How to REPLACE YOURSELF in your job/business
Summary
- I used to think I couldn’t be replaced and felt like a unicorn, but I learned it is possible to replace myself; it just might take multiple people.
- It's common to assume that if one attempt at replacement fails, none will work, but that's not true—we often need to try more than once.
- Expecting a new hire to be a perfect fit without training is unrealistic. Onboarding and training are crucial parts of delegation and hiring.
- It's unfair to expect new people to never make mistakes when even I have made countless errors in my business.
- Hiring multiple competent individuals, rather than seeking one person to do it all, can be a more effective strategy when replacing yourself.
- Attracting top talent is easier with a positive reputation and brand; newer businesses should focus on finding good fits for specific roles rather than searching for a single "unicorn."
- Replacing yourself takes patience. It can take months or years for someone to fully adapt to a role, so it's important to invest in their growth and be prepared for their mistakes.
Video
How To Take Action
I would suggest breaking down your role into smaller tasks. Write out what you do and think if you need just one person or maybe a few good people to help. It's like thinking the work done by a unicorn could be done just as well by a team of horses, each strong in their own way.
Next step: don't give up if the first person you hire doesn't work out. It's like a puzzle; sometimes you try a piece, and it doesn't fit. Don't throw away the puzzle. Just look for another piece. Remember, it's not fair to think someone will be perfect right away. Even you weren't perfect when you started. Give people time to learn and make mistakes.
If you want to find people who can shine in their roles, don't look for a 'unicorn'. Instead, look for people who are good at specific things. Like, if you need help with marketing, find someone who loves marketing and is good at it, instead of someone who can do marketing, sales, accounting, and more.
To attract good people to your business, make your business shine. Build a good reputation and treat people right. This can help a lot, even if you're new.
Finally, be patient. Growing a business or getting better at something takes time. It's like planting a seed. You water it, give it sunshine, and one day you see a sprout. It's the same with people. Give them what they need to grow. Stick with it, and both you and your people will see the fruits of your patience.
Quotes by Leila Hormozi
"I am able to be replaced, it just doesn't look like what a lot of people think it actually looks like"
– Leila Hormozi
"The business cannot just stay the same, but it has to be able to grow with this person in that position"
– Leila Hormozi
"Sometimes, especially with hard roles, you're gonna have to try more than once"
– Leila Hormozi
"We can't expect people to be perfect when we are not perfect"
– Leila Hormozi
"You have to bear the cost of their mistakes, understand they're not going to be perfect"
– Leila Hormozi
Full Transcript
replace myself nobody else can do it like me this is something a lot of people say whether it's a CEO that's trying to create a passive business and they need to get out of the day-to-day a manager trying to go to their team or if you honestly just feel incredibly overwhelmed and you haven't been able to figure out how to replace yourself then listen up because I'm going to break down how I used to feel when I used to think that I couldn't replace myself and how I've gotten over that and get people to not just run a business on my behalf but grow it I thought that I was like a unicorn nobody could replace me nobody could do it like me I used to have all the same thoughts and beliefs that a lot of people that are first-time business owners tend to have I am able to be replaced it just doesn't look like what a lot of people think it actually looks like the first thing I want to tackle is that belief that you can't replace yourself because what happens a lot of time people believe I can't replace myself that's the belief that they have or let's call an assumption because the belief is just an untested assumptions you don't try to replace yourself because you don't believe you can because it's all driven by this underlying assumption that nobody can do it as well as you I basically had like two failed attempts at replacing myself in gym launch I brought in two different people within this time span of about 18 months and tried to get them to replace me in terms of what I do to run the business it quote didn't work success metrics were not going it up and the team and the morale and the culture wasn't getting better if I was going to replace myself the only way in which it was successful is that the business cannot just stay the same but it has to be able to grow with this person in that position I remember I talked to a mentor of mine I was like listen I'm just going to do this for the next year like I don't think that anybody can do this and it became like a belief that I was enforcing I would go in and I would start you know doing everything again everything would go up and so what that reinforces the belief that you know nobody can do it like I can so this was all good and fine it worked until Alex and I made the decision that we wanted to sell the business if we're going to sell the business like I certainly don't want to go with the sale and so I need to be able to replace myself I remember sitting down writing down all the things I did and writing down all the things somebody would need to do and I realized that the way I was looking at it was wrong so why is it that so many people think that they can't be replaced the first one is that they haven't looked hard enough and they give up after just a few attempts so something really common that I hear is people are like listen I get that you think I need a director of marketing but I hired a guy didn't work and I'm like oh wow you hired a guy and it didn't work one time like must be the entire system's broken must be that building a business doesn't work you know you hear the women who are like all guys suck just can't find a man like can't find a good guy and I'm like how many dates have you gone on in the last year and they're like I've gone on too I'm like I literally can't even contain myself like this is so ridiculous and that's what most people do is they assume because they hire one person because they try one time they're like oh well that didn't work that was painful I'm not going to do it again is this fun no it's not fun it's not fun being new to business and being new to delegation and being new to hiring people but the reality is is that sometimes especially with hard rolls you're gonna have to try more than once when you're an unexperienced business owner the second is that when they do get a person in there they expect them to be a one for one fit they expect them to be 100 fit perfect and to not need to train them people bring someone in and then they're like great like you have all the skills your experience like that's why I paid so much money for you like now go do the thing I shouldn't have to do any of this and then what happens is that they don't onboard them well they don't train them well and then the moment that that person messes up they're like see I can't Outsource this I can't get anybody to do what I do look they just that up and I'm like okay well how many times have you something up right how many times have I booked something up I things up millions of times in my business so should I assume that the person that comes in to run my business my behalf will never anything up it's like no of course no it's it's often that we have more unrealistic expectations of others than we even do of ourselves a good example of this is one of our CEOs in our portfolio we hired an operator and that person was going to come in they were going to be like president of the organization the CEO is going to move into like kind of a chairman role she came in doing a fantastic job and this person came to me and they were like I don't know if she's got it I was like why they're like well she doesn't understand like how to run the ads how to do the marketing I'm like sitting there and I'm like what what are you talking about I'm like she needs to go in there Shadow the marketing team for two months and also she's not the one that's gonna be doing it so she needs to have a strong team underneath of her that can do this on her behalf she needs to know enough to know if they're doing their job but she shouldn't know like what button to click here and there and I remember in that moment he was like oh really we can't expect people to be perfect when we are not perfect the third mistake people make is they try to find one person to replace everything they do and I realize this I want to say years ago when we were building gym launch I was trying to relieve Alex of some of the marketing duties and the product duties because that was where he was the most involved like I would hire somebody at Health marketing and hire someone to help a product and then like it would just be like this string that I was pulling it's like wait another one and another one and another one his output was so high it's very hard to find somebody else that does that and if you could find that person what are they doing they're probably running their own business what I realized that a lot of times the reason that someone can't find somebody is because they're saying I'm a unicorn I need to go find a unicorn to replace me whereas it might be I'm a unicorn and I need to find four very competent people to replace me like to replace me for example I need multiple Executives to replace me and so if you're a Founder you're a CEO you're running your business like it might be five people that you need to replace you one of the things that we'll help people do is we help them recruit their leadership teams and so I had a portfolio CEO and he said I want to find somebody who can do everything I can do for marketing and I was like oh God that's gonna be tough because like you're one of the best in the world and he was like well I want to find the unicorn and I was like it's going to be tough does that person exist I'm sure they exist Does that person exist and want to work for you your smaller business and you're just getting started and growing you don't have a track record do you know how hard it is to find that person and get them to actually work for you attracting talent in my first business versus acquisition.com immensely different experience now finding Talent is like incredibly easy for us but it's because we have a track record we have a reputation we have a brand and so if you're not at that point in your career you have to understand that it is probably going to be faster easier and more effective to just find four people that are good at their role rather than find one person who is like extraordinary at the thing the fourth reason that most people are unable to replace themselves is simply lack of patience they are not patient with the fact that it could take months or years to get somebody up to speed people bring someone in they expect them to be able to do everything day one but in reality like if you're a high level executive you've been running your business you want to transfer the skill set and transfer the knowledge you have to that person it could take up to six months to get them like really going and as somebody who's had people work for me for six plus years kids better and better a year you have to be patient with them you have to bear the cost of their mistakes understand they're not going to be perfect and you've got to be in it for the long haul and if you invest in them like you're in it for the long haul they will stay with you like they're in it for the Long Haul
