The School of Greatness - 1052 My 10 Biggest Lessons & Highlights from 2020

Episode Date: December 30, 2020

“Life without play is not a meaningful life.”On today's special episode of the School of Greatness, Lewis sits down with his business partner and friend, Matt Cesaratto, to reflect on some of their biggest moments, highlights, and lessons in the year 2020.For more go to: www.lewishowes.com/1052Kevin Hart's Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/956-podMatthew McConaughey's Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/1022-podRhonda Byrne's Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/1037-podMichael Beckwith's Podcast: www.lewishowes.com/962 Laverne Cox's Podcast: www.lewishowes.com/974 Emmanuel Acho's Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/1039-podTim Ballard's Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/986-podKobe Bryant's Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/691-podEdith Eger's Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/1010-pod Check out Greatness Coaching: www.lewishowes.com/coaching

This is episode number 1052 on my top 10 biggest lessons and highlights of 2020. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. The Buddha once said, just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again. And Tim Fargo said your friends will believe in your potential, your enemies will make you live up to it. What a year 2020 has been a little different for so many people in the world. And this episode I want to share and reflect with my business partner and friend Matt Cesarazzo

as we sit down and talk about the biggest moments and the biggest lessons for us as a business and in our lives of 2020. And I think you guys will really enjoy getting a behind-the-scenes look at the School of Greatness and hear some of the greatest lessons that we've learned and some of the things that we've been able to overcome and thrive and develop during this time of so much confusion and stress and loss for so many people. Quick reminder to subscribe to the School of Greatness as we start a new year and we have some incredible things coming. You want to make sure you check it all out and be notified of the big things we're announcing here soon. So make sure to click the subscribe button, leave us a rating review if you enjoyed this. And in just a moment, I'm going to give you a recap of 2020.

And in just a moment, I'm going to give you a recap of 2020. Welcome, everyone, to the School of Greatness. This is top lessons and highlights of 2020. I'm with Matt Cesarotto, the guy who runs School of Greatness. And we were just spending the last day reflecting on the biggest things that happened this year and the biggest lessons. We were doing this with our team call as well, talking about everyone sharing their biggest lessons of the year. So I wanted to start with the highlights because this year has been a little crazy for a lot

of people. But we reflected back to January 5th of this year and we went on a trip to Poland. This is one of the top highlights of the year. We went to Poland. I took 13 of us, a collection of great guys, went to Poland, trained with Wim Hof. And it was a crazy five days, unbelievable experience. It felt like it was three, four years ago. I feel like, yeah, three, four, five years ago. If you told me it was five years ago, I'd be like, absolutely. It was five years ago I was like she told me it was five years ago I'd be like absolutely it was five years ago but it was the most incredible experience I mean it was probably the most challenging experience I've ever had in my entire life physically and we did some crazy stuff yeah and the group

of guys there though I think the way that this group of guys kind of just shared open heart open mind was amazing It was amazing. It was, it brought me back actually to like playing college football together and having that, that locker room feel where, you know, it's like you get to just talk, you know, as guys and connect and be vulnerable, you know, also be tough because we were in situations where we're jumping off cliffs into icy water. So everybody's like, you see like both sides, the vulnerable side and also the macho side come out. Let's go. I think it was crazy because we jumped off of a, probably what, a 20, 30 foot cliff into a frozen river. We did ice tubs for 10 minutes at a time. We did saunas

together. We did, we climbed a mountain for four and a half hours with no clothes, just shorts and gloves. Massive mountain. The biggest in, in Czech Republic. It's like right on the border of Poland and Czech Republic. We did, we did a lot of breathing and meditation. There was just a lot of cool stuff that happened for five days. And I think it prepared us for what was to come in 2020. It prepared us. I mean, I don't know if anything can prepare us for what just happened,

but absolutely. It definitely got us there. It was great grounding where we came together. I don't know if we could ever recreate a moment like that where we were up till 2 3 a.m talking in bunk beds sleeping together in bunk beds just like opening up it was amazing playing music guitar singing music off on the on the what do you call it the oh the hand was on his hand drum dude it, it was crazy. And I think there was no Wi-Fi or cell service. So we were really connecting, which was pretty cool. We had to climb the mountain in the backyard just to get a few bars. Right.

So that was the first thing that was a big highlight for us. Really the last trip that a lot of people went on in that group for the year. I think people had plans for the whole year, but that was the last one before the pandemic. Sure. Before that, we actually moved into this studio. At the end of last year, we decided I'd run the podcast from my home for the previous six and a half, seven years. And I said, let's build this into a studio.

Let's get people in the office. Let's build out a team. So we moved into here and we did the first episode, I think, February in this studio because we were building out the room. But we moved in here with the idea of building a team in a studio. And that was a great step and a big highlight. Another one, which has also just been like allowing us to have some sanity for the last nine months because we've been able to come here and be COVID safe and have some type of routine where most people have been staying and working from home,

which has been huge for us. You've got a daughter at home. Yeah, a three-year-old daughter at home. Honestly, this has been a saving grace for me and I think for us, for the business, because it's allowed us a place where we can dive in and fully be focused to take massive action. Without this space, this place.

I mean, because our entire team, they're back work from home. You know, it's really just been you and I here, quarantining, being safe, and all that sort of stuff. But it was, you know, I think it was the right move. And it's still to this day, you know, because I asked you, I think, what, a month or two ago? I was like, should we continue on like this? Like, what's the plan for the future?

And it's like, I think this place is rooted in us needing to have a studio office, greatness, HQ, you know? I just don't think we would have been able to do the interviews without a quality space that was quiet, nice background, lighting, everything in my place. It's just not the same if it's on your computer at home versus a nice studio. We've also had about half our guests in here still, all while being tested and everything. We also, you know, running live webinars. We did more webinars this year, having a place to do that. So I feel like it's been a game changer for us. I've got a question for you. I mean, what's it been like for you to detach? Because you've worked from home and had the studio and this entire podcast since 2013

out of your home. And this is the first year. What was like the number one takeaway or win for you in getting out? I mean, did you like it? Did you miss working from home and having that easy? I loved it because I'm also like two blocks away. So it's a quick walk to get here, but I love it because my, my girlfriend moved in with me this year and I wanted her to have the freedom and the space and not have people coming in. We got a dog, all that stuff. So for me, it felt like a place where I could go, get work done, then go home and relax. Whereas the other place, you know, it was like I was always on. I'm still always working, but it's like at least it's somewhere I can transition for five minutes and go somewhere else.

So I thought it was a great experience and I'm excited to build from here. The third thing that happened that was big was we were working on a documentary for the last couple of years. We launched it at the Grove, which is one of the most iconic movie theaters here in Los Angeles. We sold out at the Grove and had this amazing premiere. It was unbelievable. It was amazing. February, it was incredible. Right before the pandemic. It was like kick-starting our year. It was everything. After Poland, we were just like back-to-back. We had a lot of things,

a lot of exciting things happening this year. Boom. That was like the thing that just happened right before COVID and the pandemic hit. And I have to say, for that moment in time, I mean, I know you and I love going to the movie theater. It was like the last time we were at a movie theater. Because all the movie theaters shut down after that. Like, goodbye. Down. I know.

I was just at the Grove last night seeing Santa Claus on the trolley and everybody social distancing and everything. And I looked at the movie theater. It was just so sad to see. So sad, man. That's exactly where we had the doc launch. We were like one of the last movies to be there. Yeah, we had some incredible people show up. Unbelievable guests. The vulnerability in the room, because you did a Q&A afterwards.

Yeah. And some of the questions, what opened up in that documentary, it still needs to hit the main world. Like we haven't really had a chance to really get it out there in its entirety. But it happened. We were trying to figure out how to get it onto Netflix after that or Amazon or somewhere. But then pandemic hit and people were just scrambling. And so it was hard to move the conversation forward. We thought about launching it on our own YouTube channel.

We've still been hesitant because there's some conversations in the works with other platforms. So we, if you want us to launch it on our YouTube channel sometime, let us know, but we're hoping to get it onto a bigger, bigger opportunities from that. But that was a fun process. Yeah. A little teaser. We got some, we got some exciting things still to come. Exciting things to come. Yeah. process. Yeah, a little teaser. We got some exciting things still to come. Exciting things coming. Yeah. Next highlight, we hit our 1,000th episode. After seven years of launching in 2013, we hit 1,000 episodes. And that was a big number. Massive. 1,000 consistently showing up. We're about to hit our eight-year anniversary here in a month. Yeah. You can't really think of a lot

of milestones, but that was a big one. It was a moment to like sit and reflect and see all the incredible people that have sat across the table from you. It's crazy. And I mean, a lot of the guests, I mean, I love every single one of the people that are on our show.

And I think, you know, I take it back. We'd had coffee conversations. You had Cadillac confessions. You had all kinds of fun stuff that you did even solo over the years and there's a lot of different formats you played around with and it's definitely become the interview show that I think you intended it to always be right it's also got a little variety a little spice a little something little coffee conversations in this year we're looking to do some other formats as well. So teaser into the next year,

but we crossed over 305 million downloads and viewers on both YouTube and audio of the long form content. That's not including all the social media views, little snippets and short things like that, but over 305 million views and downloads. That's humbling. I mean, I'm sorry, coming from Ohio, playing college football together, would you have ever thought that we would hit a thousand episodes or, I mean, even the bigger number, the 305 million, as of the numbers we pulled today before this episode, 305 million unique listeners or viewers of the show. It's pretty crazy. I think it's incredible. It's crazy to think about.

We used to be roommates in college. We were splitting a $250 apartment together, paying $125 each. Thanks to your brother, Chris. I mean, $125 a month back then. It was like, in my mind, it was big. It was still like something to write that check every month. Yeah, we were 21, 22 years old.

Student loans and everything. We were not making any money. We were playing college football. That was our job. So it was fun coming from there. But we used to like dream big all the time about stuff. So it's cool to see it 15 years later. It's been 15 years since Ohio.

It's crazy. Some notable guests we had this year. We had Kevin Hart, Matthew McConaughey, Rhonda Byrne, the creator of The Secret. There were 35 million copies sold for that book. And Kevin Hart, I've been emailing his publicist for about five years. Pretty much every couple months I would message her and say, hey, is now the time? And she would always say no. But he had a book that came out this year that was a self-help book,

and it was the right timing. So that was powerful. Perfect timing. Same thing with Matthew McConaughey. He had a book that came out, which goes to show that, like, the more you create great content and build your platform, even when someone says no to you if you're trying to interview them, keep following up, keep building what you can create, and you'll start to interview them. Keep following up. Keep building what you can create

and you'll start to attract those people in the future. You know, these are people I would want on eight years ago, right, when I started. But I wasn't big enough. The platform wasn't big enough. They didn't have something that made sense to talk about yet for this type of show. So keep showing up. It never stopped. It never derailed you though. Even if you got the nose. No. It's not the right time. It's not this. The consistency of you showing up for your show, for yourself, for the audience. Right. For the mission.

For the mission. That's what it's about. It got you there. It got you there. And so the persistence, the consistency. Yeah, those were cool. I mean, we had a lot of amazing guests this year. Huge names.

We had great people and money and relationships and health and wellness. Some incredible repeat guests this year. Huge names. Great. We had, you know, great people and money and relationships and health and wellness. Some incredible repeat guests too. I mean, amazing repeat guests. It's great to get them a second time around. Diving deeper. We also had Rhonda Byrne recently. This one already did over a half a million views in less than a couple of weeks. And it was cool because she hasn't done an interview in, I think, 12 years since she was on Oprah. Oprah, right. When she launched The Secret. So it was cool to be the first interview in over a decade that she had and get interviews like that where people aren't really doing interviews. So some cool guests we had on.

We'll have some stuff linked up on the show notes. Another big highlight, the sixth big highlight, is the social justice movement and us embracing and actively reaching out to people to come on the show to talk about how we can be of service in greater ways how we can understand as a community as a platform having starting with michael beckwith i think the week of uh i love michael beckwith he's. I love listening to him talk. Coming from a spiritual standpoint of social justice, how do we lead with spiritual grounding? Then we having Laverne Cox come on and talk from her standpoint, and also Emmanuel Acho.

Laverne Cox, that was like a team favorite. That was an incredible episode. Yeah, that was an incredible episode. Emmanuel Acho talking about uncomfortable conversations with a black man. So we had a lot of great people and I feel like we were constantly evolving as a team to figure out how we can be of service

in that movement as well. The pandemic hit and we had an opportunity. There was probably a week's time where you and I were like, what do we do? We were like, what do we do? We got to look at our finances and see if we can pay people. We, you know, our people to keep buying our products.

They got to watch our content. How do we optimize this? How do we not retreat and maintain, but how do we thrive and grow? Right. And we've made decisions quickly to really pivot. We have a lot of great content that's premium that we pay we charge for but we said you know what we're gonna create a free webinar free trainings and teach people how to earn some cash right now with side hustles with the skills they have this was incredible because I remember you know

when I was in corporate and you were just side hustling back in the day it was inspiring to see I mean you were throwing local events obviously you can't do that anymore you can't just call a restaurant say you want to throw a networking event or anything like that. But the way that you then pivoted and got into webinars, selling online services and courses, I mean, and then using the old dares, you know, and how we continue to pivot and grow our business. Dares. You know, you want to share with everybody D.A.R.E.S.? Yeah, yeah. Roy, Roy Baden, who's a good friend of ours and a consultant of the brand, he's also been on the show a few times.

He said that every business should be thinking about creating D.A.R.E.S. These are products and services that are digital, automated, reoccurring, evergreen, and scalable. And this is something we started to do. We did a private one day with him a couple of times, but we did this a couple of years ago. We said, how can we shift our business model into more dares? Digital, automated, reoccurring, evergreen, and scalable.

And there are some things we were doing really well and other things we weren't. And we started to shift everything this year to be a dare. And it was just like, man, the timing was good because we had been doing this for 10 years as a business and a brand, teaching people how to work from home. So when the world needed to learn how to work from home, we became a resource.

I think we had 25,000 people register for this webinar. And it was just a great next couple of months of people joined our Inner Circle program and we really helped them and educated them on what they could do, a game plan, step by step, 30 days at a time, what you can do to earn a little cash. What was it, like 30 million people are unemployed, businesses were going under.

So we were really providing great resources and training for people going through that time. And we decided, you know what, people need more accountability and coaching and then we launched we developed and created a science-based program on getting results around your goals called greatness coaching we just launched it we've got members joining right now people hundreds of people have applied go to Lewis house comm slash coaching to apply. And we pivoted. The

whole point is we pivoted. We figured out what can we do to serve people, whether this lasts for a month or years. And we made some great decisions, pivoted. And we, you know, not everything was perfect, but it worked. We launched stuff when it wasn't ready, but it worked. You know, the interesting thing you're saying right here, things take me back to the guy that I knew you always to be. Like you were a fighter back in the day. Yeah. You weren't just going to lay down.

And I remember on the football field, we got into a couple scuffles a couple times. We actually had one of our former coaches reach out during COVID for you to go and inspire his team. You know? The Bulldogs. Drake Bulldogs. Drake Bulldogs. Yeah. And it was cooldogs. Drake Bulldogs. Drake Bulldogs. Yeah. And it was cool because he brought up that moment where, you know. We got to fight with the coach.

We literally got into a fight with him. Yeah. I mean, we were very respectful and apologized afterwards. We realized our emotions, heat of battle got to us. But it also took me back to, you can either be in fight or flight mode. It's like, don't stop fighting. Stay in the fight. Stay in the game

don't don't remove yourself from the game yeah someone i saw this somewhere recently someone said maintaining if you maintain you're dying you can't be maintaining or trying to like minimize you need to be thinking how can i grow during this time if you maintain scarcity or abundance mindset exactly so you've got to be thinking how can I optimize and grow during this time? Another big highlight, a few more highlights. YouTube. We decided to go all in on YouTube. We were neglecting this for the last five or six years.

We started creating video content for the show. Before any other audio program was really recording them on video, most people were just launching podcasts, audio only. We decided five years ago to hire someone to film. And Tiffany was with us for about five years, five plus years. She was filming all the content. Shout out to Tiff. We miss you. To Tyler. We filmed it all, but we weren't optimizing it. We were just throwing it up on YouTube and we would get, I don't know, a million views a month, a million and a half views month, just by having great content out there. This year we said, you know what, let's optimize this, let's really go all in on YouTube.

Shout out to Evan Carmichael, because I was actually in Puerto Rico doing a mastermind with Brendon Burchard, and we flew over there, did a few days in Puerto Rico, I think it was end of January, February? It was in the middle of January, I think. Right after Poland, I went there. And Evan Carmichael, who's this YouTube expert,

he is telling me, like, "'Lewis, you gotta go more all in on YouTube." He's been telling me this for probably three years. He's been constantly telling me this. I mean, I failed you in that too, because I remember we had this conversation like two, three years ago. Easily. I mean, I failed you in that too because I remember we had this conversation like two, three years ago. Easily.

Where we could just tweak and focus on a little bit of growth hacking on YouTube. And we just, you know, we weren't at that stage. We weren't at that stage. But this year pushed us into places we needed to be. Well, I think seeing him and also my girlfriend, Jeanette, she was telling me, she was like, why aren't you monetizing YouTube? Because we didn't have ads turned on for five years. Right. We never made any money with YouTube. She was like, why aren't you monetizing YouTube? Because we didn't have ads turned on for five years. We never made any money with YouTube. She was like, why aren't you monetizing this?

Like, look at what I did on my YouTube channel. So I watched her on her YouTube channel. I was like, huh? And then Evan was showing me his stats and I was like, man, we should just try this more. Let's just like see what it feels like for a few months. And we went all in on YouTube and we've overall, this year alone, doubled the views from the last lifetime of being on the channel.

What did we triple the views from last year? Is that right? And we tripled- Yeah, 2019, we tripled the subs, subscriptions, and views- And the views from last year. From 2019 to 2020. Which is- And we're not even out of 2020 yet.

We're not even done yet. So it was a huge, and it was really not until the last four months when we started to see the results pay off. So obviously we have, I don't know, 800 or 900 videos on YouTube of just great content. Now we're optimizing it. It's kind of like you go back, if you have 1,000 articles on your website, but you never wrote them in the correct way.

It's going back and kind of optimizing them for the algorithm and the search engine to do its job. Growth hacking is real. It's real. And so it's been amazing because so many people will message me now or even at the mall recently we were at, people come up to us and I'll be like, hey, where'd you find out about the School of Greatness?

So many people are saying YouTube. I'm getting messages all the time, YouTube, they're finding us. So we're gonna be doubling down on YouTube next year, which is another big highlight of ours. The last two notable things or I would say highlights or notable things, I don't know if this is a highlight, but this is more of a notable moment where the great Kobe Bryant passed away, which was kind of a shock to me and shock to so many people in the world who were inspired by him, such a sad moment.

And for me, it was, again, emotional and sad. I just remember being on a TV, watching this and thinking to myself, this has gotta be like a bad dream. I didn't think it was real. And I was with Jeanette, my girlfriend, and it took me a couple days to process i think because my experience with him even though i only spent about an hour with him it was just really powerful to see how he showed up how he was you know we were

at his office about 6 30 a.m and he was there for an hour to an hour and a half before then preparing for the day by himself alone and this is a guy who had already achieved everything, who had done it all, and he was just preparing for the day after he'd achieved all his success. For me, it was really powerful to reflect on his life and see how he grew, how he overcame mistakes, adversity, and continued to show up as a father, as a business owner, all those things. So it was really, was really cool to reflect. And it was cool to see the world honor him, to show like, hey,

when you show up at your highest potential, people are going to notice it. And that was pretty cool. And we did a repeat episode, and I think that was our top episode of the year, right? Top episode. So our number one downloaded episode of the year, where I kind of did my biggest lessons that I learned from Kobe. We shared the interview, and it really impacted people who were listening to it the first time or listening to it again. So if you haven't checked that out, make sure to check out the Kobe episode we did. And then the last big highlight, notable kind of highlight, is we doubled our team this year.

You know, you and I, we've been talking for years about, do we just hire contractors and agencies and keep it lean? Or do we really build a team in-house that is committed to a greater mission and a cause? Who are all in invested on the same thing in collaboration all day long. And we decided to do that. So we've been hiring. We've been building the team. Some people left the team. New people have joined.

And we're just all in on building this team to serve the mission. And that's what we've been focused on. So it's been a process. You know, we're not the best at hiring. And we're figuring it out as we go. But it's uh it's been a lot of fun though it's been fun man learning how to do this uh we've had some great people support us and you know bridging the gap you know speeding up the process um but i you know

i definitely firmly believe and i know you do too that it's going to be the individuals on this team working behind the scenes continuing to put out incredible content to listen to, to watch, to read. Yeah. That's going to make the most impact. Rather than lean, you know, you lean down too much. It's hard to scale and grow. You can have a lifestyle business and you can reach and impact a lot of people, but

I feel like you can only go so far with the depth of the impact with a few people. Yeah. We had to learn that lesson too for ourselves a little bit, you know, before we went all in on building the team, full-time investing in that thing, investing in the office, back to this space and investing in the future, you know, be thinking 10, 20, 30 legacy brand far out versus, all right, how do we just focus on this year? Maybe next, you know? We did that for many years. And we went to an event last year, Darren Hardy's event, which was a great experience. High performance for him. Yeah. Two day in-person experience. And I mean, there's a hundred people in the room, business leaders making anywhere between 10 million and I don't know, 500 million in the room room so it's cool to hear them all talk about the only way you can really

scale is to build a team can't scale more projects and more things and more content with less people right I don't know I mean maybe there's some software some solutions that a smaller team could optimize but I think to truly create a national or global business brand you've got to build your team we're gonna go all-in on team I definitely have already felt that it's supported us with taking the next step you know even the last five years I felt we've been in cross you know stage now we're starting to walk yeah you know start jogging a little bit that's right

and then running hopefully hopefully our eight-day challenge running. Exactly. Yeah, so we doubled our team this year. We also partnered with an incredible podcast network, Wondery, which is, I think, the top three or four networks in the world now. Yeah, they've been great partners. Which is amazing. So they have some of the biggest shows.

They've got a great team. which is amazing. So they have some of the biggest shows. They've got a great team. They've really supported us in growth with all aspects of the audio side of the podcast. So having the team has helped us because before it was a lot of me and you just trying to do everything. Too many things. As opposed to me and you and each person on the team focusing on what is their unique skill set. Because I should be doing less of everything else and more of only the things that I should be doing. Same thing with you and every person on the team. Leaning into your strengths, your superpowers.

Leaning into it. So that's what we're learning. It's obviously, you know, it takes time to find the right people. Someone might come on, then they might leave within a few months. There's going to be things like that. There's going to be an like that. There's going to be

an onboarding process of training people. It takes time to bring people on. It takes money. It takes an investment in your business. But when you look at things for the long term minded, it's always going to be a better way to go. And something that we found out is making sure we find people who fit the culture. I was just about to say that. Culture. I was hoping you're going to say that. Yes.

Culture is key. Even on our team call this morning, multiple members, one specifically called out the fact that this is such a different environment that we create, that you create, a safe space, a family environment, even though we're growing. I mean, our team is now at the stage where we're in double digits, whereas when I started in 2015, we were what, five, six of us? Yeah. You know, including you in the headcount. It's really inspiring to hear that, you know, the culture that we're starting to create internally is actually winning out for our

team and it's making an impact in their lives. Because that for me is everything. It's like, let's practice what we preach. Exactly. Let's do the things that we talk about on the show. And it's, you know, the thing that I've been trying to focus on the most is, and I hear this from a lot of other business owners who have bigger teams, they keep saying culture is key. Like, you can train skills, you can teach people things that they need to learn,

but having the right growth mindset, having the right attitude and the right effort is what you need to look for in building a team because if one person is lazy or one person has a bad attitude or one person is closed-minded it starts to infect and affect every other member of the team that they're associating with so we have continually said listen if you want to be closed-minded, if you want to have a bad attitude, we support you somewhere else. But if you want to be here, you've got to have a positive attitude. You've got to be encouraging and supportive of the team. You've got to bring the effort and be growth-minded, be open-minded. You don't have to agree with everything, but you

can just be open-minded and exploratory. So that's been the top highlights of 2020 and things to reflect on of 2020. I want to go into the top 10 lessons. This is fun. I'm excited here. Yeah, lessons. I mean, it's definitely fun to reflect. I mean, we had some incredible stuff happen this year. Huge stuff.

I mean, I feel like a lot of people ask me, how are you doing during this year? And I feel like I've been preparing for this type of a moment for a decade. So I felt prepared, I felt ready to the best of my ability. And I felt that way because I had you on my team together where we were on the same side. And I like, we were both prepared. I think if I would have been running this business alone,

it would have been a lot harder because you got to manage a lot of moving parts and stresses. So having the right people on your team who are also prepared is big and making sure people are up to the level of your vision. But the number one thing, the number one lesson is health is the most important. We saw so many people getting sick this year.

So many people unhealthy who, you know, attracted COVID and got COVID. Unfortunately, a lot of deaths this year. It's tragic. A lot of people just sick in general, not only physically sick, emotionally mentally sick and not healthy in general in their life you said this a lot to me you said ultimately if you just start to like you know uncloud your mind as to what the

most important things are in your life it really gets rooted in one thing health if you're unhealthy you're unhappy that becomes your focus you have to get out of that place that's the number one thing. Health. If you're unhealthy, you're unhappy, that becomes your focus. You have to get out of that place. That's the number one thing is focusing on your health. Yeah. And we'll say this all the time, like someone, you could be the richest person in the world, but if you're sick and have cancer, you would give it all up to be healthy. Like whenever we've gotten injured in the past, it's the worst feeling because you're like, I'll do anything to be able to walk. If you like hurt your ankle or when I broke my wrist, I was like, this is the worst feeling because you're like, I'll do anything to be able to walk if you hurt your ankle. Or when I broke my wrist, I was like, this is the worst feeling.

I can't do anything until I'm healthy. It's hard to be productive. It's hard to do what you want and feel good about yourself if you're not well. So taking care of your health. And for me, I think about controlling your habits. You can really take control of the habits of getting good sleep. Sleep is the foundation of good health, of drinking lots of water, of eating healthy foods. If you do those three things, you're setting yourself up for a positive lifestyle. If you do the fourth thing, which is movement and

physically working out, it's scientifically proven that movement, sweat creates dopamine, which makes you feel happier. Those four key components, the basic foundations of health. And that's important. You hit it right there. Happiness. Your mental health. This is also about mental health we're talking about. If your mental health is ailing or not there, shift the things in your life that's going to focus on that thing. Because at the end of the day, if you wake up and you're not in a good mental space, if you're not positive, I mean, because there's a woman that goes to my church.

She's in the most incredible mood. She's going through cancer. Really? And the cancer's eating away at her, but her mindset, her mental health is so strong and so beautiful. It's powerful to see that. I mean, just to hear that and,

you know, here's somebody who's literally going through something that is eating at their body and still the mental space that she has to be positive, to show up, to be caring and loving and giving in that moment is, I mean, the power of the mind. I mean, we've had all kinds of people on the podcast talking about this. Well, it's a choice too because being sick or getting a virus or having cancer or getting injury, it's not fun. But having a negative mindset around it during it is not going to make you healthier. It's not. So you can choose to be negative and respond with a negative reaction or you can choose.

It's not saying it's easy to be positive when you have cancer, but it's going to make your experience better So you have the choice on how you respond. It's not easy. It's hard sure But that daily choice is your choice To show up and smile or show up and give to someone else or show up and walk for 30 minutes or eat something or show up and give to someone else or show up and walk for 30 minutes or eat something healthy, go to sleep at the right time. Those are choices.

Those habits will dictate your life. So that's number one. Biggest lesson is health. And I feel like we've done a good job together holding each other accountable just over the years in general, taking on physical challenges, whether it be going to Poland.

Last two years, we did 29029 with Jesse Itzler, climbing a mountain for two days. We run a lot. We work out a lot. So finding someone that you can hold yourself accountable is very helpful as well when you're not feeling good. That's key. So focus on health. And you can push yourself a lot harder than you ever thought. Way harder. Sometimes we do it too much. I mean, I could go back to the eight days of greatness challenge.

I know. I'm freaking breaking my ankles almost. I mean, you've got to definitely set yourself some ramp up period while you're getting back into it if you're just starting back up. But I mean. Health should never be a New Year's resolution. It should always be an everyday resolution. What am I going to do today to take care of my health?

And that might be take the day, give yourself a break for one day. That doesn't need, you have to be cross with training every single day, but it's what are the decisions that are going to support my health every single day? Don't make this a New Year's Eve thing. Make this an everyday part of your life. Well, listen, fitness, have you ever finished a workout and said, I wish I didn't do that? For me, I always tell myself. Unless I got injured, but yeah. Oh, right. I mean, for wish I didn't do that. For me, I always tell myself. Unless I got injured, but yeah. Oh, right. I mean, for sure.

But other than that. Do it better. Do it smarter next time, right? You'll always feel better. You definitely feel better. Second big lesson, 2020. We went to Fiji for a private mastermind last year with Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi.

And it was about 10 or 20 of us at the event. And we've had this amazing time learning and connecting and all this stuff. But one of the things that Tony continually said over and over is winter is coming. Prepare for winter. And we were all like, how do we know? Like, is that going to be, what does he mean? We were like maybe five years away or something. We didn't know winter was coming in a few months, But he was like, winter is coming. Always be prepared for winter. And what that means is to, I think it's important to take inventory of a lot of things in your life.

Declutter your life. Make sure your space is decluttered. Make sure your finances are decluttered. Make sure your relationships are decluttered. Your health habits are decluttered. make sure your relationships are decluttered, your health habits are decluttered. Like organize your life and be in building and growth mode as opposed to clutter mode.

Sometimes we take on relationships that aren't supportive for our vision or our mission. We have unhealthy eating habits. A lot of people don't even know what their finances are. They don't know how much money they have in the bank. They don't know where their money is going. They don't know how many subscriptions they have in the bank. They don't know where their money is going. They don't know how many subscriptions they have.

So declutter these things and take inventory of your life because winter is here and it's probably gonna come again at some point. Who knows what 2021 is going to bring? It might be worse. It might be better. But preparing for it will make you ready and i felt i felt like we'd been building for years to be ready for this moment we had luckily um you know cash in our

business account so we didn't have to be one of the ones that shut down like so many businesses we had enough to pay for the next few months for our team we had enough to pay expenses we weren't living month to month because we weren't overspending all the time. And I think there's a lot of people that were reliant. It's not right or wrong, but were reliant on stimulus checks and other support from other people

because they weren't maybe prepared at this time. And I get it. 10 years ago, I wouldn't have been prepared because at that stage of my life. But if you've been working for five years or 10 years and you haven't fully prepared for winter, then I think that's something to look at within yourself. If you're just getting out of college and you've got no savings, then it's a different thing.

Right. And that's why I think it's important to always be planning for the future when something like this will happen again, because it will. Whether that's a housing crisis, the pandemic, a stock market crash, job market, whatever it is, something's going to happen. Life is law. Anything that can will happen.

Something will happen. So prepare. And I don't know if the darkest moment is here yet. Maybe it has been the darkest, but what do they say in Batman? The night is always darkest before the dawn. Is that what they say? Like, it may not be the darkest yet.

It's been pretty dark this year. I hope it is. I hope it's over. I hope it's getting better. It looks like some things are. But you just- Hope for the best and- Prepare for the worst.

Prepare for the worst. Always be preparing for winter and take inventory on these things. That would be the lesson number two. Lesson number three is adapt and be flexible. We talked about this in our highlights. We really had, we had specific goals and things we were planning to do this year. The beginning of the year, we were like mapped out.

Here's what we're doing for 2020. Here's all the things we're doing. The events we have launched, the projects, all these things we are planning to do. And pretty much all of it went away. And then insert any crazy meme you've seen over the past eight months. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Throw the paper out. Gone. All your plans that you had in your mind. I mean, we had so many people come in here who are friends that were speakers, full-time speakers, made their living, made millions every year off of speaking in front of big events.

And they had to cancel their entire- Gone. Every speech, done. Zero. All their income, gone. Zero. For a year, two years, three years, who knows? The lesson is to adapt and be flexible.

The ones who are not adaptive and flexible are the ones that start to slowly go backwards. And we, luckily, again, we shifted. You know, Matt and I really came together and we're like, what can we do to shift? How can we take action now? Not wait and see what happens. If this is what's going to happen,

how do we take action now? So you've got to be willing to be flexible and adapt. And don't close yourself off. The one thing I remember you did during that time, you reached out to your network. What are you doing? Let's talk. Let's trade information. Collaborate. Discuss. I mean, I have to say that was really powerful to see you just reach out to your network. And obviously I was doing as much diligence as I could on my end, but find out what others are doing and how you can actually handle a situation like this and adapt and grow from it for the positive.

Yeah, we had this office and we were planning everyone to be here and then we said, okay, everyone go home. So it was like, we invested in a space, everyone's home now. We weren't able to build the in-person culture that we wanted to after seven years of being virtual now We had just hired someone and a weekend one week. Boom. See ya go work from home, yeah, so it's hard to build the culture and the

Community and the connection virtually but we had to adapt and be flexible. We had to create other ways to do it It's not perfect But we're constantly trying to improve that. So that's something you got to be thinking about always. And that's important in your life and relationships. You know, I had to adapt and be flexible in my relationship. It's a lot more challenging in certain ways for personal relationships, things like that. So adapting to be flexible is number three.

Number four, emotional agility and really embracing change because this kind of goes hand in hand with adapting flexible. We had Susan David on, I think three or four years ago, who wrote a book called Emotional Agility. And this is such a powerful skill set. I think if everyone had the superpower of emotional agility, we would all be better human beings. Because some of us are so reactive on our emotions, we don't have any agility. Someone triggers us, we react. We get offended, we get defensive. And that does not support our growth.

That does not support people coming together. It's what hurts relationships. It's what causes harm in the world so learning the ability of managing and being flexible with your emotions is key very hard to do when you're setting your way it's very hard to do when you've had years of patterning I don't have patience right for me I usually don't have patience and this year I had to learn to be patient even when I was like, this is madness. I've seen you more patient this year than I've ever seen you in the 15 plus years I've known you.

So I've actually asked you a couple of times this year, how are you continuing to show up with more patience? Like what is the thing that you're doing in your mind? What's the game you're playing with yourself in your mind? Or is it just, you know, you've been sitting across the seat for so long, you know, three years ago, hearing about emotional agility and things are triggered in, you know, this time. For me, it's been reaching out to a lot of mentors, therapists, coaches, and saying, how do I do this? Why is this triggering me more? It's also bringing on people who are experts at this and just taking on one little thing like we had uh edith edgar on who is one of the last holocaust survivors talking about this and i was like how

do you do how do you be patient when it just seems like someone keeps getting frustrated with you and their level of reason and rationality does not make sense. How do you stay patient with that? And she was like, just, I can't remember exactly what she said, but she's like, just smile and act as if like, just know this is all going to pass at some point. Just smile and just be happy. It's just like these little things that I'm like, but this doesn't make sense. Learning to have new skills and develop new skills and just practicing it one day at a time and say, okay, I didn't do as good as I wanted to do. What can I do better tomorrow? And really making it a priority to learn emotional agility. It's going to benefit your life and the people around you. It's not easy. It's not easy. This is hard.

Because I know you and I have relied on each other for that emotional support even for stuff outside of the office outside of our professional you know careers and I have to say I think you and I have even shifted because back in the day I think you and I got it you know it you take take the coach steps is you know the fight that we got in like I immediately saw you get into a fight and I had your back. I was like, let's go. I didn't even, I didn't care what happened or what it was about. I was just like, no, I'm jumping in. And I think like you and I always react that way for each other as friends. We're like, no, I got your back. Don't yeah. They're wrong. They're bad and wrong. And I got your back, whatever you say, but I think we're helping each

other change the conversation and be more wise about situations. Let me tell you, we're in our mid-30s now. You can't act like you're in your 20s and fight everything just because it feels good to, I don't know, fight it out. Like, oh no, I'm not going to let them win. Well, I think you just got to understand the consequences of our lack of emotional agility. When you hold on to something, when you harbor something,

when you resist something emotionally, when you harbor something, when you resist something emotionally, when you get angry and resentful, it hurts you. It's not hurting the other person. It might be hurting the other person as well by causing more friction. So when we constantly live in a place of what's the type of life I want to create? What's my vision? What's my mission? How do I want to respond? what's the best version of myself what would they do and it's a matter of just reflecting on okay i was a one out of a ten in that moment of my life how can i be a little bit better what could i do to respond with more love and empathy and compassion so number four is emotional agility um and making sure you are able to not suppress emotions when something tragic happens

like COVID or loss or loss of a job or relationship breakup, not suppress emotions, process your emotions, but not be, not allow your emotions to overwhelm you. So you can't be also productive after a period of time. I think it's also important to talk about so that's number four number five deepen your personal and intimate relationships I think the world dealt with a lot of loneliness a lot of depression a lot of mental health issues this year and people are isolated and a lot of breakups and marriages and relationships and for me that's a lack of intimacy that's a lack of communication that's a lack of creating boundaries as well in your personal relationships and a lack of really deepening those personal and intimate relationships and so for me when a time where the world is more disconnected in terms of

not seeing each other in person more divisive in terms of conversations from the political side of things to everything else that was happening in the world, it caused a lot of unhealthy people, I feel like, mentally and in relationships. So figuring out a way to deepen your personal relationships. And for me, my girlfriend moved in, we had some ups and downs of just like, how do we manage this with the pandemic and all these different changes that are happening in our lives?

And it caused friction where we had to really like say, are we gonna go all in or are we gonna bounce out at different times? And us both coming together and say, what do we do to deepen this intimacy? How do we really listen to each other and connect as opposed to fighting? That was a huge

key for me that allowed me to have that kind of connection and deeper intimacy. So how did you feel about this? You know, it's interesting. This really hits me in the moment. My wife reminded me of Summit of Greatness and Ed Milet was on the stage and talking about how he doesn't go in his house after work and bring his phone in. And I feel like, especially right now, because everyone is at home, we're in a consumption boom that we've never hit before. I mean, everything. There's a reason YouTube has taken off. I feel fortunate that we're giving social media, everything is booming right now.

And I feel fortunate that we're giving, yeah, social media, everything is booming right now. But are we actually deepening our relationships with people, especially the ones that we're in the same house with? That's key. That is the most important. The people you're in the house with, those are the ones you need to be deepening your relationships. The people that you're spending the most time with on a daily basis, even your teams and people you work with, use Zoom. Connect on video., deepen those relationships. It's only going to support you as you continue to grow and move forward. So again, my wife just reminded me of that

because I'm always checking, like at the end of my week, like what is my consumption? Is it up on my phone over a week or is it the same or down? Hopefully it's the same or down because if I'm continuing to be on my device more and more and more, it's definitely gonna take a toll on somebody else.

For sure. And me, you know? So I think deepening your personal relationships, especially the intimate relationships in your life. Huge. I mean, I've got a three-year-old daughter. She's a sponge. Do I want her to grow up remembering me

face down on my phone, you my phone when I'm at home? No, you got to spend some time. You got to truly connect face to face and talk and communicate as humans have done for centuries. I think that's huge. And I think also getting clear on who your core personal friends are, who you really want in your family, beyond your family, who are those close friends

gonna be in those relationships? Deepen those relationships. I think that's important, is really go all in on those relationships. The sixth lesson is to be led by a mission that inspires you to pursue your vision. And someone messaged me this morning and saying, Lewis, what gets you motivated to wake up every morning

and be excited about life? And I was just like, my mission. I think when you're not clear on your mission or your vision, what you're working towards, you may not be excited to get up in the morning because you're like, oh, what am I doing? What's my purpose? What's my mission?

What am I at least trying to do with this season of my life, these next six months or this year? Do I have any goals? What am I really valuing in my life? And so for me, we're just really clear on our mission. And I'll just share our mission and our vision, which is our mission is to inspire humanity to live greater, love deeper, and leave a legacy. And our vision is to be the number one place to seek inspiration and make a positive impact on 100 million lives weekly. And we do that through our show. We do that through our books, our courses,

our trainings and things like that, our events and other media. But getting clear on that, and that's why we talk about people getting clear on their mission statement, whether it's a personal mission statement, a career mission statement, a business mission statement,

whatever it may be, a relationship statement statement what's your mission statement in the intimate relationship you're in right with your family with your health but getting clear on this we've developed practices for greatness coaching to to walk you through all these things if you apply there but this is really key and it's it's not hard for me to get up in the morning. Because we're clear. It's a true north. You're not lost without a true north. I mean, you're going to get lost.

Yeah. And I think it's important for you to create some core values for yourself, whether that's three, five, 10 values. Just think about what are those values that I want to live by, that I want to be in support of with my life. So being led by a mission that inspires you to pursue your vision when if people lose a career they lose a relationship it's getting back to that well was this part of my mission or vision if not let me figure out what it is and start working towards it and listen this is our mission but we've had this for eight years and we haven't accomplished

the mission we're getting closer but we haven't accomplished the mission. We're getting closer, but we haven't accomplished it. So you don't have to look at this like, if I don't achieve my mission in a year or all my goals right away, it's okay. That's why it's important to have micro goals along the way. Every month, every quarter, every year, think about how can you create goals

that support your mission and your vision. And that's really important. Anything you want to add there? I mean, you said it. I mean, our mission is the thing that we're committed to daily. And our vision is where we want to be. It's in the future. It's like, what is that goal we're trying to hit?

But our mission is our true north right now. So we never lose sight of that. And I think in life, that's also something. I mean, it's that saying, you know, be on a mission, don't be a missionary. It allows you to also say no to the people in your life that may be pulling you away from your mission. It allows you to hold true to those core values, you know?

What's the difference between being on a mission and being a missionary? You know, sometimes when you're feeling like you're always doing something for somebody else, you're not living for yourself, you've got to live your personal mission and find people that are aligning with your personal mission. Because otherwise, you're going to become falling back into a missionary. You're not going to be living for yourself. You're going to be living for somebody else. I mean, for me, that's definitely not the way. And it's definitely not the way that I think we teach our community. It's like you've got to be committed to your personal mission and vision for your life.

And if you're doing it for other people, you're not going to be happy or fulfilled. If you feel like someone else is dictating your life, you're not going to feel happier. And I feel like that's what being a missionary is versus being on a mission. Yeah. missionaries versus being on a mission. Yeah. And whether that's you're in our entrepreneurial community and you're launching something yourself or that's finding a team to be a part of that supports your personal mission. Right.

That allows you to impact people in that specific way with your skill set, your talents. I think that's what it means. So that's number six. Be led by a mission that inspires you to pursue your vision. Number seven, build your team, mentors, and personal advisors. This is something I've been talking about personal advisory board for almost 13 years now. As I transitioned from football into life, actually life after football and was using

LinkedIn, I started reaching out to personal advisors who became part of this board of personal advisors. I didn't have a company. I was just like, I need people who are talented who can help me in my life. And I think that could be mentors or it could be personal advisory board or just a team of people that you collect, whether it be friends and support of a team,

whatever that might be for you. It could be family members as well, but finding a board of people to support you is huge. That's something I do in my personal life. That's something we do here at School of Greatness is trying to recruit and find great people to build our team. But I think it's important.

You can't do everything alone. You can't try to have all the answers yourself. It doesn't mean everyone else is gonna have the answers for you. Also, you've gotta make your own decisions, but it's always good to have people who have been there, who have done that, that you can learn from. So finding those people to support you will be key. That's number seven, build your team, mentors, and personal advisory board. Number eight, keep an open mind and be compassionate. Do you want to talk about this one?

open mind and be compassionate. Do you want to talk about this one? I mean, look at this year. I mean, there's been so much that has happened. I will say that, you know, I've definitely tried to keep our business and, you know, show on a true north that we're not going to be, you know, trying to get into the political conversation. But I think we've seen a very heated election. Man. And at the end of it, divisive isn't creating progress. Compassion, we got to lead with compassion, lead with our hearts. So I think then you go into social justice and a long overdue conversation

that actually had to be had in a big way this year and continue to be had. I think it's pretty powerful. And I think people do need to keep an open mind. There's something, there's another idea out there that you haven't created yet in your mind. Be open to it. Listen to it at the very least.

I think one of the things that we love doing is having people on from different perspectives and different backgrounds, different cultures, different ideologies, different philosophies, and asking questions and listening. And sometimes we get, you know, heat or negative comments sometimes because one person might have a belief. They might have 99 beliefs that fit someone, but then they have one belief that doesn't fit a listener or a viewer of ours.

And then they say, hey, you know, I didn't like this person that you had on because they have this one idea that doesn't resonate with me. And I think I can have compassion and empathy for those certain listeners who may not be as open to just listening to people and not saying what they're doing is right or wrong, good or bad, but just exploring and saying, okay, why are they thinking this way? Why do they have this belief? Why do they do these actions? exploring and saying, okay, why are they thinking this way? Why do they have this belief? Why do they do these actions? So I think it's been powerful for us to bring on a broad range of individuals with different ideas to just learn more. And that's something that we're going to

continue to do is keep bringing on new people, different perspectives to see what we can learn. And it may not be popular all the time. It may not be, it may be uncomfortable at times for some people, but I think it's powerful to at least have the conversations. Yeah, you talk about growth mindset and leaning into the things you're uncomfortable with, you know, whether it's you in your personal life

or in your business. I mean, lean into those conversations, have those conversations. If you're not having those conversations, it's not gonna get any easier. Not gonna get easier. Not gonna get any easier. So be of growth mindset. Be willing to hear another person speak

about something that you may not agree with. Yeah, I think it was cool. I mean, we learned a lot by having an open mind. You know, I wasn't aware of how big sex trafficking was in the world until we had Tim Ballard on and he really kind of opened our eyes by just like asking questions and having different conversations. Again, it's something I think a lot of people

don't want to look at because it's really hard but we we had him on and that video did over a million views pretty quickly within a few days and expose people to a new idea that might be happening in their backyard we think sex trafficking is happening in another country somewhere but it's happening in the USA it's happening in every country right and just being willing to have someone on to share information and statistics and how big this actually is an idea like sex trafficking was powerful for our community to learn about that doing that with the you know people from talking

about social justice. We do this on education, a lot of different things we're trying to tap into to learn about and have an open mind about just so we can try to learn more about how we can be better. I think that's really cool is having an open mind in your life when you're meeting new people who maybe don't have the same background

that don't look like you, that don't talk like you, being open-minded about people that you meet in your life and really being compassionate for people. And I've always noticed, you've always had a curious mind on many, many, many topics. And you know me, sometimes I'll just focus on, you look at my Audible, it's like a lot of business books. And I think the podcast has been incredible for me to also just tap into just the abundance of what you can talk about and have different conversations about in life.

It's not just one thing. It's not just focusing just on business, just relationships, just on health and fitness and wellness. It's on all things. So I think your curious mind has always, I mean, a testament to you has always been really powerful for me to see you be willing to have conversations. I mean, I definitely didn't want to lean into having a conversation or talk about sex trafficking. I got a three-year-old daughter. It's something that terrifies me. So I closed myself off to even thinking about it until you had Tim on the show. It was really powerful for me to see because I think it's an incredibly powerful movement. It's definitely educational that we all have to be open to be learning about what's going on out there, even if it's,

you know, pain and suffering and, you know, uncomfortable to have those conversations. Yeah. So have an open mind, be compassionate towards people's lives that are different than you. Doesn't mean you're going to understand everyone, but trying to put yourself in their shoes and having some compassion from their point of view. It's always going to be better. Number nine and number 10. Number nine is, man, we went through a lot of stress this year, a lot of loss and stress and heartache and challenges.

And I think one of the key solutions is to be positive. So that's number nine, the big lesson, that being negative during a time of uncertainty is not going to help you. I just don't know that's a good solution. That's not a good solution. Being positive will make you feel better, will make the people around you feel better, will make you feel happier. We make better decisions from a place of love and positivity than a place of fear and anger and stress. We do.

So be positive. It's hard. I'm not saying you have to be this fake positive person every day when something tragic happens. That's not real. That's not authentic. Feel the range of emotions. Go through what you need to go through.

Grieve. Be frustrated. Be angry. Be upset. Be hurt. Be sad. That's okay. It's all good things to feel.

But then lean back into your mission. Okay, how could I take a step forward? And maybe it's going to take a few days or a couple of weeks for you to process certain things. We're all different. I get it. But do our best to be positive. Do our best to be grateful. Even in the worst of times, what can you find that's something to be grateful for? How could you be grateful in a moment of extreme pain if you had to be? It's even shifting language, Lewis. I mean, we talk about it with some of our team and ourselves. It's like, oh, I have to do this.

What do you tell me? You don't have to do it. You get to do it. And then go beyond that. You don't just get to do it. You're blessed to do it. You're blessed to do it because. Right.

Because you have a place to go to work right now when 30 million people are unemployed, because your body is healthy. You get, you're blessed to go work out today because a lot of people can't go work out today. You're blessed to do certain things because we have so many opportunities, but sometimes we can lose sight of our perspective on life or just see the challenges or the overwhelm is so all-consuming that it's hard to take a breath and see how good we have it sometimes, even when it's stressed, even when things aren't going well, even when we're scared about the business. There's always something good in the challenge.

It's a practice to find gratitude and be positive during those times It's not about being inauthentic and faking it. It's about saying okay. I had a really challenging day. Everything went wrong If I had to be grateful for something What would I be grateful for? Yeah, if there was something if I was forced to find gratitude What would I be grateful for then we start to look at things with a different perspective. And that's all I'm trying to say. It's the practice. You said it right there. Practice being positive. I mean, Monday team calls. What do we start? Top of the call. Everybody shares. What are you grateful for? It's a practice. And sometimes it's hard to find what

you're grateful for. How many years have we, we've been doing Monday team calls and sharing what we're grateful for for years, Years and years and years. It's a practice. It's not a, oh, I'm positive this month and next month. I don't need to be. We do this all the time, what you're grateful for. So practice it, practice positivity and gratitude. And the 10th one, the 10th lesson of 2020,

which was a crazy year for so many people, is to incorporate play. You know, there were so many days where we felt overcommitted, overworked, stressed out. We've got to adapt. We've got to shift. We've got to be flexible. We're hiring.

We're letting go of people. We're trying to launch new products. We got family challenges you know health concerns fear media overwhelm there's all these things I get it responsibilities all these things and one of the best things you can do is take a 10 minutes to have fun and play I have a scooter but the scooter pretty much like saved our year the year of the scooter because we would stop in the middle of the day for 10 minutes and play little games with the scooter to try to scoot

around the office to try to scoot around the office and literally just be like a kid for 10 minutes and say we're going to scoot around and see if we get out here get around the whole office without taking a step and make a little obstacle course just silly little things make a game out of it be a kid that that incorporate play and i'm telling you it lifts your spirits it lifts your positivity it lifts your energy when things seem unbearable or stressful or overwhelming with home or work or health whatever it may be play you've done it to me for 15 years how many years 16 years play you've done it to me for 15 years so many years 16 years play you would run into my dorm when I'm studying it go let's stop studying and still to this day I you know whether it's throw the Frisbee the little scooter game around

our you know studio here it definitely supports you know you coming back to the thing you were working on or it supports you know you coming back to the thing you were working on or it supports you know you coming back to the thing that you were struggling with like just it it breaks it up i mean i remember when when covet hit you did a couple what instagram dance parties with people dance parties we just turn the music on and you'd go live on instagram and just do a couple dance parties it just breaks it up It just does something to break up the energy and support you with gaining momentum again. Exactly.

And I think life without play is not a meaningful life. That's why you probably, with your daughter, you guys are playing all the time. When you go home, it's just like play night. It's the most beautiful thing to see your kid play and just make play out of nothing. Sometimes she'll just be talking to herself in her mind about, like, I can't even make two cents of it, but it's the cutest thing because she's just having

so much fun. She's creating joy for herself in a moment. Out of nothing. Out of nothing. Out of a string, out of a little ball, out of something. Putting a cup on your head and acting like you're a different person. Like, bring back that childlike curiosity that you have and cultivate more play in your life. I think again, positivity and play go kind of hand in hand or different positive mindset in times of stress is powerful. Play is really healing in a lot of sense. It's helpful for your health. It's healing for your body, your mind. And it doesn't need to be all work and stress and overwhelmed feeling. You can make it a lot more fun if you incorporate play. Even if you feel like you've got a lot of work to do, you can still have fun with

it. Everything you do could be fun. Imagine even the most mundane, boring, most challenging things that you could do throughout your day. You could make them fun if you choose. You could put on music and listen if you needed to. You could create a game with it. You could time yourself and see how fast you can complete something. You can do all these little things

to make your day be playful, even if it's not exactly where you wanna be in your life life Even if you're on the journey to where you want to be you could still have a lot of fun in that process It's not easy But it's worth it Play all out play all out. That's the tagline of our coaching program greatness coaching again If you want to have if you've got big goals big dreams and you want to accomplish those goals got big goals, big dreams, and you want to accomplish those goals for this next year and beyond, then go to lewishouse.com slash coaching and apply if you feel like you're the right fit for this. Because every month you're going to have an accountability coach to support you on

those 30 days of what you want to accomplish in holding you accountable. You're going to have a mini mastermind every month that you'll meet with for a team to hold you accountable. You'll have teachings and trainings from me. We'll have a couple live events. It's going to be a powerful experience for a year-long experience. So I highly recommend you go there. If you're looking to take your business and your life to the next level, go to lewishouse.com slash coaching and invest in the accountability, the play, the team, the coach

that you need to support you and your goals for next year. Play all out is the key. These are the big lessons for the year, top 10 lessons and 10 highlights of our year here at School of Greatness. It definitely hasn't been easy, but it's been worth it. We've grown, we've developed new skills. We've had to shed old habits. We're still not perfect and still learning and growing and optimizing. And I think that's the beauty of life. Every year when we do this, we think about how much we have grown and yet there's so much more to grow into every year. Always. 2021 is going to be, we said 2020 was going to be our biggest year ever.

And in a lot of ways it was. Yeah. And how we could develop and grow. It was one of the hardest years ever. But I think we as a team stepped up and said, how are we going to thrive during this time and focus on the mission even more, which is serving people. How do we show up for others? Make sure we take care of ourselves so we can show up for others more. Be on a mission. Be on a mission.

Maniac on a mission. And 2021 is, we have big plans. We've got some big goals, big plans. And who knows what's in store? It could be the smoothest, easiest year, or it could be even more challenging. We don't know. But what I do know is we're prepared for anything. We're ready to take on the challenge. We're excited. We have a positive mindset. We're going to have fun no matter what.

We're going to have fun. Even if it's challenging, we're going to do our best to have fun. It could be the darkest dark, and we are going to have fun. We're going to do our best. We're going to do our best to have fun. It could be the darkest dark. And we are going to have fun. We're going to do our best. We are going to have fun in our minds, in our hearts. That's it. That's all you can do.

Can't take that away. I mean, Dr. Edith. I mean, come on. That was probably the most powerful episode I've heard on the School of Greatness. Talking about how she thrived in the Holocaust. I mean, no one's really thriving, but how she chose to, she had compassion for the guards who were killing her family.

Gives me the goosebumps. That's crazy. How can you have compassion for someone who killed your parents? And essentially imprisoning you for over a year and treating you like less than animals. So for me, if someone like her can learn during the darkest time and find play and fun in a concentration camp when you don't know if you're going to die the next day, that's another

level. I don't know if I'm there yet, but it's another level of learning and compassion and growth. So 2020, we appreciate you for the lessons you've given us. We are grateful for coming out of this stronger and hopefully more skilled and prepared for future winters to come. We had some great relationships. We had some great times, some great content. This community on the School of Greatness has grown tremendously. I'm grateful for all of you who decided to come here and show up and listen or watch and educate yourself for how you can

become better. I think that's been a beautiful thing. It's the community stepping up, you know, just seeing your emails, seeing your messages on social media, we really appreciate your engagement, your continual support. We read those every Monday on our team call. We read those, yeah. So if you haven't yet, make sure to subscribe on YouTube. Leave us a comment below if you enjoyed this.

Share a little comment, subscribe on YouTube. Also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, leave a review. You know those reviews really help us with our team. They help our show grow. So every time you click the subscribe button and you leave a review, it helps reach more people and build this community stronger so we have a happier, healthier world together.

So if that's something that you're up to, then we'd love for you to subscribe and leave a rating and review over on Apple as well. Other than that, any final words, Matt? I just acknowledge you for honestly being a big kid and coming with a curious mind. Yeah, having fun. I mean, it's a lot of fun to watch you ask those questions with anybody who's sitting across the table. I mean, it's really powerful. So I acknowledge you for being a big kid and just wearing your heart on your sleeve, being you, being true to who you are, growing every day, pushing me, pushing this team,

pushing the world to be better every day. Yeah, my brother. Thank you again so much for being a part of this community and for listening to this top 10 lessons and highlights of 2020. You've been a a part of this community and for listening to this top 10 lessons and highlights of 2020. You've been a big part of this movement over the last year. And many of you have been with us for eight years as we're about to come up on eight year anniversary. You've been here during the ups and the downs.

You've been learning and growing just like I have been. I have been. You've listened to some incredible guests truly open up and reveal their biggest secrets, their biggest strategies, stories, and open their heart to you in a massive way. And I hope these stories and conversations have inspired you to take action in your life, have given you tools to optimize and grow on a daily basis in your health and your relationships and your finances, your career, your dreams, and just your overall mental health. And that's what I've realized. A lot of people need more support on all levels of life. And we cannot do this thing alone. It's a very lonely life if we try to do it alone.

That's why the importance of having fun and being positive and building great people around you is so essential and key. So thank you for being on this journey this year and reflecting with us and with myself. As it hasn't been easy, but it's definitely been worth it. And you can believe we have some incredible things coming for 2021. Big goals, big dreams, big plans to serve you at a higher level. So stay tuned and make sure you subscribe over on Apple podcast or Spotify and leave us a rating and review because every time you leave a

rating or review, it helps us reach more people. And our mission is to really serve and inspire more people. So if you're on the same mission, you want to help more people grow and improve, then feel free to subscribe and leave us a rating and review as that'll truly help us attract more big guests so that you can learn from them and bring more people in the community so you have more support as well. And if you want weekly inspirational text messages from me sent to your phone, then text the word podcast right now to 614-350-3960. To stay up to date to that, I get so many messages from people saying that my text messages to them every week are truly what they needed to see and hear in that moment. So make sure you text the word podcast to 614-350-3960 to get on my texting list. And I'll leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein

who says, there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. And if no one has told you lately, you are a miracle. Just being here in this world, being alive at this specific moment, in this time, on this planet, in this earth, in this year. You're a miracle for being here, for making it here, for everything you've

had to overcome to get here. It's powerful. And if no one has reminded you lately, you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And I'm very grateful for you and for showing up for yourself and for being here for this community on the School of Greatness. I can't wait to see what we create together going into the new year. As always, my friends, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.