well Layla I'm pumped to have you on the show I was telling you before we hit record it was hard to pin you down your team was very kind very gracious we figured it out so just thanks for taking time out of what all you're doing running your company and taking time out of the content you're making which we'll get into in a second because I know that this is very very precious so just big old thank you before we jump into this oh I appreciate you having me on so I'm excited well I wanted to talk I wanted to start with content and then really get into your story in a minute only because you you posted a video I think maybe it's two or three months ago now on your channel talking about a shift in your content that you're going to be posting um that you weren't going to be able to do all the the content the way you used to do because you were going back into full-blown CEO mode and this is something you said because you said you're still gonna like document it behind the scenes stuff which I love but this is what you said that resonated with me you said you have to know what kind of season you are in and so you knew that you were in a season that were needed to change can you unpack like what that season is for you um what does that mean and then maybe I thought like bigger picture for everyone else listening wow having the self-awareness to know what season you were in might dictate your strategy and what you do even if you were doing something that's working you're willing to Pivot yeah um you know it really came from I felt like every every week uh I was losing when it came to content like I felt like I wasn't able to keep up with the demands I put on myself and to be frank a lot of it came from you know when we started acquisition.com uh Alex he made content in our last company and then he started making content we were selling the companies and then I started making it a while after him so he has a large head start on me and I kind of just picked up whatever what he was doing for Content like I was like what he's doing for YouTube I'll just like mirror that use the same people use the same system do that same with Twitter same with Instagram same with uh Tick Tock and so I just kind of adapted his system and one day I was uh pretty stressed because I made some changes internally to the team at acquisition.com and so I was like okay I have to back I have to be this role for the next few months until I bring somebody in and that's what's right for the business right but then I kind of looked up and I was like gosh doing content and running this business I didn't do that in my last companies and so and I also know what it's like to have split attention what it felt like was that I had almost like two jobs and I was like this is not feasible for me and so I met with our director brand and I told him and he was like we need to completely redo what we're doing like the strategy that we have for Alex should not be what we have for Layla because the way you guys operate is differently the way that you work is different like Alex the his his position like we both Define positions right in the company and in what we do together it's like he has way more time allocated for Content as I don't so I try to fit it in and I have to seep it into weekends and mornings and nights to fit it in and so that's what I was doing and it just got to this point where I was like this is not realistic for me because what I know Graham is every time that I feel like I'm consistently losing it's because I'm setting unrealistic expectations for myself it's like okay so I've set this expectation for the last four months I have literally not met it once and I am working my freaking butt off so what is is it that I should work harder or do I need to change my expectation and so I was like I need to change my expectation and in doing that we basically reworked the strategy and to say like okay I'm doing a lot of these things creating a lot of this stuff we need to just have it be like the team has to work around me work around my schedule and they have to basically adapt to me rather than me adapting to this content structure we designed and that's what I realized I was doing I was adapting to fit in the system that they created for Alex and so now what we did is we said there's two different systems and we have to create one for Layla and I think it was just because of this feeling consistently week over week like that I'm failing and I didn't think that that was going to be productive because the way I see content is it's not something I'm doing for like a season I see content as something that I will do infinitely like I don't know why I would ever stop doing it just like I don't know why I would ever stop doing business like it's just that's what I want to do and so I also know that in order to continue doing something in the Long Haul you have to readjust your strategy and if content is going to take you know 20 hours a week I will never be able to keep up with it like I will end up quitting I won't do it because it doesn't make sense with what I do and honestly I don't know if it would make good content because I think my content's good because I'm I'm actually doing it and I have a lot of experience and I don't know if I'll be able to even create the best content if I'm not doing those things so that's where the decision came from and I think that putting it out there was like almost like a relief for me because I just didn't want to make a change in strategy and then people be like what's going on you know like why is the content not as good all these things Etc yeah but the irony of it is that actually my content has uh substantially increased since then which I find so funny yeah I was wondering yeah um it's actually really found like a I don't know if like hit a vein but I think because something that I really didn't like about my strategy before is it feels like everything was very heavily produced like it's like how inorganic is it for me to like sit in front of a camera with like four Dudes in a room and then like rehearse a script that I wrote like three days ago it's like is that Layla or is that just like a talking head delivering like very plain like unpalatable information and so every time I would watch my videos I was just like yeah oh like that's not me that's not my personality that's not how I talk that's not how I teach my team and so the really cool part is that in seeking in defining what season I was in and changing that strategy it feels like I actually found this like really nice Synergy where my content now is a better reflection of who I actually am and therefore actually does better because you know everyone can rehearse information on the internet but I think that very few people are actually being themselves on the internet and putting out who they really are and I think that being able to capture content in a way that makes it easy to be yourself not hard to be yourself uh is a winning strategy wow gosh I mean there was so much in that I I 100 agree with you because you you talked on like two huge things one is sustainability because you I'm with you like content is a long game it's a it's a it's so much fun if you find the right style for you so I'm always asking myself and my students to find what is a sustainable content strategy or Rhythm or Cadence or type for you um as opposed to like what could you do for 90 days anybody could do a lot for 90 days so you really touched on sustainability but I think you have to have the self-awareness right to know what you actually feel like you can do so my question really to that is did you feel was it like an easy decision for you like I just got to make a change or do you feel and I don't know that that name between you and Alex let's say but I I know my wife like is there any like oh well if he can do it I should be able to keep doing it was that a real thing for you I think that I always want to be better and improving and so for me I Rely a lot on outside eyes you know like I asked Alex I said like am I being unrealistic because I trust him and I value his opinion like in saying like that I can't keep up with this and he was like no you do way more in the business you're on meetings all day every day like of course you can't do the same amount that I'm doing this is my job he was like it's not your primary job and so I think having that outside perspective and having somebody I trust that can give me that feedback is a good indicator for me like okay I'm being too hard on myself because I will try and do like three jobs at a time you know what I mean like and if someone was like that's what it would take then I'd be like okay you know I'll do it but it I think asking people on the outside for feedback is really helpful when you're feeling say confused or stuck or emotional because they're not you know and they can give you an unbiased opinion so I feel like that was a really big unlock for me because I you know I trust his opinion yeah I love that so I love and I so I love the sustainability piece I think that's wise and then what you talked about which was your content actually maybe seems more authentic now uh and therefore it's more powerful now than before because you you're just letting you're almost like garyvee kind of like getting captured and like in the moment and and they get to look behind the scenes and see what you're doing and so I think uh kudos to you I guess is what I must say for having the guts to say okay I could do this style of content you've done it well like your videos have always been great but it's like I think this is more authentic to what I feel comfortable doing right now and I still think it will be valuable and instructive to others uh in its own way and you have the guts to like pivot and I think a lot of us get so stuck on the way we did something especially if it has worked in the past to be like I'm gonna do it this way because what if you lose all the views or the momentum or whatever so kudos to you on that um have you felt better in the last couple of months like in this rhythm is it working for you totally and the piece I'll say to that is content if you engineer an environment where it's very hard to be yourself when you're making content because there's time pressure there's tons of people watching you it's on the spot you know you're trying to rehearse something you've written then I think that you take a lot of the like what creates good content in a way out of it because it takes away a lot of your personality because you're on the spot you're rehearsing you're nervous um and so you're more concerned with saying the right words than you are conveying the message and so for me you know going more to like the captured style basically I'll just grab it like this right so before I'm like let me tell you how to run an effective meeting and now I'm like just record me having an effective meeting that's that's the switch right and so it's like you know also I think that that's more engaging for a viewer because they can see what good looks like versus me telling them what good looks like you know I can't wait until we start having the team on all the videos that could be like this is what a good you know CFO looks like rather than like telling them what a good CFO looks like so I think that it's also much more powerful for the person on the other end um but at the end of the day here's the biggest thing I've learned which is you have to figure out what style content in what format in what way you enjoy doing because just like business like people like how do you keep going what keeps you motivated I'm like listen I like what I'm doing like I don't need motivation I enjoy what I'm doing I have engineered an environment where I what I am good at also aligns with adding value to the company and so you have to do the same with content how can you create content in a way that adds value to the viewers the things that you like doing create good content that people like to consume and so I think that a lot of people just they're they're so busy looking at like hacking the algorithm trying to see what other people are doing I can't even tell you how many people just copy my damn videos whose videos do I watch nobodies I don't watch anybody not one person the only person I will watch is Alex and so you know it's funny because I think if you constantly are comparing yourself to other people trying to play the algorithm trying to manufacture content to beat these other people of course people can't keep making content because you've made it impossible to win and you're playing by other people's rules not your own and so I think it's like you have to play your game which is like screw what works we're what you see works right now um and forget what other people are doing what would work for you what sounds exciting to you what's a way what's a novel way that you could capture content that other people aren't doing that you just think sounds cool and I think that a lot of people just aren't using first principles to think through their content they're just looking at what other people are doing and seeing how do I recreate that and get more clicks yep oh my gosh that's so true and and we were talking before I hit record um about my start on content what was in the music space and this is 2009 10 11 and and I was making videos and I remember feeling I remember one day like looking like looking at the computer and saying should I be paying attention to what other people are doing because I wasn't like I just had my head down I mean we were broke right we were on food stamps I had a wife and a baby and I'm 26 and I'm like I just need to find a way to make money online so I'm just gonna work hard and just pump out content but after like a year of making content I was like should I be paying attention to like what really good content looks like and I just was like no I'm just gonna keep I'm just gonna keep doing what res what like feels and it sounds so like vague but if it felt very clear to me what was missing and at least in my Niche the type of content the way I was gonna show up and uh and I didn't pay attention to the big ones for years and years and years and it it worked so well and people were shocked that like you just keep your head down like you don't subscribe to other people's newsletters I was like I have unsubscribed for my business partners newsletters because I don't want to see what they're doing because they're doing too many cool things so that has served me well to kind of just do my thing and I don't think enough people say that to your credit so thanks for for at least validating what I've been doing for 14 years well I think it's like you literally probably just thought to yourself what would I want to consume right and I think we're more alike than we think we are as humans and so that's what I use for my content is like what's content that I would want to watch and I actually realized that a lot of the content that I make and I was making I'm like oh I wouldn't want to watch that like I would but it wouldn't make me want to keep coming back because there's some pieces that are lacking you know like I was like my personality doesn't come through in any of my freaking content you know like there's no and so I I think that using that to guide you I actually think that it's much more I think it's a more intelligent strategy than people give it credit for because I think that some of the best work that people do comes from creating something that they'd always wished that they had whether it's a business or content 100 I love it okay so you touched on this briefly like motivation like to keep going to keep growing like to you know you guys are trying to take acquisition to a billion dollar company you've done so much and you've had all these other companies before um is it just the joy is it just the fun of the games just playing the game is it like what what drives you at this point is that it or is that it I don't know what drives me um I think that like if I break down what I actually believe I think that I stumbled into business Alex and I we got we had a lot of things happen really well in the beginning that were really strong reinforcers and I think that what happens is that a lot of people aren't good at something and because they're not good at something they don't keep doing it but if you get immediate feedback from something that you says I am good at it it's an indicator whether it's money success whatever then you want to keep doing it because people actually tend to like the things that they're good at or they're familiar with and so I think that I got a lot of really immediate reinforcers early on when we started in business and that just like compounded to me liking business um I think that I actually view it more as here's the set of goals that I have as Layla hormozzi how do I Engineer an environment that makes it as easy as possible to reach those goals and that is the question that I constantly asking myself is if something feels hard okay well then how would we create an environment that would make it feel easier like when people say they're not motivated I'm like well look at your life I wouldn't be either like look at who you surround yourself with look at the environment that you work in look at the people that you talk to look at the content you consume of course you're not motivated I look at my life and say how can I Engineer an office that makes me want to work how can I Engineer all the people around me that motivate me to want to achieve bigger things how can I Engineer anything that I consume in my mind to be things that only help me get towards that goal and I think that things oftentimes we're looking at like how do I get more motivated but it's like a lot of the times we have to relieve ourselves of constraints rather than seek things to motivate us it's like just get rid of the things that suppress you before you seek things to motivate you most people have suppressing environments they have people that tell them they can't do things they have surroundings that make it very hard to work it's loud it's not private all these things and it's like let's just take care of those things first and then tell me if you're not motivated hey friend we'll get back to the episode in just a moment but I wanted to give you a gift for hanging out with me today I want to give you my 30-day online income jumpstart guide this is a four-week checklist bullet points to go from zero audience zero customers maybe even zero idea of what your business should be to putting money in your pocket 30 days from now it won't be a million dollars in 30 days but it will be money in your pocket you will have figured out your idea you will have tested your idea you will have launched your idea and taken Massive Action towards building a business and a life that you love if you already know your business idea but you've been sitting around and you haven't taken action on it then you need this guy because it'll walk you through a four-week plan to go from where you are to putting money in your pocket in 30 days and if you've never figured out what your business idea is and you have no followers online and no audience it's okay this will help you start at zero I promise you it's a PDF it's fast it's easy to read it's not an ebook you don't have to spend a lot of time on this it's more about taking action and doing the right things in the right order and it's free as my gift to you so just go to Graham cochrane.com jumpstart to get your 30 day online income jumpstart guide that's Graham cochran.com jumpstart now back to the episode wow wow that's so no one's really talking about I mean that's so wise like it's almost like would you say because what comes up for me is people don't even really know who they are or what they want until they can remove so many of the external things like you said the negative things to hold the suppressing things and then and then they might be able to discover the type of person they want to become the business they want to build the life they want to build would you say that feels right I think that people who feel suppressed have no discretionary effort to give to themselves or others and so if you remove suppression in all shapes and forms people and things and places then I think you have so much more discretionary effort that you can access to put towards the things that you want in life and so that that's how I view it at least I think when I want to achieve something and I feel like it's hard it's usually because there's an environmental factor that makes that's suppressing me in some way and if I'm able to remove that factor then I have this discretionary effort that I can access to put towards this thing does that make sense yeah that makes total sense I love that it's a subtraction first and then and then addition and change for after that I love that um yeah so let's talk about what would you say and I'm just curious in your own words like what would you say is your like secret sauce and your biggest value that you bring to the company and to companies in general like everyone's got their own thing that they're really good at um what do you think it is that for you that brings value to the company the most that is probably what you love the most and what could we learn from that too whether we need to be that in our own business or have someone on our team that does what you do I think that it's probably I have been this way for a long time and then I stumbled into like the role of being CEO because I already naturally was inclined to these things which is like I love encouraging developing and helping people like genuinely at the end of the day like when I met Alex I was like I remember he asked like what do you want to do and I was like I just truly am really passionate about helping people and I remember he said like could you be passionate about helping people and making money um because I had taken like I had taken a step back in my career that I thought I would be able to learn more to help people more but I was making way less money and I thought that was a really good frame to think through but like I think at the end of the day like I I genuinely I guess like I don't know if it's upbringing or what I can't tell you like the cause but I think I really enjoy helping people develop helping them win um I don't like winning alone and I think that that's actually a big Advantage for me like I look at the platform of acquisition.com and I think to myself like how can I use this platform to make as many people employees of acquisition.com companies of acquisition.com and consumers of acquisition.com content make all of them wealthy and as what everyone say known as they want to be it's like I have two things that I can do which is like I know how to you know Drive revenue and I also know how to get people like mildly known or whatever so it's like how can I use those platforms and this platform to help everybody win because I think at the end of the day it's like if you win the race and it's just you standing there alone it's like it's not fun to celebrate alone and so I view things through that lens and I think that a lot of people only build things to serve themselves and ironically they don't even serve themselves because I think it's really hard to go far without help but the only way that people are going to help you achieve anything is if you help them at the same time I think it's a mutual exchange of value and so I look at every person that is an employee of acquisition.com it's a mutual exchange of value like just because I pay them money does not mean I get any discretionary effort from them how I treat them and how much I help them equates to how much discretionary effort I get the companies at acquisition.com just because I invest in those companies does not mean that they're suddenly going to grow how much discretionary effort I give those Founders and those teams equates to how much more growth I'm going to see with those companies and I think that it's all of the quote like soft stuff that people don't want to do you know culture talent management um all of those things but I I don't I have literally never seen it not be the reason why a company fails like not having those things like every company that doesn't have those things in place fails eventually the companies that stand the test of time have something to that extent in place and that's the reason why they're able to exist yeah so good can you I love can you speak to this because I think this is one of the the shadow sides of like what I do and even what I teach right I'm helping people primarily start a solopreneur type business where they don't need anybody else and there's enough tools and and and and free and paid to to create a six multi-6 even seven figure Business Without a single person on your team really you could get away with it and and even those that have somewhat of a team right they might just be like contractors here and there um so I think one of the the negatives of that is it's very um self or oriented by the nature of it and for someone like me I can speak only for myself I mean I hear my students talk about this as well and everyone's personality is different but I'm introverted by nature and I'm happy to like Whittle away at something on my own and I didn't have any experience running a company with Team before like I didn't want to be a business owner I wanted to be a rock star and that dream kind of died and it became audio engineer and then I'd be became a YouTuber and then a content creator and so I've always done stuff by myself and so I've been comfortable with that and then you hit some ceilings and then you realize that you don't know everything and you know so I I feel like there is that shadow side of like either we're going to limit our growth or potential or to what your point was you you get to the end of you win maybe the race you set out to run but you're you want it alone so can you talk to like a solopreneur like me I mean I have more of a team now but like that type of person that I'm helping coach what are the blind spots we're not seeing as solopreneurs and how what about you know how can we break past our fears of like I don't know how to hire I don't know who to hire first I don't even know how to think that big what would you say to someone like me I would break it down to this which is one I think there's preferences right some people would prefer not to have to interact with people as much and so that's maybe what they want to do they're like I would just like to be alone I don't want to and that's trade-off right so it's like I make a trade-off of the fact that my time is not necessarily of my own all the time because I run a large company and I have lots of companies I'm responsible for I don't have like my calendar is not free right it is booked every day all day now the the other side of that is that I have so many people I get to celebrate with I have so many people who I'm close to I have so many amazing relationships that I like cherish and so I would make that trade-off all day but some people would not they say I prefer being alone I prefer having autonomy of my own time I don't want to have things on my calendar I would rather spend that time with my kids it might be a season of life it might just be a preference in general I would say that for a lot of people um the skill of starting a business and growing a team growing a team specifically you have to acquire a lot of skills at once that you typically don't have and if somebody hasn't had a job in which they have had to start from scratch a team and grow it then they likely don't have the skill of building a team when they start a company and the irony of it is that it's not one skill that's required but there's like five skills that are required to effectively build a team and so what happens is that most people try and they fail the first time something doesn't work out somebody does something Shady someone steals client like there's so many things that happen right and so the first time that they do it the first thing that happens is negative and so then they have a negative association with having a team and then maybe they try again and they have two of the five skills but they don't have five of five and then they have another incident that happens that's negative and they build another negative association with having a team and so what happens is that if you don't continue until you have all five of five skills to build a team you don't break through that barrier all that you've done is accumulate a lot of evidence to say that building a team is really hard and you might be better off by yourself you know what I mean and I think that I just look at it as it's like you have more evidence to show you that building a team is hard and doesn't equate if anything you've lost money hiring this team right they haven't made you money they haven't made your life easier they've made it harder you've spent more money it sucks and so the the tough part is that I like some people have a very short uh what you would call like Extinction curve so what it means is that like when a negative reinforcer happens they just immediately back off they're like I'm not doing that again some people when you say someone's persistent they have a longer Extinction curve meaning they will try six more times until the thing works and those people who have higher persistence then they get to the other side and then they can create a positive association with having a team but if you don't if you have a short Extinction curve and it takes one negative event to deter you from building a team then I mean don't build a team don't build anything because you're just gonna end up quitting and so I think it really just comes down to can you get through the first five or six you know negatively reinforcing incidences that happen when you build a team or can you try and acquire the skills ahead of time and make yours and at least get yourself informed about what it takes to build a team so you can maybe skip through some of those so it's not so painful so you can get to the other side and actually you know I would say like recognize the fruits of what it means to actually have a team that makes you money and makes your life easier but it's just like most people just don't get over that hump and so I don't blame them because it's like it is shitty in the beginning and for most people have never done it it's a terrible experience so I I love that and I think that's an honest answer so I appreciate that because I feel like people have a either fear of hiring and they're starting to build a team and start you know learning the skills of managing a team and so they already know it's going to be hard and then um but they might have been sold the bill of goods from a coach or somebody that like oh you delegate and all your problems go away like other people do the work for you and like and so they want that dream and there's this this mushy middle of what you just described of like the self-education and oh it's more complicated than I thought but that doesn't mean you don't do it or some version of it it's just do you have the grit to stay in there I love that Extinction curve um would you say like go back in time so like pre like gym launch era for you guys like what was the skill or what was the belief that you you wish you had back then if you could go back and give Layla that belief that she needed back then that would have helped you push through even I mean you guys have had a lot of success so I mean you don't have to say the store needs to be Rewritten but like what do you wish you knew skill set or belief wise before you know the gym launch let's say that you didn't have that you do have now I would say that a lot of the pain that I had to bear in growing gym launch came from not being able to manage the dichotomy of building a team and rather looking at team and you know lack performance as a problem so I look at management as something that exists on and it's basically like either you're micromanaging people or you give them complete freedom and either end of that results with usually negatives and the the ideal is to be somewhere in the middle and so I really look at it as like you know micromanaging people versus like giving full autonomy it's like all the things that exist in management like having people that are mismanaged is not a problem it's really a dichotomy that the leader needs to learn how to manage of how do I not give people complete freedom but also not overly micromanage people how do I meet in the middle and manage people in a way that makes doing their job easier not harder and I don't think that I understood that I think that I used to default towards uh in the beginning I think I gave a lot of freedom and autonomy like almost like too much because I also was young I didn't know what I was doing and so I was like just go in there and do it I don't know I have no idea you know and then on the other end it's like then I felt like hey you guys aren't doing a good job so then I would put in a ton of mechanisms I'd overly manage people and then I realized that both of those don't help people do their job it's like my job as a leader right and anyone's job is like a manager is like how do I make it easier for them to do their job not harder and that was a something that I didn't understand at that point in time okay let's look at them and how could I make it easier if you look at like the the angle of taking it all the way to like complete freedom and autonomy that's not easy because typically it lacks Clarity they're not clear on what they need to do when you just say go figure it out and I think that one of the main things a leader needs to be able to do is to provide clarity whereas on the other end micromanaging some someone what does that do well that makes them feel suppressed do people who feel suppressed perform at a high level no so you don't get the best out of people and so it's it's tough because I think what I always try to do with people is get them to accelerate like you don't need to go to either end of the spectrum like let's just start from the middle because that's really what people need um but I don't think that I understood like what is the purpose of a leader or manager to make hmm to make it easier for the people that report to them to do their job and that belief or I guess you could say like way in which I view work is what has helped me a ton because I look at it like how can I make it easier anything that falls under that scope is what I would attribute to being like my responsibility I love that it's so wise and I've definitely done both Extremes in in team uh and I've literally I was having a conversation with my wife about that today uh about uh a certain individual and I was like man if like I I know I've micromanaged so much in the past that like I default to the other which is probably advocating way too much responsibility and and to just to like get me off the hook but is it really helping them and it's not helping me because like I'm like we're not getting where we need to go so I feel I feel both of those extreme so that's wise I love that um and that feels like and that's probably why that's probably why so many leaders fail in in companies because it's such a delicate dance and balance to get right it probably requires so much like you mentioned soft skills but really so many uh human skills to be able to read people know what they need know what you need to be able to to it's not everyone's the same you can't even treat them exactly the same or even on the same day like certain days we're just not feeling the same so there's a lot there yeah there's a lot and I think that it's a very tedious job to be a leader of people like there's a lot of repetition you train someone up on one thing and then it's like two weeks later there's somebody else needs to get trained up on like something two degrees different like you have to have a really high threshold for I would say like boredom and repetition I love that quote of the day I love that um okay real quick I know I want to respect your time here but I do want to quickly ask you about uh your marriage because it's really unique like you and Alex getting to work together getting to do a lot together I'm always fascinated by couples or families that run businesses together um because you know you always hear yeah don't ever go into business you know with friends or family and I have lots of friends that actually have gone into business not only with their spouse but with their families as well and hiring moms and dads and brothers and sisters it's pretty beautiful so what would you say like real quick I I think it's working really really well from what I can tell and you guys seem to have a lot of fun what what works and what doesn't work though for you guys to balance like hey it's it's work mode and we're doing work um and then it's marriage mode and we're working on the relationship or the hats like what what do you find is the what works for you guys or does that work really well or what's a challenge for you guys as a married couple trying to you want to keep your marriage healthy and strong but you also want to give the company what it needs so maybe you could talk to that a bit you know it's an interesting question I think I have a little bit different of a viewpoint on it because I think that in the beginning we got a lot of advice that was like you know plan one day night a week don't talk about work at dinner when you go on the date like you know when you get done with work don't like go talk about it and for me and Alex specifically that doesn't work like I'm way too far obsessive with what we do to not talk about all the time and so is he and so we actually both love talking about all the time and I think that that's one thing that is unique to us that is and the reason I say it is because that is so not what works for many people's marriages but I think that what I've learned in you know building our marriage and I I would say like it just continues like get exponentially better year over year is most of the things that other people have given me as advice do not work for us in fact like our marriage is such a like compilation of just like what works for Layla and Alex not even like what works for marriages and I think that a lot of people look at other people's relationships and say like we should do what they're doing like what are Leila and Alex doing because that could work for us but Layla and Alex every time that we tried to look at somebody else's marriage and say like let's try that it felt like it was imposing upon like our preferences and what we liked doing and then I think again it's first principles thinking of like what do we want for our marriage and does it here's the thing Layla and Alex are obsessive of talking about work and talk about work all the time is that a problem if they both enjoy it yeah it's a good question right I I would say not and if somebody labels it as a problem like I'm okay with that I don't care if they think it's a problem I like it it's a problem I'll take and I'll keep any day so I think that a lot of it has been we provide we've created an environment in our marriage where both of us allow the other person to fully be themselves and I think that we both have zero expectations of each other but we are 100 committed to the marriage and 100 put our foot forward our best foot forward for the other person I expect nothing if Alex wants to work every day from like 6 a.m to midnight for the next three weeks it wouldn't bother me now I would say on a long enough time Horizon like is that the rest of our lives but I think that a lot of people like we put rules in place for relationships but I think that I value our marriage and I value our business now does that mean that every day is a balance between the two no but I think that on a long enough time Horizon there is quote balance between the two in terms of like there are weeks that maybe are lighter with work therefore we get more time with our marriage and then there are weeks that are really heavy with work and so we don't get much time for our marriage I actually don't mind that because I like being able to miss my husband I like the time where I feel like oh I want to spend time with Alex because I also know the other side of that which is when you have too much time with your spouse it starts to feel like oh gosh I've seen enough of them I gotta go get some time with somebody else and so I actually think that the dynamic that we have we have something we get to work on together that Me growing and improving myself uh is beneficial for Alex and Alex growing and improving himself is beneficial for me because we both put those skills into one thing that benefits both of us I think that that that could be said for kids it could be said for building a house it could be said for like planting a garden together like I think we have something Mutual that if both of us increase our skill sets in some way and then pour it into this third entity and then the entity benefits both of us I think that is a really great Dynamic for a marriage um but at the same time you know I think you have to figure out what works for you you know like I think a lot of people ask like how do you guys make it work and I'm like you know I was super um like I have engineered my entire life toward my career and what I want to build and Alex has done the same and then we just met each other and then do it together now and it works for us but I don't think that works for most people yeah it's a beautiful it's a beautiful answer it's honest I I really appreciate you sharing I respect you guys um figuring out what works for you um and I love how you've said this twice now but you know first order thinking and not being so prescriptive about things well that's what they do therefore I'm going to take the same prescription for me you really it's almost it's you're doing the harder work of what really works for us I mean what do we really value and want I just think there's a lot of wisdom there I love it so much I want to respect your time I have one final question I ask on every every episode this can go in a completely different direction it's kind of a philosophical one something I call the Golden Rule segment and uh and so usually like uh you know if if my guest has kids I'll ask him about it with kids but it could be you know nieces and nephews anybody that you you care about this person so much right and the people that you're pouring into and even employees that you have where like you're probably giving them wisdom and counsel all the time and you really wish they would remember and all the things you're teaching them because you have a lot to share but like my kids I know they're gonna forget 99 of the things I teach them or share or whatever um but there's some things that I want them to remember forever so if there was one piece of advice that you would want the people that you love to remember and carry with them forever sort of like a golden rule if they forgot everything else you taught them but this one piece of advice what would you say that would be I would say said most simply and you've probably heard this before but I really think about it all the time it's just like leave everyone and every place better than you found it I think about that every day and I try to do it in everything I do like people in every conversation how can I leave this person better every place I go how can I leave it cleaner than it was when I left you know every uh company that we invest in how can I leave it better than when we invested in it like I just constantly am thinking through that frame and so I think that's what I would leave them with that is so beautiful I love it my daughter has a shirt that says leave it better than you found it and that's what it made me think of when you said that I love this so much this has been amazing so and everyone should definitely check out you know you and Alex run everything together so I'm I want to say that I know you guys in terms of things people can go support you with or the the books right 100 million dollar offers was a phenomenal book I've talked about it a lot um in in my circle of my community uh but 100 million dollar leads will be out by the time this episode is is there so like that's the next book in the series where can people find those books any other resources you want to push their way other than your YouTube channel let me know what we should push people to I appreciate that yeah uh at the time this is airing I think a hundred million dollar leads will be out so if you go to acquisition.com books you can go there to see uh where all the different formats are available um and I think uh we're gonna pre-release uh some things on the website and then eventually they should be like widespread amongst most formats where you can find a book amazing check it out their content is phenomenal these guys are doing incredible things and one thing I will just say that I really admire about both of you guys Layla is uh you you're 100 authentic from day one ever since I started seeing y'all's content years ago it's like you've just shown up and you're like this is what we think this is what we believe this is what we do you're not trying to be something else or like you said earlier like game the system it's just a breath of fresh air and I think that's one reason why so many people are attracted to your content is it's like oh we we're so attracted to people who just feel fully free as who they are and are putting something out there and they're not really you're not asking for anything you're just like here this will help you and and it's so magnetic so just kudos to you for continuing that and even like you said in a couple of months ago like pivoting your content to make it fit your life and feel more authentic to what you value what you want to do in the season I just think it's really refreshing and rare well thank you Graham I uh I hope other people see it and if they're inspired by it I just say like dude do it for you like we need more people that put out content of who they are rather than like a watered down version of like who's somebody else on the Internet is agreed Layla thank you so much for your time this has been great thank you Graham well I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Layla I know I did it was a lot of fun it was worth the wait to get her on the calendar uh and if you're listening to this episode in real time Layla and her husband Alex just recently launched the book 100 million dollar leads which we alluded to at the end of the episode you can pick up the book now it is for sale now go to acquisition.com books or you can buy wherever books are sold I'm a huge fan of their material and the way they both think about business uh and so I got a lot of value out of Alex's first book 100 million dollar offers and I think you're going to get a lot of value out of both so go pick it up enjoy grow your business and hey embrace the way you were made the way you were wired to run your business and build a business around your strengths don't be like everybody else be you and be okay with it hope you enjoyed this episode thanks for hanging out with me today have an amazing week I'll see you next week [Music] thank you [Music]