← Build with Leila Hormozi
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I had practiced so much that my body knew what to do without me even having to think. It was so subconscious. And so what I realized in that moment and afterwards was that practice and behavior and action dictates my success, not my thoughts. How do you create an unshakable business? I crossed $100 million in net worth by the age of 28. Now I'm growing acquisition.com into a billion dollar portfolio. In this podcast, I share the lessons I've learned in scaling big businesses and helping our portfolio companies do the same. Buckle up and let's build. I run a $500 million portfolio of companies, but 10 years ago, I was actually a personal trainer doing fitness competitions. And so today, what I want to share with you are five business lessons that I learned from competing in bikini competitions. So rewind. About 13 years ago, I was actually about 100 pounds heavier than I am now, and I was seeking to lose weight. And along that journey of losing £100, I decided that I wanted a big, ambitious goal to aim for. And so what inspired me and terrified me more than anything was seeing all these girls stepping on stage doing fitness competitions. From that point on, my focus was, I want to get in shape enough that I can actually compete in these competitions. I. I thought it would help my career. I thought it would help my confidence. But what I didn't realize along the way was all of the lessons that I was going to learn that were gonna transfer into what I didn't know would become my life very quickly, after which was being a businesswoman. The first lesson that I learned through competing in a bikini competition is that life is not fair. And you can want other people to play fair, but that doesn't mean they're going to. So the entire time that I was preparing for a bikini competition felt like, you know what? At this point in time, I have built up my business. I'm not gonna try and really get a ton of new clients right now, because my goal is to focus the next four months on just crushing this. And so I remember I just kind of, like, didn't do as much prospecting, didn't do as much reaching out. And eventually, my sales manager kept saying things to me of like, hey, you know, like, are you gonna get more clients? Like, are you gonna go prospect? Are you gonna. And I was like, I don't wanna take on more people because I'm busy in my other hours doing these things to reach this goal. And I remember he pulled me into his office one day, and he was like, listen, I understand that you have this other thing going on, and I want you to understand that you can't let that affect what you do here. He was a very good boss. And so for me to hear that, I was like, well, like, I. I don't feel like I have the capacity for all of these things. And he was like, well, maybe you need to increase it. Even though I had expectations of myself, there's still all these other things I had committed to. And the reality is, is that I, as somebody's employee and as a teammate to other people at that business, owed it to them to continue trying my best because I was putting up really good numbers. And when I kind of stopped, that obviously hit the whole team. And I was doing it because I. What, you know, wanted to win this bikini competition. I remember thinking, like, that's not fair. Like, dude, I want to do one thing for myself, and I'm not gonna be able to, like, put a 12 out of 10 effort in this entire time. Like, that's ridiculous. I was not putting the effort into figuring out how to do both, how both could benefit each other. Instead, I was just like, I'll do less of that to do more of this. The reality is this is, like, business is not fair. You're going to have times where it conflicts with lots of things you're doing in life, and you're going to feel like, I'm exhausted. I have so many other things to do. And you're still going to have commitments to people on your team, to customers, to partners that you have to fulfill. Honestly, it doesn't matter that I have taken on extra commitment. It doesn't mean that I can let these other commitments drop. What it means is, like, I might be in a season where I don't have any downtime. And that is what I went into when I was doing my competition. It wasn't that now I had discretionary time and free time. It was like, okay, I have to do both of these things. And so, like, I can't drop the ball on either. And so I just don't have time to do other things. I don't have time to see friends. I don't have time to go out to dinner. I am going to have to do both. I've just learned time and time again that there's many times in my business where, you know, a lot of people set out in business and think, I'm gonna have all this time to myself. I get to dictate my time and what happens. At the same time, you have this team that Relies on you. You have customers that rely on you. You have made commitments to people. Responsibility comes with a price. And so that price is that you have to determine, yes, what you do with your time. But a lot of people think that what they do with their time is always going to be what they want, but it's not. A lot of times, it's what's required to get to the next level. It's not always going to be exciting, and it's not going to feel fair. You're going to be like, really? Like, I have to do all of these things? Yes. Welcome to being a business owner. You have to do more than everybody else, and nobody cares if you don't feel good about it. Another way that this came up, I was actually leaving work. It was probably a week before that conversation with my boss, and I was checking my bank account. And so I was like, holy crap. I didn't realize, like, all the signups I was doing, how much money that was making me. And I remember thinking, okay, now I have all these bills. I have to pay for this competition. And so I was driving, looking at my bank account, and I literally got pulled over by a cop who was like, you're texting and driving. And I remember in that moment, I was just like, dude, just give me a break, like. And I literally show him. I was like, I know. I was. I start crying. I was like, I was checking my bank account because I don't know if I have enough money because I'm doing this freaking competition and I'm starving and I'm tired, and I now apparently need to go sell more people, even though I don't want to fulfill it because I'm busy. And I remember this guy just looked at me and he was just like, I'm really sorry. Sounds like you're having a really bad day, but I still gotta give you a ticket. And I was like, life is not fair. I think it was really great that he still gave me the ticket because it taught me that acting like a victim doesn't get you what you want. Life is not always fair, and sometimes you just have to toughen up and grow some thick skin. I think that entire process, realizing that I chose to compete in that competition, this wasn't some obligation I had or some, like, horrible hardship that I had taken on, you know, that I had not even known and just, like, been thrown into. And that's very similar to business. People almost want, like, this, like, consolation prize, or they want attention for the fact that it's so hard to have a business. And I've just never taken that stance because this is a privilege I have. The same goes for business. It's like you chose to get into business, and so you can't expect people to feel bad for you because of a dream you're trying to follow. People are not always going to understand. They're not always going to give a shit. Stop acting like the victim, toughen up, and realize that you just need to go get to work and get results. The second business lesson that I learned from competing in fitness competitions is that it's much easier to achieve extraordinary results when you don't hang out with ordinary people. This sounds ruthless. And listen, call me a bad friend, call me a bad person, but I will never allow a single human to get in the way of me and my goals, because my goals are promises that I make to myself. And if I don't keep those promises, I don't become confident. I don't become a better person. I don't realize my own potential. I left Michigan to go to California to seek out a career in fitness and to compete in the competitions where it was the hardest. And I remember a lot of my friends were not supportive. In fact, it was like the cliche, oh, are you too good for us now? Oh, now you've got all, you know, you're in the fitness competition and blah, blah, blah. And are you really going to walk on stage in a bikini? Isn't that kind of slut? Like, literally anything and everything you can think of? They said to me. And I remember thinking to myself, gosh, this is like what people talk about in the movies and the books that people say, like, the cheesy. You're like, are you really saying this right now? And they did. And I remember thinking, like, I just need to get the out of here and get around people who get my vision, who have big dreams for themselves and who aren't made to feel insecure. Those friends that were speaking ill of my dreams, they did that because they gave up on their own dreams long ago. And I think that's what I had to realize, is that if somebody gives up on their dreams, it's very hard to keep them around when you're trying every day putting 110% effort in to accomplish yours, because you make them feel insecure and you remind them of the person that they could have become but didn't because they stopped. And so I remember getting a new job, finding new friends. I found people that I could do posing practice with. I found girls that would Share meal prep recipes with me so that I could have people that would hold me accountable. And all of a sudden, what I realized is that I had been in an environment where everyone had made it harder for me to achieve my goals, and now I was in an environment where my friends made it easier for me to be who I wanted to be, to reach my dreams, to achieve my goals. And if anything, they encouraged me. And I remember it was that experience that taught me how important it is who you surround yourself with and how important it is to go against what you've been taught. A phrase that I repeated to myself over and over again was, maybe I am a bad friend for the fact that now I have no friends that I had in college. Maybe that's cold and harsh, but the thing is, is I really looked at every person I decided not to actively invest in a friendship with and asked myself, are they going to in any way interfere with me achieving my goals? And if the answer was yes, there's billions of people on earth. Why should I keep people in my life who make it harder for me to be who I want to be? And that was really the biggest thing that I learned through that process, is by getting all of these new friends, I realized the current group I had had, they weren't going to allow me to rise up. Because you're not going to get to the next level making everybody else happy. And sometimes in order to make yourself happy, you have to allow everyone else to feel unhappy. I had been such a people pleaser, and I had wanted so badly to, you know, make other people happy so many times in my life. And I finally realized how much it was holding me back. That was a huge unlock for me, not just at that point in my life, but later on in my business career. Because when I first started gym launch in the beginning, for the first 18 months, it was a huge struggle, and we were eating and not succeeding. And the people I had around me, they were trying to encourage me, trying to say, like, keep going, you're gonna get there. But you know what's funny is that when I got there, they stopped saying that. About 18 months into just absolutely eating. Everything turned around very quickly. And then it was like we went from zero to making 2 million a month in about 10, 12 months time. And it was like all these people who had been there for me in the beginning and in that phase where I was first starting the company and they were rooting for me. It was like, nobody wants to root for the underdog once they're no Longer the underdog. And they say, oh, maybe now you're a threat. I made them feel insecure, and so they were like, I don't want to feel insecure. Therefore, don't keep achieving your dreams. Don't get bigger, Layla. Because I feel smaller if you get bigger. I have probably, every 18 months, had to reassess who I'm friends with because of this. Now, I will say this. I do not consider myself to do that to other people, and that's because I'm highly aware of it. Anybody who I'm friends with, I want to make sure that I make it easier for them to achieve their goals. And I consciously think about that. I do not think many people do this. What I've found is that each time I've reached a new level of success, there's usually a few people that start to interfere because it reminds them of the person that they could have become but chose not to because they decided to opt out or quit. I'll find people who start disagreeing with the way I'm doing things, like, they're not bad people. But if somebody speaks negatively of my dreams to me, they will not remain in my life. And I feel very, very convicted about that because it worked then, it worked later, and it works now. If somebody's going to interfere with my goals, then there's no space for that in my life. You can't be everybody's friend, and you shouldn't be everybody's friend. The third business lesson that I learned from competing in bikini competitions is that success is found in who you become, not what you get. When I was going to have my competition and how I was gonna feel the day that I won, like, I would visualize how different I would feel after. I don't think at that point in my life I had had any huge successes. I had this dream of what it would feel like to stand on stage and receive a trophy, how confident I was going to feel after. I think that's actually what I really wanted was, like, I thought that winning would make me confident. And so I remember I showed up the day of the show, and I go backstage, and I'm thinking, these are my people. I'm going to suddenly meet all these people that I'm going to be friends with, and we're going to all root each other on. We're all going to want to win and help each other. Instead, they're. There's girls crying in the corner, you know, about how they look fat. There's other girls, like, taking drugs, which I Didn't know is a thing. And I was like, oh, gosh, well, this is not what I hoped for. And then finally the time goes where I have to step up on stage. When I got second place, thinking like I was going to feel so good for being like a first time competitor in a nationally qualified show to get second place, I felt nothing. I remember stepping off stage and going to dinner afterwards with some of my team and I was like, I don't feel any more confident. I thought that if I competed in a bikini competition, I would have confidence. And I wanted all those things so desperately because for so long I had felt so terrible about myself because I'd been so overweight. And I just wanted so desperately to feel good about myself. And I thought that for some reason receiving a trophy would make me feel good and it would suddenly change my entire self perception. And none of that happened. I remember leaving and I woke up the next day and I was like, I feel the same. And when I looked back on it, I realized, you know, life happens on the way to your goals, not once you get there. All of the confidence that I did get, I got through the process I didn't get. When I stepped on stage. All of the respect I gained for myself was in all the little moments When I said no to going out, I said no to a drink, I said no to dessert. I stuck with the plan. It wasn't when I stepped on stage and received a trophy. This was the first time in my life when I realized that every time I aimed for a goal, it was often because I thought that goal would make me happy. And this was like the pinnacle moment for me where I finally realized no goal will ever make me happy. I've already said goals would make me happy, and guess what? They didn't. But the process, the process of achieving the goal, that was what was worth it. And the funny thing is this is the entire process of getting ready for this competition and putting myself through this and losing the last however much weight and getting stage ready and doing it while I was still building my business and new to California. It was hard as f ck it wasn't enjoyable. It really taught me that success is about who you become. It's about the character that you build. And most of that is not found in easy times. It's not found when you're handed a trophy. And this really translated when I sold my business. You know, I think there's this huge illusion that when you sell your business, there's going to be this pinnacle moment where everything's going to change when that money hits your bank account. And I was recently on a podcast where it was actually Ed Mylett. He asked me, he was like, how did it feel to sell your business? And the funny thing is, I remember the moment that we sold the business. I remember the same feeling I had then. It was the exact feeling I had when I had been on stage and got the trophy. Like, aren't I supposed to feel different now? But different is created through the process, not this artificial ceremony of what you just did. And I remember thinking, you know what? That's okay. It wasn't about winning. It wasn't about the prize. It was about who I was going to become on the way. And it was a huge frame shift for me because I think those two moments together have really positioned me for where I am now, which is like, I am all about the process, and I am not focused on the outcome for the hope that it's going to suddenly change me as a person. That's not what it's going to do. No success does that. It's the process. I will forever be an advocate of striving for success, not because of. Of. Of getting a lump of money or of having a ton of fame or. Or of having a giant business and there's so much status. Like, it's not about that. It's about what you learn along the way, about yourself and doing it in a way that builds your character rather than tears it down. Doing it in a way that is ethical and that you build respect for yourself rather than some people who do it in a way that it tears them down and they lose respect for themselves for the way that they build their business. The reason I'm such an advocate of it, like, of the fitness competition and of building a business and doing things that are hard. Right. That you don't need to do. Right. And that people will always tell, you don't need to do any of this. Right. You have enough. If you set out with the intention that who you become is more important than what you get, that was one of the most invaluable lessons I could have learned. And I'm really grateful I take it with me to this day. Because, you know, in building acquisition.com, i'm not thinking, yes, do I want to get to a billion? Yes. But why do I want to get there? I want to get there because I want to see. See how I can do that while maintaining my values and character. How can I become a better person of higher integrity with stronger character? And hit a billion. That's what I want to see what's possible. It's not about the money. It's not about, like. Of course not. Guys, I just want to take a quick break to thank all of you for listening to the show so far. If you enjoy what you're listening to, I would be so grateful if you would just consider leaving me a review or. Or even sharing it with somebody who you think would love to hear the kind of content. As you can see, I don't run ads on here, so the only way that this show grows is if we can continue to make awesome content. And the only way I can do that is through you liking, subscribing and rating. All right, let's get back to it. The fourth business lesson that I learned from competing in a bikini competition is that your thoughts do not determine reality. Your behaviors do. I cannot tell you. Especially around the time when I was competing. This was almost 10 years ago. The amount of things out there, like your thoughts, become reality. You manifest it into life. And. And I was like, well, then I'm. Because all I was picturing was, like, me eating on stage, me stepping on stage and people laughing at me, me tripping on my routine. Everything I pictured, it was just awful. And what I know now is the reason I have positive thoughts. I had no evidence to support this was possible. I had evidence that I'd been fat. I had no evidence to show me that it was even possible for me to win a competition, you know, let alone, like, step on a stage. I had all these terrible thoughts about what it was going to be like on show day. And I remember the moment they called my name up. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, I just pictured myself tripping and blacking out, all this stuff. What happened was I did blackout. I was so nervous that I stepped on stage, and I truly don't remember what happened. I remember feeling, like, shaking uncontrollably and thinking, God, they have to see how badly I'm trembling and how much I'm sweating. Then all of a sudden, I was on the side of the stage, and that was what was at where I was at. Ironically, that didn't happen. I had practiced so much that my body knew what to do without me even having to think. It was so subconscious. And so what I realized in that moment and afterwards was that practice and behavior and action dictates my success, not my thoughts. My body had practiced the routine so much that no matter how nervous I was, it still knew what to do because I had put in the work. This is what has translated to business for me. Every time I used to think, I had to think really happy thought I had to visualize my success. Are those things nice? Yes, they're nice to have. I would prefer to think good thoughts about where I'm going to end up. But guess what? My brain don't work that way all the time. And if you watching my channel like yours probably doesn't either, you're not always thinking. You're like, what if it all goes to what if I lose all my money? What if everyone quits? What if my customers leave me? What if this guy steals from me? What if that like of course, because that's how your brain supposed to work. You want to, you're supposed to survive. And so I have never pictured any business that I had, I would say until very recently being a monumental success. Because one, I didn't have evidence and two, that's not the way my brain works. I don't subscribe to. My thoughts have to be positive and I have to be visualizing my success to have it. Instead, I focus on my behaviors. Now here's where people get twisted is they think you have to think a certain way so that you can have it happen. No. Oftentimes when people visualize success, they're then more likely to take actions that then lead to success because they believe it's possible. Now where you can interfere is you can have thoughts that it's not going to be successful. And you can say, I'm going to take successful actions despite my thought because I want to prove myself wrong. And that is what I do on a consistent basis in my business. When I was competing in the competition, I was like, I'm going to outwork my self doubt. And so you don't have to get yourself to some state of mind where you're like visualizing this crazy billionaire millionaire, whatever, success. Like, you just need to go out there and do the work. Success does not discriminate to who is taking the actions or to what thoughts are in your head. You're going to get the result. You're going to. You can think all day, you're not gonna lose the weight. If you eat less calories and work out, you're gonna lose weight. What you want to do is, if you're in that period where you haven't realized this yet and you haven't learned this lesson is just trade the time that you spend visualizing success for time spent practicing success. That is the way I phrase it to myself. It is more valuable and you will learn more if you practice being successful than if you visualize being successful. Now, obviously, guys, I am human. It would be nice to have both. But we don't always get that. And that's not always where our brain is at. And so we have to learn to act despite that. And this taught me that, because I truly was like, I'm not going to win. I'm going to be like, I'm not even going to get placed in top 10. And then I remember my friend who I thought, I swear every time I looked at her, I was like, this looks better than me. And she didn't even place in top five. And I remember I was like, I don't even get it. And then I was like, you know what? Can't trust my thoughts. Because my thoughts were still stuck on the version of me that had been 100 pounds overweight. I couldn't even accurately perceive myself. And the funny thing is, when I got first into business, I couldn't accurately perceive myself either. And sometimes to this day, I still can't. Which is why it's hard sometimes to visualize being successful because we don't really know where we stand. The only thing that I have found that has worked for me is just successful behavior precedes successful outcomes. So focus on the behavior. Focus on taking actions as if you will be successful and then you will get there. The fifth lesson I learned about business from competing in a bikini competition is that clarity creates speed. Speed leads to progress, progress leads to momentum, and momentum leads to success. When I set out to do this competition, I wanted to break down my goals so that I knew exactly what I needed to do on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis, on a quarterly basis. To hit my one year goal, which was to compete in a competition. I essentially made this giant board instead of making a giant visualization board. Of all the like things that I would like to have, I was like, let's do something practical. I'm going to break my year long goal down into what I need to do in these time increments. And I also want to put down what I'm going to need to do. From a business sense, I can do both. And so I had this giant board and I broke it down into what I need to do within 12 months, within four quarters of the year, each month, each week, each day. And then every day I would check off the items that I knew I need to do on a daily basis to hit my goals. And I did this so I could remind myself of how taking small actions every day can lead to big success. But you can't do that if you're not clear. And what I had at that time, I didn't even realize this was. I had maximum clarity. I didn't even know just what I need to do over a year's time span. I knew what I needed to do within a day. Every single day. I knew what top 5 things I needed to do. So I was on track to hit my goals. So I had taken the time to get really freaking crystal clear on what I need to do to hit my goals. And then I wrote it down and I put it somewhere that I would never forget. I put it right in front of my door. So every time I would, before I would leave, I would see it, and I make sure I would do those things that day. And the funny thing is that this is the same process that I have learned to use in business. I've learned that I need to get crystal clear. What do I want 12 months from now? And then I'm going to reverse engineer into what I need to do on a daily basis to hit that goal. And the reason a lot of people, guys, I think, burn out is because they are not able to tie the actions that they do on a daily basis to a large goal. If you want to delay gratification, you need to learn how to reinforce behaviors on a micro level. Because on a macro level, like, I'm not gonna hit my goal for a year, two years, three years, but if I know that every day I'm chipping away at it and that the things that I did that day are going to one day lead to that success, you're going to gain a lot more momentum than if you're just flying blind. This only works if you stick with it. So if you're the type of person that writes down what you're going to do, and then you sometimes do it, you sometimes don't, you're breaking promises to yourself. The reason this worked for me and it continues to work for me is that because when I write it down, for better or for worse, it's gonna happen. I'm gonna commit to it no matter what. If it's on my calendar, it's happening. So if I write a list of five things that I'm gonna do and I miss one every day, I'm 20% behind at the end of the year. And so because of that, I asked myself this question most days, what was the plan last night, before you felt like today, before you were nervous about today. And I'm like, all right, whatever the plan was last night, I'm sticking with it. And I think nowadays, you know, a lot of people when they're trying to achieve these big goals, instead of seeking out clarity, they seek to avoid their goals. And here's the thing about achieving big goals is that once you get really clear, you don't want to stop because it feels really good to gain momentum. Getting there. Now a lot of people, what they don't do is they don't get really freaking clear on what their goals are. And then what happens is they get into this place where they start to feel tired, they start to feel exhausted, and they start not to see everything adding up into that goal. And then they start to avoid the work it takes to achieve that goal. They might say, oh, you know what, I need like a self care day. I needed this. I need a. No, you don't need a self care day. You need to stop avoiding the sacrifices needed to achieve your goals that will ultimately make you happier than any bubble bath ever could. People I remember would say to me when I was competing, they're like, oh, just, you know, maybe take the day off. That's not the plan, dude. The plan to achieve my goals is I need to do this today. So stop telling me to take a freaking bubble bath. Me becoming the person that's capable of doing this is going to make me 10 times happier than any freaking bubble bath could. And so when people say that, I think it's ridiculous because we've conflated self care with avoidance. Like, yes, let me avoid achieving my goals. That's going to make me feel better. Like sure, in the moment you're going to feel better if you have a glass of wine, take a bubble bath. But at the end of the day, me keeping my commitments to myself, that makes me feel better about myself than any moment of escape ever could. I just want to tell you like, it's okay to stick with the plan when you don't feel good. It's okay that you're very clear on what you want, you understand the sacrifices and you're willing to make them. And I think at the end of the day I've never been told to stop or slow down by anybody who is ahead of me. La.