Amanda Michel, Jackie Morey, Pete Kotzbach, Julie Richard, and Kelsey Ruger

Lewis: Episode number 734 this is something I’ve never done before. Welcome to the school of greatness my name is Lewis Howes, a former athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today, now let the class begin.

Welcome everyone to the school of greatness podcast, I want to share with you a couple of quotes to start. Napoleon Hill said “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” Harvey Firestone said “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” What I learned from that is if we are not constantly looking to grow and develop new skills, new ways of being, new ideas, new actions then we will never reach our highest calling of being a leader in our life, in our relationship, in our health our business and career. So focus on growth, focus on learning, figure out a way to get yourself out of your comfort zone as we’re getting closer to the end of the year. I’m evaluating that myself I always think about what the things I’m still afraid of, what are the things that I don’t want to do? What are the things that I’m insecure about or embarrassed about or unsure about myself or don’t have the confidence around something? And whatever those things are I say okay the 3 biggest scariest things that’s what I need to tackle first, that’s what I need to go all in on so that I am not insecure about them, so I can develop new skills and continue to grow. And every time I do that it’s scary at first it sucks, it’s humiliating all these things and then I start to get better at those things day in and day out and overtime I start to master those things. When mastery comes confidence and with confidence you start to attract and manifest what you want more in your life, whether it’s you want to build your business or get a raise at your job or you want to campaign for something new in your life, it comes through being confident and confidence through mastery of skills. Not fake confidence but actual real confidence because you are sure of yourself, you’ve done the work.

So, I really like that about what Harvey Firestone said and Napoleon Hill said “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” I don’t think you need to look at struggle the negative thing, you can look at it as challenging you know I am still in pursuit of playing with the USA men’s national handball team, I just got back from Puerto Rico playing for the team and going to Israel and Germany to play and early in January to play another 5 or 6 games with them. Training camp is not fun I wouldn’t say it’s a struggle I would say it’s not fun at all, it’s challenging it hurts, it’s painful but I try not to focus on it being a struggle this hard thing where I am like suffering, it’s more of a choice because I have a higher purpose and a higher calling. So, something to think about today as we go into this episode that we’ve never done before I am bringing on some of you, I did a contest a few months where I had a talk show on Facebook. It’s one of the first shows that Facebook did with their Facebook watch platform and we did a talk show called inspiring life with Lewis Howes and many of you watched it, many of you shared it thank you very much and you enjoyed a lot of it and we did a little contest where you share this out and leave a comment and couple of other things and you have a chance to have us fly you out to Los Angeles, put you up for a few nights and give you a very special greatness goodies bag and some other cool things, and we picked 5 winners only 1 of them couldn’t make it but we have 4 of the people come to L.A for the weekend. We had dinner after the interview they all got to ask me questions it was amazing. So, Jackie Morey, Julie Richard, Pete Caughtsback and Amanda Mitchel all flew in from around the world. Again, we put them up we paid for everything had them come in, we had a special dinner over at Soha house here in Beverly Hills afterwards and we got to connect and in this interview we talked about how I built my brand and what I recommended if you don’t have an audience yet personally on how you can build your brand. We talked about the importance of taking the time to celebrate your wins especially now as it’s the end of the year, have you celebrated the wins and the victories you’ve had throughout the years or do you constantly just go on to the next thing and the next thing wants you to do something great and hit a milestone in your life. I try to focus on my wins every single day, every single week and we’ll talk about that, cover my mindset when it comes to approaching big goals and growing my business. Sometimes when we have big dreams and goals they can be daunting, so how do we break those down? How do we focus on growing your business when you feel like you’ve hit a plateau like cover that? And how do I approach negative people in my life and online? And I say some popular things at this part as well but things that will support me in my life I think will support you. So I’m excited about this one I’d love to hear about your thoughts, take a screenshot and share it with your friends over on Instagram and tag me @lewishowes as always because I try to reply on every comment that I can on the dm’s over there. So go ahead and share this out and let me know what you think, there’s a full video interview at lewishowes.com/734 and all the show notes as well.

So, before we dive in I wanna give a big thank you to our sponsor everlane, would you buy a t-shirt for $50 if you knew it only cost 7 bucks to make? I don’t want to do that I don’t want to spend that much more money on a shirt when I knew it only cost 7 bucks and with everlane you never overpay with quality clothes. Everlane only makes premium essentials using the finest materials without traditional markups and they tell you their actual real cost so you know you’re never overpaying. They are radically transparent about every step in their process giving you the details from the materials they use to the ethical factories they worked with, and because everlane sells directly to you their prices are 30 to 50% lower than traditional retailers. Make sure to check them out everlane’s timeless essentials are just what you’re looking for, no frills just quality and right now you can check out their personalize collection at everlane.com/greatness plus you’ll get free shipping on your first order, again full transparency on all the information and pricing and everything you need to know go to everlane.com/greatness.

Also a big thank you to 23andme. Guys right now through December 25^th 23andme DNA kits are no sale, 23andme helps you understand what your DNA can tell you about you and your family story, I sent in my information and it told me so much about my DNA and all the things I need to know about where my family is from and all these different things. 23andme health plus ancestry service includes 90+ personalize genetic reports that offers DNA insights on what makes you unique. It’s easy to do you simply spit in the tube provided in your 23andme kit, register your sample to your personal 23andme account and in a few weeks you will receive your personal online reports. It’s really cool all the reports they show you, you can explore where your DNA is from out of a 150+ regions worldwide, and I thought I was more from one region but realized I was actually more from another region. They’ve got wellness you can learn how your genes play a role in your wellbeing and your lifestyle choices. Now through December 25^th get 30% off any 23andme kit, order your DNA kit at 23andme.com/greatness.

All right my friends I am excited about this one, let me know what you think all about the school of greatness podcast and the mindset and discipline to build a brand and business.

All everyone welcome back to the school of greatness podcast we have a special episode today, we’ve got winners from around the world who are with us in the studio part of the contest that we ran and this is the first time we’ve had you know the audience members come in and connect, I am excited about this because we’ve never done this before. You guys are the first to be here so go ahead and say your first name and where you from.

Julie: Julie from New Brunswick, Canada.

Jackie: Jackie from Seattle, Washington.

Amanda: Amanda I’m from Switzerland but I live in Dubai.

Pete: Pete from Redondo Beach

Lewis: And we had 5 winners for this contest this is part of the inspiring life talk show Facebook, we ran a contest to try and get exposure and we gave much prizes to people who are part of this contest. There was another person who Kelsie Ruger who couldn’t make it last minute but I just wanted to give a shout out to Kelsie and you guys won a lot or prizes. So first part of the prize was a free trip to L.A so you guys are staying at the Andaz, you guys got a flight from Dubai, from Canada you drove up I guess right? So we didn’t helicopter you in and you guys got your flight paid for, the hotel paid for 3 days 2 nights. We also have this backpack bag of greatness which I am gonna talk about what’s in it and you have all my courses which is like a yearlong for inner circle, school greatest academy, 7 figure webinar legacy that’s like $4,000 value right there, plus we’ve got some other stuff we want to give you. You got greatness hats I’m gonna give you guys the bag in a little bit and in this bag it’s like so heavy you’ve got a numatic backpack which is my favorite backpack, and inside you’ve got the yeti mug which is amazing I use this for my coffee. Someone got me this as a gift and it’s hard to buy gifts for me I think, it’s really hard for me because I don’t really care about anything like things and I can buy whatever I want, but this is a very quality gift because I used it all the time. So you got the yeti and

Pete: I got a yeti as a gift last year and I can’t get away from my wife.

Lewis: Oh really? So in the bag if I can open this, all these goodies and you got all the products that I use for my health and you got all my books and you’ve got some other journals and there’s tons of stuff in here. So I’m gonna be letting you all go through to this a little bit later. You’ve got the swag bag, you’ve got all these goodies and we gave you guys 2 tickets to the summit of greatness this year or at least 1 ticket, I want to give you guys 2 to next year as well as an extra bonus that wasn’t even announce, we’re doing dinner tonight at somewhere special and I think there’s a few other things, you guys got all these stuff so I appreciate you guys being a part of the contest and sharing it out and supporting the show. So, we’re here now and I want to open up to you guys if you have any questions about your careers, your businesses, your life and I just let you guys have a couple of questions each and see where it goes. So that’s what I wanted to do for you guys is let you ask the questions and be on here, talk about anything you might be going through and let me people know who you are as well.

So, maybe we’ll go around and let you guys ask 1 question each I’ll share my thoughts on it, if someone else wants to jump in we can do that this is like an experiment so we’ll where it goes.

Julie: So, I am starting a podcast with Paul and from our inner circle and I think my question would be, how did you start reaching out to people? So my focus is gonna be moms, like how did you find did you just go and started contacting people you didn’t know?

Lewis: Do you want to do an interview show or do you want it?

Julie: I want to celebrate moms. They don’t have to be famous but they have to be doing something.

Lewis: Interesting so you want to do a mom podcast, the first question I want to ask is why you want to do that?

Julie: Because when I became a mom you forget that you’re a person besides that and that’s what I want to bring out into women, they kind of forget they have this whole other life that they used to have. So, I want to inspire other moms to follow their dream don’t forget your dream.

Lewis: Are you moms? Sometimes I can’t relate but I’ve seen other moms where they get so wrapped up in their kids life and they kind of forget their own life.

Julie: And then they wake up at 60 and like what happened?

Lewis: Where’s my life.

Julie: Right.

Lewis: Okay, so you want to celebrate moms and give them a purpose to do what?

Julie: To follow their dreams whatever that maybe.

Lewis: How long are you willing to do the podcast for?

Julie: Forever.

Lewis: Really? For a long time.

Julie: For a long time.

Lewis: So it’s something you want to do for a while it’s not just something you want to do?

Julie: No, I want to.

Lewis: And when do you want to launch it?

Julie: We’re working on next month.

Lewis: What day?

Julie: You’re being very specific, I don’t know I didn’t talk upon it. Let’s do it December 5^th

Lewis: Do you want it to be all interviews or do you want some just your own thoughts?

Julie: No, I think I just want to do interviews.

Lewis: Why just interviews?

Julie: Because I just want that experience like I want to learn from other moms plus I want other people to listen to me.

Lewis: Yeah, when I started out I was just fine with connecting people that I already knew. So it’s like who are the people I’m most inspired by their friends that would do this and maybe you have some friends you met at summit of greatness or inner circle or like find the communities of the mom groups that you are already a part of and find 5 or 10 moms that you want to interview that you already know or have some topic connection to. That’s what I start with because a lot with bigger well known moms I guess it’s gonna be harder to get them unless you have some credibility or an audience, with your friends they’re more likely to do it. So, I did that early on just reaching out to the people I knew, luckily my platform started to build pretty quickly and I think I was just always reaching out to people in building relationships not knowing where it will lead and I would ask people who knew someone who want to join or be a part of it, I was always looking for people something to promote like a book or a product and saying ‘hey, I want to promote you and help you sell this.’ So, it’s benefitting them more than me was the goal and so finding that like timing like I’ve been working on some guest 2 to 3 years to book but just following up every few months until I get them at the right time. So start with what you know now with the people you know now, but it’s gonna take time to be your guest, unless you want to say like I’ve had guest list book to have you on, if I want them that bad I will spend some money and if it’s gonna benefit them they’ll do it. I’ve offered like 50 grand for a guest they won’t do it or else I make a donation to your charity, I’ll do this and buy thousands of books and just don’t care. So, I think you got to figure out what you want, but I think like starting out with the everyday mom who is like building a business on the side or following their dream on the side, that’s like a great place to start and I think you can get a lot of moms like that. Like create a list of 5 or 10 names you already know and start reaching out to them.

You can also start with the local moms so they just like in the city, so that’s what I would start with. Do you have like a schedule of like how often you want to do it? Like once a week.

Julie: Probably once every 2 weeks.

Lewis: What’s the title of the podcast gonna be?

Julie: It’s called the great mommas.

Lewis: It’s good it’s cool. All right any other follow up question on that?

Julie: No.

Jackie: My name is Jackie and I’ve been doing Facebook lives, I love Facebook live because from the video then I can extract the audience and then Facebook live and then I can also download the video and put it on YouTube. I started my webcast or like a web show and I’ve done it, season 1 I’ve done 5 episodes so I think the last one is last Saturday and the name of the podcast is ‘The Exponential You.’ And my 1^st season it was just me talking and I’m going to start season 2 I am scheduling another 5 episodes it’s gonna be interviews with people that I know. Anyway, my question Lewis is when did you start doing a live events and how do you transition from the podcast to live events? How did you go started out doing live events.

Lewis: I was doing live events 9 years ago before the podcast, I was doing this LinkedIn networking events and did almost 20 of them in about a year and I was doing them all around the country and some other country. But I was building an audience on LinkedIn, as I was building them I was promoting those every single week to this different events. This are like 3 to 4 hour length of networking events where we are getting 3 to 500 to show up and I was charging 5, 10, 15 bucks for the door and I would get sponsors and would get commission for the food or like the restaurants we were at. In terms of the podcast I waited 3 years to do like a conference but I did a book tour first and then I did the summit of greatness that took me a few years but I think it’s hard to get a lot of people to come to one place if it’s not like a smaller event, smaller price event in a city, it’s hard to get people to come to a destination. The summit of greatness you came to the summit it’s hard even though I have a massive audience you know we have 1,500 people showed up but I was hoping for more. But if I did an event in Columbus, Ohio for locals that was like 5 to 10 bucks that was easier to get a lot more people. So, I think it just depends you know we don’t want to make money on the event that we do, it’s like a breakeven but it’s a way for me to give back to the community, to meet more people.

So, I think it depends on why you want to do events because it’s a lot of work, a lot of energy and not like much money unless you can get price at a premium and monetize at that way, but took a couple of years for me and every year it’s building.

Jackie: Got it, thank you.

Lewis: I mean some people are making a lot of money, I mean like Rachel Hollins she’s a friend of mine and she sold out her events like 3,500 seats in only 27 minutes. Yeah, in 27 minutes she sold out like 3,400 or 3,500 seats at a premium price points. But I think her audience are all moms and very dedicated she’s like a bottle rocket where right now she’s having so much value to people her and her husband Dave. So some people are making a lot of money on events and it make sense when people are ready for it. But I was just starting out I would start local events on my local city that’s what I would do for you right now start a podcast and small show online and start doing local networking meetups and try to get like 30 people the first one and just 50 and build it once a month and then eventually you’re gonna build a name in your community, in your city and then you can start expanding it. That’s how I would approach it because I think events are powerful and that’s how I build my brand really on was doing events and going around the country and hosting them, they just got so hard for me because I was not making that much money and it was a lot of energy to constantly promote, so it just wasn’t scalable for me, that’s why I do 1 big event a year now. It’s hard to sell tickets at a live event that’s why I sell tickets at the event for the next year. So, we sold over 1,100 to next year’s events at this year’s event, which takes the pressure of having this to sell, so many people all year round to promote their event and if you’re not gonna make a lot of money on your event anyways it’s like ‘Man, I can be promoting something else making money.’ So that’s the challenge I think starting on a local level is the way to go. Build a network of community first and be well known there and start expanding.

Jackie: Fabulous thank you so much.

Amanda: My question would be more for you actually. On what points did you start to consider yourself as successful? Was there ever a turning point where you like this is rolling this is big now, almost like a step one.

Lewis: I feel like, mentally I’ve always been like you know even when I have nothing I was like I know I am going to create what I want, I know I am going to reach what I want but at the same time 10 years ago even now I’m like I still feel like I haven’t scratch the surface like I feel very grateful and appreciative of everything I’ve created. And have the access is amazing people that I get to connect with and ask questions too and I’ve built businesses with people and stuff like that. But I’m still not making the impact that I want to do, so on one I feel like I’m doing great with things and then on the other hand I feel like I’m not doing enough still. So it’s a constant battle between celebrating and appreciating what I’m doing every single day, but also saying ‘okay, but what can I do tomorrow?’ Now, I used to always think I’m not doing enough and I never celebrated my days, I never celebrated like the big wins or the little ones and I never felt enough inside and now you know I’m not doing what I want but man I am doing so much today and we like did some amazing things and we impacted these people’s lives and look what we created over here. So, I’ve learned you know with the last 4 or 5 years to start celebrating more.

Amanda: Is there anything in particular you did for that shift of mindset to be like I want more and not appreciating already what you’ve accomplished?

Lewis: I think I started to accept who I was, you know 5 years ago I opened up about being sexually abused and like all the other stuff that I was ashamed of, once I started to embraced everything and like heal and overcome the shame that I was feeling then I feel like I didn’t have to prove myself to the world anymore, I was like ‘Okay, I’m good with who I am.’ And that inner peace gave me the power to say ‘What’s a new vision.’ As opposed to trying to impress people and prove people wrong what my vision is moving forward and I learned that people missed out on the fun of life when they don’t celebrate their days or anything they accomplish. You know we set this big goals at least I have and I set this goals for years it would take to me to achieve them and then I achieved them and wouldn’t celebrate it. It’s like what’s the point of doing this if we’re not going to appreciate what we’ve been through? And so I think you know especially since the end of the year coming up right now, it’s like really reflecting on your year is important and I try to reflect on my month, on a quarter and on every night I reflect on a day and I started incorporating like nightly rituals of acknowledging the worked that I’ve put in or even just acknowledging like ‘Okay, I didn’t do much today but my body need a rest and I acknowledge myself for taking a break today.’

I just enjoy life more when I think we’re supposed to enjoy it’s not supposed to be this hard work grind all day long without enjoying it as well and I think we see that a lot online right now which is like work hard all day long, hustle grind which I am all for hard work to achieve high performance you have to work hard, but if we can’t enjoy it then like what’s the point? We enjoy it like when we’re 80 and like dying and it is like ‘Look what I did now.’ Let’s enjoy every day so we can sleep better, we’re not gonna live in anxiety every single and saying ‘I’m not doing enough.’ That’s anxiety and we can’t create a beautiful thing from fear or anxiety. We can create things but if we are constantly stress it’s not going to be as impactful of a thing that we put out, and our energy is gonna show up in a stress that way. And I believed the reason why one of the reason why I’ve been able to create what I’m doing is because I come from a place of joy and like why do people come to my show when I didn’t have a platform, it’s because I came from a place of joy and excitement like this is going to be fun and I’m gonna help out and do whatever I can, it’s just like getting people excited. If you don’t have a platform, you don’t have an audience, people will do things because you’re excited at least that’s my view. I’m not saying like ‘Lewis isn’t rolling.’ And I think in rolling it’s just being excited about life and when I’m excited people I just want to do things.

Amanda: It’s like very contagious.

Lewis: And you have a friend who’s like ‘let’s go on this trip together it’s gonna be amazing in life.’ So same thing with the way I look at my business and like when I’m manifesting and. So, I’m grateful with everything I’ve created now and I’m appreciative but I don’t feel like I’ve arrive because I don’t think I’m ever gonna arrive, it’s just like there’s always a new level but appreciating what I created.

Amanda: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Actually I was discussing with someone about goal setting and things like that and they were saying how when you set a goal it actually also makes sense to set the reward that you’re gonna give yourself after you’ve achieved that goal. So when it gets really hard and you’re like you have doubts and grinds and it’s tough you go like ‘Okay this is the goal I set for myself and on top of that I get to celebrate in this way.’ And that actually helps a lot.

Lewis: Celebrate it.

Amanda: Because you deserved it putting so much work into things and then.

Lewis: So much work, so much sacrifice and energy it’s like what’s the point.

Amanda: Why would you not celebrate?

Lewis: Exactly.

Pete: I guess my question would be, how surreal was it when you started you were always asking people for interviews and now at what point did it turn before people started going, he’s so successful at what he does, maybe ask him.

Lewis: Maybe the last few years more and more I think like every day we’re getting request to come on the show and really nice and really annoying because it’s not the people that I want you know like everyone is pitching. I was telling you guys before off camera that like I’ve set a standard for the name of my show school of greatness to constantly find people that are doing more and more interesting things. With all the podcast 600,000+ podcast there’s lot of other shows that just like interview the 6 figure earner and like tell that inspiring story, there’s a lot of other shows like that it’s just not my show. And so I appreciate people reaching out and 1 out of 30 are some that I’ll choose maybe from the people that are pitching me. But it started turning over the last 2 or 3 years and it’s still hard to get guest, you know I’m doing all the booking myself. So, I’m doing all the booking doing all the interviews, sometimes we’ll do 3 interviews in a day and this are hour to hour and a half moments with people where I am sitting across this table right here connected present listening it’s a lot of energy. So I do 2 or 3 interviews a day and then [?] with them 20 minutes before, talk with them for 20-30 minutes after, build a relationship ask them how I can help them, ask what I can do to promote them. Then 5 o’clock rolls around and it’s not like my emails nothing came through it’s like all the things that I needed to get back to I start at 5 o’clock. Right, so it’s a process but I’ve got a couple of people that are helping me booked but really at the end of the day it comes down to you, you got to like book this people yourself. So, I’ve been doing that for almost 6 years from the beginning and that’s where I think the magic comes from, also it’s like I’m finding the people that I’m very fascinated by. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to book anyone I want.

Pete: Is it interesting to go from wanting to interview the people you always wanted to, now people want to interview you just because you’ve interviewed all these other people.

Lewis: That’s interesting but I think I don’t want people to interview me because I’ve interviewed other people, I want them to interview me because I’ve done something interesting or meaningful or impactful, and that’s why it’s important to me to continue to create works of art and meaningful content like writing bigger books that stand for something. That’s what I appreciate when I have a book out and someone wants to interview me about that.

Pete: Instead of just having.

Lewis: Yeah, it’s just like you’ve interviewed all these people let’s have you on, or because you have a big platform let’s have you on. But it’s like when I’ve written a book that’s what I wanted to be interviewed. But I’m constantly, I’m always thinking of what’s the thing I want to do that’ll get other people excited you know I’m pursuing the dream, I play with the USA handball team and through my career of this business of the last the years I’ve been pursuing my own dreams outside of business like trying to make the Olympics, I’ve been on that journey. So, I want people to be like ‘Wow, Lewis is not just putting a business he’s doing things that he loves as well and it’s life and he’s pursuing other passions and other dreams that fulfill him.’ That is like really hard work behind the scenes no one sees. So, I’m trying to live my life to where I have no regrets of like at least I went for this, I wrote that book, I did this thing that I like thinking about and whether it works out or not I’m okay at least I went for it.

Pete: What other careers you have in business?

Lewis: Well, you know I learned early on about in sports that we’re supposed to fail that’s how we succeed. So, I never looked at it as ‘oh I’ve failed and I’m a loser’ because it’s like this is the lesson, the failures are always the foundation for success because that’s where I learned quickly. So coaches wants us to fail quickly and it was never like a bad thing, it was a bad thing if we did the same mistakes over and over. So if I do the same mistakes over and over then I’m failing. The most interesting people are the ones that takes risk and so I’ll make an example for a failure I guess something that didn’t work out. I wanted to launch a magazine called ‘The Greatness Magazine’ and the way I do things is that I think about what’s the thing that’s gonna be different in my industry that’s no one is willing to do. What’s the hard thing that people don’t want to do I want to do that. So when everyone was getting away from live events and big annual events I was like ‘I’m gonna dive into it’ because that’s not the smart thing to do because you don’t make money unless you can like sellout and do this, it’s like it’s a hard thing to do. It takes a year to put together and people want to do things that are easy right now, they didn’t want to work hard. So, I was like I want to launch a magazine because magazines are dying, it was the stupidest thing to think of but I was like let me try this and see if we can make something beautiful, just a digital magazine and make it beautiful make it a piece of art that people want to be a part of and like a real life version of the podcast like a beautiful aesthetic. And we put together 3 issues that no one has seen and we were going to launch it and at the time it was just 2 or 3 years ago like iTunes and then the magazine platform like change it became like the news app or something and I was just like this is so much work and energy we spent like $60,000 designing this and all of our team for 6 months. I was like I’m all in for doing the hard work and taking time but something felt off like our team wasn’t fully invested and I was like ‘something’s off’ and so  we just spent all this time and money and nothing launch and it was a good lesson. But I don’t look at it as a failure I look at it as like ‘maybe it wasn’t the right time or maybe I wasn’t all invested.’ So that was a lesson but I still have the magazines and maybe we’ll bring it back at some point.

Something like, you know I have a vision I want to do this and I haven’t said it publicly but I want to create like a greatness 100 like time magazine 100 and do it like an annual thing and have like 1 magazine for the year, it’s like 100 pages and 1 person per page and kind of like create this interesting thing in the industry. Maybe we’ll bring it back and make it that but yeah we’ll see.

Pete: It’s more.

Lewis: Yeah, it’s something you know something good will come of it but I like doing that and failing because at least I’m trying something new, I’m trying something innovative and risky and I think the ones that take the biggest risk get the most attention and get the most impact if there is a strategy behind or thought behind it. We just film the documentary that finish a month ago and we spring it up on the summit I don’t know if you saw it and I’ve never done a movie I don’t know what I’m doing, I’ve never done a documentary I’m like any of this stuff cost a ton of money to make I don’t know if I’m gonna make that money back but I felt called to try this, I felt called to be like I wanna do this because I have a vision being on Netflix. That’s the vision now may or may not work out, I have a meeting with them next week it may or may not work out but that’s the vision that I set, the intention I set when I was creating and I have a vision to impact a lot of people who see this and that’s my mission. But it may or may not be my exact vision is it may be better in another situation, maybe better if I launch it myself or I have a different partner.

Pete: Do you find yourself with like the documentary you had and you’re like ‘Okay’ I mean for me you’re going to Netflix if that doesn’t work are you looking at plan b and c?

Lewis: Yeah afterwards I will, I will probably have lots of different you know I’m reaching out to all my network right now about like people who done movies, I’m like ‘where should I go? Tell me this tell me that’ So it’s like I’m learning as I go, for me every year I want to do something that I’ve never done before. That’s a challenge like 3 years ago it was writing a book, then the next year it was doing a live event like a big annual event, then it was you know the documentary then it was a different book it’s like trying something new in a different space, like masculinity and vulnerability no one thought I would do that. It’s like doing something uncomfortable for me is really important every year. So next year I’ll start planning like what’s the thing that’s gonna scare me that’s uncomfortable that I can go do, but at least I’m doing something that’s different and interesting. So, that’s what I’m thinking about, every year I’m thinking about what are we gonna do.

Pete: Annual thing or do you have?

Lewis: Every year at least once a year and it’s like what are we gonna do that’s different and that scares us? But also that could just support the vision of the overall brand of impact of 100 million people. So it’s got to make sense in the vision as well.

Jackie: How did you learn the art of being you can actually be present but then know when to ask question really hits big?

Lewis: I think it’s, I’ve been doing it for 6 years on my podcast but also 4 years prior, I was interviewing people that I wasn’t recording and published. So, I feel like I’ve been doing this for almost a decade. And even before then growing up I just used to ask a lot of questions and be observant because growing up I was really insecure about my level of knowledge, I didn’t feel like I was a smart kid in school. So, I never felt like I had anything interesting to say to my peers, so I just observed and asked questions. I think I learned to do that at an early age observed, over the last 6 years I think I’ve learned a lot about this setup of an interview being important. So before someone even comes into the studio what’s the communication been like to them beforehand, how I’ve connected with them whether it’d be email or as a friend before and I really set an intention before they come in and I think about what would be, where do I want the energy to go? Like where do I want this energy to go? So that people are impacted when they listen to it that they have something in their heart that says ‘Oh, I felt something and I want to go and take a change in my life or try something.’ And felt something so powerful I need to share it with a few friends. So that’s my intention everyone that listens to interview they feel like they got one thing away that they can apply and it was that meaningful that they want to share it so that my audience share the message for me. So, it’s not just a pressure of me promoting something, then I ask a few questions when the person comes in before we record. One of them is “Is there anything off limits?’ if they say something like for example most of the time there is nothing off limits to people but maybe 5% of people they have stuff they don’t want to talk about, you know some people they’ve been through divorce or some bad breakup or whatever.

I’ll give an example though Chris Guillebeau, he came in and he was like ‘yeah I don’t want to talk about the death of my brother.’ And I believe his brother committed suicide like 6 months prior or maybe a year prior and it really hit him hard and I said ‘okay, we don’t have to talk about it but can I ask why?’ and he started talking more and more about like you know and I go listen ‘Totally respect it we don’t have to talk about it, but I’m letting you know now if people heard what you just said they’re gonna love you more that much they’re gonna connect with you, you know it’s gonna help your mission or anything we talk about its gonna help it further. And what if someone else if going through this right now? Like you might be robbing them of like a feeling or a level of connection with you if you don’t share it.’ So it’s not like trying to make someone that pressure them too but I just want to find out why. There’s been other people who are like I just don’t want to talk about it. So, I start with that question and then I say ‘Do I have the permission to go anywhere to make this the most impactful I’ve ever done?’ And they are just gonna say oh we’re about to do this. You know so I kind of like set an intention like ‘do I have a permission?’ So I kind of let them know that I want this to be the most empowering thing ever done in your life this moment, it’s not just another interview where you say the same thing like you say somewhere else, this is different and I think setting that intention personally before they come in then saying that intention to them along with building report and you know just connecting with them about things they’re interested in that allows them to feel a little safer with their guard down.

I also feel like I am very vulnerable to people like when they come in I’m open and I’m very friendly, you know when they come in I just give them a big hug, I smile and I make it about them it’s not about. So, I think setting the stage even if it’s a couple of minutes like with Kobe Bryant, we had like 2 minutes before the interview was supposed to start when he came out I met him and had 2 minutes to connect, because I didn’t know if he was gonna open up the way he did or not, I have no clue we were there an hour and a half early. Tiff and I were there half an hour early setting things up like everything is ready and waiting and we knew we had like 20 minutes which we like begged to get like 40 minutes which he gave us which was amazing. And I remember thinking to myself like who know if he was gonna be open or saying the same things you know maybe with another interview or he’s gonna really open up, I remember I was just like I’m going to just appreciate and acknowledge him like right when I see him and set that intention, ask him if there is anything off limits and connect and we made a couple of connections. I remember telling him ‘listen I play with the USA handball team and I’ve heard from so many Olympic friends that you’re one of the kindest people at the Olympics and you’re interested in all these other sports and they said that you always took time with them and you were just so caring and like interested in them and I just want to acknowledge you for being such a cool guy at the Olympics.’ And right away he goes. ‘You play handball? That’s amazing I played handball growing up in Italy it was like a huge sport there.’ And we just kind of like connected on that and then we were talking about other people that I had on or his friends. So, I think it’s just making about them is the key, so making about these moms is like we’re acknowledging them for doing something that’s hard. You know it’s hard to be a freaking a mom and pursue your passion and like remember your identity and like unlock your sexuality.

So it’s like acknowledging people, I think the art of acknowledgement has been lost as well you know what I mean like it’s been lost in a big way. So, did a post yesterday it was either this morning or yesterday on Instagram, it was of the sky with dirt around the outside like looking down from if you’re being buried, like 6 feet on the ground like looking up with dirt in a hole like a coffin hole, he put a post about like you everyone comes and celebrate you when you’re gone, but we forget to celebrate ourselves and other people while we are alive. I remember when I started this I was like I am going to acknowledge people and you guys, at the end I acknowledge people and so I usually acknowledge them at the beginning off camera and I think it’s like just a simple thing we all want to be seen for what we’re doing, we don’t want to be seen and acknowledge even if just a quick little thing it doesn’t have to be.

Julie: So question on that when you’re starting did you feel people that you were close to supported you, I know your family you’ve talked about that but like I think I struggle with that and I know you say dream big and if they laugh at you that’s fine you need to keep going, did you feel that support?

Lewis: Yeah, I think I felt the support but I think I’ve also learned how to find the right people that aren’t gonna not support me like for the last 10 years I’ve almost surrounded myself with those people and the people that are negative I don’t hang out with.

Julie: You let go?

Lewis: During my life but I am not asking for advice I’m not paying attention to their energy in terms of what I should or shouldn’t do to very focus, and I listen to the people that are doing things that are doing way more bigger things than me and I get feedback from them the people that I inspired by, I seek them out and ask them advice, I don’t ask people for advice that aren’t doing anything because if they haven’t done it what are they gonna tell me. So, yeah but I struggled back 10 or 11 years ago you know when I left school and went off to play professional football I had a lot of friends that stop talking me and stop hanging out with me or kind of like negative, and I felt very sad because I just want my friends to support me to chase my dreams but they weren’t supportive and it was very hurtful for about a year and a half to 2 years. We just spent 4 years together we built this incredible bonds like all my buddies, I felt like 1 or 2 of them supported me and I think it’s more there for.

Julie: It is.

Lewis: That I was going to pursue to do something that I was inspired by and they weren’t pursuing their thing that they were inspired by and I think it’s where people are at but we can’t take it personally. I took it personally and it hurt me but then I learned quickly like well I would call them and they wouldn’t call me back and to me I was like I am trying to reach out and then I came back to me and why is this? But I started finding people that were really supportive and just like believe in me, I was like let me hangout with this people as oppose to trying to convince people who are like negative to believe in me and just don’t it personally. It took me 6 years to not take things personally and why I started my business 10 years ago, I would react to every negative comment online every negative comment I would and like comment back and defend myself. I was so frustrated at people like you don’t know how I worked, you don’t know what I’ve been up to, and one of my coaches saw this one time like he saw the response I gave to someone where I was like a little passive aggressive in defending myself of to trying to make it nice but really.

Julie: But you weren’t.

Lewis: And he calls me and he was like ‘Lewis never do this again.’ It was like you either don’t respond or you say thank you for your feedback and move on. I learned that I’m not gonna please everyone and people are gonna critic me, usually the people who are critiquing me are not creating anything, they’re not like because you’ll never find an author like write a negative review of a book, you’ll never see that because they know how hard it is to put a piece of work. The only critics you really write negative reviews are ones who aren’t doing anything in their life or at least that.

Julie: But they want to.

Lewis: They want to and they are really critical and this and that and they’ll write something negative or give you a 1 star review and like what is that person doing. You never see a big author write a negative review, if they write a review they’ll sent a positive review and they will email you a positive thing as well separate. You just have to be that have that perspective to like people that critiquing you online, offline usually aren’t doing that thing in their life, and that’s okay you’re not going to be able to please everyone. As much as I want a 5 star review on books and podcast like. So let’s get past it.

Amanda: I think you obviously inspire a lot of people and a lot of people also look up to you I think all of us here are here for that reason, who do you look up to? Do you have any mentors? Who do you seek advice from?

Lewis: You know I look up to a lot of people in different industries like a lot of different athlete, you know the people I’ve interviewed I really respect. I looked at friends of mine and I just feel blessed that I have a lot of great friends like Scooter Braun is a friend who is just doing incredible things in business in music and got a great family life and doing all that. Rob Dyrdek is a friend of mine that I really respect who is just doing all this amazing things, he’s been on the show but I admire and respect the rock, you know he’s been someone I wanted to have for a while. Will Smith you know this guys who are they’ve set an example of like how to live a life and build a business career, even though I don’t want to be like them I liked the model that they created where they’re like grateful, appreciative and making an impact and doing the things they love and kind to people.

Amanda: And successful.

Lewis: And successful in their own way, not saying I need to do what they’re doing but just like their way of being their energy while they have the world in, they could be jerks right but I think at least their persona is very people and they are very grateful for thay have created and the results they’ve got. So, I admire like Will Smith, The Rock I’m a big fan of those guys, I am learning from them all the time anyways even though I am not friends with the. But I mean a lot of these people in the wall that I have here they inspire me every day, Sarah Blakely and Jessie Itzler are great couple that inspire me. I feel very grateful to have incredible relationships with some of the most inspiring people in the world and it’s like that’s one the beauties of having a podcast, it’s a big show you get to interview these people and a lot of them I became friends with very close. Not everyone there’s some people who I’m not close with than others but there’s some people you really connect with and it’s like, you know I had lunch with Shaun T this morning before you guys got here, she was in the show about a year ago or something and he’s spoke at the summit of greatness this year and it’s like we’ve become good friends and a lot of this individuals where it’s a great starting point to develop relationships to people that are inspiring, and I can text them or call them and ask questions and lean on them for feedback or advice.

Amanda: I’m sure they have that kind of personality where they also want to help

Lewis: Absolutely.

Amanda: If you were to reach out like have question and I need help with this they’re more than happy to help.

Lewis: Absolutely, it’s like you know 2 way I’m helping as much as I can but I live with generosity first, I’m like let me have you on the show and promote whatever you want to promote. So I just focus on giving to them first, it’s not about asking or by giving. But yeah I’m inspired by the model, I kind of look at like Oprah very inspired by because she’s had an interview show her whole life and for a long time I’m inspired by the impact she’s made from that show, I really like The Rock on how he’s built his brand around generosity and hard work. I think that’s a cool thing I am not looking to be an actor in that sense but I do want to create more inspiring media and so I think it’s cool what he’s done there. And I really like what LeBron James has done being from Ohio, I really respect this symbol that he’s created around his brand and image and his building schools for kids in Ohio and giving back in a big way and he’s just constantly elevating Ohio where he comes from, he’s elevating like his own career and I just really respect that. It doesn’t mean that I agree with everything all of them say but I just appreciate the brand and the symbol of inspiration that they all built and that’s what I want to be, I want to be a symbol for people of inspiration, of like what’s possible from where I’ve come from and where I am now and I want to be in the next 5 to 10 years, I want to continue to be a symbol and I think as long as I do that I am very happy if I’m making an impact from just the way I’m being the way I’m showing up and trust me I make a lot of mistakes and talk to my girlfriend and she tells you I am not perfect, but I’m constantly learning and growing and trying to be better.

Pete: That’s cool I always tell people like I forgot my perfect pills or something.

Lewis: Exactly.

Pete: When you interview people are they always the people you wanted to talk to?

Lewis: No, but I’m pitch a lot of people and sometimes I don’t know who they are and have someone on my team do research and watch a lot of interviews first and surely they’ll say yes or no and I think it will be a good fit, but only like 10% of the people says yes to I’ll say yes to. So then I go and do more research and like ‘I don’t know I’m feeling it’ so once I say yes to having them on, usually I’m very curious about what they’re gonna do or gonna say. Sometimes though it didn’t go the way I wanted it to or I feel like they didn’t open up in a powerful way or maybe 3 or 4 interviews where I’m like ‘I don’t know if I should put this out there.’ Because I have such a high standard and I’ll talk to tiffany after and say that I don’t think we should put this out and I feel really bad, but I don’t want to let my audience down because if I lose the audience then they’re not gonna respect my ability to choose the right people are gonna be inspiring and helpful for them, and sometimes people I feel like people are like to self-promotionally and I don’t know maybe it’s my own thing but. So, I’m like I’ll say ‘I’m not posting this’ and then my team would be like ‘well let’s just send it to the editor and cut up some stuff and make it shorter.’ And then the editor there will ‘actually that’s really good.’ So, I think I’m just like very self-critical like it’s got to be better than the previous one, it’s got to be like you know if every person doesn’t cry and open up or do something. Then sometimes those interviews are like the most powerful for people, like I put it out there and people are like ‘that blew me away’ and I’m like okay.

Pete: I’ve had the same problem I had one podcast interview and was like oh my God I thought it was terrible on my end.

Lewis: On your end but people enjoyed it. This is actually, there’s a recent episode where I was like I don’t know if I can do this and then I was like maybe we can cut it down to like 20 minutes and not 50 and cut stuff out, and I think we cut a little bit out. People liked it so like it’s just me then, it’s my fear like I just want everything to be great I want it to be a standard.

Pete: When you started on the skype interviews and all that, the quality and the lighting everything was like.

Lewis: Yeah, I started on my iPhone and on skype.

Pete: So, were you always just like can I get camera, can I get lighting?

Lewis: Well, I think it’s you know on the first year like I’m just gonna do audio only and if I can have them in person cool, I wasn’t really to mindful of it and I’m gonna do this 1 year and see where it goes and if I still like it after a year I will still do it. It was never like I’m gonna go forever and I wasn’t monetizing at the first year I was just trying to build, add value to my audience and grow my audience that’s what I wanted to do. I just want to reinvent myself at the time because I just sold the company.

As it started picking up and people were like helping my life and changing my life and like you have no idea what this means to me, I was like all right let me invest on this like put more time, put more energy and get a couple of cameras and things were like do it in this room and transform in multiple different ways. We used to have this light carpet that was just stained everywhere, it was like embarrassing to bring people in here and I tried to clean it every week but the stains kept coming back and took like a couple of years to get like extra carpet and then you see some of these photos and greatness letters up on the wall like a couple of photos in the background just like this used to be a closet with clothes hanging in the back of it. It wasn’t the most professional thing you know and we’re like let’s invest in this, let’s hire a fulltime videographer to help capture. We just started doing video 2 and a half years ago it was just audio before that. So, we started investing into video clip, into lights and as it grew I was like this is a real thing this isn’t just a side thing to like have fun, this is actually the thing.

I had other courses and programs and products before and I was like ‘I’m gonna do this to add value and really make money over here and start like put more attention on some of these programs. But I realized to put all my attention on the podcast like it help everything else. So, I started really investing in the quality of the show, you know having a producer to research, show notes and all these stuff. When I kind of flip my mentality like this is the podcast is the way not just like something I need to keep up on the side and didn’t invest in this full time, that’s when everything just kept evolving and growing.

Pete: It’s kind of the chick and the egg.

Lewis: Yeah exactly. But I think you got to test it first to see if you’re gonna like it and you got to do it for like 6 months to a year and like invest in consistently with all the 600,000+ podcast. There’s a thousand mom’s show why different? You know maybe all of them are hour long interview style and mine is gonna be 15 minute you know what’s the difference like with 20 other show, I think that’s been I got into it you know 6 years before the, it was like the second way of a podcasting where 10 years ago there was like the Joe Rogans of the world then like mine and a bunch of others got in and you know 6 or 7 years ago and you know there was a bigger way to read like 4 years ago and then like everyone got in. So I got lucky with timing where there weren’t any long form of interview shows like this at the time, I got it early enough to build a brand and keep evolving it while everyone else has an interview show with entrepreneurs and athletes and lots of people are doing interview show. So my uniqueness is that I don’t have people on that are on every other show anymore, like unless I’m the first like if someone’s got a book coming out I’m like how many podcast are going to be done? Then I can’t have you then, or we can have you few weeks before because if you’re going to be on 10 other shows that are similar to mine in size it’s like why would they want to do this with me, I wanted to be different it’s got to be unique or first. Now, if it’s someone like The Rock he’s done 10 other shows first I’m gonna still have him on, so it’s like you know.

Pete: Can’t say no to him.

Lewis: Yeah, but that’s the way I look at it I want to find people who’ve never done a podcast. Darren Brown I think was the first, this guy I’ve been a fan of he’s got like specials and he came on because this is like my first podcast. So that’s what I’m looking for like who are the people I can introduce to my audience that they might have seen in a 5 minute interview on like the tonight show or something. So that’s my opportunity and challenge and I’ve thought about doing other shows like just a business show where I can do any type of business person from any level or just a health show where I can interview people of all sorts or health books, but I have a standard for this show and I think that’s what helps it grow but helps me attract the best people, best listeners and the best people to interview but it is much harder to do and it takes a lot of time with me researching who I want to have on that’s different.

Hopefully, my show gets so big they all want to come to me because it’s just so big that they like I have to.

Pete: Or they tell no.

Lewis: Like you got to be on here and you can’t be late and you can’t schedule again it’s like being on James Corden and its like or like Ellen.

Amanda: I have a follow up question on that, if someone where to look at the podcast in such a crowded space and obviously you need to find your niche but you also need that niche audience to be big enough that you have the reach. How do you balance it out?

Lewis: You know my girlfriend Jen she’s got probably half a million followers on Instagram and she’s really smart and talented and her craft being doctor physical therapy and helping people with mobility and I’ve advise her just keep building Instagram and go on another podcast which is go be a guest on the podcast and keep building your attention around your name and build your email list and create content on the channel where most people are at right now which is Instagram. Now, I encourage her to do like a YouTube show because I think that’s gonna be better for her and demonstrate things and moving her body.

Amanda: Because it’s a very visual thing.

Lewis: It’s a visual thing like on IG TV it could be good where it’s like a weekly video series, but you can also turn it into a podcast later I just think with it being so crowded, I don’t recommend doing shows if you’re not going to do it for years because otherwise what’s the point of launching something for 6 months like it’s too much work, you’re not going to make any money unless you’re building your audience to buy something for you, you’re not going to make sponsorship dollars with small following. So it’s got to be an audience builder for you a brand builder and then if you have a product or a service or you’re a coach and you get clients from that smaller niche audience and you can make a lot of money with just 10,000 listeners a month if they’re the right people. But you got to be very strategic of why we’re doing it and that you can do it consistently, it’s just hard to get millions of downloads. You know my first year I got 750,000 downloads in the first year doing every single week total, we get over a million downloads a week now and that’s $750,000 the whole year and now it’s more than a whole year and 1 week.

Amanda: Good to look back.

Lewis: It’s colorful along the way and 1 million downloads or 2.

Amanda: That’s the thing maybe all those podcast out there like how many of them are gonna keep grinding for that long that they are actually gonna stay and then, because you know eventually it’s gonna be like it’s too much work, it’s too much effort.

Lewis: No money, taking so much time.

Amanda: Why am I doing this?

Lewis: That’s why I was asking why you want to do this in the first place and you committed to it long term. Now, I do think there’s another model which is like launching a podcast with seasons, like I’m gonna launch this and be like 5 to 10 episodes on a topic that would be the only thing I would recommend it’s like my girlfriend Jen do it, I said do 8 to 10 episodes like covering the mobility of the body and you and just drop those 1 a week and you stop and you get the feedback on it then 3 months later you do another series, maybe you’re interviewing first and you’re dropping them and it’s like an evergreen but it’s not gonna be like constantly growing and it’s also not gonna take your time because you can box this episode, you can script them out, you can do this things but it would be a destination you can send people to, but it’s just hard growing that consistently unless you have a massive audience already which most people don’t have or massive distribution. There’s so much massive content out there like why they are gonna listen to you that’s the thing that’s why I think it’s smart to get very specific about the mom space, who what type of mom we’re interviewing, the format of how it’s different and all these things.

Pete: How far out do you set your goals? Are you doing like the 5 year goal?

Lewis: 12 month goals. I think so much changes for me, I used to have this 5 year goals but everything changes so fast for me. I know that it also takes time to develop things so I’ll think about a yearlong project like what’s gonna take a year maybe a year and a half max to take my time. Like it’s hard for me to become consistent for 5 years, like this is my 5 year goal I’m going to do it every day for 5 years. Like the podcast like I’m gonna do this 12 months once a week and see how I feel. It’s been almost 6 years now on January it would be 6 years but I wasn’t like I’m going to do this for 6 years because that’s too daunting for me, but 12 months that’s how I personally work it’s like easier for me to see 12 months. Anything can change in a day and I don’t want to be tied to some goal but I have this goal for 5 years and I was gonna do it this way anything can change, and now I get so many opportunity a hundred times better that what I already plan for and I don’t want to say ‘I’m not gonna do this opportunity because I plan for this thing 5 years of my life.’ Like I’m not gonna turn down some big TV show from something else like, but this is going to get me to my vision faster. So, I keep it open where I’m like what are the things I can control like every year and I can write a book and do this documentary, I can do this event like this things I can control. So, I focus on what are the things I want to do the next 12 months and I think of the 3 big things, the rest is going to be like the podcast growth I’ll think of like how many downloads by the end oy the year how I want it to be and I know I need to show up every single week consistently to drop episodes a week, like that is a consistent thing that’s gonna happen no matter what that’s the goal at least.

But what are the 3 other big goals like I’m gonna write and launch my next book, I want to do a documentary you know like all these things I think about 3 big goals, really that might be too many for people because that takes a lot of time depending on where you are at in your life. I’ve got a team I’ve got resources I’ve got momentum so I can do 2 or 3 bigger goals because I got that time with a team, you know with a team you just have 1 goal but my goal is to finish my book in 10 months because it’s all me. So, I think of 3 big goals 12 months and then I really schedule out the year of dates of when I want to complete things by. So I map out the year and that allows me to reverse engineer everything just like creating deadlines and dates to complete things by. If I don’t have a date it’s not gonna be completed and it forces me, it creates pressure and accountability with me and my team to know that we are doing this by this time. What we need to do to make this happen every single day, every single week and month to make that happen and then I empower my team to schedule and structure a project management system of like when I needed to do something by or when they need to do something by or I need something to get someone else by, to move the project the goal forward.

Pete: Just like your football day.

Lewis: That’s it just like football. Everything is like a season to me so a year sees in and then every season of the year as well you know every 3 months and it’s blocking time and executing on it. My challenge is like never fear of doing something, I’ve never been like nobody’s going to buy my book, I’ve never been afraid of that like that’s not a problem. The problem is just like organizing everything and having the time to execute it all at the highest level and keeping a high standard.

Pete: Has that held you back at all?

Lewis: No, because I’ll put stuff out even if it’s like 80 or 90% still, which I don’t like but I know I need to do this otherwise I’ll just obsessed with it for a year and never do anything.

Pete: Is it sometimes where you know no one else is gonna see it but every time you look at.

Lewis: Yeah, I look at stuff all the time like why obsessed over stuff when it’s out. You know my event the summit of greatness there’s so much behind the scenes that were very frustrating to me, that maybe you guys didn’t see at the event, maybe seen or maybe didn’t. But I obsessed behind the scenes and I’m like ‘why are like the monitors on the stage like 3 inches off’ stuff like that frustrates me because I believe in experiential design and energy and if the energy is off on something I am putting out on the world it frustrates me because I know it could be a more impactful experience if the design and energy was done differently. I get frustrated about those stuff because I want people to have a good time, I want them to have a great experience with no feel something where they are not distracted by mistakes. Because when we are distracted by mistakes we are not focus on the message and that pisses me off, we’ve got the beset speakers in the world, we’ve got this whole experience but that thing is off and it just took away everything you know. But I also learn how to let that go as well and know that mistakes are gonna happen and I’m not gonna be perfect all the time. So, I feel like I do a good job of it and I don’t complain about it afterward.

Jackie: And nobody notice.

Pete: That’s what I’m saying everyone is going to remember.

Lewis: Yeah exactly but I try you know because there was so much happening backstage it was kind of chaotic at different times and I’ve got another speaker coming in 45 minutes and I’ve got to say something, you know it’s like always moving parts. There’s an intro with drummers and I’m like coordinating all of it with my team, really like this backstage like what are we doing? Why is this happening? And then it’s like lights are on and music are playing and you know I’ve got to walk out on stage and not show that. So, I just gave myself a little q like every time I cross the curtain it’s like I’m leaving all of this behind and I’m just bringing the joy to the audience. I’m just walking out with a big smile and open my arms and just like ‘good to see you guys.’ When really I was just like frustrated like 2 seconds before. But if I bring that negative energy onto the stage people are going to feel it, whereas years ago I probably wasn’t as good as letting that stuff go, I would just probably wear it on my sleeve on going and bleed into the stage or into my speech or whatever it wouldn’t affect me. So I’ve learned like turn the switch off a lot faster which I think leaders do really well like you know, well I cannot imagine great leaders do, I cannot imagine like Obama when there’s probably a lot of chaos like in the private rooms before he went to the press like so many things are happening you know and he has got no control and he has to like put on a face and like show grace and positivity.

Pete: I still remember about the story about Obama when the night they were going after Osama Bin-Laden he had to do the press dinner. So he’s at the dinner and everyone’s making jokes and he’s orientating and doing the mission to go kill Osama Bin-Laden and while he was joking and people are having fun.

Lewis: And he’s got to be present with people and connect and also, it’s really challenging. So, I’m not at that level but I think I’m just going out on the stage here. But I think it’s all been great practice you know and I think that’s what we’re required of making it to your own next level is like continually shutting the old energy that keeps you from expanding so I am learning that as well.

Amanda: Can you share with us how you met your girlfriend Jen and if you ever talk about having kids.

Lewis: Yeah, we met on Instagram actually about 4 and a half years ago, I reach out to her and she’ll always say that she had a bigger following at the time. So, I reached out to her this is before DM’s and I like left a comment on one of her photos and I couldn’t even see her face on the photo it was just a hand stand she was doing and you couldn’t see her face. But there’s something about her energy that I was just like this is my special person, I left a comment and followed up on Facebook and took her on a date and kind of been together ever since. Marriage and kids, yeah we talked about certain things she likes to have privacy on some of that stuff so I’m more about that. I’m on a place where I’m just very committed to my vision right now and that’s what I’m excited about, but she’s amazing.

But I reached out to her and yeah she didn’t like me the first time she met me, I kind of turn her off because I was like so intimate like I was so like asking her all this deep questions and like interviewing her, which is like who are you? So, I think I grew on her overtime but yeah.

Amanda: I have a last personal question. What are the biggest difference between Lewis’s today and you 5 or 6 years ago?

Lewis: You probably like to have to ask my friends.

Amanda: I don’t want their opinions I want yours.

Lewis: I think I can sleep at night better now like I used to beat myself a lot about things. I used to take everything I used to beat myself about everything probably if it didn’t go the way I planned I would get frustrated and take things very personally. I was very defensive, I was always like the fight people that were critiquing me or saying things to me. That was just kind of like my upbringing I think and it wasn’t until I started to address and accept myself for everything that happened in my past and start to heal and like let go of things and forgive myself and forgive other people. I think I always like suffered inside and I didn’t know I just felt like this is who I am like I guess people feel this way and I didn’t know there was a way to move beyond that, I was so focus on results and performance and like winning and being right and proving myself I was so focus on that 5 or 6 years ago. I think I miss out on a lot of like just peace and love and joy you know and it took me a long time to get over things, took me a long time to like let go and now it’s like I let go of things really fast which allows me to put that energy back in the creation or connection. So that’s been a powerful lesson because I think it help me back a lot, I think I could have done more in my 20’s but I just held on to so much stuff and I was angry at stuff you know. It’s hard to make something meaningful out of anger and fear and I would achieve results but still feel empty or unfulfilled or insecure or not enough or whatever like no matter what I achieved it doesn’t feel enough inside. Now, I just learned how to reprogram I guess the way I think because I’m appreciating what I am creating every day and I’m appreciating myself and accepting myself and that’s been a powerful lesson. Not easy but it’s powerful, and I’m constantly learning it’s not perfect still but.

Amanda: It’s a never ending process at the end of the day.

Lewis: Yeah, every time I try to elevate my business or whatever there’s new hurdles that I get to learn on how to jump over. There’s something like in the way to get me to the next level always.

Amanda: But that’s also the game of life the never ending growth of you know doing new things and taking on new challenge with that comes new stuff and you have to learn and deal with it, but then you grow and move on.

Lewis: That’s it like it’s accepting that it’s gonna happen and being okay by it, not being so hurt about it.

Pete: When you go into an interview you have a structure using your notepad or whatever it is. Like you did with Mike Fostner I also got into music and guitar, do you look for those things or just spontaneous happens where it just go off the rails?

Lewis: When he came in I was like it’d be kind of cool to like play something with him because I am not that great with guitar but I can like play some campfire songs or whatever. I had a lot of singers come on but you never know if they are willing to sing but I always think that it will be powerful if they do. So I set that attention to like ‘hey if you want to sing I love to hear like a 10 second thing.’ Like LeAnn Rimes came in and I was like ‘I love to hear her voice because she’s so powerful.’ And I was trying to learn one of her songs beforehand for whatever reasons the chords in her songs they were popular that I knew, there were like weird chords that I was like I don’t want to mess this up. I started learning shallows which is the Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga movie.

Pete: A star is born.

Lewis: So like this popular song and I was like maybe she knows this song and I started like trying to learn it and it was actually pretty easy to learn, and I was like maybe we can just sing like a duet you know that’d be amazing even though I wouldn’t sound that good I would let her sing and I’ll play and the opportunity didn’t come up where I felt right for me to ask, but I ask her to sing something else and it’s really cool that she did some meditating chant that she never done publicly and like her voice was like an angel, even though it was like 10 or 20 seconds I was like ‘this is amazing’ you know so it was like enough for me. But when Wyclef came in I just had the guitar here I didn’t say anything and he came in and just picks up the guitar and starts playing.

I just think this are cool moments when we can do that. When a poet comes on I want them to do a poem you know I want to highlight people’s gifts and make something special on the show. So that’s I look for it’s like what’s the way to make the best they’ve ever been to highlight them that’s my intention. I want them to feel like it’s the best thing they ever did this little podcast called the school of greatness like that’s the coolest thing, you know that’s what I want from people. I had someone recently I won’t say who it is but he hadn’t done other shows for a podcast but he’s done lots of huge national and global press like every major talk show he’s been on. And he did the podcast and he was going on a much bigger podcast like the next morning and I was like it’s going to be a big deal this person has you know millions of followers and it’s like a massive show, it’s like one of the biggest in the world. He emailed me afterwards and he was like ‘just between me and you like I really enjoyed your show more than this one this morning.’ I want people to feel like it was a great experience and I think the only way that’s possible is I make, if I show how interested I am in them and not you know me talk 5% them talk 95 and I think there’s other shows out there that might be bigger but the host is more like the talker you know it’s like the Howard sterns of the world and he’s like running the how, not a bad way but he’s just like, I think when someone feels that someone is interested in them constantly that person becomes the most interesting person. You know if I’m asking you questions like tell me more I am so fascinated by it, you become the most interesting person in the room when you’re interested in other people. And that’s been kind of like my secret I think growing up I never felt smart so I would just ask questions, as opposed to like say things. So I just became interested and people are like ‘man I like hanging out with that Lewis guy.’

Pete: He likes me so.

Lewis: He likes me yeah. Show that you care and people show they care back. So it’s not rocket science it’s just like being a good person that’s what I try to think about, I don’t try to press people by being smart, I try to express that I care and build a relationship. It’s not like a strategy it’s just like who I am.

Pete: Did you know that about yourself when you started or is it something you evolved into?

Lewis: I knew that about myself in high school, I remember senior year was really the year that got me out of my shell because as a freshman through junior year I leaned on my athleticism to get like friends in acceptance. I was like on varsity as a freshman in every sport, so I had like this connections with you know the brothers on my team, but I was always the youngest and still kind of got make fun or picked on because I still was a rookie even though I was better than a lot of these juniors and seniors because of my athletic ability I was still like the younger guy to kind of like get razzle but they needed on the team to be successful too. So I had like these connections and bonds with all these athletes on every team and those were like my friends. Now, when I became a senior I realized all my friends were gone because I was always the younger person with older friends and my senior year I’ve never been like ‘Wow, I have no friends.’ I had friends but all my closest friends have all gone to college, like I remember going to the summer of my junior year to senior year I was like ‘now that I’m not gonna be judge by my friends anymore I can do whatever I want.’ My mission my senior year was to connect with every person at my school that I normally would never connect with like weird people, science people, music people like anyone and that was the greatest gift for me because making that decision and like having my friends leave and being aware of this I was like ‘I don’t want to hang out with 1 group of people like athletes, I want to know lots of people.’ And I had lots of interest you know I sang in choir and I did other stuff. So I told myself this going into my senior year and I only had like 330 kids in my school so it was a small private school, but I started connecting with all types of people, I just reached out to them and hang out with them and I was curious about them from again I joined, I did a tap dancing class like I want to do everything I normally wouldn’t do and did like a 3 months of tap dance class. There was no other like jocks in the tap dance class. I joined synchronize swimming my senior year, I did a whole 3 months of synchronize swimming, again I was like what are the things I never do I am doing them. I was in the school musical I was like terrified to perform on stage, I never acted in my life I never like done any of that stuff and done a play never. I was like I need to at least try out there was like auditions and I was like ‘if I’m gonna do this I’m gonna try out for the lead male role’ and I was terrified like singing in front of these people like reading out lines, I had no clue what I was doing. But I said you know what at least I’m doing it and I tried it and if I don’t get it I gave my best and I got the second lead in the school musical and it was one of the best experience of my life, we like do late nights together practicing these things like I’ve never done this stuff and it was all nerds and me the jock like whatever. But I felt like these people are so amazing and I got to really connect with people that are different than me. I do this a lot of different ways my senior years, I was talking to freshman, sophomores and juniors I was talking to everyone it didn’t matter. I think maybe that was partly that my friends were gone and maybe partly that I was like I felt like I was being more superficial most of my high school and I had more awareness and I was like I just want to know more about people.

Pete: Did you get that from your parents or brother?

Lewis: My dad was like pretty good at connecting with people as well but I think I had a very eclectic family as well my older brother is a very talented musician, my sisters are singers/songwriters you know and I wasn’t that, but I appreciated it growing up like I would watch them and I appreciated it. So, I just want to meet people, I like hang out in the art room and just would see people paint and draw my senior year and I just want to be a part of things that are different than me, I think that was the foundation for, realizing that we have so many differences and so-so alike. I think that senior year was the foundation for me being able to do what I’m doing because I am connecting with so many different types of people, it’s not just like business leaders or athletes it’s like spiritual leaders and men and women, gays, straights and transgender like all these things that connect with people with all laws of life and I feel like I can relate to all of them and I feel like I’m able to bridge the gap between their life to the audience and I think that’s one of the key to being successful, I can speak to a billionaire and make it resonate to someone who is on their sister’s couch. I can speak to an Olympic gold medalist and make it resonate to a high school person or a college person or to a mom of 3, like I can bridge the gap of ideas and I think it’s because I’ve been fascinated by people from a young age. But I think that’s just what I’m into it’s like my thing that I liked that and I think everyone has something fascinating about their life.

Julie: What’s your next book going to be about?

Lewis: I just started thinking about this the last few months, I just talked to a couple of publishers the last week, I don’t have a title for it yet but the theme is about how to eliminate self-doubt. I think a lot of us are held back from not believing enough in ourselves and so we doubt ourselves. We doubt ourselves in relationships and our careers, our business, our dreams and our goals you know whatever it maybe we doubt a lot and I think it is the factor that holds us back from at least trying and going after it and putting something out in our life. It’s the thing that holds us back from getting out of a toxic relationship, it holds us back from pursuing a relationship you know whatever it maybe self-doubt. So if we can eliminate self-doubt and understand the fears that holds us back I think it would help a lot of people. So my next mission now for the next book is to help people eliminate self-doubt. It’s actually a very simple topic for like my last book about masculine and vulnerability was more like a risk to write that, it’s different that the school of greatness it was like a risk. So, I think I almost wanna go back to like simple things that are fears that everyone resonates with, but I haven’t started writing I’ve been just kind of like writing down notes and talking about it. What’s your biggest thing that you doubt about yourself?

Julie: For me it would be at this point in my life balancing being a wife and a mother and homeschooling my 2 kids and then also being a coach and a podcast. So it’s really wanting find the balance, I don’t want to be too out to neglect my priorities as a wife and as a mother and still I want to make sure that I am pursuing that I have been created for. So really find that balance of okay I’m focusing on the business on coaching people, and yet my son wants me to read to him a book.

Lewis: Be present.

Julie: Yeah exactly. So it’s those kind of things.

Lewis: So what do you doubt? You doubt the energy to it all or that if you go after your dream your business that you’ll be sacrificing your family.

Julie: Yeah, I’m trying to find where that balance or if I can maintain that balance you know my husband needs me, children needs me, and clients’ needs me you know that kind of thing.

Lewis: You feel like you have a lack of belief in yourself though or you feel that you have a strong belief that you can do anything you want?

Julie: I’m more towards the latter where I believe I can do it, I still don’t want to neglect my priorities.

Lewis: What’s the thing that hold you back the most you know from having what you want?

Julie: Right now it’s probably not necessarily doubt Lewis, it’s more than likely some resources because my husband says “You know when I get this promotion I definitely want to support you and hire a nanny part time so that you can actually work on the business.” You know so this things are a little bit kind of, I’m sure I doubt myself every now and then so yeah.

Lewis: That’s not your challenge, resources.

Julie: Yeah that’s it.

Lewis: Anything else you guys want to share? Questions?

Amanda: What’s the one question you would’ve like us to ask?

Lewis: It doesn’t matter what I want, the question I would like you guys to ask is the thing that’s gonna help you the most.

Jackie: We need to say you got to write your book.

Lewis: You need me to write it? Do you feel like you doubt yourself?

Jackie: All the time.

Lewis: You do about what?

Jackie: Everything like small example I’ve been in inner circle since February and I’ve never introduce myself to anybody.

Lewis: So you’re part of a group called the inner circle?

Jackie: No, I made connections but I mean put myself out there.

Lewis: To the whole group?

Jackie: Right.

Lewis: Public you haven’t done a video like saying this is who I am?

Jackie: No, but I want to.

Lewis: Why have you not done it? Where’s your phone do you have it on you?

Jackie: No. We’ll do it later.

Lewis: We’ll do it today.

Jackie: So I came back from summit that was one of my goals power up and I was like I’m gonna do it and now we’re here and I haven’t even.

Lewis: So hold you back you know it’s just a small thing introducing yourself to a community of people over video.

Jackie: It has nothing to do with them specifically its layers of self-doubt like going back to, so when you wrote your book and you talked about all these layers of stuff that you had to unload and that’s what it is I have layers of doubt.

Lewis: What’s the fear if you put your video out there? What’s the fear you have of putting a video out to a group of people just saying here’s who I am?

Jackie: What I think they’re gonna say that’s what it is or think.

Lewis: Or what if nobody leaves a comment or what if people don’t like it, that’s what you’re afraid of?

Jackie: Yeah and I never used to be like that.

Lewis: Why are you afraid of what people think about you?

Jackie: I don’t know.

Lewis: When did you not used to be that way?

Jackie: Performance in grade 6.

Lewis: So, you’re afraid of people’s opinions about you the judgement? So it’s really 3 main fears that causes to doubt our self: The fear success, failure and judgement. Judgement was always my fear that’s why I was very reactive to people. It didn’t hold me back from putting something out there but it made me really defensive to want to reply to people. So it didn’t hold me back because I want to be successful.

Jackie: So I think that’s my true point it’s like I won’t react the way you did.

Lewis: You just won’t do it? You don’t want to put yourself out there because you are not willing to receive the judgement. So people are going to judge you either way, people are gonna judge you the way you are playing. So you are already being judge you might as well do something meaningful right.

Jackie: That’s true.

Lewis: Well as might put your show out there and they’re gonna judge it.

Jackie: But it’s believing it and it’s feeling it. That’s the big.

Lewis: Believe in what?

Jackie: Like in yourself, it’s one thing to say it in your head but you have to believe it.

Lewis: What is it that you don’t believe in?

Jackie: In myself.

Lewis: Why don’t you believe in yourself?

Jackie: Because I’ve disappointed people so eventually I started believing them.

Lewis: You disappointed people by putting something out there.

Jackie: Or just no doing what.

Lewis: They expected? Yeah, I mean you’re going to be disappointing people a lot of your life. I disappoint people every day but I focus on who the people I can impact more. Anything else?

Amanda: No.

Lewis: Well this is fun guys I appreciate you come along. This is the first time we’ve had 4 people on live Q&A so thank you guys for supporting the podcast for sharing out the inspiring live show and for being you know part of the community. We can finish with you can say your name, your website, your Instagram handle so we’ll finish with that.

Julie: So, Julie from New Brunswick, Canada and I think I started following you maybe 2 years ago on Facebook.

Lewis: Do you remember how you found it?

Julie: I can’t remember.

Julie: And my Instagram handle is @thegreatmommas

Lewis: Cool awesome.

Jackie: I’m Jackie Morey and I started listening to Lewis and watching YouTube, I found you on YouTube and I love watching your YouTube.

Lewis: When was this?

Jackie: 3 years ago.

Lewis: What’s your site?

Jackie: Jackiemorey.com and on Instagram I’m @jackiemorey1

Amanda: My name is Amanda I am from Switzerland but I live in Dubai now, I actually started listening to the podcast when I move out to Dubai, I started meeting a lot of new people obviously, it was a new city and new life and the people I had in my circle were very kind and good people that helped me grow and they were like listening to podcast and doing a lot of reading and they said ‘you should start listening to this podcast’ and then someone shared a link and that was it.

Lewis: Wow, that’s cool. Do you remember what episode it was?

Amanda: I can’t remember actually because I listen to a lot since then so I can’t really pinpoint which one it was. But I remember it was just like probably one of the first podcast ever I listened to. I feel really bad saying it because it’s only a year and a half ago and where I have been for the past 5 years? But it’s really good.

Lewis: It was good, it wasn’t like the ones I didn’t want to put out.

Pete: I’m Pete from Redondo Beach even worse now my first podcast, I had heard of them I think you were on his show and I was like and then I started listening to you. Instagram is the @thetravelwins that’s my Instagram my podcast page.

Lewis: We’ll finish with 4 truths you each get one truths to share with the world. If this is your last day you have 1 thing to share with the world, 1 lesson that you would share and no one would have access to anything you put out there and you have to take it with you what would be your truth or lesson?

Julie: Don’t worry what other people think.

Jackie: My broadcast live a life of significance and live a life of legendary.

Amanda: I think I would go with there’s no such thing as failure as long as you keep trying, it only ends really when you stop trying the rest is just experiences good ones or bad ones.

Pete: Treat others how you want to be treated.

Lewis: Awesome.

And there you have it my friends I am so excited about where you’re heading in your life, I’m excited about the opportunities that lie in front of you, the dreams that you have yet to start to manifest and the steps you’re about to be taking through the rest of this year and all of next year to start creating the life of your dreams. You deserved to have the life of your dreams but it’s not just going to be thrown at you, people aren’t just gonna give it to you unless you are willing to take the steps to make it happen. This is what life is all about manifesting what we want, taking the idea of thought the principle that we have in our mind and bringing it into reality, you are all the creators of your own life you can make anything happen that you’re meant to make happen you just have to be willing to overcome the challenges, the fears, the insecurities take the actionable steps and start manifesting what you want day after day. There is a path to achieving this you just need to make sure you’re willing to take the path on and take those steps down the scary path. If you enjoy this episode please share it with your friends’ lewishowes.com/734.

A big thank you to our sponsors 23andme.com make sure to check out 23andme.com/greatness as of now through December 25^th kits are 20% off and you can order your DNA kit at 23andme.com/greatness.

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And as our good friend Harvey Firestone said at the beginning “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” If you want to become a better leader in your life you have to start growing, you have to start developing new skill, mastering things overcoming fear. You can’t lead other people if you are still afraid of something else you’ll always be limited by ability to lead based on how many fears and insecurities you have, so now is the time to take on the fear challenge and start tackling that you’re afraid of every single day until the fear goes away.

As always guys I am so blessed and grateful on this journey with you, we’ve got some huge interviews coming up very soon, if this is your first time here please subscribe to the podcast we are on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora that just released their new beta platform with podcast so make sure to find us anywhere google play all the places that podcast are at.

I love you so very much and as always you know what time it is it’s time to go out there and do something great.