The School of Greatness - 5 Mindset Shifts to Unlock Financial Abundance | Lewis Howes

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

I'm opening with my most vulnerable truth: the problem wasn't the money, it was the mindset that creates money. I'm revealing five transformational shifts I learned from the world's greatest financial thinkers, shifts that helped me go from broke on a couch to building extraordinary wealth with peace and fulfillment. You'll discover why most people are still carrying the financial beliefs they learned as kids, and how those old money scripts sabotage every strategy you try. I'm breaking down the exact habits wealthy people use that most of us get backwards, like investing first instead of spending first. This episode will shake you awake to the truth that your internal state, your peace, your creativity, is the real abundance, not the money itself.Make Money Easy: Create Financial Freedom and Live a Richer LifeThe Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life TodayThe Mask of Masculinity: How Men Can Embrace Vulnerability, Create Strong Relationships, and Live Their Fullest LivesThe School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a LegacyIn this episode you will:Discover why wealth grows in clarity, not chaos, and how one small financial system can shift your entire relationship with moneyTransform your early money wounds by identifying the childhood beliefs that are still running your financial decisions todayMaster the wealthy person's habit of paying yourself first and investing before you spend, not afterUncover the truth that you are the abundance, not the money, and how this shift unlocks creativity that attracts opportunityBreak through self-sabotage by upgrading your identity and acting like the person who already earns what you want to earnFor more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1861For more Greatness text PODCAST to [phone]More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Alex HormoziRory VadenDaniel Priestley Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you believe rich people are greedy or that money is bad, then your subconscious mind will push prosperity away from you because you don't want to become something that you dislike. My name is Lewis Howes. Thank you so much for being here. And I want to take you back for a moment. 17 years ago, I was sleeping on my sister's couch. And this is where it all kind of began for me.

I slept on her couch for about a year and a half. And I remember waking up during that season of life, feeling completely lost. I was broken physically, I was financially broken, I felt unworthy, and honestly, I just felt really scared because I was scared that I'd never figure out who I was supposed to become. I was afraid and scared that I'd never create the life that I was dreaming about, scared that maybe I didn't deserve more. And back then, I thought that money was the thing that I was missing.

I thought that was the answer for me. But what I've learned since then is that it wasn't the money. It was the mindset that creates money, the beliefs, the patterns, the emotional relationship that we all have with money, whether we realize it or not. That's what I was missing. And on this show, I've had the privilege of sitting across from some of the world's greatest financial thinkers, money attractors, and mindset masters. People who have built extraordinary wealth, but also extraordinary peace.

fulfillment, joy, and love in their life as well. And today I want to share some of those lessons with you. And this isn't just the theory. It's not just hype, but it's real, practical, heart-centered wisdom that helped me go from being broke on my sister's couch for over a year and a half with no clue what I was going to do, to building a multimillion dollar business, to having 20 million followers all across platforms for the School of Greatness Show,

and to creating financial freedom and financial confidence in my life. life. And I wish I knew what I'm about to share with you right now. And these are some of the things I've learned over the years from great mentors and teachers that I've interviewed. Because these ideas aren't just for the wealthy. They're not just for entrepreneurs. They're not just for the lucky few. They're for anyone who's ready to change their money story and step into a more abundant future. And I hope that person is you. And if you feel ready to step into a more abundant future, then make sure to leave a comment below and let me know that you are. And let's go ahead and dive into this. There are five key shifts that you need to start making in your mindset first

in order to unlock financial abundance in your life. In this first mindset shift is that money requires systems, not accidents. And back when I was struggling financially broke on my sister's couch, I just kept hoping things would just work out. But money doesn't respond to hope. It responds to structure. I think, you know, building wealth or having a high quality life in any area is a little bit like that. You need to back up and say, okay, what are the principles before I worry about the tactics? And the principles should lead us to the tactics. And the five money principles, if we wanted to pull some out, there would be common sense, biblical things that are boring but if you lay those principles in place then they'll lead you to the tactics i mean here's

one live on less than you make right now that sounds kind of almost glib you know but the the bible says the borrower is i mean it says says a foolish man devours all he has live on less than you make uh you need to be on a written plan in anything you're doing if you don't do it intentionally it's not going to occur no one wins anything accidentally Uh, it's an intentional act. Winning always is at marriage, at taking care of your body, building a business, you know, money. No one accidentally gets wealthy. It just, oh, what happened? No one does that. So that's a written plan. That's called a budget. Mm-hmm. You know, and so we got to have a budget. We got to live on less than we make. If you get out of debt mathematically, what it does is you have money to invest. Because when you have a $750 payment on your Ford F-150, you got no money. Right. And so, that money's going to Ford instead of to you. It's not going in your 401K. And so that's what the borrower is slave to the lender means.

But also what happens when you get out of debt is you have this sense of freedom. You have this sense of autonomy, this sense of agency. You're not being controlled by the man, stinking Bank of America. It doesn't tell you what to do. Ford Motor Credit doesn't tell you what to do. So you don't have to keep a horrible job. You can move to a better job and take that risk. But if you've got to pay payments, you don't feel free.

And so, you know, being out of debt, living on less than you make, having a written plan, obviously, saving and investing. Obviously, in the house of the wiser stores of choice food and oil, grandma said have money saved for a rainy day. We start with an emergency fund, and then we long-term invest. In the largest study a millionaire's ever done in North America, we did it here at Ramsey, we discovered that the typical way someone gets their first one to five million is they have a paid off house and they have a really healthy 401k or Roth IRA combo in good mutual funds.

And so they'll be sitting there with a million dollars in their retirement accounts after 10, 12, 15 years of doing this. And they got a half million dollar or $700,000 paid for house. So they got a $1.7 million net worth. And so save money, save money. And the weird thing is that there's no all the get rich quick stuff on TikTok and all that, it is all crypto and everything everything there's always some way there's a new version of stupid every year you know and uh but but why is that why go ahead go ahead no go ahead why is that so enticing why do so many people jump into that with all their money or all their savings or take

out debt just to invest in the 17 new things a year that seem like one or two people actually made a few million dollars but probably end up losing it a year later why does that such an enticing thing for people who work so hard of making their money? Well, taking the long haul, being the tortoise versus the hair is not human nature. Our brains are wired by God for efficiency. You know, we want to burn the least calories possible to get the job done, whatever it is, which in the financial world causes us to look at, get rich quick. And we don't think of it as stupid.

I didn't think of it as stupid when I did it in the 80s. And, you know, I started with nothing, had $4 million for the rich, real estate lost everything because I had borrowed too much money on the real estate and crashed my own life down on my head. I didn't think I was being foolish, foolhardy, impulsive. I thought I was burning the least calories to get to the goal. Yeah, you're being smart. I thought, I thought this is the way to go. And people that are buying crypto, that's what they think. I mean, no one thinks they're gambling. They don't think, oh, this has worse odds than a roulette wheel, which it actually did mathematically, you know, but, but they didn't think that. They thought this is the least calories to

burn to get to the goal. So that's just the human brain doing what is supposed to do. We're just efficiency experts all the time and everything we do. What's the least effort to get to the goal? I love this quote. No one wins anything accidentally. It's an intentional act. No one accidentally gets wealthy. Now, for years, I was reacting to money instead of directing it. I didn't have a plan, I didn't have systems. I was just stressed and anxious about money. I didn't understand it. I didn't know how to make it. I didn't know what to make of it. I felt worried around it. I knew I wanted it, but I didn't know how to manage it. But once I got intentional, even in the smallest of ways, my entire relationship with money started to shift. And once it started

to shift, it started to unlock in a masterful way. And here's the truth. A big takeaway for you is that wealth doesn't grow in chaos. It grows in clarity. And when you know where your money is going, you start feeling more in control. You start to feel more at peace. You start to feel more like you can flow in life. And that's what I want for you. And when you feel in control, you make better decisions. And instead of forcing things, that force becomes flow. So a simple habit for you to implement this action step, this shift, is to set up one small system, just one. I'm not saying overdue all your finances overnight, just one system, something so simple that you cannot fail.

That could be as simple as automating $20 a week into savings or into an investment account, setting up a basic budget, just one small act, tracking your spending for the next seven days. Heck, you can track your spending for 24 hours, make it as simple and small. as possible. Or just give every dollar a job. That's important and powerful. You don't need a perfect financial plan. You just need to begin. And one of the things blocking you is not having the right systems in place. And that is shift number one. Shift number two comes from another powerful money mentor of mine, Ken Honda, who says that we need to be healing your early money wounds. Now, you might be thinking to me, you know, Lewis, what are you talking about money wounds?

What is this? Well, this is something I talk about in my book, the New York Times bestseller, make money easy, which is all about how to navigate the relationship that each one of us have with money. Because you have a relationship with money, I have a relationship with money, your parents have a relationship with money, your friends, your family, everyone has a relationship with money. And if you don't learn how to heal that relationship, you're going to keep living in stress in your nervous system every time you think about money. Every time you see money, every time you see someone you don't like with money, every time someone asks you for money, you have an interpretation and an entangled relationship with money in your life. And if you don't learn about that,

if you're not self-aware, and you're not learning to mend that relationship with money, no matter how much you make, you'll always live in stress and chaos. And that's why we need to learn how to heal your early money wounds. And the lesson goes deeper than dollars. This shift that you're going to need to take about healing your money wounds. It's deeper than dollars. Most people think money problems start in adulthood. I'm trying to find a job and I can't find the right person. I'm not getting a raise. The money I invested, I lost. They think these things, things start now in adulthood, but actually they start in childhood. And this is an important distinction here. So I think you have to look back on your relationship with money since you're

five or six. We wake up to the reality of the world when we're around five, six, seven. I used to be a volunteer at my daughter's kindergarten. And I ask one of the boys at the kindergarten and what are you going to get for Christmas? And he said, no, Santa Claus is not coming. And I thought, oh, why is that? And he said, because my parents are poor. Interesting. Oh, really? Who told you that? And he said, my mom. Wow. So, like, we are waking up to the reality when we are small. And then since then, we've had so many negative messages around money. So I have a fun collection of saying

When I visited Europe a few weeks ago There's all the things that we were told Since we're five or six, money, they don't grow on trees in America, right? If you don't have money, you don't have a head. You know, that's a scary thing. So all those phrases keep telling us that money is not a happy thing. But when you start thinking, You must have some fun memories too around money.

You know, a certain gift that you're so happy to receive and the scholarship or the happy money that you get from your grandparents or your parents or friends. You know, they buy you for Christmas gift or birthday present. There are so much happy money in your life. But you forget because we are so overwhelmed by the stress around money. Right. Yeah, maybe there was a trip you went on with a friend or family.

You went on an adventure. and that money provided that memory, that experience for you. Right. It was worth the money, right? There's a happy saying. Yes. So there are many positive sayings around money as well. And you grew up in Japan, is that right?

And so in Japan, are people just as anxious and stressed about money as they are in America? Or is there a different belief around it? Yes. We have a different kind of stress. You know, because it's so interesting. In North America, when, say, your college buddies, right? After 20 years of graduation, you bump into one another. And you don't ask each other how much do you make a year?

In U.S. no. No, right? And in Japan, we casually talk about it. You talk about how much you make? Yes. But in North America, I think you're going to lose a friend if you bring that question. Why do you in Japan, do people in the culture, talk about money and how much someone makes more frequently? Because I think how much you make is not.

not as tied up with how much your worth is. But in North America, it seems culturally, it's nothing wrong, but how much you have or how much you make equals how much you're worth. So it's more taboo here. I love this quote. I think you have to look back on your relationship with money since you're five or six. We wake up to the reality when we are small. And then, since then, we've had so many.

negative messages around money. Now, this is a big lesson for me because most of us are still carrying the financial beliefs and burdens we learned as kids. If that resonates with you, just nod or leave a comment, yes, if that resonates with you. Most of us are still carrying the financial burdens and beliefs we learned as kids. And some of those beliefs are money is stressful. Money is hard to make. Money makes people fight. Money doesn't grow on trees. We can't afford that. Whatever it might be without even realizing it, we live from these old money scripts. And I remember growing up in a small town in Ohio, it was just a stressful household. There was love. I knew my parents loved me, but they would argue with each other. And so it caused stress. And my nervous system

started to develop around money equals stress, money equals fights, money equals uncertainty. And it was stressful. It was challenging. I didn't know. I didn't understand at five, eight, 12 years old. How do you navigate these things? The idea of money was always a challenge. And it made me realize, like, I'm afraid of this because I don't understand it.

And the key takeaway here is you can't build wealth. with a mindset that was designed to keep you small. You cannot build wealth with a mindset that was designed to keep you small. So if your identity is going from a place of your childhood money memories or money wounds, and if your identity says money is scary or I'm not good with money,

that is an identity from your past. That means no strategy today will save you. you'll sabotage it without meaning to and it's not your fault i've been there before many times i sabotage myself i've lived with anxiety and stress around money for so many years that that's why i said no more i need to learn i need to interview these experts i need to learn how they dealt with the tactical strategic side of money of actually getting money and then how to manage it emotionally mentally spiritually psychologically how do they manage it so that it doesn't consume them so it doesn't overwhelm their life, but it enriches their life.

And if that resonates with you that, man, money, it's just overwhelmed me. You know, it's something I think about all the time because I'm anxious around it. I know the feeling. It's not fun. It's not a good way to live life. It's taxing. It's a burden it feels like. And it doesn't become fun.

We want to make money something that's fun, something that's light, not heavy. And once you start healing those early wounds, you'll stop repeating him. So a simple habit that you can implement right now is to identify your earliest memory around money. That could be, oh, my parents got in a fight. Oh, my mom said, I couldn't go get this ice cream because we couldn't afford the money. Oh, I remember my parents like digging through the couch cushions to look for change to buy things. Whatever it might be, what are those early memories around money for you?

maybe you can even share some in the comments as well so other people can start activating those memories as well. And what I want you to do is I want you to rewrite this belief that you've had around money. So I want you to ask yourself, what did I learn about money growing up? What did I learn about money growing up? And does that belief help me or limit me today? So does that belief from the past help me or limit me today? If it hurts you, if it's limiting you, it's time to replace it. And I want you to replace it with a new belief that will empower you. So, for example, an old belief might be money is stressful.

Money is hard. Money is a challenge. A new belief is money as a tool that supports my growth. Now, it might be hard for you to just say, yeah, I'm just going to believe it and by saying it right now. And all of a sudden, all my past traumas and triggers go away and my nervous system is healed, Lewis, no, that's not going to happen. We need to reinforce this daily.

So the new belief, money is a tool that supports my growth. I want you to write that down. I want you to say it daily, internally or externally, whatever it is. Instead of saying the words, money is hard, money is stressful. Money is a challenge. Say money is a tool that supports my growth. And just repeat that or create whatever new belief that you want, money comes to me easily and effortlessly.

Money comes to me abundantly. It flows to me. is that you want the new belief to be, I want you to write it down, and then you're going to start acting in that belief by doing it daily. So you need to embody that belief daily. And you might feel like, well, I don't feel it yet.

You need to practice the embodiment of it in small ways, say it consistently day after day, write it down consistently until you actually become it. And you're going to create it over time. And sometimes you're going to leap forward and then bounce back into your old beliefs. And that's okay. but it's about practicing the new way of being over and over again because your nervous system

needs repetition, not perfection. So take it easy on yourself. We're getting things started. We're rewriting old money patterns that have been holding you back. And the key for shift number two is to heal your early money wounds. We talk a lot about how to do that in my book, make money easy. So make sure to get a copy and tons of exercises in here on how you can rewrite those scripts. for yourself as well. That is shift number two. Shift number three is a powerful one by my friend Jaspreet Singh. He says that you need to pay yourself first. And most of us grow up learning how to work for money, but very few of us learn how to treat money. And I want to talk about that right here. You take the earned income, you're working every single day, you take this income

and you use as much as possible to invest into assets. The assets pay you, live off of the assets, because now those assets don't need you to go to work every single day to get paid. So if you break your leg and you can't get paid, you're not getting that earned income, but that active, the passive income from your assets still coming in. And now if that's the money, you're living off, you are free. Your earned income is just buying you more assets. And so how do you start that? And so this is where you have to kind of build some sort of system for yourself.

And the rule that I would always say is follow something like Marulah Five. If you can't buy five of them, you can't afford one of them. So you want to buy a $1,000 phone, you want to buy a $1,000 watch, okay, fine, can you buy five of them? And if you don't have the ability to buy five of them, if you can't afford to do that, then you can't afford one. If you can't buy five, you can't afford one. And then you want to create a system, like a system that automates your finances where now you have something going on with your money that is putting your money to work no matter what. And so one of the easiest things you can create your own is to follow something like a $70, 15, 10 plan, which means that for every dollar you earn from now on, 75 cents is the maximum

you can spend, 15 cents is the minimum you're investing, and 10 cents is the minimum that you're saving. Now, the savings is you want to build somewhere between three and 12 months worth of savings if you want to have that protection. Three months, if you don't have a lot of liability, a lot of responsibilities, you don't have all that going on and you have a high risk tolerance. 12 months if you want to play it safe. You figure out what's right for you.

After you fill your savings, you fill up the savings, you don't want to put any more money into it because now you're just being eaten away by inflation. The savings is not there to make you wealthy. It's there just to protect you against an emergency. Then what you do is you take the money, put it into your investments. And now you just keep investing money.

Now what happens is as you grow your income, you don't change this ratio. So if you go from $40,000 a year to $400,000 a year, you keep the same ratio, and you're still investing first and then you keep saving your money and then you know how much you can spend because now what you're doing

which is what wealthy people do is you invest before you spend the way that the finances look for the majority of people is you make money you pay taxes you spend your money and then you wonder where your money went well wealthy people do right

wealthy people are you make money especially in California yeah seven dollar gas and high taxes but wealthy people are doing is you make money And then depending on how you make it, either you pay taxes first or after, ideally after, because there are ways to do that legally, but you make money and then you want to invest as much as possible

and then you spend whatever's left. So wealthy people invest and spend what's left while the majority people spend and invest whatever's left. Powerful quote from this was the way that the finances will look for the majority of people is you make money, you pay taxes. You spend your money and then you wonder where your money went. But what wealthy people are doing is you make money and then you want to invest as much as possible and then you spend whatever's left. So wealthy people invest and spend what's left while the

majority of people spend and invest whatever's left. And the lesson of this mindset shift is is that this separates people who build wealth from the people who stay stuck living paycheck to paycheck. Now, you might be watching or listening to this right now saying, Lewis, this is unfair. I work so hard to make money. I'm grinding. I've got two or three jobs. I'm sacrificing my life to make this money. It's really hard to develop and save the money. And I've got bills and expenses. I get it. I have been broke on my sister's couch for a year and a half. I have been in student loan debt. I have lived off three credit cards. I have not been sure about how to get out of that debt. And it feels like you're suffocating. It feels like you're in the deepest ocean and you're

just scrambling to barely keep your mouth above the water. And it's like coming on top of you, waves are coming on top of you. It feels emotionally, physically, mentally suffocating. And if that's a situation you're in right now, I just want to have some compassion and also just send you some love and I want you to just take as much time as you can to breathe because when we're in fight or flight when we're in stress thinking about these things it's hard to make conscious decisions when we are stressed out and overwhelmed and the best thing you can do is try to create some type of pausing practice some type of meditative practice where you can just breathe even a few breaths and just allow yourself to take a big deep breath in

let it out and start thinking about how can I get out of this situation. How can I start to reorganize my life? Because most people get paid and then they spend and then maybe they think about saving or investing whatever's left over. But wealthy people flip the order and that's what's key. I need you to think about it. Wealthy people don't invest what's left over. They invest first and then they spend what's left. This one habit creates. discipline. It creates structure. And it creates an automatic wealth building mechanism. It's a long-term mindset instead of short-term results. And when I started doing this, even with the littlest of amounts, again, when I started out, I didn't have much, but it completely changed

my confidence around money. It made me see a future that wasn't that far away after all. And a simple habit that you can do is to automate a weekly pay yourself first transfer, even if it's $5 or $10, can I pay myself first? And the amount doesn't matter. It's the pattern that starts to build a new belief inside of you. It starts to build a new identity inside of you. Because once you build the identity of someone who invest consistently, your money finally starts working for you, not against you. So shift number three is to pay yourself first to invest that. Shift number four is by Kyle Seas. Your worth is bigger than your financial fear.

And your relationship with money is a reflection of your relationship with yourself. Man, when I heard this, I was like, yes, your relationship with money is a reflection of your relationship with yourself. Now, what does this mean? If deep down, you believe that money is what makes you safe, you'll always feel anxious, you'll cling to every dollar, and you'll make decisions from fear, not certain. I was working as an intern for about six months with someone that I was learning a lot from. And I remember at one point being like, man, I just really want some money. I feel like I'm working hard for a few years.

Like I really could use some money. I'm not paying any rent money at my sisters. I feel like a loser because I can't contribute to her. I can't even get my own apartment. I'm just a loser. I was 24 at the time. I was like, man, I'm just a loser of a guy. loser of a guy and he said something to me that what you said he said money comes to you

when you're ready for it and I was like I feel really ready you know I could really use the money right now and he goes I didn't say desperate for it exactly we didn't say that but he was like it's going to come to you when you're ready for it and when it starts to come it's going to make sense I was like gosh I just want it though I just want it right now and it's funny because maybe a year later it started to come and then it started to really come pretty quickly like six months to a year after that and I remember reflecting a year and a half prior I was like man I wasn't ready for us like if this would have came two years prior I would have been scared of it I wouldn't have been prepared for it like I would have been so freaked

out but the numbers in my bank account I would have sabotaged it probably and so I really feel like it comes to you when you are prepared and ready and sometimes it's not when you want it to be and and when people say how do you get prepared and ready that's the key what so how do you Yeah. So for me, meditation, like, gets me to understand that I'm the abundance, not money. And the second, you understand that you're the abundance. And I mean, understand it in your nervous system. I mean, don't just hear that sentence while you're still dying for it in your body. Like, really be in the alignment of understanding that I'm the abundance. Wayne Dyer said beautifully, you know, there's a thing that everyone thought, you don't attract what you want. And Wayne Dyer said, you don't attract what you want. You attract what you are. What you're involved. vibration of so if you want abundance you need to get to a place where you understand your abundance and everything comes into your life the second you finally don't want it it's not not don't want it like avoiding like you're you don't need it the second you stop looking for it you don't even remember you wanted it that's because you have to access the fulfillment of the

connection to yourself first and then weirdly it's going to create first of all so many creative things but you're going to just start you're so first of all you're so aware that you see things differently. Like, think of just the, just that when someone's in their head, they're walking down the street on their phone worrying, you could pass a $100 bill and not even see it, right? But when you're not in your head, you suddenly start to see all these dots connecting and everything meaning something different. And you see every moment as meaningful. Like last night I was waiting to go into a restaurant. One guy recognized me and said hi and we created a friendship because he's also a musician. That's cool. And then this four-year-old girl comes in and

and just sees me and starts dancing in front of me and showing me your toys. And I just had, that moment was so much cooler than if I was looking through wondering, you know, what is going on in politics. And that was fulfilling, that moment. And because that's fulfilling and then on my way to the table, each step is fulfilling. Now this is more fulfilling than anything I perceive could come to me to make me happy. Once you actually have practiced understanding that this moment is more important than anything you think you want, now you are abundance, not money.

Once you're abundance, it's impossible for it to not come. You're just going to start feeling safe to everybody. They're going to want to hire you. You're going to get bizarre offers. They'll just say, can you help me through something? Can you create this thing? You'll get an alignment with your creative gifts more than your fix-it gifts to make money. You'll be in this higher thing.

You'll be worth more, better jobs will start asking you. You'll start to actually feel heavy when million dollar offers are coming in because you're like, even that I don't want. And then it just every time I say no to something, even if it's a huge thing, the bigger thing comes up. It's like, life's like, how about this? How about this? And then the only question I ask is, does this expand me or contract me? Oh, yeah, that's good. Right?

If it expands me, then I say yes, and I can feel that within two seconds. If I get to a pros and cons list, I'm already in contracting. Do you get what I'm saying? Wow. This quote gets me. Meditation gets me to understand that I'm the abundance, not money. Meditation gets me to understand that I'm the abundance, not money. For most of us, the fear around money comes from believing that money is the source of our worth, our safety, our stability, our certainty, our identity. But your internal state, your peace, your intuition, your intuition,

your creativity, your presence, that's the real abundance. And I know it's hard to believe when you're feeling scarce. But I'm telling you, let me repeat this again, your internal state of being, your peace, your intuition, your creative juices, your presence, that's the real abundance, not the money. Money is just a byproduct. And when you stop seeing money as the thing that keeps you alive, you stop gripping it out of fear. And when the fear drops, your creativity rises. You start to see opportunities to create and attract financial abundance in your life. You start to enroll people in a vision of who you are

and what you can create and the value you can bring to the marketplace. You start to see possibilities in ways that you never saw them before because you're able to take a deep breath and look around rather than feeling like you're overwhelmed and engulfed in the sea of stress and the burden that you've been living in, and it's so hard to do in the beginning. But once you do it, the fear will drop and your creativity will rise. And the takeaway for this is when you build inner abundance first, outer abundance has a place to land. When you build inner abundance first, outer abundance has a place to land. Now, you might be saying, Lewis, what is this, what is this mean? Come on. Inner abundance first, outer abundance has a place to land. Talk to me real here.

Like if I really start shifting things inside of me, the way I feel around things, the way I perceive things, the how I think about things, you're saying if I have a growth mindset over a victim mindset or an abundance mindset over a scarcity mindset, internally, then externally new things will come to me. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And it doesn't feel like it, but I can tell you from personal experience and from interviewing some of the wealthiest people in the world. When I was driven to, accomplish and and create financial success. I eventually learned the strategies tactically externally on how to do that. But I still was overwhelmed with fear, stress, anxiety, and I wasn't able to enjoy my life to the fullest because, again, I was still living in a past mindset around money keeping me safe. And yes, there's some practicality to money keeping you safe in certain ways. But I'm talking about the emotional side of thing. And it wasn't until I shifted from scarcity to growth. When I shifted from wounded to healing journey, that's when the things inside of me started

to change. And I started to see the world differently around me, which allowed me to experience money differently as well. If this is resonating, please like this up or leave a comment and let me know so that I can make sure that you're connected with me on this moment because I really, believe that you are here for a reason because you want to create some type of next level opportunity and growth financially for yourself. And you're sick and tired of feeling trapped or in scarcity mode. And if that's you, I'm telling you, I can relate more than you believe.

And I know the pain. And it took me a while to get out of it. And that's why I've been on this journey of the School of Greatness for the last 13 years to find solutions to give you to not have to be in the pain as long as I was in because it was stressful and painful and I want to make sure you don't have to suffer and go through as much as me. So here's a simple habit. I want you to take two minutes every morning

to just pause, pause, pause, breathe, take a breath. And I want you to repeat this mantra after you take a breath. I am the abundance. Money supports me, but it does not define me. Take a breath and say, I am the abundance. Money supports me, but it does not define me. Again, this may sound a little weird to think about this or to try this.

You may be like, this is the weirdest thing ever. Why would I even do this? Well, what you've been doing by being stuck in stress and burden of the financial, you know, challenges that you have, that's not working anymore. So it's just trying to try something different. Repeat, I am the abundance. Money supports me, but it does not define me. And I want you to feel it.

I want you to breathe it in. I want you to let your nervous system just kind of relax and feel more safe inside of you. Let the nervous system experience safety without money. When I started to shift without money and just bring alive my joy, my creativity, my presence, that gift created more financial opportunities because when you stop searching for safety and money you finally access the creativity and courage that will actually help you to earn more and that is shift number four that your worth is bigger than your financial fear and the final shift is by my guy Patrick Bed David who talks a lot about all these things

And the shift is, your money grows when you grow. Now, this is building upon shift number four. If you resent wealthy people, if you think money is the enemy, or if you carry shame around wanting more, you'll quietly sabotage your own growth. This shift is all about upgrading your identity, not just your income. And here's what I mean. Whatever you hate or you don't respect, you're not going to be. to get. So if you don't respect rich people, you're not going to be rich. If you don't respect

people who make a lot of money, you always talk trash about them behind their backs. You're not going to be that person. You're just not. If you admire somebody that's a great executive and an earner and recreating themselves, then guess what? You'll eventually make that money. So, you know, money and success is not attracted to people that talk down to them, just like anything else. They're not attracted to you. They want to be. respected. Money wants to be respected. Not love, but money wants to be respected. It wants you to say, you know what, I respect what we can do with money and how much power you can bring to my family. I respect it. What do I need to do to get more of it? Well, guess what? Right now, your market value is

$68,000 per year. You want to improve it? I do. Here's what you've got to do. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Okay, great. And the way of making money, for the longest time, you know, everybody wants to say entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, there's many other ways of making it. You can, that's one way to go. You can be a creator. You know, Mr. Bees has proven the fact that you can be a billionaire by being a YouTuber. You guys got 3, 400 million subscribers.

Probably by the time this video comes out, he's at 500 million subscribers, the way he's growing. You can make a lot of money being a YouTuber, talent, creator, behind the scenes, you know, growing a company to the next level, sales, you know, communication, executive, leadership. But no matter what you do, I don't care what you do, whatever business you're in, I'm interested in learning skill sets that are evergreen to 100% of industries. What is that? Let's talk about that.

So one is leadership. In every environment, like we have a team of 30 people in our production team at the office, right? And it was a lot of chaos two weeks ago, three weeks ago. And I held a meeting. In a meeting I held, I'm watching to see who's showing signs of leadership on what's going to happen. This is an opportunity for them to show who's the leader. And then the person you weren't expecting stood up, and the person you were expecting to lead,

it's kind of like quiet and not saying anything. Well, maybe this guy's not a leader. He's a technical expert, but he's not a leader. This person is not technically as much of an expert as this person, but this guy knows how to bring everybody to get it and get all the productions to be done. On time, delivered, high quality, thumbnails, everything, that guy's a better leader, even though technically is not as good as this.

The market pays for great leaders. So whether I'm a assistant, whether I'm an executive assistant, whether I'm a salesperson, whether I'm a coder, an editor, whether I'm a, you know, in the military, whether I'm a cop, firefighter, politician, an athlete, it does not matter. Steve Kerr wasn't technically the best player, but he's one of the best coaches in the league today, right? So why is he where he's at? Because of the leadership, right?

So leadership is what? Getting people to do things they wouldn't do on their own and setting a great example. Great. So that means you have to be able to do what? You have to learn how to build relationships with people to win them over. You have to be able to give tough news, bad news,

direct news, in a gentle way where it's received. you have to be able to bring people together you have to be able to challenge people poke them you know challenge them have the tough conversations with them manage expectations with them challenge them to recreate themselves when they hit a plateau we had a talent dinner

this week two nights ago at the house I brought everybody over and I brought my chiropractor everybody got adjustments at the end until God knows what time but we're sitting there with the talent dinner and I said guys there's one word I want you to be thinking about going into 2024 I want everybody here to keep this one word as their M-O is to recreate yourself going into 2024.

And I gave them goals, what I want by attainment to happen, what I want by it timing comedy, do what I want this to do and that to do and this to do and all this other stuff that we got. But what's the most annoying thing about recreating yourself? The most annoying thing about recreating yourself is you have to accept the fact that the current you is not good enough for the next level. Nobody likes that because whenever you get good at the level you're at, you kind of have this warm, fuzzy feeling, you're getting the accolades, you're getting the accolates, you're

getting the respect, you're getting the fame. You're like, look at me. I'm so special. But to go to the next step, I'm like, oh, my God, nobody who cares about my success. I am so small here. But you're not good enough for the next level. So what do I need to do to recreate myself to get to that next level? Do I need to read more?

Do I need to study more? Do I need to watch myself more? Do I need to sit down with other people that know me well and ask them to give me, you know, very sincere direction? Do I need to hire somebody to, you know, give me feedback? What do I need to be doing? What is that for you? What you need to reinvent next year for yourself?

For me? Yeah. It's just hiring tens. This quote is so powerful. Whatever you hate or you don't respect, you're not going to get. Money wants to be respected. So powerful. Money responds to respect and responsibility, not resentment.

How many people do you know in your life resent people who have money? How many people you know resent people when they see? oh, this person made this much money or this person made a lot of money on TV or this person sold their company and they talked negative about it? How many people do you know in your life resent people who have money?

And here's a bigger one. Do you resent people who have money? Your friends, your family, someone you watch online, do you resent them? Do you secretly just despise it? They made money and you don't have it. If you believe rich people

are greedy or money is bad, your subconscious will push prosperity away because you don't want to become something you dislike. It's so important that if you want to have something, you can't despise it in another person. You have to appreciate it. You have to be curious about it. You have to wonder and ask questions about it. You have to learn about it. You can't be frustrated by it.

Why would something come to you if you don't like that thing? One of the fastest ways to expand your income is to expand. and your value, the value that you can bring to the world, developing evergreen skills. Can you learn how to communicate better? Can you learn how to build interrelational skills better? Can you learn how to follow up better? Can you learn how to give a compliment better?

Simple, evergreen skills that go a long way in business or getting a career, finding opportunities. Can you be a grateful person? Can you ask interesting questions? These are all evergreen skills that can create incredible financial opportunities for you if you're willing to invest in doing it consistently. Can you become a better leader in your life? Can you organize your life?

Can you get into shape? Can you eat healthy? Can you do things that leaders do to improve the abilities of their life? Can you set a goal and finish it? What can you do to become a better leader? becoming someone who can handle more, more responsibility, more pressure and opportunity, when you rise, your earning potential rises with you. And this is huge. Most people, I feel like today, just expect people to give them something. They expect something to be handed to them.

They expect to get a raise just for showing up for the first week. They expect someone just give them the money that they ask for. That's not how it works. You have to constantly be investing in your personal growth and saying, how can I add way more value to the person that's paying me than I'm getting in return? How can I give them 10 times more value than what they're paying me for? When you have that mindset of I'm going to give them so much more value than what they pay me for, they will continue to give you more money. You will continue to have a job. You'll continue to create opportunities. The key takeaway to this is you don't get paid for what you want.

You get paid for what you're worth to the marketplace. And worth increases every time you increase. You've got to increase the skill sets that you have. You've got to increase your positivity. You've got to increase your ability to take on more.

You've got to increase you if you want your worth and your financial abundance to increase as well. And a habit around this is a daily identity calibration. I want you to ask yourself, one time a day, ask yourself this question.

Am I acting like the person who earns the amount I want to earn? Am I acting like the person who earns the amount I want to earn? So if someone's making $100,000 a year, how are they acting? What are their behaviors? What are their actions? What are their habits? What are their words? What do they think about?

someone's making $50,000 a year, $10,000 a year, what are they thinking about? If you're trying to make $100,000 a year one day, what does a millionaire think about? What do they do? How do they act? Am I acting in accordance with the alignment of the value that someone would pay me a million dollars? If you're not, then something needs to shift. Then do one action that aligns with that higher version of you that you want to act into.

And that doesn't have to be like you have to do some questions. crazy overhaul overnight. This could be reading 10 pages of a business or leadership book a day. This could be learning a practice of a new skill every single day. This could be learning to have tough conversations when you don't set boundaries and you don't feel like you're getting what you need. You've got to learn to communicate more consciously. This could be taking ownership of something you've been avoiding. Don't avoid things anymore. Lean into it, have the courage. This is challenging stuff, but this is what leaders do. Tiny upgrades and identity lead to outsize upgrades and income. And the more you step into this, the more powerful

you'll become. And again, this is from Patrick Bet, David. Your money grows when you grow. These five shifts have changed my life when I had nothing. When I was broke, living on my sister's couch with no money, three credit cards, no college degree, student loans, all these things. And these shifts still guide me to date. You've got to constantly upgrade. You've got to constantly reinvent these shifts. You can't just do them for a little while and go back to your own beliefs. From building systems to healing your money story to paying yourself first, to remembering you are the abundance to growing your value.

Every one of these can transform your financial future. But only if you take action today. You don't need to master all five overnight. You just need one shift, one habit, one. one decision that you'll commit to for the next 30 days pick the one that hit you the hardest to date what did you hear that resonated with you what did you like what kind of triggered you start today on that stay consistent watch how your confidence opportunities and income begin to grow you're not just learning about abundance you're stepping into it and that's the key and again

if you haven't checked out make money easy yet make sure to get this book right now. Go to Amazon, go online, go to the store, get this book, and go through the exercises that will help you unlock abundance and heal the relationship with money and your life today. And I want to remind you, if no one's told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy and you matter, you deserve it. You deserve to live a more abundant, financially free life, but it starts with you taking an action first. Thank you so much for being here and I can't wait to see you in the next episode. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.

Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. you. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are

loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.