The Game with Alex Hormozi - We Made A BIG Decision… | Ep 874

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

In this milestone episode of The Game, Alex and Leila announce a major evolution at Acquisition.com: the addition of their first-ever partner, Sharran Srivatsaa. They unpack the full backstory, from years of friendship and billion-dollar business wins to the values and trust that made this decision possible. Sharran's depth of experience in real estate, private equity, and operations aligns with the long-term vision of Acquisition.com 3.0, the new era of the company.Welcome to The Game w/Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast, you’ll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned and will learn on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Wanna scale your business? Click here.Follow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | AcquisitionMentioned in this episode:Get access to the free $100M Scaling Roadmap at www.acquisition.com/roadmap

Probably my favorite three words that someone can ever tell me is I got it, because I know that it's super, super powerful. And if you're in an organization right now and you feel like you want that recognition, say, hey, partner, manager, boss, whatever, I got it. And then deliver on day, I got it. That is the fastest way to kind of building that trust with your team. The fastest way to become the person that you want is to surround yourself with people who give you no choice but to become them. And so I think Layla and I are very proud to announce that we're bringing in a, for the first time ever in our career, a partner, into our business at Acquisition.com, which is the man the myth of legend, the Michael Jordan of the real estate industry,

Sharon Sarvata. I'm so excited to be here. This is so fun. I'm so excited. I can't believe it's finally here. We've been over a year. Yeah. Over a year that we've been talking about it now.

You remember we're doing the bike board session in Alex's office and we were like talking about the whole plan, we planned the whole thing out. And it's like the countdown began. Alex had a little timer on his phone. did and every like for days and weeks I would just be like 78 days left 54 days left until we could finally announce this I think that it would be helpful for everyone to know kind of like the thought process behind the decision and kind of our relationship and how it's evolved to even deciding to do this because you know getting into a partnership you know you've heard our content before it's

I mean it's like getting married it's a huge it's a huge decision I think we were all equally terrified yeah not willing to fuck anything up yeah and we've been so what a lot people might not know is that we've been friends for six or seven years now and like very good friends so to give you some context and we'll walk through the some of the timelines because i think it'll be relevant but like when we were selling the company i was talking to shrun every morning uh like hey what do you think about this and what we think of this till term and um even before that uh you know i got introduced to him from a mutual friend of ours and we had a zoom call at like i don't like four or five o'clock at night and i don't really take calls in the afternoon like

It was like, this is so weird. And I was like, I don't know, but this guy seems awesome from what this guy said, because he'd already sold a company for $3.4 billion. I was like, I want to talk to somebody who's doing this. For sure. Yeah. Like, no one has sold a company. I did that.

Yeah. And so anyways, we hopped on. And then we ended up talking for like three and a half hours, which never happens. And so I think that's pretty much how it kicked off. And we very quickly became very good friends. Well, I remember what happened. It was like, Alex went on the Zoom call, right? And then I made dinner all the same.

stuff, he comes back at like 8.30 and then I was like, how was the call mom? And he's like, you need to meet this guy. Like, you really like him. And I was like, most of the time when you introduce me something, I'd be like, listen, I something smells wrong about. Right. And then I remember like, I was so. But I was like, okay, he would not like, be like, you need to meet him if he didn't think so. He's like, no, I think that you would get along really well with him. And I was like, okay. He's only said that about like two or three people ever. I've been right every time. Correct. Do you remember the first call though? All we did was, Alex was on the call. And we just drew processes out on a iPad.

Yeah, I do remember. Because I remember I'm being like blown away. I was how you go all this stuff? And then I was like, can I pay you money? I wonder what to do. And we're just friends. And I understand, but this is where I just need you help me. And you were like, no.

And I was like, yes. I was like, please help. And so I would say Sharon was the original kind of first trusted confidant for our money. So like we had, you know, good amount of money prior to the sale. and then obviously after the sale there was even more. And so the game of making money versus the game of making your money make money are two completely different games.

There is crossover where one makes you better at the other and the other makes you better at the first, but there's still a ton, or for me, there was a huge amount of ignorance that of, I mean, even around tax law of like, oh, wait, hold on, these, I'm getting this distribution, but I'm getting taxed on this too. I was like, but I paid tax on the money first.

And then like, wait, you could have other. things that can appreciate and then there's blends for cash flow and all of the stuff. And then it's like, oh, there's there's buckets that you can put your investments into so that you can optimize towards different outcomes. And all of this stuff was stuff that we didn't know. And we ended up creating our money rules list. So I think three, four years ago, you guys might have seen a video of mine where it's like, these are the money rules, these of money algorithms. A lot of those stem from from Charon. Yeah. And you know, that's funny too is I think when we first met, I had no idea because you were like, no, I'm an operator. But it was like at that time,

you were not doing anything for it. And when we met you, and I, and so it's funny because the first time I met you, everything was all the investing. And I saw you as an investor. And that was all I asked you about. And then once you stepped into Real and you made that decision, and then I was like, oh my gosh, he's also not. And that was when I was like, oh, my gosh, you're an operator too.

Like, it's so cool because like you're, you're really great at marketing and brand. You're really great at investing and you're really good at operating. And it's like every time I've seen one area, it's just like the deaths of the knowledge in each area too. It's like, it's not like you're shallow and all. It's like you deep knowledge of each of those areas. I think that's when we really started talking a lot more because it was like, okay, we're talking about all the shit because we're doing the same shit. And that was really fun for me. I remember when the time between after the sale, after I saw, we had sold, tell us. And I was just doing investing private equity stuff.

I would just talk to both of you saying, man, I don't know what my next thing is. And the crazy part is, I think a lot of people don't know this, but you were the first people that I that I talked to about the real opportunity, right? And I said, hey, I have this. This is super interesting. Small public company, $200 million in revenue. And you're like, you get to go work. Go do that.

It's so funny to like sit back and think about it all because I think, as you, I was like thinking through before we sat out here, I was like, how did this conversation even start around us all working together? Because I had obviously talked about Alex for years before. we'd have talked about it with you because I was, and it was more of like, I was like, oh, guys, there's some way we could bring Sharon on the board or like, bring him in this like, like, how do we involve him somewhat in Abbott? And it was just like something I didn't know how to do.

And it's like, normal if I remember I would tell you, I would ask Sharon about this, but I can't ask him about it because it's him. And then I'm trying to think about, do you guys remember how we started having a conversation? I know exactly what happened. So we were at dinner. And then I said, man, I think I've hit all the big goals. We went from 200 million valuation to a billion dollar valuation. And I said, I'm done.

I think I'm just going to retire. And Alex just laughed. He's like, you would be so bored being retired again. Yeah, you should just come work with us. And we could do it for a long time. And I was like, you don't want that. And that was the... I was like, no, I do want that.

You should totally do that. And so I'll give you a little bit of a little bit of backstory. Quentin Tarantino, this will put the pieces together. But Shrine came here as an immigrant as the only child. His parents sold their belongings to get him a one-way ticket so that he could be here. And then immediately you met a mentor who took interest in you with your very thick Indian accent, which you can't hear anymore because you worked on getting rid of it. And then did you get exception to a program? What was the gap there that got you into that software company?

So how it all happened was for my senior paper in college, I wrote the senior paper in computer science. And I pitched it at a programming contest at Berkeley. And one of the judges said to me, after I pitch you saying, hey kid, you're not going to win. I was like, thanks a lot. But that was a good idea. I just funded a couple of the guys. I think what you are sharing would be perfect for them. And that was my first foray into, you know, having a startup.

And so I actually lived in my aunt's basement. I had no money. And we were building a startup down Sand Hill Road, raising cash. And this was during the boom. So we raised $20-plus-ish million dollars and then sold that business. overall. So it was all by chance when I was of my senior paper pitching at a programming contest. And so he, so you got the exit money from that deal and learned a bunch of stuff about dealmaking in that process, which we'll get to another time. And then you took off for like six years,

five years to play professional tennis. And so plays professional, he's like, oh, great, I'm done. I don't need money anymore. I'm going to play tennis next five years. Can you imagine Alex explaining the story to me after you had told, I was like, I was like, basketball. He also gets guys, tennis player, and he was an Indian, and he's a billionaire. It's awesome. And so, so after that, though, you're like, you know, I need to get back to work. So then you went to get your MBA?

Yeah. Yeah, so went to Vanderbilt. So he's a fellow, fellow Commodore. For those of you don't know, I also went to Vanderbilt. Unity College. Yep, community college. Way Stern. That's what they, that's what the kids call it.

Anyways, so goes to, goes to Vanderbilt for the NBA, and then goes from Vanderbilt into Goldman Sachs on the credit side, right? And then calling all these business owners to talk about financial products and investing, things like that. Is that how you found TELUS? Yeah. So one of my clients was also an investor, had invested in this real estate company. And he said, hey, I invest in this real estate company.

Can you come take a look at it? And that's how the TELUS process started. And so TELUS was how many years? Five. So in five years, Ron went in, bought a huge trunk of the company. and then took it, what was the total, the revenue volume you were saying you were doing in terms of real estate? Gross volume was 300 million. Yeah.

So we went from 300 million in gross volume to 3.4 billion? 3.4 billion in five years. And then they sold that company and then that got integrated into Douglas. Douglas Hellman. Yeah. And so after that sale, he then was like, okay, I'm going to do another five or six years stint of the Sharon. what do I do with my life, investment. I have so much money.

What do I do? Dude, I remember the first time when we hung out with you during that, St, too, like, you were like, you guys want to go to breakfast at like nine? Yeah. We were so stressed with breakfast. It's like in the middle of my day. So, I mean, an ongoing joke that you don't know, that you're like, strong the only person you do breakfast with.

Only, literally. I would, I say no to every single. No, I eat. Oh, there you go. It's like we eat from like nine. to like 11, 15, and it's like, well, there's my entire Morgan. Sorry. We also drank like 14 cups of decaf, so.

So it actually starts hitting you like calf when you drink that much of it. Anyway, so you did that. And that's, I mean, I say that jokingly, but Sri L'O Capital got started. And then that was really the family office component of it where you did private equity and venture side investments. And then a bunch of real estate stuff as well, obviously, because that's the background that you come from. And so you had a huge mix of doing that. And, and then that's, that kind of got us to the, to the real situation where Real was doing, you know, 200 million or has a, had a $200 million market cap. And it was it 36 months? Yeah, not even.

Yeah. So less than three years, uh, went to $1.2 billion. So six X in less than three years when Sharon came in. And so that is, uh, that is the, the Michael Jordan of the real estate industry, not only doing a billion dollar company once, but twice. So he's 100% on his real estate. companies getting to a billion. And so we're just, honestly, we're, I would just say, like, I'm beyond thrilled to have Sharon in here because it's, it was such, it was so natural because all of the major business decisions and strategic direction stuff that I would end up calling Sharon about anyways, like, I feel like you, I was shadow, I was getting you as a shadow de facto partner. And so the integration has been almost like, we just get to hang out more than we before. Yeah. It's really interesting because I also think during that time where you started and you were doing all the investments yourself, we kind of took your structure and neared it for us. And that's when we learned about private equity, when we learned about investing. We then, you know, a lot of people don't know, we did, I want to save a seven, we found seven real estate partners. And the only one that ever ended up working out was for me. Well, I'll say the ones that worked out well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Sorry. Anybody else. But.

Well, did he impressive returns and deals were at reviews. Then when you went into Rio, we went to Acquisition.com, it was almost like, not the same time, but like a round. You know, you have very similar time frame. And then that's when I think we started talking more and more about we stripped it from investing to business. And then as Acquisition.com started taking off, and then you had, like, I don't know what the next step is, then it was like, it just felt like it made so much sense. And I think we were all so worried, like, is it like, how's it going to? to be with it. And it's funny because I remember your first day. Like when we sat down

in a meeting together, it was like, I was so nervous. I don't know why. It wasn't even my meeting. I was just shadowing. And then it was like after 45 minutes and then we're like by the end of the date, it felt like this has always been how it's been. Does that make sense? Yeah. And like, now it's like I can't imagine the fact that we didn't work together before for all those years. It's crazy.

Well, we kind of did. Yeah. I was just not on the official Slack channels, but that's fair. Not on the or church. Told me about this. I'm like, I know. But I think the, my favorite kind of part of the story is I got to see gym launch and sale

I got to see the early idea of acquisition.com I got to see Acquisition.com version one the building and the growth of headquarters acquisition.com version two and then all the stuff we're planning for the future and so it feels

like I've had a chance to see and be a part of it from the outside looking in but the inside looking in is even cooler which is the best part. Yeah. It's just super fun. I think for everybody watching too,

as we're talking about this, I think a good lesson to take away is like, I think one thing that was really appeared to me early on at least is like, why did Alex say like, oh, you've liked this guy, right? He said that because most of the people that he would, you know, we talk to you and I'm sure you have the same thing. It's like they just want money.

It's like they're in business. I think it's like there's people who are in business to make money and then people who are loved business and love making cool shit and then make money by consequence. And when I met you, it was clear that you were the type of person that you like building, you like being excellent and building great business. And money comes to a consequence of that. Right.

Money comes to the consequence of the fact that you actually really love people and that you're a really great person and that you have values. And like, there's just so few people who have that where I think for me, especially, like, it's so important to me that anybody that we work with doesn't just have this one area, like they know how to make money, but they also can build a great business. They're great to their team. They're great to their clients. They have great reputation. They have a great family-like.

They take care of themselves personally. And it's like, when I met you, it was so clear that you have all those. You weren't just like one area and sacrificing all the rest. Because, you know, I could get a difference between like building great business and making money. We all know that. And so I think that's why also just like very early on and throughout the process of us being friends, I think the reason it's so easy to be friends as we have shared values. Well, I'll tell you this one thing.

And I learned this from both of you, which is you can't, just be good at one thing. And to win in life, I'm sorry, you have to win at everything. And sometimes you have seasons of life where one takes precedence, like Alex will say have the season of now or you say, I'm working on my health. That's great. But you have to win at everything. There is no other choice. And I bet people are thinking, well, how did this, you know, how did they negotiate, how to do the financials of the deal? And I want to tell people about this, right? The depth of the relationship allowed for the deal terms to be really easy.

And for everyone watching, Alex and Layla said, hey, just write us an email with what you're thinking. So I wrote an email. And then they hit reply all, added counsel, and say, please draft this. That's all it was.

That was the whole negotiation, which would have been months and years for most people, arguing over terms, etc. We had none of that. I've been through a lot of these in my life, and I will tell you,

it was the most gracious, the kindness, and nothing reaffirmed wanting to do this personally for me. when all that y'all did was hit reply all and say, just paper this. It was, and it reminded me of like, even just like in any great partnership, right?

It's like, you're just, everything's been done ahead of time. So then it makes the hard stuff easy because you've already worked on a hard stuff. Yeah. And that's, I think, a good lesson for everybody, which is if you're getting to the point where stuff's breaking down on a final deal term

means something else was majorly wrong before. And so if you can get all of that in alignment, the deal points are very simple. I want to hit on something because I think it's important. So I said it very casually at the beginning, but Layla and I have never had a partner that we've basically brought into our kind of like the holding company. I've spent the last five years from a constant perspective

and the last 13 plus from a reputation perspective, building reputation. And so bringing someone in at that level was a serious, you know, decision. And if you're thinking like, okay, well, why would, why would they do something like that? Like, couldn't, couldn't you just try and find somebody you could just, just hire or something like that? There come certain levels of skill and experience that are unhirable. You know what I mean? Like, there's the deal that, you know, Open Eye did with John Ivy, where we're like, he's, he's now just basically a co-founder status of Open AI because he brings such a depth of

experience and a network and a skill set and and and and that to replicate that it would be both impractical and likely I don't want to say impossible but the the effort to replicate it would attract from the whole overall it's like you would have to have like two companies to replicate what what Sharon can do and so the vision for where we're trying to go if anything is that this is just expanded or brought the future closer of what we have always wanted to do with Acquisition.com and tried to pay down ignorance death as fast as possible with somebody who has, I mean, more experience than anyone on the deal side, on the real estate side, the private equity side, like he has so much there. But then obviously, from a scale

perspective in the trenches, building two billion dollar companies all within five year periods, I mean, I'm very upfront about the things that I will always reinvest in our ability to do more. and this was a serious call and I mean you think about it for me it's like you're going to associate someone really heavily with your brand it's a huge bet you know there's risk

but Tron felt very much worth the risk because I think what we're going to do together is going to be really big you know it's funny as you're saying that you know one thing I realized through the whole process is not one time did I have a doubt

yeah like not one depth like I like never I never felt bad about it I never had any like hesitation I just worried that I was going to fly about so now and I still did this day, I think we both have that, like, I'm hindered on that. Like, what am I going to do to fuck it up? I haven't been over. He doesn't, it's, it's just us. It's just us. I sleep fun.

There's more. I know. I just take it all for both of us. Every deal we've done, every, like, I always am the one doubting and hesitating. And I, like, literally never, like, it always felt good. Like, it felt really good for me the whole time. I think part of it, too, for, like, people that are listening is, like, that's the logic side of it. I think there's another side, which is, like, none of us. It's, like, none of us. have to do this. Yeah. And because of that, I look at it as like, what's the biggest risk to any of us not achieving our dreams? Ducks, Acquisition.com, like, all of it is that we stop. And why would we stop? Not because we can't do it, but because we don't want it to do it.

Because we don't like it. And so, like, I think about it. And I told Alex, I was like, I'm getting the point where it's like, I just want to do stuff I love the people I love. And so it's like you bring in people and you become partners with people that you feel like I will have a higher quality of life within my business and enjoy myself more if I get to work with these people. I think that's really important. And so I think for anybody watching too, like that's a, that's a huge piece of it because people come to me all time. They're like,

I'm going to hire this person or I'm going to bring in this partner. And I'm like, do you like having dinner with them? And it's like, no, I don't like having dinner with them. And I'm like, well, what the fuck are you bringing them and giving them a happier business? You know what I mean? And so I think like that's a huge point that people need to think about and consider when it comes that stuff. I would say the second piece to do is that at some point in a business, like a lot of people watch it is and thinking like maybe I need to find a partner now. But I think you have to consider the size that you're at. And because at some point you're not looking to hire people anymore. Multiple people at similar levels are looking to partner because at some point it's like one plus one equals 11.

That's the way I think about it. Except it would be like one plus one plus one equals, I don't know, 30. 11. Well, can you talk about that, though? You made a great video about it, but the early discussions for us revolved around this metaphor of the barrel. And I think you broke it down really well. I'd love for you to maybe share the idea of the ammo, the resources around it. Yeah, at some point, I think we get into this pattern when we're bringing people into the business, bringing resources in, it's almost like they're bullets.

Like, you need to give them, give the resources to somebody who's capable of building something from nothing. And at some point, you have to bring in a barrel. And when you think of a barrel, you think of somebody like you, who can create something of nothing, who can be as effective as you at the things that you're doing. And at that point, it's like, if I'm going to bring in somebody as the same skill set as me, then that's a different type of thing. That's not, you're not going to hire that into your business, right? And if you did, maybe you hire somebody in 10 years there at that level, but not, you know,

and sometimes never. And so at that point, you have to say, like, I need a barrel, which is something that I can give ammunition to, and they can just go shoot it and they can hit the target. And so I think, like, you know, Alex and I eat a barrel and Charanza bear. So now we have, you have two new barrels and we have one new barrel, right? Well, Alex talked about it when he first shared it with me. He goes, hey, most founders are single barreled. And they've got to get to a point.

And maybe you can articulate this better, which is like, all right, now I get to a point and now I've got to go raise money or create something to artificially create a second opportunity for myself to get the barrel bigger. And what a lot of people don't realize is the first time I met both of you, the first time I talked to Alex, I go, man, he can just make something out of nothing. Like he can make things up. Like it is amazing Alex's ability to make things up and just make things up that can drive brand, create businesses, et cetera. And I was like, that's who's going to make it happen? And so then when I chat with it, I was like, okay, well, you got the make thing up. and make thing happen. And I think there's a, that's why it's worked really well for both of you, right? And so

Alex can make anything up and Lela can make anything happen. And that's a really powerful combination. And so my question for you, Alex, is if someone is thinking about that in their business, is there, is that the diagnostic or would you think about a different diagnostic? Everything comes down to return on time, right? Like, I think if we boil everything down for the entrepreneurs, like, you only have so much time and you have to get returns on your time. And so we trade, we trade. try and get other people who have high leverage time, which is like, not only can I get somebody who can do something, but they're also bringing in 10 years that I don't have to learn to get that skill to then do this other thing. And so with the rate limiter, which is the whole concept of barrels, it's like you can only ship things so quickly and there's only so many opportunities that you can pursue. Like, and I'm a big advocate of focus, an aggressive advocate of focus,

but you really never over-expand. You're just under-talent. And I think the vast, and that under talent is just this not enough barrels, right? You have 20 great ideas. You've got one life and there's one you. Now, if you had 20 barrels, you could do all 20. You've got Elon. He's got six big, you know, crazy opportunity. It's his highest leverage is his ability to attract barrels, probably more than anything else. But with, I want to circle back to what you said with me and Layla. So I got to somewhere in the area, between two and three million dollars a year, I can't remember the exact financials, but between two, three million dollars a year when Lela and I met, that was about where I had kind of like capped as an entrepreneur. And that was

for I chased too many rabbits. I was two spread thin and I had six different businesses. I had all these different things going on. And then when Layla King in my life, she got me to focus on one opportunity. And then she was able to basically make all these things happen and also at the same time push back and be like, great idea next year.

And that from an order of magnitude perspective, that went from, I mean, you think about where we were there, to a three million dollars year as a solo entrepreneur, to adding one other barrel then took us to nine figures plus. Right? And it's like, okay, and that's why the Sharon, it's like, okay, well, there's two.

And this is why Lay was saying that, you know, one plus one doesn't equal two or three. It can equal, you know, 11. It can be a huge increase in throughput. And I think that having, you know, a third barrel makes it, I mean, we're excited about, you know, we've been, we've been talking for a year, it's, you know, curious. It's not like, hey, Sharon's coming in because we're just going to, like, keep doing what we're doing. Very big plans that we've been honestly laying since we started talking a year ago that have been in the works that you guys will find out about. think that's fundamentally what we solve for. It's like with the highest leverage thing is just like

not having to live Sharon's life in order to do that. We can just bring Sharon in and then get the aggregate benefit of all my life and my experience, your life and your experiences and then yours together. And that's where the skills stack and compound. So there's this framework that I like sharing a lot, which is like if you think about or I believe that the potential of a business is based on the aggregate skill set of the people contain within it. And if you were the person who has done every job in the business, that it means that literally only one brain has is the max capacity of the business. And so if you were to imagine this as like a little triangle, it's like all of a sudden, if you just add a second brain, how much higher the peak gets just from adding

two kind of rate limiters or capacitors in the business. And when you add a third, the peak goes way higher in terms of the capacity for the business. And so that's where this gets really exciting. And there's a third kind of alpha for everyone, which is what are the opportunities that get unlocked that none of us could pursue on our own, but that we could only do an aggregator together. And I think that's where we get these more sophisticated and yet simpler. It's more complex to execute simpler in concept outcomes, that everyone can agree like, man, if we could just do this one thing, it could change everything. It's like, yeah.

And that's where I'm like, yeah, we could change everything. And you guys are like, it will take more stuff. But I think it's really powerful, though, for the person listening and watching two, kind of decode a little bit of what Alex and Layla just shared, is that we've experienced this, and I really, one of my favorite things about being an Acquisition.com is this, where we could have a chat about something, and then Layla will say, I got it. And then that's it. You don't have to worry because Layla got it, right? Or we'll be talking about something and say, I got it. The conversation is over. And the more people that you can, that can say, I got it, is insanely

powerful for an organization. You say I got it very often, and I really appreciate that. I always never got it. We sometimes have to text you under the table. This is your time to say I got it right now. No. I actually think you made a video about this. You said, you know, how do you get scale?

You get scale when you ensure that the leverage that is transferred, gets transferred without a change in the performance in some way, right? Which is insane. And so probably my favorite three words that someone can ever tell. me as I got it because I know that and if they actually got it, it's super, super powerful. And when you have someone like that in your organization, I would support them, get out of their way, reduce fiction, get them support, make sure whatever they want is taking care of. Not that you need a partner per se, but anybody that has that level of competence and

that has that level of care, I would highly take care of them. And if you're in an organization right now and you feel like you want that recognition, say, hey, partner, manager, boss, whatever, I got it. And then deliver on the day, I got it. That is the fastest way to kind of building that trust with your team. Hey, guys, first off, I want to say thank you. There's one person who's been sharing this more than anyone, and that is you. The only reason this podcast continues to grow is because you guys are sharing it.

And my only ask is that if this has provided value to you or you think it would provide a better to somebody else more importantly. If you could DM it to them, if you could Slack it to them, if you could text them, a screenshot or a link to this podcast is the only way it grows. And that's what fills the hole inside of my heart for the approval of others

so that I can go to sleep at night. And that's why I really do this. Anyways, enjoy the rest of the pot. No, it's really good. You say I got it all the time. And it's just like, if someone says it to me, I'm just like, I will ask no more questions. Because I also think that the other thing it does

for the person saying I got it, which a lot of people, don't realize is when you say I got it, there's an insane belief system and a responsibility that you put on yourself. Because the reason I say I got it is I can't let Layla down. And so I will work super hard because I put those three words in front of Leila. And the next time I say it, if I did not get it, then she's going to be like, what the heck? You know? So there is a, there has to be a 100% say-do ratio on high got it. You can't, you cannot score any time. And if you do, you're like, I'm so sorry. This is what happened. Let me.

will fix it, right? So the number of I got it's that can happen in an organization will move the business so much faster. It's really good analogy. Now I'm thinking about it. I'm like, who says I got it most? I can think of the top two people that say it to me the most. I'm like, oh, I always appreciate it so much. I'm like, oh, I can't. Well, I'll throw this in. Like, I think bringing a partner on, I think, you know, this has been awesome, you know, for us. but trying to explain like right way to feel wrong way to feel. I think just from a pattern recognition perspective might be helpful. One, we've been working for, you know, not working, but like we've been talking about this.

So we've laid a lot of, you know, groundwork for this so that we can hit the ground running. But Choran has given me and especially Lela, attention back. And so it's like, and I don't like using soft language, but I'll use it here and then I'll explain it. But like, it makes like, Sharan is making everything feel lighter. And so I see that as, okay, I only have so much time and so much bandwidth, which is even less than the time that I have in terms of like mental acuity. And all of a sudden having two thirds of the things that I was formally working on now just gone. And being done at the same level or arguably higher because Toronto is more experience with these things. So we're paying

down ignorance as we're kind of learning the edge cases of what is the what is the, you know, nine figure to 10 figure marketing playbook look like? What is the nine figure 10 figure sales Playbook look like? What does the nine figure to 10 figure product playbook look like? We're trying to pay down this ignorance that as fast as we can across all these functions, but it's like, well, Sean already did this on the public level, you know, in a public company. And before that, in Intel is at a multi-billion dollar level. It's like, well, some of these legal infrastructure pieces. It's like, okay, well, we can and we'll learn it. Or we can just not have to pay the scar that I know or the interest that is going to come due later because we just pay

that debt down now. I think that that habit of trying Being willing to sacrifice some today to not get destroyed tomorrow has served us really well. But from a feeling perspective, which I don't really tap into very much, it just things feel lighter. And I think that if somebody comes into your organization, I'll say it works at any level, but if someone comes into the organization and it feels heavier, that person is not helping you. They're not putting attention back on your plate so that you can then eat up the problems that you uniquely qualified to solve at the higher level than you're currently solving on it. No, I think that's really valid. I also think even in that case, like when you're bringing someone to make it feel lighter, whatever that may be. I think, like, for me, it's definitely very mental.

It's also from a work standpoint, but like the mental, like, knowing that even just like talking things through with you, it's just like I just value that so much and I'm so grateful for it just to talk through things that I didn't have anybody in the organization to talk to a cop-to-a-for. You know what I mean? It's like, of course, but we don't even work on the same things in the comments. No, we don't. Which has just been like a sigh of relief of like me being like, this is a shit. shit, right? And you're like, that shit. We're like, this is amazing, right? And you're like, that's amazing. I'm like, okay. It's like, it's nice. Validation. And then also, like,

be able to run things by you and learn things that I didn't know. You know, when we told the team that you were coming on, like the way that I brought it up to everyone was like, guess who hasn't taken a company to a billion dollars before? And I was like, so I would like to bring on somebody who has. Like, and I think a big learning for me was that, and of course I didn't talk to you about it because you were very busy at the time. But like, I was so nervous to tell everybody. Like, so nervous. So, like, I've talked to one of my coaches. I talked like two of my coaches about. I'm like, how do I do this in the way that positions it really well? And they're like, well, what's the truth about this? And I was like, all these, all that. Everything we just said here, right? And they're like,

just tell the truth. And it's so funny because I told the whole team and that was exactly the frame I used, which was just like, I haven't done this labor. Sharan has. We've been friends for this long. We've been talking to him behind the scenes for this long. Like, these are all things. and not one person had an adverse response, and it still has not. Like, it has gone insanely well. So what I will say is that if you are bringing in somebody to help, you don't want to skimp out on how you bring them in,

how you talk about it with your team, even like onboarding. Like, it was fast and crazy, but like, I built out everything. And then you were like, me, hello. You're like, I will do some of that, but it, you know, it's like, you just never know. We should, right? It's like you don't know. talk about how Sharon on board it because I think that would be super helpful for people who were bringing in high-level executives, directors, partners. Do you want to hit on that?

I mean, we can. It wasn't even as planned because I ended up how I didn't know. But I love what you did. I mean, so, you know, the first thing that Sharon did, which a lot of people, so this is, I think this is kudos to Sharon because he is zero ego, which is why he is as successful as he is. But a lot of, you know, partners, execs, even directors, depending on like leaders, I'll just say, might come into a company and just be like, all right, what's my 30, 60, 90? And there's nothing wrong with that. That's fine. But Tron just was like, okay, I'm going to meet every single person who works at acquisition.com from like the bottom of the org chart all the way up. And he was like, this gets me so much rapid context. And I'll have rapport and and and and and he basically onboarded himself within 10 days and talked to, you know, 100 plus people in that period of time. And was like, he came back. He was like, I understand what's going on now, which is better than like you trying to write. write a 16-page document that trying from because the thing is is it's always going to be one person's perspective whereas if you get a hundred different perspectives you actually get such a such a three-dimensional view of the company rather than two-d kind of paper version i'll also say that from

a speed of growth perspective if we think about the speed of a business can be derived from the speed of their ability to make decisions right well it's like then what what speeds up decision-making ability. So one part is data. Well, actually, data is going to be the biggest one. But when you don't have in the absence of data, you have patterns, right? You have basically past data that you can extrapolate in the future. And so to your point, Layla, it's like, we might say, hey, based on reasoning, you know, there's some logic and what we know about the world, we believe this is a good, a good, direction or a good decision. And having someone who has that pattern that's already recognized, be like, yeah, already did that. Like, that's the right call. Or yes, and add this piece, because

will come up later, it has compressed what would be maybe multiple hour, two hour long discussions to then being finally like, all right, let's just do it. But that whole process might take two, two weeks or four weeks to make that call, which then can now be done in 30 minutes. But then tomorrow we have another 30 minute decision. And the day after, we have another 30 minute decision. But each one of those would have been two to four weeks, two to four weeks, two to four weeks. And like, that's where you can see why a company can grow at 10 times the rate, a hundred times the rate of others, because minutes versus months is a massive difference

when we look at time scales for growth. And I think that's one of the other massive unlocks that. I mean, I'm excited that you've already given us, but even more in the future. You mean just how we make decisions? Yeah. Yeah. I think part of that too is like we're so,

we're usually like this. And I feel like you have the unique, like you've done a lot of things like by having both the sets of skills. So like you can flex on either side. And so like you bring a really like, rounding the middle ground. Well, thank you. But I think the interesting part about the onboarding,

which people need to know is the thoughtful, like Leila wrote me a like a 16 to 20 page onboarding plan, which was amazing because that allowed me to saying, all right, let me read through that. And the interesting part about that was not the plan itself was seeing Leila's thought process on how the world works. And I thought, and I think that most people will just say,

okay, cool, hey, let's do a press release and bring this person on board. And hey, for the first few months, just meet people. I'm like, no, you are 90 days of like ramping up. That's crazy. You need to make impact today. And so Alex hit the nail on the head where if the organization is somewhat larger,

especially if there is a hybrid component to it, you can't wait for rapport. You need rapport and patterns very quickly. And so if you're talking to people, and five of them say this is what they love about the company that reinforces what that is and if three of them say

this is the same issue that reinforces what that is and you learn it very quickly and you learn it from natural patterns and that also allows for rapport so if you're newer in a company I would suggest focusing on rapport and patterns

that would be very very helpful and the second is to be super impactful you have to find the most granular thing that happens in the business. So for us, it was me going through every single line item in our P&L. Right? And so I know every, you know everything because where the money goes is where the business

invests. And once you know that, you know where everything is at. So if you're in a marketing organization, you should know every single metric, every single channel. And that allows you to kind of figure out that is the pattern in a lot of ways. So people think about learning top down. You want to learn bottom up because that allows you to know what the culture of decision making happens.

that's what's manifested in the bottom up numbers. And if you do bottom up, you can get perspective very quickly. If you do top down, it takes a lot of time. I think that's what I was most impressive is I totally saw the bottom approach there. It's just like already being able to recall so many of the details. I was like, wow. Like, just so fast. I don't even have anything insightful to say.

It was just like really, it was really impressive. Well, I think the pattern for me is that, you know, if we bring leaders in in general, I mean, I think we've tended to, we talk about this publicly anyway. but it was just further reinforcing of the framework that like a players don't usually need a long time to immediately start providing value and when we hear someone who might say like I'm going to need a quarter just to like get my bearings is like probably not the guy or the gal right like every single I player that I could name off the top of my head in this business like immediately I mean within the first five day you know first work week was like I got it I can already understand this chunk I'm going to start eating this and I'm going to understand these but they hit the ground running and and they hit the ground running and and and and they hit the ground running and and and And every time that I've probably been like, you know what, we'll give them much. It's like it's never really worked out long term. Or it's just been an also-ran. It's been like they're all right.

Like they've somewhat solved the problem and they're not a screaming hot pain right now. I'll do with it later. But every A player hits the ground running. And this is obviously no exception. I would love you both of your perspectives on this. And I, because hopefully this is helpful for folks watching ads. They're bringing people on or you're coming onto an organization is you want to deliver artifacts as soon as possible. And it's not just, oh, I had impact.

You want to deliver something real, tangible, artifact, something as soon as possible. And when you start producing people around here, like, wait a minute, he showed up, he tried, he showed up, he wrote a memo, he showed up, he made a video, he showed up, he set up a process. He showed up, he talked to a vendor, right? And so the email is not the artifact. The artifact is the artifact.

And the more artifacts that you can ship early on, the more confidence you get, and the more feedback you get. And you start to realize, so if you're coming in new during a world, organization, the more artifacts you can ship, the better. To artifacts, do you mean like organizational wins? Correct. Yeah. We read it this memo. Here's a video. Here's how we're thinking about this.

Like something, I always think about it as, what do you have to show for it? Right. Yeah. Which is a great doge question, but you have to ask yourself, what do you have to show for it? And if you have nothing to show for it, and it's okay you made a decision, but early on, you have to have something to show for that decision. Otherwise, you don't get cultural buy-in on that. One piece that people discount a lot

Which is like I explain this people I'm like listen I can know what you're doing But if the team doesn't see wins from you They're not going to like assimilate you into the organization Right they're not going to know why should I listen to this person Because you're like oh well no ask Lela I'm doing all this for eight weeks behind the scenes They're like okay whatever

And don't be behind the scenes It don't be behind the scenes The two biggest piece of advice I give to everyone that asks me We have so many new people They're like what can I do And I'm like one don't tell people what to do when you're new Like, don't go around telling people that something they do is wrong. Like, that doesn't make you smart.

Doesn't make you cool. It doesn't. That's not why you're here. Like, just watch. I was like, the second thing is offer to help everybody. I'm like, just offer. Just like, hey, is anything I me to help me? Is there anything I do to support you?

Like, if you do those two things, it's like, and one thing I've noticed with you is you're like, hop on support. Hoping on help. Something they need to do for you. Like, constantly asking those things. And it's like, even if someone doesn't need something, it's like they feel like, Molly, they ask that they can do things for me and they're brand new, you know what I mean? And you always gain rapport from kind of the servant frame, right? It's like, it's not telling them what to do. It's asking them what you can do, just a small pivot. And by doing that, though,

then it's like, now I've got one reward cycle of this person and one, especially if you come in from the position of above, right? If they know you have the authority, you flipping and be like, hey, how can I help you? Is a, like, I think that's the authority hijack, right? The thing that you could do that ultimately will gain you real influence rather than title-based authority in the business. The one thing I will offer is the thing that made me feel the most welcome and secure was Layla's document. Because it showed me that she cared enough to spend all that time preparing for me. And I don't think most, I'm just going to say most onboarding managers do that, where imagine the, anxiety of a new person coming on board anywhere in the organization. They want to show up.

They want to be successful. They want to do a good job. But it is the first two to four weeks are actually the manager's responsibility, not the person's responsibility. And us putting in a little bit of effort upfront, showing them that you have saying, hey, this is, this is a plan. Here's the onboarding plan. Shows that you care so much about the person coming on board as opposed to, oh yeah, we'll just introduce you around and watch your. No, you don't want to do that. And so my, my I publicly want to thank you. I know how much effort went into that. But that allowed me to see your thinking and also feel your care,

which we have a bunch of new leaders coming on board that are going to work with us directly. And that you set the bar for me to think about them coming on that way and almost to guarantee their success. And so I want to take, I want to, my. effort needs to guarantee their success. Because at the end of the day, we just want guaranteed success. And so I want to do the effort. And you showed me how to do that. That was super cool.

Oh, I appreciate that. It's funny you say that because that is when I, I remember when I walked into a new job and they had a whole document packet and like basket for me. And the way I fell was like, I never had a job to do that. And they had like two days where they spent so much time with me and it was all structured And I wanted to give more to them because of what I got there. And that was when it clicked for me of like, okay, when I build an organization, like, the first impression of just like how much effort they're willing to put in, I didn't need half of it.

Right. And I didn't end up using half it, but like that they were willing to made such a difference of just like feeling welcome because you're, you know, you're nervous and stuff. And so I'm glad it was helpful. I know the doc, it was definitely overblown. And I did it out of complete anxiety of not wanting it all this to fail. But it was awesome. Yeah.

I was like, if this fails, it's my fault for sure. But that is the responsibility that the leader should take, right? That is the responsibility because you spend all this time hiring, going through the process, making the president feel special, come on board. And then you're like, welcome. You know, I think what a lot of people don't talk about, I prepared so much for issues with telling people that you were coming in of like people being like, well, Layla, I want to work with you on this or I'm going to like this or like who's this person? Like, what's going on? Like, how are we going to make decisions? Like, I was completely prepared for all of that.

because that's what so many people told me, like, happens. And I was like, even though we have such a great culture and organization, like I just need to prepare for it. And I think a lot of people, that's actually where I spent even probably just as much time, which was having the conversations of people 101, talking people, what does it mean? What does it not mean? What's changing? What's not changing for individuals and then for the company?

And I think that alone is where a lot of people fail, is that they don't do the work when they're bringing in a new leader or a new partner to position them well, to step into the organization would be welcome. Because a lot of times they do a couple things. One, they say it's going to be better with this person. I don't say any expectations because I'm like, it's going to be different. Good job. Thank you for me.

It's going to be different. Well, I saw the worst was like three years ago when a leader would like replace themselves there. I guess we so much better with this person. I was like, you can't say that. Because it's going to at first feel so different. They're not going to think, well, you said it was going to be better. It's day two. Why is not better?

It's like, well, they're new. What do you expect? It's like, well, you said. And so that's the first one was like, Just don't set any of those expectations. Just say it's going to be different. It's going to be a change. Here's what the change is going to look like.

And I think the second piece to it is explain how it, like the highly impacted individuals, how is it what's going to happen and what's not going to happen? Like, what changes and what doesn't change? And I think that those are also really important to explain to people because a lot of people bring in someone like you and they're like, am I getting fired? Is this still happening? Like what's changed? Like there's all sorts of things that can go through their brain.

So I always just tried to come up with like, what are the, the things that what are the obstacles I anticipate ahead of time that I can just overcome before they even bring them to me. And I think that in itself paired with what you just said. Like if you do those two things, like you address the communication plan for how you're going to communicate to the organization. And then there's a plan for when you bring a person in. I think that is how you set someone up for success. So when they walk in, people are excited for them to be there, not scared or not annoyed or frustrated or worried. I'm just excited for her.

Real quick, guys, I have a special, special gift for you for being loyal listeners of the podcast. Layla and I spent probably an entire quarter putting together our scaling roadmap. It's breaking scaling into 10 stages and across all eight functions of the business. So you've got marketing, you've got sales, you've got product, you've got customer success, you've got IT, you've got recruiting, you've got HR, you've got finance. And we show the problems that emerge at every level of scale and how to graduate. to the next level. It's all free and you can get it personalized to you. So it's about 30-ish pages for each of the stages. Once you enter the questions, it will tell you exactly where you're at

and what you need to do to grow. It's about 14 hours of stuff, but it's narrowed down so that you only have to watch the part that's relevant to you, which will probably be about 90 minutes. And so if that's at all interesting, you can go to acquisition.com forward slash roadmap, R-O-A-D map, roadmap. ACQ 3.0. ACQ-3.0. That was your idea. Yeah. It is the natural progression.

I think that's really, I think that's a lot of stuff that, you know, people are going to start seeing us moving towards. And when we allude to the big moves we make, that it comes with Acquisition.com through 0. I mean, I see it like as a progression of, like, I would say, you know, 1.0 was us helping ourselves directly. I would say 2.0 was us helping ourselves directly and helping everyone else indirectly. So it's like if you document all these things, we show what we're doing. That's going to help a lot of business centers indirectly. We're not the one actually like setting up, you know, like taking calls for them. We're like, but hey, here's how we do it.

And here's how we do our market. Here's how we do our sales. Here's how we do these things in the business that we can help you grow and hopefully, you know, hit your goals. And I would say, you know, acquisition 3.0 is how can we help ourselves directly and help you directly? And so I see that as kind of the vectors, which is kind of the natural progression. But in order to do that, you know, from the first time we met until now, the size of the, quote indirect audience, went from, you know, a few thousand to now, you know, tens of millions that have, you know, directly been in our wherever versus the people even in our interested

demographic. And so in order to do it and do it right and maintain our reputation, which is, I mean, we've worked such a long time to do, we want to make sure, you know, I'll try not to be crude, but that it's fucking awesome and it's fucking done right. And that if we can do that, then I think that we can, you know, get close to the kind of impact that I think all three of us want to have because you said this earlier, but like it's hard for people to comprehend. It's like, Sharon really doesn't need to do anything. And we really don't need to work at all. We can just like live off the dividends from the buildings and the businesses that we own and like just work out. Like when I see the the best entrepreneurs of all time, it's like they're able to kind of like flip

their selfish interest inside out so that it just kind of pulls the, you know, the world. And I think that that's, I think it's something that all of us have wanted to do. And it just takes more than one or two people to do it and do it right. I just think like at the end of the day, you know, when I think about what we're building here and like how it started and such, I think it's because, you know, at the end of gym launch, for example, like, you know, we got partners and then we grew out, right? We never brought partners into the business to keep growing the business in a way that didn't feel completely exhausting because at some point it's not this isn't about the work that you do in the business it's

about the decisions the judgment the leadership the experience and that's you know it's not like we're like oh sharan's gonna come and do so much work like it's like i know you are because it's who you are but it's like the judgment you bring the decision making the expertise like your thinking your brain right and i think at some point especially like when we sold gym walk like i was definitely at a point where like it had just run off the two of us and i do think that i do think that I was on the point where I was like, I was okay for a minute, like, in that brief moment of thinking smaller because I was like, oh, my, I was so tired. Like, I was like, I was just like, I'm tired. Like, I've been up since 4 a.m. I'm just going to bed at 8 p.m. and I'm a freaking grandma.

And like, it would be nice to just have something a little more, a little less demanding of me, right? And it's funny because I look back and I'm like, it was just a skill deficiency, which is like, I didn't have the skill of doing a couple things. There's like building a team that allowed for me not to feel that way every day. And building a team where I actually, like, being tired at the end of the end of day was worth it. because I had so much fun working with them as well as, then, okay, maybe you shouldn't be the one making decisions all day. Like, if I'm making 35 decisions a day, is that really a good thing to be doing at that? And I knew it was. Well, I think that goes to Alex's point of having the under-talented, right?

And the crazy part is, how many times have we all experienced this where we, this isn't mean to be a part of it, you hired one person. And that person did so good. You're like, man, everything is so much better because Michael's here. Like that happened, right? And when that happens, imagine that over and over and over and over again. And that's when you get to do so many powerful things. It's permanent I got it's, which then you have an organization of I got it, I got it, I got it.

And then all of a sudden, you create the space to then say, well, I still got some stuff. Like, I can still go get stuff. But then all those I got it lets you go get. And I think that's what allows you. you to build the future because so many entrepreneurs like have this. Their dream is really just a dream and never meets reality because they never have the opportunity to pursue it because they're still stuck under talented in the business because they're constantly feeling like they have to play whack-a-mole because they don't fully complete the cycle.

Like they get a three-quarter solution, but you still kind of like leave parts of yourself behind because you know that someone hasn't fully got it. I think that's the one thing I feel like the one thing. I think it's probably my what I feel most proud of this team is just like we just have such great individuals. You know, it's like everyone's so strong. And I think I used to have to count on one hand how many strong people I had in an organization.

Yeah. And now it's like, I would have to count on one hand how many weren't and I wouldn't have any of my hand right now. You know what I mean? Which is like, I remember dreaming of that. And so I think at that point, then you're just like, when we talk about the barrels, you know, I think to a degree, it's like when you have the skills to build something amazing and excellent, you just realize at some point you just, you just, you just, you

You just need to hook with other barrels so that you guys can help. You know, it's what I talk about a lot, which is like, you want a vision so big for something that you build that everyone's vision can sit the side of it. I think right now we see the vision for Acquisition.com, 3.0 specifically, and we all see how our visions for ourselves, our dreams, fit inside of that vision. And that's what the magic has. And I think it's, you know, I'll say this with jumping on the piggyback on the talent piece, which is that I think that whether you like it or not, like,

I mean, I talk to business members that every day they're like, I want to help a million people lose weight. And I'm like, well, you have one brick and mortar store that has 100 customers. Like the gap between their, I think it's not even a realistic dream. It's something that they say that other people say that's amazing. And so that's why they keep saying it more so than they actually want to do it. Because if they actually wanted to do it, they would behave differently. And so they have like their thing they say and then what they actually believe is possible. And I think that when you bring, when you get these other barrels in and you get more high quality,

talent, your scope, your realm of believability expands. And so it's great to say, hey, we want to do this thing. But like, you know on some level, like, what is reasonable or what is feasible with our existing capacity? And so we still, on some level, still extrapolate forward or project forward based on what we already have. And so when you bring those other people in, all of a sudden, like, your ability to see further, you're like, oh, I would never have considered that. But now that we have John, where we have so and so, like, oh, they can, we could actually connect these dots in a way that I never would have originally imagined because I would have thought, I can't do that.

And I don't know anyone else who can. But then we meet that person, you're like, oh, my God, all these other huge, chunky things, now enter the realm of possibility. And that creates all these new connections that then expands the realistic vision rather than the someday that'll never happen vision. Totally fair. The one quote that Alex actually probably would say it better than me is this really hit me heart. And I was, I'm born a very driven person. And in my 20s, I really believe that it was about

the destination. In my 30s, I realized that it was about the journey. And then finally, in my older 40s, I finally realized that it's about the company. And it is the people that you're with, the people that you build with, the people that you grow with, the people that you can see more and farther with. It's doing it with great people is what. what makes you have the ability to outwork everyone else. Because if you think about the destination all the time, you're like, man, I got, that's what the grind is. I feel like I'm grinding and I feel tired and resentful.

That's what happens because you don't have the company. Or then you go through this period of growth and everything is painful. And you're like, at some point you're like, I don't need to do this anymore. Right. And then, but when you have great company, you're like, well, wait a minute. If I don't know how to do this, I can ask for help. can someone else do what I got it and then you realize that the

the growing and the joyfulness become so much more multiply the reason someone asked me this the other day I said the reason why I finally believe that it's about the company is because of this one thing it allows me to work harder because there is no working smarter it's like you realize you have the company so you can work harder

and that's what's super super powerful I feel that so hard well the vision also expands because the timeline you think on it also expands because if you're miserable then you want the mystery to end on some level. And so you're like, well, I can only really think this far out because I don't want to do this for longer than this amount of period of time. So then it creates this rush and this pressure to get it all done as fast as possible, which is very like pushing energy.

Like you're like, I have to just keep driving even though I don't want to. On the flip side, if you're like, I'm enjoying the company on this process, it's like, well, in 20 years, we can build whatever we want. And so then it creates a lot more fun. and you can dream bigger if you have enough I got it. And with those I got it, you enjoy those people. Then it's like, well, what do we want to do? Like, let's, like, let's fuck shit up. Like, let's have, let's have fun.

I think that's why I've, like, had zero feeling of rush with that position.com. It's just like, it's like, if there's one thing, it's like, do what you love with people you love. And it's like, find people that, like, you would want to be around even if they didn't work in your company. Which is a big one. And, like, that has just been such a huge frame shift. You know what I mean? I do want to ask you something, though. Of course.

I bet you people are wondering, especially like people who follow you, how has your content been to change? So far, the content has always been a very niche category king type content. And the crazy part is we've had a chance to build, you know, a 1.5 million Tam audience and build a billion dollar business from it. And Alex, you talk about this, right? You go niche. You can actually create a lot of revenue from it. But I remember being at brunch with both of you and with my son Neil. and the idea of making content about what you're working on. That is the thing that I'm truly excited about. I read this quote, which was like,

to write the book, you have to first live the book. If you have to write the book, you have to live the book. And what I'm really excited about is starting to just look at my calendar and just talk about what we are talking about. Like what you and I are planning on launching is talking about what we are doing day to day. And I think that is the thing that people are missing. they don't see that. They see a lot of the how-to stuff, which is cool.

But they don't see the, what did you do to help your business grow? So I'm looking forward to living the book and writing the book simultaneously. Yeah, I'm excited too. And I think also just like for everyone that follows you, like, you know, it has been like niche content. But like, if you take the word of real estate out of any piece of your content, like, so many people come to our events and they're like, something's saying that, oh, I follow strong. I'm like, are you real estate? They're like, well, no, but he's got good shit.

Like, you're smart because that's what happened with Alex. It's like, we, you know. Early days at gym lunch, I had, I had a lawyer stop me and he's like, hey, I listen to your podcast. I was like, the gym secrets podcast. And they were like, yeah, it all applies. And I was like, well, yeah, but I say gym and membership rather than contract and services. And they're like, yeah, you just swap the words. Like, duh.

And I was like, huh, well, that's great. But, but I mean, Tiran, I'll just, one of the things that also made Tiran unique for this situation is that he also had, he understood content, he understood personal brand, which is how do you take, like, when you talk about unicorns, it's like, okay, you find somebody who's, you know, the Michael Jordan at real estate, which is a massive, you know, market, but then also has the opposite of running the businesses that capitalize on this opportunity, which is pure private equity, you know, like how do we, you know, increase enterprise value within the business and the opposite self of the people, the hiring, the recruiting, the marketing, sales,

all of those components. but then there's also the like oh yeah and one of those companies was also a public company and so then there's the public securities public market which also he happened to have this experience at Goldman Sachs for years before that so he has kind of like the bottom up approach of like what it's like on the floor of the of kind of like the businesses that deal with the markets and then also being the target of of those those products and services that are sold so it's like this 360 view from a business perspective but then in terms of okay that's all amazing but maybe if sharon were 80s he wouldn't be able to come into this, you know, our current context and understand the, the dynamic nature of how business is continually, you know, changing and evolving, especially with where attention is going and how to, just how acquisition works in general right now. And so, you know, Real was built largely, or at least in recent, you know, on the back of a lot of Sharon's speak engagements and his personal brand that brought in a lot of people to the

company, right? And so being able to marry all of these ideas and then appropriately valued each of them so that we could mix those things into the most viable thing for an entire audience or, you know, consumer base is just like, how do you recreate that? It's like, oh, I just need another person who had, you know, who's an immigrant who isn't afraid to work, came here, you know, was dumpster diving in the beginning. And then also was able to go to one of the, you know, best schools in the U.S. and then go to the best bank or what is considered the best, you know, investment bank in the world and then also do the private growth two times to a billion dollar level and do it publicly it's just like and also have the the personal brand and also be someone that we like

really get along with and share the values it's like yeah let's just wait for the next charon before we before we try and work somebody in to do what we want to do and so um it's like you don't find another charon and um if you do get the opportunity to find another charon call me and don't don't bring them uh but no we're we're just uh we're we're just we're we're We're super pumped. I'm delighted. Yeah, to have you. Like, just genuinely, I think, you know, not going too much in my own, but, like, it's just been so fun.

Even though it's, I know it's hard and there's a lot of shit. It's still been fun. I remember it was like your fourth day. One of the members of our facilities teams messaged me and he was like, I just want to say you seem lighter. Like, you just seem like, you're smiling more and you just seem brighter. Like, is this because Sharon's here now? And I was like, oh my gosh, I think it is. I was like, I'm just excited.

It's awesome. That's awesome. That makes me happy. Yeah, I'm excited to build Apposition. com 3.0. 3.0. Real quick, guys, I have a special, special gift for you for being loyal listeners of the podcast. Layla and I spent probably an entire quarter putting together our scaling roadmap.

It's breaking scaling into 10 stages and across all eight functions of the business. So you've got marketing, you've got sales, you've got product, you've got customer success, you've got IT, you've got recruiting. You've got HR, you've got finance. We show the problems that emerge at every level of scale and how to graduate to the next level. It's all free and you can get it personalized to you, so it's about 30-ish pages for each of the stages. Once you enter the questions,

it will tell you exactly where you're at and what you need to do to grow. It's about 14 hours of stuff, but it's narrowed down so that you only have to watch the part that's relevant to you, which will probably be about 90 minutes. And so if that's at all interesting, you can go to acquisition.com forward slash roadmap,

R-O-A-D map, road map. Roadman.