Build with Leila Hormozi – Ep 316: Throwback: 5 Hiring Mistakes That Kill Growth

Release Date: September 5, 2025
Host: Leila Hormozi

Episode Overview

In this episode, Leila Hormozi dives deeply into the tactical side of hiring—an essential, if unglamorous, aspect of scaling any business. Drawing from personal experience, especially the rapid scaling of Gym Launch and lessons learned at acquisition.com, Leila candidly exposes the five biggest biases and mistakes founders and managers make when hiring. These common errors, if unchecked, can destroy company culture, derail growth, and lead to teams filled with unfit hires. Leila's mission: help you dodge these painful pitfalls so you can build a high-performing, values-driven team that powers sustainable business growth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Hiring Is the Foundation of Culture and Growth

• Leila recounts her own struggles during Gym Launch’s explosive growth—delegating hiring led to a “shit show” of culture collapse.
• Tough lesson: Delegating hiring too soon, or without context, leads to letting in the wrong people.
• Protecting company culture and values begins with the hiring process; “It all starts with the hiring process.” [08:00]
• Comparison to customer churn: fixing culture isn’t about more policies—it's about onboarding the right people from the start.

“If you have a shitty culture, if things aren’t going well … it starts with the hiring process. Doesn’t start with, ‘Oh, I need more of this and this and this.’”
— Leila Hormozi [08:32]

2. Personal Story: The Hard Realities of Delegated Hiring

• Early on, Leila was told to delegate hiring; in trusting others, she watched the culture “crumble quickly” [04:30]
• Ultimately realized being the “potent source” of values and culture meant she couldn’t hand off key hiring decisions prematurely.

“I just watched the culture ... really crumble quickly. There’s no other way to put it. It literally just became an absolute fucking shit show.”
— Leila Hormozi [05:30]

• Even after massive financial success, wrong hires led to hating her own company, forcing a reset to align hires with core company values.

3. The ‘Five Deadly Hiring Biases’

Leila breaks down the five subconscious biases that cause even well-meaning leaders to build accidental, ineffective teams.

A. Confirmation Bias [17:13]

• 60% of interviewers decide about a candidate in the FIRST 15 MINUTES—then the rest of the interview justifies that snap judgment.
• Examples: Judging someone for no video in a Zoom (might be misunderstanding, not attitude); dismissing introverts as not a “culture fit.”
• Solution: Lead with curiosity, not assumption.

“If you judge somebody, you will never influence them, and they certainly won’t work well on your team. But if you can understand them … you have the ability to do that.”
— Leila Hormozi [19:46]

B. Expectation Anchor [22:52]

• Using one piece of information or prior experience as the benchmark (e.g., “The last person in this role was quiet, so the next should be too”).
• Failing to recognize roles change as the company grows.
• Example: Needing a more assertive operator at $30M than you did at $5M.
• Solution: Constantly examine whether your expectations still match your company’s stage and needs.

“The roles change as the business grows. And so your expectation of what it looks like at one level is not what it looks like at the next.”
— Leila Hormozi [24:15]

C. Halo Effect [27:52]

• Allowing a single impressive credential (school, former employer, etc.) to overshadow everything else.
• Mistaking “great on paper” for “great in practice”; cultural fit is often ignored in favor of pedigree.
• Solution: Isolate each trait; don’t let one “wow” factor blind you to red flags.

“I always know they’re going to pass this interview to me, and then I’m going to be, like, not impressed with the person. Because what often happens is we just see like, this one thing ... and it overshadows everything else that we see.”
— Leila Hormozi [29:07]

• Myth-busting: Just because someone worked at a prestigious company doesn’t mean they were actually good—or were even noticed by leadership there.

D. Similarity Bias [34:55]

• Hiring people just like you—or like the current team—naturally, because it feels comfortable and familiar.
• Issue: Stagnates diversity of thought; teams become “homogeneous” and struggle to innovate past certain revenue marks.
• Solution: Prioritize diversity of thinking, not just demographic factors.

“Do we have people that have different points of views on this team? Because the more variety in terms of points of views you have, the better decisions you’ll make as a team.”
— Leila Hormozi [36:14]

• Candid self-reflection: Even Leila admits hiring “replicas” of herself and fighting that impulse by including others in interviews to surface blind spots.

E. Affinity Bias [40:33]

• Choosing candidates based on random, often superficial commonalities (grew up in same place, same school, even sharing a first name!).
• Leads to “liking” someone into a job they can’t actually do.
• Solution: Separate affinity from ability; realize the most common, but dangerous, hiring rationale is “I just like them.”

“I hired the guy, and he literally had no idea how to do the job. And so because of that, I realized I was ... hiring people because I have an affinity towards them, not because they’re qualified.”
— Leila Hormozi [41:45]

4. Final Insights and Takeaways

• The best hires are often the ones who make you feel uncomfortable—not because they’re wrong for the job, but because they’re different from you, unpredictable, and bring new thinking.
• Building a true high-performing team means not listening to your gut when it just wants to hire the familiar.
• If there’s chaos or lack of alignment in your company, check your hiring process and the presence of these five biases.

“If you bring someone on and you actually feel slightly uncomfortable, not because they’re bad for the role, but because they’re unfamiliar to you, or maybe intimidating … that is a good thing.”
— Leila Hormozi [44:52]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I woke up one day and we’d done our biggest month ever—4.5 million—and I was like, I fucking hate this company.” [06:37]
• “If you don’t have thousands of people, you should know people on your fucking team. I don’t know where that got cool.” [11:01]
• “We typically want to bring people on the team that we like because ... we think we can predict their behavior. ... Your gut’s not going to lead you to building the best team, your gut’s going to lead you to building a team that’s just a bunch of replicas of who you already are.” [45:10]

Key Timestamps

• 00:00 – Introduction & personal story of hiring mistakes
• 04:30 – Delegating hiring—when it works and when it destroys culture
• 08:00 – Why the hiring process is the root of all culture issues
• 17:13 – Bias #1: Confirmation Bias
• 22:52 – Bias #2: Expectation Anchors
• 27:52 – Bias #3: Halo Effect
• 34:55 – Bias #4: Similarity Bias
• 40:33 – Bias #5: Affinity Bias
• 44:52 – The discomfort of making great hires & final takeaways

Summary Verdict

This episode is a goldmine for founders, CEOs, and hiring managers navigating growth. Leila’s raw admissions and specific breakdown of the five most dangerous hiring biases make this essential listening for anyone serious about culture, team performance, and long-term success. Her stories prove that sustainable scale starts with getting hiring right—especially when it’s uncomfortable.