Leila Hormozi: From Minimum Wage Employee to $100M Net Worth By 29

What I really thought about was, when does it end? You know, like at 8 arrests, at 10 arrests, at 300 pounds, at 350 pounds? I just really thought about that and I was like, what does my life look like in 3 years, in 4 years, in 5 years if I keep doing this? And that terrified me enough to immediately change literally everything.

Okay, Layla, welcome to the show. It's exciting to see you here. We've had Alex on a couple of times and, uh, I don't know, you guys are pretty kick-ass. We've, we've been, we, you, you're like one of the few business, like power couple celebrity couples that are out there in the public. Did you ever think you would be doing that? Like, did you ever think, oh, I'll be the kind of like guru influencer-y person who's going to be out there giving advice or giving frameworks or trying to be helpful to people? Is that something you, something you saw yourself doing?

Not in the beginning because I think I just really enjoyed running the company. And then I think once I realized that after a certain point, the impact I wanted to have, I would, it would be required that I learned that skill and that it would be something that would be transferable to what I did day to day as well. Then that was when I was like, okay, I think this is important for me to learn because what I realized is I can be as good as I am at running a business, but if I'm not as good at running it as I am talking about it, then it doesn't really matter. If I can't communicate my abilities, then that in itself is a limiter for me teaching my team and transferring that skill to somebody else, whether it be an audience, my team, a friend, whatever it might be.

I feel like when I hear you talk, it's like, okay, you've, you've really got a, a super strong sense of how you like to operate. It's like you got it together and a system that works for you. And that comes through experience, it comes through trial and error. But let's rewind before you had all that and let you tell your story a little bit. 'Cause there's gonna be people who are listening to this, don't know your full story. I don't know your full story, to be honest. I love this one tweet that came out of the research. You said, you can't skip the struggle if you want the story. So I want to use that. You can't skip the struggle if you want the story. So in telling your story, let's start with the struggle. Can you start where you didn't have it all together? You weren't this sort of business Terminator. You, you were struggling, you were trying to figure it out. Can you start there?

Yeah, I would say that, you know, ever since I was like a teenager, uh, uh, I always wanted to get into entrepreneurship mostly because I had my father, he was a tenured professor, you know, he did everything by the book and he honestly was miserable. And so I really just felt like that wasn't the way to go. I just didn't know what the way was. And I got lost along the way so much so that like, you know, when I was 19, I had been arrested 6 times. I was drinking, doing drugs. I was 230 pounds. Like my life was going nowhere. I was flunking out of college. And that was when I really, when I turned my life around, just learning how to live my life in accordance with my goals and values rather than my feelings. And that was really what taught me a lot of discipline. I ended up losing almost 100 pounds. I moved across the country by myself from Michigan to California. And I went to go to California because I wanted to pursue a career in fitness. Because then I had finished school for exercise science. Useless, but nonetheless, I had finished school for it.

So you just said, you just said a thing that, like, in a movie would have been like 60 minutes and you did it in like 60 seconds. I want to zoom in. So you were like, I'm 230 pounds, I'm drinking, I don't know what I want to do with my life. I'm basically single, broke, and out of shape, right? That's kind of like the start. And then you were like, so then I decided I'm going to start living life in terms of my goals. And then I did. I lost 100 pounds and like, All right, hold on. I've been there before. I know that there's something that happens in between those, right? If it was so easy to just live in accordance with my goals, I probably would've been doing it earlier.

Yeah.

There must have been some wake-up call, some sort of moment, some sort of a tough conversation with yourself where you decided to, to start making that shift. What was that moment?

There was two moments. The first one, which was like, okay, I want to stop. Being a fat ass is I was at a party, or I went to a party, it was my friend's birthday party, and it was college, right? And so then she's like, I'm gonna invite these people, which had been our friends in high school. And I was like, oh gosh, that's embarrassing because like I'm pretty overweight now. And so it's like, I hope nobody says anything, but nobody's gonna say anything because that's really rude, right? And so there's— we have this party, everyone's drinking, and I'm walking past a couple of guys I went to high school with and going to the bathroom, and I hear a guy and he's like 'What a shame.' And I was like, I was like, 'What?' And he was really drunk, and I was like, 'What's a shame?' And he was like, 'Man,' he's like, 'You know, it really sucks because, like, you know, you were really pretty, but you're just really fat now.' Oh. And I remember in that— no, but here's the thing, in that moment— yeah, yes, um, in that moment, I was like, but my, my internal voice actually was like, He's right. And I was like, I hate that, that what he said is true. And so it was in that moment that I was like, I don't want somebody to be able to say that about me anymore. And avoiding the situation, avoiding real life is not, it's not cutting it. And so I remember I went home and I like, you know, like wrote this Facebook post in pure rage. It was like, you won't see me anymore. I'm going dark and like, expect not to hear from me. Um, And I really was just like, I can't keep overeating. I can't keep not taking care of myself. I had stopped working out, basically stopped working out, started eating like shit and drank all the time. And if you do all those things at once, like you just continue to gain weight. And that was really the moment that did it for me because I just, the fact that my response was, I agree with him. It wasn't like I'm mad at him. I'm anything. I was like, nah, he told the truth. And I think that if you don't want people to say bad stuff about you, then change. I'd rather just change the situation than try and avoid people.

Yeah. You, you type up the Facebook message, you say, I'm going dark. Did you have a plan or you just had the fuel at that time?

I just had the fuel. I mean, and the funny thing is I remember, uh, my plan was this, just eat half of what you're eating.

I mean, seriously, it's not the worst plan.

It really wasn't. And so like, I actually would just take what I was eating and I would just eat half and, and that worked for me. And it, it, I lost about 60 pounds that way. And so, you know, the other 40, then I got into macros and lifting and all that stuff. And that's really when, like, that took me on, like, where I've probably been since then. The second moment was the 6th time that I was arrested. So I had been out at college, you know, drinking, blacked out. I wake up, I am in my, my bedroom at my parents' house. So like my childhood bedroom. And I was like, oh my God, I don't know what happened. And I rolled over, I was in bed, like pounding headache, feel like shit. And there's a ticket for my arrest on the bedside. And I was like, fuck. Okay, so they took me back to my parents' house. I don't remember a thing. And then I'm like, I need to go downstairs to exit the house. And so I was— I just remember I grabbed the ticket And I put on clothes and I walk down the stairs and I see my dad sitting on the couch with my stepmom. And I was like, okay, like I'm ready. He's just, he's gonna just rip into me. And I sat down and I was just expecting him to just eviscerate my character. And instead of eviscerating my character, I remember he looked at me and he was like, Listen, I'm not gonna try and control you or tell you what to do or tell you that you need to change your life. I just want to tell you, I'm just— I'm really worried because if you keep doing this, I think you're just gonna end up killing yourself. And it was weird, but in that moment when he said that, it was like— I think when you're young, you feel invincible. Right? Like, you drink, you feel like nothing will happen. You drink and drive, you feel like nothing will happen. You do drugs, you feel like nothing would happen. And it was like, in that moment, I recognized that he was right and that I'm no different from all these other people who have gone down this path. I could actually end up really hurting myself. And I think the second to that was I felt so terrible that I made someone who loves me so much and has invested so much and only made my life better feel so shitty by who I was being. And so, you know, I left and I was like, I can't keep doing any of this, you know. Like, yeah, being fat and working on all that, but like, I can't keep drinking like this, I can't keep doing drugs like this. This is not the life I want. And I remember, like, what I really thought about was, when does it end, you know? Like, at 8 arrests? At 10 arrests? At 300 pounds? At 350 pounds? You know, what kind of drugs do you stop at? And so I just really thought about that and I was like, what does my life look like in 3 years, in 4 years, in 5 years if I keep doing this? And that terrified me enough to immediately change literally everything. And this is a process again that I just still haven't figured out how to quite explain, but it's like the moment in that moment The fear of remaining the same was so much greater than any fear I had of change that I changed the next day. Like, I threw out all my alcohol. I decided I was moving out of the house I was in. I lived with 6 people. I said, I'm not drinking, I'm not doing drugs, I'm gonna work out, I'm gonna eat healthy, I'm gonna get a second job. So I got a second job. So I'm going to school, I've got 2 jobs because I was like, I can't— I need to fill my time with something. Um, you know, I joined a gym. And I started, you know, in my spare time reading, watching YouTube videos that were, you know, self-development, whatever. I just said, I can't be that person anymore. And it was like, I was so fed up with everything. And in that moment, the pain was so high that it made it fairly easy to change immediately because I understood finally that I was so uncomfortable as is. And it's like, I could remain uncomfortable in the situation I was in, or I could be uncomfortable changing. Only one of those is productive, right? And only one of those is turn my life into something that I'm actually proud of. And so those were the two moments that really caused me to change my life.

All right, so when I ran my company, The Hustle, I think we had something like 2 million subscribers and we made money through advertising and we didn't actually make that much money per person reading the newsletter because advertising in general is kind of a crappy business model. And so I remember sitting down and I'm like, What are all the different ways that I can make money off the hustle that aren't advertising? And so to make sure that you don't make this mistake, Sean, me, and the HubSpot team, we went and looked at a bunch of different ways to monetize your business, and we put it all together in a really cool document where we lay it all out along with our research, and we call it very appropriately, we called it the Business Monetization Playbook. Go to the description of this episode and you're gonna see a link to that, uh, Business Monetization Playbook. It's completely free. You just click the link and you can see it. Back to the episode.

Have you ever heard of the Dickens method?

Mm-mm.

It's basically, uh, exactly what you just described. If you ever go to like a Tony Robbins event, like his big kind of events, um, on one of the days he does this. And it's basically the Dickens method is a, it's a technique where you sort of vividly imagine you, you time travel to the future. You're like, okay, let's play it forward a year. Let's play it forward 5 years. I'm still doing it. I'm keep doing it. I do more of it. In fact, cause I am increasing whatever the bad habit, whatever the decisions, whatever the, whatever the thing I'm doing is, and you play it forward. And then how does that affect you? How does that affect the people that you love? And he sort of gets you to sort of go there. And yeah, you know, like, uh, when I did it, when I went to this event, it was like, um, you know, I wasn't really going through much at the time. So it was, I was like, I don't know what this exercise for, but around me there was literally people like screaming. It was honestly a very uncomfortable moment. Uh, but people were really feeling something in that moment where if you play it forward and you vividly imagine what the future looks like 5 years later, 10 years later, 15 years later, and how that affects all the people around you, it creates this like emotional charge where it gives you again, uh, the pain of not changing increases over the pain of change. And just like you described.

Yeah.

Which by the way, I've talked about that in this pod. I, I had the, I had a similar run rate. I had about, uh, 3 arrests in 3 months. Really? Uh, yeah. I, I also weighed 230 pounds. Uh, and I was a disgusting person and yeah, love, love booze and substances. And so it had a similar issue of like after one arrest, you're like, what the fuck, man?

What the fuck?

I didn't live with my parents at the time, but I did. I lived with my dog. I had like this dog and I like, he shit all over himself one day because I got arrested and I was in jail for 24 hours and I was like, oh my God, I'm letting him down. It was like, it's so funny. It was like a very similar. Everything changed at that moment. So you and I, we are the same.

We had no idea.

Yeah, we, we are similar. Uh, and at what age were you when you moved to California? What age were you when you met Alex?

Yeah, I was 20, almost 23 when I met him.

Wait, wait, describe the first date.

Well, they're, they're buds first, right? Weren't you guys buddies first?

We, we were buddies, but we were dating. I don't know how to describe this.

Uh, there's a term for that.

Yeah.

No, but not, not actually for that. Let me, I'll put it like this. So like, yeah, that's not what I mean. Uh, we met on Bumble and we went on our first date. He asked me to go to Froyo. He was like, listen, it's low commitment, so if we're weird we can leave. And I was like, I mean, good, because I've been on some bad fucking dates lately, man. Um, and so we meet at Froyo. He comes up, he's not very friendly. I just remember the first thing, he was like not smiling. And I was like, what's wrong with this guy? Uh, we get in line and he's still not smiling. And I'm like, I'm like cracking a joke or two and I'm like, this guy's Tough. Uh, come to find out later, the reason he wasn't smiling is because I have a full back piece. Like, my whole back is tattooed angel wings, which is traumatic and embarrassing, but, uh, it's because I got it when I was 18 and high and drunk. Um, and so he saw that and was like, oh man, one of these girls. And, uh, so apparently he was judging me the entire time for that, that tattoo.

Don't judge a book by its cover.

Don't judge a girl by her back. All right, that's, that's the lesson.

It's too painful to get undone at this point. Um, and so, you know, we ended up sitting down for froyo. And honestly, uh, you know, once he had a few bites and I think got blood sugar in his system, because if you know Alex, you know his blood sugar is, uh, uh, attached to how much food he's eating. And so I think once he ate, he was like, hi. And I was like, oh, okay, you're a nice person, let's go. And, uh, we actually just started talking about business. Really picture this, right? Like, I had moved out there, I was only focused on my career. I didn't have friends, I didn't have a boyfriend. I had gone on dates, but I did not find anybody I'd liked. So I was really just me and my work, and I was trying to figure out like, what do I need to do next? Because I was doing online and in-person training. And then I met him, and he actually had the same story. So he had moved out from Baltimore, Maryland to pursue fitness, opened up a few gyms, um, and was trying to figure out what he was going to do next as his next step. Didn't really have a lot of friends and obviously didn't have a girlfriend, and so we didn't really have anything else to talk about. And so we ended up actually like eating froyo, and then we went on like a 4-hour walk and we talked about work the entire time. And I remember leaving the date because, you know, it was froyo, so it was like 3 PM. He had a dinner at like 7, and so he actually asked me, he's like, will you come to the grocery store and get stuff for this dinner barbecue thing I have? Uh, and I was like, sure. And we just talking the whole time still about business. And once we got done, I got into my car and I was like, that was the weirdest date I've ever been on. Like, it wasn't even like a date. We didn't talk about anything romantic at all. Um, we just literally talked about work, but like, all I know is I wanna keep talking to that guy. And I went back and I told my roommate, I was like, I'm just so interested. Like, he's the first person I feel like I've had an intellectual conversation with. Since I've moved here, you know, because most of the time when I'd go out on dates with people, it's like they had zero ambition, they had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives. And it was California, so that's like a little bit more of the culture. Um, they also just didn't really like the fact that I was as ambitious and working as much as I was. And so to meet somebody who actually saw that as a pro, had the same things in common, and wanted to talk about them, it was like the most enjoyable date I'd been on. And then I think He called me the next day and was like, hey, do you want to like work together? And I was like, sure, sounds fun. So I went over to his house and I like brought all my stuff, my laptop and everything. We started working and that just like slowly kept happening over time. And then, you know, maybe, yeah, yeah.

Uh, and then one meeting, for sure, we kissed in a meeting.

Um, No, no. I mean, it was just like we had shared interest. Uh, you know, I didn't know when I met him that, uh, he was also Persian. So then I found out, oh, we're both— our— both of our fathers are from Iran. We had that in common. Um, you know, we had both moved out there on our own. We just had a lot in common that I was just not expecting. And because of that, it just felt like for the first time in so long, I had somebody who saw reality the same way I did and who didn't wanna make me into somebody I wasn't. You know, like, I've always— every— I can't even tell you how many times I've gone on dates with guys and they're like, you seem really great, but you're kind of weird, and like, you're like a little obsessive. And I was like, yeah, I know, but that's— I don't really want to change that about myself. Um, or they didn't like that I worked as much as I did, and I like working, so I'm like, I don't want to apologize for that. And he was the first person I met that saw all those things as pros that everyone else had seen as cons. And not only that, but, you know, I think I saw the same in him with a lot of things that people have complained about. And so You know, about a month in, he's like, I feel like you should not start this online thing or do this in person. I was basically like, do I open up my own gym or do I partner with this woman who wanted me to be her business partner online? She already had a successful business. And so, you know, 4 weeks in, I said, screw it. Like, there's nothing to lose to go do this with him, to start this business, because I'm 23. Like, if shit doesn't work, I'll just go back to what I was doing. But I will regret if I don't take this chance to see if it could work.

And the thing that you're just talking about, that's Gym Launch?

Gym Launch, yeah. And the first, you know, year and a half was literally just like, he'd be at a gym, I'd be at a gym, different locations, different, um, states, and we'd be filling them up. And then we'd call each other every night and be like, here's what I'm doing, here's what you're doing, like, just like best practices. And that was like the first year of dating, which was like, I, we're living out of extended stays. We're in different states. We're trying to launch these gyms. You know, I'm 23 walking into some dude's gym being like, I'm gonna fill up your gym. They're like, what is going on? Right? Um, and so, you know, the first year of our relationship was just like the eating shit phase of business, but doing it together.

What do you mean by the eating shit phase of business?

You know, it's just like when you start anything, when you have no skills, you're trying to accumulate all the skills at once. You don't know what you're doing. You have no clarity. And so you're just like throwing shit at a wall. You're probably like not taking care of yourself the best you can because you're so focused on just trying to make this thing work because you're kind of just like in survival mode because, you know, at that point we have like no money as well, right? We've like pretty much burned through all the money. Then his business partner gets access to the bank account where we've been putting all the money from these gyms, steals the money. I mean, it was just like thing after thing.

Weren't you guys like living at your parents' home as well?

So we lived a few different places, but then at one point we moved back to my parents' house for 2 months. At another point, we actually lived with one of the clients of one of the gyms, which was actually more fun.

Your dad's like, you know, I thought I was disappointed before, but now actually somehow this is worse. Yeah. So, yeah. So you guys, uh, I wanted to ask you guys this. So you've, Gym Launch has this story. I, I, like he, Alex has come on the pod. He's told the story about like how it. you know, went from like figuring it out to the business partner stealing the money and then he scales it. If you want to listen to that, there's an episode we did with him. But what's the, like, I've seen this now a couple of times where sometimes you just get a business to work and you just crack a nut and it scales in a way that sort of breaks your brain and you may never, you may never even see that again. So I think you guys did something like year 1 or year 2, it went from like 0 to like something like in the range of $15 million by year 2, something like $24 million. I don't know if that's run rate or Realized revenue, but realized revenue, realized revenue. That's an insane curve. What's the summary of why that worked like that? Because that's not normal. Could I go do that same business today? So for example, if you started from scratch today, if somebody— if the next Alex and Leila were out there and they wanted to do Gym Launch today, could they go and do the same model? Meaning, is that problem still exist? Is the model still great where you're getting upfront cash from these gyms? But for doing that, you know, kind of this quick turnaround service, or is it saturated now and there's too much competition? Maybe the ad rates have changed, right? There's always these moments in time where businesses can succeed. And then 10 years later, you couldn't start that same business. There's a new version of that business that those same people could go start. Could somebody as talented as you guys start Gym Launch again today and have the same level of success, in your opinion?

No.

And why is that?

Because the market has completely changed. I mean, think about COVID That completely changed the nature of fitness. Ozempic has changed fitness. I think that the future of fitness looks completely different than boutique gyms. I think that, you know, I mean, I know what they're doing in the background in the labs, which is like people are going to be able to soon take a pill and they're going to be able to control their appetite. Why do you want to go to the gym every day if you could just be skinny? Lots of girls don't give a shit.

So what does the future fitness look like?

Well, I mean, Lifting weights is a great long-term way to sustain your body weight and to prevent you from getting fat. But short-term intervention, food is always ideal, right? And that's gonna have more of an effect on the short term, like long-term muscle mass, short-term food. And so I think that what you're gonna see is a lot more people just continuing to lean into what they always have, as humans do, which is the short-term things that work, which is eat less, which you can do with the pill. And they happen to have pills that are gonna come out that are, you know, I think a lot of people are probably deter away from like Ozempic and stuff 'cause it's a shot. And it's like, okay, well the moment that they have a pill that can say, I'm gonna have, I only need to have 25% of my normal appetite today. Well then think about the cost of the gym, especially for females. It's like you have to get up, you've gotta put on your outfit, maybe some mascara, you've gotta look okay. You have to drive there, you have to go there, you have to do things that feel hard. And then you have to leave. Or I could just take a pill and not be hungry and not eat, so I don't have to work out to worry about the food. So I think that all those things have changed just a lot of companies in the fitness and health space in general. I can say that because we have other companies in the portfolio that are in that space, and I also talk to a ton that are. It has definitely changed the nature of that landscape.

You guys, um, you know, Alex did something kind of interesting. I think he said that like you bought him like a $50,000 consult with like Grant Cardone or something like that, like right before the sale of Gym Launch, where he published that, which was like pretty wild where he was like, here's how much cash we have. We're thinking about selling. And then I think there was even like a part 2 and a part 3 after the sale. And so it was pretty cool to see that that was all public. Uh, what did you guys, and what, 3 parts. What did you do with the money once you sold? Like, did you have a plan on where to invest it or did you just let it sit there? The second thing is, did you have like a 10, 20-year plan on where you wanted to go, or is it like, I don't know what we're gonna do, let's figure it out? And then why answer those two first?

Yeah, yeah. The idea with the money was we can put it, you know, in stocks in the short term. We had some real estate deals. We have one person we do real estate with specifically that we put some of the money in, and then the rest of it was for acquisition.com. So it's like, how do we get our first few deals? We're going to use this as like the nest egg to invest in those deals. Part 2 to that is we knew we wanted a headquarters. And so, you know, the headquarters was obviously, I mean, it's almost 40,000 square feet. It's quite expensive. So that was a big investment as well. So most of the money has gone into the first few deals plus the headquarters. The rest of the money we put in real estate deals that, you know, have done really well for us. So, and then I would say remainder, you know, stocks. We have an oh shit fund and things like that too. But, um, you know, most of the times we want to be investing in how are we going to use the money to grow Acquisition.com faster. That's really what we think about with the cash.

Did you have the idea of that before you even sold Gym Launch?

The day after we sold, we started Acquisition.com.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

And what was the genesis of that idea? I'm sure many conversations, but like, do you remember kind of what the, what would you call the origin?

Really, it actually started with what am I best in the world at? What is Alex best in the world at, right? That's one piece. The second piece to that is what is the ideal day-to-day for Alex to sustain so that he knows that he's not going to want to quit because the work he's doing with the people he's doing it, he doesn't like. Same for Layla, right? So it's like, do things you like with people you like. That's how you sustain performance, in my opinion. So then what does that look like for each of us? And then what is a business that where there's room in the market that we can capitalize on both of our skills when we build? And so, you know, Alex is, you know, he's constantly thinking of ideas. He's like, well, what about this? What about— I'm like, no, no, no, no.

What were, what were some of those ideas?

Well, I mean, there was like, we could go direct to consumer, for example. You know, we thought about, you know, the fact that he's so good at generating demand. And I can build a big team that's really like well-positioned for a direct-to-consumer business, whether it be in beverages, whether it be in food, or whether it be in, you know, some kind of like commerce. That was an idea. Another idea that we had was essentially like an actual like health business. So like building a platform for, you know, people who wanted to lose weight or get in shape. Using some kind of technology, integrating in AI, and then everything we know about how to actually help people, you know, lose weight. But then we saw, you know, Ozempic coming down the line, we're like, fuck that. And so those were two like strong front runners, I would say. And they were things that I could get passionate about. But then Acquisition.com was the one that I just kept coming back to because I was like, you know, the reason that I wanted to sell Gym Launch was I just asked myself, do I want to be in the fitness industry for the next 10 years? And the answer was no. I was like, I'm— and I understand that I would probably get better returns on my time staying in the fitness industry because I know it so well, right? We're already a market leader. We know everything. We've come up in this. I've been doing it since I was however, whatever age. It's been over a decade now. So has he. We have a competitive advantage here. But I was like, I don't want to be in here this the rest of my life. And the reasons for it, to be honest with you, are just like the networking into the fitness industry felt less appealing to me than the networking in private equity, for example, and the people that I would be competing with. And I think that who you compete with or who you compare yourself to, right, is like, that sets the tone for who you wish to become in many ways. Like, if I get in the room with whatever, you can just say Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or whatever, and I have a company that I aspire to have like theirs, like I'm gonna compare myself to them. Uh, versus when I met some of the people that had some of the biggest fitness businesses, they were not, though I could compare myself to them and yes, they had done better by many measures, they were not necessarily people I aspired to be like. And so I just wanted to be in a different industry to get around different people and to acquire different skills that I didn't think I was gonna get staying there. And so when we looked at acquisition.com, I was really like, what kind of person do I wanna be? And then what kind of business will allow me to become that person? And then what kind of people do I need to have on my team to build that type of business? And so I think a lot of it actually like circles back, you know, Alex, we were talking about this last night to like, who do I wanna be? And the business is just a vehicle for personal growth in many ways. And so for both of us, I think that We are better entrepreneurs and better people for building acquisition.com. And I think that some people choose businesses that make them worse, not better. And this one is definitely one that I think helps maximize our skills, but also gets us to be better people. You know, Alex has shared publicly many times, like he was like, when we first started acquisition.com, he kept saying like, I really wanna be more patient. And you must be patient for this business to work. And so because he wants the business to work more than anything, right? Then he will learn to be more patient by, as a, as a byproduct of that. And for me, in order for acquisition.com to work and not just work, work, but like really fucking work, like win and be number one, I have to learn how to make content and be public-facing and be a better communicator overall. And so it's not that every day I wake up excited to do that, but it's that I want to win, and I know that in order to win, I have to learn these skills. And so it forces me to learn those things in order to achieve my goals.

That's pretty badass. I, yeah, that makes a ton of sense.

Everything you said, uh, makes, makes, makes sense and is very aligned with how I view life.

Yeah.

I always say it's a vehicle. It's a, it's a means to, to have the type of life we want and become the type of person you want. And then you think, then you think, okay, if this is a vehicle, who's getting in the road? Who do I want on this road trip with me? And that's your co-founders, your partners, your investors. Who are the people I want in this car ride? Because we might get lost somewhere along the way, and I've really got to think that through. And I think it's very important to have that mindset because I think people think the vehicle is the end itself, and obviously it's not. You see that because people do one vehicle and then they, then they need the next, they need the next. And why do you keep, why does Jeff Bezos need to go do his rocket company? And why does he need to buy the Washington Post? Why do they need to do these things? Because that business, the business itself was, um, was just a, it's like a piece of workout equipment. It's like going in and you see the bench press. It's there to, for me to get the workout, for me to get the gains. Uh, it's there to provide some resistance for me to get what I want out of life.

Yeah.

I have a question for you about acquisition.com. So you guys, you said you've seen, I don't know, 1,000 businesses. I was talking to you before we started recording about businesses that surprise you because they're just kind of kick-ass. Maybe it's a business that you had, maybe a category you hadn't heard of, or just a business that people would overlook. Or maybe would underrate, but, and you don't have to name the names of these businesses, but I'd love for you to describe a kick-ass business that you've seen somewhere along the way at Acquisition.com, whether it's one you guys bought or not.

Yeah, I will say this, um, more businesses suck than you would think. So what I learned in starting Acq— no, seriously, uh, in starting Acquisition.com was just the amount of bad businesses there are.

What's the profile of bad and good? Or like, what's like, what's that threshold?

I, I think product-market fit is not It exists on a scale. It's not yes or no, but like poor, like weak product market fit, weak founders, um, low margin, low potential.

You say weak with so much disgust. I love it.

Yeah.

I just need that clip. I did. That's my alarm clock when I wake up.

It's weak again.

Uh, I, cause it's like, I'm like, let me fucking help you, but like, I can't if you're just weak. So, um, it frustrates me because I'm like, tough love, but like, this isn't gonna work. And so I would say like, that has actually been more surprising than the good businesses that I've seen, is just the amount of businesses that I'm like, wow, it's, it's shocking it's still here, you know? Or it's like, wow, I can't believe this person actually started this thing. Um, and so there's been a lot more of that, I would say, in terms of businesses that are really cool and you know, I think have inspired me in, in different ways, it's people that are actually able to take something traditional and make it and innovate it. You know, it's like I always find those businesses really interesting. Like, you know, it could be anything like publishing books and turning that into, you know what, instead of publishing books the way that we have been, instead let's learn how to use AI to publish books and make the entire process automated. That's a really cool business that I've seen. Play out. I think that looking at, uh, Skool, which people know that we publicly associate with, like that business I have a lot of admiration for because of, if you look at it by all, like by all stats and metrics of that business, it is mind-blowing. And that they've been able to take this element of community that people only really feel in person and bring it online to such a degree that now people also are doing it offline and on, like, it's just, it's been really cool to see the network effect, uh, through that business. And then I would say like more traditional businesses like bakeries and how like traditional bakeries that make, you know, cookies or whatever have integrated tools like AI and technology to learn like, okay, what type of cookie profile is this person going to want to order? And like, just ways that people can integrate that kind of stuff, like technology into like traditional businesses.

Do bakeries that use AI, is that, was that a thing? Do we, do, does that ch— does that make it better really?

I think that is all perception. Like, I think value for customer in many ways it is perceived, right? And so it's like, if you feel like this cookie is custom to you because of this technology that they have and they're able to like make it right there for you, then I think, yeah, people will pay a lot more money for it. That's for sure. I mean, I would, but, uh, it clearly, 'cause it works for them. So I think those have been some of the cool businesses.

What about this workshop stuff? So you guys start, I started seeing ads for these workshops and I think you guys have probably done like, I'm just doing some napkin math, like something like $10 million of workshop revenue, which is, it was a little bit surprising to me 'cause I was like, why are they doing this? It's like a lot of time for them.

The, the, the math being supposedly, uh, or you maybe said this, I think. 1,800 people have gone through an Acquisition.com workshop. And I think on your website it's $5,000.

And by the way, I know a couple of people who have gone and they said it was great. So I'm not saying it in a bad way. I guess what I'm saying is I was surprised you guys are doing it. I was like, oh no, this is actually great, you know, alignment, right? They like to teach. It's deal flow at a like a proprietary level. And then, you know, it's a win-win. Other people should get some value out of this. They come in, they get to focus on their business. What I wanted to ask you about is What's the number one recurring problem you see? Because now you've seen 1,800 founders come in and they're, they paid a bunch of money to come to the workshop because they got a problem. What's the common problem you see and what's the solve, um, that, that you, that you think would help most of these businesses?

The number one problem that I see is not technical and it's not even a practical problem, but more of an emotional problem, which is I think founders lie on one of two spectrums, which is either They're incredibly impatient and because of that, they never wait long enough to see if any kind of strategy will work. They just change it. And so it, it doesn't even, they don't even give it a shot to see if it'll play out because they change too soon. And on the other side, you have founders that are too tolerant and they basically just want to be liked at all costs and they don't make good decisions for their business because of that. So I actually don't think that any of the problems that I see are technical problems.

Is there a way to put, like, is there a way to put like a benchmark? Like, for example, are you talking about like, you know, you should, for a lot of people, they should be waiting a year to get, to get results, or, you know, or they react in weeks when they should be reacting in quarters? Is there a—

Yeah, I think a lot of people think that waiting a quarter is a long time, and that's probably the issue. Uh, they think, oh, well, I waited 3 months. So I'm like, try waiting 18. You know, I have things I'm doing in Acquisition.com that You might ask about the workshops. I'm like, all right, well, if you see what was gonna come out in the next 4 months, which I've been working on for the last 12 months, you'll see why it all makes sense. Right. But a lot of people, I think, one, don't have the ability to wait that long. And two, don't even know how to build something that takes that long.

Your husband seems like a guy who is stereotypical of a person who does not have patience. You know, you said that he, he, he said, I want to be more patient. So I assume that means he didn't have patience. Uh, has he been able to like go with the flow of like, look, we're gonna, we're, we're planning 18, 36 months out and that's what we're working on. So you're not gonna see, 'cause I know when I'm working at something, I'm like, why don't I see results immediately? We're investing all this money and all this time and we don't have fucking results. Why aren't you out launching an MVP talking to potential customers? Don't tell me about it. You know what I mean? Like, that's like how I feel. And I think that's, that's why I understand probably how he feels.

Yeah. I think something I've gotten a lot better at is Showing him progress. So because I, this is what I've realized, which is just patience is just figuring out what to do in the meantime. The reason I can be more patient is because I'm fucking busy doing all the shit to make the thing happen, right? But if you're not the one in there having the meetings, hiring the people, recruiting the stuff, putting the tech in place, then it feels like it takes a long time. And so because he sits more on the like demand gen side and doesn't have the whole team rolling into him, He doesn't get that reinforcement on a daily basis of seeing that progress. And so I look at myself as like, my job is to tell him all of all those things that are happening to show him, look at all the shit that we're doing and where it's gonna end up and how close we are. And it might actually happen faster than we thought. And so I think that a lot of the times people feel impatient because one, they're not seeing progress because maybe they're removed from what's actually occurring. I think that the second thing is You know, I always look at it as for him and for anybody, if he's not, you know, in the day-to-day operating, making the plan happen, then he's working on something for the future. You know, he's writing books, he's making content. He's, you know, oftentimes when we have really big problems in the business, maybe we'll have 2 or 3 at the same time. It'll be like, okay, you know, I know that these teams don't report to you, but I'm over here solving this problem. How about you solve this problem? And then, you know, we're gonna communicate about these things. And so it's like, I also think he can do special projects. That's something that like you do in the meantime. Yeah. I think from a traditional standpoint, I think what's really good about him in many ways is that he's impatient with things. And so because of that, I, I'll say this, okay. I think it's good to be patient. It's also good to be impatient with things. It just like, which one? And so I think what I love about his impatience at times is that he's able to isolate it to the way that people do things. Why does it take this long to do a video? Why does it take this long to talk to a customer? Why does it take this long to build a department? And he questions things that other people just accept as fact because somebody else and some book said that's how you do business. And I love that he questions those things and is impatient about how inefficient things in business can be. I think that's fantastic.

Naval, Naval has the best quote on this. He said, impatient with actions, patience with results. So impatient on the inputs. Patient with the outputs is the, the sort of unstoppable formula.

100%. It's an advantage because I am patient with results. I can also be too patient sometimes with the action. And so I have learned from him. I think we do a good job learning from each other. I think that he's learned from my patience with results. I've learned from his impatience with inputs or actions, and that's benefited the business a lot.

We gotta ask you, we used to say we have 7 female listeners, and I think as the podcast has grown, There's now tens out there, and, um, I'm sure you get a lot of women who look up to you, who ask you for advice. Um, so this is the, you know, here's the mic. And if there's a female entrepreneur watching this, what's your message to her?

You might think that because you're female, things are less fair, or that people will treat you differently, or that business is harder, and there are things that you're gonna have to overcome. And while all those things might be true in certain circumstances and certain times, and that some are irrefutably true, the question to ask yourself is, is this useful? You know, a lot of people come to me and they say, isn't it hard to do business because like, you know, you're a woman and you're married to Alex? Like, do people take you seriously? I'm like, I don't know, is that a useful thought? If it's not, then why the fuck would I focus on it? And so I just completely, um, abolish any of this like female entrepreneur what's it like stuff. And I've made one video about it because I wanted people to understand, yes, there are differences, there are also advantages. So like, you can either focus on what sucks and what's worse, or you can just focus on, you know, maximizing your strengths and taking advantage of the advantages. And also just choosing to focus on shit that's useful, you know what I mean? Like, we can all point to reasons as to why people treat us differently. We can also just like be better. I'll tell you this, which is like a joke between me and Alex, is like so many people have tried to break us up. Um, and like the key line is always like, Layla, you know, he's, he's suppressing you. Um, because he's, you know, Alex. I always just like have this internal dialogue, which is like, and that is why you will not win because you see people that are powerful as having an ability to suppress you. When I look at people who are powerful as what can I learn from them to be better so that when I'm in a room, people would not say that about me. They would not say, oh, you're being suppressed. Like, what do I have to learn to be a person who is more powerful? And I think that a lot of women throw around these terms and do these things, but it's like, you can either look at it as, um, as a disadvantage or, or something to be an advantage to you. You know, I think that I've had to probably accumulate more skills that some men would not have to because I've had to learn to be better at things to be taken seriously in certain ways, right? Or I've had to, you know, accumulate emotional skills that I wouldn't have to otherwise. I think those are all pros. And like, if I have more challenge, I also get the opportunity to acquire more skills. So I just don't look at it like a bad thing, and I look at it, if anything, like a good thing. And I, any thoughts that arise that are not useful, I do not focus on ever.

You're the shit.

Perfect answer.

You're, you're, you're fantastic. You know, you guys are, um, what an interesting couple. You know, typically like, uh, like my wife and I are, are fairly different in a lot of different ways. Uh, but you guys are both, uh, very similar in your intensity, but also in your way to like, uh, come up with like interesting ideas and interesting theories as to why the world is the way it is and how you're gonna react to that. Uh, most relationships I don't think are like that. And so it's so, it's so funny. You guys are both like highly intense in great ways. Um, it's so fascinating.

I'm gonna make that my new profile, highly intense.

Yeah, we'll LinkedIn endorse you on that.

Yeah.

My best compliment to you is, to you guys, is I think what's really admirable about your relationship is that I think you both have a very high desire to self-improve. And it takes me back to like one of my favorite quotes about relationships is, you know, I'll take care of me for you and you take care of you for me. Whereas I think most people approach relationships the opposite. You're supposed to take care of me and I'm supposed to take care of you and you're never doing enough for me and I'm never doing enough for you. And I think it is really great. You guys are an A+ example of two people who say, I'm going to self-improve in all the ways that I can. And that's what makes me a great partner for you.

Yeah. And I think honestly, I just wish for everyone that listens to to this, to take that to their business relationships and to their personal relationships, because I think it applies to both.

All right, well, thanks for coming on. I appreciate you.

Thank you, guys.

That's the episode.