The School of Greatness - 845 Lindsey Stirling on Facing Loss, Dreaming Big, and Becoming a Superstar

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

BELIEVE IN SOMETHING GREATER. There are two types of winners I’ve observed. Both of them have confidence. But one winner, when asked how they did it, answers, “I am the greatest.” The other winner, when asked how they did it, answers, “God is the greatest.” Are you putting pressure on yourself to succeed or fail? Or are you putting your strength in something greater? Whether or not you consider yourself a religious person, know that you are not going through life in a vacuum. You’re never on your journey alone. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk about spirituality, loss, and dreaming big with one of the most inspirational performers on the planet: Lindsey Stirling. Lindsey Stirling is a modern-day "Dancing Violinist" who got her start on American’s Got Talent in 2010. Since then, she has over 11 million subscribers on YouTube. She has been called "The Hip Hop Violinist" due to her twist on songs from today's hits, as well as creating an electronic / dubstep album of original compositions. Lindsey has learned to use her spirituality to inspire her to do things she never thought possible. She shares the daily practices that ground her and retrain her brain. So get ready to learn how to live intentionally and with gratitude on Episode 845. Some Questions I Ask: Why do we lose the ability to dream? (23:30) How do we “re-dream” when things are going well? (26:00) What should someone do who is experiencing periods of darkness? (31:00) How does someone build a belief in themselves? (37:00) How did you handle two close people passing away? (42:00) What’s missing in your life right now? (54:00) What would your dad be most proud of today? (1:00:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: The inspiration behind Lindsey’s new album (7:00) About Lindsey’s experience getting booed off the stage on America’s Got Talent (12:00) Why you need to live life without limits (19:00) How to live intentionally (34:00) How gratitude affects happiness (37:00) Why Dancing With The Stars was spiritual for Lindsey (47:00) If you enjoyed this episode, check out the show notes, video and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/845 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes

This is episode number 845 with Lindsay Sterling. 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. Harriet Tubman said, every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

I am super excited about this interview. I've got my good friend, Lindsey Stirling, in the house. Every time I see this woman, I'm inspired. She lifts me up. She's so genuine, real, authentic, and just so gosh darn talented. I mean, when I see her perform on stage, I just can't help but smile and want to dance because she is an incredible talent in what she does. And if you don't know who Lindsay is, she's a violinist, singer, songwriter, and YouTube sensation.

Her music video, Crystallize, finished as the eighth most watched video of 2012 on YouTube. And her cover version of Radioactive with Pentatonix won the Response of the Year Award in the first ever YouTube Music Awards. Her debut album was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for Top Dance Electronic Albums, and her second album, Shatter Me, won at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. Yes, she's that good.

She has also been named in Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 in Music, and her YouTube channel has over 11 million subscribers and over 2 billion views. Lindsay is launching her world tour this spring, and her new album, Artemis, is available for pre-order right now. I'm telling you guys, this girl is a machine and has an incredible heart. You're going to love this because in this interview, we talk about how to push through failure and continue creating despite adversity.

How do we become creative in spite of adversity? The importance of always dreaming and not putting the limits of reality on your dreams. I think too many people constantly say, well, this isn't reality for me. This isn't available for me. Let's be realistic here. And that is going to shatter your dreams when you come from that place. Lindsay talks about that. How to reframe your dreams once you've reached your goals. Over my life, I've achieved so many of my dreams and sometimes we could get stuck afterwards. So how do we reframe them? Finding joy in darkness and being intentional with your actions to get through hard times,

the power of positive affirmations and how it must be practiced daily to truly achieve self-love. Lindsay talks about her struggles with anorexia, with other challenges and insecurities, with loss. with other challenges and insecurities, with loss. She dives in deep and opens up in an emotional way. So if you enjoyed this interview, please send her some love. Send this over on your Instagram story. Tag Lindsay Sterling, tag myself.

Let me know you're listening to this, you're watching this on YouTube or Apple Podcasts or Spotify and send the link to one friend. Text a friend today who could be inspired by this interview as well. Super excited about that. Let me know what you think. All right, guys, let's dive into this episode with the one and only Lindsay Sterling. What is it that you're most excited about right now? I'm so excited to start a new chapter.

Like, I think sometimes as artists or, like, as influencers, whatever you want to call ourselves, like, you get in this rut where you sometimes feel like you're in a hamster wheel a little bit, and it's so exciting to feel like you're starting a new chapter. And so I've been working all year on a new album, and I wanted this chapter to feel different. And so I decided to tell a story. It's a very high-concept album.

It's all based around a comic book that I wrote simultaneously to the album. And so that's why the album artwork is all manga anime style, like 90s anime. I just think that's such a cool art form. I've always loved it. And then the comic book as well that I've been working on spent tons of time on the story and these characters. And that's why the album's called Artemis. It's about kind of the story of the goddess of the moon. Okay.

So, anyways, I'm excited to go on tour. The tour is very concept-driven. The album's concept-driven. And all the music videos, like, tell the story. And so it's really fun to have such a cohesive work. And now I get to finally, after all the work of putting it together, I get to go share it. How long did it take to do it all? It came really fast.

I started in January. It's the fastest I've ever written an album. Wow. And yeah. Six months, seven months. Yeah. Because I mean, it's done. It's been done for months in order to get everything, all the artwork done.

And I've just worked extremely hard. But at the same time, sometimes you just feel inspired. Yeah. Because, I mean, it's done. It's been done for months in order to get everything, you know, all the artwork done. And I've just worked extremely hard. But at the same time, sometimes you just feel inspired. Yeah. And once I got my rhythm in it, like at first I was writing a lot of terrible music until I find my rhythm. Once I found my rhythm, it just came and it felt so right and it felt like I was being very inspired. Yeah. and it felt like I was being very inspired. Yeah, so it was kind of nice to write from a place this time of joy,

which I don't think I've ever written an album from a place of joy. What's it all been written by? I mean, my first album was a place of just like discovery, of like, what is this? I don't know. That was a very different kind of excitement. My second album was all drawing from my recovery from anorexia. It was writing about all of that, lots of dark emotion, but still hopeful. And then my third album was writing all about loss.

My best friend and my keyboard player, who I'd toured with for years, he passed away suddenly. And then my dad was also going through cancer, and he passed away right as I was finishing the album. Oh, my gosh. So the album was bookended by the most extreme depression and sorrow that I had ever felt and loss. And, like, I just didn't know you could feel that. And so that album was heavily charged with a lot of hard things. And one thing that was so exciting about this album

was like, I don't know, loss, I feel like it changes you. And I had come to accept that like this was a new version of myself and that kind of the rose-tinted glasses Lindsay had left and died with them. And I was like, I just don't think I'll ever be the same again. Because it had been years.

You know, it's now been three years since all of that happened. And it took about two years to come fully out of that depression. And I realized, it was right about the same time, a few months before I started this album, that I was like, I started to feel myself again. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's not that I was gone. It's not that I disappeared or I died with them like a part of me. No, I was just covered It's not that I disappeared or I died with them like a part of me. It's no, I was just, I was just covered up for a while. And that's why I decided to call this album Artemis because the moon is such cool. Like it has such a cool symbolism of hope. And the fact that,

you know, you look at the moon, sometimes it's big and bright and it glows and it can light up the night. And other times you'd look up and you can't even find it. And it looks like it might not even be there anymore. And that was like me. I was like, oh my gosh, I wasn't gone. I was just covered in shadow. And I think that through our lives, like whether it's a hard relationship or a depression or loss or grief, whatever,

we sometimes metaphorically get covered by those things. And you might think that you're not there anymore, but it doesn't mean that you're not still powerful and full of light love and that you won't come back to full light and so i wrote this album from a place of like oh my gosh i'm still full of light and that's what the album's about that's what the story's about yeah i like it thank you i'm so excited to share that message you know that we all are all so. Don't ever forget it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I remember we, we had what lunch, I think it's sweet green last year around, I think it was around January, February of the last year, a year and a half ago. And I remember you being in a very, in that shadow

of wondering like, what should I be doing with my career and my life? I think you went through a breakup maybe recently too, or something happened with relationships. Yeah. And I remember you feeling lost. Yeah, I did. Because you were like, well, I've achieved a lot of my dreams, but now what am I doing? Right. And now it seems like you're reinventing yourself and kind of going to a new level. Is that right? Absolutely. And I think, yeah, I think I did definitely feel lost. it's funny it's like I felt like oh I have to reinvent myself in a big way but it's like no I just had to get back on the bicycle and keep pedaling and realize that doing exactly what I love and like just broadening it like it's I think sometimes in life we feel like we have to make these huge massive changes like I feel a

little bit lost I need to go way over there right because this isn't right but i was like no i literally had to just like pivot a little bit and then it felt so right again it's just kind of trying different angles and different tiny tweaks in our life whether it's like adding little bits like try meditating yeah try exercising in order to really improve your life or find yourself i think that we don't have to completely reinvent the wheel. Sometimes. But sometimes I think you're just like a tiny degree off. You know, it's like if you look at a train track and when there's like a tiny change in the tracks when they switch them, it's like an inch move that eventually will get that train to like a completely different state.

That's true. Versus, you know, like thinking, I don't know. I think that we get discouraged too often because we expect ourselves to make these huge changes when all you need is tiny little adjustments. Adjustments, yeah. You're one of my favorite people. And I don't say it like that because I love, I'm not lying. I say this because, you know, we've probably only hung out, I don't know, like half a dozen times,

maybe a few times more. You've been here a couple of times. You came to the Summit. We've hung out for lunch two, three, four times. Maybe we've been at events maybe a couple of times. We've been on the phone, you know, different things like that. But I feel like I've watched your journey for years. And I love the fact that you were essentially, I mean, it's so hard to do what you've done as a violinist.

It's really challenging. I know because my older brother hard to do what you've done as a violinist. It's really challenging. I know because my older brother's a violinist. Right. An amazing violinist. He's an amazing jazz violinist. But it's hard to make a living as a violinist. Right. And it's hard for people to want to care about you as a violinist.

Yeah. You're usually just like, I don't know, on stage like accompanying something. Right. But you're not front and center. And you went from America's Got Talent to not even, to getting booed off stage. Literally. And coming back and essentially saying, I'm not going to let this define me. Yeah.

But I'm going to continue to do this because I love it and I enjoy it and you want to explore it. I think that's really cool. So you overcame this kind of public failure, let's call it, even though it wasn't that bad. The most, it was bad. For you, it was humiliating. The most humiliating, devastating moment of my life. He was like, stop playing the violin, essentially.

Like, don't do this. I mean, he told me I was so bad. I mean, they all said you were pretty bad. But one judge in particular was like, you sounded like rats being strangled. Like, you were so bad. And, I mean, in front of 11 million people. They told me right before I walked on stage, like, good luck. There's 11 million people doing it right now.

Oh, my gosh. No way. I mean, and I performed only in front of, like, 500 people. Tops. Like, tops. Maybe, like, a few hundred. Like a school talent show or something. Literally like an open mic night in front of 100 people.

I mean, I was terrified, but yet I was also so excited. I knew this moment was going to make me. And then I walk out on that stage, perform, get X'd in the middle of my performance. So embarrassing already. Then I get torn apart by the judges. Literally tears are happening behind my eyeballs. Like I'm like trying not to sob on stage. And you know, the thing is though, when I ran off that stage, first of all, I sobbed in the bathroom for hours until they told me I had to leave. Like literally the cleaning staff came in and they were like, oh, we thought everyone was gone.

Oh, no. We're closed up for that. You've got to go. This girl crying on the bathroom floor. Ew, first of all. But the thing is, it took me a while to get back on my feet and have the courage to step on a stage again, have the courage to tell myself that, no, you are good enough. Even though the world just told you no, you are good enough. Like, even though the world just told you otherwise, you are good enough. And I think there's this inner gut that like will guide you

because sometimes it is time to turn around and say like, you know, maybe this isn't the best path for me. Sometimes though, you have to listen to that gut that tells you, no, maybe you're not good enough, but you're not good enough yet and that's the thing a lot of times people joke with me they're like they sure got it wrong on america's got talent they were actually right they were actually right the timing the moment i wasn't good enough like you watch that video i was terrible like yeah i wasn't good but like that's the thing is we all are on different phases of our lives and our trajectories and dancing and playing the violin is very very difficult so hard and I was new in that craft I just invented the idea and so it

wasn't that I wasn't good enough or didn't have the potential I just wasn't there I wasn't good enough yet and so I worked my tail off and you said it's really interesting my path and where I've ended up. Like I can't believe that like I get to tour and that I get to tour the world and people show up. It blows my mind sometimes when I look out at these audiences and I think all these like thousands of people bought a ticket here in Germany to see my show. Like it blows my mind and I just get filled with so much gratitude. They don't happen all the time. It's very specific moments where I'm overcome with the reality of the situation of like, oh my gosh, this is my life. They came from me.

But the thing is, I didn't realize when I started out that what I had set out to do was impossible. Being a dancing violinist that plays electronic music, at the time I had no money to make a career happen. It was impossible. But because I didn't understand that and because I believed so strongly in what I was out to do, it happened. Because I saw it. I visualized it. I prayed for it. It felt right. And I think that when we don't put the limits of reality around ourselves,

like there's so much that we can accomplish that we box ourselves in sometimes with doubt, with fear, with like what other people tell you. We build these like limits around ourselves. And I see that more in myself now than then. You have more limits now? I work really hard to not have them because I've learned so much. I've experienced so much more of the successes and the failures, and I've just gotten reality checks of like, oh, I understand this industry.

When I started, I did not understand the industry at all. That's probably why you were successful. And that's why I was successful. I'm so glad. So why are you reality checking yourself now? Well, now I try the reverse. I try to unreality check myself and be like, I literally, when I started writing this album, I thought to myself, I need to learn to dream again. God, it's so true.

I've forgotten how to dream and to make wishes and send them into the universe. I used to like literally do that all the time. I would be like, my dreams, they can come true. And I'd see them and I'd feel them. And I've been amazed at how many of them have come to fruition because I believe they would happen where now I have to like consciously make the decision. Like we're going to dream. We're going to think big again. And because the more you learn in life, the more you start to limit yourself the same way a child has dreams. We need to dream like children. And I would say one of the biggest ways that I saw one of my dream, like

I've seen it in so many ways that my dreams from the past when I was the strongest dreamer have come to fruition. And one of those was you were there. We toured with Evanescence, like a co-headline tour this summer to co-headline with one of my idols. You had videos that you played on stage from like when you were 16 singing Evanescence, right? Right. Like when I would say to people like, oh, I was a huge Evanescence fan. You know, I am a huge Evanescence fan and I have been my whole life.

They'd be like, oh, that's cute. But then I on stage would show a music video I made in high school with my best friends of me like rocking out and singing Bring Me to Life by Evanescence. And the audience would laugh and it was like this very funny moment in the show. But then I'd be like, okay, that was funny.

Maybe a little embarrassing. But like, let's all pause for a second. I just shared the stage with my idol. It's amazing. Amy Lee. That girl up there, she never, like, I want, first of all, no one would have ever watched that music video and thought to themselves, wow. One day. That girl's going places. Like, no, I looked no one would have ever watched that music video and thought to themselves, wow. One day.

That girl's going places. Like, no, I looked like such a dork. But the thing is, is that girl didn't think she looked like a dork. That girl had big plans, big dreams. I worked my tail off to get there. And because I, like, put it into the universe, not only now have I was on Amy Lee's album. Wow. I've performed with her.

I've toured with her. Co-headlined. And she's now on my album. Wow. And, like, and also Lee's album. Wow. I've performed with her. I've toured with her. Co-headlined. And she's now on my album. Wow. And also, it's funny. The song that she sang on stage with me every night was my song Shatter Me. I wrote that for her years ago. And she was on maternity leave.

She wasn't able to sing it. We got Lizzy Hale, who is amazing. And I'm a huge Lizzy fan now. But it's just so interesting, like putting things into the universe. Amy sung that with me every night on stage. And I'm like, I would have died to have her sing that years ago

when I wrote that song for her. Like what you put out into the universe, what you wish, what you dream for is powerful. And it will come back to you in one shape or another. So I consciously make the effort to dream. dream for is powerful and it will come back to you in one shape or another. So I consciously make the effort to dream. Why do we lose the ability to dream? I think it's because we learn and we put these, like I said, these limits around ourselves,

which are, there's like practicality and people oftentimes are afraid to like be uber optimistic because it's like, oh, and I'll get my hopes up and my hopes will be dashed. But like- Who cares? Who cares? Who cares if we do? If anything, like hope in the moment and excitement right now, you live way more in the moment

than you experience like the future. Some of us get way caught up in the future, which isn't even happening. Like if you can live in the moment and find excitement in the present and like, yeah, get excited. Feel that energy. And if it doesn't work out, you'll have a moment of disappointment. But then feel excitement for something else.

Like live in those moments of dreaming and wishing. Because I think there's such a powerful energy. And whether you see it as God or like the universe or whatever, there's a bigger plan for you than what like practicality can make. Well, no one gets excited about someone who's practical. They get excited about people who have that magnetic energy, that dreamer's energy, that spark in their eye. We're not like, okay, let's give everything to the person who has a rational mind.

We're like, no, we want to give the things to people that go for it. Yeah, and a rational mind is great because you see what's practical stuff, but my life and my trajectory, I remind myself, has not been practical. No, nothing you've done. It doesn't make sense how I am here today speaking to you, having the kind of life I have. It was not practical. And I believe in miracles.

And I 100% think that angels have guided my footsteps, that God has really guided me. Because I've asked, and I've told him I had big dreams. And I think sometimes if you just merely, like, what's the harm in asking for big things? So true. Why not ask? Why not ask the universe for what you actually want? You know, and I love what Jim Carrey said. He said, I'd rather take a risk and go for the things I actually want in life because

you can fail at anything. Exactly. You can fail at your safe bet or you can fail going for something that you really, really want. So true. Like life has no guarantees. Zero. So go for what you want. We'll be gone tomorrow.

Exactly. Oh, I love this. So another thing that I love about you is that you failed publicly and you came back. Yeah. And you said, screw it. This is a good lesson. I'm not ready. I don't have the came back. Yeah. And you said, screw it. This is a good lesson. I'm not ready. I don't have the skills yet.

Yeah. But maybe I'm close. Let me work on it more. And then you blew up. You invented your own way of kind of marketing with YouTube and social media originally, which kind of allowed you to reach the masses. Yeah. And then be able to get these bigger opportunities and go on tours and stuff like that.

And you keep doing it, right? You keep doing it over and over again. But I remember a year and a half ago, we talked about this a little bit, that you kind of felt like your father passing with one of your best friends passing. And you kind of achieved a lot by then too. You kind of reached a lot of these dreams that you had. So how do we discover how to re-dream when things are really good? Because I feel like I'm a little bit, I can understand because sometimes like, man, everything's growing, everything's going really well for me,

but how do I even take it to another level and re-dream for something even greater? Ooh, I've found for myself, there's a fine line between reaching for greater and then realizing why I love where I'm at and thinking about what's more important right now. Is it most important for me to keep growing and getting greater and greater? Or is it more important to relish in what I love about what I do? And that's for everybody to decide for themselves. And there have been times I'm like, no, it's time right now to reach for greater. Like I have big dreams still. I have big things. And then there's other times where I'm like, no,

right now I need to focus on what I love about what I do. And there was a time when I started to delegate, like, well, I've always had a hard time delegating like certain things. And I've realized that, yes, I could probably maximize my time and reach out and do other bigger, greater things if I delegated more of my stuff. But then I was like,

but that is what I love about what I do. You know, I love creative directing all my shows. I'm like way too involved. That's what I love about what I do. You know, I love creative directing all my shows. I'm like way too involved. That's what makes them magical. But that's what, and also I love that. That's part of, like for me, the writing the music, it's something only I can do. I have to write my own music

because I don't know anyone else that writes like I do. And I don't know, it wouldn't be the same. So even though that's the hardest part for me, like emotionally and like it's the most work for me is the writing. It's something only I can do. However, I could have someone creative direct my tours. There's so many talented people out there. But that's the part I love.

I love bringing the show to life. It takes months. Editing my own music videos. I still edit all of them. You edit them yourself? I edit all of them myself. But I think one of my best talents is them myself but i'm a i think one of my best talents is storytelling and i'm a great editor and even though i could find and hire a

great editor i love editing my music video it's like the candy after the meal i like sit there for hours i was literally on a plane the other day i had luna on my lap i'm like way back in 29c and i'm like editing with like my dog and I like someone someone around me was like are you Lindsay Sterling and are you editing your music video back here in the economy that's cool I was like yes I am that's amazing you know because yeah it's like I could probably maximize my time better but for me I had to evaluate what makes me the happiest these parts of my art and so because of that I don't think I'll ever give them away. And so it's like always evaluating those things. And then I think the third thing is also just finding new challenges. Like I said, tiny tweaks. For me, it was really fun to

write a comic book with this album, something I've never done before. I'm good at short-term storytelling, but it made me realize long-form storytelling was a new art that I'd never invested in, never put creativity into. A lot of energy. A lot of energy. A lot of time. I spent hours a day with my writer working on this comic book. And it was a new challenge. And it wasn't that I suddenly went into acting.

I didn't pave it that far. It was just like, okay, what new dimension can I add to my craft to make it feel fresh for me? And it made this album so exciting with these characters, with the story, made my creative direction of the tour completely new in trying to capture these characters in the show. You know, so I think for me, it's just little challenges. Like being like, we're going to push the envelope a little bit on this side while we still stay on the foundation of what I know. Sure, yeah. Yeah. When someone is going through some type of depression or darkness or a shadow of being hidden by the light, what would you recommend for them if it's been a month, six months, years that they've been feeling some type of darkness?

How to get out of it? Yeah. To find their light, their inner light again. Yeah. One thing I love about the symbolism of the moon as well is not only the cycles it goes through, but like the goddess Artemis, like how brave she must be because she brings light to darkness. It's really easy to shine and be bright when the sun is out and feel full of light and you feel the vitamin D coming into you, and it's really easy to feel that. But at night, the moon shines even in darkness. And I think that even through times of hardship and trial,

I found moments of joy, you know, even though I felt like I was covered in shadow. And I think it's possible to experience joy amongst trials, amongst darkness, the same way the moon shines in the dark. And I really feel like there are practices you can go through where you practice being intentional. I mean, sometimes literally it was waking up in the morning and being like, I'm going to make it through this day. Yeah. And that's the best I could do.

Wow, yeah. And I'm going to, or I have that meeting today that I really want to be a positive experience or this meet and greet that I've got to go to, I want it to be a positive experience. So I'm going to like meditate before I go. And it took a little more energy to be intentional, but like setting myself up before I got into situations so that when I arrived, I knew how I wanted to feel at least, you know, and I would sometimes meditate for those things or visualize myself walking in confidently. And when I first was realizing I had anorexia years ago. How old were you then? I was like 21 or 22 when I realized I had anorexia.

How long do you think you had it for before you actually realized it? I think it had, honestly, I sensed like looking, signs of it from the time I was a child. Like six, seven? I had memories from eight years old feeling fat. You know, where I remember putting on a snowsuit, going to the snow, like a big puffy snowsuit. And I remember looking in the mirror and feeling so fat as an eight-year-old. And taking a belt and like tightening around my waist in the snowsuit trying to give myself a form.

Like, you know, and so I have memories like that. It hadn't overcome me. It was just these very early signs that like, uh-oh, something's a little off in the way I'm thinking. And it really took me over when I went to college, I think. That's when it got out of control because suddenly I was on my own and I wasn't, no one was watching what I did. And so I think I, before I realized I had it, I think I was like categorized or

diagnosably anorexic for like probably two, three years. But I think the first steps that were the most helpful, aside from like accepting it, going to therapy, starting the process. But for me, it was being intentional about listening to the way I thought about myself because I was extremely depressed at this point. At 22? 22. Because one, anorexia, you don't have the chemicals to create the right endorphins in your body anymore. So depression had consumed my life more so than ever before or since.

And it was listening to that inner dialogue and realizing, oh my gosh, automatic thoughts are so powerful and training my mind. And to this day, I mean, I started about two years ago writing in a gratitude journal because at that time when I was overcoming anorexia, I started to just take time every day to look myself in the eye, in the mirror and tell myself the thoughts I wanted to believe. Even if you didn't believe them. I did not believe them. But your mind categorizes things in your mind as lies or truth.

And so at first when I would say these things, they would automatically go into the bucket of lies. I'd be like, you're beautiful. You're smart. You are strong. I love my body. I am grateful for my health and my body. I would say these things.

And I would like cry as I said them. Yeah, yeah. Like it was such a lie. But eventually after telling yourself enough, your brain will start to then put it into the truth category. If you've said it enough and it starts to accept like, well, maybe this is true. Same with like self-love and self-acceptance. Like if you've been hating yourself for years, saying I love you is going to be a lie because it is a lie. It is. And eventually it will become a truth. And so I, it was a very like physical and intentional practice. Now it's a much more casual practice,

but like I write in a gratitude journal every night and I just say three things at the end of the day that I'm grateful for about my life and about my success. And if anyone is still listening, this is one thing that I strongly encourage you to do in your life. A simple gratitude journal. It takes like two minutes at the end of the day. And I have noticed a significant change in my happiness because I think we all have a default setting where if you're not extremely excited and happy, and if you're not like devastatingly sad and crying, there's like a default that you just kind of like coast through life at. And that's your, that's your setting. And my default setting has shifted one through

doing these practices when I was like super sick in the mind and it's like moved me up. But even now that I'm like a healthy person, I've seen the gratitude journal take me to a higher plane where more likely in random situations, I see the positive in it. Like I'm stuck in traffic and I'm like, well, at least I live in this beautiful city in LA where people want to be. And I'm like, what the heck has happened to me? And it's not all the time, but it's like automatic responses happen because of patterns that you've created. And if you've had years and years of being pessimistic by like simply writing in a gratitude journal every night, you're training your mind to make positive patterns. And so more on your default setting, you're going to be a happier, more positive, more grateful person. And it is

like been one of the simplest things that has the biggest impact, I feel like, on my just average happiness. So I strongly encourage everyone to do a gratitude journal because it makes you intentional in saying, this is the kind of person I want to be. These are the kind of thoughts I want to think. And whether you're at the stage where you need to literally look yourself in the mirror and be like, stop beating yourself up. Be kind. Be kind to yourself. And when you do that with yourself, it makes you the kind of person that can do that for other people. That's true.

You cannot be that loving and that kind if you are horrible to yourself. That's true. Like, no matter, I don't care how, you know, how loving and kind of a person you are in the exterior, it can't be as authentic if you hate yourself. That's true. So. hate yourself. That's true. So when someone is facing with a level of self doubt, that seems like they're at a level zero or one of confidence out of 10. Yeah. They doubt themselves. How do they build it up to an eight, nine or 10 over time? Yes. And maybe, maybe they have a skill set that is talent. They have a lot of talent. Like you had a lot of talent.

Right. But maybe you didn't believe in it. Right. For a while, right? For a while, yeah. So how does someone increase their level or decrease their level of self-doubt and become more confident? Well, first of all, I think that you have to realize there's hope. When I first realized I was anorexic, at first I was so hopeless.

And I was devastated because I read that anorexia is incurable. Wow. And I was like, oh, my gosh, like, I'm going to hate myself forever. Forever. Like, this is incurable. I now understand what they mean when they say it's incurable. But I live a very healthy life. I just have to manage this, like, part of my brain that sometimes tries to come forward.

Same with, like with depression, anxiety. They're a part of you now, and you can overcome them. You can manage them so that you just have to be aware when they try to sneak back in. Because it does. It tries to sneak back in when I'm stressed or depressed. I'm like, ooh, there you are. You're trying to come back, but I'm not going to let you ever take over my life again. And I won't. I'm like, ooh, there you are. You're trying to come back, but I'm not going to let you ever take over my life again.

And I won't. But I think, first of all, it's giving people hope and realizing that just because you're here today and your reality in this is so strong, and just because it's real to you because depression and anorexia and anxiety, those are real things. They're real for you. But it doesn't mean they're true. Like self-hate is real doesn't mean they're true. Like self-hate is real. Doesn't mean it's true. And start. So I think having hope that just cause you're there today doesn't mean that you can't overcome this. Cause you will, if you work at it, I mean, a hundred percent, if I can go from literally hating myself and having no confidence to being able to like play in front of, we played in front of

17,000 people two nights ago and had an amazing show and I was able to share like messages and music and art and like I don't that is not wasted on me I am so grateful for it for these experiences that I have because I came from a place of such darkness and if I can get there like what's to say anyone can't um so first of all, but secondly, baby steps. Starting today, starting with the realization that I can make it through today and I can make it through today and at the end of the day,

I'm gonna write my gratitude journal and I'm gonna find three positive things that happened today. And then like taking these steps, okay, and making them very practical, tangible steps. Like don't try to be like, I'm gonna be confident and love myself 100% today. That's exhausting.

You can't just go from depression to full-on love in one day. And I used to hate it when I listened to people talk like that. They would be like, just be confident. Just own yourself. That's impossible. When you're in the midst of darkness and depression, I hate going back to the symbolism of the moon over and over again, but it doesn't go from darkness to full light in one day. It takes like a freaking

month to reach its full moon status. And so start with the practical things, whether it's go to therapy, get help, talk to someone, look yourself in the eye every day, say, I love you. Talk to a friend, you know, just find the steps that work for you. Now I have this amazing tool belt around me that whenever, and I have like relationships and friends that I can turn to these tools that I've built up through the years. And so now I have the ability, if I am feeling dark in a day, to like pull myself out of it, sometimes within an hour. Sometimes it takes a week if it's a really hard thing. In the case of loss and death, it took a year and a

half, but didn't mean that in given days I couldn't pull myself out and be like, I'm going to be positive today. I've got this amazing arsenal of tools now that have helped me find happiness and light even amongst some extreme trials. Just baby steps. Take yourself where you're at and realize that there is hope to get to where you want to be. You will far surpass what you thought you could do. So true. So true. One day at a time.

You mentioned loss again. I feel like I'm a pretty balanced human being where I take on all my fears. Every year I write a list of my fears and I try to overcome them. I love that. From what would be public speaking to salsa dancing to singing in public to all these different things. I'm like, okay, what is an emotional fear for me? Ooh, yeah. An inner fear.

Not like spiders or snakes, but like what's a thing that I would be embarrassed by or afraid or feel insecure about? And then I try to conquer those every year. I've never lost someone close to me. Except for grandparents who were, you know, it was their time. I've never had a sudden loss. And it's a fear of mine. Yeah. Because I have a lot of great relationships.

And I know a lot of people. And I know it's just a matter of time where someone that I know. It's part of life. It's part of life. Yeah. And I don't know if it's going to be in a few years or 10 years

but it's going to happen eventually. Yeah. Someone is going to die. Yeah. And it scares me. So, and I'm not saying

I want this to happen now because I don't want to. Of course not. No. But how did you handle it when you had two very close relationships in the same,

you know, in a very close period of time pass away, how would you, how did you handle it? And how are you going to handle it in the future when someone close to you passes? I don't think it gets easier. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I lost my best friend, then I lost my dad. And it's not like, well, I've been through this once before. It was easier. I got this. Yeah. No, I think loss will always be extremely hard. But I learned that the heart is so resilient.

I said when I lost my best friend, it was the first time I'd ever felt that kind of pain. And I just thought to myself, I will never be whole again. Wow. And then my dad died. And I was like, I will never recover from this. Like, they were the two most important, most prevalent men in my life. Wow. And then my dad died, and I was like, I will never recover from this. Like, they were the two most important, most prevalent men in my life. Wow. And so, you know, but the heart heals.

And the most amazing thing about it for me, I think, is I'm so grateful that I'm a very, like, spiritual and a very religious person. Because I've always believed in angels, and I think my belief in angels has given me so much grace through this. Because as hard as it is, it's amazing that that pain just gets farther away. I've always missed them. But it taught me to live in the moment with people. Because that's the thing you regret more than anything, is just wishing that you could relive some of those moments and realize how special they moments and like realize how

special they were and like tell people how special they were with my best friend he passed away suddenly and I was like oh my gosh I never had a chance to say even goodbye I never had a chance to like really tell him what he meant to me and that was like devastating um but I believe in angels and since then I feel like I have had some of the most beautiful experiences where I know they were close to me. And I know they were guiding my steps. And it's like I don't think they're far. I think that sometimes in a way that they're able to be with me more than they ever could have before. And they're a part of my adventures still.

And I believe I'll see them again. Like 100%. And it just makes you remember how finite this life is. If you have a belief in an afterlife, like this life is just like a glimpse. You know, it's a moment. And we'll be with our loved ones again. And I'm going to share a story. I think I shared this at the Summit of Greatness.

When I was on Dancing with the Stars, I realized about halfway through the season, like I almost had, I kind of had a mini panic attack or anxiety attack because I just realized, again, what I had set out to do was impossible. Because I was going back and forth between ballroom rehearsals with Mark Ballas and then I would, you know, we'd rehearse like six hours. Then I'd go to my tour rehearsals. Crazy. And we would rehearse a brand new show for Christmas for hours. And I was mentally, physically, emotionally, in every way, I was so drained. And then we left on tour. And now I'm doing shows and meet and greets every day, practicing with my partner every day, and flying back and forth from the East Coast to the West Coast to compete.

And I was beyond tired. Then I busted a rib. Didn't break. It just to compete. And I was beyond tired. Then I busted a rib. Oh, didn't break. It just like, it just got injured or something. Yeah. It got, it got dislocated. The worst pain when you break a rib or do anything with your ribs. Can't breathe. Breathing hurts. You can't breathe. You can't sneeze. Heaven forbid you sneeze. It's the worst. And so I, now I'm physically broken and I went to the only place where I thought I could go, and I prayed. And I got a blessing. That's something that we do in my faith is you can get a blessing of comfort and healing.

And it's basically where someone with a priesthood puts their hands on your head, and it's kind of like a prayer from God to you. And I was promised that angels were with me, guiding my footsteps. And more specifically, I was promised that my dad had been with me and would be with me for every step of this journey. And he wasn't going to leave my side. And I relied on that promise with everything inside of me. Because in the context of reality and a reality check, I was doomed. Like I did not have enough hours to sleep. I did not have enough hours to practice. There just were not

enough hours in the day to do what I needed to do. And so every night when I would go to sleep, I would pray and I'd be like, I have four hours to sleep right now. And I'm exhausted. I'd be like, I need it to count as 10. And then I would go to sleep and I'd wake up the next morning, I'd go to rehearsals and I'd be like, I have three hours count as 10. And then I would go to sleep, and I'd wake up the next morning. I'd go to rehearsals, and I'd be like, I have three hours to practice right now. Oh, my gosh. I need it to count as 10. Like, I need this to be maximized. And I prayed for miracles.

And I tell you, when I stepped on that dance floor at Dancing with the Stars every time, I danced better than I possibly had the strength to dance. Wow. And more specifically, I'm sorry, this is such a long story. I like it. But when we were at the finale, we made it all the way to the end. more specifically, I'm sorry, this is such a long story. I like it. But when we were at the finale, we made it all the way to the end. Final three, right? Yeah, final three. And Mark and I were rehearsing backstage. We're running through our routine.

At this point, we hadn't slept literally in 24 hours. We'd been on a red eye to get there. We're so tired, bloodshotshot eyes literally just trying to make it through our last routine and i went blank you know how sometimes you just blink forgot you just freeze i mean i was so drained and we're back there rehearsing and suddenly i just start missing every step and mark's freaking out he's like are you okay he like shakes me he's like lindsay we're about to go out there and dance in front of millions of people. And I'm just like, I got this. I got this. And then they call our names to go out and perform.

And so I step onto the dance floor, and we get hit by the spotlight. And I'm like panicking. And I look up into that spotlight, and all I had time to say was like a two-word prayer. And I'd prayed a ton by this point, but I just looked up and I said, Dad, Dad, help. And then the music started and it was almost like a dream. Like you ever have those experiences where you're almost like watching your life happen, you're watching a moment. And it was like, I floated through the routine and it happened so effortlessly and I felt so powerful in that moment and I did the routine perfectly wow and when it ended like I ended up getting second place on Dancing with

the Stars but in that moment when it ended I won wow I don't care what anyone else says like and my partner too you know for a moment for a whole night, I won Dancing with the Stars because I did the best I could have done, and I conquered what I set out to do, and no one can take that win away from me, like no mirrorball trophy, no anything. It just was such an experience of, yeah, people can tell you what you physically and emotionally can do and can't do, but miracles are real, and angels are with you. I honestly imagine us walking through life with these like big angels around us all the time. And to this day, I pray for my angels. I pray specifically asking for my dad to help me with things. I pray

for Gavi, my best friend to help me. Like if I'm nervous for a specific show, I'm like, hey, be on stage with me. I prayed for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to help me through dance rehearsals. I prayed for angels all the time. And I honestly believe that that's how miracles happen in our life because there's the finite of what you can and can't do. And then there's the unexplainable.

That's true. And Dancing with the Stars is one of the, funny enough, one of the most spiritual moments of my life was on that stage because I did something that physically I can't do. Wow. And yeah, believe in miracles, believe in angels. And I think that is a long way of saying loss is a finite thing in this life. However, we miss them, but I think they're always with us. Gosh, great storyteller. Thank you. I love it. I love it, Lindsay.

I love a good story. My dad was a great storyteller. I actually prayed for him today. My dad was such a good speaker, and he was a great storyteller. And so as I was coming in today, I was like, help me to just be able to speak clearly. And I was like, please help my dad will be here with me today to help me share the way he would share. And I literally pray for angels all the time. That's powerful. That's powerful. Yeah.

There's something in the sports when I reflect and just kind of observe the world. There's two different types of winners who are really successful in sports. And they both have a lot of confidence. Here's the difference between the two. One winner at the end of a game when someone says, or a match or a fight, when someone says like, you just won, how did you do it? And they say, I am the greatest.

This is like the Muhammad Ali, Conor McGregor, Mayweather approach to response. Like, tell me how you did it. Well, I'm the greatest. I worked so hard, I've got the talents, I'm the best in the world, I knew I would win type of mentality. And that works for some. And then there's the other that says, well, God's the greatest. And all my talents come from God or from my source or the spirit of the universe. And they put the hope and the pressure on something else

as opposed to like, I'm the best and I knew I would be able to do this. I knew I'd be able to give my best because of something else, something greater. And you do that really well. You call on the angels and God and everything else and you do that really well to give you the strength as opposed to, I have all the strength and the power.

So I think that's really cool. Well, thank you do that I think I think it's exhausting it's a lot of pressure to like be like I'm the greatest like everything's on me like there's a lot to be said about the the amount of calmness when you can hand it over to the universe or hand it over to God and say like you know what I really believe a lot in it's meant to be or it's not meant to be. And there's a bigger picture. And there's so much pressure that gets taken off your shoulders if you realize that I'm doing the best I can. I did my part.

I worked my tail off. I was faithful. I prayed. I was kind. All those things. I did my best to be the best I could and show up with everything I've got in the I'm the greatest form. But because you've got to believe that you are good at what you do and that you are

confident and you are great. So it's like you show up with that. But if you also couple it with the, well, but I mean, I'm not the greatest. Like I have this amazing team of support around me of angels and God. Like I think that just adds an extra element of like power to you. It's unlimited power. Unlimited. And then it's not about me.

It's like I showed up the best I could be. But at the end of the day, like God's going to direct me and take me where I need to be. And there's a lot of comfort that comes from that. Like I think it takes a lot of the bitterness out of life of the losses, like not winning Dancing with the Stars when I killed it. Yeah. You dominated. I dominated that show.

Who actually won that? Jordan Fisher won. Amazing. He's Yeah. You dominated. I dominated that show. Who actually won that? Jordan Fisher won. Amazing. He's amazing. Like, incredible. I still think I just as much deserved to win, but it takes the bitterness out of it or like the, oh, the anger of like,

or like not winning America's Got Talent at the time. Like, heck, I'm so glad I didn't win that show because God had a different, much bigger plan for me than, you know, if I'd won that show, I would be in a very different place than I am now, you know, and sometimes things are just not meant to be. It's not meant to be. Yeah. What's missing in your life right now? I mean, gosh, I think I've always wanted a family. Like someday, I think it's, I'm 32. All right. It's a good age to be. But yeah, I think for me, like I I want to have a life partner, like, to go through life with, you know?

And I want to have kids. I want to have that experience. And like, a lot of my friends are in that phase. Like, my sisters are all in that phase of having like multiple children and raising them. And that's a chapter of my life that I think I want to have. And I know I will have someday when the timing is right. And there have been times when I've been disappointed that I'm not there yet. Really?

You know? Yeah. Honestly, I grew up thinking I'd be married at like 20 and just always thought I'd get married super young. And then once I got to 20, I was like, no, I've got things to do. Um, but yeah, I think that there have been times when I've just craved having a life partner because I think when you're a, like a, you know, an artist, sometimes the artist route can be a little bit lonely. Even though I tour with tons of people, you know, and I'm on the road, it's, I've got all these people surrounding me, but still there's a little bit of. You want to sleep alone with your dog. Yeah. Cuddle up with my Chihuahua, which is great. I love, I love you Luna. But yeah, I think that it's important to just, again, hand that over and be

like, I truly believe that that will happen for me when the timing is right. Even though sometimes I don't always, I want it now. And I do get discouraged and I have cried about it. Like, I'm not to say that I'm always just like, it's fine. Just because I get that perspective at times when I'm clear, doesn't mean that I don't have moments in all of these things, whether it's success or being disappointed that something didn't do well or like relationships, like doesn't mean I haven't in the moment been devastated by things. I just then go and remind myself that like, it's going to be okay. Yeah. What would be the perfect partner for you? What would that person have emotionally, spiritually? Yeah. The perfect guy. All right. Take notes, fellows out there. Or just what's something you're looking for? What would be your match?

Well, I think spirituality is a big thing to me. Obviously, I'd want someone that can have a belief in something greater than themselves and have faith and hope. I think also someone with a sense of humor. Life's too short. You've got to learn to laugh through life. And I think everybody has their own type of humor. You just have to find someone that has your same odd sense. Because we all have these odd senses of humor. We're all quirky.

And it's finding someone that gets your same odd sense, because we all have these odd senses of humor. We're all quirky and it's finding someone that gets your quirkiness. And I think also we all have to, in a way, I think when you fall in love with someone, you're also falling in love with the version of yourself that they bring out of you. I mean, I think that a hundred percent, like everybody brings out, whether it's a friendship or a working relationship or a, like a partner, they bring out a different part of you, and you want someone that brings a part of you out that you love to be. And so I think that's a huge part of it. What part of you would you love to be more of that they would bring out of you?

Sometimes I get super hyper-focused. I have this, like, I think people are so fascinating. We all have different sides of our personality. You have, like, think it's people are so fascinating we all have different sides of our personality you have like your core side and then you've got your secondary personality and sometimes my secondary personality becomes dominant because it's the red side of me that's like the task oriented work hard a b c equals d like i have that side of myself but that's my secondary side my first side is playful, fun loving. Like, you know, I'm a yellow, I'm a performer, I'm a creative, but when I let my red take over the yellow, I'm unbalanced. And so I think someone who brings out that playful side of me and keeps that

like childlike person alive, I think that's, um, I think that's the side that I need in a partner to bring out because sometimes my red, it's good at being strong on its own. I don't need someone that brings that out of me. I can do that on my own. Okay. Bring out the playful side. Yeah. I want to play through life.

I want to have that in my family. I want to have a family that not only knows how to, kids that know how to work hard and understand the value of a dollar, like the way I was raised. But also, like, my home also had a lot of love and play in it. And I think that's why I got to where I'm at. Like, we were allowed to play and play big. That's great. Yeah. Who taught you to play big? Both my mom and my dad.

Like, my dad was a writer and he, very playful. And he was a great storyteller. And as hard as he worked, he always made time for his kids and like i didn't i remember at his funeral i think funerals are some of the most inspiring things i've ever been to both my dad and my best friend's funerals i left being like i want to be a better person wow um the spirit was just so strong there but i remember at my dad's funeral like person after person after person got up and told these stories about how he made time for them and how he made them feel seen in ways that was just like, I was like, where did this man find time to do this? I knew he did that for me. I didn't know he did that for the neighbor down the street.

I didn't know. The milkman. I didn't know. Yeah, like people at our church, his students told stories about how he made, I was just like, somehow he found all the time in the world to make people feel seen while he was still a super hardworking.

And that's the part of me I want to make sure it doesn't get hidden is that the time that you make time to not only play, but you see people and you make people feel seen. Because at the end of the day, if you just work, work, work, work, work, and don't let people know that you see them, whether it's like, you know, my dancers on tour or my fans, making sure that they feel that I see you. At the end of the day, we all crave just being seen and understood. And that's one of the things, more than anything, I think I learned.

My dad raising us made us all feel so seen and understood. Wow, that's powerful. Yeah. And I want to do that for people. And if I let my red personality take over, I miss that completely. Yeah. What do you think your dad would be most proud of you today? Oh, my dad was so proud of me. I'm going to cry. he was so proud of me back when no one knew who i was yeah you know he was my biggest fan but like the thing is not only me like my sisters he was all of our biggest fans and i think that's one of the things that's so powerful he didn't care about like the fact that i had had millions of followers or something, like each one of us. I remember a story when I was a teenager and I had to run late at night.

I was on the cross-country team and I would run through the summers to stay in shape. But Arizona is so hot in the summer, miserable. So he would drive in his car behind me while I ran at night so that I'd be safe and I wouldn't be alone and so he didn't have to run with me. He would stay in his Buick Skylark and drive. To the AC.

Actually, that car didn't have AC so he's out there in the heat too. What a way to show your daughter that you're her biggest fan. Wow. You know, like, I'll drive in the car with you at like 10 o'clock at night

so you can go running. And I know that my dad would be the most proud of me, not for the music, not for the fame, but for the fact that I've done my best to stay true to myself and, you know, stay true to my faith. And, you know, I'm not perfect in it for sure, but it's something important to me that I made a commitment when I first saw that I was being successful. I was like, I don't want that to change in my life. And as much as like the industry and the world has like tugged and pulled at me, that's my core. It's one of my core things. And I think my dad would be really proud to see that I haven't let go of something that's been actually hard to maintain. Um, but that's a piece of me. Yeah, that's powerful. I know he'd be inspired for sure.

Love you, Dad. I know he's here. Yes. You're going on tour right now. Yeah, about to leave. You've got the new album. You're going on tour. Where can people watch you live? Oh, man. People can watch live. You're going all over the country. I'm touring all over the world.

We'll be in Europe this fall. We're doing a Christmas tour in the States in the winter. I want to go to the Christmas one. Oh, my gosh, come. I think it's so inspiring. Yes, I'll send you the dates when we're close. I know we're like an hour outside of LA. I'll come.

If I'm here, I'll come. Come to the Christmas tour. That's going to be across the States. And then we're going to do the new album Artemis Tour in the spring in the States. And we'll be hitting South America as well in the early album Artemis Tour in the spring in the States. Wow. And we'll be hitting South America as well in the early part of the year, so we'll be everywhere. I mean, literally, I'm going to tour the world in the next six months.

You're a machine. I'm a machine. You're a machine. I'm going. So the album's already out. Some of the singles are out. Some of them are out. On Spotify.

Yeah. So you can catch it on Spotify. The album drops September 6th. Okay. The comic book will drop shortly thereafter. We're hoping by, you know, beginning of September. But yeah. It's amazing.

I'm excited. So we can find it all where? Where's the best place to find a tour? The comic? Tour dates. I mean, lindsaysterling.com. You'll see my tour dates. You'll see, like, links to the album.

You can also, of course, find me on Spotify. Come visit my YouTube channel. That's where I feel like if you want to get a taste of what my art is, my little music videos are my babies. Some of them have like, what's some of the biggest views? Tens of millions, right? Oh, Louis. Some of the videos have tens of millions of views, right? I've got a couple over- Single videos, over 100 million? I've got a couple over 200 million. 200 million? I've got a couple that are that big. Yeah. It's amazing. Thank you. And then, yeah, there's some in like anywhere from like 10 million to like up to 200. 200 million. 50 million. So I'm so blessed,

so grateful. It's amazing. It's amazing. I still sometimes I'm like, I play the violin and dance around. Like a fairy? Yeah, like a little woodland fairy. How the heck do I have these kind of numbers? How come people show up to my shows? But I'm really excited for this tour. We literally just finished prepping it, rehearsals, costumes. It's going to be so much fun. It's a story.

So I hope people come and check out the new themes, the new music. You're one of the most inspiring performers on stage I've seen. Really? When I watched you at the, was it the Greek Theater? The Greek, yeah. Greek Theater, you were amazing. And then when I watched you at my event, Summit of Greatness, I was like in tears.

Oh, stop. I swear to you, because it was like I was watching from the side. And I could see you. It was like these lights were just glistening off your body, and these shadows were, like, dancing around with you. And it was just this beautiful setting to see people just, like, in awe of you. I was like, I know her. That's my friend.

I was like, she's amazing. Oh, my gosh. It was so cool. Thank you. I'm just like, I don't know how you do it. You dance with so much grace. Thank you. And love. And it's like you don't miss

anything when you're playing too i don't know how you don't miss the notes well that's definitely maybe maybe you trick us but it seems like you're not missing anything it sounds so good and you just dance with so much passion and energy that it's all inspiring for people well i truly love performing you're amazing at it. I love entertaining. That's why I write the music. That's why I work so hard. That is all for that moment to entertain.

Since the time I was a child, I've just craved to see people smile through sharing. And there's nothing like that when I'm out on the stage and I'm reminded that these people... Actually, I remember at the show at the Greek usually I can only see the front like two rows and everything else is glazed and I usually try to kind of glaze everything over because I'm focused but like occasionally you'll catch these like smiles and you'll catch these like or tears from people and it was funny for some reason the audience at the Greek was very lit

it was very strange but I remember getting everyone super nervous and being like almost thrown off because I'm like, oh, there's Lewis House. Oh, there's Lilly Singh. There's Derek House. Like weird. People, not only can I see like so many faces,

but I see people I know. It was very strange. But no, I love performing. Yeah, for anyone who hasn't come to a show, they're very theatrical. It's amazing. Lots of costumes, lots of dancing, lots of storytelling.

It's worth it. And I hope you guys come out to the show. But yeah, I'll get you out to the Christmas show. I would, lots of storytelling. It's worth it. And I hope you guys come out to the show. But yeah, I'll get you out to the Christmas show. I would love to. Yeah, it's worth it. Make sure you guys go to the show. Go to lindsaysterling.com. Follow you on YouTube.

Instagram, you're on Instagram a lot too. I'm on the gram. Yeah, come follow me on the gram. I'm trying out TikTok, so maybe you'll get on TikTok in the future. Yeah, maybe I'll go TikTok. We'll check it out. So anywhere, Twitter, everything like that. I think I asked you this question last time.

This is called The Three Truths. Oh, I should have, I thought about this because I knew you would ask me. Okay. Okay, so imagine

it's your last day many years from now on this earth, right? Okay. And you've achieved every big dream you want. You've manifested it. You've got the partner,

the family. You've got the albums, magazines, whatever you want to create, you've done it. Uh-huh. But for the family. You've got the albums, magazines. Whatever you want to create, you've done it. But for whatever reason, you've got to take it all with you to wherever you go next. So no one has access to any of your content anymore. Your videos with trillions of views now, they don't have them anymore. They're not available for us.

But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true. Three lessons that you would leave behind to this earth. From your experiences of your life, that would be the lessons that you would pass on to someone else. What would be those three things, three truths? Okay. So I thought about this. I was caught off guard last time. Oh, no, three?

For sure, my first one would be there is something so much bigger than you and i've talked about that many times in this podcast but just like when you limit yourself to the finite and what you see in front of you you limit yourself so much but believe that there is like whether it's god or whether it's the universe reach out to it and wish and believe that there is something there for you to be helped by. Because when you do that, it's amazing what you can accomplish. It goes beyond your physical abilities and your own mind and your own strength. Because there is something definitely out there that will lift you when you feel like you have no strength. So believe in something greater than yourself. Dang it.

Secondly, be intentional. Don't just limit yourself to the reactions that come to you naturally, because sometimes those come from places where that life has taken you and you're letting life be the guide and situations be the guide. Be intentional. Decide that you want to be grateful. But I think practicing being intentional, whether it's writing in a gratitude journal every night, deciding how you want to show up to something or listening to the voice in your head and saying, no, I don't want to believe that. Be intentional with your thoughts

and how you feel about yourself and own that. Write your own. That's the only way you actually write your own story. And third, I would say, see people as people. I think a lot of times we just are so stuck in like the only person we truly understand these deep emotions from is ourself. If you're like every once in a while I'll be in a crowd of people and I'll look around and I'll suddenly get like actually overwhelmed because I realize every single person, like these thousands of people all walking through the streets right now, all have so much on their heart.

They have dreams. They have pain. This person just wants to be a dancer and they like they're struggling so hard to try to be that this person can't pay their bills but they also are so excited about this because they just had a baby and like everybody has so much on their heart and once you see people as like people yeah love takes over and kindness takes over and you you are a different person to other people when we just see people for me it, it's that we're all children of God. We're all equal.

And suddenly prejudice is gone. All status is gone. We're all human. And we're all filled with so much hope and fear and love and everything. And you realize we're all the same. And I think seeing humanity is a really powerful reality check sometimes.

Okay, that was really long, but those are my three truths. I love those. I love those. I love them. When you're going to somewhere like Mexico or another country, do you have a translator speak on stage? Because I wish people could hear your messages when you do get on stage.

That's always one thing I've thought about doing. Actually, when we go to Europe, I'm having some dialogues and monologues translated. Oh, that's cool. And they going to be on a voiceover. That's cool. Because I was always like, yeah, I love to share messages from the stage. You're amazing at it. I always hope that people will come.

I want them to be entertained at the show, thoroughly entertained. But I also want them to leave uplifted. And yeah, when there's a language barrier, that's a little bit difficult to do through words. But I will say, at my meet and greets I always have like these like chats with my fans and I actually started crying I think it was in Monterey when my fans they were so sweet and they were so loving and I just was like so grateful this connection moment like here I'm in Mexico I barely we barely could communicate and yet they shared so much love with me that it was like yeah it's just humanity yeah like these are all people who are expressing to me through like broken English.

I'm trying to understand through my like tiny bit of Spanish. Like they're just expressing me that like what you've done has made a difference to me. And I was like, wow, what you're saying in this moment is making a difference to me. And that's humanity at its basic, you know. We're all the same. We're just trying to make it through life and trying to like love each other and uplift and make it through. Yeah. Well, Lindsay, you're one of my favorite people. Oh, thank you. I love coming here. I love connecting with you, even though we don't have that much time together throughout the year. But I really want to acknowledge you because you bring so much joy and light to the world.

Oh, thank you. And through all the challenges you've been through, you continue to rise above them and be an inspiration to so many people. And again, I just, when I see you on stage two times, I was just like, it moved me so emotionally. And I love that you show up with that light and that love. You help heal so many people. So I'm very grateful for you. I acknowledge you for just being an incredible human being and for having such high values and standards in life.

And I think you're a great example and model for what a human being should be. So I'm very grateful for you. Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you. Of course. Thank you so much. I was so nice. And I just want to acknowledge you.

Do you ever get acknowledged? Once in a while. Do you ever get acknowledged? Sometimes. Okay. Well, I want to acknowledge you for the amount of good and positivity and information. Just like practical. It's one thing to stand up there and say, love yourself, be good. You help people find very practical ways to have self-love. You're a voice for power.

You're a voice for people to find their best inner self. And you share that with the world in such practical, tangible ways. And now you're doing it through live events. I think that the amount of love that you give to the world is incredible. And it's so apparent. Whenever I'm around you, I feel my power, literally. And I think that's an amazing gift that you have to make people, when you're around people, they are aware of their own gifts. So I just want to say, I want to acknowledge you as well for the power you share. I appreciate it, Lindsay. Thank you. Okay. Final question. What's your definition of greatness? Oh, I wasn't prepared for that one.

I forgot about that one. My definition of greatness, I think my definition of greatness is doing everything you can to show up in your best state, whether that's hustling harder, working harder, whatever it is, showing up the best you can, but then accepting the results. And still loving yourself in spite, not because of the results, but in spite of the results, whether it's the results you want or whether it's the results that you didn't want. Because we all show up, and sometimes we get, sometimes we don't. So showing up with everything you've got in your power, then accepting that you're still great regardless. You're the best. Lindsay, appreciate you. Thank you very much. Thank you. That was so fun. Appreciate it. My friends, I hope you enjoyed this interview with the incredibly inspiring lindsey sterling one of my favorite people to watch perform and be around i don't spend enough time with her because

she's traveling the world on tour performing in front of 10 20 000 people a night screaming fans everywhere and inspiring people with her dreams but every every time I'm around her, it's always a positive experience. If you enjoyed this, share this link with one friend. Just shoot them a text, put it in a WhatsApp group message, put it in Slack, put it on your Instagram stories and tag me, Lewis Howes and at Lindsey Sterling, because I'm sure she would love to hear how you thought about this episode. And leave me a review over on Apple podcast. at Lindsey Sterling, because I'm sure she would love to hear how you thought about this episode. And leave me a review over on Apple Podcast. I don't care if you leave a one star or five star like most people do. I want to see your reviews and your comments. How can we improve? How can

we make this better for you? What are the other types of content you're looking for? Let me know by leaving a review over on Apple Podcast right now. You are a special human being. You are here for a reason because you want to learn, you want to grow, you want to improve your life. And that is special. Not many people in the world are constantly seeking the wisdom and the mind food to feed their souls to grow and improve their joy, their happiness, their fulfillment, and really make their dreams come true. And as Harriet Tubman said, every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

You are a dreamer, my friend, but you've got to be willing to have the patience, the passion, and the strength to continue through all the adversity that is going to come your way. Because you will fail and you will fail hard on your face. You will break bones. It'll be ugly. It's not going to be fun. You're going to embarrass yourself. Lindsay talked about how she embarrassed herself in front of millions of people on TV. And that was a great lesson to help her get better and learn and improve. So whatever it is you're going through, just know it's part of the process to achieving your dreams. I love you so very much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music