Hey there,
Let's talk about something that's been eating at me lately.
I've been inside a lot of businesses over the last four months. Coaching calls, strategy sessions, behind-the-scenes audits. And I keep seeing the same pattern over and over again.
Everyone's building machines.
But most people are building Rube Goldberg contraptions when they should be building laser-focused revenue engines.
You know what a Rube Goldberg machine is, right? Those overcomplicated setups where a ball rolls down a ramp, triggers a lever, which releases a spring, which launches a marble, which eventually... maybe... turns on a light switch.
That's what most business systems look like right now.
Seventeen different software tools. Nine automations that sort of talk to each other. Three team members who each have their own "system." And somewhere in the chaos, money occasionally appears in your bank account.
Today, I'm going to show you how to build what I call a 90-Minute Revenue Engine. It's the backbone system that took one of my clients from $80K/year to $340K/year in eleven months. And the beautiful part? Once it's set up, it runs with about 90 minutes of your attention per week.
Not 90 minutes to manage. 90 minutes to optimize, tweak, and scale.
Let me show you how this works.
THE PROBLEM WITH MOST BUSINESS SYSTEMS
Before we get into the build, you need to understand why most systems fail.
It's not because they're bad ideas. It's because they're built backwards.
Most people start with tactics. They see someone crushing it with Instagram Reels, so they build an Instagram system. They hear about email marketing, so they spin up a sequence. Someone mentions webinars are hot, so they create a webinar funnel.
Each piece works okay on its own. But they don't connect. They don't feed each other. And they definitely don't compound.
You end up with a dozen disconnected tactics that each require their own maintenance, their own content, their own attention. It's exhausting. And it doesn't scale.
The 90-Minute Revenue Engine works differently. It starts with one simple question: What's the straightest line between where you are and money in the bank?
Not the sexiest line. Not the most innovative line. The straightest one.
Then we build everything around that core path. Every piece feeds the next piece. Every automation multiplies the one before it. It's a system designed to compound your effort, not scatter it.
THE THREE-LAYER ARCHITECTURE
Here's how the engine is structured.
Layer One: The Attention Trap Layer Two: The Conversion Sequence
Layer Three: The Multiplication Loop
Each layer does one job and does it well. And each layer feeds directly into the next one.
Let's break them down.
LAYER ONE: THE ATTENTION TRAP
Your first job is to capture attention and turn it into a trackable asset.
Not followers. Not likes. A trackable asset you can message whenever you want.
For most businesses, this means an email list. But it could also be a text message list, a private community, or a CRM database. The key is that you own the relationship, not some platform.
Here's what this layer looks like in practice:
You need one primary traffic source. Just one. Could be LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos, Twitter threads, podcast appearances, or paid ads. Pick the one that matches your natural rhythm and your audience's attention.
That traffic source has one job: drive people to a lead magnet. Not to "check out your website." Not to "learn more." To grab a specific, valuable thing in exchange for their contact info.
The lead magnet should solve one micro-problem your ideal customer has. Not their biggest problem. A small, annoying problem they want solved right now.
For example, one of my clients sells high-ticket consulting to law firms. His lead magnet isn't "How to Grow Your Firm" (too broad). It's "The 23-Point Intake Call Checklist That Converts 61% of Prospects Into Retained Clients."
Specific. Valuable. Immediately useful.
When someone opts in, they go into your CRM or email system with a tag that identifies exactly which lead magnet they grabbed. This is critical for Layer Two.
Here's the tech stack for Layer One:
Primary traffic channel (LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.) Landing page tool (I use Beehiiv for simple stuff or Go High Level for more complex funnels) Email/CRM system One lead magnet
That's it. Don't overcomplicate this.
The metric you're tracking here is cost per lead. If you're doing organic content, your "cost" is time. If you're running ads, it's actual dollars. Either way, you need to know what it costs you to get one person into your system.
LAYER TWO: THE CONVERSION SEQUENCE
This is where most people screw up. They get someone on their list and then... they just send random newsletters and hope something sticks.
Layer Two is about taking that new contact and moving them through a specific journey that ends with a purchase.
Here's the structure:
Email 1 (Immediate): Deliver the lead magnet and set expectations. Tell them what's coming next and why they should care.
Email 2 (Day 1): Share a quick story that positions you as someone who understands their problem deeply. Not a sales pitch. A "I've been where you are" story.
Email 3 (Day 2): Teach them something that creates a micro-win. Give them a tactic, framework, or insight they can use immediately. This builds trust and proves you know your stuff.
Email 4 (Day 4): Introduce the problem behind the problem. The real issue they're dealing with that they might not fully see yet. This is where you start shifting their perspective.
Email 5 (Day 6): Present your solution (your offer). Show them how it solves the deeper problem. Include proof, specifics, and a clear call to action.
Email 6 (Day 8): Handle objections. Address the most common reasons people hesitate. Do it directly and honestly.
Email 7 (Day 10): Final push. Social proof, urgency if appropriate, and a clear next step.
This sequence runs automatically for every new person who joins your list. You write it once. It runs forever.
The tech here is simple: your email system + a basic automation that triggers when someone opts in.
The metric you're tracking is conversion rate. What percentage of people who enter this sequence end up buying?
For most businesses, a 2-5% conversion rate on a cold sequence like this is solid. If you're below 2%, your sequence needs work. If you're above 5%, you're cooking.
LAYER THREE: THE MULTIPLICATION LOOP
This is where the magic happens.
Layer Three takes the people who've already bought and turns them into a compound growth machine.
There are three components here:
Component 1: Ascension Path You need a clear next step for every customer. If they bought your $500 offer, what's the $2,000 offer? If they bought the $2,000 offer, what's the $10,000 version?
Most businesses leave money on the table because they don't have an ascension path. Someone buys once, gets value, wants more... and you have nothing else to sell them.
Build this path deliberately. Map it out. Make sure every product or service has a logical next step.
Component 2: Referral Engine Your best customers should be bringing you more customers. Not because you're asking them to hustle for you, but because you've made it brain-dead simple and rewarding.
Here's what works: After someone gets a result with your product or service, you reach out personally (or via automation if you're at scale) and say: "Glad this worked for you. I'm guessing you know other people who'd benefit. If you send someone my way and they buy, I'll give you [specific benefit]."
The benefit could be cash, a discount, an upgrade, or access to something exclusive. Just make it clear and valuable.
Then give them a unique referral link and a simple one-paragraph email they can copy and send.
Most people won't refer. But 10-20% will, and those referrals convert at 2-3x the rate of cold leads.
Component 3: Feedback Loop This is the piece most people ignore, and it's the difference between a system that works and one that compounds.
Every month, you pull data. How many people entered Layer One? How many made it to Layer Two? How many bought? What was the revenue per customer?
Then you tweak one thing. Maybe you test a new headline on your lead magnet. Maybe you adjust the timing of your conversion sequence. Maybe you add a new case study to Email 6.
You're not rebuilding the machine. You're tuning it. Small improvements that compound over time.
The multiplication loop turns your revenue engine from a one-way funnel into a flywheel. Customers bring more customers. You optimize based on data. Revenue compounds.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Let's walk through what this looks like in real life.
Monday morning, you spend 60 minutes creating content for your primary traffic source. Let's say you post on LinkedIn three times that week. Each post points to your lead magnet.
Tuesday, you spend 30 minutes checking your metrics. How many new leads came in? What's the conversion rate on your sequence? Any red flags?
Friday, you spend 15 minutes reaching out to new customers to set up referrals or upsells.
That's 90 minutes of active management per week.
Everything else runs automatically. The lead magnet captures emails. The sequence nurtures and converts. The referral system brings in compound growth.
Your job is just to feed the top of the funnel and optimize the system based on data.
THE SETUP SPRINT
Now, building this doesn't happen in an afternoon.
You're looking at about 2-3 weeks of focused work to get the engine fully operational. But once it's done, it runs with minimal input.
Here's how to knock it out:
Week 1: Build Layer One. Create your lead magnet, set up your landing page, connect your email system. Start driving traffic.
Week 2: Write your conversion sequence. All seven emails. Get them loaded and automated.
Week 3: Map your ascension path and set up your referral process. Start tracking your metrics.
After that, you're in optimization mode. You're no longer building. You're tuning.
THE TOOLS YOU ACTUALLY NEED
People always ask me about tech. Here's the honest answer: the tools don't matter as much as you think. But you do need a couple of core pieces.
For email, CRM, landing pages & lead magnets, I'm a Go High Level guy. It does everything in one place (landing pages, email, CRM, automations), and it doesn't nickel-and-dime you as you scale. If you want to check it out, go here: https://www.gohighlevel.com/?fp_ref=dk-capital
For content creation and capturing ideas, I've been using Superhuman for email management. It's stupid expensive, but it saves me about 45 minutes a day, which is 5+ hours a week I can spend on revenue-generating work instead of inbox babysitting. If you're drowning in email, take a look: https://superhuman.com/refer/ce58z052
But honestly? You could build this whole engine with free tools if you had to. The system matters more than the software.
YOUR NEXT MOVE
Here's what I want you to do this week.
Step 1: Identify your straightest line to revenue. What's the one offer that brings in the most cash with the least friction? That's your core offer for this engine.
Step 2: Create your lead magnet. Something small, specific, and valuable that attracts people who'd buy that core offer.
Step 3: Write Email 1 of your conversion sequence. Just the first one. Deliver the lead magnet and set expectations for what's coming.
Don't try to build the whole thing at once. Just take the first step.
And if you want help building this system specifically for your business, I've got something for you. We're running a 5-day intensive where I personally help you map out and build your 90-Minute Revenue Engine. It's not a course. It's a working session where we build the thing together.
If you want in, just reply to this email with the word ENGINE and I'll send you the details.
Let's build something that compounds.
Dan