Introduction

In this section, Hala Taha introduces Alex Hormozi and expresses her excitement to have him on the show. She also gives a brief overview of his background and accomplishments.

Introducing Alex Hormozi

• Hala Taha welcomes Alex Hormozi to the Young and Profiting Podcast.

• Jason, Hala's producer, introduced her to Alex about a year ago.

• Alex is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist who has scaled and exited seven companies.

• He is the author of "100 Million Dollar Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No" and hosts the podcast "The Game."

Background

In this section, Hala Taha provides more details about Alex Hormozi's background.

From Brick-and-Mortar Gyms to Jim Launch

• Alex started his entrepreneurial journey running brick-and-mortar gyms.

• After taking advice from Russell Brunson, he sold those gyms and licensed his business model to start Jim Launch.

• Jim Launch scaled to over 4,000 locations in four years.

Scaling Multiple Companies

• During the same time period as Jim Launch, Alex bootstrapped and grew three other companies with his wife Lela Hermo.

• Together they grew these companies to $120 million in sales across four different industries.

MOS Launched Acquisition.com

• In 2020, MOS launched acquisition.com with a mission to help promising internet companies scale with their sales and marketing expertise.

• Their portfolio currently makes over $100 million per year.

Interview Overview

In this section, Hala Taha outlines what will be covered in part one of her interview with Alex Hormozi.

Part One Topics

• Part one of the interview will cover Alex's come-up story, his philosophy on life, marriage, and money.

• It will also touch on some tactical sales and marketing advice.

Upbringing

In this section, Hala Taha asks Alex Hormozi about his upbringing.

Middle Eastern Father

• Alex had a Middle Eastern father who emphasized doing well in school as the path to success.

• There wasn't really an option of not trying hard at school.

Quiet Kid

• Alex was a pretty quiet kid growing up.

• He didn't see his mother very much.

Growing Up and Challenging Paradigms

In this section, the speaker talks about his upbringing and how he challenged the original paradigm that was laid out for him.

Quiet Childhood

• The speaker grew up in a mostly quiet household.

High School Years

• During high school, the speaker was more of a lone wolf and not particularly close with anyone.

• He is still in touch with one guy semi-regularly from high school.

College Years

• The speaker went to Vanderbilt because he did well in school.

• Vanderbilt allowed him to be himself more as he needed to get out of the house.

Challenging Paradigms

• After graduating college and working for two years in consulting, the speaker became very sad and depressed.

• He realized that he was following a path that wasn't his own but someone else's plan.

• He had to die to his father's viewpoint of success in order to live for himself.

Overcoming Challenges in Pursuit of Success

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about his struggles with pursuing a career in fitness and how he overcame them.

Trying to Quit

• Alex had tried multiple times before to quit pursuing a career in fitness.

• He was unhappy and didn't want to continue.

• However, his mentor encouraged him to keep going and reminded him that it would be worth it in the end.

Starting His Own Business

• After deciding to continue pursuing fitness, Alex started his own business.

• He was shocked by how difficult it was at first, including sleeping on the floor at his first gym.

• Despite the challenges, he persevered.

Feeling Alone

• Alex felt very lonely during this time because he didn't know anyone in California where he was starting his business.

• He slept underneath a warehouse where homeless people would break bottles at all hours of the night.

• Cars would drive by frequently as well.

Becoming an Apprentice

In this section, Alex discusses becoming an apprentice for a successful gym owner and learning from him.

Seeking Out Experts

• Alex emailed 40 gym owners seeking advice and guidance on how to succeed in the industry.

• Only one person responded - Seven Figure Sam - who had a seven-figure gym.

Working for Free

• Although Alex didn't have a gym of his own yet, Seven Figure Sam offered him an opportunity to work for him as an employee even though Alex paid him for a mastermind group membership.

• During this time, Alex learned everything he could from Seven Figure Sam by following him around the gym all day long.

Crash Course in Business Ownership

• For 12 weeks, Alex worked with Seven Figure Sam for 12 hours a day, learning everything he could about running a successful gym.

• This was a crash course in business ownership and helped Alex gain the knowledge and skills he needed to succeed.

Learning Marketing and Making the Jump

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about his experience learning marketing and making the jump from management consulting to starting his own gym.

Learning Marketing

• Alex learned about marketing constructs rather than tactics.

• He didn't know what email marketing, affiliate marketing, landing pages, ads or sales were.

• After attending a workshop on Facebook marketing in 2013, he convinced Sam to invest $1000 in testing it out. They made $6000 and split the profit.

Starting His Own Gym

• Alex had no idea what he was doing when he signed up his first gym member.

• He eventually found an old warehouse in Huntington Beach where he started his first gym.

• Hala Taha shares her own experience of leaving a good job to start her own company.

Giving Up Good for Great

• Hala asks Alex about why it's okay to leave something good for something better.

• The hardest decisions in life are giving up good for great.

• It can be difficult because someone else's great may be your good.

Continually Trading Up Dreams

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about how people should continually trade up their dreams as they realize what they can do. He also discusses how most people are security-driven and don't achieve big things.

Trading Up Dreams

• People should continually trade up their dreams as they realize what they can do.

• Dreams now are significantly bigger than they were 10 years ago, and it's scary to trade what you have now.

• Most people are security-driven and don't achieve big things.

Only Need to Be Right Once

• People confirm their bias rather than thinking that if they try something a hundred times, they only need one time to be successful.

• The biggest cost is time against expectations that we have for ourselves or adopt from other people.

• If someone fails for ten straight years and then on the eleventh year makes a $2 million a year business, they are further along than the person who made $100,000 a year during that entire period of time.

Goals Measured on Too Short of an Interval

• People measure outcomes on too short of an interval, which prevents them from achieving their goals because they can't see success anyway.

• You can't make a billion dollars in a year; anyone can do it if you extend it over ten years.

Nihilism Philosophy

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about nihilism philosophy and how it enables him to take on his dreams without worrying about what other people think.

What is Nihilism?

• Nihilism means that you don't believe that something has inherent meaning.

• It is liberating because it means that we are devoid of circumstance.

Nihilism and Dreams

• Nihilism enables Alex Hormozi to take on his dreams without worrying about what other people think.

The Meaning of Life

In this section, Alex Hormozi discusses his belief that things do not have inherent meaning and that we choose the meaning things have. He explains how this belief has been liberating for him in terms of how he approaches business and other aspects of life.

Choosing the Meaning of Things

• Alex believes that things do not have inherent meaning.

• He thinks that we choose the meaning things have.

• This means that he does not inherit the meaning that others give to things, but rather ascribes his own meaning to them.

• From a behavioral standpoint, changing the meaning of circumstances is all that happens.

Liberating Belief

• Alex's belief has been liberating for him in terms of how he can approach business and other aspects of life.

• He can ascribe timelines to success and see marriage differently because he chooses the meanings associated with these things.

The Insignificance of Death

In this section, Alex talks about how thinking about death can help motivate people to accomplish their dreams. He also discusses how realizing the insignificance of death can help people let go of stress and problems.

Motivation from Death

• Thinking about death can help motivate people to accomplish their dreams.

Letting Go of Stress and Problems

• Realizing the insignificance of death can help people let go of stress and problems.

• Many beliefs are made up projections or judgments that aren't real, which makes it hard to unlearn them.

Leaving a Legacy

In this section, the speaker talks about how people want to leave a legacy and how he sees it as liberating. He also discusses the eventual end of the world due to the sun getting too big.

• The speaker mentions that people often talk about wanting to leave a legacy.

• He questions why people want to leave a legacy and sees it as unnecessary.

• The speaker believes that material needs are taken care of, and everything we do is just a stimulus for us to stay busy.

• He sees the eventual end of the world as liberating rather than dark, but many people don't want to confront it.

Starting a Gym Business

In this section, the speaker talks about his experience starting his first gym business.

Opening His First Gym

• The speaker was supposed to open his first gym with a partner who couldn't come up with the money at the last minute. As a result, he had to take on the whole thing himself despite not being financially prepared for it.

• He opened his gym with only $5,000 in savings and no customers in an area he didn't know well. The lease was $5,000 per month.

Attending A Marketing Workshop

• The speaker's advisor recommended attending a marketing workshop where they learned about Facebook ads in 2013. This turned out to be extremely lucky for him since there was high gym density in Huntington Beach compared to where his advisor was located.

Starting a Business and Scaling it Up

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about his experience starting a gym business and scaling it up to six locations. He shares insights on how he learned about Facebook marketing, hired employees, and opened new locations every six months.

Learning About Facebook Marketing

• Attended a workshop where he learned about Facebook marketing

• Used this knowledge to sell his first 27 customers which paid for the first month's rent

• Added $5,000 per month in revenue for the next 7-9 months

Hiring Employees and Scaling Up

• Learned that he could hire people to help with billing and leads

• Hired a manager by month 9 or 10

• Opened a fully outfitted facility by month 15

• Opened a new location every six months after that

• Was able to open each location at full capacity on the first day due to improved marketing and sales skills

Reaching Success and Moving On

• Had six locations by year three with top line revenue of $600k at his biggest location

• Went to another marketing conference where he learned about internet marketing from Russell Brunson

• Became interested in internet marketing but was not allowed to pitch at the conference

Starting a Gym Business

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about how he got started in the gym business and his experience with a mastermind group led by Russell Brunson.

Applying for Mastermind Group

• Alex stumbled upon Russell Brunson's name and applied to be part of his mastermind group.

• He paid to join the group and was the only brick-and-mortar business owner in the room.

• During the meeting, Alex shared his strategy for opening profitable gyms without putting any money down.

• Russell told him that he shouldn't be running gyms because he had a level 10 skill set but only a level two opportunity.

Teaching Others

• After taking Russell's advice, Alex started teaching others how to do what he did by doing gym turnarounds.

• He would fly out and launch other people's gyms, filling them up within 30 days.

• This allowed him to make about $100k every 20 days on his own with no employees.

• Through this process, Alex became very good at sales and learned many valuable lessons from having so many transactional sales over time.

Sales Experience and Learning on the Job

In this section, Hala Taha asks Alex Hormozi about his sales experience and how he learned to sell.

Learning Sales on the Job

• Alex agrees that sales is an important skill for young professionals.

• He did not consume any books or training programs to learn sales.

• The first time he bought a sales training program was when he had a team of sales guys.

Developing Persuasion Skills

• Alex believes that marketing and sales are really just persuasion skills.

• He developed his own conversation style to get people to say yes.

Meeting Layla

In this section, Hala Taha asks Alex Hormozi about meeting Layla.

• Hala asks if it was around the time he met Layla.

• Alex confirms that it was within one month of him joining Russell's thing.

Sponsorship Message: Savio Coding Bootcamp

This section contains a sponsorship message for Savio coding bootcamp.

• Hala introduces Savio as a great path for those looking for a career in tech.

• There is currently a huge need for software engineers in today's job market.

• The bootcamp gives real-life experience and helps graduates find jobs.

• Some alumni work at companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Act.

• Savio has been voted the best coding bootcamp by Course Report five years in a row.

• Young and Profiting YouTube watchers can save $125 on their total bootcamp cost by visiting sao.la/ya.

Unconventional Views on Marriage

In this section, Hala Taha asks Alex Hormozi about his views on marriage.

• There are no bullet points for this section as it is cut off.

Encouraging Dreams

In this section, the speaker talks about how his partner encouraged his dreams and participated in them. He also discusses how entrepreneurs often make compromises in their relationships.

Partner's Support

• The speaker's partner not only wanted to encourage his dreams but also participated in them.

• From the day they met, they worked together all day.

• Their relationship has remained largely unchanged from the beginning.

Compromises in Relationships

• Entrepreneurs often make compromises in their relationships.

• The speaker would have resented someone who made him do things he didn't want to do or asked him to do things he didn't want to do.

Fast Changing Behavior

In this section, the speaker talks about how his partner was able to change her behavior quickly and adapt easily.

Speed of Learning

• Intelligence is speed of learning, which is speed of behavior change.

• The speaker's partner is incredibly intelligent because her ability to change behavior is insane.

Adaptability

• The speaker's partner has been a successful CEO because she is adaptable.

Conclusion

In this section, the speaker concludes by saying that there are many ways to have marriages and what worked for him may not work for others.

Marriage Advice

• There are many ways to have marriages and what worked for one person may not work for another.

Atypical Marriage

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about his atypical marriage and how it works for him.

Working All the Time

• Alex likes working all the time.

• He wanted someone who would work all the time with him to avoid drifting apart.

• They enjoy being strangers to each other.

Respect vs. Chemistry

• Their relationship was based on respect rather than chemistry.

• They were just buddies who liked doing things together.

Getting Married

• Employees raised concerns about what would happen if they broke up since they weren't married yet.

• They got married to address these concerns and didn't take any time off work for a wedding or honeymoon.

• This worked for them as a power couple with a business together.

Pros and Cons of Marrying Your Business Partner

In this section, Alex Hormozi discusses the pros and cons of marrying your business partner.

Low Divorce Rate

• Couples who have businesses together that are married only have a 10% divorce rate.

Pros of Marrying Your Business Partner

• You can trust each other completely.

• You can share in each other's successes and failures.

Cons of Marrying Your Business Partner

• It can be difficult to separate work and personal life.

• You may have different visions for the business.

Filling in Weaknesses

• Layla fills in Alex's weaknesses, and they complement each other well.

• They are similar but help each other accomplish different goals.

Conclusion

In this section, Alex Hormozi concludes his discussion on marriage and business partnerships.

• Marrying your business partner can work if you have respect, trust, and complementary skills.

• It's important to communicate openly and set boundaries between work and personal life.

• Ultimately, it comes down to what works for you as a couple and as entrepreneurs.

Marrying Your Business Partner

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about his experience of marrying his business partner and how it worked out for them.

Marriage and Business Partnership

• Alex recommends marrying your business partner.

• He does not recommend trying to make your spouse your business partner.

• Alex and his wife were already business partners before they got married.

Running a Business with Your Spouse

• Even if they got divorced, Alex and his wife would still run the business together.

• They both work hard to ensure that neither gets a free ride or special treatment because they are married.

• His wife is the CEO of their companies because she is the best at it.

Choosing the Right Partner

• People should not try to change their spouses into something they are not.

• People use the wrong assessment to judge whether or not they will have a good long-term relationship.

• Mission, values, lifestyle, and complimentary skill sets are important factors in choosing the right partner.

Complimentary Skill Sets

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about how he and his wife have complimentary skill sets that help them run their businesses successfully.

Shared Values

• Mission, values, lifestyle should be aligned for maximum fun in a relationship.

Complimentary Skill Sets

• Alex's wife has strengths where he is weak which makes them complementary.

• If they did the exact same thing, one of them wouldn't be necessary.

• Alex and his wife have gravitated towards their respective roles in the business based on their strengths.

Conclusion

In this section, Alex Hormozi concludes by talking about how important it is to choose the right partner for a successful long-term relationship.

Choosing the Right Partner

• Marriage should be with someone who will support your long-term goals and vice versa.

• Shared values and complimentary skill sets are important factors in choosing the right partner.

• Choosing the wrong partner can lead to trouble.

Meeting and Partnering with His Wife

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about how he met his wife and how they started working together.

Meeting His Wife

• Alex's wife was interested in becoming an operator, so she consumed a lot of books, courses, podcasts, masterminds, and workshops related to business.

• They would download at the end of each day by going for a walk and discussing their meetings.

• Alex believes that both partners need to have equal power in order for the partnership to work well.

Partnering with His Wife

• It is rare for both partners to be equally yoked when it comes to entrepreneurship.

• Alex met his wife on Bumble and they talked about business during their first date.

• After launching three gyms successfully, Alex convinced his wife to join him in starting Gym Launch together.

Leaving Money on the Table

In this section, the speaker talks about how it's okay to leave money on the table and not chase after small amounts of money that could potentially ruin bigger opportunities.

Importance of Focusing on Big Opportunities

• It's important to focus on big opportunities instead of chasing after small amounts of money.

• Chasing after small amounts of money can lead to missing out on bigger opportunities.

Personal Experience with Bad Business Deal

• The speaker had a bad business deal where he fronted all the money for a gym location and was supposed to split profits 50/50 with his partner.

• His partner accused him of stealing and took all the money out of their account, causing the speaker to lose everything he had invested in the gym.

Doing Right by Everyone

• The speaker's coach advised him to do right by everyone during his financial struggles.

• He refunded every client who wanted a refund and paid all employees what they were owed, allowing him to walk away from the situation unscathed.

Losing Everything

In this section, the speaker talks about losing everything due to his bad business deal and having to start over again.

Draining Savings

• After losing everything in his bad business deal, the speaker only had savings left but couldn't sell anything because he didn't want to keep his gym open without his partner running it.

• This caused his savings to be drained quickly due to payroll and rent expenses.

Starting Over Again

• After losing everything, the speaker started doing launches again with Layla leading one that made him $100k.

• He used this money to pay off debts and refunds from his previous gym venture.

Recapitalizing

In this section, the speaker talks about recapitalizing after losing everything and doing another launch.

Doing Another Launch

• The speaker did another launch to recapitalize himself after losing everything.

• He expected to make $100k on the launch like he had in the past.

Unexpected Baby on the Way

• A man reached out to the speaker saying he had a baby on the way and happened to be in the neighborhood of the gym they were launching.

• The man ended up crushing it, but deposits weren't coming through as expected.

Financial Struggles and Hiring an Attention Coach

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about his financial struggles and how he lost all his money. He also mentions hiring an attention coach to help him focus on making decisions.

Financial Struggles

• After 10 days of not receiving a deposit, Alex called his payment processor to inquire about the delay.

• The payment processor informed Alex that they were holding his money for six months due to irregular activity.

• Alex had been processing money from all over the nation through what used to be his brick and mortar gym's processor, which seemed irregular to the payment processor.

• As a result, all of Alex's money was held by the payment processor, leaving him with nothing.

Hiring an Attention Coach

• Alex hired an attention coach who helped him untangle loose attention and focus on making decisions.

• Prior to hiring the coach, Alex was spread too thin with multiple businesses and clients in different industries.

• The coach pointed out that Alex was avoiding hard conversations with partners instead of confronting them directly.

Insecurity and Partnership

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about his experience with partnerships and how he learned to focus on what matters.

Insecurity and Partnership

• Alex felt insecure about doing things on his own, so he partnered with people.

• He made partnerships that he knew he would eventually resent the person because it was not a long-term partnership.

• He learned that short-term partnerships are not worth it because they will blow up in your face and be really ugly.

• Being on the receiving end of a bad partnership, Alex decided not to do this to anyone.

Learning to Focus

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about how he learned to focus by breaking everything down to nothing and then rebuilding with the few things that mattered.

Learning to Focus

• Every day, someone asked him what his attention was on.

• He broke everything down until there was basically nothing left.

• It has been hard for him to focus despite his proclivity for wanting to do more things.

Scalable Opportunities

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about why licensing a business model is a scalable opportunity for new entrepreneurs out there.

Scalable Opportunities

• Licensing a business model has faster scale than trying to do it one by one.

• It makes more sense to own all the businesses in some cases.

• Alex's operational skill set at that point wouldn't have been able to scale a business with limited leverage.

• Media, software, and capital have leverage, while labor or services require operating people.

Switching from Brick and Mortar to Licensing

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about how he switched from brick and mortar operations to licensing, which allowed him to scale his business much faster.

Licensing Business Model

• Given his skill set at the time, Alex switched from brick and mortar operations to licensing.

• He was able to help 4,000 gyms make an extra $100k a year in profit and take a percentage of that profit (25-30%).

• The licensing business has value as long as future revenue is stable and predictable.

• By switching to licensing, Alex was able to have a far more high leverage backend which made up for the fact that he was not as good at operating it.

Advantages of Brick and Mortar Operations

• Locations are almost like customers that deliver income consistently.

• Every time you open a location, you can bank on the fact that they're going to deliver income.

• It's a scalable business model because capital can be reallocated.

Franchising vs. Licensing

• Franchising contracts are more ironclad than licensing contracts.

• There's a lot of law that protects franchisors for 10 years.

• Licensing contracts are less protected by law.

Starting Acquisition.com

In this section, Alex Hormozi talks about how he started Acquisition.com.

Starting Acquisition.com

• Acquisition.com started in 2021.

• The first company they took on was in June of 2020.

• Between the three businesses they took on, they added over $100 million a year in total revenue.

• Once they had a workable model, they decided to take all their knowledge of scaling companies and do more of it.

Exiting Companies to Focus on Acquisition

In this section, the speaker talks about how he exited companies to focus full time on acquisition. He also discusses his experience of waiting for things to happen in a business.

Exiting Companies

• The speaker exited companies so that he could focus full time on acquisition.

• The speaker started making content in 2021 because he had extra time and people seemed to like it.

• Everything really took off in 2022 when they brought in a team and editors.

Waiting for Things to Happen

• In some businesses, there is not much to do, and you just have to sit there and wait.

• The speaker had to sit and wait while working with acquisi.com and other companies on the side.