I recently had a friend tell me I needed to do an interview with someone special. I’m always hesitant on suggestions, but my friend has done thousands of interviews and he said in his top five was Danica Patrick.
I felt I had to give her a shot and I’m so glad I did. She and I are on the same wavelength. We’re both into sports, consider ourselves to be spiritual people, and believe so much in the power of the mind.
Danica has a strong presence you can feel the moment she walks into the room and yet she is still one of the sweetest and most thought-provoking people I’ve met. She’s had so many insightful things to say.
For those of you who don’t know her, Danica Patrick dropped out of high school to pursue a career as a race car driver. In 2005, Patrick became the first woman to hold the lead during the Indianapolis 500.
Only three years later, she was the first woman to record a win on the IndyCar circuit. After switching to stock cars, Patrick won the time trials at the 2013 Daytona 500 – becoming the first woman to win the pole position at NASCAR.
Patrick has become one of the most recognizable athletes in the to world, having graced the cover of ESPN: The Magazine and TV Guide. She was also featured in the 2008 and 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She has appeared in 14 Super Bowl commercials (more than any other celebrity).
She’s not only an amazing figure in the world of sports, but she’s also a great author and mentor. She’s just released her newest book, Pretty Intense, that brings light to living health from mind, to body, to diet.
Discover all of that and much more, on Episode 592.
Lewis Howes: This is episode number 592 with Danica Patrick.
Welcome to The School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro-athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now, let the class begin.
Bruce Lee said it best, when he said, “The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus.”
Welcome to another edition of The School of Greatness Podcast. We have the legendary Danica Patrick in the house, and I was blown away by this interview, her perspective and her realness, and I think you’re going to love it just as much as I did. A friend of mine recommended that I have Danica on, and I’m very grateful that I did, because I think this is going to inspire so many of you listening right now.
For those that don’t know who she is, Danica Patrick is the most successful woman in the history of American Open Wheel Racing. Her win in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only women’s victory in an IndyCar Series race, and her third place in the 2009 Indianapolis 500, is the highest finish there, ever, by a woman. One of the most recognisable athletes in the world, she has graced the cover of many magazines and she’s appeared in fourteen Superbowl commercials, more than any other celebrity, and she’s got a new book out, that’s pretty awesome, and it’s called, Pretty Intense. It’s actually a really powerful book and I recommend checking it out.
What we cover today, are the difference between being skinny-fat and being fit. Also the positivity that comes from studying spirituality and Danica goes into detail about how she’s gone down this path herself and what she’s gained from it. Also, how Danica developed a confident mindset on her own, from a very young age. The power of writing down what you want, and some of the rituals that Danica has in that process. Also, what Danica realised last year about racing that changed the game for her, moving forward, and Danica’s message to women who have big dreams, in maybe a world that hasn’t fully supported the women with those dreams.
This is a powerful one! Make sure to take a screenshot of this, post it up on Instagram, @LewisHowes and make sure to tag Danica Patrick as well. Post it on Twitter, Facebook, I think your audience is going to love this, as I think you will as well.
But before we dive in, a big shout out for the Fan of the Week, over on iTunes, who posted their name, One Versus Many, and this person said, “Lewis Howes’ podcast is one of the best out there, hands down! Subscribe and put it on your weekly listen list. You will not be disappointed, you’ll be blown away! A+++ guests plus amazing conversation. Intelligent, insightful, practical, wise, grounded in truth, inspiration. Thank you, Lewis, for bringing the light.”
So, One Versus Many, thank you for sharing that review, we appreciate it. And every time you guys leave a review, it helps us get the message out there to more people, so if you haven’t left a review yet, go to iTunes right now, or just go on your podcast app that you’re on and leave us a review, for your chance to be shouted out as the Fan of the Week.
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Again, a big thank you to our sponsors for always helping us spread the message of greatness to even more people around the world. But I am so pumped about this one, guys! We have a legend in the house. Someone who has defied the odds for many, many years, who’s broken barriers and who is here to tell the story of how she did it.
So, without further ado, let me introduce to you, the one, the only, Danica Patrick.
Welcome back, everyone, to The School of Greatness Podcast. We have Danica Patrick in the house. Good to see you.
Danica Patrick: Thank you! Nice to see you!
Lewis Howes: Thank you so much for being here. I’m very excited about this, and your new book, Pretty Intense. You seem like you’re pretty intense.
Danica Patrick: Why? What was your first impression when you met me?
Lewis Howes: When I met you? Pretty intense. Yeah, focussed. You came in and you were just ready to go.
Danica Patrick: Good, well, that’s, yeah, I’ve been described similarly by many people, so, that’s good. I like that it’s authentic.
Lewis Howes: Very authentic, yes.
Danica Patrick: Slight play on words, but, yeah.
Lewis Howes: Exactly. Pretty and intense, yes. Now, my friend introduced me to you. He made the connection to your publicist, your team, Dan Schawbel, and you guys did an interview, you may not remember, it just happened recently, and he’s interviewed over a thousand major influencers, right? Billionaires, authors, you name it, celebrities. And he said, “This is my top five most interesting interview.”
Danica Patrick: What?! I’m going to have to go back and see which one it was, now.
Lewis Howes: Dan Schawbel and he doesn’t send me a lot of people to interview, but he was like, “You have to interview her.”
Danica Patrick: Lucky me!
Lewis Howes: So I said, “Okay, I’ll check it out.” I want to share some things we have in common, from the research I did. Both professional athletes, both lived in Illinois. I lived in a small village in Illinois, it’s called, Elsah. It was was near Alton, Illinois, near St Louis, Missouri, so a little more south. Both do Crossfit.
Danica Patrick: Yes! Up high! I love Crossfit. It’s a basis for the workout program. At home Crossfit. You can’t give somebody a bar and rack it up with 135lb, but you know, hit workouts, circuits, stuff like that.
Lewis Howes: Exactly. My girlfriend is a huge hit workout person and she always puts me through them.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, crossfit style timing, reps, stuff like that.
Lewis Howes: Absolutely. We’re the same age and born in the same month.
Danica Patrick: Oh? Are we both March babies?
Lewis Howes: March babies. You’re actually a year older. I’m March 16, 1983. You were ’82 right?
Danica Patrick: I’m March ’82, yeah. My sister’s March ’84. It’s a good month.
Lewis Howes: Really? There you go! Both have Nascar connections.
Danica Patrick: What’s yours, because I have a lot.
Lewis Howes: Well, I don’t know anything about Nascar, but my brother-in-law works with the Joe Gibbs team, he’s an engineer.
Danica Patrick: Oh, Joe Gibbs. Great team, yeah. He does good work, then.
Lewis Howes: And so, anyways. He does good work, yes.
Danica Patrick: What’s his name?
Lewis Howes: His name is Tim Bruce. Yeah, he’s an engineer with the team. We both went to Europe to pursue sports. You were fourteen when you left?
Danica Patrick: Sixteen.
Lewis Howes: Why did I read fourteen? Sixteen.
Danica Patrick: Come on! Let’s be realistic here, sixteen.
Lewis Howes: Sixteen is still very young to go there.
Danica Patrick: It is. Sixteen and nineteen. I lived there for three years. How long were you there?
Lewis Howes: I was only there for a few weeks. I went, about four years ago, to Spain, to play with the professional handball team. I don’t know if you know team handball?
Danica Patrick: No.
Lewis Howes: It’s an Olympic sport, it’s kind of like water polo on a basketball court. Two teams, like, anyways. We’ve both been on Ellen.
Danica Patrick: Oh, yeah! Ellen, I just used my Ellen coffee cup the other day.
Lewis Howes: I love that mug.
Danica Patrick: I love mugs. That’s the only thing I collect and I’m such a geek about it. Yeah, I collect coffee cups.
Lewis Howes: What’s your favourite mug? What’s the cool saying on it?
Danica Patrick: Well, Allison’s got me some great ones that say, like, “I’m an f***ing unicorn.” Can we swear on this podcast? Can you swear on podcasts?
Lewis Howes: We’ll bleep it out. But you can continue. “I’m an f***ing unicorn”?
Danica Patrick: “I’m an f***ing unicorn,” or, “I do what I want with a unicorn,” or I have one that’s, oh, and some from the north. My sister got me a cup that says, “Uff da, you betcha!” because my mom’s side of the family is from Northern Minnesota, Canada. What else do I have that I really love? Yeah, I have a lot of coffee cups that I love.
Lewis Howes: That’s great! I love them too, yeah. And we both like eating Paleo.
Danica Patrick: I love it. It makes me feel good.
Lewis Howes: Feel very good, right?
Danica Patrick: I run this, I sort of walk, like, all the food in the book, because I wrote and photographed fifty recipes in here, and it’s all Paleo, but I don’t know, I’m dealing with this whole, like, do I go more vegan route, or not? Have you tried it?
Lewis Howes: Have you tested vegan?
Danica Patrick: I have never gone all the way, I’ve only migrated that way with less meat, more fish, smaller portions. I haven’t really gone into it, but it’s really hard to be vegan-paleo. That’s really hard. Because if you don’t do grains or beans and it cuts down on a heck of a lot of your food.
Lewis Howes: That’s right. What do you eat?
Danica Patrick: Yeah! What do you eat? You just eat vegetables and fruit.
Lewis Howes: That’s it.
Danica Patrick: I mean, that’s really probably good for you, but I’m probably lacking something. So, I don’t know, maybe I’m not? Have you tried it?
Lewis Howes: I’ve never tested it. I don’t have that willpower. I’ve just tried full vegan.
Danica Patrick: Full vegan. So you eat grains, I mean, is full vegan gluten free too?
Lewis Howes: No.
Danica Patrick: No, it’s not.
Lewis Howes: You can still be an extremely unhealthy vegan. I mean, all the sugar and gluten and all that stuff. But it’s pretty amazing, I went through the book and the photo of your transformation from, I think, 2003…
Danica Patrick: Oh, yeah! When I was in FHM with me standing in front of the muscle car.
Lewis Howes: Yeah. That was a pretty amazing transformation.
Danica Patrick: Well, you know, that was me doing 45 minutes on the elliptical at 3am, no matter what time my flight was or what I had to do that day and no weights and just all cardio and eating extremely restrictive, very little. And I probably weighed 95lbs.
Lewis Howes: But skinny-fat. There’s no muscle.
Danica Patrick: But skinny-fat, yeah, it’s skinny-fat. And look at that picture. You don’t really know my size based on it. The only way you can create a look of leanness is to have angles and muscle tone, and the only way you’re going to get that, is you’re going to have to work out, actually. You’re going to have to lift weights and you’re going to have to eat more, and all those things.
Lewis Howes: When did you start lifting heavier?
Danica Patrick: It was in IndyCar. It was in, like, the end of my IndyCar days. I started, I had a trainer that would literally just send me a PDF of a workout, of a month of training. And that’s when I started going to 3-5 sets of 5 reps and less, and I noticed there was no downside to it and I was getting more muscle tone, and I was like, “Oh! This is kind of good, actually.”
The problem with lifting weights is, and working out in general I feel like, with most people is that they start and something good happens at first, because you’re getting the blood pumping, you’re sweating, you’re probably eating better, but you are putting on muscle at the same time. And so there tends to be a yo-yo period, in my experience, where you’re gaining some muscle, but you haven’t burned the fat off yet, and you’re sore, which, if you’re sore, you’re swollen. It’s just a fact, you are swollen.
So there’s that yo-yo period of people. And they’re like, “Oh my gosh, it’s not working for me!” And it’s like, “No. Stick it out.” I mean, sprinters, weight lifters, all of these people, they’re not fat. So stick with it.
Lewis Howes: You got to stick with it. Yeah, exactly. Now I’m curious, what…
Danica Patrick: Do we have any other things in common? Probably. We’ll probably figure more out.
Lewis Howes: We actually, you follow one of my Instagram pages.
Danica Patrick: Okay, yeah. I’ve seen you in so much… I’m going to be really like an idiot now, and be like, I walked in and I said, “Oh my gosh, this all makes so much sense, now! I recognised you.” I’m just terrible with names. So I was like, “Oh! Yeah! I’m so glad I’m here!” I mean, I’m glad I’m here anyway, but…
Lewis Howes: I think we have a lot of mutual things in common. People that we follow, you know? Things that we’re interested in. I think we have a similar mindset.
Danica Patrick: Yeah. Food, fitness, mind, body, it’s all really important.
Lewis Howes: And you’ve got more into spirituality, is that right?
Danica Patrick: Yeah, I have. Yeah, for sure.
Lewis Howes: That’s been more of a recent thing, I guess in the last few years, for you, right?
Danica Patrick: Yeah. For sure, in the last few years.
Lewis Howes: You didn’t start out that way?
Danica Patrick: No, I didn’t. It was more about, I’ve always had that part of me, I remember when I was younger I called a psychic when I was eighteen and living in England, for my birthday, and I got the Linda Goodman sun signs book about love compatibility. Things like that, and so I’ve always kind of like been interested in that, but it really hasn’t been until the last few years that I’ve gotten more interested in it.
Lewis Howes: You’ve got a quote from Louise Hay in your book too.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, I love Louise Hay, yeah. I mean, I want to believe that the Heal Yourself book, the tiny little pamphlet of heal yourself for everything that’s wrong with you is a direct, it’s basically you create it in your mind and there’s also another person that I’ve watched some videos from, Dolores Cannon, is her name, she’s dead now, but she’s a hypnotherapist and goes into the sub-conscious and she talks about how you literally make yourself sick and she says that people don’t want to hear that because they want to think there’s a fix, and they just take something.
And just as you can make yourself sick, you can also make yourself better. So, I’m not going to lie. If I feel anything coming on, I’m literally like, mantra city and positive thinking like, “I am well.” I pull the Wayne Dyer, “I am well, I am healthy, I feel good, I am of perfect health.”
Lewis Howes: When did you start doing that?
Danica Patrick: Only in the last, probably, six months, but I’m not going to lie, it’s worked every time.
Lewis Howes: Really? You know what’s interesting? It’s funny you say that. I was raised in a religion called Christian Science. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it. Actually, Ellen was raised in the same religion. It’s not Scientology, so I have to make that preference.
Danica Patrick: And it’s not Christian.
Lewis Howes: It’s Christian, it’s based on the Bible and things like that, but it was actually founded by a woman. And the entire basis of the religion is that you can heal yourself with your mind, if you believe. And it’s one of the reasons why, you know, the challenges of the religion and why I’m no longer in it, but I was raised in it and I didn’t have vaccinations, I never had medicine growing up, because they taught us to heal ourselves with our mind. And belief.
So, when you were saying that for six months you’ve been doing this mantra, I pretty much grew up doing that with this belief and spirituality. You know, it kind of had a bad rep, though, sometimes. Because some people would get serious injuries, or they would die, because they wouldn’t go to the hospital.
Danica Patrick: This reminds me, someone in my neighbourhood, growing up was of a religion that didn’t believe in holidays or medicines at all. I can’t remember what the religion was, but it seemed very crazy to me, young.
Lewis Howes: It is a little crazy. But when you come back to it full circle, and you say, “Well, I actually do believe that I can heal myself, or prevent getting sick.” You’re witnessing it, right?
Danica Patrick: Yeah, I am. Well, it’s worked every time so far. It’s probably been about three different times. Where you can feel, like feel lymph nodes coming on, your throat, you can kind of feel it coming into your head, you know, like, this is exactly how you feel before you get sick, but instead of thinking, “I’m getting sick, I’m getting sick,” which, and you are, right?
Lewis Howes: You’re calling it into your body.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, you’re literally manifesting it, then I would just say, “I am well, I am fine, I have perfect health, I am doing well.”
Lewis Howes: Yeah, it’s good. And there’s so much research and science that’s backing the connection of pain and the mind.
Danica Patrick: So, when you say that, it reminds me of, I went to church with my sister, I mean, I’m not necessarily of any religion. I kind of like them all and don’t like them all. I don’t believe all of any one of them.
Lewis Howes: But you take the best from all of them.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, exactly. They all have good points and I could go to any religious ceremony and be like, “Oh, I’ve learned something today,” or I might dismiss it all, I’m not really sure. But, when we came out of church and there was a guy who was standing there. And my sister was waiting for her two little girls to come out from the daycare that they provide, and he is an anaesthesiologist and I was, “I think it’s crazy how,” this is me telling him, “How do you put people, you put people like, sedate them, and you don’t have to numb anything.” And he’s like, “No,” and he’s like, “And we don’t understand why.” He said we don’t really understand why.
Lewis Howes: Why they don’t feel the pain?
Danica Patrick: Why they don’t feel the pain. How can you just make someone go to sleep and then just cut them wide open?
Lewis Howes: Open up their chest, in open heart surgery.
Danica Patrick: Mm-hm. But, how do you do that, right? But they don’t understand it, so then it leads to the fact that you are literally manifesting the pain with your mind, because, say you have surgery and you wake up and you’re like, “I had my chest cut open. Oh, my chest must hurt so bad,” like, you must be imagining some of it. Truth. You must be, at some level.
Lewis Howes: Absolutely.
Danica Patrick: I don’t know, because it just doesn’t make sense that you don’t have to numb it, because it must be so painful that you’d have to wake up at some level.
Lewis Howes: I think there’s more underneath what we can prove with medicine right now, and all these other things. There’s something else, you know?
Danica Patrick: Yeah, I think that’s really cool, because I feel like the world is starting to wake up to that kind of stuff. The stuff that’s unseeable, the metaphysical world.
Lewis Howes: Why did you start to get into this? Six months ago?
Danica Patrick: Yeah, you know, over the years, over the last few years, it really stemmed from a trip to Sedona with my girl friends. I mean, it’s always been sitting there. It’s been resting there, right underneath the surface and we went and we did the whole Vortex Tour, we went to a labyrinth, we got crystals, we got psychic readings.
Lewis Howes: And what opened up for you during that?
Danica Patrick: It was just kind of like a level of curiosity, there was so much of it that it was like, “Wow, I can keep going here.” And then you do things, like start following people like you, or Jason, or any of the other people that are into the mind/body, metaphysical spiritual connection stuff. And there’s just so much more and you can get into everything from aliens to conspiracy theories and there’s just like, you run down any rabbit hole you want and there’s plenty of content, and it’s very thought provoking.
So, I’ve always described myself as, even growing up, I’ve always described myself as a sceptical religious person. I question it all. I’m like, “Why?” and, “How?” and I was just telling the story last night even about how Lent comes around and everybody gives up meat on Friday and I was, like, “Why?” So, I looked it up and it had to do with that meat was a luxury. Lobster was the peasant’s food, and I was like, “Well it ain’t like that now. So I’m going to have to give up lobster, I guess, if that’s what the point is.” But then I went on to say that I think a lot of times people give things up as a means to an end, to a diet program more than an actual spiritual program.
Lewis Howes: That’s true. Trying to lose weight, or whatever.
Danica Patrick: And you’re like, “I’ll give up chocolate.”
Lewis Howes: Exactly. Like, “I’ll eat something else, and substitute what I’m missing,” yeah. What do you think is the biggest take away that you found, I guess, since you started going down that rabbit hole six months ago, of Sedona trip.
Danica Patrick: Positivity. Just overall more positivity. Just understanding the power of the mind. Maybe you know a bit more about this, I’ve been meaning to look it up before I started doing some of these interviews I’ve been doing, because I knew I might go down these holes, but I read something or heard something probably on some YouTube rant that I was going on down the rabbit hole of the subconscious mind not being able to tell the difference between the truth and a lie. Do you know anything about that?
Lewis Howes: Tell me more.
Danica Patrick: That’s what I know. If the subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between the truth and a lie, that would lead you down the path of thinking that, “I am sick, I’m getting sick.” So, it is, because it can’t tell the difference between the truth and a lie. It also is, like, “I am well, I am healthy.” I need to look more into that because you can’t talk in big arenas like this with people listening and not know your stuff. Anyway, it’s thought provoking stuff.
Lewis Howes: Wow. Did you always have someone training your mindset? From an early age when you were competing in Europe?
Danica Patrick: No.
Lewis Howes: How did you start to condition your mind against the intense pressure of competing and then being on a bigger stage and then just being a female in the sport that you were in, dominated by men, how did you train your mind? I guess you became pretty intense at an early age.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, I had to, I believe I jusst had to create coping mechanisms in an understanding, rationalising what information is coming from what kind of people and how that really affects me and what’s true and what’s not and what’s true to me. So, I think that the real root of it all is knowing who you are and what you stand for and also putting in the right amount of effort so that nothing anyone says could really hurt you, because you know you’ve done everything you can.
I think that, probably on a real surface level, if you don’t try hard enough at something, people could knock you down for it, and if you really don’t, then it hurts, because you’re like, “Shoot. You’re right.” You know? In your mind you’re like, “Yeah, they’re right,” and you feel bad, right? You feel guilty for yourself and for others. But if you do everything that you possibly can, then you know that nothing anyone says can really hurt you, because you’ve done everything you can. What are you going to do? Hate yourself? For being your best? Whatever that is?
So, I think I just learned how to deal with the things that people said, by just putting in the right amount of effort and knowing who I was, and knowing what I wanted. I think the “knowing yourself” on another, deeper level, is something that’s come much later in the recent few years, but…
Lewis Howes: For you.
Danica Patrick: Yeah. But as far as the effort level put into a certain thing that people want to judge really quickly, like your performance or the way you act, things like that, it’s easy to get brought down if you’re not doing your best, if you’re not putting in the right amount of effort, because you really do feel guilty.
Lewis Howes: How did you arm yourself against those critiques throughout your entire career and still, when everyone maybe was trying to pull you down, or say something like, you’re not good enough, or you’re this, or you shouldn’t be doing this, or you should get out of our all boys club, or whatever it is they would say, how did you arm yourself against that?
Danica Patrick: I just knew I was capable, so you know, you base it on… And there were times when I totally doubted myself. I would imagine that everybody faces that at some point in time and so there were points in time when I would doubt myself. But then I’d pull back and look at the bigger picture and be like, “I’m here, because I did this and this, and I’ve been around for twenty years, and I’m not here by accident or just out of one good charity case to keep me around. I’m here because of all the things that I’ve done.”
So, you have to sometimes pull back a little bit to get a little perspective, because it’s easy to get knocked down confidence wise on things that you’re doing. But then the things that people say, most of the time, they’re from strangers. You probably faced this too, of course, on social media, like, you don’t know them, so it’s easy to blow them off. But that’s a luxurious standpoint that I’m in, because I don’t know these people who are talking to me and what I like to bring up is how hard it must be for kids and people that are working in smaller circles with 50 followers and they all know them, so if they say something mean, they think it might be true, because they really know them.
Lewis Howes: Over the last twenty years what would you say has been the biggest challenge that you’ve had to overcome? Or that you’ve faced?
Danica Patrick: Getting people to believe in me has always been the hardest, I think. And I believe that everyone struggles with it. I mean, you’re in sports, getting people to really believe in you and do everything it takes to be great. Whether it comes from an ownership or a team standpoint or team mate standpoint, that, I think, is always hard, but I think it’s a little harder for me.
Lewis Howes: Do you feel like every year you were fighting that? Getting people to believe in you? Even still today? Even after the staying power you’ve had, the results you’ve had?
Danica Patrick: Yeah, yeah sure.
Lewis Howes: Really? Still? Huh. How do you get people to believe in you?
Danica Patrick: Communication, relationships, developing them. I think it takes more effort on my part just to earn that trust and earn that belief, but again, I think there are some people that you’re never going to convince, because it’s just a cultural divide. There’s just separation and segregation within things still and we’re not all one big happy family and girls aren’t in racing and they tend to not do well, so, society and culture would say that it’s not really a proven thing, so it’s easier to just…
And also, being a woman in a man’s world, there’s just generally that whole lack of feminine, right? To have sympathy and understanding, compassion and respect, because you’re like, “I’m macho and I have all this testosterone, and no girl’s going to beat me doing anything,” and what do you have to say to that? Do you agree with that?
Lewis Howes: That’s interesting. Yeah. I mean, what do I have to say about that?
Danica Patrick: Would you agree that that would have probably affected me?
Lewis Howes: Absolutely, yeah, it would affect you. I think it would be challenging for men in that sport to lose to you, who definitely don’t have that emotional ability to communicate or express themselves in a healthier way. I could see their egos just flaring up, and then wanting to attack you, to take you down so they wouldn’t look silly to their friends. Like, “Oh, I lost to a girl,” or whatever.
And that’s probably why you got a lot of those attacks, because these guys were like, “You shouldn’t even be in this sport.” I can imagine. Again, I don’t know anything about the sport, really, but that’s what I could imagine. If I’m playing basketball against a girl…
Danica Patrick: “What are they going to say about me, oh, I’ll just take her out,” you know? I’m just generalising a scenario.
Lewis Howes: Yeah, exactly. Do you feel like people would attack you in the races, you know, intentionally try to get you out?
Danica Patrick: Sure. And then, also just make it really difficult. I think that’s what I faced most, was people that made it really difficult for me to get by. You know, just put up a huge fight and fought tooth and nail when there really wasn’t any point, on lap 152 of 367, you know what I mean? Like, really, what are we doing here? We’re only slowing each other down.
Lewis Howes: Ego, huh?
Danica Patrick: Totally, the ego is powerful for motivation. You can use the ego. The difference is, letting ego rule you will lead you down short-term paths and it will also lead you to regret, because it wants instant gratification, you know, it wants it right now. And soul truth, and soul missions, and soul messages are something so much more subtle and patient and kind and they get overshadowed by ego.
Lewis Howes: Do you think you had a battle with your ego throughout the last twenty years at all? Or was there another?
Danica Patrick: Oh, that’s a great question. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that before.
Lewis Howes: You’re on The School of Greatness. This is what this place is for.
Danica Patrick: Do I think that I’ve been ruled by… Yeah, of course the ego comes in, whether it be what I’m doing, how I’m doing, what I think of myself from a performance standpoint or a looks standpoint, sure, ego comes into it.
Lewis Howes: How did you overcome that? When it starts to flare up and get nasty?
Danica Patrick: Well, I would say that’s one of the most, and I have said recently that one of the most beneficial things that I’ve learned is to identify when I’m being led by ego versus soul, that’s been really helpful, and you almost laugh at the ego. The ego comes up and you’re like, “Pfffff, you jerk!” I don’t know why I gave it a guy, jerk quality.
Lewis Howes: It’s a masculine quality, I guess.
Danica Patrick: It is! Well, it is, the ego is, right? You know way more about this stuff than I do. But it’s also motivating, so it’s the driving force in things, but you can do it with soul after you’ve also created a goal.
Lewis Howes: How do you bring attention to your ego? Do you meditate every day or are you just recognise it when you’ve been frustrated or angry about something, or resentful and you’re like, “Okay, need to let it go.”?
Danica Patrick: Yeah, yeah. I would say that the journey was through a lot of sort of walking meditations, that’s kind of how it started.
Lewis Howes: Are those guided meditations?
Danica Patrick: No, just walking in nature and nothing, like I was on a property that was completely empty. A huge property and there were trails and I knew I’d never see anyone and I would play music and I would just stick it in my pocket and, I don’t know, music really helps me to, like East Forest, have you ever heard of East Forest, or Trevor Hall or Nahko? They’re just really positive, kind of like, I mean, they’re not reggae, but they’re kind of like the same positive messaging vibes. And some of them are just instrumental. And so they would really help me get to a good place and I just don’t think it’s possible to get out in nature and not feel happy, grateful, small but part of a big thing, like it’s just a really, really productive space. If you don’t have the discipline to sit and meditate or pray or whatever it is that is your more connected, deeper than, and it doesn’t mean you can’t get deeper in nature, I’m just saying, that’s more purposeful, and you just want to do something active. A little like me. I want to move, so this feels good, nature walks, hiking trails, all is such a great way to just really go within. Do you agree with that?
Lewis Howes: I hundred percent [agree]. I think nature is the doorway to the heart, and I was watching a thing on grounding, actually on Facebook the other day. I don’t know if you’ve seen this documentary.
Danica Patrick: Yeah! Earthing? Basically?
Lewis Howes: Exactly, earthing, and I was like, “Man! How many weeks, days, years, do I go by without actually having my bare feet on the ground?” Or just, how many days do I go by being in L.A. not taking a hike or being just in trees, in nature?
Danica Patrick: Putting your feet in the sand, like, you’re right here.
Lewis Howes: Exactly. Or even just walking in a forest. Even in shoes. How often am I not doing that. I can go weeks and just be on concrete and being disconnected to the Earth. So, I believe nature, and I’ve done, over the last two years, I’ve done a week in Hawaii, where I didn’t take my phone with me, and it was one of the most incredible experiences. It was the first time in fifteen years, I didn’t have my phone on me for one day. Fifteen years.
Danica Patrick: It’s so liberating.
Lewis Howes: It was terrifying to go on a plane, without my phone…
Danica Patrick: What am I going to do? How am I going to get there? Where’s my map?
Lewis Howes: I remember going to the airport and I’d rented a car beforehand, but I forgot which rental company it was. So I’m asking all the different ones the reservation. And when I get in the car, I have to stop at the gas station and get directions to where I’m going, like, old school. But it was so magical, just not having to check my phone and just lying in the ocean.
Danica Patrick: I’ve actually entertained the idea of going somewhere totally away from everything for a month. I mean, I have that kind of time now, but I never used to, and I’m like, “Man! I could do it.” Disconnect completely.
Lewis Howes: That would be amazing. Another thing I did is, I went to India for two and a half weeks.
Danica Patrick: Okay, I don’t know if I’m brave enough. Was it worth it, going?
Lewis Howes: I went to a meditation retreat. So, it was protected and it wasn’t that intense. It wasn’t a silent retreat either, so there was people, they were teaching meditation, you were practicing stuff. But being just so disconnected from electronics, that way I was just connecting to my soul and my heart and the mind.
Danica Patrick: And spirit and inner voice.
Lewis Howes: It was unbelievable how much peace I felt, in my heart afterwards.
Danica Patrick: It kind of makes you wonder why we’re doing all this, doesn’t it? You know, I get those moments where I’m like, “What’s the point?”
Lewis Howes: “Why am I running around, why am I doing…” everything you’re doing, yeah.
Danica Patrick: But there are some people, like yourself, that are incredibly good and can connect with people and get these messages out. And if you don’t, who’s going to do it? And so, I feel that level of responsibility myself too, and that’s kind of like the first five chapters of the book are on the mind and it’s literally just scratching the surface on simple things like, get out in nature, your thoughts are really important, make sure they’re good. It’s scratching the surface. But what I’ve heard from everyone is that it’s their favourite part of the book.
Lewis Howes: I like the idea of the mind river. It’s called a mind river, right? Yeah, I really like that.
Danica Patrick: Neuroplasticity is the bigger word.
Lewis Howes: Yeah, exactly, simplify it, yeah. I mean, you have very simple, practical things that people can do, and exercises, which is what we all need.
Danica Patrick: And then there’s also parts in there, too, at the end of each chapter, that is thought provoking, because I’m a firm believer in writing down what you want. So every month I get into my little notes app and I write down what I, anything, what I’m grateful for, what I want, how I want it to look. Sometimes it’s general, sometimes it’s specific, but if I don’t write it down, then how is it ever going to happen, and so I’m a believer in writing things down, and really like, manifesting on more levels than just a passing thought through my mind and like, “I hope so,” you know?
Lewis Howes: You talked about it in there, where you got to really write it down, schedule it and make it happen.
Danica Patrick: And some people just never ask themselves the question, so they’re like, the biggest question, the simplest question is, “What would you do if you could do anything in the world?” What would your job be if you could make anything in the world. And most people don’t have an answer, especially adults.
Lewis Howes: What would you do now? If you could do anything in the world?
Danica Patrick: What would I do now? I would, I’m living some of them. So, I would, I mean, this clothing line is wonderful. I would love to create with my warrior clothing line, I’d love for there to be some more of a charity element to it. I’d love to develop that, and I have this lofty thought of some kind of a camp or something, like either once a year or quarterly, I don’t know what kind of thing it would be.
I have so many other interests. I love cooking, so I’d love to have a cooking show. I love wine, which follows along with all that. I love travelling, so I mean…
Lewis Howes: You’re living it all.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, I’m living it all, but I answered the question, “What would I do if I could do anything?”
Lewis Howes: You did that twenty years ago and you pursued it.
Danica Patrick: Yeah. But people don’t ask themselves that question, because they get put on this wheel of, “I go to school, I do what I’m told, I go to the bathroom when I can, I eat whatever is provided for lunch, I got to go to college now, and then what do I want to do? I’m not really sure because I haven’t really thought about it because I’ve been too busy at parties and stimulated by social media and distracted from the real thing, which is what I really want, instead of what I’m told to want, or what’s cool, or what’s in, or what pays well.”
Do what you really love to do. But it’s not that easy. It’s not that easy to figure yourself out when there’s too much stimulus out there to distract you. So much distraction, and so, I mean, it’s addictive. I would describe myself as addicted to my phone in some degree. I don’t want it, but, I mean, I want it, you know what I mean. I recognise that I’m somewhat addicted to looking at social media and of scrolling through things, but I still don’t want to put it down. That’s why I need a forced scenario where I’m in another country where my phone doesn’t work.
Lewis Howes: Exactly. Where you don’t take it with you.
Danica Patrick: But then the problem happens now, where they never used to have WiFi, so you could get away for the whole time, but now there’s WiFi everywhere, so I’ll play my music through the WiFi, or something like that, so I’m like, “Oh, now my messages come in!”
Lewis Howes: What’s the question that you’ve never been able to answer for yourself?
Danica Patrick: Tough questions.
Lewis Howes: Or is there something that’s been on your mind, whether it be spirituality or about the body or about relationships or about health, or anything in general. Just the question you haven’t been able to answer, that you’re constantly seeking.
Danica Patrick: What is God? Not who, but what?
Lewis Howes: You have an idea yet?
Danica Patrick: That’s kind of what provoked a lot of the development, is that I kind of thought of that. Instead of a who, which everybody wants to answer, who. And I’m like, “No, you’re not answering the question. What.” I believe it’s the highest level of vibration. There’s nothing negative that can resonate at this vibrational level, it is pure love, positivity. It is a oneness, presence that is eternal, it’s God-consciousness. Christ-consciousness. It’s source, it’s not really, it’s omnipresent, it’s not a dude on a throne in the clouds, it’s so much more than that, it’s everywhere all the time.
That’s why God lives within you and everyone else, because we’re all connected. I don’t know, how did I do?
Lewis Howes: I like the answer.
Danica Patrick: I’m sweating. These are hard questions and I’m sitting here with somebody like you. I don’t know. What about you?
Lewis Howes: I like that answer. I think it’s a powerful, in my opinion, I would say that’s very accurate in my belief too, yeah. My challenge is, the reason I started this podcast five years ago was because I had so many questions. And I realised that I didn’t have any of the answers, and I wanted to bring on people like yourself who had experiences that could shed light on their personal experiences. And I’ve had so many different spiritual pastors and leaders and people.
Danica Patrick: Oh, I bet. I mean we even got Tony Robbins there, I mean, you got them all.
Lewis Howes: And every time I bring on a different spiritual leader, I feel like I get almost a different answer as well, and so, in some ways I feel like…
Danica Patrick: Love is my religion. That would be a good way to sort of like encompass it all.
Lewis Howes: That’s how I respond, yeah. And I don’t know if you know who Rob Bell is?
Danica Patrick: No.
Lewis Howes: Do you know Aaron Rodgers? Just kidding. He’s close with Aaron, I’ve met Aaron, actually, at one of Rob Bell’s speeches. He’s a spiritual… you should ask Aaron, they’re like, he’s kind of like his confidant.
Danica Patrick: Oh! Okay, maybe he has brought him up before. Has he spoken on his team or something like that?
Lewis Howes: Probably. Yeah.
Danica Patrick: Oh, okay, now I know who you’re talking about.
Lewis Howes: He’s about a mile away. He’s been on the show a few times and he’s got great wisdom on all this. So you should tell Aaron to say hey.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, I know what you’re talking about now.
Lewis Howes: You should ask Aaron about Rob Bell. But anyways, I’m constantly in question, I’m constantly questioning, and sometimes I feel more confident because I think I have some answers, and other times I’m like, nothing is true. Because everyone’s got a different opinion or a different belief. And that’s the challenge.
Danica Patrick: And people are persuasive, right? I mean, you know, you’re like, “Yeah?! That makes sense!” And then you go another route and you’re like, “That makes sense, too,” you know? And so it’s this eternal, I have words of the year, so my word of the year is “Open”. It was “Truth” last year, so that was a big one.
Lewis Howes: Was that the first time you had “Truth”?
Danica Patrick: Yeah. I’ve only done Word of the Year for about five years.
Lewis Howes: What did you feel you revealed about yourself last year that you hadn’t revealed before, either to yourself, or to others?
Danica Patrick: That racing really wasn’t my passion.
Lewis Howes: What?! Really?
Danica Patrick: No, I’ve never really said that out loud before.
Lewis Howes: Holy cow!
Danica Patrick: I mean, I love it, I’m good at it, but even my dad says, “I know, you were good at it and you needed a job.”
Lewis Howes: So last year you finally revealed that to yourself?
Danica Patrick: Yeah. Said it out loud. Actually I said it a couple of years earlier to one person, and then a few things unravelled. I love racing, it’s not that I don’t enjoy it, it’s just not what I do for fun, and if I don’t do it for fun, is it really my passion? Is it?
Lewis Howes: It’s a job.
Danica Patrick: It’s the job. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. I’ve done it for, this is going to be year number twenty-seven, so clearly I haven’t hated it. There are some days that I do, but that’s a job. Again, I don’t want to put it down, it’s given me everything that I have. It’s the only reason I have a book, it’s why I have a clothing line, it’s why I…
Lewis Howes: Wine company.
Danica Patrick: Yeah! It’s why, it’s the only reason why any of it has happened, but that also doesn’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed it and it hasn’t facilitated other things in my life to happen and it wasn’t meant to happen, I believe it was. And maybe it’s a platform to write the mind part of the book and maybe that’s going to help people even more. I don’t know.
But, yeah, kind of facing that truth and as things were developing or not developing on the racing front with sponsors or teams or anything, I just really pulled back and just let agents and people do the work, and I didn’t push, and I just let it happen, or let it not happen, you know what I mean? Or I don’t know if I let it happen the way it did, or if I just let it not happen, but I just wanted things to happen organically and fluidly and if something came through, I was like, it’s meant to be, it’s meant for me, if it doesn’t, that’s also meant for me.
But I have so many other… I mean, if anyone knows me, they know I’m not a car girl. I don’t barely know how many cylinders I have in my car, and I’m not a car girl and I don’t go to races for fun, I like to go to crystal shops and I like to go to yoga retreats. Okay, I haven’t done a yoga retreat, but I want to. But, you know, I love to go to places like that and very spiritually connected places and that’s what’s fun to me, and I love cooking and I love wine. I love food. I love all that stuff, and so, that’s what I do for fun. I work out. I enjoy working out. You probably do too, but some people hate it.
So, that’s me. That’s what I do for fun. So, I’m getting to address those and I’m very, very fortunate that I was given a platform that’s letting me do it in a big way.
Lewis Howes: Wow. Truth.
Danica Patrick: I wonder what “Open” will bring me?
Lewis Howes: Yeah. Tell me about your mindset, how you would condition yourself, before either practice or big competitions, what’s the process of either the night before, day of, how would you condition your mind, or did you have no ritual, you just showed up and said, “I’m going to do my best. Let’s go.”?
Danica Patrick: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you don’t want to be hung over, you know. That’s, I guess, preparing your body, but…
Lewis Howes: But you didn’t have some type of ritual where you were visualising?
Danica Patrick: No, the only thing that I would use some visualisation technique was for qualifying, I would visualise the lap, but that’s about it. And there’s too many scenarios that happen on track that are out of your control and that are unique every time and you can’t plan for it. That’s why racecar drivers can do it for so long, is because you’re not limited by strength or your body, you can keep going with it. And you also learn more every year. So, essentially, you’re not really a worse driver from one year to the next, you’re better and it’s just really a matter of your equipment and then your motivation.
Lewis Howes: So it’s almost like you need to clear the mind and just say, “I’m open to whatever happens,” because at any moment someone could nudge you or you could fall back or in front.
Danica Patrick: I think that, and this probably happens for a lot of athletes, but I think that we enter a different state of consciousness when we’re performing and there are just things, you don’t think of anything. You can’t, and then there’s the little, I think you enter a different state of consciousness and then I think athletes have the ability to go to another level for a little bit of time, but not all the time.
Lewis Howes: How long is a race, typically? I mean the longer race can be hours, right?
Danica Patrick: Three to four hours is pretty normal.
Lewis Howes: Seems like a long time, sitting in a car.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, but I didn’t start out doing three to four hour races. I started off with ten minutes on a go-cart.
Lewis Howes: Three to four hours is a long time. It’s endurance.
Danica Patrick: Five hours is the longest I’ve been in the car.
Lewis Howes: That’s exhausting.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, it is. I’m bored by then.
Lewis Howes: You probably are though, right? I mean lap after lap.
Danica Patrick: Sometimes. Like, “Holy crap, I’m not even halfway.” Usually the very first quarter of the race is like, “Ah, I’m not even halfway,” and then maybe even halfway comes, but then the last half tends to go pretty fast. You kind of get in the rhythm.
Lewis Howes: Wow. What’s the greatest moment for you in the last twenty years, in terms of racing? Whether it be in the race or after the race, but something around racing in general.
Danica Patrick: There have been various races. I don’t think that one really stands out as being the one, but there’s been a handful of races where the car was handling well, I was passing cars and having a great race and I didn’t win the races, but they were really good races for me where you just feel like…
Lewis Howes: In the flow.
Danica Patrick: Yeah, you just really in flow, for sure. And in charge and in control.
Lewis Howes: You’re such a massive inspiration for women, in sports, or just in the world, to be able to go and pursue something they normally wouldn’t think is possible. What’s the message you give for women who maybe aren’t as confident in themselves.
Danica Patrick: Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. Henry Ford said that.
Lewis Howes: It’s in your book, too. I saw that.
Danica Patrick: It’s my favourite quote too, because it’s true. That’s the power of the mind. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. So, if you tell me, “I can’t do that,” well then you won’t. I promise you won’t. Now, you change your words, and I promise you will.
Lewis Howes: How did you condition yourself to believe that? And believe in yourself?
Danica Patrick: Well, I think that there’s a certain level of athlete knowing that you have to have confidence, knowing that you have to believe that you can do it. Knowing how powerful that is, just because you’re going, and it’s not always head to head, but you’re in these very intense situations where you have to, you know if you’re not confident you will be taken advantage of. So, just training yourself in that way, because you know how important it is.
And then, outside of that, yeah, it probably started back in the IndyCar days where, I don’t know, I was miserable a lot of the time, and so I would, instead of being in this crappy cycle of, “Gosh, I don’t want to do this, these interviews suck,” or like, “I’m so tired,” and it’s like, “This car sucks,” and like, “This is horrible, why’d he do that?” you know, then you got to shift it, and so me and another girl, who’s still with me, we would meet in the morning to head to practice, or my interviews or whatever I had to do and we called it our kittens and rainbows moment when we go up and go, “Good morning! It’s going to be a fantastic day. I have lovely interviews and ah, just kittens and rainbows,” and you’d fake that you were happy in an obnoxious way until you actually did believe it.
It really doesn’t take very long. I can smile doing it, and it takes seconds, or minutes to get into that mind frame where you’re like, “Ah, yeah, it’s all good,” but you do that all the time, and then you are all good all the time and so, I would say that shift of mindset came probably ten years ago. I’m not very good at it every day, but I try!
Lewis Howes: Sure! And who do you think inspired you the most, growing up, to believe in yourself?
Danica Patrick: My dad. Yeah. My dad is incredibly negative at times, but he is also very positive too. Maybe he would describe himself as realistic, but positive. He laced those together. But, yeah, he always would tell me, “You know, you can do it. Every time you get in a car, you show people you can do it.” And it’s true, any time I would get into a new car, have to prove myself, I would. And it was a good reminder of, “Oh, yeah, you’re right.” Because it’s easy to doubt yourself.
Lewis Howes: Of course. What do you think the greatest lesson is that he taught you? Was it that or something else?
Danica Patrick: He always told me to have fun. Yeah. I don’t think I always have had fun, but it’s a good reminder that that was supposed to be the point and so, it’s a simple mindset, but he always told me from a young age.
Lewis Howes: And what about mom? Greatest lesson she taught?
Danica Patrick: Always be a lady! I failed at that one. I’m like, “Mom, how can I do that? I can’t do that every day, all day.” No. My mom is really even keel and she called herself the referee, growing up, because my dad would get so mad and we’d be yelling and arguing and swearing at each other, when I was thirteen years old, and my mom just was on the hot seat to try and figure it out,
My mom’s always been easy to talk to, for someone to go to. My dad’s always been just kind of realistic and real and will give you whatever his straight answer is, he’s not going to fluff and buff stuff and I’m very much, “get to the point” kind of person.
Lewis Howes: The same thing, you’re pretty intense, yeah, of course. So, as things are transitioning for you, it’s been twenty years that you’ve been in this career and living this lifestyle, right?
Danica Patrick: This will be my 27th year.
Lewis Howes: 27th year?!
Danica Patrick: The start of my 27th season.
Lewis Howes: Season. How many years, though?
Danica Patrick: Yeah, every year is a season.
Lewis Howes: Twenty-seven, gotcha.
Danica Patrick: Twenty-six full years.
Lewis Howes: Twenty-six full years. Crazy! That’s a long time.
Danica Patrick: It is a long time.
Lewis Howes: Now, if you could go back 26 years then, and talk to yourself, just getting started in the first go-cart race, or getting serious about this, knowing everything you know, what would you say to yourself?
Danica Patrick: “Don’t save fuel at the 2005 Indy 500. Go for it!” No. I wouldn’t change anything, because, honestly, if I would have won that year, everything would have changed and everything, I mean, it’s the butterfly effect and I believe in it. I love, I’m so happy where I am today and everything. I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason as in you just sit back and things just happen. You do have to have some intention. I’ve always had good intention, though I’ve always known what I’ve wanted, so perhaps things would have gotten off track if they would have happened otherwise, so I wouldn’t change anything.
Lewis Howes: Would you give advice in terms of what to think about, or how to act, or anything else like that? Or to let go of things?
Danica Patrick: It’s probably all part of being here today. Life is a learning experience, you know? There’s a great song, and in the song it says, we are all students and we’ll all graduate. It’s fine. It’s your path, it’s your journey. I wouldn’t change anything. I would just say, the only thing I could ever say, would just be to remind me from a young age to stay true to myself, to believe in myself, to be confident in myself, to say nice things to myself, right? Because I think that we all can be quite self-critical.
Lewis Howes: Were you not always nice to yourself?
Danica Patrick: Sure, I feel like I do typical girl stuff, but probably typical human stuff, where you down yourself for something that you do or say or how you look. I think everyone falls victim to that a little, here and there, so, positive self-talk. But, again, everything would have changed the rest, so, I wouldn’t change it.
Lewis Howes: Yeah. As the year of “Open”, then, what was your intention for wanting to be open?
Danica Patrick: Well, so many things have changed, so it’s about being open and flowing with what’s coming, and how it goes, and what comes and what goes, so, I’m sure there’ll be some ebbs and flows, as things evolve and I dream into every business being a massive success. And, like I told my agents, I’m like, “Guys, I can’t be a billionaire as a racecar driver, but I can with all these other businesses.” So, you know, as they’re worrying about what happens next, I’m like, “Only better things.”
So I really still have to imagine that, so that I can create that reality for myself, because I want to. So, I’m excited about them all.
Lewis Howes: So, it’s the end of the year, then, imagine it’s the end of the year. What are three or four things that, if you could manifest anything to happen, what would those be exactly? New Year’s Eve, you’re celebrating 2018 and you’re reflecting back and you’re saying, “I did these two, three, four things,” anything you could create or want.
Danica Patrick: Anything, if I had two or three things?
Lewis Howes: Yeah. Call it three things, whether it be personal stuff, business stuff, fitness, whatever, anything you can manifest. What would you like to create? Since the space is open to create.
Danica Patrick: Yeah! Okay, I would first off, want to be in a place where I was so content and happy and confident and comfortable as a person, so whole. You can only do that yourself, but it’s a good space to be in. I would want, if I had to pick, this is so mean, but I’m going to pick, well, if I can have three, I’d win the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500, but if I had to pick one, I’d pick Indy, I would.
Lewis Howes: You can take either one. Take them both.
Danica Patrick: But Indy, yeah, but I can pick them both. So, I was trying to dabble in categories.
Lewis Howes: No, it’s fine. And then give me two more. Or if you have one.
Danica Patrick: Oh, two more. Well, I would want a New York Times Best Seller and I’d want my wine to sell out. Yeah, it’s really good.
Lewis Howes: How many cases?
Danica Patrick: It’s super small productions, so it’ll only get to about a thousand.
Lewis Howes: A thousand cases?
Danica Patrick: Cases.
Lewis Howes: Gotcha.
Danica Patrick: So it’s about 250 cases. It’s 12 bottles per case. So there’s about 250 cases from 2014, 2015’s bigger, and 2016 is too. And then ’17 was small, but we’re going to make rosé and we’re making sauvignon blanc as well. It’s a cabernet. It’s in Napa Valley.
Lewis Howes: Where’s the link to get it?
Danica Patrick: Somniumwine.com.
Lewis Howes: Somnium wine?
Danica Patrick: Somnium, like insomnia? Somnium means dream in Latin. So, I went to Napa Valley in 2006 and was doing wine tasting, sitting over this beautiful valley and fog pulling back down into San Francisco, sipping my sauvignon blanc, going, “I would love to have something like this someday. And then I did.
Lewis Howes: Amen! I like it. Wow!
Danica Patrick: I know!
Lewis Howes: I will get a case, and I will donate some to some friends. I’ll give them as gifts, since I won’t drink it myself. But I will support the cause.
Danica Patrick: Maybe you will, I mean…
Lewis Howes: Okay, one little sip.
Danica Patrick: Okay, that’s, I mean, hey, if you’ve only ever had one other sip, I’m going to call that a pretty big victory.
Lewis Howes: Here’s my deal: If I’m with you, with your wine, I will have a sip with you.
Danica Patrick: Ha! Okay, sounds good.
Lewis Howes: So if you’re in L.A. or if I’m in Phoenix, we’ll make it happen. I like that. So we got selling out the wine.
Danica Patrick: Wait! I want to hear you, if you got three wishes at the end of 2018, what would you want them, which ones would you want to come true?
Lewis Howes: This is kind of vague, but being the best health and shape of my life, which is going to be challenging, because, as a professional athlete I trained a lot. So I think it’s being super smart with what I’m eating. Nutrition’s the key, right?
Danica Patrick: Always, always.
Lewis Howes: Just in two weeks I already feel so much leaner, from being so mindful and intentional of every meal. But I also love pizza and ice-cream and enchilada and, oh my goodness, I could just go on forever. But when I set my mind to it, I am so disciplined, that I don’t miss those things. It’s when I’m loosey-goosey…
Danica Patrick: Well, food is medicine, and it also is how you feel. So, if you stop connecting food with a reward or punishment or like a “luxury”, you can still eat sweets, but you can do it in a different way and your palate will change to the point where you appreciate something that’s less sweet, or a smaller portion, or something that’s not your typical fluffy, big cake.
I mean, you can get used to those things, but you do have to get used to them, to some degree, but that’s my hopeful take away from the book for people. When they do it, they’re going to lose weight, they’re going to feel better. It’s just going to happen. But what I want them to do, is start to view food as medicine, and fitness as fun. They can be those things, and if you do those things with the mindset of just wanting to be the best version of you and doing them because you feel good and it gives you confidence, then you’re going to keep doing them, because you don’t want to not feel like that.
But if your only goal is to lose weight, what are you going to do when you’re done? So, you know, Whole30 is about a whole new shifting mindset. It’s about starting to view food in a different way. That’s why you don’t recreate treats. That’s why you don’t have pancakes, I mean, in my book I do, but they’re like, eggs, pumpkin, raw pumpkin and things like that, but it does have some of those things, but it sort of keeps your mind attached to pancakes, or waffles. So you can have them in a healthy way. They are really good.
Lewis Howes: You make waffles too!
Danica Patrick: I love them! Waffles. I make waffles all the time. I have a simple waffle recipe in here and so, when you’re done with Whole30, you can kind of…
Lewis Howes: I’ll get it.
Danica Patrick: But it’s about the midset, right? So, it’s just stopping to go, “Oh gosh, I just want some cake right now!” or, “I want pizza.” You’re going to feel like crap and then that’s horrible. There’s nothing worse than feeling like Thanksgiving dinner when you eat. The only problem is starting to eat this way, which I’m sure you’ve done many times, I’m mean, if you’re doing Whole30, I’m sure it’s not your first time dabbling in the Paleo world, or whatever.
Lewis Howes: I’ve done it a few times, yeah.
Danica Patrick: You do feel bad when you eat off of it. You feel really bad.
Lewis Howes: You feel really bad. And then you need to eat more of the bad foods to feel better.
Danica Patrick: Do you? No, I’m grabbing lemon water and tumeric and all the stuff, I need, I don’t know what kind, do I need pro-biotics or not?
Lewis Howes: I’ll have one cupcake and a piece of pizza and then I’ll have a box of cupcakes and the whole pizza, because I’m just like, “Well, I need to feel a bit better about how guilty I feel.
Danica Patrick: Stop it!
Lewis Howes: I’m horrible. That’s why I’m like an all in type of person. It’s like, I can’t have
Danica Patrick: You have somewhat of an addictive personality.
Lewis Howes: I just feel like I need to have complete structure in my life, disciplined structure and then I can be flexible in my creativity. If that makes sense.
Danica Patrick: I think you’re attached to the outcome more than you are the process.
Lewis Howes: Maybe. But I love the process that I’m in now, because I’ve trained my mind not to desire other things. I feel so much better, I’m not aching, I’m not sore.
Danica Patrick: You live in L.A., dude, I lived in North Carolina. Do you know how hard that was? I had to grow my own garden.
Lewis Howes: There’s nothing there. There’s, like, Bojangles, or whatever.
Danica Patrick: You have every option under the sun in L.A.
Lewis Howes: Yeah, trust me. But there’s also unhealthy sweet options that are also, they make it seem healthy.
Danica Patrick: And restaurants are in the business of making things taste so good, so even if you go to a restaurant that has healthy food, it’s still not home cooked, which, I’m always going to make it more healthy at home. And still taste as good.
Lewis Howes: I’ve got so many more things I want to ask you about. This has been fascinating, but I want to try to wrap it up here soon.
Danica Patrick: Or we could just do it again, another time, yeah.
Lewis Howes: We can do it again, because I feel like I’ve just started scratching the surface with you, and I think there’s so much more underneath that I want to unpack. And Dan was right about you. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I’m fascinated by this conversation, so I want to do more of this.
Danica Patrick: Or maybe we’ll just, sometime, we’ll all get together and we’ll have some wine.
Lewis Howes: Do a workout, wine.
Danica Patrick: And then workout and wine, and we’ll come up with all new directions and concepts for podcasts and we’ll, let’s do a series!
Lewis Howes: That’s it! I’m in! But I do have a few questions, still. A few questions to sort of wrap it up with. What’s the question that you wish more people would ask you, but they never ask?
Danica Patrick: I think that being in the position, I mean ,I have a lot of good friends and good family and I’m very blessed, but I think that your purest state sometimes is ignored. People are like, “Hey! How are you doing? You okay?” and you’re like, “Yeah, I’m fine!” How are you supposed to answer that?
So I think that the deep connection that someone wants to have, like, “Are you okay? How are you? Tell me about it. How do you feel?” and talk through something. A deeper understanding for how somebody’s really doing. I think that people miss that. I think that not a lot of people do it and they just are more worried about themselves and they don’t connect with people or want to, or care, because they’re pre-occupied and skim over those things.
Lewis Howes: Do you feel like people don’t ask you about those things?
Danica Patrick: I think most people in general skim over that. And I don’t even think it’s necessarily a question we should answer here, but from your true friends and family, that’s your therapy. It can be.
Lewis Howes: Yeah. Okay. There’s a question I ask at the end. It’s called, The Three Truths.
Danica Patrick: Oh, oh, well, since my word of the year was “Truth”, I’m fresh.
Lewis Howes: Exactly, you should be right on this. Imagine this being the final day for you many years from now. You’re a hundred and something, you lasted as long as you want to live.
Danica Patrick: Good question. How long do I want to live?
Lewis Howes: Exactly. Whenever you want it to be the last day, it’s the last day. You’ve achieved everything. Everything you set your mind to has happened. Businesses, billions of dollars, products, whatever it is. Cooking show, all that stuff. But, for whatever reason, all the information you put out there is erased. So, the books you put out there, maybe videos, cooking show, all those videos are gone, everything’s gone. All the videos of you racing, gone. No-one has access to it. Right? It’s hypothetical.
Danica Patrick: Yeah. Getting into the mindset.
Lewis Howes: But then, there’s a piece of paper and a pen and you got to write down three things you know to be true about all your experiences in life. The three biggest lessons or truths, but this is the only thing that people would have to remember you by. What would you write down as your three truths?
Danica Patrick: Well, the first one would be to… About me? They’d be about me, the three truths? Or lesson’s I’d want to share out there?
Lewis Howes: Yeah, share out. “Here’s what I believe.”
Danica Patrick: “Here’s what I want you to take away, to lead your life.”
Lewis Howes: Yes.
Danica Patrick: One would be to have an attitude of gratitude. I think that’s just a cool, catchy, great, easy way to be grateful. Because through that comes positivity, you’re nicer to people, you’re nicer to yourself. So, having an attitude of gratitude, I think, is a very important one.
I would say “Find yourself,” regardless of what anyone thinks you should be. Take a walk in the woods until you find yourself. There you go, take a walk in the woods until you find yourself.
And, yeah, I think that you just love hard, love anything or anybody hard, no matter what. No matter how they treat you. You can never be, I don’t think you can ever feel bad about loving something too much, or someone too much. It doesn’t mean they don’t disappoint you, but it was what you had. You know? You give it your all. All in, right? Go all in, and you’ve no regrets. You know you’ve done everything you can. So whether it’s your job, or whether it’s someone, or whether it’s everything and that tends to me, everything. You know, you got to walk away without any regrets. Or you’re like, “Man! I half-assed that. Shoot. I should have tried harder.”
Lewis Howes: Yeah. Those are good truths. I like those. Those are good.
I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Danica, for your realness. I think you are who you are, and you’re unapologetically you, and you represent a sense of truth, because you’re constantly putting yourself out there on a big stage, with a lot of criticism, or potential criticism, and yet you’re doing it with grace and with a level of confidence and poise that I don’t think many people could do. Especially a five foot nothing, you know, female.
Danica Patrick: Little dogs bark louder.
Lewis Howes: They do bark very loud. But you’ve overcome so much over the last 26 years that I think would be very hard for a lot of people to overcome, year after year after year. And still take care of your health, and still be there for your friends and family and still be kind to people in the media, or to other people, you’ve constantly showed up.
Danica Patrick: This week I heard from a friend of mine, just the other day she was texting me about something. And she was like, “You’re just a very loyal person.” She’s someone that I touch base with very randomly, but I’ve known her since high school and it’s really nice to hear that. Because I think that, especially in the world of fame and money and all those different things, it’s possible to get off track, which I don’t understand, but it is, and I’m so grateful when I do get that reassurance every now and again from someone. It sort of reminds me that, “you were the same girl in high school.” I’m like, “But better?” Like, have I grown a little? I also love when I look on Instagram and it’s the whole, like, someone says, “You’ve changed,” and the reply is, “Thanks for noticing,” because, like, I hope so. But in a better way.
Lewis Howes: Grown.
Danica Patrick: Grown, changed, grown, yeah.
Lewis Howes: Improved.
Danica Patrick: Expanded.
Lewis Howes: Well, congrats on everything. Your book, Pretty Intense, make sure you guys check this out. I went through, page by page actually, before you came I went through everything. I didn’t read 100% of it, but I went through every page, and it’s very powerful, so make sure you guys get this book, Pretty Intense.
Danica Patrick: I can’t wait to get your book. I remember, again, not that long ago, I remember seeing that, and I was like, “That is such a great message right now.” I feel like the femininity in everyone, even women. I find myself trying to get more into that too, because I’m so dominant and I’ve had such that role in life, that even for, because we all have masculine and feminine in us, so it’s even women get more into the masculine and need to get more into their feminine, and so it’s a great message for now, because we’ve been in such a doing phase, a culture of doing, and it’s time to feel. And I think when we start feeling, then we’ll start to have more compassion and come together a little bit more. So, I think it’s a great timing on that.
Lewis Howes: Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I think, less doing, more being.
Danica Patrick: Yeah.
Lewis Howes: Human beings. So, you guys make sure you go get the book, you can get it right now. Pretty Intense, online? Your website, social media @DanicaPatrick everywhere, right?
Danica Patrick: Yeah. @DanicaPatrick all over, yeah. Pretty Intense, yeah.
Lewis Howes: All the places, danicapatrick.com, all that stuff, right?
Danica Patrick: Yeah.
Lewis Howes: Final question for you is: What’s your definition of greatness?
Danica Patrick: Contentment. It’s just having no regrets. Everybody’s greatness is different, that’s why the record books change all the time. So, it’s about being content with your career, because then you know you did everything you could, and that is your great. And everyone’s is different.
Lewis Howes: Yeah. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate you.
Danica Patrick: Okay, yeah. Love it! See you next time, the next podcast, soon.
Lewis Howes: Absolutely!
There you have it, my friends, I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I enjoyed the experience. Danica really opened up and shared a lot of wisdom for me, and I felt it was profound in so many ways, so I’m very grateful for her coming and sharing. Make sure to check out her new book, Pretty Intense. Really insightful, actually. I went through the entire thing.
You guys know me, it’s hard for me to finish a book. I went through the entire thing, looked at all the exercises, some really great stuff in there. So make sure to check it out, pick up a copy, but take a screenshot of this and tag me on Instagram, @LewisHowes on your Instagram Story, tag Danica Patrick as well and let us know what you thought of this. We’d love to hear from you, over on Twitter, Instagram, all the places.
And share this with your friends, if you know of someone who could be inspired by this. Someone who could be uplifted by this message, then make sure to share it with your friends. Again, lewishowes.com/592, is the link. The full video interview is there, all the other show notes and links we talked about in this episode are at that link as well, at lewishowes.com/592.
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We have got some amazing guests coming up, some big interviews and also, the Five Year Anniversary of The School of Greatness is coming up very soon. Make sure to stay tuned to that, and we’ve got a special episode just for you, for everyone who’s been around for the podcast for a while. You’re going to love this one. It’s coming up very soon, but as Bruce Lee once said, “The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus.”
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