Everything I Learned After 60 Days At Acquisition.com

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Everything I Learned After 60 Days At Acquisition.com"

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Podcast Information:

• Title: Business School with Sharran Srivatsaa
• Host: Sharran Srivatsaa
• Episode: Everything I Learned After 60 Days At Acquisition.com
• Release Date: July 29, 2025

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In this engaging episode of Business School with Sharran Srivatsaa, hosts Sharon Trivata and Layla delve deep into their first 60 days at Acquisition.com, sharing invaluable insights on building a thriving business from the ground up. This detailed summary captures the essence of their discussions, highlighting key strategies, cultural philosophies, and operational tactics that have propelled their company's growth.

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1. Introduction to the New Series

[00:00 - 01:05]

Sharon Trivata kicks off the episode by announcing a special series aimed at providing an unfiltered look into the daily operations of Acquisition.com. This series is designed to equip founders, operators, and underdogs with actionable lessons and strategies to build and grow their businesses with clarity and intention.

Notable Quote:

"Just because it's tried and true doesn't mean it's working right now. So the big question is this: Where can you learn what is working right now?"
— Sharon Trivata [00:00]

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2. First 60 Days at Acquisition.com: Expectations vs. Reality

[01:05 - 02:23]

Layla begins by asking Sharon about her initial expectations versus the reality of her first 60 days at Acquisition.com. Sharon anticipated a bustling environment with packed calendars, which turned out to be accurate. However, she was pleasantly surprised by the balance of high competence and humility among team members, contrasting her previous experience at Goldman Sachs where high competence often coexisted with larger egos.

Notable Quote:

"I did not expect that the humility side of all the smart people was going to be here."
— Sharon Trivata [02:00]

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3. Company Culture: Balancing Competence and Humility

[02:23 - 10:56]

Sharon discusses the rarity and importance of finding team members who are not only highly competent but also humble. She contrasts this with her experience at Goldman Sachs, where extreme competence often came with egotistical behavior. The hosts emphasize that fostering a culture where humility is valued alongside competence leads to a more collaborative and positive work environment.

Notable Quote:

"Finding a combination of extremely bright, competent, smart people, but also having a really tight kind of humility component to that, that is very rare."
— Sharon Trivata [02:23]

Layla shares her experiences with leaders who, despite their high performance, lacked humility and disrupted the team culture. She underscores the importance of hiring and firing strategically to maintain the desired company culture.

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4. Hiring Strategies: The Mutual Interview Process

[06:20 - 12:35]

Sharon and Layla delve into their unique hiring approach, highlighting the importance of a mutual interview process where both the company and the candidate assess each other simultaneously. Sharon recounts interviewing a candidate who valued the culture of "sincere candor," a core aspect of their operational environment.

Notable Quote:

"The interview process is almost like the beginning of onboarding."
— Sharon Trivata [07:46]

They discuss the significance of detailed job descriptions that outline the pains and skills required, ensuring that candidates are well-aligned with the company's needs and culture.

Notable Quote:

"Take the 20 minutes to write crystal clear what you're thinking about."
— Sharon Trivata [13:14]

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5. Implementing a Memo Culture: Enhancing Communication

[17:43 - 26:30]

A significant portion of the discussion centers around their implementation of a memo culture. Sharon and Layla explain how documenting ideas and project proposals in memos fosters clarity, reduces ambiguity, and enhances organizational IQ. Memos serve as artifacts that separate people from issues, allowing for objective discussions and decision-making.

Notable Quote:

"Memos are a one to two page breakdown of what is the big idea, why we're thinking about this problem, how we’re solving it, what the risks are, and what our recommendation is."
— Sharon Trivata [19:02]

Layla adds that memos help disarm emotional barriers in meetings, leading to more effective and focused discussions. They both agree that memos elevate the collective understanding and operational depth of the organization.

Notable Quote:

"Writing a memo is not work you have to do; it's like one of the greatest upgrades that operators can get."
— Sharon Trivata [22:33]

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6. Operating Culture: Breaking Down Silos and Encouraging Collaboration

[31:20 - 37:44]

Sharon and Layla emphasize the importance of avoiding silos within the organization. They advocate for cross-functional collaboration, where team members are encouraged to work beyond their designated roles. This approach not only fosters a more inclusive culture but also enhances the company's adaptability and innovation.

Notable Quote:

"Stop calling them a VA. Just call them an operations manager. They're part of the culture."
— Layla [37:00]

Layla shares her experience integrating contractors into the company culture, ensuring they feel valued and part of the team despite their remote status. This inclusive approach has led to high performance and loyalty among contractors.

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7. Setting Ambitious Goals: Embracing Unreasonableness

[43:03 - 50:50]

The hosts discuss the power of setting ambitious, seemingly unreasonable goals to drive faster progress and higher standards. They argue that traditional, reasonable time frames can limit potential and that embracing unreasonableness can lead to exceptional achievements.

Notable Quote:

"Give yourself permission to be a little bit unreasonable."
— Sharon Trivata [43:16]

Sharon encourages leaders to ask themselves, "What do you have to show for it?" at the end of each day to ensure productivity and prevent procrastination. This mindset shift helps prioritize impactful work over mere busyness.

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8. Fostering Creativity: Rapid Action and Drafting

[50:06 - 54:25]

Sharon and Layla highlight the importance of rapid action in fostering creativity. They promote the concept of producing "super fast, shitty first drafts" to overcome perfectionism and maintain momentum. This approach encourages iterative improvement and continuous progress.

Notable Quote:

"Super fast, shitty first draft. Get your thoughts out as soon as possible."
— Sharon Trivata [47:57]

Layla shares her personal experience of writing a book by starting with a fast, unpolished draft, illustrating how this method leads to commitment and tangible progress.

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9. Challenges and Rewards: Building Connections and Culture

[39:12 - 43:26]

Sharon reflects on the challenges and rewards of connecting with every team member during her initial weeks. By asking each person for advice, she not only built rapport but also gained valuable insights into the company's dynamics and areas for improvement. This proactive approach fostered trust and mutual respect within the team.

Notable Quote:

"What is the one piece of advice you have for me?"
— Sharon Trivata [39:17]

Layla emphasizes the importance of humility and a willingness to learn from every team member, reinforcing a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration.

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10. Overcoming Hiring Fears: Embracing Mistakes as Learning Opportunities

[52:04 - 54:26]

The conversation concludes with advice on overcoming fears associated with hiring the wrong person. Sharon asserts that some mis-hires are inevitable, especially when hiring for the first time, but emphasizes that these experiences are valuable learning opportunities that ultimately lead to better hiring practices.

Notable Quote:

"You can't avoid hiring the wrong person if you've never hired before."
— Layla [52:04]

They encourage leaders to recognize the importance of building capacity and leveraging increased potential through effective delegation and strategic hiring.

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Concluding Remarks: A Gift for Listeners

[54:26 - End]

Sharon wraps up the episode by sharing a special gift for listeners—a private podcast called 10K Wisdom. This exclusive content aims to deliver $10,000 worth of value in under 10 minutes, providing raw and actionable insights without the usual fluff.

Notable Quote:

"It's called 10K Wisdom. It’s raw, it’s real, and it’s straight to the point."
— Sharon Trivata [54:26]

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Key Takeaways:

1. Culture is Crucial: Balancing competence with humility fosters a positive and collaborative work environment.
2. Effective Hiring Processes: Implementing mutual interviews and detailed job descriptions ensure better cultural and skill alignment.
3. Memo Culture: Documenting ideas and proposals enhances clarity, reduces ambiguity, and elevates organizational intelligence.
4. Break Down Silos: Encouraging cross-functional collaboration drives innovation and adaptability.
5. Set Ambitious Goals: Embracing seemingly unreasonable targets can lead to significant achievements and higher standards.
6. Foster Creativity: Rapid action and iterative drafting overcome perfectionism and maintain momentum.
7. Build Strong Connections: Proactively connecting with team members builds trust and uncovers valuable insights.
8. Embrace Hiring Mistakes: Viewing mis-hires as learning opportunities leads to more effective future hiring practices.

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For more valuable insights and resources, visit Sharran.com.

Transcript

[Sharon Trivata]

Hey, guys. This episode is going to be a really special one because Laila and I are kicking off a brand new series to tell you about everything that you want to know, which is not what you see from the outside, but how you can see from the inside, exactly what we're doing every single day to build and grow our business so that you can actually take these same lessons, these same learnings, the things that we're doing, and implement it in your life and your business. So this is an unfiltered version of what good partners do with Layla and me. One thing is for certain, just because it's tried and true doesn't mean it's working right now. So the big question is this. Where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology, and the exact how to. How to grow your business, how to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth. That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharon Trivata, and welcome to Business school.

[Layla]

What was different than what you expected in the first 60 days being here?

[Sharon Trivata]

I expected everybody to be jammed, everyone be working hard, everyone to have packed calendars. And it is 100% true. Everyone's jam, everyone's working hard, everyone has packed calendars. And the crazy part is it took me like three days and then I think my calendar has been packed. So. So, which I think is great because it shows how much opportunity that we have overall. I'm really surprised by the competence to humility ratio. So let me explain. Right.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

So when I was at Goldman Sachs, it was extremely competent people.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

Super smart, super sharp. And the only way you win when you're with an individual contributor environment, when it's, you're super, super smart, super sharp people, that it's okay to have an ego, it's okay to be an ass. It's okay. Well, they're like, well, of course he's super smart, so he deserves it.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

But finding a combination of extremely bright, competent, smart people, but also having a really tight kind of humility component to that, that is very rare, but it's super hard to find. And I did not expect that. I just assumed that this is going to be. I was like, this is going to be like Goldman. It's going to be super competitive. And I did not expect that. Like the humility side of the. All the smart people.

[Layla]

That's so cool. Actually, I didn't know that. That's really interesting. I think it's also like, when we've had leaders Who I've brought in that have had all the competitive, all the hard driving, all the performance, but they have no humility, and they step on others to stand out. I've cut them and I've made it like, I don't like being like, oh, this person's gone for this reason. But in those instances, I'm like, I don't want you behaving like this. Here's what I don't believe in. I don't believe in people like that. And so I think also, like, it's funny because it's like, you shape the culture by who you hire and fire. And it's like, I can think of four people that were prominent leaders over the last, you know, three and a half years, four years. And those four, I think, were like, they were very telling in terms of, one, who I let go of, and then two, who I put in their place. Like, you know, Neil, for example. Like, there was somebody that was in the spot he is in now, and that person had a huge ego, very competitive. It's like, imagine Neil, but like, evil Neil. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I can't. You can, right? And then I put Neil in place, and people are like, this is so starkly different. And I was like, that person didn't represent our culture. It's not like they weren't smart. It's not like they were all these things, but it was just like, I know what we will become if I multiply them through the organization. Have you ever read the book Multipliers? Actually, I thought it was really. I mean, you don't need to read it because all it means is that if you hire somebody, they multiply in the organization. Yeah. And I was like, oh, that makes a ton of sense, though. And so I always just ask myself that question, which is like, would I want 10 more of them in the organization?

[Sharon Trivata]

I did an interview this morning for a candidate coming on board, and I asked her, hey, what would be a gap for you that you've met everyone on the team? What do you think would be a gap for you that you can. That you can work on?

[Layla]

Oh, yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And she said, well, I see all of you have this sincere candor that you operationalize, that you talk so honestly, you're open to the feedback. She goes, I've never had a chance to model that growing up. And so I've always kind of shied away from conflict and just, I'm the positive person. So I explained something to her, which is very interesting, where I said, you get an Environmental boost. So a lot of people just think that you just need to have the skill to have sincere candor. You just need to have the skill to give you feedback. Well, it's not that the environment is like 50%. So if you come into an environment that automatically appreciates, that, supports that, talks about that you are 50% there are the way. And then a little bit of skill gets you to 70%, dude, 100%. But can you imagine that's not the case in everything. So like if I wanted 6 pack abs and I just go to the gym, I go go to gold's gym in LA. It's a great environment. I'm still zero. The environment didn't give me a 50% boost. Right. And I have to work my way all the way up. But it's amazing. People don't realize how much of an environment premium that you get.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

Because it instantly makes you so much more valuable to the company and to yourself. And imagine her confidence, she's coming in and she gets this, she can work on skill and she's, she goes 0 to 70 as opposed to 0 to 10.

[Layla]

Yeah. You know, it's interesting, it's like now you're saying this, I'm thinking about the environment. I made a podcast like two days ago, I was talking about how your environment, the people around you plus your environment are thermometers. And so it's like if you're, if you want to burn at 80 degrees but your environment's 50, it's like not only is it harder, not only are they not where you want to be, but it's bringing you down because you're trying to go up and it's bringing you down the whole time. And so it's really interesting because like there, it's funny. So like some of the people on our team who are maybe newer to hiring because a lot big companies, you know, you don't do your own hiring, they'll be like, I'm not sure is this person 100% on sincere candor or competitive greatness or. And I have to explain, like, well, when you came in, you were not 100% on these things. So the question is like if they're at an 8 out of 10 on sincere candor, what's it going to take to get them to be a 10 out of 10? By the way, nobody's a 10 out of 10 every day. Right. Like we are all human, but what's it going to take to get them there? And I think that's also something that I Feel like with the hiring process it's like Nobody comes in 100%, but it's like, are they 80? And then can you help them get close the gap of the 20? It's really interesting point. So we hiring her?

[Sharon Trivata]

I think we are.

[Layla]

Okay.

[Sharon Trivata]

Yeah. She did a great job in the process. But that was good. Like that was some good vulnerability.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

But a lot of people also don't realize that they think hiring is a one way process. Like it is a. There is a. It's a mutual interview process. And for us as a company, we have to interview as well as sell. And if you don't interview and sell simultaneously and I mean how you sell is just how you serve. But like you have to sell because I can't just be like, tell me this, tell me that. Like that's not how it is because you have to. You're also building them up to understand the environment that they're walking into. And so the, the interview process is almost like the beginning of onboarding it.

[Layla]

You know, it's funny as you're saying this, I'm like, yes. One thing I always think in my head is them, when they get on the phone with me, they're like, this is the top. Like this is the best this company's got. So if I don't bring my A game on the interview, I'm like, they're going to be like, oh, they're not what they say they are. Of course, when you do it or when I do it, we validate or don't validate essentially. So that's actually I would love to give that frame to them. Now I'm like, someone's got to write that down to give that frame to the team. Because it's like you're validating and showcasing. It's like this is what above you looks like. And if you don't like what above you looks like, then it's like, why would I want to work here?

[Sharon Trivata]

And it's way easier to think about the interview process being the beginning of the onboarding process because if you just think that you'll just deal with the interview process completely differently.

[Layla]

Yeah, right.

[Sharon Trivata]

And then the onboarding process just becomes a continuation of your interview process. And so there's congruence related to that. Otherwise it's just too disjointed processes and you don't want that. And then that dramatically reduces churn because you're consistent in everything that you message along the way. And it makes us who we are.

[Layla]

Yeah. It's interesting because I Think something that you did when we were hiring our general counsel that I tell people a lot and talk about is like, when we hire somebody, it's like, what are the problems that they're going to solve? It's like, let's talk to them about the problems. And I think it's funny because when I spoke with who's now our general counsel, it's like, it wasn't so much an interview as it was discussing the problems in the company and how she was going to come in and solve them and how she would approach it.

[Sharon Trivata]

Right.

[Layla]

And so it's like, right, that stuff we already talked about, that's the job. Like, you're just keeping the conversation going.

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, I will tell you this. I am amazed. If there's one thing that I'm amazed by, I'm amazed by how I think you asked me this the other day. You asked me, hey, what do you think you have not quite figured out yet?

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And I'll tell you, I've not figured out how we can get amazing people in our pipeline. It is insane. People don't realize this. We had a thousand applications for a general counsel role. 1,000 applications. That is insane.

[Layla]

Right? People don't know either. Right.

[Sharon Trivata]

And we made an insane hire through their process, but we had 1,000 applications. And that could be overwhelming for a lot of people, but we hit exactly a perfect culture fit, a perfect competence fit in that process. And so I'm just amazed. I don't understand how we get the operationalizing our core values in our pipeline. It's awesome. And I think that a lot of it goes to you and Alex being ultra vulnerable on everything.

[Layla]

I think that weeds people out. But when we do outreach, for example, there's people who. I mean, I look at it like, it's like, you know, they'll answer the door because of the brand. They might not have heard of it before, but when they look it up, they're like, oh, this person reached out to me. And they're like, that's substantial enough that I'm going to respond to their recruiter. Right. And then I think the content does a good job filtering. So what I. What I do notice a lot on the final interviews. I do. Or even just if it's, you know, a bigger role, like technical is they'll reference the content. And they're like. I was like, this is appealing. And then I watch the content, and now I'm like, oh, I really want to work with these people. And I think that it's that extra discretionary Effort. Because it's not just that they want to work at the company, but they want to work for the leaders at the company. Right. Which now we have three people at the Doppler company. It's like, now there's like three people they can look to and they can relate to any one of us.

[Sharon Trivata]

Sure.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

I think that a lot of people don't realize is it's the separation. I think we do one thing very well, which is the separation of a culture interview and a technical interview. And a lot of companies blend that.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

They'll say, oh, who knows this person or this role the best will flood those people. And then if you don't realize, it's very draining on the candidate.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

Cause you don't need 17 people doing 17 technical interviews. The person either got it or not, like, you know, pretty quickly. And if you've screened for the experience, you're just validating that they have the experience. They're validating that they can do the specifics. Right. But having folks that are not related to that role do the cultural interview is super powerful.

[Layla]

And because they have no skin in the game.

[Sharon Trivata]

Correct. Right. And so I think separating out the technical and the cultural is a clean, clear way of doing it. But the one advice that I would give operators right now, hiring people is you don't want it. Even if it's a technical role, you don't want it to be a ultra technical process because it is super tiring on the candidate as well.

[Layla]

You know, it's interesting because as you're saying it, I'm thinking, like, what. Where is it that most people go wrong with this? And even where I've seen, like, at times when we go wrong with ones in the company, and it's because we do so much of we do in internal intakes. Right. And with the intake, it's not only the experience we're looking for, it's something I tell the team a lot is like, we're not looking for the experience so much as what skills are dictated by that experience. So it's like, okay, we think our hypothesis is that if we get people, say for executive assistant that have worked as concierge at the Wynn Resort and Casino, that they're going to be. They're going to have the skills to also be an executive assistant. Right. But then. And then that's what we use to then say, okay, here's the avatar that I'm looking for. Right. And I think we've done the same with, like, consulting or like small business owners or and so I wonder if I think that's a missing piece is a lot of people go straight into like, okay, let's just flood ourselves and let's just do a ton of technical, a ton of culture. But they don't think, what's this person look like, what experience that they had, how do they talk, how do they act? Like there's been so many roles in the company where I'm like, I know what kind of like swagger this person needs to come in with.

[Sharon Trivata]

Totally.

[Layla]

And it's like when you have that crystal clear vision, then you can give that to the recruiter, which I think we do a good job of. And then they're like, I see the type of person that you're looking for that would do really well in this role. And then they can be so much more targeted in who they actually serve up to you. You know what I mean?

[Sharon Trivata]

I would wager that then one of the biggest problems of kind of role based hiring is most leaders think a, a CFO is a CFO is a cfo, a general counsel is a general counsel is a general counsel. So they often will tell if they're using a recruiting firm or they're doing it in house. They'll just say, hey, go to indeed and Google a bunch of CFO resumes, copy paste that and like put our, put our spin on it and get it out. Like, we should talk about the, like the G draft, the general counsel process. I sat and I team page memo, right? I sat and I wrote every single bullet point. I think that that was the reason we were able to screen for the.

[Layla]

The right candidate, right? Yes.

[Sharon Trivata]

And I think a lot of times that the teams protect the manager because they're like, oh, the manager wants this, they just want to solve this thing. We don't want them to write the description. And they'll just say, well, we'll just show them a draft and they're just going to say yes. And you outsource a lot of the pain to the interview process as opposed to front loading all of it into the filtering design process. And I actually believe that you'll get significantly better candidates in the front loading of the design process. A lot of people don't know this. You actually know this. During the process we met another individual who we were, who was not the right fit for the role. And then I said, leila, this person has a lot of magic. I don't know where she would fit. I don't know what we're thinking about. Can you just meet with her so now this person becomes like a. You're able to identify talent and you can say, well, I want to hold on to this person. So if you're a manager thinking about a role, thinking about hiring, like, take the 20 minutes to write crystal clear what you're thinking about, because then AI can polish it all for you.

[Layla]

Well, it's like, it's interesting because it's not only that you're going to attract the candidate you need, but now you know every single thing they're doing, and it's really like the crystallization of like, now I know exactly what they're doing when they're coming in. Yeah, it's funny you say that with the GCA thing because so one example is like in the portfolio for every operator that we brought in, I wrote the job description for the operator and every time we did a search, they were like, I can't believe that these amazing operators we found. So I got on with the last one. You know what I said? I said, what was it? Because I was like, I'm validating my theory here. I was like, what was it that, like, prompts you to apply? And she was like, the job description was just exactly what I want. You're talking to. Yeah, you're talking. You know who you're talking to. And it's like, why does Alex write all the copy for his book launch? Because he knows it better. Like, there's just something visceral about when you know the role, when you write it. You don't use ChatGPT. You know, you clean it up after. But like, you don't use it. It's like the thinking process, what you gain from that as well as what you gain from when the candidate reads it. And they're like, this is speaking. I mean, it's copy. It is copy. It is an ad.

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, I will tell you how we. A lot of people don't realize how to start to come up with that. I have a very simple framework on how to do that, right. I just write pain first. I just write all. You're hiring the for the role, right? And you're hiring because you're like, man, there's a gap that we see. And the gap can either be creating future capacity or solving current pain. That is generally why you hire somebody, right? You're under resourced, as you would always call it. Well, what is the pain? This is painful. This is painful. This is painful. Sorry, I just list all the pain and then I take all the pain and then I just write what each of this Person will do this. And that's the easiest part because you don't have to sit and be like, well, where do I start? There's no blank screen. You just write all the pain out.

[Layla]

All the shit that you need to solve, right?

[Sharon Trivata]

And you either write all the pain out or all the growth capacity. And then you turn all of that into language. And if you can tie it into something tactical, great, then you have a framework, then you can have ChatGPT clean it up for you. But ChatGPT can't come up with the data, doesn't know the pain that you have.

[Layla]

It doesn't. It's so funny you say that, because I have a flashback to when I was first hiring for the first executive assistant, which is Yasmeet. The ad that got her was I wrote a Facebook post and I was like, busy business owner, tired of working 17 hour days with no clear. Inbox was like the header. And then I was like, I work with my husband. We started a business. It's grown faster than anything I could ever have hoped for. But I don't have time to wash my hair, let alone order food, let alone clear my inbox. I need somebody to come and organize my life, like. And she was the one. And then, what do you know? Eight years later, here we are. She still works for me, but it was just complete. This is why my life sucks. Can you come help me? My life better. It was such an easy one for me because I'm like, yeah, help me with my personal life. I can't even have time to brush my teeth.

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, there is a great kind of saying that I picked up along the way, which is nothing great ever happens without it being written down.

[Layla]

Write a fucking memo.

[Sharon Trivata]

Right? Nothing great ever happened without it being written down. And so, I mean, you're talking Declaration of Independence, you're talking the Magna carta, you're talking $100 million offers, hundred million dollar leads, money models. Nothing great ever happened without it being written down. And the coolest part is you don't have to write everything. You just have to, like, start the process. And if more leaders took on the responsibility of crystallizing their thoughts, and I think they'll just get more clarity because you get better. Yeah, the problem is not the problem. The problem is how you think about the problem. And the thinking allows you. The writing allows you to think better.

[Layla]

Can you actually talk to write a fucking memo? Because I'm curious how it was coming in. Yeah, I don't know what the culture was like in any of your yeah, Past companies. But like coming into the memo culture and then you very quickly started hashtag, write a fucking memo. Which I love. What are your thoughts on that?

[Sharon Trivata]

So what I've noticed is that, let's see, this is familiar to people, right?

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

What's familiar? What will happen most of the times is either two leaders or manager. Two managers or three coworkers will end up having a separate group chat, bitching. They'll just see, this doesn't work. That doesn't work. Shaan messed up. Shaan messed up. Shaan messed up. Shiron messed up, man. He did it again. He did it again. And like they'll just, they'll just whine, oh, I can't believe you don't have vision. I can't believe you don't have culture. They'll just talk.

[Layla]

That actually happens.

[Sharon Trivata]

Of course. Well, happens sometimes. It happens to you and me too. Like, we're like, why? Why is this not working? Like we talk about.

[Layla]

Oh, that's true. But not about people.

[Sharon Trivata]

No, no, no. Right. So people, problem, whatever.

[Layla]

I think.

[Sharon Trivata]

But. But I think the interesting part about this is when you could separate the people from the issue. Right. So if we want to go do something, how do you separate the person from the issue? And the way you do that is you have an artifact. You write some kind. Put your thoughts on paper so that multiple people can respond to it. And that was a really. We've done that. We did that. No culture that I've been at did it actively at real. We did a really good job of. Instead of the memo, we use dashboards. It was a dashboard for everything.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

So it was like, hey, what, what are we going to track? And that was the conversation around it. But the memo's been. The memo culture has been really good. So let's break down what a memo is. It's a one to two page breakdown of what is the big idea? Why are we thinking about this problem? How are we thinking about solving it? What are the risks around it? And what's a recommendation? And all your thoughts kind of broken down and then that way everybody can look at it. Right. And the interesting part is whenever people start discussing on Slack or discussing about something, the answer is, hey, there's just too much ambiguity here. Can someone just write a memo?

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And so we have wafm, which is write a freaking memoir.

[Layla]

It's funny because even with myself, like, the reason why I'm such an. I'm such a die hard now over the memo is because as soon as I committed to it And I was like. It was probably. I think it was about nine or 10 months ago that I was like, guys, we are no longer running these meetings unless you've submitted a memo. And like, every meeting, like, write a memo. Otherwise we're not discussing. The thing is, because my friend Trevor, he sent me a bunch of studies on how people actually cannot think on a meeting. And so we got on a call, and I was like. It was like a whole weekend where, like, I was like, how do I make meetings the most effective possible? And he was like, the ideal is that you write something out ahead of time. Everybody reads it, everybody writes down their thoughts. And then when you come to the meeting, you essentially can, like, source for anything that hasn't been told, whatever. But then. And then, you know, now have enough to go make a decision on it.

[Sharon Trivata]

Yeah.

[Layla]

And I was like, oh, this is so much easier.

[Sharon Trivata]

There is a. There's two. I've seen two memo cultures. One is how we do it, which is you write the memo, everyone reads it prior to coming in, and then you make the decision. Then there's the Amazon model where you write the memo, the memo is delivered to you in the meeting. You spend the first 15 minutes of the meeting reading the memo together, so it's fresh in everyone's mind. And then you use that. Either way, there's only one commonality between both of those processes, is you write a freaking memo. And if you can just get in the habit of writing a memo, it works. I was talking to Alex about this, and I said, there's three things I like to do every day is to work out, write, and work. So, like, to me, the writing a memo is not work like I had to write. So if you don't write every day, you will just not get good at writing. Yeah, the more you write, the better you write a memo.

[Layla]

It's so interesting because I think now if somebody comes to a meeting, like, I got on a meeting that I'm not normally on, it was one of the AP meetings, and somebody brought something up and didn't have a memo. And it's like, you can tell. Everyone's like, I can't believe you're bringing this up without a memoir. And.

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, let's. Let's talk about that.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

Because we had that happen recently when Alex and I had an idea.

[Layla]

That's true. How did that go for us?

[Sharon Trivata]

Alex and I had an idea, and I said, hey, Alex, since our meeting is tomorrow, can you just drop a video for everybody? And Alex is very persuasive so he dropped this video in the meeting. We got ripped shreds. And then the next day I had to do an apology video saying, hey, I'm so sorry that we broke process. Clearly it was not well thought out. And I will go back and write a memo on this. And so like both of us tried to skip the line and yeah, it's okay.

[Layla]

I mean like, it happens to all of us. I think it's just, it's cool when you start to see that people, you know, because in the beginning, nobody wants to do it. Right. And then it's like nine months later, they're like, you're not doing it.

[Sharon Trivata]

The greatest upgrade that operators can get is managers team members are going to come to you and say, hey, Layla, can I. You got a minute? Sure. After you send me the memo. I got a minute. Yeah, yeah. So if you have an idea, it's so much more thoughtful for the person receiving it that you, that you care about it.

[Layla]

Right.

[Sharon Trivata]

I think Alex, I shared this quote with Alex is like how you prepare shows just how much you care.

[Layla]

Oh yeah, I remember that one.

[Sharon Trivata]

Right. And, but that's. You should tweet that. Alex should tweet that it out. But the, the key part there is the preparation is just writing the memo.

[Layla]

Yes.

[Sharon Trivata]

Organize your thoughts better. And I also think the one thing that I have learned is the person who is writing the memo gets this deep understanding of what they're presenting. Also the person reading it gets an instant. They're up to like 70%. So the person reading it has a 70% nuance understanding. But if you're just doing a call and discussing a topic, everyone has like 13 different questions and you're missing so much context.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

So I actually think the memos level up the organization so much faster because the person writing it gets so much better and has depth of knowledge. You always talk about the specificity. If they can't talk specifics. Like you can't write a generic memo. So if you're writing a specific memo, the person writing it has so much depth and granularity. And the person reading it gets an instant kind of like MBA upgrade in that topic, which is pretty popular. Even if they're involved in that or not unrelated to that or not. So I actually think from an organizational IQ perspective, you level up the organization so fast. Like doing this, that one little exercise.

[Layla]

No, I think it's a really good point. And it's funny because when it comes to, like when people are requesting one on one with me, they're Like, I just want a me to talk about. And I'm like, well, you need to write. It's not like you need to write me a memo about yourself, but you need to prepare a short memo of what we're going to discuss about you. And it's interesting to see like that when it's about a, a thing, people are more than happy. When I'm like, I want you to think about yourself the same way as you would. And like, what's the problem? What are the hypothesis? Like it's. But those are the best memos too, when you do it with like people development. Because then people like I thought of myself, like I think of a business, especially for our advisor team, for example. Like when I've asked them to do that, they're like, oh, that's interesting. I'm like, what's your constraint? You know? Yeah. And so I find it actually isn't even just helpful with like the, you know, problem solution topics, but like with personal development too with people on the team. Because one, I think it takes the emotion out of it because sometimes we spend the first half of a meeting just like it's getting past that emotional barrier. Players are nervous to tell me about something or they don't. They're afraid to ask about this piece of themselves. And then the second piece is then they usually have deescalated themselves because now they've written it down. And so it's like now their relationship with their own personal problem is so much healthier because they've written it down.

[Sharon Trivata]

Totally, totally. I, I bet folks watching are thinking, hey, can you give me an example of a memo? Can you give me a framework for memo? Like, can you give me a memo on how to write a memo? There's a lot of ways to do this, but let me share a super simple framework with folks. It's the why. What, how now? Why? Like why is this important? Hey, sales are down, which means we're gonna lose money this month. This is why I'm writing the memo. There's a big why. Cool. So now the person reading is like, okay, I know why I'm reading this. Giving context. What is the problem? The problem is that our sales closing numbers have gone from this to this. That is at 30,000ft. Cool. Well, that is the what? Well, how? Well, the how is like we were doing it this way. It was not working. So the proposal is to do it this way. And here's all the risk run. That is the how, all the mechanics, the now or the next portion is, hey, based on all of this information, here's the proposal that we have. We are suggesting that we do these three things. What do you think? Right? So now, if anybody. You probably come up with your own kind of framework. But it is very easy to go with like a hey, why? Kind of, what is it? How are the pieces? What am I going to do next? That gives the person reading it a very clear kind of roadmap of they can follow from macro to micro and then, like, zoom back out if they want to and ask questions if they want to. So if you're. As you're watching, if you are thinking about what framework do I have goals? Why, what, how? No, we should.

[Layla]

It'd be so cool if one day, like, five years from now, we share, like, our unreleased five years of memos from the executive team. Like, wouldn't that be sick?

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, think about this, right? Like, when RDC came on board, all she. All she's thinking is all the memos. She's like, hey, I'm just gonna read all the memos. And that gets you caught up on all the key topics.

[Layla]

Yeah, it's so much easier. I feel like that was such a key learning, honestly, just came from the Jeff Bezos interview or his book or whatever. And when I got, like, I heard it a million times, but I think at that point I was like, no, we're at the point where now this makes more sense than not. Like, there's. We're not a small team anymore. I know when you get to that point in the company, it's really interesting. I'm really curious, coming into acquisition.com, was there anything worse than you expected or.

[Sharon Trivata]

And he's like, let me take that back.

[Layla]

Yeah, yeah. And no, no, I'm giving you free reign. Or was there anything different, like, in how I operate and how Alex operates than what you expected? I'm sure people are wondering because everyone watches us, right? And like, I think we both. Alex and I have committed to, like, we want to be transparent. But I'm just curious if you see anything.

[Sharon Trivata]

I do. So I see two. We'll talk about you and Alex. Been very different, but I knew this coming in. Yeah, you have the ability. You are very adaptable. Meaning you can talk about the future and you can talk about the present and you can go back and forth. I'd be like, hey, so in three years, this team is not good enough, and you can instantly live in the future and you can talk about that. And then you have this uncanny ability to say, okay, if that is the case, Let me reason back to where we are today. Okay. That means we need three other hires even though they're not busy right now. That is building capacity for the future. Like, your ability to go to kind of accordion future to present is a super gift of yours.

[Layla]

I had no idea. It used to be so hard for me.

[Sharon Trivata]

It's. Maybe you've trained. It's. It's awesome. I enjoy it because I like that as well. And so it's super easy to talk to you. I'm like, hey. So I never have to like, is Layla in a good space or is she going to be tired? I always know you can accordion whenever you. You need to.

[Layla]

It's interesting. Don't you think of it like, a little bit? Like, I have to go into the future frequent enough to know that I'm still like, the compass is pointing in the right direction. You know what I mean? Correct. It's very healthy.

[Sharon Trivata]

What most people struggle with is when you have calendars like you and I do, it's very hard to live in the future.

[Layla]

It's fair, right?

[Sharon Trivata]

So to, like, have the accordion is a skill. And so, like, I love talking to you about it because I know that I can catch you at any time and I can anchor you in the future for a minute. I can pull you to the present for a minute. And that's a really easy thing to do with you. With Alex, I always just stay in the future.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

I just stay in the future all the time. And he's like, so whatever it is, whatever topic, I just always go to the future with him because it's just easier with. And because he's always in the future.

[Layla]

Totally.

[Sharon Trivata]

And until he needs to, he's not in the present. And for him, in the present is learning, writing, thinking, and creating. But the more you can stay in the future with him, the bigger and better future you could create for him. The more inspired he gets, the bigger he thinks. The more he thinks is possible. The less he starts comparing, the more. The less he starts thinking, oh, I can't. Like, he. I just started. I just started living the future with Alex.

[Layla]

It's really smart observation.

[Sharon Trivata]

So it's just easier. Like, it's easier for. And so when he says something, I'm like, oh, that's a today thing. I'll just take it.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And then you and I can just solve how we implement it. But yeah, for him, he doesn't like the accordion back and forth.

[Layla]

No, he doesn't said that too. He's like, I don't want to live in today. I like both.

[Sharon Trivata]

Yeah. I think what a lot of the thing that I love for us is that I love knowing everything about everything.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And I can take in a lot of knowledge, and I may not be touching what's happening in. In the building renovation. I may not be touching what's happening in the changing of pricing, but I love knowing everything about everything because I know that the. It will. There's a daisy chain that will happen. There's some neural pathway that will connect, and you have an insane capacity for a lot of information. Like, you can sit and take more and more and more and more and more, and nothing overwhelms you. And that's super fun because I can just be like, hey, Layla, I got 14 updates, and I can just fire stuff at you. You're like, okay, that's cool. Nothing to do there. Okay, that's cool. Okay, good. We're good. You can take a lot. Most people can't take a lot. And, like, you can get. You can take a lot. And that's, like, super fun because I just never hold back. I'm like, hey, we should just talk about this. And you and I can have long agendas and not be tired.

[Layla]

I know. I mean, to be honest with you, that's what I enjoy about, like, you have the eye capacity, so it's like I. I, like, expected it with you coming in, but then, like, getting to actually, like, work with you on it. I'm just like, oh, nothing is like, there's never. I'm like, I have seven more things, and it's like. So I remember we got on the phone, like, after my surgery, and you're like, I have 16 items, and I was like, amazing. Like, it's like, let's just go fire through. But it's like, that's fun. And I think is. That's cool. That's good to know.

[Sharon Trivata]

The one thing that I've experienced in the past, and I think a lot of cultures, operating cultures are just different. Right. And so I don't think it's a one. Operating culture is different from a. I don't think there's a good or bad.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

But I think it's very important for leaders and managers to realize what their operating culture is. It's very easy for organizations, as they get bigger, to silo. And I personally hate silos.

[Layla]

No.

[Sharon Trivata]

And, like, for example, I'll tell you, I like to do hard things. Otherwise, I'm just. I don't feel challenged. And I'm like, well, I'm pushing Paper. I don't want to do this.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

I also don't like anybody telling me what project I cannot be involved in. If I want to go work on this events thing, I want to go on work on this event thing. If I want to work on this tax thing, I want to go work on this tax thing. If I want, I want to work on whatever I want to work on, which I think is good for the organization.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And not like. And you're cool with that? I'm just like, hey, I'm just going to take it. And like, sure. I'm like, I want to do that. So I think allowing folks to choose a lot of what they work on now, is that feasible for everybody? No. But I think most organizations can say, hey, if you get your stuff done and you want to partner with other people in the organization, do other things, go for it. Like, we totally support that. I've seen silos and like, hey, this is finance. Don't touch it. This is legal. Don't touch it. I'm like, that's not. I. Now I'm not interested anymore because that's an interesting thing for me.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And so I like the diversity of the things that I'm working on. Everything's new. Everything is new every day. And so if I had to work on the same thing every day, I would be very bored.

[Layla]

Oh, I can't imagine that. I remember one of my first mentors was like, do you like to do the same thing every day, or do you like to work on different things every day? And I was like, in my personal life, I prefer things to be a little more steady, but in work, I like it to be different every day. Yeah. And it's almost like you kind of. I like the juxtaposition, because the moment that we sold Jamon, for example, all of a sudden I was like, I don't want to do the same thing every day. And I was like, I want to go to dinner and go travel and go do. Because I just like any variety, but I have it in work. So I want my. My personal life to be more steady. It's interesting because when you're saying that, I'm thinking about something I tell people when they come in as a leader in the organization, which is like, I don't see you as head of tech, head of CS head. I see you as a head in the organization. And whatever your skills are, I'm going to ask you to help with the other skills that may be deficits with somebody else. So, like, even for Example, when it comes to the recruiting function, the amount of times that they collaborate with sales. Yeah. Because I'm like, guess what? Recruiting is sales or with marketing. Because I'm like, hey, all this employer branding, all of this, this, like, bring in our copywriters, bring in the people that know how to sell. Bring in some of the sales guys. I want to see what they think of this video. Like, and they come out with such good products because of that collaboration. And it's like, traditionally, they're like, well, that's. That's talent. Like, I shouldn't be in that. And I was like, fuck that. You're really good at it.

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, you started doing. This is more recently combining finding talent with your content. Like, you started making content on how you find. And that was like, that. Those posts started perform really well. Because I think it does two things. It tells you about how you live your life, and we run the business. And it also says where that person's going to fit in. I think it's insanely, insanely powerful. I talked to one of our [e-mail] yesterday, and I was sharing with him that he was like, well, I feel like, you know, I don't want to step on anyone's toes if I want to do XYZ Project, I think it's really simple. Let's just use better language. You work on your stuff, and then you go to folks that own something else and say, hey, I'd love to partner with you. You get. It's your role. You get all the credit. I just. I have the knowledge base. I just want to partner with you. And then if someone asks, hey, Sean, why are you doing that? Hey, I'm just partnering with Layla on this. It's her thing now. Everybody welcomes a partnership.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And I think we just switch our language out to saying, hey, I'm partnering with different people to do different things. I think it gives you insane collaboration around it, but I think the organization should allow for that naturally.

[Layla]

Yeah. Well, I think that's what we have to fight as it gets bigger, a hundred percent. It's like. It's just, you know, I think the hard part about having a company that has a unique culture is that you're constantly fighting the fact that people come from places that don't. And so it's just like, what? Yeah, I mean, that's the hardest battle is like, they come in and then it's like, I joke. I'm like, are you gonna bring your California to my Texas? Because, like, you know how people always Joke about that. When I was in Texas, people used to be like, oh, well, they brought the California. And I was like, I didn't understand what that meant. Then I was like, oh, that's what happens in companies. Which is like, you hire these people who are like, I'm so sick of California. And then you're like, great, come to Texas. And they're like, by the way, I'm gonna do everything like I did in California. And you're like, what the. You know, and it's the same. That happens like, I hate corporate. They're so siloed, and there's so much corporate jargon. And then they're like, per my last. And I'm like, oh, wow, what's going on?

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, that also goes to, like. The one kind of advice is a bad word. The one kind of call out I want to make for folks is how you work with someone in the C suite, is how you work with a director, is how you work with an analyst. It doesn't. We have to start to break these title boundaries, treating them like they're stupid. And I know a lot of folks watching are going to be like, hey, listen, you know, I have a small team and I have three virtual assistants. Well, here's a piece of advice. Stop calling them a va. Just you. If you think of them, if you're like, oh, my VA will take care of that, you're instantly demeaning that person because you're like, hey, they're in the Philippines and they're a virtual assistant there. No, give them a title. They are an operations manager. Great. Hey, our operations manager will take care of that. Just if you do small things where just, you know, allow every person in the organization to realize that they have a key role to contribute, it's way easier to have everybody be a part of the same culture. Like the smallest of things. Even contractors. Like, you want to. Why would you not have a contractor on your Slack channel? We do that on purpose.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

So having contractors is okay if you can, but they have to work within our culture in a lot of ways.

[Layla]

It's a really good point because I think. I think a lot of that ties in with, like, how you parent Neil Laura, for example, which is like, you don't treat them like stupid kids. I think it's like, when you hire people, even if they're entry level, you don't treat them like stupid entry level people. Like, you're not. You treat them like. Treat them like what you would like them to be. Which is like, okay, I want you to be an executive or a director or a very autonomous individual contributor.

[Sharon Trivata]

I'm going to talk to you that way.

[Layla]

Yeah. And it's like, see if they can raise and fill the gap.

[Sharon Trivata]

Yeah, yeah.

[Layla]

Really good point.

[Sharon Trivata]

Yeah. I just think making sure everyone has titles and not, you know, that. Not titles, but just a respectful, functional contribution and then just hold everybody to the same standard.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

Why is my standard different than your standard? Different than anyone else's standard? It's the same standard. Culture is not like it's not based on hierarchy.

[Layla]

No, no. It's interesting. I remember at gym launch, we had contractors. They ran the CS for Alan, and they were in Nigeria. And I remember everyone's like, oh, well, because they're Nigerian contractors. Like, we don't need to, like, celebrate anything or for birthdays, do anything or, you know. And I was like, that sounds fucking terrible. What are you talking about? Please treat them like everyone else. They were like, compliance. I'm like, I can send them gifts. There's nothing wrong with that. They're like, oh, it's going to cost $300. I was like, then that's more important to send it. And I remember we had one and he ended up. I remember we sent him the swag bag and it was like, $350 to get there. It got there. This was during COVID There were fights on the street. People were shooting in his neighborhood, and he got his entire family because they were like, there's all this chaos of what. They all ended up working for us. We had this whole family working for us. And they were literally outperformed every person in the United States, of course. And like, like, could not have been a better teammate. And I was just like, guys, just because it's a contractor and he's an id, like, we do not treat him differently. Like, treat him like you would treat anybody else. And then it was like, he literally said. He was like, I've never been treated this well at a company.

[Sharon Trivata]

That's awesome.

[Layla]

He's like, okay. And it's just like the tiniest thing. Like, yes, send him the sweatshirt. You know what I mean? You're like, what? It's just crazy.

[Sharon Trivata]

It's awesome.

[Layla]

I'm curious for you, coming in, what has been the most rewarding and what do you think has been the most challenging? I would say it doesn't need to be tactical, but it could be mental.

[Sharon Trivata]

I'll say the most rewarding thing. I'll tie it to, like, a little piece of advice for everyone.

[Layla]

Yeah, the.

[Sharon Trivata]

The most so start with, like, a story on what happened. So the. In my first few weeks, I decided the only way I could connect with everybody was to connect with everybody. And so I kind of essentially put a calendar link and said, hey, I want to speak with every single person in the organization. I think I got to most of.

[Layla]

Them, almost all of them is nuts.

[Sharon Trivata]

And met and spoke with everyone, even for a little bit. And I realized in that conversation, while I was preparing for that, like, what question can I ask here that would be helpful? And I didn't know what question to ask. It was not quite there. I said, well, what does everybody in the organization know more than me? Well, they know what it's like to be here. So I asked the question every single person, which was, what advice do you have for me?

[Layla]

Oh, that's cool, right?

[Sharon Trivata]

What is one piece of advice you have for me? And I have every single person's advice that they gave me. A couple of them said, I don't have anything for you right now. I'll send it to you. But every single person gave me a piece of advice. And if you are a leader walking into a new organization, I really think the most crucial thing that you can do. I've never done this before, so it's not like Sean ran a playbook. It was no playbook. I tried to figure out, what does everyone know that I don't? I think it will really help you as a new person coming in, new leader coming in, new employee coming in to be like, hey, what is the one piece of advice you have for me? And you will see a pattern around that, and that's a really valuable pattern. Right. So that's kind of number one. But the rewarding thing for me was it gave me guidance on how to be. Right. Otherwise, you're trying to figure out how to be.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And I thought that. That just asking that one question, all the answers, I just felt like I got a ton of great advice. So the organization kind of welcomed me by giving me that advice. And just because of doing all of those, I know every single person. I knew him so fast. And what's closer than. What's closer than someone giving you advice? Nobody. Right. They almost have to get to the point of the only people give advice to you is they instantly care about you.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

So I did this unknowingly, but that was ultra, ultra rewarding for me.

[Layla]

It's really cool. Yeah. I feel like we should tell everyone to do that. That's a really great question to ask.

[Sharon Trivata]

Yeah.

[Layla]

It's so Obvious. You say it, but it wouldn't be obvious that somebody coming in like you is going to ask people that. But I think for other people in the organization, like, it's just, it's the frame shift that it does, which is like immediate disarm, immediate humility. Immediate. Like, I can learn from you. And I think for anybody coming in, especially somebody who's coming in as a leader or as a new partner, like, that's just. Yeah, it disarms. Like, I'm not here to like, tell, like, you tell me it's good. Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

As far as something that's challenging or I would flip this script on the challenging part. It is very easy in today's world to say, to expect reasonable things. And I'm really glad that since I have no context, I just didn't accept any reasonable things. So we were working on this big project in finance. I go, well, why should it take six months? Can we do it in 60 days? The team was like, what are you talking about? He has like, I think we can do this in 60 days. Like, can we do something unreasonable? Because it'll make our next 60 days significantly easier. And it's easy for us to fall into these reasonable traps. Oh, oh, let's set quarterly goals. Therefore I can do this in 90 days. I had a conversation today with one of our team members and I said, man, I've not even started on that goal, but I have 86 days left. No, you don't. That's a really bad. Like, I said that. This is a really bad way to look at it. Why am I waiting 86 days to do this? It's a four hour project.

[Layla]

Right.

[Sharon Trivata]

And I think that we somehow put reasonable time frames where reasonableness, reasonability on our lives, where if we just take an unreasonable frame on things, you can accomplish way more.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And you'd be shocked at the things that you can build in a much shorter amount of time in a much higher quality, have a much higher standard. Just give yourself permission to be a little bit unreasonable.

[Layla]

It's interesting. Did Alex tell you that I said that about you? No.

[Sharon Trivata]

No.

[Layla]

Oh, seriously. So last weekend he was like, he's like, tell me something that you've learned, like, by watching Tron work. And I was like, I realized that I have unreasonable expectations of people's character and their leadership, but not as much of their work. And so I, I'm so siloed. And I look at like how they're showing up, they're. That sometimes I realize, I'm like, oh, I'M lacking over here. And so I started picking that up. I noticed that you were doing that. And I was like, I didn't ever realize. Like, I over index sometimes on like the person and their leadership and that. And then it's like, wait, the. Is this taking so long for? It's almost like a distraction. And so I was like, I wrote down for myself, like, focus on the do and the who. Like, I need to focus on both elements for the departments I oversee, because I think that I can, like, set the. Which seems like backwards to me. I'm like, I don't know why I do that. But I was like, I totally saw that you doing that and resetting that in meetings. And I was like, I could do so much better there. So I picked that up quick.

[Sharon Trivata]

I was like, oh, well, thank you. But a lot of the reason. The reason I do that is because I know you got the other side. I'm like, layla's got that. So I'm just gonna push really hard on this.

[Layla]

Okay, we can keep. I was like, I'm bad. I've only got one side of this.

[Sharon Trivata]

No, it's perfect. Well, to me, it was also. I recognize you. Can you do that very well, naturally. So I was like, I'm just gonna push really hard on the other side.

[Layla]

That's cool. Well, I would be fine keeping it split because it's not natural to me, because my favorite. How long does that take? I have no idea. But you should do it faster, right?

[Sharon Trivata]

Cuz. Or you can just the. Everyone on the team's going to watch this, but you can just say, Sean's going to balk if you tell him three weeks. I'm just going to tell you all that. Be ready. Why? Why does stuff take three weeks? Stuff does not take three weeks. That's our job. Like, we do a poor job of prioritization.

[Layla]

Like, you know, it's fair. It's something that I've. I've tried to get through to people in organization, which is like, if you need to clear two days of your week off, these meetings that you attend every week that probably aren't moving things forward as well to get your priorities done faster, then why are you not doing that? But it's like, everyone's waiting for permission. And I'm like. I'm saying we have permission. Like, I promise you I won't be mad. So, like, who's gonna be mad?

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, I will tell you this. If you want to figure out how to make. How to do unreasonable things, you hang out with Alex for a day.

[Layla]

That's fair.

[Sharon Trivata]

He does not care. He's like, I'm sorry, what do you have going on? Let's do it right now for him. And I'm like, I got to go. I got other stuff to do. He's like, let's do it right now. So he's so unreasonable about. If that's important, why don't we do this right now? But to operationalize this for everyone who's watching, you may say, well, what does that mean? What's unreasonable for Schwan is not unreasonable for Layla is can you do six months worth of stuff in 60 days? Is that unreasonable? Is that not? Well, Are you just a tyrant? No, I'm not just a tyrant. Like, the thing that you want to think about is this. What do you have to show for it? If you keep asking yourself that question at the end of the day, what do you have to show for it? I work all day and I'll message you. I'm like, I feel like so behind. I'm useless. I'm not contributor at all. Because I felt like, as of yesterday, I had nothing to show for. I just did a. I had a big meeting day or it was just an operational day. And yes, you have to move this forward, but I had nothing to show for it except my full calendar.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And if you ask. If we ask ourselves the question, what do you have to show for it? I actually think you'll reprioritize things to have something to show for it.

[Layla]

Because it's like, where is the result you're showing?

[Sharon Trivata]

Like, what did you do? Did you get more sales? Did you send out more emails? Like, what do you have to show for it?

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And we get stuck in the doing, but not in the. I got it done. And it's a very easy question to ask at the end of the day before you go to bed, if you just close your eyes and say, what do I have to show for it? And if there's not a lot to show for it, you just reprioritize your next day to show for it. And that's the fastest way to collapse a reasonable to unreasonable. Because now you're like, oh, it was reasonable that now I have something to show for it.

[Layla]

Yeah, no, I think that's really good. I'm thinking about. I don't remember the analogy. It's like gas, except expands to the size of the room or whatever. It's like, in general, I think, how can people do that in a tasteful way? It's like, well, Just understand. I think someone's like. You say like, someone's no hinged or. Yes, hinge. Are they like, take too long or not take long enough hinge? Like, are they a shortcut taker or are they someone who takes way too long because they're anxious, like, and you have to know who you're talking to, which is like. I think there's a lot of people who. It's like, they're overly anxious of delivering something perfect. So they're gonna 3x how long it's gonna take. It's like, all right, well, then it's gonna good to drive in on those people because you're like, dude, it's not going to take that long. Like me just get it done versus be perfect, where it's like the shortcut person. It's like, why don't you give yourself another week? Otherwise, you know, they're going to trip over themselves and make a mistake.

[Sharon Trivata]

I. You know, our friend Taki Moore always. He. He said this phrase, which I love. He goes, you want a super fast, shitty first draft.

[Layla]

That's why you always say first draft, huh?

[Sharon Trivata]

Yeah, just first draft, super fast. Like, how fast can you turn around a shitty first draft? And now we've already. We've already taken away judgment from the draft. Hey, we know it's a shitty first draft. It's not just a first draft. It's a shitty first draft. Like, get your thoughts out as soon as possible. I'll give you the craziest analogy, the one. I was a decent student and I got good grades, but I was never stressed in any. In college or in business school. I was never stressed because freshman year, first semester, like, the three weeks in, I went to this seminar. It was how to be a good student. And literally all I remember from college was this. This guy, the speaker said, as soon as you are assigned a project started that day, that's it. So I tell my son Neil, the same thing. I go, he's like, dad, I have, you know, 20 problems, but I have two weeks to do it. I'm like, no, that's great. Was it assigned today? Just started today, right?

[Layla]

Yeah. It's funny you say that because, like, I'm thinking about how you and I work, and it's like, we'll talk about something. And then we're like, it's not like, oh, I'm gonna start that. And like, through it's like, all right, so like, now tomorrow is tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, like, we'll start working on it. Like, yeah, it's just like, immediate interesting. You say the shitty first drafting. Because also when I was recovering and I was like, what am I going to do? I told you guys, I was like, I'm going to start writing a book. Well, I did and I did. I have a draft. And I know that's full data project.

[Sharon Trivata]

That was the project you were working on?

[Layla]

Yeah. I haven't even talked to. I barely told Alex. But Trevor, who's the editor, and he's been working on it with me.

[Sharon Trivata]

He.

[Layla]

He was like, I just need you to get out like the most shit first draft. He said, all first drafts look the same. They look like shit. And when he said that, he was like, start writing today. I was like, fuck. And that's when I started writing. And then it was just like, so an interesting process I think we could apply to anything is that I would write one chapter. He was like, great, now the next one. And I was like, aren't you gonna edit? Nope. He's like, you always have to take the path of least resistance with something new. So the process of doing this writing has been really interesting. Cause I've gotten through now to the last chapter. And I'm like, okay, well, what? And he's like, we will go back to number one and there will be a shit ton of work. But like, we had to get through this first. And I was like, oh, it's such a good analogy for anything. It's like, you just have to get out there because guess what? Now I'm fucking committed too. Of course I not finish it now because, like, I did finish it, basically.

[Sharon Trivata]

Well, it's already. It's very approachable, right? And so I tell my son, Neil, he have 20 problems. He's like. I'm like, just do two. He's like, dad, I. I just want to. I just want to chill and watch some iPad. I'm like, great, do two problems. And he goes, dad, I started two. I was in the zone. I did like 12.

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Trivata]

And just do two. And so my thing for most people is if you're assigned something just started that day. If you do that, you're fresh. Everything's fresh. You start it and you'll. You'll get the momentum. I really believe that inspiration and momentum are perishable. When you're getting hit, when you're struck with inspiration, you should do something then. When you're struck with momentum, you should do something then. Because if you let it go, it's just super. Just the half life of it is. Is. Is, you know, it turns around and you lose it very fast.

[Layla]

That's super true, man. There's some. That's why, like, with Alex, like, people, like, they're like, well, he's more creative. Right. And I'm like, we create conditions correct to allow for creativity. I can be creative if I don't have 17 meetings on my calendar. Right. So it's like, when do I do writing? It's like on the weekends, after I've done my work, or like, I'll block the first few hours and it's like I'm writing or doing something like, you know, doing the quarterly decks and things like that. The vision. It's like, I'm not going to start and do 17 meetings, then go into that. It's like, what are the conditions that would exist for me to be creative? Yeah, it's interesting.

[Sharon Trivata]

So there's folks thinking about two big questions that people always think about. One is, hey, I'm just. I really feel pain. I want to grow. I know I've got to get people. I'm bringing somebody on. I have this trepidation that this person's going to come on and take a piece of stuff off my plate. And there's this fear, what if they don't do well? Or, heck, what if they do really well? Are they going to replace what I do or what have you? So there's that thought. And the second is, hey, do I. Do I ever bring on someone that can. That can partner with me, that can be in a much more senior role? Like, how do you. You've seen this work? Like, how do you respond to that? How do you, like, alleviate, or what guidance do you have for that person? Thinking. Thinking about either making an important hire or making a very, like, crucial partnership thing.

[Layla]

Yeah, I think with the first one, when people come to me and they're like, I'm just really afraid I'm going to hire the wrong person. I'm like, you will. And until you've hired the wrong person, you won't get the right one. And so I think it's. In trying to avoid the fear, you also avoid having the success that it will get you if you get to the other side. Yeah. And so it's like I had to hire three bad ex to get a good one because I was new, didn't know what I was looking for, et cetera, like acquisition.com, you know, it's neither of our first company, like, we've already got the reps in that we, like, have a. The shitty first draft is done. But when you're on your shitty first draft. It's like I always tell people it's like the floppy first pancake or thus. It's got all the butter, it barely flips over. It's like, that's your first hire for somebody and you're going to realize. But if you don't get through that, you don't get to the right person who is the right fit. Right. So it's like you can't avoid hiring the wrong person if you've never hired before. You just can't. And so you just got to get over that because it's. It will absolutely happen. We are how experienced. We have so much experience hiring people and we've done it wrong all the time. Yeah, it's like hiring is also not like a. Oh, because you're good at it. It doesn't ever. You don't ever get it wrong. It doesn't work that way. Yeah. It's like you just, you get better at possibly predicting, but there's a lot of people that can also. You predict wrong. You just don't know. And I think with the second one, the question was bring somebody in at more of a senior level to alleviate more. Yeah, I think that it's. You have to be at a point where you understand the opportunity cost of your time and how much more you could grow the company doing something else. I think people stall their companies out when they hire somebody and bring somebody in as like a senior leader or partner, and then they just chill, they just cruise. And it's actually interesting because, like, you know, one assumption people made with you coming in was like, oh, Layla's going to be, you know, just chilling now. She's, what are you going to be, a homemaker? And I was like, no, we're trying to do more. If you want to grow a bigger company, you need more capacity. I was like, so we're, we all, all three of us have a ton of capacity. And so if you're bringing someone in, they take things off of you. They have their own capacity. And now you have capacity. You need to know that you can do something more valuable with your capacity than you were before. And that's what I think for somebody who's hiring somebody thinks about that. If it's bringing in a partner, it's thinking, if I have double the capacity, which in reality, it's like I have 10x the capacity. Because you also have the support, the mind share all those things. What can we both do that's worth more than what we both do right now? Yeah. And, you know, something I was saying is, like, we could both build our own separate companies that get to multiple billions. I think we know that.

[Sharon Trivata]

Yeah.

[Layla]

But we can do it faster with less friction and more fun together.

[Sharon Trivata]

100%. Yeah. Hey, Tron, I have a cool gift for you since you like this podcast. I actually have an ultra super secret private podcast that I make just for my partner companies and the CEOs and influencers that I advise. It's called 10K Wisdom. Because I try to wrap $10,000 worth of value in every single episode in just under 10 minutes. That's why it's called 10K Wisdom. It's raw, it's real. It's got no intro or outro or anything like that. It's just straight to the point and to the insights. Since you like this podcast, I think you will like that. So for the first time, I'm making it available to you. Just go to 10kwisdom.com, the number 10kwisdom.com and my team will activate it for you as my gift. Go to 10kwisdom.com I'll see you there.

[Layla]

Sam.