Peaceful Profits Podcast Ep. 86 - A Sacrifice No Business Owner Should Make
Synopsis:
In this inspiring Peaceful Profits Podcast episode, Chanelle talks with Alexx Leyva—an entrepreneur who scaled and sold an eight-figure software company, got his health back after burnout, and is now helping fellow entrepreneurs do the same.
From writing a bestselling fitness book to launching an outdoor preschool with his wife (thanks to what he learned inside Peaceful Profits), Alexx shares his full-circle journey of purpose, success, and service.
He reveals how Peaceful Profits and Mike Shreeve helped him align his business goals with his personal values—and why optimizing your health may be the ultimate business growth strategy.
This episode is packed with Peaceful Profits reviews, real client wins, and mindset shifts every entrepreneur should hear.
Transcript:
Peaceful Profits Review: A Sacrifice No Business Owner Should Make
[00:00:00] Chanelle: Hello, Peaceful Profits nation. Chanelle here with an exciting client spotlight episode for you today. So today we're talking to our client, Alex Leyva. Welcome Alex to the podcast.
[00:00:11] Alexx: Thank you so much. And now so excited to be here.
[00:00:14] Chanelle: I am looking forward to this conversation. I am really excited to just learn some things from you.
[00:00:20] Chanelle: You've had quite the varied background, which we'll get into in a minute here. And I think because of that, you've got a lot to share. So To start off with, let me [00:00:30] introduce you to our listeners. Alex scaled and sold an eight figure software company, and now he helps other entrepreneurs optimize their health and performance so they can build life changing businesses as well.
[00:00:42] Chanelle: He also used what Mike teaches in Peaceful Profits to help his wife start an outdoor preschool to help children in their area. And that has been amazing as well. This is so fun. I love the different things that you've done, and I'm really excited to learn more. I find it so interesting that you've done such [00:01:00] different types of businesses throughout your career.
[00:01:03] Chanelle: So what has allowed you to be so versatile?
[00:01:08] Alexx: Man, that's a good question. First off, thank you for the warm introduction. I really appreciate that. And I'm so honored to be here as well. I have so much respect for you and for Mike and the team and what you're doing for entrepreneurs. And secondly, just to answer that question.
[00:01:21] Alexx: I think it's mostly just because I am good at optimizing towards outcomes that I [00:01:30] want in life. If you look at like how people spend their time, we spend eight ish hours a night sleeping, then we spend the other like a big chunk of our time, we're working usually in the nine to five, and then there's a whole other chunk of our time that's taking care of your house, being on your phone, watching tv, like whatever your leisure is, right?
[00:01:48] Alexx: Spending time with friends and eating. And I think early on, I realized that with that chunk of time, if I could align it with my passions, I could get further faster because For most people, it's like just [00:02:00] energy going off to random stuff, and so I think that for a lot of people that sounds stressful, but for me, it was like my passions in health and fitness and nutrition anyway, so I can use my time eating to learn about food and I can use my time doing leisure activities to exercise and build up my body and stuff.
[00:02:17] Alexx: And. And so I actually went to school for that kind of stuff and would always like train and help people for free before I became a personal trainer. So that's like where the fitness background came in. And then because I was [00:02:30] always trying to do that and help people and start businesses, then I was ready for this opportunity with a software company to actually make it into something bigger.
[00:02:37] Alexx: So I feel like when you look at the high level, it's it seems like all this random stuff, but for me, it weirdly adds up just because it's. The way I try to optimize towards outcome. Does that make sense?
[00:02:48] Chanelle: Yeah, no, it totally makes sense. And it just makes life better is the other thing that I hear like how fun if you're using your spare time, not that any of us have spare [00:03:00] time, but if you're using your leisure time to work toward an outcome, because you love it, it just makes it all the more fun, all the more enjoyable.
[00:03:09] Chanelle: And allows you to be really successful at the same time. And so I think those go hand in hand. When we asked you what your recent successes were, you listed three. And I thought that we could use our time here on the podcast to talk about those. So number one was selling a company for eight figures, a feat [00:03:30] that is amazing, no matter who you're talking to.
[00:03:32] Chanelle: That's awesome. So congratulations on that. Tell us about that. Yeah, so the story of that is when I came out of school, I, so I actually, for my final internship in college, I convinced a friend of mine who was a naturopathic doctor to let me intern under her. And work on writing a book that I ended up launching.
[00:03:57] Alexx: It became a best selling fitness book. And [00:04:00] so that's where I got into writing books. But it was I was in college and I was like, there's no way I'm going to go waste my time working at this entry level intern position, that's not going to have any leverage or anything. So how do I like shift this to my favor?
[00:04:11] Alexx: So I found a friend, convinced her to let me intern under her and then worked on launching that book. And I launched the book. And was going to build a business around it. And then around that time, my mom called me, me and my wife were actually living in Thailand and my mom called me and said, Hey, dad has multiple [00:04:30] sclerosis and early onset dementia, and our business is in trouble.
[00:04:33] Alexx: My dad had a software company and he, he was an entrepreneur. It had, didn't have much success until. Around the time that I had graduated high school and then he got sick within a few years after that. And my parents didn't have a plan for retirement. And so when my mom called asking for help, I was like, I've had all these other failed business ideas, my books taking off and I'm doing well here, but I think mom and dad really need help.
[00:04:59] Alexx: And so [00:05:00] that's what I actually went back and shifted into taking over his software company and trying to do a turnaround and scale it up. And some of my brothers actually joined me in the journey. And when we came in, it wasn't in a good spot, but it was an established business. And so we looked at. So we looked at where were the gaps and we ended up having to terminate I think 10 of the 13 employees that he had in like serious changes in the business.
[00:05:26] Alexx: But we took it from seven figures up to eight figures in [00:05:30] revenue, and then we sold it for eight figures. And then we also retired our parents. And so that's where that all came from.
[00:05:36] Chanelle: That's amazing. That's amazing that you were able to step in and help your parents out with that and then really turn the business around.
[00:05:44] Chanelle: How did you know how to do that?
[00:05:46] Alexx: It comes back to the optimizing thing. I read a lot. So that's one thing that attracted me to Mike too, is I could tell he's reading constantly. And I was always the guy who through college, I did like my coursework and stuff, but I was [00:06:00] always reading books on the side and trying to start businesses on the side.
[00:06:03] Alexx: My business were never really working, but it was like learning, and so by the time that there was that opportunity in my dad's business, I had already read a ton of books and tried a lot of things. And then once I got into the software company, I found this book, which I think Mike follows. I think I've heard him reference it called scaling up by Verne Harnish.
[00:06:21] Alexx: Vern Harnish became a mentor of mine through the book and we used that book. And actually we ended up getting recognized by Vern after our exit [00:06:30] because we followed his methodology, which was amazing. But we actually use that book to as our business Bible in a sense to build up the company.
[00:06:37] Alexx: And so we stayed committed to that and we just kept putting in the work and reading books to solve every problem that came up and it worked really well. So
[00:06:45] Chanelle: that's, that is so cool. Okay. And so inspirational too, because there's a few things I want to highlight there. One is the fact that you were constantly learning.
[00:06:56] Chanelle: There's just so much value in always reading and always [00:07:00] learning. And. Having this interest in the world and then you got this opportunity to come and use that knowledge. And then the other part that I want to highlight is there were your own little entrepreneurial failures, in the background that gave you that knowledge.
[00:07:15] Chanelle: Okay. This doesn't work. This isn't working. So that when you came into this business, you had that personal experience of what didn't work so far, book knowledge, and then just ready to rock and roll. So that is. [00:07:30] That's amazing.
[00:07:31] Alexx: Totally. Yeah. Thank you for saying that. I honestly, I'm a big believer that every single person will have life changing opportunities come up in their life.
[00:07:41] Alexx: Like maybe even once every six months, it just depends on if you're actually ready for it or not, are you ready to take advantage of, or a better word might be to leverage the opportunity, and so I think when, if you have that abundance mentality of knowing that great opportunities will come to all of us.
[00:07:59] Alexx: And you're [00:08:00] always trying to be prepared for them. Then when they do happen, you can actually run with it. But I think most people aren't thinking that way. And so if you're not prepared, that stuff goes right by you and you don't even notice it. And then you look at everyone else and you're like, why do they have all these amazing things come up?
[00:08:13] Alexx: And I don't, and it's not true. You do too. You just haven't seen it yet, which is the big difference.
[00:08:19] Chanelle: Yeah. Oh, that's so good. I think that mindset of looking for it combined with the preparation just puts you in that position to be [00:08:30] ready to leap on it when it does come up, because you're just getting ready for whatever's coming.
[00:08:36] Alexx: Oh, I agree. Yeah. And I think there's also there's some traps that people can get into You just read books, but you don't implement.
[00:08:44] Chanelle: Yeah. I
[00:08:45] Alexx: noticed that early on when I started trying to change my life and I was like, man, I'm reading all this stuff. I'm not living it, and then I had this epiphany that it's like, people say knowledge is power, but it's not true.
[00:08:55] Alexx: Applied knowledge is power. So there's like different things you have to, [00:09:00] it's like one is practicing the acquisition of knowledge. The other is practicing the implementation of the knowledge. And that one's hard, and I started to think how do you get better at this faster?
[00:09:10] Alexx: While you practice more frequently than everyone else. So how do you do that in normal life? If you can always be learning new things with your health, with your fitness, with your family, with your relationships, with every aspect of life and testing, implementing stuff, then you're actually practicing that implementation over and over again.
[00:09:27] Alexx: You're getting stronger at that. And then when you apply it [00:09:30] to business, you can do it better and faster. So it's just that's my strategy.
[00:09:34] Chanelle: I love that strategy. Okay. So cool. Thank you for that. Now your number two recent success, you said getting your health back. So I'm curious about this.
[00:09:44] Chanelle: What changed for you in your health and wellness?
[00:09:49] Alexx: Yeah, that's a huge. That's such a good question. So I'm a big believer. Vern Harnish says that there's an entrepreneurial law of gravity, he calls it. And he says that growth [00:10:00] sucks cash. I totally agree with him. I think the other thing is that there's a transfer of energy from the entrepreneur and your team members into the business.
[00:10:11] Alexx: Like you have to transfer energy from yourself into your company. And if you don't do it fast enough, you're going to burn out. And if you expand your team, then you have more people who are putting energy into something, which drives it forward and that's how it creates value as a vehicle. And so for me, I was still learning, like, how do I hire the right people and get the right [00:10:30] people in place?
[00:10:30] Alexx: And I stepped into a business that didn't have a good team and it already sucked the energy and life out of my dad, right? And I came in to taking over that company and I was a hundred and 94 pounds with like lean. I'm a fitness guy, right? So with abs is like what we try to and then after a couple of years of like working in the business, I dropped down to 148 pounds or something.
[00:10:56] Alexx: So I lost something like 50 pounds. Of muscle [00:11:00] and on top of that ended up in the doctor's office twice because of like stress related issues and stuff from trying to figure out how to scale this company. Like it's like really hard to scale a company size. And what I learned in the process is that there's not a lot of help for entrepreneurs when it comes to the health and performance.
[00:11:20] Alexx: side of things because they're not well understood. So a lot of times I'd go to the doctor and be like, Hey, I'm struggling with this. And they're like can you work less? Can you sleep more? And it's not really. [00:11:30] I'm the, at the end of the day, I'm the guy of this company, like I have to learn how to delegate better, build teams, build systems, all this stuff that Mike talks about.
[00:11:38] Alexx: And there's not really a quick solution when your business is dependent on you, and so I realized that Athletes, if you look at it like a professional athlete, they'll have a whole team. They'll have the doctors, the trainers the chiropractors, like the nutritionists, like everyone's helping optimize them.
[00:11:57] Chanelle: But
[00:11:57] Alexx: when you're as an entrepreneur, you don't really get that. And you [00:12:00] should, because your body is your business. It is your greatest asset. Everything you create comes out of your brain and yourself, and arguably, from God through you, but It only happens when you're at your best, and so I realized that as my energy and health dipped, my performance also dipped, my ability to solve problems in the business dipped.
[00:12:24] Alexx: And when I figured out how to optimize that and take control of it, I realized that to build [00:12:30] my best life, I had to be my best self. And that's what I like. owed to my team and to my family. And so I worked on figuring that out to then finish, driving that business up to success and selling it.
[00:12:42] Alexx: Does that make sense? Yeah. Yes. And it's something that, we're all about here with Peaceful Profits, right? This idea of life that light your life matters in order to run a good business, your lifestyle and needing to be peaceful so you can keep giving so that you're not [00:13:00] so burnt out. And yeah, I, this is really fascinating to me that, we hear this a lot, this idea of burnout, but you were Fairly young at the time, right?
[00:13:10] Chanelle: When you were doing all this and it still just took such a toll. As you're going through all of this. And so anything else that you would mention because you have also helped others with their health. And that's what you currently do, right? Help entrepreneurs optimize their health. So how has this led into what you [00:13:30] do with other people?
[00:13:32] Alexx: Yeah, that's a good question. So when I reflected back on our journey of scaling this company and what happened to my dad and what happened to myself and even what happened to some of like our senior management team, I realized that I felt like there was an opportunity to help other people go through this from someone who's been through it, so I actually started something called Optimize Entrepreneurs and it's this idea that if I can help entrepreneurs optimize their sleep, optimize how [00:14:00] they eat, optimize their training and their performance, then they can actually build a better business and have better results, like taking care of themselves as their number one asset so that the business can then be built and be what it needs to be for them.
[00:14:13] Alexx: And so I started it as a passion project because one of the things that I noticed the second half of the story with my dad. Is we had to retire him out of the first company and it was a hard thing. He didn't want to leave the business, but he wasn't in a place to be able to keep [00:14:30] serving that company, but when he took time off from the company, And started working on his health and doing other stuff, even with multiple sclerosis, he actually got healthier and he started another business on the side and he might actually be close to exiting that business.
[00:14:46] Alexx: And what I realized is holy cow, if you can help an entrepreneur optimize their health to become their best self, they can keep doing incredible things and it doesn't have to be the end of the road. Even if it felt like it at some low point in their journey, and so seeing that with my [00:15:00] dad and seeing with myself, I was like, man, I would really like to spend my time helping other people do this because I see entrepreneurs as the value drivers of society.
[00:15:09] Alexx: And like the economic engines of society, they build the small businesses. And I feel like if we build better entrepreneurs, they'll build better companies with better teams, with healthier teams, which means better job opportunities. And I think that's the lever that shifts society from where it's at now.
[00:15:26] Alexx: So that's my goal with this.
[00:15:28] Chanelle: Oh, that's such a cool [00:15:30] vision. I love that. It's this one little piece that you as the visionary in your company can see all of the ripple effects that will have. And I think that's, you're spot on that. It's true that, it really matters that the entrepreneur takes care of themselves in all of those ways, so they can continue to serve.
[00:15:49] Chanelle: So that's awesome that you've been able to do that and to work on that. So your number three recent success then is aligning with your purpose. Now, this one I'm [00:16:00] excited to dive into. First of all I guess where I, what I want to ask first is how did you discover your purpose? And then how did this.
[00:16:08] Chanelle: change things for you?
[00:16:11] Alexx: That's a good question. I've spent a lot of time reflecting on purpose and how one figures out why they're on this earth and what they're here to do. And how do you know? I think a lot of that comes from self reflection and your [00:16:30] version of meditation or prayer or whatever.
[00:16:32] Alexx: And then I think another chunk of that comes from reflecting on what were you drawn to when you were younger? So when I was a kid, I always wanted to, I told my mom and dad, I wanted to be an inventor that I wanted to. Build stuff. I when I heard as an example in like third grade, I heard the story of Pearl Harbor, but I didn't know it was history.
[00:16:54] Alexx: I thought it was like present day, so I'm just a little kid. So I go out and I start building an airplane out [00:17:00] of like wood and other junk that was around the house. And then I had heard on like some TV show that you could drop pennies off of a building and it could like actually You know, kill someone because of the velocity or whatever.
[00:17:13] Alexx: So I was like, all right, I'm going to build an airplane. I'm going to raise an American flag. So they know that I'm with them and I'm going to bring pennies because I don't have bombs. And I had this whole plan for how I was going to get out and help people. Which is just like a crazy story of, how kids are.
[00:17:25] Alexx: But as I reflect on that as an adult, I'm like, man, I had this drive to [00:17:30] always help people and I had this drive to build things and to make a difference. And I always was interested in health as well. So I got really into health in high school and had my own health challenges that kind of. Threw off my chance to go to state and track and other things.
[00:17:47] Alexx: And working through that, I just started watching these different trends and I like the idea that everything happens for you, not to you. So I believe that God or the universe or you want to call it is always [00:18:00] directing you and that if you're aware of the signs, it's like those opportunities that come every six months, you can actually.
[00:18:07] Alexx: see the signs of your purpose. And if you can observe that and latch onto it, you can figure out why you're here. If that makes sense.
[00:18:14] Chanelle: Yeah, no, it does. And feeling like you are living in alignment with your purpose, which you said is one of your recent successes that has to just feel so good to know yeah, I'm doing what I'm meant to be doing.
[00:18:28] Alexx: It's yeah, it's huge. [00:18:30] And it's an accelerator. I think it's another thing where it's like, What are you optimizing your life towards? Because a lot of people end up trading their health for wealth, whether it's in a nine to five or in a job. And one of the reasons we sold the software company.
[00:18:46] Alexx: Which it was scary to do because it was a, such a successful business was also because we got it to this point and then we realized it wasn't doing what we wanted it to do in the world. And so then it's Oh my gosh, what kind of person are you? Are you [00:19:00] going to sit at the top of this thing and keep making money, but not be proud of what it's doing?
[00:19:05] Alexx: Or are you brave enough to take the leap and try and build something that you're actually, so we all chose to me and my brothers, you sell it and then try and jump into what we're actually passionate about and why we think we're here. And I would encourage everyone to do that. I think everyone has their version of making that decision.
[00:19:22] Alexx: Am I going to go to the nine to five even if I'm not in alignment with what we're doing, or am I going to go towards and figure out how to go [00:19:30] after what my heart's telling me I should do?
[00:19:32] Chanelle: Yeah. Yeah. And there's that. There's. The road, it's easier to do the first, it's easier to just stay where you are.
[00:19:42] Chanelle: And yet there's so much amazing stuff on the other side. So you've talked about these three different things. We've talked about selling the company, getting your health back, aligning with your purpose. Is there a common thread you feel like that has allowed you to have success in all of those [00:20:00] areas?
[00:20:00] Chanelle: And then in the one that we only touched on in your bio, which is helping your wife with her. with her preschool as well.
[00:20:07] Alexx: Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell the preschool story super fast because I do think it comes back to the common thread. Okay. My wife had this idea. She was an elementary school teacher.
[00:20:18] Alexx: She taught at a private school in Thailand. She taught at some public schools here. And then when our son was born when he was three years old, our oldest son, he got diagnosed with type one diabetes, which is an [00:20:30] autoimmune condition where something happens to your pancreas where it gets damaged.
[00:20:33] Alexx: It doesn't produce enough insulin anymore. So he's insulin dependent. and makes it difficult for him to go to a normal school because they can't manage his blood sugar very well. And it's like a 24 7 thing, And on top of that, we're really passionate about homeschooling and outdoor schooling and other things that we think are better for kids.
[00:20:50] Alexx: And so my wife was like I want to start a school, but I don't know how to do it. And I was like let's just build it together. This is your passion. It's your purpose. Let's go all in. And it's another one of those [00:21:00] things where it has multiple facets of like leverage. Like it helps our son.
[00:21:04] Alexx: It helps our community. It's in alignment with my wife's dream. So there's like a lot of benefit there. And so we put our heads together and we built a little outdoor preschool here in Hawaii where the kids could actually come spend all their time outside. They could make organic food and snacks together with teachers that actually cared about them.
[00:21:22] Alexx: Just like an amazing thing, right? And the community loved it. And that was one of the things that made me realize I really want to help other [00:21:30] entrepreneurs as well, because I saw her build her vision and then the joy she had when she walked out to her little schoolhouse, and I wanted to tell that really quickly because I think the thread, if I look at it is like having a service focused outlook, like how not, it's not like about chasing money, but it's about how do I help other people, there's that Zig Ziglar quote where it's if you can help enough other people get what they want, then you can have whatever you want, basically. And I'd never, that wasn't my [00:22:00] intention when I was doing all this, but I tried to train people early on because I just wanted to help them be healthy.
[00:22:05] Alexx: I started businesses because I was just trying to help. I would always tell college professors I'm going to be the guy that ends like obesity, I'm going to be the one that changes this. And then I went in to help my dad's business, not cause I was trying to make money out of that.
[00:22:19] Alexx: It was because I was trying to help my parents, and and then I helped my wife again, just because I was trying to help her. So I think. If you lead with trying to genuinely help people and care about them, [00:22:30] and you're aware of the value that you bring and how, and like constantly trying to get better, you will be pretty much unstoppable.
[00:22:38] Alexx: I think that's the threat. Yeah. Oh, I love that. I, and I think it, it goes with everything that you've said. I think that's why you're unstoppable and having all this success in the things that you're doing is because you are looking outward and your service focus. So that is wonderful. I think that we can end there.
[00:22:58] Chanelle: That's wonderful advice, but [00:23:00] any other advice that you would want to share with other people who are working to build their business?
[00:23:05] Alexx: Yeah, I definitely have advice. The last thing I'd like to say to everyone, and I really want to share this on this podcast because it helped me so much that Mike is this way.
[00:23:16] Alexx: Mike is genuine and he tells you the truth. about the ups and the downs and the ins and the outs. He doesn't just give the highlight reel and make it sound like everything's perfect, and I want to share with everyone that [00:23:30] if they thought what I said in this podcast sounds amazing, I want them to also realize that's There's always a story behind the story, there's still my dad suffering, there's still me struggling.
[00:23:42] Alexx: There's still my son getting type one diabetes, and then there's still ups and downs with all of the businesses. So I didn't get to go into it, but like my, our preschool has faced different obstacles, our software companies face it, like everything has challenges. And as amazing as this sounds, please just know that we're all human.
[00:23:59] Alexx: We all [00:24:00] have challenges, whatever you're going through is part of the journey as an entrepreneur. And the biggest thing is just to keep going. It's like consistency through the challenges.
[00:24:09] Chanelle: I love it. Okay. Thank you. I'm glad that you hit on that. Where can people find you and learn more about working with you?
[00:24:18] Alexx: I am not super involved with social media because our last company was a B2B fintech company. So I didn't really need social media, but if you would like to reach out, you can find me on Instagram. It's just [00:24:30] Alex, Alex.Leyva that's my Instagram handle and, or you can go to optimizedentrepreneurs.com.
[00:24:40] Alexx: And opt in for the pre release of the coaching platform that we're about to launch.
[00:24:44] Chanelle: Perfect. Okay. Thank you so much. You have shared so many good things here today. I think there's just gold in this episode. So thank you everyone for listening and we'll see you next time. Bye. Thank you.
