Leila Hormozi
Appearances
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
We're scared of feeling like we're going to confront death. And so... That was really significant for me. And it also, I would say, propelled me in the direction of learning to be more flexible and less rigid. Because also, you know, that control, it also wants to control emotions. Like me, my control in a business setting can be very helpful at times.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Control when it comes to an emotional part of my life is not helpful because I can't control every thought and feeling that comes into my mind or my brain. And so... That really taught me that being able to let go, being able to let things occur and just remind myself that I am big enough to hold space for all of those things and feeling them is not going to do anything.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
That really was probably the time in my life when I realized that. It was because lying there at night, having a panic attack over those things, being like, I'm worth multiple hundreds of millions of dollars. I've built all these things. I have all this team underneath me. Like, why am I having a panic attack?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Well, I think that the more that you run from something, the bigger it becomes, right? Like there's this quote that I love, which is fear is a mile wide and an inch deep. And so like the moment that you step into that puddle or into what you think is an ocean, you recognize it's a puddle.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I think that most of the time, a lot of people I meet, because I talk to thousands of entrepreneurs each month, they're running from something. But that thing, I think that they always think, I'll tell you this. So before I met Alex, I had a boyfriend.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Oh my God. And we broke up. And then after that breakup, I was really sad. And so I saw a therapist at the time and I said, you know, it'd been like two and a half months. And I was like, I'm just really sad. And she's like, well, why are you so sad? I was like, well, you know, I did hear that it takes about half the time that you've been with someone to get over someone.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And she was like, I think that's stupid.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I was like, what's this therapist saying that's stupid? And I was like, okay, well, what then? And she's like, I think it takes as long as you want it to take. And I was like, okay, so what do you suggest? She's like, how about Thursday? I was like, what? Yeah, and she was like, how about you're over by Thursday? And I was like, okay. She's like, well, what would somebody who's over it do?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Okay, well, I would probably start going on dates. I would probably fill my time with other things. I probably wouldn't think about it so much. I'd probably do all these things to enjoy my life. And so I started doing those things. And what I recognized is that the moment I started acting like I was over it, I was over it.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I think I relate that back because I think so many things that we fear or so many things we think are these big things that we have to confront in life, they actually only take a very small period of time. but we make it out to be like this big thing because we've been running from it for so long.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so for me, I've just noticed time and time again, most of the things that I've had to confront, I might've been scared of for years and I can get over it in a matter of hours. And I think it's the same for so many people, but it's the fear is so, persuasive. Like it persuades you into thinking that it's going to take so long to get over it. But the reality is it doesn't.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
It's almost like you have to skip through the puddle versus you think you have to swim across this entire ocean. Yeah. And so I think that most people just maybe they don't have the information or maybe they don't take the time because they're so busy in the business to step out and say, what are these things that are constraining me from growing my business even bigger?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Because for me, I look at it and I'm like, if there's anything taking my attention, I'm even if it's not business related, I need to handle it. So whatever takes the most amount of mind share for me. Face it. Yeah, I need to face that no matter what it has to do with. It could have to do with my family, friends, whatever. And so though that doesn't have to do with business,
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
That's also how I've known how to grow my business is I have to constantly clear. I say it like I'm clearing almost like whatever that means. I'm not like a woo-woo or spiritual person.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I'm clearing, yeah, way for bigger and better things so I can expand my life. And I look at it like if I have my attention as a jar of marbles and I have 100 marbles, but I have 25 of them stuck on this thing I'm scared of. And every day I think about it. I would like to take those back.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so I need to go confront the thing that I'm scared of in order to get those marbles back and have my full attention to do the things that I actually want to do and actually enjoy doing.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
So we slept at a client's house and then we stayed at my parents' house.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I don't think anybody has to be worthy to make money.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I think I am a capable steward of the money.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, I guess I just don't use that word very much because... I think that what I used to think is I had to be this amazing. Honestly, this sounds bad. And I actually do think I'm a good person. But I've just seen so many people that do make money that aren't the best people. Now, do they usually lose it? Yes.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
But I do think people are capable of making money without, like, quote, being worthy of it. I think that where it bites you in the butt for most people is that if you know that you're not using the money for good or you're not doing something good with it, you are less likely to make more because you have this conflict internally.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Usually you say one thing externally, you are something different internally. You know what I mean? But for me, it was I didn't believe that I was capable of making money.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
No.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I'm not kidding. So like I, until I, I'm actually, for me, it started with sales, which was like, until I made a sale myself, like my first part is this personal training sale. I made a personal training sale and it was a $1,300 package. And I was like, I'm 21 and I just got $1,300 from words that came out of my mouth to somebody. And I was like, oh my God.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And then I was like, I don't need to worry about money again. I know how to make money. And it was such an empowering feeling. But I think that continued at each level, right? And so it's like, okay, I know how to make $1,300. Do I know how to make $20,000? Do I know how to make $50,000? And so at each time, I didn't believe that I was able to until I did. But I think that... I took the action.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
There's a term that I think Stephen Hayes coined, which is like acting the opposite. It's like if you wanna be the opposite of what you are today, act the opposite first, right?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so I have just continued to use that time and time again, which is like if I want to be something, I don't need to believe that I am first and I don't need to think it because that I have a very hard time doing, but I can act as though I am the thing and then work my way into it. And so, you know, when we first started really making a lot of money,
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I kept feeling like when is like, where's, when's the, like, where's the like, gotcha. You know what I mean?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah. I remember thinking that was like next, like, okay, I figured I'd do it. Like, but now it's definitely going to stop. Right. Like when's, when am I going to look, I probably don't know how to use the money. I probably don't know where to put the money. I probably don't know how to, you know, make sure the money doesn't like disappear because I didn't understand anything about getting returns.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so, um, for me it was, Very much, I didn't believe it until it occurred.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, because I think it's like, it's a skill. And so, do you have confidence before you have the skill? I don't usually feel confident until I'm competent. And so until I was competent, which I verify by like, I learned to be competent at making money and the measuring stick is I make more money. So it's like now I'm competent, now I see I've made more money, confidence comes.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
So it's like the experience built the competence which then led to the competence for me.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I'm educated enough now to know that you have to lose money to make money. So like You know, it's so funny, because me and Alex were talking yesterday about something, and he's counting up every loss we've had this year.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, I'm so much like, when it comes to money, I'm like, I'm just like, that's the cost of it. The cost of making money is that you're going to lose some. So it's like, for me, it's like, if I want to make $100 million, I'm going to lose $10 million. If I want to make $1 billion, I'm probably going to lose $50, $100 million. I don't know. Now, that could be in lost opportunity.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
That could have been in making the wrong decision. That could be in the value of a company. But I've just seen that there's a huge correlation with how much you're willing to lose with how much you're willing to gain. Because if you're constantly saying, I don't want to lose, that's where your mind's focused. Rather than, I want to make more. I want to expand.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
So it's like, yes, I want to make sure that I'm not being stupid with my money. But I don't want to be so focused on not losing money that I'm not opening myself up to the opportunity to make more. And so I actually think if I lose money now, like I'll give you an example. Invested in a company two years ago, Bad, bad investment.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
So that was like, you know, close to $10 million just down the drain. Gone. Yeah. Light on fire. Yeah. And I'm just like, this company is not what I thought it was. I wish I did not buy it. It is a thorn in my side.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah. And there's not much you can do once you've bought majority of a company. So it's a tough situation. And every time I'm reminded, I'm like, I don't want to think about it. Right. But I'm like, that's... I had to pay the price of... losing there to get this huge win over here.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I just look at it like that because the same decision-making principles I used to purchase that company, I also used to purchase this one. And this one is crushing it. And so it's like sometimes I think in making money, the decision-making formula that we use to make money is good, but sometimes the outcome is still not. It's just like hiring people.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Exactly.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah. I mean, when I'm talking to people and I'm like, yes, they're like, how do I do this in a company? I'm like, well, this, that. And they're like, do I need to understand finance like that? I'm like, yeah, I understand finance, IT, marketing, sales, CS, this, like all of it. Same goes for investing. And there's more.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so there's so many things that could go wrong that, you know, it just, it would behoove me to say, I made one bad investment. I shouldn't try again, you know? And so I, I think one thing that I've always been very good at is like, I'm very patient. I can lose everything. But I'm pretty spot on at like, where did I fail in execution? I can tell if it's an execution or a strategy issue.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so if I've done an investment and I'm like, it was just this one thing. And I'm like, I want to try it again because I know that the strategy is right. It was just lost in execution. But you're not going to learn that unless you try again.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Like, I think everyone always asks me, they're like, you know, it's funny when we were growing our first business, people would come to me and they would say, congratulations, like you've had such fast growth. And I remember I would have this internal, like, have I? because it's been so painful.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I think that the reason that winning's not for everybody is because winning is hard and because winning is painful. And the entire process up until you win, you're doing hard things over and over and over again. And so you're constantly in a state of discomfort. That's also why you win is because you're willing to put yourself into that state.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so, you know, upon selling our first business, I saw a lot of people and I saw that they didn't have a plan for what they were going to do next. And a lot of people who sold their first business, they were satiated with that sale. They were comfortable enough with whatever it brought them that then they didn't feel like they had to push themselves again.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I never wanted to be that person because I'm like, I'm not even 30. You know, I was 29 when we sold our business. 29, and I already had a multi hundred million dollar net worth. And I'm like, people are like, you gotta take time off. And I was like, no, I don't really believe in retirement per se, like in the traditional sense. I was like, no, I need to do something else.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so what I realized was the reason that so many people aren't able to win again is because they're not willing to put themselves back into that place that they had to, to win the first time. That pain, that discomfort. The pain. And I think that you assume that it's going to be easier the second time. The thing is, and there's a lot of studies done on this, which is like, it's not easier.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You just know what to expect and you have more skills. that doesn't mean it feels easier the second time. And I will say in doing and scaling very quickly, um, acquisition.com, it doesn't feel easier. I just know what to do this time. And what I've had to do in order to keep winning is I've had to learn to love the process of being uncomfortable.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I've always wanted that for myself because growing up, I think, you know, I was in a small town. Everyone stays there. You become a bartender, a nurse, a teacher at the local college, whatever. And I just looked and everyone's always remaining in their comfort zone. And I was like, I have to get out of that. And so like at a very young age, I left home early. I moved across the country.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I said, I never want to be that. I don't want my life to be that. I want to die with so much potential left inside of me. And so for me, I think what's made it easy to keep winning and being uncomfortable is the fact that it's not about the business, not about making hundreds of millions of dollars. Like it's like at some point, like I don't even spend the money, you know, I barely do now.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so what it is about though, is like, how can I get to the end of my life knowing that I haven't left potential on the table? Yeah. And that's what I always tie it to, which is like, it's not about the money. It's about what does Layla look like? Who is that person that's able to do these things?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I would like to meet her one day, but if I don't get myself to do these things that are uncomfortable, then that person, I'm never going to meet her.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You know, I think what I've recognized is that what's worked for me in many ways and in so many situations is I'm very good at structure. I build literal infrastructure of a business. And in order to do that, it's good to have order of things. I always say like, I manage chaos. I don't stop chaos. I let it happen, but I manage chaos. You can say like, I am a wrangler of chaos.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
That's what I like tell myself. But there's times when trying to put structure in place actually doesn't help. And instead I've had to really lean into being flexible rather than rigid. And so my journey has been one of becoming a more flexible person. Because I heard this quote one time and it was like, the most flexible system always wins.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I realized that my, what would be like my kryptonite was also what my strength was, which was like putting order in place. So it helped me build my first business and sell it so successfully is there was so much order in there. It also can cripple you because when something unexpected happens, when this happens, like it just took me a little longer to adjust than I would like.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I want to be able to quickly adjust. And so it's been this constant journey of, uh, being able to not react when something unexpected happens, but respond very thoughtfully and always ask myself, How can I turn this challenge into an opportunity? How can I respect myself more by overcoming this challenge and I'm less? And that's always led me to making the right decision.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
But it's been the hardest thing for me because I like to have structure. I like to have control. And it helps me in a lot of ways. It also doesn't help me in a lot of ways. And so she is much more flexible.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah. And I think also, you know, I've recognized like the people I surround myself with, what do they have that I really like and admire? I often surround myself with people who aren't like me, but they're actually opposite of me in many ways. And one of those biggest things is more spontaneous and more flexible. Play, fun. Yeah. Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
It's almost like I get to live that out through the people around me.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I try to, one, I expect them. Negative thoughts.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Like you're not as good as you think you are. You're actually really stupid. You don't work as hard as you think you do. Maybe it's all going to fail. People don't like you. Your team doesn't believe in you. I'll make up so many stories in my brain.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I think I've learned to detach from my thoughts. So, you know, I think for a long time trying to suppress them or not focus on them did not help me. But detaching from them and being able to look at them as... sentences in my mind rather than commands or facts has helped me understand that if I'm trying to do anything significant with my life, I'm going to have negative thoughts come up.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
If I'm trying to do anything new, I'm going to have negative thoughts come up because anything new your brain sees as a threat. And so It's going to say, oh, that's scary and new, even if it's not bad. It's just new and unknown. And so we want to prevent you from doing it. So let's put these doubtful thoughts in here so that she doesn't do it because that could risk something.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
So I just expect it as part of the process and I don't try to make it go away. I just try to detach from them enough to just take successful actions. And that is where I focus the most, which is like I just need to be able to detach from my thoughts enough that I can just follow the plan that I had. And that's honestly it. I don't even try to... I mean, yes, I can reframe them.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I would say I can refute them. Sometimes I look at it almost like the thought is on trial. Like, show me the evidence in either direction. Which is like, okay, cool. Evidence that it could be true. Evidence that it could be false. But both of these things are trying to create certainty. You know what I mean? We want certainty that our negative thoughts aren't true. But what if they are?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Life, like certainty is not guaranteed. Nothing's guaranteed. And so for me, it's like, I actually have even given up trying to find the evidence for a thought being true or not. I'm just like, you have no idea. Maybe it is. And maybe the worst thing ever happens. You're not going to know unless you go forward anyways.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Right. Like, is it true?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I don't know. Maybe. But is it useful? No. Well, then I'm not going to think about it.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Female specifically? You know, I've never identified as a female entrepreneur. I've just identified as actually a business person.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I do, I do. Yeah, yeah. So I was going somewhere with it, don't worry.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
The way I viewed it is when I say I've never identified as a female entrepreneur, it's because I don't find it useful. Because then I think of all the reasons why I should act differently than a male entrepreneur and why I should think that the rules of money and business should apply differently to me.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I have played by the rules that I've just seen make people successful whether they're a man or a woman. And so that's been really helpful for me. But what I think holds a lot of women back is I think that women have traditionally been conditioned by society to be valued for other things not making money. And I don't think that's bad. I also don't think it's bad if you want to make money.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
But I do think that, like, one thing that I will never be able to rid myself of is that I am valued for also how I look. If I looked like a troll, I do not think Alex would marry me.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I don't think he would. And that's not bad. Yeah, it's not a bad thing. Women, if you look at the most popular women in the world, they're usually very attractive. A lot of them. Women can literally gain status through just being attractive and nothing else. Right. I'm sure men can, too, but many more men are valued for money and ability to produce.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so I think there's first off, women have if they want to make more money and build a business, they also have something other things that take their attention. They've been conditioned to also value these things and work to make these things better in their life. And I get that.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Um, the second piece to it is, um, when it comes to what I think holds women back is the fear of being put into one of these boxes that I think like pop culture now does, right? It's either like, you're either like, uh, I don't know because I'm not as connected in pop culture, but I see it's like a lot of women that are like, I'm a single female entrepreneur, like making money on like F guys.
The School of Greatness
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Then I see like, I'm a businesswoman, I'm all about my business and I'm this and I'm that. Or then I see like, I'm a traditional wife and I have kids and I stay home. And it's like, I just say like, what if you could just say you're an and, not an or? You don't need to be this or that or that. You could be and. I love to cook for my husband.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I also like to run a company that's gonna be worth a billion dollars next year. Can I not make him cookies and run a billion dollar company? And I wanna do both. And I think that I used to think that I had to pick between those things, between being a good wife, between being, you know, between my health and shape and liking to do hair and makeup and between doing business.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And that actually, in the beginning, when I thought that I had to sacrifice being a good wife and, you know, caring about what I looked like, it made me worse at business because I was suppressing these other pieces of my life that I actually do value. And I said, why am I suppressing those things? And I said, well, because I'm afraid that men are going to judge me for it.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Well then, screw it, let them judge me, and I do get judged all the time, and I'm okay with it. It's okay if people don't understand me. It's okay if they don't understand my actual capabilities, what I actually do, if they think I am all these things. I know who I am. And on a daily basis, I'm with myself at the end of the day.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so as long as I'm living my life in accordance with the things I value, I think that most women just believe that they have to fit in a box of one of these things. You're either this girl, this girl, this girl, or this girl that fits in these boxes that you see on social media. It's like, you could be a little bit of all those things. It's like, who do you want to be?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I think for me, I've learned I don't fit in a box and I think a lot of people think I'm one thing or another or they feel confused and that's okay.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
So what?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I think that young women need to, the main thing holding them back is their relationship with their emotions.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yes. There's all, think about all the things people say to women about their emotions. Like, oh, yeah, you're, well, I mean, let's just be real. They're like, you're on your period. Of course you're emotional and mean to people. And it's like we actually give ourselves like a seven-day pass to be an emotional wreck. Actually, my life changed when I stopped doing that.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
So it's like the first thing I think is just because you're a woman doesn't mean you cannot regulate your emotions just like anybody else. Is it harder? Yes, but then that means you have the chance to get more skills. You will be more skilled than the men at regulating your emotions if you learn how to regulate them.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so for me, I think like learning to manage your emotions and having a good relationship with them, not allowing them to dictate your life and how you act and become excuses for why you act out in certain ways. Like a lot of women, you see all the memes and things out there. It's like, yeah, be crazy. It's like, yeah, funny, but also like not funny.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Like for me to achieve the goals that I have in life and in business, I can't have my employees be like, yeah, you're acting crazy today.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And nobody wants an unstable leader. So like for women to lead, it's very hard to be unstable. Where does instability come from? Inability to regulate your emotions. And so I think that's the first thing is don't listen to what people say about how you just can't because of your hormones and because of this. You can't. It just will be harder.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
It is harder. for some people than others. It might be harder for women. It might be harder when you have less resources. It is not impossible. You have less skills. I think it is harder the less skilled you are. Some people are incredibly skilled and they've learned it from, they had great friends growing up, they had great mothers, they had great fathers to look up to.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Some people didn't and some of those people, it's harder, it's more exhausting. But what would you rather have? A life that is perpetually capped by the fact that you can't regulate your emotions or a year of learning that is exhausting but at the end of it,
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah. And I didn't, I mean, geez, I didn't have all the resources I have now when I was learning this. And by the way, money doesn't help you learn how to regulate your emotions. I mean, once you have money, you've got lawsuits, you've got people trying to take your money. You've got people trying to steal your money. I mean, it's just same problems. They just look different. Um, and bigger. Yeah.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, that's the first truth I would say.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You know, I think so many women, I actually, I met with, when I first started making content, I met with a creator, I'll just say, somebody who many, quite a famous person who had a wife who also made content in the space. And I said, like, do you have any advice for me? Because I want to make content because I think that it would help me get the right people on my team.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I think that it's something I've wanted to do. It's like, I want to help people avoid the things that I have learned. But like, what would you say? And this person and one other person that were very large male influencers said the same thing. They were like, you just can't care so much how you look. And I was like, what do you mean?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And they're both like, you know what stopped my wife is she just won't be recorded without any makeup on. And I was like, huh. And so, you know, I've thought about that and I really recognize it. It's like, I like to have my hair and makeup done, but I'm not going to make it a necessity to get things done.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Like we do vlogging where it's like, you know, it's like they're vlogging me and I'm like, yeah, I do not look good.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You're still like, yeah, right. But the thing that I've realized is if I act the opposite of that. So if I allow people to capture me without makeup, if I don't wear makeup to work every day, if I don't do my hair and look perfect every day, then the thoughts of judgment start to get less loud.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so I think for a lot of women, we're so feared, we're so fearful of being judged for not upholding the standards that society puts on us. And it's not the standards that are the problem. It's the fear of the standards and the judgment that we put on ourselves about them. You know, men also have standards that they fear to fail or fear that they're not living up to. Everyone does.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I think that just for women, the ones that hold them back are the ones that I look at and I just say, like, is it making it harder or easier for me to achieve my goals if I judge myself for this?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And for me, usually it makes it harder to achieve my goals if I'm judging myself every moment that I'm on camera, every moment that I'm making content because I see those women, it's like they can put out a lot less. And when you put out a lot less content and you're not able to show up in front of your team unless you look a certain way and you do all these things, well then,
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
you get less practice at doing that thing. And I think it just all stems from judgment because, I mean, you would be shocked at the amount of people that are just afraid to be on camera because they're not the exact weight that they want. They don't look like a thin model. They don't look like what beauty standards are today.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And that actually stops women from being in business, showing up the way they want, speaking on stages, doing podcasts, making content. It's this fear of judgment. Yeah. And I think that before you change, because maybe it is good if you lose weight. Maybe it is good if you, you know, turn this, that. But that is separate from the fear of judgment of others for not being perfect all the time.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You know, I think that it's probably learning that perfect is an impossible task. And in trying to be perfect, you're probably much less likable. You know, I think for a long time, I just tried to be what everybody else wanted me to be. Really? To be perfect in the eyes of everyone. Like, how can I be the perfect leader? How can I be the perfect wife? How can I be the perfect boss?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
How can I be the perfect friend? How can I be the perfect daughter? And that led me to be miserable, which actually led me to be less liked by everybody. Because I was just trying to be what everybody else wanted me to be rather than what I wanted to be.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And like, maybe I am a bad daughter at times. I don't call my dad sometimes for weeks. Maybe I am a bad friend. I don't text my friends back for sometimes a week or two. And sometimes I'm like, I just don't feel like talking. Like, maybe I am a bad boss because today I canceled my meeting with somebody. Like, I think I've had to accept that at times...
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
We are all the opposite of what we want to be. And that's okay. And so like the best advice I can give anyone is like I take that, I call it the I am bad frame. I am bad at times in certain circumstances. Like at times in certain circumstances, I am bad at something or I am a bad wife, a bad boss, a bad friend. And?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I think for a long time, even just saying I'm a bad boss and visceral reaction because I was just like, I put so much pressure on myself to be the perfect boss. But the reality is, is that if you want to be great at anything, you're going to be imperfect. judged and disliked at times.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I think specifically for women, especially because I think there's a desire to please people, that is very hard for women specifically.
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you know, I don't know if it would bring me, it would bring me the most joy. I wouldn't say happiness, but I would like to make the communities better place. I'd like to make the world like more than just business, you know?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I think, um, if I had a billion dollars cash in the bank, there's a lot that I could do to not just make business better, but make the environment in which we do business better. Um, which airs into a side that I don't wish to get into, but at some point, you know, um, You can't really fight that there are systems beyond your control, like politics and the community and the government.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I would love to help make that entire system better so that things are better, not just for business owners, but for people who are just like every day working a nine to five job. Because I love helping people build great businesses and I love building a great business and creating a place where people love to work. I also just like helping people in general.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so at some point, you know, there was a moment probably about six months ago where I was sitting on the couch with Alex and it was like, well, what happens after this, you know, a decade from now? And
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Right. And I was like, you know, it like scares me to say it, but like, I would like to help more than we help now. What that looks like to me is in this way, which terrifies me. But I also just like, look at it. I'm like, if I have these skills in life to be able to do these things and create the Sonata and help people to this degree, then,
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I feel like a responsibility to do something bigger with it because I know that the same skills apply to do things, to build great communities, to build great schools, hospitals, like all those things.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You know, and, and that is something that I would, if I were to like, I look at it like I want to go down, like just like beaten, just like a disgusting corpse. Fully used up. Yeah. I would like to go down knowing that I made the world better. even beyond business. And that is a way that I think, you know, helping the communities, like building communities. Yeah. I think that's how we do it.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I look at it like we're so isolated now, especially like in America. It's like people are so isolated. It's like the sense of community, even, you know, taking having a fully remote company to going in person, having a headquarters, having this huge building. It has made my quality of life so much higher and many of the people in it. And I see that and I'm like, how do we create more of that?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
What drives? I would say that she has learned to channel her obsession into something healthy. It's the first one because I'm very obsessive. Um, I think a lot of people, like you could consider that in many ways a disorder and I've been diagnosed as such, but, um, I look at it as a superpower and I'm obsessed about things that make my life and other people's lives better.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Whereas it may have used to be things that were not productive. Um, I would say that's the first one. I would say this, the second one is resilience. I think my ability to bounce back after something really, really bad happens is like, it doesn't take me long. And it continues to get shorter and shorter. So I'd say resilience is the second one. Like can just fail epically.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I can just focus on like, let's just try again. I'm not going to think about the failure and how bad it hurt and all that. I'm just going to follow the plan and do it again. I would say the third one is that I'm smart enough to figure out how to make things work, but dumb enough to try things. Like, I actually have a decent amount of friends who are incredibly intelligent.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I do not put myself in that camp. And they're so intelligent, they paralyze themselves. I think I'm just smart enough to make things work, but not too smart to not try.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, yeah. And I think, yes, I would say those are probably the three things, if that made any sense.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You know, I think just in general, I've enjoyed this conversation, but many conversations that I have when people ask me questions, they ask me about my relationship with Alex and about
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
know being a wife to him and what's he like and what and i love my husband and i love him as a business partner but i genuinely have more interest talking about business um and self-development and personal development than i do what alex eats for lunch and so you know something that i was talking about yesterday because my assistants are like hey this podcast you went i went on podcast like a week ago and it's like they were like what's it like being with alex and i was like
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
is this all you think I have to offer? You know? And so then I was like, I wish more people would ask me how to build what I've built and how to become a person who can build it. And so I think like very much in line with what you've asked me today, as well as like, I'm happy to get into like tactical things as well.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
More so because I think that that's what I think I offer that's most valuable to the world. And I'm most interested in talking about.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You know?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, and I think, you know, we've talked about it, which is like, until I, unless I decide to build a company completely autonomously on my own, I don't think that people are going to know, they're going to see me as capable of doing what I've done. And I'm okay with that. I also don't want to build a company on my own. I think that we have what we have because we created it together.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
We're both really exceptional at what we do. So why would I do that? Just because I want people to see me a certain way? Right. It's like, I don't want to do that.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
you know so um you know he's like my number one supporter and he is like yeah why are people asking you this tell them it's a waste he's like i would like you to just snap back in these interviews and just be like can you stop asking me about mine he's looking inappropriate but uh it's all good yeah um so i think that's something that it's like funny because i think you always think you're getting over it
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Emotional regulation.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
um because you know i wasn't on social media for so long i was internal he's very well spoken very articulate uh he looks how he looks he's so good at all these things he's very smart and so it's like okay what are you a secretary and it's like in the beginning it actually was that right and now it's come very far but it's still uh you know i think people are like oh she must love talking about
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
what it's like to be married to him. No, I'm just married to him. But like, I'm, I love business. I love personal development. I love, I love talking about relationships, but like, what does somebody for lunch? You know, it's like, I'm like, I'm good.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, I would say that it's less my older self, but more I have similar prompts. And I think the question that I ask most of the time is, I have two questions. One is, well, okay, I have three. I'll give you two questions in a frame. The two questions are, what would I need to do to respect myself more coming out of this situation?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Because for me, it's like, if I don't have the utmost respect for myself, I don't think I can do anything I've done in business. I don't think I can show up here. I don't think I can show up for my team. I don't think I can show up for my husband. I have to respect myself first and foremost. That's my priority. The second is, which move will make it easier for me to achieve my goals?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah. So I I graduated high school and I went to college and I think it was, you know, if we rewind back further, my parents had gotten divorced. I'd lived with my mom. She got into drugs and alcohol, ended up being like a very bad environment for a kid. And so, you know, when I was 15, she tried to kill herself in front of me. I kind of just like shut down after that moment until I was 19.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I'm always thinking, how do I make it easier to achieve my goals? How do I make it easier, easier, easier? Like, it's hard enough to achieve big goals. How do I make it easier? So those are the two questions. And then the prompt that I have is not the Solomons. It's actually... I look at it like I have my values, right? And I look at my values as they are my board of directors.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so every time that I'm presented with a decision or a situation, it's not what do I want to do? It's not what do I feel like doing? But it's what decision, what action is approved by your board of directors? And those board of directors are my values.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yes. And I'm, I'm like, if there's one thing that I actually really feel confident in, well, there's two things. One, I'm honest, like to a fault. I cannot, I cannot lie. The second is that I absolutely make decisions by my values. It can be gut wrenching. It can be, I'm up all night sweating. It can be, but I will make decisions based on my values.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And that visual has helped me so many times, especially in business, because You know, there's so many deals, for example, like Home Across the Table. It's like, man, this company is killing it.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Something's off. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't want to give this person money.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
You know, it's funny. I discovered those values to myself yesterday. I want to say it was when we were selling our first company and I took a lot of time to think about like what are my values, right? And I made it easy by turning those into my company values because I think that it's so silly that we have different values for a company than we would for ourselves.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
It's like wouldn't you want the values of the company to be the values of the founder? And so the first one is sincere candor, which is like being honest. The second one is unimpeachable character, being someone that people are proud to associate with on and off the field. Meaning for me, like my personal life and my business life are in order.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Like me, like behind the scenes, like doing anything crazy. Like if I'm going to do something crazy behind the scenes, I have to be okay with showing everybody as well. Like I just can't, I'm not going to hide stuff. But I don't do anything crazy because I would like to live in a way that is unimpeachable. And then the third one is competitive greatness.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Competitive greatness. I got that from John Wooden. I was a huge fan of the Pyramid of Success. I don't know. I'm guessing. Of course. Yeah, yeah. And that is... You play the game for the love of the game and because you want to be excellent, not because you want the outcome. And so it's really like falling in love with the process.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so it's like every time I make a decision, I'm like, does this align with my values? And I try to keep it just with those three, because if there's more than three, it's very difficult to make decisions quickly when you have like 17 values. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. You know what I mean?
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, I really don't think I have time.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
With my current, I would have to change things significantly. But yeah, it's funny because people see book launches like, wow, Alex's book launch, like when he did, I was like, I ran the entire thing. I'm assuming you did. I'm assuming you did it. I literally was, I ran his book launch and I was our CFO and the CEO during his last launch. It was the most, it was one of the most stressful.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I actually gave up working out. So I was like, I don't know how to do all this. My CFO retired. I couldn't get a new one. I'm already being the CEO, which all the departments were willing to me. And then he had nobody to run the book launch and I didn't have time to get someone up to speed. So I said, I'll do it. Wow. Yeah. And so it was, uh, it was so fun at the same time.
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How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Like I just went numb. I remember actually because I had been this constant state of anxiety, like perpetual, like always heightened anxiety in my body. And I'd lost like 20% of my body weight or something. I remember like, it was just like very, very stressed all the time.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
No, this is awesome. It was a great conversation.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
The first would be success is available to anybody willing to take successful actions. You don't have to believe that you're going to be successful to have success. You just have to take action as if you will be. That would be the first one. The second one would be you don't ever really feel better, but you get better at feeling bad.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I like to always say that I'm pretty dang good at feeling awful. I like that. I think it's a skill. And then the last one. I think if you wanna win big, you have to be willing to lose big. I think if you want to love big, you have to be willing to have your heart broken. And I think that if you wanna have a really big life, you have to be willing to just take a lot of losses in general.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
It's just been the case in my life, which is just, it's so hard to access the really big expansion in life if you're not willing if you're not willing to lose yeah in all scenarios that's a good truth i like those thank you uh before i ask the final question later i want to acknowledge you for
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Constantly just stressed because she was drinking. She'd be gone for a week at a time. I wouldn't know where she was, but I didn't want to tell anybody because I didn't want anyone to like call me. you know, whatever that. Child services or something.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
leaving no potential on the table.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Nine to 15. Wow.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
They got divorced. They separated when I was nine. Gotcha.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Correct. Yeah. And she'd been a great mom before that. But when that happened, I just completely shut down. And the way that I was able to do anything was just, I was numb. It was like, I wasn't angry. I also wasn't happy. I was just...
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
like this flat flat yeah until i was 19 i got out of the house um and then i was just mad and i didn't know how to deal with that anger so i started drinking and then i started doing drugs and then i and it turned into this whole cycle and then i started getting arrested because i was blacking out and i was doing drugs and i didn't i don't even know what i did half the time
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And that's what got me to get arrested six times in 18 months. Wow. I know. It was just like. Six times? Six times. Yeah. You would think the fourth. Second and first.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I mean, it was not enough.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Humiliating. Really? Yeah. Like I was very ashamed, but I didn't know how to stop.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
a very low state at that time when you feel like crap all the time you just feel like crap again when you get arrested it's not very different okay you know what i mean so it if if now i were to get arrested it would feel awful because it's such a contrast yeah but you're like well this is my life anyways so whatever my life sucks so what does it matter wow yeah so um
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
During that time, what I recognized after some time is that I was at odds with my emotions. And I think what it was is that I tried so hard to never feel the way I had felt when I had been in that house with my mother that first I disconnected from my emotions. And then in my young 20s, I was at odds with them, meaning I would fight anxiety. I would fight depression. I would fight sadness.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I would fight frustration like I didn't want it. I want to get rid of it. And it wasn't until I was probably just in the last six, seven years that I was like, I can take them with me. They're not bad. And I started engaging with them in a healthy way and just changing my relationship with them rather than trying to stuff them down, suppress them, get rid of them. Yeah, exactly.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Well, it's actually funny because I think that when I was 19, I would feel an emotion and then I would drink or I would do drugs. Then it turned into, I would work out, I would study, I would work. And so I just replaced it, which I mean, Hey, it was something a little more productive, but yeah.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I wasn't addressing it. And so it's still, I still felt very anxious all the time. I still felt very stressed. And so now rather than the moment that I feel stressed or I feel anxious, I go into action. I go into, I say, this is my mental cues, absorption, absorption, which is like, I absorb the emotion. I'm like, let it fill me up. Let me feel it. Um, now I don't need to indulge in it.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I don't need to ruminate, but I can take five minutes to feel what I'm feeling. And it's not because I need, I believe that I need to do some kind of mental rumination to get over an emotion. It's because I want to teach my body that it's nothing to be afraid of and that's nothing to run from. And that's helped me so much because.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I say, okay, I'm going to give myself five minutes and then I'm going to go on with what my day was going to be. I'm not going to let the emotion derail me from my day because I know at the end of the day, at the end of the day, that day helps me achieve my goals if I keep, if I follow the plan, you know?
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And so that has been the biggest change that I've made in the last decade has just been my relationship with bad negative emotions.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
A hundred percent. And it's funny because the outcome, like when we built Gin Launch, first business that we ever had, I think a lot of that was still fueled off of this frenetic energy of like trying to run through anxiety. Anxious, stressful. Right. But it created something really cool.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
But it was, I remember the moment where it was like two years before we sold that started to shift where I started recognizing that relationship. And then I said, I want to be able to do this in a way that makes me better, not worse. I don't want work to make me worse as a person. I don't want work to make me emotionally worse, to make me spiritually worse, to make me a worse wife.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I want work to make me better. And so the only way I can do that is if every time I have a negative emotion, I look at it as an opportunity to make a better relationship with my emotions, which will, that will transfer to all areas of my life, my relationship, my friendships, et cetera. And so now it's like, I look at business as the biggest vehicle for my personal growth because
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I'm constantly facing these negative emotions. And so I get all that practice to confront them and then say, hey, I don't need to run from any of this. And that means that my life gets to expand rather than contract every time I do that.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yeah, it's actually... So about a year and a half before we sold Gym Launch, our first business, I... It was like there was a week where I had to run our team quarterly. I then had a full team event. I had a speaking gig I was doing, and then I had some other event. And I was lying in bed, and I remember I just felt so much anxiety.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And all of a sudden this like wave came over me, and I had a full-blown panic attack. And then I was up all night, I couldn't sleep. I was like, what's wrong with me? I haven't had a panic attack in a decade. And it wasn't like how, you know, when I was younger, I would get panic attacks at times.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
It was like, you know, my tongue is swollen, my hands go numb, like full on, like many more symptoms than I experienced in the past. It freaked me out. And when that happened, I was like, you know, the first thing that happened was like, what's wrong with me? Like, there's got to be something wrong with me because I don't understand.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And then after about two and a half weeks of, you know, I reached out to different therapists and psychiatrists and doctors and like everyone has their own opinion of, you know, why did you have this panic attack? I reached out to a friend of mine who recommended I read a book. And the book was Control Your Anxiety Before It Controls You by Albert Ellis.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And I read that book and I was like, oh, my God.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
I don't need anybody to tell me what's wrong with me because nothing's wrong with me besides the fact that I think these things are so bad.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And the things in your life are bad or a certain, the emotions that I was feeling, the fact that I was so anxious about something, the fact that like, there's nothing wrong with me for having a panic attack. There's nothing wrong if you can't sleep at night because you're anxious. There's nothing wrong. But I was labeling all those things as bad and wrong and saying I needed to make them go away.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
Yes. Because sometimes emotions are so strong, we feel like there's something physically wrong with us. And so I then said, I need to learn all this for myself. And so I started studying a lot of Albert Ellis and Stephen Hayes, their work just as behavioral psychologists. And I think I've read every book from each one of them.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And it's really helped me learn that there's never been anything wrong with me. It's just been my response to my negative emotions that has been, I've just had a bad relationship with them most of my life. And so I had to change that. And that was when I decided, because I said,
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
how am I going to be able to achieve my goals if, you know, my goals do have me doing a speaking event, running a full team. Like, I want to be that person, but it freaks me the f*** out. And so, yeah, I had a panic attack. But I want to achieve those goals. And so that was really the... I would say like the driver behind my motivation to figure that out for myself.
The School of Greatness
How CEO Leila Hormozi Went From Broke, Anxious & Arrested 6 Times To $100M Net Worth
And ever since then, it's been a constant practice of recognizing what I'm feeling, remembering that emotions cannot hurt me, right? It's like a lot of people say like, oh, well, you're not going to die. I'm like, I don't think most people are scared of dying. I think they're scared of feeling like they're going to die. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're not scared of death.