107: Why You Should Scale Yourself to Scale Your Business
Behind Their Success: Episode 107
Leila: [00:00:00] if you don't want to scale your business, you don't have to. But if you feel inside you that you want to do more, then you want to build more, then you get to,
Paden: Hello, everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. I'm Paden Squires, the host, and today we have on Leila Lahbabi. Leila is the CEO coach, VC advisor, keynote speaker, and founder of Mind Impact. Leila is globally recognized for helping purpose, purpose-driven entrepreneurs unlock high performing teams, scale their businesses profitably, and foster conscious burnout free leadership.
After building a career as a strategy consultant to Fortune 100 companies and training hundreds of CEOs, she's dedicated to empowering leaders to achieve in impact fulfillment and sustainable growth. That was a lot of words. Lila, welcome all success.
Leila: Thank you. Thank you for having me here. I'm happy to be here with
Paden: Yeah, absolutely. So tell me, uh, more about you and kind of [00:01:00] your, story in general.
Leila: Sure. So I grew up in Morocco and then I moved to Paris to study engineering. So I started there, engineering, I started my career, uh, after that in consulting. So I was at EY at the beginning, four years, more rational consulting, data science for like a geek mathematician and so on. And then I moved to strategic consulting.
At Oliver Wyman and then I discovered that actually, you know, if you look at it from a strategy perspective, a lot of strategies don't get implemented. And I was very frustrated because we work so hard as s consultant to find, like to set the market, to do the benchmark and so on. And, and then you have, you know, the right strategy for the client and it's not getting implemented. It frustrated me a lot. So then when I started understanding the power of humans, right, and transformation starts with humans, and I was like, okay, I think [00:02:00] I get it, but in order for me to really get it. I overworked, like high achiever, people, pleaser, all those kind of things. Uh, so I burnt out at some points 'cause of like more, more, more.
And I loved what I was doing. It's not, it's not about like not loving my job or anything. I really loved what I was doing, but the way I was doing it was hustling. And I burn out. And then I discovered, uh, mindfulness. I just Googled how to reduce my stress and I really was very conscious about not going into something which was woohoo.
And I was like, A lot of practice. No, no, no, no, no. I, I'm so afraid of that. And mindfulness, I was reassured because there were neuroscience studies. That explains how the brain work. And since I was, um, you know, a data scientist and I worked with neuronal networks, I was like, oh my God, the brain of a human is, is so amazing and we can train the brain and we can get better [00:03:00] and then we can get more focus and can get more presence.
Oh my God, this is, this is amazing. So I started practicing and what I discovered was. More than just reducing my stress was more connecting like to my emotions, to my body, to my sensations, to what I actually want. Because I just followed the path that was a standard path and so that I can please to people around me. And then I started shifting and I came back. I came back to work after my burnout, and people start seeing noticing changes and asking. What happened to you? Like, what? What did you do? Do you take something? Are you taking
any medicine? Or you kind of, I was like, no. I went into something called mind like, oh, no, no, no, no.
Don't want to try that. And then like when people start
experiencing, uh. Same kind of burnout. I also saw that a lot of people were experiencing hassle and burnout without talking about it, because it's kind of weak. You know, if you talk [00:04:00] about it, it's been zero, weak, it's, you're not capable to do this.
And then I started having clients from, you know, my surroundings, my friends, my family, my colleagues and COVID hit at that moment. So a lot of people started coming to practice mindfulness.
Paden: to think. Think through their lives,
Leila: Exactly like they, they're sitting with themselves like between four walls and probably with a husband that they don't like and probably with.
And then a lot of
Paden: Yeah. A lot of reevaluating going on.
Leila: Exactly like a life they were running through. Now they're considering it. So they, this is where I said, oh, this is probably could be a business, right? This could be a business. And this is what I started my first business I called Mindful Academy. And I was just helping people, uh, go through stress, go through burnout and evolve.
Not just reduce their stress or just calm down, but evolve and grow in order to be able to manage this and to listen to the emotion, whatever emotion it is, and [00:05:00] then do something with that and change their lives. And then I was like. This is probably not enough because a lot of people that came to me, the stress was coming from work and not from their personal lives.
And then as okay, so I did a lot of strategy. I'm greater strategy. I've learned mindfulness. Let's merge both, because what I found out is like people that came to me at some point, uh, for strategy, actually the problem was a mindset problem. And
Paden: that every day in.
Leila: Yeah. And people that came for me to mindfulness actually what they want is to change their lives. And changing their lives comes also by doing something that they love. So creating a business, it's it's land with, so they both go together
Paden: A hundred percent.
Leila: and this is where I created the mind impact. And I wanted really to help people. To not only create but scale because I worked with fortune [00:06:00] hundred companies that are really big.
So what I. Master is how to scale, is how to surround yourself with the right talent, how to create the right processes, how to, let people work. And you're not Chief Everything officer, but a Chief Executive Officer. So this is something that I really wanted to help purpose driven entrepreneurs do because I think that, you know, money.
In the hands of those people is good for the word. So more of that. And most of them are like, no, no, no. Uh, I don't want to to sell more. I don't want to do more. And it's like, no, you know, like money in your hand is good for the world. You're attracting the right talent or living value, so why not? So there was this, uh, this, uh, mindset shift.
Uh, the secret one was more around, I mean, if you don't scale, you can burn out in your own business. If you scale in a way that is more hustling, and so what's the point? You create something from your soul and then you're, you're burning your soul for your business.
So what, what's the point? This was the [00:07:00] second thing, and the third one is when I started having my business, um, from, uh, Paris. I thought, this is an international business. I can be anywhere. And then I was a mom, uh, of two little ones. So getting back to my country, Morocco was very natural for me and being around my family and this, I helped people also wait to say, you can start a business and grow a business.
From wherever place in the world. Like just that stop thinking, you need to be in US or you need to be in UK in order to, to start and scale a business. So those are the three things, that I focus on right now.
Paden: that's an amazing story. I wanted to touch on a couple things you were talking about there. you're talking about, you know. People would come to you for strategy. Right. But you can, you know, and I, I see this in my world, you know, I work in tax and, and money and stuff. People come to me with like money problems.
But I'm like, yeah, that's really not the issue. It's, I mean, yes, there, we can make that better, don't me wrong, but like it's really. [00:08:00] It's really a you problem. We need to work on you, right? And, and making changes in your life, or even just trying to, Hey, what, what are we even trying to accomplish here?
Like, you know, everybody comes to my office of like, Hey, make me more money, or save me money, or, or whatever. But it's like, to what end? Like what, what are we ultimately trying to do here? Um, because that is definitely going to inform which paths we can take, um, you know, on, on, you know, in my world specifically, none.
But, um, it's, it's not. Often it's not a lack of like information, uh, of, of people, you know, it's not like people don't know what to do necessarily. It's, it's trying to fix all the internal issues, so they actually do what they say they want to do, right.
Leila: Absolutely. And I experienced it firsthand. Like even I was teaching mindfulness and the way I wanted to grow my own business, and this is, this is funny because like, okay, so how people do business and because I, I, I wasn't [00:09:00] even imagining such in a business and grow in a business and like how people do business.
And then when I started learning about how to do business. I don't wanna do it this way. I don't want to outreach this way. I don't want to spend my time like trying to, to reach out to people. And then I had coaches was like, do it anyway. It means like Actually, this is not the way I want to do it.
And then it's raises a lot of issue of like the fear of rejection. the fear of not being enough, the fear of,
and I had to go through this myself. I'm still go into it sometimes, you know, we we're not perfect. I was like, oh my God. He was like, it's simple. I was like, okay. It's simple, but I
Paden: it's simple, but not easy necessarily, right? Like the, the process can be very simple, but it's like the human emotions or whatever don't necessarily make it easy, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, you're talking about the fear of rejection, you know, uh, people pleasing, like all that kind of stuff. I mean, you know.
Um, [00:10:00] something I've struggled with deeply and, and, you know, I've, I've developed a lot of those areas. and I think that's a big thing with a lot of entrepreneurs, right? Because many, many entrepreneurs, well, I mean, flat out, many entrepreneurs have had. Traumatic things happen in their, in their lives.
Right? And that is what has developed them into high achievers. And, and almost like these anxious accomplishing, you know, high driving people, right? Um, that doesn't come from nowhere, right? Like it's typically something, right? Something in their past where they're trying to prove themselves or prove their worth or, or, or whatever that is.
and it's really sad when people run down that road so hard, so fast and realize like. You were doing someone else's plan and not even your own. and that, that's super sad, especially if you, you know, you run down that road for 20 years and pick up your head and realize, wow, I didn't want to do any of this.
Leila: Yeah, this is what happened to me actually. I was like, so for what? You know, why am I spending so many hours on this benchmark? Like, I don't really care about [00:11:00] this market.
Paden: Yeah. Yeah.
Leila: Especially the, at the moment when I really realized that is when I had my, um, my first child and it was the first time for me that I came to the preschool with, with my little one. And then I spent many months with her. And then when I saw the door closing in front of me, I was like, what's more important that I have to do to not be with my kid?
Paden: Yeah.
Leila: Right? And that really hit me. It's like, okay, do I really want to spend all the time with my kid? Kid? Not really, but. When I'm not with my kid, I want to be su doing something that's meaningful. I want to be doing something that's serving a higher purpose. I don't want just to be working to work, and this is what, what was really changing my perspective on the way I saw work.
Paden: Yeah. Yeah. And I [00:12:00] think, um, that's, that's something my wife and I have done a lot of evaluating too, where it's just like, I don't know the system or whatever you wanna call it, but it's, it's, you know. People get married and have their kids, um, you know, the system's set up for us to just kind of ship our kids off to school or daycare or, or whatever, all day long.
And like, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm saying necessarily anything wrong with that. But, you know, if many people, especially in the United States, they both spouses have to work and, one of the spouses literally just working to pay the daycare bills so the kid can be on daycare all, you know, all day long.
And it's like, well. We, we we're just working to have somebody else take care of our kids. So it's what are we necessarily even doing there? Um,
Leila: Absolutely. And it's the case in in many countries. Yeah.
Paden: yeah. you know, I think for the listeners there, the most important thing is take away. It's just like you need to take some time to evaluate those things. And I mean, and, and just pause and, and contemplate of like, you know, if you could [00:13:00] just snap your fingers and design your life. You know, your day was just like, perfect.
What does that look like? Right? And then try to do everything in your life to move as close as you can. You know, it's gonna take time, but like to move your life towards that direction, right? Um, because, you know, living to other people's expectations or doing things just because of external pressures.
We're all gonna die anyway, so why, you know what I mean? Like, why do you care what other people have to think? Right? It's like you got one life and, um, you know, giving that up to anybody else, I, I just don't understand.
Leila: Yeah. While, while you were speaking, uh, you made me think of something, and an experience that I had, which is when you talked about like design a dream life. Uh, I was, my God, like I, I been through this, like designing my dream life and so on. But what happened to me when I did that is first I was afraid.
Paden: Mm-hmm.
Leila: If, like, [00:14:00] I don't want to design a dream that I'm not going to reach. Like I don't want to be disappointed, you know? So when I did that, one thing was like avoiding talking about it or avoiding saying how, um,
Paden: That you actually
Leila: how much, yeah, I, I do want it, but I, I didn't want to show my ambition because I was afraid that people would think that I don't have gratitude or because I want morbid.
You know, those are two different things. You can have gratitude for what you have and also be willing to serve more, to have more, to live
Paden: more. Yeah.
Leila: and, and to and to be more. And it took me time to get there. And also the second one was, uh, so was the judgment and the fear of not achieving it. And that's remind me about, um, not the experience, but a moment that I had.
I, I went to the west coast of the US and I went to the Zion Park. I love a Zion
Paden: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I've been
Leila: is amazing. And there was a mountain, which it was really, really [00:15:00] big mountain. I'm not a hiker, but during this, uh, this trip, I hiked every day and there was a big mountain and like I looked at the top of the mountain.
I was like, oh my God. I, and I haven't looked at the top of the mountain until I arrived. It was like four or five hours hiking. And I started walking, like just seeing, just in front of me and trying to enjoy. The journey. Journey, just trying to enjoy the, the hike and take drinking so water from time to time.
And at some point I had two people like just behind me and following me, but I didn't get it. It was like, why? These people are like behind me? And I turned
like, why are you, what are you following me? Or what? Like what, what's the thing?
And they were I was amazed by the answer. They said, your rhythm is so good. Because we saw people, uh, trying to [00:16:00] speed up. We, and, and then I was passing by those people who were speeding up and then
Paden: Yeah.
Leila: suffocated and I passed them by and I was like, just go with study. Go in, like step by step, step by step, step by step. When I arrived, I arrived in a way that I felt good about myself.
I felt good about the ride, and then I made new friends, like the people who were just behind me and this is why I am talking about this. This is exactly the way I shifted in building and scaling my business from like, I need to speed up or I really need to get there. Or, oh my God, this is a really scary mountain.
I have to do all this into what is the next step? And what is the next step? And am I enjoying it, celebrating the next step as well? I used to not celebrate today. Okay. I wish my son Okay. Next.
Paden: Yep. you're describing me Exactly. And probably most listeners on the ship. Right? And, and that's, [00:17:00] you know, that's the default of a high achiever, right? Like they, they have these anxious feelings all the time where it's like, okay, we gotta go. I mean, it's gotta happen now,
Leila: gotta go. Yeah.
Paden: And, and then, you know, even, even as those high achievers have some level of success, they think they can't get rid of that because that is like, well, that's what made me successful, right? It's like, run it really fast and doing all the things and, and naturally the human mind's like, well if I do this, well then if I just do more of it, it'll be that much more better.
Right? which obviously is not the case at all.
But you know, I, I wanted to go back and make a comment too, where you talked about like some of the, the big goals. You were, you, you know, you were afraid of like, to share big goals and, you know, I think everybody has that fear of like, I don't wanna put that out there because I don't know if I'm actually gonna do it or not.
Recent, recently, I, I'm reading a book, um, called The Science of Scaling by, um, Dr. Benjamin Hardy, which talks very much about setting, um. What it calls impossible goals. And the reason you said impossible goals, um, is [00:18:00] because it, it, it forces you to get extremely focused, right? It, it forces you to cut all the distraction, to cut all the things that like don't align with going from, you know, this where you're at now to just massive success or, you know, whatever that goal is.
It. it forces you to re reevaluate literally everything in, in your life and, and to actually achieve those goals. And here's the amazing thing is like those, those impossible goals we put out there, they're really not impossible. They're actually extremely achievable. Um, we just can achieve it or see it from our current perspective because we have all this junk in our life that doesn't align with that goal.
And as soon as you start eliminating a lot of those things. Those impossible goals. You, you thought they were so impossible. They're not. They're not at all. Um, if other, if someone else has done it, you absolutely can too.
Leila: Yeah,
and it's moving from belief to trust. Right? What is, trust is like not [00:19:00] seeing it yet because people think that they will move from believing it to getting it,
Paden: I wish it
Leila: doesn't work this way. It's believing to, trusting to like, I know because I know it, it there's no reason. I know because I know. And then it's happened like. What, what's happening and, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's really amazing that you, you talked about the book because what I, uh, was just saying lately about, uh, not enjoying, the little steps I just finished, uh, like writing the book, that is called Billion Dollar Purpose. It was on May, and I was really happy because I got, uh, two forwards.
I got one from Elizabeth Moreno, which is an ex French minister and, uh, an impact investor, and one from Jerry Corona. And at the beginning he was like, oh my God, I'm so happy. And I was like, champion all around my house. But, but then, but then I was like. [00:20:00]
It's still a pattern. It's okay. Now what? Like, okay, next
Paden: Yeah.
Yeah. And I, I get it. I'm, I'm the same way. I mean, it's, it's literally goals I've had and, um, it took me years and years to accomplish and as soon as I get it, it's, it's not like some magic moment or something where you're just like, oh my gosh. Right? Like people think, like, people always think it's like, the moment I'm gonna get something, I'm gonna be happy.
and that is such a lie. that's such a lie that you tell yourself. Um, and we all do it. And, and here's the thing to, to prove it, you know, to prove it to the listeners. Like, how many goals have you already accomplished that you promised yourself you would be happy when you actually got? I mean, that's everything in your past, right?
so just, just by looking at it and understanding that, like that external accomplishment, no matter how cool and how amazing and yes, you should pursue it, um, that's. Delaying your happiness until is, is not, is not the [00:21:00] right way to go in.
Leila: And you know, what I enjoyed most during, for the book, it was writing it. It was when I was in a coffee and writing it and not knowing like how it's going to be, it's going to be great or not. Just the download and yeah, be in it and transmission and saying, okay, let me talk from my heart. Let me build this.
Let me, is what I remember most.
Paden: Yeah. It's the journey.
Leila: done and it's the journey. This is what I remember most and like, oh my God, I was waiting so much for this lunch and for this forwards and for this accomplishments. And what I enjoyed most was writing it from my heart for my soul.
Paden: The,
Leila: I do that for my business as
well?
Paden: Yeah. Right. It's like the day to day, the journey. Is it like that's the only thing there is, you know, it's like the only, the only thing we truly have is the moment you're in right now, you know, you got your past, which [00:22:00] is, you know, science approved. We. We make all that up, or at least the vast majority of our history in our head is just totally made up.
or it's not accurate is what I would say if to like, you know, actually accurate and in the future it's just stuff we just make up to worry about as well. So the only thing that is truly real in our own hands is, is today the, the present moment. And I know, you know, it's really hard for high achievers and business owners, entrepreneurs to listen to that kind of stuff.
That sounds this woo woo, oh, you need to be present and, and, and that kind of thing. But it's. It's true. That's, that's what humans are or you know, that's, you know, the best way to get, to get the most out of life, uh, satisfaction in my experience.
Leila: Yeah, it is true. And it has been validated by science, right? It's not something that you're inventing, the stress reduction, the focus, uh, the ability to achieve without burnout, the ability to tap into our own creativity. And today the competitive advantage is who we are, our creativity, our humanity.[00:23:00]
It's not doing more. It's like AI is doing that, it's. Ability to really trust what we're doing, to work our own fears and to get there. Because the speed is the speed of implementation, not the speed of actions after action. Implementation. What is implementation is taking what you think is great and doing it and going through the shame, going through the, the, the false.
So this is the implementation, right? And then you have. You have so many tools that can help you out. We don't have any excuse right now to say, oh, I don't know the skills, or I cannot code, or I cannot do this, this, this. We just have our minds that are missing with us.
Paden: Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, we, you know, we all have those stories and, you know, imposter syndrome and like, you know, why me or, or whatever. But yeah, you're, you're right. Like it's never been easier. Never been easier to in, in my opinion, like. Ways stand out amongst the crowd. just because one, I mean the [00:24:00] amount, the amazing amount of resources just free to no cost on the internet, right?
Or, you know, with AI tools and, and everything on YouTube, like you can learn almost anything you wanna learn for free on the internet. and two, like people are so distracted in today's world, like to be able to sit down and write a book, you know, 99.9% of the world can't do that. That, not that they can't do that, but they can't sit still for more than 10 seconds without, well, let's pick up my phone and start mindlessly like, it's, it's a superpower to be able to sit down and focus on something for like an hour straight.
Because no one can do that. And, and especially, and I'm, you know, I, I don't wanna sound like the old man that's going after the younger generations, but the younger generations have grown up with that even more, where it's like, it's even harder for them to just like, okay, keep your head still and focus on one thing.
it's amazing how much time we run around and waste and, and doing all these [00:25:00] little tasks or distractions or whatever. and never focus on what we need to be doing and then say we don't have time for it. You know, the next time someone says they don't have time for something, I'm gonna say, give me your phone and let me look at your screen time and then tell me that again with a straight face.
Leila: Yeah, this is the instance gratification, right? It's the easier path. And this is, this is an emotional thing. It's,
Paden: It's dopamine.
Leila: It's dopamine. Yeah, it's dopamine. And it's sad that today, um, you know, there's an experiment, psychological experiment that I studied, um, because I went back to school to study psychology.
In parallel of being, um, uh, being a strategic consultant, and I was, uh, I, I loved this experiment. Um, they show to children, Candies, you know, and they put candies in front of them. It was marshmallow whatever.
Paden: Yeah. Yeah.
Leila: Marshmallow. Yeah. It's smart marshmallows. [00:26:00] Uh, and they put the marshmallow and they say, okay, so if you eat this marshmallow, it's okay.
If I come back and you haven't eaten this marshmallow, then I can give you a second one. Then you will have two marshmallows. And this is a delay gratification. And the study that I did was, uh, to evaluate the success of those kids. In the future, right? So the one who accept the, the late gratification are the one who really succeeded in their, in their journey, in their life, in their business, in whatever.
And that applies also to business because today we say, okay, so everything's. Supposed to be easy. Actually, it's harder because everyone has access to it, right? Uh, so immediate gratification, say if I have all the two, that is, it needs to work right now. And we see, uh, people talking only about their, um, achievement, their success, and starting to speak up only when they succeed.
And we forget that 99% of companies never scale 99%. So only 1% of company do [00:27:00] scale, and we hear about this 1%. And you say, is that something wrong with me? No, no, no, no. It's 1% and this is, is something wrong Mimi? Am I, am I doing something wrong? Am I being not, I, I, I don't deserve it. I cannot do it. We start missing up with our own success and auto to, or to sabotage.
We say
Paden: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sabotage. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Leila: because we have so many like stories about success, but we forget that those represent only 1% of.
Paden: Yeah. And,
Leila: People who try, of people who try,
Paden: yeah, yeah, yeah. 1% of the people try and, you don't have the whole story either, right? Like you're seeing the end of the race, right? Like you didn't see the 15 years. You know, it, it, you know, it's funny you say it takes people 15 years to be an overnight success. Um, and that's what, that's all you see is like the win, right?
Or the person crossing the finish line. You're like, wow. And it's like, well, no, that guy. The last 20 years of his life led to that moment. [00:28:00] So it wasn't, you know, it wasn't this one thing,
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Paden: so, Leila, you talk about scaling from the inside out. can you tell the listeners what that means?
Leila: Hmm. It means everything we've been talking about until now, which is scale yourself to scale your business.
if your business can only grow as you grow.
And it cannot outrow you. I will explain why it cannot outgrow. Because first, what you believe is possible for you, okay? So if you don't believe it's possible for you will not even try to do it.
It's not
Paden: then you're
Leila: you will not even try to do it. Okay? Then do you believe that you bring value? If you don't believe you bring value, then you will not be able to sell it because what is sales? It just,
Paden: Transferring confidence.
Yeah.
Leila: Exactly. Transferring confidence. So in order to transfer confidence, you need the confidence.[00:30:00]
Paden: Yeah, a hundred percent.
Leila: And then once you get there, so we start building, you start setting. Then if you want to scale, it's surrounding yourself with A players. So in this sage, if. You fear that they're better than you if you fear that they will take your place. If you fear that's. You know, they're going not to be trustful trustworthy.
If you fear that it's your baby and you don't want to, to give your baby, you will not bring investors. You will not bring a players that are better than you. You will not bring, um, big clients because you think that the client can like, take all of your business and you have small business, so you want to dream big.
This is auto avatar. So if you scale yourself, it's becomes easier to scale around you because you have the confidence, you have the trust, you talk about your mission, uh, with [00:31:00] confidence. You attract people that are aligned with this mission, right? And that will help you scale it and it's, um, moves from being something that is just yours.
To something that is of service to the world. So the bigger umbrella, a bigger cake, and bigger cake, you could have many people building it with you and it doesn't rely only on you. So if you get sick, if you just wanna take a break, if you want to tap into your creativity, because at the beginning you have time, but you don't have a lot of money.
So you have time to get creative, to build stuff and so on. And at some point you start having money, you start having clients, but not time. So you move from being the creative to being an operator. But the entrepreneurs are rarely good operators. Usually they get someone who help them on the
Paden: generally not great. Yeah.
Leila: now, so.
So in order to have. So either they, they build on this, uh, process base and they say, okay, I've processed everything. And so the creativity [00:32:00] decreases. It's still the same products for years and years and years. And then they go into operations, so they're killing their business, or they say only on the creativity, and then they on the, they don't scale the processes.
They don't scale the team, they don't scale, uh, their ability to attract more. And then they, the ability also to have, you know, um, investments and, and, and do more things and have a bigger umbrella, a bigger mission. So they stop themself from, from scaling. And this is why I scale yourself, to scale your business.
So everything that's as you scale, you scale your mission, attract the right people, you scale yourself, and then you train the people that you have with with your team. And then you learn from those people because they had to bring other expertise, have marketing expertise. You give technical expertise and you can learn from them.
And then collectively you adapt. So this is the, the, the methodology more or less, and I call it the clap methodology and clap. It's coming from my culture. We have something that we say, one hand doesn't [00:33:00] clap, so try clapping with a hand. You will not, you need at least two. And we love clapping. So the clap is CS for collective intelligence.
L is for the leadership. A is for autonomous team. You need your team to be. Autonomous to be able to build things without you being, if you equip people to tell them what to do, then you will all have people knocking at your door to ask what to do. Right?
Paden: Yeah.
Leila: And B is for people because people are the ones who are going to buy.
You will sell to people anyway. AI will not buy from you yet. But you, you said to people, your providers are people, your investors are people. Uh, you. Talent that you bring on are people and society that going to cheer up for your brand are to say that your brand is not good, are people. So an important component is, is caring about people.
The value that you bring in order to attract value, and this is where conscious leadership and conscious capital is, can come from.
Paden: [00:34:00] Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I agree with everything you said there, where it's, business, uh, the leader, the founder of the business is always the bottleneck of the business. Meaning like, you need to raise yourself, your standards to be able to attract talent because like super talented people, you know, you gotta be an attractive person for them to want to come follow your vision.
Um, and if you don't have a big enough vision, you yourself are not attractive enough in your vision, in your business and everything you're doing well, why would they come you, why would they come work with you? and some of that is like, right. I I love you talked about the journey there.
It's like, okay, in the beginning, you got all kinds of time but no money. and then you start to have a little bit of success and you don't build the right operations and whatever, and everything still goes through you. And then you're like, okay, I make a little bit of money, but I have to zero time.
Right. And, and it, it's, it's, uh, that I got stuck at that level for a long time. where I was stuck there, doing literally [00:35:00] everything. Everybody's coming through me, I have all the answers. Um, and you wanna talk about burnout? I went down that path, you know, I did it for years. Um, it wasn't until I, I, I, you know, I guess I got around enough people that convinced me to change my ways, um, to where it's like, okay, yeah, okay, I wanna build something bigger.
And, and part of why I was stuck at that level too was just lack of confidence and lack of, you know. Some insecurities about you. You can't I even build something big, right? Um, but it, it, it's all about developing yourself and pushing yourself as far as possible to be able then to, to attract the right people, to attract the right customers.
You know? Um, you know, as I have more success, customers look at me and be like, I wanna work with that guy because he knows what he's doing, right? He knows how to scale a business, he knows how to do this and that. Working on yourself to me is, is like I tell people all the time when I go to the gym, even, you know, just go to the gym to work out like I'm making money.
That that is all part of who I am and helps me [00:36:00] do. Um, it's all connected. There's not one part of my life that has nothing to do with the other part of my life. Right.
Leila: Yeah. And you know, I, as you were speaking, I remember when I started going on the self um, development road, uh, people came to me and like, do I really need to do this? Like, um, you know, there are a lot of people who succeed without the self development. I, I don't like those kind of things and. I also had a, a founder who I worked with, um, who wanted to scale and he said, do really need to do this.
Do really need to, to go through my you. I like, and, and this one I was like, no, you,
Paden: Well,
Leila: don't need to do anything.
Paden: Yeah. You don't need to do anything. Yeah, because like the, the results all come from, did you do the actions or not, right? Like you can do, you know, yes, you can do all kinds of self development, whatever, but like. Did you do the actions that are required to get to whatever goal you are like that.
Ultimately, that's the only thing that matter [00:37:00] about that matters for results. Um, you know, how you feel about it or how you filter through the process really doesn't matter. I mean, I, I don't think that's a great way to live or whatnot, but like, you know what I mean? It just comes down to did you do the thing or not?
Right?
Leila: Yeah. And, and it's just not about, uh, you know, success or not succeeding if you do or do not. Uh, the self development, the difference for me is the fulfillment that goes with it.
You know if, if you do something, and especially if you don't want to do it, I was like, if you don't want to scale your business, you don't have to.
Right? But you get to if you want to, I can help you, like build those skills. Those are learnable skills. I learned them myself. I'm still learning them myself. You can learn them. And this is something when I talk to people's, like if you feel inside you that you want to do more, then you want to build more, then you get to, you don't have to.
You get to because now we know how to train our minds. We know how to change our behaviors, to change, our [00:38:00] beliefs, to change. We can. So this is not a judgment on places like, oh, if you don't grow. No, no. This is more, you know, there is a way if you want to, then you get to learn how to do it. That's it.
Paden: Yeah, that's part of it an issue I'd say in, in, the self-development world, especially in the western culture of hustle and grind and whatever. It's like, you know, bigger is better and whatever, and it's like, no. I mean, you know, if you're happy every day with what you're doing, you've won, you're beating everybody else, I promise you.
because, you know, the money and the business and whatever that, it really doesn't, I don't wanna say it doesn't mean a lot, but it, it, it's not gonna mean a lot for your fulfill. Um, necessarily, you know, the fulfillment's gonna come from, from the value you're creating for the other opportunities you're creating for people other than you actually, if you want to be fulfilled, it's, you gotta have a purpose that isn't revolved around you.
You now, you get to be the main character of that and be a big part of that. but if it's just about you, eventually you're like, this isn't worth it [00:39:00] because I'm not worth it. And like, you know, you will stop eventually.
So,
in your experience, which habits, do you think have been the most important for founders? to actually, you know, not just have high performance, but as you described, sustain high performance. Right. And, and not, um, necessarily experience that burnout that, that so many of us do.
Leila: Hmm. There is a beautiful habit, which is not waking about 5:00 AM. Which is not journaling all the time, which is not going to gym is acting fast than reflecting on your actions, not saying what if. So, so, okay. When, when I talk about, uh, when, when I work with founders, theirs, I have a lot of thinkers and a lot of doers. I will, I will, I will explain the two, two models. So the thinkers are like, what if, what if, what if you do that? What if you do that? What if you do that? What if [00:40:00] you do that? And then it's like, okay, what do you want to start with? And that's, you know, and before the coaching they, they, they, you know, when they talk about their business, you're like, oh my God, this business is, is huge and so on.
But when you look at the numbers, it's not that big. You know, we think there are CEOs of multi billion dollar company, actually, they're. Their businesses are really small because they talk a lot. Well, don't do as much. Okay? So they raise a lot of money, but then they build pitches to raise even more and even more money, but not a lot of income.
So this is one type. The second types are the doors. The doors. They just do and do, do, do, do, do, do. Do. And the doers, what can happen is doing the same thing all the time and they're repeating the same mistake all the
Paden: Yeah. Same cycles. Yeah.
Leila: Exactly. So what I advise as a routine is to do, [00:41:00] then reflect on your doing. Do reflect on your doing, do reflect on your doing.
Do reflect on your doing so, having a routine that says once a month, once each two month, what, whatever. You can start one, once a month at the beginning, and then when your business is getting, you know, scaling fast, you can, you can do it each two weeks or each week. It's do, do, do, do. Don't think, just go do and then sit down with yourself once a month and say, okay. What was it? What the right action? What did I learn from those actions? What did it bring? What should I cut? What should I keep? Because today you have instinct. Data, if it's working or it's not working, you don't need to wait one year, two years. It's you put that on the market, you put that on the internet, you call your, your, your customers.
You call your, uh, prospects. And then you know if your offer is working, if your speech is [00:42:00] working, if your, and then you reflect. And once you reflect, each time you change one thing.
Paden: Yeah, if you change too many variables.
Leila: Exactly. So reflect, so action, reflect, change one thing. Action. Reflect, change. One thing, if you keep this routine, I'm sure they go faster and leaner
than anyone is.
Paden: You know, I. Yeah. The way, the way you described that hit a little different in my head. You know, I, I've never really, you know, heard it, explained that way, which, which was great. But then, then I kind of made the connection when I was thinking about it and you were talking about the doing and reflecting and changing one thing, I'm like.
Well, that's a scientific method, is what that is. Right. You're testing, you're, you're doing a bunch of stuff, you're testing, right? Okay. We're gonna take all this data and reflect upon it. Okay? Let's tweak one thing. Test, test, test, test, reflect, change one thing. And, and really what you're doing is, is zeroing in [00:43:00] on the truth or what goal you're going after, right?
And, and, and you do see a lot, you know, I, I, I do. The love the way you described that is there, you know, a lot of people do get stuck in one or the other. Right. You got entrepreneurs that maybe just do, do, do, do, do. And you know, they run into cliffs or run off cliffs and in the mountain and mountains and and whatnot because they never.
Pick their head up to actually look at the bigger picture. And then you got people that sit over here and just contemplate and think and can never decide or take action on anything. And they will, they'll just never go anywhere. and so it's, easy to get stuck in both of those worlds or either or of those worlds.
it's great advice of cycling through those things and, and, and testing. Test your hypothesis, change something, right? It's it, yeah. Scientific method described, uh, perfectly there.
Leila: I never seen it this way. Now I explain this way. I'm like, oh my God, this is so beautifully explained.
Paden: Yeah.
Leila: I'll take that and use it next
Paden: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome.
Well, [00:44:00] this has been an amazing conversation. I really appreciate you coming on the show. if listeners are interested to learn more about you, connect with you, what is, uh, what's the best way they can get ahold of. You.
Leila: Sure. I have my profile on LinkedIn, which is Leila Aaba. So with my, my name and surname, uh, I have an Instagram account, which is Lela, LHB. if there are podcasters they can listen to my billion dollar podcasts. That goes with the, with the work and, um, what else? I just started a new YouTube channel so they could check it out.
Paden: Yeah.
Very cool. Well, anything you wanna leave for the listeners? Any parting words of advice?
Leila: Yeah, have fun. Have fun.
Paden: That's great
Leila: Have some fun. Yeah.
Paden: You know, it's, I that's good advice for me today. You know, I, I just got back from long travel and showing back up after being gone a week and my calendar's packed and so many responsibilities and, um, good advice for me. I'm gonna go have [00:45:00] some fun.
Leila: Enjoy it. Happy for you, and tell me about it afterwards.
Paden: Well, I appreciate you, uh, listeners. We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate, review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs. You can follow us on social media by searching for me Paden Squires.
Or going to padensquires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of personal growth and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.
