We Made A BIG Decision… | Ep 908

Summary

Podcast Summary: "We Made A BIG Decision… | Ep 908" - The Game with Alex Hormozi

Release Date: June 16, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 908 of The Game with Alex Hormozi, titled "We Made A BIG Decision…", Alex Hormozi and his co-host Layla delve into a monumental decision that marks a significant milestone in their entrepreneurial journey. They proudly announce the inclusion of Sharon Srivata, a renowned figure in the real estate industry, as a partner at acquisition.com. This episode offers an in-depth look into the rationale, process, and profound impact of bringing Sharon on board, drawing from their extensive conversation and shared experiences.

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1. Announcing the New Partnership

Alex Hormozi opens the episode with an enthusiastic reveal:

"The fastest way to become the person that you want is to surround yourself with people who give you no choice but to become them." – Alex Hormozi [00:23]

This sets the tone for the episode, emphasizing the importance of strategic partnerships in personal and professional growth. The addition of Sharon Srivata is likened to a game-changing move, comparable to bringing Michael Jordan into a basketball team.

2. The Decision-Making Process

The conversation transitions to the meticulous decision-making process behind integrating Sharon into their business. Alex reflects on the anticipation and careful planning that spanned over a year:

"We’ve been friends for six or seven years now, and to give you some context... getting into a partnership, you know, you’ve heard our content before. It’s like getting married. It’s a huge decision." – Alex Hormozi [01:02]

Both Alex and Layla express their nervousness and excitement, acknowledging the gravity of this partnership.

3. Sharon Srivata’s Impressive Background

Sharon Srivata’s credentials are thoroughly explored, showcasing his exemplary track record:

"It's the Michael Jordan of the real estate industry. Not only doing a billion-dollar company once, but twice." – Alex Hormozi [10:07]

Sharon’s journey from a computer science student funding startups to scaling companies to multi-billion-dollar valuations highlights his unparalleled expertise and strategic acumen.

4. Building Trust Through Friendship

A significant portion of the episode delves into the longstanding friendship and mutual trust between Alex and Sharon:

"Not one time did I have a doubt." – Sharon Srivata [19:41]

They recount initial meetings, the depth of their discussions, and the seamless transition from acquaintances to trusted business partners. This foundation of trust was pivotal in making the decision to bring Sharon into acquisition.com.

5. Metaphors and Frameworks for Business Growth

Sharon introduces the powerful metaphor of “barrels” and “ammo” to illustrate resource allocation and team dynamics:

"At some point you have to bring in a barrel, which is something I can give ammunition to, and they can just go shoot it and they can hit the target." – Sharon Srivata [22:07]

This framework emphasizes the need for high-leverage talent that can independently drive business objectives, thereby accelerating growth and efficiency.

6. Effective Onboarding Strategies

The episode highlights the strategies employed to seamlessly integrate Sharon into the organization. Sharon’s proactive approach in meeting every team member and understanding the company culture is lauded:

"Sharon onboarded himself within 10 days and talked to over 100 people during that period." – Alex Hormozi [35:07]

Layla adds that a comprehensive onboarding plan was crafted to ensure Sharon’s swift and effective assimilation:

"Layla wrote me a 16 to 20-page onboarding plan... it shows that you care so much about the person coming on board." – Layla [39:57]

7. Impact on Acquisition.com and Future Vision

With Sharon’s expertise, acquisition.com's trajectory is poised for exponential growth. Alex discusses how delegating significant responsibilities allows them to focus on high-leverage activities:

"We've been talking about this so we can hit the ground running... it's going to be really big." – Alex Hormozi [19:41]

They outline their vision for Acquisition.com 3.0, aiming to not only expand their own businesses but also empower other entrepreneurs through comprehensive scaling roadmaps.

8. Cultivating a High-Trust Culture

A recurring theme is the cultivation of a culture where team members can confidently say, “I got it,” fostering accountability and trust:

"My favorite three words that someone can ever tell me is I got it... that is the fastest way to kind of building that trust with your team." – Layla [28:19]

This culture encourages individuals to take ownership, reducing friction and enhancing overall organizational efficiency.

9. Lessons for Entrepreneurs

The episode imparts valuable lessons for business owners looking to scale:

• Surround Yourself with High-Leverage Talent: Bringing in partners who can independently drive business results.
• Effective Onboarding: Ensuring new leaders integrate smoothly by meeting the team and understanding the company deeply.
• Building Trust and Accountability: Establishing a culture of ownership where team members feel empowered to take charge.

10. Concluding Thoughts and Future Endeavors

Alex wraps up the episode by expressing deep gratitude for their listeners and sharing additional resources:

"If this has provided value to you... DM it to them, slack it to them, text them a screenshot or a link to this podcast is the only way it grows." – Alex Hormozi [29:22]

Sharon and Layla echo the excitement surrounding the partnership and Acquisition.com’s future, highlighting their commitment to excellence and impactful growth.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• "The fastest way to become the person that you want is to surround yourself with people who give you no choice but to become them." – Alex Hormozi [00:23]
• "Not one time did I have a doubt." – Sharon Srivata [19:41]
• "At some point you have to bring in a barrel, which is something I can give ammunition to, and they can just go shoot it and they can hit the target." – Sharon Srivata [22:07]
• "Layla wrote me a 16 to 20-page onboarding plan... it shows that you care so much about the person coming on board." – Layla [39:57]
• "My favorite three words that someone can ever tell me is I got it... that is the fastest way to kind of building that trust with your team." – Layla [28:19]

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Key Takeaways

1. Strategic Partnerships Accelerate Growth: Bringing in partners with proven expertise can significantly enhance business scaling efforts.
2. Trust and Friendship as Foundations: Long-term relationships based on trust and mutual respect are crucial for successful business collaborations.
3. High-Leverage Talent is Indispensable: Investing in top-tier talent that can independently drive business objectives is a game-changer for organizational efficiency.
4. Effective Onboarding Ensures Seamless Integration: Comprehensive onboarding plans that immerse new leaders in the company culture and operations are vital.
5. Cultivating a Culture of Ownership: Encouraging team members to take ownership and affirming their competency fosters a high-trust, high-performance environment.

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Conclusion

Episode 908 of The Game with Alex Hormozi masterfully illustrates the significance of strategic partnerships in scaling a business. By integrating Sharon Srivata into acquisition.com, Alex and Layla not only bolster their leadership team but also set the stage for unprecedented growth and innovation. The episode offers profound insights into building trust, effective onboarding, and cultivating a high-performance culture, making it an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs aiming to elevate their businesses to new heights.

Transcript

[Layla]

Probably my favorite three words that someone can ever tell me is I got it. Because I know that it's super, super powerful. And if you're in an organization right now and you feel like you want that recognition, say, hey, partner, manager, boss, whatever, I got it. And then deliver on the I got it. That is the fastest way to kind of building that trust with your. With your team.

[Alex]

The fastest way to become the person that you want is to surround yourself with people who give you no choice but to become them. And so I think Layla and I are very proud to announce that we're bringing in, for the first time ever in our career, a partner into our business at acquisition.com, which is the man, the myth, the legend, the Michael Jordan of the real estate industry, Sharon Srivata.

[Layla]

I'm so excited to be here. This is so fun.

[Sharon Srivata]

I'm so excited. I can't believe it's finally here.

[Layla]

We've been over a year.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah, over a year that we've been talking about it now. You remember doing the lightboard session in Alex's office, and we were like, talking about the whole plan. We planned the whole thing out, and it's like the countdown began. Alex had a little timer on his phone.

[Alex]

Yeah, I did. And every, like, for days and weeks, I would just be like, 78 days left, 54 days left until we could finally announce this. I think that it would be helpful for everyone to know kind of like the thought process behind the decision and kind of our relationship and how it's evolved to even deciding to do this. Because, you know, getting into a partnership, you know, you've heard our content before. It's. I mean, it's like getting married. It's a huge. It's a huge decision.

[Sharon Srivata]

I think we were all equally terrified.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Sharon Srivata]

Not wanting to fuck anything up.

[Alex]

Yeah. And we've been. So what a lot of people might not know is that we've been friends for six or seven years now, and, like, very good friends. So to give you some context, and we'll walk through the. Some of the timelines, because I think it'll be relevant. But, like, when we were selling the company, I was talking to Sean every morning, like, hey, what do you think about this? And what do we think of this deal term? And even before that, you know, I got introduced to him from a mutual friend of ours, and we had a zoom call. Like, I don't like, four or five o' clock at night, and I don't really take calls in the afternoon. I was like, this is so weird. And I was like, I don't know, but this guy seems awesome from what this guy said, because he'd already sold a company for $3.4 billion. I was like, I want to talk to somebody who's doing this.

[Sharon Srivata]

It's for sure a scam.

[Alex]

Yeah. Like, no one has sold a company that did that. Yeah. So anyways, we hopped on, and then we ended up talking for like, three and a half hours, which never happens. And so I think that's pretty much how it kicked off. And we very quickly became very good friends.

[Sharon Srivata]

Well, I remember what happened was like, Alex went on the Zoom call, right. And then I made dinner, all this stuff. He comes back at like 8:30. And then I was like, how was the call mall? And he's like, you need to meet this guy. Like, you really like him. And I was like, most of the time when he introduced me something, I'd be like, listen, something smells wrong about. Yeah, right? And then I remember, like, I was so hesitant, but I was like, okay. He would not, like, be like, you need to meet him if he didn't think so. He's like, no, I think that you would get along really well with him. And I was like, okay. He's only said that about, like, two or three people ever.

[Alex]

I've been right every time.

[Sharon Srivata]

Correct.

[Layla]

Do you remember the first call, though? All we did was Alex was on the call. Yeah. And we just drew processes out on a white. On a. On an iPad.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah, I do remember, because I remember, I'm being like, blown away. I was, God, how you know all this stuff. And then I was like, can I pay you money? I don't know what to do.

[Alex]

And you.

[Sharon Srivata]

We're just friends. And I. I understand, but this is where I just need you to help me with. And you were like, no. And I was like, yes. I was like, please help.

[Alex]

And so I would say Shiron was the original kind of first trusted confidant for our money. So, like, we had, you know, a good amount of money prior to the sale. And then obviously after the sale, there was even more. And so the game of making money versus the game of making your money make money are two completely different games. There is crossover, where one makes you better at the other and the other makes you better at the first. But there's still a ton. Or for me, there was a huge amount of ignorance, debt of. I mean, even around tax law, of like, oh, wait, hold on.

[Sharon Srivata]

These.

[Alex]

I. I'm getting this distribution, but I'm getting taxed on this too. I was like, but I paid tax on the money the first time. And then like, wait, you can have other things that can appreciate. And then there's blends for cash flow and. And all of this stuff. And then there's like, oh, there's. There's buckets that you can put your investments into so that you can optimize towards different outcomes. And all of this stuff was stuff that we didn't know, and we ended up CREAT rules list. So I think three, four years ago, you guys might have seen a video of mine where it's like, these are the money rules. These are the money algorithms. A lot of those stem from. From Sharon.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah. And you know what's funny, too is I think when. When we first met, I had no idea because you were like, no, I'm an operator. But it was like, at that time, you were not doing anything. And when we met, you and I. And so it's funny because the first time I met you, everything was all investing, and I saw you as an investor, and that was all I asked you about. And then once you stepped into real and you made that decision, and then I was like, oh, my gosh, he's also. And that was when I was like, oh, my gosh, you're an operator, too. Like, it's so cool because, like, you're. You're really great at marketing and brand. You're really great at investing, and you're really good at operating. And it's like every time I've seen one area, it's just like the death of knowledge in each area too. It's like, it's not like you're shallow and all. It's like you are deep knowledge. Each of those areas. I think that's when we really started talking a lot more because it was like, okay, we're talking about all the shit because we're doing the same shit. And that was really fun for me.

[Layla]

I remember when. When the time between. After the sale, after I saw we had sold Telus, and I was just doing investing, private equity stuff, I would just talk to both of you saying, man, I don't know what my next thing is. I really don't want to do this. Maybe I should start a mastermind. Would you start a mastermind with me? And. And then Alex told me, you can never sell info ever again. I'm like, but. But I know how to do that. And then the crazy part was, I remember Alex saying this, bro, you just need to work.

[Sharon Srivata]

We had the conversation together. We were like, well, he needs to work again. And when you texted us about the opportunity, we were like, yeah, you should do it.

[Layla]

Just. Just go do it.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Layla]

And the crazy part is I think a lot of people don't know this, but you were the first people that I told that I talked to about the real opportunity. Right. And I said, hey, I have this. This is super interesting. Small public company, 200 million in revenue. And you're like, you get to go work. Go do that.

[Sharon Srivata]

It's so funny to like sit back and think about it all, because I think as you. I was like thinking through before we sat out here, I was like, how did this conversation even start around us all working together? Because I had obviously talked about Alex for years before we'd have talked about it with you. Because I was. And it was more of like a. I was like, oh, guys, there's some way we could bring Sharon on the board or like free him and us. Like, like, how do we involve him somewhat in appetite. It was just like something I didn't know how to do. And it's like normal. If I remember telling you I would ask Sharon about this, but I can't ask them about it because it's him. And then I'm trying to think about, do you guys remember how we started having the conversation?

[Layla]

I know exactly what happened. So we were at dinner and then I said, man, I think I've hit all the big goals. We went from 200 million valuation to a billion dollar valuation. And I said, I'm done. I think I'm just going to retire. And Alex just laughed. He's like, you would be so bored being retired again. Yeah, you should just come work with us. And we could do it for a long time. And I was like, you don't want that. And that was the.

[Alex]

I was like, no, I do want that. You should totally do that. And so I'll give you a little bit of. A little bit. A little bit of backstory.

[Sharon Srivata]

We'll.

[Alex]

Quentin Tarantino, this will put the pieces together. But Tron came here as an immigrant, as the only child. His parents sold their belongings to get him a one way ticket so that he could be here. And then immediately you met a mentor who took interest in you with your very thick Indian accent, which you can't hear anymore because he worked on getting rid of it. And then what did you get exception to? A program. What was the how like, what was the gap there that. That got you into like the. That. That software company.

[Layla]

The. So how. How it all happened was for my Senior, senior paper in college. I, I wrote this, I wrote the senior paper in computer science and I pitched it at a programming contest at Berkeley. And one of the judges said to me after I pitched it saying, hey kid, you're not going to win. I was like, thanks a lot. But that was a good idea. I just funded a couple of the guys. I think what you are sharing would be perfect for them. And that was my first foray into, you know, having a startup. And so I actually lived at my, in my aunt's basement. I had no money. And we were building a startup down Sand Hill Road, raising cash and this was during the boom. So we, we raised 20 plus ish million dollars and then sold that business overall. So it was all by chance when I was my senior paper pitching at a programming contest.

[Alex]

And so he. So you got the exit money from that deal and learned a bunch of stuff about deal making in that process, which we'll get to another time. And then you took off for like six years.

[Sharon Srivata]

Five years.

[Alex]

Five years to play professional tennis. And so plays professional. He's like, oh great, I'm done. I don't need money anymore. I'm going to play tennis for the next five years.

[Sharon Srivata]

Can you imagine Alex explaining this story to me after you had told. I was like, I was like, yeah.

[Alex]

This guy's a tennis player and he was an Indian and now he's billionaire. It's awesome.

[Sharon Srivata]

I was like.

[Alex]

And so after that though, you're like, you know, I need to get back to work. So then you went to get your mba?

[Layla]

Yep.

[Alex]

Yeah. So you went to Vanderbilt. So he's a fellow. Fellow Commodore. For those who don't know. I also went to Vanderbilt.

[Sharon Srivata]

Community college. Yep.

[Alex]

Community college. Waste turn. That's what they, that's what the kids call it. Anyways, so goes to, goes to Vanderbilt for the MBA and then goes from Vanderbilt into Goldman Sachs on the credit side. Right. And then calling all these business owners to, you know, talk about financial products and investing, things like that. Did you, Is that how you found Telus?

[Layla]

Yeah. So my, one of my clients was also an investor, had invested in this, in this real estate company. He said, hey, I invest in this real estate company. Can you come take a look at it? And that's how the Telus process started.

[Alex]

And so Telus was how many years?

[Sharon Srivata]

Five.

[Alex]

So in five years, Shiron went in, bought a huge chunk of the company and then took it. What was the total, the re. The revenue volume you were saying you were doing in terms of real estate?

[Layla]

Gross volume was 300 million.

[Alex]

Yeah. So we went from 300 million in gross volume to 3.3.4 billion. 3.4 billion in five years. And then they sold that company and then that got integrated into Douglas.

[Layla]

Douglas Hellman.

[Alex]

Yeah. And so after that sale, he then was like, okay, I'm gonna do another five or six year stint of the Charon. What do I do with my life investment? I have, I have so much money. What do I do?

[Sharon Srivata]

Dude, I remember the first time when we hung out with you during that stint too. Like, you were like, you guys want to go to breakfast at like 9 or. Yeah, we were so stressed. Breakfast.

[Alex]

It's like in the middle of my day.

[Sharon Srivata]

So. An ongoing joke that you don't know that you're like Tron, the only person.

[Alex]

You do breakfast with only literally, I would. I, I say no to every single no I eat. Oh, yeah, there you go. It's like you eat from like 9 to like 1115. And it's like, well, there's my entire morning.

[Layla]

Sorry. We also drank like 14 cups of.

[Alex]

Decaf, so until it actually starts hitting you like calf when you drink that much.

[Sharon Srivata]

Which.

[Alex]

Anyway, so you, you, you did that. And that's, I mean, I, I say that jokingly, but Cerillo Capital got started and then that was really the family office component of it where you did private equity and venture side investments and then a bunch of real estate stuff as well, obviously. Cause that's the, the background that you come from. And so you had a huge mix of doing that. And, and then that's, that kind of got us to the, to the real situation where real was doing, you know, 200 million or has a, had a $200 million market cap. And it was at 3:36 months. Yeah. So less than three years. Went to 1.2 billion. So 6x in less than three years when Shiron came in. And so that is, that is the Michael Jordan of the real estate industry. Not only doing a billion dollar company once, but twice. So he's 100% on his real estate companies getting to a billion. And so we're just, honestly, I would just say, like, I'm beyond thrilled to have Sran in here because it's, it was such, it was so natural because all of the major business decisions and strategic direction stuff that I would end up calling Shiron about anyways. Like, I feel like you, I was shadow. I was getting you as a shadow de facto partner. And so the, the integration has been almost like we just get to hang out more than we did before.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah. It's really interesting. Cause I also think during that time where you started and you were doing all the investments yourself, we kind of took your structure and mirrored it for us. And that's when we learned about private equity. When we learned about investing. We then, you know, a lot of people don't know we did. I want to say it was seven. We found seven real estate partners and the only one that ever ended up working out was for me.

[Alex]

Well, I'll say the ones that worked out well.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah, worked out well. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Anybody else? But they did hit impressive returns and deals were reviews. Then when you went into real. We went into acquisition.com. it was almost like not the same time, but like around, you know. Yeah, it's very similar timeframe. And then that's when I think we started talking more and more about. We shifted from investing to business. And then as acquisition.com start taking off and then you had like, I don't know what the next step is. Then it was like. It just felt like it made so much sense. I think we were all so worried, like, is it like, how's it going to be? And that's funny because I remember the first. Your first day, like when we sat down in a meeting together. It was like I was so nervous. I don't know why. It wasn't even my meeting. I was just shadowing. And then it was like after 45 minutes. And then we're like, by the end of the day, it felt like this has always been how it has been. Does that make sense?

[Layla]

Yeah.

[Sharon Srivata]

And like now it's like I can't imagine the fact that we didn't work together before for all those years. Crazy.

[Layla]

Well, we kind of did.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah.

[Layla]

I was just not on the official Slack channels, but that's fair.

[Sharon Srivata]

Not on the org chart told me about this. I'm like, I don't.

[Layla]

But I think my favorite kind of part of the story is I got to see gym launch and sale. I got to see the early idea of acquisition.com I got to see acquisition.com version one, the building and the growth of headquarters, acquisition.com version two. And then all the stuff we're planning for the future. And so it feels like I've had a chance to see and be a part of it in from the outside looking in, but the inside looking in is even cooler. Which is. Which is the best part.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah, it's. It's just. It's super fun, I think for anybody watching too. You know, as. As we're Talking about this, I think a good lesson to take away is, like, I think one thing that was really apparent to me early on at least, is like, why did Alex say, like, oh, you'd like this guy, right? He said that because most of the people that he would, you know, we. We talk to you, and I'm sure you had the same thing. It's like they just want money. It's like they're in business. I think it's like there's people who are in business to make money, and then people who are love business and love making cool shit and then make money by consequence. And when I met you, it was clear that you were the type of person that you like building. You like being excellent and building great business. And money comes as a consequence of that, right? Money comes the consequence of the fact that you actually really love people and that you're a really great person and that you have values that you value. And, like, there's just so few people who have that. Where I think, for me especially, like, it's so important to me that anybody that we work with doesn't just have this one area, like, they know how to make money, but they also can build a great business. They're great to their team, they're great to their clients. They have great reputation. They have a great family life. They take care of themselves personally. And it's like, when I met you, it was so clear that you have all those. You weren't just, like, one area and sacrificing all the rest. Because, you know, I think there's a difference between, like, building a great business and making money. We all know that. And so I think that's why also, just like very early on and throughout the process of being us being friends, I think the reason it's so easy to be friends, we have shared values.

[Layla]

Well, I'll tell you this one thing, and I learned this from both of you, which is you can't just be good at one thing. And to win in life, I'm sorry, you have to win at everything. And sometimes you have seasons of life where one takes precedence. Like Alex will say, have the season of no. Or you say, I'm working on my health. That's great, but you have to win at everything. There is no other choice. And I bet people are thinking, well, how did this, you know, how did they negotiate how to do the financials of the deal? And I want to tell people about this, right? The. The depth of the relationship allowed for the deal terms to be really easy and for for everyone watching Alex and Layla said, hey, just write us an email with what you're thinking. So I wrote an email and then they hit reply all added counsel and say, please draft this. That's all it was. That was the whole negotiation, which would have been months and years for most people, arguing over terms, etc. We had none of that. I've been through a lot of these in, in my life and I will tell you, it was the most gracious, the kindest and it nothing reaffirmed wanting to do this personally for me when all that y' all did was hit reply all and say just paper.

[Sharon Srivata]

This literally the same. It was. And it reminded me of like even just like in any great partnership. Right. It's like you're just everything's been done ahead of time. So then it makes the hard stuff easy because you've already worked on the hard side.

[Layla]

Yep. And that's I think a good lesson for everybody, which is if you're getting to the point where stuff's breaking down on a final deal term means something else was majorly wrong before. And so if you can get all of that in alignment, the deal points are very simple.

[Alex]

I want to hit on something because I think it's important. So I said it very casually at the beginning. But Laela and I have never had a partner that we've basically brought into our kind of like the holding company. So like gym launch, we own I would say virtually 100. You know, some executives got small pieces, but I wouldn't say that they were partners in from a decision making perspective. And acquisition.com was structured the same way our instructor the same way until now where it was just, you know, Layla and I and then from that holding company we would make investments into other businesses. But this is the first time that we have ever brought someone in. And so obviously like I spend, I've spent the last, you know, five, five years from a constant perspective, in the last 13 plus, from a reputation perspective, building reputation. And so bringing someone in at that level was a serious, you know, decision. And if you're thinking like okay, well then why, why would, why would they do something like that? Like couldn't, couldn't you just try and find somebody you could just, just hire or something like that? There come certain levels of skill and experience that are unhirable. You know what I mean? Like there's the deal that, you know, OpenAI did with John Ivey where we're like, he's, he's now just basically a co founder status of OpenAI because he brings such a depth of experience and a network and a skill set and, and, and, and that to replicate that it would be both impractical and likely. I don't want to say impossible, but the, the effort to replicate it would detract from the whole overall. It's like you would have to have like two companies to replicate what, what Sharon can do. And so the vision for where we're trying to go, if anything, is that this has just expanded or brought the future closer of what we have always wanted to do with acquisition.com and tried to pay down ignorance death as fast as possible with somebody who has, I mean, I mean more experienced than anyone on, on the deal side, on the real estate side, the private equity side. Like he has so much there. But then obviously from a scale perspective, in the trenches, building $2 billion companies all within five year periods, I mean I'm, I'm very upfront about the, the things that I will always reinvest in our ability to do more. And this was a serious call. And I mean you think about it for me, it's like you're going to associate someone really heavily with your brand. It's a, it's a huge bet. Know there's risk. But Shron felt very much worth the risk because I think what we're going to do together is going to be really big.

[Sharon Srivata]

That's funny as you're saying that, you know, one thing I realized through the whole process is not one time did I have a doubt.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Sharon Srivata]

Like not one depth. Like I like never, I never felt bad about it. I never had any like hesitation. I just worried that I was going to fuck it up somehow. And I still, to this day, I think we both have that. Like I'm hinged on that. Like, what am I going to do to fuck it up?

[Alex]

I haven't.

[Layla]

He doesn't. It's, it's just us.

[Sharon Srivata]

It's just us.

[Alex]

I sleep fine.

[Sharon Srivata]

I have more. I know. I just take it all for both of us. Every deal we've done, every that, like I always am the one doubting and hesitating and I like literally never. Like it always felt good. Like it felt really good for me the whole time. I think part of it too for like people that are listening is like, that's the logic side of it. I think there's another side which is like, none of us have to do this.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Sharon Srivata]

And, and because of that, I look at it as like, what's the biggest risk to any of us not achieving our Dreams, ducks, acquisition, dot com. Like, all of it is that we stop. And why would we stop? Not because we can't do it, but because we don't want to do it.

[Alex]

Because we don't like it.

[Sharon Srivata]

Because we don't like it. And so, like, I think about it and I. I told Alex, I was like, I'm getting the point where it's like, I just want to do stuff I love with people I love. And so it's like you bring in people and you become partners with people that you feel like I will have a higher quality of life within my business and enjoy myself more if I get to work with these people. I think that's really important. And so I. I think for anybody watching too, like, that's a. That's a huge piece of it because people come to me all the time. They're like, I'm going to hire this person or I'm going to bring in this partner. And I'm like, do you like having dinner with them? And it's like, no, I don't like having dinner with them. And I'm like, well, what the. Why are you bringing them in and giving them a happier business? You know what I mean? And so I think, like, that's a. That's a huge point that people need to. To think about and consider when it comes to that stuff. I would say that the second piece too is that at some point in the business, like, a lot of people might be watching this and thinking, like, maybe I need to find a partner now. But I think you have to consider the size that you're at and. Cause at some point you're not looking to hire people anymore. Multiple people at similar levels are looking to partner because at some point it's like, 1 plus 1 equals 11. That's the way I think about it. Except you'd be like, one plus one plus one equals, I don't know, 30, 111.

[Layla]

Well, can you talk about that, though? You made a great video about it. But the early discussions for us revolved around this metaphor of the barrel. And I think you broke it down really well. I'd love for you to maybe share the idea of the ammo, the resources around it.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah, at some point, I think we get into this pattern when we're bringing people into the business, bringing resources in. It's almost like they're bullets. Like you need to give them. Give the resources to somebody who's capable of building something from nothing. And at some point you have to bring in a barrel. And when you think of a barrel, you think of somebody like you, who can create something of nothing, who can be as effective as you at the things that you're doing. And at that point it's like, if I'm going to bring in somebody has the same skill set as me, then that's a different type of. That's not. You're not going to hire that into your business, right? And if you did, maybe you hire somebody in 10 years there at that level, but not, you know, and, and sometimes never. And so at that point you have to say, like, I need a barrel, which is something I can give ammunition to, and they can just go shoot it and they can hit the target. And so I think like, you know, Alex and I are each a barrel and Sharon's a bear. So now we have. You have two new barrels and we have one new barrel, right?

[Layla]

Well, Alex talked about it when he first shared it with me. He goes, hey, most founders are single barreled and they've got to get to a point where. And maybe you can articulate this better, which is like, all right, now I get to a point and now I've got to go raise money or create something to artificially create a second opportunity for myself to get the barrel bigger. And what a lot of people don't realize is the first time I met both of you, the first time I talked to Alex, I go, man, he can just make something out of nothing. Like he can make things up. It is amazing. Alex's ability to make things up and just make things up that can drive brand, create businesses, et cetera. And I was like, that's who's going to make it happen. And so, and then when I chatted with Leila, I was like, okay, well you got the make thing up and make thing happen. And I think there's a. That's why it's worked really well for both of you, right? And so Alex can make anything up and Layla can make anything happen. And that's a really powerful combination. And so my question for you, Alex, is if someone is thinking about that in their business, is there, is that the diagnostic or would you think about a different diagnostic?

[Alex]

Everything comes down to return on time, right? Like, I think if we boil everything down for the entrepreneurs, like, you only have so much time and you have to get returns on your time. And so we trade, we try and get other people who have high leverage time, which is like, not only can I get somebody who can do something, but they're also bringing in 10 years that I don't have to learn to get that skill to then do this other thing. And so with the. The rate limiter, which is the whole concept of barrels is like, you can only ship things so quickly, and there's only so many opportunities that you can pursue. Like, and I'm a big advocate of focus, you know, aggressive advocate of focus, but you really never over expand. You just under talent. And I think the vast. And that under talent is just this, not enough barrels, right? You have 20 great ideas. You've got one life, and there's one you. Now, if you had 20 barrels, you could do all 20. You've got Elon. He's got six big, you know, crazy opportunities. His highest leverage is his ability to attract barrels, probably more than anything else. But with I. I want to circle back to what you said with me and Layla. So I got to somewhere in the neighborhood of between two and three million dollars a year. I can't remember the exact financials, but between 2, $3 million a year. When Layla and I met, that was about where I had kind of like, capped as an entrepreneur. And that was for. I chased too many rabbits. I was too spread thin, and I had six different businesses. I had all these different things going on. And then when Layla came into my life, she got me to focus on one opportun. She was able to basically make all these things happen and also at the same time, push back and be like, great idea, next year. And that from an order of magnitude perspective, that went from, I mean, you think about where we were there, two or three million dollars a year as a solo entrepreneur to adding one other barrel, then took us to nine figures plus. Right? And it's like, okay. And that's where Lachiron. It's like, okay, well, there's two. And this is why Le was saying the, you know, one plus one doesn't equal two or three. It can equal, you know, 11. It can be a huge increase in. In throughput. And I think that having, you know, a third barrel makes it. I mean, we're excited about, you know, we've been. We've been talking for a year. It's for everybody who's, you know, curious. It's like, it's not like, hey, Sean's coming in, because we're just going to, like, keep doing what we're doing. Very big plans that we've been honestly laying since we started talking a year ago that have been in the works that you guys will find out about. I think that's fundamentally what we solve for is like, with the highest leverage thing is just like not having to live Sharon's life in order to. To do that. We can just bring Shiron in and then get the aggregate benefit of all my life and my experience, your life and your experiences, and then yours together. And that's where the skills stack and compound. So there's this framework that I like sharing a lot which is like, if you think about or I believe that the potential of a business is based on the aggregate skill set of the people contained within it. And if you are the person who has done every job in the business, then it means that literally only one brain has is the max capacity of the business. And so if you were to imagine this as like a little triangle, it's like all of a sudden if you just add a second brain, how much higher the peak gets just from adding two kind of rate limiters or capacitors in the business. And when you add a third, the peak goes way higher in terms of the capacity for the business. And so that's where this gets really exciting. And there's a third kind of alpha for everyone, which is what are the opportunities that get unlocked that none of us could pursue on our own, but that we could only do an aggregator together. And I think that's where, that's where we get these more sophisticated and yet simpler, more more complex to execute simpler in. In concept outcomes that everyone can agree like, man, if we could just do this one thing, it could change everything. It's like, yeah. And that's where I'm like, yeah, we could change everything. And you guys are like, it will take more stuff.

[Layla]

But I think it's really powerful though for, for the person listening and watching to kind of decode a little bit of what Alex and Layla just shared is that we've experienced this and I really. One of my favorite things about being an acquisition.com is this where we could have a chat about something and then Layla will say, I got it. And then that's it. You don't have to worry because Layla got it right. Or we'll be talking about something and say, I got it. The conversation is over. And the more people that can say I got it is insanely powerful for an organization. You say I got it very often and I really appreciate that.

[Alex]

I always never got it.

[Layla]

We sometimes have to text you under the table. This is your time to say I got it right now. No, I actually think you made a video about this. You said, how do you get scale? You get scale when you ensure that the, the Leverage that is transferred gets transferred without a change in the performance in some way.

[Sharon Srivata]

Right?

[Layla]

Which is insane. And so probably my favorite three words that someone can ever tell me is I got it, because I know that. And if they actually got it, it's super, super powerful. And when you have someone like that in your organization, I would support them, get out of their way, reduce friction, get them support, make sure whatever they want is taken care of. Not that you need a partner, per se, but anybody that is. That has that level of competence and that has that level of care, I would highly take care of them. And if you're in an organization right now and you feel like you want that recognition, say, hey, partner, manager, boss, whatever, I got it. And then deliver on the I got it. That is the fastest way to kind of building that trust with your team.

[Alex]

Hey, guys, first off, want to say thank you. There's one person who's been sharing this more than anyone, and that is you. The only reason this podcast continues to grow is because you guys are sharing it. And my only ask is that if this has provided value to you or you think it would provide value to somebody else, more importantly, if you could DM it to them, if you could slack it to them, if you could text them a screenshot or a link to this podcast is the only way it grows. And that's what fills the hole inside of my heart for the approval of others so that I can go to sleep at night. And that's why I really do this. Anyways, enjoy the rest of the podcast.

[Sharon Srivata]

No, it's really good. You say I got it all the time. And it's just like, if someone says to me, I'm just like, I will ask no more questions.

[Layla]

Like, because I also think that the other thing it does for the person saying I got it, which what a lot of people don't realize is when you say I got it, there's an insane belief system and a responsibility that you put on yourself. Because the reason I say I got it is I can't let Layla down. And so I will work super hard because I put those three words in front of Layla, and the next time I say it, and if I did not get it, then she's going to be like, what the heck? You know? So there is a. There has to be a hundred percent say do ratio on I got it. You can't. You cannot score anytime. And if you do, you're like, I'm so sorry. This is what happened. Let me go fix it. Right? So the. The number Of I got it that can happen in an organization will move the business so much faster.

[Sharon Srivata]

It's really good analogy. Now I'm thinking about it, I'm like, who says I got it most? I can think of the top two people that say it to me the most. And I'm like, oh, I always appreciate it so much.

[Alex]

Like, oh yeah, well I'll throw this in like, I think bringing a partner on, I think, you know, this has been awesome, you know, for us. But trying to explain like, right way to feel, wrong way to feel, I think just from a pattern recognition perspective might be helpful. One we've been working for, you know, not working but like we've been talking about this so we've laid a lot of, you know, groundwork for this so that we can hit the ground running. But Shiron has given me and especially Layla attention back. And so it's like, and I don't like using soft language but I'll use it here and then I'll explain it. But like it makes like Sharon is making everything feel lighter. And so I see that as okay, I only have so much time and so much bandwidth which is even less than the time that I have in terms of like mental acuity and all of a sudden having 2/3 of the things that I was formerly working on now just gone and being done at the same level or arguably higher because Toronto is more experienced with these things. So we're paying down ignorance to as we're kind of learning the edge cases of what is the, what is the, you know, nine figure to ten figure marketing playbook look like? What is the non figure 10 figure sales playbook look at? What does the 9 figure 10 figure product playbook look like? We're trying to pay down this ignorance debt as fast as we can across all these functions. But it's like, well, Tron already did this on the public level, you know, in a public company and before that in Intella's at a multibillion dollar level, it's like, well some of these legal infrastructure pieces, it's like, okay, well we can and we'll learn it or we can just not have to pay the scar that I know or the interest that is going to come due later because we just pay that debt down now. I think that that habit of trying being willing to sacrifice some today to not get destroyed tomorrow has served us really well. But from a, from a feeling perspective, which I don't really tap into very much, it just things feel lighter and I think that if, if somebody comes into your organization. Obviously it works at any level, but if someone comes into the organization and it feels heavier, that person is not helping you. They're not putting attention back on your plate so that you can then eat up the problems that you're uniquely qualified to solve at the higher level than you're currently solving.

[Sharon Srivata]

Mm, no, I think that's really valid. I also think even. Even in that case, like, when you're bringing someone to make it feel lighter, whatever that may be, I think, like, for me, it's definitely very mental. It's also from a work standpoint, but, like, the mental, like, knowing that even just, like, talking things through with you, it's just like, I just value that so much, and I'm so grateful for it. Just to talk through things that I didn't have anybody in the organization to talk to about before. You know what I mean? It's like, of course. But we don't even work on the same things in the company, which has just been like a. A sigh of relief of, like, me being like, this is shit, right? And you're like, that shit. Or like, this is amazing, right? And you're like, that's amazing. I'm like, okay, like, it's nice validation and then also, like, be able to run things by you and learn things that I didn't know. You know, when we told the team that you were coming on, like, the. The way that I brought it up to everyone is like, guess who hasn't taken a company to a billion dollars before me? And I was like, so I would like to bring on somebody who has, like. And I think a big learning for me was that. And of course I didn't talk to you about it because you were very busy at the time. But, like, I was so nervous to tell everybody. Like, so nervous. So, like, I talked to one of my coaches, I talked to, like, two of my coaches, but I'm like, how do I do this in a way that positions it really well? And they're like, what's the truth about this? And I was like, all these. Everything that we just said here, right? And they're like, well, just tell the truth. And it's so funny because I told the whole team, and that was exactly the frame I used, which was just like, I haven't done this before. Shiron has. We've been friends for this long. We've been talking to him behind the scenes for this long. Like, these all things, and not one person had an adverse response. And it still has not. Like, it has gone insanely. Well. So what I will say is that if, if you are bringing in somebody to help, you don't want to like skimp out on how you bring them in. How you talk about it with your team, even like onboarding, like, it was fast and crazy, but like I built out everything and then you were like, you're like, I will do some of that. But it, you know, it's like you just never know.

[Alex]

We.

[Sharon Srivata]

Right. It's like you don't know.

[Alex]

We should talk about how Shiron onboarded because I think that would be super helpful for people who are bringing in high level executives, directors, partners. Do you want to hit on that?

[Sharon Srivata]

I mean, we can. It wasn't even as planned because I ended up.

[Alex]

No, but I love what you did. I mean, so, you know, the first thing that Shiron did, which a lot of. So this is, I think this is kudos to Shron because he has zero ego, which is why he is as successful as he is. But a lot of, you know, partners, execs, even directors, depending like leaders, I'll just say might come into a company and just be like, all right, what's my 30, 60, 90? And there's nothing wrong with that, that's fine. But Tron just was like, okay, I'm going to meet every single person who [e-mail] from like the bottom of the org chart all the way up. And he was like, this gets me so much rapid context and I'll have rapport. And, and, and, and he basically onboarded himself within 10 days and talked to, you know, 100 plus people in that period of time and was like, he came back, he was like, I understand what's going on now. Which is better than like you trying to write a 16 page document that trying from. Because the thing is, is it's always going to be one person's perspective, whereas if you get 100 different perspectives, you actually get such a, such a three dimensional view of the company rather than 2D kind of paper version. I'll also say that from a speed of growth perspective, if we think about the speed of a business can be derived from the speed of their ability to make decisions, right? Well, it's like, then what. What speeds up decision making ability? So one part is data. Well, actually data is going to be the biggest one. But when you don't have. In the absence of data, you have patterns, right? You have basically past data that you can extrapolate in the future. And so to your point, Layla, it's like we might say, hey, based on reasoning, you know, there's some logic and what we know about the world, we believe this is a good, a good, good direction or a good decision. And having someone who has that pattern that's already recognized be like, yeah, already did that. Like, that's the right call. Or yes. And add this piece because this will come up later. It, it has compressed what would be maybe multiple hour, two hour long discussions to then being finally like, all right, let's just do it. But that whole process might take two, two weeks or four weeks to make that call, which then can now be done in 30 minutes. But then tomorrow we have another 30 minute decision and the day after we have another 30 minute decision. But each one of those would have been two to four weeks. Two to four weeks. Two to 4 weeks. And like, that's where you can see why a company can grow at 10 times the rate, a hundred times the rate of others. Because minutes versus months is a massive difference when you look at timescales for growth. And I think that's one of the other massive unlocks that, that, I mean, I'm excited that you've already, already given us, but you know, even more in the future.

[Sharon Srivata]

You mean just how we make decisions? Yeah, yeah. I think part of that too is like, we're so, we're usually like this. And I feel like you have the unique, like you've done a lot of things like by having both the sets of skills so like you can flex on either side and so like you bring a really like rounding the middle ground.

[Layla]

Well, thank you. But the, I think the interesting part about the onboarding, which people need to know is the thoughtful, like, Layla wrote me a, like a 16 to 20 page onboarding plan, which was amazing because, because that allowed me to saying, all right, let me read through that. And the interesting part about that was not the plan itself, was seeing Layla's thought process on how the world works. And I thought, and I think that most people will just say, okay, cool, hey, let's do a press release and bring this person on board. And hey, for the first few months, just meet people. I'm like, no, you had 90 days of like ramping up. That's crazy. You have the, you need to make, you need to make impact today. And so Alex hit the nail on the head where if the organization is somewhat larger, especially if there's a hybrid component to it, you can't wait for rapport. You need rapport and patterns very quickly. And so if you, if you, if you're talking to people and five of them say this is what they love about the company, that reinforces what that is. And if three of them say this is the same issue, that reinforces what that is. And you learn it very quickly and you learn it from natural patterns. And that also allows for rapport. So if, if you're newer in a company, I, I would, I would suggest focusing on rapport and patterns. That would be very, very helpful. And the second is to be super impactful, you have to find the most granular thing that happens in the business. So for us it was me going through every single line item in our P and L, right? And so I know you know everything because where the money goes is where the business invests. And once you know that, you know where everything is, is at. So if you're in a marketing organization, you should know every single metric, every single channel. And that allows you to kind of figure out that is the pattern in a lot of ways. So you people think about learning top down, you want to learn bottom up because that allows you to know what the culture of decision making happens. That's what's manifested in the bottom up numbers. And if you do bottom up, you can get perspective very quickly. If you do top down, it takes a lot of time.

[Sharon Srivata]

I think that's what I was most impressed with is I totally saw the bottom up approach there. Just like already being able to recall so many of the details, I was like, wow, like just so fast, I don't even have anything insightful to say. It was just like really, it was really impressive.

[Alex]

Well, I think the pattern for me is that, you know, if we bring leaders in, in general, I mean, I think we've tended to, we talk about this publicly anyways, but it's just further reinforcing of the framework that like a, players don't usually need a long time to immediately start providing value. And when we hear someone who might say like, I'm going to need a quarter just to like get my bearings, it's like, probably not the guy or the galaxy, right? Like every single player that I could name off the top of my head in this business, like immediately, I mean, within the first five days, you know, first work week was like, I got it. I could, I already understand this trunk. I'm going to start eating this and I'm going to understand these. But they hit the ground running. And every time that I've probably been like, you know what we'll give them, it's like it's never really worked out long term or it's just been an also rant. It's been like a. They're all right. Like, they somewhat solved the problem and they're not a screaming hot pain right now. I'll deal with it later. But every a player hits the ground running and you know, this is obviously no exception, I would love both your.

[Layla]

Perspectives on this and I because hopefully this is helpful for folks watching as they're bringing people on or you're coming onto an organization is you want to deliver artifacts as soon as possible. And it's not just, oh, I had impact. You want to deliver something real, tangible artifacts, something as soon as possible. And when you start producing, people around you are like, wait a minute, he showed up, he tried. He showed up, he wrote a memo. He showed up, he made a video. He showed up, he set up a process. He showed up, he talked to a vendor, right? And so it's the email is not the artifact, the artifact is the artifact. And the more artifacts that you can ship early on, the more confidence you get and the more feedback you get. And you start to realize if you're coming in new to an organization, the more artifacts you can ship, the better.

[Alex]

Say artifacts, do you mean like organizational wins?

[Layla]

Correct? Yeah. Am I we read this memo, Here's a video, here's how we're thinking about this. Like something. I always think about it as what do you have to show for it? Right? Yeah. Which is a great Doge question. But you have to ask yourself, what do you have to show for it? And if you have nothing to show for it, it's okay, you made a decision. But early on, you have to have to have something to show for that decision. Otherwise you don't get cultural buy in.

[Sharon Srivata]

On that one piece that people discount a lot. Which is like, I explain to people, I'm like, listen, I can know what you're doing, but if the team doesn't see see wins from you, they're not going to like assimilate you into the organization. Right? They're not going to know. Why should I listen to this person? Because you're like, oh, well, no, ask Leila. I'm doing all this for eight weeks behind the scenes. They're like, okay, whatever.

[Alex]

And don't be behind the scenes. Don't be behind the scenes.

[Sharon Srivata]

The two biggest piece of advice I give to everyone that asks me, we have so many new people. They're like, what can I do? And I'm like, one, don't tell people what to do when you're new. Like, don't go around Telling people that something they do is wrong, like, that doesn't make you smart, doesn't make you cool. It doesn't. That's not why you're here. Like, just watch. Just watch. I was like, the second thing is offer to help everybody. I'm like, just offer. Just like, hey, is there anything I can do to help you? Is there anything I do to support you? Don't. Like, if you do those two things, it's like. And one thing I've noticed with you is you're like, how can I support? How can I help? Is there anything I can do for you? Like, constantly asking those things. It's like, even if someone doesn't need something, it's like they feel like, oh, they ask that they can do things for me and they're brand new, you know what I mean?

[Alex]

And you always gain rapport from kind of the servant frame, right? It's like, it's not telling them what to do, it's asking them what you can do. Just a small pivot. And by doing that though, then it's like, now I've got one reward cycle with this person and one. Especially if you come in from the position of above, right? If they know you have the authority, you flipping and be like, hey, how can I help you? Is a. Like, I think that's the authority. Hijack, right? The thing that you could do that ultimately will gain you real influence rather than title based authority in the business.

[Layla]

The one thing I will offer is the, the thing that made me feel the most welcome and secure was Leila's document because it showed me that she cared enough to spend all that time preparing for me. And I don't think most. I'm just gonna say most onboarding managers do that where. Imagine the anxiety of a new person coming on board anywhere in the organization. They want to show up, they want to be successful, they want to do a good job, you know, but it is. The first two to four weeks are actually the manager's responsibility, not the person's responsibility. And us putting in a little bit of effort up front showing them that you have saying, hey, this is, this is a plan. Here's. Here's the onboarding plan shows that you care so much about the person coming on board as opposed to, oh, yeah, we'll just introduce you around and watch. No, you don't want to do that. And so my, my. I publicly want to thank you. I know how much effort went into that. But that allowed me to see your thinking and also feel your care, which we Have a bunch of new leaders coming on board that are going to work with us directly, and that you set the bar for me to think about them coming on that way and almost to guarantee their success. And so I want to take. I want to. My effort needs to guarantee their success, because at the end of the day, we just want guaranteed success. And so I want to. I want to do the effort. And you showed me how to do that. That was super cool.

[Sharon Srivata]

Oh, I appreciate that. It's funny you say that, because that is when I. I remember when I walked into a new job and they had a whole document packet and, like, basket for me. And the way I felt was like, I never had a job do that. And they had, like, two days where they spent so much time with me, and it was all structured and it. I wanted to give more to them because of what I got there. And that was when it clicked for me of, like, okay, when I build an organization, like, the first impression of just, like, how much effort they're willing to put in, I didn't need half of it. Right. And I didn't end up using half it. But, like, that they were willing to. Made such a difference in just, like, feeling welcome because you're, you know, you're nervous and stuff. And so I'm glad it was helpful. I know the docu was definitely overblown, and I did it out of complete anxiety of not wanting an alert to fail.

[Layla]

But I. It was awesome. Yeah.

[Sharon Srivata]

I was like, this fails. It's my fault for sure.

[Layla]

But that is the responsibility that. That the leader should take. Right? That is. That is the responsibility because you spend all this time hiring, going through the process, making the person feel special, come on board, and then you're like, welcome.

[Sharon Srivata]

You know, I think what a lot of people don't talk about, I. I prepared so much for issues with bringing, like, telling people that you were coming in of, like, people being like, well, Layla, I want to work with you on this, Or I'm going to, like, this, or, like, who's this person? Like, what's going on? Like, how are we going to make decisions? Like, I was completely prepared for all of that because that's what so many people told me, like, happens. And I was like, even though we have such a great culture and organization, like, I just need to prepare for it. And I think a lot of people. That's actually where I spent even probably just as much time, which was having the conversations with people, one on one, talking to people. What does it mean? What does it not Mean, what's changing? What's not changing for individuals and then for the company? And I think that alone is where a lot of people fail, is that they don't do the work when they're bringing in a new leader or a new partner to position them well, to step into the organization, be welcome. Because a lot of times they do a couple things, which is like, one, they. They say, it's gonna be better with this person. I don't say any expectations because I'm like, it's gonna be different. Good job. Thank you. For me, it's gonna be different. Well, I saw the, the worst was like three years ago when a leader would like, replace themselves. They're like, it's. We so much better with this. Like, you can't. I knew for us, you can't say that because it's gonna at first feel so different. They're not gonna, they're gonna think, well, you said it was gonna be better. It's day two. Why is it not better? It's like, well, they're new. What do you expect? It's like, well, you said. And so that's. The first one was like, just don't set any of those expectations. Just say, it's going to be different. It's going to be a change. Here's what the change is going to look like. And I think the second piece to it is explain how it, like the highly impacted individuals, how is what's going to happen and what's not going to happen, like, what changes and what doesn't change? And I think that those are also really important to explain to people because a lot of people bring in someone like you and they're like, am I getting fired? Is this still happening? Like, what's changed? Like, there's all sorts of things that can go through a brain. So I always just try to come up with, like, what are the things that. What are the obstacles I anticipate ahead of time that I can just overcome before they even bring them to me? And I think that in itself paired with what you just said, like, if you do those two things, like you address, there's a communication plan for how you're going to communicate to the organization. And then there's a plan for when you bring the person in. I think that it's how you set someone up for success so when they walk in, people are excited for them to be there. Not scared or not annoyed or frustrated or worried.

[Alex]

I'm just excited for real. Quick, guys, I have a special, special gift for you for Being loyal listeners of the podcast, Layla and I spent probably an entire quarter putting together our scaling roadmap. It's breaking, scaling into 10 stages and across all eight functions of the business. So you've got marketing, you've got sales, you've got product, you've got customer success, you've got it, you've got recruiting, hr, you've got finance. And we show the problems that emerge at every level of scale and how to graduate to the next level. It's all free and you can get it personalized to you. So it's about 30ish pages for each of the stages. Once you enter the questions, it will tell you exactly where you're at and what you need to do to grow. It's about 14 hours of stuff, but it's narrowed down so that you only have to watch the part that's relevant to you, which will probably be about 90 minutes. And so if that's at all interesting, you can go to acquisition.com forward/roadmap, R O A D map roadmap acq 3.0.

[Sharon Srivata]

That was your idea. Yeah, it is the natural progression. I think that's, that's really, I think that's a lot of stuff that, you know, people are going to start seeing us moving towards. And when we allude to the big moves we make that comes with acquisition.com 3.0.

[Alex]

I mean, I, I see it, I see it like, as a progression of, like, I would say AC, you know, 1.0 was us helping ourselves directly. I would say 2.0 was us helping ourselves directly and helping everyone else indirectly. So it's like, if you document all these things, we show what we're doing, that's going to help a lot of business owners indirectly. We're not the one actually, like setting up, you know, like, taking calls for them. We're like, but, hey, here's how we do it and here's how we do our marketing, here's how we do our sales, here's how we do these things in the business so we can help you grow and hopefully, you know, hit your goals. And I would say, you know, acquisition 3.0 is how can we help ourselves directly and help you directly. And so I see that as kind of the vectors, which is kind of the natural progression. But in order to do that, you know, from the first time we met until now, the size of the quote, indirect audience went from, you know, a few thousand to now, you know, tens of millions that have, you know, directly been in our network versus the people, even in our interested demographic. And so in order to do it and do it right and maintain our reputation, which is. I mean, what we've worked such, you know, such a long time to do, we want to make sure, you know, I'll try not to be crude, but that it's fucking awesome and it's fucking done right. And that if we can do that, then I think that we can, you know, get close to the kind of impact that I think all three of us want to have, because you said this earlier, but, like, it's hard for people to comprehend. It's like Tron really doesn't need to do anything, and we really don't need to work at all. We can just like, live off the dividends from the buildings and the businesses that we own and, like, just work out. Like, when I see the best entrepreneurs of all time, it's like they're. They're able to kind of, like, flip their selfish interest inside out so that it just kind of pulls the world. And I think that that's. I think it's something that all of us have wanted to do, and it just takes more than one or two people to do it and do it right.

[Sharon Srivata]

I just think, like, at the end of the day, you know, when I think about what we're building here and, like, how it started and such, I think it's because, you know, at the end of gym launch, for example, like, you know, we got partners and then we were out, right? We never brought partners into the business to. To keep growing the business in a way that didn't feel completely exhausting. Because at some point, it's not. This isn't about the work that you do in the business. It's about the decisions, the judgment, the leadership, the experience. And that's, you know, it's not like we're like, oh, shron's gonna come and do so much work. Like, it's like, I know you are because it's who you are, but it's like the judgment you bring, the decision making, the expertise, like, your thinking, your brain, right? And I think at some point, especially, like, when we sold gym walks, like, I was definitely at a point where, like, it had just run off, the two of us. And I do think that I was at the point where I was like, I was okay for a minute, like, in that brief moment of, like, thinking smaller because I was like, oh, my. I'm so tired. Like, I was literally. I was just like, I'm tired. Like, I've been up since 4am I was going to bed at 8pm and I'm a freaking grandma. And like it would be nice to just have something a little more, a little less demanding of me. Right. And it's funny because I look back and I'm like, it was just a skill deficiency which is like I didn't have the skill of doing a couple things, which is like building a team that allowed for me not to feel that way every day. And building a team where I actually the like being tired at the end of the day was worth it. Cause I had so much fun working with them as well as then, okay, maybe you shouldn't be the one making decisions all day. Like If I'm making 35 decisions a day, is that really a good thing to be doing at that point? And I knew it was.

[Layla]

Well, I think that goes to Alex's point of being having the. The under talented. Right. And the crazy part is how many times have we all experienced this where we doesn't need to be a part of. But you hired one person and that person did so good. You're like, man, everything is so much better because Michael's here. Like that happened, right. And when that happens, imagine that over and over and over and over again. And that's when you get to do so many powerful things.

[Alex]

It's permanent. I got it. Which then you have an organization of I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it. And then all of a sudden you create the space to then say, well, I still got some stuff. Like I can still go get stuff. But then all those I got it lets you go get. And I think that's what allows you to build the future. Because so many entrepreneurs like have this. It's their dream is really just a dream and never meets reality because they never have the opportunity to pursue it because they're still stuck under talented in the business because they're constantly feeling like they have to play whack a mole because they don't fully complete the cycle. Like they get a three quarter solution, but you still kind of like leave parts of yourself behind because you know that someone hasn't fully got it.

[Sharon Srivata]

I think that's the one thing I feel like, like the one thing I think it's probably my. What I feel most proud of this team is just like we just have such great individuals. You know, it's like everyone's so strong. And I think I used to be able to count on one hand how many strong people I had in an organization. Yeah. And now it's like I would have to count on one hand how many weren't. And I wouldn't have any put on my hand right now. You know what I mean? Which is like, yeah, I remember dreaming of that. And so I think at that point then you're just like. When we talk about the barrels, you know, I think to a degree, it's like when you have the skills to build something amazing and excellent, you just realize at some point you just, you just need to hook with other barrels so that you guys can help. You know what I talk about a lot, which is like, you want a vision so big for something that you build that everyone's vision can sit inside of it. I think right now we see the vision for acquisition.com 3.0 specifically, and we all see how our visions for ourselves, our dreams fit inside of that vision. And that's, that's where the magic happen.

[Alex]

And I think it's. And I'll say this with jumping on the, the piggybacking on the talent piece, which is that I think that whether you like it or not, like, I, I mean, I talk to business owners that every day, they're like, I want to help million people lose weight. And I'm like, well, you have one brick and mortar store that has a hundred customers. Like the gap between their. I think it's not even, it's not even a realistic dream. It's something that they say that other people say that's amazing. And so that's why they keep saying it more so than they actually want to do it. Because if they actually wanted to do it, they would behave differently. And so they have like their thing they say, and then what they actually believe is possible. And I think that when you bring, when you get these other barrels in and you get more high quality talent, your scope, your realm of believability expands. And so it's great to say, hey, we want to do this thing, but like, you know, on some level, like what is reasonable or what is feasible with our existing capacity. And so we still, on some level, still extrapolate forward or project forward based on what we already have. And so when you bring those other people in, all of a sudden, like your ability to see further, you're like, oh, I would never have considered that. But now that we have John, where we have so and so, like, oh, they can they. We could actually connect these dots in a way that I never would have originally imagined, because I would have thought, I can't do that. And I don't know anyone else who can. But then we meet that person, you're like, oh, my God. All these other huge, chunky things now enter the realm of possibility, and that creates all these new connections that then expands the realistic vision rather than the someday that'll never happen vision.

[Sharon Srivata]

It's totally fair.

[Layla]

The one quote that Alex actually probably would say it better than me is, this really hit me hard. And I was. I'm born a very driven person. And in my 20s, I. I really believed that it was about the destination. In my 30s, I realized that it was about the journey. And then finally, in my older 40s, I have finally realized that it's about the company. And it is the people that you're with, the people that you build with, the people that you grow with, the people that you can see more and farther with. It's doing it with great people is what makes you have the ability to outwork everyone else. Because if you think about the destination all the time, you're like, man, I got. That's what the grind is. I feel like I'm grinding, and I feel tired and resentful. That's what happens because you don't have the company, or then you go through this period of growth and everything is painful. You're like, at some point, you're like, I don't need to do this anymore.

[Sharon Srivata]

Right?

[Layla]

And then. But when you have great company, you're like, well, wait a minute. If I don't know how to do this, I can ask for help. Can someone else do? I got it. And then you realize that the. The growing and the joyfulness becomes so much more multiplied. The reason someone asked me to say, I said, the reason why I finally believe that it's about the company is because of this one thing. It allows me to work harder because there's no working smarter. It's like, you realize you have the company so you can work harder, and that's what's super, super powerful.

[Sharon Srivata]

I feel that so hard.

[Alex]

Well, the vision also expands because the timeline you think on, it also expands because if you're miserable, then you want the misery to end on some level. And so you're like, well, I can only really think this far out because I don't want to do this for longer than this amount of period of time. So then it creates this rush and this pressure to get it all done as fast as possible, which is very, like, pushing energy. Like, you're like, I have to just keep driving, even though I don't want to. On the flip side, if you're like, I'm enjoying the company on this process. It's like, well, in 20 years we can build whatever we want. And so then it, it just, it creates a lot more fun. And you can dream bigger if you have enough. I got it. And with those, I got it to enjoy those people, then it's like, well, what do we want to do? Like, let's, like, let's fuck shit up. Like, let's have, let's have fun.

[Sharon Srivata]

I think that's why I've like had zero feeling ofRush with Acquisition.com. it's just like, it's like if there's one thing, it's like, do what you love with people you love. And it's like, find people that like, you would want to be around even if they didn't work in your company.

[Alex]

Which is a big one.

[Sharon Srivata]

And like, that has just been such a huge frame shift. You know what I mean? I do want to ask you something though. Of course. I bet you people are wondering, especially like people who follow you, how's your content been a change so far?

[Layla]

The content has always been a very niche category, king type content. And the crazy part is we've had a chance to build, you know, a 1.5 million TAM audience and build a billion dollar business from it. And Alex, you talk about this, right? You go niche, you can actually create a lot of revenue from it. But I remember being at brunch with both of you and with my son Neil, and the idea of making content about what you're working on, that is the thing that I'm truly excited about. I read this quote which was like, to write the book, you have to first live the book. If you have to write the book, you have to live the book. And what I'm really excited about is starting to just look at my calendar and just talk about what we are talking about. Like what you and I are planning on launching is talking about what we are doing day to day. And I think that is the thing that people are missing. They don't see that. They see the, a lot of the how to stuff, which is cool, but they don't see the what did you do to help your business grow? So I'm looking forward to living the book and writing the book simultaneously.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah, I'm excited too. And I think also, just like for everyone that follows you, like, you know, it has been like niche, niche content. But like, if you take the word of real estate out of any piece of your content, like so many people come to our events and they're like saying that, oh, I follow Sean, like, are you real estate? They're like, well, no, but easy I get. And I'm like, you're smart. Because that's what happened with Alex is.

[Alex]

Like, we, the early days of gym launch, I had, I had a lawyer stop me. And he's like, hey, I listen to your podcast. I was like, the Gym Secrets podcast. And they were like, yeah, it all applies. And I was like, well, yeah, but I say gym and membership rather than contract and services. They're like, yeah, you just swap the words like duh. And I was like, huh? Well that's great. But, but I mean, Tron, like I'll just. One of the things that also made Tron unique for this situation is that he also had. He understood content, he understood personal brand, which is, how do you take like when you talk, talk about unicorns. It's like, okay, you find somebody who's you know, the Michael Jordan at real estate, which is a massive, you know, market, but then also has the upside of running the businesses that capitalize on this opportunity, which is pure private equity. You know, like, how do we, you know, increase enterprise value within the business and the ops itself of the people, the hiring, the recruiting, the marketing, sales, all of those components. But then there's also the like, oh yeah, and one of those companies was also a public company. And so then there's the public securities public market, which also he happened to have this experience at Goldman Sachs for years before that. So he has kind of like the bottom up approach of like what it's like on the floor of the, of, of kind of like the businesses that deal with the markets and then also being the target of those products and services that are sold. So it's like this 360 view from a business perspective. But then in terms of, okay, that's all amazing. But maybe if Sharon were 80, he wouldn't be able to come into this, our current context and understand the dynamic nature of how business is continually changing and evolving, especially with where attention is going and just how acquisition works in general right now. And so REAL was built largely, or at least in recent, you know, on the back of a lot of Sharon's speaking engagements and his personal brand that brought in a lot of people to the company. Right. And so being able to marry all of these ideas and then appropriately value each of them so that we could mix those things into the most valuable thing for an entire audience or you know, consumer base is just, it's like, how do you recreate that? It's like, oh, I just need Another person who had, you know, who's an immigrant, who isn't afraid to work, came here, you know, was dumpster diving in the beginning, and then also was able to go to one of the, you know, best schools in the US and then go to the best bank or what is considered the best, you know, investment bank in the world, and then also do the private growth two times to $1 billion level, and do it publicly. It's just like. And also have the. The personal brand and also be someone that we, like, really get along with and share the values. It's like, yeah, let's just wait for the next she run before we. Before we try and work somebody into to do what we want to do. And so it's like, you don't find another Shiron, and if you do get the opportunity to find another Shiron, call me. And don't. Don't bring them in. But no, we're. We're just.

[Sharon Srivata]

I.

[Alex]

We're. We're super pumped.

[Sharon Srivata]

So.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Sharon Srivata]

To have you, like, just genuinely, I think, you know, not going too much in my own. But, like, it's just been so fun. Even though it's. I know it's hard, and there's a lot of. It's still been fun. I remember it was like your fourth day. One of the members of our facilities teams messaged me, and he was like, I just want to say you seem lighter. Like, you just seem like you're smiling more, and you just seem brighter. Like, is this because Sharon's here now? And I was like, oh, my gosh. I think it is.

[Alex]

I was like, I'm just excited.

[Sharon Srivata]

It's awesome.

[Layla]

That's awesome. That makes me happy.

[Sharon Srivata]

Yeah, I'm excited. To build acquisition icon through 3.0.

[Alex]

3.0.