Leila Hormozi: From Minimum Wage Employee to $100M Net Worth By 29

What I really thought about was, when does it end? You know, like at 8 arrests, at 10 arrests, at 300 pounds, at 350 pounds. I just really thought about that and I was like, what does my life look like in 3 years, in 4 years, in 5 years if I keep doing this? And that terrified me enough to immediately change literally everything. I feel like I could rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like no days off. On the road, let's travel.

Never Hey, Leila, welcome to the show. It's exciting to see you here. We've had Alex on a couple of times and, uh, I don't know, you guys are pretty kick-ass. We've, we've been, we, you, you're like one of the few business, like, power couples, celebrity couples that are out there in the public. Did you ever think you would be doing that? Like, did you ever think, oh, I'll be the kind of like guru influencer-y person who's going to be out there giving advice or giving frameworks or trying to be helpful to people? Is that something you, something you saw yourself doing?

Not in the beginning, because I think I just really enjoyed running the company. And then I think Once I realized that after a certain point, the impact I wanted to have, I would, it would be required that I learned that skill and that it would be something that would be transferable to what I did day to day as well. Then that was when I was like, okay, I think this is important for me to learn because what I realized is I can be as good as I am at running a business, but if I'm not as good at running it as I am talking about it, then it doesn't really matter. If I can't communicate my abilities, then that in itself is a limiter for me teaching my team and transferring that skill to somebody else. Whether it be an audience, my team, a friend, whatever it might be.

I feel like when I hear you talk, it's like, okay, you've, you've really got a, a super strong sense of how you like to operate. It's like you got it together and a system that works for you. And that comes through experience. It comes through trial and error. But let's rewind before you had all that and let you tell your story a little bit, 'cause there's gonna be people who are listening to this, don't know your full story. I don't know your full story, to be honest. I love this one tweet that I came out of the research. You said, You can't skip the struggle if you want the story. So I wanna use that. You can't skip the struggle if you want the story. So in telling your story, let's start with the struggle. Can you start where you didn't have it all together? You weren't this sort of business terminator. You, you were struggling, you were trying to figure it out. Can you start there?

Yeah, I would say that, you know, ever since I was like a teenager, uh, uh, I always wanted to get into entrepreneurship mostly because I had my father He was a tenured professor, you know, he did everything by the book and he honestly was miserable. And so I really just felt like that wasn't the way to go. I just didn't know what the way was. And I got lost along the way. So much so that like, you know, when I was 19, I had been arrested 6 times. I was drinking, doing drugs. I was 230 pounds. Like my life was going nowhere. I was flunking out of college. And that was when I really, when I turned my life around, just learning how to live my life in accordance with my goals and values rather than my feelings. And that was really what taught me a lot of discipline. I ended up losing almost 100 pounds. I moved across the country by myself from Michigan to California, and I went to go, go to California because I wanted to pursue a career in fitness. Because then I had finished school for exercise science. Useless, but nonetheless, I had finished school for it.

You just said a thing that, like, in a movie would have been like 60 minutes, and you did it in like 60 seconds. I want to zoom in. So you were like, I'm 230 pounds, I'm drinking, I don't know what I want to do with my life. I'm basically single, broke, and out of shape, right? That's kind of like the start. And then you were like, so then I decided I'm going to start living life in terms of my goals. And then I did. I lost 100 pounds and like All right, hold on. I've been there before. I know that there's something that happens in between those, right? If it was so easy to just live in accordance with my goals, I probably would've been doing it earlier. Yeah. There must have been some wake-up call, some sort of moment, some sort of a tough conversation with yourself where you decided to, to start making that shift. What was that moment?

There was two moments. The first one, which was like, okay, I want to stop. Being a fat ass is I was at a party, or I went to a party, it was my friend's birthday party, and it was college, right? And so then she's like, I'm gonna invite these people, which had been our friends in high school. And I was like, oh gosh, that's embarrassing because like I'm pretty overweight now. And so it's like, I hope nobody says anything, but nobody's gonna say anything because that's really rude, right? And so there's— we have this party, everyone's drinking, and I'm walking past a couple of guys I went to high school with and going to the bathroom, and I hear a guy and he's like 'What a shame.' And I was like, I was like, 'What?' And he was really drunk, and I was like, 'What's the shame?' And he was like, 'Man,' he's like, 'You know, it really sucks because, like, you know, you were really pretty, but you're just really fat now.' Oh. And I remember in that— no, but here's the thing, in that moment— yeah, yeah, um, in that moment, I was like, the— my, my internal voice actually was like, He's right. And I was like, I hate that, that what he said is true. And so it was in that moment that I was like, I don't want somebody to be able to say that about me anymore. And avoiding the situation, avoiding real life is not, it's not cutting it. And so I remember I went home and I like, you know, like wrote this Facebook post in pure rage. It was like, you won't see me anymore. I'm going dark and like expect not to hear from me. Um, And I really was just like, I can't keep overeating. I can't keep not taking care of myself. I had stopped working out, basically stopped working out, started eating like shit, and drank all the time. And if you do all those things at once, like, you just continue to gain weight. And that was really the moment that did it for me because I just— the fact that my response was, I agree with him. It wasn't like, I'm mad at him, I'm anything. I was like, nah, he told the truth. And I think that if you don't want people to say bad stuff about you, then change. I'd rather just change the situation than try and avoid people.

Yeah. You, you type up the Facebook message, you say, I'm going dark. Did you have a plan or you just had the fuel at that time?

I mean, seriously, it's not the worst plan.

Have you, have you ever heard of the Dickens method?

Mm-mm.

It's basically, uh, exactly what you just described. If, if you ever go to like a Tony Robbins event, like his, his big kind of events.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which by the way, I've talked about that in this pod. I, I had the, I had a similar run rate. I had about, uh, 3 arrests in 3 months. Really? Yeah. I, I also weighed 230 pounds. Uh, and I was a, a disgusting person and yeah, love, love booze and substances. And so it had a, had a, a similar issue of like after one arrest, you're like, what the fuck, man?

What the fuck?

I didn't live with my parents at the time. Uh, but I did, I lived with my dog. I had like this dog and I like, he shit all over himself one day because I got arrested and I was in jail for 24 hours and I was like, oh my God, I'm letting him down. It was like, it's so funny. It was like a very similar, everything changed at that moment. So you and I, we are the same.

We had no idea.

Yeah. We're similar. Uh, and what age were you when you moved to California? What age were you when you met Alex?

Yeah, I was 20, almost 23 when I met him.

Wait, wait, describe the first date.

Well, they're, they're buds first, right? Weren't you guys buddies first?

We, we were buddies, but we were dating. I don't know how to describe this.

Uh, there's a term for that.

Yeah, no, but not, not actually. I'll put it like this. So like, yeah, that's not what I mean. Uh, we met on Bumble and we went on our first date. He asked me to go to Froyo. He was like, listen, It's low commitment, so if we're weird, we can leave. And I was like, I mean, good, because I've been on some bad fucking dates lately, man. And so we meet at Froyo. He comes up. He's not very friendly. I just remember the first thing, he was like not smiling. And I was like, what's wrong with this guy? We get in line and he's still not smiling. And I'm like, I'm like cracking a joke or two. And I'm like, this guy's tough. Come to find out later, the reason he wasn't smiling is because I have a full back piece. Like my whole back is tattooed angel wings. Which is traumatic and embarrassing, but, uh, it's because I got it when I was 18 and high and drunk. Um, and so he saw that and was like, oh man, one of these girls. And, uh, so apparently he was judging me the entire time for that, that tattoo.

Yeah, don't judge a book by its cover. Don't judge a girl by her back. All right, that's, that's the lesson.

It's too painful to get undone at this point. Um, and so, you know, we end up sitting down for froyo and And honestly, uh, you know, once he had a few bites and I think it got blood sugar in his system, 'cause if you know Alex, you know his blood sugar is, uh, uh, attached to how much food he's eating. And so I think once he ate, he was like, hi. And I was like, oh, okay, you're a nice person, let's go. And, uh, we actually just started talking about business. Really picture this, right? Like I had moved out there, I was only focused on my career. I didn't have friends, I didn't have a boyfriend. I had gone on dates, but I did not find anybody I liked. So I was really just me and my dog.

Work.

And I was trying to figure out, like, what do I need to do next? Because I was doing online and in-person training. And then I met him, and he actually had the same story. So he had moved out from Baltimore, Maryland to pursue fitness, opened up a few gyms, um, and was trying to figure out what he was going to do next as his next step. Didn't really have a lot of friends and obviously didn't have a girlfriend, and so we didn't really have anything else to talk about. And so we ended up actually, like, eating froyo, and then we went on like a 4-hour walk and we talked about work the entire time. And I remember leaving the date because, you know, it was froyo, so it was like 3 PM. He had a dinner at like 7, and so he actually asked me, he's like, will you come to the grocery store and get stuff for this dinner barbecue thing I have? Uh, and I was like, sure. And we just talking the whole time still about business. And once we got done, I got into my car and I was like, I was like, that was the weirdest date I've ever been on. Like, it wasn't even like a date. We didn't talk about anything romantic at all. We just literally talked about work. But like, all I know is I wanna keep talking to that guy. And I went back and I told my roommate, I was like, I'm just so interested. Like, he's the first person that I feel like I've had an intellectual conversation with since I've moved here. You know, 'cause most of the time when I'd go out on dates with people, it's like they had zero ambition. They had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives. And it was California, so that's like a little bit more of the culture. Um, they also just didn't really like the fact that I was as ambitious and working as much as I was. And so to meet somebody who actually saw that as a pro, had the same things in common, and wanted to talk about them, it was like the most enjoyable date I'd been on. And then I think he called me the next day and was like, hey, do you want to like work together? And I was like, sure, sounds fun. So I went over to his house and I like brought all my stuff, my laptop and everything. We started working and that just like slowly kept happening over time. And then, you know, maybe, yeah, yeah.

Uh, and then one meeting, for sure, we kissed in a meeting.

Um, no, no, I mean, it was just like we had shared interest. Uh, you know, I didn't know when I met him that, uh, he was also Persian. So then I found out, oh, we're both our— both of our fathers are from Iran. We had that in common. Um, you know, we had both moved out there on our own. We just had a lot in common that I was just not expecting. And because of that, it just felt like for the first time in so long, I had somebody who saw reality the same way I did and who didn't want to make me into somebody I wasn't. You know, like, I've always— every— I can't even tell you how many times I've gone on dates with guys and they're like, you seem really great, but you're kind of weird, and like, you're like a little obsessive. And I was like, yeah, I know, but that's— I don't really want to change that about myself. Um, Or they didn't like that I worked as much as I did. And I like working, so I'm like, I don't wanna apologize for that. And he was the first person I met that saw all those things as pros that everyone else had seen as cons. And not only that, but you know, I think I saw the same in him with a lot of things that people have complained about. And so, you know, about a month in, he's like, I feel like you should not start this online thing or do this in person. I was basically like, do I open up my own gym or do I partner with this woman who wanted me to be her business partner online? She already had a successful business. And so, you know, 4 weeks in, I said, screw it. Like, there's nothing to lose to go do this with him, to start this business, because I'm 23. Like, if shit doesn't work, I'll just go back to what I was doing. But I will regret if I don't take this chance to see if it could work.

And the thing that you're just talking about, that's Gym Launch?

Gym Launch, yeah. And the first, you know, year and a half was literally just like He'd be at a gym, I'd be at a gym, different locations, different, um, states, and we'd be filling them up. And then we'd call each other every night and be like, here's what I'm doing, here's what you're doing. Like, just like best practices. And that was like the first year of dating, which was like, I, we're living out of extended stays, we're in different states, we're trying to launch these gyms. You know, I'm 23 walking into some dude's gym being like, I'm gonna fill up your gym. They're like, what is going on? Right? Um, And so, you know, the first year of our relationship was just like the eating shit phase of business, but doing it together.

What do you mean by the eating shit phase of business?

You know, it's just like when you start anything, when you have no skills, you're trying to accumulate all the skills at once. You don't know what you're doing. You have no clarity. And so you're just like throwing shit at a wall. You're probably like not taking care of yourself the best you can because you're so focused on just trying to make this thing work. Work because you're kind of just like in survival mode because, you know, at that point we have like no money as well, right? We've like pretty much burned through all the money. Then his business partner gets access to the bank account where we've been putting all the money from these gyms, steals the money. I mean, it was just like thing after thing.

Weren't you guys like living at your parents' home as well?

So we'd lived a few different places, but then at one point we moved back to my parents' house for 2 months. At another point, we actually lived with one of the clients of one of the gyms., which was actually more fun.

Realized revenue.

Realized revenue. That's an insane curve. What's the summary of why that worked like that? Because that's not normal. Could I go do that same business today? So for example, if you started from scratch today, if somebody, if the next Alex and Layla were out there and they wanted to do Gym Launch today, could they go and do the same model? Meaning, is that problem still exist? Is the model still great where you're getting upfront cash from these gyms for doing that, you know, kind of this quick turnaround service? Or is it saturated now and there's too much competition? Maybe the ad rates have changed, right? There's always these moments in time where businesses can succeed. And then 10 years later, you couldn't start that same business. There's a new version of that business that those same people could go start. Could somebody as talented as you guys start Gym Launch again today and have the same level of success, in your opinion?

No.

And why is that?

So what does the future fitness look like?

Well, I mean, lifting weights is a great long-term way to sustain your body weight and to prevent you from getting fat, but short-term intervention, food is always ideal, right? And that's going to have more of an effect on the short term. Like, long-term muscle mass, short-term food. And so I think that what you're going to see is a lot more people just continuing to lean into what they always have, as humans do, which is, uh, short-term things that work, which is eat less, which you can do with the pill. Um, and they happen to have pills that are going to come out that are, you know, I think a lot of people are, um, probably deter away from like Ozempic and stuff because it's a shot. And it's like, okay, well, the moment that they have a pill that can say, I'm gonna have— I only need to have 25% of my normal appetite today, Well, then think about the cost of the gym, especially for females. It's like you have to get up, you've gotta put on your outfit, maybe some mascara. You've gotta look okay. You have to drive there, you have to go there, you have to do things that feel hard, and then you have to leave. Or I could just take a pill and not be hungry and not eat, so I don't have to work out to worry about the food. So I think that all those things have changed just a lot of companies in the fitness and health space in general. I can say that because we have other companies in the portfolio that are in that space, and I also talk to a ton that are. It has definitely changed the nature of that landscape.

You guys, um, you know, Alex did something kind of interesting. I think he said that like you bought him like a $50,000 consult with like Grant Cardone or something like that, like right before the sale of Gym Launch, where he published that, which was like pretty wild where he was like, here's how much cash we have. We're thinking about selling. And then I think there was even like a part 2 and a part 3 after the sale. Uh, and so it was pretty cool to see that that was all public. Uh, what did you guys— and what— 3 parts. What did you do with the money once you, uh, sold? Like, did you have a plan on where to invest it, or did you just let, let it sit there? The second thing is, did you have like a 10, 20-year plan on where you wanted to go, or was it like, I don't know what we're going to do, let's figure it out? And then— well, answer those 2 first.

Yeah, yeah. The idea with the money was we can put it, you know, in stocks in the short term. We had some real estate deals. We have one person we do real estate with specifically that we put some of the money in, and then the rest of it was for Acquisition.com. So it's like, how do we get our first few deals? We're gonna use this as like the nest egg to invest in those deals. Part 2 to that is we knew we wanted a headquarters. And so, you know, the headquarters was obviously, I mean, it's almost 40,000 square feet. It's quite expensive. So that was a big investment as well. So most of the money has gone into the first few deals plus the headquarters. The rest of the money we put in real estate deals that, you know, have done really well for us. So, and then I would say remainder, you know, stocks. We have an oh shit fund and things like that too. But, um, you know, most of the times we wanna be investing in how are we gonna use the money to grow acquisition.com faster. That's really what we think about with the cash.

Did you have the idea of that before you even sold Gym Launch?

That's crazy.

Yeah. And what was the genesis of that idea? I'm sure many conversations, but like, do you remember kind of what the, what would you call the origin?

What about—

I'm like, no, no, no, no.

What were, what were some of those ideas?

That's pretty badass. I, yeah, that makes a ton of sense.

Everything you said, uh, makes, makes, makes sense and is very aligned with how I, I view life. Yeah. I, I always say it's, it's a vehicle. It's a, it's a means to, to have the type of life you want and become the type of person you want. And then you, then you just think, okay, if this is a vehicle, who's getting in the road? Who, who do I want on this road trip? With me? And that's your co-founders, your partners, your investors. Who are the people I want in this car ride? Because we might get lost somewhere along the way, and I've really got to think that through. And I think it's very important to have that mindset because I think people think the vehicle is the end itself. And obviously it's not. You see that because people do one vehicle and then they, then they need the next, they need the next. And why do you keep, why does Jeff Bezos need to go do his rocket company? And why does he need to buy the Washington Post? Why do they need to do these things? Because that business, the business itself was, um, was just a, it's like a piece of workout equipment. It's like going in and you see the bench press. It's there to, for me to get the workout, for me to get the gains. Uh, it's there to provide some resistance for me to get what I want out of life.

Yeah.

I have a question for you about Acquisition.com. So you guys, you said you've seen, I don't know, 1,000 businesses. I was talking to you before we started recording about businesses that surprise you because they're just kind of kick-ass. Maybe it's a business that you had, maybe a category you hadn't heard of, or just a business that people would overlook. Or maybe would underrate, but, and you don't have to name the names of these businesses, but I'd love for you to describe a kick-ass business that you've seen somewhere along the way at Acquisition.com, whether it's one you guys bought or not.

Yeah, I will say this, um, more businesses suck than you would think. So what I learned in starting Acq— no, seriously, uh, in starting Acquisition.com was just the amount of bad businesses there are.

What's the profile of bad and good? Or like, what's like, what's that threshold?

You say weak with so much disgust. I love it.

Yeah. I just need that clip. I did. That's my alarm clock when I wake up.

I say weak again.

Uh, I, cause it's like, I'm like, let me fucking help you, but like, I can't if you're just weak. So, um, it frustrates me because I'm like, tough love, but like, this isn't gonna work. And so I would say like, that has actually been more surprising than the good businesses that I've seen, is just the amount of businesses that I'm like, wow, it's, it's shocking it's still here, you know? Or it's like, wow, I can't believe this person actually started this thing. Um, and so there's been a lot more of that, I would say, in terms of businesses that are really cool and you know, I think have inspired me in, in different ways, it's people that are actually able to take something traditional and make it and innovate it. You know, it's like, I always find those businesses really interesting. Like, you know, it could be anything like publishing books and turning that into, you know what, instead of publishing books the way that we have been, instead, let's learn how to use AI to publish books and make the entire process automated. That's a really cool business that I've seen. Play out. I think that looking at, uh, Skool, which people know that we publicly associate with, like that business I have a lot of admiration for because of— if you look at it by all, like, by all stats and metrics of that business, it is mind-blowing. And that they've been able to take this element of community that people only really feel in person and bring it online to such a degree that now people also are doing it offline and on, like, it's just, it's been really cool to see the network effect, uh, through that business. And then I would say like more traditional businesses like bakeries and how like traditional bakeries that make, you know, cookies or whatever have integrated tools like AI and technology to learn like, okay, what type of cookie profile is this person going to want to order? And like, Just ways that people can integrate that kind of stuff, like technology into like traditional businesses.

Do bakeries that use AI, is that, was that a thing? Do we do, does that, does that make it better really?

I think that is all perception. Like, I think value for customer in many ways it is perceived, right? And so it's like, if you feel like this cookie is custom to you because of this technology that they have and they're able to like make it right there for you, then I think, yeah, people will pay a lot more money for it. That's for sure. I mean, I would, but, uh, clearly, 'cause it works for them. So I think those have been some of the cool businesses.

What about this workshop stuff? So you guys start, I started seeing ads for these workshops and I think you guys have probably done like, I'm just doing some napkin math, like something like $10 million of workshop revenue, which is, it was a little bit surprising to me 'cause I was like, why are they doing this? It's like a lot of time for them.

By the way, I know a couple of people have gone and they said it was great. So that, you know, I'm not saying it in a bad way. Well, I guess what I'm saying is I was surprised you guys are doing that. I was like, oh no, this is actually great. Um, you know, alignment, right? They like to teach. It's Dealflow at a, like, a proprietary level. And then, you know, it's a win-win. Other people should get some value out of this. They come in, they get to focus on their business. What I wanted to ask you about is, What's the number one recurring problem you see? Because now you've seen 1,800 founders come in and they're, they paid a bunch of money to come to the workshop because they got a problem. What's the common problem you see and what's the solve, um, that, that you, that you think would help most of these businesses?

Is there a way to put like a benchmark? Like for example, are you talking about like, you know, you should, for a lot of people they should be waiting a year to get, to get results or, you know, or they react in weeks when they should be reacting in quarters. Is there a—

Yeah, I think a lot of people think that waiting a quarter's a long time and that's probably the issue. Uh, they think, oh well, I waited 3 months and I'm like, try waiting 18. You know, I have things I'm doing in acquisition.com that You might ask about the workshops. I'm like, all right, well, if you see what was gonna come out in the next 4 months, which I've been working on for the last 12 months, you'll see why it all makes sense. Right? But a lot of people, I think, one, don't have the ability to wait that long, and two, don't even know how to build something that takes that long.

Your husband seems like a guy who is stereotypical of a person who does not have patience. You know, you said that he, He, he said, I want to be more patient. So I assume that means he didn't have patience. Uh, has he been able to like go with the flow of like, look, we're going to, we're, we're planning 18, 36 months out and that's what we're working on. So you're not going to see, because I know when I'm working at something, I'm like, why don't I see results immediately? We're investing all this money and all this time and we don't have fucking results. Why aren't you out launching an MVP? You're talking to potential customers. Don't tell me about it.

You know what I mean?

Like, that's like how I feel. And I think that's why I understand probably how he feels.

100%. It's an advantage because I am patient with results. I can also be too patient sometimes with the action. And so I have learned from him. I think we do a good job learning from each other. I think that he's learned from my patience with results. I've learned from his impatience with inputs or actions, and that's benefited the business a lot.

We gotta ask you, we used to say we have 7 female listeners, and I think as the podcast has grown, There's now tens out there, and, um, I'm sure you get a lot of women who look up to you, who ask you for advice. Um, so this is the, you know, here's the mic. And if there's a female entrepreneur watching this, what's your message to her?

You're the shit.

Perfect answer.

You're, you're, you're fantastic. You know, you guys are, um, what an interesting couple. You know, typically like, uh, like my wife and I are, are fairly different in a lot of different ways. Um, but you guys are both, uh, very similar in your intensity, but also in your way to like, uh, come up with like interesting ideas and interesting theories as to why the world is the way it is and how you're going to react to that. Uh, most relationships I don't think are like that. And so it's so, it's so funny. You guys are both like highly intense in great ways. Um, it's so fascinating.

I'm going to make that my new profile, highly intense.

Yeah, we'll LinkedIn endorse you on that.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I think honestly, I just wish for everyone that listens to this, to take that to their business relationships and to their personal relationships, because I think it applies to both.

All right, well, thanks for coming on. I appreciate you.

Thank you, guys.

That's the episode.

I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like no days off. On the road, let's travel, never looking back.