this rewards business and shopping tool? Now, obviously there's, there's been talk of it being a loophole purely for people to get into the raffles or the lottery and the giveaways.

Jason · 13:46But when you actually dig a little bit deeper, there's actually quite a bit of substance to the shopping tool and the rewards club. So looking into it, there's 750 businesses that have registered with LMCT Plus to be a rewards partner. So when you do subscribe for, let's say, your $20 membership or your $100 membership or whatever you choose to go with, you are actually getting access to 750 businesses that are offering you discounts that you wouldn't get without your subscription or membership to

Jason · 14:16LMCT Plus. The brands include well-known brands such as Total Tools, Adore Beauty, Ultratune, Bow Repairs, Interior Secrets. So there's many of these places that are offering quite, quite great substantial discounts, 15-20% off.

Jason · 14:32So, you know, if you think every year you're going to go and spend, you know, $1,000 on new tires at Bo Repairs or get your car serviced at Ultra Tune, you can get 20 or 30% off. That all of a sudden basically cancels out your membership to LMCT Plus, and as an added bonus, you're getting free entries every month or every week into giveaways where you could win cars, cash, and whatnot.

Jason · 14:54So not, not endorsing or promoting LMCT LMCT Plus, and it's just as the more I look into it, I've always kind of sat back and gone, why would I subscribe to that? Oh, it's just everyone's just giving Adrian free money because they want to win something. But there's actually way more to it.

Jason · 15:10And like you, Marty, I'm impressed with the entrepreneurial vibe and energy that Adrian's been able to grow and put into this business. And not just Adrian, I think in case any of the other guys with Adrian listen, Troy Candy, who you may or may not have heard of, is another partner in LMCT, one of the original guys.

Jason · 15:27But just that in itself is that they've legitimised this to make it work so that they've gone above and beyond what could be seen as a bit of a gimmick and a bit of a dodgy thing, but they've made it as legitimate as possible. And then in a more impressive turn of events, Marty, they've even created what's called the Little Legends Foundation, where quite a lot of the profits are funnelled over to Little Legends Foundation, or, you know, they send attention over there.

Jason · 15:55And over the years, I think it's up to millions has been put towards projects for children with various chronic illnesses and a variety of disabilities where they've been able to do things kind of a bit like Starlight Foundation or, you know, those kind of kids charities.

Jason · 16:10And, you know, their goal is to improve the lives of children who suffer chronic illnesses and diseases.

Marty · 16:16You can't do that if you haven't got any money. So that's, that's, you know, tremendous that it's putting that money's going back into the community. But I'm really excited about this concept in general because like, I'll give $10 to win a prize home because yeah, that's good.

Marty · 16:32It helps the charity out. But you want to win the house, right? You know, you win a $2.7 million house. Let's just, let's just put that on the cards. You know, it's pretty exciting for $10. Just the hopes and dreams of the next 2 weeks. You know, it just makes, makes the weeks a bit better.

Marty · 16:47But what I love that he's doing is he's incorporating those business discounts on top of that because now you've got a double whammy of opportunity and just the connectedness of that space. 7— what was it, 750 businesses on board?

Marty · 17:03So you think about all those businesses that are now getting buy, buy into his business with what he's doing as well and the members. So to me, you've got this now, this compounding effect that's just reaching far and wide than what just the standard like Lottery House would be, would be doing.

Marty · 17:22So I really like that connectedness and networking expansion of that concept, and you are getting benefits. And it reminds me of, on a whole different level, but Costco in, in the US where they will make the majority of their money on their subscription to be able to shop there, but they only make like a 3 to 4% margin on the products.

Marty · 17:47They make all their money through the subscription and then they expand and it benefits the consumer. The consumer comes in, wants to shop there, they're saving money, they're excited. But this is on a whole different scale in regards to where this could go.

Marty · 18:04So I actually really like this model and I will look it up at the end of this podcast because I just think it's a no-brainer. To get that level of value from a subscription. So very clever. Very clever, Jase.

Jason · 18:20Yeah, well, when you're talking of having close to $6 million a month in revenue and they do, you know, $1,000 a day cash giveaway, if you chance— every day they give away $1,000 cash. Every couple of weeks they might do a major giveaway like $100 grand or $200 grand or a car.

Jason · 18:36And then maybe every quarter you go in the chance to win a multimillion-dollar home.. But we're talking tens of millions of dollars of revenue with very low costs going back out the door. But what they also have, which we kind of talked about before the show, was social proof.

Jason · 18:52Because so many people win from these free entries into these giveaways, you've got ongoing social proof where all over social media, all over the testimonials, all over news articles, you've got real-life everyday Aussies that have won prizes through this giveaway and go, thank you so much for changing my life.

Jason · 19:13So then from this social proof, if you're not subscribing to this rewards club where you get the chance to win a house or cash or a new car, you almost feel like you're missing out. So, you know, I would say, you know, to Adrian's credit, all this publicity that he's doing, he talks about not really liking to be in the spotlight.

Jason · 19:33You know, when you think about what he's done over the years, look, I think maybe starting to enjoy the spotlight a little bit more of recent times. But you know, every time he ends up on the news or being promoted, whatnot, if he gets another couple of hundred subscribers or thousand subscribers, it's just the valuation of his business goes up and up.

Jason · 19:52And there's, you know, to be honest, and there's more everyday people that are in this chance to win something pretty spectacular through their free entries into this giveaway system.

Marty · 20:03Everyone, everyone wants to win, don't they? And the fact is, the one annoying thing about just the prize homes is you've got to wait for 2 months. Right? So if you're getting wins, you know, during the week, that you're seeing that social proof, it gets very exciting. But at the very least, even if you don't win, you get a commercial benefit in regards to the discounts on brands that you're utilizing.

Marty · 20:25So you're still winning. So it's really, really clever when you look at it from that perspective. What are your thoughts, Nick? Are you just signing up there, or—

Nick · 20:35I'm just— I am having a look though at, um, The giveaways, which are, which are impressive. And you know what else? The giveaways, um, the giveaways are very different, as in everyone would be interested in this.

Nick · 20:50So I guess what I mean by that is, you know, on the 25th of October they gave away a turbo HSV VZ Senator, which, you know, is probably only a certain percentage of the community is actually going to be interested in that. Obviously it's worth money, so someone else could sell it, but a Quintrex boat, a Harley-Davidson.

Jason · 21:12They've got a pretty, pretty like they've got a target market, that's for sure. It's like, you know, the, the 20 to 30-year-old, you know, young Aussie kind of, you know, exactly what fits the market a lot more than the, you know, yeah, let's say our parents probably aren't going to rush to buy a subscription to LMCT Plus.

Nick · 21:32But yes, you know, you've actually nailed it. You've actually nailed it. Like, just looking at these now, it's— yeah, it's the 20 to 40 year old, uh, yeah, mostly blokey male. But it's, um, I guess the thing that gets me is it seems so simple, but he's actually done it.

Nick · 21:48And like, I don't know, I'm almost dumbfounded at how simple, how simple it is. And that's obviously not— it's a, it's a marketing play. If I look at this, at the end of the day, it's marketing, right? So where's all of the logistics and the prizes and all that sort of stuff is what it is.

Nick · 22:04And there's obviously legals around whether or not, you know, he can, he can operate it. But it's, it's all marketing. That's exactly what it is. So I don't know, it just seems so simple.

Jason · 22:15Well, I got sucked into the marketing. Well, this maybe, this could be seen as the marketing side of it, but there was a live Facebook event or whatever the other day, and his face popped up on my screen because I follow all the pages, and it was him live at 8 PM going, guys, you know, Adrian Portelli here.

Jason · 22:31About to give away $200,000 cash. And you can see all the people joining live to see because, you know, there's 100,000 people that are in the draw to win $200 grand cash. Now, if you think about it and you're 1 in 100,000 or that because of the volume of entries, the numbers will be different.

Jason · 22:46But if your chances of winning lottery might be 1 in 14 million or something, you tune in live at 8 PM, you're holding your phone and he rings someone live and talks to them on Facebook Live. And you can hear a real life person on the other side fucking crying like, oh my God, I just won $200 $100 grand.

Jason · 23:03Adrian, thank you so much. If you weren't a subscriber then, you're sitting there going, shit, I'm pretty tempted to get a bloody membership to this thing if this is the kind of thing that goes on. But you're right, Nick. I mean, I think being first to market or one of the early people to market has helped LMCT Plus and Adrian's business.

Jason · 23:22There's quite a few others that are doing this now in different kind of mostly car giveaways, boat giveaways, different packages, and they're followed a very similar blueprint and setup. There is a lawyer's website, I think it's Gladwin Legal, something like that.

Jason · 23:40They've actually done a huge article on how to structure like LMCT Plus, and they've gone, we're not affiliated with them, but here's how they've done it. And they've kind of gone through, you know, the different legal loopholes, the structures to set up, the membership terms, competition terms, the permits needed in relevant states and all those kind of things.

Jason · 24:00So you know, there is, this is a known business model now that people are trying to replicate and go for. So yeah, you'll probably start to see them pop up more now that you're aware of what it looks like. And I actually saw one of them, one of the ways it was described is a membership-based trade promotion.

Jason · 24:18So if you want to look into what LMCT is basically technically called a trade promotion. And one of the more simple ones to try and get your head around how it works was Macca's Monopoly. So, Macca's Monopoly is a similar thing where Macca's can't get you to gamble or try and enter a draw to win a car or a house or cash.

Jason · 24:39But when you go and buy your large Big Mac meal and you peel a couple of those Macca's Monopoly stickers, you're going in a chance for a free giveaway. Macca's haven't charged you any more for those little stickers that you peel off. They're free.

Jason · 24:55But you're excited to go down to Macca's when Macca's Monopoly is on and buy the extra, you know, maybe the extra large fries or whatever, or the extra Coke or whatever it is to get you a few more little peelie stickers in the Macca's Monopoly entry. So similar thing, trade promotion. So different partners will partner with McDonald's to give away, maybe it's a Mercedes or, you know, maybe it's a particular house done by a particular builder.

Jason · 25:19So that might be one way for you to get your head around thinking about what, like, what's a trade promotion and how does it work? But that's the model of business and there's plenty of them out there. And if you look into it and you get targeted by the algorithm and whatnot, you'll start to see these things popping up everywhere. Like on my feed.

Marty · 25:35I love what Nick was saying, the simplicity of the business. It always seems simple on the back end when you see it. And Charlie Munger talks about that. He goes, if something's paying the same, you don't get any extra credit for jumping over a 7-foot hurdle to jumping over a 1-foot hurdle.

Marty · 25:50As long as it works and it serves value, then, uh, you, you want to honor that. But it reminds me also of this episode of, uh, Young Sheldon that I've been watching with Charlie. And they have this, uh, they have a laundromat, this background, uh, gambling facility.

Marty · 26:07It is very different, but they can't issue cash prizes off the gambling, so they have to give them a plushie toy. And then the plushie toy is sent back in for a cash exchange, and that's the loophole they get around. In order to keep this going. This seems much more legit than that, but it just brought me back to that.

Marty · 26:24It's amazing what, you know, how you can work it to your advantage as long as it's legal.

Jason · 26:31And look at where there's a will, there's a way. And I think, look, again, that tall poppy syndrome. We've got a 34-year-old, you know, guy who's had a crack and built an absolute empire. And look, beyond LMCT, you know, he's got energy drinks, he's got a home furnishing business, he's been involved in bikini lines, childcare centers, he's got developments, and he's also got different things related into the NDIS, you know, as well as his Little Legends Foundation and whatnot.

Jason · 26:59So this is a guy that's built an empire and is doing much more than just a raffle or a lottery, as some people originally saw it. So congratulations to Mr. Portelli, and hopefully you've enjoyed the unpacking of who is Adrian Portelli and what is LMCT Plus.

Nick · 27:16What are we doing, mate? Are we signing up or what do you think?

Marty · 27:19Well, I'm just thinking we need to get him on because it's like he had a number of failed businesses, if I recall, prior to setting this up and doing very, very well. I'm sure I heard him on an interview saying that he made a couple of tough mistakes in the early days, but like you said, it's to get that level of mindset to be able to orchestrate this so simply and effectively to scale as he's done.

Marty · 27:44Is very, very impressive and should be celebrated. I mean, we all want a little bit more of that, that's for sure.

Jason · 27:51Well, we'll, uh, tag Adrian on our socials, uh, when we, when we post this episode, and I'm sure, uh, Adrian will be happy to come on board and have a bit of a chat about his background and his life and, uh, what's been going on.

Marty · 28:02Love it.

Jason · 28:03That's been episode 139 of The Numbers Game. We thank you for joining back for a new season. If you haven't already, clicked the follow, subscribe like button, get onto all your devices and platforms and get around the numbers game. At some point in the future, you'll probably have to subscribe to our rewards platform, TNG+.

Jason · 28:20We'll be getting in the background developing that at some point soon. But thank you for joining us again, and until next time, subscribe and game over.