937 Create Your Side Hustle and Take Control of Your Money with Chris Guillebeau

This is episode number 937 with New York Times bestselling author Chris Guillibeau. 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.

Mark Twain said, the lack of money is the root of all evil. Welcome to this episode all about how to create your side hustle and take control of your money with my good friend Chris Guilbeault. And I liked this quote when I read this quote, the lack of money.

Is the root of all evil.

Actually thought about its significance and how, you know, when you don't have money, you start to have a sense of scarcity. You start to maybe do some bad things. You start to feel bad and those feelings turn into bad decisions and bad actions. Now, I'm not saying having money, it makes you this perfect person. That's not the case. You still got to make the right decisions. But when you don't have money, you come from more of a place of scarcity in general. You come from more of a place of needing something in general. and I want to make sure that you have some information, some tools, some inspiration today to really inspire you to learn about these principles, to learn how you can create your own side hustle and all the different stuff that we're going to be talking about, about the myths of creating wealth and how you can create wealth, about how to figure out what you're good at to create a side hustle business, why you don't need to have a big brand to make a lot of money. In fact, there's so many people in our monthly Inner Circle members area that have small followings, 100 people, a few hundred people here and there, but you can still make five to 10 to 15 grand a month with the right consulting or the right coaching or the right offers with your audience. The importance of impact over having millions of followers. That and so much more. I'm super excited about this. If you don't know who Chris is, he's a New York Times bestselling author and modern day explorer. During a lifetime of self-employment that included a four-year commitment as a volunteer executive in West Africa, he visited every country in the world, 193 in total before his 35th birthday. Since then, he has modeled and proven the definition of an entrepreneur, which is someone who will work 24 hours a day for themselves to avoid working one hour a day for someone else. In his podcast, side Hustle School, it's downloaded a ton of times every month. and he hosts an event called the World Domination Summit. He's got many great books and his newest one is called the Money Tree: Finding the Fortune in youn Backyard and it's out right now. And if you're interested in learning how to build a side hustle, we have a free training right now, a free masterclass that you can get this week. Just go to lewishouse.com/now where I'm gonna break down how I built many side hustle businesses and turn them into profitable businesses through building a personal brand and how you can do with our proven process. So go to lewishouse.com/now and sign up for that free masterclass from me on teaching you how to build your side hustle as well. I am so excited about this episode because it's all about mastering the side hustle and making sure you're set up with your career, with your business, with your income, doing the thing that you love. So without further ado, let's dive into this with the one and only Chris Gillabeau.

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Welcome back to one of the School Gratings Podcast. We've got my good friend Chris Guilbeault in the house. Oh, man.

How you doing?

Star in Chasing Greatness.

Oh, my little 30-second cameo.

Thank you.

It was a great moment, though.

Thank you.

I enjoyed it. It emphasized. So we just-- a beautiful documentary.

Thank you. So glad a lot of people are watching it. Everybody should watch it if they haven't already.

Yes, so we just watched the world.

Premiere last night of Chasing Greatness.

You were there.

Packed House. Packed House at the Grove. Greatness.com if you wanna watch it.

But we've been working on this for a couple years, and we interviewed you.

Like two and a half years ago for this documentary. I had forgotten about it. You forgot about it. She sent me the clip, and I was like, oh, yeah, right.

It's good though.

And so good.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for coming down. You've got a new book out called the Money Tree, which is funny because someone did a podcast five, six years ago called the Money Pillow.

Money Pillow.

They stopped it. Okay.

But I remember Money Tree is better actually just branding wise.

Yeah, yeah. But it was kind of like the Money Pillow was like making money in your sleep. Okay, that's cool.

So it was like the concept of.

Like how to create passive income. Right, right. But I like the money tree and it's a story about finding the fortune in your own backyard. So how do we build something in our own backyard that makes us money?

Yeah, so this book is a story actually. I've done six how-to books, six nonfiction books. This is my first fiction.

This must have been the hardest one to do.

Well, it was hard and easy at the same time. It was like, I never imagined that I would write fiction. I never had an aspiration to do that. But I just started thinking about the characters and I got this vision in my mind of this guy named Jake who's the protagonist and he's this young millennial who has a good job but also has a lot of debt. And that debt is kind of like wearing on him and becoming soul-crushing and it affects the rest of his life. He's got this promising relationship but not able to pay much attention to it. Because he's working so hard. Yeah, he's working hard and his job is also kind of at risk and he's like, what should I do basically? Like how do I get out of this situation? And this is so typical of so many people these days with student loan debt, other debt, you know, other situations. And so, you know, he's like, well, I can just work harder. But he's already a hard worker. That's not the problem. I can get a second job, but most second jobs don't pay good wages, you know? The gig economy, I can drive for Uber, but that's not going to change my life, right?

Right, right.

TaskRabbit. Exactly. Yeah, gig economy, like, really not going to do much for you, you know? So he has to find his own way. He has to, like, learn how to make money for himself. And so he goes to this group. and together they kind of work on this. There's a lot more to it, but I wanted to, I just started thinking about this guy and his problems and there's a lot of people who don't read business books for all kinds of good reasons, but they read stories. And so I wanted to tell the story of self-reliance essentially. So in some ways it's about money, it's about making money, but money connects to self-reliance and to being able to make your own choices, have freedom for yourself, not rely on a company, not rely on an organization or anybody other than yourself. even if you like your job. Right, right. So that's what that was.

Self-reliance, meaning figuring it out on your own.

Figuring it out on your own and not just figuring it out on your own, but creating your own security, your own stability, so that you don't have that debt, so that you have options, so that you can do what's important to you, which I know is a big part of the message of the School of Greatness, right? And you can't do that if you're kind of feeling this way down by debt.

What do you think most millennials are dealing with right now the most when it comes to money? Is it just that they're overspending, that they don't understand how to use money, that they don't understand investing, they don't understand saving tax?

None of those things.

What is it? What are they missing out on?

They're not making enough money, actually. That's the root of the problem. And so maybe some people are overspending, maybe they need to learn more about investing. That's fine, but those things are marginal, I think. if you have a lot of debt and you don't have high income, you can stop buying lattes, right? You can be frugal and never eat out and all this kind of stuff. Discipline your life.

Yeah, it's not bad to do that.

But are you going to solve the problem if you're $30,000 in debt or $50,000 in debt? Which, by the way, this is graduation season, right? We've got 2 million US college graduates. 70% of them have significant student loan debt, and the average debt is like $30,000. So a lot of them could be a lot more. So if you're in that situation, being frugal is not really going to solve the problem. You actually have to make more money. That's what you have to do. And they're also entering this job market, which is a lot different than, you know, a job market even just a generation ago or even a decade or two ago. That job market is not going to provide them with high paying jobs that, you know, will provide the security for a long period of time. So they have to do something for themselves.

Why are they not-- they have to.

Do something for themselves.

And why are they not high paying jobs out there for people that are just graduating?

Because there's a lot of people just graduating. There's a lot of people just graduating. The world has changed. The economy has changed. It's not that there are no high paying jobs, that there are no good jobs, but I think job security has changed quite a bit. And so when I hear about millennials or Gen Z being kind of, there's a stereotype of being unreliable or disloyal and stuff, I think, well, they don't trust the system, right? Because the system has let them down. and they're the ones who have borrowed so much money because they're told this is what you have to do. You can't get any job without a college degree or without whatever the prerequisite is. So they do that, but then they're entering a system that's not looking out for them. So no wonder they're cynical and skeptical. But even though you're cynical and skeptical, you still have to solve the problem for yourself. Which is making more money. It is making more money. You can't just get mad. You can't just be like, this sucks. It does suck, absolutely. But in your documentary last night, I mean, you kind of went through this situation of, you know, just like being on your sister's couch and, you know, life was not good in lots of ways, but you couldn't just get mad, right?

You can, but that's not gonna solve the problem.

Yeah, exactly. You can get pissed off. I'm mad at whoever you're mad at, right? You're mad at the government, you're mad at the corporation, or whatever. Whoever it is, you know, whoever that other is. But meanwhile, you still have the problem. And the way you solve the problem, like for you, right? You had to figure stuff out. You started the LinkedIn business. You went on from that. You know, got your health back and everything.

What about with people that are like, well, I'm just not a money earner. I'm more of an artist. You know, I'm more of a thinker, a planner, but I don't want to think about making more money. I don't have that skill set. So, what can you do to learn how to earn? Because for me, I felt like I didn't know how to make money at all.

It was out of necessity.

It was out of, I'm broke, I'm in college debt, I don't have my father who can give me money anymore. My family's not giving me money, so I can't beg for it anymore. I got to figure this out to survive.

Right.

So I think what you need to do is get away from this model of quote unquote being an entrepreneur. Because a lot of people don't relate to that. They don't connect to that. They feel intimidated by that. They watch shows, Shark Tank, great show, but it's all about essentially begging people for money. It's like, I need somebody else to come and give me their approval. their investment, their capital. I can't succeed in my business without this investment. Whereas the model that I'm trying to put forward, which I've been trying to talk about for years, is there's all kinds of people all over the world who aren't taking any capital. They're not going into debt. They're not spending on their credit cards. They're finding a way to start their own little business. And it's all in the book, the Money Tree. But also, I have this daily podcast, Side Hustle School, completely free. every single day I'm telling a different story of somebody who's found a way to do this. Case study model, how do they get the idea? How do they make it happen? What was problematic or what difficulties did they encounter? And then how did they overcome those difficulties and rise to greatness?

Yeah, what's a story in, what's called side hustle show?

Side hustle school.

School.

What's a great story in there that a millennial could relate to if they don't look at themselves as an entrepreneur? they don't think of earning money as an intimidating thing that they're not gonna be good at.

Right, right.

But that someone had a case study where they took it out with their skill, their talent, and they made some extra money. What's the skill?

I mean, so I've got people that range the gamut of like a lot of artists, you know, people who wanted to like sell stuff on Etsy and somebody who wanted to sell like dog collars actually on Etsy, starting with this really simple thing, you know? and she actually built that to like a million dollar business.

Selling dog collars?

Dog collars, yep. On Etsy. On Etsy, yep. We'll link it up. Like I said, artists, but also coders, any technical skill you have, whatever skill you have, I think that's also the first step. The first step is this skills inventory. What am I good at? What am I really good at?

Skills inventory. Yeah, not what am I passionate about, what am I good at? So if you're 22 graduating, what do you think, what are some of the common skills that most 22 year olds might have from a liberal arts college type of experience, you know?

So I think what you're alluding to is like this question I have sometimes where people are like, I don't have any skills. I'm like, what are the skills? I'm like, you do, you know, in a two minute conversation with any person, I have yet to be defeated in this challenge. Like, of like, I can pull out this defeat you. I don't think it's possible. Everybody, everyone is an expert at something. That's what I believe. Everyone is an expert at something, right? Whether it's a hard skill, you know, like engineering or coding or something, or could be like a soft skill. Like what was the skill that allowed you to succeed with all the stuff you did with LinkedIn?

I was thinking about that when I watched the documentary. I think my, I was trying to.

Figure out what were my skills after I was done playing football.

Right. Because you played football. Did you, I forgot, did you graduate from college or not? I left to play football. Then I came back to graduate after I was in a cast and surgery on my sister's couch. I was like, well, I should probably get a doctor Right. Even though it was 2008 when the economy was really bad. I was like, I should probably get a degree just to say I finished.

I had like five credits left. Okay. But how did you get into this? Like what was the skill that led you to say, I'm going to be.

A master connector on LinkedIn and start these groups? I think my skill was like, I'm a curious person. Right.

But it was like, is that a skill?

You know, you're like, It's a very valuable skill.

Yeah.

I was like, I'm a passionate person. I'm curious. I'm a hard worker. Like I can create a goal. and then stay consistent to like accomplishing the goal. So those were the things, but I wouldn't think you could turn that into.

Some money making-- But didn't you-- Isn't.

That what you did?

But I did, yeah. Okay.

I think so those are traits, you know, those are traits.

That's called a trait. Passion, curiosity, hard work.

Yeah.

Okay. Well, a passion, we could say maybe enthusiasm or something. I like the curiosity and the hard work because there's so many things that you could be curious about that other people might never notice.

Right?

But you noticed that there's like this whole industry and people have this desire to connect and all that. And then you took action on it, right? Yes. And so, I mean, I think a 22-year-old has a lot of life experience and it's whatever they have learned through their education, whatever they've learned through their job, but also just in their life. And like if they're playing Destiny at night, if they're whatever they do with their friends, whatever their friends are asking them about, like they're an expert in something. I really believe that. So there's got to be a way to like pull it out and transform and adapt it. And the answer is not like, Go get your MBA, right? That's not the answer.

Go spend two years, more money to find more skills.

And to learn how to be a middle manager in a Fortune 500 company, which is that's what's going to show you how to do it. Right.

So what's the answer? If it's not to go get an MBA, what should it be? I've got to make money now. I don't know how to trans, I don't know what my skills are and how to translate them into money or a side hustle or a side thing.

Yep. So in the book, the guy Jake, Yeah, he basically has the same situation. He's like, what am I good at? I don't know how to, you know. And he goes to this group called the Third Way. And the guy gives a speech. Third Way.

The Third Way group. Third Way group.

The Third Way, yeah. Okay. Not the second way. Nope. Third Way. First Way is like the old school model of starting a business.

I write an 80-page business plan.

I go to the bank, I get a loan. Second Way is the Silicon Valley. Go pitch, raise money. Exactly, that whole thing. Here's my slide deck, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to offer unprofitable. Third way, right? Is like, here we are, we don't have access to those resources. We are 22 or however old we are, it doesn't really matter. We've got to make the money. So he goes to the group and he gets this challenge, Jake, you got to make $1,000 in the next week. You got to make $1,000 in the next week. What are you going to do? And first he has no idea. And then he starts thinking, okay, well, I had a college textbook. I had these college economics, textbooks that I saved because I thought I would always use them as reference material, but they've been in his closet for six months. He's never taken them out. So he gets the textbooks out and he lists them for sale on an online auction on eBay. He starts making a little bit of money. Then he notices, oh, I can actually buy other textbooks and sell them. There's a whole continuous market for this. He realizes he can make $20 to $30 an hour doing that without knowing a whole lot about it, like without being an expert. And so then he's like, okay, well, if I can do that, where can I get more textbooks? What else could I sell? And like one thing kind of leads to another, right? So he's just like, there is something in front of you that you can do. I think maybe we ask people that too. I ask like the listeners, the viewers, if you had to make $1,000 or whatever the number is. What would you do? What would you do? And like when you're oppressed, I feel.

Like people can figure it out.

And if you're- There's pressure on the line when there's urgency. A deadline. Yeah, you have to at stake. Exactly. So he starts going to like yard sales and buying and selling and he's not like the goal is not for every person to like become a professional yard sale reseller. But I would say if you've never made any money for yourself, like it actually can be very empowering to make a small amount of money.

It feels great.

I mean you know this right? 50 bucks in a day, 100 bucks in a day.

It's like the first time you sold.

Your course or whatever.

It's amazing.

You're like, I am rich, right? It just feels great to say, you became an alchemist and you you created something from nothing.

Right, so you don't have to like do the MBA thing. You don't have to like create my company. It's not about your company, you need to make money, right? And if you don't start a company.

Don'T worry about a logo, don't worry about a name.

None of that stuff. Yeah, just make money. Right, there's something you can do. Start a service, start a product, you.

Know, lots of different examples in the book and on the podcast.

Okay, what's he do after that though? Well, so he does that for a while. He goes the third way. Right, and then, you know, the next challenge that he gets, he gets a second challenge. Second challenge is okay Jake, that's good that you learned how to do this. you know, but you probably don't want to do it for the rest of your life. Your next challenge is to create a service, essentially. So create a service like the product is reselling. Your service is something that you're doing, you're providing for somebody and they pay you money for that. It could be some kind of consultant thing, coaching thing, advisory thing, expertise, you know, whatever it is. Go and create a service. And with that he has a little bit of a false start. Actually, with that he kind of goes and the first thing he tries, it doesn't work so well. I don't want to give away all the secrets.

But first, he doesn't work so well.

He doesn't work. He loses money. He doesn't lose money. This is the key thing. He doesn't lose money because he's not spending money. It's just a question of his time. He's losing time and energy. Which is valuable. He's learning through the process.

It's his MBA.

Right. Without spending the tens of thousands of dollars or whatever. So anyway, so he goes back to.

The group and they kind of debrief it. Like, why didn't it work, Jake? He's like, well, I thought it would work because A force inside and out, the Range Rover Sport is available with a choice of powerful engines, including a plug-in hybrid with an estimated range of 53 miles. We all know that staying hydrated is so important, and we've heard it a million times. But let's be real, you can really feel the difference when you're hydrated properly, you're sharper, you're energized, and you're ready to go. And when you're not, well, you feel foggy, sluggish, just drained. And with the summer heat coming, staying on top of hydration isn't just a good idea, it's a must. And that's why I love Liquid IV. It's powered by LIV Hydrasceince, which is clinically studied to maintain hydration better than water alone for up to four hours. And I've been loving the new sugar-free raspberry lemonade hydration multiplier. It's so refreshing. And I don't know about you, but if I'm not hydrated, it's hard to function. Whether I'm gearing up for a workout, recording a podcast, or pushing through a packed day, Liquid IV always keeps me hydrated. And if you've ever hit that mid-afternoon slump, or struggled to keep up, trust me, this is a game changer. Maximize your hydration with Liquid IV and get 20% off your first order of Liquid IV when you go to liquidiv.com and use code LEWIS at checkout. That's 20% off your first order with code LEWIS@liquidiv.com They're saving for retirement and.

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You know, explains all the reasons and then they kind of point out, actually you're not really an expert. You thought you were an authority in this thing, but you're really not. and also the product wasn't really specific enough. The service wasn't really clear like what you were trying to do, what the benefit was, how you're going to reach people, all that kind of stuff. So he learns this and then he goes back and creates a different service, kind of applies the lessons from there. Okay, and that service I'm assuming takes off?

Eventually.

Eventually.

Is there another thing after that? In the last part of the book, there's another thing.

There's another thing to take it to a different level.

Yeah, there is. So there's lessons, I think it's, It's really hard to go from like, I have don't know what my skills are.

Never made any money before to in.

The next three months, I'm gonna magically make a million dollars. Yeah, well, I'm not telling people they.

Can magically make a million dollars in the next three months. Exactly. But I would say they can make a thousand dollars in the next month or whatever, and that's huge. It's huge. As we said, you know, that is huge, especially the first time, especially if you're in debt, if you're struggling, if you're trying to figure out how am I gonna get out of this situation of desperation? In some ways, I mean, I would say almost in some ways, like the $1,000 in that situation is more powerful than the million dollars that comes later, I think, because of the mindset and what it does for us.

Absolutely. What do you think entrepreneurs and employers need to know about how to find the right talent that's coming out of school and how to inspire and empower them to stay with them? Because I feel like a lot of people will say, I'm hiring these young people, and then they just just leave within a few months. I teach them, I train them, I educate them, I give them the skills, and they take it and they go somewhere else.

Yeah.

I'm not sure on that.

Right, right, right. I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer that because I've always been self-employed I wasn't good at working for other people, you know? And I'm also not a great manager. Like, I'm not trying to hire a lot of employees. You know, I would say. So, you have a small team. Yeah. Very by design because I know what I'm good at. I know what I'm good at, what I'm not good at, and. I mean, I think, you know, the classic thing is about like being open to your employees, having your side hustle, like providing them free understanding why they're motivated because people are motivated differently, you know, as we know, creating some sense of mission like we're doing this because, you know, like we're not we're not just doing this because of a sales goal. Like that's important in a business, of course, but we have the sales goal because this is how our company is trying to change people's lives. And the more resources we get, the more people will be able to help. I think just connecting to a sense of mission is always good. yeah.

So how big is your team right now? I have one person who works for me full-time right.

I got a few people who work for me part-time yeah. Wow. And for things like, you know, WDS, World Domination Summit, we have a team for that. But most people are volunteers. Now, you launched this event WDS.

That's right.

10 years ago. Exactly 10 years ago. It's.

The final year is happening.

That's right. Just July. -huh yeah. End of June.

In July. End of June and. What were your biggest lessons from launching an event? Because you inspired me to launch my event, almost five years ago. At least five years ago. Thank you.

Fantastic.

And I remember just being like, you did a great job of being different than everyone else. And I was like, if I want to do it, I need to be different than you and everyone else.

Of course.

It'd be my unique thing. And bring a community together. So why did you do it 10 years ago? What was the biggest lessons from launching an event series for a decade? and why are you stopping?

I think when I started it, I felt that there wasn't anything else like it. And when I started, I felt like there were all these people connecting in lots of little micro ways of, you know, gonna be a digital nomad, or i'm going to be, like, an artist or an independent traveler or, you know, start my little business, whatever it is, or not even that, but just like, I want to live my own life and, like, I don't want to do the same thing that, you know, and they were kind of disconnected. Right. And, like, disparate and. spread out. And especially like doing your event in Ohio, I think is so important because so many of these people are not in like San Francisco or New York or whatever, and they don't have a connection to like a greater peer circle. So I wanted to kind of, you know, just bring those people together in one place and say, what kind of magic can we create together? But there wasn't like a great strategy behind it. I didn't know. I mean, I called it the World Domination Summit, you know, like here it is, you know, let's just do it. And then it's, I mean, it's been a wonderful experience. I think it's It's one of the few things that I've done that I can look back and say, I think it actually has lasting value. I don't say that about all my projects at all. I think it's probably like one in ten that actually this endures. So I'm very proud of it. I'm very proud of the team and everyone who's been involved with it. But I think it's also important to end well. I think nobody does that.

Not like, okay, it's getting worse and worse. Less and less people are interested.

Exactly.

Fizzle it out.

There's so many other events I mean, there's a lot of other events, a lot of other gathering places for people who are connected in that way. And yeah, I didn't want to just like peter out or just keep going for the sake of going, you know, because, I mean, you know how it is, a lot of work that goes into this. A lot of work, right?

More than people think.

A whole year planning. It's not just the event. The event is wonderful. It's like everything that leads up to it. And so I thought, let's actually plan for an ending rather than just like have it end. So we announced it three years out, you know, two years ago now, said it's going to end, you know, in year 10. And interestingly enough, that's brought this revitalization to it. It's so weird.

Everyone wants to be there. Yeah, which is this weird-- How do.

I get a ticket? I know, it's the strangest marketing lesson. I feel like I should in WDS every year. You know what I mean? Every year, it's like, it's going, okay, it's back this year only. Scarcity is the most powerful thing. I know, it's so funny. But I think it's not just with that, it's also with the team, the core team that works on it. When we said we were going to end it, at the end of every year previously, I'm always worried. Should I ask them to come back? They're gonna be burnt out. I hate it. And they're so valuable, but I don't want to take advantage of it. But when we said it was gonna end in three years, pretty much all of them were like, I'm in. I wanna see it through. And so I think that's been really good. And so it does, some parts of.

Me are really sad about it ending, for sure.

It's gonna be over like this, and.

Then how are you gonna feel? I'm gonna feel terrible, actually, but I know it's the right thing.

Why is it the right thing to end something that people love and they want more of?

Because as I said, nobody ends anything well, you know, and the DNA of the experience is still there. The experience is not like the ticket that I purchase in this city that I travel to, in this hotel that I stay in, it's in the relationships. And those relationships have gone on and on, and all kinds of stuff has happened out of them. And like, you know, we've had, you know, marriages and families and kids and businesses and All this stuff. And so that's valuable. I'm gonna keep doing that in different ways.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna do different things. Yeah.

Are you gonna be sad? You think the last day, the day after, like, all the next year, when it's the same month?

Yeah. All. So I was sad last year, actually, when I was going through the rehearsal. I was like, next year this time, I'm gonna- Be the last rehearsal. Yes. Yeah, it scared me actually.

But, so I'm going into my fifth year of Summit of Greatness.

Right.

And I'm trying to think of ways to, and last year was bigger than ever.

Yeah, it's hard to keep one hand up.

It's hard, you know, every time I see photos of your event, there's always some new crazy thing. I'm like, gosh, how do you make any money off of this thing? You don't know. Exactly. We don't make money off this thing. But the energy and the connections are like priceless.

Yes, absolutely.

So what advice would you have for.

Me going into year five? You're doing great, man. I don't have any advice for you. you have your finger on the pulse. I would just say, enjoy those moments. Don't forget why you started it. When you get in the place where it is frustrating, because if it hasn't frustrated you yet, it will.

It has frustrated you. The production side of things.

And that's honest and true. And you should own that, because that's just the reality. So you just have to remember, why am I doing this? And it is for the connections and the community. It's not just for that moment when you're on the stage. That's fun. But that to me is like the 1% and the 99% is like just the impact and the engagement of people. But you know that. Yeah.

What do you think is, seems like there's millions and millions of entrepreneurs right now and side hustlers and freelancers, there's, I don't know, tens of millions probably in the US. A lot of people. But it seems like only a few people really stand out and make a big mark, whether it be online or get thousands of people to come to an event or sell 100,000 plus copies of a book. It seems like it's a small amount of people. What do you think it's going to take for people to really break out in their space as an entrepreneur in any type of industry? But what's going to take them as an individual or their brand to break through?

I think we have to think about impact a little bit differently because.

Not.

Everyone is going to have a million followers and not everyone's going to have that kind of breakout success. And that's okay because they can still have a lot of impact. I think this is really important because your goal is not to chase a vanity metric. And if you do that, I'm not suggesting you've ever done that, but sometimes in my life, it's like, oh, I should get more of this, whatever this number Is it book sales? Is it this, you know. Downloads, sales. Yeah, exactly. That's dangerous. And I think a lot of people don't have a huge number, whatever that is, of those things, but they are still making a real impact. A lot of people have impacted my life, you know. I think about who's impacted my life the most. I think about, maybe we talked about this before, I don't remember, but like the couple that inspired, the couple that made me think about going to live in West Africa. Like this guy's a doctor, you know, surgeon in California and has spent his whole life over there. He doesn't have an Instagram account. He doesn't have a YouTube channel, nothing. But the impact he's made, not just on me, but on Scott Harrison from Charity: Water, lots and lots of other people, it's huge. His impact is far more than mine, or anybody doing this kind of stuff. So impact has to be measured differently than just that.

It's funny, my friend and coach, Chris Lee, he was in the documentary as well. He was over at my place before the documentary, and I had There was a magazine, a Success magazine, with like 10 of us on the COVID And he saw my face on the COVID with all this group of people. And he goes, this is amazing. He goes, I'm more excited to see your face on the COVID than if my face was on the COVID Like, I'd rather you be building a platform. And I think there are certain people that impact people who have big audiences. And that's exciting for them.

That's great.

They don't need to be the one.

So they need to remember that. They need to remember that. 'cause sometimes it can be hard, you know?

Because you can impact a few people in a big way that could then change the world.

There's depth to it. There's lots of different ways to think about impact. Exactly.

What do you think is the greatest skill for every entrepreneur or side hustler to get? If they had no skills, like what's the skill that you should master today?

Asking questions, like curiosity, which you said earlier, asking like, what is that? You know, like what's, the daily annoyances that we encounter, the problems, the inefficiencies, asking like, what could be a different way to do this? What could be a better way to do this? And if you're annoyed by something, probably a lot of other people are annoyed by it too. And so maybe also, I talked earlier about focusing on skills more than passion. Maybe also thinking about what bothers you more than what excites you is good. What bothers you about the world?

Because people pay for a solution to pain.

Yes.

Sometimes more than they will for pleasure.

Right, and I feel like even like School of Greatness, it's, I mean, I'd be curious to know, you know, your one sentence behind it or something, but to me it's providing this positive message, but it's also like pushing against something. It's pushing against the notion of mediocrity. It's pushing against complacency. I'm bothered by being complacent. How many years ago was that that you were on the couch with your sister?

10 years ago.

10 years ago. And you were complacent for a time. And it bothered you. Finally, finally, finally, finally, like, I gotta get up off this thing, right?

And so I was sick and tired.

Of being sick and tired. Right. So it wasn't so much about being passionate. It was like, I am sick of this. I want something more. So I think thinking about curiosity, like asking the questions, and then also, like.

What really bothers me, that's motivating.

So what's.

So what do you call that?

A soft skill, then, like, curiosity. Sure, you don't know if I label it per se, skill traits, you know, but it's some, I think it's something that can be acquired, right? It's something that can, it's not like something that you go to school for, it's not something innate. Anybody who is listening or watching this, they've already kind of like raised their hand and said like, I want, I want to be great. I want to be better than I am. Isn't that greatness? Like, it's like, it's like, it's not meeting some objective, you know, standard or threshold. It's like to be better than I am, you can always, be better.

Yeah.

No matter what you achieve, it can always be something.

Now, I'm curious about mentorship, because especially we're talking about more like Millennials right now. It seems like a lot of them are looking for mentors. They're looking for people to support them. They're looking for advice. Right.

Yeah.

If curiosity is the main thing, you got to ask people questions who know answers.

Sure.

But the people who are mentors are usually pretty busy. they're doing things and they may not have the time for a millennial.

-And they may not be the best person to talk to that person.

-True. I would say as well. -So, how does someone find the right mentor or advice when everyone's spreading advice online?

-Yeah. Okay. Well, when I say asking questions, I don't just mean asking questions of an expert, you know, Louis, tell me how to do this. You can also be asking questions of yourself. You can like this, like discoverability or reverse engineering something. you know, this thing didn't work. What's a better way it could work? You know, just thinking through steps and processes or even it doesn't have to be waiting for someone to bestow their knowledge from the mountaintop per se, you know? And like, to be fair, like in the book, there is a mentor figure essentially. So it's not like I'm against all mentorship. But I think for a lot of people, when they ask for advice, they're really asking for affirmation as opposed to permission. Yeah. Like, like, what do you think about this idea? Your friends are like, what do you think about this idea? That's great. Yeah, that's what they want you to do.

Right? Right.

And so-- It's a great idea.

You should do it.

It's okay to know that about yourself and to know, actually, I say that I want people to tell me what to do, but I know what I need to do. I just need to do it. I think there's so much knowledge within yourself, within the human self and spirit, that I think before you figure out, you go on this quest to find the right mentor, it's like, what can I learn on my own?

We're looking for confirmation. We're looking for permission from our friends. We tell them an idea. Why are we so afraid to just do it on our own? Why do we need the confirmation of other people in order to go out there and just do it?

I think because somehow this has been ingrained upon us that we don't make decisions on our own. Maybe it's through the education process. Maybe if you're growing up as a kid, you're always looking to your parents or whoever. So it's not always a bad thing, but somewhere it kind of changes from okay, I'm not growing up, but now I have to make my own decisions. And so I think traditional systems don't really support independent thinking of this way. And that's probably maybe probably why I've been able to do what I've done is like I dropped out of high school and like I didn't like pursue this path. And I wasn't- you-'re-in-college-or-no? Yeah, I went to college later. Like snuck into college. It's a whole other story.

But then like, did you get a.

GED or something or what? No, I went to community college and they never checked.

Anything.

Right.

And then I transferred to like a four year institution. I was a transfer student, so I didn't check that. Wow.

Yeah.

So then I actually kind of, there was a whole hack, but I didn't, yeah, I didn't know at the time. No, I went to graduate school later and everything, but I think because also I wasn't good at working for people. I was not, I learned that at an early age. Also, I was not good at it. I was not a good employee. You know, I had this job. I've never told this story before. I had this job for two days as a telemarketer.

Wow.

It was the worst. I mean, it's the worst thing. Horrible. Yeah. I'm so glad it was so bad because if I had been mediocre at it, that would have been the worst. You've been doing it for like three years. Yeah, can you imagine? But I did it for two days. And at the end of the second day, I was terrified to even dial the number, right? I was trying to sell photography portrait packages or something, and I don't think I sold a single one. And at the end of the second day, I went to the boss and I was like, you know what? If you need to find somebody else, you know, I understand. And he's like, well, that's good because we already did, basically. Yeah, essentially. I mean, mutual, mutual. But the thing I think about now is like, it's not like, why did I think that would be a good job for me? It's more like, why did I go back the second day? Like, why did I even, even do that?

But.

So I learned at a young age, I have to kind of, like, find my own way. And so I think that's. That was very fortunate for me. So if anybody's watching now and they haven't had that experience, okay, well, now. Now it's your time. There is something you can do. There is a textbook you can sell. There is a service you can create. Don't worry about the NBA thing. Don't worry about the Shark Tank thing.

There's something you can do right now. Have you ever made a decision without asking anyone else's opinion first on like a project you want to launch?

Like a book? Like I'm doing this book. Always. Always. I've not asked other people. Well, this book in particular, actually, it's funny because it's fiction. It's my first time to ever do it. So I didn't know if I could do it. I could do it well. And so I wrote the entire book. First. Yeah, three drafts of it, I think, before, like, my agent saw it, before we took it to any publisher. So, you know, for those who don't know, with, like, a non-fiction book, you write a proposal, you write, like, a sample, and then you write the book. But, no, we pitched the whole book, and we're like, here's the book, no proposal. Like, here's the manuscript. I had to do it that way because I wanted to know that I could feel confident about it. You know, I wanted to, like, do.

I actually believe in this, in this work? And so I didn't ask anybody.

About it. I just did it.

And how was the response for something brand new that you've never done?

The agent was like, I love it.

It's gonna be easy. I think the main response at first.

Was like, we want to see it. Let's see it, right? But then actually I got really good feedback about it and I really am hopeful it's gonna reach a lot of people and not just reach people, but I really hope it's gonna help people to move forward in their lives and make positive changes. Now, did the publisher pick it up.

Right away or did you have to go to multiple publishers or how did that work?

I mean, there was definitely some discussion about it. There was some, like, the marketing How do we frame this? What shelf do we put it on in the bookstore? Publishing is all about categories, right?

So there's definitely a little bit of discussion about that.

Sure.

But it was fine.

They liked it.

They were like, Let's make it happen. So did you feel like you needed.

Anyone else to look at it first.

Before you gave it to your agent?

Like a friend or a buddy? I got some feedback. I got feedback. I want to be clear. I wrote seven drafts of this, first of all, which I've never written seven drafts of a book ever. This is book number seven. Usually I write three drafts. So it's probably the most work I put into a project. But it has been made better along the way, you know, by, you know, people who've read it, by my agent, by my editor. So I'm grateful to them.

Yeah, yeah, it's great, man.

But no, I don't think people need somebody to say, Yes, you should write a book, Louis. I mean, when you wrote a book, did somebody come and say, you should write a book?

Didn't you know you wanted to do.

It at some point?

It was like, when is the right time? But I think a lot of people.

Are afraid to launch something without the.

Approval of other people.

Who gave you permission to start your podcast?

No one.

Who came and said, Lewis, you have the authority to start a LinkedIn course, or a LinkedIn networking meet up? No one. And who said, Lewis, now the time is right for you to create a documentary? No one. Okay. So I think this is not just the philosophy that needs to apply to Lewis Howes, but to everybody out there. It doesn't have to be a documentary, a book, a podcast. It can be whatever is in front of them. whatever that next step is. Yeah.

I'm curious, what's the big dream? I hate asking this question, but if you don't answer it, because the summit is over at the end of this year, this book is gonna be out, it's gonna impact a lot of people already know. But now that you're letting go of something, like you're putting this out there, but you're letting go of something for 10 years, are you thinking of like, okay, I'm open to the new space, it's gonna allow me to create something, I don't know what it is yet, or do you have some new ideas that you're already excited about?

-I don't have a master plan. I really don't.

-It'S pretty nice to have that though. When you have no plan, it's kind of nice.

-Yeah. It's different. -To be in a different space? -It is different because I am planning. -I'm always planning. I always have a routine.

I mean, I'm still like I'm doing this podcast still every day, right? I'm gonna write more books. I love to do this.

-Side Hustle School. -Yeah. Is there another podcast too? -No. -Yeah.

Maybe next year. We'll see. We'll see.

I'm going to keep doing the work that I'm doing, but I might have space for something else. We'll see.

Yeah, it's great, man. It's exciting. Well, the book is going to be out. You can pre-order it now. You can get the book. Where can we go? What's the main website for it? It's on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, but.

Is there a website? You can go to moneytreebook.com. I've actually got this thing called a book registry I'm doing, where any College student. Are you getting married? No, it's not to get married. It's to get a free book. If you're a college student or a recent graduate with student loan debt, we're trying to match people. We're trying to match people who need the book, essentially, with book donors. So you can also be a book donor and buy copies of the book for strangers. And we're using like a blockchain technology.

And if people choose to opt in, we can share their information to kind of see like who's getting the book and all that. So if I want to buy 10 books, I can put whatever, 100 something bucks in this system at moneytreebook.com. I can put it in and then it'll give the book to whoever many people.

You'll see some notifications. You'll be able to see like where it's going in the United States.

Yeah.

That's kind of cool. So how do you, we'll see if it works.

I mean, this is like the early days of it, but I'm figuring out.

That's pretty cool. So people can buy books and donate it to kids.

Yes.

To students.

Yeah. And then all my profits. from the book registry are going to teach for America. So for 90 days, 90 days after the book launch, everything that goes to the book registry for me goes to teach for America. Wow.

So is this a system that you built?

Because I built it myself, but it was my idea.

Yeah.

I work with some really smart people. Really?

I gotta use this for my next book. If it works out.

We'll see.

Yeah.

It's amazing, man. Okay. The money tree, a story about finding the fortune in your own backyard. Who should buy this then and who is going to get the most value out of it?

Anyone who wants to create greatness in their life. I just love greatness. Here I am. Okay. But no, let's break it down more. Anybody who's in a situation where they feel stuck. Anyone in this situation. Financially stuck or career stuck or just like, I'm not doing enough with my life or I want a different direction. It's a book about change, but it's a story. So it's very readable. and getting one read.

I love that. For me, I get excited when I see this each chapter is like a page or three pages. I'm like, oh, I can get through it. Because when it's 20 pages, it's hard for me. So this is my type of book. There you go, man. I love it.

Chris, thank you, man. Thank you for all that you do.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. This is gonna help a lot of people.

Thank you.

Thanks, bro. Appreciate it. I hope you got a lot of value out of this one. If you did, make sure to share with a friend. Just take a screenshot of this, post it on your Instagram story, use the link lewishouse.com/937 or just copy and paste the link on the Apple podcast or Spotify app or anywhere that you're listening to this and text a friend right now. You have the power to truly inspire someone in your life by sharing this with them. You can change someone's life forever with the right story. the right tool, the right inspiration. You never know where we're going to hear something or relate to something that unlocks something within us to start making changes and improvements in our life. So think about someone you really care about and send them this link right now. LewisHowes.com/937 Make sure to check out the book, the Money Tree, Finding the Fortune in youn Backyard, which is out right now. Check that out. Follow Chris as well. We've got the full show notes and information back at lewishouse.com/937. If this is your first time here, welcome to the party. It's like a dance party for your mind and heart and soul. And we want to give you the best stuff possible in the world to help you live a greater life. So please subscribe to us over on the School of Greatness on Apple Podcasts or anywhere that you're listening to podcasts. Check out our YouTube channel. We've got some incredible videos over there with mind-blowing Content that we don't put out on here. It's different than here as well. And leave us a review over on Apple podcast. Those reviews help us really spread the message even more. So any of these things will help us impact more lives and that does more good for the world. We appreciate you so very much. And if you're interested in building a side hustle, we've got a free masterclass right now. Go to lewishouse.com slash now to sign up. It's free and I I'm going to give you the proven process on how I got out of the last economy downturn in 2008 to 2010 where I had no money living on my sister's couch, not sure what to do in college debt, credit card debt, and how I built a side hustle business during that time into a multiple seven-figure business within a couple of years. I want to teach you that process@lewis-howes.com/now and as Mark Twain said, the lack of money is the the root of all evil. Love this stuff. I love questioning our beliefs. I love learning new things. I hope you're enjoying this as well. And as always, you matter. What you care about matters. Your dreams matter. So go out there and start tackling your dreams one day at a time. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.

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