How to Turn Stress into Excitement | Spotify Video Exclusive

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How to Turn Stress into Excitement"

Podcast: Build with Leila Hormozi
Host: Leila Hormozi
Date: May 24, 2024
Episode Theme: Turning stress into excitement while scaling a massive business. Leila shares how she approaches stress, decision-making, leadership development, and personal growth as she leads acquisition.com towards a billion-dollar portfolio.

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Build with Leila Hormozi" dives into how Leila manages the constant demands and stresses of rapid business growth. She explores how to reframe stress as excitement, wear multiple hats as a CEO, and build an autonomous, results-driven team. Throughout her day, Leila juggles leadership meetings, team interactions, business decisions, personal commitments, and content creation, showcasing her adaptable approach and offering deep insights for entrepreneurs aiming to build lasting, unshakeable companies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reframing Stress as Excitement

• Leila opens the episode describing a hectic week, immediately reframing the feeling of stress:

  “It's exciting. That's what it is. This isn't stress. This is excitement you feel as the CEO of acquisition.com.” (00:04)

• Her perspective is that busy periods are opportunities for excitement and growth, not just pressure.

2. Wearing Multiple Hats as a CEO

• Leila provides a window into her day — handling everything from office renovations to leadership meetings.
• She shares practical frameworks for handling competing priorities:

  “Which one of these, if not done now, suffers by me letting it wait, and how hard is it to reverse or not reverse?” (02:13)

• Big decisions, like office renovations, require personal oversight due to the irreversibility and dollar impact:

  “It's a lot of very hard to reverse decisions.” (02:29)

3. Decision-Making & Leadership Styles

• Leila discusses adapting her leadership style to ‘the season’ her business is in. She emphasizes the importance of context and flexibility, paralleling her approach to both leadership and personal development.
• On involving teams in decisions, she notes the balance:

  “If I didn't ask people for their opinions, they would not volunteer them to me because they'll do what you train them to do.” (04:04)

• The key is to synthesize team input and make the right call for the business (not merely consensus):

  “I'm not here to please everybody. I'm here to make the best decision for the business.” (05:01)

• She shares how she provides context to align dissenting team members:

  “I see why you would think that... Here’s what I’m working with...” (05:20)

• Final responsibility sits with the CEO:

  “At the end of the day, is to be the decision maker because I have more context than literally anybody on the team.” (05:47)

4. Building an Autonomous Team

• Leila attributes her team's autonomy to intentional interview and onboarding processes:

  “You train people to [be autonomous] by the way you introduce them to the company.” (07:41)

• Her interview method is more like a conversation than an interrogation:

  “If I want somebody who is a leader... I’m going to talk to them like a partner. I’m not going to talk to them like somebody who’s my minion.” (08:10)

• Empowerment is fostered from the start, encouraging people to think for themselves.

5. Managing Context Switching & Personal Energy

• Leila acknowledges the mental toll of constantly switching roles:

  “There’s absolutely a cost to switching hats constantly... the ability to strategically think is much lower when you’re constantly switching through multiple things.” (07:05)

• She strives to be present and committed, even when processes or interviews feel like an interruption.

6. Life Outside Work & Maintaining Perspective

• A lighter segment follows, with Leila helping a friend, Zoe, apartment-hunting in Vegas. Even here, she observes that venting about stress isn’t productive:

  “If you’re complaining to somebody about the stresses, I actually feel it amplifies the stress and I don’t really feel like it adds value to them.” (10:12)

• She prefers focusing on positive actions rather than complaints.

7. Content Creation & Authenticity

• Leila leans into her authentic self, both in content creation and leadership:

  “I’ve gotten to a place where I’m going to be judged either way, but I’d rather be judged for who I actually am than somebody that's fake.” (12:56)

• She confides that the more she is herself, the better her content and connections perform:

  “The more that I am myself in front of people, the more it does better anyways.” (14:08)

• On routines, she shares her days are unpredictable, and she prefers to remain flexible:

  “What I love about what I do is that it changes every day... If I approach it with, how can I be flexible and still get everything done? I feel much more relieved at the end of the day.” (13:41)

8. Continuous Growth & Identity

• Leila rejects rigid self-identity, embracing adaptability:

  “Identity is fluid. I don’t try to identify as good at this, not good at that. I’ll be whatever I need to be in that moment to get the job done.” (14:48)

• She prioritizes personal evolution:

  “I will not be the bottleneck of this business. It will not be me. I won’t be the reason it doesn’t succeed.” (14:38)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On stress vs. excitement:
  “It's exciting. That's what it is. This isn't stress. This is excitement you feel as the CEO...” (00:04)
• On handling decisions:
  “I'm not here to please everybody. I'm here to make the best decision for the business.” (05:01)
• On leadership and team opinions:
  “If I didn't ask people for their opinions, they would not volunteer them to me because they'll do what you train them to do.” (04:04)
• On authenticity:
  “I’d rather be judged for who I actually am than somebody that's fake.” (12:56)
• On personal growth:
  “I will not be the bottleneck of this business.” (14:38)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–02:45: Setting the scene – busy CEO life, office renovations, managing priorities
• 04:00–06:00: Team decision-making, leadership, and communication cadences
• 07:05–09:00: Switching hats, building a results-driven team, authentic leadership
• 09:43–11:00: Supporting a friend, managing personal and work life stress
• 12:43–14:20: Content creation authenticity, embracing flexibility in daily routines
• 14:20–End: Leadership growth, adaptability, and closing reflections

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Conclusion

Leila’s approach to business stresses is all about perspective, adaptability, and intentional leadership. She urges entrepreneurs to be relentless in personal growth, pragmatic in decision-making, and to foster autonomy within their teams. Her transparent, conversational style makes high-performance leadership seem both achievable and deeply human. For anyone leading a growing company — or striving to — this episode provides both actionable strategies and encouragement to turn every busy, stressful week into one of excitement and progress.

Transcript

[A]

It has been busy this week for sure on so many fronts. It's exciting. That's what it is. This isn't stress. This is excitement you feel as the CEO of acquisition.com I have to wear a lot of hats. And so in this episode, what you're going to see is me just doing whatever I need to do to get the job done. You know, Let me see what Alex is doing. Hi. We were just talking about like, what we want to change on the portfolio side for next quarter. So just spitballing. Did you talk to PC about. Because they have to figure out quickly if they're gonna use or. Okay, what did he say about it? Seasons change quickly in business. And so what I've realized is that my team needs me to show up differently in each season. I really have learned to quickly contextualize what kind of leader I need to be based on what's going on in the business. I'm gonna wait until he says something just cause like, what's about to happen when we get this building on Friday. Stoked that we have this new office, but I had no idea how many new responsibilities would come through. Having an office. It's like, cool us all being here, but like, it's very hard for me to be in a place that is aesthetically displeasing. I want all the carpet out, orange pieces, nasty carpet. Like, it's like, it kills me every day to see it. But it's fine when there's competing priorities. I'm constantly asking myself, which one of these, if not done now, sitting, suffers by me letting it wait and how hard is it to reverse or not reverse? Those are probably the two frames that I go through thinking when managing multiple responsibilities. Because it's like, okay, well, what takes priority? I probably didn't realize with a building where you have hundreds of thousands, if not buildings can be millions of dollars of renovations, it's a lot of very hard to reverse decisions. All the renovations right now because they aren't giving us like an estimate ahead of time. I have to run through all the budgeting stuff. These are the things that I wish didn't take my, my mental space right now. But it's kind of one of those things where it's like, it's not like a business where you have like ongoing things. It's like this is a one time project, so it doesn't make sense to like delegate the budget. So I've always tried really hard to remain fluid. Like I will be whatever is needed to ensure that we succeed and hit the goal. Hello, Mr. Rodman. How's your day going? Are we being filmed? You know, I brushed my teeth for this meeting and everything. Yeah, it is a vlog day, but I feel like. I don't know, I just blur it out. Not. No offense to you, Jason, but I pretend it's not happening. What up, Jason? What's up, man? Hey. Hey. Your office with the big old curtain. Oh, my God, I need this curtain fixed. It's so ugly. That's why my background's blurred. Half the curtain fell off, and then obviously it's not gonna get fixed for a while. So it's just jank as it's a huge curtain. It's a very large curtain, to be fair. I don't know who picked these, but, like, you could have just picked not an atrocious collar like this. And then we should make this spaceship on the wall. That would be cool. Something I was reflecting on in the last, probably, like, two weeks, ever since we had the quarterly, was how do we continue to get more efficient and, like, what are the things that are holding us back in terms of, like, habits as a company and behaviors and things? And, you know, I think something I still struggle with today is to what degree do I want to ask everyone's opinions on everything? It's important to gather feedback from everybody. A couple reasons why people don't ask their for their opinions is because, one, a lot of people, when they're hiring, especially when they're inexperienced, I think often they hire more doers than leaders, and they hire people that can do rather than think. I think in a lot of cases, it's just not appropriate to ask your team for their opinion on everything because they might not even have a framework at which to run decisions or situations through on the other side. It's like you have a team that are thinkers, and you hired them. Then it's like, well, you think that you hire people for their ideas, their brain, their ways of thinking, their experience. The only way that you get to utilize those things is if you pull it out of them. I think that a lot of people expect it to get pushed to them, but I think that you have to pull before it gets pushed. If I didn't ask people for their opinions, they would not volunteer them to me because they'll do what you train them to do. And so because I have trained people that I like their opinion, they now give it to me proactively. When it's something that I think they all have relative experience around is I like to ask everyone their opinion on something and then I take all of that and then I look through like, what are the commonalities amongst all of their feedback or opinions? And then I'm like, cool. And then what? What resonates with me given the context I have? And so usually the best ideas I come up with are ones that take little pieces of things that people have said and integrate them in. I think that where it goes wrong is when people are like, oh, gosh, everyone has a different opinion. I need to somehow integrate all of their stuff into my solution. It's like, no, I'm not here to please everybody. I'm here to make the best decision for the business. I think when somebody has an opinion that differs from the direction I decide to take the business, I try to just give them the same context I have. I see why you would think that that's fair. Here's what I'm working with in terms of my information, and then I share that with them. And then more often than not, they say, oh, gosh, you know, I didn't know all of that. And so given the context that you have that you just gave me, I agree with you. And honestly, like, nine times out of 10, that's how it goes. There are going to be times where it's like, not everybody's going to agree and you have to move forward anyway. A hallmark of a great leader is that they can get on board with something they disagree with without acting adversarial. I know that my job at the end of the day is to be the decision maker because I have more context than literally anybody on the team. I know what has happened in the past. I know where I want to go in the future. That was one of the thoughts I had is like, maybe it's just that I need to put together the different types of meetings, the structure for each type of meeting. We use those as templates. And then we train everybody on the team on how to run these. Take a step back and relook at like, just our overall communication cadences and look at, like, how do we up level them? In the leadership meeting, you'll see that I asked my team for their different opinions based on their different experiences about our communication cadence. Because I want to know from them, you know, is there something that you've done in the past that might work better than this? Maybe what would be the most productive is I can just put together some thoughts I have on paper and then I'll put it in asana for everyone to review and add in your thoughts, ideas, Because I think you all have had different experiences with how you organize the meetings and how you, how you run them and even just the culture. I'm not trying to go 360, I'm not even trying to go 180, but like maybe just like 60 degrees. And that is all I have. Nice. Yeah, I'm pumped for that. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks. Bye, guys. So now that I finished my leadership call and the rest of my meetings, I'm going to transition into a podcast.

[B]

It is so nice to meet you.

[A]

That's great to meet you too.

[B]

I just want to dive in if that's okay with you. Because I don't want to. I don't want to take up too much of your time.

[A]

I think there's absolutely a cost to switching hats constantly, which is the ability to strategically think is much lower when you're constantly switching through multiple things.

[B]

Now, you cannot manage a billion dollar portfolio without a great team. And I know that's something that you really pride yourself on. I've heard you talk about this so much. Like you clearly have assembled a group of people, you who are incredibly committed. I would love to know, what do you do differently that other people don't do when they're hiring?

[A]

I think what most people want when they see how I work with my team, is they want autonomous people, people who can make decisions, they can take action. They don't need to be told exactly what to do. And I don't think that what people understand is that you train people to do that. By the way, that you even introduce them to the company. I would ask them questions rather than me being the one drilling them the entire time. I would probably conduct the interview differently. You know, people like, what are your favorite interview questions? And I actually regret that I've given them to people because I'm like, my interviews are not like that. Like, it is a. It's a truly a conversation. It's not me interrogating somebody. If I want somebody who is how I view a leader in my company, which is a partner in growing the company with me, then I'm going to talk to them like a partner. I'm not going to talk to them like somebody who's my minion. And I think that it's being approached from a much more collaborative standpoint rather than condemning standpoint. I don't think there's like a skill you develop to switch from being a CEO to a content creator. I think how I show up to my team and how professional I am is how I show up to content. So I don't think that I've mastered it. I would say that what's helped me is just trying to be myself in all areas.

[B]

We love it.

[A]

I appreciate it and thanks again. After the podcast, I had a couple hours that I helped my friend Zoe view some of the units she was looking at moving to in Vegas. So I met my friend Zoe through my friend Ryan. When we said, like, come out to Mexico, meet us in Mexico, we're gonna go on a vacation. When we sold the business and he brought Zoe, is he liking his big office? He literally goes there the moment he wakes up, and then he stays there as long as possible. No, we're just. We're just doing all the. Like, the gym is coming along and then they're gonna start on the next floor and we'll see. I can't wait for the gym. I know. Oh, wow. This is a really nice unit. There's one thing I gotta ask, which is, does it smell weird? The only thing I'll say is that now that we've discovered the. Ooh, what's that smell? Marijuana. Oh, Jesus. Oh. Actually, they furnished this one.

[C]

Oh, wow.

[A]

Oh, no. I mean, if I got it, I would just. I would have to redo the, like. What is this art right here? It's ugly. It's just a girl's ass. Interesting. You know what I mean?

[B]

That's horrible.

[A]

And. Yeah, that's horrible. I know. I'm just like. The art is just. It's not a vibe. So. And the little lantern. So if I. If you did get this, you know, I'd be like, you gotta redo some, you know? Yeah. Even when I am having a rough day, I don't want to be the friend that just complains to another friend. And so I try really hard to catch myself complaining to somebody. If you're complaining to somebody about the stresses, I actually feel it amplifies the stress and I don't really feel like it adds value to them. So I thought this would be the next best one to see because this one's going to be higher. Smells nice. This is actually a great view. Oh, it comes furnished. That's really nice. I've seen all the units here. Yeah, this is the perfect runaway. It's really nice and concentrated. Yeah, I know. I wish that was like a little bit of an L shaped couch, but what can you do? What are you thinking? Dang, I like it. Now I'm hungry. Yeah, I have to. I'm debating if I should go with you guys to the Next one. So after that, I headed back to the office to review a few things with Alex before going to get my makeup done for my second podcast of the day. One of the units that Zoe saw, I think was really nice. There's a one bedroom. We just need time for you, me and Rocky to talk about this stuff. I mean, I balked Monday. I just, like, don't want to wait when new stuff's happening in the company. Most of the time I'm just want to focus on that. I want to talk about it because I'm excited. And then, you know, I have to go to a different podcast instead, which is great. But I've definitely noticed that sometimes I'll schedule things far out, and then when it comes to that day, there's so much happening in the business, I feel frustrated because I don't want to go into a podcast. I just want to work on the business. I have this podcast and then, I mean, he has really good questions. He does a lot of. Have you already gone on his thing? I'm going on like 40 minutes. But I also don't want you to cancel on somebody. And so I like to stick with my commitments and do it anyways. I like the eye a lot. I know. You know, what I did differently is like, I went back in with the concealer to really give it that bright white. It looks really good. I like that it's like whiter on the inside and then it goes darker. Yes, that looks really good. Okay. Yay. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. So after getting my makeup done, I headed over to the studio to do the next interview. I think that for most first time founders, it is incredibly beneficial for your own learning to have enough knowledge in each department that you understand how to best coach somebody on being the best leader for it. If you have the resources to hire early, I think doing a role for a short amount of time makes sense. And then outsourcing it to somebody else and bringing that person in so that you know what good looks like running a business is. Hi, nice to meet you.

[C]

Nice to meet you. My sister. And everyone's through here, but we're set up, ready to go, whatever you are.

[A]

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's find. Hello. Hi.

[C]

So, yeah, we're ready when you are, when you are.

[A]

I worried so much about, like, are people that are watching my content gonna judge me worried, like, is this interview? Or gonna think I'm. So at least now I feel like I've gotten to a place where I'm gonna be Judged either way. But I'd rather be judging who I actually am than somebody that's fake that shows up in front of a camera or to my team.

[C]

The thing I usually sort of ask people is, like, what does a daily routine look like for you and you're CEO of a huge company? Like, what does it look like?

[A]

You know, what's funny is my days never look the same. Some weeks I'm talking to every CEO of every portfolio company, and they all have burning and they need to talk and they need to have conversations. Some weeks I'm doing an event and three podcasts, and I'm doing a ton of content, and so it's filming almost every day. And then some weeks I'm just focused on the strategy and building our business and. And our holdco and maybe hiring and onboarding. You know, this week, that's the big focus. I think that's actually what I love about what I do is that it changes every day. And so I don't try to be rigid in terms of, like, what do I do in the morning and at night and at this time? And this time I try to just say, like, I look at my calendar and say, like, where can I fit this in? And that is what works for me. If I approach it with how can I be flexible and still get everything done? I feel much more relieved at the end of the day.

[C]

Thank you so much today. That's fantastic.

[A]

I think it's BS when people say, like, I don't care what people think of me. I'm like, humans are wired to care what other people think for survival. Like, it's just in us. But the funny thing is, is that the more that I am myself in front of people, the more it does better anyways. You know, people that watch my content like me more, you know, than when I show up as this, like, shell of myself that's trying to not get judged by others.

[C]

I know. You should compare yourself to people.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, massively. I'm like, you've absolutely killed it. And I feel like I could. I could pick you up your brain all day.

[A]

I appreciate it. Wow. Thank you so much for doing. All right, cool. We'll be into it. I think he asked really good questions. He did a lot of research. I think, you know, I've been enjoying the ones more that they ask about more than just business, just because it feels like it's more substantial. I guess I wouldn't have been able to even keep the business growing if I hadn't grown as a person. I think that having a business that grew so quickly, I had to grow quickly. And I think that was like, my mantra is, like, I will not be the bottleneck of this business. It will not be me. I won't be the reason it doesn't succeed. So I was just so hungry to learn and absorb and be coached. I was very amenable to becoming whatever I needed to become to be the best leader for the business. I think what it's taught me is, like, identity is fluid. I don't try to, like, identify as, like, good at this, not good at that. I'll be whatever I need to be in that moment to get the job done. I've, like. I would rather be like a chameleon than, you know, stick with the same thing forever, because then I'm probably going to continue to get the same results forever. I just think most people then say I need to be able to only do this thing because otherwise I'm not good at it. But I said, like, my job is to be able to do all these things. So what I need to get really good at is switching knowing what hat I'm wearing and that I don't have to feel, like, excited to do the next thing. I don't have to feel like making content. I don't have to feel like talking to the CEO, But I can behave in a way that gets me the outcome I want. That's so exciting. It is exciting. The way I approach my days is I have things I do every day. I walk with Alex every day. We try to have a meal together every day. When I do those things, changes based on everything else that's going on.