Top 5 RULES for Vision and Teamwork with Lewis Howes

When I'm not excited about something, then I want to give up or I don't want to do it. Yeah. I want to go back to thinking about my dream. I've always wanted to be a symbol of inspiration, of possibilities. So if you want to build something really powerful and really big and expand and grow, you've got to learn to be able to work with a team.

You're like really good at leading.

It's crazy. I'm a New York Times bestselling author. I'm a top 100 podcaster in the world. I'm a former professional football player. I used to hold a world record for the most receiving yards in a single game. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a coach, I'm a speaker. My name is Lewis Howes, and this is my top 10 rules for success.

Rule number 3 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. And as always, as you're listening, if something really resonates with you, if there's a message that really holds true to you, please leave it down in the comments below and put it in quotes so that other people can be inspired. And when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick with yourself as well. Enjoy.

I think you got to have a dream first. You know, for me, it always starts with a dream because I can get— I can go through any adversity when I have a dream, something I'm passionate about. When I'm not excited about something, then I want to give up or I don't want to do it. I want to go back to thinking about my dream. And so I think first we have to figure out what is our dream and go on a journey and a path to achieving that. And years ago, I was telling Scooter, our mutual friend backstage, years ago when I didn't have much, I remember watching this show and seeing people dance. And I literally envisioned in my head hip bumping you dancing on this stage. And we did it. We did it.

Wow.

We did it. Yeah. That's— listen, there are many examples of that kind of believing it and achieving it. The first one that most people come to me is they don't have a clear vision of what they want. They want a better life, they want to make more money, they want to have a better relationship, but they're not clear. And the greatest minds and the greatest achievers are very specific and clear on their vision. It's so certain to them what it is. They can see it, they can feel it, they can taste it. And as an athlete, I used to visualize how I wanted to create my sport. I wanted to create myself in sports. And, um, vision was very powerful for me back then as it is now for business world. So the first thing is vision that people need to get clear on. Started with vision. In sports, we always start each season with a clear vision on the chalkboard in the locker room. What are we looking to achieve this season? Do we want to make the playoffs? Do we want to win the championship? We're always very clear. It's written up on the board. Every day we walk in the locker room, we see our vision. We know what we're working towards. So for me, I have a board with my vision, and every day I look at it, and I'm very clear and specific about what it is, when it's gonna happen, each 6 months to a year, each season of my life. So I just try to translate all that I learned as an athlete, cuz that's all I knew, into life, and, um, it's helped me get to at least where I'm at currently. A lot of people, when they're trying to get success as an entrepreneur and they fail, it's because they don't first believe in themselves. Now, You've got to believe in yourself. You've got to build some confidence in yourself so that you can build the right relationships, so you can take action, create the right products, deliver the service, sell yourself. Really, it's all about selling yourself if you want to sell your products and services. So you've got to build some small wins, little wins every single day to build that confidence and start believing in yourself.

There's a lot of people who, who get frustrated, who then say, you know, enough is enough. I'm going to do something. And then the next day they wake up and it's— they're like back to their old life. Like they had this moment of boldness, a moment of greatness, and then fall back into repeated patterns and habits. And, you know, life just gets them down again and they go back to their job or their regular life. Like, how did you break that cycle? And this is actually the day I'm going to go and do something bigger.

I think it was just a moment of like, enough is enough. Like, I was sleeping on my sister's couch for a couple years originally, and, um, She had told me, you know, are you gonna start paying rent at about a year and a half mark? Like, when are you gonna start paying rent? Because I was just eating her food for free. I was like a slob. I didn't like clean up. I was just taking advantage of the situation. And I was 24 years old or something. I remember just being like, like, it's time for me to grow up and do something with my life. Like, I've sat here for a year and a half, almost 2 years now, like depressed, miserable, whatever I was doing. Making excuses. Like, this isn't who I want to be. I aspire to be something greater. You know, my parents didn't raise me to be this way. I wanted to make myself proud. I want to make my last name proud. I wanted to make, you know, my family proud. And I wanted to be a symbol. I think, you know, I've always wanted to be a symbol of inspiration, of possibilities. From my sports days, like, I remember the feeling after the games when parents or fans or parents of other players from other teams would come up to me and say, "Thank you for showing me what's possible." Like, "I had no— you know, there was no way you were able to catch that ball, but somehow you did that. It was like— it blew my mind. There was no way you guys should have come back after how much you were down, and what you did like blew me away." Like, I loved hearing that. And seeing in other people like this spark of passion, excitement, a possibility for what they could create in their life. And I, and I wanted to be that symbol of passion and vision and focus and commitment towards my dream to show others what's possible. And I've never been the best at anything I've done, you know. In sports, I was like always the underdog. I was never the biggest, fastest, or strongest. Dog. Um, and I think it's just wanting to show people what's possible. So that's what I'm still doing. It's like I'm just a kid from a small town in Delaware, Ohio who had a, you know, a lot of emotional turmoil inside growing up. And I'm trying to show people what's possible no matter where you come from. I built it up. I didn't have that big of an audience when I started it almost 3 years ago. I had a pretty decent size, but I had the relationships with influencers from the years of previous stuff with my other business. So I was able to get a lot of great influencers on, 'cause I do an interview podcast, and I was just consistent. I said, "I'm gonna do it every week for this year," and I did one once a week. And then the second year, I said, "I'm gonna do it twice a week this year," 'cause people were asking for more. The third year now, people said, "We want more." So I said, "I'm gonna do 3 times a week." And so I'm at 240 episodes almost right now, over a 3-year period, and I still feel like I'm scratching the surface. But I'm almost 3 years in, at the end of 3 years, and I still love it. So I think a lot of people get into a podcast 'cause they feel like they need to do it or they wanna do it. Mm-hmm. And they'll talk about a topic for 6 months and then they're burnt out. Yeah. So I think if you're gonna do a podcast, do something that you're committed to for the next 3, 5, 10 years. Yeah. If you really wanna see it grow and build momentum around your brand and have an impact. We always had this goal in sports And I give the credit to my coaches for instilling that in me. It's like always creating this goal, this part of time to achieve something. And during that time, nothing else mattered. It didn't matter what was happening at school for me. It didn't happen— what was, you know, relationships didn't matter. It was just like achieving that goal.

Yeah.

And maybe it comes back to like childhood or something where I just wanted to be a great athlete. But when I get in that mind frame, I guess, I don't know, I just want to achieve the goal more than anything else. And that's, that's what I like to do. Learning to be with a team, learning to be coachable. You know, I wasn't the best athlete, but I was very coachable. So once I learned that, like, okay, how am I gonna build a business? How am I gonna do anything outside of sports? Well, the first thing I need is a coach because that's the only way I was successful in sports. So I hired coaches and mentors early on. And I just know that the greatest athletes in the world can never do it on their own. They always have a coach. Even when they're at their peak, they hire better coaches. So for me, coaches and then learning how to work with a team. Can't achieve anything on your own, can't even achieve anything great on your own. So I learned quickly about developing a team around me of people much smarter who could support my vision. Building a powerful team, you know, I think there's a lot of people, especially in the entrepreneurial world, they wanna be lone wolf, they wanna do it on their own, no one can do it like them, no one's as good as them, no one knows how to do it like them. and that can only take you so far. So if you want to build something really powerful and really big and expand and grow, you've got to learn to be able to work with a team, and you've got to lead with some inspiration. You can't put people down and make people feel bad because there's a lot of different options these days for people to leave and go do whatever they want. So how are you going to build a powerful team? Loving deeper, you know, relationships I've discovered are the key to success in life and the key to successful relationships. Are loving deeper and being more vulnerable and intimate. Wow. And really showing yourself. And I think we miss that sometimes. We're so busy, we're so focused on our own selves and our cell phones, whatever it may be, that we don't take time to connect like this. Yeah. And just look in someone's eyes and tell them what their dream is. Yeah. And how they feel. I love it. And listen. And so relationships are the key to success in my mind. I just went to India to get certified to be a meditation instructor. Went through a 2-week process and It's something I try to do on a daily basis. And when I implement a daily meditation practice, I feel it. I feel positive. I feel clear. I feel intentional about what I'm doing. I'm less reactive. Since I've been back, there have been days I've missed doing my meditation. And since missing them, I feel lethargic. I feel lazier. I feel more reactive or frustrated in certain times. So I definitely feel the difference. The days I meditate versus the days I don't. So set yourself up to win in this year to making your greatest year ever by having a daily meditation practice. I'm telling you guys, it's so simple. Meditation is becoming well known from people all over the world now. It's not some weird woo-woo thing anymore. People are talking about it in the workforce, in sports, in relationships, whatever it may be. It's all good. And set yourself up to win. Okay, you ready? I'm like so nervous because you're so professional. It's so good.

You're like really good at leading.

It's crazy. Yeah, good. I'll let you do your thing for a second. Oh, do your thing, do your solo thing, do your solo thing, do your little solo thing. Yeah. I like that. It's almost over. It's almost over. It's going to be a good promo video. Woo! Get a workout. Almost done. I'm getting tired. That was awesome. Thank you, you're amazing. Hopefully I wasn't too much of a white boy. I hope you guys enjoyed my top 10 rules for success. If you did, head on over to my YouTube channel youtube.com/lewishowes and make sure to subscribe to my podcast, The School of Greatness. It's one of the top 100 podcasts in the world talking about how to achieve greatness in your life. Go ahead over there right now and I'll see you soon.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Michael Tenry asked me to. If there's someone you'd like me to profile in the next top 10, check out the link in the description and go and cast your vote. I'd also love to know what was your favorite message from this video. What did you learn from this video that you're going to immediately apply somehow in your life or in your business? Please leave it down in the comments below. I'm really curious to find out. I also want to give a quick shout out to Monica Tep. Monica, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and posting it to your Instagram. I also see Lewis's book there on the top left corner, so I'm in good company. I'm really glad that you enjoyed the book, and I appreciate your your support. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

First thing is you want to create a unified brand. So across all your social media accounts and your website, you want to make sure you're unified with your vision. You don't want to have, you know, Steve The Good Looking TV Guy as your Twitter handle, then Steve GDLA on Instagram. You want to have a unified vision all the way through, all the way across. Yeah, keep it the same, or just your first name and last name all the way across. I think I'm pretty good with that.

You don't want to make stuff up like the Skinny Tie Wearer Guy.

You want to make it as easy as possible for people to remember you and see you. Got it. Creating a unique and powerful website. What was I saying? Yeah, you can't really have a powerful brand if you don't have a home a place where people can go to. So you build your accounts on Twitter and Instagram, and you wanna send people back to one place. Send 'em back to a place where they can learn more about you. So if you have multi-platforms, you're getting in the way of yourself? You're not getting in the way of yourself, you just wanna direct them to one place. Yeah, 'cause that's gonna help you. You can pay people to do this for you. Here's one I love, and this, I love this one. Number 3, go against the grain. Yeah, there's a lot of people, if you're working in an industry, you wanna stand out in that industry. So you wanna build a personal brand that's unique, that's different, that says something that is different than everyone else. People will pay attention to the different.

Yeah.

You wanna pay attention to that. Figure out creative ways. It doesn't have to be a set way that everyone else is doing something. If you've got an idea, if you've got an audience, if you've got an offer or product, then get creative of how you can bring an income or make money around that creative idea. You think you have to be perfect before you can really launch. I see this all the time, especially with online entrepreneurs where they want to have the perfect logo or the perfect design, or they want to package the product perfectly. But really, that's just holding you back from being successful. Now, good and profitable is better than perfect and not done. So make sure to get the product done, get the service done, and then make it profitable.