Latest / The Jasmine Star Show / Building a Wildly Successful Business (and how to show up when it’s hard) with Leila Hormozi

Transcript

Building a Wildly Successful Business (and how to show up when it’s hard) with Leila Hormozi · The Jasmine Star Show

• 0:13
  I was in Las Vegas to record an episode of my podcast, the Jasmine Star Show with my guest Leila Hermo. Okay, so Layla is brilliant, funny, humble, and extraordinarily tactical.
• 0:23
  So this conversation is gonna blow your mind why Layla is a builder.
• 0:27
  So she's gonna walk you through how to continue building businesses, leadership, your personal performance in massive ways.
• 0:33
  This is also a note to let you know that this is a Grown folks podcast, so if your kids are present, you might wanna pop in some headphones because some choice words are used, but we've chosen to show up exactly as ourselves. So let's start the show.
• 0:45
  Hi, and welcome to the Jasmine Star Show. Y'all. I have no chill.
• 0:48
  This is gonna like a full out, geek out moment. I had some free podcast jitters.
• 0:52
  I am so excited to have a conversation.
• 0:52
  I am not in my normal recording spot.
• 0:56
  I'm actually recording in Las Vegas with the one, the only content queen c e o of acquisition.com and the new podcast host of Build with Layla Hermo. Welcome Layla.
• 1:07
  Thank you. That was really sweet.
• 1:07
  I've never been called Content queen, so that is a new one. I was like, what was that? Where.
• 1:13
  The crown, where the crown. We'll set that up for you. I'm very, very, very happy and I wanted to start before we get into other questions, I had a phenomenal woman by the name of Cody Sanchez on my podcast a couple weeks ago.
• 1:23
  Now I know that you and her are cool and I talked to her about the point of entry where I noticed her an entirely different point.
• 1:30
  So let's go back to that story cuz I think it's gonna be super interesting to lace together three perspectives at the same event. Yeah.
• 1:35
  So you were speaking at a mastermind in Beverly Hills and uh, you had a one-on-one q and a session and the host is asking you questions and they turn it over to the audience for questions. Yeah, and it was gonna be about like 25, 30 minute con like q and a and I would say probably like the first 15 minutes people were asking you questions and then I didn't know who she was, but somebody in the back of the room raised her hand. They said Cody.
• 2:01
  And she's like, it's all gray on Le like how you met your husband and how you dated your husband and where you like to shop, but I would like to know more about how you run a hundred million company.
• 2:10
  And like I turned my head, I'm like, like she just sweat there.
• 2:13
  Who is that girl? I need to talk to her.
• 2:15
  And so it's like I start there and my question is, do you remember that moment?
• 2:19
  Is that something that happens normally?
• 2:21
  Like do you think that's like if people are asking these questions, what are the questions that you wish people are asking that they're not asking?
• 2:26
  Because girl, give me the list of questions to ask you. So no, I mean, but just from a different perspective, like you in that spot, people asking you different types of questions that they might not ask other people. Yeah.
• 2:35
  Yep. Um, I've had that happen before and I think here's what my assumption is, is that having a successful marriage is more relatable than being a woman that is of my age running a hundred million dollar company. Ooh.
• 2:49
  Or now we have a $200 million portfolio, right? So the company I sold, um, it's more relatable.
• 2:56
  So I feel like people know what questions to ask and this is my assumption, right? I don't know mm-hmm. , um, versus I don't think people even understand what I do.
• 3:04
  And also it's tough because like something Alex and I have always talked about is like he will always get more credit and that is okay.
• 3:11
  We both understand that and we talk about that like it is natural that uh, more people are going to listen to him. He's better at making content.
• 3:17
  He's been communicating for seven years learning how to communicate to a camera.
• 3:21
  Um, and the way that he speaks, he's so persuasive and so charming and so like captivating. I mean, I listen to him . Um, and so we talked about that because he gives me so much credit. Like he's, he's so good about that. Um, and he knows that I get frustrated because I'm like, why does everyone wanna ask me about my makeup and shopping and.
• 3:39
  Marriage? Well your makeup, your shopping is good too. Ok. Like it's good.
• 3:42
  Too. Right, right, right. Um, and it took me a little bit of time to understand, but I think it's just that like if you also think about like the biggest source of pain for a lot of women, it's actually not usually in the workplace. It's, there's a lot of pain there. But think about it, when a woman is distressed in their marriage versus distressed at work, which one is going to take more of her mind share and often it's distressed in their marriage. Mm-hmm. .
• 4:01
  And so I think a lot of the times the reason people ask me about relationships is they've just seen our relationship and they assume also like, let's ask Layla. Cuz I'm guessing Alex doesn't wanna talk about it. Um, so that's why I assume people ask me that.
• 4:12
  But I appreciate that she changed the conversation at that event because I felt like I had more value to add to that audience specifically because they were business owners. Yeah.
• 4:22
  So when you say people don't even know what it is I do, how about we start there that will lay the framework because in the conversation you had said I was running a hundred million business, now we have a 200 million portfolio.
• 4:30
  Somebody listening to me is like, wait a minute, what? Like what is it that you do?
• 4:36
  Yeah. C e o.
• 4:37
  So I think a lot of people misconstrue what like putting out social media and being an influencer and capturing eyeballs with running a company. Mm-hmm.
• 4:46
  .
• 4:46
  And so I think that there's different kinds and nothing is right or wrong, but I am an operator and I have made it a initiative mine to make content because I think that I wanna teach more people how to actually operate a business.
• 4:57
  And that's something that Alex and I talked about cuz we sold our last business and he was on only one that was front facing. And I said, you know, with that whatever next business we do, like I want everyone to understand there's two sides to this.
• 5:05
  Like you are capturing eyeballs and then I am building the team and the business and the infrastructure and you need both.
• 5:11
  And both are equally important because without one or the other, either you have no business or you have a very small business, right? Mm-hmm.
• 5:17
  , it's like, and that's what we joke about.
• 5:18
  If we didn't have each other, it's like it either, like it would be me and I would never start the business, right?
• 5:22
  Because it's like I'm so good at operating in building but like idea generation not my strong suit. And for him it's like he has all these ideas.
• 5:28
  He'd probably have like 17 small businesses, right?
• 5:29
  And so like we joke about that. I'm sure we would both figure out our way, but like that's where kind of the yin and the yang is.
• 5:35
  And so it's really once I am given and like once we have the idea, right, like the idea has been conceptualized, this is what we are going to do, this is the mission of the company, this is how we're going to acquire customers and this is the idea kind of, of how we're gonna like generally serve them. I'm like, cool, I can run with that and I can build something mm-hmm. , like I can think, what's the team that's gonna do that?
• 5:55
  How are we gonna do that?
• 5:55
  I can go hire the people, them build the infrastructure, the technology systems, um, all of that.
• 6:00
  And then the reason that we've decided to create a portfolio is because I also have realized that I am good at teaching other people to do it. Mm-hmm.
• 6:08
  . So I was able to, you know, work with our now C o o and c e O of Jim launch and get them to a spot where they could run the business.
• 6:15
  And I did that with a lot of other leaders and I felt like that's actually what I really enjoy. Mm-hmm.
• 6:19
  is teaching other people how to kind of step into that role.
• 6:22
  And it's not rocket science.
• 6:22
  You know, I tell people that all the time, like being a CEO E o and running a company is not rocket science. Like in fact, most people in the company have harder jobs, like more technical jobs that are more technically challenging.
• 6:32
  Being a C E O is much more people skills, emotional intelligence, you know, understanding communication and behavior change.
• 6:39
  And so I think that it can be learned by anybody. Um, and so that is what I do.
• 6:43
  Like I would say I'm an operator through and through.
• 6:45
  Like if someone were to describe me, it's like, that's my sweet spot. Mm-hmm.
• 6:49
  . Okay. So somebody who has no idea who you are, they're tuning in this podcast in like the nutshell version.
• 6:55
  Explain what happened with Jim Launch and what you guys are doing now with acquisition.com. And I just want you, I wanna use that as the framework so that people can conceptualize Cause we're gonna talk about building Yeah. Like I wanna get into tactical stuff. Yeah.
• 7:06
  But for somebody who doesn't know, let's set this stage.
• 7:08
  There. Yeah. Um, so Alex and I met and we started Gym Launch, which is, uh, was a licensing company. Uh, we started out basically flying out and turning around people's gyms and then we turned that into a licensing model where we licensed our model two gyms.
• 7:25
  And we've done that now with like 5,000 plus gyms. We took that business, uh, we grew it for almost six years, then we sold it to private equity along with a supplement business that sold through that distribution base of gyms. Um, we made a lot of money along the way.
• 7:38
  We made a lot of money we've sold.
• 7:41
  And then we said, what do we wanna do with our lives? Mm-hmm. , like we really enjoyed building that business, but I had to ask myself about a year and a half, two years before we sold, like, do I see myself in the next five years, six years continuing to be in the space, in the gym space, in the fitness space in that industry? And I was like, the answer is honestly no. And it's not because I don't like it.
• 8:00
  Like I love fitness. I work out every day. I'm super into, like I love, I still am a fitness geek. Um, but I just felt like I didn't want to be in just that industry. Mm-hmm.
• 8:10
  .
• 8:10
  And I think it was we started helping people just for fun with their businesses, you know, just like friends. And they would go from like 2 million to like 10, 15 million a year in like a year just with like simple advice from like two hour conversation. And then we said, I wonder if we could do this ourselves with like taking stake in businesses.
• 8:29
  So we took on three, just Alex and I and those businesses skyrocketed.
• 8:33
  They all just absolutely have killed it. You know, one of them's over a hundred million now, the other one's close to 50 million and then the other one's around 30 million.
• 8:40
  And so they all went from like just a couple million a year to that, which was crazy. Wow. And that was only in two years. And so we said, you know, I don't think this is just us.
• 8:47
  I think that we really understand this.
• 8:50
  And so we decided to start acquisition.com, which is essentially a p firm private equity.
• 8:55
  We basically what we do is we take stake in companies that are usually around between five and 10 million. So we're a growth partner essentially. Um, so we take equity in the business and for that equity we bring in our whole team and we basically decide what's the next three years gonna look like?
• 9:12
  What's the next year, what's the next quarter?
• 9:14
  And then how are we integrating ourselves and how are we recruiting the team to, to build the company we need to build? So yeah. Okay.
• 9:20
  So as people are listening right now, if you are making somewhere between one and 2 million and then you hear somebody like Layla and she's saying, we have like proof that we can systematize the way companies are run and can scale. So when you started off and said, it's not rocket science, I'm like, part of me that's just like, you are right. It's not.
• 9:38
  And the other part of me is like, but how, like, so I was worrying for it, so I wanna use this podcast to be like, let's start getting the wheels greased.
• 9:44
  Mm-hmm. . And so I, what I wanna do is I really wanna start with the idea of building.
• 9:49
  So the whole theme of the podcast is me building and we're doing it in three sections. So people who are listening right now, uh, somewhere they're trying to build to their first six figures and then to seven figures. We're gonna talk about like what are the things that they, they're going to need to focus on then?
• 10:01
  And then building and leading a team and then, uh, building practical habits.
• 10:05
  Mm-hmm. . So that's when we're gonna start off with, okay.
• 10:07
  And so I wanna start by a conversation, um, before we actually get into building what I have seen, and please step in and say, no, this is not what I see. Yeah.
• 10:14
  I see business owners getting stuck before they even start the idea of building or scaling.
• 10:19
  So one of the characteristics that we've seen is like for somebody who's building, this is what you said, you wrote this on Instagram that business owners on their way to six figures, the focus should be having to change and iterate quickly.
• 10:31
  And then the characteristics of business owner on the way to seven figures is having the fortitude to stay focused and not change things.
• 10:37
  So can you talk about this business owners who's looking to hit six figures?
• 10:40
  What might keep them stuck in the process of getting to that point?
• 10:43
  Yeah, it's often just lack of clarity, right?
• 10:47
  It's that they don't know what to do.
• 10:48
  So the biggest problem as somebody that is not as six figures yet is just they have no experience and they have no insight and they way is up. Right? It's like, do I go left, right up, down? Like, I don't know.
• 10:58
  And so it's often just that they get lost in their own heads and that's actually what tends to be the issue, is they tend to ideate a lot and then hop from idea to idea, um, and not stick through with something enough to even get good at it to find out if it works or not. Mm-hmm. Right.
• 11:11
  And that's usually what the biggest, you know, I would say like reason that people don't get past six figures, at least from what I've seen, right?
• 11:18
  Mm-hmm. I don't have any data on this. Um,, what I've noticed is that they tend to start something, they're in the uninformed optimism stage. So they're like, this is the best idea ever. The next, you know, Techstars, the next Facebook, whatever it is. And then as soon as they get into it, what they realize, like anything in life is that then they're in informed pessimism, which is oh, all this shit on the other side, which is like with every solution comes a new set of problems mm-hmm.
• 11:44
  . So if you're creating a business that solves a problem, you're also going to come with your solution. Like, you also get the backlash of that, which is like, what are the consequences, the second order consequences of the business created.
• 11:53
  And I think that a lot of times when people experience those second order consequences, then they say, this business isn't right. You know what I mean?
• 12:00
  Mm-hmm. . And so more often than not, I think that people one don't think through what are the second order consequences of my business just based on the methodology, the way it's structured, the clientele it serves. Just like.
• 12:13
  All those, let's get nitty gritty. So, uh, I started my career as a photographer.
• 12:15
  I saw like a large audience of creative entrepreneurs. Mm-hmm. .
• 12:18
  And so if we were to take a jewelry maker mm-hmm. , if we were to take a photographer and if we were to take, uh, cake.
• 12:23
  Baker Yeah. And.
• 12:24
  They're hitting 45,000.
• 12:26
  A month. No girl.
• 12:30
  Girl. We on a different world. I'm.
• 12:32
  Yeah.
• 12:33
  Yeah. Remember, remember we're talking about the, the business owners getting to their first six figures. Yeah.
• 12:36
  And they're at this point to where they can get a few clients mm-hmm.
• 12:39
  and they can get a few cake orders. Yeah.
• 12:41
  And it's like just enough and not enough.
• 12:41
  Yeah. And so at this point in time, are you like, how do they know what they need to iterate?
• 12:47
  How do they know what they need to do? Like if, are they in like the optimism stage and all of a sudden, like, I've been doing this two years, I've gone from 37 to 45, like I don't see me doing anything different.
• 12:56
  Like how do I get to the a hundred? Mm-hmm.
• 12:58
  . Interesting.
• 12:59
  So you're talking more of like a solo operator model. Yeah. Yeah.
• 13:02
  Solo operator model. Um, oftentimes for a solo operator, it's being able to stick with the idea and also leverage yourself out.
• 13:10
  So now that you've put that in there contextually, a lot of the times what it is, is like you can't get past a certain amount without leveraging yourself.
• 13:17
  You know what I mean?
• 13:17
  So like if you own a cake shop and you're still baking the cakes all day, I mean that's like a Got it. That's a, I think lean startup use that methodology.
• 13:23
  It's like you can't continue to do that.
• 13:23
  And I think that oftentimes it was the.
• 13:27
  EMyth, I think it.
• 13:27
  Was Yeah. Eem. Okay. Eem. Yeah.
• 13:27
  Um, you just can't do that.
• 13:31
  And I think that what happens is that most people are just trigger shot to decide what they need to do next, who they need to hire, what systems they need to put in place.
• 13:39
  Cause you have to have some level of business acumen, right?
• 13:40
  But at the beginning you kind of just need to throw shit against the wall. Okay.
• 13:43
  Right.
• 13:43
  This is so good.
• 13:44
  This is so good because we're actually gonna get into the building and actually the how. And so a large, a large portion of listeners are between that 50 to 150,000. Mm-hmm. .
• 13:54
  And so when you talk about the differences between passing the six figure to the seven figure mart, what's gonna keep somebody, uh, focused and staying focused.
• 14:02
  Mm-hmm. like when you had said from zero to six figures, it's going to be to iterate on the back of what you're learning.
• 14:08
  And then from seven figures to eight, it's gonna be staying focused.
• 14:11
  So people get stuck, staying focused.
• 14:13
  What do you tell people who have a hard time staying focused on you hit a million, you're at 1.1 and you wanna get to three and they wanna do a thousand different things. How does somebody hone in their focus?
• 14:23
  You don't. You just accept the fact that that's how we're designed.
• 14:27
  Like if you read the book, the laws of human nature, like the grass is always greener on the other side law, right? Mm-hmm.
• 14:32
  , which is like our brains are always looking for the next best thing. Ooh.
• 14:36
  And so I think, and Alex and I talk about slot cause he's like, he always, he's like, you're very patient focused.
• 14:40
  I have all the same thoughts of like, what if we did this? What if we did that? That would be so cool.
• 14:46
  And I say that's okay, but I'm not gonna do any of that.
• 14:49
  I'm gonna just keep focusing here.
• 14:51
  And so I think a lot of times focus is accepting the path not taken right?
• 14:57
  Because a lot of times we're not focused because we keep thinking about the path that we could take that we didn't take. Ooh.
• 15:02
  That we're not sure if we should take.
• 15:04
  It's like just acknowledge that it's okay that that path is there and it's coming into your head. But like you don't need to do anything about it.
• 15:12
  So it's not that some of that's more focused, doesn't it's that they don't let distracting thoughts dictate their behavior.
• 15:19
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:19
  See, know what I'm saying? Totally.
• 15:21
  It actually happened today. I don't wanna admit it. , my ceo, my C O o is gonna listen to this and I head sent a message on Slack and I was like, have you thought about this? And we could do this and this and this.
• 15:29
  You're just like, great. But we can do that in 2025. Yeah.
• 15:32
  For now this is the course.
• 15:32
  I'm like, you're right , thanks for like bringing me back.
• 15:35
  It's like everybody needs somebody like your brain.
• 15:37
  Cuz my brain is like all the other stuff and having somebody else to keep them tethered is a good thing. Okay. So for somebody who is like on hearing this, they're like okay, I feel like I can leverage myself according to the E-myth.
• 15:48
  Like to get us out and pat beyond like the six figure mark.
• 15:50
  And then someone who said that seven figure mark is gonna be like, okay, I can stay focused and put people around me who offset. I actually recently watched one of your Instagram videos about a guy who was asking like, I'm not really an operator. And then you just looked at and you're like, get an operator . And I was like Wow. Deep thoughts. But it's so true.
• 16:05
  And then you had said, and I really like this point because somebody who's listening to you had said, uh, not to overt title, you said probably just start them as a director. Yeah.
• 16:12
  I was like, oh this is super interesting.
• 16:12
  That's gonna lead me to my next thing.
• 16:15
  Mm-hmm . Um, you talk a lot about building a team and on the back of that video that I had seen, I think that when I look back at my career, I think early on I was hiring a lot of Swiss army knives. Yeah.
• 16:24
  Like these are people like good. Mm-hmm , they're good strong people, good at a lot of different things.
• 16:27
  And then what I realized as the business grew, I needed specialists.
• 16:29
  I needed a scalpel.
• 16:32
  And so as I'm looking through all of these things, let's just say for example, cuz I feel like examples work really well. Yeah. For special people slow.
• 16:39
  Like okay, let's let's turn part. Yeah.
• 16:41
  Let's say I'm looking for a content director and uh, what process do I need to get set up?
• 16:46
  Now this is going back to the jewelry maker who's looking for her first va.
• 16:49
  We're looking at a photographer who's looking for an editor.
• 16:51
  We're looking for a cake baker who's gonna need somebody else to do marketing in her business, right?
• 16:55
  We're looking at whoever these next people are specialists in doing this thing.
• 16:59
  I'm gonna be looking for a content director.
• 17:01
  What systems do I need to have in place to bring in not a Swiss army knife but a scalpel.
• 17:06
  I think that that's not a matter of like having systems in place, it's . So here's the issue.
• 17:12
  The people that you need at that point are Swiss army knifes.
• 17:16
  That must turn into scalpels.
• 17:16
  Ooh. So here's what I hire for.
• 17:19
  So I'll give you an example.
• 17:19
  Um, Caleb for example, brought him in to handle all of our content. No.
• 17:25
  Caleb, if y'all don't creep on Layla like Idu, uh, Caleb is one of the very first videographers you Yeah. And now he really has gone in the organization. Yeah. Okay.
• 17:35
  So he came in and I was like, I was hiring for a videographer but I was like, listen man, I actually like need someone that can do video right now, but like in two months I need you to like build a team. .
• 17:44
  .
• 17:45
  Like that's ideal because here's the thing is that you can either hire uh, one and then honestly you're not going to need them at some point very soon.
• 17:53
  Then you have to tie to the other person.
• 17:55
  So there's two ways that you can go about it, right? Mm-hmm.
• 17:56
  either one, you hire the Swift's army knife with knowing that in a year they most likely are going to end up quitting because you're gonna have to start hiring, hiring scalpels and they're not going to like that. Most people don't. Mm-hmm.
• 18:08
  . Now I try to educate people on this and say like, Hey, you're a Swiss army knife, I need you to become a scalpel.
• 18:12
  Like here's how it looks.
• 18:13
  This is what happens in business and I don't want you to leave.
• 18:14
  So here's what's gonna happen. Right?
• 18:16
  I always try to like narrate it for them because I know cause it's happened enough times.
• 18:18
  Mm-hmm. However, a lot of people just don't like that cuz they're like, well now you bri someone up above me and there's people around.
• 18:23
  It's so different. I used to do everything and you took away responsibility.
• 18:27
  Right. So it's really tough for people to make that transition.
• 18:29
  But that is one way that you can do it is first hire the Swiss army knife, then bring in the scalpels, try to narrate that for them so that they understand this is normal.
• 18:36
  When you hire the Swiss Army knife, are you hiring for their potential to become a scalpel or are you fully cognizant like this person will life?
• 18:42
  So I'm just saying that this is the option that you just hire Swiss army knife and you know that they don't have potential to become a scalpel because a smaller business owner often doesn't have the brand or the reach to hire somebody who's a unicorn like Caleb for example. Yep. Most people that I hired, Sheila for example, who does, you know, are head of people, I was like, come in, I need you to recruit at first. And she's like, I have a recruiting year.
• 19:00
  So I was like, I need you to recruit at first and then build the recruiting team.
• 19:03
  And then she was like, okay, so she came in and did that.
• 19:06
  So there's two ways you can really do it.
• 19:08
  Which is either hire the Swiss army and then accept the fact that you're going to have to, it's like in the army, right? It's like there's, you're call your session of duty or whatever they call it, right?
• 19:18
  You have a duration, you're like I'm here for two years, whatever.
• 19:20
  It's like that a lot of businesses mm-hmm. .
• 19:21
  And the reason that a lot of startups get a bad rap is because there's not enough education about this out there for employees that oftentimes the organization has to grow in a manner that they will not like and they won't acclimate to.
• 19:31
  I try to always narrate this to my team.
• 19:34
  I showed my team one time at a team meeting. I said, 99% of you will not be here in five years.
• 19:37
  That's the stat in a startup from year one to year five, I think it's actually 95, 90 5% of employees aren't usually there.
• 19:45
  Mm-hmm year five from year one.
• 19:48
  And it's so funny because I looked back at Jim launch in year five and I was like, that is correct. Mm. Everyone in that room pretty much gone.
• 19:53
  Hundred people. Um, now is that something I'm proud of? No.
• 19:57
  Cause I think that I could have mitigated that if I had known more, but that is pretty typical if you have a fast growing business.
• 20:02
  Like if you're starting and right now you're listening to this and you're at like 40,000 and then you get to like 10 million, the kind of people even need it. Like the kind of Swiss army knife you need is so different. Mm-hmm.
• 20:11
  that it's like, even that's why I talk about not overt titling cause I'm like, hey, it could grow and if it grows, like you wanna make sure that title is actually smaller right now so that you can protect yourself and maybe bring someone above them and then educate them.
• 20:23
  The way I do like to do it, if you do have brand and the ability is to bring someone in, say I need you to be a Swiss army knife and then I need you to be able to build a team of scalpels. Right. So I would like to, I like to hire from the lead.
• 20:34
  Cuz here's the thing, you can hire a bunch of doers, but the issue is this, is that eventually you have to hire a leader anyways and that leader probably isn't going to have hired the same people you did. Yeah.
• 20:43
  Because they know how to do the job better than you.
• 20:45
  They know how to build the department better than you.
• 20:47
  And so even a small business, I think that it is worth reinvesting the resources to hire leadership first.
• 20:53
  I fully believe that cuz I've done it both ways and in the beginning, a few doers. Yes. However, very quickly hire the leaders.
• 21:00
  Like it costs more in the short term and less in the long term. Mm-hmm.
• 21:03
  You know what I mean? So you don't inquire so much managerial debt.
• 21:06
  Okay. So, um, I, I heard you on a podcast and there's a guy, it was actually you and Alex were on the podcast. Oh yeah.
• 21:12
  And he was kind of like pitching his business for you and Alex to come in and you guys were kind of like, oh my gosh. Just were like, no, no, no.
• 21:19
  Now that's not the time. And I remember listening and I remember thinking, I was like, is this guy really like getting free consulting and is he really pitching to them right now? And what is your girl doing? I was like, so I have another question,. I was like, I'll send you the bill for consulting. No, I'm saying this because one of the things you had said is there's not a lot of education mm-hmm.
• 21:35
  and there's not, there's not a lot of nitty gritty education for us to knowing 90 uh, 95% of the people Yeah.
• 21:41
  We wanna live in the candy line.
• 21:44
  Like we're building the dream.
• 21:46
  There's a lot of times that people don't have the ability to take the dream to where it needs to go. Yeah.
• 21:49
  And I feel like that statement alone should be really empowering to people who have felt like maybe like myself, I felt like I let people down.
• 21:55
  Like I felt like I had to make moves and understanding the team had to change.
• 21:58
  So if I had known that step, maybe I would be able to step into it powerfully understanding like, this is the cost of growth.
• 22:03
  Uh, yes, it is the cost of growth.
• 22:05
  And I think that's what I've tried to tell people is I'm like, they make it mean that they're so bad at business. They're like, I had to fire these people that were hundred percent from day one.
• 22:11
  I'm like a hundred.
• 22:12
  Percent.
• 22:12
  Most people from day one aren't there on day 657.
• 22:15
  A hundred percent. A hundred percent. So, uh, one thing thing, the story I'm telling myself is I'm hiring a scalpel.
• 22:21
  I'm ready to hire a scalpel, but then I think this person's not gonna wanna do, like I can tell you immediately what they're gonna need to do in the beginning in order to have them hire the most amazing content team thereafter.
• 22:33
  But I think to myself, is this person really gonna wanna watch archived videos and timestamp and understand voice and understand connectivity and how we YouTube on the backend. Like the story I tell myself is, hell no, that person's not gonna wanna do the stuff that we can hire like a stateside VA to do. Talk me off that ledge or say you're right.
• 22:50
  Um, in terms of hiring that unicorn, that person that can, yeah.
• 22:53
  Like you hire this like amazing person in like great in the beginning you're gonna do this, but we're gonna hire out the team.
• 22:58
  I mean, I would look at it like this, which is like, I think so highly of you that I want you to come in, see everything we're doing, understand how we do it current day, and then I want you to build a team that can do it. Right.
• 23:07
  That's an opportunity for somebody that's a career making opportunity for somebody rather than like bringing someone in, in like a cookie cutter situation.
• 23:12
  And so you have to like, that's the thing with like a smaller businesses is you have to find people who are growth oriented. Mm-hmm.
• 23:18
  , like I in every small business, I don't know why they don't have a core value.
• 23:25
  That's like something associated with growth.
• 23:27
  Because businesses grow because people grow, right? Mm-hmm.
• 23:30
  .
• 23:30
  And if the people aren't growing then they're not gonna fit in the business. And so for that kind of role, like if you are hiring and you're interviewing the right people, they would be excited by that opportunity. Me starting acquisition.com, guess who literally contacted all of the people who applied to be a portfolio company? Layla emailed from a fake email that was like, I meant Layla's assistant because we had so much, cause I started over with zero. We started with a team of five. Got it.
• 23:55
  It was like doing, and I was sending out emails, sending out, like literally doing everything I have almost literally like in cash, almost a hundred billion .
• 24:01
  And I'm doing it because I value the importance of understanding how something works.
• 24:07
  And anyone that is astute at business knows that if you can build that is more valuable than incremental growth.
• 24:11
  Mm. And so if you give someone the.
• 24:16
  Opportunity, hold on, hold on, hold on.
• 24:18
  I need to pause and repeat a couple things that I heard back is under your breath, you had said at the time I had a hundred million cash. Like, I want that to like sit as like a powerful framework for both men and women, but specifically women who are listening.
• 24:29
  That you would be able to stand in your power and say, that is a fact.
• 24:33
  And what yet I am doing is making up a fake email address to do the work, to find the right person to build.
• 24:39
  And so I kind of just wanna let that like set for people who are listening to be like, this is power.
• 24:44
  And oftentimes what we do is we want to abdicate the very simple things because we wanna be at a different place.
• 24:50
  And like what we're hearing from a builder is that in order to build, you must do simple things and you must attract the right person.
• 24:55
  How do you know that somebody is hardwired for growth? How do you know that?
• 24:59
  I think if somebody's excited at a challenge.
• 25:01
  And so how do you assess that?
• 25:01
  When somebody's applying?
• 25:04
  I present them with all the things that I want them to do. I don't hold it back.
• 25:07
  So I'd be like, this is what I need you to do. Okay.
• 25:08
  This is a fucking impossible job. I need you to come in here.
• 25:11
  I need you to do all this shit that's awful and I need you to figure out how to build a team to do it in like three months. And they're like, that sounds, they're like salivating over it. And I can tell because somebody, they will, their voice will raise, they'll start talking higher. Mm-hmm. , they'll be excited. Somebody who's not growth oriented and they tend to, you know, like get too uncomfortable.
• 25:29
  Like probably levels of anxiety at that kind of thought is like, they'll be like, oh well I mean like how long do you want me to run the thing?
• 25:36
  And how long do you so good you're, look, they're looking for an, an end date versus the other person is like this what I is what I'm built for.
• 25:43
  You know what I mean? Mm-hmm.
• 25:43
  . And it's like, I think that some people you have to look at like what do they value in themselves, you know what I mean?
• 25:49
  Like I look for people who value the fact that they can work really hard for long periods of time and like they pride themselves upon that.
• 25:57
  Cause that's what I do, right? Mm-hmm. .
• 25:58
  And so I know that I need people like that around me to help build this thing.
• 26:00
  Mm-hmm. versus there's people that don't. They're like, like, I mean, I had a call with somebody and I was like, here's what I need to do all these things.
• 26:06
  And it was somebody that wasn't Caleb, it was somebody else for that position.
• 26:09
  And they were like, well, like I have to be really frank. Like, I'm like, I'm done at five o'clock. Like I can't like, and I was like, oh. I was like, dude, that's totally fine, but like we can't work together.
• 26:18
  Like that is acceptable, right? But not here. Right.
• 26:21
  And like I make that super clear. I'm like, that's not like good luck finding a startup that does least you wait, find one. But I doubt they will grow. Right. Right.
• 26:29
  And so it's like at least if it's bootstrapped right, VC money, it's a different thing. Um, like a bootstrapped startup business.
• 26:35
  Like you need people like that.
• 26:36
  And oftentimes the most disgruntled employees and like the worst experiences come from the employer or like the c e o entrepreneur, not understanding what kind of people they need and hiring button pushers and people that are there to clock in and clock out rather than people who are like willing to like bleed and die by the company.
• 26:53
  And then the employees not understanding the difference between a startup and a corporation. And so they apply for a startup thinking like, this would be fun.
• 27:01
  I have more influence on, well what's the cost of the fun and influence?
• 27:03
  The cost is that you've gotta work your ass off. Mm-hmm.
• 27:05
  now in neither situation is any person being forced to do anything. This is an opt-in, you're not a prisoner to the company. So it's like, some people say, oh, they made me work all day. I'm like, you took the job.
• 27:14
  If it, you're at a startup and you're like complaining about how much you're working, I'm like, then go work at a big corporation but you Mm-hmm. So it's like, what's the cost of freedom?
• 27:22
  It's like most entrepreneurs will work all day to not have to work all day.
• 27:25
  And most of the people on the team will work a lot longer to not have the stringent rules and the red tape that big corporations bring. So it's, there's always a cost, you know what I mean? And.
• 27:33
  Do you think that your content kind of like puts up the safeguards around like you're attracting people who kind of subscribe to that philosophy?
• 27:38
  Or do you think that you do a lot of it like in the job applications in onboarding? Or is it like you're applying cuz you know, it's all of.
• 27:44
  It is everywhere We are. So we repeat, my favorite thing is when it comes to the end, I'm like, what questions do you have about the job? Where are you lacking clarity?
• 27:51
  And they're like, honestly, I, I fucking get it. .
• 27:54
  They're.
• 27:54
  Like, I've watched all your content.
• 27:54
  I've watched how Alex's content, I went through the whole process and like everyone is very congruent.
• 27:59
  They all say the same things. And what they all repeat is they tell me this.
• 28:03
  They're like, you guys all talk about the values. They're like, you guys talk about the values in every interview and you all say them multiple times. Competitive greatness, sincere candor, unimpeachable character, competitive greatness is the biggest filter because love of a hard challenge. And that's what I want on this team.
• 28:19
  That's what we need to accomplish our goals.
• 28:20
  Now does that mean that I've created a hostile work environment where people are being pushed to work too long? If the people that I hire like that kind of work, the answer's no. If I hire the wrong people, then yes, they'll feel that way.
• 28:31
  Mm-hmm. . So.
• 28:32
  Okay, so, um, can I read something on that note? Yeah. Okay.
• 28:37
  So when you talk about attracting the right people and if I created a hostile work environment, it's not whether or not that was in fact the case.
• 28:45
  It was whether or not you hired the right person.
• 28:47
  I think so. It's all about expectations.
• 28:49
  Hmm. Okay. So I'm gonna read something.
• 28:51
  What most people don't know about Layla is how generous she is with her team and how much she cares.
• 28:56
  She constantly finds a way to show kindness to others and it's just a part of who she is. For example, my husband took a job recently and he's gonna be traveling on the road.
• 29:03
  I'd post on Instagram how my kids were having a hard time.
• 29:06
  Next thing I know I had donuts at my doorstep to cheer my kids.
• 29:09
  If someone is sick, she sends them soup.
• 29:09
  If someone is celebrating anniversary, she sends 'em a gift card for dinner.
• 29:14
  She randomly sends people thoughtful gifts. She doesn't have to do this, but it's who she is. She genuinely cares about others.
• 29:20
  She's truly an amazing human and I'm thankful every day of being on her team.
• 29:24
  . That was from Shit. That was from Yasmin.
• 29:29
  Yeah. Yeah. And so for those of who are not familiar, I've been familiar because I watched videos and how you accidentally missed a meeting and you had scheduled your own meeting and you went on stories and be like, I'm so sorry I missed a meeting.
• 29:42
  It's because Yasmine didn't schedule it for me. Da da da da da.
• 29:45
  That's why I don't schedule. And so when I reach out to you on Instagram, I'm like, I'm gonna be in Vegas. Can we do this podcast interview? You're like, talk to Yasmine . And so I got, I got the ins and she, I asked her a question, she's like, I don't normally answer like this, but I said, I really want to showcase a different side of how you approach people and how you build teams.
• 30:02
  And so there was a time where you had launched Jim Launch and you guys are going through Covid and in one of your videos you talked about the time that you told your team that for a period of time that everyone had to work nights and weekends to ensure your customers and your company got through it. Yeah.
• 30:15
  What was that process like asking the team to do that?
• 30:18
  And then how did you feel as a leader?
• 30:22
  I think I was really lucky because I had read a book, uh, by Ben Horowitz, the Hard Thing about hard things.
• 30:25
  And he talked about, you know, essentially you have to let your team know when things are tough.
• 30:33
  Like you have to be transparent.
• 30:33
  And it's not that like hiding.
• 30:35
  It does no good for them. And I've never been a hider mm-hmm. . Um, you know, I probably, I try to appear very composed to people.
• 30:42
  I think anyone on social media can probably see that.
• 30:44
  Cause I cracked enough with my company . Um, uh, but you know, he talked about like, we have to be in it together.
• 30:49
  And the only way if you read about companies that can the only way that they're able to do it is like complete transparency and then complete honesty. And so I told them where we were at financial, I have, I always in every company share all the financials. So I was like, you see the financials? Wait a minute.
• 31:05
  Okay. Whoa, whoa. Okay.
• 31:05
  How much of the financials, like how detailed are the finances?
• 31:10
  So anyone in a leadership position, they get the full p and l. Got it.
• 31:13
  All the itemized breakdowns. Okay.
• 31:15
  The rest of the company gets the high level like revenue, profit, loss, like that kind of stuff. Got it. Um, only reason I don't for the whole company is it is I did at one point.
• 31:23
  And it's very hard for people to understand Right.
• 31:25
  If they're not educated on how to read one. And so it just causes a little more.
• 31:28
  Confusion. Thank you for that clarity. That was great. Yeah. Cool.
• 31:30
  So the hard thing about hard things.
• 31:32
  Yeah. That hard thing about hard things. And I asked myself like, what kind of company do we wanna be? Do we want, how could we use this as an opportunity to be a stronger company on the other side? And I'm like, the only way, and if you look, I'll give you an example, right. People that go to war together, like comrades in arms come out and like they are closer and they stay connected for the rest of their lives. Cause they went through something hard together.
• 31:53
  Right. And I thought to myself like, that's like kind of how it feels right now with this. Like, it's like our industry has hit harder than it's us in restaurants. Mm-hmm.
• 32:01
  we're fucked. Mm-hmm.
• 32:01
  . Um, and, but I was like, this team can come out stronger on the other side. I was like, so I want that For us, here's what this looks like. Like we all have to work nights and weekends.
• 32:12
  Not because like anyone's lacking, but because if like we all feed Jim Launch, it's not just me and Alex feeding Jim launch.
• 32:19
  It's every one of us putting in the effort to feed this company right now.
• 32:22
  It's too small or it's too big for it to just be like a few people or the leaders like working their sasses off. It needs to be the whole team.
• 32:29
  And so I explained that to them. I explained like, these are different circumstances, different times. We're in wartime, we're not in peacetime, so here's what wartime looks like.
• 32:36
  Here's the difference between wartime and peacetime. And I explained to them to like, the one thing that I don't, I didn't skip out on was making sure that the people that stuck it out, that stood it out, stuck it out. Uh, that, you know, like stood it out with us and like really committed themselves, which was mostly everybody. Like we made sure that they were paid well, they were compensated for it. That we, you know, again, like go above and beyond sending gifts, doing things like investing in them, giving them bonuses. Like I speak a lot about the hard stuff, but I care deeply about everyone on my team and I care deeply about people.
• 33:23
  And the only reason that I hold people to high standards and I am hard on people is because I care about them.
• 33:29
  Because if you really care about somebody and you want them to be as good as you are, do you expect to do that? Putting them in different circumstances? No.
• 33:35
  They have to go through the same hardships you've gone through to become the kind of person. So if somebody joins my team and says, I wanna be good at business like you and Alex, they're not gonna get that way with me protecting them. Right.
• 33:45
  You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 33:47
  A hundred percent. So are you doing this in person? Are you guys doing it?
• 33:49
  And it's probably in Zoom, right? Zoom? Like, like we're back in big Zoom pandemic.
• 33:51
  Okay. Yeah. And what's going on?
• 33:55
  What are the faces? What are the vibes?
• 33:57
  Like how do you feel like you press end meeting and then where's your head at? Like what's the story there?
• 34:04
  I I got feedback on the meeting.
• 34:04
  So Okay. They were hyped.
• 34:07
  . They were like, ah, okay.
• 34:10
  That's, and that's cuz they're the right people for the team. Like I knew, I was like, we have the right people.
• 34:13
  You know what I mean? Like, they get it.
• 34:16
  Grower die is one of our core times there.
• 34:17
  Like you don't attract people that are like, like, like tiptoeing around work.
• 34:23
  Like a lot of other stuff going like grower die is like, people are fully invested, they're super bought into the mission and we had a great culture.
• 34:29
  And so they were all like, I fucking got you. I would go to war for you guys.
• 34:33
  I would do, I mean like everyone was so, they were so supportive and like the reason that company is where it is now, which is like growing and thriving and doing so well is because of that. Like, I am a thousand percent positive because everyone's really like stepped up.
• 34:46
  So you had said most people made it through the pandemic mm-hmm. there was a subset of people who did not.
• 34:53
  Was there a common theme of the people who just were just like, I think I'm good.
• 34:56
  Yeah. And you know, I respect them for it.
• 34:58
  There were some people that left because their priority was not work, it was their family and they were prioritizing. And, and that's where seasons of life are very interesting.
• 35:07
  So someone can be very growth oriented, but it might be that all their growth is going into a different area of their life. Mm. And that is.
• 35:13
  Amazing. Totally.
• 35:14
  Understandable.
• 35:14
  Like.
• 35:14
  Right. Totally get it.
• 35:16
  And there are sometimes some roles in companies that are small startups that are fitted for people, like in that area of their life where they're like, I can't fully, but like I'll check in and do a fucking awesome job. But like I, I'm out at four or five. Um, and I think anyone that was in that phase was like, Hey, I've got small kids at home, I've gotta do that. And I was like, totally respect that. Like, I.
• 35:32
  Get it. Mm-hmm. . Ok.
• 35:33
  We just need.
• 35:34
  Extra. Okay. So, um, we're at that point and we talk about being real and authentic and you got feedback on the team meeting. So after the feedback on the team meeting, you close the zoom and then where, where's your head at?
• 35:48
  I think I felt relief.
• 35:48
  Mm-hmm. , I tend to always think that I'm okay. Like Alex knows this. Like I, I'm pretty insecure in the sense of like, I do all the things, but like, I'm like, oh, they probably think I'm awful.
• 35:59
  They probably think I'm a terrible c e o. Like my mind totally goes there.
• 36:01
  And then seeing the slack being like blowing up with like, let's do this.
• 36:05
  Let's go. We're gonna crush everybody, eat all our competitors do. I was like, it's just like relieving to feel like you have that kind of support.
• 36:12
  You know what I mean? Hell yeah.
• 36:12
  Um, so, uh, pleasantly surprised.
• 36:17
  Good. Okay. This is good.
• 36:17
  This is good. So, um, a lot of your content is being really real and authentic and I think that you sharing, um, the, the insecurity, I don't think that anybody on the outside would look at you and think, oh, she must have closed her Zoom meeting and being like, she wonders if she's a terrible c e o. Like nobody thinks that.
• 36:34
  So a lot of your content do does show that.
• 36:36
  And then you show up in interviews and, and you talk about that thing.
• 36:38
  So I wanna say thank you. Um, but what has it looked like practically at different points in your career?
• 36:43
  Like, how did you have to show up and be a hundred percent yourself?
• 36:45
  So go back to when you guys were first starting gym launch or even prior to that at different points in your life where you were in between, I'm trying to get, do this six figure mark at that point.
• 36:55
  How did you have to show up and be real unauthentic?
• 36:57
  Because I think that it requires different things at different stages.
• 36:59
  Unless I could be wrong cuz baby girl, you at like 10 feet, nine, 10 figures.
• 37:03
  I'm not there quite yet, but I, from what I've seen, it's required different levels of vulnerability and authenticity as in the content I create. Do you agree?
• 37:09
  Disagree. What were you doing? Mm-hmm.
• 37:11
  .
• 37:12
  Um, I think that first it's learning how to be transparent with a small number of people, right? Mm-hmm. , which I think is easier because you establish pretty close relationships with them. Mm-hmm. . Um, and that wasn't too hard for me.
• 37:24
  So having a small team, being close with them, being transparent, that's never been like a super difficult.
• 37:28
  But having a larger team and learning to how to communicate effectively with them in a way that you're considering everyone's perspectives and also still trying to remain true to yourself. Mm-hmm. , because you wanna make sure you communicate in a way but you also wanna remain true to your message. Um, that takes practice. Um, and for myself, I think stress, anxiety, and security is so misunderstood because most of the time people think like, I wish it would just go away, .
• 37:50
  Like, I look at it like, it's just like, it's like care on steroids. Like that's how I think about it to myself is like, I care a lot. Like I care most, more than most people, which is why I stress over things.
• 38:04
  Why I stress over being good CEOs because I care about the company.
• 38:07
  I care about the people there.
• 38:07
  I care that they feel included.
• 38:09
  I care that they feel like they understood my message.
• 38:11
  I care that they feel like I delivered it correctly.
• 38:13
  I care about every little thing I say, I'll think about it after this podcast, I'm sure.
• 38:17
  And so I think that that was something that I learned was actually an advantage for me having a big company, was that I cared enough to think through every person's perspective, how will they hear this message?
• 38:29
  Is there any way that it might rub them the wrong way as long as it's, you know, obviously I'll never lie, but like when you were delivering something, there's a lot of nuance to a team to explain things in a way that you include all the departments, you include all the people, you consider all their perspectives. Um, and I think that anyone that leads anything, whether it's a team or a cause or anything, has to kind of think through those perspectives.
• 38:49
  And then I think going into content, it's like there's small team, then there's bigger team, and then there's kind of public facing public, right.
• 38:57
  Public facing. And I think that Paul, just.
• 38:58
  Pause real quick for a minute of clarity.
• 39:00
  When do you mark the time that you're like, I'm making a concerted effort to show up online in a different way. What year?
• 39:05
  Mm-hmm. . When, when did this happen? Mm-hmm.
• 39:06
  , um, a little over a year and a half ago. Okay. Um, yeah, we were in, uh, bear Lake, Utah and I had said for years that I was gonna make content and I just like never did it.
• 39:18
  And when you say, I said to whom? Yourself? Mothers.
• 39:21
  Yes. Okay. Nobody else. I would never tell anyone else. Okay. Um, but I did, like, I had like on the side people like creating podcast like that and I just like never launched it, like never did anything because I, I'm scared. I, I just truly just like, I care a lot of what people think in my own company. So I'm like, Jesus, what's it gonna be like with social media? You know what I mean? , I'm like, it's gonna be like this on steroids. Um, and you know, it is it sometimes right? It is. Yeah.
• 39:41
  Because you see yourself and you're like, oh my God, should I say that? Or like, it came out totally the wrong way.
• 39:49
  Or like, do I act like that? Like, oh God.
• 39:51
  Like we were watching a YouTube video one day and they were like, uh, there was some drop off here. We're not sure. I was like, oh my God, I sound like a bitch. Of course they drop off, I'm drop off too.
• 39:59
  You know what I mean? . So I think for that, that requires a level of, um, you know, I don't think I figured it out quite yet in terms of like what's required.
• 40:07
  I think I just keep doing it because, okay.
• 40:09
  But let's go back to Bear Lake, Utah.
• 40:10
  Yeah. You've been.
• 40:11
  Saying, okay, I wanna create content.
• 40:13
  You're saying it to yourself and like low key have like, like drafts of podcast artwork and you wanna do it. Yeah.
• 40:20
  But what's the conversation that you have then that you're like, oh, now is the time. Now I've decided I'm gonna create, like what did you tell yourself what happened?
• 40:26
  Because there are people who are kind of dabbling in it, but what I see a lot of is the half in, half out and you're never gonna get a result.
• 40:33
  Yeah. Um, I just compared myself too much to people. So if you're asking like, why didn't I start till then? No.
• 40:39
  At what point? No. So we understood the backstory of what was that? Yeah.
• 40:41
  What made hurdle and then what made you start?
• 40:43
  I think that I just, honestly, I just remember waking up one morning.
• 40:47
  I think I was just pissed about a few different things that were happening.
• 40:49
  And I had like a free morning until noon and I literally just was sitting there and I was like, what am I gonna do till noon? I finished all my work yesterday.
• 40:56
  Like I was just like, we were in Bear Lakes, there's nobody there.
• 40:58
  And I just got everything done and then I was like, I was like, thank you.
• 41:01
  I had a little pop popup that was like, you should make contact.
• 41:02
  Cause you said you're gonna do that for like a fucking year bitch.
• 41:05
  and .
• 41:07
  To your, to yourself. I know.
• 41:08
  I expected. Um, and I was like, fuck.
• 41:08
  And I was like, I'm so sick of my shit.
• 41:13
  And I was like, get up and make some content. And so I was like, fuck, okay.
• 41:17
  I have a ton of content. Like all my team training for the last six years, I basically take and turn onto content.
• 41:20
  So I was like, here, I'm gonna go.
• 41:23
  And so I got like three modules. I filmed them out of just, honestly, I think it was just being frustrated with myself.
• 41:28
  Like I was just angry with myself. I was just pissed.
• 41:31
  And so on that day in Bear Lake, you pulled out your modules? Yeah.
• 41:35
  You I drafted them. I looked at Alex's content. I said, what's the framework of like making content? I watched a few of his videos.
• 41:40
  I wrote down the general framework, said.
• 41:42
  You're such an operator. God you're such job , not even working. Okay. And then thought you that framework.
• 41:49
  So here's the framework. And I was like, if you want it, here's your framework for how your, your contact . And then I made it.
• 41:54
  Three of them. I filmed them like.
• 41:56
  On your laptop?
• 41:58
  Uh, we had a good camera there. Okay. So it was like a, I don't your tripod something.
• 42:00
  Okay. . And um, then Alex had a YouTube guy. I was like, I'm gonna show you this to your YouTube guy.
• 42:06
  I wanna see if I can just start a YouTube. And he was like, okay.
• 42:08
  And so then I got a hold of the YouTube guy that day. He said, send me the videos. I downloaded'em, sent 'em. And then he's like, you can't use these like you're film way too far away selling something .
• 42:16
  And so I was like, but I was like, don't do 'em again.
• 42:19
  So then I woke up the next morning, I rezoned all, wait.
• 42:21
  I think we need to pause. That is where people quit, is like, I did the work.
• 42:26
  I have to do the same thing again.
• 42:26
  I'll get to it when I get to it.
• 42:30
  And then the difference here that I just wanna cite is like, the next day you have to do the same amount of work and you decide to do it again.
• 42:36
  Your mindset is what at that point in time because I'm really trying to like, you think different and I don't think that you actually like understand how different, like you, you talk about flipping the script. Yeah.
• 42:45
  And like you talk about like, uh, YouTube guys saying no. And then you say yes.
• 42:49
  What's happening there?
• 42:50
  I didn't think of it like work.
• 42:50
  I thought of it like practice.
• 42:53
  Mm-hmm. It's practice. Mm-hmm.
• 42:55
  Like every time you have to refilm something, every time you have to do something again, it's just be, you can get better.
• 43:00
  So I'm like, they'll be better than they were yesterday. Mm-hmm.
• 43:02
  You know what I mean? So you recorded.
• 43:03
  Them, you sent 'em to a YouTube guy.
• 43:03
  Yeah. And he's off to the races.
• 43:06
  And that was it. Did you.
• 43:07
  Have like a commitment of like, this is what I wanna do X amount of times per week or I said.
• 43:11
  That I will commit to making the videos and not stopping and that is what I will commit to. Whether it's, I will make no less than one a week. But you know, we started it I think two or three a week and I was like, at some points I was like, not gonna do that many. Cuz there's, this is my priority, the business over here.
• 43:25
  So it's like my commitment's just been like, something will go out every week.
• 43:28
  That's what I'll commit to and I'm not gonna stop no matter how I feel.
• 43:31
  That's pretty much it.
• 43:32
  Ooh. I like that. I'm not gonna stop depending how I.
• 43:34
  Feel. No matter how I feel. No.
• 43:35
  Matter how. Well, here's.
• 43:36
  The thing with content is like I don't do it full-time.
• 43:40
  I also am married and partnered with somebody like a fucking savant content. So I compare myself constantly.
• 43:45
  Like you have to understand like, I'm always like analytics .
• 43:47
  He's like, babe, it's like you're grow.
• 43:50
  And I'm like, I know I could be better if I wasn't so consumed with running and building the company. . Right. And it's very frustrating to me cuz like, what you don't know about me is like, I'm not competitive, but I'm, I wanna be the best at everything. . And so is.
• 44:03
  That the exact definition of competitive ? I.
• 44:05
  Don't think about others though. Lemme put it that way. Oh yeah. You're.
• 44:07
  Competitive with yourself about others.
• 44:08
  Yeah. Mm-hmm. . I just wanna be the best and I'm like mm-hmm.
• 44:10
  I know what I could do.
• 44:12
  And so for me that's probably been the hardest part about making it.
• 44:15
  And I think a lot of people probably feel that way cuz a lot of people now are getting into making content. Um, but they're also running a business. Yes.
• 44:21
  And I think it's really hard because you just compare yourself to also people who might not be running a business, right? Mm-hmm. , there's a lot of people out there who make content and like they're an affiliate, they make money off this. And like, I've met a lot of those people and I learned from them, but I've also accepted and continuing to accept over and over again. Uh, and it might not ever be as good as that in terms of the delivery because I don't have as much practice mm-hmm. , you, like, if you don't get as many reps, then you can't expect to be as good as that person. Mm-hmm.
• 44:47
  That is so good. Okay.
• 44:50
  So you shared on Instagram that how you've come to embrace it work cannot mean stress.
• 44:55
  And so I think that in that way I'm thinking about how you decide to show up, uh, putting in the reps. Do you associate not putting in the reps?
• 45:03
  So the capacity that you would like as stress?
• 45:06
  I think I used to a lot more mm-hmm. . Like I, I used to be so uptight, , um, and then I realized it wasn't serving me.
• 45:13
  Like it served me to a point in my business and then uptight stopped serving me so much.
• 45:17
  Um, cuz like I tended to be like, I wanna be the perfect c e o, uh, I wanna have the perfect body.
• 45:25
  I wanna have the perfect husband and marriage.
• 45:26
  I wanna have the perfect friendships.
• 45:26
  I wanna have the per like, I always was like, and if it wasn't, I would be very upset. Um, and then I realized that I was just consistently unrealistic expectations. And so I looked at my life and I was like, I have this like, successful life, but I've been stressed, uh, for most of it. And this was probably two and a half years ago. Um, and I was like, why? And I was like, I continue to set expectations that I've literally never met .
• 45:55
  And it's not for lack of trying, it's for like, I try every day, the whole day, all day, every day. Um, but it was realizing that there was nothing wrong with how I'm doing things.
• 46:04
  It's just the expectation in my head.
• 46:04
  And I think understanding that like, if you exceed expectations, you're excited and happy.
• 46:11
  If you don't meet expectations, you're constantly frustrated, upset, stressed.
• 46:14
  Mm-hmm. . And I just had to reset expectations with myself.
• 46:17
  So that's why you hear me talk about like, the goal is to be imperfect because I will still try very hard, but if I make the goal to be perfect, I will be very stressed.
• 46:25
  .
• 46:26
  So is that the mindset shift that was required two and a half years ago for you to release that? It's just, instead of saying, I want the perfect life husband business, I wanna be the perfect c e o too.
• 46:36
  Yeah. I'm going to be imperfect not for want of trying, but I will be imperfect.
• 46:41
  But every day I'm gonna be committed to doing it again and trying.
• 46:44
  It's, it's how I can get through my my days, honestly.
• 46:48
  It's like something doesn't go right and the first thought that comes up is like, fuck blah, blah, blah. And then the second immediately, like, and it's faster every time is like, this is good. You are learning to adapt.
• 46:57
  It's good to be flexible. We don't wanna be perfect. That's the next thing.
• 47:01
  And it's always that. Okay, it's good. You wanna be flexible, we don't wanna be perfect. And I think for me, that's how I manage my own self.
• 47:07
  Mm. That's just like reworking that.
• 47:09
  Okay. So we're gonna wrap up the conversation a little bit, but mm-hmm.
• 47:12
  , um, I wanna talk about two practical things that people can do as a business owner and as a leader.
• 47:17
  So the first idea of regularly practicing things that make you feel uncomfortable. I know you've talked about this on Instagram.
• 47:22
  Why do you think it's so important for business owners and what does this practically look like for you now?
• 47:25
  Mm-hmm. , I think you, you kind of shared about that a little bit right now mm-hmm. , but a little bit more context to see what it's like to be in your head.
• 47:34
  Because I think that what social media does and it's great at, is showing somebody 0.001% of somebody's life. Yeah.
• 47:41
  And so when you talk about the goal to feel uncomfortable, what does that actually look like for you?
• 47:45
  I think that we regress towards, you know, whatever we train ourselves to do more of or whatever we accept, whatever we train ourselves to do, whatever we practice is what we tend to.
• 47:57
  It just, it only grows, right?
• 47:59
  And so we're constantly avoiding something that's uncomfortable in any area of our life. We tend to do it in all areas. And so for me, the reason I talk so much about un discomfort is because, um, I think most people talk about it because it's just, you notice that if you do it in one area, it stems to the rest, right? Mm-hmm.
• 48:13
  , it becomes like a practice because it's almost like, you know, I don't know much about it, but it feels like I start to get excited, right?
• 48:20
  Rather than nervous. If I pursue enough things that are uncomfortable, it's like my natural reaction to something uncomfortable becomes excitement rather than nervousness because I've built enough confidence in myself from doing those other little uncomfortable things. Mm-hmm.
• 48:33
  that when something bigger comes or something that's like unexpected, I actually have a different reaction to it. I'm like, oh yes, good.
• 48:39
  Let's, let's do this because we know that we can rise to a challenge, right?
• 48:42
  Why?
• 48:42
  Can you give an example? I mean obviously if it's personal, it doesn't have to be shared, but what's something right now in your life when it feels like life looks quite grand? What is something that you initially thought, wow, that makes me uncomfortable to, wow. I'm excited.
• 48:57
  I mean, I'm doing it right here probably, but like , like, I mean, I mean seriously.
• 49:03
  Like, that was good.
• 49:04
  All, all things content related would be one. Like everything with content, I get uncomfortable. I get uncomfortable the night before. I'm like, did I write my scripts correctly?
• 49:10
  Did I do this? Are they gonna suck?
• 49:12
  I'm gonna fucking blow.
• 49:12
  Like, it's been a hard week.
• 49:14
  What if I sound like an asshole?
• 49:14
  Like, I think about that a lot. Um, and then in terms of like in the business, it's, you know, it's so funny.
• 49:22
  I'm so much more comfortable in the business than anywhere else. Like, I feel so good making decisions in the business. Oh, that's funny.
• 49:27
  And operating and helping other people. I actually don't have, it's like where I feel the most comfortable. It's like and I'm.
• 49:35
  So glad we're doing this. Like I, it's nice to see you squirm. Yeah. Yeah.
• 49:40
  That's hard. We're black. I'm sweating.
• 49:42
  . Uh, the second idea outside of being uncomfortable is to Saw. Before I saw your content, I actually saw a meme.
• 49:49
  Did you know that your calendar got turned into a meme? You saw that? Okay.
• 49:53
  Okay. Yeah. Okay. So for people who are not familiar, I.
• 49:55
  Dunno which meme you saw.
• 49:56
  People who are not familiar and correct me if I got the chronolo chronology, I I probably said it wrong. That's okay. As a very famous podcaster. Okay, so I got the timeline probably wrong because I saw the meme before I actually saw the piece of content. But if the content flows as such, you talked about your work schedule and then you shared a screenshot of your actual calendar in which you said, this is my actual calendar. Yeah.
• 50:18
  And then when I saw the content, my first thought was gangster. Like yeah, yeah, yeah. I got hype.
• 50:23
  But there was kind of like this total opposite reaction to people seeing your calendar, which is who wants to live like that essentially. Yeah.
• 50:31
  What did you see on the back of that? Mm-hmm.
• 50:33
  Because I think it goes back into like expanding work capacity and what does that mean for you?
• 50:36
  And then what was your reaction when seeing people have such a strong reaction to.
• 50:40
  I don't think I qualified the content enough. So like, you know, you also have to understand, like, my team takes, and teams take what I say, we draft them and I look through and approve and like I'll be like, okay, we'll take my words and put them on LinkedIn then. Like, maybe I write them.
• 50:55
  But then we take them, we rephrase them for a different platform, right? Yes.
• 50:57
  Yes. So I go through and look at it all, but like sometimes I'm barely looking at it. Right. Got it.
• 51:01
  And I think that if I was paying closer attention, like the way that I would've portrayed it is like more qualifiers, right? And, and this is my fault. Like, I sometimes speak without qualifying. Like, this is my calendar, this works for me. Um, this doesn't mean that I think you should work this way cuz it doesn't, I don't give a shit when anyway does.
• 51:19
  Um, but I think that people took it as the way that I posted it. They took it like, if you don't do this, you're less than like, I think that you almost have to say like, Hey, I totally respect you if you don't work a lot. And if that's like what you want, you just want lifestyle and like chill. And like, I mean, I don't have kids or anything, so it's like, what else am I gonna do?
• 51:38
  You know what I mean? And I work with my husband, like I get to do that with him all day. It's fun. Um, so I think if I had added in more of that stuff, like it probably would've been taken a much different way if I were like, by the way, I run this business with my husband, so I get to hang out with him all day, which is awesome. I love doing this with him. Uh, I also don't have kids, so I don't have to fit that in. Um, and I'm lucky enough that I get to design my own schedule. So I get to, you know, put my workout whenever and do all the, and if you don't like this and you don't wanna work as much, then you know, more kudos to you.
• 52:05
  I think that oftentimes if you just put things out there like that, it's taken like as people that don't want that schedule, take it like I'm putting them down. Mm-hmm.
• 52:15
  I think that's what it is at the end of the day.
• 52:16
  And I think at the other side of it that the way I phrased it, it sounded like a big dick move. You know what I mean? Like, you know, look at my calendar and I was like, I wish it, I didn't write it like that.
• 52:27
  So I would be totally fine standing up for that post if I had written it in a way that I felt like was true to who I am and how I actually talk.
• 52:35
  I don't think I did. Hmm.
• 52:36
  I did not expect that from you. Like really to me is just like such a, like a humble bow. Like, okay, I was outmatched in this and like where other people come out and re coil from like grow up, like what I do has nothing to do with you.
• 52:51
  And what you had said was, I sh could have done a better job prefacing that this is what I do. Yeah.
• 52:56
  And so it just shows a level of humility. And on that note, uh, talking about imperfection and then talking about work capacity. Mm-hmm.
• 53:03
  , can I read something? Yeah. Oh.
• 53:05
  Oh man. I.
• 53:06
  Know like, oh shoot. Uh, Layla has always been independent and set in finding her own way.
• 53:13
  She is persistent and resilient.
• 53:15
  She has a huge heart and cares so much about the people around her.
• 53:17
  As a freshman, she started working at a cafe and was soon supervising people.
• 53:21
  The manager always told me she was grateful for having Layla there.
• 53:25
  A couple years before her college graduation, she told me she wanted to live alone. And it seemed like she wanted to work on herself more.
• 53:34
  I was so proud of her when toward the end of college, she told me she wanted to do an internship in California.
• 53:39
  We lived in Michigan and she applied for a position that was coveted by Mini.
• 53:42
  She flew to San Diego for an interview by herself and was offered the internship.
• 53:46
  Most people wouldn't even apply for such positions when they know there's so much competition.
• 53:50
  But she spent a summer in California living in a cabin by herself and sometimes working more than 16 hours per day.
• 53:56
  When she graduated college, she decided to move to California without a job.
• 54:00
  She drove across country, we followed him a separate card, and she managed to get a job, learn about sales, and find a way to do what she wanted to do.
• 54:07
  Her independent mindset is something I admire in her.
• 54:10
  We talk a couple times a week and we keep in touch daily via text.
• 54:13
  I think of her as a gift that was given to me by God.
• 54:16
  She makes me proud every day to have a daughter like her.
• 54:22
  No, my dad.
• 54:23
  That's your dad. Yeah. I um, I actually read what your dad wrote and part of why I get choked up is when your dad responds to me on Instagram, your.
• 54:31
  Dad. My dad's probably so freaked out. No.
• 54:34
  I sent the video, I was like, hi, this is weird , I'm interviewing your daughter.
• 54:38
  I think she's amazing and I want to show a different side to her.
• 54:42
  And can you tell me? And he just wrote the kindest words.
• 54:45
  And so when he responded, I was like, Layla's dad responded.
• 54:48
  And I read them message to my husband and part of why I get choke up is my husband looked at me and he said, oh, we're raising a little Layla, her mom's name. The way your dad speak you is we can already see.
• 55:00
  And our daughter who's three years old, I was like, oh, she possesses, oh, these qualities she's going to want to live on her own and move out.
• 55:06
  She's gonna wanna live in a cabin. I'm already crying.
• 55:09
  Oh, that's so sweet.
• 55:10
  So thankful that you did this. I'm so thankful that you time for this.
• 55:14
  I'm so thankful that you have people around you who you could ever speak of yourself.
• 55:19
  And every expectation that I ever have coming into someone like wow, they're both so far superseded by just who you are as a person.
• 55:25
  Thank you for breaking various women. Thank you for doing show.
• 55:28
  What is wrong with me? like notes.
• 55:31
  I read notes and this is the last you want crying.
• 55:34
  I know, I know. We're I've said that before. I'm like, Female entrepreneur, like in executive, like, there we go. No, no, no. Um, I'm just like so thankful.
• 55:41
  Like this was great.
• 55:43
  I think you had done added so much clarity around what is not spoken about.
• 55:46
  I think you show up as a very strong female entrepreneur.
• 55:49
  I think you taught us lessons on showing up despite how we feel about creating content or doing something that makes us uncomfortable.
• 55:54
  And I think you also humbly showed us that even when something goes out, there was a lesson to be learned and not for you to fight, for you to be seen a certain way.
• 56:02
  I wanna say thank you a thousand times over y'all.
• 56:04
  If you have enjoyed this podcast, please, please, please send Layla a DM on Instagram.
• 56:07
  You're Layla n Formo. Yeah.
• 56:12
  Anyone can get me the handle. Layla Homo .
• 56:15
  If.
• 56:15
  We can do that, you'll be compensated. .
• 56:18
  Fairly compensated. Let's go. If anybody can get Layla Homo on Instagram.
• 56:22
  But until that point, until that point, send a DM to Layla n Homo.
• 56:27
  This is the Jasmine star short. So thank you.
• 56:30
  You.