This Conversation Will Make You Want to Work Harder Than Ever
Over a long lunch, Leila Hormozi interviews her husband Alex about the 1.2 GPA that rewired him, why he quit consulting, why passion made a bad business, and the one thing success cost him.
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3 days ago
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Big Idea
The argument in one line.
The world rewards results, not how efficiently or painlessly you got them, so the people who win pick a direction, accept chosen pain over imposed pain, and stop needing anyone's approval along the way.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
A founder or early-career operator who coasts on talent and wants a concrete reason to start out-working peers who try harder.
Someone stuck in a stable, well-paid track (consulting, banking, medicine) who is privately miserable and weighing a jump to something riskier.
A business owner who keeps getting pitched investments and partnerships and wants a simple veto rule for gut-feel doubts.
Anyone who turned a hobby into a business and noticed they stopped enjoying the hobby.
A person whose drive is paralyzed by perfectionism or by what family, peers, and commenters think of their choices.
SKIP IF…
You want tactical scaling frameworks, offers, or acquisition numbers. This is a personal, conversational interview with almost no business how-to.
You dislike profanity or long tangents about marriage, food, and clothing. Roughly a third of the runtime is playful couple banter.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
Results are all the world pays for, and how little you struggled to get them earns nothing. The guest learned this twice: losing a dream-school admission to a friend he mocked for studying, then posting a 1.2 GPA after a semester of partying, after which he rebuilt himself around one rule of total daytime focus from a single home base. He quit a consulting job that made him miserable for gym ownership that also hurt but pointed somewhere he wanted to go. Along the way he learned to ask experts instead of reading, to veto any deal his partner's gut rejects, that running a business on your passion can drain the passion, and that the real price of success was giving up other people's approval.
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Highlight teaser: the second-date job offer and the cost of success.
00:20 – 01:50
02 · Before business: writing and fitness
Editor of a blind-judged high school literary magazine; picked his major by highlighting every interesting course; graduated in three years to start earning.
01:50 – 03:10
03 · Where the money drive came from
His dad's rule: whatever you do, be the best at it. A school culture where inherited money was uncool and earned money was status.
03:10 – 04:15
04 · Losing Duke to the kid who studied
He mocked a friend for working hard for the same grades; the friend got into Duke and he didn't.
04:15 – 06:40
05 · A 1.2 GPA and the call from his dad
Partied with full intensity, hit a 1.2 at fall break, quit drinking, got perfect marks to a 3.2, then built a nine-to-nine library routine.
06:40 – 08:45
06 · Two lessons from consulting
A principal's 'secret to life' about stringing good days together, and the method of interviewing experts instead of reading.
08:45 – 11:08
07 · Why he walked away
Miserable in consulting, he chose voluntary misery with a light at the end; reading self-help on the job; Dale Carnegie and remembering names.
11:08 – 13:10
08 · Loving business more than fitness
Went into gyms for the love of fitness and found he loved business more. The stoic online persona vs. the gym bro at home.
13:10 – 15:30
09 · The second-date job offer
He asked her to quit her job on date two because she had been a top sales rep and he could fill her calendar.
15:30 – 18:40
10 · Trust, partners and gut instinct
A partner who stole their money, a pastor's rule that both must agree, and a near $6-8M investment vetoed on gut feel before the pitchman was jailed.
18:40 – 21:30
11 · 33 gyms, grit and luck
Launching 33 gyms in person, learning he will keep going, and an honest tally of the luck of birth, genetics, and memory.
21:30 – 23:45
12 · Why he stopped following his passion
Running a fitness business dulled his love of fitness; owning an unrelated business let him enjoy his private gym again.
23:45 – 25:25
13 · The truth about the $100M Offers launch
Started as a staff training manual; she pushed him to post it; zero dollars of advertising.
25:25 – 27:30
14 · His next book
A sales book is what the world wants, but he would keep writing above all else, and 'How to Get What You Want' has years of layered ideas.
27:30 – 29:25
15 · Legacy and becoming a dad
A great-grandfather with 400 children, carrying the family name as a value system, and modeling good behavior for their first child.
29:25 – 32:05
16 · The father who never missed a game
His dad chose presence over income and never regretted it. Then the same-outfit-every-day experiment and why it frees attention.
32:05 – 33:30
17 · Balance and the rules of living
His dad stressed balance; he turned it into winning at everything: in shape, married well, rich, kind.
33:30 – 34:45
18 · Selling tickets to your wedding
His most controversial idea, reframed: charge per head so you can invite as many people as you want.
34:45 – 37:15
19 · "Sacrifice everything for 10 years," explained
The post meant obligatory events, not real friends. Obligation is usually fear of punishment, and many people reject the premise of trade-offs.
37:15 – 39:55
20 · What success cost him
The approval of others, first from his parents and Vanderbilt peers, then a rotating chorus of opinions on everything.
39:55 – 41:20
21 · What she had to let go of
Trying to be perfect created debilitating anxiety; a health scare gave her perspective.
41:20 – 43:30
22 · When criticism might be true
Ask whether a reasonable person could see the criticism as true, and stop taking yourself seriously.
43:30 – 45:41
23 · Math, school and his younger self
Shortcut math methods marked wrong, a C he chose on purpose, and what he'd tell himself on the gym floor: nothing, it worked.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
The world does not care how little you worked to get a result. It only cares about the result.
Losing an admission to a classmate you mocked for studying is a cheaper lesson than learning it at thirty.
A 1.2 GPA at fall break followed by straight A's proved the problem was direction, not ability.
Once a parent sees you can get straight A's, straight A's becomes the bar, permanently.
Picking a college major by highlighting every course that sounds interesting and choosing the major with the most highlights is a usable decision method.
Leaving a job you hate rarely ends the misery. It converts involuntary misery into voluntary misery that at least points somewhere.
Talking to experts beats reading because experts have already consolidated and prioritized the information for you.
Paying people for their time is the fastest path to learning a new field.
If two partners don't both agree to move forward, don't move forward.
If your gut says no on an investment, say no, even if you can't explain why.
Turning your passion into your business can kill the passion, and owning a business that funds the passion can bring it back.
A book released with zero ad spend can still sell enormously if the content is good enough.
A book you have been adding to for three or four years carries more coats of paint, and more ideas per page, than one written in a weekend.
Wearing the same outfit every day frees attention instead of costing it.
Selling tickets to your wedding lets you invite everyone you want without paying for every plate.
Most social obligations are not obligations at all. They are fear of being punished for not showing up.
The real ingredient you sacrifice for big success is the approval of other people.
Ignore advice from people whose lives you don't want.
When criticism stings, ask whether a reasonable person could see it as true before you dismiss it.
You cannot reach the top of anything if you take yourself too seriously.
Takeaway
Results count, approval doesn't, and direction beats talent.
WHAT TO LEARN
Hard work only feels sustainable when it points somewhere you chose, and the price of getting there is letting go of other people's approval and your own demand to be perfect.
02Before business: writing and fitness
Pick a field by listing everything that sounds interesting and choosing the path that contains the most of it, rather than the most prestigious option.
Treat early earning as a goal worth accelerating; graduating a year early to start working is a real lever.
03Where the money drive came from
Whatever you choose, aim to be the best at it, even if it's plumbing, because the standard matters more than the field.
Status earned beats status given, so build around what you can produce rather than what you were handed.
04Losing Duke to the kid who studied
Nobody rewards you for getting a result with less effort; a harder-working peer with slightly better results wins the spot.
Mocking people for trying is a sign you are optimizing for looking talented instead of winning.
05A 1.2 GPA and the call from his dad
Intensity without direction is wasted; the same drive that produced a 1.2 GPA produced perfect grades once it was pointed at school.
When you suspect you're not the smartest in the room, assume you must out-work everyone and build a fixed daily routine around one home base.
06Two lessons from consulting
Stringing together as many good days in a row as possible is a reasonable working definition of a good life.
To learn an unfamiliar subject fast, interview experts and consolidate their views instead of reading everything yourself.
07Why he walked away
Leaving a bad situation often trades imposed pain for chosen pain; the chosen kind is worth it because it leads somewhere.
If you can't work when you feel off-path, that's a signal to change direction, not a character flaw.
Small social skills such as remembering names compound; treat memory like a muscle you train rather than storage you use up.
08Loving business more than fitness
You may enter a field for the subject and discover you love the business of it more.
Public personas get shaped by your first big appearances, so expect people to assume that's all of you.
09The second-date job offer
Hiring off one strong signal, like a proven top sales record, can be enough when you already know how to supply the leads.
Agree in advance that the relationship survives if the business arrangement doesn't.
10Trust, partners and gut instinct
Use a two-key rule for big decisions: if both partners don't agree, don't proceed.
Respect an unexplainable gut no on investments; wealthy young people attract polished fraud.
1133 gyms, grit and luck
Learning that you simply keep going when everything goes wrong is itself a durable asset.
Being honest about the luck in your starting position makes the rest of your effort easier to judge clearly.
12Why he stopped following his passion
Making your passion your job can drain it; a business that funds your passion with no constraints can bring the joy back.
Owning your schedule is what lets you enjoy the hobby on your own terms.
13The truth about the $100M Offers launch
Shipping matters more than polishing the launch; a strong product posted once can sell without ad spend.
Someone else sometimes has to push you past the hesitation to publish.
14His next book
Work the craft you'd keep if you had to drop everything else; for many operators that turns out to be writing.
Ideas compound when you keep a running outline for years, giving the final work far higher idea density.
15Legacy and becoming a dad
Values passed down as clear rules of behavior are a form of legacy worth more than money.
Modeling the behavior you want is the core of parenting, which can mean upgrading your own habits first.
16The father who never missed a game
Showing up consistently is a choice that can cost income and still be the best decision of a life.
Remove repeated low-value decisions, like what to wear, so attention goes to the things that matter.
17Balance and the rules of living
Being extreme in everything can be redirected into a balanced set of rules: health, marriage, money, kindness.
Expecting perfection across every area is a standard you will always fall short of; treat the rules as direction, not a test.
18Selling tickets to your wedding
Controversial ideas often read differently once reframed; charging per head for a wedding lets you invite everyone.
19"Sacrifice everything for 10 years," explained
Separate genuine relationships from events you attend only to avoid guilt or punishment.
Accepting trade-offs is unpopular, but every serious goal requires them.
Happiness is not everyone's goal, and what counts as happiness differs by generation and upbringing.
20What success cost him
Expect the earliest disapproval to come from family and peers, not strangers.
Don't take advice from people whose lives you don't want.
Take input, thank people, and then weigh it against what you know about the world.
21What she had to let go of
Perfectionism can quietly make you a shell of yourself who never enjoys a moment.
A health scare or other hard perspective can be what finally lets you drop impossible standards.
22When criticism might be true
When criticism stings, test whether a reasonable person could see it as true.
Owning your weaknesses publicly takes the sting out of being called bad at things.
23Math, school and his younger self
Grade-chasing in subjects you'll never use can be a deliberate trade if you know your goal.
If you'd tell your younger self to change nothing, the path you took worked.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
CAC to LTV ratio
The comparison between what it costs to acquire a customer and the total profit that customer brings over their lifetime. A healthy business earns several times more per customer than it spends to get one.
Strategy consulting
Firms hired by large organizations to research a complex question and recommend a course of action, usually delivered as a slide-deck presentation to leadership after months of interviews and analysis.
Gym Launch
The business the couple ran before Acquisition.com, which helped gym owners fill their facilities. They personally flew out to launch 33 gyms before turning it into a company.
Resources
Things they pointed at.
10:13bookHow to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
33:30 – 45:41denseControversy, sacrifice and approval
The Script
Word for word.
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metaphorstory
You asked a girl on the second date you went on with her to quit her job and work for you. Who f*** does that? Well, I asked a few girls.
To find the success that you've had, what's been one thing that you've had to sacrifice? The approval of other people. Do you plan on writing more of the $100 million series?
Or are you like... Before you got into business, did you ever aspire to do anything else? I wanted to do something fitnessy.
That was an interest of mine. And writing. Writing was probably my first real, like, love interest.
Editor -in -chief was essentially, people would submit their short stories and poems and stuff. And then we'd have a meeting kind of around a table this size. So you ran a meeting?
Yeah. And we'd read all the entries, but we'd read them blind, which was kind of cool. So, like, there was no, like, politics of, like, who was cool or who wasn't, because it was high school, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so you just got to judge the work for what it was, which was kind of interesting. But sometimes people would get, like, grilled that it was, like, their work while they were, like, sitting at the table watching their friends just be like, this is horrible.
Once we figured out which ones were good, I would create the order of it, and then the best piece would be, like, the cover art for the whole. Do you remember the first time you were like, this is why I want to start a business or what I want to do? I think it was just in college.
I think when I decided that I didn't want to be a physician, I took the course manual. They have all the courses that are offered. And I had a friend make a recommendation, which was actually really smart, because I was trying to figure out what major I was going to be, and I didn't know what I wanted to do.
They said, why don't you just look at all the courses? at Vanderbilt and just highlight all the ones that you think sound interesting and then see if there's a major that contains the highest percentage of those. And that was actually how I got into the major that I got into, which was like kind of Vanderbilt's version of a business degree.
I mean, sure, I wanted to make money fast. Like, I mean, that's why I graduated in three. I literally went to work and graduated early because I wanted to start making money.
Where do you think that came from? Probably my dad. Well, I know for me it came from my dad, but it was like different.
It was like money's bad. So it's like, what did your dad say? I definitely didn't think money was bad.
No, I know. I know your dad and I love your dad. But he's a little different now.
He doesn't talk about money. But I'm curious, like what did he say to you when you were a kid? I think he said just whatever you do, be the best.
So he's like, I don't care if you're a plumber, just be the best plumber. Do the plumbing for the whole city. Do it for the whole country.
You know, be the best. And I know that the school you went to, Gilman, like it was a private school, so you had to pay decent amount of money to go there, right? Yeah.
Do you think that influenced your relationship with money, being around people at a younger age that had money? It's weird, though, because the school that I went to, having money wasn't seen as cool, which you and I have talked about. In your high school, if someone had money, it was like, wow, that's cool.
If someone had a car that was given to them by their parents, that was not seen as cool. It was because it was like you didn't earn it. you didn't earn it culture because to be fair if think about like this if everyone has money and to be fair the money in baltimore is not money in new york money in miami like i thought rich was a doctor so like yeah different you know um but if everyone has money then it's like what's the differentiator for status it has to be something else yeah so it was more towards like can you make money and so like i started working super young so like what was your first job uh blender tender yeah we've both been blender tenders When you were younger, you used to study a lot and you made fun of a guy who didn't, where you didn't have to study to get good grades.
And he had to study a lot and that later you apologized to him. So he worked super hard, so you made fun of him. Kind of.
So we're both, we were both pretty good students. I did it by not working. He did it by working really hard.
And we both applied to some of the same schools. And one of the schools, my top school was Duke that I wanted to get into. Shit.
Yeah. And so when like early admins or whatever came back, he got into Duke and I didn't.
And so it was this great moment for me because I was just like, the lesson that I took away was that the world does not care about how little you work to get your result. It just cares about the result. And so Ken probably had slightly better grades than I did and he worked his ass off for them.
And I would basically make fun of how hard he had to work in order to get basically the same grade as me or if I beat him on anything. That was a huge learning for me. The world does not care about.
how efficient you are. Yeah. Ever since I've known you, I mean, you've worked like a maniac.
Yeah. Where did that come from? First semester of college, I obviously like got away from home.
And so I just like let loose. And so I was just, I think I drank every single night for like the first half of the first semester of freshman year. And I took the same level of intensity that I had in general.
So I was still just as intense. I just wasn't directed towards school. I've seen it.
Yeah. And so I just took that same level of intensity. It was just towards partying.
And so I was, I was like, I will be the best at partying. And like, just to put context to this, like all summer I practiced shotgunning. I practiced cup chugging.
I practiced beer punks. I was like, I don't want to look like a bitch when I show up at these, at these things. Like, I don't look like I know what I'm doing.
Cause you're president of your fraternity, right? Eventually. So I got there and then drank a bunch, partied, and then fall break came.
So it's like there's a fall break in the first semester halfway through. And they send like a preliminary report card to parents, fall break. And so when fall break happened, I had, I think like a 1 .2 GPA.
Oh, fuck. Yeah, super bad. And so I got a call from my dad.
And he was like, hey, if you're going to party, he said, you can do that here for free. And I don't need to pay for you to go to school. All right, darling.
And so he's like, you need to take your study seriously or like you're not going to be in Vanderbilt. And the idea of me going back home was so terrifying to me. I get why.
Yeah, I didn't drink for the rest of the semester and I didn't go out at all. And I just studied the whole time. And I got an A on every single thing on every class from fall break until finals.
And I was able to get a 3 .2 for the semester by getting literally perfect on everything else. And so then after that, my dad was like, okay, great. So now we know you can get straight A's.
So that'll just be the bar. And so after that, I pledged the fraternity that I was in because I had partied enough in the first half. They still gave me my offer or whatever to be in the fraternity.
I was like, I don't think I'm the smartest person here. I have to work harder to win. And so then I just started studying all the hours that I was awake with the exception of gym and class.
And so I basically, everyone knew like from nine to nine, it was like almost a good joke inside the fraternity. Like nine to nine, Hermosy's at the gym, he's at the cafeteria, or he's at the library. If I wasn't in class.
And once I succeeded doing that, I was like, this is my formula. So just like complete focus during the day. And then you, now obviously you're not going out and raging at night, but.
I just like, I was like, I think I've always had a home base. And so for me, the library was home base. And that was it.
Like whenever I. Yeah, like now it's your office. After that, I think a lot of people don't know that you then had.
top security clearance, essentially. Worked at a consulting firm. I mean, two of the things that I probably still think to this day about, which was the principal at the firm said something to me.
I think I had a good weekend. I just like came in like in a good mood or something like that. She was like, you're in a good mood.
I was like, yeah. She's like, I think that's the secret to life. You just live as many days in a row like that as you can.
It's crazy you remember that. Yeah. Chin chin.
Cheers. There you go.
I learned one more really important lesson, which was because it was a consulting firm, right? And we would have to do some sort of project where they would have a complex question and we'd have to answer it. And so we'd have to go into something that we knew nothing about.
I obviously knew nothing about it. I was 21 years old. And we'd have to somehow synthesize like a really intelligent answer to this issue.
And the way that... the consulting process, at least that I was taught, was you go talk to experts rather than read. And I thought that was interesting.
It's because experts already have consolidated the information and they can curate what's most important for you. So they can literally give you prioritization information. You did do that when we met too.
I feel like you paid people. I always do that. Yeah, that's true.
It's the fastest path. Now it's just a matter of finding those people. You then summarize and consolidate the main points from, you know, There was gonna be repetition and then if there was conflicting points we bring those up and then from there that's where the principal Would just basically read that smaller packet and be like, okay This is what we should do and then we'd literally make like a 20 20 slide deck presentation and come back to the leadership like six months later and say this is what you should do So you were a strategy associate.
I was with strategy firm. Yeah, that was and that and when I started you like doing that I think you'd learn a lot, right? I learned a lot.
But was it about shit that was interesting kind of, I, I wasn't, I would think I was at the time I was so obsessed with fitness while I was doing this, that everyone who I worked with was like, dude, you should just do fitness. Like you're clearly obsessed with this.
And I even got to the point where they were like, we'll chip in to help you start your gym because you just will not shut up about it. It's funny you say that because you did not take the off the shelf solution. Instead you pivoted and basically tossed out.
the options you had in your life and started doing something completely different, disappointed your dad, moved across the country. Yeah. Why?
I was really miserable. And I thought if I changed things, I would be less miserable.
You say it like it didn't help. Well, I mean, it was just like... It felt like involuntary misery switched to voluntary misery.
It was pain that was being inflicted upon me, and then it turned into pain that I'm inflicting upon myself by choosing to pursue this path. I actually think that's pretty fair, though, because when I stopped drinking and stuff, it was like, that sucked just as much as drinking. It was just a different type of suck.
Yeah. It was more aligned with my goals. Yeah, and the things you valued.
Yeah. The difference was there was a light at the end of one tunnel. And there didn't seem like there was light at the end of the first.
For me, I can work endlessly if I'm going towards something that I want to go to. But the moment I feel like I'm off path, I don't want to work at all. Because I'm like, wait, I don't want to move further away from where I'm trying to go.
Yeah, I will stop in my tracks. And so, yeah, I basically just checked out and I spent all my time reading at the job, which was poor employee work. Do you remember any of the books you read?
If there's any one that actually... I read all the self -help books at the time. Yeah, that's fair.
I did the same thing. Like the power of positive. Like, I actually don't even know what the timestamp was.
Were there any that you actually thought were helpful? Like the seven habits. I think I read that.
Of highly effective people? Yeah, I read that one. That's pretty good.
I think Dale Carnegie's How to Make Friends and Influence People is phenomenal. Just learning to say people's names. If you actually, yeah, I still say, I mean, you know that I still do that.
I'm terrible. I feel like I rely on you for it because like people literally ask me, Alex, still remember that waiter's name from that? And I'm like, dude, I fucking suck.
Like I, I'm not, I don't even try. Cause like, fuck it, we're married. Like I get credit, at least half credit, you know?
I think also reframing it as like, oh, I'm not using up space like a computer, but I'm working a muscle. So it's like, I want to remember more names so that I get better remembering names. It's not like I'm using up space in my brain.
You can help me when I have Alzheimer's when we're old. Yeah. You are more likely to get it.
What? As a woman. That's really sad.
Yeah. But you're going to die first, so you won't even be there for my lack of memory. So you'll just be alone, not knowing anyone.
I mean, there's just some benefits to that. Every day's a new day. Every day.
I was going to say, it's like Groundhog Day, but you don't know it's Groundhog Day. It's like, every day's a new day. It's a new start.
Like, I can find joy in anything.
I'm curious, though, like, when you made the transition, when you... gave up consulting and you said, I'm going to go start a gym. One, I think it's interesting because you're like, I want to make a lot of money fast.
So like, why did you think you'd be able to do that with gyms? I didn't actually. I went down the consulting path because it was like, it's either that or investment banking.
So I was like, okay, I don't want where this leads. So I might as well do something that I love, which was fitness. And so then I got into the gym business and learned how to make money.
Well, my surprise was that I ended up loving business more than I love fitness. And I like fitness a lot. That's true.
I actually feel like that's something that a lot of people don't see, which is like, you know, when we're at home at night, like you just scrolling your phone, like literally texting your gym guys, getting equipment, getting, buying equipment for your friends, talking to your friends about equipment, talking about lifts, sharing lifting videos.
Like it's funny when people are like, at least on fitness. Well, it's funny. Cause like, I see what people say on mine.
They're like, Alex, so stoic. And I'm like, Alex is a bro.
At least like who I know most of the time. You know what I mean? It's like, you are, you're like a bro though.
Like you went to an all boys school. You started lifting. You got into like management consult.
Like I have like every bro that I know that was like the track, but then you, you did pivot. And I think that's what makes you really interesting though, is like, there is that other side of you, which I think people more see in the content, which is like stoic, philosophic. I wonder, you know, kind of interesting.
I wonder if, cause the first two bigger podcasts that I did was I did the ice coffee hour. And the part that people found really interesting in that was like called life philosophy, if you will. Yeah.
And then. modern wisdom was all about that. And there's probably some of the first two podcasts that I ever did that were like, you know, like I didn't go on that many podcasts.
That's fair. Cause like, so people have just assumed that that is like the entirety of who I am. And so it's been like somewhat self -perpetuating.
I know when people are like, Oh, you're married. He's intense. And I'm like, I mean, like, I guess, but like, do you think I'd be really married to somebody who's like that intense?
Like I'm a pretty happy person. You know what I mean? So people ask me these super dark, like, incredibly deep questions.
And I'm like, well, this is how I think about it. You really want to know if you want to go there. Yeah, he's super dark and deep.
And I'm like, I don't know. Like, I fuck around a lot. You asked a girl that on the second date you went on with her to quit her job and work for you.
Who fuck does that? Well, I asked a few girls.
You're such a dick. What the fuck? Like the girl whose earrings are in your house?
Oh, Jesus. It was... My sister.
My fucking sister. Like, I fucking fell for that. You were like, I got you so good.
I didn't even take a breath. Yeah, but I fucking knew. I was like, how come my sister was here down this weekend?
I'm not fucking done. I was like, I'm not fucking dumb. None of these are your fucking sisters.
You're sitting on your bed stand. I think it totally worked. And then you were like, oh, I let her sleep in my room, even though you have this beautiful guest room.
I was like, oh, she didn't sleep in the amazing guest room you have? That's so odd. Yeah.
She's more comfortable here. Who was she?
I'm gonna find you, bitch. I still have your earrings. It's my gift to you.
I don't have those earrings. Yeah. I threw them away.
Obviously. What were you thinking? Like, what were the thoughts going through your head?
It wasn't fast for me. I hire people all the time.
You're like, fuck it. I don't know how this date's going. Might as well get an employee.
Is that what you were thinking? I did say, I was like, if this doesn't work out, you still got to be cool with it. I mean, yes, I know, but what were you thinking?
You said you were the top sales rep at 24 Hour at Triangle Square, which was one of the top 24 -hour locations in Southern California, which is one of the top fitness areas. Well, I had left there and gone to a new one. I figured you hadn't forgotten how to sell.
And so it was like, okay, so if she was the top salesperson, I know how to get leads. I was like, I can fill this girl's calendar up and we can make a lot of money. And I'm pretty sure that was my pitch.
That was it. That was like, there was no more thought to it. Like, what would happen next if this, whatever, you know.
I mean, I had had salespeople that didn't work out, so I knew what would happen next. Yeah, but you weren't in a relationship with them. Of course.
Or were you? No. No.
No. You sure? Yes.
All right, yeah. Let me see whose earrings those were. The only employee I've ever dated I ended up marrying, so it worked out.
Yeah. I'm one for one. Sure.
Yeah. No, but I mean, it was just obvious that you had came. What do you think it is that made you trust me immediately?
Pattern recognition. I don't know. Like, I met you and I was like, I don't think she will screw me.
Okay, but we also had a business partner who stole all our money. Yeah. All your money and then all my commission from the same bank account.
What's the difference there? I clearly had a weak intuition.
Yeah. I'm still playing that long game. More to come.
No, but it wasn't like I did that with anybody else until then. Yeah. Did anything change after you got the, like, because you obviously trusted me and that worked out, at least in the short term it had.
But then you trusted this person. So far. And it didn't work out.
Yeah. Did that change how you did partnerships or thought about partners going forward? Yeah, totally.
I just said, hey, Layla, what do you think of this guy? And so your people radar is like unmatched. Like I've been wrong, you know, a handful of times.
And we had some really good advice the like the year we got married from a pastor. And he said, if you don't, if you both don't agree to move forward. on anything.
It was very generic, not generic, but very broad advice. But we have more or less followed that. It's worked really well for us.
Yeah, that's true. Because we've had three different, like, true, like, I'll call it thieves, people who, like, would go to have gone, who are now in jail, who approached us at different times because we have money and we are young. I think it's more than three.
Might be more than three. All being like, I've got this great opportunity. I'd love you to invest.
And everything would sound good. And you'd be like, I don't know.
I know. I was really proud of the one that we were going to put like six or eight million in. Yeah.
And then the last minute I was like, I don't know what it is. We can't do it. Yeah.
And I like couldn't explain. And then I remember we were friends with Sharon and he said, dude, if your gut feels it, just don't. And then literally like two months later, he's arrested and put in jail.
Yeah. And everyone that had invested lost all their money. Yeah.
It's crazy. I told you, I may not, you know, be Alex from Mosaic making the money, but I am, I am good at saving it. Unless I spend it on stuff.
But I saved so I can spend.
I remember the first time we got Chipotle together and we sat there and I was fucking horrified at the way that you ate. I was sitting there and I'm like, and chew 20 times and take a bite. And you're like, and it was like no breath.
It was like. Like I was like, you were like physically, it was like an event. It was like you were lifting weights.
Like there was like effort put in there. And I was like, holy fuck. And then I like literally every day since, I feel like it's like that when we eat together.
It hasn't changed. It hasn't changed. And I'm like, why must you go so fast?
Like there's no rush. One day I want to watch you eat slow. It sounds horrible.
Why? I mean, if it's bad, I'll eat slow. If it's good, I'm like, that was good.
Let's do that again. These are really good. Until it's all gone.
And I'm like, okay, well, now it's gone. Well, I think a lot of people, I mean, I don't know. Do a lot of people know that we launched those 33 gyms for gym launch before we started the company?
Like, we went out and flew and launched those gyms. Do you think a lot of people know that? I just don't know if they understand, like, the scale and scope of that period of time.
Because we both, like, lacked it out of our memories from the sheer exhaustion. I was thinking about this stuff. I was like, okay, what would you say from that very spotty period?
Like one thing that you learned from that time. Learned? Yeah.
I mean, I learned a lot about you. Made a steal.
Yeah, I mean, things did not go my way for the majority of that period. That was fucked. We still have to make that episode.
I know. Just like going through the whole thing. It's absurd.
Like the number. and intensity of things that went wrong over such a short period of time was outstanding. From a purely objective perspective, it's absurd.
What did you learn about yourself? That I will keep going. Did you not know that before?
Or was it just like a further? I don't know if it was like I didn't know before. I feel like I've always had like, I will die, I will continue.
And if I don't die, I'm still here. So let's keep going. It just, it's never really been like a decision that I have to actively make.
What elements of your life do you think you've gotten lucky with? Oh, I have a ton of stuff. So 3 % of people born in the United States.
So it's like, boom, right there, you're top 3 % of the world. And then born United States as a man, top one and a half percent. And then from there, born into the top 10%.
in terms of like household incomes, right? So that's probably 0 .15%. Now on top of that, I think I have really good muscle genetics, which is awesome.
Big fan. I mean, same. Pray to God the child gets them.
I have a very good memory. Yeah, I feel like that actually is one of the like secrets to why you're very good at business is like you're very good at remembering numbers and details. Like you'll remember like CAC to LTV ratio of a certain company and you bring it up to me and you're like, dude, I met this company today and like this is their CAC to LTV and I'm like, what the fuck did you just say?
you went to culinary school. I know. I didn't even want to tell Chef Yuri, though.
I was like, do not tell him because I don't want anyone to ever ask me to do anything.
I'm just trying so hard. I can't be the only person that can't wink. Yeah.
Layla can't wink, as you will probably soon see. She looks like she's having a stroke. I've tried like a thousand times.
I'm like, how do you think the outfit looks? I'm curious though, at what point, because you are very logical, but at what point do you say, you know what, I'm going to trust the ether, or I'm going to go with the flow, or I'm going to do something because it's fun, or I enjoy it, or are there areas in your life that you feel like that is more your philosophy?
I for sure do things that are fun. Yeah. But I think that's a logical reason to do something.
Okay, like what for you? I had a friend in town, I'll say that, this last week, and I probably spent 10 plus hours in the gym. hanging out over three days because they were here for other stuff too.
And it was a treat. It was great. It was just shooting the shit, hanging out, talking about lifting, talking about equipment.
It's like I could do that literally all day. When I went from loving fitness to starting a fitness business, for that almost the entire period that I was in the fitness business, I did not care for fitness that much. Not nearly as much.
I still worked out, but like my level of interest. It was like I work out because that's who I am, and of course I need to work out. It wasn't like I was looking forward to the gym or anything like that.
So you're worried that it would essentially steal the joy out of the thing that you're trying to do. Yeah, and now that we're out of the fitness business, I have a gym again, and I have no members, and I love it. And so it's like I've gotten back to the thing that I originally loved, which is why I've spoken about.
following your passion isn't necessarily the best way to make money. Because I am someone who literally did that all the way to the end, and it was not that enjoyable. And only when he could just do my passion without any constraints.
So I think the fact that with the business, we can make whatever hours we want, we can do what we feel like, that allows me to do fitness how I want to do fitness. Which if it means some days I'm in the gym for two and a half hours because I feel like it, fine. If I'm there for an hour, fine.
If it's all the equipment, it's the equipment I like. It's my favorite stuff. Set up the way I want it.
And I really enjoy myself. Yeah, that's a... You didn't even drink it, did you?
No, you can drink it. Oh, my God. Oh, God.
Old habit. I know that when you wrote a certain special book, hundred million dollar offers you know you told people like this was more of like a training manual you started as a training manual you know for your staff and then you ended up you know putting it out there i'm curious like was there any point before you put it out there that you were like this is something that i want out in the world it's a real product i want to sell or were you just like fuck i'll just put it online because i don't know you were the one who told me to put it online i mean i wasn't trying I know, but not everyone knows that.
Yeah, I know. I remember. So I'll tell the story, right?
So Alex didn't know. You didn't know if you wanted to post it. And you were like, I don't know because how to do this and how to do that.
And then I was like, let's just fucking post it. Make one fucking story about it. And who gives a fuck?
Call it a day. And the crazy thing is like nobody to this day will ever fucking believe us. We have talked to many people.
We didn't put a dollar of advertising into a hundred million dollar offers, a dollar. And like, nobody believed us because of how much, how much the book sold, how much money the book has made in revenue. Cause there's little tools you can see.
And it's just so funny because it's like, it's kind of like, you know, you were talking earlier about how you don't get rewarded for, you know, whether you put in a lot of effort or not. And it's like, you put in so much effort into the book itself. And then into the promotion and such, it was like.
Just post post and ghost essentially and then it just took off. It was an offer So good people feel stupid saying that do you plan on writing more of the hundred million dollar series? Are you like?
I mean, I really I have some things doing what are like top five because I know that you have another book that you're thinking about But of the hundred million dollar, what would you what would be next? I think the world would like me to write a sales book. That's fair I feel like you're good at marketing and offers and all the other things because you were originally good at very good at sales It's the birthplace where it all started.
What about the book that you started writing right now? Oh, right now? Yeah, How to Get What You Want.
Yeah, I don't think it'd be part of the $100 million series. No, but would you finish it before you added to that series? I might, because I already have an outline.
What do you like most about what you do? Because I know what you do a lot of, and you do a lot of, I would say, business strategy on all sorts of businesses surrounding our business. Content, writing.
Content. Like which of the three, if you had to like toss two and keep one, what would you keep? I would write.
Yeah. I'm a writer first. First and foremost.
I think your writing is beautiful. Thanks. It's like some of the sweetest, like the notes you've written me on my birthday are like.
Why doesn't he, why isn't he like this? Why doesn't he talk like this? You should write like the next Fifty Shades of Grey.
What?
You can figure it out. No, I'm, I mean, I think that book will. If I write it the way I want to write it, I think it could change way more lives than the whole $100 million series.
What's stopping you from writing it? Oh, just time. The other things that we're working on.
I would need to go into a hole for like 12 weeks. I have most of it. Because this is an interesting book because it's like thought surface area.
Like how many coats of paint, you know, like on a painting. Like if you have to finish a painting in a weekend, it's not going to be as good as if you have a year. Yeah, it's a very heady book, so I understand that.
And so I've had so many coats of paint because I've been keeping the wireframe for the book for like... Three or four years and I've added to it whenever I have an idea about it So like the idea density is gonna be very high which is good. The value per second will be Intense in a good way.
But right now this book is the most complete in my head I also think that when you write it makes you better at your day job No, I mean seriously like because I think it's kind of like working out like if you work out and write I think it's like the happiest I see you. Oh, yeah There's a tick tock that I found of you And I was like, I knew nothing about this.
And I was like, I'm going to fact check this motherfucker when we're talking later. That your great grandfather had 400 children. And I was like, fuck, that's a lot of fucking kids.
But it seemed like it was like his way of building a legacy, which then made me think about when we met. And I was like, how many kids do you want? And you were like six.
And I was like, ooh, I don't know. They will all come out of me. I think that was like my first reaction.
But I was like. I was thinking about it now in relation to us having our first kid, and I was like, do you think that is embedded in your family? Building a legacy.
Have you ever thought, I want to build something like that? Not 400 children, because that would obviously not be from just me, but maybe six. To be fair, the entirety of my family history has only been transferred to me from one person, which is my dad.
So I don't really have any big relationship with anyone else on that side. But I would say for the formative years of my life, carrying on the name, representing the name, You're a hormosy.
That means these things. That was super prevalent in my upbringing. Did you take a value system?
Yeah. So to me, that's very important to me. Of course.
These are the rules of how we behave. And people know you by how you behave, that you are one of us. When you think about our kid.
Nugatron? Nugatron. What do you think of in terms of when you visualize yourself as a father?
What are the most important things for you? Because I don't know if you've thought about it. I've been thinking a lot about...
what kind of a mother do I want to be? And like, how do I want to show up for the kid? And like, what elements of how I am now?
And then also like, what do I want to change? Or like, what are things, where are things that I think I need to improve to be a better mother? You know what I mean?
I think modeling good behavior. I think I'll probably up my game. I strive to be better to model what I hope he or she, either as a protector or as an example.
What do you think your dad? I think he modeled a lot for you. He was a super, I mean, my dad was a super father.
He never missed a single game or practice in my entire life, which I didn't realize was like an odd thing until I was an adult. He dropped me off to school and picked me up from school every day, including the fact that I got, he picked me up at like two for like the earlier years. And he did that as somebody who like had a career.
And he could have opted to make more money and chose not to. And he used to talk about that regularly. And like never once should announce a presentment.
He was just like, and I would do it again a hundred times over. It was the best decision of my life. And he still tells me that.
You know, I don't know if you remember this. I believe all of that because when I first met your dad, he was like the first time we were staying at your dad's house. And then the first night he like texted me and he was like, you are the one that looks.
has got Alexander's back now. And he just texted me like 10 pictures of you guys together when you were a kid. And I was like, man, he really loves his son.
Like I was the first thought though. And he really does. He like adores you.
100%. So I'd say, you know, he was, he was there. And I think that's like a lot of people like, you know, dad, if you just show up, like he was there.
Yeah. I think from a modeling behavior perspective, my dad was always well kept. So maybe that didn't 100 % translate.
What are you talking about? Yeah. You used to wear, when I first met you, you were like, you wore a lot of Lululemon.
So that's different. Yeah. And then you wore button -ups with pants.
And then you got really big and could only wear, like, sweatshorts and T -shirts. And then when we started Acquisition .com, you were like, I just don't give a fuck anymore. Yeah.
And you said, what is the most comfortable thing? Yeah. And we lived in Vegas, and so tank top and shorts that were waterproof so that you could go jump in the pool whenever time you wanted to.
But you went through, like, a... Experimentation. Oh, my God, it was, like, four months.
I remember how many pairs of shoes and... Might have been longer than that. I, yeah.
The amount of shoes. It was a lot. And shorts that got Amazon to our house.
But since then though, it's like, it wasn't like a, no, it wasn't like an ongoing thing. I have found the pair of shorts that I like and I have been wearing those shorts since. Yeah, no, it's true.
Like I have the best shorts for me. I'm very confident in my short selection. Yeah.
I think you're, you very much engineered some of those things. Yeah. I'm curious, like, cause a lot of people see that and they're like, Oh my God, the guy wears the same thing every day.
And this and that, like, do you feel like it's a. It gives you back attention, or it takes attention for you? Do you feel like it's something you have to do?
It totally gives me attention. Yeah. Every morning I wake up, I grab a shirt, I grab the shorts, I walk out the door.
It takes me no time whatsoever. I wish I could do that. It's great.
I know. The bar is so low that if I just wear a t -shirt instead of a tank top, it's like, whoa, Alex is really going out of the box today. I know.
Whenever I post on my story, it's like us just at home or something, and you're wearing something, and people are like, whoa. What did you do? I should get him in a t -shirt.
And I was like, ask? I don't know. Or he just felt like it.
Like not that much. Beyond that, I think my dad stressed balance for me because I am a less balanced person. You know, I was always very extreme, all in on everything.
Whenever I was it, I was all in. I was not all out on everything else. And he was like, you have to have balance.
I mean, I was definitely extreme as well. So I feel like we were extreme together. Yeah.
But I think I like translated that into just like just winning everything. What do you actually mean by that? Be in shape.
Love your spouse. Make money. Be nice to people.
You mean you put these demands on yourself? Yeah. Well, yeah.
Rules of living. Perfect. To do all of it.
Do you feel like you're perfect? God, no. I feel like you're perfect.
Oh, Jesus. For me? Yay.
I try to flirt. I'm not very good at it. You have a seizure.
I am super awkward. I remember you told me that when we were first dating. You're like, you're not very good at flirting.
I do think I definitely said that. Yeah. And I was like, I know.
You're not very good at this. I was like, you're not the first person to tell me. Yeah.
But you know, you were. You were honest. You were loyal.
That's fair. And I know I could trust you. And I have.
It's never stood me wrong. Thanks, sweetie. So one thing I was doing is I was looking through some of your content and I was like, I wonder what Alex Ramos' most controversial content is.
I think like the first piece. of controversial content was actually, you made it about selling tickets to our wedding. So your idea to sell tickets to a wedding.
Do you remember that? Do you still stand by it? Yeah.
I mean, it's like, you don't have to do this. He tells, they must do this. It's an idea.
Well, it's interesting because people are like so offended that you would sell tickets to a wedding. But the expectation when somebody attends your wedding is that they give you gifts. But it's like, well, if you just sell tickets.
then it's a way of getting money as a gift. I saw it even differently, which is like if you sell the tickets, you can have as many people as you want at your wedding. Some people are like, we can't afford a big wedding.
It's like, I wish I had all these people. It's like, just ask them to pay for their own food. It's 200 bucks a head.
Put 200 bucks in, you can go to the wedding. That's actually a really good idea. I didn't actually think about it that way.
Yeah. I thought it was just like a swap for the gift. No.
I mean, it is a swap for the gift, but it's like so that they can come. Yeah. If you want to make a profit, you charge more than the headcount.
But like, that's what it comes down to. Yeah. And if they choose to, donate to you on the way there and you get a down payment, great.
Get a down payment. You know, on something. On a weed whacker, who knows?
Jesus Christ. Okay, so that's one. The second one was that I saw, it was, I think it was the one that somebody actually misworded.
It was a LinkedIn post about how you should sacrifice everything for 10 years, including friends, weddings. Friends' weddings. Birthdays, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. It's funny, I was talking to Jesus, our old, manager at HB.
And he was like, bro, he's like that post. He's like real though. Cause he's like, that's all I did.
It's like, I just was there. He's like, I didn't have any money to pay other people. He's like, I was, I was there every day and missed out on stuff.
And so I think it's less, it's, you know, I think a lot of stuff I put out there is just more like. It's okay. Like, if you're like, it's my best friend from seven years, and I'm saying, don't go.
It's more that, like, I think what would literally have fixed the post is just quotes around the word friends. Friends weddings. Not friends weddings.
Friends weddings. Oh, like not actually your friends. Correct.
But people who invite you and you feel like. The people you feel obligations to attend. But when I ask you, why do you feel this obligation?
Shouldn't you look forward to attending? The person's like, well, if I don't go, they're going to. They're going to not like me or whatever.
I was going to say, they don't actually feel obligated to go. They are afraid of feeling guilty and being punished in some way by that person. You're essentially coercing yourself into going.
Yeah. You're going to avoid punishment, not because you enjoy it. Yeah.
No, that's fair. Yeah. So I would say avoid those things.
And obviously, a version of a social obligation is a friend's wedding, a friend's wedding. But a lot of other things, going out to the club, whatever. I mean, just pick your flavor.
And I also think that many people really... reject the premise of sacrifice. Yeah, trade -offs.
And I think it's because, like, I also think the generational changes, like, people are like, oh, they were super extreme and sacrificed everything for work, like, listening to what people say about, like, our generation and the ones before us. People still say it now. about us.
They're like, oh, do you feel like you're sacrificing your happiness for these things? Right. And it's like, but what if for every generation, how you define and what you believe the experience of happiness to be and how you derive happiness because you've been socially conditioned comes from different things.
That's how I think about it. And that also assumes that happiness is every person's goal. Yeah.
And that to not have happiness is your goal, so not wrong. Yeah.
What do you think in terms of the recipe that you've used to find the success that you've had? What's been the biggest ingredient that you've had to sacrifice? Sacrifice?
In order to make your recipe work?
Um, the approval of other people.
That's real. How do you deal with that? And, like, approval from who?
Like, strangers, you think? Or, like, are you just thinking, like, the world? You know, it's interesting.
I think in the beginning, Of the journey, it's the hardest because you know the people who are hating on you because you don't have strangers who know about your life. That's fair.
But I think it's harder in the beginning because you like, it's like your friends, it's your uncles, it's your cousins, your family. And you have to like have them say they think it's a bad idea. But it's like you look at their life and you're like, I don't want their life.
Why would I listen to your advice? Yeah. I don't want to be you.
Yeah. And so I think that was like earlier in terms of - Who was the first person? I mean, it was my dad, but like - Who was the second?
I mean, my mom wasn't thrilled. I would say that and then the idea, this sounds ridiculous, but it's real. The idea I had of the people who were still in college at Vanderbilt, my peers, me feeling like in their minds, I would now be lesser than because I wasn't on one of the chosen paths.
Like, oh, Hermosa's out of the race because... Now he's like becoming a personal trainer. So it was just the idea of their approval and the idea of my parents, the actuality of my parents' approval was the first, the hard part in the beginning.
And then I think later on, I would say it's a continuous theme because, I mean, you think about like how you dress, right? How I dress. We had different people in our lives who were like, you shouldn't dress like that.
No one's going to take you seriously. You should make content this way. You should.
You should not do this podcast. You should not talk about these things. You should be on camera together more.
You should be on camera together less. You shouldn't tell people that they should work hard. You're telling people that they're working hard too much.
It's just whatever it is. You can take anything and take the opposite position if you make a straw man argument. What do you think is the most recent thing that you've had to accept that you were not going to get approval from anybody on that has been had to deal with?
What? Whatever the recent trending thing is. I mean, it just rotates.
You know what I mean? What do you mean? Like...
If I say something or I don't say something... Oh, on social media? Yeah, sure.
In terms of actual life people that we know. I feel like people that we know, nobody acts like that. No.
Oh, not anymore. I mean, I think they know that people are aware that that's not going to change our behavior. But, like, we will thank you for insight.
We'll take it into consideration and then we will weigh it based on what we know about the world. I think that's true. What's been the ingredient that you left out in your recipe of success?
I think in order to have the success that I have now, that we have now, individual and shared, I've had to let go of trying to be perfect. I think it's been the number one thing for me. I thought that that was going to be my number one ingredient.
And I think... That's what like created so much debilitating anxiety for me. It was just trying to be perfect.
Like even with you, you know, I remember like, I was like, oh my God, I don't think I can cook you dinner every night. And you were like, okay. And I was like, are you sure?
You know, cause I would be like doing meetings, like on the computer cooking dinner. And like, it was just like, I remember getting to a point where I was like losing my mind. Cause I have like one minute in a day.
And then I would just pass out at like seven. Cause I was so exhausted. Like, I don't know, something switched.
I think it was also like, When I started dealing with some of the health stuff and it gives you perspective and I was just like, I don't have time for this shit. And I feel like that's when things got way easier for me in so many ways, which is weird.
I mean, I think I've learned a lot from you and watching you a threat because you, I mean, you went from someone who like cared about comments and all that kind of stuff to truly, I mean, people may or may not believe it, but like truly you are unfazed, disconnected and like laugh like that at the craziest shit. And yeah, I mean, I admire you in that.
I have, I've learned a lot from you with how you handle that type of stuff. You're really good at it. Thanks.
You helped me with it though. You know, I think one thing that you brought up at one point that I thought was super helpful, you were like, if it bothers you that much, do you think there's something true about it? I just ask myself if I were a batshit crazy person or if I were a normal person, is this something I could see to be true from my perspective in life?
And I'm like, oh, yeah, I could see how people would think those things. And I just don't vehemently disagree with anybody anymore. What if they're right?
Well, some things are definitely not right. But like plenty of other, you know, I would say like the commentary about me is typically very. Like irrational like the ones that I've seen the stuff that people say where it's like, oh, I just disagree You're dumb about this.
Are you stupid? I don't even it's not even it doesn't hit my radar You know what? I mean, I think it's got to be something like pretty like conspiracy theory at this point to like catch my attention I don't even see it for me rejecting the opinion of others is what's allowed me to make controversial decisions that were maybe difficult or unpopular or whatever, but allowed us to move forward towards our goals and similarly but for you is that you had a an expectation of self to be perfect but it's perfect in whose eyes in your own eyes or other people's mine right so that to me that was interesting it's like which was disregarding other people's opinion you're disregarding your own expectations of self i don't know i think my dad like i grew up and it was just like you just have to be the best version of yourself and i like took that to the extreme which was like you have to be the perfect version of yourself And then I realized that in doing that, I was just miserable most of the time.
I mean, I can think of like a few years that we were married where I just like feel like I was like, I didn't even know I was miserable, but I was because I was just like, all I did all day was try to be perfect. And by consequence, just like a shell of a person in the sense of like, I didn't enjoy anything. I was never in the moment.
Nothing. I mean, some things, yeah.
But like, it was just, yeah, it is interesting. I just feel like you cannot get. to the top of anything if you take yourself too seriously, whether that's like because of what other people say about you or because of what you think about yourself.
Like I don't take myself nearly as seriously anymore. I think one thing that I leaned into a lot was like, yeah, I suck and I'm bad at a lot of things. And so like when something happens and people public that you were really bad, I'm like, yeah, my whole team knows that.
Yeah, we'll see how that cooks out. I'm curious if our child will come out good at math or like a little math whiz or. He'll be good at math.
You think? Yes. Why?
We have AI now. So should it not think?
I mean, why do you think I'm bad at it? No, I'm kidding. No, I think that...
I feel like I use it less now. I think you had mediocre education. Well, to be fair, I got punished all the time because my dad taught me how to do math.
He was a professor of mechanical engineering. He would teach me how to do it in ways that took way less time. And I would get like a C or a D on my test because they said all the work is wrong.
Your answers are right, but the work is wrong. And I was like, why? Who fucking cares?
We're going to have calculators anyways. And I remember thinking like, I don't, this is so fucking stupid. Like I thought school was so stupid in that sense.
My dad, I remember literally like I had class chemistry and I was like, this has, and I literally sat down and thought of everything that I've ever thought about what I want to do in life. And I was like, I will never use this at any point in time. And then I was like, what do I have to get to pass the class?
A C? Okay, fuck it. I'll get a C.
Thought like my GPA would still be like a three point. I don't remember what it was when I graduated because I didn't give a fuck. I was like, I didn't think college had a point for me.
Well, it ended up being true for you. That's true. Yeah.
Do you ever look back and think about yourself when you were sleeping on the gym floor and think, what would you say to that person now? Knowing everything you know now and you look back at that. I've actually given lots of thought to this.
Really? Yeah. What would you say?
Nothing.
It worked out. Last thing I want to do is change his behavior. It fucking worked.
If I went back in time, because I imagine if future me comes back here and is talking to me, and he says nothing, I'll know it worked. Because he doesn't want to change anything. That's good.
Whose books are those?
Oh, have you been reading them? Have you been reading them? Can people purchase them?
Yes, they're also available for free. Wow, for free? Where?
Acquisition .com. Oh, that's cool. I like it.
Great. We're done.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
The cold open is a highlight reel: a second-date job offer, then the question that actually anchors the hour. What did success cost? "The approval of other people." Everything between is a wife pulling the origin story out of a husband who usually gets asked only about offers and acquisitions.
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Two live coaching calls and a rapid-fire Instagram Q&A on accountability, call funnels, delegation and hiring, with one co-host heckling from the couch.
A 17-minute field guide from someone who has run the experiment thousands of times — five tactics that teach people how to treat you without you ever having to ask.
A straight-to-camera Q&A where Anthony Pompliano explains why he runs 14 companies with no assistant, refuses to be well-rounded, and treats AI and people as interchangeable help.
Alex Hormozi sits across a table from Jack Neel and reverse-engineers the fastest path from zero to $100K — plus parenting, AI leverage, and why most people never even start.
Dan Martell walks through the chief-of-staff bot he uses to spin up inbox, people, travel, family, finance, sales and team bots, each from a single plain-English prompt.
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