The School of Greatness - 218 Top Chef Fabio Viviani On Creating Success No Matter What

Episode Date: August 25, 2015

"It's very hard to beat someone who never quits." - Fabio Viviani If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/218.

This is episode number 218 with top chef Fabio Viviani. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, 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. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast.

Very excited about our guest today. His name is Fabio Viviani. He grew up in Florence, Italy, and at age 11, he worked nights at a local bakery since he was too young to officially join the staff. Worked with culinary superstars in Italy, and by the time he was 27, he owned and operated five restaurants in Florence, a farmhouse, and two nightclubs. Perhaps known for his television debut on Bravo's hit reality series, Top Chef. He earned the fan favorite title. His on-screen appearances have propelled him to become one of the fastest growing household names in the country.

He's also the host of award-winning web series on Yahoo, one of the top 10 lifestyle and food shows on the internet. He sells his own line of ceramic cookware and is a proud endorser of brands such as Bertolli Olive Oil. He has authored three successful cookbooks, including a New York Times bestseller, and has his own digital magazine called Fabio's Magazine. I'm very excited to introduce you to our guest.

We had an incredible time today on the episode here in the LA studio at the School of Greatness HQ. And here's a guy that I felt an instant connection with, an instant relationship, so much positive energy exuding from Fabio. And his mindset is extremely powerful. I mean, you don't build, you know, have 10 restaurants and build all these different companies and have 1,200 employees without having an incredible mind and still having a great personality at the same time. It just doesn't happen.

So we dive into a lot about his business, how he grew his brand, the game plan, his having an incredible mind and still having a great personality at the same time. It just doesn't happen. So we dive into a lot about his business, how he grew his brand, the game plan, his time management strategies, and a lot of other great things on this. Also, we do some fun cooking together in my kitchen. So make sure to head back to lewishouse.com slash 212 to watch the full video interview of this and also watch the video of us cooking. Without further ado, guys, let's go ahead and dive into this episode with my man, the talented New York Times bestselling author and top chef, Fabio Viviani. Welcome, everyone, back to the School of Greatness podcast.

We've got my man, Fabio Viviani, in the house, the ultimate chef. Good to see you, brother. It's good to be here, man. I'm so glad. I feel like you're one of my brothers, man. I feel like right when I connected with you in person, I was like, yes, I get this guy. You know, you're good people, and good people got to stick together. Exactly, exactly.

So I want to start with a couple of fun facts about us. Yes. Some mutual points of interest. Yes, please. So Fab want to start with a couple of fun facts about us. Yes. Some mutual points of interest. Yes, please. So Fabio is from Italy. Yes, born and raised. I'm quarter Italian. Do you know what?

My grandmother is from Italy. From you know what area? Yeah, it's called, I'm going to pronounce it wrong. I think it's called Sulmona. Sulmona? Sulmona. Are you kidding me. I think it's called Sulmona. Sulmona. Sulmona. Do you know? Is that? Are you kidding me? I love it.

Sulmona is a beautiful area in the northern region of Italy, like center up. And they're really, really famous actually for their steak. Really? Yes. There is like, I think every year there is a major steak fair. No, Sulmona. It's a beautiful, beautiful city. It's close to the lake.

Wow. It's fantastic, beautiful. I've never been. I've been to Italy. You've been to Italy. I've been to Milan. I've been to Florence. Not Florence, but Venice.

I'm from Florence. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to have to come check out Florence next time in Rome, next time I go. Now, next time you go, you've got to give me a heads up. And we'll go do it right. We've got to do it right, man. Come on. We've got to do it right. We got to do it right, man. Come on. We got to do it right.

Okay, perfect. So that's the first mutual connection. The second mutual connection is we're both on a Bravo show. Yeah. You were on Top Chef, obviously, as a fan favorite and blew up as a huge star. And I was on a show called Misadvised. It was like a relationship dating show. Misadvised. It was like a relationship dating show. Misadvised.

Yes. It was a bad decision, but it was an interesting experience. I'll say that. You know, here's the bad. Here, I think, is the good and the bad about television, right? Yeah. If you're a good guy and you look good, you're yourself, regardless if the show is successful or not, you still have some good material to use here and there. Yes, yes.

If you look like you're a douchebag on national television, that's really bad. It's going to come across bad. It's going to come across really bad. It's hard to build a business around being a douchebag. It is, unless it's a business. Unless that's part of your business. Unless it's part of your business.

There is a lot of mean people on TV that are doing very well. Exactly, yeah. So it was interesting. I'd love to hear your experience. Now, you were on Top Chef for two seasons, is that right? One season and then you came on another. Yes, I was on season five. I was the runner-up and the fan favorite. And I was

on season eight, All-Star, and I made it through like two-thirds of the competition. Then I got kicked out because I couldn't make the good version of an American staple. You know, they asked me to make a burger, and I made a burger, but I'm an Italian guy. I'm making an American staple.

So I made my version of a burger against like 10 American. My burger wasn't as good as their burger. Right. Gotcha. Understandable. Oh, well. I'm a good sport. It is what it is.

That's okay. But you've done extremely well after the show, and i've been researching a lot about you and your your videos it's funny we were just talking before this about how my uh project manager like fell in love with you and she was watching the show and then she saw that you emailed us and you signed up for some of our programs and she was freaking out and like texting me non-stop like you have to have this guy on the podcast i was like okay let's do it you know got to say something. You know, I haven't even – I wasn't even on social media. I didn't even have a Facebook account before I came to the United States nine years ago. If you go back to my Facebook account, my LinkedIn is a few years old.

My Facebook is only seven years old. My Twitter even less. My Instagram is a couple of years old. So I was a fan of yours way before your project manager was aware of who I was. Right, right. So you're the guy that kind of got me into the social media aspect with LinkedIn first and then with everything else. I appreciate it.

This is good. This is one of the things that kick off my list of my wish list. I like it. I like it. And we were talking before how LinkedIn has actually been a really powerful platform to build your business. You get a lot of leads from there, a lot of customers. Unbelievable, but you got to do it right. Yeah.

And your guide, your LinkedIn guide and courses that you have have really broken down for me the path on what needs to be done to get noticed. Because LinkedIn is just nothing else like another social media platform with the advantage that 99% of anything that's going on there is business related. Yes. So if you use it right, if you plug yourself right, if you place yourself as an influencer, you can monetize it. Yes. And people will always be like, what's the ROI of social media?

Well, it's hard to quantify because there is really no metrics yet. But if you do it right, you can actually see results because, hey, if I get 10 emails a week of people connecting with me and they want to do business with me through LinkedIn and two of those 10 leads translate into a paycheck, guess what? It's a free social media networking site. And now all of a sudden we're making money off of it. Exactly. It's just a way of building those relationships, positioning yourself as an influencer, making sure you're doing the right thing. So it's really cool to hear you've done that.

And I want to talk a little bit about the chef side of you. But to be honest, I want to more talk about the business side because that's what I like to talk about. And it sounds like it's more fun for you right now anyways. You know, a chef is what makes me happy. It's a passion, right? This is what I was. I mean, look how happy this guy is. Look at this guy.

He just looks happy on the cover. You know, chef is what people know me for. We have a lot of restaurants. I'm in the kitchen all the time. Chef is what people know me for. We have a lot of restaurants. I'm in the kitchen all the time. Honestly, it's more the time I wear a chef coat than the time I wear a suit and tie to do a keynote or to do some training.

Or sometimes I do a keynote and I wear a shirt, jeans, and sneakers. I'm a big sneaker. I like those. I saw those. I was like, those are nice. I'm a big sneaker guy. But the reality is that I enjoy the business aspect because with food, you feed people and you teach people how to cook. But for somebody like my average audience, you know, from somebody from 20 to 50 years old, men or women, doesn't matter. If they learn how to cook a recipe, yeah, you enhance their life because now you teach them how to make a dish or something.

And that's great. But my goal is to have successful restaurant, right? So chef is not really a mentor, is not really a teacher. I can show you how to make a recipe, and you're going to look good next time you have friends over, but that's it. It's not going to rule your life in a different way. Being an entrepreneur and being a business give you the ability, if you can connect with people, to really mentor them and change their life for the better. Think about how many people have followed your advice for your online, which, by the way, I bought all of them.

And it's phenomenal material. The webinar course, the latest one that you launched about how to build your online business. I have online businesses and I still took great advice from your courses and enhanced my ability to cash in my expertise by monetizing package debt. But think about how much you enhance people's life by showing them tools that if they're willing to apply those techniques and those work, they can make more money. They have more time free. They can provide better for their family. That's what excites me more than create a simple dish. Right, right. I love it.

I love it. And so growing up in Italy, what was the dream for you? Was it always to come to America? No. Or was it let's build a restaurant because you had multiple restaurants in Italy and were you just like, I'm going to stay in Italy for the rest of my life? Or what happened to make you want to come here and do all this? I never thought in my wildest dream I would have been American that would have been this

successful. Really? Because when I was in Italy, I grew up in a family with no money. I did wear a cast on my chest for about two years because I had scoliosis when I was six years old because I didn't have a bed to sleep on it. So my family, we were living in a 300-square-foot apartment, six people, and there was no room for bed. It's like this size.

Yeah, so I used to sleep on a recliner up until I was six and a half years old. And that gave me scoliosis, so I was in a cast. Now, we were poor, poor to the point where there is no more rooms for bed in the kitchen. My grandmother was getting out of bed, and she was at the kitchen table because there was a small apartment. We had no money to pay for nothing else. Grew up with food stamp. My dad is working three jobs. My mother is working three jobs.

And still there is no money. There is too much month left at the end of the month, right? Right. So when I was 11 years old, my mother got sick. And I'm going to make a long story short. Italy is very different. Healthcare, there is no Medicare. It's public health.

But it's like, really, it's like a- It's not that good. It's not that good. You've got to wait a month to get it in. It could be good, but there is too many people trying to get supplied by. So it's sketchy, right? So my mom is getting sick. I'm the only person not working.

I'm 11 years old. So I took a job in a bakery shop. I was baking pie. And because I was too young to be legally employed, the owner of the bakery shop said, you want to work nighttime? Nobody's checking at night. It's Italy, right? So I started to work from midnight till 7.30 in the morning when I was 11 years old. Wow. And I did that for three years. I was making enough money. I paid my mom Medicare. Wow. I put her through surgery. And then when I was 15, after working three years every night from midnight to 7.30 and getting my backpack and go to school every day, I got a job in the restaurant business, daytime, because the owner of the bakery shop also, he owned a few restaurants in Florence, Italy.

So he offered me a daytime job. And I took it so I could start to sleep a little bit at night. And then when I was 18, he made me part owner of the restaurant. He said, dude, you've been working with me for seven years. You never ask for a day off. I'm still the only person I know that by the age of 17 got brought three times at the hospital for exhaustion. Exhaustion is when you work yourself so hard that your body just shut down and just force you to go to sleep.

To sleep. Yeah. And in three different occasions, I woke up in a hospital two days after I passed out. Shut up. Yeah. Unbelievable. Two days after. So they had to rehydrate you.

They rehydrate me and I worked myself to exhaustion. And the owner said, you know, you're a hardworking kid. You're smart. You suck at school. But I was bad at school, man. Me too. I was horrible. I was good at two things when I was young, boxing and working.

There you go. So that was good. Boxing, I broke my wrist. Kind of similar story. Done then. Done there. And then I couldn't box anymore. Then I did a little karate, but it wasn't as much because I was punching people instead of grabbing them.

So it was very good, man. Karate didn't work for me. But I was still working really hard. So I opened with this guy my first restaurant when I was 19, and I never looked back since. So I've been self-employed since I was 19 years old. Wow. So why do you think you worked so hard in those years,

even after the first time you went to the hospital? Why did you keep putting yourself through exhaustion? I have a very addicted personality. Yeah. That is one thing. And I'm an overachiever. That's an overachiever. Sorry.

Let's take a step back here. You didn't know English. 2005, December, when I moved to the United States, I didn't speak a word of English. So some words and some sentence, still, I have a hard time pronouncing. It's okay. I understand you. I'm an overachiever, a very addicted personality, and I see

restaurant business and working really hard as escaping from what was happening to all my friends. I grew up in a rough neighbor. We didn't have any money. By when I was 20, half of my friends were drug addicts. The other half were in jail. So I love them to death, but I don't want to end that way.

And I grew up with a family where we had no money, but honest people, hardworking people. So I saw work as an escape to focus your energy in. To focus my energy on something constructive rather than spend my time just messing it up. Right, right. Gotcha. my energy on something constructive rather than spend my time just messing it up. Right, right. Gotcha. Now, have you learned to balance over the years the importance of getting sleep, the importance of taking some time to relax your mind and your body so that you can be more productive or you still go, go, go without getting that balance?

I learned ways to do that, not traditional ways. There aren't ways to do that, not traditional ways. Like, you know, we just opened my restaurant number 10 in Chicago three weeks ago. Before that, we opened another two months ago. I personally have not taken a day off. Traditional, like average people, oh, today's my day off. Monday, I'm off. I haven't heard that in a long time. Wow.

No vacations, no. Well, I took my wife two weeks to vacation in Europe. For your honeymoon or something. Yeah, for my honeymoon. I actually recently got married. I got married a few weeks ago. Oh, wow. Congrats.

Thank you. Appreciate it. That's awesome. And we have a baby on the way, so that will force me to be a little quiet. But so my vacation now is, all right, let me take my wife a week to Paris, a week to Italy, and a week to Spain or whatever. And in those three weeks, while she relaxes, she sunbathe, she does stuff that normal people call relaxing. You're online working, networking. I'm typing my next book.

I'm writing my blogs. I make my time efficient while my body is relaxing on a beach chair or something. Yes, yes. Because otherwise, there is no way to sustain the kind of business that we have if your mind is not on. And I'm not talking about a 90-minute basketball game or two hours at the gym. Yeah, yeah. You do that. That's part of working on your business because if you're not healthy and you don't take

care of yourself, your business is not going to thrive. Of course. I'm talking about taking a week off and shutting your cell phone. It hasn't happened in a long time. Right, right. Now let's talk about the health aspect of the chef because there's obviously a lot of chefs who are overweight and don't take care of their health. How have you been able to take care of your health?

And do you feel like you can be a great chef if you're extremely overweight and you're not taking care of that. I think that regardless of the chef scene, you got to take care of your body or your body eventually will let you know that you're not taking care of it. Because a lot of people don't think like, let's walk for an hour a day. Let's go. I never had a gym membership. Italy is different. I have's go at the gym. I never had a gym membership. Well, Italy's different, you know, back in the 90s. I have a treadmill at my house.

I have a high-rise desk like you have right here where we know. I'm very active. The gym is an excuse to be active. You can be active without the gym, right? Walk around. Walk around the brisk walk

for a half an hour. It's all you need. Yeah. But I think the chef in particular, it's a very excessive – it's an extreme work environment. We work in very high heat because kitchen is hot. My kitchen could get to 120 degrees. You stay there for 8, 10 hours. Think about it.

You got to hydrate. A lot of chefs like excess because it's a nighttime job. You're in a public venue. There is a lot of booze. Sometimes there is drug involved. It's not a healthy environment to begin with. But at the end of the day, spoons doesn't make you fat. C, cigarettes don't smoke themselves. And it's really up to the people. I work in a toxic environment because restaurant business is not a healthy environment. But the reality is that I'm not a toxic person. I don't over drink.

Sure, I get a beer sometime or a glass of wine or a scotch, whatever. You know, I'm a social drinker. You know, I don't do drugs. I take care of myself. You know, it's like, dude, spoon doesn't make you fat. You got to eat it, right? So at the end of the day, it really comes down to the willingness of yourself to take care of your own body. I'm a believer that circumstances doesn't define who you're going to be. It's how you react to circumstances that define how you're going to be.

Where did you learn this principle and this mindset? Growing up. Growing up and knowing a lot of people. That's not really the Italian mindset, I would think. No. My dad and my mom, I call my mom every day. I say, Mom, how are you doing? It's too hot. The house is hot.

I'm miserable. Economy is shit. There is no money. No jobs. No jobs. I retired my mom and my dad five years ago. Yeah, yeah. So they're retired.

They don't need to work. Yeah. But they still complain about Italy not having a job. Right. And it's too hot. All right, that's great. It's too hot. Buy an air conditioning system.

Buy something. Fix it. What are you going to do to react to your environment? You know, I was – it's funny because that's the biggest pet peeve I have is when people give me all kinds of excuses of why things are not happening for them. You know, in life, I'm like, I treat my life like, think about a military tank, full metal jacket, military tank. When you're a tank, things don't happen to you.

You're happening to things. So, and the reality is that that's how you got to live your life. It doesn't matter what happened. It's only the way you react to what's around you that will define who you're going to be in life. You can grow up. I came to this country with no English, a million and a half in debt. Wow. Because although we might not go there, my father had a very big financial distress

three months before I left for Italy. Right. And I sold my business in Italy before I left. I wanted to move to the United States for vacation. And I found myself paying my dad liability to the bank and be about to come to the United States. And instead of having the time of my life, because I was a millionaire, 27 years old.

In Italy. In Italy. Which is hard to do. Yeah. I saved a lot of money in Italy by selling all my business before I was taking the lifetime vacation of my dream and coming here and learning a new language. Be the man for two years, not doing shit, nothing. And then you were to go back. Is the goal originally?

My goal was to go back and figure it out. I got money. I could invest some, create business for myself. I created a business from scratch. I can do that again, right? Yeah, yeah. And instead, what did I do? I came to the United States.

I had a ticket ready. I went from having seven digits in my banking account to be broke because that went to pay my dad liability so they didn't lose the house. Now I'm in America. No English spoken. No money. A million mortgage. Because all the money I had, there wasn't enough to pay everything.

And I still signed the paper for my dad. So my dad is a six-year-old guy. He was completely stressed and down. And let's say he's not going to get out of it. I made him once. I can make it again. Plus, he's my family. You got to take care of family.

So now I'm in the United States, no English, not even broke. Because when you're broke, you got no money. In debt. In debt. And I didn't have a job. And I didn't speak the language. So now we got over 1,000 employees, multi-million dollar business. English, it's okay. Still struggling with it. You have 1,000 employees now? About 1,200. Wow. And all your restaurants and all the businesses. All the restaurants, all the company, wine business, licensing.

It's about 1,200 people now. Right, right. And, you know, we have a business in the A digit. Wow. And the reality, mid-A digit. And the reality is the question I always ask, what's your excuse? I didn't speak a word of English. Came here in debt, million dollars.

Most people won't ever have a million dollars in debt in their lifetime. People freak out. They have like $20,000 student loan. That's easy. We can show you how to get rid of debt in two months. In a day. Yeah, we did better than that. In a day, in two hours.

Exactly. But the reality is that it's not circumstances. It's how you react to it. Yeah, I love this, man. I love this. So what was the dream then when you came here? It wasn't to be on a TV show. It was just to start a couple of restaurants, building your –

No, even I found myself forced to it. I heard an interview about the TV show, right? Sometimes your best chance to succeed is to do not have a plan B. Think about it, right? If you have people that go like, if this doesn't work, I have a plan B. Then it's not going to work. I guarantee you it's not going to work. Exactly.

I guarantee it's not going to work. My plan B didn't exist. My first idea to come to America was a vacation. I was a wealthy kid in Italy because I built my own business there. I sold it, cash out, and I was going to be a pimp in vacation for two years. Where were you living originally when you moved here? I was living in Ventura County. Okay, yeah.

By the beach. Near Santa Barbara. I rented an apartment for a year by the beach. I wanted to have a vacation. Luis, I never took a vacation in my life. I was 27.

I got a million dollars in my banking account. Screw it. I'm going to go to America. I'm going to see the world. Right. So what happened next and when did the process

come to doing it, being on Top Chef? Because I heard you turned it down like two or three seasons in a row. Four seasons. So what happened is that I was working

with a friend of mine in a restaurant in Ventura. And one of the producers of Top Chef, which I didn't know who he was or what he was doing, came in with his wife to ask the hot restaurant where I was working at to cater their rehearsal dinner at their house for the wedding. The owner of that restaurant was a big shot. I was just one of the line cook because I was just there.

You're a new guy. You didn't speak English. A new guy. I didn't speak English. I had to find a $10 an hour job for myself to learn the language. Right. I'm surprised you didn't learn Spanish. I'm fully fluent in Spanish.

Well, it's pretty similar. The first two years in the United States, I came here to learn English, and I was full of Spanish and no other word of English. I was like, this is not going to work out, man. So this guy pretty much, they came in trying to hire the restaurant for a rehearsal dinner. The owner was a big shot. He asked for too much money. The bride-to-be was in tears. I was like,

that's fucked up, man. Seriously, just help these guys out. Who cares if they want to pay you $60 a person instead of $7? Doesn't matter. Do something. So I went out,

back door to the restaurant. I was like, guys, I know every recipe in this restaurant. I'll take care of it. I'll do it for you. And the guy was like, would you? I'm like, yeah. I don't even need to get. I'll take care of it. I'll do it for you. And the guy was like, would you?

I'm like, yeah. I don't even need to get paid. You seem like good people. She was crying. I'm like, you guys seem like good people. I'll take care of it. Were you speaking English this time? A little.

Enough to be able to communicate. I will help you. I will help you. Enough to communicate. It's okay. It's okay. And they were like, oh, my God, you're so nice. And then that night, the night of the party, I met one of his business partner, which was one of the executive producers of the show and the guys in charge of casting. And then he invited me and I turned it down because I didn't want to be on TV.

I just got a job in a restaurant. I'm trying to learn English. Plus, you know this. I come from a culture where celebrity, chef there isn't you know in italy if you're on tv you're either an actor or you're a felony and you made the news so that's it so i didn't have oh my god let me be a chef on tv i'll kill it yeah i was like what are you talking about no i don't do tv i don't speak english. Right. And then they kept asking me. We became friends. They kept asking me for three years.

And then season five, I gave in. Because at that point, I was married. I did open a new business. I understood that America watches a lot of TV. Yeah. And then I said- You had a restaurant at that time? At that point, I had a restaurant.

Inventure or in Chicago? In Moorpark. In Moorpark. Moorpark, yeah. My very first restaurant in the United States was in Moorpark, California. Cafe Firenze. the restaurant i i immature or in more park in more park more park yeah my the one with my very first restaurant on united states was in more park california cafe firenze yeah which is still there still yeah going strong and i'm gonna check it out soon next time we'll have together yes yes uh and then and then i decided to do the show in season five after i got asked to do season one

two three and four wow and i was turning it down because I just didn't believe that TV was that good for me. I didn't watch TV. I don't still watch TV. Yeah, I don't really watch much either. I just learned that exposure is good no matter what, but you got to look good. Where would your life be right now if you didn't go on Top Chef? It would have been busy. I would have a lot of business still because I'm a doer.

Probably I would have met certain people that I met through the business. So some of the business I have would not be as good because the reality is that if I didn't go on TV, I probably wouldn't be here today because your project manager knows me very well and she said, yeah, Fabio, do his house. It's got to be a deal. There you go. House going down, done. So see that. TV is good for that.

Yeah. But I would still have few restaurants. I would still kill in it because that's, you know. Because you work hard and that's your attitude. Because we work hard and we work smart. But the challenge is, you know, we were talking before. I think you said, you know, the licensing business has been a huge business for you and bringing in a lot of income. And that has come from your personality, from your fame, from your credibility, from TV.

Yes. And that's a big deal. That's good money. It is a big deal. It's a great paycheck. And all the speaking. Yes. With that said, though, let's break it down.

Yes. Licensing, licensing, licensing, licensing. For who doesn't know what licensing is? Licensing is when you're famous or when you have an audience and you allow people, product, and company to borrow your likeness, image, and name and put it on product that you endorse or you build with them or you co-pack, whatever it is, right? For example, I own my winery in California. I have a winery. That's not a licensing. That's a company I own. You own it.

And I bring it out. Now I work with some other company where my name is on their product. We develop together. I don't own the company. But you get a percentage. But I get a percentage of sale. That's a licensing. But even that, Luis, think about this one.

Top Chef, right? People say, oh, you do licensing. Of course you do speaking engagement and you make a percentage of sales that's a licensing. But even that, Luis, think about this one. Top Chef, right? People say, oh, you do licensing. Of course you do speaking engagement and you make a lot of money per day because you're famous. All right, let me break it down for you. I was one out of 270 people that in the whole season of the show went on and did the same exact things I did. How many do you guys remember from the show? Two, three, four? 270 from all the seasons?

270 people so far went through the same show I did. That's crazy. And I didn't even win the show. Think about American Idol. Right. So many people go through it. And how many you know about it? A couple.

One, two, three. Right. So television is good. Television is an opportunity. Television is the environment that can expose you. But if you don't know what to do with it. If you don't have a game plan. I had a game plan, man.

Yeah. You know, a lot of people that won the show. I didn't even win it. A lot of people that won the show, they disappeared from face of earth. You know why? Yeah. Well, they might have one restaurant and they're famous in like a small city. Right. You know why? Because they don't have a game plan for social media. They don't put their self out there. They don't, I can get, you know, it's funny because

part of my business, right? It's to do for big corporate, what you do for small business owner. We coach them in how to get exposed and how to monetize that. So the reality is that a perfect unknown person, you give me any person with some sort of expertise that could be taught, that they can teach that tomorrow, that nobody knows, you give it to me in 90 days, I'll place them as an authority on social media, TV, radio. It's easy. The path is there. If they do the work. If they do the work. Can't just make it for them. Can easy. The path is there. If they do the work. If they do the work. Can't just make it for them.

Can't just make it for them. I've done the work. Yeah. I've done the work. We've been hustling for seven, eight, nine, ten years. My overnight success has been 26 years. Yeah. It's still on overnight.

It's still going. It's still going strong, and I haven't even started yet. Yeah. Stay tuned for the next stay tuned for the next 10 years yes watch we're taking over the only reason why i can't be president because i'm not american i like it i like it so what was the game plan going into it so you turn it down three years and and then you said okay maybe there's something to this i'm gonna do the next season and what was the game plan were you like like, okay, I'm going to get on TV

and I'm going to be the certain way or I'm just going to be myself? You've got to be yourself, right? You know, I am very well aware with your story, right? Football player, had an accident, got into a funk, but you're a good guy inside. You're a good person. You found your passion,

you bounce back, now you're murdering it. Think about social media, top 10 people on the planet. Your name comes up for some reason somewhere. So the reality is that you got to have clear goal and you got to be a good person. Television only expose who you really are. All right? Now, there are exceptions where your character on TV plays a role that you might not in life. But –

That's hard to do. It's hard to do. That's like a skill to even do that. It's like lying really. Think about it. That's why I don't lie. I'm black or white. I don't have a mesh, right?

I'm black or white. The reality is that television exposes who you are. Now, they can edit things that you said left and put it right. But they cannot put word in your mouth. They cannot edit. They can't take the energy away from you, their essence on TV. So responding to your question, my goal was to be good, look good, look like I do care for people, which I really do. Yes.

And be like a genuine, likable kind of guy. So once you have that, my business game plan was like going for blood. Like, hey, now we got TV exposure. Let's multiply that through restaurant. We start to do event with the restaurant,

live events, social media. That's when I picked up your LinkedIn course right after Top Chef. That's crazy. When was this season? What year was this?

Season five was 2009. Wow, man. Yeah. That's crazy. I didn't even know you were doing all this. Yeah. That's crazy.

So you started really hustling before and after show and maximizing it. And probably you shot the show and then it probably came out three, four months later. No, I shot the show and it came out almost a year later because I finished to shoot it in February and it came out in November, December. so you're hustling that whole year you're like okay it's coming out let's get everything ready so people can buy things where most chefs don't do that they're like oh we're like oh i'm gonna be on tv who's gonna you know who's gonna come to my bachelor pod and having a good time oh i was the guy on tv do i get a free dinner oh hey do you want me sign your right go to like trade shows and do signings. Yeah, and just be – fun things that they last until the next season is up and then your heart is cold all of a sudden and your five minutes of fame lasted three weeks.

Right. Exactly. Seriously. And you've really – you've leveraged it because you're a fan favorite and then you came back on another show. Yeah. Came back on and then ended up building this huge brand on TV. And last year, Fabio Viviani brand had an aggregated 600 million impression.

Wow. And last year alone, I did 112 TV appearances. 112? Yeah. Last year alone. Wow. What's been the most fun TV appearance? You know, I love a few shows that are very dear to my heart because I just love the people there.

Home and Family on Hallmark Channel. Okay. I love that. Actually, we should do something together there. They're good people. You're going to love that, man. Let's do it. The Chew on ABC, very good.

I love The Talk because Sharon Osbourne, she's a good lady. I know her and I know all the other ladies there. The producers are delightful people. And those are normal shows that people like and people wouldn't know about it. I love to work with – besides the guys at Bravo. Bravo is like the starter family. All those people are good to me. I love Food Network.

I just finished to shoot a season of Cutthroat Kitchen. Fantastic. The show is fun as hell because they get chefs and they put out of their comfort level by sabotaging them. It's a fun show. And I like to have fun. Yeah, of course. I'm not a mean guy. You're a fun guy.

I'm not a mean guy. Who's the mean guy on that show? Gordon Ramsey. Gordon Ramsey, yeah. But again, it's mean on the show but it's a piece of cake in real life. So you're like, why? You're expecting this. Then you expect to be like that all the time.

And he's such a nice guy. It's going to be tough. It's really hard to do that. But he's a good guy and he's doing phenomenal. Wow. Do you ever want to do your own show? I do. I would love to have my own show but there's got to be rules and we've got to draw the line. I don't want to be on TV just to be on TV.

I'm very particular about what I do and who I associate myself with because I have one brand. Once you screw that up, you're done, man. It's tough to get it back. You're done. That's tough. So what I do actually in December, I have enough of stuff to produce my own shows. Yes. So what I do in December –

Online or – Online or platform. I know pretty much every network in the nation. Yeah. So I can – at least I can sit down in any meeting in any – Right, right. Because we've been there for a while now. Yeah, yeah.

So I know all the players. And what I do, I'm going to shoot two different shows. I'm going to shoot a 52 episode of a business show where, you know, think about something like this, but where I'm on camera talking about business,

giving people advice on 52 different aspects of business. 52 because 2016 is 52 weeks. So one episode per week for a year time. Sure. And we're shooting that over a week period. Wow. And then right after that.

All 52 in one week. That's smart. Batch it up. And then after that, I'm shooting 52 episodes of the best kitchen tips. So I will get back on camera and I will just shoot the 52 top tricks that will improve the cooking experience of people at home by teaching them stuff like I'll teach you today. Yeah. 90 seconds fresh pasta. Amazing.

90 seconds. So somebody is on the video phone downstairs. Hey, we're coming up. Fresh pasta. Wow. By the time they run up, you got pasta ready. That's amazing. That's crazy.

We got pasta ready. That's amazing. That's great. What's the experience you want people to have when they walk into your restaurants from the moment they park to the moment they come in from after the time they eat their meal and when they leave? What do you want them to feel and experience? I just want them to have a good time. Most people say, oh, my food is awesome. That's great. But if their service sucks, if the hostess at the front desk doesn't have a big smile, if you have shit in the parking lot all over, it doesn't work.

So it's an experience. If you're hungry, you make a sandwich at home and you're not hungry anymore. If you go out, it's because you want an experience. So I don't care if you're coming to my restaurant because you're a Top Chef fan, because you're a fresh pasta fan, or because we just got three stars from the Chicago Tribune as the best steakhouse in town. You've got to come to my restaurant and you got to live with a good time. Right. And good time is a combination of good service, good food, good atmosphere, everything. That's why I run a very successful hospitality development business with my business partner.

Sure, sure. And how do you get it all done? I mean, how do you make the experience great, have 12,000 employees, do 112 appearances on TV, have 10 plus restaurants, licensing, online, social media, speaking? How do you get it all done? And by the way, I saw your babies do October 27th. That's when my book's coming out. Fantastic.

We got two babies coming out at the same time. One will make you money. One will drain my checking account. Damn it. I got the wrong baby coming. All right. Well, how do I make everything happen? So here's, here's a, I'll tell you what, um, I'll tell you what's happening before I'll tell you how I make everything happen. The biggest critic of my work, the biggest people that judge me on every day, the famous haters are people that work 40 hours a week. They never have to relocate in a different country. They speak one language and they make fun of me because I have an accent. They never had the guts to take on a liability and to put themselves out there. I work 130 hours a week, Luis. I get up at five every morning.

I do some pushups. I run for 10 minutes on a Luis. I get up at 5 every morning. I do some push-ups. I run for 10 minutes on a treadmill just to get the blood flow. By 5.30, I have a green tea in my hand. I start to get email, phone, and by 9 o'clock, when most people wake up, 8.30, 9 o'clock, I have done probably two hours solid of work that other people cannot get done in an hour of an office stuff. Because morning for me is good because there is no distraction, right? And then during the day, I travel. Last year, I did 200,000 fly mile, shy of 200,000 fly mile, 112 TV appearances, 70

speaking engagements. I opened three restaurants last year. I wrote a book had time to get married I made a baby I had time to do that it wasn't half an hour it didn't take much

and the reality is that like 90 seconds like we're going to make that pasta could have happened but that time was a good one and the reality is that you just got to work. You got to do the work. Why do you think so many people aren't willing to do the work? What's missing from them?

What are they lacking that they don't want to do? I wish I could answer because if I could answer, I could build a business and fix it. And I think the most – my only belief is that the excuses on why you're not getting yourself to do something are just stronger than the reason why you should do it in the first place. Your vision. It's your vision, man. Talk to me about vision. How do you find a vision? I grew up in a group of friends that all they were talking about was how we're going to get fucked up this Saturday and Sunday. They were talking about what we're going to do to just go out and have fun Saturday and Sunday. When you're me, Monday morning are as fun as Friday night.

That's the reality. They're exciting. They're exciting because I have a week of people that can get back to me because they're not off on the weekend. And I'm going to hear from this guy I called on Thursday night and it's the weekend, he's not going to answer. So for me, it's a vision. I work right now for a goal that I want to achieve in 2020.

Yeah. You know? What is that goal? You know, I want to buy my next goal that I recently disclosed with my wife. You know, it's to buy a 20-acre property in a very beautiful neighbor in Chicago. Buy a lake. I want to have 20 acres because I know what to do with those 20 acres. I have everything mapped out. I have everything in my head, man, and I have it on

paper and I keep it very safe. And in order to do that, I need $10 million in cash. And in order to do $10 million in cash in the next five years, I break it down. The problem is that people don't know how to goal set it. People don't know how to goal setting. People don't know how to goal setting. You know, goal setting is not I want to be national team of whatever you play. The goal is not 10 million. 10 million is the vision. The goal is let's break down 10 million in cash. How do I get there?

Every day. Every day. Every day. You know, 10 million, broke it down for a year. It's about $30,000 a day. a year is about $30,000 a day. How do I make $30,000 a day? Or, you know, it's like, you know, $900,000 a month. So the goal setting, people miss goal setting skills and people miss vision, you know.

And that's, I think, is the biggest problem. But a lot of people, they're content. You know, I was poor. Now I'm, I wouldn't say I'm rich, but I'm doing well for myself. Dude, I picked that all day. All day, you know, and I was a happy guy when I was broke. Because my inner happiness is not dictated by money. But even then I had a vision.

My vision makes me excited, man. I know it's far away. It's really far away. But it's just far away from a timestamp line and small goal settings. Because a big plan is nothing else than the combination of small achievement. Little tiny one. How do you stay consistent throughout when you have roadblocks, when you have adversity,

when people can't understand you because of the language barrier, when you're facing all these challenges? How do you stay consistent? And what would you say to someone else who's challenged with that? It hasn't been easy all the time. I had my days.

I had what I was like, what am I doing? It's fucking so hard. Why? The reality is that, again, it's a matter of how you want to live the rest of your life. You want to be the guy that leaves a legacy or you want to be the guy that witness other people do so. For me, stay motivated. It's just a matter of be true and stop being full of shit towards the things you want to achieve.

I have a lot of people I know that are overweight. I have a lot of people I know that they could do so much more with their life, but they just don't want to. You know why? Because they're comfortable. They're comfortable in their position, and they make themselves believe that that's all they will ever get. I think for, staying motivated,

I don't want my kids to go through what I went through. Right. You know? I got a kid on the way. I just, I'm not kidding you.

I'm not if, I don't spend like money, like, I'm not a bowler. I save money. Yeah, you invest it. I invest money.

I make my money work for me, right? Now, I take my wife to vacation. I bear no expenses. Right. But I never take a vacation. a vacation. So for me, it's like, all right, we go to the best hotel because I want to experience that. But the reality is that I know my kids is coming. Half of the expenses I had, they're gone overnight, not thinking. I don't need a thousand dollar pair

of sneakers now. I don't care because now it's not about me, it's about my family. So, great. 100 bucks sneakers. Boom. Done. So for me, I'm not a materialistic kind of guy. And the thrive is just to be able to be the guy that people are talking about for the next 10, 20, 30,

50 years after I'm dead. Do you have a fear of people not talking about you? I could give a shit about it. Meaning, I'm dead. Do you have a fear of people not talking about you? I could give a shit about it. Meaning, I'm not motivated by other people's opinion because those opinions don't pay me or my family's bill. When I say I want people to talk about

it, I refer to the people I love and I care. The general public, they will always have an opinion. I do hope that that opinion is good, but as long as I'm in good standing with the people I love, my family, and the people I care for, it's all matters. It's all matters to me. What would you say is your superpower? If you had a superpower? I'm relentless. I don't quit. I'm unbeatable, man. There you go. I cannot be beat because it's very hard to beat somebody that never quit.

That's true. I don't quit. If I set my mind on something, it's going to happen. And I fail. I have been bent over. I have been beat and tied, but I've never been broken. You can win because I don't quit. So if when I want something, you can bet anything you have that it's going to happen. There is no excuses. There is no

second guesses. And being an entrepreneur and being a person as motivated as I am, there is always a way. Now, life gets in the way and the plan can change, but never the goal. The plan changes all the time. Hey, if I tell you in five years I need to get $10 million in cash because I need to buy that dream for myself, bet your ass on it that I'll have it. Now, I have a plan right now for the next five years on how to get there. The plan is going to change. The plan I know is going to change.

It's going to change a million times probably. It doesn't matter, but the goal never changed. The plan and the execution could change a thousand times. You can get screwed over and start all over again. That's okay. But you can't take guys out of the prize, man. What do you think is holding you back from getting to where you want to be? What's in the way right now?

What's your biggest challenge? Nothing is holding me back. It's just a matter of creating time, right? One of the things I'm really good at, I think I'm probably one of the best out there, it's time management. I can save people half of their time in doing the same things all day long.

How so? There is distraction. 21st century is full of distraction. From airplane go-by to your house, to your phone ringing, notification, social media, stalking your ex-girlfriend, the mail guy text. People text you, I'll call you in five minutes. Fucking just call me in five minutes.

Why are you texting me or calling me in five minutes? You know, when I do meetings in my company, there is no chairs. Because why do you want to sit down and get comfortable? Let's get shit over. Let's talk about it and then we move out. I like that. So the reality is that I can save time to everybody. I cannot create time.

Yes. You know, so we always have the 24 hour and I'm one of the best people you'll ever meet about time management. So my time is very well managed. bathroom breaks, stuff that require my full attention, like driving or eating, every other minute I have, it's employed by something that creates a benefit for my legacy. There is no distraction in my life. I get shit done. I get shit done quickly. And I get shit done on time.

The reality is that there is just 24 hours. So my time is my biggest asset and my biggest deficit. To create bigger goal, you have to start to eliminate smaller goal that don't achieve the bigger result in the timely manner. The problem is that I care for people. And sometime when you eliminate smaller goal, some people that leave off of the smaller goal will get affected by it. So before I do that, I need to make sure that those people are taking off of those smaller goal will get affected by. So before I do that, I need to

make sure that those people are taken care or those people are part of the bigger goal. Because although it's not my business to take care of yourself or anybody else around me besides my family, I still care for people and I'm fair to them. So sometimes- You're very hard and you want them to succeed and support you. Right. So sometimes for me, before i change path and i always think about how that will affect people involved in that scenario you know we had experience where we had to close restaurant or we had to do stuff and you think about 40 50 employees are gone right so you want to make sure that those people are taken care of and because at the end of the day

i care for people i care i'm very altru. I care for others more than I care for myself. So that, although it's not very entrepreneur-like, but I think it's good because just one thing you always guys want to remember is that life pays back good with good and bad with bad. So I'm a firm believer of karma and doing good to others. So if you try your best to always be good to others, it might slow my goal down by a year or two, but I take care of people and it makes me feel good. Yeah, exactly. And it'll come back. Somehow, right? Somehow it'll come back.

Yeah. Do you have your own PR team or do you do all this yourself? Oh, I have an army. It's a reality. Let's go back to time management. Why would I want to do tasks that... It's all mathematic, right, Luis? Last year, you made seven digits and you divide those seven digits by 365 days, 12 months, 30 days a month, 24 hours a day. Your time is valued 80 bucks an hour, 100 bucks an hour, 300 bucks an hour, right? So if I perform a task myself that I can pay somebody 20 bucks an hour and my time last year was $200 an hour, you're wasting time, you're wasting money. So that's why I keep hiring people and just keep growing and growing and growing.

People don't understand it. Oh, I'll do it myself. I don't want to pay anybody. Oh, that's great. You're just losing money by doing it yourself. Sure, sure. So I have a good PR team. The 100% of the content I do, my blogs, my business review, my recipe, it's done by me.

Yeah. The team executes it as well. And my team execute it. They broadcast it. Today we post the recipe. I team execute it. They broadcast it. Today we post the recipe. I did the recipe. They post it. Because if I have to log in physically every time I go on social media, I wouldn't have time to do anything else.

Yeah, exactly. So I have a PR team. I have a marketing team. Do you check on social media ever? Every day. Oh, every day. But you're not just executing everything. I'm the guy that goes to the bathroom and is on Twitter.

I'm doing that too. That's when I get to use my social media. Long bathroom breaks. I was doing this speech at a conference for a big software company eight years ago in Vegas. And it made everybody laugh by saying, you know, thanks to Twitter, my poop time got so much more entertaining. Because otherwise you're just there like then. There's nothing to do.

There's nothing to do. So now – Just waiting. Yeah. So I'm that guy. I'm the guy that the red light answers somebody on Twitter and on the bathroom answer and before I go to bed, I pass out answers. It is what it is, man.

I love it. I love it. A couple of questions left for you. Yeah. I feel like we could do this all day and hopefully we can do more of these in the future. What's the thing – what's the question, you've done all these interviews over the last five years, what's the question no one's ever asked you that you wanted to answer? Wow, the question no one has ever asked me that I wanted to answer. Wow, that's a great question, man. Wow, the question that no one has ever asked me.

Or that you wish they would. Either you wish you could answer it or you want them to ask it. You know, here's the reality, right? This is what I believe. I do believe that people don't, when you have the time, like, you know, today we have an hour together. And when I have the chance to be with somebody like you, that is creating right and is creating a legacy and is making the difference in people's life and is creating a name for yourself people ask a lot of stupid questions yeah how do i be rich how do i make a million? How do I do what you do? Well, you fucking can't do it because I'm me. You're not me, right? So I don't have one question that somebody asked me. I just wish that the average IQ or question that people ask me would have been more intelligent. Like,

you know, I had the chance to be sometime with the most brilliant people on the planet and I asked them questions that truly can benefit myself without getting nosy. I don't care how much money you make. It's you. I could give a shit. What I care is that, you know, asking questions like,

hey, you know, I'm trying to do this. What is your opinion about the best way to go about it? And the reality is that I like people that ask intelligent questions. I just find that the majority of people out there, they have like a rhetorical question book. And they ask, I want to be, you know, I got this kid, this kid asked me, I got a DM on Instagram saying, hey, how do I do, how do I get, I just opened an account because we're opening the Know How Leadership Academy in January. So we're building content right now.

We're building momentum. We're building some social media following. We got 10,000 followers in four months with some tricks that we teach and learn, whatever. Kids come to me and they say, hey, I'll give you $1,000 if you grow my account to 10,000 people. Can I do that? And I'm like, dude, that's not the way it works. That's not the way it works. That's not the way it works, man.

You got to put the work in. You know, a good question could really be – but then they don't listen. The good question to ask would be, what's the path? Now, the answer, it's a very complex. It's taking action and doing the work. It takes action and doing relentless action every day. But I think that although I cannot pinpoint a single question that I wish people would ask me, I just wish that the level of intelligence of the question asked would be really meaningful because there is a lot of people ask stupid questions. Yeah, I saw one of your videos online talking about how you ask the right questions and most people ask the wrong questions.

Yeah, you got to ask the right question, right? Yeah, and the level of your questioning will get you a better result based on your question. Yeah, I mean, seriously. If I talk to you, you're an online expert. You know how to build webinar. You know how to build online courses. You teach people effective way to package stuff that they know and sell it for people that could use the information. stuff that they know and sell it for people that could use the information.

If I guess that you probably have had day where you made $100,000 in a day selling online courses, and that's more than what Average America makes in a year, the question I ask you, I come to you and I'm like, Luis, this is what I'm thinking. Can I have one sentence of what you think I'm doing wrong or right. Or what would you do? Or what would you do with it? I'm not asking, say, hey, you know, how do I make a million dollars with my e-book? That's a super fucking question because the answer will take three years of planning.

And, you know, that's the things. I wish the IQ of the question was higher. Yeah. And, you know, I feel like we're very similar because I was really bad in school. You were really bad in school. Do you feel like it's more important to have the heart over the intelligence in business and life or it's better to have the intelligence over the heart? No. Heart and hustle beats intelligence all day long. Yeah, I agree. Heart and hustle beats intelligence all day long.

I can teach a donkey how to operate a business. I can make him get out of bed in the morning and I cannot make him have thrive. You know, that's a reality. Hustle and willpower beats textbook intelligence all day. I agree. That's great. A couple questions left. What's the thing you're most proud of that most people don't know about you, that you've done?

I retired my mom and my dad five years ago, which made me very happy. happy. I probably help financially more people for no return. I have nothing to do with these people, like beside, you know, trying to be good to other, I probably help financially more people that most people aren't aware of. And I'm not doing it because I want to feel good or I'm just doing it because it's a good thing to do, right? And I like to help others. I'm the kind of kid that by the age of 27 made a million dollars and lost a million dollars. So a million dollars is a million dollars. You can make it all day.

It doesn't matter. Money is just a number. Money is currency. Money is not the goal. Retiring my mom and my dad, it made me very proud of myself because I got rich by selling business I've built on my own. My dad is a handyman and my mom is a hairdresser. I don't come from money, man. I made a fortune by the age of 27 by working my ass off, lost everything to help my family,

built it again, and retired my family with no debt. So I made it twice. And now and other things I'm very proud is that my kids that I don't have yet, my boy, who's about born in two months, he has already college paid for the next 10 years.

And that's something that makes me proud. I can die tomorrow if I'm happy. And know he's taking care of you. And I know that my wife and my kids are taken care of. That's great. So those are things I'm proud of. And I'm not proud about things I do myself because I don't care. I don't drive a fancy car.

I don't. I just, you know, money for me has different values. And look, don't get me wrong. The day, you know, I'll probably buy an expensive car one day. I don't care. But the reality is that. It's not important right now. I don't care.

It's not important right now. Okay. It's really not. What are you most grateful for recently? I'm most grateful for the opportunity that I have every day. I'm grateful for my health. I'm grateful for my friends. I'm grateful that I found through my career good people willing to help a helpless kid that didn't speak a word of English and they had no reason to do so.

But because they're good people, they decided to just give me guidance. And I was smart enough to listen and I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful for my thrive. I'm grateful for my faith in my ability. And, you know, and I'm grateful every day just to get up in the morning and make the difference, man, because we're making the difference. That's awesome. We really are. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. It's the end of the day for you. It's your last day and you've got a piece of paper and a pen to write down three truths that you've learned about life that you've learned about life, that you've learned about business, relationships, anything you want to write down, but you can write down three things.

Three things. You have no more books left. Nothing. Nothing left. This is what people get to see of you. It's the last three things. Everything that's left for me. Three truths.

What would you write down? Do it right or eventually you'll do it twice. First truth. If you don't do shit right, I'll bite you back in the ass and you got to do that again. So it doesn't matter who you are, what you do for a living, do it right or do it twice. First. Second. Second would be you cannot take care of anybody else unless you take care of yourself first.

If you're unhealthy, if you're broke, you're not helping anybody. take care of yourself first. If you're unhealthy, if you're broke, you're not helping anybody. Take care of yourself first, then you take care of everybody else. The third biggest truth is that life, it's never about how good you had it. It's not about the color of your skin. It's not about religion. It's not about sex. It's not about where you're coming from. It's not about your past life. It's not about how good you have it, how good you had it. It's only about how bad you want it. Three things. I love that.

I love that. Final question before we ask it. Make sure to check out this book. Check out your website, FabioViviani.com. Also, what is the main things that you want to have people follow you on Twitter, Instagram, Periscope? Where else should they be checking out? You have a lot of stuff out there about me from a chef standpoint. So if you go to FabioViviani.com, you can find my restaurants and my books and everything else.

One thing I would love to is that what we're going to do very soon, we're going to share our knowledge with everybody out there and help, you know, because our past is helping people with a lot of money, corporate America figuring their shit out. Now we're going to go into smaller business and people and self-improving people, right? What's that called, that website? Knowhowleadershipacademy.com. Okay, cool. But the best things you can do, the website is not up yet because we're launching it in January. What you can do for now, just go on Instagram, follow my account,

knowhowleadershipacademy on Instagram. Cool. We'll send all the update there and you guys are in for a good ride. There's going to be a ton of free stuff. That's great. That is really good and it will really change the way

you manage your time, you live your life, you think about business, you think about growth, goal planning, vision, everything we spoke about in the interview. It's going to be a path broken down for everybody that is up to grab. That's it. I love it. So make sure to go follow all those accounts, the Instagram account, and the website will be up soon where they can opt in and learn more about that. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Fabio. I acknowledge all my guests at the end. I get to acknowledge you for

your authenticity. You have so much passion and realness about you that is so enjoyable to be around. The moment we connected in here, I felt like you're a brother. Your passion, your consistency over time,

the ability to turn any struggle into an opportunity for you and to seize it and to serve others not only physically by serving us great food, but great information, your love. I just appreciate

so much about you. I'm excited to connect more and all that good stuff. So I acknowledge you for that. Final question is, what's your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness is, I think, you know, it's a big question. My definition of greatness in every aspect of life, it's to get up in the morning. It doesn't matter what time you get up.

It doesn't matter what time you go to bed. Just the fucking best you can in between that's the definition of greatness doesn't matter who you are doesn't matter if you're famous or not if you have money or not get up in the morning kick ass go to bed repeat you have one life you're not gonna live forever sorry you know two two fucking bed you're not gonna live live forever. Sorry, you know, too fucking bad. You're not going to live forever. So just get up and go to bed, but make sure that whatever you do in between, it makes the difference. That's the definition of greatness. Fabio, thanks for coming on, bro.

Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Looking forward for more. This is awesome. You're awesome, man. And check out the video we're doing right now uh for making homemade pasta we're gonna do internet sensation you is house we'll make fresh pasta 90 seconds thank you again everyone for listening to this awesome episode i again had a great time with

fabio and it's such a pleasure to have him in my studio and have him cooking again make sure to check out lewishouse.com slash 218 to watch the full video interview also the interview with us cooking and him showing me how to make homemade pasta it was incredible and make sure to share this with your friends if you have friends who would be inspired

by this message please share lewishouse.com slash 212 online share it on Twitter Facebook Google Plus LinkedIn Instagram by this message. Please share lewishouse.com slash 212 online. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram. Tweet me at lewishouse. Make sure to tweet at Fabio Viviani and let him know what you thought.

Follow him everywhere. Check out the show notes at lewishouse.com slash 212 to get more information on him. Again, super pumped for all to come. We've got some great interviews coming up very soon. So make sure to stay tuned and get ready for some greatness coming at you. You guys know what time it is.

It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.