From Bumble to $100M Business

Summary

• When I first connected with Alex on Bumble, I appreciated his quick action to move from messaging to a phone call. It taught me the value of decisiveness in relationships.
• During our expedited first phone date, Alex's idea of a quick 20-minute call to get to know each other better resonated with me. It's a creative approach that proved to be efficient.
• Our first in-person meeting was at a froyo shop, and despite a rocky first impression due to a misunderstanding about my tattoo, the date improved quickly. It's essential not to jump to conclusions too early about someone.
• We realized we had much in common, such as our interest in business and fitness, and our Persian heritage. Shared passions can be a strong foundation for a relationship.
• Trust and spontaneity were demonstrated when Alex invited me to grocery shop with him and called later that night to continue our conversation. Showing genuine interest is key in building a connection.
• Alex offering me a job on the third date was unexpected, but it taught me to be open to unconventional opportunities.
• Starting Gym Launch Secrets with Alex showed me the importance of taking chances on new ventures, especially when they align with your interests and skill set.
• Our first major business hurdle was almost going bankrupt due to a shut down merchant account. Resourcefulness and calm in crisis are vital for survival in the business.
• The transition from running gym launches to a more scalable model of teaching gym owners was a pivotal moment. Being adaptable is crucial when an original business model faces challenges.
• Starting to charge for our training showed me the importance of valuing your expertise and the willingness to pivot can reveal profitable opportunities.
• As our business grew rapidly, Alex and I had to consider how our personal relationship would fit into our professional lives. Open communication and shared goals can help align personal and business relationships.
• Our decision to get married was practical and based on mutual understanding, which highlights the value of practicality and agreement in major life choices.
• We eloped to avoid complications and because we knew our lives were unconventional. Sometimes following your instincts leads to the best decisions, despite what others may think.

Video

How To Take Action

A good way to start implementing the insights from this story is to embrace decisiveness. If you're an entrepreneur or interested in personal growth, make quick decisions to move things forward. For instance, if you connect with someone, propose a short phone call instead of long messaging. It's efficient and helps you get to know the other person quickly.

Next, focus on building connections by finding common ground. If you're a small business owner, look for clients or partners with shared interests or backgrounds. This could be a strong foundation for a lasting relationship.

When opportunities come, like a job offer from a new acquaintance or an unconventional project, keep an open mind. Be ready to take a chance, especially if it aligns with your passions and talents.

In business, always be prepared to face challenges with calmness and resourcefulness. If you hit a financial snag like a shut down merchant account, don't panic. Look for solutions and be ready to float costs temporarily if needed.

If you're teaching or consulting, remember to value your expertise. Don't be afraid to charge for your services. This can open up more profitable opportunities, just like transitioning from running gym launches to teaching gym owners did in the story.

Always communicate openly, especially when blending personal and professional lives. This could mean aligning with your partner's goals or deciding on a mutual direction for your business.

Finally, trust your instincts. If something unconventional like eloping feels right, it might be the best decision for you. Your life is unique, so are the choices that will work for you.

Quotes by Leila Hormozi

"I like a guy who takes action"

– Leila Hormozi

"It's a good amount of money, really good experience, it's really interesting to me"

– Leila Hormozi

"We can't fire these people like we can't like they've got bills to pay, they've one, two of them have new babies like it sucks"

– Leila Hormozi

"We're like running a real actual like substantial business together now"

– Leila Hormozi

"I knew really deep down that it would work out"

– Leila Hormozi

Full Transcript

so alex and i met on bumble because i've been on tinder and i hated it and so i got on bumble where the girl had to message the guy first i messaged him i don't remember what i said honestly but then i know he immediately messaged me back and was like let's get on the phone and i was like i like it because i like a guy who takes action we don't have to do this back and forth on the app i hate this i'm too busy he called me and he was like let's basically have an expedited first date and i was like what he said yeah let's do 20 minute phone call i can just ask you all the same questions i would normally ask on a first date so then by the time on the first date we already like kind of know each other and it's not gonna be awkward and i was like i mean i'm down for it we talked for like 20 minutes i thought it was really interesting and they said do you want to meet me for froyo tomorrow and i said sure what time you know five o'clock okay and i got there first and then i remember he walked up and he wasn't smiling he was actually like super like i was like oh what i found out later that he saw my tattoo on my back and was like oh no basically judging me for the tattoo which i hate and i got when i was like 18 and not sober then we proceeded to go in we're standing in line for froyo he's still not smiling i'm like i'm grinning i'm like hi i'm layla you know how's it going you know i think he's cute you know and and i'm like i don't know why he seems kind of cranky so we get ice cream and go outside we start eating and he like downs his ice cream then i remember just like within two minutes he was like super nice and i was like oh i think he was just hungry i want to say like 15 minutes into having the froyo we just like really hit it off like it started like flowing really well we had a really good drive and so then he's like do you want to go on a walk so we ended up walking like four hours and we had so much in common because we both really liked business we also both really liked fitness and i found out that we were both persian uh both of our dads were from iran then he actually had a dinner with two of his friends planned for that night that he was barbecuing and i thought it was bs another date but they called him and he had it on speaker so i knew it was true and he had to go pick up like stuff to grill and i remember i was like all right cool like go have fun at your dinner and like we'll talk later i got in my car and i like called my roommate to tell her how the date went and then like there was a knock on my window and i looked and it was him he's like do you want to go grocery shopping with me like it's another like extra 20 minutes we can get together and i was like sure and i thought it was really sweet right i was like that's cute and then that night i was like oh i'm sure we'll talk tomorrow and then i get a phone call at like you know 10 30 at night he's like i just figured we could talk on the phone for a little bit longer and we stayed up till like 2 a.m talking i just thought he was so interesting like we had such similar ways in which we viewed the world things that we were interested in and that was our first date and then after that we had our second date and our third date and he kind of said on the third date he's like you know regardless if we keep dating he's like you know because i don't know what you're looking for and i just got out of a long relationship he's like you should work for me and i was like what we kind of just kept dating and then a few weeks in he i came back to his apartment and there was literally like on his glass table in this condo in california there's this huge book and i opened it up and it was a new llc gym launch secrets and he had formed it oh you're serious like you're starting a company and he's like yeah are you gonna do it with me and i was like we ended up talking it through and i was like well i you know it's a good amount of money really good experience it's really interesting to me it was exciting honestly it was super exciting i let go of all my clients and everything i was doing i flew out to baltimore and we did our first gym launch together basically what we would do is fill a gym by doing marketing for the gym and then selling for the gym and so we were both doing it for one gym so i had a little table in the gym heated a little table in the gym we would each have sales appointments all day and then we're doing the marketing and the billing at night what ended up going south was we were running all the payments out of a gym merchant account and then we started charging people in all different locations and online and so it's like hey you have this merchant account that's for a gym in california now i'm getting payments from new york new jersey canada so this merchant flagged us actually end up shutting us down meaning we can't collect money but we didn't know what to do because we have six sales guys like on site and so alex and i didn't tell anyone and we just said we're gonna have to float it until we can figure out how to collect money and it got us down to like a thousand dollars i think eleven hundred it was so terrible but we're like dude we can't fire these people like we can't like they've got bills to pay they've one two of them have new babies like it sucks and so just in like the nick of time for the next month we were able to get a merch account off that would process fifty thousand dollars by coincidence it can only process fifty thousand one month and it was the end of the month that we got it so we processed it one day and then the next day was the next month and we processed another fifty thousand dollars so we had enough to like pay our living expense and then pay all the guys and so we were like oh we think we're out of the woods we're like all right well this business is like making a lot of revenue but it's like no profit right there's so much overhead with like flights hotels like marketing all this crap and it was super chaotic one day i opened the bank account and because i'm doing something reconciling something and all of a sudden i look and there's like minus 500 minus 500 minus 500 and i was like why is all this money going out and then i get a phone call so i answer and she's like layla she's like matt just stood up on a chair and said hey refund layla and go home and i was like what and then i end up calling him he wouldn't answer they called him he answers he's basically like you've put too many people in my gym i can't handle this it's i need to the trainers can't do it blah blah i'm sending them home and so that was like a gym that had launched and done like sixty thousand dollars and all of a sudden minus sixty thousand dollars start coming in our bank account another gym comes through and i see more minus five hundred miles five hundred miles so what they started doing was like we would go sell people into their gym and they're like huh i could just tell these people to refund them and then i'll say hey pay me half of what you paid them and then i get all the money and i was like oh my god and alex like do we need to change the business model like this we can't keep up with this and i was like yeah we can't keep doing this because what if another gym does this so alex goes and he like calls the guys that have the gyms we're supposed to go to that next month and he's gonna tell them like hey we can't do this anymore the first guy he gets on the phone with his name is chris chris is like dude he's like you can't leave me hanging he's like i'm gonna like close my gym if you don't do this for me he's like well what would i pay you to just you tell me what to do and alex like eight grand done you hang up the phone he's like holy then we're like call everyone else like tell them you know but if anyone wants it sure yeah we can i guess teach them how to do it calls the next gym same conversation 10 grand calls next gym 10 grand next time 10 grand the end of the day we made 48 thousand dollars selling the thing that like within the the last year and a half we hadn't made that much profit and we were like holy crap like we've been doing this wrong the whole time that next day like i start building out like a facebook group and customer support stuff and alex is like building out the course and like the logins and all this stuff and that monday gave everyone their logins to the course and then we just like waited to see what happens we're like here's how you do everything and all of a sudden within like six five to six days testimonials start coming in it was like made thirty thousand forty thousand fifty that and we were like oh my god it works without running any ads we got like 30 people that contacted me and were like i need this thing that you just sold my friend and so i'm getting on the phone i'm just selling and alex like charge 10 grand whatever right i don't even have a way to charge this point we looked at each other and it started really like gaining momentum like at this point i think we started onboarding like 25 gyms 30 gyms a week and then we'd raise the price to 16 grand within a couple months you know we looked at each other and we were like we're like dating we're like running a real actual like substantial business together now and i remember like alex like really like getting married and i was like i don't know he was like yeah i don't know i don't know either we had a couple mentors at the time like what do you guys think they're like well i mean everything makes sense that you guys would be getting married we're like huh it was really interesting because it was like the entire story of us up to that point was just like we were dating but like the main focus was the business right and so at that point we took like two weeks to figure out like should we get married his proposal was hey i think we should get married what do you think and i was like yeah that makes sense then we went and we were like we should probably like go get a ring now then huh because i didn't have a ring and so we went to the store and it's funny we both like the exact same ring and we got that and then we're like i feel like if we wait too long to get like freaked out right we're like yeah we'll definitely get freaked out and we're like we should just like not tell anyone just go like do it this week we're like yeah let's do that because you know we're like we understand how chaotic our lives are at that point we're like dude this has been a crazy year if we tell our family that we're getting married they're gonna be like you guys need to like settle for a second but i like knew really deep down that it would work out like i was like i think we should do this for sure we called up the pastor at the local church we're like you got time wednesday and he was like sure meet me in the back of the church and that's when we got married and that was literally how it happened [Music] you