Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Leila Hormozi: From Six Arrests to $100M Net Worth, How Leila Changed Her Mind and Built an Empire by Age 28 | Human Behavior | E202

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

Before Leila Hormozi became the expert business mogul that she is today, she was lost and rebellious. After getting arrested 6 times in a matter of 18 months, Leila decided to turn her life around and poured herself into learning. Now, she is widely considered a scaling & operations expert. In today's episode, Leila will guide us on how to make lasting behavioral change to become the people we want to be.  Leila Hormozi is a first-generation Iranian-American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Leila started her career in fitness, and today, she is widely known as a scaling, operations, and management expert. She acquired a net worth of $100M by the time she was 28 years old. Today, Leila is the co-founder of the holding company Acquisition.com, alongside her husband Alex Hormozi. Together, they invest their monetary and intellectual capital into other businesses. Acquisition.com is responsible for over 85 million dollars in yearly revenue across various industries. In Part 1 of this episode, Hala and Leila will discuss:  - How Leila was shaped by her upbringing - What inspired Leila’s motivational spirit - How mentors like Tony Robbins changed Leila’s life - How your inner circle should contribute to your growth - Leila’s dating advice and how she met her husband Alex - Adapting in order to succeed - Why being uncomfortable is important - Building the “GSD” Muscle - And other topics… Leila Hormozi is a first-generation Iranian-American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. She is known for her expertise in scaling businesses through flexible infrastructures and creating management systems that create wonderful places to work, and performance to match. After the turnaround business experience, her and her husband, Alex Hormozi, packaged his process into a licensing model which scaled to over 4000+ locations in 4 years. Over that same four-year period, she founded and scaled three other companies to $120M+ in cumulative sales across four different industries (software, service, e-commerce, and brick & mortar) without taking on outside capital. After that, she ascended to a board position in each of her companies, allowing her the time to co-found Acquisition.com, which acts as the holding company for all her business ventures, which at present are responsible for over $85,000,000 in yearly revenue across a variety of industries. Resources Mentioned: Leila’s Website: https://www.acquisition.com/ Leila’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leila-hormozi-32a580a5/ Leila’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeilaHormozi  Leila’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leilanhormozi/ Leila’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leila.naghshineh Sponsored By:  Shopify - Sign up for a free trial at shopify.com/profiting More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/ Join Hala's LinkedIn Masterclass - yapmedia.io/course

I came downstairs and my dad was like almost in tears. And he said, listen, I'm not going to try and change you, but I'm just telling you, I think that you could kill yourself if you continue with this behavior. Who was that little girl who just wanted to be a better version of herself, who just wanted to be an inspiration to others? I was like, I have to see out what I said I would do when I was younger. I want to become that person. And this doesn't have to be the end.

When a lot of people talk about behavior change, what they're really asking for is belief or thought change. If you think about changing behavior, that's not very complicated. It's like don't eat the cookie. But I think a lot of people want to know how do I not want to eat the cookie? How do I lose weight?

I just can't lose weight. I'm like, no, you can't be hungry. That's the biggest thing that was the unlock for me with behavior change and what has always been was I don't need to eliminate feelings. I just need to change my relationship with them. What is up young and profiter?

You're listening to Yap. Young and Profiting Podcast where we interview the brightest minds in the world and unpack their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your daily life. I'm your host, Halitaha. Thanks for tuning in and get ready to listen, learn, and profit. Layla, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Thanks for having me, Allah. So Young and Profiters, today on the show, we're joined by Layla Hermosie, a first-generation Iranian-American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Lela started her career in fitness, and today. Today, she's widely known as a scaling operations and management expert, and with these skills,

she's acquired a net worth of nearly $100 million by the time she was 28 years old. Today, Layla is the co-founder of holding company Acquisition.com alongside her husband, Alex Hermosey, and together they invest their monetary and intellectual capital into other businesses. Alex and Layla seem to be taking over the world lately, and currently Acquisition.com is responsible for over $200 million in yearly revenue across a variety of industry. Alex Hermose recently came on YAP for a two-part episode, and today I'm honored to have his other half, Layla Hermose, who is equally as impressive

and as business savvy on the show. And in today's episode, Layla and I will discuss her upbringing and how she became the business maven that she is today. We'll hear Layla's guidance from making lasting behavioral change and we'll get an understanding of how we can design a hiring system and a management system that creates wonderful places to work and gets our teams running like well-oiled machines.

So Layla, when we're, look at personalities as adults, we can often drive the reasoning behind our strongest personality traits from our childhood, right? We can often see the experiences that we had as a childhood sort of shape us as we're an adult. So you are an extraordinary example of an entrepreneur. So I'd love to understand what were your experiences growing up. How do you think they shaped you as the entrepreneur that you are today? I think it's experiences and also lack of experiences, right? And so if I look at what I had as a child and what I didn't have as a child, which I'm really grateful for because it's made me who I am today, I didn't have a very present mother figure after a

certain point in my life. My parents got divorced when I was young. They got divorced. My mother kind of went off the rails, you know, into alcohol and drugs and just not down a good path. And I still continued to live with her during that time because when my parents were married, my dad was always at work. And so I wasn't really close with him. And so when the divorce came, It was kind of like, you're going to live with mom because she was a great mom up until that point in my life. But at that point, a shift took. So my sister actually at that point, it was six years older than me, left the house. It was time for her to go to college.

And then my dad left because they were getting divorced. And so it was me and my mom. Then her dad died. And that really set her off. And so that is when she went down and not great trajectory into alcohol. And I witnessed it as a young kid. There was quite a bit of like a lack of leadership because I would go to my dad's, I think, once every two weeks in the beginning. but I hid what was going on for my dad because I was afraid that I would have to go live with him.

And at that point, I didn't really have a relationship, which is crazy to say because now I'm so close with my dad. He's amazing. But at that point, we didn't have the closest relationship. And I was a kid and I just wanted to be near my mom. And so she kind of continued down this spiral with alcohol. And I tried to, I think that honestly what happened was that I became the parent in the household at a very young age. And so she kind of turned into or regressed into acting more like a child. And so I naturally turned into acting more like an adult. Like I would clean the house. I would take care of the animals because we had like a ton of animals at that point in time. I would take out the trash. I would make sure there was food. Like I would take care of myself.

So like I would go to my friend's houses. I would get food there. Like I would make sure like I was taken care of. I got my homework done on my own. I went to bed on time. Like as I learned at a really young age. I think that was between the ages of, uh, with all that happening. I want to say between nine and then it ended when I was 15. You know, it was a lot of her not coming home, being gone for days on end, when she was home, being drunk and not present, and me having to during that time, learn to be an adult. And so I think it really accelerated that process because I actually don't think that I would be who I am today if my parents had stayed together. Wow. Like I think both of them were very much, like, they came from the generation that

became helicopter parents. And so like, I think that if they had stayed together, I probably would have been, I don't know if I can say bad words on this podcast. I would have been not, I would have been a pussy. Honestly, it's like what I think. That's like what comes to mind. I'm like, I think I just would have been kind of like really like sheltered my whole life. And so I'm really grateful that happened because what inspired within me was a motivation that I don't think I otherwise would have had. And I'll tell you the moment that I had this happen was I was sitting in the office of my childhood home. And my mom, it was like 3 a.m. She had told me she was going to be home multiple days in a row, wasn't home. It's 3 a.m. I'm calling her. I'm like, are you dead? Like just tell me you're

live, right? And at that point, it was just like, I just want to make sure she was still live. That was all it was. And I was sitting there and I called her like 10 times in a row. And I remember I put down the phone. I was like, this woman's not going to answer. I was like, and I'm not going to change this woman. And I'm not going to change this situation. And like, I get chills every time. I think that I'm like 10 years old at this point. And I remember thinking to myself, there's nothing I can do to change my mom. I can't change my mom. But I can't change my current situation and my life. And in that moment, I remember making a choice, which was, one, the rest of my life will make up for how shitty this is. Like, not having,

feeling like you have a parent figure, right, like watching them, like degrade their lives, like go down the drain. It sucked. And I was always stressed and it felt like it was living in a constant state of fear. And so I remember thinking, like, I have to make up for this later on. And I want to be an inspiration to others who are in similar situations. And I don't know where that came from, but it was just the first thought that popped into my mind. And then the second thought that came with that was I will no longer sacrifice my life for hers. Because what I was doing at that point was my whole life revolved around making sure my mom was still alive, making sure that she wasn't drinking too much, hiding the bottles, pouring them out, like doing all that. And I realized that I

couldn't do that anymore. And so within, I think, a matter of months, she actually kind of went even further and further down and ended up calling the police one day. They came. And that was the last time I ever lived with my mother. I went to go live with my dad after that. So that was after about five or six years of living with just her in that condition. And it was actually really weird because going to live with my dad was very uncomfortable. And the reason it was uncomfortable is because I had parents. And I felt like for those years that I was living with her, you know, I would see my dad once every two weeks for a day or two. But like I felt like this huge portion of my childhood, I didn't have any guides. I didn't have any parents. I didn't have anyone watching over me

in the sense that I didn't feel supported. It was. was a very tough transition. I think I rebelled a ton. It took me into a very angry place. I had a lot of anger for the fact that, one, I felt like I knew how to parent and lead myself, but now I had to be in this household where I had siblings who I didn't really know well. They were my step siblings, right? Not like they're bad or anything. They're just, you know, I'm around them. I'm the youngest also, so everyone treats me like a kid. And I'm thinking to myself, I've been taking care of myself for the last five fucking years. And so it felt very much like in reverse, like these things should have happened in the opposite order. And so it turned me into a very angry teenager

You know, I started kind of going down the path of just rebelling against anything my dad wanted me to do. You know, I'd always been, despite everything with my mother, like a very good student. I still was a very good friend. I was like a very, I had a lot of integrity. And I kind of started going the opposite direction. I started drinking. I started sneaking out. I started doing a lot of stuff.

But it was intermittent because that was during high school. And there's only so much you can do. And so I think that it kind of, you know, snowballed when I got into college because I remember the right after I graduated high school, the feeling of freedom I had, you know, being like, I now don't have authority anymore over me and still having this intense anger inside of me and also anxiety going into college and it just manifested in first getting invited to parties and then like going and drinking too much. And then going to parties, not just on the weekends, but on weeknights. And then it was like, you're partying all the time and you're drinking all the time.

And that led to me getting arrested six times in 18 months. And people always ask, what did you get arrested for? I'm like literally just all alcohol. It was all alcohol related. And so it put me in a really dark spot because I'd spent the better part of my life up until then being this almost like hero to my mom, being like the parent figure. And then it was like the moment that I got out of the house and I went to college and I had access to all these things, it was like 18 months of just ruining my body and myself and losing a lot of respect for myself during that time.

And it got to a point where there was an incident where. I think I passed out on someone's like deck and the police found me and they took me to my dad's house and I remember I woke up in my dad's house and I was like, oh fuck. You know, like, what did I do? Right. I was living on my own at this point and I was like, I'm at my dad's house right now and I don't remember what happened. I was like, this is not good. And I came downstairs and my dad was like almost in tears and he sat me down. He was like, listen, he was like, I'm not going to try and change you and I'm not going to try and tell you you shouldn't do these things like you're out on your own now he's like but I'm just telling you like I think that you could kill yourself if you continue with this behavior and

that was really hard to hear from my dad who I have so much respect for and you know he's such a good person he's always tried to be the best parent possible and it was in that moment that it was almost like a flash came in and I was like who was that little girl like remember that little girl that was sitting in the office with her you know of her mom's house who just wanted to be a best of better version of herself, who just wanted to be an inspiration to others. And all of that almost seemed to, like, flood back into me. And it fled back, again, I think in the form of anger, which again, is interesting, but it's a theme you'll see here. I was angry at myself. But I think that it was a very useful emotion for me at that time, because I was angry of where I let myself go, that I'm so smart

and knew better and still went down that path. And I use that anger to fuel myself, to lose 85 pounds, to get good grades in college, to start pursuing self-development, personal development outside of that, you know, to start pursuing mentors. That was really what propelled me to turn my life around was that moment sitting there with my dad, feeling just like, honestly, like a piece of shit. Yeah. I hate saying that, but I just felt like, I felt like a dirt bad. Like, I just felt so bad about myself.

And I was like, I have to see out what I said I would do when I was younger. I want to become that person. and this doesn't have to be the end. Like I was like, I'm young. You know, at that point, I'm 19. I'm like, I can turn this around. I did all that in 18 months. Imagine how fast I can go to the opposite.

And so it really was that. It was channeling some of the same emotions to go in the opposite direction. And that was what really propelled me to change my life. And really, I think I have a strong focus on behavior change because I've done it so much for myself. Yeah. And I think a lot of the reason I'm drawn towards leadership is because I think that I have learned to lead myself over the years. And I've also learned to lead myself out of a bad spot. And I think that a lot of people, especially nowadays, with social media, nobody wants to talk

about their setbacks. And if they just want to show that they're perfect and they don't want to show that they've fucked up. Yeah. And I want to share that I've fucked up. And you can still come out the other side. Like, there's still time. 100%. I mean, there's so many lessons to be learned in this story. And I also was like party aunt. Me and you are both of Middle Eastern descent. We're locked up in high school, right? Like they don't let us date do any. I mean, for me, at least, like I was locked up during high school. When I went to college, I was in party mode.

But like you, I ended up turning it around when I was like 19 and kind of getting back on track. And it's not too late. And like I mentioned to you before, we really started recording. Most of my listeners are male. They're young male listeners. And I had Scott Galloway on the show who's a New York NYU Stern professor, best-selling author, huge podcaster. and he always talks about men are in trouble right now, young men.

And he told me some troubling statistics. He believes young men are struggling to compete because women and men now have an equal playing field in terms of education and business. So soon two women will graduate college for every one man. Male earnings are declining. It's leading to lower marriage rates, lots of other problems. And in general, I feel, because my young male listeners reach out to me and DM me and send me voice notes all the time about how they're so.

unmotivated. They're unfocused. They can't stop partying. They're playing too many video games. They're not joining communities. And they're just lost. And I feel like this point in your life, you did turn it around. And you did, you know, go on this self-development journey. And so I really want it to unpack what you actually did to get yourself out of this party mode and to turn things around. Yeah. I started listening to Tony Robbins and Jim Rohn, which now it's kind of funny. I think they're probably outdated at this point and the younger generation doesn't listen to them. But I learned a lot from them. And one of the first things was, what am I consuming and who am I hanging out with? And so the first thing that I did was I stopped watching Netflix. I remember I got rid of my

subscription. I started watching YouTube. I started watching like there was different like platforms at that point of online videos. I started watching Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn. I started listening to Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I started pouring myself into education rather than entertainment. That was the first thing that I did. And that was a swap I made in my head. I was like, no more entertainment, only education. For now, this season. Does that mean I can't watch an episode of something later on? No. But for right now, I've had so much momentum in the wrong direction. I need to get momentum in the right direction. inertia is real. And so I was like, I need to turn this around immediately. So I went all in on self-development in terms of Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, rich dad, poor dad.

So it was a lot of behavioral change, mindset, and even money beliefs. Because I felt like I didn't have the best beliefs around money. The second thing I did was looking at all the people I was hanging out with and really doing an audit of, do these people want me to succeed or are they feeding the bad habits I have today? Not because they're toxic. I hate that word. I'm like, when people are toxic, I'm like, you step some boundaries. We're adults, right?

Like, just set boundaries. And so I was like, here's my new boundaries. Some of these people I'm not friends with. Some of these people I see once a month. Some of these people I only talk on the phone to. And I wrote it down in my notebook, what I was going to do with all of my, my friends. And I don't even think I've told any of them that to this day. And a lot of them probably don't have the best things to say because I kind of disappeared from the face of the earth for a while.

But I knew that's what I needed to do because I just knew that at that point, I was such a people pleaser. Like I wanted to, it's almost like you want to excel in any theater. I also wanted to be the biggest partier that could drink the most. That was the coolest. That could throw the biggest parties. And so it's like, I needed to channel that somewhere else. I need to get around people who didn't think that that was something that would drive status, but instead thought that was something like you looked down upon. And so then I started saying, okay, who are the people that I want to get around? I realized I didn't have any at that point. There was nobody in my inner circle that I felt like would contribute to my growth. And so this was while I was in college, right? I was like,

I have to move. Like, I can't right now. I'm going to graduate. But I set my eyes on it. I was like, I'm moving to California. I remember I decided it one night when my friends all went to the bar, and I went with them sober. And I was like, I'm so fucking over this. Because I was trying to still do some things with them. It was like once a month I'd go out and I'd be the D.D. or whatever. But I was like, I hate this. I would rather be doing something that was driving me towards my goals, not doing something

just to like maintain friendships that are pretty much just surface level now. And so it was that night, I remember I told my friends, I said, you guys, I'm moving to California after I graduate. And they were like, what are you talking about? I was like, yeah, I just decided. I like decided in that moment. And then I told everybody that night, I told me. everyone, I'm moving to California after I graduate. I'm moving to California after I graduate.

And then that was it. And so after I graduated, that was the biggest, that was one of the biggest, if not the most, like the unlock for my personal growth was I moved all the way across the country when I didn't know anybody. I didn't really have a plan. I didn't have anything over there waiting for me. And I didn't know how I was going to make money or how I was going to make it work. And I'm like a young woman. It's not like I'm 20. When I went over there, I think I was what, 21? And that was what stirred up so much for me because I think a lot of people like, tell me the books that you read. Tell me the stuff. What I did was I put myself in a situation where my back was against the wall. And I was insanely uncomfortable, like to the point where like when I would move there, I remember on a weekly basis having panic attacks. I didn't know anybody. I didn't have any support system. I didn't know how I was going to make money.

I mean, it was terrifying. And not to mention, I bought or I signed a lease for an apartment online that ended up being like in the ghetto with like, you know, barbed water on the sense. and shit. So I get there and I'm like, looking to walk in my own neighborhood. It was a really unsettling experience. And I quickly learned that I had to make it work for myself. Nobody could do it for me. No amount of affirmations and mindset work was going to go do the work. And I think that that is where a lot of people go wrong is it's great to have positive things you say to yourself. It's important in much of a sense that you talk to yourself like you're your best friend. Yes. But if you take no action, none of that matters.

And I think that a lot of the times nowadays, people are spending so much time in their heads. That's what I feel like this generation is doing. They spend more time in their heads than they do taking action. Feelings and beliefs can follow the action. If you can just get yourself to take action when you are scared shitless, you will change your thoughts and beliefs. You can act despite not believing it's going to work. And that is exactly what I did. I didn't know how I was going to make it work.

And then I went and I applied and I worked at, I applied to every gym within walking distance of my apartment. And I got accepted all of them, but I was like, they were like, oh, you have a three month training program. You get paid like $9 an hour. And I was like, fuck no, I'm going to not be able to pay my rent. So I went to the only gym that was like, you can make money immediately, which is 204 hour fitness. And that was where I learned how to sell. But then you have to understand, I went there, having only knowledge of like how to lose weight, nutrition, whatever I learned in college that didn't really matter.

I go there. And they're like, you need to go sell some shit if you want to make money. Like, you go get your own clients. And I was like, oh, shit. again, my back's against the wall. I'm like, what do I do? Like, I'm not a salesperson. I never identified as a salesperson. I was like, the last thing. It kind of disgusted me even the word. And I was like, fuck, I have to. There's, what else am I going to do? And I remember the first time that I approached someone at the gym, I was terrified. And I went up to this woman. They were like,

go talk to people on the ellipticals, on the gyms that you see not doing things right, whatever. Go try to get them to your clients. And I went up to this woman. I was like, excuse me. And she was like, She looks at me. She stops. She goes, fuck off. And now is my first experience. There's just rejection from day one. So it was really hard.

But that feeling of stress and anxiety, I channeled into learning. I was like, I cannot, I won't. No amount of thinking is going to get me out of this situation. I need to learn these skills. And I need to become this different person in order to get out of this situation. And so I took all that anxiety and all that stress, all that frenetic energy that I ad and I poured it into learning. I poured it into learning how to retain customers. I poured it into learning how to become a teammate because I didn't even know how to do

that. And that was when I spent a lot of my time doing. And so I think that a lot of the times when people are asking about self-development and personal development, I think that there's a piece missing, which is a lot of people believe you have to have, you have to think a certain way and you have to believe something before you do it. And that's just never been the case in my life. If you had told me, like, did you believe you were going to make all this money by the age? Fuck, no. Like, no. And then they're like, do you believe the acquisition.com is going to become a billion?

No. But I'm doing it because I know logically that it makes sense and I'm capable. Yeah. Does that make sense? 100%. It's like this small, consistent action taking action. And I see something really similar. And I say it when it's when it comes to rejection.

I've been rejected a lot of times. Like I almost had a show on MTV. I got rejected. I almost was a host on Hot 97. I got rejected. It almost got rejected. It's serious like some. And I always say the reason how I, like, became successful is I just, every time I got rejected,

I just channeled it into learning something new. Just learning a new skill and getting amazing at it, you know, and that's what I did every time. And it sounds very similar to what you're saying. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. At Yap, we have a super unique company culture. We're all about obsessive excellence. We even call ourselves scrappy hustlers. And I'm really picky when it comes to my employees.

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was because now you've carried that skill and used it in multiple ways throughout your career? I think that there's two things because Alex and I, when we met, for example, like we both had sales aptitude, but we sell completely differently. And I know that because we sold side by side for a year with each other. And our conversation sound completely different. And we both had like around the same closing rate. Most people can sell things that they believe in. And so I think that a lot of times people are trying to, like if you look at the mechanics of sales,

we're trying to fake belief. Like salespeople, sales training is often faking belief in the product. When I think I found a product that I believed in, which was personal training, nutrition, losing weight. Like I truly believed in that. And that was the first thing. And that's why I advise a lot of sales people that reach out to me. They're like, I just, I'm not getting it. I'm like, do you believe in the product? And they're like fundamentally no. I'm actually, you know, it's like a vegan selling meat or something. Like it's just fundamentally doesn't match with their belief systems. The first step is that you have to make sure that you are being integrous, which means like what you think, what you say and

what you do are all aligned. And so for me, the one thing that I realized by speaking with different people, especially I think my boss at that time, he was a sales manager. He was really good. He was like, Layla, do you believe in this? And I was like, absolutely. He's like, well, then why do you not feel convicted to try and get people to buy it? And that was the unlock for me was, if you believe in something and you really know it's the right option and the best option for somebody, I'm obligated to try and get them to buy it. Because I'm thinking, I'm like, what other options do they have? Not many, right? Like, this is the way that actually has to go. It's the hardest and it's the most expensive, but it's definitely the best. And so I think that it was the first one is having

having integrity about the product that you're selling, which sounds super cheesy. It's not tactical at all. But a lot of people are very misaligned. You'd be surprised I don't feel that messaged me and they say, I'm just not selling. And then I said, do you even believe in the thing? They switch jobs and then they're the top closer. And that was the first thing for me was I had done it myself. I had lost all the way. I had seen how it changed my life. It's not hard to preach that to other people. It's not hard to try and sell someone that because I would if it wasn't paid. Yeah, you need that conviction so you have the confidence when you're selling. Otherwise, people can just see right through you. A hundred percent. And if you really believe in it,

the conviction comes naturally. You don't have to fake it. But the second thing that I did learn that was a skill was having the right frame for the conversation. Because a lot of people who really believe in a product are still people pleasing while they're trying to sell. And so because they're trying to get that person to like them rather than trying to get that person to buy or to make a decision, that's what they're really doing. right. They want the person to like them more than they want the person to buy or make a decision. And so they're trying to tiptoe around it. I had to make that frame shift. And I realized I have to be the authority. Just like, you know, if someone's the leader in a business, you're not going to be liked all the time. It's important, though, that you're able to positively influence people in the

business. Does that mean they're always going to like you for it? No, but will they be better for it? Yes. It's the same in sales. And so I had to learn how to develop more confidence and more of an authoritative frame within myself, how I spoke, how I led, how I led the conversation. I didn't let them lead the conversation. That was the biggest unlock for me, was realizing that I have to be the one leading them through the conversation. I'm the authority in this conversation. And I should be because I actually give a shit. Yeah. Like, who better to be an authority than someone who actually cares about the person on the other side. Yeah. So it's like telling them something like the truth, even though it hurts and it's not going to make you the most liked person,

but it's going to help them accomplish their goal. A man could never say this to a woman during consultation. But the amount of times I said, when's the last time you had sex with the lights on to a woman? Because I knew she didn't because I wouldn't have either when I was fat. Nobody wants to see that. You don't want to see it yourself. I was like, when's the last time that you like put on clothing in front of a mirror?

Wow. Because they don't. If someone's out of a weight, they don't even look in a mirror. It's those questions that though they hurt and they don't feel good in the moment, I was like, that is what's going to make someone. That's what's going to get someone to make someone. make a decision that's going to better their life. And I think the difference between manipulation and influence is manipulation is getting someone to do something that's detrimental to themselves,

whereas influence is getting someone to do something that is beneficial for themselves and in line with their own personal goals and autonomy. That was really the one piece that I needed to succeed in sales was understanding that I was the authority. And I had all the evidence to back that I should be the authority. And I also had the give a shit where it made sense to me to be. Yeah. Makes total sense. great advice. So let's talk about your agenda at one point to find a man, right? I heard a story. I've heard you say the story that you were doing a Bumble date every single weekend because you realized that dating was sort of a volume game. And then you met Alex. So I'd love to hear that story. Yeah. So I'll tell you how it started, which was I actually worked at 24. And my boss at that time,

who was a sales manager, he was like, I told him, I was like, I got on Tinder and Bumble. I was like, Tinder's disgusting, but Bumble seems fine. And he was, I remember I said, like, you know, I'm going to try and go on a date every couple of weeks, something, something. And he said, you know, Layla, he's like, I think dating is a lot like sales. I was like, how? He's like, well, I think it's a numbers game. Like, think about how many consults you have to have with somebody in order to get a client?

I was like, yeah. He's like, well, how many dates do you think you have to go on in order to get somebody to be a boyfriend, maybe even more? And I was like, interesting. And he's like, and I remember he said this. He's like, don't you think that dating would be very good practice for sales? And I was like, how so? He's like, well, you're meeting strangers.

You're having to basically sell yourself to them and you're in uncomfortable situations. And I was like, huh. So he essentially sold me on this concept. And so I said, okay, well, how do I work leads right now in my sales job? Okay, I'm just going to do that but for dating, which was, you know, I had a time set aside every day or it was like for an hour. I called all the leads and whatever, maybe more than an hour. And I would bang the phones.

And so I said, okay, what can I commit to for dating? I have my lunch break every day. It's minimum 30 minutes. I will just literally swipe and do nothing but swipe while I eat for 30 minutes. And so that was what I did. And that was what I promised myself. I said, my goal is to get a date a week if I swipe for 30 minutes. And so that's what I did.

And I started going on dates and a lot of them sucked. Like I had one guy trying to sneak me into a movie theater, not telling me because he didn't want to pay. I had like another guy who took me to a dinner and then told me he wished I wouldn't talk. I mean, like, I had so many bad dates. The difference was that I didn't let it discourage me from going on another one. And so I talked to a lot of women now, and they ask me about this. And they're like, listen, Layla, I did that for three months. I'm like, girl, I did that for 18 months.

Like, get back to me when you've swiped every day for 30 minutes, gone on 60 dates. And then tell me what you think. Just like you're looking for the ideal client, if you're in sales, dating is the same way, which is, you know, you have your criteria of what you're looking. for and you're going on dates trying to find it. And it's just a funnel that you're trying to continue to work through and through and through. And so honestly, I just took the same sales learnings that I had. I applied them to dating and I just didn't give up. I had enough confidence in myself at the time that I was like, there's somebody out there for me. Like I know I'm a little

weird and I'm a little different. You know, like I really like business. I really like working. Like a lot of women at that time, especially in Newport Beach, California, it felt like did not, right? They just wanted like a sugar debt. But I was like, I will eventually find someone. And so I think having that, knowing that that was the case and understanding that it was just a numbers game made it much easier to get through the emotional ups and downs because I think that if dating is just an emotional game for you,

then you're going to stop. Because the moment you have a bad date, you're like, oh, there's no boys out there for me. I'm like, shut the fuck up. I'm like, you're saying half the population sucks? Please, like I hate when people say it. All men are horrible. I'm like, this is called cognitive bias.

You are overgeneralizing. Your brain is saying I had one bad boyfriend. Now all men are bad. That's not true at all. And then the second piece is understanding that I think a lot of people, what they do is they go on a few dates. Maybe they get in with a few people and maybe they date somebody for like a month or two and then they break up. And then they take the same amount of time that they dated the person to get over the person. And I think that a lot of that comes from social stigma of, oh, it takes you, you know, half the amount of time that you dated someone to get over them.

I'm like, you know the best way to get over somebody to go on another date? Like, what do you do when you lose a client? you go get another client. Like, I refuse to believe a lot of the things that society tells us. So I was like, am I actually upset about this person who I dated for eight weeks? No. But I think I'm supposed to be upset. And I think that's what a lot of people do.

And I think the reason I was able to go through very quickly and find somebody is because I didn't let that stuff stop me or drag me down or make the process take longer. Yeah. So smart. And I have to say, Leila, I love your personality. You're so funny. And just to give such good advice. I love talking to you.

I think the audience is going to love this conversation. So you met Alex, right? Talk to us about that first date. What was he like? And what did you see in him? I mean, you had all these suitors and you decided on Alex. Honestly, it was tough because, like, I'll be really real. And you've probably had this too or run into this as a woman who's ambitious.

A lot of guys didn't like that. Yeah, 100%. Like a lot of men just wanted me to be a housewife. They wanted to have kids very soon and all these things. And I was like, that's just not in the cards for me, man. Or they think they want it. And then they realized like, she's going to be more successful than me. I don't know if I want it. 100%. So if it wasn't,

oh, I don't want you to do this thing. It was, oh, I'll try and suppress you so I'm better than you. Which, listen, I don't have anything against people who do that. I just don't want to be in a relationship with them. When I met Alex, it was interesting because we matched on Bumble and then Alex, I messaged him because it had to be the girl. I don't even remember what I said. I was so bad. I was like, hey, what's up? Like, I never said anything cool. I was kind of nerdy. So I was like, hey, you know, how's it going or something like that? And he messaged me. He was like, fuck this app. Let's get off this app.

Can I call you? And I was like, I like that. Like somebody who's like serious about this who takes it like literally. So we get on the phone. I remember the first thing he said. He was like, listen, he's like, this is basically like a first date. So what we're doing right now is we can have our first date now on the phone. And then later when we actually have a first date, we don't need to talk about all this

stuff because we ever talk about it. It'll be basically our second date. And I was like, this guy's efficient, which I liked because that's how I was running it as well. So I was like, this is a good match. And I remember feeling like, I don't really know. Like this guy's kind of like blunt to the point harsh. He's not really flirty, but I appreciated it. And so we meet for Froyo for our first date because it's low commitment so we could leave if we didn't like each other.

That was the agreement. And we go and I'm sitting there waiting for him and he comes up from behind me. And I remember he was like, okay, like not smiling. And I was like, what is this guy not even smiling at me? Turns out. So what some people don't know is I have an entire. entire back piece. And I was wearing a tank top dress. And he saw I have angel wings on my back when I was 18 and getting drunk. And he saw them and I guess like he really doesn't like tattoos.

And so for the first like 15 minutes of the date, he just didn't even look at me. Like we go in line for Froyo. He's not really looking, making eye contact. I'm like not knowing what's going on. And then finally we sit down, we start talking and I just start asking about his business because he owned some gyms at the time. And then it was like he lit up. And then from that point on in the conversation, we talked for, I think, four and a half hours. We went on a walk, walked like, I don't even know how many miles. It was insane. And by the end of it, I just remember thinking, like, the one thought I had was like, I just want to keep talking to him. Like, I don't even care if we're dating or not. I just, like, finally feel like I found somebody

who sees reality the same way as me. I felt like he wanted the same things from life and was looking for the same things. And it was just, it was like a breath of fresh air to talk to anybody. you know, female or male, that actually felt that way. Honestly, from that point on, it was, we hung out every day. I think he had to go to, like, a dinner later that night. And then he called me after, and we talked to, like, 2 a.m. And then the next day, he came to my work during my lunch break. And then I went to his house afterward.

And then it was just like, from that point on, but we weren't working together at that point. You know, we were just dating. And I want to say, like, two weeks in, he was like, you should really just work for me. I was like, because he knew that what I was trying to decide of is like, am I going to start my own gym or am I going to have an online training business? And I had opportunities on both sides. I wasn't sure what to do. And I was telling him about this decision. He was like, I think you should do neither of those things. And instead, you should come do this with me and we'll make way more money than either of those things. And I was like, yeah, but then I'm working for you. Like, this is weird. We're like dating right now. He was like, whatever. We've only been dating two weeks. I remember he said that. And I was like, true. Good point. You know, it hasn't been that long. and I was really torn, but at the same time, I was like, all right, let me look at all the decisions I've made that have been the best decisions in life, putting my back against a wall, putting myself into a situation where most people would fail or falter, and putting myself into situations that there's risk. I was like, there's really no better time that if I were

to do something like this than to do it now, because I'm young. And so I talked to a few mentors, I did a lot of thinking, and I was like, I think after, after here, He went and he did a launch on his own for gym launch, what was to become gym launch. And I saw that it actually worked. And a lot of people, by the way, they give me shit for this because I was like, I saw that he made $100,000 launching this gym. Of course I want to see that he made money. I was making plenty of money on my own.

I'm not going to go stop to go do something with somebody who hasn't made any money or proven a concept. I'm like, I have my own shit, my own business going on. And so once I saw that it worked, I was like, okay, this makes sense for me financially. So it makes sense to take this risk. And that was when I think the next week, I talked to all. all of my clients. I talked to the gym that I was working at at the time, and I just got rid of everything. And I had a week between getting rid of everything and flying out to the first gym to do

the launch for this idea, for this company gym launch. And that was really the beginning of not our relationship, but our partnership. And so if you really think about it, like we only had, I don't know, six weeks that we weren't working together, like in our entire relationship now, which has been seven years. And the rest of it was from that point on, it was learning how to navigate being in a new relationship with somebody that you're also building a new business with while losing money, living out of motels, basically eating shit every day. And it was really hard. So that was, I was like, I just realized where I was going with that. I was like, that's a story of our relationship. I mean, it's so interesting. And now you guys are such a powerful couple.

And I'm sure starting a business and able to have you guys bond together, but also So spending that much time together probably was really tough and maybe felt like you guys needed your own experiences and things like that. So I guess how did you deal with that? How did you deal with keeping it romantic still, even though your business partners? Oh, God, it wasn't romantic at all for the first two years. It was no romance. It's funny because people ask that stuff.

And I'm like, no, the first two years were us trying to not be poor. Like we were just trying to not go bankrupt at that point. our relationship was not in the forefront of mind. So it was really the first year, I think that what we did learn by necessity was how to communicate with each other. I learned how Alex works. A lot of people get really intimidated by Alex

because what you'll learn if you get close to him is like he likes one word answers. He'll be like, okay, if you're like, you write him a whole novel, he's like thumbs up. Yeah, I thought Alex hated me after my. I was like, why does he hate me? Most people think that, right? Yeah, he's just like not,

he's not like you bubbly sweet, like not like that at all. no, it took me time to learn too. I joke with everyone that's on our team. I'm like, listen, I thought he hated me too when we first worked together. And then we got married. So apparently he didn't. It was really learning how to communicate with each other, learning, like, what are my nuances? Like, how does Layla behave? And then how does Alex behave and, like, how do we behave together? The hardest part was that. And I think when you get into any relationship and you're under stress, because we were under intense stress those first couple of years, it was learning how to use that to our advantage to become better versions of ourselves

because being around somebody else in close quarters exposes you when you're under stress of where your flaws are or where your weaknesses are. And I know for me, like one of the best lessons that Alex taught me earlier on by just pointing it out was I was very cold. And I think that I have substantially warmed up. I think that if people meet me now, I seem pretty warm in the beginning anyways. and I was not that way. I was scared. I was stressed and I would just shut down. And I remember one time we were sitting in the car and I shut down on him because there was something that he said and I was

upset about it, but I didn't want to tell him. And he looked at me and he was like, I just want to let you know that if you keep doing this cold thing, this relationship won't work. But it was funny because what I actually thought in that moment, I wasn't angry. I wasn't defensive. I was like, you know what, any relationship I have in my life, this will be a problem. Why not solve it now? He's right. I am cold. And I remember that was like the switch for me. And that was the biggest thing that I had to work on the beginning of our relationship. And on the other hand, you know, for Alex, his was probably ego or temper. You know, he used to get angry pretty easily and I think under stress, even more so. And typically when someone's angry, it's like, are they angry at themselves? You, the situation you don't really know. but he would get angry and then I would shut down because he was angry and I was scared.

And so we had to learn that about each other, talk about it, and then learn how to speak each other's language. You know, like if Alex is angry, I know how to de-escalate him. If I'm stressed, Alex knows how to de-escalate me. Because we've learned and we've talked about it enough that I've said what I need and he has said what he needs. It's a conversation that we have. It's not like I'm guessing. You know what I mean? I'm not over there like, what do you want me to do?

You're like trying to figure out what he wants me do when he's angry. I'm just like, hey, when you're angry, what do you want me to do? And I think that's been the biggest blessing of our relationship is the same way that you would talk with a business partner. How do we do this in the business? We've taken that into our relationship, which is there's nothing that's not talked about, like anything to a very high degree. We talk about every problem, everything we notice. If we're like, hey, we feel pretty distant right now. Do you feel distant?

He's like, yeah. And we're like, okay, let's work on that. Or if we're like, hey, I feel like we need some space. Like, I'm just feeling like we are way too close right now. Like we've had way too much time together. I just need like a breathing room. We're like, okay. And so that's been, I think what's been a huge contributor to the success of our relationship would just be that.

You know, taking those same principles that you would apply to any productive relationship inside of a workplace and using it in our marriage. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Happy New Year, Yap, gang. I just love the unique energy of the new year. It's all about fresh starts. And fresh starts not only feel possible, but also feel encouraged. And if you've been thinking about starting a business, this is your sign. There's no better time than right now.

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Again, that's Framer.com slash profiting for 30% off Framer.com slash profiting. Rules and restrictions apply. Yeah, that's so healthy. Like I know a lot of relationships, they do not feel that open in terms of the communication. Like they just feel so scared to tell each other how they actually feel about things. So it's so great that you can work through that. Also, I would say this. Yeah.

You can either be scared to communicate something to your partner or you can be scared of losing yourself in the relationship. And it's like you get one or the other, which is if you're constantly living in fear of what your partner will think, you lose yourself. And so I have always kept that forefront of mind. I will not compromise, nor will Alex, who I am and who he is. I always, and we both really accept each other for who we are, but it's one thing that I'm very adamant about. If there's something that's happening that I need to communicate how I feel about it or I'm dissatisfied with and same with him, we will do it even if it hurts our partner's feelings

because we both know that we have to put ourselves and what is true to us forefront of mind. Otherwise, our relationship will never work in the long run. It might feel good in the short term to avoid that thing, but in the long run, you're setting yourself up for dysfunction. Yeah, 100% and total failure. So smart. Okay, so I feel like this is a really good segue into behavioral change because you mentioned, and Alex mentioned this on the show, that you were the fastest person he knows in terms of changing your behavior. And so from my research, I found out you used to be afraid of public speaking. And now you essentially do that probably every day as part of your career. You also thought you would never be a good manager and that's literally

what you're known for now in terms of like your management styles. So, how do you continually adapt and change your behavior in order to succeed? I think that when a lot of people talk about behavior change, what they're really asking for is belief or thought change. Because if you think about changing behavior, that's not very complicated. It's like don't eat the cookie. But I think a lot of people want to know how, well, how do I not want to eat the cookie? That's what they want to know. Because people are like, how do I lose weight? I just can't lose weight. I'm like, no, you can't be hungry. You don't know how to tolerate hunger. That's why you can't lose weight. And so it's not that I lack anxiety, stress, nervousness.

When we got on this podcast, I was, like my heart was racing. Really? Happens every time with every podcast. If I go up to speak, the last speech I did, I got on the stage and I couldn't, my mouth was so dry. I thought I was like, I was like, the words for sure won't come out. Like, I get terrified because I care, because I want to make sure that I do a good job. I want to feel like I give value to the audience, right? but what I've learned is to, one, not judge myself for that. And two, I can be nervous. I can be scared.

I can be anxious and I can still act like I'm not. And that's the biggest thing that was the unlock for me with behavior change and what has always been was I don't need to eliminate feelings. I just need to change my relationship with them. Most people, what they do is they think, oh, I feel anxious, I feel scared, I feel nervous. I need to rid myself of this feeling so I can act in accordance with my values. and with the behavior that I would like to have. But that's not the case at all. I need to learn how to befriend these feelings, how to live with these feelings, how to manage these feelings, and be okay with

these feelings and still take, you know, steps forward anyways. And so for me, it's always been, if I'm feeling stressed or anxious or whatever and I'm trying to change a behavior, I just remind myself, you have to level up. It's above the situation. It's not about grabbing the cookie or not grabbing the cookie. It's about what's my relationship with hunger. And so it's for somebody who's dieting. It's not that you're hungry. It's not that you need the cookie. It's not that you don't know how to be hungry. You can't tolerate the feeling of hunger in your body.

For people who get stressed with public speaking, it's not that you can't public speak. It's that you cannot tolerate the feeling of nervousness in your body before you go on stage. So what I do, despite not wanting to, is I force myself into situations where I know that those feelings will be provoked. And I practice, like, visualizing ahead of time, the thing's going to happen. I'm going to feel like I'm nervous. I'm going to feel like I'm going to throw up. I'm going to feel like I'm going to panic, like whatever it may be.

How will I act despite feeling that way? So, for example, if I'm public speaking, I visualize myself having a panic attack on stage before I'm on stage. And then I walk through, what would I really do? Because a lot of people just go, Jesus, I'd have a panic attack on stage. And that's it. That's it for me, right? I'm done.

Or I'm like, okay, say I have a panic attack on stage. Then what? that only lasts for like two minutes. What's going to happen the next two minutes? I could make a joke about it. I could use it as an example for resilience for everybody else that's watching. Like I could make fun of myself. There's so many things that I could do next to actually make that an opportunity,

turn that challenge into an opportunity, and then I could continue and give my speech. Yeah. So like if the worst thing happened, what would I do? And how would I turn that around? Then it makes it not that scary because then you're like, well, if something bad happens, this is my escape plan. Right.

But here's what I will say. It's not even them. Because that's reassuring ourselves. That's saying, okay, well, even if the worst happens, I'll figure. Okay, well, what if you don't figure it out? Because that's the other route, which is like, you know, I talked to business owners and they're like, well, what if my business does die? And I'm like, okay, then your business dies.

Then what? They're like, well, I'm like, you've like millions of dollars in the banks. What are you going to do after that? And then they're like, well, I guess I would start another business. And I'm like, okay, so let's talk about the steps. And so I think it's one, talking about what I would do if the worst case scenario happen and then also making peace with the fact that sometimes when the worst case scenario happens, we don't act in accordance with what our plans were. And visualizing that and visualizing how I would

get over it, that it would be okay. So what? I expect that at some point in my career, giving a speech or something, like I'm sure at some point I'll like, nobody will know, but I will have a panic attack on stage because I can get through it now. I can talk through those things. but I'm sure it will happen. And when it does, I've visualized it enough times that I'll be okay with it. I'm not going to judge myself for it. And I hopefully can use it as a lesson for other people to show them that you can do things and be scared at the same time.

And that's really been like my whole life. Like, how do you get rid of the anxiety and all that? I'm like, it's never gone away. Like, you're still hanging out next to me all day every day. But I've just learned how to live with it and really act despite feeling a certain way. And I think that if you're not constantly trying to get out of a feeling, the feeling will naturally go away anyways. Yeah.

But when you're constantly trying to rid yourself of a feeling, what happens is that feeling sticks. But if you're not trying to rid yourself of it, it is much more likely to fade away. So I want to stick on something that you lightly mentioned, which was being uncomfortable, right? And I know that you say that one of the things that holds back are younger generations is that they don't want to be uncomfortable. I had Wim Hof on the show. He's the Iceman. He says something similar, but he talks about like being physically uncomfortable and the importance of that, that we all wear clothes.

We have, you know, the temperature control on. We don't even want to be cold. That's how far we go with it. And then we don't even unlock the power of our bodies. It's hard to work out, so we don't work out. But I think you take it more from like also a mental perspective. So I'd love to hear from you in terms of why it's so important to be uncomfortable sometimes. Yeah.

I do actually think that the physical aspect is useful in many ways. I don't go to the extreme with it. Like I lift and I lift really heavy and hard. and I've done that for a while, and that taught me a lot in life, which is you make the most progress when you're in a lot of pain under the bar. But I think that it's important because what feels good is often not good for us. And I think that I've learned that early on in my life, which is most of the things that feel good for us are not. But if you, this is what a lot of people think. They think, well, gosh, I don't want to be uncomfortable all of the time. But here's the thing, is that those

things that are uncomfortable, if done, repeated, enough times, become comfortable. And so if you do it in enough areas of your life, it's ironic because then actually everything that is uncomfortable becomes comfortable. And so I think it's just breaking through getting yourself to take that first step because our brains don't like unpredictability. And so the reason anything the first time is so hard is because we can't predict what happens next. But the moment we do do that thing, our brain has a new association, it has a memory it's going to make, right? And And most of the time, it's not as bad as we think. And so I think that it's almost a practice in the sense of I try to do things that are uncomfortable

with for me every day. I try to push myself. I try to not lean into my feelings, not because I don't want to. I want to, like today, for example, like had a not great night last night and then didn't sleep well because one thing or another that happened at work. And then woke up, had calls at 6 a.m. was going, I was like, I feel like absolutely ass. I was like, but you know what?

I'm going to fucking show up here. And I'm going to crush it. And I'm going to crush my meetings later. I'm going to crush my interviews later. And I think that every time we do that, what we do is we build confidence within ourselves so that every other thing in our life that's uncomfortable is easier to accomplish. And so I think it's just a matter of building momentum. A lot of people are like, well, I just, Layla, I have a really hard time getting uncomfortable.

I'm like, but you've made a habit of being comfortable. So you know how to make a habit. Now we just got to make a habit in the other direction. Yeah. Which is funny, but it's really like you have the power of inertia on your side once you start doing it, which is if you start leaning into comfort more and more and more, I have a friend that wrote a book called The Comfort Crisis, you start to do everything in your life in accordance with the comfort. And it's called the comfort creek. That's what he named it. Versus to go the

opposite direction, you start to do everything uncomfortably. Then it's discomfort creep. You start to notice in every area of your life, you start to make yourself a little more uncomfortable, and you start achieving more and more. Because achieving things comes from, like, the only reason that accomplishments feel good is because we did something that was uncomfortable. And often people think, I have to rid myself of this discomfort to do this thing. But no, No, accomplishments without the discomfort don't actually feel good. And so the reason that successful people are so confident isn't because they didn't have discomfort and did something is because they had so much discomfort and did it anyways.

And so I think for me, it's just always been, I encourage people to get uncomfortable. I encourage people to also be aware of how to make themselves uncomfortable in a way that they can manage. It might be, let's try some small steps first. Okay, if you're terrified of public speaking and you're going to throw up when you get on stage, let's do some podcast interviews online first, right? like maybe let's make some YouTube videos. And then let's get a stage maybe six months down the road. And I think that you can stare, step your way up to your greatest fears or your greatest

discomforts. And we all have to know ourselves and know what works best. Some people can throw themselves in the fire and just like go straight into the most uncomfortable situation and come out great. Some people, that wouldn't work too well. And they have to stare, step their way into something that's uncomfortable. I think it's a matter of figuring out what works for you. Yeah.

So I love this topic. I kind of want to stay here for a little while. I love the topic of motivation because I feel like a lot of my listeners reach out to me telling me like they don't know how to find their motivation and they feel like it's this external thing. And they always feel like they need to have the feeling of motivation to get something done. And I know that you have said in the past that you don't always stay motivated. You don't do things just because of the way that you feel. So I'd love to learn a little bit more about that. I think that most people don't have motivation because they don't have enough responsibility.

go look at the single mom who is raising four kids. Does she lack motivation? No, she has responsibility. And so I think a lot of people, when they're talking about motivation, what it really is is that they lack responsibility. I am responsible for all of the people that work at my company. I am responsible for all of the companies that are in portfolio. I am responsible for an audience that supports me.

That's what I think in my mind. So am I going to take the selfish action of doing the thing I want to do or am I going to take the action of doing the thing that's better for all of them? And I think that what a lot of people do is they avoid responsibility, which then decreases motivation. You don't feel like doing something when you don't have a big enough reason. Create enough reasons, which is usually people, and you have more motivation to do things. So it's not that I feel motivation every day, but I have a responsibility to the people whose lives I have influence over. And so every day when I wake up and I have to make the decision,

am I going to do this, not going to do this, I'm going to do that or not going to do that. that's what I'm thinking with. And so I think that for those people who are asking, you know, I just don't have the motivation, take on more responsibility. You won't even have time to think about how you feel because you've just got to do it because you're responsible for other people. And I think that we live in a day and age where people lack responsibility. I mean, if you even look like the family construct in this country, it's like completely different than it was a long time ago. And so we have less pressure to do well. We have less pressure to stick with our commitments. And we have pressure to get uncomfortable. But if you're the person as responsible for many other people's

lives, you'll have the motivation much more than you wouldn't. Does that make sense? Oh, it totally does. I align so much with this. I even wrote down some thoughts about this and it's like we're very close in terms of what we were saying our approach would be. So, for example, you were saying before this interview, you kind of felt like crap, you didn't really want to do it. But you showed up, right? Me too. I almost broke up with my boyfriend last night. I had a terrible night. I was like, oh, God, like I have to be, I have my game face on. But at the end of the day, we have to show up because that's why we're successful, because we show up even when we don't feel like showing up. And like you, I zoom out. And I think if I don't show up here, I'm putting my

employees at Jeopardy. If I don't show up today, I'm putting my, my fans aren't going to have an episode. Layla gets a lot of money to talk. I'm not going to cancel and like ruin my reputation with Layla. It's like all these things to your point, like you hit the nail on the head. I'm responsible for a lot of things. So the only way I'm canceling an interview is I literally have strep throat and I can't talk. And the other thing I think about is like if I'm physically able to do the show, if something actually does happen that's bad to me down the line, at least I did the actions that I could to get myself as far as I could.

And then when I actually am sick, I can be like, all right, I deserve to be sick. I can cancel this interview, you know? So I think we're aligned there. I love that. So interesting. All right. Let's talk about the GSD muscle. You talk about this get shit done muscle.

How can we build and develop that muscle? Yeah. I think this muscle comes from having a low thought to action threshold. If I could put it in right terms, which is if you think a thought and then you take action on that thought, a lot of people don't get shit done because they spend way more time in the thought and less time in the action. Now, I know how to think, but a lot of the times what I need to do is

go take action. And I think that a lot of the times, and this is like what we were talking about earlier, it's just a theme that I've noticed, which is people are staying in their heads so much now. It's overthinking, over-analyzing new stuff. I'm like, you've got to build the get-shit-done muscle, which the only way you do that is if the moment that you think about something, you own your power by taking action immediately. The way that you get more power is you take action on a thought faster than others, faster than you used to, faster than you did five days ago. And so for a lot of people, it's that. That paired with being able to face the discomfort. I mean, like, like we just talked about, I think that if you want to get shit done, you're going to be uncomfortable. And I think that

you build that muscle faster when you put it under tension on a more frequent basis. And so when I think about the get shit done muscle, it's like any other muscle, which is you've got to go to the gym and you've got to put time under tension, right? It doesn't matter if you're doing high reps, low reps, weight on the bar, like it's time under tension that builds a muscle. And it's the same for the get-shed-done muscle, which is the moment that you realize that it's, okay, thought-to-action threshold. How many more times can you do that in how many situations? And so what I like to do for myself when I'm trying to instill that one, maybe I feel like I'm in a season where I've,

something happened and, you know, didn't go my way or I'm scared or I'm stressed or something's happening. I write down, what are those things on a daily basis that I can do? I read it at the beginning of the day. And I'm like, these are the small things I'm going to do to build that muscle today, to do my time under tension. It might be a hard conversation with a coworker. It might be that I have to have a hard conversation

with portfolio company. I start asking myself, what are these things that maybe I'm avoiding or could avoid that if I were to do today would make me stronger tomorrow? And that is what the get should done muscle is. And I think that a lot of people don't have it or it's atrophied because they're okay

living with the pink elephant in the room. I think that if you have a very strong getcha done muscle, you don't have a lot of dirty laundry. whereas if you do have a very strong, get you done muscle, there's nothing. Like, there's no pink elephant in the room. Like, there's nothing there. Like, you have a clear conscience. That's how I keep my head space clear.

I don't like having to think about a lot of situations that are like, I want to say, like not complete, not resolve. Open loops. Yeah. Open loops. Like, I don't like having that. I don't like having, if anything bothers me, I feel like there's anything off with the teammate, I just address it immediately.

And so I think that that's really where the muscle is and what it comes from. And it's just like anything else, any other muscles, like time under tension is how you're going to build it. I love that. Okay, so last question to close this part of the interview out. What would you give advice to people in their teens and their 20s, upcoming generations, who want to achieve the level of success that you did by your 30s? What's your main piece of advice for them? I would say, learn to act despite how you feel.

Yeah, big theme of today's episode, yeah. Yeah, I think it's just learn how to act despite what you feel because you're not going to feel good most of the time when you're making progress towards your goals. You know, people congratulate me all the time on the success of the companies that we sold and the success that we're having now. And I'm like, yeah, but all the success is propelled by things that are painful. Right. There are experiences that we're going through.

Right. And so understand that you just have to learn to act despite how you feel. And feelings are something to acknowledge, but they're not directives in terms of how to live our life. Man, talk about good energy. What a fun conversation with such a boss babe, Lela, her mom. I can't wait for you guys to hear part two next week. In part one, we got a great overview of Layla's come-up story and all her lessons learned along the way. And in part two, we're going to

dive deep into Layla's expertise on leadership and team management. She's got such amazing accountability frameworks and hiring strategies. I cannot wait for you guys to hear all about it next week in part two. If you enjoyed this episode, tell all your friends about it. Share us via word of mouth. Let everyone know that young and profiting is your favorite way to listen, learn, and profit. And if you guys like to watch your podcast, when you're on your computer, find us on YouTube. We've got a growing YouTube channel that we always keep up today, and you can find every single video interview that we do on the show.

All the interviews you hear on this podcast are on YouTube as well, except the solo episodes. You guys can also find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or catch me on LinkedIn. You can't miss me on that platform. Thanks so much to my amazing Yab team for helping me produce and promote the show. I appreciate all of your hard work and I also appreciate all my loyal listeners. It's been such an amazing year and I just feel really thankful to be the host of this show. This is your host, the podcast Princess Halitaha, signing off.