The School of Greatness - The Money Expert: How To Become RECESSION-PROOF Amidst Chaos and Uncertainty

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Get your seat for Dean & Tony Robbins’s Event: Thrive in 2025Leave an Amazon Review for my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!In the face of economic uncertainty, real estate mogul and entrepreneur Dean Graziosi reveals how internal work trumps external tactics when building a recession-proof future. Having navigated multiple economic downturns over his 40-year business career, Dean shares a surprising truth – most Fortune 500 companies were started during recessions when others sat paralyzed by fear. Through raw stories of his challenging childhood with an abusive father and his journey to financial freedom, Dean explains why money is like oxygen: when you lack it, it consumes your thoughts. But once you secure it, you must face the deeper work of healing. His vulnerable admission that he initially thought his pain was the source of his drive offers a powerful lesson for anyone using past trauma as fuel for success.Dean’s book Millionaire Success HabitsDean’s book The Underdog Advantage - Rewrite Your Future By Turning Your Disadvantages Into Your SuperpowersDean’s book Be a Real Estate Millionaire: How to Build Wealth for a Lifetime in an Uncertain EconomyIn this episode you will learn:Why most Fortune 500 companies were started during economic downturns, and how to use others' hesitation as your competitive advantageHow to develop "hunger" that remains unaffected by external economic conditions or media negativityWhy money is like oxygen - when you lack it, it dominates your thinking and prevents you from living your full potentialThe powerful four-part pyramid framework for achieving goalsHow to use pain as temporary motivation while building a more sustainable "compelling future" that pulls you forwardFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1766For more Greatness text PODCAST to [phone]More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Dave Ramsey – greatness.lnk.to/1758SCAnthony O'Neal  – greatness.lnk.to/1738SCAlex Hormozi – greatness.lnk.to/1723SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

How do we build true freedom when there's so much uncertainty happening in our lives or in the world? And I think that's what we're all looking for is that feeling of peace, abundance and freedom in our lives. And a lot of times we want it externally. We want to feel like we have the options, the opportunities, the abilities to actually go create what we want to create a life that we want to have the things we want to be in the relationships we want. We're looking for the external environment to be a certain way for us to feel something on the inside. But a lot of the times we need to figure out how to feel that way. First, how do we feel expansive, abundant, peaceful? How do we feel free so that we can truly create wealth and have financial freedom no matter what is happening in the external

world? And I think that's a lot of what I've been researching and diving into my own personal experience about how to create that specifically from the latest book that I wrote, Make Money Easy, which is all about healing that relationship with money. And in this episode you have a, a great opportunity today because my good friend Dean grassy OCE is on and he emphasizes that true wealth isn't just financial. It's having the freedom to heal your past wounds, become the person you're meant to be and serve others from a place of

abundance. He's also going to share why having hunger is critical in uncertain times and how to maintain it without letting it come from a place of pain. And he's also going to be sharing a powerful four step process for setting and achieving goals that actually move the needle in your life. And listen, there are some uncertain times that are going gonna be happening in the next year. It might be in three to six months, it might be in 12 or 18 months.

But things are shifting in the economy, things are shifting in the world, and I want you to be prepared. I went on a trip with Dean Grassiossi and Tony Robbins six years ago to Fiji and had a powerful experience, a mastermind experience with both Tony Robbins six years ago to Fiji and had a powerful experience, a mastermind experience with both Tony Robbins and Dean Rasiosi, where they shared some of these things about how to be prepared in life and business around your finances when tough times are coming. And they might be coming soon. And whether they're coming now or in the future, eventually

they're going to come just like they did during COVID. And I want you to be prepared. And Dean and Tony also have a brand new free live virtual event that is all about the plan to create the business and life that you love in a chaotic world. They've got a bunch of special guests, some of my friends are going to be there speaking. And I want you to sign up for it. It's completely free. It's a virtual event.

And if you go to lewishouse.com slash thrive, you can get your free ticket to this a virtual event. And if you know that you're meant for more in your life, you're in a career that doesn't serve you, and you know there's something else out there, then this is for you. And if you have that entrepreneurial fire, if you've got like, I've always wanted to launch a business or start something on the side and make some extra cash, then this is something for you. And if you already own a business, and you're looking to really thrive and excel and get ahead, this is going to teach you all those skills and tools that you need to start expanding your opportunity to earn and

create more. Whether it's building a side hustle as a creator or launching and scaling your current business, this is what it's all about. And if you go to lewishouse.com slash thrive right now and opt in, you'll get your registration for free to this virtual event. So make sure you check it out. Again, it's lewishouse.com slash thrive. And what you're going to hear in this episode are some incredible nuggets we had Dean on about a year and a half ago. And this episode blew up. And this one I think is even better. So I hope you enjoy this one. I hope you take lots of notes. And without further ado, let's dive into this episode with the one and only Dean Graziosi.

Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have my good friend Dean Graziosi in the house. It's good to be here with you. I'm so glad that you're back. The last episode we had you on has continued to take off for people because we talked about money but money in a different way, our internal beliefs around money. And there's something I've been wanting to ask you,

because both of us grew up very dyslexic and struggled in school. And the reason I created the School of Greatness was to learn the skills that school did not teach you, that we had to learn through mistakes as our adult life. With everything happening in the world right now, with the potential recession coming, with all the tariffs, with inflation,

with the stock market crashing or just being so volatile, how can we start to learn tactically to recession-proof our future, like the tactical stuff, but also how can we on the inside believe that we're worthy of receiving more, even if we make the tactical moves, based on what's about to happen over the next 12 to 24 months? Really great question. And it's so awesome to be here with you again.

So you said what I love about the question, because you've been doing this for so long and you understand both sides, that one doesn't work without the other, meaning the outside doesn't work without the inside. I could give the most tactical thing in the world to thrive in a down economy, but if the inside is insecure, if the inside, you know, your confidence goes down, you're playing a little scared, then you don't make the moves in the first place, and it's self-fulfilling. I tried that, it didn't work, but you really didn't go all in.

You know, if you Google it, you probably know this, that Fortune 500 companies, did you know the majority of them were started in a down economy or in a recession? Wow. And I try to really, I thought through what that is. I've been thinking through a lot of this because I've been in business long enough to be this is my third time in possibly a recession, right? Or possibly a shifting economy. And why is that? And first off, I believe one is when things, when you have a little bit of insecurity, if you have a little bit of imposter syndrome, which you call it today is a little bit of doubt that gets magnified by the outside world. True, right?

You watch the news and say the dollar could disappear. Tariffs are going to ruin the world. Inflation is going to go through the roof. Right. All the things you hear, if you already have some insecurities, then what do you do? You back up into the goal and go, I should just protect what I have. Right? You played sports your whole life. Can you win games if you're just playing goalie? No. Now you got to score. So if that's the

case, then we have to identify. What I should say is I think those companies did well is because most people sit on their hands. That's what I wanted to say. Because the insecurities hit and you go, probably not the time to start my own thing. Probably not the time to hire that COO. Probably not the time to start my coaching business or really, no, not now. But those that have the hunger or the passion, and we could talk about that,

to actually move forward when everybody is silent, I think that gives you a competitive edge. I hope the world doesn't go into a recession. I'm not saying it is, but it is definitely, I mean, I remember talking to you during COVID and said these are uncertain times. I think they're way more uncertain now than they were during COVID.

So I think a couple of ingredients, and I don't wanna oversimplify it, Louis, by just saying hunger, but you've been around so many successful people in your life. You wrote some amazing books. I love this book, by the way. I promoted it like crazy to our family because it's such a good book and people need to hear it.

But when you're around successful people, I don't think, I never discovered anything completely unique about them, right? They're just like you and I, just like everybody listening. But if you look at a couple ingredients that's a through line, at least for me, and you've interviewed way more successful people than me, one of them is a depth of hunger

that the outside world does not affect their inside game. Do they still get scared? Do they still doubt themselves? Do they still doubt themselves? Do they still, like I always talk about, what do you do in the invisible? In the invisible, they're still probably freaking out. They still probably got butterflies. But when it's time to play the game,

when they put on the jersey and it says time to get in, they play with a sense of hunger, like someone's gonna take it away from them. Yeah. Right? And it's just a common thread. So I think whatever it takes to find another level of hunger in a shifting economy You could call it a bigger why a bigger purpose a bigger reason. It's your family You want to protect them whatever it takes to get the momentum moving when most people are sitting on your hands

I actually think you have an unfair advantage. Yeah, and we definitely weren't taught hunger in school I love that you created this school of greatness. Yeah, I mean, I still think of Miss Thompson in seventh grade telling me just sounded out. Are you dumb? Like sounding out doesn't work. Right. And and I don't mean to digress on that, but I love what you do and bring so much value to the world. So if I was going to say, number one is, how do you find another level of hunger?

No matter what, no matter what that is. And the second part that I don't think we were taught in school, since you use that reference at School of Greatness, is to model proven practices. Right, we read books, we watch stuff, but when we go to do our own thing, sometimes I believe we feel it's so unique,

my vision, my dreams, my goals are so unique, I have to go figure it out. Man, we have access to everybody. Somebody's already figured it out. And I think that is one of the big secrets. It's like obsessively search and find somebody who's already done what it is you want to do, mentor with them, go work for free, read their book, read their book, listen to their podcast, do whatever you can, because you're just getting the shortcuts to go further, faster, because they've already found out where the holes are,

and you can avoid them. Yeah. I mean, during this time, it just seems like a lot of people feel so in fear, because maybe they're already in debt, and they feel like, how can I even get out of this debt when I'm not making the money I want, or I'm uncertain of where the money will come in the future. The last time you're on you talked about how money is like oxygen. You kind of explained there's a metaphor around that. I'm curious if

you could explain that again. Why is money like oxygen for people and when you don't have it, it just feels like you're choking. That was the first time I ever shared that publicly, and I got so many comments on that. And it's worth repeating. Is us sitting in this room, because there's abundance of oxygen, not once did you and I think about the oxygen in this room. Or say, I'm grateful for the oxygen. I'm glad there's a lot. It's always there.

So if we don't have to think about it, then you and I can think about this podcast. How do we impact this incredible audience of yours? How do we make sure we deliver everything we can to help them go further faster? And all those things we're doing, that's what we're thinking about, right? But if somebody had a switch and they shut off all the oxygen in this room and started getting tight, you couldn't think about us, our friendship. You couldn't think about us delivering value, because all you would think about is the oxygen in this room, if there was lack of it.

And I realized that watching my parents, they had lack of money. So when the lack of money came in, they couldn't live into who they were meant to be. My dad couldn't come to my baseball or football games or any of those things like that. He didn't find a way because money was so important. It was how do I make the next dollar to stay alive, to survive?

Therefore he was choked by the oxygen, by the money. And he didn't even realize that his whole life was kind of wrapped around that. And so not that that gave the answer on how to get more of it, but if money is bugging you, it just means that not enough is coming in or you're spending too much. But the fact of the matter is it does occupy your brain more than ever. And now that I said that, think about how often is money a decision? Should we go on that trip? I don't know.

Should we finally start our own thing? I don't know. Right. Honey, I want to follow my dreams. I want to start that business. I've been drawing crayons on our kids, you know, paper forever of what this logo looks like for my business, can I do it? What about the money, right? And when you don't realize that it compresses so much of your decisions, then I just, for me, that I want to fight as hard as I can to get money out of the way, right? Now let's talk about some ways, if you want, for how to do that, how to start a business,

how to scale. But there's one thing I think I may have shared this last time, but I think it was profound. So many people ask me about success. Like, what was the biggest byproduct of success? Like, I get to do cool things with really cool people, right? McConaughey, Matthew McConaughey and I did cool stuff. And like so many cool things.

And I get invited to things I never would have dreamed of, even though I say no to most of them. I'd rather be my wife and kids. But I don't think I had the same answer as most people when it comes to money. When I got money out of the way, when it wasn't choking me, and it doesn't happen overnight, and there's no magical money machines, and you don't get rich easy, all the clichés are true, but worth it. But when money got out of the way, and I had no excuse of what I was running away from anymore. What were you running away from?

Some abuse as a child, being really dyslexic. I mean, my dad, and I love him to death, he's still alive. He was the youngest of 12, was physically abused really bad. Never got help. Old school Italian guy from the East Coast, rugged, but because he got taken such advantage of, he always felt people were taking advantage of him. He fought everybody.

So my sister, who's four years older than me, hasn't talked to him in 20 years. His ex-wives don't talk to him. His brothers and sisters didn't talk to him. And when his parents died, they weren't talking to him, right? So, and he was a little crazy. At 12 years old, I had a bleeding ulcer

because I was so stressed about what this guy would do. No, poor me, I wouldn't change a bit of it. But the whole point is, all I did when I got older is I gotta be successful so I can make my own decisions, make my own choices. I don't have to listen to this guy. I don't have to move so many times because he's got married, divorced, married, divorced,

couldn't afford to be in this house, couldn't afford to be that one. Move, move, move. I'm like, I'm going to get successful and I'm just going to go. I don't need anybody. I don't need counseling. I just need to go. And I went hard, like nothing in my way. But right.

But you made a lot of money. I made a lot of money. And then finally I made enough money where I wasn't worried about money. I wasn't worried about my future. And guess what? I was still that kid with all the crap that I never faced. So long way of saying. You can't run away from your pain forever.

No. It's sometimes going to catch up to you. Right. It was this thing that I was running away from. So when people say, what did money do? It made me stop and look in the mirror and go, hey, that insecure kid with those issues, got to work on you, bro.

Because money didn't resolve those problems. It didn't. And the thing is, lack of it just made me wanna make it so I could breathe. Uh-huh. I could breathe, but guess what? When I breathe, all that crap was there and I had to face it.

So the fact of the matter is, I probably went through a divorce because of it, all those pieces, right? But I became a better human being because when money was out of the way and I could breathe, I can focus on the things of, hey, let me forgive my father totally. Let me heal that little boy inside of me.

Let me become the man that if I get married again, I'm the man my wife can be proud of, my kids can be proud of. If I'm your friend, I want to be a friend that, you know, God forbid, something was wrong at three o'clock in the morning, something was wrong. If I call Dean, his ass would be there right there. Like once money was out of the way, I got to become just a better Virgin. I'm far from perfect, but that's the biggest byproduct.

It's not the plane, the house, the cars, the it's, I got to spend the time working on me. And when I look at it, I'll end it here, but my dad never took that time because he was always chasing money. So for me, we could talk about how to do things to make more money. But sometimes what we really need is leverage. We just need leverage. We need something stronger. Would they say with enough pulleys, you can lift the world, right? With the right leverage, you can lift the world.

If you have enough leverage in your life, if you're like, I can't be like my parents. I got to get I got to get money out of the way so I can live into my full potential. All of a sudden, sometimes that just raises your level of resourcefulness. Right? It's like, I need to do this so I can be a better man. I need to do this so I can be a better woman, a better mom, a better spouse, a better daughter. And I don't want to make it all about the mindset, but most people quit because they don't believe in themselves. A couple failures, they go back and retreat.

But if you're deep enough reason to keep moving forward is there, you'll try another corner and you'll try around the next corner and you'll get up after the last failure. You might curse like crazy and quiet, but from the outside world, you're still playing the game. This entry interesting now,

because you were chasing money, or you were putting your attention on now because you were chasing money or you were putting your attention on money because you didn't have it and you wanted to breeze and get space from your parent or be independent or have your own resourcefulness and not rely on anyone else. Right. So you became really good at focusing on how to make money, build a business and you made it, but there was still pain and trauma that you had to face. True. If you would have faced the pain and trauma first. First off, would you rather

a question, would you rather face the pain and trauma first, then create wealth and build financial abundance from a more healed journey rather than a herd journey? You're so good, Luis. Honestly, I mean this. Like, I love I love sitting down with you. You know, we're just sitting down after after me playing a game of basketball with you, I feel like you're four foot two playing this guy in basketball.

What would life look like? Because you spent probably 20 years chasing, making the money until you had to face yourself. I've never been asked that question. It's so good. Part of me didn't think I should heal it because I thought the pain was the reason I was successful That hunger came from the pain. Yes This I might get soft that's what I thought that for years and since I fixed it I'm hungrier now than ever interesting

I'm hungry now. So if someone said Never been asked this if someone said would you have rather heal it first like you just asked? Yes, I would have but I would have kept it in The vault the hunger or the pain pain. Well, I would have kept enough just being honest To visit the dark side. Yeah, like when when you're going like, you know cars if you know anything about cars They have nitrous oxide you ever ever see it in the movies? They hit the nitrous, the car goes fast. But if you hold the nitrous oxide button the whole time, you know, the motor blows up.

You only can do it in second spurts. It makes the car go fast. Sometimes I would dip because I still do it today. There are certain things to still be in Tony's partner. Like people say when you get successful problems go away. No, you just get better at handling bigger problems. Stuff still goes sideways. You still got to go in and find a next level hunger, right?

If it's hard enough, I will dip into the dark side of, what if I end up being the dad like my dad was? Like, I'll still do whatever, and then, it's the nitrous oxide button to move on forward. So I would have healed it, and I would have kept it as a tool. For all you amazing therapists and coaches out there, you're probably like, that is completely wrong. So I'm just saying my personal experience. Yeah, because you said, you know, one of the keys that

people need during these uncertain times is hunger. But if you're hungry from a wound, because you're starving, instead of, oh, actually, now you have money, you have the home, you have the things to keep you safe and comfortable. You don't need more things to survive. You're thriving physically with your needs met. But how do we create hunger out of something greater than just pain? We all move because we're moving away from pain

or moving towards pleasure, right? You've talked about in the show a million times, right? You've written about it, you live it. My belief was that I needed that pain to run away from to be successful. Yes. But if I had the chance now, I'd go back and work on me sooner

and my driver would have been the compelling future. I would have made it just as strong. Imagine if I could, you know, I've fed tens of millions of people, I get to build schools in Africa, I get to make sure I retired my parents, I make sure my family is safe, I get to employ hundreds of people, I get to do fun stuff. When the fires were here in California,

Tony calls me out of the blue and said, a lot of people with money, a lot of people don't, they can't afford Airbnbs, should we put up a million bucks real quick and get some Airbnbs? I said, I'll wire my money right now. Right? I get to do these things in the invisible. I didn't put that in a press release.

Probably the first time I ever shared it. I get to do all these cool things now, because now it's a compelling future. I want to help more people. I want to serve more. I want others to see that they don't have to, they can live into who they're meant to be, not who they're settling to be, that they could move forward. And the people that just need a meal, I can help. And some people who need a word of advice, I can help. And some people, part of our programs, we can help.

So I've found a way where my hunger is no less strong today on a compelling future. So what I'd say is, if you need to dip your toe into the painful stuff, use it just to get the rocket off the ground. Push the button a little bit. Push the button, but don't hold the button and then and then feel like, hey, that happened to me. But how can I use that? Yes.

The thing to create a better human being. Now, how can you think of a compelling future when you're so stuck in pain and you've got, you know, your hands trapped around your throat or it feels like the debt hands are around your throat because you don't have any money and you're struggling in the current economic situation? How can you even dream of a possibility so far in the future or a year in the future of what you want to step into when you're living in day by day emotional stress financial stress and you don't have the time to address the past pain your parents are on you don't have the time to go sit down for counseling you don't have the energy to have those

courageous conversations so great boundaries such a great honestly love love this question as well is we can't live a happy today unless we have a compelling tomorrow, right? And again, everything I'm sharing today is I'm just being a reminder service. You guys have all heard this, but maybe just hear it through my frame. You know, we have a generation right now that is on more antidepressants than any other generation, more suicide than any other duration, more loss of hope than any other generation, right? Some half of millennials and Z. And I believe I've had these long conversations with Tony about this, like how do we do our part

to help lift people up? Not criticizing, not blaming, but how do we lift people up? And the conversation we had, and then make sure you reel me back into the conversation if I missed the question, but when you have a whole generation where the media is so divided and so bad, and this is not being political, but whether the world is going to end because the environment or not, right? Are we sick because of vaccines or not? Are tariffs going to ruin our world?

Does the last president screw us up or is the current president screwing us up? Are dollars going to be like Venezuela and you're going to need a bushel basket of it in 10 years to buy a loaf of bread? If you tell a generation that enough, you rob the compelling future. If you say, why would I do good today when the environment's going to burn the earth? When the dollar is going to be worth nothing if you're here in the United States, when there's going to be an oligarchy or a non-oligarchy. All the stuff that comes out, we have a media that's so, just so horrible right now.

There's no other word. It's so toxic. That's the word I'm looking for. That I believe, and this is what Tony and I believe, we've taken the compelling future away from a whole generation. So how could they not be depressed in the current moment? Right? that I believe, and this is what Tony and I believe, we've taken the compelling future away from a whole generation, so how could they not be depressed in the current moment, right? It's like, why do anything?

And I believe that the greatest thing to, even when your back's against the wall, if money's tight, when you can dream a compelling future, it is like a rope pulling you. And I would say someone who feels there's no hope, there's no way I can do it. Is there no way? I've tried everything, right? Have we really tried it? Right, right. You've tried a few things. I've really been resourceful at the level we need to be resourceful, right? But our resourcefulness, our courage, our

confidence to move forward is in direct correlation of how big our compelling future is. You want proof? Just go Google some of the most successful people in the world and then find when was their lowest time. You'll find from Jean-Paul de Jureau to Richard Branson to anybody in your generation, somebody you admire. There was a point where they were broke, hopeless, no way out of it. So many people. And those stories just inspire you, but they had to find first, before they found the mechanism, the tactics, the marketing strategy, the business to be in, the product to launch.

Before they found that, they found a way to say, it sucks where I'm at. But someday is gonna be so good, I can accept the suck for a little while, because tomorrow is going to be better. Right? And in hindsight, don't we all have to live the hard way for a certain period of time to live the good way? Yeah. Right? I mean, even in life, if you have the opportunity to do something really cool in sports, I don't know if you made it public to everyone, but I think it's awesome what you're doing. And hopefully, you represent the United States in the Olympics.

How freaking amazing is that, right? That's going to be hard. It's not easy. Right? You're getting in shape now. It's three years away, right? It's going to be hard to do, but you're willing to go hard. So someday you could tell your children, your grandchildren, look what dad did. That's it.

Right? It is hard to go to the gym every day and eat right. But it's easy when you're 75, still playing, running with your grandchildren, not letting them beat you. It's the key. It's easy right now to eat horrible, not work out, but really hard if you've got diabetes and struggle and older. It's easier now to say, this is as the world screwed up.

There's no room for success anymore. I should be happy with this job I have, even though it doesn't serve me financially or emotionally. I should be happy. It's easy right now to just settle. But really hard to be 75 years old and look back and realize you missed who you were meant to be. It is hard right now to go, I am broke.

It is tough. I am struggling, I am broke, it is tough, I am struggling, but I am gonna freaking focus on the woman or the man I'm becoming, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna gain skills, I'm gonna model proven practices, I'm gonna fail miserably, I'm gonna get back up, I'm gonna keep going, that is hard. But in five or 10 years now, when you look back

and you created something, that you're in control of your calendar, your time, no glass ceiling, I have goosebumps thinking about that, you can go pick your kids up from school or say I'm taking a trip this week and nobody could tell you you can't. Live hard now. Live unlike other people now so you can live completely like unlike everybody else later. That's the best. There is no magic money machine. There is no

wand that's going to fix it. We all are in those spots, but those that find their way out found something so compelling that it just is like a rope pulling you towards it. Yeah, I can't remember who said this, but I heard someone say that a healthy person has a thousand problems, but a sick person has one. It's an Indian proverb. Yeah, right? And if we... You know, it's going to be hard work to stay healthy. We have to put ourselves through... And it doesn't you know, it's gonna be hard work to stay healthy We have to put ourselves through and it doesn't happen over a weekend. It doesn't happen over weekend

It's a constant way of being it's a constant ritual a constant routine And it's a lifestyle that we have to live into so true and otherwise we're gonna have you know That's a lot of pain for the rest of our lives I have people close to me who are older, who are just in wheelchairs, who haven't taken care of their life during their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, and now they're stuck with diabetes in a wheelchair,

and they're suffering for 10, 20 years, and they can't reverse it. And it's just like, it's robbing you of the opportunity to live a more beautiful life. So true. And if we can start doing that around money, around our health, around our relationships, we will have a greater life in the future. So that compelling future, whether it's around money or health,

we need to be living into it. But how do we start rewiring our brains then if we're feeling claustrophobic around money, the economy, our health, our mindset? How do we rewire our brain? What is that process to start believing we are deserving of a worthier future, a worthy better future? Because a lot of people stay stuck in a mindset of victimhood or it's just like, they're always complaining about something

in the world. Complaining or complaining about how they've beaten themselves up to get to where they are. I'm an idiot for putting myself in debt. Yeah, I'm an idiot. I'm 50 pounds overweight. What's wrong with me? Why did I do this to myself?

So how do we start rewiring our brains? That's a good question. To believing that we are worthy of receiving a more compelling future instead of just well, I've already beaten myself up this far financially physically I'm just gonna stay in this place because it's too hard to reverse it now. Yeah So I'm gonna I'm gonna I want to answer that question and I want to do that great question justice With every choice we make in life, there's pros and cons.

True? Right? I heard somebody say once, I love repeating, is for every level there's a new devil. Right? You move into this beautiful studio. New challenges. New challenges, right? The last time I was here you had three people.

It looks like there's 30 in there. Like, amazing, but now it's like leadership. And what's the smart way to diversify? And do go bigger and who do we take as sponsors right new level new devil? So there's always something right? I Got to tell a quick story and and if he watches this I'm not gonna say his name But I growing up you could imagine I didn't come from money didn't go to college a lot of my friends went to college I just had this dream of doing something financially better because I was running away from what I shared with.

Plus, I wanted to retire my mom. Like, if I really get to, I just wanted to, my mom worked three jobs. She was a badass but didn't have a plan. Like, I always think my mom was a badass without a blueprint, right? So what did she do? Cleaned houses, cut hair, and painted houses

for people to support me and my sister. Right. And if I think of so at a young age, I'm like, I'm doing my own thing. I'm going to figure this out. I'm going to get rich and and I'm going to retire my mom. Like that's that's all I can remember. And around my friends and I was a hustler. Right. And by the time I was in high school, 12th grade, I had a firewood cutting business, I was fixing cars and selling them,

and then I had apartments and all the stuff that I was doing. But long story short, I had a dear friend and he went to college, came back from college, and he's like, dude, you've been hustling like crazy. He's like, my uncle, we lived in upstate New York, my uncle runs the union, the bricklayers union in New York City. He said, we can go down there, work for my uncle, we lived in upstate New York. My uncle runs the union, the bricklayers union in New York City. He said, we can go down there, work for my uncle,

and start off at $1,250 a week. We can start off as shop stewards, like managers, right? Yes. And I want to tell you, $1,250 a week when we were young. Like, nobody was making that in my little blue collar town. Yeah, that's a lot of money. I mean, you grew up in a similar town. I mean, mine was smaller than yours, right?

That's a lot of money. So he's like, here's what he said to me as a friend. He's like, dude, I'm watching you chase all these dreams, man. That's where we come from. We don't have money. You didn't go to college. And I'm not knocking you, brother. I love your, but let's go do that.

We can ride the train together down to the city once a week. We can go grab a drink after. And I have to tell you, it was like, you know, maybe that's the way, right? I'm almost so sure I couldn't do it because I wanted to retire my mom and I wanted to be in control of my decisions. I wanted to do my own thing.

I found this thing, even though I had no proof it was gonna work, no one in my family had ever done it. Well, you understand, in this little town like you go back for your event, I bought a 20-acre farm in my hometown. I go there all in the summer with my wife and all four kids. We fish and we plant gardens and all this cool stuff, right? I still see these guys.

I've been at a school 39 years. I still see these guys. Just two years ago, my buddy comes to the farm. Same guy. Same guy. And he's such a sweet guy. Still sweet. And he said, hey, I want to tell you something.

I said, why? He goes, you know, we're proud of you. I said, oh, good. I don't talk about anything, Luis. I don't, I mean, I fly there tell you something. I said, why? He goes, you know, we're proud of you. I said, oh, good. I don't talk about anything. I don't. I mean, I fly there on my plane. They would never know I have a plane. They would never know. I'm always like, oh, things are going OK out in Arizona.

Right. I'm not going to work it hard. Yeah, like just working hard kind of thing. Right. So it's like, I'm telling you, we're proud of you. Like, oh, thanks, man. Because no, no, seriously. He said, I got to tell you something. I thought you were insane. Hmm something. I thought you were insane. Because I thought you were nuts.

You didn't take the opportunity to go down the city. I didn't. You became a manager, did well for himself. He said, but I gotta tell you, I see it now. I see all of it. I'm like, why? He goes, I missed it. Wow.

I'm like, I missed, I said, missed why? He goes, I got up before, his two boys, said I got up before they woke up to go get the train. I got home and they were asleep for 20 years. Oh man. He said, they're in college, Dean. And I could get emotional because he said, he looked at me and he goes, I missed it.

Wow. And it just made me realize, whatever choice you take, there's resistance, there's pressure, right? So all I know is I went—I was going to differ on—not that his life wasn't hard, but yes, I looked like a fool. Yes, I did things. I went against what the percentage is.

Most businesses aren't supposed to make it. I didn't start with money. I didn't have a college degree. But I found this thing in me. My mom was the first thing that I just kept moving forward. So when you say, how do you get out of it? Can you picture yourself at 90 years old or 80 years old or 60 years old having that conversation with somebody?

Do you wanna go, I missed it. I wish I would have at least tried. Even though my back was against the wall, money was tight. People thought I was crazy. I found a compelling future and I went for it. I'd rather like the man in the arena quote, I'd rather get to the end and go, I tried like crazy. And even if it didn't work, at least I know I gave it all.

Yes. And in the best outcome, I tried everything, even though I failed a lot, I lived into who I was meant to be. Yeah. And that's the best thing I can say is there's no easy route. We're here. But I'd rather take the route that gives me the opportunity to be me.

One of the reasons I'm going to Spain next month is because I've had this dream inside of me since I was a little boy, to be an Olympian. Oh my God, I love it. It's inside, I don't know, five, seven years old, right? And I moved to New York City in 2009 or 2010 to go pursue this dream after I watched it on the Olympics in 2008. So I saw the Olympics. I'm living on my sister's couch watching this when I'm in a depressed state.

And I see this sport called team handball at 3 a.m. on the TV. And I go, what is this sport? I've never seen in my life. And I go, I meant to play this sport in the Olympics. Something inside of me, something activated in the sun I'm 24 years old or whatever was at the time It was 25. I can't remember and then a few years later I moved to New York City to pursue joining a club team in New York City the best team in America Because there was no team in Ohio and the whole goal was to make the USA team nine months after that nine months

So I make enough money my compelling future was how do I make enough money to get to the city to get to make the USA team nine months after that. Nine months. So I make enough money. My concocting future was how do I make enough money to get to New York City, to get to New York City, to get off my sister's couch, to get to New York City. I go there and I train for nine months in New York City. And I get the email that I've been selected with the USA National Team. And I was in Los Angeles when this happened. I know the exact moment, because it was a dream of mine just imagining this.

I was literally at Jimmy Kimmel's studio. I was in the green room. I was backstage. I wasn't on the show, but I had a ticket backstage. And I was in the green room, and I pulled my phone and I get an email, you've been selected on the USA national team. It gives me chills thinking about it

because it was literally a couple miles from here in Hollywood. And that was in 2011 about it because it was literally like a couple miles from here in Hollywood. And that was in 2011, I think it was 2012. And so what is that? Almost 15, 14 years ago, right? 14 years ago, 13 years ago. And I played for eight years with the USA team. Then COVID happened.

We weren't gonna qualify. We weren't good enough to qualify to the Olympics. USA has not played in the Olympics since 1996 for handball. For handball. But the reason we played then is because every host country gets an automatic qualifier. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, this is getting juicier now.

So the whole, so first that's like, okay, let me make the team and see if we can qualify. But you have to win the Pan Am games. And there's a lot of teams in South America that are better because they have professional leagues. We don't have that here. So everyone goes to Europe and they find out about it in their 20s and start playing. And it's just hard.

And but now the USA got the bid right for the host country, L.A. 2028. So it would be 20 years since I saw the sport for the first time on my sister's couch that I've been in this pursuit. And I thought I was going to be done, but I went to the, I went last year to watch the Olympics in Paris, and I went to a handball game

and the fire was still inside of me. Couldn't deny it. And I was like, I have to pursue this. Now it's four years away at that time. And I've got this business and I've got responsibilities and I'm engaged at that moment and all these different things. But I was like, when I'm 75, just like you said, if I don't pursue this,

it's kind of irrelevant if I actually succeed. But if I don't pursue it, will I be like your buddy that says I missed it? Yeah, at seventy five at fifty at sixty. Well, I'd be like, gosh, I missed that opportunity. I missed it. I missed the opportunity. And so for the last eight months, I've been rehabbing. I've been training. I've been losing weight. I've been doing everything.

You look amazing. You're going just to get myself to go and see if I can play competitively at that level. Not even get back on the team yet. Just can't I play for a month and stay healthy? Is that a possibility at 42? Like, I don't know, maybe it's crazy. But I can't live with myself without at least taking it the next step and then taking it another step until it's undeniably the dream has died inside of me or

Some other path happens. If you would have said in your 20s at this age you would pursue like never happen But the thing is that your compelling future is so big It's pulling me. It's pulling you. Right? I have to say one of the things as you said first off I'm so freaking happy all these things aligned Yes Because now if you make if you're if you feel you're good enough and you make the team, you get to play in the Olympics. If I stay on the team, you better be there.

You're going to look up in the audience and I'll be the streamer. I had the chance to get close with Matthew McConaughey. We did a fun event together and all that stuff. And he's become a dear friend. He's such a great guy. But he had one that's really similar to this, I think. A dream. Nope, just a thing that he thinks through. Because if you know-

The 10 year cell from the future? The whole Greenlights was about looking at his 30 years of journaling. And what he realized when he was going through all the journals that he had, that's where Greenlights came from, is there was one thing. He had the fear of not knowing, he called it.

So whenever there was something that was in his heart, not knowing if he could have made the team, not knowing if he could have started the business, not knowing if he could have got out of debt and finally did the thing you're passionate about, the not knowing would eat him up. Yeah, I can't do it. If you talk about, like he tells such great stories.

He was talking about being in Africa when he just put a backpack on and went to Africa and went into a tribe and he ended up fighting the I don't know if you remember reading the book But he fought the village fighter the big guy and he said he's in a little tent putting like a loincloth I'm gonna fight this guy. It's 300 pounds and he said they asked them to fight He's like I was in there thinking I'm not gonna do this But I'll never know what it's like to fight this guy And he said you never know what's on the other side of the fight, right? And he said, I just was in there going,

you're going to be mad at yourself if you don't do it. So he went out there and he said he lasted as long as he could. The guy beat him, but he said he lasted way longer than he thought, and they gave him a nickname, something, scrappy white guy. You know what I mean? He said, the next day, in McConaughey's style, as I put my backpack on, I was going to walk 35 miles

to the next village. He said, when I woke up that morning, Renee, his name name was, he goes, René, the guy he fought, was waiting for him. And he walked the whole 35 miles with him. And he said, when he left, he gave him a hug and like respect. And he said, that's why I was supposed to fight him, to have this connection. Then he went back to the tribe 20 years later and he walked him again. Come on. That's incredible. And he just was using that as an example But he was talking about oh so many things came out of that with the tribe and what he did and how he feels connected

To africa and all these great things he goes. I want to know and I think that's I don't mean I don't want to take it in a light area because some people do have their backs against the wall Of course, but don't you have a fear of not knowing living living in two you're meant to be? Like I feel like we all have this person we are and this person we could have if there was no constraints. Yes. So why not just work on the constraints and be bold enough to just go after it? Right. Why is it so hard for people to go after what they truly want to do? Why is the fear holding them back are so much stronger than the compelling

future for so many people around money or their dreams or goals or just asking the girl out, whatever it is, why do we have this fear that we resist and delay taking one step? Why is it so painful, so hard, so resistant to just have courage? Yeah, I think, you know, I know the fear of failure is strong, and I know it's like the humiliation of things. Yeah. But I think we also, I think we're a little bit, and maybe this would go down a whole other road, but I think we're a little bit programmed.

Like, we're kind of standing in line. A lot of times we got to get good grades. We got to do the right thing. Got to get into the right school. Got to get the job. We should be absolutely grateful for the thing. And thank God there's people that are in careers, right? You have amazing employees.

I have hundreds of amazing employees. Thank God for them, right? But if you're called for more, I think it's so far out of the norm. Like I love that video that went viral about three years ago. When you see the guy, it's like a Coachella type place and the guy goes dance in a field. It's like kind of a hill. Do you ever see that?

I'm not sure. He dances out there by himself for like 10 minutes and everybody's like, you can see everybody looking. But finally the second guy goes out. Still no one, but it took the third guy. And then all of a sudden there's 10,000 people dancing. We never want to be the first person, person dancing in our family. Even though we may have been called to be that crazy dancer, to be the rebel.

You know, it's like when you go after and do something different than the norm, like you are the crazy one until you're not. Right? And then all of a sudden, it's like, it goes from, oh my God, that's so crazy, to I can't believe that's happening, to wow, did you see that? To hey, I used to know Louis, right? There's this crazy evolution, right? So I think it's really, sometimes we're programmed

to stay on the path, and it feels like we're stepping off the path a lot when we do something outside the norm. And that's always hard to do. It's scary. It's unpredictable. There's a question I have for you about money. You surround yourself with a lot of financially successful people, but also just a lot of people

who are successful in different areas of life, not just money. But you have a lot of mega millionaire friends, billionaire friends, and you are surrounded by wealth. What's the difference between people who are acting rich versus people who are actually rich? Oh, man, that's a good one Acting rich and actually rich You know, I what's the difference on the externally and internally You know, there's a certain level of

Wealth where at least the people I get blessed to be with, that it flips completely from making it to how to give it back. And usually, and you can call this karma, God, goodwill. I've watched so many people get to that point and when they start finding, obsessing on ways to give back, their businesses exponentially grow. It's just crazy. like I've been studying,

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and why I'm in this phase of my life that I wanna give back more. I love that I get to make more, I'll just give more away. But one is the heart kinda shifts from what can I do to who can I serve. That's at least people I get to be around, is number one.

Number two, the ones that keep going, always we talked about earlier, but they just replace the hunger. If one was to get out of being broke and now they own a billion dollar company, then how do I serve more, do more, be more? How do I grow as a human? Like there's a term I've been using lately,

it's a thought process, is like there's a whole bunch of people, we have a group you're coming to in July, we have a group of people that we get together a couple times a year, very successful people. And it's the type of people where when everybody looks at him, they go, oh, he made it. He's the top, got everything. She made it, she's the top.

But when they look in the mirror, they know there's another level and it could be another level of contribution, another level of finally loving someone else or maybe loving themselves, another level of finally loving someone else or maybe loving themselves, another level of service, right? So it's, there's this transition that happens of like, hey, it's time to be, maybe what we talked about earlier, money's out of the way, time to be a better version of me, leave the world a better place.

And you also see on the way up, like this is the stuff that's obvious, is from the cars and the flash and kind of the The positioning and how you position yourself when people get to a certain level It's almost they regressed back to who they were when they started how so what do you mean like simple? Very simple. I mean if I if I think of them wealthiest people I know We don't need a lot. You don't need a lot Yeah We do simple stuff. Go fly fish or go to a pizza restaurant. We haven't had pizza in a while.

You know, it's like, it's a really good question. I'm going to think about that one more. And I could just be lucky with the people I surround myself. But very humble. You find very, you realize there's another time you realize it's not us. Like, I think as you're doing things like, I have to conquer this. I'm doing this. I'm doing this. My podcast, my day. Like, I think as you're doing things like I have to conquer

this, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, my podcast, my day, I'm not saying you are. And then you get to a certain point you realize I never could have got here without the collection of everything. Whether that's my beliefs in God or spirituality, the team that worked around me, the parents who did their absolute best to put me on this earth, the past relationship that even though it went bad, it taught me to be a better man. Like you start realizing that God of the universe put all these things in place, even the struggles. And then for me at least, I'm gonna just share with me,

I'm starting to appreciate all the things I went through. Because if they weren't all collectively added up, I wouldn't be who I am today. And maybe for the first time in my life, I really love who I am today. I love the husband I am to my wife. I love the father I get to be to my kids. I love the friendships that I time in my life, I really love who I am today. I love the husband I am to my wife. I love the father I get to be to my kids. I love the friendships that I have in my life.

I didn't always feel that way. And maybe it's because I'm really grateful that everybody had a part in raising me, even in the relationships that went sideways. Yeah. But those then that you know who are extremely wealthy, what's the difference between those who are wealthy and fulfilled versus those who are wealthy and fulfilled versus those who are wealthy and everything's a struggle still,

or it's still not enough, or they have just problems in their life? What's the difference? Not to oversimplify it, but it's gratitude. And I hope that all on their field, they find this place. Sometimes we need to look in the rear view mirror because there's always a bigger jet and a bigger house and a bigger yacht and a bigger

Vacation there's always bigger. It doesn't matter what you do There's some of these got more but if you have envy in What someone else has there's no way to find peace in your heart And for me and I don't know if it was Tony or somebody said at one point whenever you're feeling that way just look the rear of your mirror and see how far you've come. And look at the culture of progress that you've had from where you were. And there's no way you can't be grateful. Because where you came from, you're further than 99.9% of the world.

But if we look at the bigger, we get in our ego. We're chasing, I heard somebody say once you're chasing a sunset, but you're running east. Right? Yeah, you're just going to, but you're running east, right? Yeah, you're just going to chase something that doesn't exist. You're chasing the ideal perfect version of yourself when really you've done so much. I think just looking backwards helps. It is an interesting way.

I guess when you're, you know, in your maybe 30s or 40s and you've had like more extended life where you've actually built a career or you've made some money, maybe you've had like more extended life where you've actually built a career or you've made some money, maybe you've bought a home, you're like 95% farther than most of the world if you're in your 30s and 40s on the mistakes you've made, on the pain you've gone through,

on what you've created for yourself, on what you've accomplished. You have intuition. Yeah, you just have, you're so much farther and yet a lot of us focus on the 5% or the 10%, whatever it is, 1% of people who have more or are more relevant or have bigger car, houses, vacations, whatever it is. And we focus on what we're lacking from the 1% to 5% versus the 95% that we've overcome

already. You know, I have a, in one of the groups, I go live every Monday for just like five minutes. I kick off a Monday in one of the groups that Tony and I have created, right? And I start off every call saying, this group, we are a culture of progress, not a culture of perfection, and not a culture of comparison.

Because comparing yourself to the perfect version of you, I should be in better shape, I should listen a little more, I should work a little harder, I should make a little more money. Can only depression or saying, damn, look at Louis. He's got this. He's got school grade. This is books in New York Times bestseller. Louis is doing this. I try like, so if we don't focus on our progress, we focus on perfection. It messes us up. And if we focus on comparison, it messes us up. So the only thing we have to focus on, if we can, is our own progress.

If you're a better version today than last week, last month, last year, then we're moving forward. Some people move a little slower, some people move a little quicker, some people move too fast. Here's the other thing that you don't get. Most of the people that you, and I'm not saying you feel this way,

that you see in your life, you get to interview so many great people, a lot of them are 10, 15, 25 years old. Dude, you are on such an incredible journey of, I mean, I watched your transformation of the man you are and watching your love when you're now amazing wife in this journey. Like, you're one of the richest people I know.

I mean, would you take a billion bucks to get rid of that and be unhappy? You're so wealthy. I've never met you without it? Would you take a billion bucks to get rid of that and be unhappy? You're so wealthy. Yeah. I've never met you without a smile. And this is not for you, but I'm hoping somebody else. I've never met you without a smile, without an open hand saying, what can I do for you?

Like, and so we just got to remember to look in the mirror at ourselves and look in the rear view mirror what we've accomplished. And I think that just helps us in the present. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah. accomplished. And I think that just helps us in the present. Yeah, that's beautiful. There's, I want to go back to this idea of how do we build a recession proof

inside? Because a lot of us are thinking about externally diversifying, making more money, getting out of debt. Should we buy stocks? Should we buy gold? All these different things, the external decisions to make to kind of recession proof ourselves. But if you had a formula for recession proofing the internal investment, the internal process to be more resourceful, no matter what recession or no recession, what would that formula be

and how can we invest in our internal world to create recession proof in the external world? So I love the way you frame that. Is there a formula? Is there a process? Is there a framework that you can share? So my intuition says you have to try to eliminate a lot of the noise on the outside. Yes, so good. I mean, if you just watch the news, I went 20 years, most of the 20 years haven't watched the news, but I've watched it once in a while recently because so much crazy stuff is going

on. It's almost human. But if you think, when we're watching this, it was a couple of Mondays ago, the market fell really hard. And it was, the sky is falling, it is over. Everything's going to hell in a ham basket. It's the beginning of the end. And a couple days later, there was an announcement and it went back up and everybody's like,

oh, this shit's gonna be great. In fact, it's gonna be higher than ever before. I think we have to watch, we have to protect the inside. We have to, you know, today, so many things we talked about today, Lewis, people have people have heard before they've done but it's like a gym You got to go work out every day. You got to be in the gym doing the exercise You've got to do the personal development workout on your mind because you've got to create an invincible insight because you We can't let the outside temperature control who we are, because if we do, it's like,

I'm going to sell everything on Monday. No, I should hold it. Like, we're reacting rather than being in control. And we can't be in control of the outside world, but we surely can be in control of our emotions. And I think we have to do whatever it is to give ourselves a sense of calm, a sense of peace. And if it's not watching the news, if it's focusing on us, if it's gaining the skills,

if it's finding somebody who's doing what we're already doing and modeling proven practices, it's kind of a compilation of everything we talked about. If you have an incredible, compelling future. You know, one of the things I've been working on a lot this year, and it's helped me a lot because I get to help run Tony's main company, which I don't run it as much as I used to,

but I'm always there for him. I ran it when he had to switch from in-person to virtual. When the world shifted, he was an in-person company. And then my company, it's hundreds of employees between the two. And I want to be the best leader I could be to help them be happy with what they do and take this company to the next level. So I geeked out on a whole bunch of leadership and culture books in 2024. So I could go into 2025 with a new sense. And out of everything I read,

here's a couple of things that I think can help all of us. And I draw it as like a pyramid in my head. But we have to think of, now this just sound common, but you have to think of a goal, but not just a goal. You have to think of the goal that but not just a goal you have to think of the goal That can actually move the needle in your life. Mm-hmm. Like what is the main goal? like if I'm looking in departments in my company I Go to a department say what your goals they give me six or seven if you have six or seven different goals

You got none because you can't focus on all of them if you're focusing on seven things at once It's like a bunch of turtles Kind of crawling across the desert. This one moves up, oh no, I don't have time, I gotta work on this one. Oh, I gotta go work on this one. You work on multiple things, you think you're multitasking, you're going really slow.

So how I describe it to my team is let's collapse those into the most important one first and turn it into a rabbit and keep going until it's done. And then when that's done, come back and grab the next most important one. People think they can multitask, we can't. It's like having six projects at home. You got the outside, you got the lawn,

you're building this little craft, you got six of them going. Weekend comes like, which one should I work on? Sometimes you go, there's too many, I'm gonna work on none of them. Yeah. Right? And it all piles up. And then piles up.

So condensing your goal. To one goal. To one goal. Is the goal at the bottom or the top of the pyramid top of the pyramid is the goal. Okay, and I would consider I've been thinking about this lot lately is how do you stretch the goal? How do you make the goal bigger? Than you could ever imagine and why I say that is because when you make goal bigger than you could ever imagine It stretches your brain to think about things you've never thought about before

So if I have a department that's doing 10 million a year, if I say, guys, next year, I want you to get to 10 million, 100,000 bucks, your brain goes, how do I fine tune? How do I adjust? How do I tweak? How do I make it a little bit better? If I say, hey guys, we're on a 20 million next year,

but we're 10, going to 20. I don't expect the team to get there, but they're gonna come back to 20. I don't expect the team to get there, but they're gonna come back to me. I got an idea. We can outsource this, we can use AI, and I'm already doing it. I'm watching my departments come back, and the team members come back

with these incredible big ideas, and some are brilliant, but a 5% lift, they were just polishing what they have. So maybe in your personal life, you have to set a goal so big that it makes you think outside the box. It's not just polishing the what they have. So maybe in your personal life, you have to set a goal so big that it makes you think outside the box. It's not just polishing the career you have. It might be a complete disruption, right?

So set a goal that scares you, right? But then after that, if you draw a line underneath, and I appreciate you doing this, is the next part is what are the constraints? I think it's just a different one. What are the constraints holding you back from achieving that goal? Right?

So in different team members, it might be, hey, I'm lacking a team, I'm lacking the right AI, I'm lacking the right person, I need to hire more people. But if you understand the constraints, and here's how I told them, if you have 10 things you're working on, and each of those things have three problems, you've got 30 problems to solve.

No one you're gonna get anything done. But if you got one thing and said, hey, I wanna build a sales floor, great. What's the biggest problem? I don't have a sales manager, great. Let's go work on a sales manager. I don't have a team, great. Let's go build a team, right?

Like you can break it down into these chunks, and once you understand the constraints, then all of your focus should be solving one at a time. Back to that one. One goal, they stretched. Now, what are the problems I have? And start chipping away at the constraints. And as you chip away at the problems or the constraints,

what will arise is the strategy. Right. If I solve this, then there's a path to keep moving forward. So first one is a goal that moves the needle and you stretch it, make it impossible, because think outside the box. Number two, what are the constraints holding you back to achieve that goal? Could be somebody like, I finally want to start my own business,

but I'm scared I got the wrong mindset. Great, listen to Tony Robbins. Or somebody, listen to Lewis Howes. Read something, inspire, surround yourself. They're great, I got the mindset, what do I do next? Search out industries that are exponentially growing that feel like you could do it, right? Like that's your constraints. Then you know what to do next

The third though is really important that most people do is you need to measure your progress None of us would play again you wouldn't would you play in the Olympics if they didn't keep score? No, right? What would be the reason? Right. Yeah, you know, well, you don't know if you're winning or losing Like even when my son was six years old and they wanted to give participation trophies. I explained to him I don't think that's good kids. I want you to feel it's like to lose because we need both sides of the coin We need the yang and the yang the wins and the losses if you don't measure your progress You'll think you're working hard and not getting anything done when in most cases if you're working you're making great progress You may not be where you want to be that you're working hard and not getting anything done. When in most cases if you're working, you're making great progress, you may not be where you wanna be,

but you're making progress. So the third one is you have to measure. You know, you might say, hey, I'm gonna quit the job I hate and I'm gonna start my own thing. If you measure it's like, hey, I've read three books, I feel more positive. I looked into two different businesses. I've done this, you're making progress

and you're measuring, so you can go, no, no, no, I'm not standing still. And then the last one, the fourth one, and the most important is, you've got to set a deadline. This is the part most people don't do for ourselves. It's got to be an absolute deadline. This is going to be done by this time. I don't know many people that miss deadlines,

but I know many people who procrastinate for years because they didn't set one. That's true. So if I... My daughter reminds me of me so much, if her deadline is Wednesday, second period, for an essay she has to write, she's writing it at midnight on Monday, on Tuesday. Like for sure, maybe first period.

Or maybe first period. That was me, on the bus ride there. Hope from the person next to you, you can copy it. But why is my daughter up at midnight getting it done? It's because she has a deadline. None of it. People say some people like to work with the deadlines. It's like every successful person I know needs a deadline.

So goal that stretches you, that's a singular goal, or just a couple. What are the problems holding you back? Solve them, then the opportunity will expose themselves. Measure that you're making progress and set yourself a deadline. Those things have changed my life in 2025. I've had employees for almost 40 years,

but this one exercise is a game changer. That's beautiful. A few final questions for you. I've got a lot here that I wanna share, but we'll have to do another round in the future. You mentioned Tony Robbins a bunch in this episode, the things you've learned from him. I've heard your story about this. I think it was 40 years ago or 30 years ago.

You saw his infomercial, got his books, went to his programs, and it helped you build your business. The frameworks, the mindset, the process. You were able to model his mentorship through his content, but then you started working with him, I think seven years ago, eight years ago, 12 years ago. But in the last couple of years, what would you say is the biggest lesson

you've learned from him? Because you've learned from him for 40, it sounds like, but through partnering with him building businesses going through massive scaling processes going through covid together skin reinventing businesses probably having some adversities you've had to overcome with businesses together all these different things what's the biggest lesson in the last couple years you've learned from Tony Robbins? I would say... Personally, professionally, anything.

Yeah, there's a bunch. I'm going to give you two really quick, and I'll go quick, so maybe we get to a couple more questions. But one is when COVID happened and there was so many shifts in this company, I went over to the company as his brother and friend to convert from an in-person company to a virtual company. We built to build virtual studios and all that stuff, right? And I was working really fast to get things done.

And so many of these things, him and I, I've been in the same business as him. I've been in 30, he's been in 45. So I could see it really clear. It'd be like me starting a podcast tomorrow knowing nothing, you come in and go, Dean, do this, do this, do this, Not that camera, and don't do it. And make sure everybody's outside the room. And here's the temperature. Everything, right?

Here's how to market, here's how to talk to people, here's how to get good guests, right? So I went over to go to a virtual that I had been doing forever. I was being very efficient, right? So I was like, let's get this done, let's get this done, let's get this done. Tony calls me out of the blue one day and says,

brother, you are killing it, thank you. I owe you a debt of gratitude. We talk almost every night, but he said, I got to give you a little advice. You okay with it? I'm like, absolutely. He said, you're being incredibly efficient, but you're not being effective. I'm like, what do you mean by that? I'm getting so much done.

He goes, no, no, no, you're going fast. He said, but in your desire to go fast, you're forgetting other people's emotions. You're like a stepdad. You just came over. Oh, right. He said, in your desire to go fast, you're forgetting other people's emotions. You're like a stepdad. You just came over Oh, right. He said to be effective. You got to work on the human condition and build relationships and What it hit me immediately I him and I talking like code but it hit me a real I was building plans and I wasn't bringing people into the plants once I got that I'm like Oh if I create a new sales plan say not like, oh, if I create a new sales plan,

not that it needed it, but if I had a new sales plan, instead of me saying, hey, I crafted this, I'm like, hey guys, I have this plan, but I'm sure there's holes in it, I'm sure I'm missing stuff, could you guys co-author it with me and help me make this plan better? And then everybody's a part of it,

and I got what he meant by being effective. That's what an effective leader is. That's how you do it with your family, your kids, even in the mirror or your spouse to get her on board or get him on board for what you want to do. That was number one. And number two, Tony truly is, who you see is who he is offstage completely.

And I've always felt that way, but I realized how much easier life is to be one person. One person at church, one person to your wife, one person with your friends, one person when you're out alone, one person to your wife, one person with your friends, one person when you're out alone, person when you're traveling. One person is like, it's like the biggest exhale in the world. So maybe those two things. Yeah, yeah.

Being who you say you are on camera and also off camera. Yeah. Yeah. Because we know a lot of people that are. Exactly. Speaking of you and Tony, you guys have a free training coming up, right? What is this training about? Who's it for and how can people get access to it?

Yeah, so it's it's called this year. We're calling it Thrive in 2025. And with all the shifts and the craziness going on in the world, people need a foundation. Yes. So I'd say who is it for? It's anybody that's unfulfilled in their current career or maybe started a business and they're working harder in the business

but not actually making money. So a lot of people have done that. Somebody who's been waiting on the sidelines, you know what's four? I said this about my mother before, it's four bad without a blueprint. It's somebody that knows they're meant for more but they're not quite sure what to go.

We talked about in a shifting time, three things, make sure you're in an industry that's growing, model proven practices, and then keep taking uncomfortable action. In a shifting time, three things, make sure you're in an industry that's growing, model proven practices, and then keep taking uncomfortable action. So on May 15th, 16th, and 17th, about three hours a day, we're going to pull back the curtain and show a model on how to be in the industry. Well, you're in and I'm in, is how to take your life experience, a skill, a passion, something you learned, and be a creator, turn it into a product,

turn it into an information product, a knowledge product, whether that's a membership, a community, a coaching program, create a course, write a book. Over three days, we're gonna show you why this industry, why now, why it is absolutely primed. It's at a billion a day, head towards a trillion a year. This industry's on fire, and it's growing by regular people. It's not just Tony and Lewis and Dean and people that you know.

People want to learn from somebody who's a chapter head, who've already experienced what you've done. If you're in a job for a year and somebody's starting on day one, you're a year ahead. They'd love to condense time. So over three days, even if you never thought about it, we're going to show you how to identify what you should create then how to package it Then how to sell through service how to get followers and man it's but it's it's turned into a movement This is gonna be our it's gonna be between the two we do two a year two different ones one is personal development one

Is this this is our seventh one? We've averaged about eight hundred thousand people per event in over 100 countries and it's become a movement. So I don't think there ever has been a better time in history and I mean that I don't say that every year than right now to see there you are enough, you know enough and if you have the right plan you can accomplish anything so that's what we do. Wow. And so when people go through this it's a free training. Yes. Where can they go and sign up? I guess we'll have a link for them. Yeah, if you could put that.

We'll put it in the description for people to sign up for. We'll put it up on the screen as well. I think we probably have a custom link for us. We do. I just looked it up. It's Thrive750.com. OK, cool. Thrive750.com.

Thrive750.com. So when you go there, you can register for three days. You're going to get training, you're going to get content tools to help you figure out what your offer is gonna be Yeah, how you can offer something how you can package it and how you can sell it. Yeah, and and what's cool about If you think why most businesses fail is because they don't have the blueprint or the guide Right. They don't have somebody saying no no Lewis. Don't go that way. I've been down that road you go off a cliff Right they don't have somebody saying no no no Lewis don't go that way. I've been down that road you go off a cliff Go this way. No, you can like the accountability that the capabilities Yes, and that's what we're I mean, especially now with all the changes going on the world. We're so freaking still

I mean one of the things we're gonna share and have let people work with it use it as well as we'd be built an AI That thinks like Tony and I in this industry Like imagine having tap into Tony and Dean's brain to help you keep moving forward. And at this phase of our live, I'll just end it with this, which really cool, no matter if you want to be in our industry or not, you'll leave fired up. It's Tony Robbins, myself, Matthew McConaughey's coming, our buddy Jay Shetty's coming, we got a couple fun people coming. You're gonna leave fired up, you're gonna leave with skills, but possibly you're gonna leave with your your new compelling future and have the ability to

See a path and a plan to to being in this incredible in that's beautiful. So thrive 750 750 calm you guys can sign up there. This has been powerful man. I really like this pyramid Process that you've created which is like really just getting clear on one goal because I think a lot of us want to create creating, which is like really just getting clear on one goal. Because I think a lot of us want to create multiple revenue streams or multiple projects at once, all these different things. But just one at a time. One at a time. Yeah, focus on one at a time, reaching that,

and then maintaining it. And then you can go to the next goal. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I watched you do it with this podcast. And not to start on it, but two years ago, I remember you calling me, or us talking, like, I'm getting rid of everything.

I'm going all in on the podcast and one big event. I mean, I just watched your YouTube channel, your podcast just soar from. Yeah, it's been a journey of it because even in, we were talking before in Fiji when I was with you and Tony in Fiji 2018, I guess end of 2018, was kind of the early conversation around it.

And I asked Tony a question. I was like, you know, I just feel like I'm a seven out of 10 with like 20 different projects. And he was like, do you want to be a seven out of 10 guy or a 10 out of 10? I was like, God dang it. You know, I was like, yeah. I knew the answer was gonna be like.

Yeah, okay, I want to be, you know, at least an eight or a nine, you know, maybe we're never reaching a 10. There's always room to grow. But I was like, yeah. And I just felt like distracted, not distracted, but spread thin. Yeah. And it's like, it's hard to be great

in 20 different projects or five different things. If you're launching them all at the same time, I feel like you might be able to move them, but they're gonna be slower. So true. And so over the last few years, I really started pulling back and eliminating all these other revenue streams,

which was really scary to go all in on one thing and now I'm at the process where I'm like okay what is that next thing? Right because you went back to the base. Yes. Made it incredibly successful. Now it's time to take those capabilities and say where should I point the next? What's one thing I could add? What's one goal? Seven things. Now you're 9.5 out of 10. Exactly. So I feel like, and I also am in a place where I don't want to rush just to make more money. I want it to be the right timing and feel in alignment with it. Not just like, just because I can do something else, I should.

I don't think I should until I feel like that's the right thing. This is the right partnership. This is the right timing, now let's go. So it's also been knowing how to say no to opportunities that look really enticing, but is the compelling future two, five, seven years in the future, am I really going to want to do this thing in three, five, seven years just to make money right now? So it's learning how to balance that. Even you saying that, how cool is it, and I wish that for everybody watching, what a great way as we come towards the end here, or I think we're getting towards the end, is

when you're in it long enough and you put the work in what you did, going from your sister's couch to this right now, unbelievable, and who you interview and what you've done is so amazing, but you put in the hard work to where now you can make the decision to go, I don't want to do anything that doesn't serve my soul, I'm not doing it just for money, I'm not doing it just for money. I'm not doing it just for significance. I'm not doing it for anybody else. I'm gonna choose something on my next level

that fits the man I am. I mean, I wish that for every single person listening or watching. 100%. Final question for you. This is, how old are you now? Or do you share your age? 56.

56. So you're 66. You're, you know, your son and your daughter in their late 20s at this point. I guess you have younger kids as well. And they're little too. But yeah, your older kids are in their late 20s. You're 66, you sold a billion dollar company at this point.

You've got all the material things in the world. What's the advice your 66 year old self would say to you today at 56 on what to make sure you don't miss out on and what to step into for the next decade? Yeah, really good. These are the good old days. And something that really stuck with me, and I'll make a long answer out of this, but I read the book Shoe Dog, founder of Nike.

At the end, they asked him his bucket list. One was about his son. It's one of the reasons my boy's with me here today. The second one was, he said, when we were starting the company, when we were struggling, when the bank called our loan, when Japan couldn't ship the shoes anymore, when our merchant didn't work,

and we had to sit around a table with people figuring stuff out, stressed out on my mind, trying to find solutions. He said, when I was in that room, I thought, oh, when this company goes big, that's when I made it. He said, my bucket list would be go back to sit in that room and realize that's when I was alive. I was solving problems. I was tapping into my brain.

I was stretching my goals. He said, that was life. He said, now I'm gonna just give all my money away. And what I'd like to say is that I want to remember every day that these are the good old days with my children from 18, 16, five and two with my wife and hustling still like I'm broke and solving bigger problems. I want to enjoy these moments. And like even saying, I want you to know, I still sometimes don't.

So when you have a moment like this, when you get asked a question, that's why I love listening to you. It's why I listen to your podcast when I don't see it for a year. I listen to your podcast all year long because it only takes one thing to spark an emotion to go, I'm going to spend the rest of this month every day

realizing I'm in the good old days. So thank you for that. My man. Dean Graciosi, appreciate it. Appreciate you. Appreciate you I have a brand new book called make money easy and if you're looking to Create more financial freedom in your life You want abundance in your life and you want to stop making money hard in your life?

But you want to make it easier you want to make it flow you want to feel abundant Then make sure to go to make moneyoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is gonna help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to the next episode on the School of Greatness.

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