REAL AF with Andy Frisella - Lewis Howes' School of Greatness, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO61
Episode Date: April 26, 2016Lewis Howes is a lifestyle entrepreneur, podcast phenom, and the NY Times best-selling author of The School of Greatness. In this episode, he joins the MFCEO crew to discuss the power of vision, the a...dvantages of adversity, and what it really takes to pursue greatness.
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We're going to let the band deal with this.
Ha ha.
Mm-hmm.
M.I.A. style.
Ha.
Old school.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Shut up.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
What's up?
Shut up.
Uh-huh.
All right.
Hey, guys.
What's up?
You're listening to the MFCEO Project.
I'm Andy.
I'm your host, and I am the motherfucking CEO.
Guys, today we have an awesome show for you.
And I'm going to let Vaughn tell you all about it.
Yeah, guys.
Andy gets questions all the time about, Andy, should I go to school?
Should I go to college?
Is it worth it to get an education?
Well, in many cases, it's not.
In some cases, it is.
But there is one education that everybody wants.
And that is an education in the school of greatness.
And today, we have insanely successful entrepreneur, podcaster,
and the author of the New York Times bestselling book, School of Greatness,
Lewis Howes. Lewis, thanks for being here.
Thanks for having me, guys. This is an awesome setup.
Yeah. I feel like you're a visiting professor. Yeah, professor i'm the dean i'm the dean of the school that's
true you would be the dean yeah or the founder of the school and i facilitate yeah the great
professors who come to me yes yeah that's great so we uh you you should you should develop one
of those you know trump has trump university well that thing's bombed and it's like a scam so yeah
so maybe that wasn't maybe not that yeah yeah so but maybe something like that thing's bombed, and it's like a scram. So maybe that wasn't such a great idea.
But maybe something like that is real.
That's legitimate.
I'm excited because of the conversation.
I mean, just the conversation we've been having for the last 30 minutes has been exciting.
I'm excited to get some news. We should have put that up on the podcast.
I know, man.
I know.
Well, I was recording it.
Thanks.
I'll give blame for that.
We lost the audio for that one, too.
I was actually recording it on my iPhone, and I'm going to actually make it available to everybody for $19.95.
That's too low.
I need to price it higher.
Post it on some Instagram pages.
It's a guaranteed bestseller.
Yeah, that's true.
The uncensored MFCEO.
How would that work?
Is that such a thing?
Yeah, I don't think so.
So, guys, today we're going to make it all about Lewis, man.
You just wrote this awesome book, The School of Greatness,
number two on New York Times Best Seller.
Huge accomplishment.
Thanks.
Congrats, man.
That is a big deal.
I mean, that's something that I aspire to,
and I know a lot of people listening.
It's just one of those things that you dream about.
You know what I mean?
How does that feel?
It feels amazing, man.
But again, like we were talking about before,
for eight years, every week I would walk into a Barnes & Noble
and I would visualize and have the experience
of seeing my book on the front shelf right there
in the front of Barnes & Noble
and see New York Times on the cover.
So I experienced it over and over and visualized it.
You know, in sports, I used to watch game film all the time.
I don't know if you, did you play football ever?
Yeah.
We used to watch game film, especially in college football.
We'd watch it all the time.
And I would visualize, I would also watch game film of like Jerry Rice and the best receivers.
Right.
And experience myself as them.
And try to be like them when I go out to practice the next day.
So I just felt like I was running game film in my mind every single week
when I'd go and experience this.
And I said, what do I need to do this week to set myself up to make this happen?
And then I'd go out and execute.
It's been an incredible experience.
I mean, it feels really cool to say I'm a New York Times bestseller.
I would have never thought.
I almost flunked out of high school English.
There was a time you would have never thought that. There was a time where I never
thought that. I was like, you know, I can barely read and write. When I came here to St. Louis in
eighth grade to go to Principia Middle School, they gave me like a standardized test to get in,
right? And I had a second grade reading level. So I couldn't really read. I was a tutor the whole
time through middle school and high school.
And I almost didn't graduate because senior year I was just getting Fs in English.
I couldn't even do the simplest things in English.
And so I never had the security or the confidence in reading and writing and didn't think I was ever going to be able to do that.
Then in college, we just wrote a lot more five-page papers that I had to figure out how to knock out.
And I started to get pretty good at these shorter little blog posts type of content.
Right.
And just trained and trained and trained.
And eventually, 15 years later, I guess you can create something.
So what you're saying is a lot of hard work eventually pays off.
Exactly, yeah, yeah. If you do it consistently for 15 years. So what you're saying is a lot of hard work eventually pays off.
Exactly, yeah, yeah.
If you do it consistently for 15 years.
But getting serious, man, like the one thing I hear when I – we talked a little bit about this off the air,
and I am a huge believer in it,
and I think most people don't understand this concept,
but what you said that I found really interesting was
that you experienced it
over and over and over again. And at some point during that time, you came to expect that result.
Yeah. And so, you know, let's talk a little bit about like hoping for a result versus expecting
a result. Yeah. I think hoping for a result is never going to happen. Right. But again, for me,
I was, was uh you know
it's interesting we were talking about this before again how kind of like the world opens up to you
when you're very intentional about what you want and you you put the work in to make it happen
and I again I would go to Barnes and Noble every week and I would see my book on the front shelf
right there and it was funny about a year before my book came out, I just signed the deal. Um, and my brother goes, Oh, you know, by the way, one of my good friend's wife
is a buyer for Barnes and Noble. I was like, really, can you make an intro? So we ended up
having a lunch meeting and I told her my dream. I was like, my dream is to be in the first week
of my book comes out to be on the front shelf of Barnes & Noble.
And she's like, we're going to make that dream come true.
And I was just like, wow, just putting it out there and talking about it and talking about my vision and how powerful my vision is and the work I'd done to get to this place.
I enrolled her in my dream, and she was like, I'm going to help you make it happen.
Right.
You know, and the stars kind of aligned.
So, again, I had to put in the work.
It had to be a great product.
A lot of people will look at that from the outside and say, oh, that's luck or that's coincidence.
But when you have it happen enough, you learn to know that it's not.
You know, and we talk a lot on this show and have I've talked a lot about it on Periscope about the power of visualization.
Absolutely. And how important it is, you know, to train because a lot of people can't visualize.
Like when you first, it's a skill you have to develop.
A lot of people you tell them, hey, go visualize this.
They're like, Andy, I close my eyes and I see fucking black.
I don't see anything.
And I'm like, look, you're not going to be this excellent visualizer from the first day.
It's almost like it is a skill, for me at least.
Maybe some people are. It's definitely a skill. I skill, for me at least. Maybe some people are.
It's definitely a skill.
I mean, look at this way.
You were telling me when I walked in here, I was like, this is an amazing place, your facility.
And you go, yeah, but we're opening up a bigger place and we're consolidating, we're putting everyone together.
And you were describing in detail what the space was going to be, how big it is, what it's going to have.
It's going to have an astroturf.
It's going to have this.
You're telling me already what it's going to look like, but it's not
even created yet. Right. But you're
designing it in your mind and then
making it a reality. And if you're not able to design
something in your mind first,
then you're not going to create anything.
You're going to create like a box or something. Yeah, nothing.
Literally nothing. You're going to end up being the fish
that swims with the stream your
entire life. And you end up, where are you
going to end up when you swim down the river?
You end up in the bear's mouth.
Right.
You know what I mean?
That's true.
Lewis, what you just said reminded me of a great story
I heard about Walt Disney,
where he started construction on the first Disneyland,
but he died before the first day that it opened.
And somebody said to his brother,
you know, it's really a shame.
The first day it opened, it died?
I'm sorry.
He died before it actually
and somebody said to his brother you know it's just just tragic it's such a shame that he didn't
live to see this and his brother responded back walt saw it before anybody else did right that's
just a great that's a great story yeah yeah it's a great story but it's to your two guys that's it
man i think it's you know people always ask me and I know you get asked this all the time.
I mean,
we haven't even talked about this,
but I guarantee you,
you get the elevator talk,
right?
Dude,
what's the one thing?
What's the one thing?
And I really think,
I really honestly,
truly believe that developing that power to visualize and the power to believe
those visions as truth is gotta be the number one skill that someone can have.
This is it.
This is the,
I mean,
not to talk about my book right off the bat,
but this is the first principle.
You know,
there's,
there's eight principles of greatness from the school of greatness podcast.
I've interviewed all these people from all walks of life,
from a Olympic gold medalist to,
you know,
spiritual leaders to Tony Robbins,
to all these different people,
media moguls.
And they all have
these eight things in common that make them great this is kind of what I discovered the first chapter
the first principle is they have a such a clear powerful vision and they're able to see what they
want yeah you know uh Shawn Johnson Olympic gold medalist wasn't just didn't become a gold medalist
right for 10 years she saw that she wanted it and saw herself on the podium
and doing the performance in the Olympics.
And that's the same thing with you and your company.
20 years ago when you started,
you saw the vision for what you eventually wanted to create.
Bill Gates, all these guys, Steve Jobs,
they have a clear, powerful vision.
They're not just like, let's go tinker around and do something fun.
And hope something happens.
Yeah, they're like, no, here's what I want. Here's what I want it
to happen by. Right. And here's how we're going to make it happen. Right. And it sounds so basic,
right? Cause that's what like our teachers told us, but it's the truth. Yes. And, and I know for
sure you're on a different level and I could sense it just, I could feel it. And there's not many
people on that level. Cause I, I meet, I meet a lot of people and, and I could sense it. Just, I could feel it. And there's not many people on that level.
Cause I,
I meet,
I meet a lot of people and,
and I'm not trying to sound condescending or anything,
but I could tell what level they're on in regards to their understanding and
belief in,
let's say,
let's call it the law of attraction or the universe or God or whatever people
call it.
Energy.
Right.
I mean,
there's a million names for it.
Yeah.
You know, I'm to the point in my life where I'm so finely tuned that I have to be really,
really cautious about what I think about and focus on because it manifests instantly.
Negative and positive.
Exactly.
Yes.
It's like instant.
Because I bet you're just like me where I can be as negative with the best of them.
Yeah.
I can go into this negative cycle and be mean and nasty.
And that's why I practice these positive habits constantly.
And I surround myself with people who are loving and positive.
So I don't get into this,
like I want to kill people like mentality or whatever,
like get back at people,
you know,
it's like,
that's why habits are so important.
It's staying healthy.
It's like we can get off track so easily.
If we don't have a trainer or a support group,
something to keep us grounded and consistent.
And it becomes a negative spiral.
We just talked about how it's gone through that.
Exactly, yeah, yeah.
So, Lewis, I was telling you a little bit about,
so last night I got about an hour and a half of sleep
because my wife delivered our second child.
You look awfully handsome for an hour and a half.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate it.
Well, I'm here because I'm pretty excited.
Where's your baby?
His wife had a baby on Monday.
He was here on Tuesday.
Wow.
He's a soldier, man.
So it didn't happen last night.
The baby wasn't born last night.
No, no, no.
I was like, yeah.
The baby got really fussy last night.
But as I was reading your book, the vision part just grabbed me a lot.
And as I was reading it, a quote that popped into my mind that I had heard elsewhere was a guy named C.S. Lewis said that the mind is the organ of truth, but the imagination is the organ of meaning.
And I just – one of the things I did to pass the time as we were waiting for my wife to go into labor was I took an IQ test.
And I scored pretty well, and I was pretty happy with myself.
Well, then I Googled it and found out that there is literally no correlation between someone's IQ and their level of success because people always think about the smarter you are,
the more successful you'll be. But, but what I, what I really resonate with was you were saying
that really the people that are successful in a way they have really amazing imaginations.
Yes. They can connect with their meaning and their significance in life. And so
I love that. Like that was my favorite chapter easily.
Thank you.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
You know, high school and college was a challenge for me
because I based my worth on my GPA results.
What we're taught to base it on.
Exactly, right?
And so like I was always in the bottom four in high school.
And I was like, I would just love to be like in the 50% range.
Just give me like in the middle.
But I was always in the bottom four. It's dude i struggle hard too yeah so every time i got my
grade card back i was just like i didn't want to look at it because it was just i knew it was going
to be bad and that's why i was so driven in sports because i was like here's one thing i can attach
my identity to and become great at and get some worth from you know and get some acceptance and
acknowledgement from because i wasn't getting it anywhere else in my life. So I put all my focus into that. But I remember hearing the quote,
I think it's by Roosevelt, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
And I remember hearing that in high school and thinking, wow, I have a chance then because I
don't think I'm going to be smart book wise, like, you know, class wise and school. But I, I think I can understand people well,
and I can learn that skill and have emotional wisdom and people wisdom. Yeah. And that I think
is going to make me, you know, much more abundant and wealthy of a person, human being, uh, and
successful when I'm emotionally smart. Yeah. Which by the the way, if you were listening close, is a skill.
Yes.
It's something you develop.
Oh, man, yeah.
You know, every...
They don't teach you in school.
No, they don't.
And some people have it naturally.
Some people are naturally charismatic,
naturally loving and caring about anybody.
Like, my wife's like that.
You know what I mean?
She is, like, so selfless, so caring, so over the top,
you know, to the point where, where like I feel like a piece of shit because I'm like, dude, like how do you do this?
Yeah.
But, you know, you can learn how to be more of those things.
Sure.
And it doesn't really take a lot, man.
It takes like, you know, your ability to listen, really.
I think it takes ability to listen, but also the awareness of like figuring out what's important to you. And most people have
put their importance on making money only or like their level of success and what's in it for them,
as opposed to contribution and being generous. And I think you could appreciate this specifically
from like your experience and your past as a pastor is like, you're all about giving and
generosity and contribution. That's like the come from, from a lot of pastors is like, how can I
serve the highest? And I know you are doing that as well in your, your business and your mission
is to serve. But, uh, I think a lot of people in their early twenties, specifically men are like
driven by money and success and fame or acknowledgement as opposed to how can I
continue to give and
contribute?
And I think when we come from that space, like everything shifts fulfillment wise internally
and people notice us differently and like really want to be around us when we come from
that space.
Like you want to be around your wife because she's giving and everyone wants to be around
her because she's so supportive and giving.
Well, it's a paradox, right?
So Tyler and I, we just recorded our Thursday Thunder, which airs today,
which was the last Thursday, so this is Tuesday now.
You guys listened to Thursday Thunder a few days ago,
and we just talked about what you just said about how – and I'm going to relate this to business because we talk about business a lot.
You know, why so many people struggle in business is because they're so focused on what's in it for them.
Exactly.
And if you can understand that business is about what you can give and what problems you can solve and who you can help, now you're talking about real business.
You'll make more money than anyone if you can solve the biggest problems.
And they love you.
Yeah, exactly.
And you feel fulfilled and you feel good about driving a nice car or living in a nice house or whatever it is you want to do with your money
because you did it by helping people,
which in today's day and age of social media,
instant reviews, Craigslist, Angie's List, you know, a trip advisor, all this shit that people
can instantly feedback. It's really become the only way to become successful. You know what I
mean? Because if you're going to go out there and try to just make it about you, the word's going
to get out pretty quick that, Hey, this dude's in it for himself. And I don't really want to
contribute to whatever it is he's doing now more than ever. There's so much transparency in the world that you have to be a good human.
Otherwise you're going to suffer.
Right.
You can't just fake it and like put power over people.
That's right.
There's too many eyeballs all the time.
And we were talking about this beforehand.
We're like,
you know,
we won't say names,
but we're like,
there's people in the social media world and Instagram who are doing things.
We're like,
they're going to fade out quickly.
They might not be making a quick buck and making some good money now, but with the level of
integrity that they're doing it, it's not going to pay off long-term. That's right.
What pops into my head from reading your book that I think is really relevant to this
is your statement. It's not just having this personal vision statement about what you want
to do. It's this personal vision statement of who you want to be. And I think that's the people that get it understand that goals flow out of character. Yeah, it does.
Yeah. I mean, it's all about our way of being. And it's something that I've learned over the
years as well. I didn't really know this and I wasn't really practicing this because I wanted
to achieve certain things. I wanted to have certain things, but it really, it's about being,
it's about be, do, have. It's not about once I have this, then I'll be this person.
Once I have the car or the house, then I'll be happy.
It's like, no, be happy.
Do the things that make you even happier, that serve people,
and you'll have everything you want.
That's so true.
There's so much.
I call it being on the other side of the mountain.
Like when I was on the front side of the mountain
and I'm looking up at the mountain of success,
and not that I'm at the top by any means, I got a long way to go.
Sure. But I just use the analogy, right? You know, when I was starting, I thought differently.
And now that I've had a little bit of success in my life, I look back and how true that is.
Like I struggled and struggled and struggled and struggled until I figured out what you just said.
Right.
You know what I mean?
And then it took me years too,
man.
It was like,
but then once I figured it out,
it like,
it was like instant.
It was like,
the challenges,
you know,
I was achieving all my dreams and sports and business.
You know,
I'm,
I'd sold a company for seven figures.
I was everything I wanted to achieve athletically.
I pretty much achieved,
but I was always unfulfilled when I did it.
Right.
10 minutes after I was like, man, fuck this. I was like, I was mad. I was like angry that pretty much achieved. But I was always unfulfilled when I did it. Ten minutes after, I was like, man, fuck this.
I was mad.
I was angry that I achieved it.
And I was like, I didn't understand why.
And I also remember that I just used to be driven to prove people wrong
as opposed to inspire or serve.
I still have that.
Yeah, I mean, you can have it a little bit.
But I think you still need to be like, okay, I have a mission to create the best company and to create the best product that's going to make people healthier and happier.
You're competitive.
You learn how to direct those emotions.
You can still be competitive in a way, but I think when you're doing it in spite of people or to make people wrong or to prove them wrong, yeah, it's going to feel good for a little bit.
Right.
And yeah, it's going to give you incredible energy and drive.
Right.
It gave me like the most incredible drive.
Right.
But then it was like the flame burned out and I was just empty inside.
You know what I mean?
Like the problem with that.
And I know from,
I mean,
many,
many times experience of,
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Right.
And we've done that plenty of times.
And, you know, the minute they closed, it was like my fire went away.
Yeah, that's a lot.
Right.
Exactly.
Okay.
And I know people probably hear that.
I've got to go beat someone else up now.
Right.
People probably hear that and they're like, God, we're talking about real fucking life here.
Right.
That's business.
I want to fucking crush people.
Something you've said before, Andy, too,
is that that whole wanting to prove somebody wrong,
that works on a micro level, but it doesn't work on a macro level.
No, it's the same thing that Lewis said.
It's temporary.
Yeah.
Let me give you a real world example,
because I know people are listening here
and we're talking about concepts.
Let me tell you how I how this clicked for me.
Our first eight or nine years in business, we owned a we owned retail supplements.
So we worked at the counter.
People will come in.
My goal was always to sell them shit.
Right.
During that time, we always struggled.
We always struggled.
I got so, I would get so angry
because we never really got any growth.
We never really grew.
Business was kind of flatlined and that was it.
And I got so tired of it that I just stopped caring.
I'm like, fuck, I don't care if I sell anything.
And so what happened was when I flipped that switch
People will come in and I started telling them the honest to God's truth. Hey, you don't need this
This is what you should do. Hey, you don't need to do that
This is what you should do even if it meant me selling less product
Okay, and what happened people went out and they got fucking better results and guess what?
I can't come buy more from you our Our business grew. Telling people about it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so what, and I figured it out on accident out of frustration, but, but now that I've
experienced it and then that, you know, that was 10 years ago and I've seen the growth
we've had since then.
I'm sold a hundred percent.
You know that this dude, this life is all about caring about other people.
It's all about what you can give. And the more you give,
the more you're going to get. And there's not one person on earth that could convince me otherwise
that I believe that I think it goes back to what you're saying, which is most people aren't clear
on who they want to be on what they want to stand on principles. And listen, I'm not perfect. And I
have, you know, my vision and my principles that I, uh, you know, stand upon, but I slip up on, slip up. I'm out of integrity. I think as
long as we're human beings, we're going to be out of integrity at some point in our lives.
And so we can't say to be like, I'm going to be perfect every single day. That's just too
much pressure on ourselves. But I think it's being aware. You had Gary Vee in here recently,
and he's all about awareness right now and talking about that. But it's true. It's like
being aware of like, you know what? I'm not being my best today. So what am I grateful for today? What can I work on and how can I be
better tomorrow based on the principles that I said I want to live by? And so I think it's
important for us to have a vision and have principles. And again, these are basic things
that everyone should know and should learn. But if we don't have a vision, if we don't have a
statement of write down of what we want, whether it be three months, six months, a year, anything, then we have no clue
where we're heading. So it's really important for us to constantly evaluate what do I want to create
in my life, my business, my relationships, my health, and how am I going to get there and be
very clear about it. Otherwise, we're just going to be a mess and unfulfilled. Yeah, absolutely.
So for those who haven't read the book, and if you haven't, you should,
you actually listed four or five of your vision principles.
Yes.
Do you want to touch on those?
I don't even know what they are right now, to be honest.
But I know they're in the book.
But for me, it's really about coming from love.
I think one of them was coming from love uh as often as i
can because i can be a guy that can get quickly angry or frustrated if i want to be my you know
trigger is defensiveness because as a kid i grew up being bullied you know i was sexually abused
by a man that i didn't know i was always i was like six four when i was like 10 years old so i
was just this ugly gangly goofy looking kid that was dumb, that couldn't speak in class, that couldn't read and write.
So I would always get defensive and try to fight back.
Anytime someone tried to give me a jab, whether it be in sports or in life, I had to puff my chest up and defend myself to be like, no, you're not going to abuse me.
And so for me, it's always come from a place of love in every situation,
even when someone's – listen, if someone's trying to kill me,
I'm not going to come from a place of love.
I'm going to defend myself.
But that's just never going to happen, rarely, right?
There's always situations that I feel like someone's attacking me
that I can come from a loving, neutral place
as opposed to getting nasty in their face and coming back to them.
I never feel good when I
respond the way someone acts towards me in a negative way. So come from love for me is
something I'm working on again. I'm never perfect. And I think another one for me is like always give
my best, always give my best. I don't want to go through life regretting, not trying something,
not going after something because I'm afraid of it.
So I'm always going to give my best.
And I think at the end of the day, if I give my best,
I know that, like, hey, that's all I could do is just show up and give my best.
So those are a couple for me.
Yeah.
And when he says give your best,
we're not talking about the whiny, I gave my best.
I tried really hard.
No, I'm talking about leaving it on the field.
That's right.
We're talking about really giving your best.
No energy, heart and soul.
There's a difference.
Because in society, it's become, oh, I tried my hardest.
It's become this whiny proclamation of mediocrity.
And I know exactly what you're saying.
And you guys need to understand who are listening.
When he says says and this
is a very successful man who has accomplished a lot at a very how old are you just turned 33 33
years old okay he means leave it all on the field when when your your best is your best and you've
got to train that voice in the back of your head that you know it is come down i don't like to use self-awareness
because i feel like it's getting so fucking worn out you know what i mean it is so many people are
using that term now yeah because gary beats it out there yeah and i love gary yeah but it's so
you know so many people just want to like be like oh yeah self-awareness and i'm like dude
explain that to me and they're like well know, my shirt's not wrinkled.
I'm like, no, motherfucker, that's not what we're talking about.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, of course.
But it is self-awareness.
I'll give an example.
And again, not to like brag or something,
but when I was 20, what was I, 25, I think it was,
2008, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing,
there was a sport on.
I just got off my cast off.
I was done playing arena football.
I had to retire from an injury.
So I was kind of depressed.
I was sleeping on my sister's couch.
I didn't know what I was going to do next in my life.
And I was trying to figure out how to make money.
I had no clue what I was doing.
And I was watching the Olympics to get inspired.
This is in the summer of 2008.
And I remember seeing this sport called team handball on late at
night one time. And I was just so fascinated by this sport. And my dream was always to be in the
Olympics as a kid. And I didn't know how I was going to make it. But I saw this sport and it was
like, okay, that's a that's a possibility. Like I could potentially make the USA national team in
there. And then we could potentially make the Olympics. So in my mind, I was like, this is a dream of mine I've always had. If I don't at least go for it and see what's
possible, I'm going to regret this for the rest of my life. And I need to make sure I live it all
in the field to see what was possible so I don't regret this. And I didn't have any money, and I
moved to New York City a couple years later. I was like, I'm going to have to make money,
and I'm going to move to New York City to learn the sport because that's where the team was to practice.
And I moved to a new city. I was the only American on the team. It was like 16 different countries
representing the team. It was people that were professional handball players from around the
world. And in nine months, they like took me under their wing. I trained with them every week. I made
the USA national team. We didn't qualify for the 2012 Olympics,
and I continued training for the last four years.
We didn't qualify for this Olympics 2016.
And so now I'm evaluating,
do I want to spend another four years of my life
training for something
where the chances of us making it are basically none?
It's like maybe 1% chance.
If the Olympics were in the United States,
I'd be an Olympian because we'd have an automatic qualifier, but they only take one country from North and South America. And just the way our federation is set up, we don't have the funds
or the training. And these other countries have 10 years on us of training. So it'd be really hard
to qualify. And, uh, but I'm not the point where I'm like, you know what, I've given my best.
I put the last six years of my life
into building a business
and playing on a USA national team
at the same time
and sacrificing having fun,
going to parties,
being with friends,
months at a time,
to be in Spain,
to be in Argentina,
to train in subpar training standards
in dorm rooms, essentially, living in the gym
because that's the type of money that the USA National Team has.
But I'm at the point where I'm like, you know what?
I've given my best, and I gave it everything
because that was a dream of mine.
And most people would try for like a week and be like,
ah, it's too hard.
Dude, you made the point I was just getting ready to say.
Like I was going to say.
Like that's too much. That, you made the point I was just getting ready to say. Like I was going to say. Like that's too much.
That is such a huge difference between people who are very successful
and people who end up just kind of going with the flow
is how long they're willing to invest before they say,
I gave my best.
Six years on that.
Six, seven years.
Six years.
It took me 10 years to make over 40 grand in our business.
You know what I'm saying?
And people are always like, and I get these emails a lot, man.
Andy, I've been doing this for a year and I just don't.
I'm like, dude, a year ain't shit, bro.
Yeah, stick it out.
Yeah, that's right.
And I think that's such a defining characteristic amongst people who are successful
is how long they're willing to endure until they say, dude, I gave it my best.
It's interesting.
You know, do you watch The New Girl?
It's a TV show called The New Girl.
I don't think I've seen it.
My wife and I watched the first series.
It's a really popular.
It's hilarious.
It's a hilarious pop of the show on TV.
I don't really watch TV, but I'll watch it every now and then
because the guy Schmidt, who's one of the main characters,
he's like the funniest guy on TV.
He works out at the CrossFit gym that I used to work out at.
So I would train with him every now and then
because I'm in the Hollywood,
so all the actors are there or whatever.
And I remember having...
You look Hollywood.
Right.
That's what I'm saying.
Lewis has got that Hollywood look.
I'll take it, I guess.
Yeah.
And I would train with him.
And then one day we were having a smoothie. I'm still trying to get him on the podcast
but he's been pretty busy
his name is Max and one day
we were having a smoothie afterwards together
and I just like he came and sat next to me for like 30 minutes
and we were chatting and I go dude how long you been
in this game in Hollywood like trying to
make it because I never heard about you before
the new girl the show he goes I've been
out here busting my butt
for 10 years before I got this gig and he's about you before the new girl of the show. He goes, I've been out here busting my butt for
10 years before I got this
gig. And he's like, I was
like, did you ever think you wanted to quit?
He goes, every freaking year because
but then I would get like a little gig
that would pay me just enough to get
by the next couple months. And like I'd get a little
win and a little win. And it just
kept me in the game for 10 years. And now
he's like the biggest
you know star on tv one of the biggest guys on tv right now making bank definitely one of the
most unique characters one of these unique characters and he's like everything prepared
me for this moment it was all uh i call it like you know reps you're just getting like practice
reps for the real thing and that's what i look at my life right now everything is a practice rep for like when oprah calls when whatever the president
calls when whatever it's like a practice rep for all the news all the interviews for when like the
big dogs show up or whatever it's like are you doing a big job bro well yeah but i mean it's
like you know it's a whole nother level when you're on tv all the time all these other things
it's like this is practice reps the way I look at it.
I see you hustle, man.
Yeah.
I appreciate it.
This man's got, this man's got grade A plus hustle.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
For real.
Lewis, let me take you back just for a second because I know you talked about your struggling
school early on.
You talked about the, the, the abuse and different things.
And this is a, this is a, a topic that's not only addressed in your book.
It's something that Andy hits a lot. and this is the whole issue of adversity.
And I'm actually not exactly sure how I'm going to phrase my question,
but basically you look at this connection between adversity and success.
And adversity is absolutely 100% necessary.
I heard a great quote the other day that said that the World War II was
actually won during the Great Depression because it forged all of the character that would end up
leading those men and women to basically fight off Hitler and the war. But so Annie and I talked
about this the other day is that whether it's entrepreneurs or everyday Joes or even like
Christians in America, we don't know what adversity really is.
I mean, the average person.
I guess my question to you is talk a little bit about why you think that's so necessary
for the forging of greatness, which it appears that that's what you think.
And then the second thing is because we do have a lot of prosperity in America,
I mean, there are obviously a lot of people who are struggling,
but because we do have the prosperity, are we almost have a lot of prosperity in America, there are obviously a lot of people who are struggling, but because we do have the prosperity,
are we almost at a disadvantage from people in third world countries
who are just forced to forge that character?
That's a great question.
I'll try to answer in many different ways,
but the first way is a lot of entrepreneurs,
I feel like the reason they don't have what it takes
is because they haven't been through adversity in their early childhood or they haven't been through it
as an athlete that's why I feel like
athletics and sports gave me the best advantage
to be an entrepreneur because
every day in football you're wearing pads
especially in St. Louis man it was miserable
like in the summers here
oh my gosh man the three days
in the summer just that alone
it's like the closest thing to boot camp you can think of
for a civilian probably.
And just every day, the mental challenges you have to overcome from the coaches, your teammates, the game time situations, the pressures.
You know, I was facing that every day, every week for my whole life.
So for me, I felt like I had the advantage because I've already trained my mind to overcome adversity. And all
the people that I interview, the people that make it to the top in sports and business, they all
have to overcome adversity. I think when you have a big dream, if you're just living like an average
life and you're just walking through doing the average, you're not going to face much adversity.
But if you have a big dream, the challenges are going to come your way. You don't have to look
for challenges. You don't have to look for challenges.
You don't have to say, I need to find adversity so I can overcome it or something.
It's going to happen.
When you went from a superstore nutrition tour to saying, I'm going to open a warehouse and then become one of the biggest supplement companies in the world, it's going to happen because you don't know the things you need to know yet to get that big.
Yeah, I never really thought about it that way.
That's a great way to think about it.
The bigger the dream, the bigger the adversity
that's coming your way.
That's why there's always going to be new adversity
the more we grow.
Right.
And so when the great leaders embrace it,
you know, Steve Jobs, when he decided to take back Apple
and create the iPhone, it was like a new product
that he had never done that was adversity.
And it's just constantly evolving. Every athlete once you reach the top it's like i gotta stay
at the top there's new adversity coming your way constantly new pressures so the greatest
individuals know that adversity is coming and they know how to embrace it as opposed to shy away from
it i think i think too they i think they look at it as just like,
you know,
you,
you and I both come from an athlete background.
And I think,
you know,
because of that,
I personally,
and you could tell me if you agree or disagree,
but I personally look at that as I welcome it.
You know,
I look at it like,
Hey,
no different than,
Hey,
I'm in the weight room and I got to train.
Exactly. You know what I mean? Yeah. And, and i know that the more adversity that i deal with and
overcome that makes me better than the next guy you know yeah and and i so the only way you're
gonna get better is through pain right the only way arnold got bigger was through tearing the
muscle and dealing with adversity and life is the same way it's the same way but so many people will take that adversity and go cry and pout and they think
it's only them or the like i said on on a thursday thunder the world hates me the world doesn't
fucking hate you it doesn't love you either the world just is yeah you know what i mean and it's
you and uh i mean dude well here's the thing you can i think you can choose for the world to hate
you if that's your belief and the world does hate you exactly or you can say you know what the world
loves me and every day come from the world loves me the world loves me and the world will show up
with love right so it's neutral and you choose what it is what to see right yeah exactly yeah
yeah man i i i dig that i think that. I think that the whole adversity concept is people want to skip it.
Yeah, I think we need to start welcoming it more and more and say, listen, I'm going through challenges right now in my business.
I'm growing. I've got 10 people on my team right now.
I've always been like a guy with one or two assistants or people on my team,
kind of like a smaller solo entrepreneur. But now I'm like, wow, things are building and I want to
grow and I have a bigger vision. And I've never handled that many people. So for me, it's like,
I've got to learn a whole new skill about how to handle 10 people and logistics. And with me
traveling four days a week, it doesn't sound hard, but it's hard. It's challenging people.
It's very hard when you're paying money every, you know,
premium price for employees every single day,
how do you know what they're doing?
If they're producing and you're like, oh, the money's coming out,
but where's it going?
It's like you've got to learn a whole new skill of adversity
that comes your way and still be on top of your game
when you do interviews or when you're creating the product
or whatever you're doing.
I still got to be on my game and ready for what I'm doing in life.
Yeah.
So it's just a, you know, you got to welcome the challenge.
And for me, I'm like more reinvesting in so many things that I'm like, I've never done
this huge conference that I'm going to put on at the end of the year, but I have a vision
to make an annual event to bring the podcast to life.
And it's like, okay, I got to learn new things and there's going to be adversity and challenges,
but it's going to make me a better human in the process.
Hell yeah, man. So would you guys go so far as to say, I mean, like if I
literally said it like this, it's, it's not just that pain and struggle are a normal part of the
pursuit of greatness. It's that pain and struggle actually produce the greatness. I think so. I
think pain, you don't have to suffer, but I think you need to experience pain. And that's why in my book, I talk about the power of experiencing pain every day to
build the threshold. And what I mean by that is like, you can simply just do a workout every day
and you'll experience pain if you push yourself hard enough. I think the more you train your body
and your mind to experience that amount of pain, it's not going to be painful when you face the adversity.
But I think that's something that's a necessary thing you need
to produce great results.
I mean, think about it.
Any great athlete, do you think they all just walked on
and had athleticism and they were 22-year-old phenoms
or they trained for years and years of pain to get there?
Well, that's the problem with society in general
is what we get presented to us.
The glorified story is the story of,
oh, Kobe Bryant signs right out of high school
because he's a freak.
But what they don't tell you is that Kobe Bryant
has been hustling since he was five years old.
And he's the hardest worker on earth.
Hardest worker.
I was at the gym today with Shawn Stevenson,
your mutual friend,
and we got there, I don't know, at with Shawn Stevenson, your mutual friend. Yeah.
And we got there, I don't know, at 8 o'clock.
And right when we get in there, there's a basketball court.
So me and him decided to, like, warm up and play basketball.
There was a guy there with a tank top and just his headphones,
literally shooting, like, a five-foot shot, set shot,
just practicing over and over and going around the rim,
shooting the shot, like, five feet away. he looked like a jacked like stud like some
st louis like slew college player that was like that guy is like a stud looking but he was just
doing the most boring shot over and over right when we were there just playing basketball then
we went up to the gym and he was still doing this shot the same shot over and over then i went to
the shower he's still doing it then i left i'm dressed and showered and we're coming here he's still doing the same shot for an hour and a half and I'm like this guy is dedicated
he's doing stuff that maybe it's not painful but it's like it's not fun it's you know you know
what's you know here's the the greatest parallel to that though is that and this is I use this all
the time and if my guys are gonna be listening to this podcast because I use this all the time. And if my guys are going to be listening to this podcast,
cause I know they do,
but that's what wins fucking games.
It's it,
man.
You know what I'm saying?
I was like at the end of the game,
the championship,
he's going to score life.
Yes.
It's doing the fundamentals perfectly over and over consistently ever.
Like dude.
And I teach my guys that all the time.
I'm like,
look,
this is not about fucking three froze.
It's not about three 60 reverse dunks, three pointers. Yeah. Fucking layups. Yeah. You know, over and throws. It's not about 360 reverse dunks.
Three pointers, yeah, yeah. It's about fucking layups.
Yeah, yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Over and over.
That's right.
If you never miss a layup in life, you'll win.
You'll win big.
And that's, dude.
You don't need grand slams.
No.
And that's, right, you know, that's the thing.
And, you know, it just doesn't get any simpler than that.
And, you know, getting the fundamentals down and getting them –
and it doesn't matter whatever you're doing,
whether it be working at a Fortune 500 company, a CEO of that company,
or you're making French fries at McDonald's.
It doesn't matter.
You can practice this habit that we're talking about at whatever you're at.
It's a habit of perfection of the little things.
And if you're at McDonald's and you're cooking French fries right now you know it's not the glorious the most glorious thing in the world
but dude everybody in this room has done shit jobs that they didn't want to do and developing
a habit of making those french fries perfect every single time is going to be carried with you to the
next thing and then the next thing and then the next thing and eventually you'll be teaching that habit you know what i mean and that's it's that simple yeah you started off
these 20 years you've been doing this right andy and you started off just with a store for 10 years
making 40 grand a year or whatever right doing the same things over and over you didn't start
off with the warehouse and however much money you're making now and just like oh let's start
a warehouse and do this thing it's like you built the foundation and the habits and really the truth of it is a lot of people here
you know we've been doing it for 17 years and like fuck that's a long time but remember the first 10
i totally fucked off right so until i got my head out of my ass that was really only the last seven
years yeah you know what i mean it's pretty fast then in seven years exactly so like let's take
the first 10 years where all i cared
about was making enough money to get drunk and go out and chase chicks exactly you know what i'm
saying and then let's say when i got serious and when i got serious shit happened you know what i
mean but i got serious about making sure that every single person i interacted with not in my
store everywhere walked away saying damn dude i like that guy i want to be friends
with that guy i want to shop with that guy i want to do business with that guy yeah i've got a it's
a 24 7 thing i did a speech uh a while ago and i have the the whole thing on my uh my screen
saver right now because i haven't taken it off it's called the seven daily lessons for having it
all and i did it i gave it for a bunch of entrepreneurs who are making eight,
you know,
seven,
eight figures a year in their business and they're having it all in their
business,
but they don't have it all in the rest of their life.
Right.
And I took the lessons from the school of greatness book and I put it into
kind of these,
these other lessons.
And one of the things that all these great people do is they make sure to
make someone else's day every single day.
And that's just what you talked about.
It's like, don't just make your customers' days,
but make everyone's day every single day.
And that's free.
It doesn't cost you money.
You can smile.
You can hug someone.
You can say hi.
You can give them a high five.
Be kind.
Yeah, exactly.
And I would tell people this, okay,
because people, here's the rebuttal to that.
People will say, because people have rebuttaled everything right we're on the internet we know this of course right right
especially online they'll say andy but aren't you you're telling you're telling me to manipulate
people for your own good no i'm not because when you first start doing this it'll feel that way
because it's not natural for you to do and what'll happen is you'll get so much pleasure out of doing
it that it becomes a habit of who you are.
I get so much stuff for free. So many upgrades just for walking up and smiling and be like,
how was your day? And like, just being joyful. Thank you. Yes. You know, it's courteous.
Dude, how simple. Yeah. You, you guys would not believe. And I I've experienced the same thing,
especially at hotels. How far saying thank you to people gets you.
You know what I mean?
That's it.
Lewis, I have to tell you that one of the things I noticed about your book was it's funny how some people, when they write a book, they'll name drop, you know, oh, I happen to know this famous person.
Your book was exactly the opposite. The way that I felt like you talked about other people, you were like, look how awesome this person is.
Not that I know them, but that look at the lesson of their life and what they have to share.
And I was really impacted by not just what you said, but how you said it and the way that you illustrated it in other people's lives.
But I want to put, because I know we're, you know, this isn't just a motivation podcast.
This is an entrepreneur podcast.
And I'm curious, Andy.
I want to say something about what you just said.
Oh, sure.
Go ahead.
So keep what you're thinking about.
Yeah, yeah.
Because I'll answer that.
But that's where you really tell the cream of the crop from the fakers to me.
Right.
Because so many people out there right now value their social, quote unquote, social leverage so much that they want to take other people's information and not steal it, but they want to like use it to leverage themselves to prop themselves up as opposed to saying, wow, look at this person and look what they've done.
And this is a great story and a great example because they don't want to like lend that credibility 100% because they're afraid if they do, then their people are going to go follow that person or something. You know
what I mean? And doing it the way that he's, that he's done it is the selfless real way of doing it.
So I hope when you guys read the book, you pick up on that. You know what I mean? Because a lot
of people won't fucking do that. They won't put their name behind somebody in that sort of way
that you're describing
because they're like living in a scarcity mindset like they want all the attention here's the thing
that i've learned over the years you know i wasn't always this way but i started to learn that there's
so much abundance for all of us like i can have someone on my podcast and promote who does the
exact same business same courses it's only gonna help you it's not gonna take away from like me
and there's other people i see in the space that are scared.
They're scared to promote people or whatever it may be or talk about them because they
don't want their audience to leave them or something.
Right.
I've seen that a lot.
Yeah, I've done over 300-something episodes with people and my audience grows.
Right.
And yeah, people tell me, thank you for introducing me to this person.
I bought their book and I love their stuff now awesome you should like i want you to find the right
information because i don't know it all right these are experts that's why i'm bringing them on
right um but hopefully you'll keep trusting me to come back for more right you know what i mean so
tremendous value in that and it's genuine value yeah and you're the same thing you know
you don't sell just your product, right?
You sell other people's products.
You have other stores, right?
I don't know if you talk about that here.
A lot of people don't realize that, but we actually distribute third-party products all over the country.
All over the place, all your stores.
We're vertically integrated, so anything that we do.
And I asked you, I was like, oh, that's great.
You own the retail store, so you just put all your products in the front of the store.
And you're like, no, actually, we do the opposite.
We want people to choose the best product.
And I was like,
wow,
that's amazing that you have that as opposed to let's just make this all
about our product and sell,
sell,
sell.
We can make more,
um,
you know,
off the top from our product and other products.
Obviously you're going to make more of a cut,
but you're like,
no,
that's like the opposite.
We want to make people choose.
We'll play a long game.
We want people to come back.
And you're like,
we didn't want to create,
we want to make sure that our product continues to get better so people just have to buy it.
Right.
We don't need a front store placement.
That's right.
And trick people or just shove it down their throats.
And again, you're living in a world of abundance.
We're the only product out there.
We're the only supplement product out there that fully guarantees everything that we sell 110%.
So if you were like a scammer, you could actually make money buying our products.
You know what I mean?
We have less than 1% return.
Great.
You do a lot of sales.
I know that.
Which is less than national average of 4% on retail.
Well, while we're on the subject of promoting things that we believe in, we do want to tell
people-
You're going to talk about me again?
Yes.
No, I was actually-
No.
We're going to tell people. You're going to talk about me again? Yes. No, I was actually. No. We're going to talk.
Guys, if you haven't checked out Lewis's website, it's lewishow.com, L-E-W-I-S-H-O-W-E.com.
And the book is School of Greatness.
And then, of course, you've got a couple other ones, LinkedIn Networking.
Yeah, I've got a LinkedIn book and a webinar book.
Those are more smaller books.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
But definitely check them out.
Check out the podcast, which is also called
The School of Greatness, right? That's it.
So here's the question I was
going to direct to Andy. A lot of
times, because I handle this aspect
of the MFCO, we'll get emails and
we'll get somebody trying to be on the podcast, and they'll
say something that almost invariably
lead with,
we have this huge social media following or whatever,
and I don't think what people have
learned about Andy yet is
that
when all is said and done
you really don't care about someone's
social media following. You have
people on the show
because they have a good story. I don't give a
fuck. Yes, exactly.
That's true. Does Vaughn ever swear
or no? We try to get him to. That's the whole joke.
You do? He has before.
Let's put it... He has before, but
he gets like... Would God be okay with that?
Well, there is a cuss word in the Bible.
Oh, really? What is that? Yeah, there is. It's in Philippians
chapter 4. It's... What verse?
4.12, I believe,
where Philippians says, or St. Paul says,
I consider everything scubala
compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whose sake I have counted everything a loss.
And what does scubala mean?
Scubala means it's basically the slang term for bull caca.
He won't even say it.
He will.
State of integrity.
Dude, I got him on Snapchat one day rapping Eazy-E,
and I caught him saying a cuss word,
and he's like, can't post that.
Can't post that.
Yeah, it's all good.
But no, it's a good dynamic.
He's setting an example for his kids.
It's great.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, I try to swear less, to be honest.
I find myself doing it too much, and I'm just like, eh, I could say it whatever that is.
I'll be honest with you, man.
This is almost going to sound egotistical, but it is what it is.
Since we started the podcast, I see people overusing the F word now and it's starting to get on my nerves.
Yeah.
Like now I'm like,
yeah,
is it really necessary?
Like,
I mean,
your ratio in one and four is very reasonable.
Here's the thing.
All of your 15 second videos at Instagram have fucking,
you better step up.
I know.
That's like the two times in the whole hour.
Here's the difference.
But see,
it's an art form though, but like, like that. And it's who you are. Look the whole hour you say it. Here's the difference. But see, it's an art form, though.
Of course.
And it's who you are.
Look, look, look.
Right, right.
Cursing the proper way is an art form.
It really is.
It's not just using it in a sentence for using.
People that put it in the wrong place or say it the wrong way or use it in the wrong order,
it annoys me.
Right.
So if you're going to curse, at least do it right.
Right.
Perfect your art
but here's i've got to perfect it here's something else all right this is totally off on a tangent
of curse words but i i was told the other day one of one of the guys that like dude here's one thing
that i really can't stand yeah that's all right dude if you put it if you like p like i would
never wear a shirt that said the word fuck on it right you know what i'm saying right well right
and so here's my point so i i i was with another client, and they were telling me about this person that
I mentioned.
She's fairly well-known in St. Louis.
And he went out with her and a couple of other people who are really upstanding members of
society.
And they were at the restaurant, and this woman was just dropping F-bombs left and right.
And so this guy said to me, and this is in front of a guy and his kids.
And so this guy said to me, so is Andy like that?
I said, not even remotely.
He has social acuity.
What do you call it?
Social acuity.
Like you know.
Social awareness.
Right, social awareness.
You know when you're supposed to do it and when you're not.
Dude, I give clean speeches.
Right, you give clean speeches.
I don't go to high school and I don't drop F-bombs.
But that kind of thing,
that's what annoys me
is when people don't understand
their environment.
Etiquette.
And they don't understand etiquette.
Yes.
So, but anyway.
I'm just being me on the show.
And that is how I speak.
Right.
It is.
It's your house.
You can do what you want.
Well, the thing is,
that's how we are around here.
So it's just how I am.
Yeah, of course.
But when you're overdoing it, or you don't know how to do it, just don't do it.
Right.
You know what I'm saying?
Or if you're doing it to try to prove something.
We're going to change the name to the Motherfudging CEO.
I think that'd be great.
So anyway, here was the point that I was going to make.
You would think it was great.
What was the question we were asking?
So here's the point that I was going to make.
What's your favorite curse word?
Yeah. was the point you would think it was great what was the question we were asking so here's the point that i was what's your favorite curse word yeah so i um i have like i said i've always told
people andy does not pick our guests based on their social media he picks them based on the
value that they provide in fact we've got a couple people on who literally have no social media
following in the past so what i wanted to ask you and, Andy, is obviously this is also for entrepreneurs.
What do you think, if you had to isolate it down to one thing,
what do you think is Lewis's greatest value?
What does he provide for our entrepreneurial audience?
Let me videotape this to see.
Let me get this on my blog now.
Well, I mean, let's be real.
Lewis is a pretty handsome guy.
He is.
He is.
He is.
I got to be honest with you.
I don't know if anybody has ever told you this.
I don't know why, but when I first saw you, I was like, that dude kind of looks like Tim Tebow.
Really?
Yeah.
Interesting.
Did you think so?
I've never gotten Tim Tebow.
I mean, Tim's a lot bigger.
He's jacked.
I get Michael Phelps a lot.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I get Eli Manning every now and then, but I'm like, those guys are both kind of goofy looking.
I'd have to see you in a Speedo for Tim Tebow.
You're better looking in both those guys.
Thank you. I always like, I feel like it's kind of a
I don't know. It's just because you're tall, dude.
Yeah. But, you know,
first of all,
what I like about Lewis is
that he
brings a balance
to
an even keel, and this is what we talked about
before we got on the air, even keel presentation
of the message. You know what I mean? And normally I would, normally I would argue,
and you guys have heard me say this, that you need to be on an edge or you need to be,
um, there needs to be something about you that makes that's different. You know what I mean?
And, and, and at first glance, when you look at Lewis, you know, you're clean cut, dude,
you're all American looking dude. And you're like, man you look at Lewis, you know, you're clean cut, dude, you're all American looking, dude.
And you're like, man, what's this dude about?
When you start talking, the principles that he talks about and especially on the mentality aspect of it, I think that's where you could teach and bring and touch people on the biggest aspect.
You know what I mean?
You don't see Lewis posted pictures of his Lambo
or this or that.
In fact, what is that thing you drive, man?
91 Cadillac.
That's pimpin', dude.
Eldorado, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I got it for four grand.
Dude, it's awesome.
But the mentality that he believes in,
that he talks about, that he's written about,
and that he talks about consistently in his speeches,
I believe is utmost crucial
to being successful.
You know, I think success starts in your brain 100% with your ability to visualize.
And it's ironic that you started your book that way because I haven't actually got to
read your whole book yet.
Right.
So it was, that was, people probably think that was planned, but it wasn't.
Right, right. was people probably think that was planned but it wasn't right right you know and uh i i just think
the way that he helps people see the process of becoming successful without just like i mean dude
i i get carried away sometimes i just pick on myself you know i get carried away with assuming
that people know shit and so i'm like oh just fucking get to work and they're like what does
that mean i'm willing to work, but how do I start?
And I get angry and I yell and this and that.
I just like the even keel simplistic way
that he brings his message to people
and I think that if you're looking for something
that you don't know where to go
or you don't know how to think
or you don't know where to start,
if you want to learn how the process works,
you need to buy the book.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It's a,
and you need to follow them on all,
on all platforms.
Yeah.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
I mean,
I love following you,
man.
You're my favorite follows.
Yeah.
So the two,
the two,
the two adjectives I would,
I would say the book so far strikes me as it's thought provoking,
but accessible.
And that's a,
that's a difficult thing to,
to achieve.
But so we have gotten a lot of requests for this.
It's not just that I want to pimp our social media.
But, Lewis, what is your Instagram account?
Is it just Lewis Howes?
Yeah, it's Lewis Howes on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.
Only thing on Snapchat, it's Lewis underscore Howes.
Okay.
Because I opened up an account like three years ago
and then deleted it, and I couldn't figure out my password.
Okay.
And it's at Andy Frisella.
Did you ever get your Snapchat changed?
No, it's still MFCEO-1.
Okay.
And I'm not that egotistical that I really want everybody to know mine,
but I've had requests for me to spell my name.
So, at Vaughn Kohler.
V-A-U-G-H-N-K-O-H-L-E-R.
There's nothing egotistical about people wanting to know who you are, man.
I know.
If you don't promote you, nobody else is going to promote you.
That's true.
I need to start wearing my –
You've got to be your biggest fan.
You know what I need to start doing?
I need to start, I don't know, pimping up my public persona.
So I need to start wearing –
You get like a look?
Yeah, I need some gold or bling or something.
I don't know if you're segwaying for us to wrap up right now if that's what you were doing with the whole
social media but uh i wanted to say something before we we do wrap up if that's what we're
doing but i'm happy to talk longer i don't know what what do we have tyler we have like a hour
hour yeah uh one thing i was gonna say is that uh you know you have this persona online for people that maybe follow you or that are listening and that think one way.
But, like, you really do care deeply about people.
I mean, you didn't even know me, but you reached out to me.
We were, like, texting.
And you're like, hey, how can I help with your book?
And this is the first time we're meeting in person.
Right.
I tell people that all the time.
And you were just like, I want to help however I can.
I'm going to buy, you know, 500 copies, whatever it was. Yeah, yeah. 500. Yeah. And I was just like, want to help however i can i'm going to buy you know 500 copies whatever it was yeah it's 500 yeah and i was like holy cap you know crap there's friends of mine
that i've had for years who wouldn't even like get me on their podcast and when they were just like
they were too busy or they want to promote me or whatever and here's a guy that's just like
cares deeply he sees what people are doing good work he wants to support people
and you showed up in a huge way.
And you did that for Gary.
You did it for me.
I do with people I believe in.
Exactly.
You know what I mean?
But it speaks volumes, you know?
It says a lot about who you are
and your level of caring.
Where some people may just be like,
oh, he's just a swearing,
loud mouth CEO,
just aggressive, bearded, tattooed dude who doesn't
give a shit about anyone, but you really care. And I can like feel that when I look into your
eyes and I really know you, you, you care a lot. I appreciate that. So I just want people to know
that are listening. I'm sure that everyone already does know that, but if you don't,
he's a guy that cares about his team. You know, the energy around here, the level of care is
really powerful. And I think people wouldn't want to stay around in a company.
If you're a CEO or building anything, you've got to make sure you care about the people around you and lift them up.
Otherwise, they're going to leave you or it's going to be a negative environment.
So you've got to really put that.
I think a lot of people that follow me, too, get the impression like they imagine what I like.
They run around screaming at my employees.
And sometimes I fucking do.
But let me tell you something.
There isn't a person that works in this organization that I don't care deeply about.
And if they're getting yelled at, it's because I want them to be better.
Right.
And they know that.
Right.
You know what I mean?
And it's not just yelling because I'm mad or yelling.
It's most of my, like, let's just be real.
I don't have to work another day in my life.
Right.
Right now.
I could close these doors and never ever work again and not have not even to sell the company
just close the company down okay i'm fortunate enough to be in that position my motivation in
my company now is to get our company to a point where those guys who have bled and sacrificed
and helped me get to my position can also get to a similar position
and so when i yell at them and i say hey you're not you're not making the fucking layups you're
you're taking plays off you're doing this you're doing that it's not out of a place of anger it's
out of love like what you said yeah right you know what i mean and that's just how i express it
and you know what i'm a big believer in and you know this vaughn and and lewis i'm And you know what? I'm a big believer in, and you know this, Vaughn, and Lewis, I'm sure you know this too,
but I'm a big believer in fucking winning.
Okay?
And when you lose and you're losing, I'm not going to congratulate you for losing.
I'm not going to put my arm around you and say, when I know you can do better.
Now, if you don't know, that's different.
If somebody doesn't know, I'll put my arm around you and say, all right, look,
things aren't going your way.
Here's what we're going to do to fix it.
Yeah, and I think that's good that you can shift because some people, you say, all right, look, things aren't going your way. Here's what we're going to do to fix it. Yeah, and I think that's good that you can shift
because some people, you know, when coaches would scream at me
in this aggressive nature, I would just like –
Shut down.
Shut down, and they would keep doing it, and they weren't able to shift.
Right.
It's like I needed them to be like, take me to the side and just be like,
hey, listen, we need you to step up.
Right.
We'll do whatever it takes.
Right.
I'm here for you.
Right.
You know.
And that's a management – like you're getting into management now you gotta understand people dude right and what works you can't just have
them understand only you and the way you act you've got to be able to understand all types
of personalities 100 and that's like that's a skill you've got to learn it's a skill and it
takes consistent oh man it's tough upkeep it's like a garden and i you know you have all 90
men working for you it looks like a couple a couple female
people employees in here i've got 90 women working on my team yeah and i'll just let you know it's a
whole different like level of understanding and patience and like love i can't like yell or be
like step your shit up bitch you know i can't say that yeah it's like the funny thing is the girls
that work here are the hardest core ones oh. They walk around talking shit to all the guys.
That's awesome.
That's good.
Yeah.
But yeah,
man,
you know,
uh,
you know,
I liked what you said about coming from a place of love.
I think that's reality.
And even though,
even though,
you know,
my message might come across edgy or harsh to some people,
it's always coming from that place.
And I think that's
i think if people don't understand i mean my my guys listen you guys listening right now
understand me and you know that and i appreciate you guys so much for for understanding a crazy
fucking dude like me but right you know some people they'll look at a video or they look at
something and they're like dude what the fuck you? And they don't understand where I'm coming from. I don't monetize anything that I do, by the way.
I do this because I love seeing people successful.
And I believe that my purpose in life, I feel like I've been given a gift.
I feel like I've been given a gift to help people find something in themselves
or show them something that they have in themselves
that they can maybe see in me that can help them change.
And, you know, I express that in a little bit different way than other people.
But the key with you, Lewis and Andy, is that when you say you come from a place of love,
it's a proper understanding of love.
We've talked about this all the time.
Love is not unconditional coddling of people.
No.
That's not what love is.
Right.
That's the truth, too, dude.
It is holding people to account.
It is speaking the truth. It's not enabling to them either. Yeah, it's not enabling love is. Right. That's the truth, dude. It is holding people to account. It is speaking the truth.
It's not enabling to them either.
It's not enabling.
It's empowering.
Who do you love more?
Do you love the guy who you know is fucking up and wasting his life as your friend and
he's becoming an alcoholic and you say nothing to him?
Or do you love more the other guy doing the same thing and you pull him aside and you
say, hey, dude, you're fucking up.
Right.
You may not like it in the moment.
That's right.
You may be,
it may be uncomfortable.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
Quick,
funny story.
I got to tell you about this.
This is a really quick story.
So this speaks,
speaks a little bit of who Andy is, but early on in working with him,
we had gotten to be friends,
but we weren't,
I mean,
I didn't,
I didn't know him that well.
Vaughn's caught a lot of flack for working with me.
Yeah.
Well, that's not what I was going to share but the point is is
that so so two years ago my dad died of cancer but my dad was i'm not a big car guy okay my dream car
is a 60 68 ford mustang that's what i get when i get some days because that's that's what my
grandfather drove drove anyway but my dad was a huge car guy, and I knew that as he was on his way down, I thought he'd really be blessed by being able to ride Andy's Lambo.
So I said to him, I go I'd be happy to like maybe give you
some money for that or you know he gets this blank look on his face give you some money to
take a ride I'm not gonna cuss but he looks and he goes what the f kind of person do you think I am
he's like I'm not gonna f and charge you. You must have an F and low view of my character.
So that was the funny part about it.
And I got to brag on Andrew.
But the awesome part about it, and I tell people this, I said, if you only see him as just a guy that cusses,
you don't get this.
So my dad went a lot quicker than we thought he was going to go.
Dude, it happened like two weeks after he asked me.
Oh, man, it sucks.
We didn't get to do it.
Yeah, and I get this very heartfelt text from him i still regret that he's
saying dude i i i'm just feel terrible that never happened i still feel terrible i go well no you
shouldn't because when i told my dad just even the thought of it he was so jacked excited he was like
he told because because he asked me and literally like i was thinking like all right you know in the
next month or two we'll get this done.
Dude, he died two weeks later.
And, like, I didn't.
Yeah.
I mean, nobody knew he was going to go that fast.
Yeah.
And, like, dude, I still feel, like, legitimately horrible about that.
No, no, no, no, no.
You don't have to.
But as a segue, I mean, kind of to keep it heavy, okay?
Yeah.
You're doing a lot of awesome stuff.
Thank you.
All right?
So when you're on your deathbed,
what really do you want to say,
this is what I did?
You know, that's a great question.
I ask everyone.
Is that too heavy?
No, man.
Okay, all right.
You know, I want to say...
Because I want you to...
What I want people to say about me,
I want them to say that Lewis was a symbol of what's possible for my life.
And he always went after all of his dreams and showed me that it was okay for me to chase any dream that I had.
And I want them to just say, wow, he really showed up and he gave it all and left it all in the field.
And he loved everyone like his
heart grew bigger and bigger every year and he made people feel like they're the most important
person in the world when he was with them and i think that for me is the legacy that i'd love to
leave behind it's not how much money you know i want to make a lot of money and achieve a lot of
things as well like i think that's just gonna happen happen, but I don't care. People say like,
Oh,
it was great that he was an all American athlete.
Like that means nothing to me.
I want them to know,
I want them to have a feeling about me and to be a symbol for many,
many years to come for people to talk about what's possible in life.
That's,
that's the thing where I want people to talk about.
Nice.
I think it's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah, man.
So you answer that.
Look, man, I'm not going to compete with Lewis.
Look, guys, we can talk about that another day.
Here's what I want to wrap it up because we're getting long here.
And it would be easy to sit here and talk all day.
Yeah.
And, dude, I'd love to have you back someday.
I would love to, yeah.
Back through St. Louis or whatever.
Yeah, that'd be great.
But guys, please check this man out.
He's one of my favorite people to follow.
Check out his book.
Support him.
Buy the book.
And this isn't about hawking books either.
This is a book that I guarantee you you're going to read and you're going to feel, you're going to feel
better about reading it and you're going to get something out of it. And you guys know that I'm a
big reader. I read a book a week. Um, and I feel like even if you only get one thing out of a book,
like one idea, it was worth the time, you know, and I guarantee you, this is going to be one of
those books that you're going to get multiple, multiple points out of. So just to, and just
emphasize the difference between this book and most books
is at the end of every chapter,
there's a number of exercises
to help you get clear on what you want
and how to get there.
Yeah.
So I think even if you just go to the end of the chapters
and go through the exercises,
it's going to be really helpful in getting clarity.
Right.
Right.
Well, dude, thank you so much for being on the show.
Yeah, it was great, bro.
Appreciate it, man.
It means a lot, man.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for having me, guys.
Yeah, definitely.
All right, guys.
Until next time, don't be a bitch.
We gonna let the bad deal with this.
In my A-staff.
Old school.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Shut up.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
What's up?
Shut up.
Uh-huh.
Okay.