The School of Greatness - Mel Robbins: The #1 Skill To Master To Create Your Most Abundant Life

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Despite achieving massive success with her latest book “Let Them", today Mel Robbins shares how she spent decades battling self-hatred and con...stant anxiety until she finally addressed her nervous system's fight-or-flight response rooted in childhood trauma. Mel also reveals how her groundbreaking "Let Them Theory" emerged from a transformative moment at her son's prom, where her daughter's blunt advice changed everything. Her powerful perspective on building self-belief through consistent action rather than external validation offers a blueprint for anyone feeling stuck—success isn't about perfect habits or natural talent but simply showing up when you don't feel like it and refusing to let discouragement win.Mel’s books:The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can't Stop Talking AboutThe 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday CourageThe High 5 Habit: Take Control of Your Life with One Simple HabitIn this episode you will learn:Why success is ultimately about not quitting, even when everything feels impossibleHow to develop faith in yourselfThe two biggest obstacles to achievementWhy external success never repairs internal self-worth, without addressing your relationship with yourselfHow to recognize and reset your nervous system when it's stuck in chronic fight-or-flight modeFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1761For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Mel Robbins – greatness.lnk.to/1710SCGabby Bernstein  – greatness.lnk.to/1714SCMelissa Wood-Tepperberg – greatness.lnk.to/1690SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome back my friend to another episode on the School of Greatness. We have a massive guest today. Her name is Mel Robbins. I've known her for over eight years. And she is literally exploding everywhere right now with her new book, The Let Them Theory, which I think has been number one on Amazon for almost three or four months now. And number one on the New York Times best seller list for the the last few months. It is everywhere and we sat down during my book tour in the last few weeks ago We sat down and talked about her personal journey of how she's actually navigating this cultural phenomenon that's happening with her book the let them theory and She shares how she's dealing with success and staying grounded and staying present. This is the type of goal, success, or dream that most people who have an idea, who want to launch
Starting point is 00:00:54 a product or a book or a course or anything like that, this is the dream most people have. They want to be number one on the bestseller list. They want to be number one on the New York Times list. They want to have the number one podcast in the world. This is the dream. If you have a podcast, a book, if you're trying to do anything in this industry online, Mel is at the top of the game right now.
Starting point is 00:01:13 And if that's something you've ever wanted to learn how to do, or even just get your stuff started and learning how to manage and navigate the success, the weight, the pressure of it all, because there is extremes. Once you hit the extreme, she's going to be sharing some of this process. And she really opens up about her personal journey of healing childhood trauma, breaking free from destructive patterns that have held her back, and finally learning to feel at peace with herself, regardless of the achievements and the criticism and all of it.
Starting point is 00:01:44 She doesn't hold back about her struggles with self-doubt, anxiety, and the constant need for control that plagued her for decades. If anyone here listening right now has ever wanted to control everything about your work or your career or your message that goes out and you've wanted to look a certain way and you want everyone to like you, this is going to be perfect for you. If something's been holding you back on your insecurities or your self-doubt, you're gonna want to listen to this over
Starting point is 00:02:09 and over again and you're gonna want to share this with your friends and family because I know you have people in your life who are blocking their ability to create freedom inside of them and externally to get to the next level of what they want. There's a lot of talented people out there who are being held back by some of these things. So if you know someone in your life like that, then please send them this link because you're gonna get a ton out of this conversation. Again, we got to share during my book tour. If you haven't gotten my new book, Make Money Easy, it's all about healing your relationship with money so you can set yourself into financial freedom internally and externally. Make sure to grab a copy of Make Money Easy and also if you have not got a copy yet, I don't know where you've been in the last few months, make sure to get a copy of the Let Them Theory again, which is number one on every book list out there in the world right now and continues to just go bananas all over the place. Make sure to get a copy of each one of them
Starting point is 00:03:06 and I cannot wait for you to dive into this episode with the one, the only Mel Robbins. You know, I just had you on the show a few months ago. But it was before the madness. It was like the madness was coming. You knew it was about to hit, but it's hit in the last few months in a big way in a beautiful way. Yeah, how have you been able to? expand your emotional
Starting point is 00:03:32 Nervous system in your kind of energetic container to be able to kind of question. What am I saying? How have you been able to prepare to be able to receive this much abundance? Oh, it's a Greek That is actually and and you know what, I just learned that when you say actually it is like a backhanded compliment. So I didn't actually say that. You're actually really nice. You're actually really nice. That's actually a good question.
Starting point is 00:03:55 I'm sorry. You're actually, yeah. But I have a problem. I wasn't that bad, yeah. Right, because it's a filler word for me. So I don't mean it to be that way. It's a great question because there's no question that this is kind of one of the biggest moments of my life.
Starting point is 00:04:11 And I think there are gonna be times in your life where you're getting married or divorced, right? Or you're having a child or you're giving a eulogy or you're graduating or you're giving a eulogy, or you're graduating, or you're launching a business, or you're putting your art out into the world, and you recognize that this is a moment. And so as this thing started to take off, and you know, you said this is this Mel, I've known you for eight years, and you know, I, Lewis and I have a very, like, you can probably already tell, a relationship like older sister, younger brother.
Starting point is 00:04:49 And he was the first person to interview me when I self-published the Five Second World Book. So this man showed up for me when nobody else, like, knew who I was, I'd never done anything, had no social following, and Lewis kind of plucked me from obscurity and supported me, and I think it's so important to remember the people who supported you. And so it's been an interesting experience
Starting point is 00:05:17 because I know that this is way bigger than me. I mean, I'm obviously, this is not a new idea that you stress yourself out when you focus on things that are outside your control. Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Stoicism, Buddhism, the Serenity Prayer. As you start to use this in your life, you probably remember things your grandparents said to you or things that your parents said around the kitchen table or that you heard at a sermon or at synagogue.
Starting point is 00:05:42 So, it's sort of powerful because it's not, it's reminding you of something you already know. And so as this started to take off and resonate, and I'm realizing this is one of those moments, I have missed out on so much of my life because I was anxious or afraid or felt like I was undeserving. I was not able to be present and allow it in,
Starting point is 00:06:04 that I was like, I was not able to be present and allow it in, that I was like, I am not missing this. And so I asked somebody for some advice and they gave me this kind of visual where they said, I want you to just imagine that you're on a plane and the plane is moving 500 miles an hour at velocity and you're gonna feel like this at times in your life. And what's weird about these moments
Starting point is 00:06:23 is that there's this sense of acceleration, but there's also this real slowing down. If you can allow yourself to be present, like if you've ever been present for a child being born, if you've ever stood at the end of a Nile as your partner is about to walk in. It's a moment. It's a moment. And so I have just visualized myself kind of in an airplane that's moving 500 miles an hour, but my job is to sit in the seat
Starting point is 00:06:57 and to have my water or something a little harder and look out the window and occasionally check out the view. Enjoy the view. Yes. And I think that it's a useful thing because I've also, in the middle of this, you know, things are going on in life and things are going on, you know, with my kids and with my husband and everything's not perfect. But I've even noticed that when stuff feels like it's flying sideways, just having this meditation to say,
Starting point is 00:07:30 okay, my life can feel like it's moving super fast, but if I just take a breath and remind myself that I don't need to get caught up in this, I can really just stay present in the moment and that's what's helped me to kind of allow it in and also just realize it's just so much bigger than me. Like this is tapped into something. Like I think there are times in life
Starting point is 00:07:56 where there's a lot of negativity, whether it's in your relationship or your family or your community or the world at large. And if you pay attention, there are corresponding positive messages. And I feel that right now in particular, I mean you all showed up.
Starting point is 00:08:12 What night is it tonight? Is it a Monday? I think it's Monday. Oh, my God. On a Monday night. Tuesday night. I don't know. See, I'm not that present.
Starting point is 00:08:21 A Tuesday night to be at an inspiring event, because you're the kind of person that wants to grow and learn and surround yourself with other people who do. That is a big deal. Like, there are millions of people 20 miles from here, millions and millions, but you chose to be here. That says something about you. And so I also feel that, you know, in moments where things feel overwhelming in life, that being somebody that is putting something positive about showing up for people is more important than ever. And you're doing
Starting point is 00:08:58 that by being here, and you're doing that by what you do. And so I think kind of you receive you're able to receive it if you're present and if you realize it's almost never about you. Interesting. Now for the last eight years since I've known you, and you were working really hard in developing your communication skills
Starting point is 00:09:17 for many years before then, you've been one of the top speakers in the world. You've had big moments. You're a great content creator, marketer, entrepreneur. Like you've done a lot of big things in the world. You've had big moments. You're a great content creator, marketer, entrepreneur. Like you've done a lot of big things in the last eight years. It's not like this is out of nowhere.
Starting point is 00:09:31 For those who are entrepreneurs in the room who have been like trying to build it and grow it and maybe are struggling, how did you, I guess, emotionally prepare yourself? I know I already asked this a little bit, but how did you really emotionally prepare yourself for what was really to come? I don't think you do.
Starting point is 00:09:48 I really don't. I will tell you why. That question presumes that I somehow was self-aware enough in the middle of the stuff that you are doing to actually think that I need to prepare myself for something else. Now, it's gonna sound like I'm contradicting myself. So I'm at- Because you knew this was gonna be big though. There was like an energy before the launch.
Starting point is 00:10:13 No, but hold on a second. So let's go, so if you go back in time, right? Like one of my favorite things to do, because personally, I personally believe, whether we're talking business, or you're talking building a social media following, or you're talking any kind of art that you wanna take off, any kind of money you wanna make,
Starting point is 00:10:30 I literally believe, Lewis, that success is a matter of not quitting. Like, that's what it comes down to. It really does. And more than anything else, I just was like a tenacious person. I'm, like, I just was, like, a tenacious person. I'm just like, I'm not going to stop here. And there were so many things that I did not do well.
Starting point is 00:10:52 Not at all. I mean, like, in terms of, like, just the talk show that literally got canceled because it sucked. Oh, my God, I love you. Thank you for being there. I'll blame the fact that it was canceled on me and not on you, okay? Here's the thing, it didn't suck though.
Starting point is 00:11:09 I mean, how many episodes did you do? Well, we taped like 174. Sorry, it can't suck if you do 174 episodes. That's true, but they were airing it. Like, it can really stink. But also there was COVID, right? It stopped because of COVID. Yeah, but you know what, Louis,
Starting point is 00:11:23 I'm willing to be honest. You're discounting yourself though. I'm gonna stop So here's the thing, you're discounting yourself though. I'm gonna stop Mel for a second because you're discounting yourself. No, you gotta look at the ratings. People were not watching. And when they don't watch, you don't make money. And then they cancel the show.
Starting point is 00:11:35 Just because people don't watch doesn't mean it sucks. Okay, now, so hold on. Let's build on this, right? So here's the thing that I developed out of survival. So there are the things that I developed out of survival. So there are the things that you do out of survival that turn out to be brilliant. And when I was creating some of the things that I'm about to share with you,
Starting point is 00:11:57 they were not because I was brilliant, it was because I was trying to keep myself going, especially in times when I needed to pay bills and I needed to get out of debt. And so whenever I felt like quitting, I would literally have a pep talk with myself and I would say, this is not how my story is going to end. I just refused to believe that. And I refuse to believe that this is how it ends. And so I would say those kinds of things to myself, even though I felt like this is the end
Starting point is 00:12:28 and I just made the stupidest decision I could have ever made or I just lost more money or that didn't work out, just another twist, another. And so that's one thing that I would do. The second thing that I would do, Louis, is there's this thing that I do with time traveling, where I go to the past and I go to the future. So it's easy in this moment,
Starting point is 00:12:50 I don't know where you are in your business, I don't know where you are in your career or your life, but it is easy to sit in this moment and to look backwards and to make sense of all of the twists and turns that have happened to you, right, and to happened to you, right? And to say to yourself, okay, I can see the lessons. I can see how I grew.
Starting point is 00:13:14 I can see how that made me stronger. It is a very important skill to take that ability of making sense of the past and actually project it forward. And this is how you develop faith in yourself and your capability to see yourself through the twists and turns that life is gonna demand of you. And so as you sit in this moment, the skill to develop from this point forward
Starting point is 00:13:42 is to look ahead and tell yourself that I have faith that this moment too, just like every moment I can see in the past is but a brick on the path of my life that is leading me towards something I cannot see yet. and I have faith that whatever this experience is delivering, no matter how much it blows, no matter how painful it is, no matter how much I don't deserve this, that this too will be part of the thing that gets me to something even greater. And that is how I built what you're talking about, but never in a million years. Like I have big aspirations and goals
Starting point is 00:14:28 just like everybody here. That's why you're here on a Tuesday night, right? You're investing in yourself, you're learning, you're surrounding yourself with incredible people that wanna do the same. And so even though I had amazing goals, like this is completely just blown apart what I ever thought was possible for myself.
Starting point is 00:14:50 It's crazy. In a good way. It's amazing. Completely shocked and humbled by it all. What was the goal of like, okay, I'm gonna launch this book and did you have like a number in mind of how big it would be
Starting point is 00:15:00 and then it just went so far above and beyond? Is that what happened? Like I just had always thought that it would be great to have a book that I don't, like I don't even know. Like I wasn't even thinking like 10 million copies of this or that. Right, right, right. Like who sells that many books?
Starting point is 00:15:16 Who's even reading books? Right? I mean, I, so I just never thought, because it's bigger than that. It is something that has transcended So I I just never thought because it's bigger than that it is something that has transcended the 322 pages it is it is caught wind at a moment in time Where everybody needs help?
Starting point is 00:15:40 Focusing on what's in your control so that you can focusing on what's in your control, so that you can focus on what's meaningful, and so that you can protect yourself from outside stressors that are draining your time and energy. Like, never more in my life has this been more important or more relevant, and so I never ever, Lewis, thought that it would, I would be, I never thought that I would just be somebody
Starting point is 00:16:06 that this many people knew about. Wow. Or that my work would be this public. Like, I know the impact of the five second rule. I know how that had spread around the world. We know of more than 1,000 people that have taken the time to write to us who did not die by suicide
Starting point is 00:16:24 because they used the five second rule in a moment to stop themselves and ask for help. And so I thought that is the most extraordinary thing that could ever happen to a person, to put something out into the world that actually helps people and saves lives. So to think that this tool has so far eclipsed that, it's just unreal.
Starting point is 00:16:50 And what have you done before you got here, I was talking about the weight of gold. There's a documentary called The Weight of Gold, which is where Olympians kind of sabotage themselves after they win the gold medal. Oh, I'm never writing another book because I can't top this. That's what you mean.
Starting point is 00:17:04 No, not that, not that, but how have you stayed present within yourself to make sure you don't sabotage yourself with the success? Like how have you said like, oh, am I actually deserving of this, or am I actually worthy of this? How have you made sure you've been able to say yes? I don't even think about that.
Starting point is 00:17:22 You don't think about it? No, because I know how hard I worked writing that book with my daughter and how much research went into it and the experts and I... So you don't have any doubt around like... Zero. That's good. Zero, because here's the other thing.
Starting point is 00:17:35 I don't, like I'm very proud of the impact. I'm just proud that people are reading a book. I'm proud that people are interested in this moment in time, in reading a non-fiction book. I'm proud that people are interested in this moment in time in reading a nonfiction book. A self help, are you kidding me? And that they're, I know they're reading it, why? Because they're recommending it to people. And so I think it's bigger than a book because to me that's a sign of hope that people are taking time and turning it inward to improve themselves,
Starting point is 00:18:05 which is how you create a ripple effect that improves everything. And so, you know, I guess I... The one thing that I'm doing is I feel very lucky because we live in Vermont, right? So it is not, I could not live in LA. It's peaceful in Vermont. Oh, there's mountains. There's trees
Starting point is 00:18:26 There's the you know, we raised her family here in Boston and then we moved to southern Vermont and my son went to high school up there and it It is not in my face It is easy to not get full of yourself It is easy to not get full of yourself when you wake up and there's bear poop in your driveway and you shop at a hardware store for your groceries and you, nobody cares. And honestly, like I don't either. And so I feel like I'm removed from the noise that is media and the machine and all the stuff
Starting point is 00:19:09 that could really trip me up. And since it's not in my face, I don't really think about it. That's amazing. But I know your story from in your early 40s. I think it was like $800,000 or a million dollars in debt. Yup. And you- 19 miles from here, everybody. Right by Framingham, yep, 19 miles, 2008, $800,000 in debt, my husband had restaurants
Starting point is 00:19:31 in the Boston area. So how do you build belief after having big financial failures? How do you continue to show up again and again and not just say, I am a failure, not this was a failure. Right. Everybody hates this answer. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:49 Because it's not a pill. No, I'm serious. It's not like a quick fix and it's not one thing. Like I literally will tell you what changed my life was getting out of bed when I didn't feel like it. And the reason why that's important, and it's the same thing that you talk about and nobody wants to hear it, I don't even wanna hear this,
Starting point is 00:20:12 is that there is a skill in life that I didn't learn until I was 41 years old and I was about to lose everything, and the skill is, can you do the things you need to do when you don't feel like doing them? It's that simple. Everything that you want to create in business and in life is possible through action and patience.
Starting point is 00:20:31 That's it. And if you only did the things you don't feel like doing, you would have everything you wanted. It's true, being a champion is not a sexy life. No. Being an athlete from the sports world, even the greatest athletes in the world, they live a very boring life. Because they get up and do groundhog day over and over.
Starting point is 00:20:52 They get up at 5 a.m. when they don't want to wake up. They eat the same food every morning. They go to the gym the same way and do the same repetition win or lose until they get to what they want. It's not sexy. It's boring. Actually it's what they want. It's not sexy. Not, it's boring. Actually, it's grueling.
Starting point is 00:21:08 It's boring. It's the reason why it's a game of not quitting. Because you got to be willing to do all of the things you don't want to do. You got to be willing to do all of the stuff that's boring and grueling on the days no one's watching, nobody cares, nobody's there to help you, it's just you against you. And that's why I'm going to go back and say, if you can't haul your ass out of bed on those
Starting point is 00:21:32 mornings on time, when you don't feel like it, you're not going to achieve your goals. Because you're not going to make the cold call that you need to because you're not going to feel like it. You're not going to say no to a deal that's a bad deal for you because you feel like you need it, like you're going to get your emotions all jacked up and they're going to run you over. And so when I say, how did I build belief in myself? I did it the only way I know how.
Starting point is 00:21:58 It's in proving that I believed in myself and that I could keep my word to myself no matter how I felt. And that begins every morning when the alarm rings. It's a daily battle. Like, even though I invented this thing, 5-4-3-2-1, to get you out of bed, I still have to use it. Like, I think it's a mistake. Like, every time you and I interview an expert that studies habits,
Starting point is 00:22:20 and they say, well, it's 21 days or it's 63 days or something, I'm like baloney. That's only if you like it like because there are things that have never become a habit for me Lewis like I hate unloading the dishwasher I have to force myself to do it I hate folding laundry I have to force myself to do it there are gonna be things in your life that you always hate doing do it anyway and get over yourself because that's actually what's standing in the way of what you want. You know, it's easy to look at Louis or me and be like, oh, it's
Starting point is 00:22:54 so easy. Are you kids boring? You get up at 5.30 in the morning, you go to the gym, you then I got her the studio. We had our first meeting at 748, where's Cameron? Is Cameron still here? Cameron, there she is, one of our senior producers right there for the Mel Robbins podcast. Cameron was there, 745. She'll tell you I'm just as cranky at that point. You're like, run this thing.
Starting point is 00:23:18 I was there until 8.30 tonight, we'll be back up tomorrow at 5.40 in the morning. Like this is what it looks like. And so for me, how you believe in yourself is that if you can get out of bed enough days in a row, and all you need in my opinion is 70%. I'll even give you 60%. If you can get 51%, like let's shoot low everybody.
Starting point is 00:23:40 If you can get out of bed more days than not, when you don't feel like it, you're proving to yourself that you can rely on yourself to be bigger than the emotions in the moment. And that's what you need in life to keep going. And so it didn't come overnight, it came over time. And there are plenty of times where you're not going to believe in yourself. And that's when I use those tools that I shared, which are saying, like, I refuse
Starting point is 00:24:13 to believe that things end here. And then that's when I remind myself everything that has been really awful or good or anything has led me here, which means this awful thing is actually going to leave me there. And, you know, the other thing that I have recently started to think a lot about, I really feel like there are only two things that hold people back. And I'm not talking about the big external factors, because there are very real factors that limit what's possible for you to achieve in a day. And I think it's very important to say that. Like the amount that I can get done in a 24-hour window
Starting point is 00:24:59 today is very different than what I could get done 14 years ago when I have three kids who are home and I can't pay my bills and I have no help. And so don't be beating yourself up when you see that quote like, yeah, everybody's got the same 24 hours. No, we don't. That is a lie. But you can do a lot with the time that you have. And one of the things though that I think I've come to believe
Starting point is 00:25:27 is that there's only two things that are actually stopping you from getting the results that you want over time. And what keeps people, I think, from really achieving what you're capable of are two things. The first one is discouragement. I think this is the single biggest obstacle. Discouraging yourself? Yeah, just pure discouragement. Because, you know, let's just admit to ourselves, we live in this crazy amazing moment of time where
Starting point is 00:25:57 you could never, ever, ever say with a straight face or use an excuse, I don't know how. Go to ChatGTP. Go to Google. No, I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. Literally, go to ChatGTP and say, act like the world's best life coach or business consultant. Here's the thing I want to create.
Starting point is 00:26:15 Give me a 60-day plan. Tell me what to do every day for 15 minutes that will actually create that. Your jaw will hit the floor. And we literally had this thing happen with our podcast where we were having trouble with upload speeds in terms of getting files thing. And the teams were working on it, working on it,
Starting point is 00:26:32 and I finally said, will you just put our equipment in ChatGTP and ask it how to solve this? Honest to God, you guys, 30 seconds later. It's been out the answer. We've been struggling with this for a year. So here's the thing, though. Information only makes you smart. It doesn't make you do it.
Starting point is 00:26:52 And so you can be holding the answer in your hand. You can read Lewis's book, which is fantastic. And you can learn everything that you need to know in terms of the blueprint. But if you are discouraged, you won't do it because you will believe it's not gonna work for you. So how do we overcome discouragement? That's a great question, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:27:16 But that's the first thing, you said there's two things. Discouragement, and what do you think are some ways that can help us get out of that? Obviously, your method 54321 gets you moving. Right. But even if you're moving, you could still be doubting or discouraging yourself. Yes. Well, so the thing about using 54321 to push through is I felt so discouraged. That's why I wasn't getting out of bed back then. Because I believe there was nothing I could do to get out of the financial mess that we were in.
Starting point is 00:27:48 I believed that getting out of bed or looking for a job or laying off the drinking or not screaming at my husband. Why would I do it? Like, it's not going to work. It's not going to matter. And if you can get, if you get yourself in that rut, it's not gonna matter, then why would you do it? And so the interesting thing about that moment in my time is that I don't know that anybody
Starting point is 00:28:15 could have necessarily gotten through to me because I was so convinced. And you know how you can get so right about how stuck you are? Yeah, very righteous. Yes, yeah. It's kind of a way to stay in control, as weird as that is. And so I believe that the best way, for me anyway,
Starting point is 00:28:35 was simply that countdown thing, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, move. And what happened for me is that the action started to prove that there were little things that didn't fix the big problems. But they at least shifted a small thing in me. And again, it doesn't change overnight. It changes over time. So that's one thing. I think the other thing that's really important, honestly, and you're actually already doing it, which is pay attention to input. If you feel discouraged in your life listening to Lewis, being here on a Tuesday night, where you know he's not going to come here and be like, y'all are losers, and you're never going to achieve your stuff, and this book is not for you, because you're gonna be broke.
Starting point is 00:29:25 No, you knew you were gonna get encouragement. And so seeking it out is a really important thing to do when you recognize you can't do it for yourself. And so you can catch that from other people. And you're doing that. And so I think those are two things, and then there's another exercise that I love that I typically do around happiness.
Starting point is 00:29:48 But I think you could do this in your life right now. Take out a piece of paper. This was something that I just stumbled upon with my daughter. I'm not sure I've told you this story. I'm not sure. I don't know. Okay, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We share a lot.
Starting point is 00:30:01 So I don't know. Our daughter after college graduated completely just depressed. Which one? Sawyer. The one that I wrote the book with. Okay. Yeah, okay. So she graduated from college completely depressed.
Starting point is 00:30:17 Why was she depressed? Oh, my God. Because COVID had blown up two years of college. You know, and when you're all disappointed because you feel like you missed out on graduation and you missed out on senior year and you missed out on this and she had put on weight and she had been drinking too much
Starting point is 00:30:32 and all of a sudden the friends have scattered and she is home and she's going to a job in cybersecurity which she was not excited about. And so she's just like bummed. And so she had this breakdown, she was crying like crazy. And when she was finally done crying, we sat down and I said,
Starting point is 00:30:55 I said, well, what do you think is gonna make you happy? She's like, I don't know, I don't know what's gonna make me happy. Mmm. And I'm like, okay, here's the thing, hon, I think you do. Take out a piece of paper. And you can do this at any moment in your life. It's the greatest exercise. Draw a line down the center.
Starting point is 00:31:15 I want you to now think about a moment in your life where you just felt happier. You don't even have to be like, this is the happiest moment. When were you happier? When did you feel a little bit better? And the first thing that popped out of her mouth was senior year in high school. And first thought of mine was, well, that's kind of sad because that was like four years ago. But okay. Didn't
Starting point is 00:31:33 say that. Because you don't want to, you know, hit somebody when they're down. So I said, great, I want you to describe a day in the life. What time did you get up? What did you eat for breakfast? What did you do during the day? Who did you see? What did you do after? And she said, I got up at 6.30, I ate breakfast,
Starting point is 00:31:57 I went off to school, I was with my friends all day. We then hung out because we had lacrosse practice. I was dating somebody. I would party on the weekends. I was looking forward to going to college. I'm like, great, okay, that looks like I can see why you felt better. All right, let's describe your life now.
Starting point is 00:32:13 Sleep till one, I wake up hungover. I don't know what to do all day. I feel terrible. I'm out of shape. I'm not exercised. I don't see my friends. I'm not looking forward to everything. I'm like, shape, I'm not exercised, I don't see my friends, I'm not looking forward, everything. I'm like, okay, compare.
Starting point is 00:32:28 Your life provides a map to the things that actually make you feel good. You just forgot. And so if you do that exercise, what you are going to see is a roadmap for what you have done at times in your life that actually make you feel like you and make you like lift you up. And I don't remember who said this, it might have been you. I once heard somebody say that if you ever feel stuck and you don't know what to do, the single most important project to take on is yourself. And taking on improving yourself, whether
Starting point is 00:33:07 that's your health, or whether that's learning something new, or whether that's finally facing your finances, or whether that's to claw back more time on the weekends, and take on a project that you've been pushing aside, whether it's launching your YouTube channel, or figuring out affiliate marketing, or starting a a podcast or getting your real estate license or going back to school, when you take on yourself as a project, you now create a sense of direction that gives your life meaning.
Starting point is 00:33:35 And that's always gonna lift you up. Yeah. So I think that's how you do it. Can you think of a time where you were accomplishing a lot of things and outwardly had a lot of success or things looked good or you were building something and people were acknowledging for it but you didn't feel good about you?
Starting point is 00:33:55 You mean like my 20s, my 30s, my 40s and a lot of my 50s? Is there like a season, like a six-month or one-year season where you're like, man, it looked like everything was great. Or my business was blowing up. Or this. Or people were saying you are incredible but I didn't feel good. I think a lot of my life has felt like that.
Starting point is 00:34:14 Really. Don't you guys feel like that? Even when you are successful? Yes. Yes. Because if you have not worked out yourself and your relationship with yourself, it does not matter what's happening on the outside.
Starting point is 00:34:29 That's like the clothes you wear. That's what everybody sees. If you hate yourself, if you still are beating yourself up for the mistakes that you made, if you're holding that over your head like ransom for your happiness, success does not make you happy.
Starting point is 00:34:50 I started too late. Thank God I did, but I started too late in earnest looking at my relationship with myself. Really? Yeah, I think everybody, like, you know, I think that we all make the mistake and there's a lot, you know, of psychiatrists and psychologists
Starting point is 00:35:07 and incredible researchers out there that talk about this. This is not my field of expertise, but I have lived it in terms of hating myself and holding past mistakes over my head and feeling like I'm a bad person. And so many of us chase achievement and tell ourselves that if we just get a million followers, if we just have a million dollars in the bank,
Starting point is 00:35:30 if we just drive the right car, if we just have the right clothes, if we're just in the right friend group, then those things on the outside somehow repair the things on the inside. Those are just the things you're doing. How you're feeling about yourself is the game. And the faster you can dedicate time and energy to looking at who you are
Starting point is 00:35:56 and what you can learn from the mistakes that you've made and how you forgive yourself for the things that you did that hurt other people and the things that you've that hurt other people and the things that you've done to yourself that hurt you so that you can step fully into the next chapter of your life feeling like you've got your arm around your own shoulder. Like that is the greatest gift you could ever give to yourself. For real. Absolutely. And I also think back to your question, it's one of the reasons why I am humbled profoundly
Starting point is 00:36:29 by what is happening in my career right now. But I'm very clear, this is a job. My identity is not the podcaster of this book. Full stop. And it wasn't until I could get good with myself and the kind of person that I am and forgiving myself for the mistakes that I've made in the past, instead of just constantly relentlessly
Starting point is 00:36:52 beating myself up over regrets and like waking up every day and feeling like I've done something wrong and trying to prove that I, it wasn't until I got to the point that I was good with myself that you have this very detached experience about the things that happen out there. It's great. It's a measure of like the impact that
Starting point is 00:37:13 you make, but it doesn't change anything about how I feel about myself. And I never ever, ever even knew that it was possible to be good with yourself. That's how much I trashed myself. Wow. When did you start to like take that on that journey for yourself where you said, I'm good with me, no matter what happens in career or numbers or money? Um, I think that I didn't realize that I had actually achieved this breakthrough for myself until the success of this project. And I just completely felt detached from how successful this thing was. So in the last few months?
Starting point is 00:37:55 Yes. And I've been working very, very, very hard to look at the stuff that went down in childhood, the things that I did that were crazy unhealthy coping mechanisms, in especially my late teens and my 20s, and even into my early 30s. What were some of those? Oh God, how long do we have?
Starting point is 00:38:19 I mean, everything, everything from the drugs to the drinking to the stealing to cheating on people, to like, I literally will bump into old boyfriends and be like, oh my God, I'm so sorry you met me. Like when I didn't realize I had childhood trauma and I had been the victim of this, and you know, I had repressed all these memories and instead I had a form of ADHD that was not diagnosed
Starting point is 00:38:38 and it was the type that makes you like really impulsive and you have really low dopamine, and so like you literally are seeking, thrill-seeking behaviors like you know shoplifting or You know cheating on nice guys, and oh my god. I'm really sorry and they're like ah Great to see you, too. Oh wow Used to beat yourself up a lot daily every day. Oh my god I mean am I the only one that would literally you send a text you're like oh my god
Starting point is 00:39:01 Louis did not text back is Louis mad at me Okay, I have not heard from Louis in a day. Is something going on with Lewis? Like I must have done something wrong. And so I, and I now know because I've spent enough time just like you have and like you do because you listened to Lewis, I hearing from experts and going, oh, wait a minute. Hold on a second.
Starting point is 00:39:25 Why is my default thought that I've done something wrong? Why am I so hard on myself? Why am I so busy that I cannot actually sit still? Interesting. And I didn't even realize you guys how, and it's a double edged sword because if you're going to be an entrepreneur and successful in business,
Starting point is 00:39:49 you know you got to have a drive. You know that you're signing up for 80 hour weeks. You know that there is going to be amount of go, go, go that is part of the job and the demand of actually going after something big. That's just what you're signing up for. But what I started to realize, and I don't know if any of you have had this epiphany, but you certainly have, I've noticed, that I actually was busy as a default. And I didn't realize this until the pandemic hit
Starting point is 00:40:20 and there's nowhere to go. And then all of a sudden you get all fidgety because you can't run to Target or you can't run to the coffee shop or you can't run to see your friends or you can't run over here. And then all of a sudden you get all fidgety because you can't run to Target or you can't run to the coffee shop or you can't run to see your friends or you can't run over here. And I started to, and then we moved to Vermont and I'm like, oh my God, there are no,
Starting point is 00:40:32 there's nowhere to go. And my skin is crawling and I started to realize that my resting state was go, go, go, go, go, go. And that sounds exhausting. It was exhausting. I think most, and actually the research now shows, this comes from Dr. Aditi Nurikar over at Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconess, she runs their massive
Starting point is 00:40:56 stress management clinic. Her research shows that 83% of people are actually living in a state of chronic fight or flight. Meaning your amygdala is going. So if you are procrastinating more than ever, 3% of people are actually living in a state of chronic fight or flight. Wow. Meaning your amygdala is going. So if you're if you are procrastinating more than ever, if you feel on edge, if you feel more irritable, if you are struggling to focus more than ever, the issue is that your stress response is running you.
Starting point is 00:41:21 And that was me. And if I go back through my history, I had an incident happen in fourth grade where I woke up and I was, we were in a big family, like ski trip thing with a bunch of other families. And I woke up, I was sound asleep. So a moment where you're safe and resting, and I woke up to an older kid on top of me.
Starting point is 00:41:39 And I rolled over and I don't remember what happened next. And then the next and I don't remember what happened next. And then the next morning I woke up and I had the sheets over me and my immediate, cause I'm in like my 10 year old body, I immediately sense something's wrong. And then part of the human wiring when you're little, and I didn't know any of this stuff you guys, till I'm like in my forties,
Starting point is 00:42:01 that the human design is such that when you're a little kid, you don't have something this is from Dr. Paul Conte at Stanford, who is one of the world's leading experts on trauma. I always thought trauma was like you've been to war, you've been the victim of violent crime, like something like wildly horrific had happened to you. It was a whole new thing for me to understand that trauma is any experience that actually is remembered in the body in an alarm state. It gets recorded in your nervous system. So this happens to me.
Starting point is 00:42:34 I wake up at 10 years old. My first experience is something bad's happened, and then because you're little, you developmentally do not have something called attribution. Attribution is a human being's availability, or a human being's ability to look outside yourself and attribute what you're feeling to somebody else. So little kids, I think this is one of the cruelest things
Starting point is 00:42:58 about the human design. Little kids do not have attribution. So when your mom and dad came home, and some people have that experience where you hear a car pull up on the driveway and you freeze a little. Or you get excited. That's a positive one.
Starting point is 00:43:16 But if you freeze a little. That's because when some people came home when you were little, you know what happened. And so if you still do that or if you hear a crack of a beer can open and something like somewhere just makes it tense, that that is what I'm talking about. So I, of course, didn't go that kid's the problem. I did. I did. I am. And do you know, I suppressed that memory. I don't know why. And I recalled it in my early 30s, and then I didn't know what to do with it,
Starting point is 00:43:47 and I was too embarrassed to talk about it. And then I started to learn more about this in my 40s, and it suddenly made sense. Oh my God, no wonder I wake up every morning and I think I've done something wrong or something's wrong, because this is what my body's been doing since I was 10 years old. This is a stored memory.
Starting point is 00:44:09 And if you grew up in a chaotic household or you grew up with parents where you didn't know what mood people are gonna be in and so you kind of wake up, this is one of the most common experiences that people have that you don't realize it's actually tied to what it was like to be a kid. So that was kind of the beginning of all this unwinding and just just really going deep and going, I don't want to live like
Starting point is 00:44:28 this. And I could have a choice. There are things I could do to just make my body settle. Right. So before you share how you did that, how you started settling it. I don't know if you guys are hearing a theme tonight. But I talked about memories and the meaning we give our memories
Starting point is 00:44:47 create a belief within us that we hold on to. And that belief influences our behaviors. And we consistently show up that way until we are able to reflect and take a step back and say, why am I doing these things? What is causing me to react this way? Why am I responding this way? Why do I tense up in these situations? And so you started to reflect on that.
Starting point is 00:45:08 Yeah. And what helped you start to heal, process, let go of and integrate feeling emotionally safe within you again, whenever you used to feel like you were doing something wrong. Right. And now you can feel more safe within you,
Starting point is 00:45:24 no matter what is happening around you. It's a great question. So for me, because you talked about memory and story and that stuff, it goes a layer deeper because I think and I know you're incorporating this with memory, but for me it was important to have this epiphany moment like, oh my God, this is about the sensations in my body. Your nervous system. Yes.
Starting point is 00:45:43 Yes. Yes. Like it's about that kind of, am I actually calm? Or does my body feel like I am a car at a stoplight and I'm revving the gas? Yeah. And that was what it felt like to be me all the time. 24-7. 24-7. And so there's a million things you can do.
Starting point is 00:46:02 I mean, and I think what's really exciting about it is, what's, you know, kind of sad and exciting, is that, sorry, is that, to think I lived for so long like that, because I didn't know, and it didn't take a long time for my body to learn a different way. Really?
Starting point is 00:46:28 Yes. But what was the awareness that you had and the process you used personally to start to feel more safe? Okay, well, so the first awareness that you needed to go, I don't want my life to feel like this anymore. That's all you need. Making a decision.
Starting point is 00:46:41 Yes. You need to say, I don't want my life to feel like this. And you to say, I don't want my life to feel like this. And you could insert, I don't want my job to feel like this. I don't want my body to feel like this when I wake up. I don't want my relationships to feel like this. I don't want my stress. You can just literally saying the way that my life is right now no longer works for me. That's all you need to do.
Starting point is 00:47:05 And then I would write out what exactly is it. And for me, it was like, I hate waking up and feeling a sense of dread. And then it was like, I hate feeling on edge all the time. And then it was, there were just a lot of things. And so when I started to learn about the fact that a lot of this is driven by your nervous system, there are so many things you can do to program your nervous system.
Starting point is 00:47:33 And what works for me and the good news is there's not one thing that works for everybody. And what I love about having multiple things that you could do is that there are gonna be different days where different things work. And so if you just think about it, like here here's how I think about it. Because I like metaphors, I like visual stuff, it really helps me, like, think about this. So I think about your nervous system, like, there's like electrical wires all through this building that we can't see, right? And the lights are turned on. And I think about those moments when the, my body starts to do one of these and I go on edge or I feel myself getting a little too ramped up about something.
Starting point is 00:48:10 So you know, you're not an idiot, you know when you're calm and when you're present. You also know when you're super stressed out or you're starting to feel that the engine is revving. The way that I think about it is when my fight or flight engine revving nervous system goes, the lights are blinking. They're blinking. Oh, yeah. Because you feel like it's like, and so what does that
Starting point is 00:48:32 mean? It means there's like some kink in the wire somewhere in my nervous system. Who knows if it's from the kid when I was in fourth grade or something that I don't remember that one of you all who knows where it came from. I just know that it's happening. So now it's my job to find the switch. Because if I turn the switch off on a light that's blinking, you know how when you lower a dimmer on a blinking light, it's not so annoying anymore?
Starting point is 00:48:55 All of a sudden, it's a little calm. That switch is the vagus nerve. Vagus nerve runs from your seat through your major organs, through your vocal cord, all the way to the top of your head. This is the on- nerve. Vagus nerve runs from your seat through your major organs, through your vocal cord, all the way to the top of your head. This is the on-off switch for your nervous system. It's how you switch between the blinking light to turn it down a little bit, and now everything's steady.
Starting point is 00:49:17 And there's a bazillion things you can do. You can hum. Like, you can't have a panic attack in church because as you're singing a hymn and your vocal cords are vibrating, it's actually what they call toning the vagus nerve. Cold plunging is a way to tone the vagus nerve. Cold plunging also works because you are putting yourself in a setting, whether you're in the shower
Starting point is 00:49:39 or the bathtub or the ice bath, where all of a sudden the lights start to blink. You get in that cold water, it's like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. And then as you breathe, you're hitting that dimmer switch. And you're bringing it down. Meditation, another way that you can do it. There are so many, like just go to chat GTP and say, I would like, act like the world's best psychologist and tell me what to do twice a day to tone the
Starting point is 00:50:04 vagus nerve and actually calm my nervous system. And there you'll have the answer. And then you're gonna, that's not gonna work for me, I'm not gonna do it, because I'm discouraged. And then you're now going to use five, four, three, two, one, I'm gonna do it. I don't know if anyone here has ever done this. I don't know if you've ever done this
Starting point is 00:50:23 where you felt the blinking, you felt the stress, and you've tried to get someone else to stop what they're doing to cause that stress within you. Yes, it's called marriage. It's called marriage. Parenting, work. Watch what you say though, you know?
Starting point is 00:50:42 You know, yeah, you mean like all the emails, have you ever heard of those? There's like tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, and you're like, best. Send, you know what I mean? Like when you do that? Yeah, but I mean when you try to control or stop someone else from doing something
Starting point is 00:50:57 that's causing you to react stressed out. Oh yeah. And trying to control everything in your environment except for managing yourself. Yes. If you heard something called the let them theory. Yeah, is that something you used to do though? Do I, yes, of course.
Starting point is 00:51:14 Well, because other people are annoying and they stress you out and they worry you. And so this is the problem. We all have a fundamental need for control, right? It makes you feel safe. I need to feel in control of like even, even like Lewis, So this is the problem. We all have a fundamental need for control. Right? It makes you feel safe. I need to feel in control of, like even, even, like Louis, I'll give you an example.
Starting point is 00:51:30 You ready? Oh. Give you an example. What I do? Okay, like so Louis like comes back as you guys were sharing. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Five minutes, five minutes, five minutes.
Starting point is 00:51:39 Yeah, I said, you got five more minutes, you good? Yeah, I'm like, I'm great, I'm great. And so literally like 11 minutes go by. Yeah, yeah, she's like. And now I can't control him. Oh yeah, yeah. And I'm starting, I'm great, I'm great. And so literally like 11 minutes go by. And now I can't control him. And I'm starting to feel it. So I'm like, okay, should I sit? And I'm like, let him. Let him. And I'm now starting to get like, okay, what's happening?
Starting point is 00:51:58 I can't control what's happening out here. So let him do that. And let me just stand back here and take a deep breath and be so proud of my friend who is here in Boston, in the town where we raised our kids, with all of you amazing people. But how many times have you felt yourself getting stressed in the grocery store line or stressed on the mass pike?
Starting point is 00:52:22 I mean, how irritating is that when they close the tunnel? What idiots are painting the tunnel on a money? Let them, right, right? So yes, see what happens is when other people's behavior is annoying or bothers you or stresses you out or upsets you, it makes you feel out of control. Nothing makes me feel more out of control than when I need a red eye from Dunkin' Donuts
Starting point is 00:52:52 and the line is really long in the morning, you know what I'm saying? And so I just, you tend to then make this mistake when other people are upsetting you of controlling what they're doing. And that's something you did for a long time? My whole life. I still do it.
Starting point is 00:53:10 That's why I need the let them theory, to stop myself from doing it. We all do it, because we have a need to be in control. And other people's behavior often makes you feel out of control. I mean, if you ever, like if you, if I think back to some of my like relationships before I met Chris, like when somebody breaks up with you,
Starting point is 00:53:30 and then you're the loser that's trying to like control what happened, bring them back, and like hang around and make yourself better looking so that they'll take you back, like that's a form of control, right? Cause you're trying to take away the pain by making them do something. And it took me a very long time.
Starting point is 00:53:48 I'm clearly a slow learner about these life lessons. Me too, me too. Because that seems like something that was holding you back for most of your life. This idea of trying to control other people and stuff like that. Everybody is held back by that. Or control the environment or whatever it might be. And so when was the exact moment,
Starting point is 00:54:04 because I've heard you say it a bunch of times, but for people who haven be. And so when was the exact moment, because I've heard you say it a bunch of times, but for people who haven't heard it, when was the exact moment, this epiphany of, I'm gonna let people be themselves and not try to control every situation. Well, my mother will tell you she's been telling me to do this my entire life. Sure.
Starting point is 00:54:18 And she even has a pillow. She's like, I came up with the let me part. It's this pillow where she's like, pull up your big girl panties and deal with it. You know, the joke about this whole thing is you and I both created content like, stop caring about what people think. You know, the concepts have been out there forever. But I'll tell you something, the time that it hit me like a freaking sledgehammer, because you can talk about stuff all you want. You can read concepts all you want.
Starting point is 00:54:46 Like, you know how many books I've read about psoasism? My husband is a Buddhist. I can't let anything go, for God's sakes. Like, I understand these, I've read Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning is one of my favorite books of all time. Like, that what's happening out there doesn't have to control what's happening in here, that your power is in your attitude and your
Starting point is 00:55:07 response to things. They're not new ideas. I even talked about these. I've interviewed experts on these things. When it hit me, like a ton of bricks, you know, when you're ready, the teacher appears. I don't know who said, when the student is ready, the teacher appears and you better be careful because it's gonna be really annoying who shows up. And who showed up for me, and there's such irony to this, is because this was at my, when the power of this hit me,
Starting point is 00:55:34 at my son's high school prom, because I was a micromanaging freak. Have any of you ever sent anybody to a prom, or had a mother who controlled you at your prom, right? So I just was like all upset about things. I'm like, OK, you got to bring a corsage. She doesn't want a corsage. I know better.
Starting point is 00:55:50 You've never been to a prom. You need to bring a corsage to us. We get to the pre-photo party. And we take the photos. And then all of a sudden, it starts to rain. And all these kids are like, well, we think we're going to go in the rain. I'm like, you're not going in the rain?
Starting point is 00:56:02 Look at these new fancy sneakers that you got. And they're like, we're gonna go to this taco bar, your tux is gonna get wet, your sneakers are gonna, and my daughter was home. And here's the irony of this, you ready? When my daughter's prom happened, she was such a raging, controlling, dare I say entitled piece of work. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:56:30 That we had a knockdown argument at a hair salon in Natick. The day of? The day of the, oh yeah, because we had this fray tan and the nails and the whole thing and she got her hair done. I mean, it's like a thousand, I can't say, dollars. And she doesn't like the way the women make their makeup. I lost my mind, Lewis. Screaming at her. I stormed out is a prom.
Starting point is 00:57:06 It's not like, come on, you're not on the cover of Vanity Fair. You're going to a public, public event. You're going to a public event. You're going to a public event. You're going to a public event. You're going to a public event. You're going to a public event. You're going to a public event. I mean, this is a prom.
Starting point is 00:57:25 It's not like, like, come on, you're not on the cover of Vanity Fair. Right. You're going to a public high school prom. But I'm the idiot paying for this stuff. So of course I'm, so anyway, it's a whole story. Anyway, okay, so. This is the irony.
Starting point is 00:57:40 This is the irony. So guess who the teacher is in this story? That daughter. Because she's home, and I'm starting to go, you can't go out in the sneakers and this, that, and the other. My husband's standing there, my mother-in-law is there, my son is there, he's inching away from me, and my daughter reaches over and grabs me,
Starting point is 00:58:00 and she has fake nails so it goes in the bicep, which basically, I think, snaps me out of the ha and into the moment. And she's like, ah, I'm being annoyed. If they want to go outside, let them. Once they get to see it, let them. It's like this cascade of let them, let them, let them, let them, let them.
Starting point is 00:58:20 And then she's like, it's their prom, not yours. Let them do what they want. And then she's like, it's their prom, not yours. Let them do what they want. And then she like released the nails. And, Louis, honest to God, all I said to myself was like, why the hell do I care about this? And it's not like that that way I'm like, I'm gonna write a book. That's not like at that point I'm like, I'm gonna write a book. That's not what happened.
Starting point is 00:58:46 And so I literally just started to say those words. I'm at Home Depot. You're at Home Depot in the garden center on a nice weekend, and they got one cash register open, and you got the flatbed, and there's like five things in front of you, and it's like beep, beep, beep. Anybody got a price on these impatience? You're like, oh my God, they're $1.99. God, I gotta get to Dunkin' Donuts
Starting point is 00:59:13 or I'm ready to kill somebody. Right? And so you feel the volcano, and I'm just like, okay, now let them. And that was how it started. That's how it started. And then we did a podcast episode about it as I started to use it and it started to go,
Starting point is 00:59:33 I just like, it became a thing. And then as the podcast episode took off, people started writing articles about it and sending in tattoos. And the last time I had seen anything with tattoos was the five second rule. Because I've received 10,000 tattoos with 5-4-3-2-1 to rockets.
Starting point is 00:59:50 And so I just was like, wow. And you know, the truth is I don't like to write books. I'm dyslexic. I have ADHD. I thought, okay, well, this is like one of those little books. This is like a book, like a graduation speech book. Like, you know the books that you read on the toilet? That are like, you buy them at like urban outfitters or something.
Starting point is 01:00:10 You know what I'm saying? Like, maybe we could do one of those. And then we just started digging it, and it was so deep and rich, and the stoicism and the themes. Like, when I went on the... What's been so incredible about this experience is that I feel like your grandparents and all of our ancestors are part of this.
Starting point is 01:00:33 Like when I sat with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s son, Martin and his wife, Andrea, as we were talking about this on their podcast, My Legacy podcast, he literally looked at me and said, Mel, this is my father's teaching. Wow. You know, because no response doesn't mean you're giving in. Choosing peace is not surrender.
Starting point is 01:01:00 Choosing peace is a form of power and power. Wow, that's true. And so to see this reflected back in the ways that you make it your own, Choosing peace is a form of power. Wow, that's true. And so to see this reflected back in the ways that you make it your own, whether it's the shirts that you're making or it's the let them for realtors, let them for parents, let them for entrepreneurs, because if you're going to build a business, you got to learn to let people not do business with you.
Starting point is 01:01:22 You got to learn to let people not understand what you're doing. You gotta learn to let your family have their opinions. And you gotta let me stay focused on the simple things you are not doing right now that you know you need to do that will actually create everything that you want. And you know, the fact is, and this brings me to the second thing, after, I know there's like 55 things, I'm sorry, take away, take away, take away, is that I said that the two obstacles,
Starting point is 01:01:50 only two that you have, one is when you're discouraged. The second is when you doubt your capability. And the only reason why I think you doubt your capability is because you're too concerned about what other people are going to think about it. That's the biggest source of your doubt. And you don't even realize it. Because you stop when you hesitate and the only thing you're considering is how other
Starting point is 01:02:16 people are going to react. Or what their mood is going to be. Or what their expectations are. And so when you recognize, wow, I can go to chat GTP, write my business plan and give me the plan and it can tell me day by day what to do. Every day this year to lead to a certain result. It is right there.
Starting point is 01:02:34 And now all I have to do is I got to let other people do what they're going to do and let me remind myself every morning when I wake up, even when I don't feel like it, damn it, I'm going to do it. Because that's how I create the things I want in remind myself every morning when I wake up, even when I don't feel like it, damn it, I'm going to do it. Because that's how I create the things that I want in my life. There you go. I love that. I got one final question.
Starting point is 01:02:53 And I asked everyone to do this when you weren't here yet, I don't think. And the question is, what are a couple of things you are most grateful for today? Oh, well, today I'm grateful for you. Grateful for you. Grateful for you. Yeah. Grateful for you. Lewis is a great friend.
Starting point is 01:03:07 One thing that I will tell you about really good friends, you would look at Lewis and I, and you would think we're competitors, right, because we're in the same industry. One of the greatest things about Lewis is he is the world's greatest supporter. And the mistake that everybody makes, I learned this too late as well, and I'm so grateful that I know this now. You might be surprised to know that so
Starting point is 01:03:28 many of us that have podcasts are actually really great friends. And you know, but it's not of course. Not all of them. Not everyone. But so the thing that's important though, I think it was on Jay's podcast, was it Selena Gomez that said this? Well, she said it. Well, I think that's who he said. I think that this is who, like when he shared this sentiment, because I'm like, Jay, you're right. He said the mistake that people make is you actually think the other people
Starting point is 01:03:58 that own restaurants or who are in real estate or other entrepreneurs that you're competing against them, actually they should be your best friends, and here's why. Because your family has no idea what you're going through. Chris, Martha, they have no, well, Martha has a podcast, and she's also got a huge career and is kind of in an adjacent space, but even still. Like, my husband, Martha, doesn't understand the day-to-day pressures because they're not doing what we're doing.
Starting point is 01:04:30 And the mistake that you make is you think you're the only one and then you think your friends and your family understand and they're never going to understand. It's the people that you think you're competing against who will actually be your greatest allies and your biggest forms of support in the business that you're building. So seek them out, cheer for them when you see them winning. There's a reason why you see restaurants kind of on the same blocks. It's because when they put them on the same blocks, they actually all do better. Because people that go to restaurants like going to other restaurants.
Starting point is 01:04:59 And so it's a mistake to think that if you're opening up a fitness club that somehow the yoga studio down the street is somehow competent. No, no, no, no, no, no, because people get tired of yoga. And so if you're cheering for those guys and you show up at their grand opening and you're shouting them out on social, guess what they do? They do the same thing for you. And so please seek out the people that are doing things that you admire. Cheer for them. Seek out people and support people that are doing the similar kinds of businesses, because you're going to find you have so much more in common.
Starting point is 01:05:30 And people are more interested in helping you than you think. Yeah, and this is something that we do. I mean, for the last three months, I've been texting you every couple of weeks. I'm like, you're still here, you're still here, you're crushing it here, congrats. And it's just, you do the same for me. We do this with each other. And I think I learned early on that, like, you're still here, you're crushing in here, congrats. You do the same for me. We do this with each other.
Starting point is 01:05:47 I learned early on that just competing isn't fun. Maybe there's a little bit of thrill of oh, I'm beating someone but it's not enjoyable long-term and not sustainable. But collaboration is the key to that abundance feeling. If you want to feel abundant and joyful, free, collaborate, don't compete. And I think that's been a key for me as well. So if you guys haven't yet, make sure you go right now and get the Let Them Theory book.
Starting point is 01:06:16 Make sure to subscribe to our podcast. No, you know why? Because it would be the coolest thing in the world to see one of my closest friends dethrone me and take the number one spot. Take by Lewis's book. That would be the greatest thing in the world. It's going to be hard to hit number one with her up there.
Starting point is 01:06:36 Your book is going crazy. It's not about being number one. It's about doing the best you can and being of service. If it hits number one, cool. If it doesn't, that's okay too. It's all good. So pano one day. Guys, make sure you guys get a copy of her book. Make sure if you haven't subscribed to her podcast, make sure you subscribe right now.
Starting point is 01:06:57 Leave a review for the book and for the podcast. While you're at it, you can leave a review for my book and the podcast as well. And let's give it up one more time for the inspiring Mel Robbins. Yes! episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel exclusively on Apple podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support
Starting point is 01:07:46 and serve you moving forward. And I wanna remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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