In this 18‑minute Believe Nation episode, host Evan Carmichael convenes a round‑table of motivational speakers—including Brian Tracy, Elliot Hulse, and Prince Ea—plus audience members, to explore what it means to earn and command respect. The discussion opens with the premise that self‑respect is the prerequisite for external respect, citing a Gallup survey that links perceived respect to life success. Brian Tracy expands on this by emphasizing expertise: mastery through repeated practice builds a reputation that commands respect. Elliot Hulse introduces the “golden rule” as a two‑way street, urging listeners to treat others with consideration, avoid gossip, and speak directly when issues arise. Prince Ea shares vivid personal anecdotes—a prison scenario where demanding dignity led to respect, and a skate‑park story illustrating how confidence and self‑respect attract admiration even when others view the individual as arrogant. Evan reinforces the importance of setting clear boundaries and refusing to tolerate substandard behavior, arguing that personal standards shape how others treat you. The conversation then shifts to independent thinking, with Elliot urging listeners to voice dissenting opinions despite herd pressure, positioning independent thought as essential for commanding respect. A live audience Q&A follows, where a 19‑year‑old named Jason seeks advice on a friend who repeatedly disrespects his time; the panel advises deep self‑reflection, establishing personal limits, and adjusting one’s own behavior to influence how others respond. Finally, younger participants (Speaker F and Speaker D) offer child‑like definitions of respect—listening, sharing, greeting, and acknowledging personal space—underscoring that respect is both a social skill and a moral habit. The episode concludes with Evan inviting viewers to suggest future topics, reinforcing the series’ interactive, self‑improvement focus.
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation! Today we're going to talk about how you can develop demand and get respect. Number 1 is my personal favorite, and make sure you stick around all the way to the end for some special bonus clips.
And it seems that we only truly respect ourselves when we feel that we are respected by others. And we will go to great lengths to earn and keep that respect. Being respected by others is very important to each one of us. A survey done by the Gallup organization found that the most prominent living Americans rated the respect of others as the most important measure of success in life. As a result, they work very hard to earn the respect of their parents, the respect of their spouses and children, the respect of their peers and colleagues, and the respect of mankind at large. When we feel that someone respects us for who we are and what we've accomplished, we tend to be more open to that person's influence.
How did you get the racist guards to treat you with respect?
You're in prison and you said, "I will only respond to the name Mandela or Mr.
Mandela." You must fight the battle for dignity on the very first day you go to jail.
Really?
And that's what we did. We put our foot down and insisted in being respected, even though we're prisoners. And we eventually succeeded in that.
Respect others. Okay, the golden rule. You've heard it for years. You've heard it since you've been little. Everybody's like, oh, treat others the way that you want to be treated. It sounds simple, right? But gentlemen, I'm here to tell you, respect is a two-way street. If you don't show others respect and consideration for their views or feelings, don't expect them to respect you or yours. The deal is, we don't have to agree with people. We don't have to see things eye to eye or on the same level, but the fact is, you need to respect where they're coming from and try to understand. You may not, okay? You may come to the conclusion that they're batshit crazy, but at the end of the day, you listened and you tried to understand. And guess what? They're gonna respect you for respecting them. Another aspect of respecting others is don't badmouth people. Don't talk behind somebody's back. If you've got a problem, if you've got an issue, if you've got something you need to say to somebody, say it. You can do it in a respectful manner that enables communication as opposed to backstabbing gossip.
I grew up skating. Picture the scenario, picture the scenario, okay? I'm 13, I'm in a skate park. Now I'm, I'm learning how to skate, okay? I'm not the best yet, and there are pro skaters there. And some of them are very friendly, and some of them are very stuck up. They're like, oh yeah, they're doing amazing tricks, and they're not apologizing for their greatness. And you're there thinking, that's a cocky guy or girl, right? Your mouth is open saying wow because they are showing skills, they're pushing the boundaries. But remember, you don't like them, but you respect them. You don't tell them that though, obviously. And then you've got skaters in the skate park who are very friendly, but they have this mindset they aren't good enough when they skate. Oh, I'm terrible, I'm rubbish. And even though you like them, you don't respect their attitude. You respect that asshole over there. What's going on? You see, there's a hidden psychology to get respect and feel loved. The great paradox is that the people who want respect the most often don't get it, and the people who don't care about getting respect get the most. I know it's not fair, right? That's how it goes. Now, what is that skater who is very cocky but simply amazing doing? What is he doing? What is he doing? Well, he is respecting himself. He is saying, I am badass, I don't care what you think. You say, congratulations.
I don't care.
I don't need your congratulations. Now, that's not always the best approach to take, but you've got to start there. You see, the secret to start attracting love and respect is to begin cultivating it within yourself. Okay, you've got boxers, certain athletes who say, I'm the best, I'm the greatest. And then they win. And you may not like their attitude, but you respect how confident they are. Now, for me personally, I'm somewhere in the middle, okay? I'm a bit of— I'm a bit of cocky, I'm a bit of humble. I don't want to be all the way humble, right? You don't want to play small, and you don't want to be so arrogant. You got to be somewhere in the middle. That's what works for me. But you've got to realize that you've got to respect yourself. I always talk about realizing with respect, you've got to almost imagine yourself as this full cup. Okay, a lot of us— have you ever had a situation where you wanted someone to notice you, and the harder you tried The more they didn't notice you. Kind of sucks, right? Simply because what's happening, you feel you are in a drought and you are, because once again you are neglecting this self-love. You've got to love yourself 100% and not apologize for it. This is not a game. No. Also, you don't want to take yourself too seriously either. Right. A lot of people feel, okay, they've got a, they've got a Benz, they live in a fancy home, that people are automatically going to respect them. It doesn't happen. Why? Because they got those things in the first place because they were insecure and needed other people to respect them. Certain people don't even have shoes. And you respect them.
Why?
Because they are badass.
Another way to put ourselves in a position of being respected by others is to develop your expertise. Expertise is closely tied to knowledge, but it's a little different. Expertise is the ability to do, the ability to perform well in your chosen field. Men and women with expertise are those who practice over and over in whatever they do until they become known far and wide as the very best in their field. Your goal is to be the best at what you do.
So we got a question from our buddy Jason here who, he's 19 years old and he's been friends with his buddy since they were in 3rd grade, I believe. So, long-time friends. And now that they're nearly adults, one of the things that his friend has done since day one is starting to wear on Jason. And it's the fact that he doesn't doesn't respect Jason's time. Now, mind you, this is not some playground, third grade bullshit. Jason's 19 years old, damn near a man, and his friend is of the same age. So he's wondering, where is this disconnect such that my best friend for so many years has such disrespectful behaviors towards me? More specifically, what happens is he makes plans with his friend and his friend doesn't show up or shows up very, very late. But the thing is, he's always been doing this. And Jason comes to me for a little bit of insight. First of all, he wants to know, like, "What's up with my friend and should I just move on?" And Jason's very specific about the course of action that he's thinking about taking. He's considering just detaching himself completely from his friend and moving on, making him no longer a part of his life because of this disrespect for Jason's time. If you're sticking around with this guy and you don't have the capacity to go and make new friends, This, and the fact that he's disrespecting you in this particular fashion, means that you're being shown, right? You're given an opportunity right now. You're being tapped on or kicked by God or the universe or, you know, whatever it is that you— the intelligent forces amongst us is trying to wake you up to a particular idea that perhaps you are the leech. Perhaps you are the problem and you have some working to do on your ability to get people to honor and respect, appreciate and deal with you fairly, or your ability to say no and cut ties where you are clearly being trampled upon, right? Those, those could be the case based on the type of character that you are, because if I was in the same situation, it'd be a totally different story. I've had people who are brought into my life that end up disrespecting me disrespecting me, but for me, just because of who I am, and this is why this is all very subjective, I have to typically look at how is it that I need to soften up. See, I'm too hard. I just know that about myself. I'm very, very yang, right? It's just my natural predisposition. So usually when people are brought into my life that disrespect me in this particular fashion or seem to be wishy-washy, it's usually because it's showing me, Elliot, Relax a little bit, bro. Soften your heart. Let this guy in. Not everything has to be transactional. Not everything has to have a hard purpose. That's what I have to learn. But from what I'm listening to, when I'm listening to your question and you're telling me that you can't go out and make friends and that this guy's been stepping on you and you feel stomped on, you probably need to harden up, right? And I don't say that in a condescending way, like, toughen the fuck up. What I'm telling you to do is to do some deep reflection on why you're letting this happen, and then what practical, pragmatic, grounded steps you can take to change yourself. You see, that's the most important thing. Change yourself so that the mirror reflection that other people provide you with looks more like what you want to see. Do you see? It's not that person's fault. We go around our lives, through our lives, pointing at other people as if they're somehow outside of us. But like I invited you to consider, everyone that's in your life is a part of you. You've drawn that person into your life. So we don't fix other people. We fix ourselves so that we can see in other people what we want to see. So that's it, my friend. I hope that's resourceful for you. Do some deep reflection about the type of character you are, about the version of yourself that you are and would like to become. Work on yourself, and you're going to notice that people are going to treat you differently.
For me, respect is about setting boundaries, restrictions, limits, and understanding what you will no longer tolerate in your life, what is no longer acceptable. You teach people how to treat you, and if you don't teach them, then they're gonna walk all over you and they won't respect you. I had a friend of mine who was having a conversation with yesterday, and he was upset that people were at his work giving him mistakes all the time, and they're in their files and reports giving him things filled with errors. And he was so upset that the people were giving him things filled with errors, and they continue to do that because he lets them do that, because he fixes the mistakes. And instead of just complaining constantly and allowing people to walk all over him, he should let them know and not accept it and tell them that they need to submit better work. As long as you allow people to give you substandard work, as long as you allow people to be late, as long as you allow people to yell at you, as long as you allow people to disrespect you, then they will continue to do it. So it starts with you having a new baseline standard of what you are and are not willing to tolerate anymore, so that you, you yourself have more respect for you. And when you respect yourself more, others will respect you as well. So I made this video because William Chilton asked me to. So there's a topic that you'd like me to cover in the next edition of Believe Life, leave it in the comments below and we'll see what we can do. Thank you guys so much for watching. Have an amazing amazing day. Continue to believe, and we'll see you soon.
Stand up for your beliefs by expressing your true feelings, even when these true feelings are different than your friends and peers. Now, this step is probably, in my opinion, one of the most difficult steps to actually master because so many times we get caught up in this herd mentality. We don't want to rock the boat, and we're afraid to tell people what we really think, even if what they're doing is wrong and what you feel is absolutely right. Gentlemen, you need to be an independent thinker in order to command respect.
You can't talk down on someone and then expect them to respect you. Certain people say, oh, the youth of today are terrible. And when they hear you say that, don't expect a Christmas present. Don't even expect anything. It's not happening. But once you give respect— like a game, the players respect the coach because the coach gives each player so much respect. Whatever you want more of, give it, be it. Go where the resonance is the highest, and don't worry if people respect you or not, just respect your damn self.
I think respect looks like when a kid's on the field, all the other kids are playing, and one kid will ask the other kid, "Can I play?" And the other kid will say, "Yes." I think respect looks like when people are We are listening to your voice. When people include me, the other stuff— Respect looks like when everybody listens to you. Respect is for teachers, I mean for adults and children. When we open the door for you during carpool group, thank you and good morning, buenos días y gracias, adults. When we pass by and we interrupt a conversation saying good morning, you say goodbye. Good morning. Gracias. Respect looks like when my sister gives me a hug and plays with me. Respect looks like when other people treat— how other people are treated. Because if you treat other people rude, they won't respect you back. And if you don't respect them back, you won't respect them, and just everyone hates each other. So when you respect someone, The world is in harmony. Respect looks like to me that everyone shares and friends. Respect means treating people nicely. Respect looks like playing each other. Oh. To me, respect is treating someone else as an equal with honesty and integrity and acting like or behaving like you can learn something from the other person.
What does respect mean when you hug someone and they hug you back?
Respect to me feels like respecting everybody's personal space and being quiet when they're talking, and that's pretty much it. When somebody's not talking on my words. I think respect looks like when we see the needs of others are just as important as our needs. I think respect looks like when people accept each other no matter what their clothes are or what they like. When my sister plays with me when I'm sad. One of the things I love about the TCS community is we live respect each and every day. I think respect looks like when everybody's working together as a community. I think respect looks like when we're all working together, we're all important, Good morning! I feel respect each morning when my students come in and greet me with a great big hug. Respect looks like love.
I think respect looks like a smile.
So respect for me is when something is different from what I like or what I think— I don't say "ew gross" or "that's stupid." I say that's interesting; tell me more about it.
