The School of Greatness - 371 The Cadillac Confessions

Episode Date: August 24, 2016

"A leader is someone who is in service to themselves, their team, and their community." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/371

What's up guys? I want to try something different today. So for those that are listening to the podcast, I'm in my car, just started the engine. And those that are watching the video on YouTube, then you're going to join me on a little joy ride. We're going to go on a journey together. I just posted something on my Facebook page. I said, just turning the AC on here. I said, if you have 20 minutes in the car with me, what thing would you want to know or what would you ask?

So 20 minutes in the car. We're going to try a little car confessions. And I want to share some things. Maybe that I've never shared before on this because I wanted to continue to add value in any way possible. So I've got the phone here. I've got a bunch of questions that came through. Tiff is behind the camera. She's going to look at some of them, read them, say the name, the ones that she finds most interesting. I'm going to lead with one first, and I'll pass it to her because she's recording at the same time. Let's see. Here's one from Carla Molina. She said, I want to know your three truths plus what your self-care rituals are. I'll start with that.

She asked a few other questions, but I'll start with that. Tiffany's going to have to use this in a second. So we're going to take a little ride down Sunset Boulevard, a little joy ride together. So my three truths and what was the second part? And my self-care rituals. So three truths. The first one, the first thing that's coming up for me right now

is that always come from love and win-win in every situation, whether it be relationships, business, you know, if someone hurts you or you feel like someone did something that wasn't fair to you, always come from love and win-win. It's much easier said than done.

And trust me, it's still challenging for me to do, especially when I feel defensive or upset. It's hard to do that. But always come from love and win-win. The second thing I would say is relationships are so important. You know, we are born here to connect with others. So find people that bring you joy, happiness, and support you, and do the same for those people as well.

Find the right relationships because that's what we're here to do is to connect. And the third thing I would say is, the third truth is that your dreams are the most powerful thing. Without a dream, there's, again, no point being here. And we are lost without dreams. So find the time on a daily basis to dream and pursue your dream. Whatever that looks like, be on the pursuit of your dream. And then self-care rituals. I would say I really like to do things to get me in the flow. I feel like that's my self-care is like playing basketball, doing a run, doing something active where I'm focusing on,

you know, working on my body and my mental health and my physical health. For me, that's a lot of fun. So doing activities that are fun, going in the ocean, swimming, body surfing, disconnecting from the phone and connecting to my body and the world. I also love self-care for me. It's like not thinking about business or my vision. It's just like chilling. So that could be watching a movie. That could be having dinner with friends. That could be relaxing and chilling out. So doing things that allow me to relax and chill out. So Tiffany's going to look at the phone while she's filming.

She may have to put the film down for a second and see what the next question is. So from Mark, who has influenced me the most in terms of leadership and why? You know, I really like Michael Hyatt has been a guy for me. I just feel like he's a great leader for his team, for the content that he writes and for how he shows up in the world. I just feel like he's always got things figured out. And I'm sure he's got his own challenges and his own adversities. He's got his own family. He's got a number of children, and they have their challenges. But whenever I'm around him, wherever I watch a video of him,

he's just so cool, calm, and collected. And his team loves him. His content is great. His branding is great. The value he offers to the world is great. And I just feel like he's got years of experience being a CEO. He knows how to lead a company to success. And now he's replicated that for himself.

And he's done an incredible job in my mind. So I feel like Michael Hyatt is great. I also really love Tony Robbins. I also really love Tony Robbins. I think he's done an incredible job as a leader in terms of the way he impacts people on his team. That I've met a number of people on his team who have had a profound impact on his life and his ability to connect and his message and things like that. But also the community he's evolved and developed through his message and how he continues to be in service to people. I think of a leader as someone who is in service to themselves, their team, and to their community.

And those that are able to lead at a high level on all three areas is a really challenging thing to do. It's not easy. You've got to have such, you've got to be so grounded on who you are and your strengths and your weaknesses. And you've got to be really willing to let go of your ego in a lot of situations and think about how you can be in service to support other people. So it's something I, you know, constantly get to work on and I'm challenged with every now and then

is how can I be in service to all those people myself? Because if we're not able to lead ourselves to fulfillment and happiness, then it's going to be hard to lead a team around us and then hard to impact other people in our community. So for me, that's something I looked up to and continue to evolve myself. That's something I looked up to and continue to evolve myself. So Nicola asks, what advice would you give, would you wish someone had given me as a teenager around 15, 16 years old? You know, I think I was just really worried about the future as a kid. I was really worried about like, you know, what am I going to be doing in the future? I was really uncertain. I didn't know

what life was going to entail. I didn't know what was going to happen. And I wanted to know how things were going to happen. So what I would say to, um, I wish someone would said to me when I was a teenager is to focus on the season of your life, have a vision, have a dream, and just pursue your dreams with curiosity because so much can change and evolve that's out of our control on a daily basis or a yearly basis. And as a teenager, I didn't even know who I was. So I would say be okay with the uncertainty of the future and that it's okay to not know exactly what you're going to do but have dreams that you can pursue with curiosity

until you're more clear on that. And also you don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to have everything figured out right this moment. You're going to go through experiences, adversity, and lessons that are going to guide you and you're going to learn through the messiness of life and through the ups and downs of life. And also, I wish someone had told me to master more skills. Like become a master of your curiosity.

So I was mastering my sports, but I wasn't mastering necessarily relationship skills early on. And I wish I would have learned more about communication, more about speaking in front of others, more about articulating my idea, packaging it and delivering it to peers, friends, teammates, whatever it may be. Learning communication, I think that is one of the most important skills in any business, getting any job is to be able to deliver our message or our ideas in such a way that it moves other people to action. Whether that action is to hire you, to take your advice and use it,

to enroll people in your vision, whatever it may be. Learning to communicate. And it took me until I was about 25 when I started to take public speaking class because I saw the value and the importance of communicating your ideas and your message. And if you want to generate any type of results and get people behind anything you're up to, you need to learn how to communicate what that is to them and get them to take action on it. Otherwise, it's going to be hard to get your ideas out there or get people to buy into who you are and how you can support their company if you're looking for a job. So that's what I wish someone would have told me when I was 15, 16 years old. Sev asks, two favorite books and two favorite things that have gotten me

in the last couple of years have gotten me to this place in my life. One of the books is The Alchemist. Hands down, one of my favorite books of all time. I don't read a lot of books cover to cover, but that one I couldn't put down. So The Alchemist is a must. I also think the Four Agreements. I mean, such a powerful, basic concept of these four agreements that we should be living by on a moment-to-moment basis. And when we don't live by these agreements, challenges occur more and more so, and we deal with more pain and suffering. So those would be the two most important books. Ideas, was that the other thing? Two things or ideas? Two things or ideas that I've learned in the last two years. One is to be more patient. Patience is something that I have struggled with. I'm the youngest of four.

I'm the baby in the family. I like things my way. I like things yesterday, not in next week. So being patient with anything, whether it be, you know, sitting in this traffic, we've stopped a bunch of times, trying to get anything I want in life, being patient with knowing that things take time sometimes. And you can only control, like Don Miguel Ruiz Jr. said, to the tips of your fingers, right? Tiffany likes that line. You can only control to the tips of my fingers is how much I can control. I can't necessarily control the traffic

or other people not doing things if I want them to do things or whatever it may be. So, uh, those would be the two things that I would talk about there. So Taryn asks, uh, if you were to die tomorrow, would you have any regrets? And I think the only regret I would have is, hmm, I think I'd feel like was I fully honest to everyone in my life at all times? You know, I used to steal and cheat in school and do all these things. And, you know, I wouldn't tell my parents the full truth all the time. So I think I would just be like, you know, is there anything that I have done or said that I would take back

or that I wasn't in full integrity or that I'd lie about something or that I hold back out of fear of hurting them or getting in trouble by my parents or peers or whatever it was or teachers. You know, is there anything that I live fully 100% in truth? And I don't know if anyone really lives 100% in truth and says everything they feel and says everything that's happened in their life and in every situation. But I think I would just be like, did I do it? And could I have lived a more truthful life?

In terms of other regrets, I would think, I would ask myself, you know, did I give fully of my energy and my ideas and my gifts to the world? And at this moment, I feel like for what I have and what I've been able to develop, the skills that I was born with and what I've developed, I feel like I'm giving my all. And I feel like I'm giving my all so that I can also be balanced enough to recharge and give more the next day. So I would feel really good about, you know, I don't want to die right now, but I would feel like, you know what, with what I've had and what I've been able to do, I feel like I've done my best in this moment. choose to be happy and happiness is a choice a lot of times. Yes, there's other factors. There's our environment. There's results we're creating. There's things we're going through in our lives that are going to be ups and downs. But I think it's a choice for me. I'm happy because I'm

grateful. I think it's a lot about perspective. I'm very grateful. I get to travel to third world countries and build schools for kids and be a part of this process with Pencil of Promise. And so I witness a lot of people that have so much less than me. I mean, we're driving around here in Los Angeles right now. You know, I have a car, you know, most people don't have the things that I have, or they don't have the experience that I have. They don't have the relationships that I have. They don't have the education that I have. And for me, I choose to be happy because I'm so blessed and grateful for all that I've created, all that I have, all that's been given to me. I'm grateful to be alive. Like there's so many things that could have happened where I

could not be alive today. And I'm just grateful that I get to experience life. So it's a way of thinking and a way of perspective. And for me, there are moments where I'm not happy, where I'm frustrated or I'm angry or resentful or whatever. And then I realized like, why am I holding onto this? Why is this, why am I allowing this to happen? I choose how I want to feel in every moment. I choose again, like the four agreements to either take things personally or not. And if I take things personally, then I'm going to be unhappy, ungrateful, frustrated. And I choose to let those things go quickly. It doesn't mean I'm perfect, but I choose to more than not be happy.

Here's a question that someone asked me earlier today. I was speaking at an event. And they said, you know, you're doing a lot of webinars. Are webinars working for you? It seems like things are shifting a lot in the business world. Things are shifting. It's harder to get, you know, there's so many people who are doing courses now. So many people who are doing webinars now.

So many people who are doing podcasts now. Like, what is working in business as an entrepreneur and what is not working? And things are always shifting. And so something I'm always thinking about. So someone said, what are you thinking about when you know that all these things are shifting for people? And I'm constantly thinking about how do I build what I have currently? How do I maximize what I've created currently in my podcast, my courses, webinars, all those things that I'm doing. But I'm always constantly thinking about where's the puck going? Where is the puck going to be?

Right. And where can I predict what's going to generate results in the future, what's going to get the maximum results for my vision of impacting more people, 100 million people I want to impact. So what's going to give me the maximum results? That's going to give me the least resistance, you know, because more and more people are doing podcasts, more and more people are doing webinars, more and more people are trying to do these courses. And a lot of people are saying the market is being saturated now because of this. So how do you stay ahead?

How do you be first or the best or the most different in these different industries and things like that? And so I'm constantly thinking about what's going to be big in the next year, two years, three years, and how can I get ahead of 99% of people to get to that place so that I'm first or I've learned enough in the process to be able to be there. And I'm constantly investing money and time into researching what that's going to be. And that research might be just going to events where smart people are at who are doing different things and asking them the questions that research might and investment might be trying things you

know i try to launch a digital magazine because i felt like online publishing magazines was going to be bigger than print magazines and while print magazines are dying and some people are doing digital magazines well i spent you know 100 grand trying to launch a magazine that that i never launched but for me it was like at least i'm testing and I'm trying things and I'm setting myself up to win for the things that are potentially going to be big. But the podcast I launched before people started launching podcasts, because I saw this is where it was going. Smartphones were making it easier and easier for people to consume audio, whereas before it was a challenge. And I never listened to podcasts before. But now with the smartphones, everyone has a podcast. Now I think there's 500,000 podcasts now.

So I am constantly thinking, how can I maximize what we have today for my business, health, everything, but also what is next because there's always things that are disrupting industries. Every industry has disruption. You think about Uber. The next generation is not going to be driving cars. They may not even get their driver's license because they don't want to drive. There are different technologies, different apps, different things that are happening in the world right now that are disrupting industries. So what you think is going to be working in the long term may not work. So you've got to constantly be innovating, reinventing,

reinvesting in new ideas, new technology, new platforms, new ways of creating an income, specifically in business. For me, it's what are the things that I'm going to do to continue to attract potential customers? Because the only way to build a business is through sales and generating revenue. So what am I going to do to continually connect and add value to an audience, stay relevant, then offer something that's going to solve a challenge or problem for that audience?

And you know what the course is right now is kind of like the bread and butter for what I have going on. It's how I generate a lot of sales. But it may not be that in a few years. It may not be as successful with all the saturation. So how can I get ahead of everyone else in business right now in the industry that I'm in? That's constantly on my mind. And now we're driving through Beverly Hills, one of the beautiful streets. Everything in Beverly Hills is so much nicer and curated and crafted specifically to their liking. So, um, that's something I'm

thinking about is staying ahead of, you know, while everyone's asking me, how do I launch a podcast? I'm thinking, how do I get something different than a podcast next while maximizing what I have? And I think you shouldn't try to jump into what everyone else is doing. You should be thinking ahead of what everyone else is doing. Otherwise, you'll always be left behind and struggling to get caught up to people. Start skipping a couple steps of where is it going, not where is it at right now. If you're trying to get into something right now, you might be too late. That's what I'm thinking about.

My word of intention this week. Did I say it on our team call or no? No, we didn't have that. Okay. My word of intention this week is patience. There is a lot of different things happening. My schedule changes every day. Different things are happening and I'm trying to fit it all in.

And sometimes I can feel overwhelmed or stressed in any, in any manner. And I'm always trying to create something meaningful and powerful. We've got this big event, someone of greatness coming up. There's a lot of moving parts. Our team has never done a big event like this. So we're all learning on the process and as we go. And so I'm having patience during the process. That's what I'm focused on. So this is an experiment, guys. I wanted to try this out. Thank you guys for listening. This is Car Confessions in Los Angeles.

And I'm in my 1991 Cadillac Eldorado Berets that I bought for $4,000. And I rarely drive this thing. I usually take Uber around. And we've got 57,552 miles on this bad boy. So maybe in the next one, I'll update you on how many miles I've driven on this thing. And the goal is to answer your questions

during this car confession series. If you enjoyed this process, if you enjoyed the video, check out the YouTube channel slash youtube.com slash Lewis Howes. Watch the full video if you're listening right now subscribe to the YouTube channel because we've got great guests coming up

every single week and leave a comment let me know what you guys thought of this session if you enjoy this format if you like following me around in my neighborhood in Los Angeles and share this with your friends I appreciate you guys very much.

I love you.