# Contrarian Thinking

Codie Sanchez's media and training on buying SMBs.

The financial-media company built by Codie Sanchez around buying cash-flowing small businesses: a free newsletter the company says reaches over 550,000 readers, the Main Street Millionaire book and event, the BigDeal podcast, and paid courses and community tiers.. Its current lineup is Contrarian Academy for buyers, Acquisition Foundations for beginners and Growth Boardroom for owners, with a separate holding company beside the media business. The free newsletter now claims more than a million weekly readers, up from the figure this row used to carry.

- Category: Education & Programs
- Pricing model: Freemium
- Where it fits: Learn & Choose Your Path
- Website: https://www.contrarianthinking.co

## At a Glance

Read the free content and the book, keep your wallet closed until you have a thesis, and buy structured help (if ever) by comparing the community tier against Acquisition Lab and a good [buy-side](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/buy-side-versus-sell-side) attorney [retainer](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/retainer).

## What It Costs

Still mostly unpublished. The only figure on the vendor's own pages is in the beginner course's FAQ, which prices it at $2,000 and credits the same amount against the Academy; the Academy itself is apply-to-join with no price anywhere, and the owner program publishes none either.

## Best For

Getting motivated about the category and absorbing the deal-hunting mindset for free, with a clear head about where the funnel is taking you

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: The largest audience in small-business buying, which means polished free content and constant deal vocabulary exposure
- Pro: The book is a readable, inexpensive on-ramp to the [boring-business](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/boring-business) thesis
- Pro: Free tier alone covers the motivational and awareness layer most beginners need
- Con: Marketing leans on how achievable ownership is, and critics fairly note the gap between the pitch and the work of operating year one
- Con: Paid tiers are expensive relative to books, communities, and courses elsewhere in this directory
- Con: Course and community pricing is not published centrally and changes between reviews
- Con: Content optimizes for reach, so depth varies widely piece to piece

## What Searchers Say

Enormously visible and genuinely influential in bringing new buyers into the category. Independent reviews split between crediting the free content and criticizing sensationalism in the sales funnel; even critical reviews generally stop short of calling the paid products without value.

## Compared With

- Which paid education path fits a serious buyer? (https://searchspheresource.com/resources/compare/acquisition-lab-vs-contrarian-thinking.md)

## Sources

- https://www.contrarianthinking.co
- https://gosbaloans.com/guide/contrarian-thinking-review/

Also on this site: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/category/education.md
Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/contrarian-thinking
Last checked: 2026-09-07

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt