Lewis and Cesar

Lewis Howes:                 This is episode number 667, The Power Of Innovation.

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.

Albert Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it, to the next level.”

Today we’re doing a Coffee Conversation with my good man, Matthew Cesaratto, a.k.a. #cesarlife, who is the man who runs everything that you see here at School of Greatness Headquarters. He’s the operations and really kind of keeps everything moving forward at the highest level.

And today we’re doing a little Coffee Conversation; we’ve done this a few times. You guys asked us to continue to come back to share more behind-the-scenes, behind-the-mind, of the way I think, of the way we do things as a brand, and what we’re always working on so you can get that kind of inside look.

Today we dive into how we get involved with our audience and know what to improve on in our business on a daily basis. Also, what area of growth I committed to grow in during this particular episode. Also, why it’s more important to focus on your customer than your competition, that’s a big one that Cesar talks about.

And where innovation may not work in your business or your life, and how to get clear on what you do as a company, as a brand, or as an individual, which is huge for your future.

And before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the Fan of the Week! We appreciate you guys so much. So many of you have left incredible reviews and testimonials over on the podcast app and this one is from Mark James Lent, who said, “This podcast is thoughtfully crafted to tailor to a broad audience, not matter what age, race, gender, financial status, past, or future goals, Lewis’ content and guests are thought provoking and stimulating.

“I left the corporate world to launch my own brand, write a book and pursue my best life possible. This podcast is definitely one of my go-to’s when I need a boost of inspiration! Thank you, Lewis!”

So, Mark James, thank you, my friend. And again, we’ve got over 3,200 five star reviews, if you want to leave one, you’ll get a chance at being shouted out as the fan of the week.

Before we dive in today, I want to give a thank you to our sponsor, designcrowd.com/greatness. You can crowdsource custom graphics, logos and web design from designers all over the world. You can get it for an extremely affordable, inexpensive price as well. You don’t have to spend ten grand for a logo any more. You can spend a few hundred bucks, and get a world class design, every single time, from designers from all over the world.

You just go to designcrowd.com/greatness. You already get hooked up, because you’re a listener of mine. You get a $100 special VIP offer, and you submit the design idea that you have. It could be a logo, it could be social media graphics, it could be book cover, it could be a Tee-shirt design, it could be an online course or website, it doesn’t matter.

You post it on there and you start to get tons of people submitting their designs within 24 to 48 hours. You’ll start to see designs already come back, and you give feedback on them. And then, when you are happy with the finished product, you pay the winning design and that’s it! You get it pretty much instantly.

Check it out right now, designcrowd.com/greatness for $100 VIP offer for our listeners.

And a big thank you to our other sponsor, lumosity.com/greatness. Lumosity is the world’s most popular brain training program. The reason I love it, is because it allows me to stay sharp when trying their games, and doing the different things that they have within the app.

It’s powerful stuff to keep your mind activated and focussed on progression as opposed to falling behind. And, right now, you can sign up for Lumosity, and take the free, ten minute fit test to get your baseline scores on three games, and see how you stack up against other people your age.

This is what it’s all about. You want to see where you’re at with everyone else in the world, for your age-group. Then the training begins. If you’re below average, they’ll put you in the training to help you get above average.

And with Lumosity Premium, they will even design a personalised training program to challenge your key abilities, like memory, speed and problem solving. This is a game changer, guys! So, find out how you stack up against others, right now! Go to lumosity.com/greatness to sign up for the free fit test, plus a 30% disount off Lumosity Premium.

Again, L.U.M.O.S.I.T.Y. dot com slash greatness, take your free fit test and get 30% off Lumosity Premium. Check it out at lumosity.com/greatness.

And let’s go ahead and dive into this episode, 667, on The Power Of Innovation.

* * *

Alright! Welcome, everyone, to Coffee Conversations with the one and only Matthew Cesaratto. When was the last time when you came on?

Matthew Cesaratto:      Months. Earlier this year.

Lewis Howes:                 How old was Bella, your baby? Six months old?

Matthew Cesaratto:      The last time? She might have been around six months, seven months. She’s almost eleven.

Lewis Howes:                 Almost a year?

Matthew Cesaratto:      Yeah, July 28th she’ll be a year.

Lewis Howes:                 Wow, dude! Where did the year go?

Matthew Cesaratto:      It’s nuts!

Lewis Howes:                 I was there for the birth, now she’s almost walking!

Matthew Cesaratto:      You were. That was a beautiful moment.

Lewis Howes:                 A beautiful moment. Now she’s almost walking.

Matthew Cesaratto:      She is, she’s standing, she’s kind of scaling the tables and things and her playpen, all that sort of stuff.

Lewis Howes:                 Crazy! And so much has happened in the last six months, but also in the last year, and I wanted to talk about, in general, the principle behind innovating your life, and innovating your business, and also constantly reinvesting in your future.

So now that your baby’s almost a year-old child, it’s like, what are you thinking about her, as a dad, reinvesting in her future, or something, right?

Matthew Cesaratto:      Of course!

Lewis Howes:                 It’s like, you’re thinking about, “Okay, we’ve got to start saving a certain amount for her.”

Matthew Cesaratto:      College 529, yeah.

Lewis Howes:                 College 529, “We’ve got to start thinking about where we’re going to live in the next four years for her school, kindergarten, pre-school,” all that stuff.

Matthew Cesaratto:      That stuff is more real, I think, once you have a child to start thinking about, because as a parent, you’re the protector, you’re preserving your innocence, you’re creating the opportunities that, at least I remember my parents definitely strove every day to create for me, growing up.

It’s just, allowing them to have every possible opportunity for growth and dreaming and being a kid, having fun. I mean, right now, she’s not even a year, and it’s just more so focussed on just being there, spending time, connecting. I mean, just looking into her eyes every time, every morning, just blows me away.

When I’m just seeing her pupils dilate in wonder and awe, that’s just beautiful. It’s pretty cool.

Lewis Howes:                 Amazing! She’s a cutie.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Yeah.

Lewis Howes:                 But you’ve had a lot of sleepless nights.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Last night was one.

Lewis Howes:                 Really?

Matthew Cesaratto:      Yeah, we ended up having to just literally bring her into bed with us, which I know some parents are going to be, like, “No! Don’t do it!” But she just would not go to sleep on her own. She’d fall asleep, and the second you do that transition moment into the crib – and we can get into this whole topic of child sleep patterns and how to train them to sleep, but we’re kind of just going with instinct right now.

And family always gives you great input, because they’ve been through it first. But, back to innovating business and life.

Lewis Howes:                 Innovating business and life! One of the things that I like to do a lot is think about the future, and what can we invest in now that’s going to be a big payoff for the future? And there’s a lot of conversations that I hear from people in our inner circle group, or just on social media who ask me these questions about, how do I get to where I want to be?

“Lewis, what did you do ten years ago to where you’re at now? How did it happen?” And I’ve constantly been reinvesting in bigger, scarier projects that I believe will pay off. Now, some of them haven’t always paid off. We tried to launch a magazine a few years ago, and never launched it.

We spent all this time and energy investing in design and development and resources and the team, and decided it wasn’t the right fit at that time. And we put a pause on it. So, some things that you invest in, or some things that you try to innovate, aren’t always going to pay off.

But I think that innovative mind will always pay off. Even with a few things that maybe not. So we’ve been talking about some of them behind the scenes a little bit, but I think we’ll dive in a little more today.

Is it two big things? Or three big things? Well, we’ve got three things that we’ve got coming up. One is, we made an announcement about a month and a half ago about a show that we partner with on Facebook, and it’s called, Inspiring Life – With Lewis Howes, and it comes out early August.

And, again, this has been a year and a half journey, about a year and a half journey.

Matthew Cesaratto:      It’s been exciting, and trying, I mean, watching you just continue to beat on that door until it just happened. It was really powerful, and I think that’s, the cool thing about what I’ve seen you create in your life and your business, and even the podcast, is just this hunger to try new things, see what works, be willing to test and fail, be willing to try and fail.

And be willing to ask for the big potential opportunities to happen, and the Facebook show being one of them. I don’t know how much you shared or what we can really share about the trajectory of making that happen, but I just remember it was conversation after conversation you would continue to have.

Connecting with the right people, sharing what the vision and the dream is for the show and how it’s going to create an impact for the audience, and that essentially just won out, I think.

Lewis Howes:                 Timing, the right time for me, the right time for the platform, the right connections, the right experience.  I don’t’ think I would have been ready a couple of years prior to this, for the opportunity. So I think it was my experience. A lot of things had to come together and we’ll see how it goes.

We’ll do a full recap, probably, in a few months about everything once it’s come out and all the ups and downs and the amazing things that are coming with it. I’ve decided that, in order to reach my vision of reaching 100 million people, I’ve got to start accelerating the partnerships and the distribution.

It can’t be just all me working or just our team working on it. It’s got to be bigger strategic partners. And being innovative in the process of reaching distribution. Not doing it the way that most people do it, but really just trying to think bigger, and innovative.

And that’s something that we did a year ago that’s taken a long process and a journey, but the goal is, it’s going to pay off big time. In helping other people, making our brand more larger known around the world, and impacting lives.

You know, obviously we want to grow our business, but really impacting lives. And everything, for me, has started with the podcast, like you say, we always go back to the podcast. We’ve got almost 70 million downloads now, and we launched five and half years ago.

70 Million downloads, and it wouldn’t have got there without us being innovative in our approach to investing in the production quality, investing in great people – like Tiffany, who’s running all the video and the content editing and everything like that – and investing and innovating in the way that we do things.

If I would have just kept doing it the same way that I started, on my iPhone, it wouldn’t be where it ‘s at.

Matthew Cesaratto:      It wouldn’t be where it’s at, no, of course.

Lewis Howes:                 We wouldn’t attract the right people, we wouldn’t reach the right people, and we wouldn’t be building a business.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Well, I mean, that’s essentially what the podcast is about. It’s growth mindset. You don’t necessarily want to stay where you’re at. You have this dream, this goal, this vision that you’re looking at, and your dream, goal and vision was to impact 100 million people and 100 million lives, to living the greatest life.

And so, every step you took, from being on your iPhone, that I’ve seen, in that journey, and that was prior to me even coming on to support the business, was then going, “What’s the next step to increase the amount of lives that you can reach and connect with?

And those steps that you took were steps that increased that growth. I mean, even this today, I asked, “Is this just going to be audio?” and you were like, “No, I want to invest in video. I want to invest in the video content,” because everybody watches TV, everybody watches content online, and it allows you even this different kind of engagement that some people like.

So we have people watching the video, people listening to the audio. Now most of them are listening to the audio, but you’ve continued to invest in the things that could potentially pay off, potentially could be innovative in your space.

And I think podcasters that have allowed themselves to get in the video space, have seen that the growth is there. And that also shows about the Facebook show. They’re focused on creating great video content out there, for their audiences with Facebook Watch.

Lewis Howes:                 They’re doing and amazing job! We just had a call with their team, and we’re not allowed to share certain things, but they are really innovating their platform. You know, look at the growth of Facebook in general, how far it’s come over the last ten plus years. They continue to innovate, and because they’re innovating and investing, they’re putting a lot of money into original content, and all these incredible shows.

And they’re putting money into it, they’re innovating their platform. Four years ago I don’t even think there was video on Facebook. I think it just started with video on Facebook a few years ago, now they’re putting a lot of their emphasis on video and original content, longer form content. And it’s paying off. They’re getting their users to stick around longer and it’s helping build their business and make an impact.

And that as my intention with them, was, “Let’s find the biggest distribution partner in the world,” you know? They’ve got two billion on Facebook, they’ve got, I believe it was a billion active, daily members on Instagram.

So I’m sure there’s cross promotion there, of people who are Instagrammers on Facebook, but there’s probably, and then they’ve got a billion, I believe, on WhatsApp, a billion on Messenger, or something crazy like that.

They’ve probably got a few billion in their ecosystem. Half the world!

Matthew Cesaratto:      Do you remember getting on Facebook? We were at Capital University, that was the time that we met, was the time that Facebook came out.

Lewis Howes:                 2004, yes!

Matthew Cesaratto:      And they were rolling out university after university and Capital University was rolled out and everyone joined and here we are today. I mean, it’s unbelievable! It’s unbelievable.

Lewis Howes:                 And, they’ve innovated, they constantly innovate.

Matthew Cesaratto:      That’s it, that’s it!

Lewis Howes:                 Now, side note: There’s ways to innovating your life and your business. We’re probably going to focus more on the business side of things right here, but I think of other business models, the ones that, in my mind – correct me if I’m wrong – haven’t really innovated that much for a long time.

If I think one of the most successful ones here in California, In-N-Out, which has been the same thing for, I don’t even know, 50, 60 years or something? I don’t know how long they’ve been around, but they have the same models, same franchise – I guess it’s not even a franchise, it’s all family owned. It’s like, five things you can order.

I don’t think they’ve really innovated that much, but they have lines outside of the building constantly. So maybe there’s things they have innovated, I’m not sure.

Matthew Cesaratto:      I think their brand is just, they’ve done something with their brand, I think, that is pretty special. I mean, obviously the product, you know when you have an In-N-Out burger. I mean, it’s just a different taste, different experience. I think what they’ve done is, they’ve really just done well with nostalgia, maybe.

Because you go in there and you feel like maybe you’ve taken a step back in time and you’re going back to your grandparents had a burger at this place years before, and I think there’s something with nostalgia there, with an In-N-Out burger.

Lewis Howes:                 It’s also just amazing taste.

Matthew Cesaratto:      It’s amazing product.

Lewis Howes:                 Amazing product! So, if you’ve got the best product, you may not have to innovate.

Matthew Cesaratto:      The vegetarians out there are not going to love this, but let me tell you: I love an In-N-Out burger.

Lewis Howes:                 I haven’t had it in a while because I know it’s not good for me, but it is so good tasting.

Matthew Cesaratto:      You’re on a health kick, you’re trying to innovate your life in a healthy way.

Lewis Howes:                 I am. It’s fasting, I’ve been doing so much stuff.

Matthew Cesaratto:      It’s powerful, yeah.

Lewis Howes:                 And it’s like, if you want to see growth, you have to innovate. You have to innovate somewhere, do something different to optimise the situation you’re in. So that was just one thing that came to mind. I haven’t really seen them come out with new products.

McDonalds comes out with new products all the time. They’ve got salads and other things, right? they’ve innovated their menu.

Matthew Cesaratto:      And innovation sometimes comes from listening to your consumer, your customer, your clients. I mean, that’s where I think a lot of our innovation, as a business, comes from. People make requests, podcast guests.

You’re connecting through social media, and sometimes you haven’t even known about a person, and like, “Oh, I heard somebody mention this person,” and then you get excited about it and then you’re like, “Yeah, I never knew about this person until this moment, and one of my social media followers was like, ‘Hey, how about this guy?’” You follow them, you connect with them, they’re on the podcast.

I think a lot of it has to do with your customers. I think maybe In-N-Out doesn’t have to innovate, because their customers are like, “We love the product, we’re still coming.” You give exactly what they want and what they expect, and they’re quick with it. I mean, it’s fast food, and they do a great quality fast food.

Lewis Howes:                 Yeah, and there’s ways, you know, in business, I think that’s the right move. If you’re thriving with your customers and your business is going up, you don’t need to constantly innovate, until you see requests, a constant feedback. That’s why you have comment boxes at restaurants or whatever, it’s like, “Hey, we want more of this, otherwise we’re not coming back.”

So you have to be mindful of the customer, and In-N-Out’s done a great job of that.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Speaking of customers, I just, I still go back to, there’s one person that is obviously innovating at a level as a business owner, and not only as him, but also how he’s getting his business to continue to innovate. And it’s Jeff Bezos, with Amazon.

Lewis Howes:                 It’s amazing!

Matthew Cesaratto:      He attributes it to customer obsession. That’s what he calls it. “We’re just customer-obsessed.” And so, yeah, I really think that’s a place where innovation lies, and it also lies in the visionaries, the leaders, every entrepreneur our there with a dream and a vision.

I digress a little bit, but I just know that Jeff Bezos and what he’s done with Amazon is really focusing on the customer.

Lewis Howes:                 They stand out in what they do, everyone’s got Amazon Prime, everyone orders something from Amazon, it seems like they innovated by investing in buying whole foods, to be able to even capitalise even more customers and help their customers even more, with whole foods. And so, they’re making that investment to innovate.

Which brings me back to what we’ve been doing with the Facebook show and just the content we’re creating in general. Again, we’re investing in content, because there’s so much noise out there in our space. There’s so much noise in general out there, on social media, on every platform.

And if we want to stand out like the ‘Amazon’ of the industry, it’s like you’ve got to be willing to invest, acquire content, make different types of content, and create a product that is so great that people have to buy it. You’ve got to make the product so good.

And so, that’s what we’ve been doing with this Facebook show. It’s like everyone’s been creating a YouTube show, or this or that, or whatever it may be, or vlogging. Let’s invest in something deeper. Let’s do deeper work that’s going to take longer time, that’s going to be harder to do, but hopefully it hits the right thing and spreads through the world, and that’s the goal.

So, we’ve been doing that with the Facebook show. We also have a documentary that we’ve been filming and editing for the last, is it a year? Year and a half now? Almost a year and a half?

Matthew Cesaratto:      I think coming up on a year, yeah.

Lewis Howes:                 A year, since we started filming, in the summer of last year. And that’s been, again, an investment and a lot of money, lot of time and resources, a lot of energy from people that we’ve hired on our team as well, going through hundreds of hours of archived video, and spending all that time and energy.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Oh, yeah. See all those boxes of childhood footage and photo’s and pictures your dad took when we were playing football together back in the day. It’s kind of exciting, it was just cool. Again, talking about nostalgia, going back and saying, “Wow! Look at those pictures of us in college playing football.”

And going through that, going through those archives of actual footage that you had from your family and from yourself, was a fun experience. You just go back and step back into the past for a little while.

Lewis Howes:                 Yeah, it’s been fun!

Matthew Cesaratto:      But that documentary, being that that is also something new, you have to consider new options and innovation. You can’t get stuck in your lane so much.

Lewis Howes:                 And we’ve never done this, we’ve never done something like this.

Matthew Cesaratto:      We’ve never done it. Even the trajectory of you. You started very much in the internet marketing game, network marketing and stuff like that, and you have moved forward into becoming a podcaster and have mastered that.

Lewis Howes:                 And then writing a book. Writing books, and figuring that process out.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Exactly! So, you’ve definitely chosen a lot of verticals rather than just staying in your lane. I mean, there’s just so much variety and options out there, follow what you’re excited about obviously, and I think that’s what you’ve done, which has served you.

And you’re excited about a documentary. I mean, our business has really thrived around what you rally around and what you get excited about and doing a documentary that continues to always point back to what a business vision  and mission is, the impacting 100 million lives, is always where we rely, it’s like the cornerstone.

Everything that you try to do, everything that you want to start and test and try, kind of falls back on that principle of our business, our mission.

Lewis Howes:                 Yeah! Exactly! And the documentary, again, until you do something, it’s going be, if you’ve never done something, it’s going to be innovative for you. So when I launched a podcast and never done it before, that was innovative for me from being an internet marketer to that.

Writing a book was innovative for me, because I had never done that. But the second time I did it, I was already an expert, because I’d already done it once, and hit the New York Times list, and so we knew what to expect the second time.

Same thing with the documentary, this is a new exploration, a new venture. It’s innovative right now, until we do it again, and then it’s rinse and repeat or it’s little tweaks here and there.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Which is great! If something’s working, continue it!

Lewis Howes:                 Right! Keep doing it. Until it doesn’t work. Exactly.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Of course!

Lewis Howes:                 You know, I could have continued being an internet marketer and put in more time and energy doing that, seven, eight years ago, but it wasn’t fuelling my soul as well, as much. And I wanted to do other things. I wanted to be creative as well.

So we have the documentary that the goal is to be shopping it around here soon. We’re finishing up the final touches and my intention is that it’s going to be on Netflix, featured right front and centre, they’re promoting it and it’s going to be spread around the world. That’s the goal, that’s the vision.

Matthew Cesaratto:      I get excited about that! When you say, I want it on Netflix, I rally around that!

Lewis Howes:                 Let’s go!

Matthew Cesaratto:      I get excited about that; our team gets excited about that.

Lewis Howes:                 So we’ll see. We’ll see where things unfold. And then also, the third thing that we’ve got going on right now is our annual event, Summit of Greatness, which this will be the third year. So, it’s not innovative in the fact that we’ve already done it twice, but it is innovative in that we’re doing a new, bigger venue, and stretching ourselves out of our comfort zone.

We’ve done something twice that’s comfortable, we know how to do it. And, I think, in order for us to continue to reach more people, we had to get a bigger venue because then we would have only had a thousand people or something.

Matthew Cesaratto:      You outgrew it, yeah. You outgrew the venue.

Lewis Howes:                 So this new venue holds like 2,500 plus. If you haven’t got your ticket yet, make sure to sign up at summitofgreatness.com. It’s going to be incredible! Big speakers announced already, and we’re focused on that as well. That’s, what, three months away, October 4 though 6, and we’re constantly innovating everything we do in order to make it better.

Some things we’re doing the same, the podcasts, it’s a similar thing for the season that we’re at right now. Until we realise we need to do something different.

Matthew Cesaratto:      It think, innovation, it’s also, just hearing you talk, it’s like, you have to be so detail oriented, so micro-focused, to really just make the most out of everything. When we talk about Summit of Greatness, and we really get on our bi-weekly calls right now, it’s like we really focus on what are those micro-pieces that are just going to be focused on bringing such an amazing customer experience, that is just going to blow people’s minds.

Lewis Howes:                 That’s the key.

Matthew Cesaratto:      I mean, those are the words that you use.

Lewis Howes:                 The emotional feeling that you give people, that they feel like, “Wow! This was so worth the investment, and it’s going to change the trajectory of my life, at least for the next year.” There’s so many people that have come to The Summit of Greatness, who build relationships, business partnerships, or friendships and they’ve been connected for the last two years as best friends.

And it’s cool to see that we created an experience where people were able to come together, and build something greater for their life. And that’s the whole point of everything that we do, with the Facebook show, innovating there, hopefully reaching the masses with the content we have there; our podcast, doing it three times a week; the documentary, the goal. We just continue to do this in different formats.

And then, a live experience. Again, a lot of the stuff we do is digital, it’s all online, and that’s the fastest way to scaling, but we also want to create that intimacy and connection for a lot of people who are willing to make that investment in themselves, and willing to make the trip to Columbus, Ohio.

So, those are the main things that we’ve been innovating, and, again, some things are going to pay off huge; other things, maybe they’re so-so; some things that we do in the future may not work at all. I think the key is to assess where you’re at in your business or your life, and find out what’s working and what isn’t working.

Continue to do the things that are working. The things that aren’t working, whether it be you relationship, maybe you need to innovate the way you communicate, to have a stronger relationship, and make your “customer”, your partner, happier.

Matthew Cesaratto:      That’s right, of course!

Lewis Howes:                 And make them feel more accepted or loved or heard or seen.

Matthew Cesaratto:      And you both have to come up with a vision for your lives.

Lewis Howes:                 Absolutely. The vision’s got to be aligned for both people.

Matthew Cesaratto:      You don’t have to sit there and go, “Oh, it’s like a business.” No. But the same principles apply.

Lewis Howes:                 Innovating and investing. Investing in the relationship, investing in your ability to communicate better, or let go of things better, or whatever it may be.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Sure, still connect. My wife and I have the most amazing addition to our family to our lives, it doesn’t mean that needs to be our sole focus. We still have to give time back to each other, invest time in order to continue to innovate our relationship to being the best relationship that we want.

Lewis Howes:                 Because you’re at a different stage now. You were in the honeymoon, travel phase, the first couple of years, then living together phase.

Matthew Cesaratto:      It’s a lot easier when all you have to do is focus on each other.

Lewis Howes:                 Exactly! So, as human beings, we get to invest and innovate in our personal lives and our business lives, or our career lives, or job lives. If we want to reach greater results in the future and if we want to keep growing.

And if we aren’t innovating or investing in our future, it’s going to be challenging to grow, and I think that’s where I see a lot of people struggling, is when they feel like they’re stuck. They feel like they’re not growing, they’re not seeing any progress in their dreams or in their vision or in their goals, and that’s why it’s important to invest.

Like you were just saying to me yesterday. You were telling me that I should invest in a vocal coach.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Christine, our producer, had brought it up to me multiple times, and I was, like, “Yeah, I think that would be a great opportunity.”

Lewis Howes:                 Exactly! And so I’m like, “You know what? At a new stage of my life, if I’m going to be on TV a lot more, I should do it.” And so we’re going to start on that track.

Matthew Cesaratto:      It’s a place for growth. It’s an opportunity for something new to come out that you didn’t see. I mean, that’s, again, innovation. Focusing on something, only one thing, for so long, is going to get you right to be focused on that one thing.

But open yourself up for other options and possibilities in your relationship and you business, and we haven’t even shared the other options of innovation that you and I consistently talk about.

I mean, potential production company down the road. I don’t want to speak too much about the things that we continue to talk about privately, and dream about, but there are exciting opportunities. And I think it also just gets you hungry to be focused on more than just one thing. It gives you the option to dream in other areas – business, life…

Lewis Howes:                 Health, relationships, yeah.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Absolutely.

Lewis Howes:                 By investing and innovating in your daughter’s life right now, for her future, it gives you much more peace of mind, knowing that in 17 years, when she goes to college, the innovation and the investment has paid off.

That’s a very delayed time, you know, I’m thinking more of a year, two years out, in our business. Like, what’s the investment that’s going to help us next year, in the future years.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Of course, and just talking about what you just said, you don’t wait to contribute to college, or wait to save until the time when you need the savings. Innovation is not about that. It’s not reactionary, it’s not reactive. It’s prior to having to react. It’s thinking before you act on opportunities that lie out there in the future.

And I’m not saying a college savings is innovative, but it obviously works. People are doing it because it works. It allows you the comfort now, to know that there’s going to be something in the future, and not having to be reactionary, where it’s time for college, but we don’t actually have anything, we didn’t spend the time to be diligent with our savings.

Lewis Howes:                 That’s it! That’s the key. Again, for me, we work with our Mastermind members, The Greatness Mastermind, and this is something that I talk about with them, when we do our quarterly meetings, is, “What are you doing right now that’s going to invest in something greater for your future, that’s going to help your business,” –  we focus on business a lot in that Mastermind – “What’s the thing you’re going to invest in now, that’s going to make you stand out from everyone else in your own industry?”

So that your customers will notice you, they’re going to see you standing out, by yourself and they’re going to start coming to you and seeing what your products and services are, what you have to offer. And they’re going to start paying more attention, because you’re different, you’re innovative. And when you do that, you’re going to attract more customers, your business is going to thrive.

And that’s the key: figuring out, “How do we innovate to stand out?” And when you can stand out and offer a great product, whether it be business or personal life, if you’re a great human being, you’re going to attract the life you want, and the business you want, and you’re going to see growth. So that’s what I wanted to talk about today. Anything you wanted to add, on top of that, to finish it?

Matthew Cesaratto:      No, I think, really, again, as far as a business, focus on your customers. I think you can’t go wrong with that space. Listen to them. If you have a customer support team out there, connect with them, talk to them, be willing to see what’s going on on the microlevel. Be focused on those details, because those details are important; they do lead to innovation. I would say that.

Watching you, you really weren’t driven by focusing on your competitors, because I think businesses can really do that. You can be so focused on what your competitors and doing and trying to do what they’re doing. I think I’ve never really seen you do that. You continue to run your own race, and I think that is a necessary thing.

I think you can get too bogged down with focusing on your competitor, and it leads to no innovation in your space. Stand out beyond your competitors, focus on that, rather than focusing on living up to your competitors, you know?

Lewis Howes:                 Copying them, yeah. What’s the one thing that you noticed, that I could be more innovative in?

Matthew Cesaratto:      That’s a tough question.

Lewis Howes:                 Maybe you’ve told me, or you haven’t told me before.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Going where you’re uncertain about yourself, going where you’re seeing the most problems for yourself. I don’t know what that is. I think, business wise, we’re pretty connected on that. And I know we’re connected very close as personal friends as well.

Lewis Howes:                 Okay, business wise, what are we not doing that we could be more innovative in? Or do you feel like we’re doing too much innovation? Because there’s a balance with that, too. You don’t want to be constantly innovating, and not focusing on what’s working.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Right. I think what I just said, about focusing on competition and what they’re doing, seeing what everybody’s doing and trying to duplicate the next thing that everybody else is doing – I’m not saying don’t do that, but don’t get so hyper focused on that. What’s going to work for your business? Let’s focus on us, let’s look inward, we have the answers here, and the answers lie in our customers, in my opinion.

Continue to focus on relieving that pain point, when it has to do with what we’re teaching in their businesses. Relieving that pain point when we’re bringing on guests for the podcast that are speaking on whatever topics, health, wealth, relationships, spirituality. Going where the customer requests are, that’s really supportive.

Lewis Howes:                 That’s it.

Matthew Cesaratto:      And not, I would say, for you, not being so reactionary, maybe? I mean, you have such a vast network, and they give you tons of information and intel, and it’s tough to sift through that.

Lewis Howes:                 That’s true.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Because it sometimes takes eyes off the ball, and we’ve done that a lot in the past three years. I think we know, like, something looks exciting and somebody has enrolled you into seeing something that they’re currently doing, that you have to do.

Lewis Howes:                 Some of those things have paid off, some of them have not.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Some of them certainly have not, and some of them, yeah, absolutely.

Lewis Howes:                 Paid off big time! So it’s really getting excited about something, but also giving it a beat and not rushing it.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Taking a moment, assessing it as it relates to you business, and connect to the team. Outsource that opportunity to say, “Hey, guys, what do you think?” Allow me a minute to check in with the team and say, “What do you guys think about this opportunity?” rather than, “Hey, guys, this is what we’re doing. I just talked to Lewis an hour ago, let’s just do it.”

Lewis Howes:                 That’s it! That’s it! So, being mindful and patient as well, of the innovation.

Matthew Cesaratto:      I say it in the most loving way.

Lewis Howes:                 No, of course.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Because, again, some of the most amazing things for our business happened because you said…

Lewis Howes:                 Because of that, yeah. “Let’s go now, we’re going to be doing this!”

Matthew Cesaratto:      “You’re going to be resistant, Matt. You’re not going to want to do this, but I do. I’m going to tell you about it, and I know you’re going to say no, but I want to do it.”

Lewis Howes:                 What’s the thing that I’ve done over the last – because how long as you been running the business now? Is it three years?

Matthew Cesaratto:      Early 2015, before The School of Greatness book launch. So, it’s over three years.

Lewis Howes:                 Over three years, almost three and a half years. So, what’s the thing, if you can think back to the beginning, that I’ve done or do in this.

Matthew Cesaratto:      I think I killed the magazine, to be honest.

Lewis Howes:                 I think you did, and I said okay.

Matthew Cesaratto:      I was coming on board and I was, like… And I think it served us, because I was just coaching about our business, focusing on our business goals, where we see our business going, and identifying what business are we in, and right now we identified, we’re in the podcast business.

Lewis Howes:                 Yeah. We’re in the show business. Create a show, and then that trickles down to everything else that we offer.

Matthew Cesaratto:      That’s right.

Lewis Howes:                 Our products and services. But the show is the main driving force. It’s what builds the audience, it’s what connects the audience, it’s what offers value to the audience, and then our products, services, events, books, Mastermind, are the things that we sell, to keep our business going.

Matthew Cesaratto:      That’s right.

Lewis Howes:                 And that allow us the resources to create the value to spread to the audience.

Matthew Cesaratto:      Necessary. You wouldn’t be able to start the podcast if it wasn’t for the resources you gained from your previous businesses.

Lewis Howes:                 That’ it! It’s good feedback, good advice. So, think about, in your business or your life, where you can innovate. Think about where the most pain is, where you’re struggling the most, the skill that you can master to innovate in that space, so you don’t have that pain any more.

If you have a business, think about what your customers are saying they want more of, and figure out a way to innovate and invest in offering that solution for them.

If you haven’t followed our Facebook Watch Page, where the launch of our Facebook show will be, you can follow me on facebook.com/lewishowes, go follow that, we’ll have it linked below, in the YouTube video.

If you haven’t bought a ticket to The Summit of Greatness, go to summitofgreatness.com, we’d love to see you there. It’s going to be an incredible experience, mind blowing! Get ready! It’s our favourite week of the year.

And, yeah! That’s it!

Matthew Cesaratto:      That’s it!

Lewis Howes:                 Coffee Conversations! Matthew Cesaratto!

Matthew Cesaratto:      Get back to work!

Lewis Howes:                 Appreciate it! Let’s get back to work!

* * *

Lewis Howes:                 There you have it, my friends, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for being here. Again, all about the power of innovation. If you’re not doing things to evolve, and grow and learn, and develop new strategies for growth in your life, then you are slowly declining and you are not innovating.

So, make sure to share this with your friends, lewishowes.com/667, all on the power of innovation. And again, tag me on Instagram, @LewisHowes, on Twitter, Facebook, all the great places that you like to hang out online.

A big thank you to our sponsors, again, lumosity.com/greatness. It’s the world’s most popular brain training program. I love it, because it’s got all these games and activities to help with memory, speed and problem solving. And they’re going to challenge you, to get you to get better.

With every game, Lumosity keeps track of your progress and shows you how you compare, worldwide. If you’re competitive, like me, I want to be at the top. I want to continue to improve and be at the top, and that’s why you can see how you stack up, by going to lumosity.com/greatness.

You sign up for the free fit test, and you can get 30% off discount on Lumosity Premium as well. So, make sure to check it out, get the fit test, see how you stack up against other people your age around the world, improve your brain. All the memory, speed and problem solving games and challenges, you’re going to love! Lumosity.com/greatness.

And also, designcrowd.com/greatness, again, you get the perfect design every single time, guys. Don’t go to spending tens of thousands of dollars on a design for a book cover or a logo, or graphics for social media, that’s going to take you a month or two to get back.

Right when you go to designcrowd.com/greatness, you fill out the design that you’re looking for, for the product you have that you’re excited about. You’re going to start to get designs back from people all over the world, submitting them to you, specifically, within the next 24 hours. You’re going to get more over the next few days.

You give feedback on what you like, and you don’t stop until you get the perfect design every single time. Get a $100 VIP offer for our listeners right now, all you need to do is go to designcrowd.com/greatness.

And, as Albert Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created, you have to rise above it to the next level.”

That’s what this is about, guys. Doing something different, innovating your life, be different than the normal individual in the world, continue to be a stand for a higher standard in your life. This is your life! You’ve got an opportunity to do something incredible with it, right now.

And, as always, you know what time it is: It’s time to go out there and do something great!