The School of Greatness - 472 The F2 Freestylers: Inspire Millions by Following Your Passion

Episode Date: April 17, 2017

"If you are a good person and you do good things, you create your own luck." - F2 Freestylers If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/472

This is episode number 472 with the F2 Freestylers. 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. Welcome, everyone, to the School of Greatness.

We've got a couple of athletes in the studio today, and I'm excited about this because I always love to connect with athletes because it brings me back to my roots, back to the primal days of competing. Now, Billy Wingrove and Jeremy Lynch make up the F2 Freestylers. Now, these guys are the world's largest soccer YouTube channel with over five and a half million subscribers, larger than any other celebrity soccer player out there. And they're based in London, UK. They began as individual freestyle soccer performers, just working on the streets or little company gigs, things like that, doing trick performances as individuals.

And after successful individual freestyle careers, they decided to team up and form a double act, thus the birth of the F2. Now, the rapid growth of their social channels, fueled by insane skill compilations, led us to today, where F2 are global ambassadors for Adidas football, the brand's first ever official influencer partnership. Now, here's what I love about these guys. These guys weren't really making that much money doing things on their own,

but together they were able to build such a powerful, massive brand that's making them more money than most of the pro soccer players out there, and it's so cool to see how quickly they did it. So in this interview, we're going to talk about how Billy and Jeremy went from freelance freestylers to the biggest soccer YouTube channel in the world. Why failure can be the perfect springboard to success. How to create true fans. The keys to a successful professional partnership because I've been in partnerships that have done incredible.

I've been in partnerships that have not done that well. And we talk about how to make it work extremely well so all parties win and you guys don't kill each other. Also, how to create media content that appeals to a worldwide audience. I am pumped for this one, and before we dive in, I want to give a shout-out to our iTunes review of the week. Now, this is from Shop Girl, who said, I don't know how I found this podcast, but I know that it came at a time

when I needed it most. It's like I manifested the school of greatness, and maybe it found me. This podcast has been a life changer for me. I've always loved learning, but going back to school is expensive and not always necessary. Once I started listening, I realized this is school. I've learned so much from Lewis and his guests. Since I've started this podcast, I've started two businesses. He's given me the courage to never give up. Some of my favorite episodes were with Chris Lee, Mel Robbins, Chris Voss, Scooter, and Adam Braun. Okay, I could go on forever.

Lewis has given so much by introducing me to so many great people. Other than buying his book, the only other way that I could thank him is by recommending his podcast to everyone I know. My mom and my sister both love the School of Greatness. Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you for everything, and I look forward to more great interviews. So, Shop Girl, whatever your real name is, thank you so much for that incredible review. Whatever your real name is, thank you so much for that incredible review. It always warms my heart to hear these messages from people who are building businesses or creating amazing relationships or healing themselves or losing the weight or becoming greater in some area of your life. So if you haven't left a review yet, I'd love to hear your story over at iTunes.com slash greatness.

And for your chance to be the review of the week, make sure to leave one right now. All right, gang, without further ado, let me introduce to you the dynamic freestyle football duo, Billy and Jeremy from the F2 Freestyle. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. Excited about our guest today. We usually don't have two people on, but we do today.

We've got the F2 Freestylers in the house. Good to see you guys. Good to see you too. How are you guys doing? Really good, man. Really good. This is such a cool room. It's so cool.

Yeah, it's not bad, right? We just redesigned this. So we're trying to make the studio of greatness inspirational for people who come here. You've done it. Well, look at the Hall of Fame. I mean, look at the images there. We'll get you on there soon. After this, we'll get some good photos to get you up there.

But I'm excited you guys are here. And I, you know, I'm an American football player, the real football, right? Hey, hey. We don't want to start on that note. I'm just teasing. You guys teasing you guys are doing in America it's called soccer it's called football in the UK

and everywhere else in the world and you guys do essentially a lot of combination trick shots you do different skill

training things like that in videos to inspire educate and entertain is that right you've pretty much

summed us up that's pretty much summed us up. That's pretty much it, right? Yeah, that's literally bang on of what we do. That's it. But you guys have millions, you have like 5 million on YouTube subscribers, you've got millions on Instagram and people know you all over the world except for in the US, but it's starting to grow, right? It's starting to grow. It's starting to grow, yeah.

15% of our audience is based in the US, which is quite a big number. We've got collectively across social media, we've got 12 million fans. Which is really good going for two football guys. 12.8 now. So snap. Yeah, mate. You know what? It's evolving all the time.

I checked you two days ago on the day off. I'm joking. That's gotta be bigger than some of the big stars. I mean, what's a Messi have on his social reach probably his is probably depends

different stars are bigger on different platforms right Messi's big on Facebook yeah he's big on everything but you guys probably have a bigger reach

than a lot of the big stars in the Premier League I would assume well if you look take YouTube for example Real Madrid have a YouTube channel Barcelona we have the biggest soccer YouTube channel

in the world. Shut up. In the whole world. So nobody's bigger than us. And on Instagram, out of the whole, anyone in the UK, we get more views on Instagram

than anyone in the UK. Any celebrity. You have more views on Instagram than anyone in the UK? Yeah. Anyone. Than any video? Yeah.

That's crazy. Sport. Sports. I don't know the exact we do silly numbers I remember one month we did more views in that month then Kylie Jenner and Cristiano Ronaldo and Ariana Grande it was something that was a one-off month. Right, right, right. But that was like... I think it is views. I think that's right. Any video on YouTube, Instagram, we do outperform.

I think... But it's a bit of a tricky one, really, because with Instagram, mainly people post images, right? But we've got content as well. Yeah, of course.

Yeah. Amazing. When did you guys start this? We started the F2 about four years ago. Wow. It's grown that fast?? We started the F2 about four years ago. Wow. It's grown that fast. Yeah, it's been a really fast journey. But we knew each other from before then.

But we were individual professional football freestylers for quite a few years before the F2. That's just football tricks like entertainers. Yeah. Getting paid to do like. Stage shows. Stage shows. Live performances with just you and a football. Or busking on the street type of thing.

We've done a bit. Well, I do the busking. That's how it starts, right? Right? You're performing in the street trying to get a hundred bucks. Yeah, that is how it starts. That's how it starts. And then you start getting bigger performances.

Someone will see you there and be like, hey, come do this thing, this company show, this whatever, right? That's how it started. And you start building your own personal brand and then how did you guys meet each other then? How did we meet each other? We've known each other for years and it's basically been from the circuit.

So when we were younger, and I'm talking about in our early teens, I knew about Jeremy. He lived in East London. I lived in North London. I was like, who's this guy? He keeps trying to call me. I don't know who he is. I'm talking about in our early teens. I knew about Jeremy. He lived in East London. I lived in North London. I was like, who's this guy? He keeps trying to call me. I don't know who he is.

I'm joking. We knew each other. We knew each other from back then. Yeah. And we actually met at a football tournament where Jeremy was performing, and so was I, at separate stands. And we kept in touch since then. And I got Jeremy to sign with my agency at the time

because he came off the back of Britain's Got Talent and he didn't have no management representing you and I felt that... How far did you go in the show? I got to the semi-finals, the live semi-finals and then dropped the ball twice which was car crash television but it's memorable car crash television is memorable and if I asked it's funny at the time I was devastated in tears yeah the most you know that gut you feeling you have in your stomach when something terrible happens you just you feel totally humiliated I had all of

that for ages. But then when I look back now, it was one of the best things that happened to me. Really? Why? Because it was so memorable. And I was really confident, overconfident. And that's why I made those mistakes back then. I was a young kid, borderline cocky. So the British public,

if they see someone who's really confident and successful they kind of want to see it go wrong and I gave them that without meaning to and then from then on it endeared me to the British public so much more than if I had done a perfect flawless routine I can see that now and look back and it's so memorable and people still to this day remember that performance as I still thought it was amazing. You dropped the ball twice. Didn't matter.

Loved it. Still voted for you. But at the time, obviously, you just. That was embarrassing. Your ego hurts. Oh, everything, yeah. Oh, man. But the funny thing about that is I remember saying to Jez, I remember when he was on the show and he could have won.

He was the most popular person on that show. Oh, really? And if he didn't drop the ball, he could have won he was the most popular person on that show really and if he didn't drop the boy would have won it and what Jeremy's downfall was I feel is that when you went on to the show he tried to create a whole new routine just for that show there's 12 million people watching this show 99% of them have never seen him do a trick before so he could have kept it simple and gone through to the final one the show but he wanted to create something brand new

just for that performance, which he's added pressure, right, doing something for the first time live. Isn't it hard, though, like, as a speaker myself, I get bored of saying the same thing over and over to all these different audiences, but they've never heard me say the same thing. But I think, oh, I've got to tell a different story.

This isn't going to be interesting. This is going to be boring or whatever. Yeah. Or you just want to do it for yourself even. I'm with you. What do you do? I'm doing the same trick over and over like what do you do do you keep it the same or do you mix it up uh it depends on the audience and what they're wanting but i pretty much say a lot of the similar stuff and because it's good information right yeah yeah and a lot of them haven't heard it so yeah again it's like you got to do what you what got you there yeah? I agree. But if you only had a coach then.

That's what I was thinking. If I had a mentor back then, someone who'd give me that wise little bit of advice. The F2 wouldn't have been born. That's true. If you had won, what would have happened? I probably would have been. Do you know what? I don't know.

I don't know. probably would have been... How much would you have won? Do you know what? I don't know. I don't know. I'd like to think that we would have still come together as the F2 because even with me messing up and not winning, we were still the two most successful freestylers in the world on our individual paths.

You were. It just so happened that we lived 28 miles from each other. We got along really, really well. We stayed in touch. And we were on a lot of the same jobs together as individuals. And then we started to do little bits in synchrony together when we weren't really, we didn't have to. We were on the jobs as individuals, right?

But we were like, jobs as individuals right but we were like let's step this up and let's do this at the same time and the response to it was incredible choreographed yeah yeah basically there was loads of people at that time when we first started freestyle there wasn't many people about at all doing what we do you're not even choreographed before that just performing and then years went by and more and more people got into it they saw what we were doing and copied and copied that kind of format and practiced all day long so the demand how can I put this basically personally I felt the freestyle had been seen as individually.

It's still going on now. It's a bit controversial me saying that, but I thought it had been seen and done as three individuals. A bit like the Hills when it came out. It was like, wow, what is this new thing? Reality TV. And then now everyone's doing it and it's a bit over saturated. Yeah, and it's over saturated and people expect to be amazed.

So if you're doing the same thing as someone else is doing, it's like you've got over saturated. Yeah, and it's over saturated and people expect to be amazed. So if you're doing the same thing as someone else is doing, it's like you've got to one-up it, right? Yeah, and that's exactly it. It's a lot of work. Yeah, but then we thought about how do we evolve what we basically started and the double act choreograph in sync music was the way to do that. Nobody's done that before, it's never been seen before. Now you're going to need what you got at Universal with the water and the heat.

Yeah, you got to wrap it up. But that's what you constantly have to do, don't you? It's true, it's true. So we had a clear vision of what we wanted to do as the next step. We'd already got to the top as individuals. We were the most successful individual freestylers, earning the most money, getting the most money. How much can an individual freestyler make today or even four years ago? What were we earning back then? You were earning more than me I remember that. You were doing really really well. You made like six figures, like fifty grand. No, no, no. It's more like you do a commercial and you get a buyout and you get like 20 grand maybe from a, a bit like modeling.

Yeah, I got you. So it might have some good months and bad months. And then you might do regular PAs and you might get a grand for a PA and you're doing a few of them a week, that type of money. I think my best year as an individual freestyler, looking back on it, was about 80K. Which is not bad. And I thought that was like an incredible year. I was super busy.

It was a World Cup year. Wow. That's as an individual freestyler with just stage show performing as your income. So you have to kind of be in that place to earn the money performing. Right. as your income so you have to kind of be in that place to earn to earn the money performing right but now as a tandem the financial potential is unlimited well yeah well it's not really performing anymore see we the content now it's content so with YouTube is our main source of income that's what we do for a job now so it's changed from doing stage shows to now creating content for what is like the whole world, really. Amazing.

You have the largest soccer channel on YouTube, right? How often do you post content there? On YouTube, three times a week. Three times a week. Across all social, every single day. Of course. Every single day. And how do you come up with new content for YouTube?

Is it always, you know? Great question. And that's the key, really. That is the key. To being successful. So you've got millions of people. I know soccer's not the biggest sport in the US,

but in the world. But worldwide, it's the biggest next to cricket, I think, right? It's the top in the world. Is it the number one sport in the world? Yeah, yeah. So what that means

is you've got more people playing football than any other sport in the world. He's at the number one sport in the world? Yeah, yeah. So what that means is you've got more people playing football than any other sport in the world. It's crazy. And this new social media boom means that so many millions of kids now, they want to be YouTubers. So they're all trying to think of soccer ideas for videos that haven't been done before. So the job that we have is thinking of things that the rest of the millions of people around the world haven't thought of yet. We're pretty

good at it. There's always some kid trying something crazy, right? Yeah. And we've got a long list. It's just in iPhone notes, a really long list of video ideas that we've both come up with. Sometimes he might text me, he might WhatsApp me at two in the morning, Jez, I've got this amazing video idea, it'll go totally viral. And I know when he says that, he's right. So get the phone, write it in the list and go back to sleep. And the list is growing quicker than we're ticking them off, so that's good.

Hopefully we won't stop coming up with fresh ideas but I don't think we will. He's got a really creative mind, I've got a creative mind and together it's a devastating combination. That's great, man.

Devastating. You give yourself devastating. He's involved, I'll give it. Yeah, yeah. Do you play professionally? Not professionally, no. Only semi-professional. Semi-professional. What does that mean? Do you get paid or no? I'll give it yeah yeah now did you play professionally not professionally no only semi-professional

semi-professional what does that mean did you get paid or no yeah we got paid well it's my job Jeremy was actually at Arsenal

youths what happened they didn't think I was good enough they were probably right at the time to be fair to them like he's too cocky

maybe no they said they said, on the ball, you are amazing. Off the ball, your understanding of the game is not quite good enough.

And that was true, to be honest. And I think that comes back down to the humble beginnings where we came from. You know, like my dad wasn't a football coach or in the game

with any sort of influence or power. I didn't join a team until I was 12 years old. So I didn't really have that coaching from a young age. So I was raw. I was a bit of a street player. Just raw talent, but not the understanding of the sweet science of football. If there's any boxers that watch, they'll be like, why is he taking our phrase

and using it for soccer? But yeah, I mean, the kids at the pro club academies, they're getting coached from, how young would you say, Bill? Five and six, they're getting coached from a ridiculous age.

I mean, in the UK now, you can start up children's soccer camps at three years old. What? I mean, yeah. They have a walk then? No, yes, they do.

Mini Tops, they call it, and it's just... Crazy. What do you do with them? Yeah. They basically just get a pitch, give them the ball, introduce them to a soccer ball. Yeah. But it's incredible.

To be honest, I think that I've got a son that's two years old. I would take him to the soccer camp. You would? Yeah. Wow. I would do that. I would be one of the keen parents that does would? Yeah. Wow. I would do that. I would be one of the king parents that does that.

Sure, sure. Do you know the funny thing is, YouTube didn't really exist back then so much. It was really new. I think it had just come out. Right. It wasn't like it is now. So if YouTube was around back then, maybe I would have typed in the search coaching points like movement off the ball and tried to get coaching where I didn't have a real life coach try to learn that way so maybe those kids who

don't have so much opportunity in this generation they've got more access to information through social media that didn't exist before I definitely would agree with that I think that's things have evolved so quickly since YouTube came about. Like if you take football freestyle for instance, kids are seeing what you do because it's accessible to them and they're learning them skills at half your age because they can see they're physically possible, there's tutorials on them. So things have evolved so much more vastly since YouTube came about. So crazy. It's a good point.

What's the vision for you guys moving forward? You've been doing this for four years. You've got the largest channel on soccer in the world on YouTube. And what do you want for the next four years? Great question. Do you want to take this one or should I take it altogether? I think that we want to continue to grow the F2 brand. We call it a brand because the reason why we came together in the first place was we had individual profiles and then

we thought to ourselves we want F2 to be a standalone brand not to be known as individual people and performers. So we created the F2 and after we can't go on doing tricks anymore beyond the pitch we want that brand to live on so i think that we will go and find the next step to and bring younger guys through and show them give them a chance we've already started doing it now where we we certify young up-and-coming youtube channels um that are really good to give them basically so hard to break through now for youtube channels because there's so many out there so much people realize that you can earn money from it therefore they and it's a fun easy enjoyable life so there's so many people doing it now it's hard for the good ones to break through but we're sharing and

yeah but without help yes we've got such a big reach that if we show these people to the world, it's so much easier for them to grow. So after the F2, as in Billy and Jeremy had done, I think definitely a part of bringing up young talent and managing and nurturing them and showing them to the world is what we do. Yeah, I fully agree with that. Why do you guys think soccer still hasn't gotten the popularity in the U.S. like it is the rest of the world? What a great question. After, you know, all the, every World Cup, I feel like when the U.S. is like rallying and getting better and better, the country comes together, but then it kind of like dies off.

You know what I mean? It's a great question. I'm not sure. Just thinking aloud, we went to our first NFL game since we've been over here. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. I was there for the weekend, yeah.

Wow. Happened to be the greatest NFL game in the history of the NFL. It was our first game we ever went to. Wow. That was our first. So can we ever go to another game? Has it ruined it for us? Yeah, yeah.

Is it all downhill from here? Probably. But the point I'm making, our first NRL game, we went to our first NBA game as well, loved it, watched the Clippers play. The whole experience is like an event. They're considering the audience at all times. If the players go off the pitch, something comes on to... Spectacle. Entertainment. Entertainment. And it's brilliant. And I feel like the state has got certain sports in place, baseball, NFL, hockey, NBA, which are kind of like already solidified

as part of the American people's tradition. So for soccer to come and push them to the side and overtake, it's going to be tough. I don't know. I don't know if it will happen. I know soccer's growing, but to outgrow the already established sports, which are all amazing in their own right, I don't know. I'm not sure. Yeah. Like you said, it's so much more fast-paced, like basketball and the entertainment in between stuff where soccer's like 90 minutes, right?

And it's just kind of like the same thing happening the whole time well that's a couple moments of excitement but yeah yeah that's what i noticed so going to the um the super bowl and watching the nba game um there was something happening every couple of minutes whether it be a tackle and when you make a tackle in in nfl people are celebrating like a goal's gone in. Whereas you watch a soccer match, 90 minutes, you might see one, two, three moments where it's exciting, as in goal's going in. Yeah. So. But you've got to have an appreciation for the game, right?

Oh, yeah, yeah. If you love soccer, you can appreciate like touches and movements, but it's hard to convert someone that's used to seeing like goal, goal, goal, or entertainment really quickly to understanding the beauty of football, soccer. I used to play soccer, football, before I started playing American football when I was 15. And I played soccer my whole life growing up when I was 5 until 15. And I was on the youth select teams in Ohio and stuff like that and did the traveling teams. And I was on the youth select teams in Ohio and stuff like that and did the traveling teams.

But for some reason, it was just like, man, the middle of summer, the heat, just constantly running. It's a little guy, but constantly running. It's like seven miles a day. It seems like you're just running, running, running. So I played every position, but I liked being in goal because I could just kind of chill there and make plays. Plus, you're a giant.

Right, yeah. I was just kind of like chill there and make plays. Plus you're a giant. Right, yeah. I was just like diving and catching everything. That's an interesting point though about like the growth of soccer in the US. In the UK, it's the perfect weather conditions to play, you know. True. So that could have a factor. It's true because it's cooler, right? Yeah, it's cooler.

It's raining. It's perfect weather. Also, it's great for us that soccer is not so... We are, basically, we are the best soccer trick shot guys in the world. That's one of the ways we've built ourself up. So, you do a trick shot with a soccer ball or football in the UK and people think, wow, that's incredible.

You do it in the States and people are like, oh my God, did you see what they just did? They didn't throw it, they kicked it and it went in the target net. Yeah. Because you guys do a lot of trick shots too, right? We do a lot of trick shots. Have you done stuff with, who are they,

Legendary Shots, have you done stuff with them? We haven't collaborated with them yet. You know who they are though? We're meant to do Dude Perfect, that was meant to be last week's Dude Perfect. Oh yeah, yeah. All those accounts, like Bodie, what is hisie, Bodie Smith, is that his name? Brody.

Brody Smith, right? Yeah, we've done him. You have done him? Brody's glass. See, I want to do all, I'm a big Ultimate Frisbee guy. Oh, really? Really? He's incredible, by the way.

I love Ultimate Frisbee. I love disc golf. I don't know if you've heard of disc golf. It's like golf with Frisbees. Okay. buckets and you throw it into the buckets. It goes like hundreds of yards and you try to make it in. So I love any of this stuff. So I'm like, God, I would love to do some of this stuff someday. Just like trick shots. It's the most fun. Like basketball. He's your man. He sets up the collabs. That's part of the sports, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm going to do a collab with those guys. Mate, let's do one, all three of us. Let's do round two with Brody.

We did a battle with Brody before. It went down so well. Yeah, he was doing Frisbee shots. We had to match it with a football. Dude, I'll throw a football. Hit the Frisbee. You'll kick a ball and hit the Frisbee and score it or something. That's a viral right there.

You're in. Let's do it. You're in. Let's do it. What's the craziest Trish shot you guys do it. You're in, right? Let's do it. What's the craziest trick shot you guys have done where you're like, I can't believe we pulled that off?

Wow, what a question. Because you do stuff where there's like bottles on top of the crossbars. Did I see one of the videos like that? Yeah, yeah. We've done a lot. I would say the TV show we've done in the UK where we hit the ball off a rooftop in London into a basketball hoop. No way. That was like... You kicked it rooftop in London into a basketball hoop. No way.

That was like... You kicked it off a rooftop into a basketball hoop. On the volley. It's really hard to do. In the air, you mean? Yeah, yeah, like throw it up, volley, straight into the basketball hoop. How many tries did it take? Oh, how many tries did that one take?

There's a bit of wind on the day, so you kind of have to account for it to go... Was it one or two? It was a few. But no, the harder trick shots, you know it's numbers game. You put it in that area and you hope that one drops. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Was there ever a trick shot video that you were going to attempt

and you were like, God, we've just been here for four hours, the sun's going down, it's just a cold day. Occasionally. Occasionally you try and stay. It's like that girl at high school that you used to like you thought if I'm persistent I'm gonna get some of this and it's not you just think now you know it's like that time at Britain's Got Talent where I got second place yeah but it's rare normally we know our abilities and we know our limits. So if we're trying a shot, we fully believe, kind of know that we can do it.

He always brings it back to the girl in high school. I don't think we can let it go. Yeah, right? We can't let it go. Is she married with two kids? Yeah, yeah. Let me text her now. Let me dip back in.

What's been the greatest moment for you guys with people you've met, who you've inspired? What is the thing that someone said to you that's shaped their life because of what you're doing or is there a moment you can remember about this? There's many examples. It's just overwhelming. One thing that stands out for me was we we were working in brighton i've been to brighton yeah the rock beach yeah and the big indian temple whatever this thing is nice hippie fight yeah it's living the grass there yeah of course a bit of grounding yeah

get away from the city yeah sunshine yeah anyways we were filming there and we went back to our hotel afterwards and we just got out of the taxi and there was a family walking up the street. They must have been on holiday there. And the young boy saw us and like looked at him and gave him a nod and then he started walking towards us with his family and by the time he got to us, he was literally in floods of tears where he couldn't believe that he had met us so he like signed a football for him and I got a rascal tracksuit sent through to him and just to see the fact of what we meant to that that child was like it was truly incredible that we could mean that

much to somebody for them to physically cry of emotion and that is that for me just put it into perspective of how how much we've achieved and how far we've gone it's just incredible hopefully you was crying happiness though when we when we pursue our dreams with such passion and play and joy what we can inspire in other people 100 i think you, some people may think like, oh, these are just a couple like YouTube guys who just like kick a football around. But really, you do it with such passion and fun

and you show people what's possible for their lives. And for me, that's what gets me excited. That's why I do what I do with passion because I want other people to see, and we were talking about this beforehand, like what is possible for themselves. Maybe they're going through some adversity and you give them some comedic relief

or inspiration or something. And then when they meet you, they're like, thank you so much for giving me those moments of courage, inspiration, hope, whatever. Yeah, I totally agree with you. For me, my answer to that question would be, we did a book signing.

What's your book called again? It's called F2 World of Football play like a pro and it's just like it's got juicy stories of when we've met pro players and things that people wouldn't expect. It's got tutorial section and it's got our story our journey of where we started from how we got to where we are because people are curious. It's important really, it's really important. Yeah and the underlying theme of the book is exactly what you just said the from and how we got to where we are because people are curious. And it's important really, it's really important. And the underlying theme of the book is exactly what you just said, the positivity of if you

are going through adversity, to stick with it. It's like encouragement that you can make a success of yourself, don't give up, work hard, believe in yourself. That's like the ethos of the book. And we had a book signing in the biggest shopping centre in the UK and we smashed the record. It was the biggest book signing of 2016. The queue was like five hours long. Shut up. It was incredible. We felt a bit bad for the fans that they had to wait for that long, but the reason why they had to wait that long

is because each kid that came through, we spent like a minute with them to make it a personal experience for them. But when we were doing the book signing, one parent came to us and he watched us with his kids. We took a minute with his kids, asked him his name,

what team he plays for, what position, made him feel like on top of the world. And then the parent came over and said, you guys, I just want to say you are a force for good. And for us, like that really stands out because we do try as hard as we can to be positive, good role models. We don't feel like there's enough soccer players that take on that responsibility and the kids do look up for us don't they as the same as they look up to the top footballers and we feel the responsibility and obligation to be a positive role model

to the kids and when that parent said that to us it was like affirmation you guys are doing all right yeah it's awesome guys that's awesome well I want to finish with a few final questions where can people connect with you

online where's the best place do you like them to go to Instagram YouTube is it all the

same handle I would say YouTube would probably be the best because you can see all our content there

we're the F2 Freestylers on YouTube we have different handles for different social medias which can be complicated but

YouTube's the best one YouTube's the best one and it's F2 Freestylers and it's the same on Instagram or no? F2 Freestylers VF2

VF2 yeah we should have thought about that when we started out it's all good that's true and you guys have

personal accounts too that you hang out on or mostly no not really just like friends and family. Yeah, yeah. That's another interesting thing. When we were both successful individually,

we had to almost die to ourselves to bring everything into the brand. You had to die, is that what you said? Yeah, kind of. Like stop posting on our personal social media. Just all in one now. Yeah. Let people know.

Go all in. Because me and Jeremy were both like um performers we didn't want people to think oh i favor this person i favor that they had to realize the f2 was one we're not like if we don't battle against each other we both have strengths that come together and create the f2 so um yeah we didn't have to let go of our own's true. But look what you created by letting go. Yeah, yeah, for sure. By letting go of your ego

and coming together, you created something bigger than either of you could have ever done alone. Yeah, for sure. A thousand times bigger, probably, right? That's true.

That's true. And then from the F2 brand, we created another brand which started as the baby brand but has now outgrown even the F2. What's that? And that is Rascal Clothing. What's that and that is rascal clothing

That's our clothing range your clothing line is it's bigger bigger than f2 It not in terms of social media, but in terms of a business in terms of revenue And yes, you're making more the clothing line then on the YouTube. Yeah, yeah Crazy, I wonder if you guys launched that so we launched it three years ago Yeah, which is crazy. And what did you guys launch that? So we launched it three years ago. Basically, when Jeremy was performing, when we first started the F2,

Jeremy would wear, he got these pants tapered at the bottom like dancers do. So you have the looseness above the knee in the quad area, and then you don't have anything competing you around the ankle area, so you've got the movement still and we love them and we like we need to make tracksuits like this for when we're performing so we did yeah we love where'd you get them from and then we said we've got to make a brand out of this we call it the f2 if we call it the f2 and the f2 starts to go downhill or

our brand dies does the clothing brand die? We want it to be a standalone brand in its own right. So we come up with a name Rascal on the plane back from a job from Dubai. That's a hard part of a business by the way coming up with a name. It took us a few days and we were just having a call, just saying words, random words and then Bill said Rascal and then I was like that's it yeah so the moment I got off the plane I remember I filled the checks for rascal and there was a rascalclothing.co.uk there wasn't a rascalclothing.com it wasn't a registered trademark for rascal clothing there wasn't yes so basically I'd unregistered

everything. I waited for rasselclothing.co.uk, it was a dying brand and eventually they let the website run out. It wasn't selling anything and yeah I flew over to Turkey. You know nothing about clothing companies, I researched that's the best cotton manufacturer. Flew over to the tracksuits, went to five different factories and I said I'm not leaving until you supply me samples and I'm ready to invest by the time I leave here in the best sample. And literally placed our first order which was £40,000 and the first day of launching we made that back within hours. On the very first day. In fact we sold out within the first week of our first order

Then we had to wait six weeks for the next batch to come in It's the worst because we could have tripled that investment, but this is a learning curve and yeah, it's incredible now We're in 40 stores in the UK The first year we sold 38,000 items of clothing. It's like really good going Thank you for just us to starting up on our own to be able to grow like that now we have three members of four members of staff now full-time yeah it's an incredible achievement and from a business point of view we believe one of the main reasons why a brass school has been so successful so successful is that we've built up a

massive following on social media which nearly every business wants to because it only helps business but we could have just brought out t-shirts with f2 logo on it or pictures of our face with no USP and they would have still sold but we thought no we're gonna come up with a USP which is the unique fit and design of every item in our range. Add that USP to the humongous following, and that comes back to the devastating combination. The funny thing is, with Rascal, I really see that as our baby. I mean, with the F2, obviously that's our baby, that's our main love, but the thing is, that with rascal is i really see that as our baby i mean with the f2 obviously that's

our baby and that's our main love but the thing is that's our talent so you can kind of see that if you put your mind to it what i can see and you can see that if we put our mind to it we can achieve that because you can do it with your own talent but with a clothing company that you have no idea about it's kind of like you have to research it so to make a success out of something that you haven't got a talent in is like it really means a lot to us yeah it's amazing and with both f2 and rascal we saw a niche we saw something that there was demand for that no one had thought of yet and we just went for it and that can go across the board, any business idea,

try and look for a demand, a niche, a gap in the market that needs to be filled, and think of it before anyone else does, because ideas and execution of ideas makes millions. So that's it, really. That's our advice on the business side. Love it, love it. And where can we get the, check out the brand, rascalclothing.com,

is that what it says? Yeah, that's right. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, awesome. Thank you. We're there. Thanks, everyone.

Okay, last couple questions. This is, you'll both answer this one. This is called the three truths and everyone answers this at the end. Okay. So, if this is the last day for you on earth

many years from now and you get to share three final thoughts to the world wow you've done so many pieces of content videos you've spoken everywhere you want to speak you've written books but you only get to say three final things three lessons or the truths that you would share with the world um and this is all they can remember you by, what would those three truths be? And we'll start with you, Billy. Wow. That might just be the best question I've ever heard.

Can you start with Jess? Either one. All right, three truths. He's got to redeem himself from dropping the ball. Okay. The first one I'd say is live your life in a way that when you're 80 years old and you look back, you won't regret. You won't have regrets.

Because they did a survey and there was 100 elderly people on their deathbeds. And they asked them, what's your biggest regret in life? And every single one of them gave different answers, but they were also the same answer. And it wasn't something that they did in their life. It was something that they didn't do. So that would be my first one. Second one would be...

I'll do the second one. Okay. So we'll balance it so you can think about the second one. Okay. This is good. So this is the first one for you. Yeah, this is the first one for me. I would say, I don't know, nobody knows how life works, right?

But what I've discovered and what I feel is that if you are a good person and you do good things, you create your own luck. So what I would say is be the best person you can be, the nicer you can be, and the more you can offer the world, the more the world will offer you. That's my first one. And that's true. That's really what I feel. That's great. Okay, number two. Number two, I would say be aware of the power of helping others.

of the power of helping others. And what I mean by that is even if you help others for selfish purposes, it's only good outcomes. So if you help someone in need, you've helped them, that's like you've helped someone and that's amazing for them. But the feeling that you get

from helping someone personally, that's amazing for you too the feeling that you get from helping someone personally that's amazing for you too so everyone benefits so why wouldn't you constantly be helping everyone in every situation that you can that's my that would be my second one my second one would be to take people's advice but don't let them steal your careers even if they're they mean so much to you these people are in your life or reach your parents or your siblings or family or close friends ultimately if you know you can achieve something go out there and do that um it's it's up to your mind and yourself to do it don't let other people steal your careers um it's happened to me before with my family when

i wanted to go into the freestyling and um they sometimes people sometimes think they've got your best interests at heart but really they're just trying to protect you but if you want to go out there and succeed you have to do something that no one else does. Not the normal. You have to go that extra mile. And some people can't see that. So don't let other people steal your career just because they think it's right.

If you think you can go out there and get something, you can go out there and get something. I like it. Okay, and number three? Number three, I would say, Okay, and number three? Number three, I would say, ask yourself questions like this all the time.

For example, so many people go through life and they never stop to ask themselves big, deep and meaningful questions like what you're probably the best on the planet at. For example, what is my biggest passion in life? What gives me the most satisfaction? And from that, you can work from that. Once you realize your biggest passion in life, you can see if you can put together a strategy and an action plan of how you can even make a career of that, or if it's not going to be lucrative and it might have to be a hobby, and you fund your greatest passion by doing something that isn't your greatest passion but it facilitates

you doing your greatest passion what I'm trying to say is whatever your greatest passion is do not go through your life without doing it either as a career or a hobby that's it hmm my last one would, and this is really hard to do, and I don't think anyone is so hard to do, but try and remember how lucky you already are. People think people always want that next step up in life. That's society, right? The next, whether it's a bigger income or a nicer shirt or

the new iphone strip that back you don't realize how lucky you already are and an example that i can give for that is um my father passed away in november um i was always striving for the next thing in my life and i realized hang on a minute strip that back people what I've got you have to work backwards and appreciate what you've got first and foremost that's the most important thing and whoever you are if you look people sometimes think they've got it hard everyone thinks they can they can have better but really we're all lucky in some way shape or form and you have to kind of remember that and take that with you yeah we made it yeah we're here yeah yeah exactly and and it's so true people say no matter what's going on in your life it's always worse it's happening but that is so true

and and you can always think of something that you're you're blessed with if you if you want to if you have that mindset right and um i realize that more now than ever about family and and what life means um through experiencing something bad in my life i realize that now more than ever yeah well jeremy and billy i appreciate you guys coming on and i want to acknowledge you both for being a couple of kids from the uk who's who's followed your dreams and stuck to it and done things that most people aren't willing to do because it's scary to do, to go out and do something no one's really ever going to do. You guys have led the way. You've inspired so many other kids to chase their dream in soccer and in other areas of their life.

And you're making a business out of it. So I want to acknowledge you both for being incredible human beings. And hopefully next time I'm in London, we'll connect and do some trick shots or something together and you'll teach me something new. For sure. Thank you. Thank you for having us. It's been a pleasure, man. One final question for both of you. Okay, here we go.

Number one of his questions. The final question is what's the definition of greatness for both of you? Oh, wow. You are definitely the best question asker in the world. What is the definition of greatness for us? For you? The definition of greatness? Should we have Billy go first since you went first last time? Probably, yeah.

Mine is just one word, happiness. Okay. Yeah, I like that answer. Happiness for yourself or others, just, yeah. Yeah, I think so. And it's good that what we do does make people happy. It's in the entertainment realm, but why do we have, whether it's soccer, NBA, NFL, hockey, baseball, why has humankind created these sports? It's because entertainment makes us happy. So that's what we're in the business of,

as well as other things. But yeah, good answer. I can't, that's the right answer. Awesome, guys. Well, I appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

There you have it, greats. I hope you enjoyed this one. I you. There you have it. Great. I hope you enjoyed this one. I hope you gained some valuable information. I always love connecting again with powerful athletes who turn into entrepreneurs and who figure things out. Again, both these guys never made it professionally, but they were able to make an amazing business and build a massive audience. Even though they weren't professionals, they used

their craft and their talent to create another value add in the world. And they built a massive audience in the process. So by being creative, they've created some amazing results in their life. If you enjoyed this one, make sure to share it out. lewishouse.com slash 472. Make sure to follow the F2 Freestylers over on Instagram and on social media. Check out their YouTube videos. They're addictive. I watch them over and over because it's amazing what they can do. And leave us a review.

iTunes.com slash greatness for your chance to be the review of the week. I love you guys very much. You've got one life. You've got many dreams. But it's your responsibility to make these dreams come true. Don't let another day slip away from taking action, from sharing love in the world, and from being great. It's all about the journey. Enjoy today. Make the most of it. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music