Leela Cosgrove: Black Belt Entrepreneur

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Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Leila Cosgrove with us. She is the CEO of Strategic Anarchy and The 8%. So welcome to the show.

Thanks.

Of course, thanks for coming on, and we will dive in. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Oh, um, you know, it's probably that when I was 16 and I was a raging left-wing socialist, because you know what they say, like, if you're not a socialist before the age of 18, you don't have a heart. If you're still a socialist after the age of 18, you don't have a brain. Um, and I was really so like gung-ho about everything and cared deeply about everything, you know, like you do when you're 16. I actually headed up a walkout from my high school during that period. It was like '95, '96. The French were testing nuclear bombs at Niueroa Atoll, which is an island in the Pacific, and we had a big walkout. There's like 8 of us walked out of school, got suspended from school, ended up on the press everywhere, all across Australia, all across the country, all over the TV, the newspapers, the radio stations. We were like huge celebrities for 2 or 3 weeks. And like, what is a big underlying message from that? It was basically that I learned in that moment that the smartest move I could do was to be one of 8 people who stood up, to have the courage of my convictions, even if those convictions have changed a bit over the years, to have the courage of my convictions and be willing to do what nobody else is willing to do, because without fail, that's where the press coverage, the success, the money, the wins are.

And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Look, I would say sales, right? So it's like, without fail, what we're known for and what we're best at is getting on the phone and making sales and helping a lot of the largest guys in our kind of industry put together sales teams. And make sales. So I'd say that probably the number one element though within that would be that getting your mindset right around sales, because I think most people are absolutely petrified of actually getting on the phone and closing sales. So it's really about seeing sales as an act of service and seeing sales calls as being a combination of love, loving people enough to call them and help them, but also self-respect, drawing the line and not taking any shit from anyone.

And yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think a lot of people are very scared of sales. And once you get over like that leap and you like do it a lot, then like everything changes.

Exactly.

And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.

I would say I'm a firm believer in— there's this amazing woman in Australia called Nadine Champion, and she is a full contact Muay Thai fighter who is undefeated, and she's also a cancer survivor. Definitely worth looking at her. She did a TEDx in Sydney. It was phenomenal. Her presentation was just phenomenal. But she talks about 10 seconds of courage. Yeah. So she talks about the same 10 seconds of courage that it takes to step in the ring and fight. And I'm a black belt in martial arts, so that's one that really resonates with me. That 10 seconds that it takes to step into the ring and face getting punched in the face is the same 10 seconds that it took her to to go into chemo and deal with the ravages of chemo on her body. For me, it's the same 10 seconds it takes to pick up the phone and make that dial. It's the same 10 seconds it takes to send that email to that person you are petrified of. So always leave my freak out for after the 10 seconds, just 10 seconds of insane courage, then have your freak out once you've done it.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Everything works out. Stop freaking out so much. It's okay. It's not the end of the world. None of it is the end of the world. Everything turns out really fucking well. Just keep doing what you're doing.

Yes. And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness? It might tie in.

I would say the key to happiness is recognizing that what you're looking for is not really happiness, but peace, because trying to search for happiness, happiness is is like one tiny part of the human experience, right? I believe that as humans, we're here to experience everything. Frustration, anger, you know, passion, all of the things, right? So happiness is great, but when you're really— and it's one thing to experience, but recognize that what you're really looking for is peace, because you can find a sense of peace when you're grieving. You can find a sense of peace when you're angry. And when you recognize that what you're not looking for is actually happiness, But that sense of internal peace, it really changes your mindset and you start seeing things a lot differently.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Oh my God, that's such a hard one.

I know.

I'm a writer. I come from a writing background. So both, you know, I read a lot of fiction as well as nonfiction, which always freaks people out because I think in our industry it's really expected that basically all you read is nonfiction. But I read a lot of fiction and I think I learned just as much from nonfiction as I do from fiction as I do nonfiction, but I'd say for nonfiction, look, classic Jay Abraham, Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got is just like, it's, it'll change the way you think about business. Jay's the master. Jay's one of my mentors and he's really basically responsible at some level for just about everybody who exists in the market. Him and Dan Kennedy are responsible for everybody who exists in the marketplace. So anything by those two guys and you're good.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

I would say my favourite quote is, "You had to hand it to him, he had a plan. No fear, no distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide," which is from Fight Club, which is my favourite movie, which I can quote pretty much word for word because I've seen it that many times. But it's true, it's that thing I think in some ways, if you take out, look, I like the violence of it, I find that quite amusing, but really if you take that out, if you look at Tyler without the kind of actual Fight Club part of it, you see someone who is, an anarchist who is trying to destroy the current system to build a system that's better for everyone. He's looking for different ways to play with society and run society, and that's something I really, really resonate with.

Yes. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?

Either on Facebook, you can find me at Lila Cosgrove or lilacosgrove.com.

Perfect. Thank you again for joining us. It was an awesome interview.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Tyler. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast. That's anchor.fm/podcast.