Wie der Alltag bei Acquisition.com wirklich aussieht

0:00they put up the ads they put up the job they put up the pay and they forget the little things like speak to the person that you want to hire if I hold them accountable in a way that makes them feel like [ __ ] are they actually going to even be able to improve the best managers just don't make people's lives harder and I look at it like my job as a leader is to make their jobs easier for them to do well and why is it that we're able to get people that are so talented and that want to work here and they stay a decently long time you know and they're very loyal and it's because of the way we treat them the best people will not tolerate a suppressive leader yeah Layla do you remember that time where I was really concerned because I thought you got punched in their face and someone jumped you I do remember that for a second I was like what are you starting with yeah so I mean but like that is one of your core values right the transparency piece yeah yeah you mean when I got my face done yeah well looks great by the way oh thank you yeah but like dude dude I was just like super worried and I was like that that's how I wanted to start with this um but here's what I really wanted to start with your quote here is that you sent me a text it's we have not worked this hard in five years and so can you walk me through what's going on right now with all the stuff and then we're gonna jump into all the business yeah when I say worked hard too I think it's like relative I think that the time that I'm dedicating to work right now in terms of hours is not like the same time I've put in in a very long time because I've had usually a team that's adequate and like I've built a team up for the challenge so like in the beginning of gym launch it was basically like wake up work until you have to do something right like eat or whatever would work out I would literally take calls while I was working out the whole time and then have dinner work until I can't keep my eyes open and I think this schedule recently has been more reflective of that in terms of like um you know I actually haven't lifted in like four months that's what Alex just told me like four months he said four weeks he's four months I'm four months yeah um only been walking because I can take calls while I walk and then you know break for dinner but then we go back and we work after and it's been because a few things happen at once which is like the book launch just like orders of magnitude larger than what I was told as the expectation and honestly there's just like we're a poor company portfolio like we're not like a business with like a lot of project managers and I think that like we have people that work on our portfolio companies they're not working on a book and then we have our media team but they already are cranking on like both of our accounts and so I decided to jump in after talking to a few of the teammates to lead the book project and then on top of that our CFO uh retired and she let me know ahead of time and unfortunately the first replacement didn't work out and so there's like a two something month gap between before my next one comes on and so I've been CFO where we are buying a building uh bought three companies and I'm doing all the financial legal diligence which I've never done any of those things before like LED that section of it so it's just been like a steep learning curve so I think things take much longer than they would somebody who's an expert because I'm not an expert in that stuff yeah and I mean I think it's coming out in your tweets a little bit too it's like hey like sometimes it's a lot right and like what's going through your head like it sounds like a lot to manage it is a lot of manage it is a lot to manage and I think the thing that I like about it now is like I will be stressed but I'm not stressed about my stress if that makes sense like I used to be stressed about how stressed I was and I see that in our portfolio CEOs is like they're like like I have racing thoughts and like I'm up at night thinking about this and I wake up at 4am and I can't stop thinking about I'm like that's normal yeah that's because you care and I think now I can go through these times and be okay with it and be like I'm going to be stressed and that's okay this is temporary and we'll pass it always does and I think that's been cool to see has been like the difference of how I can handle it um in terms of Prior I think that I would have been a lot more I would have escalated my practical problems into emotional disturbances meaning like practical problem we don't have a CFO and I am being CFO um that sucks and it's stressful but when you compound that with worrying about it more and stressing about it more it turns into like a true emotional disturbance where like you have high anxiety all the time and like now you're having to manage your extra stress and like all that which it's been cool to see the difference that I'm not doing that anymore but it's also been still challenging nonetheless yep I want to focus this talk a lot about Talent Equalization culture operations which to me sounds like your jam I think it is your jam yeah I would say yeah and so like the CFO that you hired it sounds like you moved on pretty quickly like I think people should know this it's like when you know you know and you should move and so how did you train that muscle what happened exactly or you can't share everything but high level it's interesting you asked because like a lot of people always want to know like what are the interview questions that you ask yeah and what are the and I'm like the thing is it's like I think what people don't understand is that what I've picked up along the way is just simply pattern recognition through volume it's like people that tend to answer questions like this tend to not work out if I hire them people that tend to answer questions like this do tend to work out when I hire them yeah and so one thing I talk about a lot is that it's a lot more about the responses than it is the questions I honestly sometimes don't ask one interview question that I tell people to ask I am just going with what I'm seeing and I'm asking questions based on the feedback I'm getting from that person and the vibe I'm getting from them and when I say Vibe it's probably like the associations that I'm getting from that person based on past experiences of people that have similar associations right so I think a lot of it is pattern recognition that's why I encourage people so much I'm like dude take 20 interviews for a position because what is so invaluable is the pattern recognition that you gain of what a good looks like and what bad looks like versus a lot of people just like want to minimize the time they say don't have time to hire they don't have time I'm like well you're just gonna end up having to get rid of that person or get something different anyways if you don't and so I think that the key has been I have never backed down in terms of like I should be taking less interviews I don't want to interview that many people I don't want to do that I don't have time for that um you know I studied a lot of the best CEOs and I felt like all of them until you get to a reasonable sized company like even a lot of them up to a thousand they still do interviews and so I felt like that's a key piece of my job is making sure that we have the right people on the team yeah and I think that the best way that you can become good at that job is by doing more of it just like sales totally and here's the thing you when it comes to hiring like you want to give your people team a process to follow right but if you know like you're gonna jump around and you're gonna look for the pattern recognition and sometimes it drives my people team crazy like I'll step in on the interviews oh Eric you're not asking questions from the process of course I'm not because I understand a different Dynamics it sounds like you're doing the same thing so I think people should understand that if you're a founder and you have a knife or Talent you don't need to follow that play but the playbooks for your team to follow right yeah and I would say also in terms of like the playbook for the team versus what I'm doing I think it also depends on the company and the role so like somebody who has a sales organization where you're churning people in and out because it's just like the nature of the job is people burn out pretty quickly uh at least in most I think you can prevent that but that's another time yeah um and so you're hiring people all the time and it's for a very low risk role where people don't intend to stay for a long time and you don't intend for them to either it's like a few stay for a long time in those kind of companies in that kind of company would I interview every sales rep the answer is no I probably would not um but would I in the company that I have in acquisition.com we only have like 25 people on the team like why would I not want to interview totally the people that are coming on the team and they're for roles that I actually expect people to stay for a pretty long time and so I think that in that case it does make a lot of sense um like in gym launch for example I interviewed all the roles except for the two that were the highest churn where it was like they were only going to be there for maybe a year and we knew that and they knew that yeah dude there's um you just gave you an example earlier there's there are companies that will like the CEO will be involved or the founders will be involved until the first thousand doordash I think was involved for the first two thousand I think there's this like us General that was involved for the first ten thousand like this is on some Story I Heard yeah and then I think Bill Gates or or Bezos were really involved like deeply all the time right yeah so it's like I don't again like it's like if it's the highest leverage thing you can do in a company like you can you can't ever really abdicate it right no and I think I look at it like in acquisition.com like my two best highest leverage positions to be in are determining who who comes on the bus right like who gets a seat on the bus and where do they sit in terms of the team and then who gets a spot in the portfolio because my eye for talent is the same eye I have for I think company Talent which is like is this CEO going to cut it or not yeah and so I try to like make sure that I do dedicate my time to both of those things because I think that also the more that you do it the more efficient you get at it it doesn't take long like y combinator they they do an interview and they say they all have said the same thing they're like we know in the first 20 seconds if this person if we're gonna bring them into y combinator or not and I start to feel that way I'm like I don't need an hour I need like 10 minutes max yeah you know and I but I feel like I don't feel like a dick so I'm like yeah sure 30 minutes but I'm like I already know in the first five yep dude so you actually stick it out for the 30. so I know if I want to hire somebody in the first couple of minutes always yeah what it is is that I actually want to use the time to set expectations for them I want to reiterate to them what does our company do what do you do what problem do you solve in what way would you blow my mind yeah what am I going to do for you yeah when you work here what is my commitment to you as being somebody who comes to acquisition.com and so I just want to like lay the groundwork for the relationship more than anything if I think that they're the right fit right and you just said you know in the first five to ten minutes there's this just innate gut feeling that's really hard to quantify how do you think you you quantify that because it's hard for people to duplicate I think it's gut feeling for sure which is pattern recognition mixed with I think very long and hard about what somebody with the skills and character looks like for the role like to a point where when I interviewed Caleb Ralston for director of brand I literally pictured somebody huge tattooed like really like like gotta like super hard Vibe but like super soft and sweet and then when it immediately when we got in the interview I told Alex I said I feel like this is like a dream because in the first two seconds I was like he's at we have to hire him yeah and he was like why and I was like this is for some reason exactly what I pictured this person with these traits and this character would be like and it's not like I ever have like one exact prototype in mind prototype like care that is a prototype yeah prototype Persona yeah um but I have like a few that I know that it could look like that could work and then I'm looking for that match and so I think you can just tell the way someone presents themselves the way they're talking the way they ask and answer questions in the first couple minutes are they gonna fit one of those personas or not and if it's not it's not like I'm gonna throw it out you know what I mean because I've been wrong but I think that I definitely uh it's been a hard turnaround from that point because I've seen people where I've said like hey maybe they're just maybe I'm wrong and then I've also seen that not work out more times than it has there's a laylaism that Alex just gave me and um so so the heuristic I used to use was oh Larry Page during the interview um he would he would just get he's like okay Layla teach me like what's something you're passionate about okay teach me for five minutes just so he can get something out of that interview right so he's not bored the whole time yeah but yours is even better where it's like like if the candidate can't teach you something better than the role that they're being interviewed for like then you shouldn't hire them yes in almost all instances yeah now there are some roles where you bring someone who has the character and then you train them up on the like sales or like you know customer service or something like that right where it's like you know you're gonna betraying them but most of the time when people are asking about hiring it is for roles where like that person is taking over a function where the the person hiring them doesn't know how to do it and I think in those instances I look for did I learn something from that interview right was I excited after that interview did I feel motivated did I feel excited to talk to them again like I learned something I had a perspective shift um and especially if I'm hiring a leader did they challenge something I said and not Challenge in a way of like did they try to prove me wrong but did they provide an alternative perspective that was contradictory to mine that I also think could be right eventually you have to learn to cut bait quickly and I think you guys my senses you guys have mastered that right so I'm trying to get a sense for or yeah get a framework for the audience here because you got to like you know pretty quickly when it's also not a fit yeah like when they come in already you mean yeah like basically in the first week yeah so you miss higher yep yep um I have this Frame which is it is completely my fault because either I don't have the skill of picking the right person for that role or I misunderstood what I was looking for for the role and so I hired the wrong person that's on me it's also on me to write the situation and I think that a lot of Founders and CEOs what they basically do is say like I'm going to try and make it work I feel bad this person like because they did they freaking quit their like think of all the people our listeners that are founders you quit your job remember how hard that was they quit their job to work for you that is equally you changed their life yes that is a huge life change and so I don't take it lightly but I also would feel awful keeping somebody in a company knowing that there was no career path for them there was no opportunity for them and that I could not hold up my end of the bargain of this is the opportunity that you get working here because whenever somebody's joining me it's like I'm not gonna bring somebody into my vision if their Vision cannot fit within it but if I'm keeping them in the company because I'm afraid to tell them I made a mistake and your vision does not fit within this one here that's on me as well and I'm doing them a disservice keeping them in the company because I'm preventing them from going to a company that will be able to do that for them right and I don't think most Founders early Founders especially are able to take that full responsibility when at the end of the day it is you making all the decisions yeah I think that it's like I'll be really honest like I just really and I don't even like know how it's like biggest secret in the world like actually care about people like I would feel awful if I were like for instance if I were in a relationship when I was younger and I knew that this person I didn't want to be in one with I couldn't stay another day with them because I felt like that's not right for them for me to be in this relationship I feel the same way with people on the team it's like if I know that there's not a path for them here and this isn't the best fit for them then I feel awful and I don't I don't want to prevent them from going on to somewhere some going somewhere where they do have that yeah I just try to do everything in my absolute power to make it as easy as possible for them to find that so I have a big Network so what I've done in the past is I reach out to people and I say this is somebody that I hired here's why they're not a fit here's why I think that they might be a fit for your company if you're looking for something similar yep and I've tried to set up interviews with them it's worked out more than it hasn't yeah um and obviously it sucks getting fired but at least you can make it easy for them if you have a place that you can transition them you know rather than just like putting them out to the cold a I think that's really nice that you do that b we do something similar and it does work most of the time but then sometimes it backfires where we had a situation where someone deleted our email list deleted our Instagram uh went and wrote separate Glassdoor reviews right it was just like a like cyber cyber terrorism let's just call it that right and sometimes it comes back to bite bite you right yeah but I think for the most part works we call it the mindful transition and this is my transition into what happens from an operating perspective when you have situations like that because at lunch I was talking to my friend who has a pet holding company and literally they had someone they fired someone they came back in logged back in and started like trying to save a bunch of files or forwarding information right and they're going after them yeah and this inevitably if you're running a business this will happen to you like there's gonna be moments like this how have you dealt with them because I feel like you deal with situations with such Grace so yeah that's good it's just years of trial and error yeah um yeah well in those situations one thing is that while I'm always having that conversation with somebody the tech person is going behind the scenes and deleting everything yeah so it's like I don't take chances there because my job is to protect the company and I have seen enough people who seem really level-headed do some weird stuff after so I always remove access before the conversation's even done um how do you handle those situations I think that what a lot of people do and I actually have a friend that I was just talking to is dealing with the situation similar that somebody really liked did something Shady right they're typically doing that because they feel wronged by the company totally sometimes that's fair it was crappy you mishired them you probably led them on and then you probably had a pretty terrible conversation on the way out because a lot of people aren't really great at those conversations yeah they don't practice them and so it would make sense that somebody would act like a complete [ __ ] on the way out like I think that that's like warranted I think there should be a lot to look at in terms of like if you're a founder and that happens to you what do you have to learn how could you have handled it better to mitigate that kind of behavior because I think when I was you know six years ago seven years ago when I was inexperienced in running the company that happened way more frequently right because I thought that I was doing my absolute best but I was not doing what was required you know it was a stretch for me but it still wasn't good enough to have people gracefully leave the company got it at the same time there are instances where I do absolutely everything I feel like beyond what could be done and it still happens and in those situations all I'm thinking about is what are my actions telling the rest of the team that is all I think through is like how can I use this as an opportunity to reinforce our values and reinforce who I am as a leader and I have had instances and not not so far in the past where I have had to let people go and really it's just like I've only had a lack of two people in this company and it might have been misunderstood and then they may have done something really crappy after and I was angry that they did something really crappy after people knew about it it was kind of embarrassing but I was like okay what does it say about me to then retaliate because what happens when one person does something and then it's just it escalates retaliation you just keep going right I just opt out yeah I'm like I will do nothing I will protect the company I will do whatever's in the best interest of the company I will not retaliate at them they are angry they are emotional I understand that I'm gonna give them Grace and I'm not gonna do anything I'm just going to protect the company I rarely try to do anything to make them feel bad I know that they're probably humiliated and people do weird stuff when they're humiliated they probably worried because sometimes they can't pay for their family they might have a new baby like there's so many circumstances that's like if you understand those circumstances you're like would I do that no but do I understand why they may have thought that was the right thing to do or something to do yeah and so I'm just constantly thinking of how I can teach my team through my actions how we behave and so sincere Candor unimpeachable character does that look like a Founder who you know fights back or publicly disgraces or you know tries to make someone's life worse no yeah look my stance and I totally agree with you my stance is it's not worth going after them and you know you're going to spend you know could be 50 100 plus thousand dollars on legal fees right and then the headspace it takes it's just like no like to your point focus on the company right well and here's the thing do we want to make them feel bad so that hopefully we feel better which doesn't work or do we want them to learn from their mistake like seldom is it that when you fight with somebody they learn from you fighting with them I would rather let them be and then like eventually when they're ready they'll probably say something and then they'll have learned from their mistake right you know what I mean and I think that you treating them with Grace teaches them more than you fighting back yeah look I I think it's you can only do what you think is right and so the situation the mindful transition is look well we might give you two three months and we'll help you find something else and like will be a good good reference for you and if something bad happens it happens right so yeah that's what I've learned from it um so I want to kind of jump around here but I've noticed with your recent content you've switched from the kind of at the camera talking right teaching to the amas so tell me kind of the psychology here there's no psychology there was what happened it was literally just like one week I was I think I was at the gym and I was texting Alex because it was like it was actually during the time that I uh I let go of somebody on the team and I had to step back in and mitigate a ton of stuff um because they had a very big role that they were filling and they were my direct report and I also had a film session coming up where usually the prep takes me like you know 10 or 15 hours to do yeah because I'm also not an expert so it takes me longer than it would take some people a prep session for Content like okay multiple YouTube videos usually like five percent 15 hours if I'm writing five or six YouTube videos plus 50 or 60 shorts yeah okay it's for the entire yeah that's a lot you know what I mean and I'm not an expert at it so it takes me longer because I'm like oh this is shitty do it again still shitty Alex help that was happening and I was just like and then I was like dude why why did we hire a Content team and I was like okay actually if I reverse back Alex was making content he had a lot of vendors he was using to do it I stepped in and was like I'm gonna start making content and I started working with those vendors and I was like oh my God how do you do this I'm losing my mind I cannot there's like all these like project management that I'm doing because he's like this does not make sense yeah and then I was like and it feels like their incentives are not aligned with mine like they want me to get views but I want to build a brand right um and what's the difference in your mind there I think that people will sacrifice their reputation in the short term to get views and then long term they are harming the building of a brand or at least building the wrong brand not the one they want uh and I think that a lot of people think they want views because they don't understand what brand is and I think brand is playing the long game which is being okay with getting less views in the short term knowing that you will Outlast everybody else because you will have the brand you want in the long term does that make sense yep makes a lot of sense so okay now you switch this AMA format how is that going for you where do you see it going because here's the thing I was talking to Alex about this yeah there's we you know with investing there's your circle of confidence right but there's also a circle of confidence when it comes to the content format too and the amas I think do lend like this is kind of AMA in itself yeah and I feel like it's more natural like this is actually what I like and I think about the content I like to create right yeah yeah I I don't like direct to camera and I told the team actually it was about a week and a half ago I said I don't want to do any more yeah I want to do a few things and I said one is the Vlog Vlog all day because I feel like the thing is like direct to camera it's like I feel like my personality is not there I'm just I still like this you're lecturing like and nobody likes being lectured I'm talking like this intense [ __ ] and I just like don't like how that comes out yeah same here I'm intense [ __ ] too superintendent I know yeah such a [ __ ] yeah and then you know Vlog I'm like I love it because they can see like what I'm actually like which is like I'm actually really goofy yeah but I'm not comfortable enough to do that in a direct camera setting or even like in this set I'm not gonna be like super you know what I mean but it's like when they catch me in the day to day and with the team I am that way yeah and I want people to see that because I think that is actually the Layla that has created the team and built the culture not the Layla they see that's the real Layla that's the real Layla that the team knows you know like making faces silly shows up dressed like Alex randomly to make people laugh like do whatever it is to like get the team spirits up like that's who I am and so I want people to see that because I think it's important for them to know what leadership can look like and that it's not authoritative um because I'm not like that with the team and so I feel like that's a better way for me to teach and I enjoy it more and it takes less time so I feel like there's only been benefit to it it takes much longer to edit so the team yeah yeah yeah so that's that's why it's tough like not everyone can do it because you have to have we have a large team and it's expanding um in terms of besides that I want to do case studies so case studies of our companies so I have started to pick a few that I'm going to do like video breakdowns of and when I say case study I don't even mean tactical breakdowns I mean like I want to tell the story of why this business is successful and why these Founders are successful this is like a portfolio company yes got it and so I have one that we're working on right now and I'm really excited about it because I want it to be like a really good first one yeah um I just I really am passionate about showcasing founders with the character that it takes to win even more than the businesses because I'm like the business isn't the reason they're succeeding it's who they are the skills they have the character they have the reason that they have that we're able to attract the talent which can make you know the business work and like there's all these things and so I want to be able to tell the stories of those Founders and so that's the second piece of content that I really want to do and that we're we're working on adding in right now and then still doing teaching but we're trying different formats so basically trying like ask me anything type formats with themes geared towards it um and hopefully when we get this office then we'll also be able to kind of expand that I would like to do a call-in show where it can be like themed call and shows if that makes sense yep yeah I still want to integrate the Frameworks in somewhere because I use those a lot in like teaching our portfolios he is and such I just don't know what format that is going to take place dude I mean you guys are going to have this big ass office it's like I just no I'm just riffing it's like people know who you are you can literally have people come in like once a week or once a month or whatever and it's like a live AMA types of thing I don't know I would like to do that because I think that's what I do best like yeah but I also I respect like my best work is all done in private and will never be seen on a vlog it's one-on-ones with my team and it's one-on-ones with the portfolio CEOs and I cannot talk about it yeah it's tough dude it's tough It's my best content yeah and like the team has seen some of it they've been like holy and we can't ever show anyone yeah and I would never do that and I don't want to and I don't want people to be uncomfortable yeah but I want to be able to build like some kind of format with like a podcast or whatever in our studio where I can showcase that yeah I mean that's that is the toughest thing is I think at some point someone will get to the level where they're filming all their work because it's it's it's the real [ __ ] um and how long did it take for you to realize that it was time to switch content formats the reason I'm asking this is because people just kind of they see what's out there it's like oh let's just imitate what other people are doing and they keep doing it for years and years and they give up and it never worked I think I I called Caleb and I said I don't like my own content and I don't care what we have to do or what it looks like I just want to like the content I put out and I was like I I like when you see my personality I like where you see me doing things live with the team I like when you can see more in the day and I like when I'm completely honest and transparent and it's not like a pre -scripted production like I want people to see the real stuff because what I want and have always wanted from people that I want to learn from is that yeah and so I'm like I want to put out that because that's what I've always wanted and I think he had the same vision because he from day one was like if people could just know you like I know you then your content will blow up yeah and I was like maybe that's a consequence of it but it takes time because it takes time to get comfortable on camera and stuff but more than anything I feel like if people would just listen to themselves of like what what content do I want to consume and how can I create that I feel like that would just be such a simpler way here's the thing I don't watch anybody's content people I follow I'm they're muted I do not I don't watch anyone's content not on Instagram not on YouTube like barely anything podcast nothing I consume nothing right now it's ridiculous books like from a very long time ago like that's it and so I don't even know what's working right now people are like oh I see you got on this I'm like I have to [ __ ] yeah I don't know yeah and I actually feel like that's an advantage because I'm like whatever it's working for me right now yeah because I'm not looking at what other people doing I'm I've never once copied a video I've never looked at a video like I'll make my own version not one time and so I think I would just like more of that yeah I like how it for both of you it's like we're just gonna do what works for us and like it is what it is right you guys can do it your way I'm gonna do my relationship this way I'm gonna do my business this way I'm gonna do my content this way and you're the the story that you just shared it reminds me of this recent artist they um they raise a bunch of money for like Pharrell and all these like you know VCS and all that but like main point is I talk to him he's like I was like so like where do you get your inspiration from he's like I don't look at any other art because it's gonna [ __ ] with my creative it just how creatively I think right and that's kind of what you're saying right here yeah yeah well it's like even when I see like somebody copy my content I don't get angry but I just I'm like damn you like you're losing you know what I mean because like you can't ever make it better than the original yep and it's not authentic to you yeah it's not what you actually think or or feel you know what I mean yeah well I just don't want to do that at least people are copying you that's amazing that's good oh yeah so this shit's good so um I wanna Okay so I want to go back to talent and Mosey Talent tell us about that and I'll go from there um it's literally just right now uh our talent funnel so for portfolio companies uh essentially we do the recruiting for the leadership and specialized roles scope creep probably um that's okay like I want to help and you guys are placing all the operators right just to be clear yes so leadership which is often somebody comes to us a lot of people do need like an operator um some are like some Founders come in like twos or threes so we have a few like three founders and two Founders those tend to be honestly the best uh scenarios because there's usually a natural operator in there but a lot of the ones that come to us especially when it's a single founder they need an operator um and so MOSI Talent kind of was just born in that my vision when we started acquisition.com was that we recruited their leadership teams because with our first two companies it was so painful because I would tell them who they need to hire here's the JD here's also it was just be the wrong person and so I was like you know what we know what good looks like they don't yet let's help them find these people as a piece of what we do and it worked out really well because you know we're able to see not just is this the right person for this role but is this the right person for their company because we know their values we know their culture and we know the founder and so it worked out better than using any outsourced recruiting firm to just take it in-house and help do that because that was kind of what I was going to do in the beginning is just outsourced to a recruiting firm yep and then I was like that doesn't we know him better and I understand recruiting like let's just do it in-house and so Mosey Talent is really if people sign up for it uh they are first on like our list for picking for the new roles that open up in our portfolio companies or in acquisition.com um and so then they're basically like they get first dibs of the jobs that's really what it is and it's being built out right now because essentially what I'd like to build it into is a talent Community where we can teach people skills we can add value to them in different ways of like this is how you build a resume here's interview tips you know and then even job specific skills at some point to be training them on those things um you know that's not a need yet but it's where it's going and I think it works out really well because you know even if they don't get the job or whatever like even a lot of them have said going through the interview process alone has been very beneficial for them because we give them feedback you know what I mean I love that and most I mean look you got you guys content funnels creates deal flow but also creates Talent flow as well and you're you're doing something with that and this actually brings me to my next Point actually my friends I was like oh Layla does this Mosey Talent thing I want to learn more about he's like well get the macro steps from her on how to build Talent pipeline so the macro steps on building a talent pipeline yeah I can tell you the biggest secret for building a town pipeline go for it have a brand okay I recruited every person myself gym launch day one two young Founders no track record no brand nothing just tough just top yeah then every year watching it transform to when gym launch was bigger feeling like oh we have people coming to us now when it started to gain success I was like people are coming to us and so my actual like goal for every portfolio company is that they eventually have the inbound funnel which is what we really have right now a lot of is we have a lot of inbound now you can do more to get more qualified inbound um you know in terms of a talent funnel I think that people if you're if you have no brand and you have to just like macro step step-by-step build a town funnel it is literally no different than an acquisition funnel for clients it's like you have you know they see an ad it's calling out an avatar you click on the ad it does a qualification process for that you can set up a time right that like I just mirror the exact same thing and I think for me when I first started building it for gym launch when we had really no brand or following or anything I just looked at what we were doing for ads and I said I'm just going to do that for jobs that's it like one for one even in terms of how intricately I wrote copy so something a fun fact for you is that the one job description I have wrote the most times and tried and hired for the most is an operator and when I have asked them what caught your eye because I always ask people like why did you apply for this job and I find it really interesting is that they all said it was the ad hmm and you know who wrote that ad you me who's interviewed the most operators and so it really does in my opinion A lot of it comes down to people take all the steps I tell them to but they forego how thoughtful they are in writing the copy like I really pay a lot of attention to the copy like the headline that catches their attention the copy below that and then the job description copy itself because people think they're like oh nobody reads they read every line like I'm not kidding you they read every line of that job description and so I write the job description in a way that I know appeals to people I also build a job in a way that appeals people but it also appeals in the way I write it I'm not going to write it in like a monotonous tone that sounds like everything else when you Google it and so I think that a lot of people don't pay attention to the steps there you know it's like I think that they they put up the ads they put up the job they put up the pay and they forget the little things like speak to the person that you want to hire and then they will be the ones that apply I've even had it where I've posted for you know C Level 500 000 a year rolls on indeed and because the copy was so good someone randomly applied who was qualified and fit the persona you've gotten okay we're gonna we're gonna back that for a second but I remember um when I was I think I was 22 sorry I didn't know internet marketing or digital marketing yet yeah and um I saw this job on Craigslist and it was a long form sales letter with really good copy this guy learned from like Gary Halpert or whatever his long-form sales letter there's a bunch of stuff in there so I'm curious because I look at a really good JD as a sales letter so like yes what goes into yours that sets yours apart I mean I think that I'll be honest at the end of the day the company is what sets it apart because it'd be like trying to sell a crappy product you know what I mean like it's much easier to just sell a good product which is like it's much easier to advertise for a good company I always started off talking about the mission and the values and I know that sounds like cliche but this is in the JD yeah the top of the JD is always about the mission and the values so when I'm posting a job the first thing that's there is like this is the company this is what we do this is the mission and here are our values if you do not align with those things then we wish you best of luck if you do keep reading and then I go into the job description and usually when I think about the job description when I'm speaking to the person I'm thinking what problem does this role solve and then I speak from that perspective because I believe that if you speak to the impact somebody's going to have in the organization that's what's incentivizing for the kind of people I want to work a job to be done yeah they want to know like that they're going to have meaningful work and I'm like here's what I'm dealing with like when I advertise for an executive assistant I said I'm working from when I wake up to when I go to bed my email inbox is never at zero my I can't ever get back to my text messages people have been waiting on me for weeks for things projects are disorganized slipping through the cracks and I'm losing my mind and my husband doesn't have a wife can you help me yeah and they're like I love that because they're all they want to help and they want to make my life better and people feel that way except with the job like wow I want to make the company better yeah and they see the opportunity and so I think that the more clearly you can Define what's the problem that they're solving and what's the impact they're going to have then I think that that the better candidates you'll get because the best candidates want to have an impact on the organization and they want to know that they can feel it you know what's interesting um I feel like I've entered the only interaction I've had with your EA your executive assistant today Mick I feel like she's more in line with how your personality is whereas Alex's EA is more like she's more intense from the vibe I haven't talked to him ever right you can just tell from how they write it and like it's which one did so they're both my ideas oh are they yeah okay so but then we take his stuff and and Source it out the one with the Y is more intense Z is very like you know sweet yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so yes means uh so she's the senior executive assistant she's been with me for six years yeah and then Davina has been with us for a year yeah not even a year yet yeah um they're both absolutely amazing yeah but it is funny because Yaz means like a get [ __ ] done Power Player and davina's like very sweet and accommodating and they do great balancing each other yes but so just being so funny she's like so um we're getting the address for this place she's like hey I need the address for the place right and then like you know I'll check my email like the next day or something and I didn't respond quickly enough she's like hey like basically like any time now I was like all right all right man I'm like okay okay I like it I like it um so let's go let's go to leader so you just mentioned and this could be the headline here recruiting Executives from indeed that is because typically I would think that the the best of the best you're typically and you probably are sourcing them right but um how many people have you actually gotten from indeed that are like that level because that I would like to know more about that uh well I would say less less than more yeah um like a few like I could probably count on one hand still amazing but here's the thing is that most people I think that this is the thing is that the difference between acquiring talent and acquiring customers is that you acquire customers all the time every day you get to innovate on that process all the time you only hire a sales director like once and then maybe again in four years and so how good can you get at recruiting for that person how certain are you of where they are looking and what channel they're on Etc so I say like more of like the spray and pray like I will post on every platform we will try Outreach we will try inbound we will do every mechanism possible for a role because we're probably only hiring it for one time now like if we're hiring for multiple sales reps I'm gonna probably get really good at finding sales reps understand what platform they live on understand their Persona all those things so I'm gonna be able to go really deep on one channel but I would say like cast a wide net in the case of recruiting Because you're probably not very good at it and you probably don't have the best funnel so it's like you want to cast a wider net in that case which is most of the time for most people totally and actually I mean so what you think about the 30 people that you have at acquisition.com right now what percentage because they all sound pretty high level to me what percent were Source versus job posting whatever else you have I don't know I think a lot of them like we would put up a job organically and a lot of people would apply because they've been following us yep um that's definitely the case for a lot of like media for more of the team on the portfolio side we found more of them or found through referrals got it less of them coming to us because I think on the portfolio side are we don't have a ton of we don't have as many executives following us as we do people qualif they're not as many people qualified for the executive role as there are for some of the other roles dude have you guys remember what we're eating last year um I was talking about how because you you both have a pretty decent following it's like hey who's the best CEO that you know tag them in here right have you guys tried that on social yet it's like we'll give you like x amount of dollars if we make the higher oh really yeah yeah that could work have you done that no I haven't let me know how it goes and we'll come back in a year we'll come back because I think that's the best CEO you know so okay CEOs baby two high level it's like who's the best like VP of marketing that you know tag them in here you know we'll make the higher type of thing I hear what you're saying it does go crazy right yeah on both LinkedIn and on Twitter um let me know how it goes huh yeah you just poached them though no you don't poach them so they're just like tagging their friends yeah you are poaching them I guess yeah I don't know I feel shitty about you know what I mean like what if the best one is like my friends you know then okay that's different that's like you need to have a conversation but then it's like because the thing that's popping up for me is like I just remember the people that have been nurturing for and you know this like with consecutive hires like sometimes you're nurturing them for like two three four years or whatever yeah and I'm like man the ones that I've kept on Deck right now have really all come from stuff like that interesting okay yeah anyway not just a thought not telling you you should do it I think you you talked about the portfolio CEOs that you're hiring these are people that you're sourcing referrals right and the CEOs yeah The Operators operators yeah uh yeah we Source those ones okay and then the people for acquisition.com that's a job post right so okay I didn't realize that you were asking me about anyone for our portfolio companies when you asked about it I'm like moving around yeah yeah so I was referring to acquisition.com like holdco in terms of for our portfolio companies um it's a it's a mix I wouldn't I don't know the exact percentage right now got it and now I want to go back to kind of the mission and values piece because I think people tend to gloss over this it's like oh yeah okay Mission values whatever but I feel like you and Alex really live your mission and values like every single day to a t right how do you how what's your style of holding people accountable I think that you have to Define what the values mean and what they mean in terms of behavior so that's the expectation right it's like these values mean this you behave in these ways if you agree to work here you also agree to behave in those ways right in terms of holding people accountable I think it's putting in tools where they can assess themselves and then you can ask them about that so it's really easy for me to hold people accountable because I have so many ways in which I have them report on their own progress in terms of our values and theirs and their jobs so on a weekly basis I have end of week reports where they're reporting on it I would say metrics progress and project progress as well as personal progress and this is a one-on-one this is an end week report got it so they have to write in there and tell me these things okay that in my opinion is like one of the best ways that I can do it and people always fill it out because guess what I do I comment on every single thing they say I don't miss a point I read every single line I respond to everything they say it takes me a long time but like I've done this for years and I think that the reason most people are really shitty at getting reporting is because nobody reinforces them filling out their port so that's the first thing that I do the second thing in terms of holding people accountable and just I think sorry yeah that's a that's like a Google doc yeah okay got it I love how simple it is I love it yes literally a Google Document works for me yep and we have like systems for like feedback and stuff like formal quarterly reviews and stuff where we do the same thing but they actually don't have an end of week report system in there so either way um I would say that oftentimes what I do is that you set the expectation you then put in the mechanism where someone can evaluate themselves against the expectation and then you just hold up the mirror and ask how do you think you're doing and that in my opinion is the best way to hold someone accountable now I think a lot of people think that accountability is telling someone that they're doing something wrong I think that that is poor management because they don't already know they're doing something wrong because you haven't put the systems in place for them to measure their own progress and so I think that I used to have to tell people they were doing things wrong all the time because I didn't understand that if I put in mechanisms where they had to report on their progress themselves and it's so much better this way because then they take ownership over it they take ownership because they see that they're not making progress in certain areas and they'll point it out to me and then I can be their partner in figuring out what we can do to move that metric or to get that project done faster or hey maybe we shouldn't even be doing the project and it becomes more to more of like a collaborative process than a I have to come tell you you're doing something wrong every time something isn't being met yeah you know what I mean yep and are you so I'm assuming this is the end of the week report you're leaving comments and it leads into like a one-on-one next week or something like that right yep yep and then on the one-on-one we can both add you know talking points in there and and talk through things I always say like lead with ask before you assume so if somebody's not making progress and maybe they haven't pointed it out I would never assume reasons as to why I would just simply ask them you know look your metrics here are lower than the standard can you tell me why yeah like it doesn't have to be this big scary conversation and I think a lot of people associate accountability with being mean or punishing but I think that actually is worse because think about somebody likely to change or to change their behavior or to do better in their job do they feel bad about themselves or good about themselves people who feel good about themselves they have a healthy sense of self-esteem are more likely to perform in their job oh totally yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so if I hold them accountable in a way that makes them feel like [ __ ] are they actually going to even be able to improve the best managers just don't make people's lives harder yeah and actually in reality most managers and leaders make the people that work for them's lives harder not only through they make doing their job harder not easier and I look at it like my job as a leader is to make their jobs easier for them to do well yep I think it's like you've developed you have to develop a certain sense of of patience and I think a lot of Founders in the early stages they just go nuts right they think because they're the founder so yeah anyway I want to move on from this one so let me ask you this very philosophical question this could this could uh this could go wrong but we're gonna take a risk here okay so so and Alex isn't here so if you were to decide to have kids right because both of you are are hard charging um and this is interesting because I was talking about this with my my pet holding company buddy um during lunch and his partner was there too it's like well like so how does it work if if Layla decides like they decide to have kids like you know One's Gonna have to like step back right like do you like how do you see it because it's like that is another level right yeah so how do you look at it like if we were to have kids what would happen yeah um would you dial it back or would you like keep pushing like what do you think I think there's trade-offs yeah you know I think I would put systems in place to allow me to get you know the most out of myself like anything else it's almost like there's a lot of times in the company where you have to step out to do something else that has occurred like right now I have to make room to cover for the CFO well that could just as well be I have to make room to take care of a kid yeah and so you figure out ways and I actually think that it provides a lot of opportunity for people in terms of you know if I were to have kids then I would say like this is a great opportunity for me to see like where are the strengths and weaknesses of the weaknesses of the team if I put more on them as well as where are the gaps that I need to get somebody else in here for yeah and I would say the same goes for like home life like I would just like I would never do that on my own you know I think that a lot of people like I look at my family that's Iranian and like it's great because there's like 15 of them in a house you know what I mean but we don't have that here so I would probably figure out okay well how can I get enough people in the house and at work that it could make it I have help on both sides allowing it to be actually doable yeah by the way side question Alex isn't here you guys gonna move back to LA in fact okay we actually never lived in La we lived in Orange County back to California too many taxes all right um the so you spoke at um the event that I had last year thank you and one of the things I think you were asked on stage was who do you look up to and your answer was no one right so I hate that question I like the answer though like so the answer is more impressive to me it's like what is the the Grand Vision here right because look Alex's mission is to to educate right I'm just wondering like what is what are the primary drivers for you what's the end vision so education is a real thing I think we're both really passionate about that I think for me you know something that we've talked about a lot is like there's an internal and an external Mission and I think that Alex has a mission that's for the Greater Community and my mission with acquisition.com is how do I build a 10 20 100 billion dollar company whatever through encouraging people really caring about people helping people develop helping people grow and not turning into one of these very punishing organizations typical P typical big corporate typical bureaucracy which I understand why that accumulates over time but I would just love to do it to get there because I I know we'll get there but I want to get there in a way that builds a culture based off praise not punishment and that's really what I I focus on is like everything that we've built everyone always looks at the tactics and the funnel and the sales and that and I'm just like that's fine it's a waste of [ __ ] time though because the reason that we have built this is the team yeah it's the team it's not like me and Alex and they're doing all that stuff all day it's the team and why is it that we're able to get people that are so talented and that want to work here and they stay a decently long time you know and they're very loyal and it's because of the way we treat them and it's because I think that I innately did a lot of things because I just really actually care about people and then I realized why it works and it's so contrary to most management that's taught that I just really want to I don't want to talk about right now I just want to do it and then in 10 years people be like how'd you do it and then I'll be like there's proof new book The the acquisition way so there's this book I've been pushing right now um scaling people from the stripe CEO so that's like the new modern day like um high output management right okay is it yeah but then maybe you got the next one I don't know like so we'll see we'll have to be fully interested what his is about hers um hers it's sorry it's really good um like there's so much more like I want to talk about roles responsibilities hold code rage um but you just mentioned education also being part of your mission too so I guess what is in your learning stack because here's the thing we've talked a lot about operations in this one like recruiting team and all that right people might be oh my God that's sport but like that is everything right yeah it's a lot here's the thing also is actually I think is really interesting is like I think people assume that Alex doesn't give a [ __ ] about any of that stuff and that I don't know anything about what he's doing and we're both like absolute experts in both yup you know what I'm saying yeah we just our roles yep and go ahead yeah no so I just think it's uh it is interesting because I think people like label it as my domain like I know how to sell in Market [ __ ] you know what I mean and like people see it him and they're like oh he doesn't know he knows how to do all that I think humans just like to label things yeah and like and the problem with Marketing sales like it is sexier but it's like this is the [ __ ] that matters at the end of the day um but anyway how do you get better at your job that's the question at what I do yeah Oh you mean like do I consume something do I have mentors do I yeah just any because I just think you're a very good operator like yes you're good at sales and marketing but like the people like the stuff you're saying like clearly you put a lot of work into this so you can say I read nothing right it's just all experience so it's actually really interesting it brings me to like a conversation I have with one of our like he's basically family Dr cashi which I think it's like amorphous character we talk about um where I said like I feel like I learn much more through doing rather than consuming these fluffy [ __ ] books like I feel like I waste way more time reading and if there's anything I've learned from him it's that most of the best books were written 100 years ago and so I actually only read books that Dr cashi recommends because he reads books by the people who came up with the ideas not the people have iterated on them and so after that we had a few conversations he was like you do learn more by doing and you probably learn faster than anybody because you have an environment which is a company where you can experiment on a daily weekly monthly basis and then get the immediate feedback from it yeah versus reading a book and like having a you know something shared there so yeah I think I actually look at what I'm doing in the company as an experiment every time a people situation arises actually something arose today that was very upsetting to me and I was like how could I deal with this to get this outcome in a way that is least punishing for all and so I called up Dr cashi and I talked him through it and said I think this is what I'm going to do and he had a few pieces of feedback and then I was like okay this is we were we met with some other people and we're like this is the plan we're going to go forward with and then we'll see how it works and that's feedback and so I think that a lot of it is approaching people management with an experimental point of view more than like I'm going to do this because people that are successful do this and they say it works yeah you know and I think that's what has taught me so much has just been approaching everything as an experiment and then taking those learnings and then applying them going forward I think that's been what's most helpful and I think also just leaning into for me I realized that there was so much bad advice that I was I was taking in through a lot of forms of media I was consuming books I was consuming and so I was like [ __ ] I'm I'm just gonna find out for myself you know what I mean yep and I think taking a very like first principles approach to everything even with building acquisition.com you know everyone's like you really need to get a mentor in private Equity I'm like why the [ __ ] would I want to Mentor in private Equity yeah like have you seen what their businesses and lives look like and most of them and they're a lot of them are arrogant [ __ ] I don't want one of those people as my mentor I don't want to build a team like theirs who feels handcuffed and like they have to stay at their job because they're just paid a lot of money so I was like I'll figure it out it can't be that hard yeah like first principles thinking like don't buy a shitty company you know what I mean like okay if the founder hates the company probably shouldn't buy it like so I think I just approached most things like that like I know that we over complicate things and I think that the reason Eric that I feel like I approach it like that is because in building gym launch so many of the decisions that I made with such little experience just based off first principles thinking ended up being the best decisions and the ones that where I leaned on someone else where I did something from a book where from a podcast some successful person said those ended up never working out yeah and I think I just realized I have to trust myself a lot more and also trust that I'll fail but then I can figure it out because also because you have the most context too I have the most context on me yeah you know even when I get I have people that are worth billions of dollars and they give me a piece of very absolute advice I'm like if he had all the contacts he wouldn't give me that yeah because this is a problem with advice it's based on their experience yeah yeah all right I got two final questions and then we can wrap here so I think I saw a quote somewhere else and then a reminder of you talking about this but where Founders tend to step away from the business too soon and you've seen that over and over so you have any advice for Founders on this because it's like it's so cool let's go hire an operator let's go hire a CEO whatever and then everything bombs I think there's a couple things which is one you often don't want to step away from something that you actually like seldom do I see that you don't see me trying to step away from acquisition.com could I put somebody in place probably do I want to no I like what I'm doing and so I think that before anyone even thinks about stepping away think about why do you not like your company enough that you would rather be doing something else and I think that a lot of people build companies that they don't like because they're using other people's judgments other people's opinions they're building off of some book some dude wrote right and they're doing what other people think they should be doing rather than what they want to be and I think that's why so many people want to get away from their company so I would say like what in your company suppresses you to the point that you feel like you need to get away from it and that would be something to figure out first if that's great the second piece would be if you're trying to get away from the company I think that most people if they're trying to Outsource it too soon it's typically yeah you know what I actually just think it's number one I think they're trying to get out of pain there's something that is punishing about the company therefore they want to get away from it and they don't care what they have to do to get away from it now you can put an operator in place but what's gonna happen to the operator you know what I mean it's like it'll be punishing for them too and eventually they'll not want to be there so I'm like just pick the damn company you know what I mean um but I don't think people want to hear that and I think oftentimes too when it's very small that's when the most problems are because usually it's like product Market fit isn't quite right you haven't really understood who your like true customer is you're probably over serving and like selling to too many people like there's all the same normal problems you know pricing's off like you just have to do the work to get past that I think that I would encourage people to get to a place where they enjoy the business and running it before they try to Outsource the whole thing totally you will be more successful in Outsourcing it yep yep look one more thing before I before I end it uh with the final question what was your name again Jason Jason okay so one here's a huge Testament those of you can't see Jason here so it is on a Sunday and we've recorded for about three hours and 20 minutes over here and Jason is super excited and that's a testament to how good of a culture that Layla and Alex have built I just want to say that like you cannot fake that right you can look like he totally hates it but he's super he's nodding his head right now it's just like that is what a great culture looks like so I would encourage everyone to just re-listen to this but here's the final question and this ties in with it you talk about engineering the culture where everyone wins tell us more about that I think that a lot of the times I think businesses are built to serve a founder or to serve a customer but seldom do they think how do we also serve the employees and I think that when we build acquisition.com it was equally how do we build a place where we can make all the portfolio companies better as well as how do we make our team better and I think it doesn't take much more than like an extra lens to think through so I'll give you an example uh that I see at least is like me and Alex are building our content right and we're building our platforms and I see like long long how can I use my platform to elevate the people in my company to then be have their own micro platforms within our platform and then how can I build enough opportunity in acquisition.com that they can benefit from that opportunity with their micro platform they build within ours so if we build what is my vision is like a mix of garyvee Kim Kardashian so it's like a mix of the Kardashians with garyvee like business think business Kardashians like that's what I want to build yeah and then how can I bring people in as characters into that show and then give them platforms and then create opportunities in acquisition.com where maybe you know because we've uh taught people over the years and they've gotten to assimilate everything they can go build a company within acquisition.com use our Brand Plus their brand it will benefit them and us so I just see like big vision that's what I want to be able to build and I think that the reason a lot of people can't or choose not to build a win-win culture is because they're too busy thinking you know what I don't want to put that person on a platform because what if they leave me yep and the thing is is that people will leave you either way one way is where you suppress them and they say F you I'm gonna go find somebody who doesn't suppress me or I'll go do it on my own or you can say I will encourage them and I will invest in them they could leave you with everything you've invested but they're still better off and you are because you've learned and you've been a better teacher or they could stay yeah and at the end of the day you win together and the one thing that I see is just like I don't want to be at the end of my life and have just like me cheering for me like I want hundreds of people to be cheering for me because I made their lives better and I made them more money and maybe made them more famous than anybody else like that's what I would like to be able to do and I think that at the end of the day I also believe that the best people will not tolerate a suppressive leader I think that the best people will only work for somebody who puts them on a pedestal not themselves I love that Layla I think that's a great way to end so what is the best way for people to find you online all the things and just at Layla hermosi uh Instagram Twitter uh you can also follow if this is on podcast uh my podcast is called build with Layla hermosi so pretty cool thanks so much thanks …