The School of Greatness - 734 The Mindset and Discipline to Build a Brand and Business

Episode Date: December 19, 2018

Have you celebrated where you are today? It’s important to have big goals. It’s important to have high standards. But you also need to acknowledge all you’ve done. Life isn’t only about the grind. It’s also about joy. This is a lesson I’ve had to learn through the years, and I believe it’s a key to my success. You have to enjoy every step along the way. I share this thought and many more on this special episode of The School of Greatness where I invited the winners of the Inspiring Life Contest from around the world to join me in the studio. This past year, we held a contest on our Facebook Watch show, Inspiring Life. Those winners got a bunch of prizes including getting flown out to CA for an interview on the podcast. Amanda Michel from Dubai, Jackie Morey from Seattle, Pete Kotzbach from Redondo Beach, Julie Richard from New Brunswick, Canada, and Kelsey Ruger joined me for a live Q&A. They asked me questions on how I’ve created The School of Greatness, what makes a good interview, and my goals for the future. I also share some behind-the-scenes information on the podcast. Get ready to hear me answer questions from you, the listeners, on Episode 734. Some Questions They Ask: How did you start reaching out to people for your podcast? (5:30) How did you build up to live events? (11:00) At what point did you start to think of yourself as successful? (16:00) At what point did people start asking to come on your podcast? (21:00) When you started, did you feel that people supported you? (41:00) Who do you look up to? (46:00) How far out do you set your goals? (1:05:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: The importance of celebrating wins (18:00) Why you have to come from joy (20:00) The questions I ask every interviewee before we record (33:00) How to surround yourself with the right people (42:00) The lesson that took me six years to learn (43:00) About the interviews I felt didn’t go well (52:00) How The School of Greatness evolved into what it is today (55:00) How I map out the year to accomplish my goals (1:06:00) How I met my girlfriend (1:14:00)

Episode number 734, this is something I've never done before. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast.

I want to share a couple of quotes with you to start. Napoleon Hill said something interesting. Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. Harvey Firestone said, The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. What I learned from that is if we are not constantly looking to grow and develop new skills, new ways of being, new ideas,

new actions, then we will never reach our highest calling of being a leader in our life, in our relationships, in our health, in our businesses, our careers. So focus on growth. Focus on learning. Figure out a way that you can get yourself out of your comfort zone. As we're getting close to the end of the year, I'm evaluating that myself. I always think about what are the things I'm still afraid of? What are the things that I don't want to do? What are the things that I'm insecure about or embarrassed about or unsure about with myself, or don't have the confidence around something? And whatever those things are, I say, okay, the three biggest, scariest things, that's what I need to tackle first. That's what I need to go all in on so that I'm not insecure about them,

so I can develop new skills and continue to grow. And every time I do that, it's scary at first, it sucks, it's humiliating, all these things. And then I start to get better at those things day in and day out. And over time, I start to master those things. And when the mastery comes confidence, and with confidence, you start to attract and manifest what you want more in your life, whether it's you want to build your business or get a raise at your job, or you want to campaign for something new in your life, whether it's you want to build your business or get a raise at your job or you want to campaign for something new in your life. It comes through being confident

and confidence through mastery of skills, not fake confidence, but actual real confidence because you are sure of yourself. You've done the work. So I really like that about what Harvey Firestone said. And Napoleon Hill said, strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. I don't think you need to look at struggle as a negative thing. You can look at it as, man, this is challenging. I am still in pursuit of playing with the USA men's national handball team. I just got back from Puerto Rico playing with the USA men's national handball team. I just got back from Puerto Rico

playing with the team. I'm going to Israel and Germany to play early in January to play another five or six games with them. And training camp is not fun. I wouldn't say it's a struggle. I would say it's just, it's not fun at all. It's challenging. It hurts. It's painful. But I try not to focus on it being like a struggle, this hard thing that's where I'm like suffering. It's more of a choice because I have a higher purpose and a higher calling. So something to think about today. As we go into this episode that we've never done before, I am bringing on some of you.

I did a contest a few months back where I had a talk show on Facebook. It was one of the first shows that Facebook did with their Facebook Watch platform. And we did a talk show called Inspiring Life with Lewis Howes. Many of you watched it. Many of you shared it.

Thank you very much. And you enjoyed a lot of it. And we did a little contest where we said, hey, you share this out. You leave a comment, a couple other things. You get a chance to have us fly you out to Los Angeles, put you up for a few nights, give you a very special greatness goodies bag

and some other cool things. And we picked five winners. Only one of the people couldn't make it, but we had four of the people come to LA for the weekend. We had dinner after the interview. They all got to ask me questions. It was amazing. So Jackie Morey, Julie Richard, Pete Kotzbach, and Amanda Mitchell all flew in from around the world. Again, we put them up. We paid for everything, had them come in. We had a special dinner over at Soho House here in Beverly Hills afterwards, and we got to connect. And in this interview, we talk about how I built my brand and what I recommended

if you don't have an audience yet personally on how you can build your brand. We talk about the importance of taking the time to celebrate your wins, especially now as it's the end of the year. Have you celebrated your wins and the victories you've had throughout this year, or do you constantly just go on to the next thing and the next thing once Once you do something great and hit a milestone in your life, I try to focus on my wins every single day and every single week, and I'll talk about that. Cover my mindset when it comes to approaching big goals and growing my business. Sometimes when we have big dreams and goals, they can be daunting. So how do we break

those down? How do we focus on growing your business when you feel like you've hit a plateau? I'll cover that. And how I approach negative people in my life and online. And I say some probably unpopular things at this part as well, but things that support me in my life and I think will support you. So I'm excited about this one. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Take a screenshot and share it with your friends. Over on Instagram, tag me, at Lewis Howes as always, as I try to reply to almost every comment that I can on the DMs over there. So go ahead and share this out and let me know what you think. There's a full video interview at lewishowes.com slash 734 and all the show notes there as well. All right, my friends, I'm excited about this one. Let me know what you think all about the making of the School of Greatness podcast and the

mindset and discipline to build a brand in business. All right, welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. We have a special episode today. We've got winners from around the world who are with us in the studio, part of a contest that we ran. And it's the first time we've had, you know, the audience members come in and connect. So I'm excited about this because we've never done this before. So you guys are the first people to be here. Just go ahead and say your first name, where you're from, and we'll go around really quickly. What's your first name, where you're from?

Julie, New Brunswick, Canada. Okay. Jackie from Seattle, Washington. Amanda, I'm from Switzerland, but I live in Dubai. Pete from Redonda Beach. And we had five winners for this contest. This was part of the Inspiring Life talk show on Facebook. We ran a contest to try to get exposure,

and we gave a bunch of prizes to people who were part of this contest. There was another person who is Kelsey Ruger who couldn't make it last minute, but just wanted to give a shout out to Kelsey. And you guys won a lot of prizes. So first part of the prize was a free trip to LA. So you guys are staying at the Ondas. You guys got a flight from Dubai, from Canada, from Seattle. You drove up, I guess, right? So no point. We didn't helicopter you in. So you guys got your flight paid for. You got the hotel paid for, three days, two nights. We also have this backpack, the bag of greatness, which I'm going to talk about what's in it.

And you have all my courses, which is like a year long for Inner Circle, School of Greatest Academy, seven-figure webinars, Legacy. That's like a $4,000 value right there. Plus, we've got some other stuff I'm going to give you. You've got greatness hats. I'm going to give you guys all a bag here in a little bit. Nomadic planners. You've got swag. You've got t-shirts, School of Greatness shirts, Chase Your Dream shirts. And in this bag, it's like so heavy. But you've got a nomadic backpack, which is my favorite backpack And inside you've got the Yeti mug, which is amazing. I use this for my coffee someone got me this as a gift and

It's hard to buy gifts for me I think it's really hard for me because I don't really care to have anything and I'm like like things And I can buy whatever I want so it's hard to like get something But this is a really quality gift because I use it all the time. So you got the Yeti and I'm just going to open it up and share a few of these things. See if I can, I got a Yeti as a gift last year and I can't get away from, I can't get away from my wife. Oh really? She's like, oh, that's fine. Yeah. So in the bag, see if I can open this, all these goodies. And you got all the products that I use for my health. You got all my books. We've got some other journals and there's

tons of stuff in here. So I'm going to be letting you to go through all of this a little bit later. We've got the swag bag. You've got all these goodies. We're also doing, we gave you guys two tickets to the Summit of Greatness this year, or at least one ticket. I want to give you guys two preferred seating tickets to next year as well as an extra bonus that wasn't even announced. We're doing dinner tonight at somewhere special. We're spending some time in the studio. So you guys, this was part of the, and I think there was a few other things, but you guys got all this stuff. You got a lot of stuff. So I appreciate you guys being a part of the contest, sharing it out and supporting the show. It's a

lot of fun. So we're here now and I wanted to open it up to you guys. If you guys had any questions about your careers, your businesses, your life, and just let you guys have a couple of questions each and kind of see where it goes. So that's what I wanted to do for you guys is let you ask the questions, be on here, talk about anything you might be going through and let people know more about who you are as well. So maybe we'll go around and let you guys do one question each. I'll share my thoughts on it. If someone else wants to jump in, we can do that. This is like an experiment. So we'll see where it goes. But do you have a question you want to start with first. So I am starting a podcast with Paul and from our inner circle. And I think my question would be,

how did you start reaching out to people? So my focus is going to be moms. start reaching out to people. So my focus is going to be moms. Like, how did you find, did you just go on a limb and start contacting people you didn't know? Do you want to do an interview show or do you want it to be more about you? I want to celebrate moms.

They don't have to be famous. Yeah. But they have to be doing something. Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. So you want to do a mom podcast. The first question I'd ask is why do you want to do a podcast?

Because when I became a mom, you forget that you're a person besides that. And that's what I want to bring out into women. They kind of forget that they have this whole other life that they used to have. So I want to inspire other moms to follow their dream. Don't forget your dream. Are you guys moms? I'm a mom. You're a mom?

No. And sometimes I can't relate. No, I know. But I've seen other moms where they get so wrapped up in their kids' lives and they kind of forget their own life, right? And then they wake up at 60 and they're like, what happened? Where's my life? Right. Okay, so you want to celebrate moms and give them a purpose to do what?

To follow their dreams. Okay, okay. Whatever that may be. How long are you willing to do the podcast for? Forever. Really? Forever. For a long time?

For a long time. So it's something you want to do for a while. It's not just something you want to do. No, no. I want to. And when do you want to launch it?

We're working on next month. Next month? What day? You're being very specific. Yeah. I don't know. I didn't talk to Paul yet. Okay.

All right. Let's do December 5th. December 5th. Okay. Do you want it to be all interviews? Do you want it to be all interviews? Do you want it to be some just your own thoughts? No, I think I want to do just interviews.

Just interviews? Yeah. Why just interviews? Because I just want that experience. Like, I want to learn from other moms, plus I want other people to listen and be like, okay, I can do this or whatever. Yeah. When I started out, it was just connecting with people I already knew.

So it was like, who are the people I'm most inspired by that are friends of mine that would do this? Right. And maybe you have some friends that you met at Summit of Greatness or in the Inner Circle. Or find the communities or the mom groups that you're already a part of. And find five or ten moms that you want to interview that you already know or have some type of connection to. That's where I'd start with. Because a lot of the bigger, well-known moms, I guess, it's going to be harder to get them unless you have something to offer.

There's no credit, yeah. Yeah, credibility or an audience. Otherwise, why would they do it? Right. But if they're your friend, they're more likely to do it. So I did that early on, just reaching out to people I knew. Luckily, my platform started to build pretty quickly. And I think I was just always reaching out to people and building relationships,

not knowing where it would lead. And I would ask people if they knew someone who wanted to join or be a part of it. I was always looking for people who had something to promote, like a book or a product and saying, hey, I want to promote you and help you sell this so it's like benefiting them more than me was the goal and so finding that like timing like i've been working on some guests have taken me two three years to book but it's just following up every few months until i get them at the right time so i start with what you know now start with the people you know now and keep working on it but it's going to take time to get the bigger guests. Unless you want to say, like I've had a guest where I said, listen, I'll buy 500 copies of your book to have you on. If I want them that bad, like I'll spend some money.

And if it's going to benefit them, they'll do it. But even some people, I've offered a lot of money that they won't do it. I've offered like 50 grand for a guest one time and they wouldn't do it. Wow. Yeah. Or I was like, I'll make a donation to your charity. I'll do this. I'll buy thousands of books.

Not into it. They just don't care. Right. So I think you've got to figure out what you want. But I think starting out with like the everyday mom who's like building a business on the side or following their dream on the side. Who's like, that's a great place to start. And I think you can get a lot of moms like that. That's where I start.

Like create a list of the five or ten names that you already know. Yeah. It's already going. Yeah. And then just start reaching out to them and say, hey, I'd love to do like a 30-minute interview, Skype or whatever. Yeah. Because no one's coming up to northern Canada, right?

What do you mean? It's a retreat. You could also start with like the local moms that are just like inspiring in your city yeah totally so that's what i would start with and do you have a schedule of like how often you want to do it like once a week probably once every two weeks what's the title of the podcast gonna be it's called the great mamas great mamas i like that it's good it's good. That's good. That's cool. Yep.

All right. Any other follow-up question on that? No. Okay. That's good. That's awesome. All right. You got a question?

Yes. Say your name again. My name is Jackie. For the people just listening, yeah. Yes. And I've been doing Facebook Lives. I love Facebook Lives because from the video, then I can extract the audio. Uh-huh. Right? Two for one. Right. Facebook lives because from the video then I can extract the audio.

Two for one. Right and then when I do Facebook lives and I can also download the video and put it on YouTube. I started my webcast or holiday or like a web show and I've done it season one I've done five episodes so the last one is last Saturday and the name of the podcast is The Exponential You. And my first season, it was just me talking head. My question is, well, and then I'm going to start season two. I'm scheduling it for another five seasons. It's going to be interviews with people that I know.

Anyway, my question, Louis, is when did you start doing live events and how do you transition from the podcast to the live events? How did you build up so you could start doing live events? I was doing live events nine years ago before the podcast. Yeah, I was doing these LinkedIn networking events. I did almost 20 of them in about a year. I was doing them all around the country and some in other countries. But I was building an audience on LinkedIn. So I was building audiences on LinkedIn and promoting those every single week to these different events. These were like three to four hour networking events.

But we were getting 300 to 500 people to show up. And I was charging like $5,, 15 bucks at the door. And I would get sponsors and, you know, get a commission from the food and bar, like the restaurants we were at. So in terms of the podcast, I waited three years to do like a conference, but I did a book tour first. And then I did the Summit of Greatness and it took me a few years I think it's hard to get a lot of people to come to one place If it's not like a smaller event smaller price event in a city. It's hard to get people to come to a destination The summit of greatness you came to the summit. It's hard even though I have the massive audience, you know We had 1,500 people show up. I was hoping for more

but if I did a an event in Columbus, Ohio for locals, that was like five to 10 bucks, it'd be easier to get a lot more people. So I think it just depends. We don't want to make money on the event, the big event that we do. It's like a break even, but it's a way for me to give back to the community, to meet more people and to add value. So I think it just depends why you want to do events because it's a lot of work, a lot of energy, and not a lot of money unless you're able to price it in a premium and monetize it that way.

But it took a couple years for me to want to launch it, and then every year it's building. Got it. Yeah. Thank you. But, I mean, some people are making a lot of money. Like Rachel Hollis was a friend of mine. She sold out her event.

Like 3,500 seats in 27 minutes. That's the rise, no? The rise, yeah. Yeah, 27 minutes. She sold out like 3,400, 3,500 seats. Like premium price points. But I think her audience is all moms. It's very dedicated.

It's like she's like a bottle rocker right now where they're just like adding so much value to people, her and her husband Dave. So some people are making a lot of money on events and it makes sense when your audience is ready for it. right now where they're just like adding so much value to people her and her husband Dave so some people are making a lot of money on events and it makes sense when your audience is ready for it but if I was just starting out I would start doing local events in my city that's what I would do right now if you just started a podcast or a small show online I would start doing like local networking meetups and try to get like 30 people the first one and then 50 and just build it and

do it once a month. And then eventually you're going to build a name in your community, in your city, and you can start expanding it. That's how I would approach it. Because I think events are powerful, and that's how I built my brand early on, was doing these events and going around the country and hosting them. They just got so hard for me,

because it was just like, man man i'm not making that much money it was a couple grand that i was making and it was a lot of energy to constantly promote so it just wasn't scalable for me that's why i do one big event in a year now it's hard to sell tickets to a live event that's why i sell tickets at the event for the next year so we sold over 1100 to next year's event at this year's event, which takes the pressure off of like having to sell because so many people have to sell all year round to promote their event. And if you're not going to make a lot of money on your event anyways, it's like, man, I could be promoting something else and making money. So that's the challenge. I think

starting on a local level is the way to go. Build a network in your community first and be well known there, and then you can start to expand it. Fabulous. Thank you so much. Yeah, that's what I do. Thank you. Great answer. My question would be more for you, actually. Okay. At what point did you start to consider yourself as successful? Was there ever like a turning point where you were like okay this is this is rolling

this is big now almost like a like a step one yeah tick I feel like um mentally I've always been like you know what even when I had nothing I was like I know I'm going to create what I want I know I'm going to reach what I want but at the same time even 10 years ago but even now I'm going to create what I want. I know I'm going to reach what I want. But at the same time, even 10 years ago, but even now, I'm like, I still haven't felt like I've scratched the surface. Like I feel very grateful and appreciative of everything I've created. And I have access to all these amazing people that I get to connect with and ask questions to. And I build businesses with people and stuff like that. But I still don't feel like I'm making the impact I want to do. So on one hand, I'm like, yeah, I feel like I'm doing great things. And on the other

hand, I feel like I'm not doing anything still. So it's a constant battle between celebrating and appreciating what I'm doing every single day, but also saying, okay, but what can I do tomorrow? Now, I used to always think I'm not doing enough and I never celebrated my days. I never celebrated like the big wins or the little wins. And I never felt enough inside. Now I'm like, you know what? I'm not doing what I want, but man, I'm doing so much today. And we like did some amazing things

and we impacted these people's lives. And look what we created over here. So I've learned, you know, over the last four or five years to start celebrating more. Is there anything in particular you did for that shift of mindset to be like, I want more and more and more and not appreciating already what you've accomplished? I think I just started to accept who I was. You know, five years ago when I opened up about being sexually abused and like all the other stuff that I was ashamed of. Once I started to embrace everything and like heal and overcome the shame that I was feeling, then I didn't feel like

I had to prove myself to the world anymore. I was like, okay, I'm good with who I am. And that inner peace gave me the power to say, all right, what's a new vision? As opposed to trying to impress people and prove people wrong, what's my vision moving forward? And I learned that people miss out on the fun of life when they don't celebrate their days or anything they accomplish. We set these big goals, at least I have. And I'd set these goals for years. It would take me to achieve them.

And then I achieved them and I wouldn't celebrate it. I was like, what's the point of doing this if we're not going to appreciate what we've been through? And so I think, you know, especially since it's the end of the year right now coming up, it's like really reflecting on your year is important. And I try to reflect on my month, on the quarter, and on every night. I reflect on the day. And when I started incorporating like nightly rituals of acknowledging the work that I put in.

Or even just acknowledging that like, hey, I didn't do much today, but my body needed rest. And I acknowledge myself for taking a break today. That, I just enjoy life more. And I think we're supposed to enjoy, it's not supposed to be like this hard work grind all day long without enjoying it as well. And I think we see that a lot online right now, which is like work hard all day long, hustle, grind, which I'm all for hard work. To achieve high performance, you have to work hard. But if we can't enjoy it, then like, what's the point? We enjoy it when we're 80 and like dying. You know, it's like, look what I did now. It's like, let's enjoy every day because we're going to sleep better. We're not going to live in anxiety

every single night saying, I'm not doing enough. I'm not doing enough. That's anxiety. And we can't create a beautiful thing from fear or anxiety. We can create things, but if we're constantly stressed, it's not going to be as impactful of a thing that we put out. And our energy is going to show up in a stressed out way. And I believe one of the reasons why I've been able to create what I'm doing is because I come from a place of joy. And why do people come on my show when I didn't have a platform? Because I came from a place of joy and excitement. Like, this is going to be fun. Like, let's, you know, I'm going to help out. I'm going to do whatever I can. It's just like getting people excited. If you don't have a platform, if you don't have an offer,

if you don't have an audience, people will do things because you're excited. At least that's my, that's my view. And Matt was saying like, Lewis is enrolling. He said that when he was over here. And I think enrolling is just like being excited about life. And when I'm excited, people like just want to do things. It's very contagious. Right? Yeah. And when you have a friend who's like, gosh, let's go on this trip together. It's going to be amazing. You're like, all right. You know, it's like, sure, let's do it. It's the same thing with the way I look at with my, my business and like what I'm manifesting. And, um, so I'm grateful with everything I've created now and I'm appreciative and, but I don't feel like I've like arrived because I don't think I'm ever going to arrive. It's just like, there's always a new level,

but also appreciating what I've created. So that's what I think. Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. Actually, I was discussing with someone, um someone about goal setting and things like that. And they were saying how when you set a goal, it actually also makes sense to set the reward that you're going to give yourself after you achieve that goal. So when it gets really hard and you're like, you have doubts and you grind and it's tough, you go like, okay, this is the goal I set for myself. And on top of that, I get to celebrate in this way

and that actually helps a lot so celebrate it yeah because you deserve it putting so much work into things and so much work so much sacrifice so much energy it's like what's the point why would you not celebrate exactly yeah that's great I guess my question would be uh how surreal was it when you started you were out always asking people for interviews. And now, at what point did it turn for you where people started going, oh, he's so successful at what he does. Yeah. Let me ask him. I mean, the last few years has been more and more.

I think, like, every day we're getting requests to come on the show. On one end, really nice. Another end, really annoying because it's not the people that I want. Right. You know, it's like everyone's pitching, like, can you interview me? Can you have me on? And I was telling you guys before off camera that like, I've set a standard for the name of my show,

School of Greatness to constantly find people that are doing more and more interesting things. And there's lots of, with all the podcasts out there, 600,000 plus podcasts, there's lots of other shows that just like, let's interview the six figure earner and like tell that inspiring story. There's a lot of other shows like that. That's just not my show. And so I appreciate people reaching out and one out of 30 are someone that I'll choose maybe. Yeah. It's like from the people pitching me,

it's like maybe one out of 30, maybe one out of 50. But it started turning over the last two, three years. And it's still hard to get guests. I'm doing all the booking myself. So I'm doing all the booking, doing all the interviews. Sometimes we'll do three interviews in a day. And these are hour, hour and a half moments with people where I'm sitting across this table right here, connected, present, listening. It's a lot of energy. So I'll do two, three interviews in a day and then talk with them for 20 minutes before, talk with them for 20, 30 minutes after, build a relationship, ask them how I can help them, ask them what I can do to promote them. Then five o'clock rolls around and it's not like my emails,

nothing came through. It's like all the things that I need to get back to, I start at 5 o'clock. Right? So it's a process. But I've got a couple other people that are helping me book. But really, at the end of the day, it comes down to you. You've got to book these people yourself. So I've been doing that for almost six years from the beginning. And that's where I think the magic comes from also

is like, I'm finding the people that I'm very fascinated by. Hopefully one day I'll be able to book anyone I want. Is it interesting to go from wanting to interview the people you've always wanted to now want it? People want to interview you interview you yeah just because you've interviewed all these other people yeah it's interesting but i think i don't want people to interview me because i've interviewed other people i want them to interview me because i've done something interesting or meaningful or impactful and that's why it's important for me to continue to create works of art and meaningful content like writing bigger books that stand for something. That's what I appreciate when I have a book out and someone wants to interview me for that.

That's interesting. Instead of just having the name of the book. Yeah, it's just like, oh, you've interviewed all these people, let's have you on. Or because you have a big platform, let's have you on. But it's like when I've written a book, that's when I want to be interviewed. So, yeah, I appreciate it. It's nice. But I'm constantly, I'm always thinking of like, what's the thing that I want to do that'll get other people excited? You know, I'm pursuing my dream of being,

I play with the USA handball team and through my career of playing, of this business over the last 10 years, I've been pursuing my own dreams outside of business, like trying to make the Olympics. years, I've been pursuing my own dreams outside of business, like trying to make the Olympics. I've been on that journey. And so I want people to be like, wow, Lewis is not just building a business. He's doing things that he loves as well in his life. And he's pursuing other passions and other dreams that fulfill him. That is like really hard work behind the scenes that no one sees. And so I'm trying to live my life to where I have no regrets of like, at least I went for this. I went for this. I wrote that book. I did this thing that I was thinking about. And whether it works out or not, I'm okay with as long as I at least went for it.

What failures have you had in business? Well, I learned early on about in sports that we're supposed to fail. That's how we succeed. So I never looked at it as like, oh, I've failed and I'm a loser. Because it was just like, okay, this was the lesson. The failures were always the foundation for success. Because that's where I learned quickly. So coaches wanted us to fail quickly.

And it was never like a bad thing. It was a bad thing if we did the same mistake over and over. So if I do the same mistake over and over, then I'm failing. The most interesting people are the ones that take risks. And so I'll make an example for a failure, I guess, something that didn't work out. Was it two years ago? Might have been three years ago.

I wanted to launch a magazine called A Greatness Magazine. And the way I do things, I think about like, what's the thing that's going to be different in my industry that no one's willing to do? What's the hard thing that people don't want to do? I want to do that. Right. So when everyone was getting away from live events and big, you know, annual events, I was like, I'm going to dive into it because it's not the smart thing to do. Cause you don't make money unless you can like sell out and do this. It's just like, it's hard. It's a hard thing to do. It takes a year to put together

and people want to do things that are easy right now. They don't want to work hard. So I was like, I want to launch a magazine because magazines are dying, right? It's like the stupidest thing to think of. But I was like, let me try this and see if we can make something beautiful, just a digital magazine and make it beautiful, make it a piece

of art that people want to be a part of and kind of make a real life version of the podcast in a beautiful aesthetic, like beautiful design. And we put together three issues that no one has seen and we were going to launch it. And then at the time, this was two or three years ago, like iTunes, we were going to launch it on iTunes. and then the magazine platform like changed and it became like the news app or something and i was just like this is so much work and so much energy we spent like sixty thousand dollars designing these and all of our team for six months i was like you know i just feel like i'm all for doing like the hard work and time, but something felt off. I was like, maybe we should just pause this. Our team wasn't fully invested, and I was like, all right, something's off.

And so we just spent all this time, all this money, and nothing launched. And it was a good lesson. But I don't look at it as a failure. I look at it as like, all right, maybe it wasn't the right time, or maybe I wasn't all invested. We were trying to do too many things at once. We had a lot of projects happening. And anytime you want to launch something great, you've got to put a lot of energy into it and focus and attention. And you've got to be willing to be consistent through the challenges. And we just weren't willing to do that, I think. I thought it was going to be a lot easier. And anything great

is not that easy. So that was a lesson, but I still have the magazines and I'm like, maybe we'll bring it back at some point. Commemorative or something. Yeah. Something like, or maybe, you know, I have a, I have a vision. I want to do this and I haven't said it publicly, but I want to create like a greatness 100, like time magazine, like a hundred like an annual Time Magazine, like 100.

Do like an annual thing and have like one magazine for the year and just like 100 pages and like one person per page and kind of like create like this interesting thing in the industry. So maybe we'll bring it back and make it that, but yeah, we'll see. But it's more of it than something else. Yeah, it's something, you know, something good will come from it. Yeah, we'll see. It's morbid and something else. Yeah, it's something, you know, something good will come from it.

But I like doing that and failing because at least I'm trying something new. I'm trying something innovative and risky. And I think the ones that take the biggest risks get the most attention and make the most impact. If there's like a strategy behind it, if there's like thought behind it. impact. If there's like a strategy behind it, if there's like thought behind it. We just filmed a documentary that finished a month ago and we springed it at the summit. I don't know if you saw it. And I've never done a movie. I don't know what I'm doing. I've never done a documentary. I'm like, any of this stuff, it costs a ton of money to make. I don't know if I'm going to make that money back. But I felt called to try this. I felt called to be like,

I want to do this because I have a vision of this being on Netflix. That's the vision. Now, it may or may not work out, right? I have a meeting with them next week. It may or may not work out, but that's the vision that I set, the intention I set when I was creating this. And I have a vision to impact a lot of people who see this, you know, and that's my mission. But it may or may not be exactly where my vision is, and it may be better in another situation. It may be better if I launch it online myself or have a different partner. Do you find yourself, like, you have the documentary in your head, and you're like, okay, I mean, for me, like, you're going to Netflix, okay, if that doesn't work, are you looking at plan B and C? Yeah, of course. I mean, distributions. Afterwards, I will, yeah, and i'll probably have lots of different you know i'm reaching out to all my network right now

about like people who have done movies and i'm like where should i go tell me this tell me that so it's like i'm learning as i go and for me every year i want to do something that i've never done before that's a challenge for me like three years ago and when was this four years ago i don't know it was like writing know. It was like writing a book. It was like writing a New York Times bestseller. Then the next year it was doing a live event, like a big annual event. Then it was the documentary. Then it was a different book, The Mask of Masculinity. It was like trying something new in a different space, like writing about masculine vulnerability. No one thought I would do that. You know, it's like doing something that's uncomfortable for me

is really important every year. And so next year I'll start planning, like, what's the thing that's going to scare me that's uncomfortable that I can go do that may bomb? But at least I'm doing something that's, like, different and interesting. So that's what I think about every year. I'm thinking about what are we going to do as a team, a business. Is that an annual thing or do you have?

Every year. Yeah, at least once a year. And it's like, what are we going to do that's different? And that scares us. But also that could support the vision of the overall brand of impacting 100 million people. So it's got to make sense in the vision as well. Yeah.

Yeah. Let's go back to you and the vision as well. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go back to you and the question. Anything open up? Not right now. Okay. I have a question. Go ahead. How did you learn the art of it being where you can actually be so present but then know

when to ask a question that really hits the core of their gut and they start to really get emotional. I think it's, I mean, I've been doing it for six years on my podcast, but also for about four years prior, I was interviewing people that I wasn't recording and publishing. So I feel like I've been doing this for almost a decade. And even before then, growing up, I just used to ask a lot of questions and be observant. Because growing up, I was really insecure about my level of knowledge. I didn't feel like I was a smart kid in school because I tested very poorly. So I never felt like I had anything interesting to say to my peers. So I would just observe and ask questions.

So I think I learned how to do that at an early age to observe. But over the last six years, I think I've learned a lot about the setup of an interview being very important. So before someone even comes into the studio, what's the communication been like with them beforehand? How have I connected with them, whether it be email or as a friend before? And I really set an intention before they come in. And I think about what would be, where do I want the energy to go? Like, where do I want this energy to go so that people are impacted when they listen to it, that they

have something in their heart that says, oh, I felt something and I want to go take a change in my life or try something. And I felt something so powerful and I want to go take a change in my life, or try something. And I felt something so powerful, I need to share it with a few friends. So that's my intention, is like everyone that listens to any interview, they feel like they got one thing away that they could apply,

and it was that meaningful that they wanted to share it. So that my audience shares my message for me. So it's not just always the pressure of me promoting something. Then I ask a few questions when the person comes in before we record. One of them is, is there anything off-limits? So I say is there anything off-limits that you don't want to talk about? If they say something then for example, most the time people there's nothing off-limits for people but maybe

five percent of people they have stuff they don't want to talk about. Some people, if they've been through divorce or if they've got some bad breakup or whatever, they're just politics. It's fine. I'll give an example, though. Chris Guillebeau, do you guys know who that is? Chris Guillebeau? He's a good friend of mine.

New York Times bestselling author, great guy. He's got an event called World Domination Summit. New York Times bestselling author great guys got an event called world domination summit He came in and he was like, yeah, I don't want to talk about the death of my my brother and His brother I believe his brother committed suicide Right his brother committed suicide like six months prior or maybe it was a year prior and it really hit him hard and I said Okay, we don't have to talk about it But can I ask, we don't have to talk about it, but can I ask why you don't

want to talk about it? And he started talking more and more about like, you know, I just feel this and this about it, and I feel this and that. And I go, listen, totally respect it. We don't have to talk about it, but I'm letting you know now, if people heard what you just said, they're going to love you that much more. They're going to connect with you. You know, it's going to help your mission of anything we talk about. It's going to help it further. And what if someone else is going through this right now?

Like, you might be robbing them of, like, a feeling or a level of connection with you if you don't share it. So I'm not trying to make you wrong or right either way, but I want to just like, let me know. And he goes, you know what? You're right. Let's talk about it. So it's not like I'm trying to make someone like pressure them to, but I'm just trying to find out why. And there's been other people, I won't say who, but there's been other people who are like, no, I just don't want to talk about it. I'm like, okay, that's fine. So I start with that question. And then I say, after that, I say, okay, do I have permission to go anywhere and everywhere to make this the most impactful interview you've ever done? So that people are inspired to move into action and transform their life.

And then just kind of sit with that. They're like, oh, we're about to do this. So I kind of set that intention of like, do I have permission to ask anything and go anywhere so that this is the most powerful thing you've ever done? So I kind of let them know like, I want this to be the most empowering thing you've ever done in your life, this moment. It's not just another interview where you say the same thing like you say everywhere else. This is different. where you say the same thing like you say everywhere else, this is different. And I think setting that intention personally before they come in, then saying that intention to them, along with building rapport and just connecting with them about things they're interested in,

that allows them to feel a little bit more safer with their guard down. I also feel like I'm very vulnerable to people. Like when they come in, I'm open and I'm very vulnerable to people like when they come in I'm open and I'm very friendly you know when they come in I just give them a big hug I give them a big hug I smile and I make it about them it's not about me so I think setting the stage even if it's a couple minutes like even with Kobe we had like two minutes Kobe Bryant we had like two minutes before the interview was supposed to start when he came out I met him we're micing things up we had like two minutes before the interview was supposed to start. When he came out, I met him, we're micing things up, and I had two minutes to connect. Because I didn't know if he was going to open up the way he did or not. Did you guys listen to Kobe? Yeah. I had no clue. We were there an hour and a half early. Tiffy and I were there an hour and a half early setting up,

like everything's ready, waiting, right? And we knew we had like 20 minutes, which we like begged to get 40 minutes, which he gave us, which was amazing. And I remember thinking to myself, like, who knows if he's going to be open, if he's going to be like saying the same things that he, you know, maybe he would in other interviews or if he's going to really open up. And I remember I was just like, I'm going to just appreciate and acknowledge him like right when I see him and just set that intention ask him if there's anything off limits and um and connect and we made a couple of connections I remember telling him I go listen I play with the USA handball team and I've heard from so many Olympic friends that say that you're one of the kindest people at the Olympics and

you're interested in all these other sports. And they said that you always took time with them and you were just like so caring and like interested in them. And I just wanted to acknowledge you for being such a cool guy at the Olympics. And right away he goes, man, you play handball? That's amazing. I played handball growing up in Italy. He's like, it's a huge sport there.

And we just kind of like connected on that. And then we were talking about other people of like connected on that and then we were talking about other people that I had on that are his friends and you know in two minutes so I think it's just like making it about them is the key so making it about these moms you know it's like really acknowledging them for doing something that's hard you know it's hard to be a freaking mom and pursue your passion and like your identity and unlock your sexuality and feel this and all this stuff. It's really hard. It's the hardest thing, right?

It's amazing. So it's like acknowledging people. I think the art of acknowledgement has been lost as well. You know what I mean? It's been lost in a big way. So Jay Shetty did a post yesterday. It was either this morning or yesterday on Instagram. It was of the sky with dirt around the outside,

like looking down from if you were being buried, right? Like six feet in the ground, looking up with like dirt and like a hole like a coffin hole you put a post about like you know everyone comes to celebrate you when you're gone but we forget to celebrate ourselves and other people while we're alive and I remember when I started this I was like I'm going to acknowledge people and you guys at the end I acknowledge people right and'm going to acknowledge people. And you guys, at the end, I acknowledge people, right? And so I usually acknowledge them in the beginning as well off camera. And I think it's like just a simple thing.

We all want to be seen for what we're doing. We all want to be seen and acknowledged. Even if it's just like a quick little thing. It doesn't have to be this. You want to be seen, you know? So question on that. When you started, did you feel people that you were close to supported you not I know your family you've talked about that but like I think I struggle with that and I know you say dream big dreams and they'll laugh at you and it's fine you

need to keep going but did you feel that support um yeah I think I felt the support but I think I've also learned how to find the right people that aren't going to not support me like for the last 10 years I've only surrounded myself with those people and the people that are negative I just don't hang out with you let let go. Yeah. Or just they're in my life, but I'm not asking them for advice. I'm not paying attention to their energy in terms of like what I should or shouldn't do. I'm just very focused. And I listen to the people that are doing things that are doing way more bigger things than me. And I get feedback from them.

The people that I'm inspired by, I seek them out and I ask them advice. I don't ask advice from people that are like not doing anything. Because if they haven't done it, what are they going to tell me, you know? But yeah, I mean, there's been a lot of friends. But I struggled back in, you know, 10, 11 years ago when I left school and went off to play professional football. I had a lot of friends that kind of like stopped talking to me and stopped hanging out with me and were kind of like negative. And I felt very sad because I just wanted my friends to support me to go chase my dreams, but they weren't supportive. It was very hurtful for about a year and a half, two years. I was just like, man, this sucks. We just spent like four

years together. We built this incredible bonds. Like all my buddies, I felt like maybe one or two of them supported me. I think it was more their fear. You know, it's like. It is. Yeah, it's more their fear. Just projecting it. That I was going to pursue something that I was inspired by, and they weren't pursuing their thing that they were inspired by.

And I think it's just like, you know, it's where people are at. But we can't take it personally. I took it very personally, and it hurt me. But then I learned quickly, I was like, well, like I would call them and they wouldn't call me back. They wouldn't get back to me. And I was like, man, I'm trying to like reach out and they're not getting back to me. Why is this? But I just started finding people that were really supportive and just like believed in me. I was like, oh, let me just hang out with these people as opposed to trying to convince the people who are negative to like believe in me and just don't take it personally. It took me freaking, I don't know,

six years to not take things personally while I started my business 10 years ago. I would react to every negative comment online, every negative comment. I would ruminate over it and like comment back and defend myself and be like, you don't know shit. You know, I'd be like so frustrated at people. I was like, you don't know how hard I work. You don't know what I've been up to. Like, how can you critique this one thing that I did? Like, look at the whole picture, you know? And one of my coaches saw this one time, like he saw a response that I gave to someone where I was like a little passive aggressive in defending myself, but trying to make it nice, but really, but you weren't. Yeah. And he calls me and he was

like, he called me, he goes, Louis, never do this again. He's like, you're not going to convince these people that are critiquing you to like anything. And it doesn't look good on you. So just, I was like, what do I do? I want to respond. He's like, you either don't respond or you say, thank you for your feedback and you move on. That's all you can do. So I learned I learned that I'm not going to please everyone. People are going to critique me. Usually the people who are critiquing me are not creating anything. Because you'll never find an author write a negative review of another book. You'll never see that. Absolutely. Because they know how hard it is to put a piece of work out there. The only critics you really see write negative reviews are ones who aren't doing

anything in their life, or at least that. They're not doing that thing. But they want to. They want to, and they're like really critical and this and that, and they'll write something negative or give you a one-star review, and you're like, what is that person doing? You never see a big author write a negative review. If they write a review, they'll write a positive review and they'll email you a positive thing as well, separate. You just have to have that perspective. People that are critiquing you online, offline, usually aren't doing that thing in their life. And that's okay. You're not going to be able to please everyone. As much as I want five-star reviews on books and podcasts, like I'm not going to please everyone.

Right. So to get past it. I think you obviously inspire a lot of people and a lot of people also look up to you. I think all of us here are here for that reason. Who do you look up to? Do you have any mentors? Yeah.

Who do you seek advice from? You know, I look up to a lot of people in different industries. I look up to a Do you have any mentors? Who do you seek advice from? I look up to a lot of people in different industries. I look up to a lot of athletes. The people I've interviewed, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, those individuals I really respect. I look up to friends of mine. I just feel blessed that I have a lot of great friends, like Scooter Braun is a friend who's just doing incredible things in business and music. he's got a great family life and doing all that. Rob Dyrdek is another friend of mine that I really respect who's just doing amazing things.

He's been on the show. But I admire and respect The Rock. He's been someone I've wanted to have on for a while. Will Smith, these guys who are, they've set an example of how to live a life and build a business career even though i don't want to be to like them i like the model that they've created where they're like grateful appreciative and making an impact and doing the things they love and kind to people and like

successful in their own way right not saying i need to do what they're doing, but just like their way of being, their energy, their generosity towards humanity while they have, you know, the world in there. They could be jerks, right? But I think at least their persona is that they're very kind people and they're very grateful for what they've created and the results they've gotten. So I admire like Will Smith, The Rock. I'm a big fan of those guys. I'm learning from them all the time anyways, even though I'm not friends with them. But I mean, a lot of these people on the wall

that I have here, they inspire me every day. You know, Sarah Blakely and Jesse Itzler are a great couple that inspire me. All these people. I feel very grateful to have incredible relationships with some of the most inspiring people in the world. And it's like, that's one of the beauties of having a podcast, where it's a big show, it's like you get to interview these people,

and a lot of them I've become friends with, very close with. Not everyone, there's some people I'm less close with than others, but there's some people you just really connect with. And it's like, I've been, you know, I just had lunch with Sean T this morning before you guys got here. He was on the show about a year ago or something. And he spoke at the Summit of Greatness this year. And it's just like, we've become good friends with a lot of these individuals where it's just been like, it's a great starting point to develop relationships with people that are inspiring. And I can text them or call them or ask questions and lean on them for feedback and advice.

And I'm sure they have that kind of personality where they also want to help. Absolutely. So if you were to reach out and be like, I have a question, I need help with this, they're more than happy to help. Absolutely. It's like a two-way street. I'm helping as much as I can. But I lead with generosity first.

I'm like, let me have you on the show and promote whatever you want to promote. So I just focus as much as I can. But I lead with generosity first. I'm like, let me have you on the show and promote whatever you want to promote. So I just focus on giving to them first. It's not about asking or something like that. It's about giving, giving, giving. But yeah, I'm inspired by the model. I kind of look at like Oprah, I'm very inspired by because she's had an interview show her whole life, right? For a long time. I'm inspired by the impact she's made from that show. I really like The Rock on how he's built his brand around generosity and hard work, right? And I think that's a cool thing. I'm not looking to be an actor in that sense, but I do want to create more inspiring media. And so I think it's cool what he's done there. And then I really like what LeBron James has done.

Being from Ohio, I really respect the symbol that he has created around his brand and his image. And he's building schools for kids in Ohio. He's giving back in a big way. And he's just constantly elevating Ohio where he comes from. He's elevating his own career, and I just really respect that. It doesn't mean I agree with everything that all of them say, but I just appreciate the brand and the symbol of inspiration

that they've all built, and that's what I want to be. I want to be a symbol for people of inspiration, of like what's possible from where I've come from and where I'm at now and from where I'm at now to where I want to be in the next five to 10 years. I want to continue to be a symbol. And I think as long as I do that, I'm very happy if I'm making an impact from just the way I'm being, the way I'm showing up. And trust me, I make a lot of mistakes and talk to my girlfriend. She'll tell you I'm not perfect. But I'm constantly learning and growing and trying to be better.

That's cool. I always tell people I forgot to take my perfect pill this morning. So mistakes happen. Yeah, that's right. When you've interviewed people, are they always people you wanted to talk to? No.

No, not all the time. But I'm pitched a lot by people. And sometimes I don't know who they are. And I'll have someone on my team do research and watch a lot of interviews first. And she'll either say yes or no. Like, I think it'd be a good fit, but only like maybe 10% of the people she says yes to, I'll say yes to. So then I go and do more research, and I'm like, eh, I don't know if I'm not feeling it. But once I say yes to having them on, usually I'm very curious about what they're going to do or what they're going to say. Sometimes, though, it didn't go the way I wanted it to. Or I didn't feel like they opened up in a powerful way.

So there's been maybe three or four interviews where I was like, yeah I don't know if I should put this out there because I have such a high standard Yeah, and I really like I'll talk to Tiffany afterwards. I'll be like, I don't think we can put this out And I feel really bad But I don't want to let my audience down Because if I lose the audience Then they're not gonna respect and trust my like ability to choose the right people that are going to be inspiring and helpful for them. And sometimes people, I feel like people are just too self-promotionally.

And I don't know, maybe it's my own thing. And so I'm like, I'll say I'm not posting this. And then my team will be like, well, let's just send it to the editor and we'll cut up some stuff and make it shorter and all this stuff. And then the editor will say, actually, that was really good. So I think I'm just like very self-critical and I'm like, it's got to be even better than the previous one. It's got to be like, you know, if every person doesn't cry or open up or do this or do something, I feel like it was kind of whatever. And then sometimes those interviews are like the most powerful for people.

Like I'll put those out there and then people are like, that blew me away, right? I'm like, so I'm like, yeah, I know. That's pretty good. I knew it the whole time. I've had the same problem. Really? I had one podcast interview and I was like, oh, my God. I thought it was terrible on my end.

On your end. But people enjoyed it or they got value? Yeah, I got a lot of downloads. I'm like, oh. This is actually, there got a lot of downloads. I'm like, oh. This was actually, there was a recent episode actually where I was like, eee, I don't know if I could do this. And then I was like, maybe we cut it down to like just 20 minutes and not 50 and clip stuff out. And I think we cut a little bit out.

People liked it. So I'm like, all right, it's just me then, you know. It's just my fear of like, I just want everything to be great. You know, I want it to be a standard. So on that, because I'm in a similar boat. When you started on the Skype interviews and all that, obviously the quality of the lighting, everything was not. Yeah, I started on, like, my iPhone and on Skype, yeah. Yeah.

So were you always just like, when can I get to the camera? Can I get lighting? Well, I think I was just, you know, in the first year, I was like, I'm just going to do audio only. And if I can have them in person, cool. If it's Skype, cool. I wasn't really like too mind flow. But I just said, I'm going to do this for one year and see where it goes. Right.

And if I still like it after a year, then I'll keep doing it. It was never like this, I'm going to go forever thing. And I wasn't monetizing it the first year. I was just trying to build, add value to my audience and grow my audience. That's what I wanted to do. I was just trying to reinvent myself at the time because I just sold a company. And as it started picking up and people were like, wow, this is actually helping my life and changing my life.

And you have no idea what this means to me. I was like, all right, let me invest in this. Let me put more time, more energy. Let me get a couple cameras, lights, all the thing. We'll do it in this room. This room is transformed in multiple different ways. We used to have this white carpet that was just stained everywhere. It was embarrassing to bring people in here.

And we'd try to clean it every week. But then the stains would come back. It took a couple years until we got like nicer carpet. And then you see some of these photos that just had like greatness letters up on the wall. With like a couple photos in the background. It was just like this used to be a closet with like clothes hanging in the back of it. Like it was just, it wasn't the most professional thing, you know. And then we're like let's invest in this.

And let's hire a full-time videographer to help capture. We just started doing video two and a half years ago. It was just audio before that. So we started investing in the video equipment, the lights. And as it grew, I realized like, this is a real thing. This isn't just like a side thing to like have fun. This is actually the thing. i had other courses and programs and products before and i was like i'm just gonna like do this to add value but i really need to

make money over here so i'm gonna start like put more attention on selling these programs but i realized when i put all my attention on the podcast like it helped everything else and so i started really investing in webinars and yeah i started really investing in the quality of the show and um you know having a producer do research show notes and like all this stuff so and it's when i kind of flip my mentality like this is the thing the podcast is the way not just like something i need to keep up on the side like i need to invest in this full time that's when everything just kept evolving and growing. That's kind of the chicken or the egg, you know. Yeah, exactly.

But I think you got to test it first to see if like you're going to like it. And you got to do it for six months or a year to be like, am I invested? Consistently with all the 600,000 plus podcasts, why would they listen to mine? Right. What's different about it? There's a thousand mom shows. How is mine different? Maybe all of them are hour-long interview style.

Mine's going to be 15 minutes. What's the difference between mine so it's not the same as like 20 other shows? I think that's been – I got into it six years ago before the – it was like the second wave of podcasting. Or 10 years ago, there was like the Joe Rogans of the world, like the tech shows. Then like mine and like a bunch of others got in, you know, six, seven years ago. And then there was a bigger wave three and a half, four years ago with like Serial. And then like everyone got in.

And so I kind of got lucky with timing where there weren't a lot of like long form interview shows like this at the time. I got in early enough to build a brand and keep evolving it while everyone else has an interview show with entrepreneurs and athletes, like there's lots of people doing interview shows. And so my uniqueness is that I don't have people on that are on every other show anymore. Like, unless I'm the first. Like, if someone's got a book coming out, I'm like, how many other podcasts have you done? Then I can't have you then.

Or we need to put ours out a week before. Because if you're going to be on 10 other shows that are similar to mine in size, it's like, why would they want to listen to me? I want it to be different. It's got to be unique or the first. Now, if it's someone like The Rock, and if he's done 10 other shows first, I'm going to be different. It's got to be unique or the first. Now, if it's someone like, you know, The Rock, and if he's done 10 other shows first, I'm going to still have him on. Yeah.

So it's like, you know. I guess I know it all. Yeah, right. But that's the way I look at it. It's like I want to find the people who've never done a podcast. Who did we have on last week? There was someone a couple weeks ago that was their first. Oh, Darren Brown, I think, was the first.

This guy I've been a fan of. He's got a few Netflix specials. He came on and he was like, this is my first podcast. I'm always finding people. Who else was recently? Mike Holston was his first podcast. There's all these other people. I try to find the people that I've never done.

I think Jay Balvin. I don't know if he'd done a podcast either. And he's like a huge Latin pop star. David Goggins. Well, he did Joe Rogan's about a year ago. But he was the first one in like this year or something. So, you know, Larry King, I don't think Larry King had done a podcast.

Sarah Blakely, it was like, she did one other show, which was How I Built This on NPR. And that was her second podcast. But it was like, she hadn't done one in my kind of space. So that's what I'm looking for is like, who are the people I can introduce to my audience that they might have seen in like a five-minute interview on like a Tonight Show or something,

but they haven't really heard their story. Yeah, that's what I look for. Again, it's called the School of Greatness, not the School of Average. So that's my opportunity and challenge. Yeah. And I've thought about just doing other shows, like just a business show where I can interview any type of business person from any level. Or just a health show where I can interview people who have all sorts of health books.

But I have a standard for this show. And I think that's what helps it grow. And that's what helps me attract the best people. Best listeners and the best people to interview. But it's much harder to do. And it takes a lot of time of me researching who I want to have on that's different. You know, I'm DMing people all the time

to try to get them to come on. I'm going to events just to meet people. Tons of reschedules. I mean, I've got someone I've been rescheduling for months who keeps having to change it around because they're a big celebrity. And it's like, you got to deal with their schedules if you want them on. It's just like, that's the game I'm playing right now. Hopefully my show gets so big where it's like, they all want to come to me because it's just so big that they're like, I have to. I I have to. Well, the publicist will tell them, though.

You've got to be on here, and here's the time, and you can't be late, and you can't schedule it again. It's like being on James Corden. It's like you're not... That's all it's leverage, right? Who has the leverage? Yeah, exactly. I have a follow-up question on that.

If someone were to look at starting a podcast, it's such a crowded space, and obviously you need to find your niche, but you also need that niche audience to be big enough that you can have a reach. How do you balance it out? Is it even worth starting? Yeah. You know, my girlfriend, Jen, she's got almost a half a million followers on Instagram. And she's really smart and really talented in her craft, being a doctor of physical therapy and helping people with mobility. And I've advised her not to do a podcast.

I was like, just keep building Instagram and go on other podcasts for now. Like, just go be a guest on other podcasts and keep building your attention around your name and build your email list and create content on the channel where most people are at right now, which is Instagram. Now, I encourage her to do like a youtube show because i think that's going to be better for her to demonstrate things and moving her body because it's very visual it's a visual thing so i think like that or like an igtv it could be good where it's like a weekly once a week like video series but you could also turn it into a podcast later

i just think with it being so crowded i don't recommend doing a show unless you're going to be doing it for years. Because otherwise, what's the point of launching something for six months and be like, it's too much work. You're not going to make any money unless you're building your audience to buy something from you. You're not going to make sponsorship dollars with a small following. So it's got to be an audience builder for you, a brand builder. And then if you have a product or a service or you're a coach, then you can get clients from that smaller niche audience. And you can make a lot of money

with just 10,000 listeners a month if they're the right people. But you've got to be very strategic of why you're doing it and that you're going to do it consistently. It's just hard to get millions of downloads. My first year, I got 750,000 downloads in the first year, doing it every single week, total.

We get over a million downloads a week now, right? And that's 750,000 downloads in the whole year, right? And now it's more than a whole year in one week. It's good to look back and be like, whoa. It's come a long way. Year two was one and a half million downloads or three million downloads. That's the thing. Maybe all of those podcasts out there, like how many of them are going to keep grinding for that long that they actually stay?

And then, because, you know, eventually some of them will be like, it's too much work. It's too much effort. Too much work. There's no money. It's taking so much time. Why am I even doing this? Why am I doing this? That's why I was asking you, like, why do you want to do this in the first place?

And are you committed to it long term? Now, I do think there's another model, which is like launching a podcast with seasons. Like, I'm going to launch this. It's going to be five to ten episodes on a topic. That would be the only other thing I would recommend. It's like if my girlfriend, Jen, wanted to do it, I'd say do eight to ten episodes like covering mobility of the body and you just drop those, one a week, and you stop.

And you get the feedback on it. Then three months later, you do another series. Maybe you're interviewing eight experts and you're dropping them. And it's like an evergreen thing. But it's not going to be like constantly growing. And it's also not going to take up all your time. Because can batch these episodes, you can script them out, you can do these things, but it'll be like a destination you can send people to. But it's just hard to keep

growing that consistently unless you have a massive audience already, which most people don't have. So, or massive distribution. There's so much content out there. Like why are they going to listen to you? That's the thing. That's why I think out there. Like why are they going to listen to you? That's the thing. That's why I think it's smart to get very specific about like the mom space, like who, what type of mom we're interviewing, the format that how it's different, all these things. So it's so people know like, oh, I can go to this, this podcast. I'm going to get it as different than the other mom shows. So that's the way I look at it. How far out do you, like your goals? Are you doing like a five-year goal?

12 months. 12-month goals. I think so much changes for me. I used to have these bigger like five-year goals or whatever, but everything changes so fast for me. I know that it also takes time to develop things. So I'll think about a year-long project, like what's going to take a year, maybe a year and a half max to take. My time, like it's hard for me to be consistent with something for five years.

Like, okay, this is my five-year goal. I'm going to do this every day for five years. Like the podcast was like, I'm going to do this for 12 months once a week and see how I feel. It's been almost six years now. In January, it'll be six years. But I wasn't like, I'm going to do this for six years because that's too daunting for me. But 12 months, I personally, that's how I work. It's easier for me to see 12 months. Anything can change in a day. And I don't want to be tied to like some goal but I had this goal for five years I was gonna do it this way anything can change and

now I get so many opportunities one opportunity might be a hundred times better than what I already planned for and I don't want to say well I'm not gonna do this opportunity because I plan for this thing for five years of my life like I'm not gonna turn down some big TV show or something else where I'm like, but this is what's going to help me get to my vision faster. So I keep it open where I'm like, what are the things I can control? Kind of control like every year. And I can write a book. I can do this documentary. I can do this event. Like these things I can control. I can launch this thing. I can launch a course, a program, whatever it may

be. I can go on a tour, all this stuff. So I focus on what are the things I want to do in the next 12 months. And I think of three big things. The rest is going to be like the podcast growth. I'll think of like how many downloads by the end of the year do I want it to be. And I know that I need to show up every single week consistently to drop three episodes a week. Like that's a consistent thing that's going to happen no matter what. That's the goal at least. But what are the other three big goals? Like I want to write and launch my next book. I want to sell the documentary. I want to do the, you know, all these things. I think about three big goals. Really, that might be too many for people because that takes a lot of time

depending on where you're at in your life. I've got a team, I've got resources, I've got momentum so I can do two or three bigger goals because I've got that time with a team. If you don't have a team, you might just have one goal. My goal is to finish my book in 10 months because it's all me. So I think of three big goals,

12 months, and then I really schedule out the year of dates of when I want to complete things by. So I map out the year and that allows me to reverse engineer everything. It's like creating deadlines and dates to complete things by. If I don't have a date, it's not going to get completed. And it forces me, it creates pressure and accountability with me and my team to know we are doing this by this time. What do we need to do to make it happen every single day, every single week and month to make that happen? And then I empower my team to schedule and structure a project management system of when I need to do something by.

Or when they need to do something by. Or when I need to get something by someone else by. To move the project forward, the goal forward. Just like your football day. That's it. Just like football. That's all it is. Everything's in a season for me.

So a year season. And then every season of the year as well, every three months. And it's just blocking time and executing on it my challenge has never been like fear of doing something it's i've never been like well what if someone doesn't buy my book or what if you know like what if it sucks like i've never been afraid of that that's not been my problem problem is just like organizing everything and having the time to execute it all at the highest level and keeping a high standard. Has that held you back at all?

Always wanting a high level, high quality? No, because I'll put stuff out even if it's like 80, 90% still, which I don't like. But I'm like, I know I need to do this. Otherwise, I'll just obsess over this for years and never do anything. Is it sometimes a thing where you know no one else is going to see it, but every time you look at it, you go, I should have. Yeah, I mean, I look at stuff all the time, and I'm like, I obsess over stuff after it's out.

I'm like, why is this thumbnail like this? You know, it's even like, why? You know, my event, Summit of Greatness, there were so many things behind the scenes that were very frustrating to me that maybe you guys didn't see at the event. Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. But I obsess over behind the scenes, and I'm like, why are the monitors on the stage

like three inches off when it's not centered? Don't you guys know how to center things? And stuff like that frustrates me because I believe in experiential design and energy and if the energy is off on something i'm putting out into the world it frustrates me because i know it could be a more impactful experience if the design and the energy was done differently and so i get frustrated about that stuff because I want people to have a good time. I want them to have a great experience.

I want them to feel something where they're not distracted by mistakes. They're not like, oh, why is that light out there? Why is that the, you know? Because when we're distracted by a mistake, we're not focused on the message. And that pisses me off. And I'm like, we've got the best speakers in the world. We've got this whole experience. But that thing is off and it just took everyone away from it, you know.

But I also get to learn how to let go of that as well and know like mistakes are going to happen and I'm not going to be perfect all the time. So I feel like I do a good job of it and I just kind of complain about it afterwards. I'm like, why did we do this? And nobody noticed. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I mean, everyone's going to remember crowd surfing with Wy nobody noticed. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean, everyone's going to remember

crowd surfing with Wyclef. But yeah, exactly. And I try to, you know, because there was so much happening backstage. It was kind of chaotic at different times. And I've got another speaker coming in 45 minutes. I've got to say something. I've got to map something.

You know, it's like all these moving parts. There's an intro with drummers, and I'm like coordinating all of it with my team. And so I might be literally like this backstage, like, what are we doing? Why is this happening? We said this for the whole year, playing this, or whatever. And then it's like, lights are on, music's playing, and I've got to walk out on stage and not show that. And so I just gave myself a little cue.

stage and not show that. And so I just gave myself like a little cue. Like every time I crossed the curtain, I was like, I'm leaving all this behind and I'm just bringing the joy to the audience. I'm just walking out with a big smile and open my arms. Just like, good to see you guys. When really I was just like frustrated, like two seconds before, but if I bring that negative energy onto the stage, people are going to feel it. Whereas years ago, I probably wasn't as good as letting that stuff go. I would just like wear it on my sleeve ongoing and it would bleed into the stage or into my speech or into whatever

and it would affect me. So I've learned how to like turn the switch off a lot faster, which I think leaders do really well. Like, you know, I can only imagine, well, great leaders do well, I can only imagine, well, great leaders do well. I can only imagine, like, Obama, when there was probably a lot of chaos, like, in the private rooms before he went and did the press. Like, so many things happening.

Like, what are we doing? You know, it's like, and he has no control. And then he's got to be, like, put on the face and, like, show grace and positivity. I still remember the story about Obama was the night they were going after Osama bin Laden, he had to do the press dinner. And so, he's at the dinner and everyone's making jokes and he's thinking we've got to

create this mission. Yeah, we're invading. We're doing the mission to go kill Osama bin Laden. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, while he's joking and people are having fun and he's like. And he's got to be present with people and connected and also. Know what's going on.

It's really challenging. Same day. Crazy, right? Yeah. So I'm not that level, but I think I'm like, you know, I'm just going out on a stage here. We're getting there. We're getting there. But I think it's all been great practice, you know?

Yeah. And I think that's what's required of like making it to your own next level is like continually shedding like the old energy that keeps you from expanding so I'm learning that as well yeah can you share with us how you met your girlfriend Jen and if you've ever talked about having kids yeah sure we met on Instagram actually about four and a half years ago I reached out to her she'll always say that she had a bigger following at the time so I reached out to her this was before DMs and she had a bigger following at the time. So I reached out to her. This was before DMs. And I left a comment on one of her photos. And I couldn't even see her

face on the photo. It was just a handstand that she was doing. And you couldn't see her face. But there was something about her energy that I was just like, this is a special person. So I left a comment. Yeah, followed up on Facebook Messenger, I think, when I messaged her there and took her out on a date and kind of been together ever since. Marriage and kids. Yeah, we talked about certain things. She likes to have privacy on some of that stuff, so I won't really share more about that. But I'm in a place where I'm just very committed to my vision right now, and that's what I'm excited about. So, yeah.

But she's amazing so everyone should follow her doc Jen fit yeah thank you yeah of course yeah but I reached out to her and yeah she didn't like me the first time she met me yeah I kind of turned her off because I think I was like so intimate like I was so like asking her all these deep questions and like interviewing her you know like she was like who are you you know so um I think I grew on her over time but yeah great yeah I have a less personal question sure what are the biggest differences between Lewis's today and you five six years ago that's a good question you probably have have to ask my friends and family.

I don't want their opinion. I want yours. It's more about self-awareness and how. I think I can sleep at night better now. I used to beat myself up a lot. Okay. A lot about things. I used to take everything.

I used to beat myself up about everything probably. If it didn't go the way I planned, I would get very frustrated and take things very personally. I was very defensive. Yeah, I was like always one of the fight people that were critiquing me or saying things to me. That was kind of like just my upbringing, I think. And it wasn't until I started to address and accept myself

for everything that happened in my past and start to heal and like let go of things and forgive myself and forgive other people. I was like, oh, okay, I can sleep at night. I can breathe. I can, like, I don't have to take anything so seriously. Like if it doesn't work out exactly the way I envisioned it. I think that's helped me a lot. Just like be at peace internally. And I think I's helped me a lot just like be at peace internally I think I always like suffered inside and I didn't know I just felt like this is who I am like I guess people just feel this way I didn't know there was a way to move beyond that I was so focused on results and performance and like winning and being right and proving myself I I was so focused on that five, six years ago

that I think I missed out on a lot of like, just peace and love and joy, you know? And I would, it took me a long time to get over things. Took me a long time to like let go. And now it's like, I can let go of things really fast which allows me to put that energy back into creation or connection so that's been a powerful lesson because i think it helped me back a lot i think i could have done a lot more in my 20s but i just held on to so much stuff and uh it was for angry at stuff you know but it's hard to make something meaningful out

of anger and fear and I would achieve results but still feel left empty or unfulfilled or insecure or not enough or whatever like no matter what I achieved I still didn't feel enough inside and now I've just learned how to reprogram I guess the way I think because I've appreciating what I'm creating every day I'm appreciating myself and accepting myself and that's been a powerful lesson yeah not easy but it's been powerful yeah and I'm constantly learning you know it's still it's not perfect still but it's never-ending process at the end of the day. Yeah.

Every time I'm trying to elevate my business or whatever, there's new hurdles that I get to learn about how to jump over. There's something that's like in the way to get me to the next level. Always. But that's also the game of life, the never-ending growth of, you know, doing new things and taking on new challenge. With that comes new stuff and you have to learn how to deal with it yeah exactly but then you grow and you move on and yeah life is good that's it yeah but it's just like accepting that it's going to happen and

being okay with it not like being so hurt by it that's been the biggest lesson so yeah when you go into an interview you have a a structure like i see using your your notepad yeah your iPad whatever it is yeah and like but when you did with Mike Posner all of a sudden you got into music and playing the guitar yes they're playing yeah do you look for those things or is it just completely spontaneous and just happens or it just goes off the rails for you when he came in when he was coming in I was like it'd be kind of cool to like play something with him because I'm not that great at guitar, but I can play some campfire songs or whatever. And I was like, it'd be cool to play something and hear him sing. I've had a lot of singers come on, but you never know if they're going to be willing to sing. But I always

feel like it's going to be powerful if they do. So I set that intention, like, hey, if you want to do something, I'd love to hear you in a 10-second thing. Like Leanne Rimes came in and I was like, man, I'd love to hear even like a 10 second thing. Like Leanne Rimes came in and I was like, man, I'd love to hear her voice because she's so powerful. And I was trying to learn one of her songs beforehand for hours. I was trying to learn like one of her songs. But for whatever reason, like the chords in her songs that were popular that I knew, they were like some weird chords that I was like, I just don't want to mess this up. Right.

So I was like, OK. I was like, let me try to learn like a different song that maybe she would want to sing. And I started learning the, what is it called? Shallows, which is the Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga movie. What's that movie called? Stars Born. Stars Born, yeah.

So it was like this popular song, and I was like, maybe she knows this song. And I started like trying to learn it, and I was like, oh, this is actually pretty easy to learn. I was like, maybe we could just sing it like a little duet. You know, I was like, that would be amazing, right? Even though I wouldn't sound that good. I was like, maybe I'll just let her sing and I'll play.

And the opportunity didn't come up where I felt right for me to ask. But I asked her to sing something else. So it was really cool. She did, like, this chant, this like meditation chant that she'd never done publicly. And like her voice was like an angel, you know, it was just like, even though it was like 10, 20 seconds, I was like, this is amazing. You know? So I was like, oh, it was enough for me. I was like, I don't need her to sing a song. But when Wyclef came in, I just had the guitar here. I didn't say anything. and he came in and just picked up the guitar and starts playing like

what was he playing? Like something I can't remember what it was. Like No Woman No Cry or something like Bob Marley's song or something. And I was like, this is amazing. I was like, start filming. You know. Yeah. So I just think those are cool moments when we can do that. When a poet comes on, I want them to do a poem. You know, it's just, I want to highlight

people's gifts and make something special on the show. So that's what I look for. It You know, it's just, I want to highlight people's gifts and make something special on the show. So, that's what I look for. It's like, what's the way to make this person

look the best they've ever been? To highlight them. Yeah. That's my intention. I want them to feel like, man, that was the best interview

I ever did. This little podcast called School of Greatness, like, that was the coolest thing. You know, that's what I want from people. I had someone on recently, I won't say who it is,

but he hadn't done other shows, other podcasts, but he's done lots of huge national and global press. Like every major talk show he's been on. And he did the podcast and he was going on a much bigger podcast like the next morning. And I was like, it's going to be a big deal. Like this person has, you know, millions and millions of followers. And it's like a massive show.

It's like one of the biggest in the world. I was like, I hope it goes well. And he emailed me afterwards. And he was like, just between me and you, like I really enjoyed your show more than this one this morning. With like this massive, you know. So I was like, oh, that's nice. You nice you know who knows he might have just been saying that but I want people to feel like it was a great experience and I think the only way that's possible is I make if I show how interested in I am in them and not you know me talk five percent them talked 95. And I think there's other shows out there that might be bigger,

but the host is more of like the talker. You know, it's like the Howard Sterns of the world where like he's like running this show, you know. Not a bad way, but it's just like. No, he doesn't. I think when someone feels that someone is interested in them constantly, that person becomes the most interesting person. You know, if I'm asking you questions, I'm just like, tell me more.

Tell me more. I'm just like so fascinated by it. You become the most interesting person in the room when you're interested in other people. And that's been kind of like my secret. I think growing up, I never felt smart. So I would just ask questions as opposed to like say things. So I was like, what I say is not interesting compared to my friends in elementary school. So I just became interested.

And people were like, man, I like hanging out with that Lewis guy. He doesn't say stupid stuff, and he asks me cool questions. He's just so interested in what I'm about. He likes me. He likes me. Yeah, it's like show that you care care and people are going to care back. So it's not rocket science. It's just like being a good person. That's what I try to think about. I don't try to impress people by being smart. I try to express that I care and build a relationship.

It's not like a strategy. It's just like who I am. Did you know that about yourself when you started or is it something you've kind of evolved into? I knew that about myself in high school. I remember senior year was really the year that got me out of my shell because as a freshman through junior year, I leaned on my athleticism to get like friends and acceptance. I was like on varsity as a freshman in every sport. So I had like these connections with these like, you know, my brothers on my team, but I was always the youngest and still got kind of like made fun of or picked on because I was like the rookie, even though I was better than a lot of these like juniors and seniors because my athletic ability, I was still like the younger guy that they kind

of like razzled, but they needed on the team to like be successful too. So I had like this connection and bond with all these athletes on every team. And those were like my friends. Now, when I became a senior, I realized like all my friends were gone because I was always the younger person with older friends. In my senior year, I remember being remember being like wow I have no friends I had friends but I was like all my closest friends are gone to college like I remember going from the summer of my junior year to senior year I was like huh now that I'm not gonna be judged by my friends anymore yeah I wanted to be friends with lots of people but you kind of like the group wanted to just hang out with themselves

And you know, whatever I was like now that I'm not gonna be judged by my friends I can do whatever I want My mission my senior year was to connect with every person in my school that I normally would never connect with Like weird people like science people music people like art people like anyone and that was the greatest gift for me because making that decision and like kind of having my friends leave and being aware of this, I was like, I don't want to just hang out with one group of people like athletes. I want to know lots of people. And I had lots of interests. You know, I sang in a choir and I did other stuff.

So I told myself this going into my senior year, and I only had 330 kids in my school, so it was a small private school. But I started connecting with all types of people. I would just reach out to them and hang out with them, and I was curious about them. From, again, I joined, I did a tap dancing class. I was like, I want to do everything that I normally wouldn't do. I did like three months of tap dance class, right? There was no other like jocks in the tap dance class. I joined synchronized swimming my senior year.

I did a whole three months of synchronized swimming. Again, I was like, what are the things that I would never do? I'm doing them. Synchronized swimming. I was in the musical, the school musical, which I was like terrified to perform on stage. I'd never acted in my life. I never like, um, you know, done any of that stuff and done a play. Never. And I was like, I, I need to at least try out for this. There's auditions. I was like, I'm at least going to try out. And I was like, if I'm going to do this, I need to try out for the

lead, the lead male role. And I was terrified to like sing in front of these people and like audition and like read lines I had no clue what I was doing terrified but I was like you know what at least I'm gonna do this and say I tried it and if I don't get it I gave it my best and I got the second lead right I got the second lead in the school musical and it was one of the best experiences of my life. We like, we're doing late nights together, practicing these things. Like I'd never done this stuff. And it was all theater nerds, right? And me, this like big jock, whatever. But I felt like, man, these people are so amazing. And I got to really connect with people that were different than me. I did this in lots of different ways my senior year. I was talking to freshmen, sophomore, and juniors.

I was talking to everyone. It didn't matter. I was like, I wanted to know about you. I think maybe that was partly that my friends were gone. Maybe it was partly that I was like, I felt like I was being more superficial most of my high school and I had more awareness. But I was like, I just want to know more about people.

Do you think you got that from your parents or your brother? My dad was pretty good at like connecting with people as well but I think I had a very eclectic family as well. My older brother is a very talented musician. My sister is a singer-songwriter, you know, and I wasn't that. But I appreciated it growing up. I like would watch them and I was like I appreciated it and so I just wanted to meet people I like hung out in the the art room and

just would see people like paint and draw my senior year and just like I just wanted to be a part of things that were different than me I think that was the uh the foundation for realizing that um we have so many differences and yet we're also alike. Like I started to really learn about how, I think that's probably that senior year was the foundation for me being able to do what I'm doing because I'm connecting with so many different types of people. It's not just like business leaders or athletes. It's like spiritual leaders and men and women and gay, straight,

like transgender, all these things. I'm connecting with people from all walks of life and I feel like I can relate to all of them. And I feel like I'm able to bridge the gap

between their life to my audience. I think that's, if they ask me, I think that's one of the keys of it being successful that I can speak to a billionaire

and make it resonate to someone who's on their sister's couch. I can speak to an Olympic gold medalist and make it resonate to a high school person or a college person or to a mom of three. Like I can bridge the gap of ideas. And I think it's because I've been fascinated by people from a young age. But I think that's just what I'm into. That's like my thing, that I like that. And I'm just curious. I think everyone has something fascinating about their life.

I don't know. It's working out. This is my thing. This is my thing, yeah. What's your next book release going to be about i just started thinking about this over the last few months that's good timing i just talked to a couple publishers actually this last week i don't have a title for it yet but the theme is about how to eliminate self-doubt. Yeah. I think a lot of us are held back from not believing in enough

in ourselves. And so we doubt ourselves. We doubt ourselves in our relationships, in our careers, our business, our dreams, our goals, whatever it may be. We doubt a lot. And I think it is the factor that holds us back from at least trying and going after it and putting something out in our life. It's the thing that holds us back from getting out of a toxic relationship. What if I can't find someone else that's going to love me? So I'm just going to stay in this miserable one. It holds us back from pursuing a relationship. Well, what if they don't love me? What if they reject me? It holds us back from pursuing a relationship. Well, what if they don't love me? What if they reject me?

You know, it holds us back from launching a podcast, a business, whatever it may be. Self-doubt. And so if we could eliminate self-doubt and understand the fears that hold us back, I think it would help a lot of people. So my whole mission now for the next book is to help people eliminate self-doubt. Yeah. It's actually a very simple topic. Like, I feel like my last book about masculine vulnerability was more of like a risk to write about that.

It's different than the school of greatness. It was like a risk. So I think I almost want to go back to like, okay, let's go back to simple things that that are fears that everyone resonates with but I haven't started writing I've just been kind of like writing down notes and talking about it so let's go what's your biggest thing that you doubt about yourself for me it would be at this point in my life balancing being a wife and a mother and homeschooling my two kids, and then also being a coach, and then my podcast. So it's really wanting to find the balance of,

I don't want to be too out there where I neglect my priorities as a wife and as a mother. And still I want to make sure that I'm pursuing the destiny that I've been created for. So it's really find that balance of, okay, am I focusing too much on the business, coaching people, and yet my son wants me to read to him a book. Be there at night, be present. Yeah, exactly. So it's those kind of things.

So what do you doubt? You doubt you have the time or the energy to do it all or that if you go after your dream or your business that you'll be sacrificing your family? Yeah, I'm doubting where I can find that balance or if I can If you go after your dream or your business, that you'll be sacrificing your family. Yeah, I'm doubting where I can find that balance or if I can maintain that balance. And my husband needs me and children need me and clients need me, that kind of thing. Do you feel like you have a lack of belief in yourself, though?

Or do you feel like you have a strong belief that you can do anything you want? I'm more towards the latter, where I believe I can do it. I still don't want to neglect my priorities. So yeah, I'm going to be a, I mean, you know, I think my husband tells me I'm a great wife. And my kids tell me I'm a great mom, you know. What's the thing that holds you back the most from having what you want?

Right now, it's probably not necessarily doubt, Louis. It's more than likely some resources because my husband says, you know, when I get this promotion, I definitely want to support you and hire a nanny part-time so that you can actually work on the business. So those things are a little bit, you know, kind of… Got it. Yeah. But I'm sure I doubt myself every now and then.

Every now and then. So, yeah. That's not your challenge, yeah. It's not. Resources. Yeah, that's it. Cool. Anything else for you guys?

Anything else you want to share? Questions? What's the one question you would have liked us to ask? That's a good question. I ask that a lot, yeah. Okay. Flip it around. Right, yeah. It doesn that a lot, yeah. Okay. Flip it around. Right, yeah.

It doesn't matter what I want. I want the question I would want you guys to ask is the thing that's going to help you the most. So I don't know. Yeah. We still have dinners, so it's fine. You still have dinner, yeah. You can ask me anything you want for dinner. Off camera.

That's right, off camera. I was going to say you need to write your book. That's all we need. You need me to write it? Yeah. Do you feel like you doubt yourself in any way? All the time. You do?

About what? Everything. Like what? Like, small example, I've been in Inner Circle since February, and I've never introduced myself to anybody. So you're part of a group called the Inner Circle. No, no, I make connections, but I mean put myself out there. To the whole group? Right. Publicly? Yeah. You haven't done like a video, like say, hey No, no. I made connections, but I mean put myself out there. To the whole group.

Right. Publicly. You haven't done like a video like say, hey, this is who I am. No. But I want to. It's in my, like I have. Why have you not done it? Because.

Where's your phone? Do you have your phone on you? No. No, no. We'll do it later. You want to do it right now? No, I'll do it later. We'll do it today.

We'll do it today. Okay, good. But that's just a small. Why are you afraid to do a small thing? So I came back from Summit, and that was one of my goals. I came back from Summit, powered up, and I was like, I'm going to do it. Now we're here, and I haven't even. So what holds you back?

And this is a small thing. It's just introducing yourself to a community of people over video. And it has nothing to do with them specifically. Of course it doesn't. It's layers of self-doubt going back to. So when you wrote your book and you talked about all these, it's layers of stuff that you had to unload. And that's what it is.

I have layers of. Yeah, of doubt? Of doubt. Like years. What's the fear if you put your video out there saying, this is. I have layers of... Yeah, of doubt? Of doubt. Like years. What's the fear if you put your video out there saying, this is who I am, 60 seconds, I'm just introducing myself. What's the fear that you have around putting a video out to a group of people just saying, here's who I am?

What do I think they're going to say? That's what it is. Your fear of what they're going to say? Or think. Or what if no one leaves a comment? Or what if people don't like it? Right. That's what it is. Your fear of what they're going to say? Or think. Or what if no one leaves a comment? Or what if people don't like it? Right. That's what you're afraid of?

Yeah. What people think about you? Yeah. Why are you afraid? I never used to be like that. It just. Why are you afraid of what people think about you? When did you not used to be that way?

Before I was in grade six. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. It's a long story. Okay, yeah. We can talk about it on camera. So you're afraid

of people's opinions of you. Judgment. So it's really three main fears that cause us to doubt ourselves. Fear of success, failure, and judgment.

Judgment was always my fear. That's why I was very reactive to people. Whenever they would critique me, I was like, you don't know me. You know?

It didn't hold me back from putting something out there, but it made me very defensive to want to reply to people when they did. So it didn't hold me back because I wanted to be successful. So I think that's my trigger point is like I won't react the way you did. You just won't do it.

You just won't put it out there. You just won't even put yourself out just won't put it out there. It's the, yeah. You just won't even put yourself out there because you're not willing to receive the judgment. Right. So people are going to judge you either way.

They're judging you right now. No, they're doing, they're doing it now. I know. People are judging you by playing the way you're playing or they're going to judge you by playing a different game.

Yeah. So you're already being judged. You might as well do something. Yep. Meaningful, right? That's true. Might as well put your show out there. They're going to judge it.

But it's believing it and it's feeling it. That's the big. Believing what? What they say or what? No, in yourself. Like it's one thing to say it in your head, but you have to believe it. What is it you don't believe in?

In myself. Why don't you believe in yourself? Because I've disappointed people, so eventually I started believing that that was true. You're disappointing people by putting something out there. Or just not doing what they expected. Right. Yeah, I mean, you're going to be disappointing a lot of people

for the rest of your life. Oh, for sure. I disappoint people every day. Yeah. But I focus on who are the. I disappoint people every day. Yeah. But I focus on who are the people that I can impact more. Yeah. Okay. Anything else for anyone?

We'll talk about it afterwards tomorrow. No. Good? Any final question? This was fun, guys. I appreciate you guys coming on. This is the first time we've had four people on live Q&A. So I thank you guys for

one, supporting the podcast, for sharing out the Inspiring Life show, and for being part of the community. It means a lot to me. So thank you guys. And we'll finish with, you can say your name, your website, your Instagram handle if people want to check you guys out. So we'll finish with that. Say your name, where you're from, again, when you first heard about the School of Greatness or me, just so I have some understanding of that, and then your website and your social media. So go ahead. So Julie from New Brunswick, Canada. And I think I started following you maybe two years ago on Facebook. Do you remember how you found it? I can't remember.

Yeah, I know. I can't remember. You listen to podcasts right now? Yes. I'm done. Yeah. Awesome. And my Instagram handle is TheGreatMamas.

TheGreatMamas. I like that. Okay, cool. Awesome. Don't judge her. Or you can. I just have to take it. You have to take it.

You have to embrace it. You have to take it. You have to embrace it. I am. Go ahead. I'm Jackie Mori, and I started listening to Lewis and watching you on YouTube. I found you on YouTube. Really? Yeah. That's great.

I love watching YouTube. Oh, that's cool. Yes. And then… When was this? Recently? No. Three years ago.

A while ago we started YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Three years ago. And what's your site? Okay. Jackie, we started YouTube. Yeah, yeah. Three years ago. And what's your site? Okay, JackieMori.com. That's J-A-C-K-I-E-M-O-R-E-Y.com. And on Instagram, I'm at JackieMori1.

Okay, cool. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. My name is Amanda. I am from Switzerland, but I live in Dubai now. I actually started listening to the podcast when I moved out to Dubai I started meeting a lot of new people obviously it was a new city and a new life

and the people I had in my circle were very kind and very good people that helped me grow and they were like listening to podcasts and doing a lot of reading and self-development and I was like what what is going on with these people? What do they do? And then they started saying, like, you should listen to this podcast. It's really good. And someone shared a link, and that was it. Wow, that's cool.

Do you remember what episode it was or no? No, I can't remember, actually, because I listened to a lot since then. So I can't really pinpoint which one it was. But I remember it was just, like, probably one of the first podcasts ever I listened to. Oh, wow. Yeah. I feel really bad saying it because it's only a year and a half ago and where have I been for the past five years but it's all good yeah it's really good so that's when I was glad it was good enough for you to keep listening yeah it was really good yeah it wasn't one of the ones that I

didn't want to put out maybe there's nobody that's true yeah so that's it cool yeah all right Pete from Redonda Beach. I feel even worse now because my first podcast was eight months ago. It's all good. I had heard of him, and then Gary Vaynerchuk started listening to him, and then I think you were on his show, and I was just like, let me. And then I started listening to you. Cool. So just eight months, nine months.

What's your site? Instagram is thetravelwins. Travelwins? W-I-N-S. Okay. That's my Instagram. It's my podcast page. Cool.

All right. We'll finish with, I usually do three truths, but we're going to finish with four truths. You each get one truth to share with the world. So I don't know if you guys remember the question, but it's if this was your last day and you only had one thing to share with the world, one lesson that you would share and you couldn't, no one would have access to anything else you put out there because you have to take it with you. What would be your truth or your lesson? I'll start with you.

A lesson you'd share with the world. This is your last day on earth. Don't worry what other people think. Okay. This is how I end my broadcasts. Live a life of significance and leave your legendary legacy. Cool. All right.

I think I would go with there's no such thing as a failure as long as you keep trying. It only ends really when you stop trying. The rest is just experiences and there are good ones and bad ones. Cool. All right. Treat others how you want to be treated. Awesome. Awesome.

others how you want to be treated. Awesome. And there you have it, my friends. I am so excited about where you're headed in your life. I'm excited about the opportunities that lie in front of you, the dreams that you have yet to start to manifest, and the steps you're about to be taking through the rest of this year and all of next year to start creating the life of your dreams. You deserve to have the life of your dreams, but it's not going to just be thrown at you. People aren't just going to give it to you unless you're willing to take the steps to make it happen. This is what this life is all about, manifesting what we want. Taking the idea, the thought, the principle that we have in our minds and bringing it into reality. You are all the creators of your own life. You can make anything happen that you are meant to make happen.

You just have to be willing to overcome the challenges, the fears, the insecurities. Take the actionable steps and start manifesting what you want day after day, day after day. It's a process. There is a path to achieving this. You just need to make sure you're willing to take the path on and take those steps down the scary path. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with your friends. lewishouse.com slash 734. Thank you again to the Inspiring Life winners for coming on and just being cool people. We had a

great time again at dinner. Just really enjoyed their company and everything that they're up to. Exciting to see their growth and all the results they're going to be getting in their life this year as well. And as our good friend Harvey Firestone said in the beginning, the growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. If you want to become a better leader in your life, you have to start growing. You have to start developing new skills, mastering things, overcoming fears. You can't lead other people if you're still afraid

of something yourself. You'll always be limited by ability to lead based on how many fears and insecurities you have. So now is the time to take on the fear challenge and start tackling that thing you're afraid of every single day until the fear goes away. As always, guys, I'm so blessed and grateful to be on this journey with you. We've got some huge interviews coming up very soon. If this is your first time here, please subscribe to the podcast. We are on Apple. We are on Stitcher. We are on Spotify. We are on Pandora that just released their new beta platform with podcasts. So make sure to find us anywhere. Google Play, all the places podcasts are at.

Please subscribe. Leave us a review. Share this with a friend and spread the message of greatness with someone in your life who could use it. I love you so very much. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា Bye.