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- [00:00]
Layla
What's up, guys? Welcome back to Build. And today we have a special episode where I want to tell you some news. I think that most of the time, when people think about new leadership and moving into a new role in your company, they think that something went wrong. And I want to change that narrative, because it doesn't mean that anything went wrong. It usually means that stuff went really, really right. And so, for me, nine months ago, we brought in Sharon to acquisition.com as president, managing partner. It really did change everything. Like, for me personally, for the business, things moved faster. We made bigger decisions. We built out a leadership team that we didn't have before. We launched ACQ Vent, we launched ACQ re, we created new operating structures. And for the first time in four years, for me personally, I felt like I could breathe, which was freaking amazing. And so today, I want to tell you guys about one of the biggest shifts that we have made for acquisition.com's history into being the category king, which it is and continues to be, which is that Sharon is stepping in as CEO of acquisition.com and I am stepping into my new role as executive chairwoman of acquisition.com. this episode is the story of how we got here, why we made the decision, and what we're gonna do next. So I thought what would be most helpful is that we just talk through what led us to decision. What does that look like? I think for so many people that are watching, like, both of our audiences, they're probably thinking, like, well, that's a big move. Like, how do you make that decision? What does it look like? How do you know you're ready for a decision like that? And so I was thinking we could talk through that, and we could just share it with everybody.
- [01:23]
Sharon
Yeah, let's do it.
- [01:24]
Layla
So I'm curious, you know, for you, in looking at the decision made for acquisition.com, like, when we started talking about it, what was your first thought around stepping into that role and what it would mean for us as partners?
- [01:37]
Sharon
I was unsure because just like any partnership, you're walking in with expectations that it was all gonna go well. But my biggest fear was that we'd lose our friendship. And I think in all our conversations, you, me, and Alex, I was like, I don't care about the deal. I don't care about the economics. I just don't want us to, you know, our friendship to break. And I think that was a really good base for us to start because it so many years of building towards that. I also think what a lot of people don't know is that we got a chance to do business stuff during that time. We invested during that time. We worked through active memos between you and I during that time. So we had a taste of working together with each other. But the most important thing that I really thought about was how do we get a much bigger and better future? Because it's very hard for one person to cast such a big vision. And I think you get one dimensionality in how you think, but when you get three people, you get to see a much bigger, broader spectrum, especially in today's ever changing world.
- [02:41]
Layla
Yeah, it's interesting because it's like, you know, when people think about the vision of the company and people ask me, they're like, oh, like before you came in and we were all three partners, it was like, oh, Alex is the vision and you just do the execution. And I'm like, it doesn't work that way. Like, it actually is like we all decide on the vision and you coming in. It's like now the three of us are talking about the vision. In fact, that's probably what we talk about more than anything. But I think that when you see people out there like Jeff Bezos and Elon and all these, and they're talking about the vision of a company, it's like, you think because that person's talking, they're the one that's the only one thinking about it. But it's like, I don't even think that that would make a strong vision. I think that the collective efforts of all three of us is what makes our vision so strong.
- [03:18]
Sharon
Right. I would love for you to talk about one thing which can help a lot of business owners today. And it is just our process for the visioning and bringing it to life, where you and I may talk about something and then you will say, hey, let me think about that and come back to you and you do something. You write a memo, Right. Could you talk about taking that big vision, bringing it to life, and then the discussion around that becomes that memo. I'd love for you to maybe talk through that process.
- [03:44]
Layla
Yeah. I think that a lot of people want to. They want to facilitate, they want to think about big vision. Right. But then they're like, let's put meetings on the calendar and like, very structured and get through the vision, do all this stuff. And I think what I've seen over time is that you have to create the conditions that allow people to think about the vision. And that is usually the opposite of what allows people to think about execution in the business. And so I think, you know, it was maybe two months after you came in, we started talking about how do we structure a meeting where we create the conditions to think about the vision, how do we structure time together to. So when I think about putting the vision together, I think about what precedes that, is getting time to do so, which means you have to have probably nothing on your calendar. You don't have to worry that you're, like, running into something else. You don't have to feel like there's some tight agenda you have to get through. So I think that's. The first piece is like, how do we create the conditions? For myself, when I think about how do I create the conditions for me to think about the vision, I think it's probably two things, which is, I have to create the space and I have to create inspiration. And I think the space is the one. I just talked about the second piece, the inspiration, which is like, well, if I'm not constantly learning and I'm not constantly thinking about what's next, what does the future look like for the economy as a whole? What's happening in tech and people in sales and marketing? It's like, then I'm not going to have the best information to create a vision with. And so I think about those two, plus then discussing it with the other people that are building the vision with you. It's like, I feel like those are, like, the three. At least that's how I think about the three steps. But I'm like, well, you asked me to say it. So I'm like, is there something else I do that you think?
- [05:12]
Sharon
No, I think you do it really well. What I want to bring to life for people is this. Nothing great ever happened without it being written down. Take the Constitution, take the Magna Carta, take whatever thing that was great that happened. It started with being written down. And that thing didn't get written down one time. It got written down one time and it got viewed, edited, curated, collaborated, viewed, edited, curated, collaborated. And in a lot of ways, it's also very hard to take this ethereal idea of the future that you've spent time thinking about and bringing it to life for your partners or someone else. Because now we have to then mimic your path to getting there. And we can't do that unless you write it down. And then now we get to respond to how it is written down. And we also now are tethered to reality. We're like, well, Layla, there's a massive assumption there, or you didn't Think about this. And then now we get to workshop that. The single biggest thing that I see you do, which I believe is your superpower, is even when you have thought through something in so much detail, you are so open to the assumption or the feedback or the hold that's missing, which has given Alex and me in a lot of ways, a chance to say, oh, to point something out, and vice versa. If I write something up, I've written multiple kind of vision documents. And you're like, hey, you're missing this or missing that, like, oh, that's awesome. Let me go make that better. And I wish more people would do that, because this whole role shifting, structure changing, has come out of that exercise, which is there's so much opportunity for all of us in the future that one of us can't chase all of it. And I want people to, like, have that really land.
- [06:49]
Layla
I agree with you. Because I think a lot of people, you know, they look at. Even when you. When you first joined, we did our first podcast. I mean, what was it like? I don't know.
- [06:55]
Sharon
Eight months ago?
- [06:56]
Layla
Eight months ago. Jesus. Everyone's like, oh, Layla, you're done. You're retiring. And I'm like, what the fuck? We've got so much work to do. What are we talking about? And so I think the same gets assumed with a move like this, which is like, oh, okay, you're gonna do less then, right? And it's like, no, we're saying that we have created so much success in the company, we have so much infrastructure that we need to just, like, we tell the rest of the company to start specializing their roles. We're specializing our roles. And I feel like when you came in, it's like, I think there was so much going on. It's like we started splitting things, and now it's like, okay, we're gonna split things in a different way now. That's like, really what it is. And I think that's the simplest way to put it. And the funny thing is that we may split things, but we share context on everything. So it's like, everything that I'm working on, you know about. Everything that you're working on, I know about. I mean, to the best of our abilities, like, we can tell each other everything, but, like, we have complete transparency about it. It kind of makes me think about, like, when you're building out your leadership team, a lot of people think like, oh, I have a marketing manager, a sales manager, this person. And so they're like, oh, they should only have context on this. But for anyone in any part of the company to do their best work, they have to have context on everybody around them and what they're working on. Like, if you don't know what me and Alex are working on, and I don't know what you and Alex are working on, how can I do my best work?
- [08:08]
Sharon
Right?
- [08:08]
Layla
I can't.
- [08:09]
Sharon
Yeah, There's a thinking or a planning framework that we use, which I believe is core to the rhythms of acquisition.com, and I love to tell everybody about it because there's different folks have done different versions of this. You can call them like scaling up or OKRs or what have you. But in essence, any kind of planning framework has a 3100 90, which is a three year vision, a one year target, and a 90 day action. We call it a DSS, which is a desired superior state, which is a three year Vision, the one year target, which is, hey, what are you going to do in three parts like this year to achieve that? And then the 90 day action, which is the most important task of the MITs, which is what happens in these 90 days to hit that VFO. I'd love for you to talk, Leila, about how do you, for the last many years, you've built all the DSS's, all the VFOs and all the Mitsubishi. It's very easy for people to think that, well, let me plan something like 10 years out, I want to serve 100 million people. And I'm like, bro, that's what it is. So far out and it's so big and you've served one. You made a million dollars today and now you want to go ipo. Like, I appreciate the vision, but there's got to be some roadmap to that. So when you think about the desired superior state, the kind of the three year vision, it's not super, it's directionally. Right? So can you give kind of the business owners watching this gift of grace of saying that, hey, it's okay to have some directional stuff that you can fill in along the way?
- [09:30]
Layla
You know, it's funny because when I first got into business and I was like, okay, I have to have this vision and like, it needs to be like, what's gonna happen in five years? So it's basically like, you have to be able to predict the future. I actually think that that means a couple things. If you like really pull the string, which is like, if you're saying one, I have to predict the future, like, that's just, you just can't Nope. That's what, like, we pay a lot of people to try and do that across the world. And it just, like, that's very difficult. You can't really do that. You cannot make that as. The second piece to it is that it's assuming that things aren't going to change. The point in time at which you're assuming this is what's gonna happen in five years. That means that when you get new information in the five years preceding that, are you not gonna change your plan? And it's funny because I used to, you know, in my first company, I learned this is I would get new information and be like, I'm gonna integrate that in the plan. People would be like, why are we changing the plan? I thought that was what we were gonna do. Why are you being distracted or this? I'm like, I am not being distracted. I'm being smart. Because now things have changed in the world, the economy, et cetera. So why would I not change my plan? And so what that taught me with that first business, doing that for the, you know, whatever seven years was like, I cannot be so fixated on this, like, very articulate, specific plan. It doesn't make sense. But I think we need to know our direction. I think strategy is knowing what do you say no to? And I think what the purpose of that plan to me is two things, which is I want to excite and motivate people as to how big we want to go and where we want to focus. Like, it's not like we're, you know, I don't know, creating soil for the earth or something like that. Like, we are focused on businesses and B2B for the most part. The second thing that it does is it tells us, what are we going to say no to? What doesn't match this over the next five years? No matter what changes, are there things that we're always going to say no to because they just don't line up with that strategy that we've painted the picture for. And so when I think about, like, painting towards that vision, I think about essentially asking those two things, like, which I believe is strategy. It's like, what do you say no to? And then what is the order of the things that you're going to do that you say yes to? And when I think about how I'm going to describe it to people, people say, what does that mean then? Well, it's like, well, what does that look like? Qualitative? What does your team look like? What does the building look like? What does it look like in the community and the impact. What does it look like with customers? What does it look like? You think of all the different people that touch your business, what would they see if they're looking at your business and how would they describe it? That's the first piece I think about. And the second piece is, okay, what metrics would have to exist if it were true? What would your NPS look like? What would your CAC to LTV ratio look like? You know, all those different things people might say, well, that seems silly, but. Well, for example, for us, if brand is a huge, like, we, hey, we want to have the number one business brand on earth, well, then our CAC to LTV, our CAC should be 0.
- [12:04]
Sharon
0.
- [12:04]
Layla
Because we should have such a good brand. It should mean our CAC is zero. So that's an important metric to track. So I think you kind of marry those two pieces and it's like, what does it look and feel like mixed with the metrics? And I've just gone off that. And I think over time I've realized that I need to give less detail, not more. Which you also gave me great feedback on that. At one point you're like, this is probably too much. I was like, man, this is less than I used to do. And I thought it was good because it's like, yes, I know this is gonna change. And I think sometimes I seek to give so much certainty to people because I want them to feel good about where we're going. And then I'm like, oh, I'm doing that too much. When it's like, the truth is there is no certainty, but we are certain that we're a team of winners that's gonna figure it out no matter what the fuck happens.
- [12:47]
Sharon
I have an idea that I'd like to share with folks. If you're a business owner and you're thinking about creating this vision, you can use AI to do this to help you with this process, right? And three step process, super easy step number one, you go into AI and you give it all your dreams, all your goals, all your aspirations, everything that you want to do is everything that you think of. Three years out, five years out, just dump everything in and then use the prompt that says, assume that we are five years from now and we have already achieved all of this. Can you give me a day in the life of what this would look
- [13:23]
Layla
like that's really great prompt.
- [13:25]
Sharon
And then it will tell you, you wake up, you did this, this is what your business looks like, et cetera. And Then at the end of that, you look at everything and you say, awesome. Now map me a five year plan on what I would need to do to achieve that day in the life. So essentially you're reverse prompting everything because sometimes it's very hard for us to say, oh, this is what I want, and put it into action and say, well, I'm gonna accept this as the vision. But when you see that that is the life you're living, maybe you look at that life and say, wait a minute, that is not the life that I want. And now you have a chance to fix that, if not anything else. The first draft, Leila. I think it dramatically allows you to have this reverse prompting interview with AI and then you can say, oh, I've had this thought partner in this process. I don't have to sit on a blank piece of paper and actually write this myself.
- [14:11]
Layla
Yeah, that's a really good point. Because the first thing I thought about with acquisition.com is what could I do every day that I wouldn't get sick of? And it's like, well, for me it was more about the people and who we're working with. I was like, I like working with entrepreneurs and business owners and I like having a really smart team. What is a business that helps business owners? That means that I have to have a smart team in order to do it. That's like the two things.
- [14:29]
Sharon
So you just said that, you said what makes you super excited to work on something every day? This softly new structure.
- [14:36]
Layla
Yeah.
- [14:38]
Sharon
Your focus is shifting a little bit. How do you think about the focus and where are you focused?
- [14:43]
Layla
Yeah, it's interesting. I think right now I feel focused on making sure that we complete our transition and continue context dumping with each other, which actually has been really fun for me. So it's been like figuring it out and talking it through. But, you know, something I was talking to Alex about last night actually was like, my focus is a lot more on the things that got less of my time but had probably the most leverage. So, like the first one would be the brand and of acquisition.com mine is part of that, but also acquisition.com getting that off the ground because we don't really have like acquisition.com borrows brand from myself. Alex Yu. It doesn't have like its own standing brand right now that we're putting a lot of effort into. And so I want to be the spokesperson for that. That helps see it to life. Which has been something we've been working with with the media team and with Gabriel, who's Our new cmo. The second piece of that is I've been working on a book. So, you know, going with that. No, it's like, you're telling the world. Yeah, no, it's exciting. Cause I'm like, okay, I've gotten 10 years of this out of my brain. And so I'm excited to get that because I think that does a lot for acquisition.com, because it borrows our brand. I think that a huge piece that's missing is I have not put a lot of written content out there, and I don't think people really know what I do every day. And I think this book is like, one, this is what I do every day, and two, this is everything I've learned, and here's how it can help you. And so I'm really excited to do that. I'm gonna launch a course with it that's gonna essentially be free. I'm not gonna charge for that, but it'll be the same course that we'll put our team through, which is like, how to be a leader@acquisite.com, now you can have that for your team, too, which will be fun. So those are two. On the media side, the next piece is thinking about how do we continue to embed our culture@acquisite.com while integrating in AI. So in this new world, I think about my strength up till now has been, I think, building culture, getting a great team. I think you said that when you first came in. You said, everyone on here is like, a fucking A player, and we do not have enough systems and things. I'm like, right? Because I don't know how to do that. And you're way better at that. And so I think I have to. I think what I realized, like, now that I have the space I need to lead that for the team, because a lot of people, I think, hear me when I'm like, people are at the core and all, but, like, I want to win. So we need to mix our strength of people and culture with AI first. And what does that mean to the team and how do we implement that? And I want to inspire that vision for everybody. And I want to make it fun, not scary. And then the last piece is, you know, we have a lot of new things that we're venturing into. We are have our Holdco opco structure in place. And so I don't want to give too much about, like, some of the big deals that we're looking at doing right now, but I would say sitting aside those big deals is you know, ACQRE, which is acquisition.com real estate, which I think a lot of people don't really know about, which is big and.
- [17:28]
Sharon
Very big.
- [17:28]
Layla
Yeah, very big. And it requires a lot of attention now. So I'm going to be.
- [17:33]
Sharon
Well, I want to tell people about ISAQ re. I think that's because it has a Layla component that, that you probably don't want to share, but I don't want
- [17:40]
Layla
to talk about it. I can't.
- [17:41]
Sharon
Yeah. So for. For people who don't know, most large companies call it McDonald's that has $40 billion worth of real estate. Disney and all its theme parks, etcetera, has over $60 billion worth of real estate. We have a very thoughtful way of investing and deploying capital in real estate. We have our campus. That is what it all started with in. In Las Vegas. But now we have built ACQ Re, which is our investment arm. Our goal is to hit $1 billion worth of real estate in three years. We're already a third of the way there. We have $300 million worth of real estate already deployed. And they're all deployed under something very special, which is. What's my idea, which is the brand the Layla. And it is luxury multifamily apartments. We're primarily in the Southeast right now. And Leila spending a lot of her time kind of thinking about how to deploy this brand and scale that real estate portion of everything that we're working on. We currently have 14 plus assets, over 3,500 units and, and growing. And so we're super excited about the capital deployment into the real estate vehicle. And for me especially, like, seeing the Layla brand and seeing kind of like your, hey, this is the. This is the baseline of how we're going to deploy service and how we're. How we're going to build a brand around something that is. Normally, there's no brand around housing. And I think that was a big kind of vision for you.
- [19:02]
Layla
Yeah. And I love that piece. I think when you came to me, you were like, let's call it the Layla. I was like, oh, God, the inside of me melts. Right. But I love the brand that it represents, which is, you know, I have a certain standard, I think. I. It's not a secret to anybody. I like premium stuff. And so it's fun to be able to build that for people and at a price that's not also, like, ridiculous. You know what I mean? And I think we're doing really right by the tenants. And that feels good to me that we can not just service. I think a lot of times with real estate. And I mean, this is something I learned, you know, meeting you, Sharon, which is like a lot of people, I learned it before I met you. And then I had learned all these shitty lessons and then I met you, I was like, wow, somebody can do it well. Which is like most people think about just the investors at the expense of like, the tenants, the community, et cetera. And when we met, the reason why, you know, every real estate deal I've done in the last seven years has been with you and with our partners, has been because we think about, yes, the investors, yes, the tenants, yes, the community, yes, like the brand, like everything. We're not sacrificing one for the other. And that's why I feel really excited about this project because it feels like, you know, something I would actually put my name behind, which is why it's called Layla. So that has been fun.
- [20:13]
Sharon
What everyone should realize there's a underlying theme there, which is also, it's not just the investment in real estate, but it is running the business that is the real estate. The reason we are investing in this real estate is because if you invest in a group of single family homes, you are now susceptible to the market conditions of a single family home, what a home next to it sold, et cetera. But when you are investing in commercial and multifamily, you are now, you now have to operate that property well, you have to run the business of that property well. And so it's almost the EBITDA of the property is how the property trades. And we had our partners in our headquarters and we really remapped the entire business. We took all the business learnings of acquisition.com and deployed it on acq real estate. And that's what people don't understand. They're like, oh, we just. It's not about just buying real estate and letting it ride. It is our systems, our philosophy, our business tools that are actually operating this. So combining the business of building businesses, I think that's what, you know, got. I saw Alex getting really excited about just building out the funnels of getting client acquisition on all our properties. And that's when you know that it's really starting to do well.
- [21:17]
Layla
Yeah, it is interesting because like, I remember when, gosh, you know, eight years ago, looking at real estate and I read like four books. I think you recommended two of them to me on multifamily. And then I was like, oh, it's just a business. Like, what the hell? And I remember, cause People were like, oh my gosh, you should get into real estate and have no employees. I was like, what are you talking about? If you do this right, you have a huge team, right? And we do. We have a big team that's managing all these things. And so yeah, it's really fun to work on that. And I think that serves as, you know, one of the, the operating companies in acquisition.com that we're doing to expand our portfolio. So more to come in terms of operating companies, but I think this is the one that I'm going to be focused on for the foreseeable future, just helping elevate the brand and expand it and make sure that we build a great team.
- [22:01]
Sharon
I want to talk briefly about one thing that you said, which is the new things that are coming and without giving away the new things. I would love to talk about the philosophy of these new things because I think there's probably a business owner in the audience that may believe that they are a good fit for this new thing. So let me frame it for everybody. Alex, Leila and I are committed to this one big idea of creating kingmakers. We want to create category kings in over the next 10 years. So our, our goal is to find a business launch or find a business in a certain category and as Alex would say, point the entire death star of all the media and resources to that partnership to help that partnership become a category king in that partnership. We already have multiple businesses there. So which is our advisory practice, which is growing, is probably the fastest growing advisory consulting practice in the world right now. We have a newly launched business network that is a peer group like to YPO and Vistage, which is probably going to be the fastest growing peer group in the world. And we've done this in the past too. There's a track record for this. Alex had this opportunity when the partnership with Skool to actually make in a category king. I've had a chance to do this. A lot of people don't know this, but I've had a chance to do this with real. To take it from 6,800 agents to 28,000 agents, 200 million to 1.2 billion in valuation in a 30 month period. Then got to ring the NASDAQ closing bell. What people don't know is that Alex and you were my advisors on the back end while in that 30 month period. Right. And so we've had a chance to do what, five category kings in a lot of ways. And we're looking to do another five to 10 over the next 10 years. So the thing that you're going to see is more category kings coming from acquisition.com, where our goal is not to invest in 40 to 50 different companies. Our goal is to build five to 10 category kings that are coming up, which is why we need Alex, Layla and I to widen the scope of
- [23:55]
Layla
what we're looking at 1,000%. And I think the thing that we do that's different than I think what maybe you guys see people doing online is a lot of people build a brand and then they're like, what products can I sell? And things like that. And the way that we think about it is we're like, what companies can we build or buy that are aligned with all of our brands that can be number one in that market? And I think that it's just uncompromising standards, which is like, I don't think any of us want to represent or push or promote a company that isn't the absolute best. And because of that, we have to have our tentacles in it. You know, we've been building a couple, I think that we're looking at. We basically approach each one with does it make more sense to build or buy it? Like, that's the way that we approach each of these opportunities. But I think it's going to be really cool for you guys to see because I think, especially with some of these upcoming, I mean, ACQ re, like, I'm absolutely going to promote that and I'm going to, you know, we're going to allow people to invest in that. Some of these other operating companies that we have upcoming, like, I'm going to absolutely promote the shit out of it because I believe in them.
- [24:55]
Sharon
Right. You know, and we're either clients or we dog food our own services. We want them to work with us first.
- [25:01]
Layla
Right. The amount of money that we have in ACQ re, that's our personal money, is like, pretty much all of it goes in there. So, like, you know, it feels really good because it's taken a while to get to a point where we can actually use our, like, all the operating companies that we have. We are the number one customer of all of them. And then we want to make it available to the public, essentially. Like, that's how I think about it. Yeah, yeah.
- [25:23]
Sharon
The first one you talked about, could you talk about the founder brand transition in some way? It's easy for someone to think, hey, Alex and Layla, when you all started, it was pre brand. Yeah, right. And then the brand started, the brand build started happening. And now we realize we have significantly bigger opportunities. So now we're building this house of brands. There's probably gonna be more than just the three of us at this time. We've got the three of us plus ECQ plus. We are thinking about other brands as well.
- [25:54]
Layla
Yeah.
- [25:54]
Sharon
How do you think about that story for the future? What is that going to look like for acquisition.com specifically, with you thinking about media?
- [26:01]
Layla
Yeah, I think it's really interesting because I think we're at this point where the way I'm thinking about media right now is I'm not just thinking about what's worked in the past, but what's going to work in the future. And when I think about, like, our brands, I think that we have three of, I would argue, the strongest brands in business. Right. And I think that we have, you know, maybe not on every platform, by every. But I'm like, I think if we look at objectively combining all of our brands, I think that I could say that, okay, when we think about how do we expand that to have more reach so that we have more power behind the Death Star at a point for all these operating companies, I think, well, we need to help find or create more brands that are the best in business, you know? And so when I think about that, I think, you know, we might all represent a certain subset of business. You know, I think people probably associate Alex with marketing and sales. You probably associate me with people probably associate you with scaling and big companies and finance, like, money, money. But there's a lot open there. Okay, is there somebody that we associate with customer success? Is there somebody we associate with? You know, I would say, like, a different type of sale is that there's a lot of other things that go into business. And so, like, I think one philosophy behind all of our brands is like, we don't talk about stuff we don't know, right? I refuse to make a fucking video on YouTube because it's trending, just because it could do well. Like, I could fucking be at 3,4 million right now. So could you? I'm sure, if I had no ethics and morals. But, like, we refuse to do that. And so in order to do that, we have to actually find people who are the best, who we say we would like them to teach more of this because it really will help people and get them, you know, behind the brand. And so I think about there's the old way of doing that, which is like. And I think we'll test this, which is, okay, do we want to find and scout for people that we would like to bring in. Right. The second one is, do we have people that we know that are experts that we can create a brand around? Because I think that we've done that successfully a few times. And then the last piece is, can we create a brand from scratch? Which is, I think, a very interesting one, which is, can we use AI to create a brand from thin air? Yeah. And I want to test all three of those when it comes to expanding ACQ's media reach. And I think we can, and that is what we're building towards.
- [28:10]
Sharon
As you were sharing that, this is what kind of popped in my mind.
- [28:12]
Layla
Yeah.
- [28:13]
Sharon
The world doesn't realize how important business infrastructure is to actually scale a brand.
- [28:19]
Layla
Right.
- [28:19]
Sharon
So take live examples. Betty Boop, Woody Woodpecker, Mighty Mouse. Some people may know the story. During the time that they were all introduced, they were fan favorites. They don't exist today. Heck, Walt Disney first created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and he was a fan favorite. Universal stole the IP to that and tried to make Oswald great, but failed. On his way home on the train, Walt Disney sketched Mickey Mouse and then put it on the Disney infrastructure. Because of that, the Disney infrastructure is what made Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse. Right. And so this is what we're trying to do is with our roles and the structure of this is to ensure the longevity of this house of brands. And Disney then was able to do Mickey, Minnie, Donald, maybe Goofy, and then you have the Avengers, you have Star wars now because they're able to really take this infrastructure for the house of brands, which is why you have so much courage to say, we can either launch one internally, we can buy one if we need to, because we have the ability and the capability and the machine to scale the brands.
- [29:33]
Layla
We know it works. Right.
- [29:35]
Sharon
And so the structural change with you focusing on capital deployment and media specifically is helping us, like, as you would always say, pull the future forward. But someone's got to think it up and someone's got to make it happen. Yeah, you and I can do both. But one of us has to live in the thinking it up, and one of us has to live in the making it happen. Otherwise we both will get frustrated.
- [29:55]
Layla
I think it's like, where does the discretionary effort go?
- [29:57]
Sharon
Correct. Right. And for the business owner watching, if you have a personal brand or you have a house of brands in your company, I would really encourage you to think about the infrastructure on which that sits. A lot of people just tell me, oh, you know, Leah, I will never forget this. You said to me, hey, I was Mapping my brand. And then I remember the time it took off, and I was like, wait, what is that point? And you're like, that's when I hired a great team. We will do everything that it takes to hire a great team for finance, for accounting, you know, for customer service. But we will want to go on Canva and make a post. Not. I'm not saying we should not do that. You and I have both done that. I'm just saying that there are people who are way better at that than we are. And while we are doing this, there's a team that is essentially designing this opportunity for us, packaging this for us so that we can get the highest possible reach. And that big shift, which you gave me was super powerful because it was like, hey, if you care about this so much, then put resources behind it. And I think this is our commitment to putting resources behind building the Disney business, where we can house these house of brands and grow them, oh, 1,000%.
- [31:07]
Layla
I mean, I think by the time this releases, our press release, we'll have gone out. Like, we're investing tens of millions into media this year.
- [31:12]
Sharon
Yeah.
- [31:13]
Layla
And I think that's, like. That's how confident we are, because we've gotten to where we are with, like, you know, a very lean infrastructure. And so now we're gonna have dedicated space, dedicated team. We brought in a chief media officer. Like, we're doing the whole thing. And one of my main focuses is to help support him, to make sure that he can build this to where it needs to be. I think a lot of people, too. Like, if they're watching us and they're thinking, like, you know, I'm building my brand, but I also am, like, running my business. It's like, you can't have all this support on your business side and none on your brand side. I've never understood that. I'm like, what are we talking about? I mean, I don't have people that fucking run my personal life. Like, at some point, you have to say how I get the most leverage on my time. Right. And I've always had the goal for myself. I'm like, I want to get to the point where I'm just the talent. I just show up and I'm just, you know, does that mean that the content doesn't come from a place of expertise? Absolutely not. We should have formats that prompt the expertise to get pulled out of the person. Right. But now that we've figured it out, a lot of those things, it's like, okay, we can do that with not just the three of us. And I think it's even been cool to see the growth of your brand even just coming in. And it's like it was, you know, we had to changed a lot, and there was a lot of, like, we had no focus in the beginning and all that. But even just as of recently, like, relaunching your YouTube channel, it's like fucking killing it. Yeah. It's like people will look at that and they'll be like, okay, well, then I can just. If you haven't done anything, you haven't given anyone a reason to listen to you. Like, you have an insane track record. I have an insane track record. Alex has an insane track record. We have done big shit. People want to listen because of credibility. If you've not done those things, I think trying to teach those things that would, you're not going to have the same result. But there's a lot of people have done things that don't talk about it, don't teach it, and aren't even on the Internet.
- [32:43]
Sharon
There's probably a question in the audience's mind, which I want to bring you back to Q4, 2025, and we had just finished the book launch. We realized that, hey, we can go after this different kind of track record of being the New York Times bestseller or the Wall Street Journal bestseller or what have you, which a lot of people have found a mechanism to get that based on their book, which is great. We said, what would it take to hit the pinnacle of it? So we had the most audacious goal of beating the Guinness World record. We sold $106 million in 72 hours. And we were fortunate to beat the Guinness Book of World Records to the fastest selling nonfiction book in the history of mankind, which is very cool. And then I remember this memo that Alex and I were talking about, which is, hey, what next can't be what just came before? And you said, I want to put everything on pause until we create capacity. I want to emphasize that because the reason we're here talking about this transition is that capacity that we built because people only see the decisions that we made, not the choices that we had. Right. And the choice that we had was we could just continue doing the same thing. They're like, oh, they made some money. Great. We should do another launch. Okay, well, we can do that. But what it did was, I think it gave us a chance to say stop and build something different for the future. Not linearly, but exponentially. And I think one thing that you, outside of everyone else Put your foot down. And you're like, we will not be able to create a bigger and better future if we don't create this capacity. And for most people, creating capacity is hiring a va, which is okay, but we built the largest capacity engine in the history of this business in one quarter.
- [34:25]
Layla
Yeah.
- [34:25]
Sharon
Right. So. And I'll start this, the story, but I want you to finish it, which is at that time, in essence, you and I were CEO, CFO. CEO, Chief Strategy Officer, kind of sort of CTO, kind of CPO. CPO, CIO, CIO's Chief Media Officer.
- [34:48]
Layla
We.
- [34:48]
Sharon
We were all of it.
- [34:51]
Layla
Yeah.
- [34:51]
Sharon
And Alex was CRO. Like, he was making the money. Like, I was like, please, Alex, make us more money. Which is great, but we had all the C suite, just between you and me, and there was no way you and I could have done this four months ago. Oh, my God. Can you talk about, like, that capacity creation?
- [35:07]
Layla
Yeah. I think it's always a chicken or an egg problem, which is like, let me just fix this, and then I'll go hire somebody. And I realized, I think probably a year prior when I. It was the last time that I had actually flipped out a leader. And when I flipped that person out, I was like, I'm gonna take over the division. And it always had worked for me in the past, and I always killed it, and it made it better. I handed off to somebody. It was the first time that I didn't kill it. I was like, oh, I don't actually have the bandwidth to do this really well. And that was really scary for me. And so I promised myself, I said, if this ever happens again, you're not doing that. You cannot do that. Learn this lesson. And so when we looked at. And I see flipping somebody out and expanding as two of the same problem, which is like, you lack resources to do either of these things. You're lacking resources to run the current day, or you're lacking resources to bring the present forward.
- [35:54]
Sharon
That's great.
- [35:55]
Layla
And so when everyone saw the success of the book launch, it's like, oh, my God, we need to ride this. We need to hit hard, strike why the iron's hot. And I just. You know, it's like, I remember this all the time, which is just like, businesses die from indigestion, not starvation. And I'm looking around, I'm seeing how exhausted everybody is. Like, the team was tapped after the book launch. Like, let's be honest. Like, some people had, like, they had to take mental break. It was like, I mean, I get it. And There's a lot of emotions with that. I don't think people realize that it's a team. It was a huge team effort. And I think there's a lot of feelings after it was all done, looking at all the things that we could do, it's like, oh, yeah, let's go. We could run this play again, et cetera. And I think, taking a step back, it's looking at it and saying, what elements of this were so successful and why, and how can we use that to create something so much bigger for this company? I remember thinking to myself, I'm like, the next time that we do a launch like that, we better make a fucking billion dollars, otherwise I'm gonna jump off a cliff. This is ridiculous. You know? And so I'm thinking to myself, I can't believe if we were able to do that, what could we do if we weren't selling a book? And how much more could we help people and help entrepreneurs? Because now we know that they're watching us. We have their attention. And I love. And Alex puts his fucking soul into those books, but I'm like, could we build something that could help their business even more? And that's what I couldn't stop thinking about. And then I looked around, and I'm looking at what we're doing, and I'm thinking, there's no way that you and I are gonna be able to do that without a lot of help. Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. And so I think a lot of times what people think is they say they think I'm gonna get capacity once I have the opportunity. But you don't even know what the best opportunity is until you create enough capacity that you have the opportunity to think. Think. Yeah. And I think we've been onboarding a lot of people, you know? Cause we brought in, you know, six executives. And the onboarding takes a huge effort to do all at once. But at the same time, even in doing that, I'm starting to, you know, you start to see the next rung of where you need to be focused as the. You know, as the founding team. And we're looking. And I'm like, that was the right move. Like, there's no fucking doubt about it. That was the right move. And if anything, I'm like, we could probably take one more.
- [37:56]
Sharon
Yeah, yeah.
- [37:57]
Layla
Like, we could use one more person. I think a lot of people, you know, they see that we create the advisory practice. They see that we did the book launch. They see. What they don't see is the year Prior to that, where I hired a lot of people who had excess capacity. And I remember Alex was like, dude, we have a lot of capacity. I said, we're going to capitalize on it with this opportunity. And he was like, this is like, we're. There's a lot of payroll. And I was like, we can't fucking. I'm not going to risk the client experience or the employee experience by being understaffed to do take on these opportunities. And I look at it like that now. I'm like, we need to do that. There's seasons for businesses where you reap and you sow. And it's like, you know, we need to put some time in to build the infrastructure. You're going to have less margin, you're going to have, you're going to feel like there's excess and waste. It eats me too. I like to save every penny. I'm not a fucking, I'm a cheap person when it comes to certain things. But like, you have to do that to get to the next level. I just think about it like that. It's like if you know when you want to put on muscle, you have to eat more food, you have to have extra energy to create the muscle and then that muscle can do so much more for you after you've already created it. Right. It's like I think about a business the same way, which of course I was from, came from fitness. So that's my analogy.
- [39:02]
Sharon
But no, I love it. If I'm watching this, I'm thinking you brought on six, assume I have the capital, assume I have the business to be able to do it. You brought on six high powered C suite executives to be able to do this. How in the world do you go find them? And I want to kind of break that down for people very quickly. You can't just say everybody's going to come from inside or outside or network. This is a we take the best talent from anywhere approach. So just for folks to know, we had a couple of great leaders from within that promoted into those roles. We had a couple of great folks from network that we had, some of us had worked with in the past that we tapped to come work with us. One of them is like getting out of this business to come work with us in their role. And then we ran a search to actually do this process.
- [39:46]
Layla
So it actually was split three ways. Three ways, like straight up, evenly. Yeah, two to two. Yeah, yeah.
- [39:52]
Sharon
And. But a lot of people are like, oh, you got them now turn them on. Well, there's now you've got a brand new C suite team with our role shifting. So this is a, this is a like massive growth year for us.
- [40:05]
Layla
It's a massive growth year. I think what I said the last town hall was like, this is a massive transition. You guys are going to feel a lot of lapses in communication. You're going to be like, who does what? What does Sharon do? What does Layla do? What does this mean? And it just. Sometimes you can say everything you want. I can repeat it as many times as I want. You're just gonna see, you're gonna see. And it takes time for people to trust that. It takes time for people to see. Like I said, I'm executive chair and I'm still fucking working all day every day. It's not like this doesn't mean someone's retired. And I think it's cause the term gets thrown around. I mean, same for CEO. Some people are like, oh, you're CEO, you do nothing. And I'm like, what? You know, yeah, right. It's crazy. So that's for people who don't take their job seriously. I think we do and we want to do big shit. And I think the cool thing for us is like, you know, I think what we talk about a lot is like, neither of us have to do this. We could be done and do nothing. But we're like, that would be awful. We don't like that. And like, I think we're both motivated much by like making an impact on the world. And I think that's what's fun. It's like we want to do big epic shit.
- [41:01]
Sharon
So as you think about stepping into this kind of new perspective of this role, what would need to be true for you at the end of say a 12 month period for you to feel like it was a year spent.
- [41:13]
Layla
Well, yeah, a couple of things, which is we would have to be on track with ACQ re's billion dollar objective, so like to get a third more in assets under management. The second one would be that from a media perspective, actually this is like a kind of encompassing goal I have. But I would love to launch my book into one of the OPCOs that we have. So I'd like to use my book to launch. So good to announce the opco. Yeah, that would be like covering kind of two bases. Yeah. I don't know if we were able to do that or not, but like it would be my dream to do that. And I think kind of going with that is like the book needs to get launched in Q1 of 2027, like that's my drop dead like need to get an outdate which is part of media. The second piece of media is I want, when people see our marketing, I want us to be marketing as acquisition.com, not as Alex, Leila, Sharon. I have a really good idea of what that looks like in the marketplace. I would say that for our internal teams, this is for everyone. What is that infrastructure to support it? We have to have our Holdco opco structure very clearly defined. And I think actually by that time, 12 months from now, I feel confident that it actually should start to feel divided and I think I am trying to assist with that with media. I would say another piece to that is I would like us to really embody what AI first means as a company from a cultural perspective, which I think is something we've talked about a lot and it's very top of mind. And then I would say that we would need to launch at least one opco that is a multi billion dollar opportunity.
- [42:46]
Sharon
Yeah.
- [42:46]
Layla
Yeah. What do you think?
- [42:47]
Sharon
What would need to be true for me to feel like in 12 months this was a good next steps. Some of our goals are, are integrated, which it should be. I'd say number one is with our new super high powered leadership team, getting each of the teams to feel massive wins in this huge projects that they've all taken on.
- [43:09]
Layla
Yeah.
- [43:09]
Sharon
And so I think my number one job is to support our executive leadership team. So that would be number one to do that. A lot of people just think you can hire great people and just like turn them loose. Yes, they can do that. But you're either doing the job or you're supporting people doing the job. People don't realize that that's what work is. So the leadership team is my number one focus for the year. My second big thing is we have multiple irons in the fire for this, for the next category king that we're thinking about. And so I would love to turn on a category king this year that would be a huge win. The third is, is the integration with ACQ RE and getting this next year of a third of close to a couple hundred million dollars worth of real estate added. But the fourth is very similar to your AI First. I would love to find a way to dramatically level up our team, all of them simultaneously. I want to figure out how we can just raise the benchmark of our entire team to be AI first, not just one of our initiatives to be AI first. Because if we actually have call it 10% improvement on 150 to 250 people around the world on our teams that can just create more. I think it gets us to our big goals so much faster. And I think a lot of people are not going to be sure how to do that. And if there's a biggest question in my mind, it is how do we get this baseline of our teams higher to utilize new technology.
- [44:37]
Layla
I've become more and more excited over that piece.
- [44:40]
Sharon
Oh my gosh.
- [44:41]
Layla
Over the last few weeks, which is, which is really interesting. I'm sure people are wondering, you know, like, how when it comes to like this, this change we've made, like, what's the difference between a CEO and executive chair? Like, what does that mean? And I think it's interesting because I'll give my perspective. I'd love to know what your perspective is. Is like, I think titles for one in companies always mean something different. Like I have learned that, like sometimes you go someone, you're like, oh, are you the CEO? They're like, no, I'm the CEO. And I'm like, but you're running everything. I'm like, that's interesting. Or sometimes I go somewhere and I'm like, oh, you're the CEO that I'm the executive chair. So it's like, it's very interesting. And I think that what it means to us is that we have the areas where it's like, okay, I know this is like if you look at a Raci matrix, right? Responsible, accountable, consulted, informed. That's what a raci matrix is. You should use it for organizing your teams. I look at it as like, we are both responsible for all of these, but who at the end of the day is like accountable, like the one throat to choke. And that's how we split those things.
- [45:38]
Sharon
That's exactly right.
- [45:39]
Layla
Yeah.
- [45:39]
Sharon
If you take the. I think in essence what we did is we took this kind of CEO role which we both kind of give the categories of vision, people and cash and which of these not with the size and scope of what we want to build, one person cannot be racy on all three of it. And so there is a shared responsibility and accountability on like, you're living more in the future, so there's a more responsibility on you, a little bit of accountability on me to like hold you to that. The people in the cash are probably more to me day to day to hit our kind of one and three year goals. But I think about it as the CEO in a lot of ways, reports to the board. The board job is to hire the CEO to Run the business. It just so happens that the board is the three of us. And so I, you know, but, but, but there is a, like we have managing partner meetings where I report in what I do and you turn around and say, here's what I'm doing as a chair. I see it as the biggest difference is you get to live in the future and pull the future forward. I get to stay today and move forward as fast as I can. And so that way, you know that, hey, I have this idea will still get done. I know that I don't have to spend my cycles thinking like clearing my calendar to think about that one thing. It's just impossible to do. And so we get a chance to divide and conquer, if you will.
- [47:00]
Layla
I also think with where the company is right now, in terms of size, you have been a leader at companies with more headcount than I have. And I think it also is like there's different inflection points with the team. Whereas I was like, your skill set in this era might be more useful right here for us right now. And I think, I don't know, maybe that changes in two years, you know what I mean? But I think that was something I recognized too, is like, I don't have that experience. Sometimes I'll ask you, I'm like, listen, I'm gonna get through all this. Because I'm like, listen, I can go off my intuition and gut all I want, but I'm never going to disregard the experience that you have in doing some of those things.
- [47:35]
Sharon
I think a lot of it is just reps. Yeah, you've seen it happen and happen poorly multiple times. I will tell you that for a lot of folks, one big tactical lesson for business owners doing transitions is to transition responsibility and accountability, but not transition visibility. So for example, we use a end of week reporting process where all the execs, all the leadership team does end of week reports. To me, however, you are copied on all of those and your key areas of leadership. I'm copied on all those. So now that's really important. So we have separated out accountability and responsibility, but not visibility. Because otherwise I would just miss something.
- [48:16]
Layla
Yeah.
- [48:16]
Sharon
And so a lot of people are like, well, just let's draw the line down the middle. So the small lessons that you can learn are the ones that make or break you. And that comes from it having broken in the past, which was like, hey, Layla, I think, you know, why don't we consider doing it this way? And I think if you take anything else, you should take away, like Small things like that the implementation of these changes is way more important than the structure of these changes.
- [48:37]
Layla
Yeah. It's also interesting because, like, I think something I learned from you is the, the visibility piece because you send me so much stuff. And I was like, oh, because, you know, bless his soul, Alex, like, would be like, why are you sending me this? You know, he's like, I don't. In his role, he needs to stay focused. And that's just who he is as a person. So I'm used to like, oh, I learned not to send stuff. And so then I realized with you, I was like, oh, I need to be sending stuff. So then it's like, okay, let me forward stuff to Sharon. Forward it, look at it, you know, but it's like, that helps us. I love when you send me stuff because I'm like, oh, that gives me good context. So when I'm making decisions over here, I have that in the back of my head.
- [49:08]
Sharon
One of the biggest skills in today's world that a leader can have is a large context window. The ability to just take a lot of information and not feel like you have to act on it.
- [49:19]
Layla
Yeah. Oh, 1,000%. You just utilize it whenever it's needed.
- [49:22]
Sharon
Right. And to do that, you need capacity. If you or I did not have the capacity, we would not have. The context window will instantly shrink. And you're like, do I have too much going on? But now I can give you more. You're also wired for a large context window. I think most leaders that I've seen have very large context windows. And if you have a large context window, meaning you can take a lot of information and don't feel like you have to act on it, gives you the ability to deploy empathy as you need to, deploy intellectual capacity as you need to. But the folks that are like, hey, don't tell me this thing, they're really good at one or two things. So those are specialist individual contributors. That's cool. But a larger context window gives you the ability to be warm, be kind, be sharp, be bold, have courage. So the context window allows you to have enough information. And so if there's anything that you, you know, most leaders can develop, it is this ability to take in new information and not have to viscerally react to it.
- [50:11]
Layla
Yeah, it's like you just choose to respond or let you know. I thought it was really cool. You sent me that recording earlier of a meeting and I loved how it started. Cause it's something I say a lot, which is like, there's always Stuff on fire.
- [50:22]
Sharon
Yeah.
- [50:22]
Layla
Trash can on fire, curtain on fire, living room on fire. We know, but like, you've got to choose which fire you're put out. Right. And I think we're good at like, okay, this is actually something we need to address versus, like, those things are just gonna happen. And like, business is not perfect. Yeah. If anyone makes you feel that way, they're lying and trying to sell you some shit. Like, and probably don't have a good business themselves because business is messy as fuck.
- [50:44]
Sharon
Do you want to bring this home by sharing one thing which I think you did very, very well, which is people don't realize that this was not a two minute conversation. Right. We talked about it for a few months and then you laid out a plan. And the plan, that was really good. Right, and the plan was good. I mean, we pushed each other on it, but the plan had a couple of components. It was like your plan after, my plan after, and then the transition and how you communicate. I'd love for you to maybe talk through. You played point on this while I was in it, so I'd love for you to maybe talk through that. It would give people a sense of understanding. Hey, when you have complex things, how to actually plan for it.
- [51:19]
Layla
I think that where most people go wrong when they make a change like this is they do not understand change management and they expect other people to do it. They think they're too good above the work. They think, oh, people should just. They should know. They just make up all these excuses. And I think instead it's like, no, I'm gonna make sure it goes as I want it to go. I wanna make sure it's a good change in the company, it's perceived as something positive. Because anytime that you're stepping into a new role, especially for me, if I've been CEO for indefinitely since day one, people are like, wow, that could feel scary. It could feel bad. And I wanna just say this to preface this. When we got off the call the town hall where we told everybody, I walked into the kitchen and I got high fives, hugs, people saying how fucking excited they were for the company, how stoked they are for the growth, how awesome you are, how it's such an amazing move by people who I wondered if they were gonna be concerned or cautious. I think that's because of the plan we put in place, which was like, okay, first off is like, what's the change? Right? When does it need to happen? What does reporting structure look like? What's my job description? Your job description? How do we split VFOs, MITs, DSS? How are we going to communicate this to the executive team, to the greater team, to the greater public? What is the exact scripting? I literally sent you my scripts. I said, hey, here's my script for. I'm going to tell the whole team. What do you think? Here's the slide deck that we've put together. Here's the press releases we're going to put together. It's like every piece of the plan all in one document. And I do think I worked it a little too hard because I was nervous, but it was really helpful because then I wanted to make sure that the whole thing felt good to you and to me. And it helped us say, are we on the same page with everything? Because people are gonna ask. And I even put, like, an FAQ together. Like, these are the questions I anticipate people are gonna ask about this. Let's answer them ahead of time. Let's make sure that you and I have talked through all of them. And I think that was incredibly helpful to think of. When you make a transition that might have been one of the more helpful things. What's the team gonna ask? And then making sure that you and I are aligned with the things that we're gonna answer.
- [53:19]
Sharon
Right. I don't think people realize that complex things need time and need thinking. Because I need a lot of preparation. Because how you prepare shows just how much you care. Right. And so the thought process. One of the things that I love about you is you like to write, and I'm glad that I do, too. So we. I write a lot. I think the most memos that anyone sends each other is, like, you and me, just constantly. It's constant. Like, writing Layla a memo. Right. But my thinking process around this is if I write it to the point where if something happened and I was not there to deliver it and only my written artifacts were to deliver this message, how good would that be? Yeah, it's a good frame to have where you can say, hey, if I just hand this to the world, will they know my intentions? And that goes to the preparation, I think, which, you know, kudos to you. I think you took that to the most professional level, where you're like, I'm gonna think through everything so that we do. Right. Kudos to you.
- [54:16]
Layla
Well, thanks. Well, you made it easy. And honestly, it feels like a very easy transition for us. Like, I feel like this works fine so far. So, like, it's funny, you make these. These big things happen, and it's like, I don't. I actually think it's gonna go great. This is going to be great for the company, and this is going to really take us to the next level. Yeah, it's cool.