Ein erfolgreiches Business aufbauen, auch wenn es hart wird

0:00I'm not competitive but I'm I want to be the best at everything and so is that exact definition of competitive I'm like God should I say that or like this came out totally the wrong way she's truly an amazing human and I'm thankful every day of being on her team that was from [ __ ] I was in Las Vegas to record an episode of my podcast the Jasmine star show with my guest Laila hermosi okay so Layla is brilliant funny humble and extraordinarily tactical so this conversation is going to blow your mind why Layla is a builder so she's going to walk you through how to continue building businesses leadership your personal performance in massive ways this is also a note to let you know that this is a grown folks podcast so if your kids are present you might want to pop in some headphones because some Choice words are used but we've chosen to show up exactly as ourselves so let's start the show hi and welcome to the Jasmine star show y'all I have no chill this is like a full out geek out moment I had some free podcast Jitters I am so excited to have a conversation I am not in my normal recording spot I'm actually recording in Las Vegas with the one the only content Queen CEO of acquisition.com and the new podcast host of build with Layla hermosi welcome Layla thank you that was really sweet I've never been called content Queen so that we'll set that up for you I'm very very happy and I wanted to start before we get into other questions I had a Phenomenal Woman by the name of Cody Sanchez on my podcast a couple weeks ago now I know that you and her are cool and I talked to her about the point of entry where I noticed her an entirely different point so let's go back to that story because I think it's gonna be super interesting to lace together three perspectives at the same event yeah so you were speaking at a mastermind in Beverly Hills and uh you had a one-on-one q a session and the host is asking you questions and they turn it over to the audience for questions and it was going to be about like 25 30 minute com like q a and I would say probably the first 15 minutes people were asking you questions and then I didn't know who she was but somebody in the back of the room it raised her hand they said Cody and she's like it's all gray on lay like how you met your husband and how you dated your husband and where you like to shop but I would like to know more about how you run a 100 million dollar company and like I turned my head I'm like like she just went there who is that girl I didn't talk to her and so it's like I start there and my question is do you remember that moment is that something that happens normally like do you think that's like what people are asking these questions what are the questions that you wish people are asking that they're not asking because girl I'm give me the list of questions to ask you so I know I mean but just from a different perspective like you in that spot people asking you different types of questions that they might not ask other people yeah yep um yeah I've had that happen before and I think here's what my assumption is is that having a successful marriage is more relatable than being a woman that is of my age running a 100 million dollar company or now we have a 200 million dollar portfolio right so the company has sold um it's more relatable so I feel like people know what questions to ask and this is my assumption right I don't know um versus I don't think people even understand what I do and also it's tipped it's tough because like something Alex and I've always talked about is like he will always get more credit and that is okay we both understand that and we talk about that like it is natural that uh more people are going to listen to him he's better at making content he's been communicating for seven years learning how to communicate to a camera um and the way that he speaks he's so persuasive and so charming and so like captivating I mean I listen to him um and so we talked about that because he he always jokes he's like I I always you know take the crap but like he gives me so much credit like he's he's so good about that um and he knows that I get frustrated because I'm like why does everyone want to ask me about my freaking makeup and shopping and marriage is good too okay like it is good too right right um and it took me a little bit of time to understand but I think it's just that like if you also think about the biggest source of pain for a lot of women it's actually not usually in the workplace it's there's a lot of pain there but think about it when a woman is if they're distressed in their marriage versus distressed at work which one is going to take more of her mind share and often it's distressed in their marriage and so I think a lot of the times the reason people ask me about relationships is they've just seen our relationship and they assume also like let's ask Layla because I'm guessing Alex doesn't want to talk about it um so that's why I assume people ask me that but I appreciate that she changed the conversation at that event because I felt like I had more value to add to that audience specifically because they were business owners yeah So when you say people don't even know what it is I do how about we start there that will lay the framework because you in in the conversation you had said I was running 100 million dollar business now we have a 200 million dollar portfolio somebody listening is like wait a minute what like what did it what is it that you do yeah CEO so I think a lot of people misconstrue what uh like putting out social media and being an influencer and capturing eyeballs with running a company and so I think that there's different kinds and no nothing is right or wrong but I am an operator and I I've made it a an initiative of mine to make content because I think that I want to teach more people how to like actually operate a business and that's something that Alex and I talked about because we sold our last business and he was only one that was front facing and I said you know without whatever next business we do like I want everyone to understand there's two sides to this like you are capturing eyeballs and then I am building the team and the business the infrastructure and you need both and both are equally important because without one or the other either you have no business or you have a very small business right it's like and that's what we joke about if we didn't have each other it's like either like it would be me and I would never start the business right because it's like I'm so good at operating and building but like uh idea generation not my strong suit and for him it's like he has all these ideas he probably have like 17 small businesses right and so like we joke about that I'm sure we'd both figure out our way but like that's where kind of the yin and the Yang is and so it's really once I am given and like once we have the idea right like the idea has been conceptualized this is what we're going to do this is the mission of the company this is how we're going to acquire customers and this is the idea kind of of how we're gonna like generally serve them I'm like cool I can run with that and I can build something like I can think what's the team that's going to do that how are we going to do that I can go hire the people recruit them build the infrastructure the technology systems um all that and then the reason that we've decided to create a portfolio is because I also realized I am good at teaching other people to do it so I was able to you know work with our now CEO and CEO of gym launch and get them to a spot where they could run the business and I did a lot of other leaders and I felt like that's actually what I really enjoy is teaching other people how to kind of step into that role um and it's not rocket science you know I tell people all the time like being a CEO and Running Company is not rocket science like in fact most people in the company have harder jobs like more technical jobs that are more technically challenging being a CEO is much more people skills emotional intelligence you know understanding communication and behavior change and so I think that it can be learned by anybody um and so that is what I do like I would say I'm an operator through and through like if someone would describe me it's like that's my sweet spot okay so somebody who has no idea who you are at they're tuning in this podcast in like the nutshell version explain what happened with gym launch and what you guys are doing now with acquisition.com and I just want you to want to use that as the framework so that people can conceptualize because we're talking about building like I want to get into tactical stuff yeah but for somebody who doesn't know let's set the stage there yeah um so Alex and I met and we started gym launch which is uh was a licensing company uh we started out basically flying out and turning around people's gyms and then we turn that into a licensing model where we licensed our model two gyms um and we've done that now with like 5 000 plus gyms we took that business uh we grew it for almost six years then we sold it to private Equity along with the supplement business that sold through that distribution base of gyms um we made a lot of money along the way we made a lot of money we've sold and then we said what do we want to do with our lives like we really enjoyed building that business but I had to ask myself about a year and a half two years before we sold like do I see myself in the next five years six years continuing to be in the space in the gym space in the fitness space in that industry and I was like the answer is honestly no and it's not because I don't like it like I love Fitness I work out every day I'm super into like I love I still am a fitness geek um but I just felt like I didn't want to be in just that industry and I think it was we started helping people just for fun with their businesses you know just like friends and they would go from like 2 million to like 10 15 million a year in like a year just with like simple advice from like two-hour conversation and then we said I wonder if we could do this ourselves with like taking stake in businesses so we took on three just Alex and I and those businesses skyrocketed they all just absolutely have killed it you know one of them is over 100 million now the other one's close to 50 million uh and then the other one's around 30 million and so they all went from like just a couple million a year to that which was crazy wow and that was only in two years and so we said you know I don't think this is just us I think that we really understand this and so we decided to start acquisition.com which is essentially uh a PE firm private Equity that we basically what we do is we take stake in companies that are usually around between 5 and 10 million and we help growth grow them so we're a growth partner essentially um so we take Equity uh in the business and for that Equity we bring in our whole team and we basically decide what's the next three years gonna look like what's the next year what's the next quarter and then how are we integrating ourselves um and how are we recruiting the team to to build the company we need to build so yeah okay so as people are listening right now if you are making somewhere between one and two million and then you hear somebody like Layla and she's saying we have like proof that we can systematize the way companies are run and can scale so when you started off and said it's not rocket science I'm like there's part of me that's just like you're right it's not and the other part of me is like but how like yeah those worrying parts so I want to use this podcast be like let's start getting the wheels greased and so what I want to do is I really want to start with the idea of building so the whole the whole like uh theme of the podcast is me building and we're doing it in three sections so people who are listening right now uh somewhere they're trying to build their first six figures and then to seven figures we're talking about like what are the things that you're going to need to focus on then and then building and leading a team and then uh building practical habits so that's what we're going to start off with and so I want to start by a conversation um before we actually get into building what I have seen and please step in and say no this is not what I see I see business owners getting stuck before they even start the idea of building or scaling so one one of the characteristics that we've seen is like for somebody who's building this is what you said you wrote this on Instagram that business owners on their way to six figures the focus should be having to change and iterate quickly and then the characteristics of a business owner on the way to seven figures is having the fortitude to stay focused and not change things so can you talk about this business owners who's looking to hit six figures what might keep them stuck in the process of getting to that point yeah it's often just lack of clarity right it's that they don't know what to do so the biggest problem as somebody that is not at six figures yet is just they have no experience and they have no insight and they just really don't know what way is up right it's like do I go left right up down like I don't know and so it's often just that they get lost in their own heads and that's actually what tends to be the issue is they tend to ideate a lot and then hop from idea to idea um and not stick through with something enough to even get good at it to find out if it works or not right and that's usually what the biggest you know I would say like reason that people don't get past six figures at least from what I've seen right I don't have any data on this um it's just what I've noticed is that they tend to start something they're in the uninformed optimism stage so they're like this is the best idea ever the next you know Tech Stars the next Facebook whatever it is and then as soon as they get into it what they realize like anything in life is that then they're in informed pessimism which is oh all this [ __ ] on the other side which is like with every solution comes a new set of problems so if you're creating a business that solves a problem you're also going to come with your own it solves a problem it with your solution like you also get the backlash of that which is like what are the consequences the second order consequences of the business you created and I think that a lot of times when people experience those second order consequences then they say this business isn't right you know what I mean and so more often than not I think that people one don't think through what are the second order consequences of my business just based on the methodology the way it's structured the clientele it serves just like this so uh I started my career as a photographer I saw that the large audience of creative entrepreneurs and so if we were to take a jewelry maker if you were to take a photographer and if we were to take cake baker yeah and they're hitting forty five thousand a month no we're talking about the the business owners getting to their first six figures and they're at this point where they can get a few clients and they can get a few cake orders and it's like just enough and not enough yeah and so at this point in time are you how do they know what they need to iterate how do they know what they need to do like if are they in like the optimism stage and all of a sudden like I've been doing this two years I've gone from 37 to 45 like I don't see me doing anything different like how how do I get to the hundred interesting so you're talking more of like a solo operator yeah yeah SOLO operator model um oftentimes for a solo operator it's being able to stick with the idea and also leverage yourself out so now that you've put that in there contextually a lot of the times what it is is like you can't get past a certain amount without leveraging yourself you know what I mean so like if you own a cake shop and you're still baking the cakes all day I mean that's it that's it I think Lean Startup uses that methodology it's like you can't continue to do that and I think that oftentimes I think it was yeah e-myth okay um like you just can't do that and I think that what happens is that most people are just trigger shot to decide what they need to do next who they need to hire what systems they need to put in place um because you have to have some level of business Acumen right but at the beginning you kind of just need to throw [ __ ] against the wall okay right this is so good this is so good because we're actually going to get into the building and actually the how and so a large a large portion of listeners are between that 50 to 150 000 and so when you talk about the differences between passing the six figure to the seven figure Mark what's going to keep somebody uh focused and staying focused like when you had said from zero to six figures it's going to be to iterate on the back of what you're learning and then from Seven figures to eight it's going to be staying focused so people get stuck staying focused like what do you tell people who have a hard time staying focused on you hit a million you're at 1.1 and you want to get to three and they want to do a thousand different things how does somebody hone in the focus you don't you just accept the fact that that's how we're designed like if you read the book the laws of human nature like the grass is always greener on the other side law right which is like our brains are always looking for the next best thing and so I I think Alex and I talk about slots he's like he always he's like you're very patient focused I have all the same thoughts of like what if we did this what if we did that that would be so cool and I say that's okay but I'm not gonna do any of that I'm gonna just keep focusing here and so I think a lot of times focus is accepting the path not taken right because a lot of times we're not focused because we keep thinking about the path that we could take that we didn't take that we're not sure if we should take it's like just acknowledge that it's okay that that path is there and it's coming into your head but like you don't need to do anything about it so it's not that some of that's more focused doesn't have distracting thoughts is that they don't let distracting thoughts dictate their behavior see what I'm saying totally it actually happened today I don't want to admit it my CEO my CEO is going to listen to this and I had sent her a message on slack and I was like have you thought about this and we can do this and this and this is just like great but we can do that in 2025. for now this is the course I'm like you're right thanks for like bringing me back it's like everybody needs somebody like your brain because my brain is like all the other stuff and having somebody else to keep them tethered is a good thing okay so for somebody who is like on hearing this I'm like okay I feel like I can leverage myself according to the e-myth the dad is out and Pat Beyond like the six figure Mark and then someone who's at that seven figure Mark is gonna be like okay I can stay focused and put people around me who offset I actually recently watched one of your Instagram videos about a guy who was asking like I'm not really an operator and then you just looked in we're like get an operator and I was like Wow deep thoughts but it's so true and then you had said and I really like this point because somebody who's listening to it said uh not to over title you said probably just start them as a director yeah I was like oh this is super interesting that's going to lead me to my next thing so um you talk a lot about building a team and on the back of that video that I had seen I think that when I look back at my career I think early on I was hiring a lot of Swiss Army knives yeah like these are people good they're good strong people good at a lot of different things and then what I realized as the business grew I needed Specialists I needed a scalpel and so and as I'm looking through all of these things um let's just say for example because I feel like examples work really well yeah for special people so like okay let's say I'm looking for a Content director and uh what process do I need to get set up no this is going back to the jewelry maker who's looking for her first VA we're looking at a photographer who's looking for an editor we're looking for a cake baker who's gonna need somebody else to do Marketing in her business right we're looking at whoever these next people are specialists in doing this thing I'm going to be looking for a Content director what systems do I need to have in place to bring in not a Swiss army knife but a scalpel I think that that's not a matter of like having systems in place it's so here's the issue you don't get to you don't the people that you need at that point are Swiss Army knives that must turn into scalpels oh so here's what I hire for so I'll give you an example um Caleb for example brought him in to handle all of our content now Caleb if y'all don't creep on Layla like I do uh Caleb is her one of the very first videographers you guys had ever ever hired yeah he really has grown in the organization yeah okay so he came in and I was like I was hiring for a videographer but I was like listen man I actually like need someone that can do video right now but like in two months I need you to like build a team like that's ideal because here's the thing is that you can either hire uh one and then honestly you're not going to need them at some point very soon then you have to hide the other person so there's two ways you can go about it right either one you hire the Swiss army knife with the with knowing that in a year they most likely are going to end up quitting because you're going to have to start hiring hiring scalpels and they're not going to like that most people don't now I try to educate people on this and say like hey you're a Swiss Army and I find you to become a scalpel like here's how it looks this is what happens in business I don't want you to leave so here's what's going to happen right I always try to like narrate it for them because I know because it's happened enough times however a lot of people just don't like that because they're like well now you brought someone up above me and there's people around it's so different I used to do everything and you took me you took away responsibility right so it's really tough for people to make that transition but that is one way that you can do it is first highest Swiss army knife then bring in the scalpels try to narrate that for them so they understand this is when you hire this Swiss army knife are you hiring for their potential to become a scalpel or are you fully cognizant like this person so I'm just saying that this is the options that you just hire a Swiss army knife and you know that they don't have potential to become a scalpel because a smaller business owner often doesn't have the brand or the reach to hire somebody who's a unicorn like Caleb for example most people that I hired I Sheila for example who does you know our head of people I was like come in I need you to recruit at first and she's like I have a recruit in years I was like I need you to recruit it first and then build the recruiting team and then she was like okay so she came in and did that so there's two ways you can really do it which is either higher the Swiss Army and then accept the fact that you're going to have to it's like it's almost like looking at it like um it's like uh in in the Army right it's like there's your call your session of Duty or whatever they call it right you have a duration you're like I'm here for two years whatever it's like that a lot of businesses and the reason that a lot of startups get a bad rap is because there's not enough education about this out there for employees that oftentimes they the organization has to grow in a manner that they will not like and they won't acclimate to I try to always narrate this to my team I showed my team one time at a team meeting I said 99 of you will not be here in five years that's the stat in a startup from year one to year five I think it's actually 95. 95 of employees aren't usually there year five from Year One and so and it's so funny because I look back at gym launch in year five and I was like that is correct everyone in that room pretty much gone 100 people um now is that something I'm proud of no because I think that I could have mitigated that if I'd known more but that is pretty typical if you have a fast growing business like if you're starting and right now you're listening this and you're at like 40 000 and then you get to like 10 million the kind of people even needed like at the kind of Swiss army knife you need is so different that it's like even that's why I talk about not over titling because I'm like hey it could grow and if it grows like you want to make sure that title is actually smaller right now so that you can protect yourself and maybe bring someone above them and then educate them the way I do like to do it if you do have brand and the ability is to bring someone in say I need you to be a Swiss army knife and then I need you to be able to build a team of scalpels right so I would like to I like to hire from the lead because here's the thing you can hire a bunch of doers but the issue is this is that eventually you have to hire a leader anyways and that leader probably isn't going to have hired the same people you did yeah because they know how to do the job better than you they know how to build the department better than you and so even a small business I think that it is worth reinvesting the resources to higher leadership first I fully believe that because I've done it both ways and in the beginning a few doers yes however very quickly hire the leaders like it costs more in the short term and less in the long term you know what I mean because you don't inquire so much managerial debt okay so um I heard you on a podcast and there is a guy it was actually you and Alex were on the podcast and he was kind of like pitching his business for you and Alex come in and you guys are kind of like oh I kind of just were like no no it's not the time and I remember listening and I remember thinking I was like is this guy really like getting free Consulting and is he really pitching to them right now and what is your girl doing I was like so I have another question no I'm saying this because one of the things you had said is there's not a lot of education and there's not there's not a lot of nitty-gritty education for us to like stand in the power of knowing 95 of the at 95 of the people want to live in the Candy Land like we're building the dream there's a lot of times that people don't have the ability to take the dream to where it needs to go yeah I feel like that statement alone should be really empowering to people who have felt like maybe like myself I felt like I let people down like I felt like I had to make moves and understanding the team had to change so if I had known that step maybe I would be able to step into it powerfully understanding like this this is the cost of growth uh yes that it is the cost of growth and I think that's what I try to tell people something like they make it mean that they're so bad at business they're like I had to fire these people 100 from day one 100 most people from day one aren't there on day 657 100 so uh one thing the story I'm telling myself is I'm hiring a scalpel I'm ready to hire a scalpel but then I think this person's not going to want to do what I'm like I can tell you immediately what they're gonna need to do in the beginning in order to have them hire the most amazing content team they're after but I think to myself is this person really going to want to watch archived videos and timestamp and understand voice and understand connectivity and how we can create webs for like YouTube on the back end like the story I tell myself is hell no that person's not going to do the stuff that we can hire like a Stateside VA to do talk me off that ledge or say you're right um in terms of hiring that unicorn that person yeah like you hire this like amazing person and like great in the beginning you're gonna do this but we're gonna hire out the team like I mean I I think that it is you I would look at it like this which is like I think so highly of you that I want you to come in see everything we're doing understand how we do it current day and then I want you to build a team that can do it right that's an opportunity for somebody that's a career making opportunity for somebody rather than like bringing someone in in like a cookie cutter situation and so you have to like that's the thing with like a smaller business is you have to find people who are growth oriented like I feel like that is such a in every small business I don't know why they don't have a core value that's like something associated with growth because businesses grow because people grow right and if the people aren't growing then they're not going to fit in the business and so for that kind of role like if you are hiring and you're interviewing the right people they would be excited by that opportunity me starting acquisition.com guess who literally contacted all of the people who applied to be a portfolio company Layla emailed from a fake email that was like I meant Layla's assistant because we had so much because I started over with zero we started with a team of five got it it was like doing and I was sending out emails sending out like literally doing everything I have almost literally like in cash almost 100 billion dollars that I'm doing it because I value the importance of understanding how something works and anyone that is astute at business knows that a builder if you can build that is more valuable than incremental growth and so if you give someone the opportunity hold on hold on I need to pause and repeat a couple things that I heard back is it under your breath you had said at the time I had 100 million dollars cash like I want that to like sit as like a powerful framework for both men and women but specifically women who are listening that you would be able to stand in your power and say that is a fact and what yet I am doing is making up a fake email address to do the work to find the right person to build and so I kind of just want to let that like set for people who are listening to be like this is power and oftentimes what we do is we want to abdicate the very simple simple things because we want to be at a different place and like what we're hearing from a builder is that in order to build you must do simple things things and you must attract the right person how do you know that somebody is hardwired for growth like what do you how do you know that I think if somebody's excited at a challenge and so how do you assess that when somebody's applying I present them with all the things that I want them to do I don't hold it back so I'd be like this is what I need you to do okay this is a [ __ ] impossible job I need you to come in here I need you to do all this [ __ ] that's awful and I need you to figure out how to build a team to do it in like three months and they're like that sounds [ __ ] amazing they're like salivating over it and I can tell because somebody they will their voice will raise they'll start talking High they'll be excited somebody who's not growth oriented and they tend to you know like get uncut too uncomfortable like probably levels of anxiety at that kind of thought it's like they'll be like oh well I mean like how long do you want me to run the thing and how long oh good you're looking they're looking for an end date versus the other person is like this one is what I'm built for you know what I mean and it's like I think that some people you have to look at like what do they value in themselves you know what I mean like I look for people who value the fact that they can work really hard for long periods of time and like they Pride themselves upon that because that's how I do right and so I know that I need people like that around me to help build this thing versus there's people that don't they're like like I mean I had a call with somebody and I was like here's I need to do all these things and it was somebody that wasn't Caleb it was somebody else for that position and they were like well like I have to be really Frank like I'm like I'm done at five o'clock like I can't like and I was like oh I was like dude that's totally fine but like we can't work together like that is acceptable right but not here right and like I make that super clear I'm like that's not like good luck finding a startup that does do that and or at least you may find one but I doubt they will grow right and so it's like at least if it's bootstrapped right VC money is a different thing um like a bootstrapped startup business like you need people like that and oftentimes the most disgruntled employees and like the worst experiences come from the employer or like the CEO entrepreneur not understanding what kind of people they need and hiring button pushers and people that are there to clock in and clock out rather than people who are like willing to like bleed and die by the company and then the employees not understanding the difference between a startup and a corporation and so they apply for a startup thinking like this would be fun I have more influence on well what's the cost of the fun and influence the cost is that you've got to work your ass off now in neither situation is any person being forced to do anything this isn't opt-in you're not a prisoner to the company so it's like some people say oh they made me work all day I'm like you took the job if it's you're at a startup and you're like complaining about how much you're working I'm then go work at a big Corporation but you don't have the freedom so it's like what's the cost of Freedom it's like most entrepreneurs will work all day to not have to work all day and most of the people on the team will work a lot longer to not have the stringent rules and the red tape that big corporations bring so there's always a cost you know what I mean and do you think that your content kind of like puts up the safeguards around like you're attracting people who kind of subscribe to that philosophy or do you think that you do a lot of it like in the job applications in onboarding or is it like you're applying because you know all of it is everywhere we are so we repeat my favorite thing is when it comes to the end I'm like what questions you have about the job why are you lacking Clarity and they're like honestly I I [ __ ] get it they're like I've watched all your content I've watched all of Alex's content I went through the whole process and like everyone is very congruent they all say the same things and what they all repeat is they tell me that they're like you guys all talk about the values they're like you guys talk about the values in every interview and you all say them multiple times competitive greatness sincere Candor unimpeachable character competitive greatness is the biggest filter because competitive greatness is the love of a hard Challenge and that's what I want on this team that's what we need to accomplish our goals now does that mean that I've created a hostile work environment where people are being pushed to work too long if the people that I hire like that kind of work the answer is no if I hire the wrong people then yes they'll feel that way so okay so um can I read something on that note yeah okay so when you talk about attracting the right people and if I created a hostile work environment it's not whether or not that was in fact the case it was whether or not you hired the right person I think so it's all about expectations okay so I'm gonna read something what most people don't know about Layla is how generous she is with her team and how much she cares she constantly finds a way to show kindness to others and it's just a part of who she is for example my husband took a job recently and he's going to be traveling on the road I'd post on Instagram how my kids were having a hard time next thing I know I had Donuts at my doorstep to cheer my kids if someone is sick she sends some soup if someone is celebrating anniversary she sends them a gift card for dinner she randomly sends people thoughtful gifts she doesn't have to do this but it's who she is she genuinely cares about others she's truly an amazing human and I'm thankful every day of being on her team that was from Yasmine yeah yeah and so for those of you are not familiar I've been familiar because I watched videos and how you accidentally missed a meeting and you had scheduled your own meeting and you went on stories and be like I'm so sorry I missed a meeting it's because Yasmine didn't schedule it for me that's why I don't sketch into when I reach out to you on Instagram I'm like I'm doing Vegas can we do this podcast interview you're like talk to Yasmine and so I got I got the end and she I asked her a question she's like I don't normally answer like this but I said I really want to showcase a different side of how you approach people and how you build teams and so there was a time when you had launched gym launch and you guys are going through covid and in one of your videos you talked about the time that you told your team that for a period of time that everyone had to work nights and weekends to ensure your customers and your company got through it yeah what was that process like asking the team to do that and then how did you feel as a leader I think I was really lucky because I had read a book uh by Ben Horowitz the hard thing about hard things and he talked about you know essentially you have to let your team know when things are tough like you have to be transparent and it's not that like hiding it does no good for them and I've never been a Hider um you know I probably I try to appear very composed to people I think if anyone on social media can probably see that because I practice enough with my company um uh but you know he talks about like we have to be in it together and the only way if you read about companies that can come out of a hard time the only way they're able to do it is like complete transparency and then complete honesty and so I told them where we were at Financial I have I always in every company share all the financials so I was like you see the financials wait a minute okay whoa okay how much of the financials like how detailed are the finances so anyone in a leadership position they get the full piano all the itemized breakdowns okay the rest of the company gets the high level like Revenue profit loss like that kind of stuff got it um only reason I don't for the whole company is it is I did at one point and it's very hard for people to understand right if they're not educated on how to read one and so it just causes a little more confusion thank you for that Clarity that was great um yeah the hard thing about hard things and uh I I asked myself like what kind of company do we want to be do we own how how could we use this as an opportunity to be his stronger company on the other side and I'm like the only way and if you look I'll give you an example right people that go to war together like comrades in arms come out and like they are closer and they stay connected for the rest of their lives because they went through something hard together right and I thought to myself like that's like kind of how it feels right now with this like it's like our industry is hit harder than it's us in restaurants but I was like this team can come out stronger on the other side I was like so I want that for us here's what this looks like we all have to work nights and weekends not because like anyone's lacking but because if like we all feed gem launch it's not just me and Alex feeding gem launch it's every one of us putting in the effort to feed this company right now it's too small or it's too big for it to just be like a few people or the leaders like working their asses off it needs to be the whole team and so I explained that to them I explained like these are different circumstances different times we're in Wartime we're not in peace time so here's what wartime looks like here's the difference between wartime peace time and I explained to them to that now I got from the book The hard thing about hard things I broke down here's all the things we're gonna do differently here's the new expectations I have of everyone on the team but I promise you if we get through this like everyone will be compensated for it and that's what we did do is like the one thing that I don't I didn't skimp out on was making sure that the people that stuck it out that stood it out stuck it out uh that you know like stood it out with us and um like really committed themselves which was mostly everybody like we made sure they were paid well they were compensated for it that we you know again like go above and beyond sending gifts doing things like investing in them giving them bonuses like I speak a lot about the hard stuff but I care deeply about everyone on my team and I care deeply about people and the only reason that I hold people to high standards and I am hard on people is because I care about them because if you really care about somebody and you want them to be as good as you are do you expect to do that putting them in different circumstances no they have to go through the same hardships you've gone through to become the kind of person so if somebody joins my team and says I want to be good at business like you and Alex they're not going to get that way with me protecting them right you know what I mean yeah 100 so you give that are you doing this in person are you guys doing and it's probably in Zoom right like we're back in big Zoom okay yeah and what's going on what are the faces what are The Vibes like how do you feel like you press end meeting and then where's your head at like what's the story there I I got feedback on the meeting so okay they were hyped they were like okay that's and that's because they're the right people for the team like I knew I was like we have the right people you know what I mean like they get it grow or die is one of our core times there like you don't attract people that are like like tiptoeing around work like a lot of other stuff went like grow or die is like people are fully invested they're super bought into the mission and we get a great culture and so they were all like I [ __ ] got you I would go I would go to war for you guys I would do I mean like everyone was so they were so supportive and like the reason that company is where it is now which is like growing and thriving and doing so well is because of that like I am a thousand percent positive because everyone's really like stepped up so you had said most the people made it through the pandemic and thought the benefits there was a subset of people who did not was there a common theme of the people who just was just like I think I'm good yeah and you know I respect them for it there were some people that left because their priority was not work it was their family and they were prioritizing and and that's where seasons of Life are very interesting so someone can be very gros-oriented but it might be that all their growth is going into a different area of their life and that is amazing totally understandable like right totally get it and there are sometimes some roles in companies that are small startups that are fitted for people like in that area of their life where they're like I can't fully but like I'll check in and do a [ __ ] awesome job but like I'm out at four or five um and I think anyone that was in that phase was like hey I've got small kids at home I've got to do that and I was like totally respect that like I get it I just need extra Okay so um we're at that point we talk about being real and authentic and you got feedback on the team meeting so after the feedback on the team meeting you close the zoom and then where's your head at I think I felt relief I tend to always think that I'm okay like Alexis like I'm pretty insecure in the sense of like I will do I do all the things but like I'm like oh they probably think I'm awful they probably think I'm a terrible CEO like my mind totally goes there and then seeing the slack being like blowing up with like let's [ __ ] do this let's go we're gonna Crush everybody eat all our competitors do I was like it's just like we're leaving to feel like you have that kind of support you know what I mean um so uh pleasantly surprised good okay this is good this is good so um a lot of your content is being really real and authentic and I think that you sharing um the insecurity I don't think that anybody on the outside would look at you and think oh she must have closed her Zoom meeting and be like she wonders if she's a terrible CEO like nobody thinks that so a lot of your content does show that and then you show up in interviews and and you talk about that thing so I want to say thank you um but what has it looked like practically at different points in your career like how did you have to show up and be 100 yourself so go back to when you guys were first starting gym launch or even prior to that at different points in your life where you were in between I'm trying to get to the hundred to like the six figure Mark at that point how did you have to show up and be real unauthentic because I think that it requires different things at different stages unless I could be wrong because baby are you at like 10 feet 9 10 figures I'm not there quite yet but I from what I've seen it's required different levels of vulnerability and authenticity as in the content I create do you agree disagree what were you doing um I think what first it's learning how to be transparent with a small number of people right which I think is easier because you establish pretty close relationships with them um and that wasn't too hard for me so having a small team being close to them being transparent that's never been like a super difficult but having a larger team and learning to how to communicate effectively with them in a way that you're considering everyone's perspectives and also still trying to remain true to yourself because you want to make sure you communicate in a way that everyone understands but you also want to remain true to your message um that takes practice and for myself I think I I tended I I'll say this I think a lot of people I think stress anxiety insecurity is so misunderstood because most of the time people think like I wish it would just go away like I look at it like it's just like it's like Care on steroids like that's how I think about to myself as like I care a lot like I care most more than most people which is why I stress over things why I stress over being good CEO is because I care about the company I care about the people there I care that they feel included I care that they feel like they understood my message I care that they feel like I delivered it correctly I care about every little thing I say I'll think about it after this podcast I'm sure and so I think that that was something that I learned was actually an advantage for me having a big company was that I cared enough to think through every person's perspective how will they hear this message is there any way that it might rub them the wrong way is there any way and as long as it's you know obviously I'll never lie but like when you were delivering something there's a lot of nuance to a team to explain things in a way that you include all the Departments you include all the people you consider all their perspectives um and I think that anyone that leads anything whether it's a team or a cause or anything has to kind of think through those perspectives and then I think going on to content um it's like there's small team then there's bigger team and then there's kind of public facing right public facing and I think that just pause real quick for a permanent Clarity when when do you mark the time that you're like I'm making a concerted effort to show up online in a different way what what year when did this happen um I want to say it was is not so it was about a year and a half a little over a year and a half ago okay um yeah we were in uh Bear Lake Utah and I had said for years that I was gonna make content and I just like never did it and when you say I said to whom yourself mothers okay nobody else I would never tell anyone else um but I did like I had like on the side people like creating podcast covers and like doing stuff like that and I just like never launched it like never did anything because I'm scared I I just truly just like I care a lot of what people think in my own company so I'm like Jesus what's it going to be like with social media you know I'm like it's gonna be like this on steroids um and you know it isn't sometimes right yeah because you see yourself and you're like oh my God should I say that or like it came out totally the wrong way or like do I act like that like oh God like we were watching a YouTube video one day and they were like uh there was some drop off here we're not sure I was like oh my God I sound like a [ __ ] of course they dropped up I drop off too you know what I mean so I think for that that requires a level of um you know I don't think I've figured it out quite yet in terms of like what's required I think I just keep doing it because let's go back to Bear Lake Utah yeah you've been saying okay I want to create content you're saying it to yourself and like low-key have like like drafts of podcast artwork and you want to do it but what's the conversation that you have then that you're like oh now now is the time now I've decided I'm going to create like what did you tell yourself what happened because there are people who are kind of dabbling in it but what I see a lot of is the half in half out and you're never going to get a result yeah um I just compared myself too much to people so if you're asking like why didn't I start till then no at what point no so we understood the backstory of what what and then what I just I honestly I just remember waking up one morning I think I was just pissed about a few different things that were happening and I had like a free morning until noon and I literally just was sitting there and I was like what am I going to do till noon I finished all my work yesterday like I was just like we're in Bear Lakes there's nobody there and I just got everything done and then I was like I was like thinking I had a little thought pop up that was like you should make content because you said you're gonna do that for like a [ __ ] Year [ __ ] to yourself I know I expect it um and I was like get up and make some content and so I was like okay I have a ton of content like all my team training for the last six years I basically taken turn into content so I was like here I'm gonna go and so I got like three modules I filmed them out of just honestly I think it was just being frustrated with myself like I was just angry with myself and so on that day in Bear Lake you hold out your modules yeah you I drafted them I looked at Alex's content I said what's the framework of like making content I watched a few of his videos I wrote down the general framework conversation operator and then I made it three of them I filmed them like on your laptop uh we had a camera there okay so it's like a I don't even know tripod something okay and um and Alex had a YouTube guy I was like I'm gonna show you this to your YouTube guy I want to see if I can just start a YouTube and he was like okay and so then I got a whole YouTube guy that day he said send me the videos I download them send them and then he's like you can't use these like you're filmed way too far away something and so I was like [ __ ] but I was like don't do it again so now I woke up next morning we need a pause that is where people quit is like I did the work I have to do the same thing again I'm gonna get I'll get to it when I get to it and then the difference here that I just want to cite is like the next day you have to do the same amount of work and you decide to do it again your mindset is what at that point in time because I'm really trying to like you think different and I don't think that you actually like understand how different like you you talk about flipping the script and like you talk about like a YouTube Guy saying no and then you say yes what's happening there I didn't think of it like work I thought of it like practice hmm it's practice like every time you have to refilm something every time you have to do something again it's just but you can get better it's like they'll be better than they were yesterday you know what I mean so you recorded them you sent it to the YouTube guy yeah and he's Off to the Races then that was it did you have like a commitment of like this is what I wanted to do x amount of times for a week I said that I will commit to making the videos and not stopping and that is what I will commit to whether it's I will make no less than one a week but you know we started at I think two or three a week and I was like at some points I was like not gonna do that many because there's this is my priority the business over here so it's like my commitment's just been like something will go out every week that's what I'll commit to and I'm not gonna stop no matter how I feel that's pretty much it oh I like that I'm not gonna stop depending how I feel no matter how I feel no matter well here's the thing with content is like I don't do it full time I also am married and partnered with somebody who's like if Savant content so I compare myself constantly like you have to understand like I'm always like animals he's like babe it's like good girl and I'm like I know I could be better if I wasn't so consumed with running and building the company right and it's very frustrating to me because like what you don't know about me is like I'm not competitive but I'm I want to be the best at everything and so exact definition of competitive I don't think about others though so let me put it that way yeah with yourself others yeah I just want to be the best and I'm like I know what I could do and so for me that's probably been the hardest part about making it and I think a lot of people probably feel that way because a lot of people now are getting into making content um but they're also running a business yes and I think it's really hard because you just compare yourself to also people who might not be running a business right there's a lot of people out there who make content and like they're an affiliate they make money off this and like I've met a lot of those people I learned from them but I've also accepted and am continuing to accept over and over again uh that it might not ever be as good as that in terms of the delivery because I don't have as much practice you know what I mean like if you don't get as many reps then you can't expect to be as good as that person that is so good okay so you shared on Instagram that how you've come to embrace that work cannot mean stress and so I think that in that way I'm thinking about how you decide to show up uh putting in the Reps dear associate not putting in the Reps to the capacity that you would like as stress I think I used to a lot more like I I used to be so uptight um and then I realized I wasn't serving me like it served me to a point in my business and then like being very rigid and uptight stopped serving me so much um because like I tended to be like I want to be the perfect CEO uh I want to have the perfect body I want to have the perfect husband in marriage I want to have the Friendship so I want to have the like I always was like and if it wasn't I would be very upset um and then I realized that I was just consistently upsetting myself because I set unrealistic expectations and so I looked at my life and I was like I have this like successful life but I've been stressed uh for most of it and this is probably two and a half years ago um and I was like why and I was like I continue to set expectations that I've literally never met and it's not for lack of trying it's for like I try every day the whole day all day every day um but it was realizing that there was nothing wrong with how I'm doing things it's just the expectation in my head and I think understanding that like if you exceed expectations you're excited and happy if you don't meet expectations you're constantly frustrated upset stressed and I just had to reset expectations with myself so that's why you hear me talk about like the goal is to be imperfect because I will still try very hard but if I make the goal to be perfect I will be very stressed so is that the mindset shift that was required two and a half years ago for you to release that it's just instead of saying I want the perfect life husband business I want to be the perfect CEO too I'm going to be imperfect not for want of trying but I will be imperfect but every day I'm gonna be committed to doing it again and trying it's how I can get through my my days honestly it's like something doesn't go right and the first thought that comes up is like [ __ ] blah blah and then the second immediately like and it's faster every time is like this is good you are learning to adapt it's good to be flexible we don't want to be perfect that's the next thing and it's always okay it's good you want to be flexible we don't want to be perfect and I think for me that's how I manage my own self just like reworking that okay so we're gonna wrap up the conversation a little bit but um I want to talk about two practical things that people can do as a business owner and as a leader so the first idea of regularly practicing things that make you feel uncomfortable I know you talked about this on Instagram why do you think it's so important for business owners and what does this practically look like for you now I think you John you kind of shared about that a little bit right now but a little bit more context to see what it's like to be in your head because I think that what social media does and it's great at is showing somebody point zero zero one percent of somebody's life yeah and so when you talk about the goal to feel uncomfortable what does that actually look like for you I think that we regress towards you know whatever we train ourselves to do more of or whatever we accept whatever we train ourselves to do whatever we practice is what we tend to it just it only grows right and so if we're constantly avoiding something that's uncomfortable in any area of our life we tend to do it in all areas and so for me the reason I talk so much about on discomfort is because um I think most people talk about it because it's just you notice that if you do it in one area it stems to the rest right it becomes like a practice because it's almost like you know I don't know much about it but it feels like I start to get excited right rather than nervous if I pursue enough things are uncomfortable it's like my natural reaction to something uncomfortable becomes excitement rather than nervousness because I've built enough confidence in myself from doing those other little uncomfortable things that when something bigger comes or something that's like unexpected I actually have a different reaction to it I'm like oh yes good let's let's do this because we know that we can rise to a challenge like what can you give an example I mean obviously if it's personal it doesn't have to be shared but what's something right now in your life when it feels like life looks quite Grand what is something that you initially thought wow that makes me uncomfortable to wow I'm excited I mean I'm doing it right here probably but related would be one like everything with content I get uncomfortable I get uncomfortable did I write my scripts correctly did I do this are they gonna like it's been a hard week what if I sound like an [ __ ] like I think about that a lot um and then in terms of like in the business it's that's so funny I'm so much more comfortable in the business than anywhere else like I feel so good making decisions in the business and operating and helping other people I actually don't have it's like where I feel the most comfortable it's like for some reason I'm so glad we're doing this like it's nice to see you squirm yeah that's right we're black I'm sweating uh the second idea outside of being uncomfortable is to expand your work capacity now I saw before I saw your content I actually saw a meme did you know that your calendar got turned into a meme you saw that okay okay ah okay so for people who are not I don't know which meme you saw but people who are not familiar and correct me if I got the chronolog chronology I probably said it wrong that's okay I'm very famous podcaster okay so I got the timeline probably wrong because I saw the meme before I actually saw the piece of content but if the content flows as such you talked about your work schedule and then you shared a screenshot of your actual calendar in which you said this is my actual calendar and then when I saw the content I my first thought was gangster like yeah yeah I got hype but there was kind of like this total opposite reaction to people seeing your calendar which is I could like who wants to live like that essentially yeah what was what did you see on the back of that because I think it goes back into like expanding work capacity and what does that mean for you and then what was your reaction when seeing people have such a strong reaction to I don't think I qualified the content enough so like you know you also have to understand like my team takes and and teams take what I say we draft them and I look through and approve and like I'll be like okay we'll take my words and put them on LinkedIn then like maybe I write them but then we take them we rephrase them for a different platform right yes so I go through and look at it all but like sometimes I'm barely looking at it right and I think that I if I was paying closer attention like the way that I would have portrayed it is like more qualifiers right and this is my fault like I sometimes speak without qualifying like this is my calendar this works for me um this doesn't mean that I think you should work this way because it doesn't um but I think that people took it as the way that I posted it they took it like if you don't do this you're less than like I think that you almost have to say like hey I totally respect you if you don't work a lot and if that's like what you want you just want lifestyle and like chill and like I don't I don't have kids or anything so like what else am I gonna do you know I mean and I work with my husband like I get to do that with him all day it's fun um so I think if I had admin more of that stuff like it probably would have been taken a much different way if I were like by the way I run this business with my husband so I get to hang out with him all day which is awesome I love doing this with him I also don't have kids so I don't have to fit that in um and I'm lucky enough that I get to design my own schedule so I get to you know put my work out whenever and do all that and if you don't like this and you don't want to work as much then you know more kudos to you I think that oftentimes if you just put things out there like that it's taken like as people that don't want that schedule take it like I'm putting them down I think that's what it is at the end of the day and I think at the other side of it that the way I phrased it it sounded like a big dick move you know I mean like you know you look at my calendar and I was like I wish I didn't wrote it like write it like that like so I would be totally fine standing up for that post if I had written it in a way that I felt like was true to who I am and how I actually talk I don't think I did hmm I did not expect that from you like to me to me it is just like such a like a humble bow like okay I was outmatched in this and like where other people come out and recoil from like grow up like what I do has nothing to do with you and what you had said was I should have done a better job prefacing that this is what I do and so I was I it just shows a level of humility and on that note uh talking about imperfection and then talking about work capacity can I read something yeah oh man I know it's like oh shoot um Layla has always been independent in set in finding her own way she is persistent and resilient she has a huge heart and cares so much about the people around her as a freshman she started working at a cafe and was soon supervising people the manager always told me she was grateful for having Layla there a couple years before her college graduation she told me she wanted to live alone and it seemed like she wanted to work on herself more I was so proud of her went toward the end of college she told me she wanted to do an internship in California we lived in Michigan and she applied for a position that was coveted by many she flew to San Diego for an interview by herself and was offered the internship most people wouldn't even apply for such positions when they know there is so much competition but she spent a summer in California living in a cabin by herself and sometimes working more than 16 hours per day when she graduated college she decided to move to California without a job she drove across country we followed him a separate card and she managed to get a job learn about sales and find a way to do what she wanted to do her independent mindset is something I admire in her we talk a couple times a week and we keep in touch daily via text I think of her as a gift that was given to me by God she makes me proud every day to have a daughter like her that's your dad yeah um I actually read what your dad wrote and part of why I get choked up is when your dad responded to me on Instagram you're dead my dad's probably so freaked out hi this is weird I'm interviewing your daughter I think she's amazing and I want to show a different side to her and would you like could you tell me he just wrote the kindest words and so when he responded I was like this Dad responded and I read the message to my husband and part of why I get choked up is my husband looked at me and he said oh we're raising a little later daughter the way your dad speaks about you is we can already see in our daughter who's three years old I was like oh she possesses all of these qualities she's going to want to live on her own and move out she's going to want to live in a cabin I'm already crying oh that's so sweet thankful that you did this I'm so thankful that you need time for this I'm so thankful that you have people around you who talk more highly of you than you could ever speak of yourself and every expectation that I ever have coming into someone's like wow they're folks so far superseded by just who you are as a person thank you for breaking barriers for women thank you for doing the show what is wrong with me I know I know I'm just like so thankful like this was great I think you had done added so much Clarity around what is not spoken about I think you show up as a very strong female entrepreneur I think you taught us lessons on showing up despite how we feel about creating content or doing something that makes us uncomfortable and I think you also humbly showed us that even when something goes out there was a lesson to be learned and not for you to fight for you to be seen a certain way I want to say thank you a thousand times over y'all if you have enjoyed this podcast please please please send Layla a DM on Instagram your Layla n or movie yeah if anyone can get me the handle Layla hormozzi if we can do that you will be compensated fairly compensated let's go if anybody can get Layla hermosi on Instagram but until that point until that point send a DM to Layla n or MOSI this is the Jasmine star show and so thankful you guys thank you …