The Truth About Scaling, Criticism, and Letting Go with Leila Hormozi

If you’ve ever grown so fast you barely recognized yourself… this one is for you.

In this conversation with Leila Hormozi, we go behind the curtain of rapid business growth — beyond revenue, beyond strategy — and into identity.

We talk about criticism, visibility, filtering yourself to avoid judgment, and what really happens when your business grows faster than your comfort zone.

From the outside, explosive growth can look like a highlight reel. From the inside? It can feel unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and even painful.

Leila shares why “the more you want to grow, the more you’re going to be in pain” — not because growth is bad, but because it demands an identity shift.

If you’re a 7-figure founder scaling higher… Hiring leaders for the first time… Outgrowing your old systems… Or white-knuckling your next level…

You’re not broken. You’re evolving.

This episode is your permission slip to embrace the stretch — and lead with honesty along the way.

Click play to hear all of this and:

[00:01] How to stop trying to “prove yourself” to the internet

[00:05] Why hyper-growth feels like pain—and what 2025 taught her about “unfamiliar territory”

[00:10] The moment health forced leadership evolution

[00:15] How “dangerously confident” content gets made when life is falling apart

[00:20] The self-care boundary that actually scales a company

[00:28] Her non-negotiable morning routine

[00:35] The leadership book she had to write

[00:49] Flash-fire leadership: building a culture where people tell you the hard truth (and how to reward honesty)

Listen to Related Episodes:

• Building a Wildly Successful Business (and how to show up when it’s hard) with Leila Hormozi
• How You Can Develop the BEST Traits in Leadership
• Growing in Life + Business: What I'm Learning in the Messy Middle

Connect With Leila Hormozi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leilahormozi

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leila.naghshineh

Website: https://www.acquisition.com/

📧 Join my Newsletter for a weekly cocktail of insider business strategy, personal reflections, and the journey of being a thought leader: https://jasminestar.com/newsletter 📧

For full show notes, visit jasminestar.com/podcast/episode621

Transcript

Jasmine Star 00:00:00  Welcome to the Jasmine Star Show, a place where you get to talk about life and business. And today we're going to be doing an intersection with somebody who at a distance fangirling, you know, and then I get to sit across from her in the chair and we're going to be doing something different because we normally talk about marketing, branding, organizational growth, all that good stuff. And today I want to get a sneak behind the curtain. I couldn't be more excited to have her second time on The Jasmine Star Show, Layla Hermosa. Thanks, Jasmine. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Okay, so I posted on social media a couple days ago about how I was so nervous the last time I regretted so much of it, and you were so nice and you were like, I was nervous too. You did not seem nervous whatsoever. You said I didn't seem nervous, but I will say I feel like I'm just vibing different today. And I noticed the same about you. So when you go back to 2023.

Jasmine Star 00:00:50  Yeah, you walked into like, this crazy little studio that I had found and rented. It was janky as all get out, okay, but hey, like, we just show up, okay?

Leila Hormozi 00:00:57  I didn't even know I need her. I don't wait, okay?

Jasmine Star 00:00:59  Okay, so this is like us, like a growing, a growing phase. Yeah. And so I'm now here in your studio. Like, if you look back to that version of Layla in 2023, what are you saying to her that year from this vantage point?

Leila Hormozi 00:01:14  The first line that pops up is like, nobody gives a oh, why should you? I think, you know, when I first started making content, there was just like a lot of negativity, which I know everyone kind of says that like, well, people are I mean, you know, it was people were making and for reasons that, like, were beyond my understanding. Like, obviously there's like, you're married for money and Alex is the reason you're successful.

Leila Hormozi 00:01:32  And I'm like, okay, I figured that one would be there. Then it's like, oh, you got plastic surgery. That was like a huge thing. People like making videos everywhere. You got your nose done. She has a whole new face. Like that was a thing. And then there was your voice, which was what I didn't expect. Like, are you, you know, did you transition? Are you a smoker or are you on steroids? Literally someone who made a video that was like, the only reason she's good at business is because she takes steroids. And I was like, girl, if I was on steroids, I bet I would have better legs than this, you know. And shoulders. And so I was like. I was so like, even if I didn't want to admit it, I think that I was, like very much wanting to prove something to like the people that said those things and like, thought those things. And so it didn't affect me making content or not.

Leila Hormozi 00:02:12  But it was like in the back of my head, like I wanted to make sure that I was I appeared perfect so that there couldn't be any more things that people could, like, say about me, if I'm being honest, like. And I think a lot of people like, of course, that pops up sometimes still for me, but I try so much harder to do things that work against that voice, not towards it. So I think I would just tell myself, like, nobody gives a and even if you show up and people hate you, at least they hate you for who you are. Not like the shell of a person you're pretending to be.

Jasmine Star 00:02:41  Did you feel like you were pretending to be?

Leila Hormozi 00:02:43  I don't think pretending. I think that I was filtering myself a lot more, and I think that I was like a lot more cognizant of how I appeared. I was way more nervous at the same time. So it's like, you know, I hadn't been on that many podcasts, I hadn't done that much content, so I was like, I wasn't used to so many people like watching me and like, I felt like I was like a little, I said, like in the a hamster being watched through, like the glass, you know what I mean? And I couldn't focus enough on doing the content to, like, filter all that out.

Leila Hormozi 00:03:09  And so there was a lot of stuff that made me nervous, and I think also wanting to prove something. So it just felt like it felt hard and it just doesn't feel that way anymore because I think I just don't. I've just realized that's just not important to me in life. And people have continued to talk the whole way through me making content, and it makes no difference in my life. So why do I care?

Jasmine Star 00:03:28  So, okay, so I want to repeat back what I heard. Just the energy around what you create. Like you've let go of other people's opinions and still continue to do the same thing, and you just feel different about what it is that you're doing.

Leila Hormozi 00:03:38  Yeah, I think it's the realization that people are going to have an opinion no matter what you say. And I actually think that oftentimes when people have an opinion and have a lot to say about somebody, it's probably that person's being honest. And so to me, it's like my number one most important value for me is honesty.

Leila Hormozi 00:03:55  And I had to learn that over the last few years I was like, me being honest is more important than anything. And if people hate me for being honest and I get talked down more for being honest, at least I'm being honest. That's right. You know what I mean?

Jasmine Star 00:04:05  That's right. On a recent podcast, I'm going to read a quote of yours. This was a weird year. I honestly think this is the most I have changed as a person in the last decade. My identity has shifted quite a bit. I'm in a place where I have let go of the old and recognize I cannot go back, but I still have yet to understand exactly what the new looks like. It's kind of uncomfortable, but I'm okay with it. I know it's directionally correct and sure what new completely looks like and also excited for the new. So maybe you guys can relate. I heard that I was at the gym and I was like, hell yes! What is the new for you I want? Okay, so here's the thing for the podcast.

Jasmine Star 00:04:41  Yeah, I can talk to you about systems and organization and leadership, and I know that I would do a piss poor job to all of the hundreds of other podcasts you've done. So I'm just like, I'm going to speak for the people. Like, I don't know about the men, but the ladies in the crowd we want like the you. Yeah. The you. What are you excited for? Because I think what what I see a lot of is like I see this ten out of ten. You've you've done the thing and we see the successes. And then we also know on a conscious level there's like a graveyard of lessons and failures. We don't see them, but we actually know because you don't get success without all of that. And yet what we see is like this retrospective of these lessons that you're learning. And what I want to see is like, I just think you look different. You vibrate different, you are emanating this different version of you. And I'm like, I get to see her like day one version of Layla look into the future and like, call your shot.

Jasmine Star 00:05:29  And I'd be like, I want to know, like, what is day one? I like, let's talk about what you're doing. Let's talk about what you envision. So what are you so excited for like this upcoming year?

Leila Hormozi 00:05:38  Well, I'm excited it's not 2025 anymore okay okay okay.

Jasmine Star 00:05:42  Hold on, hold on, hold on okay okay okay. So I actually want to talk about that. But like there was three big things that I said, you know, on the outside you guys hire a co-founder Sharon named him president of acquisition. You have some pretty serious health considerations that when I hear just things on the outside and I know, like 0.001, I'm like, my heart breaks. Like, what in the world? Alex does this behemoth of event, like over $100 million in a weekend? Yeah, beating Obama and Prince Harry for these book records. Yeah. And then you get millions and millions of followers amassed over like, okay, that happens in 2025. And you're like, oh, so glad it's not 2025.

Jasmine Star 00:06:20  And I'm like, well, like, let's like, are you shining a turd? Like, this is incredible. What what what happened?

Leila Hormozi 00:06:26  No. It's funny. Yeah. It's interesting. I think that it's like I've said this a few times, but it's like, if you want to keep growing, the more you want to grow, the more you're going to be in pain. Because growth requires letting go of something familiar and grabbing on to something that's new. And whenever something's new, you don't have the skill. It feels uncomfortable, it's unfamiliar, and it's like everything inside of you wants to grab back to that old thing. And I think that we grew so fast in 2024 and 2025. We were still growing very fast, but it really compounded and it like hit a velocity in towards the end of 2024 that I knew I was like, I'm about to go into unfamiliar territory. Like, this is beyond what I've managed before. I've not led a company of this. I have of this size people, not of the size, revenue.

Leila Hormozi 00:07:09  And so, like going into 2025, I could feel that my energy, I was like, something needs to shift because I knew I was like, I'm barely able to think straight. I'm white knuckling a lot of things, and it doesn't feel like I don't think I'm going to want to do this for like ten years if this is the the rate. But at the same time, I knew I was like, I've done this before, rapid growth really fast with companies and it's like you kind of just have to do that for like a year or two to get everyone in place. And so, you know, one of the things that we had looked at early on was, you know, we've been so strong for like seven years. And so we've been talking for a while.

Jasmine Star 00:07:41  Are you okay? I listened to one of his older podcasts. Now, you guys met because you reached out to Sharon around real estate investment.

Leila Hormozi 00:07:48  Know someone connected? Alex and Sharon. Alex got off the call, and then he's like, you would love this guy.

Leila Hormozi 00:07:53  I was like, okay. I was like, no, because he's interested me so many people that I'm like, And so I was like, okay, so then I get on a cholesterol next. And I was like.

Jasmine Star 00:08:01  But what was the purpose? Just to be like.

Leila Hormozi 00:08:02  Just to.

Jasmine Star 00:08:03  Connect?

Leila Hormozi 00:08:03  Okay, that was it. And then I connected with him and I was like, wow, he's growing these two huge companies. He's such, but he's such a good person. He loves me.

Jasmine Star 00:08:10  So clearly for clarity because, you know, like I did my digging. Sharon has scaled two companies past a billion. So when you say he's building big businesses, I'm like, yeah, but like big with a capital B. Yeah okay. Okay. Go on. Sorry.

Leila Hormozi 00:08:21  And so that was all stuff that we'd started working on in 2024. And so I knew that he was coming in. It wasn't something I could be public about. Yet we'd known for like eight months. I knew we were playing the book launch, and we'd been putting so much time and effort into that.

Leila Hormozi 00:08:34  And at the same time as these, like, very good things are happening and we're like quadrupling revenue.

Jasmine Star 00:08:39  But he was brought in for what specifically? Like what was like the gap or what was like the ancillary. Did you want him to come alongside of you to help scale because you've not done that, or did you want him to lead something else entirely? Or.

Leila Hormozi 00:08:49  I think I think the original intention of what it turned into versus what it is going to go back to are different, which is like, you know, the original intention was like to expand. It's like if there's three of us, not two of us, we can grow bigger and better, faster, and we're all aligned on like where we want to go, the mission, the vision, our values. And so it's just really hard to find that. And Sharon brings like if you look at like our skill sets, they're all different. And so Sharon is very good like very deep in a lot of areas that are very valuable like finance, legal, real estate, tech.

Leila Hormozi 00:09:17  Like he just has a very it's complimentary to me and Alex. So we felt like we all three kind of have like our lane. And he has helped us with so much of that with acquisition on com that, you know, as the opportunity arose and we talked about it, we're like this makes a lot of sense. So it wasn't like, oh, we're best friends and we should just work together. It's like, no, there's a clear like if somebody was strong in this that was working with us, this would be very good for the business. Now, when he came in, I think it was a different story because I'm like, listen, I need to hire like 15 leaders and I have like 15 direct reports right now, and I'm really struggling. And so it's like, okay, first, you know, I had like a whole snafu with like a sea level. I had I had to get that person out for when I came in. He took over that role. He took over like finance, tech and legal immediately and relieved those from my plate.

Jasmine Star 00:10:01  Okay, so let's pause. So he comes in, he steps into three roles. How is Layla of the person responding to that? Like how do you feel? What is your thought pattern? What changes? What opens for you? Like him being there means what for you personally?

Leila Hormozi 00:10:14  Well, it would have been really fun, but I found out like two weeks before he was supposed to start that I had to have surgery and I had to do it immediately. And so I had an infection and they had to essentially cut it out of my it's like pelvic region, I'll just say. And it was, you know, very invasive and uncomfortable. And so I was like, okay, so I have to go do this whole thing. I can't onboard you or anything. So like we literally had seven days. And then I was like, I flew out to New York, I had surgery, and then I was out for like a month. And so, you know, it was just like it was by at that point I.

Leila Hormozi 00:10:49  He said he actually came in a month early because he originally was gonna start a month later to have a break between real and acquisition. And he was like, I, I told him what was going on. It was like getting really bad. I was in a ton of pain. I was working from the couch every day and he was like, you look like. Like Harry saw me. He's like, dude, you've like, you've known, you've lost all your fat. And I'm like, I know I can't eat. And like, it was just like a whole thing. And so he came in and I honestly just think like it was such a, I don't whatever. But like, that was something I did good long ago that he was able to come in at that time and that it didn't happen six months earlier because it would have been really hard to heal. Not having somebody with that experience in the company when we were at such an important point in the company. So when he came in, I think it was, you know, one of the first times that I felt like and I think, you know, we talked about this literally him and I texted, if you look at our text and say, you're my best friend, love you.

Leila Hormozi 00:11:39  So grateful for you. I love you too. So grateful for you. How's your day going? Blah blah. Thinking about you, hoping this is going well. Like we're just like family. And I told him I was like, it's the first time I feel like I have somebody else that sees everything I see in the business because, you know, me and Alex were partners, but we do completely opposite things. We have completely different perspectives and he's always much more external and more internal. So it's like we don't see the same things as each other. But Sharon came in. He's much more internal with me right now, and that's been so helpful because as you grow, you need more eyes on things. It's like, you know, if you're leading a team of 50 people and now you're leading a team of 150, those functions all grow. Which means like, you just you just physically can't oversee them all. So it was incredibly relieving. And, you know, he has gone through times in his career where he had to take a step back.

Leila Hormozi 00:12:26  And he had people that supported him through it because he had to deal with his own health stuff. And he's public about that. And so, you know, he kind of helped me as a friend, just like through the mental part of it, of just like, how do I not push for this long? How do I let myself recover? How do I do all that? And so I was very lucky that it happened at the same time.

Jasmine Star 00:12:45  So he went stepping into three main things, amongst other things. Three main things. But then you were out recovering. There is a gap. Did he step in that gap as well? So he effectively became Layla part two. In your absence.

Leila Hormozi 00:12:59  I had strong leaders in the other areas, but not in the ones that he stepped into. So he's had to do a ton of cleanup. Got it. Yeah, like he had to hire those new leaders. I told us that these ones are not even right. One of them I had just let go of these other areas over here, like our advisory practice, our portfolio, our ops team, like those those were solid.

Leila Hormozi 00:13:20  So I had good and still do have great leaders over those functions. So I felt like that was super secure, these functions that were like almost like the guts of the company, the inner workings. I was like, these are very fragile. I don't feel good, like I don't sleep well at night knowing these things. Like there's big problems and we were growing so fast. It's very hard to find somebody that can come in and do that at like fix what happened in the past, reconcile it, build the present and build the future like it. Just so he has made like a heroic effort in acquisition. Com and like I just it's we work similarly so. And we also have the same laws in many ways. So it's nice to have somebody to work with.

Jasmine Star 00:13:55  Oh that's amazing. So let's go back to when you came back to work. And like the recovery process, you've you've said publicly on different podcasts like you go into your pain cave and you were in extreme pain. And Alex even talks about like how he was genuinely so worried and how there was like a miscommunication.

Jasmine Star 00:14:12  He was talking to like an assistant, and the assistant was speaking to somebody at the doctor's office, and then she had said, oh, so the cancer. Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah. Like so Alex, for a second thought that you had cancer and then like what he had to go through. And so it's like, that's pretty deep. And then in, in the midst of all of that you're recovering and then you come back. And what is that? What is that life coming back look like?

Leila Hormozi 00:14:35  It's not the same as before, right. What is she. Because well, I think there's a few things, which is like, once you go through a period of time where you think that, Am I going to die? What's wrong with me being in intense pain all the time and honestly not wanting to wake up the next day and still having to show up for your company. Tough. And people might hear them like, oh my God, are you okay? Like, no, if you're in pain all the time, like for months on end and you're not getting answers from doctors because they're incompetent.

Leila Hormozi 00:15:00  Yeah. Some days you wake up and you're like, I just would rather just keep sleeping today. Like, I don't want to deal with this. Like, it was very hard. It was hard on me. It was hard on my relationship. It was hard on my friendships. It was hard on everyone around me because I was miserable and I was trying to.

Jasmine Star 00:15:11  I was still making content during this time. Yeah, okay.

Leila Hormozi 00:15:15  In fact, my biggest video was made during that time. I remember I was sweating while I was making it.

Jasmine Star 00:15:19  What was the.

Leila Hormozi 00:15:19  Biggest how to be dangerously confident? I was in so much pain making that video and it's like it's got like 7 million views or something. I know how to be so proud.

Jasmine Star 00:15:28  To be dangerously confident when you're dying from the inside out, sweating profusely as you create it. I had a girl, okay.

Leila Hormozi 00:15:34  But, you know, it's one of those things where it's like I wanted to do as much as I could because I didn't want to make myself more depressed than I needed to be.

Leila Hormozi 00:15:41  So I tried to do what I could to, like, take care of myself.

Jasmine Star 00:15:45  Did you keep the cadence of your content production or did that change?

Leila Hormozi 00:15:49  We we whittled it down. So I started saying, I said like I can when, before and after my surgery. It was like, I can't film. Up until then, I tried to do more to like, catch up, but then I said like, hey, I've only got one day a week, if not every other week, to give for a little while. And so the irony of that is that's when my content started blowing up 20%.

Jasmine Star 00:16:09  What are constraints?

Leila Hormozi 00:16:12  I don't know. You know, I think that the team got better. I think that they learned to work within limited resources. Sometimes I think people make too much content and it's like there's too much to sift through. That's a job of its own as you can just like which one to edit next. And so I think there was like a lot more quality given to what was there.

Leila Hormozi 00:16:27  And I think that at the same time when I was filming, I didn't give a shit about making content. I was just like, I don't care what people think of me and what I say in this video. And if you don't like this, like I, I might die tomorrow. So like, who cares? And that was really when like, my mindset shifted and I was just like, I. Why did I even start making content? Because, like, I like helping people. Okay, well, then that's all I'm going to try and do right now. I'm just going to focus on like, I'm only going to make stuff that I feel like actually helps people. I don't care if it's trending or this or that. Like, I'm just gonna only pick stuff that I'm like, I have something good to say on this topic, and it will actually help somebody deliver value to their life, and it won't confuse them. They can take action based on what I put out there. And so when I start doing that mixed with the team, I think that was when things started clicking.

Leila Hormozi 00:17:07  So of course I'm like lying, you know, recovering. And everyone's like, dude, you're you're stuff's killing it. I was like, what is going on? You know, you're like, this is the worst I felt in my life. And so, you know, back to your question, I think one is like, I just can't. Nothing is a bigger priority to me than my health. And I think that I've always taken it for granted cause I've always been in fitness. And there's a difference between health and fitness. And, you know, I've always been like, looked healthy. But I think there's a difference between looking healthy, having muscle, being lean and being healthy. And, you know, I pushed myself a little too much in 2024, 2025 at the beginning of and I paid for it, you know. And I think I was like, you're not 20 anymore. I've learned that. And I just there's nothing that could happen. I think at this point that would make me like put it as a last priority ever again, because I don't think I ever didn't prioritize.

Leila Hormozi 00:18:00  I was working out. I was sleeping at people like, oh my God, I probably burned out. I still slept like seven hours a night. I'm working out. I'm like going on walks. I'm eating healthy. But it's more than that. I think that when you're pushing yourself so hard, you need more recovery than you think. And I just didn't realize that at the time. And now it's like looking back. It's just like there's a lot of stuff that I, you know, I started thinking like, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe I'm not going to be able to do all of these things in the future. And so there's a lot that I was like, man, I think I've taken like my body for granted, my health for granted. Like my ability to just, like, not be in pain all day for granted. And I you just see the world differently after that. And, you know, I'm really grateful that it wasn't something that was life threatening.

Leila Hormozi 00:18:41  It was just incredibly painful. And, you know, I would say, if not left unchecked, could be a life threatening, but like, still like not something like I had to go through chemo or cancer. So I said, listen, I don't need to learn the same lesson twice. Like, yeah, I don't want this to be I don't want it to be something else in the future. And I don't want to be one of those people that doesn't learn from things. And so I said, like, what can I learn from this? And I was like, well, I have to learn new ways to take care of myself. It's like I've learned how to take care of myself, but I need to be. I actually need to take care of myself more than before because I have more responsibility than ever.

Jasmine Star 00:19:11  Ooh. Okay. So what does it look like? Like so I sometimes on stories like I saw over the past weekend, you went to a farmer's market. Sourdough. You got some, like, just.

Jasmine Star 00:19:19  It was like a trad wife era. I'm like, I'm here for it. I love this content. I think you should be posting more of that. Like, you watch, like, I don't know, like Teen Wolf or something in your meat house.

Leila Hormozi 00:19:26  We just finished, but okay.

Jasmine Star 00:19:29  But it's like this the small things because it gives insight. So what does taking your care of yourself more look like?

Leila Hormozi 00:19:35  Yeah, I'll say one note to that, which is like I have always been a super wife to Alex, and I just never showed it because I thought people would say, if you're such a wife to him, you can't be a CEO of the company, you're just a secretary. So I always hid that because I just didn't want people.

Jasmine Star 00:19:48  Did you hear that? Or was that just somehow like a compilation of things that you both.

Leila Hormozi 00:19:52  I mean, even to this day, people will come here and be like, does she really run the company anyways? And and by the way, the company is so big at this point.

Leila Hormozi 00:19:59  We all run the company, right? We have three of us that run the company. So I just have this position CEO since my job's a little different. So yeah, it definitely people said that. And so I was like, oh God, if I'm posting like I'm baking and I'm cooking and I'm doing all this stuff like they're going to be like, oh, he's like, you know. So again, remember I used to care more what people thought. So that was one piece of it. I think that the other piece of it, you know, with the taking care of myself, is it's just a lot more of not allowing other people's priorities to become mine.

Jasmine Star 00:20:28  And so taking care of yourself is not allowing somebody else's priorities to become yours.

Leila Hormozi 00:20:34  Yeah. I think I care so much about people. I care so much about my team. I care so much about just anybody. It's like I always want to help people. And that's like where I thrive. I like helping people. I like helping people grow.

Leila Hormozi 00:20:44  I like helping people, but I will overextend the out of myself to do that. And it has helped me in many ways. But what it has done is it made me very strong when I could be making everyone around me just as strong. And so I said okay, instead of me taking all the strength I need to build strength in others, well, how do you do that? You prompt them with situations where strength can be built, which means you put them in hard situations and you give them the direction of what to do.

Jasmine Star 00:21:08  To give us an example in this example.

Leila Hormozi 00:21:09  Yeah. So if you know, I'm, I have a leader in the company and they're struggling with how to manage somebody on their team and they're like, hey, like I'm really having trouble here. Like, do you think you could talk to them? No, I can't talk to them. That's your job. But I can help you in terms of I can help you craft the conversation that you need to have with them.

Leila Hormozi 00:21:23  And then if you do it, they're like, well, what if I suck? I'm so nervous. Well, you're going to suck, and then you're going to try again. You're gonna have another conversation. It's not going to be perfect. And I will have done it way better than you. And so, you know, you get to a point in the company where, like, I just realized that, you know, I looked at one point was like, my job is to take all the messiest problems, but then you get to a point where like, oh, there's a lot of messy problems. I actually need to develop other people into being those messy problem solvers, messy people situations, messy legal situations, messy public persona situations, like all that stuff. You need to transfer your judgment to them. And what I realized is, like every day I was just giving people my attention, my brain space, my judgment. And it got to the point it wasn't scalable anymore. You know, instead of taking an hour a day, it's taking four hours a day.

Leila Hormozi 00:22:07  And I already have eight hours booked. That's that's too much. And I didn't think I was doing my best thinking. And so what I look at back now is this is really what happened is I knew I was going to have to make a shift last year, and the shift was accelerated by the health issues. And now that I look at it and now that I've gone through it, I'm like it propelled me to make that shift so much faster. I don't think I would have if it hadn't. Now would I say I would like to do that again? I don't know, but.

Jasmine Star 00:22:33  Would I say.

Leila Hormozi 00:22:34  Like I got something good out of it. Yeah, something good came of it because I decided to learn the lesson and to say I don't need like I will allow this to propel me forward. And I think, again, it's like I teach delegation, I can delegate, but there's a new level every time, and there's a new level that everyone's always hitting. And, you know, it was just a a level that I had to get to and say, wow, I can't me not being in a place of good judgment, me not taking care of my health, me not taking care of myself actually will make my company worse.

Leila Hormozi 00:23:03  And it's actually had always been the opposite. I could sacrifice a lot of time energy discretionary effort to my company, and I was able to keep it growing. So I don't think I'm able to do that anymore. There's just too much.

Jasmine Star 00:23:14  So you and Alex, in two different times had done it different, but similar in that in the beginning it was like force, grit, the like, you win by the most reps and then you get to a certain point of size of business where it's no longer the grit and the reps. It's more like, how much time can you spend thinking and strategizing? And so I would love to hear what is like the really hyper personal side of how do you create that space? Like, what are you doing? What are you guys doing together for that personal space? And then from the business space, what are you doing to stay in that zone of no longer the push, but more of like, the strategy?

Leila Hormozi 00:23:47  Yeah. I mean, I would say this, I don't think it's, you know, longer push.

Leila Hormozi 00:23:50  I think it's, you know, when to push and when to use judgment. Like who's a more dangerous opponent, the one who doesn't push at all, or the one who only pushes, neither the one who can do both, but they know when to use each. Ooh. So it's like I want to have all the tools and just know when to use them. So I realized I was like, these tools don't serve me anymore. I'm not going to get rid of them. In fact, I use them. I go to the gym when I'm, you know, trying to reach a new goal. That is an incomplete way to use it. But I need more of this one. This one's not as strong. And so that was kind of how I looked at it in terms of like, how do you do that tactically? It's actually very easy. You say no, you say no, I can't. No, I can't do that. I can't give you that time. I don't want to do that.

Leila Hormozi 00:24:28  I don't want to do that. I would not like to do that. That's it. It's like so simple. But I was like, wow, it's just a new level of saying, no, there's nothing in my life anymore that I want to say no to, but I have things that I would love to do that I have to say no to every day. And I think that's the difference. I used to have plenty of things that people would ask me. I was like, I want to do that now. It's like pretty much everything that comes to me. I think I could add a ton of value here. If I did this, I could help them so much. If I coach them on this, I could do so much good. If I did this interview, I could do. And I'm like, this could all be very beneficial and actually a decent amount leverage. And then I have no time for myself. I have no time to invest in my health, my relationship, my growth, having an hour to myself every day.

Leila Hormozi 00:25:09  And so okay.

Jasmine Star 00:25:11  But hold on before we get into the business stuff. She's on my podcast. She had a great.

Multiple Speakers 00:25:15  Day off my podcast. I gotta get this. I gotta play this. Yes.

Jasmine Star 00:25:19  Okay, okay. No, that's okay for me. Now we heard it from the practical sense. You saying no? You are having an inbound plethora of opportunities and it becomes difficult. No's. Yeah, but what do you do for. Like taking care of yourself on a personal level? Like really.

Leila Hormozi 00:25:34  Tactically. Like what?

Jasmine Star 00:25:35  But, like, get us into your home, like in the morning. What do you do that yours. Okay, well, actually, let's talk about this. Your days. You're you're writing a book. Okay. I'm super excited. Are you talking about that yet. Like are we talking about I know you're testing in your broadcast channel. Yeah. You're testing a few things. I'm in there. I'm watching. Just watching carefully. Carefully picking up the crumbs you're putting down.

Jasmine Star 00:25:56  Are you talking about the public key? Yeah. No. Yeah. What what is what is the book? And then when we look about like, this is like a big push for you right now, and it's something new for you right now. How are you balancing your health and time? Like, what does that look like? Where are you working? What are your days look like? Where's Layla right now?

Leila Hormozi 00:26:13  Well, my days are never all the same. So like today, you know, I wake up, I respond to some memos, I write a memo while I'm walking, I shower, I come here, hair and makeup, I film, I take a few calls, I eat, I film, right, but I think I've gotten a lot better at knowing. I would say like it's less the days and more of the weeks. So it's like in terms of my week, I look at it much more as like, if I'm looking at my week and I'm feeling like, oh my God, that looks awful.

Leila Hormozi 00:26:42  I should just change that, right? Like, why would I not? I can do whatever I want.

Jasmine Star 00:26:46  Well, the story people tell ourselves is like, I can't.

Leila Hormozi 00:26:49  Know because of why.

Jasmine Star 00:26:50  Because like a domino effect of everything that happens thereafter.

Leila Hormozi 00:26:53  And so what? So I can impress people. I don't go about like, it's like, I don't know. I mean, I was even contemplating at one point, I'm like, if I have to do things in a certain way that I think they should be done and I have to do them perfectly, then I'm just not going to want to keep doing them. So either I do them the way I want to do them or they're not going to happen. Content, my business, everything. And so it's just like at some point I think you have to kind of say, I'm at a point in my life where it's like, I, I don't want to do anything I don't want to do. And it's not because I feel like it's not for me selfish place.

Leila Hormozi 00:27:24  It's from a if I'm not doing things I want to do, I don't think I'll keep doing it for a long time. And so what are those things that I want to do for a long time? I actually enjoy a lot of stuff and I'm like generally very happy person. So it's not hard for me, but it's like if I can't get outside and take a walk, if I don't have time to meditate in the morning if I like, I am never the person who's like, I'm going to wake up at 5 a.m., I'm gonna fly to New York, I'm going to do this. I'm like, that sounds terrible. I'm going to like, make a trip of it and like, bring my husband and, like, have a few days there, like, I, I do not like that hustle. Like, I actually never wasted that degree. Like I'm never the person who's like, I'll wake up at four and go to the thing and back at me. I was like, oh my God, I know that sounds terrible.

Leila Hormozi 00:28:02  I need to at least be able to work out and eat. And so I think it's been more of that to a degree, which is like, you know, I wake up and the first thing I do is I meditate and then for ten minutes minimum, which is easy, ten minutes minimum. It's like the easiest thing. I've stuck to it now. It's been almost 200 days, so that's nice. And then I usually read something for 30 to 45 minutes.

Jasmine Star 00:28:22  Is this like a business book, a fiction, anything?

Leila Hormozi 00:28:24  Okay, most of the time it's not business. It's like Psychology or just like a perspective on something more like mentality. I would say in some way, I don't know, but probably more behavioral science. Okay. And then after that I will go on a walk and then I'll sometimes work on the walk, like take calls, etc., depending on what they are. And then other times I won't and then I will work. And that's like how I like to start my days.

Leila Hormozi 00:28:50  I would say that I've become non-negotiable around a few things, which is like I used to for, I mean for like three years, I mean, and this is part of what wrecked my health was like, I just didn't eat, like, I just was like, I don't have time. And then it just whittled away and things got worse and worse, etc.. So like now I'm like, okay, I'm really taking time to do that because if I'm not taking care of my body, then there's really like, I don't care. I, I was also just like, you know, it benefits you as a woman because you're like, oh, then I stay skinny too, which is like I used to joke at people all the time. Like they knew, like everyone was like, she's like a protein bar. That's it. And because I was on the go, all, yeah. So, like, you don't have time to sit down, eat meal. What are we talking about? Like, I make myself do that now, so it's like, I'm like, I'm just gonna sit down.

Leila Hormozi 00:29:30  I'm not gonna rush and heal some even, like, actually eat a meal. And I protect my evenings, so, you know, I'm not in my, like my team does. Like, dude, after 730, like you're gone. It's because, like, I go to bed at 830 because I'm tired. And so I'm like, I don't want to be on my phone slacking people or in a sauna or anything late at night because I'm trying to get good sleep. And, you know, all this kind of goes back to like on a personal level, like right before everything you have with my health, I wanted to have kids. And then all this stuff happened. It's pushed it off for me. But in that, you know, one thing I learned was like, you know, the years of dieting and not eating as much and stress, it's like, you know, is that an optimal like, you know, it's like a lot of people are like and by the way, we don't have fertility issues.

Leila Hormozi 00:30:10  So I will say that we had gone to a point and I said, like, I would like to freeze embryos and decide when I want to have the kids, but not worry about the age of the embryos. Right. And so I was going to do I had done IVF two years. It's like I want to say like 19 months ago, I was going to do it again because it didn't work at all the first time. Not either of our reasons, but I used a very doctor. So they just, you know, it's like it's kind of like you left the fridge open for the eggs. Yeah, kind of like that. So anyways. Oh yeah. And then just lost all of my client data. That's interesting. Yeah.

Jasmine Star 00:30:44  Wait, so do you talk about that?

Leila Hormozi 00:30:46  Can we talk? I don't want to. I don't want to put anyone on blast.

Jasmine Star 00:30:48  No, I'm not that. But like, where does that leave you? Like, if the refrigerators left open, like, are you starting the process over again?

Leila Hormozi 00:30:53  It means that I don't have any.

Leila Hormozi 00:30:55  So I would have to do it all over again. Yeah. Go through the process. So that was what I was going to do literally the week that everything kind of blew up for me last year, which was crazy, which is why I'm like, I know it definitely like when your body's under stress. Because I had two lawsuits happen that week, I got sick, I knew I was going to start IVF, and I had my team quarterly all in one week, and I was like, I just, I think my my stress was just there's just nothing left in the system. There's nothing left in the tank to deal with it. But all that say, like, you know, that is something that's important to me. I don't talk about it a lot, but, you know, I can work the rest of my life. I can have kids the rest of my life. So that's been something that why I've been prioritizing my health, why I have.

Jasmine Star 00:31:33  Started.

Leila Hormozi 00:31:34  Eating again, why I'm doing all these things so I can be a vessel for these children so that I can have the option to have kids, which I'm not really cleared to do that for like 3 or 4 more months.

Leila Hormozi 00:31:43  But when I am, then that's something that I'd like to do. So it all kind of ties in with stuff. But, you know, I think when I was sick during that time, thinking about what if I actually can't have kids after this and now I can, I would be I have to have a C-section, but that's okay. I was like, I don't want to. It's like I kind of weighed out what I regret, not having them or having them more. I was like, I don't think I'm going to regret having kids, so I would like to do that.

Jasmine Star 00:32:14  You're gonna be a you're gonna be like an incredible mom. Like it's insane. You're gonna be such a good girl. You're gonna be a better entrepreneur because your kids, it just. You just play. You play the game different, and so you get like, super sensei. Okay, but let's back up a little bit. Yeah. I give you a full Saturday. Yeah. What is your like? What's your like? I look at my Saturday day and you're like amazing.

Jasmine Star 00:32:34  Perfect day. What does that day.

Leila Hormozi 00:32:35  If it was like, absolutely anything, there wouldn't be much. It would be coffee with my husband. And maybe, like, we go to, like, spot nearby and grab croissants or something. And then we'd, like, walk around, do whatever putter. And then I would probably this is I would probably want to go to the gym and just like, take my time working out.

Jasmine Star 00:32:57  Do you like working out with Alex or do you like working out?

Leila Hormozi 00:33:00  Oh, God. No no no no, we do not work out the same way. We never.

Multiple Speakers 00:33:03  Have.

Leila Hormozi 00:33:04  Okay. but now especially, I'm doing all this weird pt, so. Okay.

Jasmine Star 00:33:07  So after the puttering. Yeah. You go on your own to go work out.

Leila Hormozi 00:33:10  Yeah. And then I would say I love doing brunch with people like friends. So it's like, do brunch with friends and then like, go on a hike, go outside, go bike with friends. Like my birthday.

Leila Hormozi 00:33:23  It was like three years ago. Like my perfect birthday was lately. We woke up, we had coffee, the whole thing. I had a bunch of my friends. We were all rented a house together and then we went to the gym. Then we came back, we had brunch and after that we like sat around for a while. And then I was like, let's go bike the mountain. Then we went and biked the mountain. It was we were in Colorado and then we like, went back to the house and just like played cards rest of the night and chilled. And that was like my perfect day. It was like I was like, that was the perfect birthday. That's all I wanted. It's like, I love being outside, I love moving, I'm like very active person. I don't like sitting a lot. I love being with friends, like so it was fun. And I don't like having, like it was it was nice.

Jasmine Star 00:34:00  That sounds good. And so when you look at your perfect day, how often are you getting those days, like in again in a month or in a quarter?

Leila Hormozi 00:34:07  Well, it's right now, you know, I just hired, gosh, six executives.

Leila Hormozi 00:34:10  So I kind of said the months of January and February, I'm going to work more. And then my schedule, like you, if you looked at my calendar, you would see it goes back to having a lot more block time. But I was like, I have to set everyone up for success. They're all taking things off my plate. They're all helping grow the business. I need to push it a little bit so that I can get that time back, so I can finish my book, so I can build some of the expansion that we have and still take care of myself. So.

Jasmine Star 00:34:35  So March is more of like a cleaner, more.

Leila Hormozi 00:34:39  Definitely a cleaner month. Yeah.

Jasmine Star 00:34:41  So let's talk about the book. Yeah. Okay. Are we talking about what it's about.

Leila Hormozi 00:34:45  Yeah. I'm not going to go into detail what it's about.

Jasmine Star 00:34:47  But you know give me the hook. Give me the sizzle. Like the sizzle. Yeah. Let's mark it.

Leila Hormozi 00:34:52  It's still not sexy.

Jasmine Star 00:34:53  Come on.

Jasmine Star 00:34:54  Yeah I.

Leila Hormozi 00:34:55  I literally just was like, I want if there's anything that I were to write a book about because I started a different book actually when I was recovering. Like, what is the most.

Jasmine Star 00:35:04  Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, you don't say, I started a book and then I started another book when I was recovering, like, not even, like 12 months. It's like, well, wait, what was that book that you had started? That one.

Leila Hormozi 00:35:14  Was good. Follow the plan.

Jasmine Star 00:35:16  Okay.

Leila Hormozi 00:35:16  And that was going to be a book just about how to change your life. Okay, but I there was just something. It just wasn't there yet for me.

Jasmine Star 00:35:24  Okay.

Leila Hormozi 00:35:25  And so I changed, and I said, I want to write a book on leadership. And so really, the book that I'm that I have written, the first draft is done. It is literally like, I will say this, I there is not a book that exists that is more tactical of how to be a leader.

Leila Hormozi 00:35:43  Like it breaks it down. There's 12 steps, it's a flywheel. And it's like you can go from never having even led yourself really, to learning how to lead a large organization. By reading that book. I feel very confident in saying that, and I don't know why anyone's not reading the book, so maybe I'll find out when it doesn't do well.

Jasmine Star 00:36:03  Not at all.

Leila Hormozi 00:36:04  But I, you know, I mean, I obviously have doubts around it, but I feel so proud of it already that I'm like, I don't, I don't care. Like, if I can.

Jasmine Star 00:36:10  Even just.

Leila Hormozi 00:36:10  Make this with my team and be like, this is what we use now to know how to be a leader to acquisition, I'd be stoked because it's like it's gotten everything from my brain from the last ten years out. And it's like, this is all I've thought about for ten years. How to be a good leader, how to teach people, how to be a good leader. Like I see everything through the lens of leadership, which I actually think, you know.

Leila Hormozi 00:36:28  I talked to my team about this. I'm like, it's actually less prominent in my social media because I in the beginning I would make videos on leadership. They just and so everyone's like, you shouldn't talk about that. You should talk moral about systems operations, etc.. And I was like, okay. And it did do better productivity, how to get more done, how to organize your calendar. But like that's not the stuff that I'm super excited about every day. I'm excited about developing people into leaders so that they can accomplish whatever they want accomplish in their life. And I think right now there's just such a gap. Like everyone is so wanting to make money, wanting to have status, want to have influence, but they don't want the responsibility of leading people. And that feels bad. And so I'm like, how do we make it more practical for people to actually be a leader so that they feel like I think people don't aspire to do things, they don't think that are possible for them.

Leila Hormozi 00:37:19  And if every book you read says, oh, you want to be leader, be honest. Have integrity. What the fuck does that mean? Like that's so vague and ambiguous. Like, okay. Be honest. Well, tell people what to do. Oh, but don't. But don't be mean. But don't. Oh, be nice, but not too nice. Oh, but it's like I don't. How do I see that happening in real life? And so I think that this book makes it easier. It breaks it down into steps that are simple enough that people are like, I think I could achieve this, and I hope that if more people think they can achieve it, more people will actually want to do it. And that's really my goal, because I think right now, if we look at like so many of the problems in the world, I see it through leadership. I'm like, we don't have enough people who are like selflessly leading. And I think that's the issue.

Jasmine Star 00:38:02  Okay.

Jasmine Star 00:38:02  So as far as like your press and like your swag gifting your girl, I'll leave you my address because I want to talk about it on social media. I will be one of your first readers. Do you are you doing a pod? Am I literally pitching myself to Layla right now? I am, I will be one of your first readers. gave me a good read. The red pen. I'm an avid reader. They're legit. I love them. So one of the things that you put out on social was how you were really proud, because Alex had read it, and then you learned how to incorporate stories. Yeah. I want to I want to hear a story of Lila working through something coming across a roadblock. You learning a skill set and implementing and then taking a lot of pride in that, because what we, a lot of us hear is like, well, this happened back when, but like, this just happened. You're in the process of writing this book. So talk to me about the stories.

Jasmine Star 00:38:43  What happened? Like the insight?

Leila Hormozi 00:38:45  Yeah. Oh, well, at first, you know, it's like I asked Alex, you know, because he's been helping me. How do I structure the book? How do we think about this? What would you write first? How do you sequence these things? Right. Because he's he's so good at it. So he's like, start with the stories, you know, because I want my book to be mostly stories with like the end of each chapter has the very concrete. That's how it goes. But I think people learn through stories. And so I'm like, well, I, I have the how to part down. I know all the steps and I can explain those very well. But I was like, okay, the stories. And so like I wrote the first round of stories for myself with each story was like maybe a page, a page and a half. And then I was like, okay. And I'm like trying to piece it together with all the other pieces of the book.

Leila Hormozi 00:39:23  And me and Alex are reading it together, and then I read it. I'm like, these are bad. And he was like, you know, each day they get a little better. And I was like, thanks for being sweet. They're not that good. And then I was like, okay.

Jasmine Star 00:39:34  What do you think about it? Like when you say they're bad? Like what? When is it like knowing I.

Leila Hormozi 00:39:39  Well, yes. Knowing I mean, I, I think that the skill gap is like, you can know what good looks like and not know how to do it. I can know what good ice skating looks like. Doesn't mean to kick an ice skate. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? But I can see a bad ice skater. So.

Jasmine Star 00:39:51  So you're looking at your stories, and you know that they're not good.

Leila Hormozi 00:39:54  Yeah. So then I went back to his book, and I started reading his story. He has his two intro stories. I think I always was like, God, I just want more of these in your book.

Leila Hormozi 00:40:01  They're so captivating. And so I read them and I was like, oh, there's like a few things that I noticed. These are the biggest things for me, which is like one. And I learned this from Shai. It's a cold open. It's just like you go straight into.

Jasmine Star 00:40:10  The seat to tell the audience who Shai is.

Leila Hormozi 00:40:12  Oh oh, shy. Shai is our director of brand acquisition, and I told him I was like, I realize I have to go like straight into a scene. It's not like one day I was walking along. It's like, no, she said, you were here in the office, I'm quitting. And then you're like, whoa, what's going on? I'm curious. So I was like, oh, it's a hook. So I realized that second thing I realized is that I didn't use enough descriptive language. So I was very I'm so used to being directed, like getting to the point the reader wants to feel it, smell the room, like, see how it's going.

Leila Hormozi 00:40:39  And then they want to know the internal journey. How was I feeling through the whole thing? So I'm telling the external journey I'm not adding enough description and then I'm not telling the internal journey. So then I was like, hey, I need to add in the internal journey. I need to add stakes, like sometimes I because when I tell stories to people, I always minimize the stakes because I don't want to make people feel bad for me. In stories, you kind of have to let them know how pretty it is and how many stakes there are. So I was like, okay.

Jasmine Star 00:41:07  We want to empathize with the protagonist. Yeah.

Leila Hormozi 00:41:09  Yes. Well, that means I told you.

Jasmine Star 00:41:13  I don't like that it wasn't mine.

Leila Hormozi 00:41:14  So then I. I rewrote one day, I rewrote, like, three of the stories, and I just went ham all day, and I sent them to Alex, and he's like, these are so good. And I was like, oh my God. And I was like, what's so good about them? He's like, they are so much more descriptive, captivating.

Leila Hormozi 00:41:26  I didn't want to stop reading them. And I was like, oh, thank God.

Jasmine Star 00:41:29  So we're rewriting these stories. Were you at home or were you at home?

Leila Hormozi 00:41:32  I just on the couch with my laptop. Yeah. It's nice.

Jasmine Star 00:41:36  And so it's just one day you're like, I am going to focus on making these better.

Leila Hormozi 00:41:39  Yeah. Oh, no. I'm just a lot more than one day. But, like, that was one day that I did that. And then I realized I was like, this is a skill and you're just not that good at it. So you just have to work harder at it. And it's been a super frustrating process because I do so much of my work in a setting where the way I communicate so different, like so to the point, direct, etc. it's like when people see me on camera and they're like, probably still do. And they're like, she's so like robotic. It's like, yeah, well, when I'm communicating to a giant company, it's not like I'm like emoting all the time.

Leila Hormozi 00:42:07  I'm trying to give directions, give clarity. That's all I'm focused on is like, how do I give them clarity? And so I'm not thinking, how do I sound? I'm thinking, how do they get a clear message from what I'm saying so that they can move fast and they know what to do? And with writing, it's the complete opposite. And so it's been, but it's been fun to learn. And I think it's actually been fun to write the stories because there's so many things. I was like, oh God, about that. Or like, oh yeah, that happened. That was terrible. I'm like, I have so many stories, so many things that have happened that it's like that are crazy, you know? And I write them down. I'm like, man, that's cool. And I'm glad that I'm doing it now because I'm like, I'm gonna forget these at some point.

Jasmine Star 00:42:42  Right? Okay. So you said that it's been great to have Alex speak in to the writing journey because he's experienced with it.

Jasmine Star 00:42:48  Talk to me about going alongside your husband and co-founder to do this massive book launch. What do you think, feel, do? What do you like continuing on for your book launch? What do you want to do with book launch? Do you want it to be the same, different? Like I want an insight into how are you seeing marketing of the book because he spent so long thinking about just the marketing of the book itself?

Leila Hormozi 00:43:09  Yeah, I haven't thought about it at all. I have so many people on the team that I know will have such great ideas, including him, but it's not. It's, you know, it's just the marketing. It's not my passion. Like, I love leadership, that's all. Like, I.

Jasmine Star 00:43:24  Want to launch it the same way. Like, are you gonna do, like.

Leila Hormozi 00:43:26  Okay, I have one of two things. Either I will launch it and it will I, I would like to make a course with it that is very practical. Like if you're a business owner, you can go through this course and like, the course will like, almost like certify you in leadership.

Leila Hormozi 00:43:38  Not paid just like a free course like I, I want to do that. That sounds like it'll pair well with the book. And so I might just launch it and say, like this is the course I'm going to have. I put it together. It has a workbook, worksheets, all that kind of stuff. I can all get it for free. I'm not going to charge for information. That's one way. And how I would market it and stuff. I'm sure the team and I would figure that out the other way is, you know, we have different business units that we're expanding in acquisition comm. And there's one that's, you know, possibly aligned with the book. So I would possibly use the book to, you know, publicize the expansion. But that's if it all lines up with timing, which is tough. Okay.

Jasmine Star 00:44:15  Okay. And so the person ends the book. They finish reading the book. Yeah. What do you want them to think, know or do at the end of it.

Jasmine Star 00:44:23  Like. And then you will say, I have done what I had set out to do.

Leila Hormozi 00:44:26  I want them to be able. Well, I would say this, it speaks to different levels of people. So I would say there's really like three types of people, which is like people who've never led themselves now know how to be a good teammate and lead themselves better in life. Because the way I write the book, it's not even just with business. It's just in general. It could be family, friends, church, whatever. The second outcome is that somebody who has a small team now knows how to lead, not just a small team well, but they are confident they can lead a big team well.

Jasmine Star 00:44:57  And when you say small team, how do you classify small people? People. Okay.

Leila Hormozi 00:45:01  Couple like a handful. And I would say like beyond that somebody can run a big team feels confident that they are not just good at running a big team. They can develop leaders to lead teams for them.

Leila Hormozi 00:45:14  So it's really like a cycle of learning how to lead yourself, learning how to lead others, learning how to lead leaders and then learning how to create leaders. And then beyond that is learning how to create leaders who create a culture that creates leaders. So it's very you just keep getting one step back. So there's a lot to be. It's I've built it. So it's like any spot you're in it will benefit you.

Jasmine Star 00:45:38  It's good.

Leila Hormozi 00:45:38  That's that's my hope.

Jasmine Star 00:45:39  So I'm excited to read it.

Leila Hormozi 00:45:40  And I would say that we just have more people that build companies that leave people better off, not worse than when they came in. It's like, I you have no idea how many people's like, employees come to me. Employees in general that come to me and they're like, I wish I had a boss like you. And I'm like, what's going on with your boss? And they're like, this is what they said to me yesterday. It's like, you have so much power to make people's lives better.

Leila Hormozi 00:46:03  And yet we live in this age where I feel like leadership has It was cool like ten years ago, and I don't see a lot of new books about it anymore. Instead, it's like, how do you make money? How do you build influence? Me me me me me I, I what was cool for me and building a business was like, how do how do I help others win? Like, I don't need the credit. I want to help other people win and I, I just, I there's no way that the world wouldn't be better if more people felt that way, but it feels so hard to do because there's no clear instruction. So if we just have more people thinking leadership's cool, maybe somebody clicks on it on YouTube. Maybe that's the outcome I want.

Jasmine Star 00:46:40  So when Alex wrote the book, it was like, it's a series. And he always had this vision that like, it would culminate in like a $100 million launch. And then, you know, it came to fruition when you set out, I want more people to care.

Jasmine Star 00:46:54  I want more leaders. And we can potentially be changing families. And then families change neighborhoods and neighborhoods in cities and cities and states and states change a nation. Like, if that's what I hear, then how are you planning on getting it out there? Like, what is. What is like. I want to know now. What? What do you want to do? Like he wanted to do X. What do you want to do with it?

Leila Hormozi 00:47:11  I haven't focused on it yet. I'm just being honest. Like I've only focused on writing the book because.

Jasmine Star 00:47:15  I think it'll be out.

Leila Hormozi 00:47:16  Q1 of 2027. Oh.

Jasmine Star 00:47:19  Okay. Good.

Leila Hormozi 00:47:22  So a year from now, less than a year from.

Jasmine Star 00:47:23  Now, are going to self-publish.

Leila Hormozi 00:47:25  Most likely. I don't like any of the publishing deals that have. What are they going to do?

Jasmine Star 00:47:31  They're going to depend on you. They're going to ask you to do what you would do anyway, but then they're going to want to stay in it because they print it.

Jasmine Star 00:47:36  And yes, yes we.

Leila Hormozi 00:47:38  Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So, so yeah I'm not worried about the marketing plan. Like we'll figure that out even with the book launch stuff like you know, it looks like the thinking it through and the thinking of like how we want it to all come together in this very like perfect combination is was the hard part. The execution was not that hard. And the reason I was the hardest because like Alex had this plan of how he wanted all these different elements to tie together, which is what made it like a very complicated thing to do. And so, you know, we were talking about like for my book, we don't have any of that really. We haven't set out to do this like it's a one piece thing. There's not all these other promises that he made in the other books or things he foreshadowed or like he had this whole system. Right. I don't have that. So. Yeah. I don't know. I also probably just don't want to.

Leila Hormozi 00:48:23  It's not somewhere I spend a lot of time thinking about. I feel like, or we have so many people on the team that are so good. I'll be I'll go to them. Like, what do you think I should do?

Jasmine Star 00:48:30  I'm excited. I'm just excited to see how it gets out into the world. Okay, so I have about ten minutes with you, and I think it'd be remiss. So I'd put it out on social media, and I had sent a newsletter, and I will say, girl, your name is like clickbait. Like, you put your name somewhere and everyone's like, oh, I want to know, I want to know. So I would be remiss if I didn't ask questions. Yeah. So do ten minutes. Flash fire questions of what you're most known for. I came in, be like. Like Layla, Layla, the human being today who's, like, literally so different. Like, I hear it and I feel it, and I'm millions of miles removed from you.

Jasmine Star 00:49:02  And so I just love this version of you. So I just want more of that. So we'll get into questions because if I ask in people delivered then I'm going to speak on the house okay. So we're going to do Layla's Greatest Hits Flash Fire Edition number one. How do you build a culture where employees can still tell you things you don't want to hear?

Leila Hormozi 00:49:19  Reward them when they tell you things that you don't want to hear.

Jasmine Star 00:49:23  Give me an example.

Leila Hormozi 00:49:24  So if somebody comes to you and they say, hey, I wanted to tell you that I got another job offer and I'm actually considering it. First reaction from a lot of people is like, well, you can take it. You know, something like, I'm going to get back to you. I'm gonna make you feel bad versus like, thanks for telling me. Like, can you tell me what would incentivize you to take that offer versus stay here? Like, can you walk me through the decision? Tell me what? Is there something you're not satisfied with here? And thanks for telling me.

Leila Hormozi 00:49:47  Like, I really appreciate that you feel comfortable enough with me to even bring that to me. Like, so good. It's like we punish people so often for bringing us stuff because we don't want to hear it, because we want to pretend it does not exist. It exists. That stuff happens all the time. So it's like, thank them for giving you the bad news because it means that they've now brought to you early enough that you can do something about it. So anytime someone brings anything out to me, the first thing you'll hear out of my mouth is, thank you so much for telling me the easiest thing in the world.

Jasmine Star 00:50:14  Okay, how do I know if I have a bad boss?

Leila Hormozi 00:50:16  I would say that the measurement of a boss is the team. So if there's a bad team, probably a bad boss. Unless that boss didn't build the team and they just came in and the team is now degrading. But if you look at like, how do I measure leaders in my team, I look at the teams below them and I say, how great are these teams? Do they have a great culture? Do they help each other? They uphold our values.

Leila Hormozi 00:50:41  Do they get results? If those things don't exist, then that's not a good leader. If somebody is creating all those things, then they're a great leader. The question is how do you measure Great Leader if you only measure them by results, but now, not by how they get the results, then you could say that a lot of people that would probably be considered bad leaders or good leaders, because a lot of people can get results. They do a lot of stuff to get those results. They don't treat people well. They don't uphold the values they shortcut, undercutting people like there's a lot of that behavior. So it's like it's not just about the output, it's about the inputs to get the result. And I think you have to measure them on both. But if they can, if they have both of those things, then by all means I would say that they're a good leader.

Jasmine Star 00:51:19  Ooh, that's so good. Okay. How do I know if I have a good boss? Would you just take the inverse of it? Yeah.

Jasmine Star 00:51:23  Okay. What should I do if I'm smarter than my boss?

Leila Hormozi 00:51:28  Well, that's a tough one, because I would say one. You have to have a level of awareness to know, are you actually smarter than them, or do you just think you are because a lot of people are there? I mean, I can't tell you how many times someone comes to me like they tell me something, they're like, well, this over here is what's happening. And I think maybe we should do this. And I'm like, yes, if I only had your perspective, I would think that too. The issue is that sometimes you don't have the same perspective as your boss. They have a wider perspective than you. So it's not about who's smarter. It's a question of do they have more perspective that you don't? Do they have information you don't have? Is that possible? And so I've seen people who think they're smarter than the boss, but once they have the same information as their boss, they come to the same conclusion.

Leila Hormozi 00:52:09  And oftentimes people who think that they're smarter than their boss, I'd say one of two camps, which is like a lot of times when people are smarter than their boss, they do something about it. And the other time is they are actually not smarter and they're just arrogant. And it's a matter of like asking yourself, do they have more perspective than me? And if they do, then maybe I should try and learn.

Jasmine Star 00:52:30  Okay, but walk me off to this like this was. Now this is off the script real quick. Yeah. I try to hire people who are smarter than me. Yeah. So like I openly say like, yes, you are smarter than me. Like this is an issue.

Leila Hormozi 00:52:41  Well, okay. Do you mean smarter than you like IQ? Like they are smarter person than you?

Jasmine Star 00:52:45  I don't know.

Leila Hormozi 00:52:46  If I was smarter.

Jasmine Star 00:52:47  But I'm like, what do.

Leila Hormozi 00:52:47  You.

Jasmine Star 00:52:47  Mean.

Leila Hormozi 00:52:48  Like, smarter in their area of expertise?

Jasmine Star 00:52:51  Oh that's skill. Very. That's a very good.

Leila Hormozi 00:52:53  I took it as they think that they are smarter. Like they have a higher IQ. They could outwork or outwit their boss.

Jasmine Star 00:53:01  Okay. I took it the same way. But then all of a sudden I hear you talk and I was like, oh, snap, like I hired. You're smarter than me all the time. Right? Right, right.

Leila Hormozi 00:53:08  Yeah. Well, and.

Jasmine Star 00:53:08  That's why I say it's like.

Leila Hormozi 00:53:09  It's about perspective, which is like, if you were smarter than your boss, then you also might be thinking, do I lack perspective that they have? And so there's just some things that are wrong with the question of mine.

Jasmine Star 00:53:20  Okay. Well, it was nuanced and thank you. I think we kind of did the 360. Should I quit a job with a bad boss or how would I deal with it?

Leila Hormozi 00:53:27  I mean, I think you have to ask yourself the question, which is like, do I respect myself if I remain in this job? And if you don't respect yourself in the place that you're working in, like every day, you kind of like chip away at your self-respect because you have to work for that person.

Leila Hormozi 00:53:41  There's nothing, no pay that's worth subjecting yourself to that. If you feel like you become a worse person and you feel worse about yourself working for them. So I would say that is how I think through most decisions. If I should, like, stay or leave something.

Jasmine Star 00:53:57  Okay, so you kind of mentioned this. Like, I think it was in one of your stories. Should you ever. Or have you ever been yelled at as a boss?

Leila Hormozi 00:54:03  Oh, have I been yelled at?

Jasmine Star 00:54:04  Yeah.

Leila Hormozi 00:54:04  By like an employee.

Jasmine Star 00:54:06  Or then this person said, should you should you ever yell at your boss? And then part two would be have you ever been yelled at?

Leila Hormozi 00:54:12  I don't think you should yell at people in general.

Jasmine Star 00:54:14  Yeah, right.

Leila Hormozi 00:54:15  Like like I can't even think of a time I've ever yelled at Alex. Maybe. Like, maybe in the very beginning, like our first fight or something. I raised my voice, but, like, I'm not like a yelling person, so it's interesting.

Leila Hormozi 00:54:26  I do not think you should yell at your boss, and I don't think your boss should yell at you. Have I ever been yelled at? Yes. In my first few jobs, you know, I worked at subway. I worked at, like, this crappy water park. I worked at a restaurant where the guy screamed at me because I broke a plate. Like, I mean, 100%. I worked in this culinary kitchen where I remember I made all these cookies, and basically she screamed at me because I made them wrong, even though her recipe sucked. Like, there have been so many instances where I was yelled at, and that was part of what inspired me to even write the book is like, I've had terrible bosses and it made my life so. And it was so unnecessary. It's like they. If they had just been a little nice, I would have had such a better life. But it's like I dreaded eight hours a day.

Jasmine Star 00:55:05  So you should write the dedication of your book to all your bad bosses.

Jasmine Star 00:55:08  No, I'm just kidding. Oh, what should I do if I work for a narcissist?

Leila Hormozi 00:55:13  I hate that word. What does that even mean?

Jasmine Star 00:55:15  Oh, yeah.

Leila Hormozi 00:55:16  How many people throw that word around.

Jasmine Star 00:55:17  All the time?

Leila Hormozi 00:55:18  Like it's a narcissist? I'm like, okay, it's not about if I work for a narcissist. It's do I lose respect for myself in this job? It's about you. It's not about the person. So like, you either leave the situation or you stay in the situation. Which one will I would say like in which scenario do you have more respect and confidence? That's that's the only frame I use. I do not label people because we do not know. And we all have different. We have different interpretations of labels. So it's like, you know.

Jasmine Star 00:55:50  So good, so good. Okay. And what do you do when your coworker is incompetent but everybody loves them? Oh, a good personality hire.

Leila Hormozi 00:55:59  Yeah. It's funny. My first version of the book I had like, just lessons and it was like, likeness finds you from incompetence.

Leila Hormozi 00:56:06  People that are very likable usually get by by being likable, not by being competent. But you're. So it's thinking about human attention, right? You see how charming and likable they are and you're just paying attention to that. It's a positive thing. We like positive stuff. We want more of it. But then you don't notice that they're kind of not even that good at their job. It's very common. I try really hard when I'm hiring to be like, see past this because I actually I hired somebody like 2016 actually to be like our director of media before we knew that was it was more marketing and that person was so likable and so incompetent. But I didn't see the incompetence because I was blinded by the likeness. Like I just liked them so much. I was like, somebody I wanna hang out with. Be friends was so nice, so cool. And then I was like, oh, so incompetent. It's like you have to be able to narrow your perspective at times.

Jasmine Star 00:56:54  Okay, but let's talk about this practically.

Jasmine Star 00:56:56  I'm interviewing somebody and I just I'm vibing, I like that. What are you actively saying to yourself to separate. Like, do I like them or can I see them for how competent they are?

Leila Hormozi 00:57:04  I think even when you like somebody, you have to have another interview because it's like a lot of times you're just, you know, vibing with somebody. That's when I'm like, I need a second interview to just like ask the questions, the technical ones. And most of the time when I'm interviewing, especially like sea level, I have like a scorecard for them. It's like, okay, here's the must haves, here's the weight of each of those things. Where do I score them? That helps me a lot, because then it's like I'm not using my bias to make the decision. At the end of the day, I like competent people more than anything. That's right. Like truthfully though. So that's super helpful.

Jasmine Star 00:57:35  Okay, last three questions are going to be about you and Alex. What is your favorite thing about Alex and would you change anything about him?

Leila Hormozi 00:57:43  My favorite thing about Alex, there's a lot of things.

Jasmine Star 00:57:47  Well you can share them all.

Leila Hormozi 00:57:49  Yeah. I'm like, it's hard to pick. Like one thing like, I. I really love, like, his quirkiness. Like, it's probably less on social media, but like, he's just so forgetful of, like, things sometimes it's funny. Like our first year dating like. And I don't take offense to this. Like he forgot my birthday. He'll forget his birthday. He'll forget his socks. One day he almost walked out of our house. He just forgot that he wasn't dressed. Like, it's so funny because he's just. So I'm like, I'm never gonna label it Add or ADHD or whatever, but I'm like, sometimes I'm like, oh, homeboy, where's your shirt? Or like, did you like he just forgets, right? Well go somewhere. He's like, oh. Forgot all my clothes for the trip. I'll forgot this. Like it's just it's funny. And he also doesn't care. Like he's just. Oh don't care. Like it is what it is, which I love.

Leila Hormozi 00:58:32  He just let stuff roll off. So that's probably my favorite thing about him.

Jasmine Star 00:58:35  And would you change anything about him?

Leila Hormozi 00:58:37  No. The only thing that I.

Multiple Speakers 00:58:39  Told him I would change his.

Leila Hormozi 00:58:40  Shower more. And he does now. So.

Jasmine Star 00:58:44  Okay. Okay, okay. What do you think Alex's favorite thing is about you? And what would he change about you?

Multiple Speakers 00:58:50  Favorite thing about me?

Leila Hormozi 00:58:52  I would say his favorite thing about me is probably that I don't judge him for anything. So I don't judge him. I don't judge him. I have never tried to change him or even suggested a change. I barely express my preferences. I don't even tell him what I like with his like anything, because I just want him to be like completely himself. I want him to feel like free, because I think the only way to keep a relationship long term is they should feel just like they have total freedom in the relationship. I would say that's probably his favorite thing. I would say if he could change something about me, he'd probably be like, she could like give a few lists.

Leila Hormozi 00:59:21  That'd be nice because it's like he gives very little. I give a lot of and we, you know.

Jasmine Star 00:59:28  So lastly, you talked about your IVF journey. What is one of the things you look forward to raising a child with Alex?

Leila Hormozi 00:59:38  Everything. I think I mean, honestly, I think more of the reason of me wanting to have a kid is because I want one with him. It's not about like just wanting kid in general. It's like I would like a child with him. the experience of doing that together, it's like something like especially. It's just sounds weird. But like in the business. The business. Is so big now we don't even work on like, all the same projects anymore. And it's like, I love working together as a team and I think that we would do it really well. And I think that, you know, just the thought of like taking a little kid to the park, you know, having a holiday together, taking up with my family. Sounds like that all sounds like awesome.

Leila Hormozi 01:00:14  So I would say all of it.

Jasmine Star 01:00:17  Team Hermosa I love it. Thank you so much. You came in and you said you can ask me anything and I felt complete ease to do that. Thank you for letting people in and seeing all of it, and adding more color to stories we might have heard before, but from an entirely different perspective. I can't wait for your book to drop. I can't wait for more people to see you. I can't wait to become a better leader. Selfishly. Thank you so much for doing this, I appreciate it. You have been like a 12 out of ten. You're incredible. Thank you, thank you.

Leila Hormozi 01:00:42  That was really sweet of you.

Jasmine Star 01:00:43  It was awesome. I want to say thank you, you, for watching and listening to the Jasmine Star Show.