The School of Greatness - WARNING: Most People Stay Poor Because They Ignore This ONE Law...

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Leave an Amazon Rating or Review for my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Most people stay broke for life because they ignore one simple truth that governs every result in their bank account, relationships, and life. I discovered this after years of struggling as a bouncer, truck driver, and living on my sister's couch, feeling like no matter how hard I worked, financial abundance remained out of reach. The breakthrough came when I learned these seven fundamental laws that shifted everything - from finding a penny worth $4,000 to generating half a million dollars in 30 days through the power of proximity and generosity. These laws will help anyone ready to break free from financial struggle and create lasting wealth by aligning their internal world with external abundance.The Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life TodayThe Mask of Masculinity: How Men Can Embrace Vulnerability, Create Strong Relationships, and Live Their Fullest LivesThe School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a LegacyIn this episode you will learn:Why your internal conversation directly manifests your external financial reality and how to shift itThe counterintuitive reason gratitude and generosity unlock more wealth than grinding harderHow to map your financial future using 9 specific questions that create unstoppable momentumWhy focusing on one income stream might make you richer than chasing multiple revenue sourcesThe proximity strategy that generated $500,000 in 30 days from one weekend mastermindHow knowing your role in the pack accelerates wealth faster than trying to be the leaderThe tongue technique that steers your life toward abundance instead of defeatFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1798For more Greatness text PODCAST to [phone]More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Rory Vaden – greatness.lnk.to/1792SCDaniel Priestley  – greatness.lnk.to/1795SCBrendon Burchard – greatness.lnk.to/1770SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

If you're struggling financially right now, it's probably not because you're lazy, unmotivated, or unlucky. The truth is, most people stay broke for life because they ignore one simple law. This first law is something that really helped me unlock everything financially. And for many years I was struggling. I was working multiple different jobs. I was a bouncer. I was a truck driver. I was doing odd jobs here and there wherever I could. And I wasn't feeling like no matter how hard I worked, I wasn't creating financial abundance. And there was one main law that I needed to shift that started to unlock everything for me. And this is the law of mindset because your internal world shapes your external world. Now there's a quote I want to share with you from Lisa Nichols that says,

your life is a physical manifestation of the conversation going on in your head. For many years, I lived with a conversation of I'm not good enough, I'm stupid, I'm never gonna figure this out, everyone else around me is smarter than me, why are they getting these results and I'm struggling when I'm working so hard. It was just a constant movie playing in my mind that was telling me I'm not good enough. And it was manifesting physically in my life the results of I'm not good enough. And it was exhausting. And I don't know if you're feeling this right now or if you can ever relate to this in your life where you've had this script, this conversation, this critic

in your mind telling you how hard things are, how unfortunate things are, why it's not fair, why other people are getting results and you're not getting it, how you're never going to be able to create financial freedom for your life. I don't know if you've ever had that script. If you have, leave a comment below or like this to confirm that you have so I can see that. Because this is one of the things that holds you back is your mindset is shaping you. It's shaping your external world because it's manifesting within your internal world. And I want to share this clip from Lisa Nichols,

where she really shares this in a powerful way. So watch this. Your life is a physical manifestation of the conversation going on in your head. So if you said nothing but thought everything, your life is going to show up to make your thoughts true. So you have one job, you have one job in your life for you to make what you think about life true so that you're not wrong. You don't want to walk around wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. You want to be right about the life you see. So you're going to work hard, work hard to produce the life that you talk about in your mind.

You've got to see yourself there in your mind. And if you're seeing yourself in struggle in your mind, you're going to manifest it externally in your life. It's not just going to be all of a sudden, easy times, you know, money's not going to fly from the sky and just fall in your lap. If you're in struggle in your mind, you're going to create struggle in your physical manifestations as well. Maybe you're creating some results, but it's just harder. Maybe some opportunities come to you, but it feels like you had to work so hard to make it happen as opposed to shifting the mindset and the narrative in your mind. First,

saying something like opportunities flow to me effortlessly and abundantly. People want to be around me who have opportunities and they want to see me succeed. If you start shifting your self-talk into more empowering messages, more empowering beliefs, even if you don't fully believe it right now, it's okay. But when you start to speak negatively about yourself constantly, why it's so hard, you're going to confirm that because your life doesn't want to be wrong about what you're saying. So you don't want to be wrong about what you're saying. You're going to manifest that like Lisa just said.

So you need to figure out ways to start shifting it with the positive self-talk. You need to be thinking about ways that you can create empowering validation from what you're speaking. And there's a great story that I've talked about before, which is how I found a penny that ended up being worth $4,000. And I just wanted to do an experiment for myself when I was on my book tour, Make Money Easy. I was traveling around the country and I was in New York. And I have a video about this that I want to share with you in a moment that showcases what happened. But just by saying something over and over again, thinking of it, setting an intention, you're creating the space for physical manifestation to occur. It doesn't guarantee that you're going to create these results in a moment or in a day

or in a week or month. It doesn't guarantee anything. But by putting yourself in a negative mindset constantly, this law is going to guarantee negative and stress and anxiety. You're going to validate what you're thinking constantly. So we need to be shifting our thinking so that we can validate with a more empowering experience in life. And I'm gonna share this Penny story video clip right now.

Can you manifest millions? Yes, I was in New York last week. Every morning when I woke up, I just said this to myself, money comes to me abundantly and freely. I see it everywhere. Someone was carrying a box and a penny phone and I was like, all right, it came to me. Let me do this again.

The next day I'm in the subway and I see a penny heads up and I thought to myself this is filthy. It's not valuable. It's not enough money. I don't need to pick this up. I was like, no, I'm doing this experiment money comes to me abundantly and freely and I'm going to manifest money. And so I pick it up put in my pocket and I just say thank

you money for coming to me. I put it on my bedside table. I don't think anything of it. The next day I look at this penny and I noticed something. It said 1945 on this penny. That's an 80 year old penny. I go huh? That's unique. I haven't seen a penny that old in a long time. And I flip it over and I get chills thinking about it. I noticed it's a wheat penny. And so I Google 1945 wheat penny value and one just sold. Guess for how much?

I have no idea. $4,000 online. There was more value inside of that penny than what met the eye originally. And all I had to do was be willing to look for it, be willing to pick it up and say, I receive thank you. Again, I love this example because, um, I didn't know that this was going to add value to my life. It just looked like a penny, but later I found out that it was actually much more valuable than what met the eye originally. So again, you have to be open to possibilities. You have to be

open to magic, but you have to shift your mindset with this law first. And the second law is just as important, and it's the law of generosity. You need to be thinking, how can I give first and then multiply later? Because gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. And if you can think this, I don't care if you print that out and you put it on your wall, you put it on your phone screen, you say this to yourself a hundred times throughout the day and you just say gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. Gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. That needs to be your mantra. You need to be thinking, how can I give, not how can I gain? And when I was broke, living on my sister's couch,

I felt over and over again, man, I could really use some help from someone right now. I wish someone would come and help me right now. And I would reach out to people on LinkedIn one by one, asking for advice. Hey, can you give me a job? Hey, can you teach me something? Hey, can you show me how to do this?

I was reaching out and asking constantly for people to give to me. And it was hard. I got a lot of rejection. People don't want to give me the time. And I realized after many months of failing at this, that I was just being a taker. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't reach out for help. You should, but we need to be thinking, how can I live in gratitude and generosity while I'm reaching out for help as well? And there are

so many different things you can do with that, but I'm just always thinking about how to give. Now, it doesn't mean also you need to be a doormat and you have to give all your money away and you have to give all your time away for free constantly. That's not what I'm saying. Life is about balance and boundaries. But the more generous you can be with your energy, the more generous you can be with your time, the more generous you can be with your knowledge, your wisdom, your experience, the more results will come to you in unexpected ways. And I've been doing this podcast, School of Greatness, for over 12 years.

Every single week for 12 years, three times a week for the last 10 years, we have put out a free episode for you and for millions of people around the world. Now this costs me money, it costs my team money, it costs us time, energy, it costs resources, it costs building relationships to ask people to come on the show, to spread their message and get wisdom from them as well. And that is 12 years of weekly consistent effort, energy, time, money, resources, resourcefulness to create something for free and share with you in the world. And because of that, so much good has come back to us. to create something for free and share it with you in the world.

And because of that, so much good has come back to myself, to my team, to the business, because we're thinking, how can we add value? How can we serve? How can we give? What is it that people need right now? What is their biggest pain? What is their biggest challenge, the biggest struggle? We read the comments. So if you're leaving a comment below right now about what you're experiencing and what your challenge is

We're reading these comments and saying how can we help you with your specific problem and your specific pain? How can we find the top expert and add value? how can I ask the right question so you get exactly what you need in this season of your life and So you get exactly what you need in this season of your life. And that level of how can I be generous? How can I be a giver? And how can I be grateful for the experience and the opportunity to sit across some of the most inspiring people in the world? Like I'm so grateful and blessed for that opportunity as well.

It's like this circle of abundance that comes and goes and comes and goes. And the more I give, the more I receive. And I could block the flow of abundance. And we can talk later about how not to block the flow of abundance, but by giving constantly and also receiving, I'm allowing for more abundance to flow to me and to others. And again, so many people have said also, Louis, thank you so much for having me on the show. It helped me sell thousands of copies of my book.

I made an extra million dollars in my business from all the leads that came in, whatever it might be. And so many people, I'm just like, take it. Like I want you to make money. I want you to be happy. I want you to see your business grow. I want you to get opportunities, I want you to be happy. I want you to see your business grow. I want you to get opportunities Speaking gigs, whatever it might be. The goal is to be of service and also to be open to receiving abundance

To yourself as well. So the more you can think about being grateful for your life every single day, even when there's a challenge Even when they're stressed thinking about the perspective of life man I'm so blessed right now because I'm not living in a war zone. Man, I'm so blessed right now because one of my parents is still alive. Man, I'm so blessed because I have a beautiful wife. Man, I'm so blessed because I have an amazing team. Man, I'm so blessed because I'm healthy right now. I'm so blessed. Even if there's overwhelm and stress and struggle in your life, I'm not saying you have to discount those things, but what I am saying is you can look at the things to be grateful for. You can wake up in the morning and say, thank you. Thank you for another day to open my eyes and to take another breath.

And so many people live in this state of frustration and stress because the mindset, the first law is blocking your abundance to generate more internal freedom, internal peace, internal worthiness to then create external worthiness, external financial results, opportunities, resources, all these different things. So we've got to start shifting the mindset and also the gratitude and the generosity. And that's the law number two. Law number three is the law of sequencing because you need to map your life. If you never map out your future, you'll tend to retrace your past. Because poor people try to jump steps.

They try to invest before they save or they scale without a foundation. But wealth is built through layers, through seasons. First earning, then managing, then multiplying. Like nature, money has a rhythm. There's seasons to the rhythm. And if you ignore it, you'll stay broke or you'll constantly be going up and down, up and down in the financial system.

And in order to figure out the law of sequencing and how to map your life, I want to give you this application for yourself, and I want you to take notes and write these questions down. I'm going to give you nine different questions that you can ask to figure out where you are in your life, what sequence you need to take, and the map for yourself to guide you moving forward. Because I can already hear you saying, well, I'm not sure what I want. I'm not sure how much I want to make, or I want to make tons of money, but you're not clear enough. And in order to really create more financial freedom and abundance, we've got to have a map.

So here are nine questions for you. I want you to write these down. And if you want extra credit, you can even write these down these questions in the comments below so other people can see it, copy and paste and use this. The first question is how much do I want to make? How much do I really want to make? What's your number and why do I want to make that? So how much do I want to make is number one.

Why do I want to make that? Why do I want to make that much? There's got to be something underneath that's deeper than just, I want to make a million dollars because I want to be rich. Okay. Well, there's not going to be fulfillment at the end of the day. If you're not clear with why the third question you want to be rich. Okay, well, there's not going to be fulfillment at the end of the day if you're not clear with why. The third question you want to ask yourself is what will I do with the money when I make it? Because when we are clear on how much we want to

make and we know what we're going to do with it, like I know how much money I'm going to be giving to charity this year. So I'm clear that empowers me to get up and do things that I don't normally want to do that I'm struggling to do. It gets me more motivation to say, okay, I'm going to go the extra mile in this one place. Or I'm going to go fly here and take this extra speaking gig because I want to use this money to serve more people. Because I know in the previous law, the law of gratitude and generosity, that when I am given so much, it's also an opportunity to

give back so much. It's also an opportunity to pay it forward because when I was broke on my sister's couch, not making a lot of money for a couple of years, there were people that showed up for me. There were people that paid it forward to me. And it's my responsibility and it's your responsibility to keep paying it forward to others as well. This doesn't mean if you're broke,

you need to give all your money away to people. That's not what I'm saying. But are there people in your life that are maybe a few years younger than you? Whether it's a younger brother or sister that you can pull up with you and inspire and speak confidence into and empower from time to time and show up for and show them you care, show up to their events, to their graduations, to their first day of whatever they're doing. Can you show up for people in your life and show them and speak confidence

into them and remind them how much they are loved and how much they are worthy and how much they matter? That's really what we're all looking for. So third question is, what will I do with my money when I make it? The fourth one is, when do I want to make it? So what date? Could you give yourself a timeline, a deadline, a date of when you want to make it? So what date could you give yourself a timeline, a deadline, a date of when you want to make it? If you want to make a hundred thousand dollars, by when, by when do you

want to earn that $100,000? And you have to see where you're at currently. And okay, how much time do I really think it's going to take to get there? And I remember I was broke on my sister's couch, not making anything for a while. And I just gave myself a crazy goal for me, which was I want to make $5,000. And I gave myself a deadline. It was nine months. Now again, I was broke. I was broke. I was making 250 bucks a week as a truck driver, but I was like, I want to make $5,000 in one month. And I want to do it in nine months. I didn't know how I was going to do it. I didn't know who was going to help me do it.

I didn't know what I needed to do to do it, but I gave myself a deadline and a date and I literally signed the date with the number $5,000. And I hung it on my wall. And this was a reminder every single day. That's where I'm heading. This is the law of sequencing. It's where I'm heading. It's my law of sequencing. It's where I'm heading. It's my map. It's my, it's my vision.

It's my mission. It's the guide. I don't know how to do it, but I know I need to get clear on what I want to make, when I want to make it by and what I'm going to do with the money. It's going to give me more empowering energy to go make it happen. The fifth question that you want to ask yourself is what fears do I need to overcome? Oh man, when I was broke on my sister's couch, I had every fear you could imagine. A hundred more fears than you have right now, I had them all.

Because I went from being a cocky 23, 24 year old who was playing arena football and in best shape of my life and thought I had it figured out to breaking my wrist, to having to retire from playing football, from ending my dream, from the crash of 2008 in the USA, to not having an opportunity to get a job, to living on my sister's couch for a year and a half, broke as a joke and really unsure of myself, unsure of what's the future. How do I make money? I have no clue. What am I supposed to do? And I made a list of all my fears. A mentor said, you need to make a list of all your fears. And he said, you need to go all in on your fears until the fears disappear. And I want that to be your mantra as well.

I want you to write a list of your biggest fears right now. For me, it was public speaking. That was a big one. And then you write a list of these fears. It was the fear of looking bad, the fear of criticism, the fear of judgment. It was like writing all these things down, all the flaws that were inside of me. I was good at hiding it and acting confident, but deep down I was a scared little boy. And in order to overcome the fear, you must go all in on your fear until the fear disappears.

And it might take years of practice. It may never go away, but if you can constantly act in the fear and feel more comfortable with the fear, you're eventually going to feel like, Oh, I'm okay. I can do this. Maybe you're never going to be the best in the world of that thing. I'm never going to be the best public speaker in the world, but I can go on stage in front of 10, 20, 50,000 people and I can deliver my message with poise and confidence. Before, when I was 24, 25 on my sister's couch, I couldn't get up in front of five people without stuttering, stumbling, and trembling. I was just sweating profusely. Anytime I'd get in front of a

small group of people to just say something for a minute. I was like, I was so worried about what people thought of me, what people were going to say about me behind my back. And I don't know if you have that fear right now. If you have the fear of what are people to say about me if I post something online, or if I try to go all in on this dream that I have. Leave a comment below. If you're worried about what people think about you, you're concerned about people judging you or criticizing you by putting yourself out there.

And I get it. It's a real fear. It's not enjoyable to have people say nasty things about you. But for me, it was much more important to go all in on the fear, be judged, be laughed at, be criticized. It was much more valuable doing that than waiting a year, five years, 20 years, my life, never going all in on that fear and looking back and saying, gosh, I was crippled because I just lacked the courage. I lacked courage to go try something. So what fears do I need to overcome? I want you to think about that, create a list of your fears and start going all in on them one by one. The sixth question

is what do I need to learn? So again, we're sequencing, you're figuring out what you want to make, by when, the fears that are holding you back and what you need to learn. So at that point, I needed to learn public speaking. So I found a mentor who is a professional speaker and I said, what do I need to do? And he said, you need to go to Toastmasters and you need to go every single week for a year. They're going to give you a workbook. It's a curriculum on how to be a better public speaker.

You need to show up every single week and you need to speak every single week. And I want you to film yourself and watch back and get a coach who can critique you in a positive way to see what you're doing well and what to improve on. And that's what I did for a year. I was horrible. I was terrified. I was like, so it was so stressful to go to a meeting with 20 people. And speak for two minutes. It was the heart.

It felt like I was going to die, but that's exactly why I needed to go. And that's why you need to go and do whatever it is. Fear you're stressed out about right now. So what do I need to learn to help me overcome this fear, to help me accomplish this goal in this law of sequencing? The seventh question is with whom do I need to connect? So who do you need to meet? What mentor, what coach, what guide?

Um, and maybe it's not a person you're going to connect with. Maybe it's a book you're going to learn from. Maybe it's a podcast like the school of greatness, person you're going to connect with. Maybe it's a book you're going to learn from. Maybe it's a podcast like the school of greatness, where you're going to learn from some top expert to teach you the thing. You know, you may not get access to the top person in the world to be your coach or mentor, nor do you may not have the money or the resources to be able to invest in a coach or mentor, but there's so much value online right now.

There's so many books that you can buy for 20 bucks that can give you a lot of the expertise from that person. So think about who do I need to connect with? And it might be a multiple people. Number eight, what skills do I need to master? Again, this is kind of goes into number six. What do I need to learn? There are multiple skills that I needed to master in order to overcome these fears that

were blocking me, but also in order to create more financial freedom. And I didn't understand money. I didn't know about money. I was afraid of money. So I also started reading money books. I started asking questions just to people who had more money than me. It didn't have to be like some billionaire, but just I lived in Columbus, Ohio,

and I just found people who are a little bit older than me, who had made a little bit more than me. And I just said, hey, what did you do here? How did you learn this? And I just kept learning new skills to master. And I'm still needing to learn and master new skills because as we reach new levels, there's new things to learn and break through to.

And the ninth question to ask yourself, hopefully you're writing this down, is what actions do I need to take? So all these questions are just guiding to support you within the law of sequencing, to set you up, to map your life and create a game plan. Because without a game plan in life, we're really just going to be wandering around asking yourselves, what do I do next? And with a game plan, at least you have a clear direction. It doesn't mean it's going to be a smooth direction.

There might be a lot of bumps along the road, but at least you're going in one direction and you can see improvement from where you've gone week after week, month after month. That's the third law. And if you're really looking to create more financial peace and external abundance in your life, you also got to make sure to check out the book that a lot of this stems from. It's called Make Money Easy. It's all about creating financial freedom and living a richer life. Because we dive deeper in the subconscious stories that you've been

telling yourself that have been blocking your abundance financially. Talked about your money story and the things that are hurting you every single day. So if you want to unlock the freedom in your life financially to a whole new level, make sure to grab a copy of this book as well. The fourth law. This is an interesting one. And I'm curious where you stand on this law. This fourth law is called the law of abundance.

One income is a trap. Now here's a quote from my friend, Rory Vaden, who says, diluted focus gets diluted results. Now everyone's money journey is different and some of the richest people have only one stream of income. They go all in, they focus all their energy and, and they put all their time and all their resources into one business with one main product.

And it blows up into this massive financial success, um, because they went all in on their focus and their energy, one income or multiple incomes streams, there's no right or wrong on how you can create abundance in whichever one you choose, because so many people will say, well, you need multiple streams of income in order to create financial freedom. And other people go all in on one and they crush it. So you have to be thinking about where are you at in your life?

What season of life are you in? And what feels right for you? Now, give an example. In my business, when I started out, I was broke, my sister's couch. And I was like, I just need to make money wherever the opportunity comes. And let me know if this speaks to you. If you feel like you might be in this place right now, I just want to

make money anywhere I can make it. And originally I was doing one-on-one coaching, teaching people about LinkedIn. Then I wrote a book. Then I was doing workshops. I was doing speaking, speaking gigs, Then I was doing workshops. I was doing speaking gigs and I was doing workshops as well. Then I created a course online. Then I created a membership. Then I created a mastermind. Then I had group coaching and one-on-one coaching as well. Then I did live events. And then I said, how can I just keep creating? Then I did affiliate marketing. Then I did eBooks.

Then I did audio books. I had all these revenue streams and then I created new courses. I had like 12 courses at one time and I just kept growing it. Then I launched a podcast and I was getting sponsorships and advertising. And I was like, how can I get money everywhere? Like there's money opportunities everywhere. Let's just go build this thing, then build this thing. And, and my friend says diluted looted focus gets diluted results.

Right? So if I'm focusing in 13 to 18 different places of where to create and launch this, then I'm going to launch this thing. Then I'm going to write a book during it. Then I'm going to do interviews. Then I'm going to do sponsorships. Now we're doing an event. We have to plan all these things.

It's like, it's exhausting. And I did that for, I don't know, eight or nine years. And it, it made money. It's not that it didn't make me money, but it left me feeling like I was playing at a six or a seven out of a 10 in life. And I remember I was at a mastermind with Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi. This was 2019 or 2018 in Fiji. I was with Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi. This was 2019 or 2018 in Fiji. I was with Tony Robbins and about 20 of us were at his private resort for a mastermind.

And I said, this is Tony. I was like, man, I feel like I'm like a seven out of a 10. And he goes, do you want to be a seven out of a 10 type of guy or a 10 out of 10 type of guy? I was like, Oh man. Uh, yeah, I want to be a 10 out of 10 type of guy or a 10 out of 10 type of guy? I was like, oh man, yeah, I wanna be a 10 out of 10 type of guy. And I think you just have to ask yourself,

do I wanna be like a five out of 10, an eight out of 10 type of gal or guy, or do I wanna be a 10 out of a 10? Now you may never be at a 10 level, right? I still don't feel like I'm a 10 every moment of every day, but I'm putting my energy and my efforts to be a 10 every day, but I'm putting my energy and my efforts to be a 10 every day. I'm focused my efforts, I'm focused my energy. And after that conversation, literally that one

conversation, I was like, you know what? I think I need to scrap all the courses, all the memberships, all the coaching, all the one-on-one stuff, all the masterminds. We need to scrap it all. I need to scrap all the webinars I'm doing every single week, Facebook ad, like scrap it all. And let's go all in on the podcast, which is the thing I was most excited about. So you've got to ask yourself, where is the most joy come from, the most fun, the most fulfillment?

How can I put all my energy into that one thing and make that bigger and better versus have 20 streams of income? Now, depending on the season you're at, you know, your business may be able to take on two or three extra streams of income. You may need an entry level product, a middle level product, and then a high level product. You may need a cross sell or an upsell or a down sell to help you generate more revenue.

So I'm not saying you have to pick one or the other. You have to pick what's right for you of this season of life. And I've kind of done it all right. And it doesn't mean I only have one stream of income right now, but I don't have as many as I did and it gives me much more peace, which creates more abundance. So you want to be thinking about the law of abundance, either one income or multiple streams of income, whichever is right for you for this season of life.

But it doesn't mean you're trapped with one income stream. And it doesn't mean you're trapped with multiple income streams. You can create abundance either way, but make sure you're putting your energy, your effort and your focus in the right places that feel more abundant for you. That's the key. It's feeling abundant with the energy and the effort you're putting out into the world. If I'm distracted because I have so many things to work on, it doesn't feel abundant. Sure.

I'm making more money, but internally I'm overwhelmed. I'm scarce because I have my time spread everywhere. And I'm not living at a 10, I'm living at a six or a seven. And it doesn't mean this is right or wrong, good or bad. It's not judgment. It's just how do you wanna live your life? And what is abundance to you? Answer that question,

leave a comment below of what abundance means to you. I'd love to hear your definition of abundance. Now, law number five. This is a big one. Every law is big to help you create financial freedom and abundance in your life. But this one is probably one that has created more financial opportunities than anything else. And law number five is the law of proximity. Now Tony Robbins said proximity is power. If you want to level up, get around people who are already playing at the level you aspire to. I don't know about you, but I was in the bottom of my class in school, all

throughout middle school and high school. Once they started grading our grade cards and ranking us with everyone else in our class, talk about defeating your confidence. Every semester. I hated the look of my grade card because at the top right, it would show you your ranking amongst all your peers in the grade. I never broke out of the bottom four in my class. And it was just always this like defeating moment. It's like, man, I am the dumbest kid in this class. And I essentially cheated my way through middle school and high school by asking

people to help me on homework and quizzes. And it was just like, ah, Scantrons back in the day. I don't know if you remember that where it's like, you're just filling in bubbles and you're like, ah, who's filling in what? Like I had to just survive to get through high school and graduate. And I almost flunked out of English class. So for me, it just felt like, man, am I ever going to be able to amount to anything in life because I'm so stupid in school? So it was just a confirmation that continually put in this self talk. That was negative.

You're dumb. You're stupid. Uh, no one's going to give you an opportunity because you're not smart enough. That was the thing. And it wasn't until later in life when I realized, oh, it's actually not about being smart. It's actually about being kind. It's actually about being present, about being generous. Have you ever been around someone who's so smart, who won't look you in the eyes, that's

always looking around to see what else is going on, or they're just on their phone distracted. They're kind of a jerk. It's like, Hey, I'm right here. Like what's going on? But they're just so in their head and they're speaking in such an intellectual way that just makes you feel like inferior in some ways, and they don't, they look right through you and just like, what? I don't want to create a relationship with that person.

I don't care how smart you are, how talented you are. I'm not going to be like, Hey, let me add as much value to you in the world. And you just look right through me or don't even talk to me. It's just, you're not building relationship and the key to success in life is relationships and the key to successful relationships is being a generous listener, being vulnerable, being open, being kind. Like that's what you remember. And it's important to be a generous human being in front of someone else.

I'm not saying we're going to be perfect at this. Like I make mistakes all the time. I'm sure I'm distracted all the time as well around people, but I do my best to be as present as possible. I do my best to try to be giving as much as I can. And I think that's the key. Proximity is power. And most people treat networking like collecting business cards and transactional.

How can I just get something from this person right away? How can I ask them for help right away? And again, this goes back to the gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. Proximity is power, right? It is powerful, but if you approach it in the wrong ways, it could hurt you. And people will remember your first impressions the most. They'll remember if you were kind, if you're generous, you're a curious listener. And I'm going to share with you a couple of quick stories.

One was the time that created so much financial opportunity for me. It blew me away. And it was a two day weekend. It was the first master created so much financial opportunity for me. It blew me away. And it was a two-day weekend. It was the first MasterMoney I went to. And I was starting to build my business. My business at the time, this is probably like 2008 or something like that. 2009 maybe it was. My business at the time,

in one year, generated $250,000 roughly in sales. And it was like working my butt off. It was like day and night. I was up till three, four AM just like constantly marketing, constantly learning, growing. It was just grinding that first year. And it did $250,000 in sales. That wasn't my first year ever, but it was like my first year, full year, really

unlike business once I started making some money in January. So after that first year, January starts. And I go to this mastermind and at this mastermind, there's probably 20, 25 people that were way farther ahead than me in the online marketing world, authors, speakers, uh, people who had, you know, million dollar plus businesses, things like that. And I was like the young little guy. I was like, I barely made it in this mastermind.

And I was like, I'm just here to learn and add value. And for two days, all I did was ask people questions about their business and see how I could help them. That's all I did. I asked them questions. I listened and I said, how I could help them. That's all I did. I asked them questions. I listened and I said, how can I help you? And at the time I knew a lot about LinkedIn and LinkedIn was powerful in helping

people grow their business, and that's how I got into this mastermind. So all I did, there was five different people that I really kind of connected with the most over two days because you can't connect with everyone, 20 people over two days for an hour at a time. It's like I connected with about five different people, the people sitting next to me and added as much value as them. Right there. I was like helping them on LinkedIn profile strategy, follow up stuff, and

just asking them how I could help them. I didn't ask anyone if they could help me. I just said, how can I help you? And I did it for them right there. I added value right there. Within a week afterwards, I just followed up with each one of them. I got their email and their cell. I just texted them, hey it was great connecting with you. Please let me know if I can help you with more of the LinkedIn strategy that I helped you with at the event. And each one

of them were just like thank you so much. I'm already seeing results come in. This has been really helpful. I was confused about this. You've really helped create peace and clarity for me. Thank you. They said, is there anything I can do for you? Right. So they followed up and I said, well, I'd love to do a webinar with your audience and all these guys had big email lists and audiences.

And I said, I'd love to do a free training for your audience to serve them, to teach them what I taught you in this last weekend. And we can do it absolutely free and I'll give them all my strategies for free, just to add value to your audience. And then if you want, I'm happy to offer my advanced training course that can help them with more tools on optimizing their LinkedIn profile and their business. And they're like, amazing. So literally all five of these individuals did a webinar with me over the next 30

days and over the next 30 days that generated almost a half a million dollars in sales, half a million dollars over that next month. And for me, it was life-changing. It was mind blowing. It was like, I had worked my butt off for a few years to learn how to make money. Then kind of in the first real year of making money, did about 250,000 in sales.

I had a business partner as well at the time that was helping generate that with me. And then we do a half a million within the next 30 days, all because of one mastermind and five people that I'd added value to and built relationships with the power of proximity. But if I had gone into those relationships saying, Hey, help me out right now and not paying attention and not asking questions and just being a taker.

None of that would have happened. Proximity is power. And if you can focus on getting around the right people and asking them questions. So many times I went to events and trade shows and conferences in the first few years of doing business as kind of the young guy in the industry. And somehow I would just get around the right people and ask them questions. And at the end of the night, everyone would be like, Hey, you guys got to meet this Lewis house guy. He's like the most interesting guy here.

And I never said anything. I never said anything about me. I just asked them questions and listened, but the more interested you are in another person, the more interesting you are in another person, the more interesting you become to that person. And the most interesting person in the world is the most interested person in the world. And I think it's one of the reasons why the school of greatness has done so well

is because we want to be here. We want to add value with people sitting across from us. We want to ask questions. We want to listen. We want to add value people sitting across from us. We want to ask questions. We want to listen. It's not all about me taking over the show when I've got one of the leading billionaires, experts, scientists, researchers in the world.

I'm not, I'm not here to fricking teach them. They're here to teach me and to teach you. And I think that's the key is how can you listen more? How can you add more value by listening? So that is law number five. Law number six is the law of roles. You don't have to be number one to win. Now, a few years ago, I took team greatness, my team on a little retreat

to go see the dog whisperer himself, Caesar Milan. And I love Caesar Milan. He's amazing. I've watched a lot of his shows for many years. We've become friends. He's been on the school of greatness and we've connected over the years, but he lives, I don't know, within an hour from here near LA, he's got his dog sanctuary. And I was like, man, wouldn't it be cool if I could just take my team

and we can learn from Caesar. We'd learn from him walk with the dogs. He's got like, you know, alpaca and birds and turtles. And it's like, we're walking with the pack, right? You're with Caesar Milan and the dog pack and all the animals on his, on his land. It was really cool. And Caesar said that you need to know your role in the pack, know your role in the pack. And so many people are like, I want to be the guy.

I want to be the girl. I want to be the one who's like building the empire and doing all these things. But we have to know our role and know our role in the season we're in right now. And poor people fail because they pursue status over self-awareness. The wealthy align with their strengths, whether that's leading, supporting, building or selling. You need to know your role and play your role like a master. And again, when we went to Cesar Millan's facility, the sanctuary, he was talking about this. He goes, there's dogs that are the leaders.

There's dogs that are in the middle of the pack and there are dogs in the back of the pack and each role is important for the pack. You need to know your role and each role is important and you can't have the back of the pack leading leaders in the middle of the pack. It's going to be like a dog fight the whole time. No one's going to be able to go anywhere. You can't have the middle of the pack and the back and the weak ones in the middle. It's like, you can't have the leaders in the bag.

You've got to know your role and the season of life. And this could depend where you're at. You know, when I was playing football, I started playing football when I was 15. So I was a sophomore in high school. My freshman year, I was playing goalie in soccer and the football coach came out to a game and he saw me like, you know, blocking goals and catching everything. And he goes, you should come play football for me.

My mom never wanted me to play football because she didn't want me to get hurt. And she said, it was too dangerous. I ended up getting hurt a lot actually. But, um, I was like one of the biggest kids in school and she was afraid of me getting hurt. So she wouldn't let me play. But then I convinced her to let me play when I was a sophomore. And I was a little afraid because I'm playing varsity with, you know, sophomore, junior, seniors, all these older guys who've been playing for, I don't know, eight or 10 years.

I didn't know the rules of the game. I didn't know what to do. They give you this massive playbook in the beginning. And again, it felt like more school to me. I was already struggled memorizing like for tests and quizzes. This was a massive playbook with all these different plays and defenses and off it. I was just like, what am I doing? And I was like, I'm not trying to be the guy. I don't want to be the guy. I was like, I don't, I'm not trying to be the captain. I'm not trying to be the starting quarterback. Just put me in my role. I said, I just want to play receiver. Tell me where to go. I'll catch the ball.

That's all I wanted to do. And I could barely get through the first season. Just being like, tell me where to line up. What does each play? Where do I go? I had to ask the quarterback almost every other play, which side do I go on? What route am I running? Well, I'm in the huddle.

It's embarrassing, but I wasn't the guy. And it took me until my junior or senior year of college, you know, seven, eight years later, when I finally felt like, Oh yeah, like I'm, I've learned a lot, I'm seasoned, I've trained, I've failed a ton, I've made mistakes and I've succeeded a lot. I think I can be the guy. Like I've, I'm building and I've succeeded a lot. I think I can be the guy. Like I've, I'm building the confidence where like, yeah, I think I can be the guy now, like I think I could be the lead of the pack.

I can be the captain. I can take on more challenge. I can take on more stress because I've experienced it all and I've learned. And whether you're in a career right now where you're more of a junior person, sometimes you just need to know your role and own it and master it. And the more energy, the more positive attitude, the more effort and results you get, you're going to move your way up towards from the back of the pack to the middle of the pack pretty quick.

And if you're able to get results and show the leaders of the pack that you are able to get results and show the leaders of the pack that you are so valuable. You're going to jump the pack and start leading groups within the pack very quickly. And it just depends on the season of life, season of life for where you're at and the skills you have. But you've got to know your role. You've got to own your role and master your role. Then you can elevate to new roles.

And I, again, I never, I never thought of myself as like the leader. You know, I was never like, I'm the leader because in, in school, I was always in the back of the class and the bottom of the class. I was the back of the pack in school setting in sports. I was. Athletically one of the best, but I didn't know the most. So I was intellectually in the back of the pack on the sports team. I was scoring touchdowns and, you know, making plays, but on the team, I was kind of like, Hey, you guys just tell me what to do.

It wasn't until later, more seasons in football and seasons of life, where I started to gain confidence and gain experience and I was like, okay, I can take on more, I can step into this role. I have this wisdom, this experience and it's okay if I fail as a leader. Right. It was like, yeah, I can take this on and I understand this role. You're going to make mistakes, but that is, um, that is something that I, I challenge you to reflect on and know your role right now.

And if you're chasing a dream that fits your ego, or are you chasing a dream that fits your gifts and align with where you're at right now, that's the important thing to think about and knowing your role and mastering your role with this law. And the seventh law is, man, these are all powerful, but this seventh law is going to make you feel better as a human being on a daily basis. And this law is the law of affirmation. Don't speak defeat.

So many people, I learned this in sports. You can tell the team that was going to lose in, in warmups based on their body language and their energy. Are they looking energetically down and defeated? Are they, you know, going to the bench kind of like, oh man, already slouched down with their shoulders and their head? Are they already looking like we've lost this game? If you're in your mind, speaking in your body language is speaking defeat, you're probably going to get defeated by a superior team or just life is going to beat you down. So the law of affirmation is don't speak defeat.

Your tongue is the rudder that steers this vessel that you're living in right now. Chad Wright, a former Navy SEAL and endurance athlete says this. I just want to play this clip really quick so you can see it because this was from an episode that I did on the School of Greatness. Let's watch this right here. Your tongue is your rudder. It's going to steer the direction of your life and the outcomes of your situations. Your tongue is the rudder that steers the vessel that you're living in.

And when you speak something and you speak it out loud or you speak it internally, it is just going to affirm what you're going to create and manifest externally. You know, the body follows what the words say again, Lisa Nichols kind of shared this a little bit earlier in this episode as well. We've got to be thinking and speaking in alignment with what we want to create. And poor people talk themselves out of wealth with phrases like, I'm broke or I can't do this or it's too hard. Whereas wealthy people understand that what you say creates what you see. What you think

creates how you feel. What you say creates what you see. So you want to guard your language like you guard your bank account. It's all energy and the more positive energy that is swirling in your mindset, the more positive energy that is swirling in your heart, the more positive you can speak with affirming what you want to create in the world, no matter how challenging or hard it is, it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. You're creating now an alignment from your mindset within your heart, your energy within your body, and you're speaking it with an alignment of all three things, and then you're acting in accordance with these three things.

Now you're creating harmony, your mind, your heart, your words, and then your actions are all in alignment creating a harmonic energy that allows you to move through the world to affirm and manifest what you're looking to create. It's just going to make it easier. Doors are going to open up. The right people are going to show up because you're thinking and speaking and acting in accordance in alignment with your vision.

You're sequencing what you want. You have the map so it's clear. And the more clear the sequencing, the more clear that you're going to have everything in alignment because the law of affirmation allows you to confirm it. Again, if you can follow these seven laws, it will set you up with so much more success, so much more joy, more peace, more abundance in your life. And I want to remind you that you don't have to have this all figured out right away.

But if you can go back and watch this video, go back and listen to this, take the notes and actually do these steps, step by step, and do it every single day. It is going to unlock so much freedom and abundance in your life that will support you forever. People are not going to recognize you because you're going to show up with so much joy, positivity. You're going to be present. You're going to be curious. You're going to be listening. You're going to be adding value. You're going to be grateful and generous. You're going to be unrecognizable, my friend, because people are going to be curious, you're going to be listening, you're going to be adding value, you're going to be grateful and generous. You're going to be unrecognizable, my friend, because people are going to be like, wow,

most people are takers. Most people only think about themselves. Most people are talking about how hard life is and they're victims and they're gossiping. Who is this human being in front of me right now who is actually kind, compassionate, curious, driven, who's willing to go all in on, driven, who's willing to go all in on their fears, who's willing to be courageous and take risks. Who is this person? I want what they have.

I want to help this person. That's what you have the ability to do right now. But you have to say, I am going to commit to start doing this right now. Don't wait. Start this seven law steps right now to support you in your life. And I'm telling you, in three months, you're going to be a completely different person if you're doing this and you're doing it courageously with gratitude and generosity in your heart.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's 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 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 and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you go out there and do something great.