The School of Greatness - 572 Rachel Platten: Never Give Up on Your Dreams

Episode Date: December 5, 2017

"IT’S NOT ABOUT ME, IT'S ABOUT THE EXCHANGE OF ENERGY ON STAGE.” So many times we give up on our dreams because of deadlines we put on ourselves. There have been plenty of moments when I felt like things were taking too long or like I was getting too old. It’s those moments we need to look within and understand why we are doing it. Find our real purpose. Do you want to be an author to hit the New York Times bestseller list or because you want to have people read your work? Is it because you want your message out there or so that you can make your profile bio look great? My feeling is that your purpose should always be to serve. Serving other people brings fulfillment to yourself. Reaping the material rewards is just a bonus. Remember, you’re never too old. It’s never too late for your dreams to come true. Our guest today, Rachel Platten, didn’t reach her mega-success in music until she was 32 - when most people would have given up on their dreams. Rachel is an incredibly hard working person. She kept pushing and pursuing her dreams for over ten years before anyone noticed. She was doing small intimate gigs and performing for people in hospitals. When her hit song Fight Song came out it wasn’t an instant success. She was devastated and lost in her definition of success. She was certain it would sell millions of records and hit the charts. After reaching an all-time emotional low, feeling her only chance passed her by, she began to reflect on herself. The reason she got into making music was because she loved it for herself and she loved the connection it gave her with people. She came to the conclusion that playing hospitals and small venues was enough for her to feel happy. After that revelation, it was only a few weeks later that her song became a hit. She let go of her ego and trusted in the process. Doesn't sound like coincidence to me. Discover all of Rachel's incredible story and much more, on Episode 572. Show notes: What’s the thing you’re most grateful for and inspired by this year? (7:05) Did you always feel like you were looking for outside approval? (8:44) How did you stay dedicated to your dream for years before anything happened? (10:01) Why was music shut down in your life for a while? (17:39) Do you get nervous on stage? (18:56) Who was your greatest teacher? (20:37) Do you doubt yourself now? (22:14) How do you find confidence? (23:17) What’s been your most memorable moment on stage? (25:23) Whose opinion matters the most to you right now? (27:42) Did you work other jobs while you were starting? (34:07) How has becoming famous affected your marriage? (37:17) Who have you been jealous of most in your career? (43:43) What do you think is your highest purpose? (47:46) In this episode you will learn: Rachel’s experience performing at hospitals (10:50) What it was like to perform in front of 80,000 people in Trinidad (14:08) The importance of staying on mission (24:11) How Rachel realized she didn’t need the approval of others (28:38) What it was like performing small shows for years (32:13) How she survived living in the city (35:07) The dream her husband is pursuing (40:01) How she’s not afraid to go to places others are (42:53) When a big dream becomes a delusion (44:40) How you begin to lose yourself (52:31) Plus much more...

This is episode number 572 with Rachel Platten. 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. Earl Nightingale said, never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish

it. The time will pass anyway. Welcome my friends to today's episode with the incredible Rachel Platten, who is a singeraked at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, topped the charts in the UK, peaked all over the world. She won an Emmy Award for the live performance of the song on Good Morning America. And she's got a new record out, new album out, called Waves, just came out featuring the hit single Broken Glass. Now, here is an inspiring individual who has really done some things

that I feel like most people aren't willing to do. Most people aren't willing to spend a decade of grinding and hustling for a small audience and then all of a sudden rising to the fame that she's got and her song, Fight Song, really took off and it's been kind of like the theme song for so many women over the last couple of years. And just an inspiring story.

And so many good things have happened to her. It couldn't happen to a better person. Some of the things we talk about in today's interview are why it's important not to seek validation outside of yourself. This is a really challenging thing to do. I've been there myself. But the key to this, okay, we talk about that. Also, how to stay committed to your vision even when results aren't happening for you. That's right. It may not happen overnight, guys. Also, how to clear out the fear from your mind before a big gig, a performance, or something where you have to show up.

Why hard work beats talent. And all the people talk about the excuses of maybe not having the talent. I'm telling you, the hard work is where it's at. And also why Rachel believes in never giving up, even if you feel delusional about a dream. Super pumped for this, guys. Make sure you tag your friends. Post this right now that you're listening to this on your Instagram story. Tag Rachel Platten. Tag myself, atlewishouse, over on Instagram, Twitter. Send her some love and let her know that you're listening.

Before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the fan in the review of the week. This is from Preston, who said, over on iTunes, he said, I'm a junior in college, and over the last year, I have had some hard lessons about life, about being an adult, and dealing with real-world problems. Along this journey, I have struggled with some depression and social anxiety. The School of Greatness has cultivated a burning desire to pursue my passions and assume responsibility for my life. I have a desire to learn, to put my best foot forward, and help the world progress. Listening to this podcast and reading the book has been unsettling

in a good way, but it has given me a foundation to live a great life. So Preston, super grateful for the review. Thanks for sharing and congrats on the actions you're taking on your life and the improvements you're making. And if you guys want to be considered to be shouted out on the podcast, go ahead and leave a review over on iTunes or just open up the podcast app on your iPhone and leave us a review for a chance to be shouted out on the podcast. All right, guys, I'm super pumped about this and so excited to bring on and introduce to you the one, the only, Rachel Platten. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got an incredible human being, Rachel Platten, in the house. Good to see you. Yes, my man. We made it. I've been trying to get you on here for about a year since we had Andy come on. I am very hard to get. I'm just kidding.

No, I really wanted to, too. I don't know how it didn't work out. It's all good. You just became like the biggest sensation in the world the last couple of years. Stop. That's not true. So you've been touring everywhere. No, people are missing.

I don't even know who that is. Everything's happening for you. It's just like you've been nonstop. So it's all good. Everything is supposed to happen when it's supposed to happen. That's true. That's what I believe. So you're here. Yeah. You seem super like chill and relaxed. I it's all good. Everything is supposed to happen when it's supposed to happen. That's true. That's what I believe. So you're here. You seem super like chill and relaxed.

I feel pretty chill today. It's been an amazing year. It's been a year. What's the thing you're most grateful for and inspired by from this year so far? I grew a lot this year. How so? Personally. Well, we're just diving into it. Okay. Yes, we are.

Oh my God. You listen to the show you know what this is about i know i thought there was like a buffer of like where are you from i was ready for this what am i okay i think that i really have learned some lessons this year about seeking approval from the outside and how to stop that and how that's an endless chain of thinking that you will never be satisfied from. You're going to always be hungry for more and more and more. And I've learned to turn inwards. And I'm not all the way there, but I'm kind of right in the middle of it. And I'm doing a pretty

good job. You seem pretty grounded. Do I? That's good. I've had a tough three or four months. Really? Yeah. So I'm at a place now where I'm actually, I found a lot of peace recently and it's not because of any outward success and it's not because of any like incredible achievement or anything. It's actually because I had to do a lot of work to not need that for my happiness. And now things are coming a little easier and they're just kind of delighting me like, oh, cool. But, but it's not making my whole world. So I do feel pretty grounded right now. I'm glad that it seems that way. That's great. So the biggest lesson for you this year is what? Don't look outside of yourself for approval. When you find it, it's going to be fleeting and

you're going to be chasing it more and more. You need to find it from inside and know that you're enough. I like that. And goodbye. I'll see you later. Now, did you always feel like you were chasing outside approval over the last, you know, decade of pursuing your music career and everything you've been up to? I think I did a lot of that. Yeah.

I think from when I was little, it was a lot about me looking around me to my parents, to my coaches. I love anyone giving me instruction or I like getting better. I'm just a seeker. I just want to get better and I'm hungry to grow in any area that I can. So whether it's looking for approval from sports coaches or mentors or voice teachers or my parents, I've kind of based a lot of my self worth on other people telling me, yeah,

you did a good job. You're perfect. Yeah. I can relate to that. I mean, I think a lot of us can, it's hard to be like 10 years old and be like, I'm just going to like find approval from within and not care what the

outside world thinks about me. Some kids are like that. Some kids are cool about that. Yeah. But no, I wasn't that cool either. Yeah. No, no I wasn't that cool either. Yeah. No, no way.

Now, I've been inspired by your story because you've got a kind of similar story like Andy, kind of, where you guys are just- Andy Grammer, he's referring to, yeah. Yeah, Andy Grammer, where you just like worked your butts off for years. Yeah. For like two people a day, right? Yeah. He was busking in Santa Monica, like right where you live now, near there, right?

Yeah. For four years before anything even happened. You've been doing this for like a decade, right? Yes. Until- 13 years. 13 years. Yeah.

How do you stay like committed to your vision with not a lot of big hits or success? I had no, yeah, you're being kind. I had no hits. There was like nothing going on. For 13 years. Yeah. I mean, okay, there's two things and not two, there's maybe three or four. I just like how people on your show are like the two things. I want to be one of them, but okay. One of them was I really loved what I was doing. I loved making music. I loved writing songs and I loved performing

and I was performing even though it was small bars and you know doing covers three hours a night and hustling and like bringing my 85 pound piano all around the city when I was on stage it didn't matter what the stage was I learned from friends in the city that the party was on stage if anyone wanted to join me awesome so I loved performing and I was still performing. The other reason was that I was really heavily involved in this charity called Musicians on Call. And I sang and I still do. And I sing bedside to patients in hospitals. It's really cool. I love that about you.

Thank you. And I got to do that maybe once a week when I was really in the flow of it. And that was incredibly rewarding. And that reminded me every time my ego would get in the way, it. And that was incredibly rewarding. And that reminded me every time my ego would get in the way, it would remind me to shut that down and say, who am I to decide that this isn't enough when I'm reaching one person and I'm reaching them in a real way? Why do I need more than that? So it would be a pretty good gut check. And I'd be like, huh, that's just my ego. Wow. So every week you would go to a hospital and sing songs for kids or any patients. For patients, bedside, or kids, yep. And sing to them just to, did you do covers?

You do your own stuff? I'd do my own stuff. They actually wanted me to do covers. Really? Well, the patients didn't care. I mean, they were sick and usually like just grateful for music. But the program suggested covers and I was like, you know what? I'm going to try out my songs on these patients.

So I'd be like playing not fully formed songs for the patients. But it's just love. You're just like in there in that room and I don't know. No one's judging you. I'm not judging their condition. They're not judging me. And it's just really a beautiful exchange of energy. Wow.

So how long were you doing that? Or when did you start doing that? I started when I was 22. As soon as I moved to the city, I realized, or maybe 23, I realized like pretty quickly that I wasn't going to be able to make it as quickly as I planned in my head. And I was like, well, I really want to play music still. And I want to find a way to do good through the music I'm doing. It's, it's such a selfish, like self absorbed career. You're just, you're just constantly thinking about you and like what people think of you and, and how to get more famous and how to get more attention. And it's like gross. And I noticed that I didn't like the way it made me feel. And I know that doing charity did make me feel good. I was always doing charity in high school and college, and

I wanted to combine the two. So I looked online, and I found this organization. Isn't it funny? I mean, I remember five, six years ago, my business was doing really well, and I was like, but I don't feel like I'm giving back in any way. It's just for me right now. And it was great because I was broke before, and so it allowed me to have some financial freedom. But I felt like something was always missing and when I found a charity that I really appreciated, Pencil Promise and I started really giving back in a big way

I was like, these are the most fulfilling moments Yes, way more than the moments that are like what people tell you should be fulfilling like the awards, the audience it's not that, it's those one-on-one connections We're going to get you down to Guatemala sometime I would really love to go towards the audience. It's not that. It's those one-on-one connections.

That's it. Yeah. We're going to get you down to Guatemala sometime. I would really love to go. We're going to make it happen. Okay. You realized your passion of singing a long time before you kind of have made it in the mainstream. And I heard, I think I read on your site that you talked about performing.

You were like a backup singer in like a big performance. Yeah. Okay, I'll tell you this. When you were like 22 or 23? I think 19 or 20. 19 or 20, okay. You want me to tell you this story? Yeah, this is crazy. How are you performing in front of 80,000 people? Okay, so I was in college at

Trinity. I wanted to do a study abroad program. I was an international relations major and in one of my classes, this amazing guy named Tony with like huge dreads and this amazing accent came in and he had this presentation about Trinidad. And something lit up inside of me. And the presentation was all about carnival.

And the biggest carnival in the world is in Trinidad. Really? Maybe second biggest to Rio, sorry. Or maybe it's on par, I'm not sure. But it's really, really big and really popular. And I saw these images and he talked about how music infused the culture there. It was just all about music. And I was starving for music.

I had been shutting that part of me down. And so I kind of saw this as a way to just secretly slip into it and see what would happen if I went to a place that was all about music, that communicated in music. I went there and I was interning at the diplomat's office and then I was also interning at a record label and the record label had this band and they were like, well, I don't know if I can say this, they were all, everyone smoked pot all the time.

All right, fine. Okay, fine, fine. So we were like super high and someone didn't show up that happened all the time and it was a huge gig like they were like does anyone in here they were kind of freaking out i was like wait i know the songs no way yeah i'm like i know the songs i also know i know i knew the piano parts yeah i was like i can play i can play and sing they're like what this white girl like let you play piano so they're

like no dude this girl can't do it and i'm like guys give me a chance so we rehearsed i think i'm 19 or 20 yeah so we rehearsed and they're like okay fine you'll do i don't think they understood like what a huge deal this was for me i was freaking wow so we get on stage it's the international soca monarch finals i didn't know what the gig was i was just like gonna go to some concert. The international Soka Monarch finals are like 80,000 people in the center of Port of Spain. And it was wild. And I got on that stage and I did not feel an ounce of fear. I felt completely on purpose. I felt completely at home and the microphone in the front of the stage that the lead singer was about to grab. I was like, how do I get that microphone? How do I get in the front of the stage that the lead singer was about to grab, I was like, how do I get that microphone?

How do I get in the front of the stage? No. And that was it. Did you get in front of the stage? No, I mean, I was in back of the stage. But you're thinking to yourself, how do I get there at some point in my life? Yes, I was like, that's what I want.

This is what I'm supposed to do with my life. Were you always performing as a kid? In choirs and acapella groups, on musicals. I was a dork. I sang in a musical and in choir. Yes. I never did the acapella because I was never that good. I just tried to blend in. Yeah, groups, on musicals. I was a dork. I sang in a musical and in choir. I never did the acapella because I was never that good. I just tried to blend in. I'm a secret Glee fan.

I'm actually not a secret Glee fan, but I love Glee in Nashville. Michelle is one of my close friends. She is the best. She's unbelievable. I'll tell her to come on here. I'd love to have her come on. I was literally obsessed. Every week when Glee would come out, I'd be like, don't mess with me.

Yeah. Don't call me. I need to watch Glee. Yeah. No, you're a dork. Until the last season. Then it kind of went downhill a little bit. Yeah.

But great show. Anyways, I think I secretly loved it because I can't do what they can do. And so I just appreciate it. Yeah. I know what you mean. Fixer Upper I love because I can't do what they do. Isn't it sad it's over? What do you mean it's over?

Fixer Upper. Chip and Joanna, what are you doing? They're shutting down the show. Why? I'm pretty sure, aren't they? I'm almost positive they shut the show down. We need to pause the pod right now and dive into this. No, it's horrible, right?

No, it's a great show. It's a great airplane watch. Great airplane. Great at my place, just watching it. Back to you. Okay. So you sang in choir. You sang in musicals.

You sang in acapella. But then you mentioned something about music being disconnected from your life or kind of shut down. What happened? Why was it shut down or was it just missing? I didn't grow up in a place that encouraged anyone to be an artist. I didn't really have examples of artists around me. My dad's a psychologist, an industrial psychologist, and my mom's a therapist. And I grew up in a really just kind of sweet town and everyone went to graduate school. That was what, not everyone, that was the path. If you were doing well and succeeding was go to graduate school,

be serious. And I didn't have any examples around me. I didn't know to reach for that. I didn't know I could. And also I didn't know I was good enough. Like I was never told by anyone. I didn't, I didn't have any teacher or coach tell me like, you're incredible. You should pursue this. No, inquire. And I was little. I did. I was too young. Like no one was like, leave school and go on Broadway. They were like, yeah, you're really good. You should try out for the solo and Ave Maria. And I was like, done. But it wasn't like, oh, you're incredible. Join local theater join local theater no one never no no one ever like pointed me out until until 80 000 people were screaming your name yeah they weren't

screaming no i was like yeah yeah i know wait no that'd be amazing if they were so so you had this opportunity then to go on stage in front of this many people, you have felt zero fear. Do you feel fear today when you go on stage? Well, not when I'm on stage ever. Like when I'm actually performing, I'm sure you hear this from performers all the time. Not in the middle of it. When I'm in the flow, no way. But moments before, big things. I played on TV last night or two nights ago on a big TV thing. And I was, yeah, I was scared. My heart was pumping and I was like texting, I have this therapist who's an energy healer. So I was texting her, I was like, can you help me? Can you tell me? And she's like, I'm sorry, sweetie, but those nerves are going to help you. Like you actually need that adrenaline. It's going to help.

And I was like, okay. And it was fine. I started singing and it was perfect. And you were great. Yeah. Wow. Okay. so do you feel fear when you have when I speak sometimes yeah before yeah a little bit before like I used to be terrified going on stage

but then I really practiced over and over to overcome that fear Toastmasters Toastmasters I know she listens I listen to the pod

Toastmasters by the way I think we should call it the pod the pod I'm really into calling it the pod I keep trying to make it happen you're like not saying it the pod

cask yeah okay now Toastmasters like saved my life because I knew that I wanted to Pod. I'm really into calling it the pod. I keep trying to make it happen. You're like not saying it. The pod task. Yeah. Okay. Pod. Now Toastmasters like saved my life because I knew that I wanted to be able to share my message, but I was too scared to get in front of five people. Yeah. And I was like, okay, I need to overcome this.

And you just got to practice your fear. Yes. You just got to do it over and over. Yes. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. I believe that. I do too.

I do. I walk myself through moments, like visualize every single moment of a show or a performance, and I walk myself through the entire thing, and I visualize it all going perfectly and me feeling peaceful throughout it and powerful. Yeah. So who has been your greatest teacher, would you say? I have a tough time with this one. I feel bad that I have a tough time with it, but I don't know.

I listen to people talk about their mentors and their influences, and I have a lot of artists that I look up to, but I don't know if any of them were like biggest teachers. I have a voice coach that's been incredibly supportive and helped me with my confidence a lot over the past 12 years. His name is Breck Allen. He's in Nashville for any of you aspiring musicians. Yeah.

Musicians. I usually, if someone comes to me and they like haven't, they don't have a lot going on in music, but they want something to go on and they, that doesn't make sense. They want more. They want more.

I direct them to Breck first because I think that the most important thing he does besides being incredibly intuitive voice teacher is help you with your confidence. And he helped me so much believe in myself and believe that the way that I sounded was unique and special. And that I didn't have to change my tone to sound like anyone else. I just had to develop the best version of my voice. And I think that's really powerful because a lot of what you do in the beginning is imitation. And that's good. It's good to have people that you want to imitate. But then ultimately you need to find your own sound. And I think this is for any field. You need to find your own route and your own path. And if someone is there telling you like, yeah, what you have to give the world is valid and worthy and we want that. We want more of that. All you need to do is clear out the bullshit so that you have the best version of your unique gift that you can.

And that's what he did for me. So, oh, I guess in answering that, I kind of figured it out. That's great. He's been a great teacher for you. Yeah. When did you really start to believe in yourself? I don't know. I think I'm still working on it.

I don't know. I mean, I guess I believe. Do you doubt yourself now? Yeah, all the time. Do you doubt yourself? Yeah. When I get nervous, I'm like, should I be doing this right now? Yeah, all the time. Do you doubt yourself? Yeah. When I get nervous, I'm like, should I be doing this right now? Am I ready for this?

Who doesn't doubt themselves? I don't know. I think that that's healthy and a little bit of a – maybe it's not healthy. Maybe I need to work on that. But I believe in my songwriting ability more than anything. I know I can write a song. Writing a song. Writing a song.

I'm a songwriter first. And I'm really proud of that ability. And I'm okay saying right now I am a great songwriter. I can deal with that sentence and not freak out with my insides being like, no, you're not. Sure. I think I'm a really good singer. I think I'm a great live performer. You didn't even make me do that.

Why am I doing this? What else are you great at? I'm a great friend. Tell me everything. Great dog walker. I have a dog and I take him on great walks. I'm sure you do. How do you develop this sense of belief and confidence in yourself?

First off, how did you do it when no one was watching for 12, 13 years? And then how do you continue to do it when everyone's watching? I really turn inward and I really get quiet. And I use meditation a lot and I journal and I have therapists and I have close friends and I have a lot of tools that I use when I'm doubting myself. That's something that I've really gotten great at is knowing what tools I need. I think that that's a really big trick for anyone in life trying to pursue anything. Yeah. Knowing that like,

what are you going to turn to in those moments of doubt? And you have to set that up beforehand so that when you're in there, you're not like, you know, thrashing, looking around, you know, like, okay, I can meditate right now. If that's for you, maybe not. I can read inspiring books right now. Whatever your thing is. I can do a job. I can do a workout. Yeah. Yeah.

Like I call a coach when I'm like before a big gig or something, I'll call someone and like ground me. Yes. Give me like the intention of like why I'm here, what my mission is. Like I'm nervous. Why am I nervous? The mission thing is a big deal.

That's a big deal. And staying on purpose and on mission is like really important for me to combat fears and ego stuff. Because if I can cut through that and figure out, wait, Rachel, why am I doing this in the first place? I am doing this for whatever it is, your causes, my causes. And then I can clear out the fear because it's like, who am I to block that? Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I used to get really nervous before speaking gigs. And then I would overanalyze afterwards. That's so mean.

I messed up this. I forgot to say this. I sounded like an idiot here. I stuttered here. And now I don't overanalyze because I go into a speech just saying, I'm going to mess up. But if I focus on giving to the audience and serving their needs. Serving is the biggest deal. Serving in the biggest way. Then who cares how much I mess up, but if I focus on giving to the audience and serving their needs. Serving is the biggest deal.

Serving in the biggest way, then who cares how much I mess up? They're going to feel a certain type of energy. Exactly. And it doesn't matter if I forget something or whatever. Exactly. I'm sure you probably do something similar where you're going on stage and you're like, I'm just here to give. Yes, 100%. And it's really not about me. It's really about the exchange of energy on that stage. And it's really about me getting out of the way so that I can both channel and then give freely. What's been the most

memorable moment on stage for you? I think probably with performing with Taylor Swift. Ooh, when was this? Last year and a half ago. That's like big. Yeah, that was fun. Does it get bigger than that? I don't know. I mean, that was pretty crazy. I have a funny story about it too. I was about to go on stage and I was going to be lifted up from the bottom, you know, like on this like, that's epic crane thingy. And I had never done that before. And I was there with the crane operator. I was like, there was no one to freak out with. And I was like, dude, this is crazy. Right. And he was like, I don't know, lady, can you just stand still please? So I can buckle you in. And I was like, let's hug. He's like, I'm union. Don't touch me. Bitch, get off. Just chill.

So that moment of going up the crane or just performing with Taylor? Um, no, I mean, 80,000, a hundred thousand people. I think maybe I'll, I think like 65 or something when I, I didn't mean to say it like that. No big deal. It's not like I performed to those audiences all the time. I remember being lifted up to the stage and then seeing the lights because she had this thing where everyone had these little sparkly lights that lit up together and seeing them around me. I had envisioned that moment. Every moment I envisioned happened, by the way. Amazing. Almost every vision, yeah. every moment I envisioned happened by the way amazing almost every yeah but so I had envisioned

that moment and when I felt it come true it hit me because I was so intentional and like so clear about what I wanted to see I recognized it and seeing it I was like this is it this is the moment I was dreaming about yeah wow did she call you she call you? Her team call you? I was in a writing session and she texted me. We became friends and she was like, hey, how do you feel about, or she was like, what are you doing June whatever? And I was like, I don't know. I think I'm, because I thought we were going to hang out and she's like, want to come on stage with me?

And I was like, yes. Did you sing your own song or did you sing one of her songs? My song. I sang Fight Song. No way. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah.

That was cool. Holy cow. That was pretty cool. That's amazing. And I really did a good job too. I'm sure you did. I did a good job. I'm going to have to watch this.

It's not live. Yeah. I was like, I didn't freak out. I was like, once again, I kind of felt like, oh, this is where I'm supposed to be. Yeah. Now, whose opinion matters to you the most right now? That's a great question. Wow.

Is it your fans' opinions? Is it your family? Such a good question. Because honestly, it's the work that I'm doing so much right now internally is like not really needing other people's opinions and not really clinging to them so much, but maybe me three months ago can answer it a little more honestly or not honestly, but like I was really hungry for public approval and anyone outside of me's praise when I was releasing new music in this fall. So I would probably say critics. I wanted a stamp of approval.

Like, yeah, you're, you're good. And that's just exhausting and dumb. When did you realize you don't need that anymore? Recently, really recently,

like three weeks ago, how did this awareness come to you? I had this crazy experience. I don't know. This might be weird for this podcast, but I was, I did this like experience. I don't know. This might be weird for this podcast. No, it's nothing weird. I did this like crystal sound healing.

I'm laughing because I'm such a hippie. I'm like. The bowls? Singing bowls? Of course. Have you ever done that? I've played the singing bowls. You have? I gave a speech at Unplugged and was playing them.

Oh, okay. Was that Unplugged? Yeah. I was there like three weeks ago. Oh my God. Well, it wasn't you. It wasn't me. But I was doing like the whole thing.

And I was like gong. Yes. So I've done sound healings before. I met my best friends in New York. Very powerful. Yeah. One of my best friends did them, started them like three years ago before they kind of became trendy and we were like, what are you doing? And we would kind of laugh. We would like make sure we were using substances before and I, but I hadn't done it sober. So I had this really powerful experience. I don't know. I just started understanding that the question I needed to ask was, I want to align with this word's tricky. Cause I know not everyone has the same vision of God, but like, I want to

align with God's vision for my life. I want what God wants for my life. I don't need anything more than to be on purpose. And whatever that looks like, it can't be what my stupid human brain thinks it needs to look like. It has to be something bigger. And it's like I keep defining it from like Grammys and arenas and tours and opportunities. Sales.

Sales, right. And it's like that's not what this is about. I don't know. I just had this realization that that wasn't what I needed to ask for anymore. What I needed to ask for was how could I fulfill my purpose in the biggest way possible in alignment with what I'm supposed to do in the world. And whatever that looks like, maybe it doesn't look like outward success in the way that I want, but maybe it's going to make me happier.

So I had this realization. And since that moment, I haven't been like completely like Zen, like enlightened, but I've been pretty at peace and I've been pretty happy and I've been pretty chill. And like, it's really recent. So it's funny that I'm here talking about it. Cause I don't know if it'll last. I don't know. Sure. It'll last. Yeah. By the time this comes out, I'm like a mess. I'm like, what was I talking about? I need more sales, sales, sales. Yeah, but outside opinion, I mean, I don't know. Right now, I'm just looking.

It's easy to say that also when things are going well, but if people stop showing up or people stop downloading or listening. Well, I'm not in like a great moment. I mean, I'm okay. First of all, that's ridiculous because I just played Miss Universe. Speaking of the context, yes. Yeah, okay, in context, my life is incredible right now. And I'm so grateful.

If you're comparing yourself to other artists. Yeah, but comparing myself to Taylor, for instance, her record sold millions of copies, whatever, and mine didn't. And it hurt. And it felt like, oh God, what did I do wrong? But the thing is, is that nothing. I didn't do anything wrong.

I created what I'm supposed to create. I love the songs I created. My fans are loving the music. It's getting out there and that's beautiful. That's enough. And I really think I believe that right now. I think I heard myself saying that. I'm like, yeah, I believe that. I think if you don't believe it, you're just going to keep going back to, I'm never enough. I'm never enough. Yeah. And then when you hit those marks, you're going to say, well, now I need to keep hitting it to be enough.

It just keeps changing. It keeps getting farther away. Exactly. I hit every single goal I wanted, and then I just wanted more and more and more, and it was, ugh, sucks. I hear you. I've been there before. And I was, ugh, sucks.

I hear you. I've been there before. Now, as you were, again, performing for an audience of two every night or whatever for years. Ten, thank you very much. Were you performing all the time in the city? Or was it like coffee shops and bars when you could? Or was it weekly? What was it like?

Dependent on the year. Yeah, depending on the year it changed. But I had a Monday night gig at Prohibition on the Upper West Side in New York. Awesome place. So, so great. Awesome place. So, so great. If you guys are in the city listening, you have to go to prohibition and tell them I say hi. Um,

they'll give you a free shot. Yeah. They'll give you a free shot of no water. Yeah. They were so kind to me. First of all, they support live music still. And there's a lot of places in the city that have now since shut down and

like they're made to making it hard with noise laws and all that stuff so go support them but anyway i play there on monday nights and then i'd play at slain which is since closed down on mcdougall street in the village that was freaking awesome it was this jam that all the musicians around the scene we would like finish with our cover gigs or whatever gigs we had and we'd all meet up at this place on tuesday nights and we would have the most fun ever. This is another reason I kept going because I had this amazing network and family of musicians and friends that supported me and that I supported. Other times I'd go on little mini tours. I got a van in the mid twenties. It was freaking awesome. I still have the van by the way.

Yeah. I converted Santa Monica. It's, I think it's in Burbank. I've been trying to figure out what to do with it. I might do like revisit home tours. So I do a Here in Santa Monica. It's, I think it's in Burbank. I've been trying to figure out what to do with it. I might do like revisit home tours. So I do a lot of house concerts. That's cool. And I would take this van to them. So I might like do a reunion house concert thing. That's cool. It would be cool.

I like that. So I do little mini tours and I play a lot of house concerts in living rooms. For those of you who don't know what a house concert is, it's amazing. Look into it. You can book a musician to come to your house and play for you and your friends and you invite them all over and you have like potluck style.

And it's incredible. Yeah. So I do that. Would you get paid a lot for these gigs? No, but I didn't care. Like a hundred bucks. I was so broke. Well, the house concerts were pretty good.

That was like, I thought it was pretty good. A hundred bucks for 500 bucks. Like a thousand. That's pretty good. Pretty good. Like two hours of gig. That's amazing. For thought it was pretty good. 200 bucks for 500 bucks. Like 1,000. That's pretty good. Pretty good. Like two hours of gig. That's amazing. For me and a drummer, I mean, it would cover like the gas and the hotels and it would keep

us on the road. In the city though, it was like, yeah, $150 for three hours. Now, were you working a job as well during this? I had so many jobs. I got fired so many times. Really? Oh my God. Yeah.

I just heard, what's her name? Boz? Boz. Boz, yeah. Boz, talking about temping, I think. She's amazing. Yeah. That's how she got her first kind of gig. Me too. I was listening to that and I was like, I haven her name? Boz? Boz. Boz. Talking about temping. I think. Yeah. That's how she got her first kind of gig. Me too. I was listening to that and I was like, I haven't heard anyone else on podcasts talk about temping, but that was, and the pod, thank you. Yeah. So I was,

I was temping. That was a lifesaver for me because I'm like really hireable. Like when you meet me, you're like, Oh, that's great. Yeah. But you're not, I'm not great. No, that's exactly it. I come off so much better than I am as a worker. Yeah. Like this girl's going to work hard for our company, no matter what the company, she seems enthusiastic. She's a nice smile. She seems like a friendly person. Little do they know, like a couple weeks into the job, I'm like, you know, shoes off on the internet, requesting MySpace fans and like eating lunches and like taking over the mail room and making them print my posters. Oh my gosh. That was horrible. Wow. I just got fired so many times. So how did you sustain this life for 10 years in the city?

How did you survive? I hustled my butt off. I wrote commercials. I sang jingles. That was really, that's profitable. That was incredible. Writing and singing jingles was great. I lived in a really cheap place, and I didn't need that much. I was playing music, and I don't know. You were fine. Yeah. Yeah. My apartment was, my rent was really cheap.

I lived in this fifth floor walk-up. It used to be, I think, Bob Dylan's apartment. No way. Or like the one across from it yeah that's kind of cool on McDougal Street it was dope

there was cockroaches and mice it was gross I love McDougal McDougal and what? yeah McDougal between West 4th and Bleeker

West 3rd and Bleeker I used to live off Prince and Mulberry oh my god loved it down there I didn't know it was the best yeah that's an amazing area

2010 so maybe I ran into you sometimes I was still there yeah you were still nobody huh yeah yeah 100% Yeah, that's an amazing area. 2010. So maybe I ran into you sometimes. I was still there. Yeah. You were still nobody, huh? Yeah.

Yeah, 100%. When was the year where you were like, oh, I made enough to actually live in a nicer place and not scramble for another temp job? When was that? What happened? It didn't come until – okay, well, there was a couple of years where my husband graduated from business school. And most of the time that we were together, he was in school. He had just graduated from law school when we met. And then he went to business school. So he's like loved school.

And we had a lot of debt. So we were struggling. But then when he graduated and actually got a job, he, of course, tried to start paying down his debt. But we had enough to move down to Battery Park into a fancier place. I was doing the commercials and stuff. That was probably around 2011-ish, 2012.

We had just gotten married and I think we moved. Wow. Yeah. So you've been married for five years now? Five or six years? Seven years. Seven years?

Yeah. So 2010, okay. Okay. So I moved. Right when you got to the neighborhood, I was like, I'm out. Peace. Louis is here.

I'm out. Louis is here. I'm out of this place. This place is going downhill. Exactly. Now, I'm curious. You connected to your husband. You guys got married.

You were still really unknown. And now you've kind of grown into popularity. How is that like in a marriage and a relationship when a dynamic changes because now everyone knows who you are a lot of people know who you are a lot of people you've grown in popularity in a big way

I'll take that people are screaming for you when you're at a conference or a concert lots of conferences house conferences now what is that like? has the dynamic changed or has it not has he

been fully supportive is there different conversations is it he's just incredible he is unbelievable and i knew what i wanted in a partner because i had kind of figured out in my early 20s that i couldn't have anyone who was ever going to be jealous at gigs like even though they were small gigs, I would have concerts once every couple of months. Not to be bragging, but I had a lot of friends in New York. When I did

not the cover gigs that I was hustling at, I would have these concerts once every two months at Arlene's Grocery or Bitter End, and I would pack them. Even though I had nothing going on, it kind of seemed for a night that I did. I needed a guy that wasn't going to get threatened, that wasn't going to get jealous. And I made the mistake of dating some that were. So when I met Kevin, I think the first thing I did besides going on a date with him was bring him to a concert and see how he acted. And he was so cool.

He was so supportive. He was so excited. And I forgot about him at the show. I think like he was just there talking with, he just made friends. He just made friends. He was so excited and I forgot about him at the show. I think like he was just there talking with, he just made friends. He just made friends. He was like chill. And I finally remembered. And I went over to this like hot guy at the end of the night with like tall, dark, handsome guy. And I was like, Oh my God, I'm sorry.

I forgot to say hi. And he just gave me a kiss and he was like, you were incredible. And I kind of knew I was like, okay. I mean, I knew before that, honestly, I knew on my first date with him that right in the beginning that he was never going to be threatened or jealous or insecure from my success. All he ever wanted from me was for me to be as successful as I could. And he pushed me and pushed me and he taught me to work hard, harder than I thought possible. And he supported me every step of the way. I don't usually get to talk about him very much on podcasts.

I've only done one pod, so I don't know what I'm talking about. But in interviews, I'm not usually talking about how important. What's the thing about him you love the most? Oh, his sense of humor. He's hilarious. He's so funny. He's just funny. I feel

like we're not like normal married couple that because I'm on tour all the time. Sometimes I still feel like we're just in our six month honeymoon phase. Like I'm so excited to see him and I get giggly and like, it's not always that easy, but sure. Right now we're like in a good phase. That's good.

Yeah. But so nothing, nothing has changed. You know, my nothing has changed. No, not at all. He's just as supportive.

He's excited. He's like, it's amazing. Now you can help support pay for the rent. Yeah. Yeah. Well, He's like, it's amazing. Now you can help support, pay for the rent. Yeah. Well, he's pursuing a dream right now. After years of supporting me and believing in me, when I finally made it, I have the finger quotes you guys can't see.

I have that going on. I don't know if I've made it. But when I finally got successful and made money, I was like, go follow your dream. So now he's chasing something. Yeah. Wow. What's his dream? He's opening a restaurant. No way. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Wow. What's his dream? He's opening a restaurant.

No way. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I know. In Santa Monica. In Santa Monica. It's going to be called tables. I'm going to have to come.

In the spring. It's going to be amazingly delicious. Yeah, I will. I will. A hundred percent. That's cool. You'd be a good guest.

I will be. I love food. Yeah. Amazing. What's been the biggest lesson he's taught you? To outwork other people. And it is not based on my talent. It is not based on opportunities. It is based on how much work I'm willing to put in. That's what I can control. And to always control what you can control. Yeah. That's a good lesson.

I mean, he's taught me a lot more, but I think in terms of my career. Yeah. I think there's so many examples of that too. There's someone that I respect a lot who's the rock. And I think of his career. Yeah, I heard you talking about him with Lily. Yes. I love Lily. She's great, isn't she?

She's the best, yeah. He is not that good of an actor. For a lot of the critics will say he's not that good. I think he's great, but a lot of people say, eh, he's not that good. But he's still the highest performing actor in terms of sales at movies. I didn't know that. That's freaking awesome. Yeah, he crushes it.

But he wasn't that good of a football player. He didn't make the NFL, but he worked really hard. And then he transitioned into wrestling. And he wasn't that good in the beginning. And he just worked. I feel like that's the most encouraging thing that anyone listening can take away. It is really not about your innate talent. Talent helps.

Talent helps. Okay, sure. You've got to have some talent. Yes, yes, yes. Well, but you have to know that you're supposed to be doing that in the world. I mean, you can't decide you want to go to the moon and not have any inkling that you're going to go through

the astronaut training and all that stuff. I think if you feel pretty much like you know what your calling is, then you're on purpose. And then it doesn't really matter how innately talented you are past that little bit because I really believe that it's about hard work my voice was not that special when I was growing up it didn't stand out that much it was pretty and it was sweet

but I've worked my ass off over the past 13 years and now my voice is special but it was through hard work and I tell people that all the time. I'm like, don't doubt yourself. You just haven't put in the work yet. Do you think? I agree. Yeah. Cause it's easy to compare and be like, well, I don't sound like Beyonce growing up or whatever. Yeah, I never did. I couldn't do that stuff. Right. I couldn't do those trills. I didn't, but you could write in a way that connected with people and you could also sing in a way that connected with certain type of people that resonated differently. Yes. I'm emotional. Like I'm an emotional performer and it connects with other people. And I also think something that I might do that helps people

that has helped me stand out is that I'm not really afraid to go to places that other people might feel uncomfortable going to. Like where? Anything that's vulnerable. This last record, I dove into stuff that was hard to talk about. I have a song called grace and it talks about how I don't recognize myself because I'm being, I'm jealous of friends and I'm feel ashamed. And I feel like I lost track of who I am and I need grace. And, and I have a song called fooling you. And it's about my relationship with my husband. And it's like, I don't know that I deserve the love that you're giving me. I don't think I'm worthy of this. And it's stuff that maybe we

think or we all feel. Honestly though, I hope people don't. I hope people don't feel that way. But I just go there. I just write it. I don't know why. I don't have a filter. I've always felt comfortable. Maybe it's because my parents are therapists. Just sharing and being honest. When you ask me, is there anything you don't want to talk about? I'm like, no, that's the good stuff. Who is the person you've been jealous of the most over your career? It's changed at every level I've been at. When I was just playing the New York singer songwriter scene, it was the songwriter that climbed out of the scene. I wasn't comparing myself to Beyonce at that time. I was like the person just a little bit above me, like Ingrid Michaelson, who's a friend now. I was like, oh man, if I could be where Ingrid is.

She's amazing doing other things now on Broadway. But when I got that, then it was like, okay, well now I want to be where Taylor is. And I kept changing the mark and getting jealous of new people. Yeah. Wow. But I think that jealousy is healthy too. Because I think it helps you understand where you want to go. And if you can use it like in a positive way, you can kind of, I've learned to do

this and say, cool, what are the things about them that I like? What can I work harder on? What can I borrow from? That's good. Yeah. For those who are big dreamers, maybe they're in their 20s or something, they have a big dream. When does a dream become delusional where you're like, you know what? You should probably give up because for someone like you who was going after it for 12, 13 years, not really getting a big break, did you ever think like, maybe I'm just delusional? Yeah, all the time. But how do you know when to keep going and when to give up? I'm never going to be the one to tell you to give up. I'm just, you're coming to the wrong person. I'm like the fight song girl.

I'm like, don't you dare give up on yourself. This is my fight song. Get out of here. Get out of here. No, if you're listening and you're ready to give up, I am not the person that's going to tell you. I am going to tell you to dig in harder and work harder and go and find some more tools and start and turn within and find out what,

where the resistance is coming from, why that resistance is showing up. What is it? What can it teach you? Yeah, absolutely. Shifting is important sometimes. And like unclenching, sometimes we're holding too tightly to something and we're not allowing it to come to us. So sometimes you really do just need to back off and relax and allow it to come and receive. But no, I don't want any, I don't think anyone should give up on their dreams. I don't think it's ever too late.

No, because I am the example that, that it's not. I was 30, 32. I was 32. As a female in the industry, that's ridiculous.

You're way past my prime, way too old. Everyone probably thought it was delusional. But you way past my prime, way too old. Everyone probably thought it was delusional. But you're still like hustling in the city. Like all my friends were having babies moving on. Like I was still, I was still sending out emails like, Hey guys, performing. I think, I don't know. I thank God I, I don't really have an awareness of being embarrassed. Like I'm not very, I don't feel that feeling a lot. So I didn't feel it. Like I wasn't,

my sister is funny. She's like always embarrassed about everything. We talk about it and she's like, if I were you, I would have been horrified in a kind way. She was trying to tell me, she's like proud of me, but I didn't feel that way.

I felt like, isn't it cool what I'm doing? I'm making music. I'm traveling around the country. I got a van. You got a baby. I got a van. You got a baby. I got a van.

Right. Now, what if you were 40? Is there an age that's too, like if you're doing this for 20 years and not seeing any like big wins or small wins, would you still keep doing it? Well, it depends on what's making you happy. It depends on your happiness. I mean, if you're deriving pleasure from it and feeling like content and- Might as well. Why wouldn't

you, why would you stop? That's crazy. Come on. How do you know what your spot in the world is? How do you know like what level you're supposed to do this on to fulfill your purpose? Maybe you're supposed to do it on a, on a smaller level and that's still beautiful and exactly where you're supposed to be in the world. And who are you to doubt it?

And who is someone else to judge your level of success with your chosen thing? Also, you would have, no one has any idea what is around the corner. I love this thing. You don't know what's happening behind the scenes. You don't know what's being shifted in your favor. You might be 40 and like at 41, you might be the first person at 41 to achieve that thing that's impossible.

Someone's going to be that person. Why not you? Amen to that. I love that. Yeah, brother. That was a good high five. My other one sucked. That was a good one.

What do you think your purpose is then right now? Amen to that. I love that. Yeah, brother. That was a good high five. My other one sucked. That was a good one. What do you think your purpose is then right now? Your highest purpose. I think it is to be as honest as I can in my music and just create whatever I'm supposed to create in the world and not judge it and spread love through my music and help other people recognize their own light and their own fire within them through my music. I think, I don't know. I haven't been asked that before. That's good. What would you say is your purpose and vision for 2018? Have you thought of that? I used to do it every year. I've been doing it. And honestly, right now I'm just much more at a place of like peace. Like I'm not really all about setting humongous

goals I need to reach. I'm actually way more about just being calm and like happy in what I already have and letting whatever is going to come, come. So no, I haven't really set any goals for the year. Maybe that's not good. I don't know, but I'm happy and I feel good and things are happening. Like exciting things are happening. I just got called about a huge opportunity this morning and I, I had just kind of chilled on it. I like kind of went away and then it came back. Yeah.

So I think like this happened right before fight song too. Honestly, I chased and I chased and I chased. I knew when I wrote fight song that there was something special there. I mean, I'd been writing for five years. Like I started working with this manager who was like, stop gigging and just write songs and write for other artists or write for myself. He just wanted me to write and learn how to write a pop song. So I had been writing and writing, writing. And finally I wrote fight song and it took a year and have to write and I had to learn how to produce it and all this stuff. But when it was finally finished, I was like, this is meant to be really massively healing in the world.

I had this vision for it, but it wasn't happening. It wasn't until a year and a half after I released Fight Song that it started getting picked up on the radio. Yes. And during that time, I was holding so tightly to what I thought needed to happen. And there was this moment, moment after it was played on a popular TV show. And I thought that was going to be the moment that it exploded. And I was hanging all of my hopes on that and nothing happened. It played on the TV show and nothing really happened. It made a small blip, but nothing. And I was 32 and broke and like hanging every hope because I

was like, if people hear this, they're going to understand what I know about it. And then it didn't. And I freaked out and I cried so hard and I threw myself on the floor and I was just like yelling up to God or whatever you believe. I was like, what the F U C K? What the hell? I have given everything. I don't understand what else I'm supposed to do. I give up. And I went to bed that night. I woke up in the morning and I meditated and I calmed down and I realized that that was so ridiculous and ego driven. I couldn't do that anymore to myself. And I made a vow right then that I was going to stop needing anything more than I was already given. And I just chilled. I was like, you know what? Whatever the plan is, I'm fine with. If it's that I'm going to go become a music therapist

or work in hospitals, whatever it is, I'm fine. And two weeks later, it got played on a radio station in Baltimore, Shazammed at number one. I got signed a week after that. I was on a massive tour. It went to number one two months after that. Yeah.

Just that one song. Yeah. Blew everything up for you. Yeah. But I think that it had to be, you had to let it go. Yeah. And then it came to you. So that's where I'm at right now. Honestly, I clenched and clenched and I needed and I needed and I desired and I got exhausted from it and I'm just like, I can't anymore. Wow. Amazing. There's a great line in one of my favorite movies called swingingers. Have you seen this movie? I love Swingers.

Yeah. I'm going to butcher the line now because I'm thinking too much. But something about when you act like you don't want it, they give it to you for free. You know what I mean? We're talking about babies. Beautiful babies. When you act like you don't want it, they give you that stuff for free. And it's kind of like when you let it go and you're not clinging on to it so much, then people want to come over. I think it's true. I think it's the key to money,

to, to anything. I mean like to abundance in general, I think you can set a goal and you can envision what you want and you can try to manifest it. But then people forget the last step, which is the trust surrender, the surrender. Yes. So I'm surrendering right now. Yeah. It looks like it's going pretty well for you. Yeah. You don't feel stressed at all. Not that I was expecting you to be stressed. No, I'm not stressed at all right now. But I think a lot of artists in general kind of have this like sense of like needing to, I remember asking Steve Aoki when I interviewed him, I was like, what's your biggest fear? He goes something around like relevance. Like I knew you were going to say that.

My audience not liking this stuff and then leaving me or not listening to it or it not growing as fast. And you're constantly chasing. Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to be relevant. I want to be relevant. I know, but it's dangerous. The fear of missing it, clinging on to everyone. Yes.

Or doing things just to be relevant. Oh my God, that's the most dangerous thing you can do. That's when you lose yourself. Right. I don't know, I think about that a lot. I'm like, well, okay, what if I had put a song that someone else wrote on this record that I knew was a hit? Although, you don't ever know when anything's a hit. Who knows?

There's no science to it. Well, my song was. Okay okay i kind of had a feeling i had a feeling about this next single too that's coming out like i have that feeling again but anyway i have inklings but i don't know sure so i'm like well should i have done something differently but the who cares i would have gotten maybe i would have gotten there to the top of the mountain it wasn't the message that i believed in or wanted to spread. So then, because ultimately we just want to be happy. We just want contentment.

Accepted, loved, happy. Yeah, like why are we doing any of this for inner peace and for inner happiness? I went through this whole thing with my husband today on a walk. I was like, something's hard in this restaurant right now. And I tried to walk him through the whole entire thing. I was like, well, why do you want that? Okay, cool. And why do you want that?

Great. Why do you want that? And ultimately we got down because he wants to be happy. Yeah. And I was like, why not just decide to be happy right now? That's right. You could cut out all those middle steps and still be doing them. That's true. I'm so wise. You are. That's amazing. No, no, no. You're like, what is she talking about? I love it. I love it. Where can we, I got a few questions final for you. Okay. I want to respect your time. No, you can't end on I'm so wise.

That's horrible. No, I have a few more questions, yes. Okay. But where can we connect with you – before I ask the final questions, where can we connect with you right now? Where's your new music? Where's all this stuff? I have a new album called Waves.

It's out now. It's on iTunes, on Spotify. Please go check it out. Let me know what you think. Yeah. I am not attached to your what you think I'm you know I am not attached to your opinions but I'm curious

at least check it out I would love to know yeah you can you know all the social media at Rachel Platten where do you hang out the most Instagram

Instagram yeah Twitter got scary for me last summer after my song was attached to election I got a lot of death threats wasn't that the the like the song for Hillary Clinton yeah Yeah. How crazy is that?

I mean, that's crazy. Did that blow things up to a whole nother level in a good way? Not in a good way. No. Not at all? No. I mean, maybe I got more recognition, but I refused to do any press around it because I was really afraid. And so people just kind of started knowing me as the fight song girl or fight song singer. And that's kind of frustrating. So I got a lot of hate and scary stuff happening on Twitter. So I just stayed away from there for like a year. Now I'm back on. Slowly coming back. Hey, guys.

Don't be mean to me. Remember your old friend, Rach? But Instagram. Yeah, I'm on Instagram a lot. So we'll check you out on Instagram, on the gram. What's the thing you wish more people would ask you that you would like to talk about? Maybe about what I learned from failure,

not just about like the successes, but yeah, the hard moments. Tell me, what'd you learn from failure? Oh, to believe in myself. Yeah.

I mean, I love to talk about that, that part. I love to talk about the journey of like from darkness to light and like from my own struggle to like getting there. I also love talking about my early days in New York City. So you did ask me about that today. Okay, good. Awesome. Yeah. I made it. My husband. I like talking about my husband. Yeah. I covered all of it. Yeah, you nailed it. Perfect. If there was a final song you got to sing, there was only one song you could sing,

and this was the last song that people would remember you by, what would the lyric or the line be that would be the most important for you for people to hear in that song? Is there a sentence, a phrase? Yeah, I mean, I have a sentence. I don't know if I could turn it that easily into lyrics. I'd have to like recraft it.

But I have like a phrase that I don't know if I could turn it that easily into lyrics. I'd have to like recraft it. But I have like a phrase that I believe in. What's that? I think infuses most of my journey here. Is there a song that you currently have with a phrase? I have a song that I haven't released yet. It's called, I kind of imagined it as like the modern day Imagine by John Lennon. And it's called Choose Love. And it's, I tried to close my eyes, my darling, but fear knows its way through the dark.

I tried swinging fists at all my problems, but it never even made a mark. So I choose again or something like that. And I choose love. So like that, but okay. I don't know. That's not what I would say.

I think what I would say, it's okay. It's a tough question. I would say, I would say everything released again. I understand. No, no,

no, I gotta go work on it. I, everything is I would say everything. No, no, no. I gotta go work on it. Everything is either fear or love. If you're feeling anything other than a sense of peace and calm and love towards those around you, then don't get confused. It's coming from fear. It's not coming from anger or resentment or anyone not liking you. It's coming from a place of fear. And I think that helps me differentiate judgment and disputes with people and confrontation because I can just understand that we are very similar at our core and we all just want

to be loved and approved of. And we all have these scars on our hearts and it's hard. Life is hard and it's scary. And if we can be more compassionate and understand that behind like really big smiles and beautiful outfits and we're the same we're the same i think that's what i would try to all put in a song i don't know how i'd do that i like it we'll transcribe that part and send it back to you you could figure out a way to put it in a song i'd also maybe do the tony montana scarface you gotta have some fun in this life. Yeah. Yeah.

I put that in a song. I like it. I like it. This is called The Three Truths. Okay. I know this one. You know this one already. I should have prepared.

It's all good. I like you not being prepared. Damn. It's more fun. All right. It's more authentic. So if this was the last day for you, many years from now,

you're a hundred and something years old, and you've done all the things you want to do, every hit song, you've written a million songs, you've done whatever you want to do, but for whatever reason, it was all erased, and people couldn't listen to the music anymore. There was no lyrics anymore. So you had to write down three things you know to be true

about your life, your experiences, that you would want to leave behind. If there's only three things that you could share, three lessons or truths, what would they be? I never hear any guests stumble. They're always like so certain with their truths. Some stumble. Okay. I first want to be only you decide what is possible and what is not possible. No one else but you decides how you react to anything how you feel about anything we always decide our inner state we can decide to change something just based on our mind the second one would be giving and receiving are the same thing and we forget that a lot that we look to get and get and get and we forget that actually giving is way more powerful and gives you the same feeling. It's been scientifically proven that giving gives you the same joy, if not more, than getting.

So the Course in Miracles says they're the same. Do you read Course in Miracles? No, but I've had Mary on my list. Oh, dude, it's so good. It's good shit. Okay. My third one would be what I said before in my song, Ineloquently. Just everything's either love or fear.

So if you're feeling fearful or angry, choose again. You can always choose again and come to a place of love. Mm-hmm. I love that. Make sure you guys check out the new music, Rachel Platten on Instagram and everywhere, rachelplatten.com as well. Yeah, rachelplatten.com, yeah. Get all the music and information there. Before I ask the final question, I got to acknowledge you for a moment, Rachel, because you are a beautiful ball of sunshine and light. Thank you. You think so?

Literally like the energy you've had being in here, you're just like this. You radiate joy and possibilities. Thank you. So thank you for all you do to inspire so many people around the world and for how you show up. You show up just like so joyful and loving and giving and compassionate.

And I think your realness is really cool. Thank you so much. No matter what's happened or how many people follow you, you're very real. And I appreciate that about you and acknowledge you for that. So keep that in your heart. I want to acknowledge you. You're incredible. What you're doing is amazing.

I listen to you. You've helped me. Your guests have helped me. I love everything you do and that you stand for. And I think it's amazing. So yeah, back acknowledge you. You're incredible. What you're doing is amazing. I listen to you. You've helped me. Your guests have helped me. I love everything you do and that you stand for. And I think it's amazing. So yeah, back at you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

Final questions. What's your definition of greatness? Identifying what your passion is, what your purpose is, working your butt off to master it, and then being able to give it to the world regardless of outcome and regardless of outside approval. Just do it on your highest level because of the simple joy of you fulfilling your purpose in the world. Rachel Putnam. Let's get a great one. There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this one no dream is too big if you are willing to put in the time put in the work you don't have to be the most talented person in the world at something but you have to and you must embrace who you are and your unique gifts because only you

has a unique gift no one else has the gift that you can bring to the world. So stop doubting yourself. Stop looking for outside approval and start stepping into who you are and start giving and sharing your voice, your message, your talent, your gift with the world. If you enjoyed this one, make sure to take a screenshot, tag your friends, post an image of this on your Instagram story, on Twitter, on Facebook. Let me know what you thought of this at Lewis Howes over on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and tag at Rachel Platten as well. Let her know what you enjoyed most of this interview, as I'm sure she would love to see

your thoughts and your feedback. Make sure to check out her new album, Waves. You can get it all over the place online and follow her on social media. I'm sure she'd love to see some of your faces on social media as well. And as Earl Nightingale said, never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. You have something special inside of you. You have a gift.

It's time to bring that gift to the world. I love you guys, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music