ONLY 1% Of People Use This SECRET TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL! | Eric Thomas & Lewis Howes

You have a pretty inspiring story in my mind, but I want to hear you just kind of share your story briefly about how you got into what you're doing now. You just finished your PhD, is that right? Yesterday on the flight.

Absolutely.

But I want to hear about how you kind of got to where you are now, in your words.

Man, it's the American dream, you know? They say nowhere else, you know, but in America.

And it was funny, I was, just recently in an interview or had an.

Opportunity to do a luncheon with Warren Buffett. You know, he was just saying that.

You know, this is the greatest country to be born in.

This is the greatest time, you know.

To be born, you know, in this particular country, you know, social media, you know, economics, just opportunity. So, you know, I'm the American Dream. I represent, you know, what so many people from my community represent. You know, a mom who had me out of wedlock, pregnant at 17 years old. My grandmother kicked her out, not because she didn't love her, but my grandmother.

Kicked her out because she had 14 kids in like a two, three-bedroom house with one bathroom. 14 kids.

And my grandmother was like, you know, I just can't afford to feed another mouth. So mom's was homeless. So when I say the American Dream, you know, you're talking about not just my generation, but my mother, trying to finish high school and getting a job in Detroit working for Ford Motor Company. So the journey started with my mom and I took it from my mom to an entrepreneur. But I eventually dropped out of high school. I was homeless for about two and a half years. And through education, I think is where.

I got my turnaround. I'm not saying degrees. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you know, going to.

School and really learning how to identify my craft, how to hone in on.

My craft, and how to sharpen that craft.

And so I started a GED program 'cause I received my GED.

How old were you when you did this?

I was about 19 when I got my GED.

So you dropped out of high school?

Yep, dropped out of high school at 16, 17.

Took a couple years off.

Yep, a couple years off. Couple years off.

What was happening during those couple years?

You know, just trying to find myself. You know, didn't know who my biological father was at the time, had never really excelled academically. I was a good athlete, but because I didn't keep my grades up, you know, I couldn't play regularly.

So I was just trying to find.

Myself and I was fortunate enough, you know, to get in a good church with some good people who helped mentor me, sent me to college, started dating a young lady at the time who challenged me to go to school with.

Her or she was gonna break up with me.

You know, so just some real good things happened at the right time. Ended up going to college, took me 12 long years. And I think the challenge was I didn't know the code, the rules, you know, I didn't know the language of academia. And I really had to humble myself, you know, and really buckle down. And that's what I did.

I started working on my oratorical skills.

Most people won't believe it, but I got a C minus, you know, in.

Fundamentals of speech, you know, but, you.

Know, over time, you know, I always tell people, I got average skill, but I have phenomenal will. And so I just had to buckle down and really ask myself, what do I want to do with the rest of my life? And so I think it was the.

GED program I did.

And this may sound real simple to people, but I think the GED gave me purpose. And in that purpose, I found my passion. I finally found something that nobody had to force me to do, something that I woke up to every day.

I loved it.

I love studying the books.

I love the information. I love working with students.

You know, I would spend the first five, 10 minutes reading a motivational piece and then kind of elaborating on that piece. And I just fell in love with teaching. I fell in love with that environment. I found that I had a way to connect with people that was, you know, that was rare.

And so from there, I went back.

To school, took 12 years, but got.

A degree in business.

Then went to Michigan State, masters and PhD in education and just really worked on my gift. I realized that all of us are born with a gift, but you got to hone it. You know, it's just not you're not.

Going to become great.

And we talk about the school of greatness. You know, we talk about, you know, greatness is upon you. And I realized that my gift wasn't.

Going to create itself.

My gift wasn't going to nurture itself. My gift wasn't going to perfect itself. That was something I had to do. And so, man, before you know it, we did a video that went viral. I think it's got over 50 million hits now. and we turn our passion into a profit.

Yeah, we turn it, man.

Yeah, I love it.

Turn our passion into profit.

Is that the, if you want to.

Succeed, as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful.

Absolutely. Yeah.

That's a good one.

And that's been used, you know, the audio of that has been used in like hundreds of videos that get, you know, 20, 50 million views alone.

Alone.

I love the football, the football one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a great little, like, put me back in school and coach. Yeah. But I was like, maybe if I would have taken my shirt off, it.

Would have blew up earlier. But I doubt it.

I doubt it very seriously. Yeah, I doubt it.

That's hilarious, man. So would you say that one speech, when was that speech?

That speech was back in like 2008, 2009.

Did you say that was a big game changer for you?

I mean, I wouldn't say it.

The world has said it, you know. And you know what's so funny, and.

This is why I tell people, you.

Know, just do what you do. You know, so many people are what I call, they're game watching, they're scoreboard watching. Like every play, they're looking up to.

See where they are.

You know, and I mean, you can't scoreboard watch and play the game at the same time. You got to play the game. You know, they're so worried about, all right, is this going to be my year? Is this going, like they spend so much time concentrating on when the big.

One is going to happen, that the.

Big one never happens because you can't chase two rabbits. If you chase two rabbits, you're not.

Going to catch either one.

So for us, it was an accident. We didn't plan on doing it. I was in a room, going off.

On a group of students because they.

Had an opportunity of a lifetime and they weren't taking advantage of it. Some guy just happened to have a.

Video camera, just happened to put the mic on me, just happened to use.

It for his thesis.

And let me say this, he never ever used it for his thesis.

He never used it. Friend of mine is like, yo, what'd you do with that video you did two years ago?

He's like, well, I still have it.

He's like, okay, give it to me. I'm gonna put it up on YouTube. No way.

And not YouTube for the world.

YouTube because that was a place to house your content.

That was 2007.

That was the only reason you just wanted to house content. And I ended up leaving my job at Michigan State.

I thought it was time to go do my own thing.

And I promise you, two or three months after I left, it went viral. It was literally online for years and didn't have any real traction. And then when I left my job.

And I said, this is it, I.

Can'T explain it, but it began to go viral. The one in the classroom, and then a year or so later, Giovanni's also started to go viral. And he told me, Giovanni said, yeah, the football guy said he just did it so scouts in the NFL could see it. And so somebody stole it from off of the internet and they put it up.

Put the audio over it.

Yeah, and boom.

Yeah, unbelievable.

Is he playing in the league right now?

He didn't make it to the league.

So, hey, what does that tell you.

About the league, right?

This guy, to me, I thought he.

Could play in the league. He went to Canada and played for for a minute. And, but for whatever reason, you know, he hasn't given up on his dreams.

Of playing in the league, but it just goes to show you that the.

League is 1% of the greatest talent in the world.

It's the greatest. Yeah, yeah. It's tough to get there. Yeah, absolutely.

I was trying to get there.

They played arena ball, but that's, you know, yeah. Yeah.

That's a challenge, man.

That is.

So the video, you shot it two years before it actually went viral, and you were still just grinding and doing your thing.

That'S it.

You weren't like hoping, like, I hope this thing gets me this viral hit and all these people learn about me.

You were just still consistently grinding. And I think that's greatness. I think what people get confused is, you know, they're grinding with a goal. And I'm not saying you shouldn't have goals, but you should be grinding for grinding's sake. You know, you should grind because that's what you do. You're passionate about what you do, you know? And so you're waking up every day with this concept of, I have 24 hours.

And they're mine.

This 24 hours belongs to me. And whatever I do in this 24 hours will determine where I'll be tomorrow and the next day. And I think that's what people need to focus on. Get off of this, I want to make six figures, I want to drive this car, I want to live in this house. I think what people should be focusing on is, I have 24 hours. Oprah only has 24. Bill Gates only has 24. Warren Buffett only has 24 hours. And in that 24-hour period I can either break my life or make my life. And I think... And I'm not saying you shouldn't have goals. I just think that goals for people is too high on the priority list. And I think what should be on the priority list is going to bed so you can wake up the next day and you can grind it out. And I'm just a dude that believes you reap what you sow. So, if you're grinding on Monday, grinding on Tuesday, grinding on Wednesday. If you're grinding six, seven days a week for a span of five or six years, something's gotta come out of that. Sure. But if you're only grinding, you know, on Monday you fired up, Wednesday you back to sleeping in, Thursday you got the funk of the world is on, like I've heard people say- Hump day. Hump day. What is hump day? Every day is hump day. Like, Wednesday is hump day, like Monday hump day, Tuesday is hump day, like every day is hump day. And I think if we would spend more time on, What's my goal? Meaning, what do I need to accomplish in this day to live this lifestyle? And you go after it, then I think more people will be successful.

Interesting.

Yeah, but they spend too much time like scoreboard watching. They spend too much time on there, I want this car and this house and live this lifestyle. No, that's the wrong one.

You can think about the goal and have that in your mind, but then think, okay, I'm going to hustle every day to make it happen.

And not just hustle every day. I mean, you should be specific. Like, look, I've got to believe that millionaires do certain things. I've got to believe that millionaires have a certain habit. I've got to believe that they sleep so many hours. I've got to believe that they know their craft. I've got to believe they're passionate. And so, when I take my goal instead of looking at my goal and asking how much money can I make? I've got to ask myself what things do I need to do every single... From eight to nine what should I be doing to be a millionaire? From 9 to 10, what should I be doing? From 10 to 10:15, what should I be doing? And that's why I wake up every morning at 3:00 because for me, it's okay, Monday do this, Tuesday do this, Wednesday do that. And if I do those things, I'm.

Guaranteed to be successful. So tell me about your daily rituals then. Do you have a daily ritual? I heard you get up at 3:00 a.m. Is that true every day? What is your hour to hour look like?

Walk us through your process. Now here's the challenge. A lot of people ask me what time I wake up in the morning and I think that so many young people just because they've never been exposed to greatness, they're asking a good question. The great question should be what time do you go to bed at night? That's the question you should be asking. The question is what time do you go to sleep? And so, every night I try to go to bed like literally in the bed 8:30, 9:00 sleep.

That's like some two-year-old stuff. That's like some baby stuff right there, you know what I'm saying?

That's like kindergarten. Like that. and I do that routinely. Now, I tell people of course I travel the world. So, of course I'm not going to bed every day at 9:30. But here's the deal, when I can what happens is I create this habit that my body believes that all right, 9:30 all right, you wake up at three which means I'm getting five to six hours of sleep which is pretty good, right. But here's a trick, when I came to California my body still woke up at three something because it's a custom to go into bed at a certain time. My body doesn't really know what time it is. Like, my body is not knowledgeable of time zones, right. My body just knows that this is the time we normally wake up. So, I go to bed consistently early. I wake up early. Now, this is why I wake up. Now, if you're listening to me you're an entrepreneur you have to hear this. There are people who graduated Magnum Cum Laude, I didn't. There are people who were born into wealth, there are people who were born into a certain network, I wasn't. But here's the trick even though I don't have what they have I can outwork you. So, if I'm getting up at three o'clock in the morning and as sweet as you are networks, parents, wealth, opportunities, and you're getting up at eight I've got a five hour jump start on you. Like, I don't care who you are if we're traveling to the same city and I take off five hours before you nine out of ten I'm going to get there before you get there. So, my trick is I get up at three o'clock in the morning because I didn't know who my biological father was It took me 12 years to get a degree. So, I wake up earlier because that guy who is deeper than I am, who has more advantages or opportunities than I have, when we get our contract to that same company, when my contract gets to that guy, that CEO reads my contract at 3:30 in the morning he's like, this dude is serious. So, I know this guy graduated from cum laude but he sent me his contract at 9. Eric sent his at 3:30. Like, you got to give me a shot. You've got to give me at least an interview, right? For the 330, you've got to give me an interview. So what I'm trying to explain to people is my ritual is I'm going to beat you to the spot. I'm going to beat you to the spot. That's what it's all about, right? For those of us who play basketball, those of us who play football, sometimes it's not about being the greatest talent, it's about beating a person to the spot.

So if I beat you to the.

Spot and I got an open shot, it doesn't mean I'm the greatest, but I beat you to the spot, right? I created my own shot. I created my own space. That's what the crossover is about. it's about creating your own shot, creating your own space. And the way I have become a millionaire and the way I've become one of the top motivational speakers in the world, nobody knew who I was six, seven years ago is I created space. I created space. I've given myself an advantage that others don't have. And is it hard? No, not really. You just wake up earlier. You can take naps during the day.

If you want to, right?

So it doesn't mean you have to stay up the entire day. but it does mean you have to get to the spot before everybody else. So, it kind of looks like the first hour I'm really due to faith. So, the first hour I really spend, you know, reading my Bible, praying. After that, I work out for about a good hour. I've got accountability group that I talk to for an hour, spend time with my wife.

Every morning accountability group.

Every morning accountability group. Hour, two hours, we're kind of just talking about our day, what we're going to do, spend time with my wife. My wife is, they say iron sharpens iron, but my wife is like titanium sharpening titanium. And my wife is constantly telling me, you need to improve in this area. You need to do better in this area. And then eight o'clock in the morning, CJ and I get on the phone and we spend the rest of the day going after it. So we've got a list of call Australia, a list of, you got four videos, two voiceovers. And let me say this to my entrepreneurs, I have a ritual where even if you're my closest friend, I have boundaries. So, just because it's my company, it doesn't mean I can take calls all day. I have boundaries. So, you can't call me at a certain time.

Why?

I'm working. So, if I'm on the phone all day and I'm saying this to entrepreneurs because one of the gaps, and we'll talk about this later in the show, but you got to find the gaps. And one of the gaps with entrepreneurs is that they feel like because they own their day, they can spend it like they want. You cannot spend it like you want to. So, if you were working for IBM or you're working for Ford, whoever you're working for, you couldn't be on the phone all day at a major corporation talking on the phone. So, why do you allow yourself to talk on the phone when it's your business? Matter of fact, it's yours. You should make sure there's no phone calls going on.

It's your business.

So, one of my rituals is when I get started, there are no interruptions. When I get started, I don't care if it's my wife, my children, they know that from a certain time frame I'm going all in and I can't go all in answering the phone. I can't go all in watching TV. I can't go in with the distraction. And so, some entrepreneurs are like, why am I not blowing up? Because you're not in abstraction, you don't have that moment of your day. I don't care if it's two hours, four hours where you shut the entire world out. No Twitter, no Facebook, no nothing.

No Instagram. No Instagram.

No Instagram.

We love that Instagram.

Oh, so but just for two hours, I'm going in and once I come out, then we can do Instagram and I'll be honest, your content probably would be stronger if you had that time of isolation, of solitude, where you give yourself a chance to think you give yourself a chance to go in, and when you go in, you go 120%.

What's your dream?

Yeah. To change the world, starting with the educational system. I just feel like so many kids who are disadvantaged don't know the power of knowledge. They know they don't get it. You know, like you, you. Because you are knowledgeable, you were able to write your story, you were able to write your narrative. And I just think because these kids don't understand the power of Education, They're not writing their own narrative and they're letting people write their narrative for them. They're letting people just decide their fate. And I just want to say, look, learn, read, write. Like if you're not good at English, okay, go with math, be an engineer, but like take advantage and I want to help teachers. Like there's so many teachers I feel like they care, but because they didn't grow up in certain neighborhoods and they're not familiar with the language, the rules of the codes, they're not able to coach these kids. And this generation is different. You just can't throw a book in there to face because they don't, they don't have that, you know, that, that desire for learning, but you can still coach them. Like, you can still get them ready. So I just want to help teachers to go in the classroom, like, really Empower, really change and give them the tools that they need to do what they went to school for. Like, everybody talks bad about teachers. You think I, I took a 50, 000 cut. Like, you think I went into education and not a doctor or a lawyer, engineer so that I can fail. Teachers want to be successful, too, but I just don't think that they have the tools for this generation. So, man, that, that's what I would love to do is change. You know, the educational system and just give more people, man, you know how it is flying, you know, the world, you know how it is being able to eat. You know what it's like to have choice, you know, you know what it's.

Like to have freedom. It's real nice.

Man, it's great, man. You know, and I don't want people to think, you know, I'm on that, but I walked in a hotel yesterday. It was this long line and then there was the SPG, I think line. I was like, I'm in the SPG.

Yeah.

And I went in and, you know, checked in quick. I was like, yo, I like this. I'm not against the long line, but it's good to be, you know, a member. you know, and that's what I want for other people. I don't want just that Eric can put his kids through school or Eric can travel to Australia. Like I want other kids to know what it's like to have ownership of their own life. Isn't that what America is about? All men are created equal. You know, all men are created and I want them to enjoy the liberty and the fruit of being an American. Because if you really live the American dream, it's unbelievable. It's not like anything else.

It's amazing, man.

Yeah, but it's just so few people who actually get that opportunity.

So how are you gonna do that?

Well, you saw Houston, man.

I'm just, you were like three, four schools a day.

This is what I love about it.

Is he, you really practice what you're preaching about your dream. You're not just like, I want to change the educational system and talk to a few leaders about it or something. You are actually on the ground. You'll speak to six kids, 600 kids. You'll speak to a classroom, the whole school.

Funny story, if you don't mind.

I got time.

So my auntie invited me to her school. So apparently she doesn't know I'm ET the Hip Hop Preacher. She invites me to her school and so she sends me this text and says, okay, should I invite just my students or maybe a couple more? And I said, well Auntie, you know, get more, right? I get there, she got 10 people in the classroom. Like I was speaking to 10 kids, a high school probably about 25, I was speaking to 10 kids. Just so happens that the lady, talk about the law of attraction. The teacher next door has been following my stuff for years, shows the kids every Monday. She's like, ET, if I'm preaching It's in our school and my aunt is like, oh, oh, ET. Eric? Yeah, I'm Eric. So the lady brings her students over. So I went from 10 to 20 now. I've got about 20 students that I'm going in on. And the other teacher goes to the principal and says, Do you know who's in our building? And so immediately after that period, you know, and I do like an auditorium, three hours in a row, they fill up the auditorium. I'll speak to them right. But my aunt's still looking like, I didn't know. It's like, why they taking pictures with you? And I'm like, I didn't. I know I'm not a big deal to you, you know, but to a couple people, they really want to hear this. So that's where we started. I just believe start where you are with what you have for what you have is plenty. And then just recently, I was able to sit down with some very powerful people in the education Arena who are saying, ET, we want to help you take this platform to another level. You know, we have the connections. We're in the schools, and we want to help you, but I, I just think Louis, there are so many people who are waiting for the meeting. There's so many people waiting for that meeting to happen.

Opportunity.

Before they, and I just say, let's go create it. So every city corporate brings me to, the NFL, the NBA brings me to, I say, bring me in a day early and let me hit every school I can hit, every detention center. And if I keep doing this, you reap what you sow. Eventually somebody's gonna see what I'm doing.

And somebody Oprah, maybe. Michelle, maybe. Somebody's gonna see what Oprah's people listening. Make sure you book this guy to do something.

Yes.

And when you're speaking at the schools, are you doing most of it, you know, for free? Is it mostly kind of just going in and just showing up?

It's K through 12 for the most part. It's free. We just show up. College, you know, they got a budget.

They can write that check.

They got a big stadium.

I hear you, man. But you're getting paid to go out for something else.

Absolutely. Corporate is bringing me in or NBA, NFL, and then we're using that time.

You know, to go back.

Isn't it the American way?

Like, somebody has helped us, and then we pay it forward. Give it back. See, I told you I got stuff from the book. He said it the same way. I feel like, you know, like you were talking about in the beginning, you know, we can make all the money we want, get the cars, the jets or whatever, and have the fancy things, but when's enough enough? Like before you want to start making an impact? And I feel like everything that I do and we do, it's like if it's not giving back in some way, then what's the point? If it's just for me or just for us alone, and it's not to serve people in a bigger way, like we're doing something wrong.

Yeah, let me tell you, man, last night, Talk about Dee Dee and I been married 26 years together 30 and we check in last night knowing what's going on today and just to be able to hold each other, you know, as for me, I'm like, no child, education, there's no child left behind. And I'm sitting here like, yo, I'm with my high school sweetheart. Like we made it through everything and we're doing this thing together. You know, my son calls me this morning for worship, you know, he's like, Dad, I just want to get the day started. A couple players in the car and we're doing our thing. And I'm like, yo, I didn't have to leave my wife or my kids behind. Like we're all together. I'm with the team eating breakfast. I'm like, yo, we didn't lose. We didn't lose, you know, and then you're in the airport and there's somebody that's hugging you and crying. I'm like, yo, we're taking everybody with us, you know? It's like the LeBron commercial in Cleveland when he's starting to work out. And then before you see it, like everybody's running and before it's thousands of people with LeBron. I'm like, that's how we feel. Nike hasn't asked us to do that particular commercial yet. You know what I'm saying? But that's what we're doing. Like it's people who are following us in every city. Now we got Breev University. There are people all over the world. They're on this movement of, this being phenomenal. So they're not forgotten. They're on this, they're on this for real. The School of Greatness. Like they're really about being great and it's not us alone. It's all of us together, man. So it's just been sweet not getting to the top and like you're by yourself, but I've gotten to the top and all these people still coming with us. So it's just what you said. It's money. Okay, yeah, you do need that. You need resources, but it's not about the money. The money is a tool to help you accomplish that goal you're trying to accomplish.

And you didn't really have a lot.

Of money growing up, right?

No, not at all. So how did you learn from someone who never made money really to build wealth? How was that for you? Did you learn from someone? Did you just kind of figure it out?

I mean, the books. Come on, let's be real. You got the Napoleon Hills. Yeah.

They can grow rich on the top.

That's my that's the one, man. You know, you know, the richest man in Babylon. I got that in here.

Yeah.

So, you know, all the classics, man. The richest man that ever lived. I mean, it's just so many different classics. Isn't the richest man in Babylon?

Is that the one where he gives away 50% of everything?

Yep. And he puts the secret, the scrolls, right? Is that what it is? Yeah, the scrolls, Mark one and two are, I'll tell you when I finish, but I got that one. The scroll want to, but for me, then I started meeting Dan Gilbert. I started meeting Bob Proctor. And I was saying, like, I don't want to get the check from these guys. I want to sit down and learn from these guys. So a lot of those guys have done it and then we've been fortunate to have our own, you know, financial guru now with Josh, you know, being a part of the team, you know, so looking at things from a financial standpoint, because I'll be honest, I always looked at stuff from a ministry standpoint, you know, and the ministry is good, but it's not a business, you know, so now we have a business model, you know, and things are happening. So I got around the right people, man, and was honest enough, you talk about ego, was humble enough to say, I don't know, and I'm not going to pretend like I know, you know, because sometimes you're like, I don't know, you get these people around you and you try to act like you know, you know, people. Did you read that book? I talked to people. Oh, yeah, I read that book. Oh, yeah, I read about. They never read a book. They're like, no, no. Like, I don't know, you know? And then we need your help. So I've just surrounded myself with the, with the people who know I do well at what I do well at, and I let the people who do.

Well at what they do, I give.

Them free rein to do what they do. Yeah. Yeah. CJ, not necessarily doesn't give us all free reign.

I get free reign.

I get it.

Free reign.

I like it. What would you say is your greatest gift? in the world. Service. Nobody's gonna serve like I serve. You know, I'm gonna preach, then I'm gonna mop the floors, I'm gonna cook, I'm gonna cut the potatoes, I'm gonna skin them, cut them, boil them, like nobody's gonna out serve me. You know, I'm gonna serve in the morning, I'm gonna serve at night, everybody leaves, I'm gonna cut the light off, you know? So for real, people have different gifts. People are intelligent, people write, you know, people are athletic, people are fast, you know, Interview, whatever. I am the best servant in the world. I am, I've read something and I knew, you know, it's just stuff just hit you. But I would never forget reading that the greatest among you shall be a servant. I was like, oh, that's my lane right there. The greatest among you will be a servant. I'm like, I can do that. I can, I can wash feet, you know, I don't have a problem with that. Whatever you need me to do, I can do that, you know, so that's my greatest gift. People think it's speaking. Speaking is the platform. that gets the attention. But once I get your attention and you come in my life, you, I'll say, you won't want to leave this relationship. Sure, sure, sure. Like that. You won't want to leave me.

How did you learn to speak the way you do?

Paying attention. I think a lot of speakers that I watched, they would come into a building and have a message, and I don't care who was in the room, they do the message. I'm like, nobody's listening. Like everybody's asleep, but my man is so into himself, like he didn't even.

Realize that everybody's knocked out.

I'm like, they're asleep. Like it's not working. He's not looking at people's eyes. He's not looking at it. He don't care what's He just got his eight speech, PowerPoint, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, he's going through 100 slides. Nobody clap at the end. If they get that. Because this is the generation now, they're gonna walk out. They're on the phone. They're on the phone right there. They like it. And I realized like that's not working, you know? And when I start like talking to people, it's weird. People say, you know, how do you do what you do? I'll just go and ask people like, what would be your takeaway? If you were listening, like what would you wanna hear? And I just go up and say, what? They said, so I spend time with the people. I talk to the custodial worker and I ask him, like, yo, I know the principal's perspective, but my man, he got a lot of paperwork going on. He's behind the desk, like you're a custodial worker. Like, you see the kids, you hear things that nobody else hears. What's going on with these kids? Well, this parents is divorced and this kid, you know, is from a foster care and a lot of our kids, I probably get more thorough information from the custodial worker. Like, my man, like, believe it or not, very wise and, and, and very tapped in. Sometimes the principal is not tapping to the pulse.

You know, they think they know what.

They'Re hearing, but they don't know what's going on. Talk to the teachers. That's true. Once I get that, I, all I have to do is go up and say what you told me, but just keep it creative. It's so true.

And loud. I figured the loud thing to help. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's so true. I mean, I, that's something that I like to do as well. I was, I was in, giving a speech in Illinois the other day, and I asked them beforehand, you know, a week before, you know, what do you want me to cover? What do you want to talk about? and they said a few things and I was like, that just doesn't feel right. I just don't think this audience wants that. So we get there early and I'm in the back of the room talking to people just saying, Hey, what are you getting out of today? What do you want to get out of this? They don't even know I'm speaking. I'm just like, what's the big thing? What's the big challenge in your life? And I love that you do that.

As well, because I don't think a lot of speakers do that. Oh, because they're full of themselves. Yeah, they think. And it's what I tell young speakers. I don't like going to a restaurant where the food is sitting under that red light. I like to go where I can order and it's made fresh. So as a presenter, I'm not gonna give you the red beam light. I'm gonna give you, you can order fresh. Like what do you want? So when I come in, my stuff is going, I may have never ordered. It's made to order. It's made to order. And even Carl has a hard time sometimes, 'cause it's like, yo, Carl, hey, I don't know what, I don't know. Just start and he'll go, okay, boom, all right. And I'll talk. And he'll just kind of fill me out, like, okay, I think this is next. I think that, but although it puts more work on us, it guarantees that it's organic and that the people are going to walk out refreshed. So I'm about being organic, man. That's all I'm about.

Why is accountability so important for you and so many other people?

Why does it.

Why is it a game changer for you?

I, you know, I learned this from Dan Gilbert and Quicken Loans. He has, like, 19 isms that, you know, his company lives by. and the one I love the most says, Innovation is rewarded, execution is worshiped. So what I learned of being around Dan Gilbert is like, your money changes when you execute. I realized, I didn't know, I didn't have a right concept of success. Now I understand success is accomplishing what you say you're going to accomplish. It's getting done what you say you're going to get done. And let's be honest, How many? If you were to sit back and do a percentage on what you said you were going to do in a time span, how would you grade yourself? If you're saying 70, you're a C. If you're saying 80, you're a B. 90, you're an A, 100%. And so I said, if I could execute every single time. So, as I began to look at my life, I realized, and this is for Eric Thomas, if I say I'm going to work out 21 days in a row and nobody knows about it, nobody knows I'm going to work out for 21 days, I can kind of sneak away with it. I'll do 30, I'll do 30, I'll do 30. But when I call somebody and say, hey, I'm gonna work out for 21 days, I need you to hold me accountable. A part of my working out has absolutely nothing to do with working out. It has absolutely nothing to do with my health. It has absolutely nothing to do with me caring about my body. It has everything to do with, I told you I was going to do it and I don't want you to call me and ask me did I do it and I have to tell you I didn't do it. do it. So I realized that every man is where he is because when he says he's going to do something, not only does he do it, but he does it in a certain time frame and with a certain quality. And if I have a group of people who can call me every day and say to me that you say you're going to do that, you say you're going to do that, listen to me. My first book took me 10 years to finish. And I did not finish my book into a good friend of mine's could gear within a span of about a year or two. kept calling me every week and say, did you finish it? What chapter are you on? Okay. What part did you... All right, when is it going to be done? And I want to be honest, he got on my last nerve. And I think just the whole disappointing him, I just was like, I'm tired. And so I finished that book and I finished the second book before he could ask me about a second book. And send him the second book when it it was finished. Like, shut up. Like, don't call me, don't ask me about it. Same thing with school. You know, I had finished all my coursework, didn't start the dissertation, and I would be on the road and people say, ET, you said three years ago.

On one of your TGIM that you was gonna get your PhD.

How's the PhD coming? I got tired of people asking me, when is the PhD? When are you gonna finish? Are you finished yet? When are you gonna finish? You know? And so a part of my success has been being brave enough to say it. And I'm not saying it because I thought I could actually do it, but saying it so I could be held accountable. And then once people start holding me accountable, boom, I just didn't want to.

Seem like a liar.

I didn't want to let people down. So, if you're an entrepreneur, I challenge you to get out of the dark corners, the dark spaces, of having these goals and dreams that nobody knows about. And I challenge you to take your dreams and goals and share. Now, here's the other part. For me, that's critical. I always think about if I don't execute, how is that going to hurt my family? How is that going to hurt my friends? So, if I don't execute, what type of Christmas are we talking about? Like, we can't come to Cali if I'm not executing. You know what I'm saying? Like, my son, first year of school, I paid cash for him to go to school. You can't pay cash tuition if you're not executing. you know, if you're not getting engaged in this, right? So each one of my children have, they have their own car to get to school. You can't buy your kids vehicles when you're not executed. My wife has a car. Just took her to Hawaii. She only works 12 hours a week. She can't, she can't do those things. And mind you, she had, we just, it was diagnosed a year and a half ago. She had a chronic illness of six to seven Legions on her brain. Imagine if I wasn't an executor, my wife would still have to work. work 40 hours. There are women with the same disease that my wife has that have to work 40 hours. Why? Because their husband didn't execute. So, they got to get up and go to work even though medically it's not healthy, they still got to get up and go to work. My wife does not have to get up and go to work. She wants to work so she does 12 hours. Why? Because I executed. And I realized now execution in business is like a heart beating as it relates to your body. Once that heart stops, that's it for your body. When you're not executing as a business person, as an entrepreneur, it's over for you. The day you just talking, you're spending hours, you're talking about what you're gonna do, you're spending hours visualizing, you're spending out. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I think you can appreciate this. I don't even do lunch like I used to do with people anymore.

Why?

Because I realize a lot of people want to do lunch and just talk.

Yeah.

Like we just spent an hour talking 30 minutes drive. That's two hours. I could have been executing. So I'm not against mentoring, I'm not against meetings, but a lot of the meetings that I attend, it's a bunch of jargon. It's wasted space, wasted time. And so I'm going to say, I guarantee you this year could be the best year of your life if you execute more. I'm not saying you're not executing, but I'm telling you, if you were to execute 100% of the time, you probably add another comma to your income, another zero. to your income just by executing, executing within the time frame you say you're going to do it and executing with excellence. Just do those three things and I guarantee you're going to go to a whole other level. Yeah, yeah.

And I think, you know, I know what you're talking about when it's saying mentorship or you don't have lunch with people, but really, you want to do it on a broader scale. You want to do it on a bigger scale. And that's why you have your show, that's why you do speaking so you can mentor hundreds of thousands of millions of as opposed to spending two hours with one person.

Or sitting here with you and doing almost millions. Exactly, exactly. Sitting here with you for an hour.

Exactly. So what is your, what's your why? You're so passionate, you're so committed. Why are you so committed to excellence and greatness in your own life? Well, you talk about family, but I'm assuming that's part of it.

Absolutely.

Why specifically? But you know, to me, bigger than that, because family is important, but if you live in a third world country, Let's be honest. You're limited to what you could do for your family. So while family is important, listen to me, opportunity is the biggest thing. Like people ask me, why'd you wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning? If I could be a millionaire in America and live wherever I want to live, all I have to do is.

Get up at 3 o'clock in the morning.

That's pretty sweet. That's it. That's a sweet deal. And I can go to bed whenever I want to go to bed. I can buy a good bed. I got a good mattress, right, that I can sleep in when I go to bed, right? So for me, it's opportunity. that in this great country and you know, this country has had, you know, its dark past, you know, but I'm fortunate enough not to live, have lived in that dark past. So there was a time in this country's history where Eric Thomas would not have had some of the opportunities that I have now. So I have opportunities that Dr. Martin Luther King didn't have. I have opportunities that just 50, 60 years ago they didn't have. So, in my generation, it doesn't make a difference what your race is, it doesn't make a difference what your ethnic background is. I can be an entrepreneur. A hundred years ago, somebody from my background couldn't have been an entrepreneur. I can be a CEO of a company. The two of us can get together and work together. I live the dream. I have an opportunity to live Dr. Martin Luther King's dream. You mean to tell me that I have that opportunity? take advantage of it. Like that's ignorant. Like there was a time where we couldn't go to school, where if we were trying to get in school, they bring the National Guards, they've got dogs, and they're walking these kids in, you know, to a school where people don't want them. I have an opportunity to go to school and be embraced by professors. I have an opportunity to write books. I have an opportunity to do conferences. I have an opportunity to have a show on YouTube. You mean to tell me I have an opportunity to do that and get paid for it, and I'm not gonna take it back? get a chance of that? Like, that's what I'm passionate about. We flew first class last night, my entire family, right? I have an opportunity to fly first class. I have an opportunity to walk up to the street, Ontario airport, and just get a vehicle. Like, that's not something that happened 200, 300 years ago. And here I am living the dream. And you need to tell me that the whole world is in front of you and you're not going to try to be a millionaire or billionaire. you're not going to write books, you're not going to get degrees. So, for me, opportunity and this is the biggest thing that listen to me that has ever happened in my life. And I know we all have different goals, different dreams to each his own. But the greatest contribution of my life, I dropped out, my grandfather dropped out, my father dropped out. My son graduated from high school on time, went to Michigan State University. He is a student at Michigan State University, a Big Ten institution, works for Tom Izzo, who is going to go down in the NCAA Hall of Fame as a basketball. My son is working with one of the top coaches in the world as a general manager traveling the world. This was maybe about a month and a half ago. I just man overwhelmed. The AD and Coach Izzo at a big award ceremony gave him his letterman jacket.

Wow. You know what I'm saying?

That's huge. He has the ring when they went to the Elite 8 last year. They won the Big 10 championship. He's got the ring. He's in school. Man, that's my greatest that I broke the cycle. So for me to have this opportunity and to set my children up now for this type of life, that's my why. That I have an opportunity, but more importantly, I can break the cycle. I can change the trajectory of my family forever. just by the decisions that I made.

So I say this a lot to.

Entrepreneurs, the stuff you're doing right now, the decisions you're making right now, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, the decisions that they made 20, 30 years ago has set their children up for the rest of their lives. And here I have an opportunity to do the exact same thing. I told my son, I will pay.

For you to get a degree.

I told my daughter, I will pay for you to go to school. That's my gift to you. to give you one of the greatest starting starts that you could ever have in America. So that's my why. And then for all those kids out there who don't have their fathers, who haven't had exposure to certain role models, certain opportunities. Every day when I do my videos, I'm trying to give them access to some of the greatest speakers I've heard. I've been with Les Brown, I've been with John Maxwell, where I've been to Bob Proctor, I've traveled the world. I've met people like Dan Gilbert. I've met, you know, just, just, you know, people in this industry who are just, I mean, gurus. And now I want to take that same knowledge and I want to give that to these kids so I can give them the same opportunities that I had.

Who are your mentors right now and how important do you think it is for people to have mentors slash coaches throughout their entire journey of their life, whether they're in school, playing a sport, running a business, you know, trying to be married. You know, how important is it to have key mentors and coaches? And who are yours?

Yeah, I mean, it's everything because, you know, my mother calls it triple darkness.

You don't know that you don't know.

That you don't know.

You know, it's triple darkness for the kid that's grown up in a certain.

Neighborhood without his father. You know, he hasn't had, he's never left his city. He's never been a 10-20 mile radius outside of his city. There are kids in Los Angeles who've never been to a beach.

Yeah.

You know, it's unbelievable. You know what I'm saying? There are kids in Chicago who never been downtown at the pier or never walked the Magnificent Mile. You know, there are kids in San Francisco who've never been to the Golden Gate Bridge. I mean, can you imagine kids in Huntsville, Alabama, who've never gone to the Space and Rocket Center? You know, so I think it's everything. I'm not where I am because of who I am. I am where I am because of the information. that individuals gave me, you know. And so my mentors, and we're fortunate in this generation through books, through social media, anybody could be your mentor.

Anyone, yeah.

You can follow whoever you want. But recent, Dan Gilbert has been, you know, of course, almost quick and long, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Yeah.

You know, he's been a mentor to me. He shared with me, you know, the 19 principles that he uses to revolutionize not only his company but bring back Detroit. And I think that's why my relationship with Dan Gilbert is so important. Bill Emerson, who's also with Quicken Loans, Tony Knuckles, is because I'm watching these guys build Detroit back up. I get to see the millionaires, billionaires who are building the city back up. I know them. I get to call them. I get to do lunch with them. I get to ask them questions. So Dan Gilbert is one, Tom Izzo, definitely, you know, have an opportunity. He seems like an awesome guy. Oh, awesome guy, man. I'm talking about hard-nosed, old-school school just lives by principles, you know, going to the practices, having access to Tom Izzo, you know, another, you know, has been another Mentor, coach Dantonio with the football team. I get an opportunity to, you know, go up there on a regular basis and just watch how he operates. I watch these guys in the film room. I get to see these guys, you know, on the road, on the plane, you know, how they're pouring into these kids and, you know, forcing these kids to get a degree and just the, the exposure. that they're giving to these kids. And then through them, you know, just recently I was through Dan Gilbert, I had a chance to sit down and do lunch with Warren Buffett. That's not somebody that I would normally have exposure to. Sure. So that's why I tell these kids, when you get an opportunity to meet ET, you don't know who else you're meeting. Like, you know, I work with the NFL, I work with the NBA, you know, their kids. You work with Kyrie Irving. I'm like, I work with these kind of guys on a regular basis, you know, and I've learned from Kyrie, I've learned from just when I lecture him, just seeing that passion in his eye, just seeing him listening and following him on Twitter. So I would say that those are some of the people now. And of course, CJ, even though CJ works for me, CJ is a brilliant young man. He really is the brand genius of this company. I've been doing this for years, but CJ kind of came in with just the vision that was just out of this world. So CJ is definitely a mentor. I'm learning a lot from CJ and I would say to young people, if you're living in the community and the resources aren't there, I challenge you to get on the bus and go to the library on the other side of town. I challenge you to go and learn the handles of Messiah. I challenge you to pick up a piano, to pick up a violin. I challenge you to not accept the life that's been given to you. you know, just because somebody gave you that life, that does not have to become your reality. I challenge you to go outside of your immediate environment and I challenge you to explore. You know, I challenge you to discover because there's so much like, if you live in America, you never have to go out of this country. Now, I'm not suggesting that you don't travel, but I'm just saying there's so many great gems in this country. I travel to kids who spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on shoes, to.

I challenge you to get a plane ticket and come to California.

You know, I challenge you to go to Miami. I challenge you to go, you know, Manhattan and New York. I challenge you to see America and get out of your neighborhood, get out.

Of those four walls.

I challenge you to learn a second language.

Yeah.

I challenge you to watch PBS, you know, NPR radio. Like, I challenge you to get out of just that world that you've been given. I challenge you to read books. to learn the history of this company. I challenge you to be bigger, bolder, and better five years from now, 10 years from now. I challenge you to get your high school diploma. Try college. Look, if you don't like it, you can leave, but give it a year. Because so many people think it's just about school. I met some of the greatest friendships, some of the greatest people I met in college. So I would say exposure is so important. And some of the people that we admire are people who have been exposed to things that other people haven't been exposed to.

Just this year alone, you've been speaking a lot. Again, hundreds and thousands of people that come out. What's the biggest challenge that most of these individuals have? What's the common challenge?

They don't believe, man. You know, it's all mental and people don't get it. You know, everybody wants to say, okay, well here go 10 steps to, okay, Louis said do eight, ET said do nine. You know, this person says this is the 12 steps and everybody's trying to get , steps without the mentality. It's like, okay, maybe you don't need all nine or maybe you don't need all eight, maybe you need four, maybe you need 12. I don't know. But I think sometimes they see what we do and say, if I can, if like, if I can duplicate that just like exactly how he's done in the book. Exactly. And it's like, yo, you have a story, you know, you, you have a unique experience. And so your 12 are shaped by, by not just your world, but how your world has shaped your thinking. And I think that's the part that misses like guys, You know, if it was easy, everybody could do it. If it was a cookie cutter, everybody would just follow it to the T. But there's a mindset. And when I looked at Serena, you know, when I look at the Michael Jordans, Tom Brady, you know, when you look at Michael Phelps, like it is a mentality, you know, on our new album, the Resolution, I talk about I got that dog. And I'm not really referring to just this, you know, aggressiveness, but it is a mindset. I saw Belichick said something where, you know, they were like, How you feeling about the Super Bowl? I'm gonna be honest with you. We're five weeks Weeks behind, you know what I'm saying?

He's like, everybody else.

For next year. For next year, everybody else is practicing, training. They lost, you know, they, they, and so they're trying to get ready. They're lifting weights. They're reading books. They're, you know, everybody that lost in study, he's like, yeah, we find, what type of mind says we're five weeks.

Behind the Super Bowl. And they have the Super Bowl. So, but again, it's a mentality, and.

I think a lot of people are missing that mentality. And what's good to get them to develop that mentality and that belief? What's it gonna take? I say for, for me, it was hitting rock bottom. you know, and so hopefully for them is hitting rock bottom or not hitting their goals and having this cycle of loss that they'll say, like a LeBron, you saw LeBron crying. That was because Cleveland had lost for so many years, like they had never had a championship. So he was just like, yo, we finally did it, you know, but it was year after year of losing that even when he left and won, he came back because he remembered a loss and said, yo, this is good. but this isn't what I set out to do. Like, I want to be a winner, and I want this town to know what it feels like to win, you know? So I think that's it. When you lose enough or you hit rock bottom and you just say, like, enough is enough, just everything will snap and change. Because you're saying, look, the way I've been doing it, it's not working. So I have to do something different. So I just think, man, you got.

To hit rock bottom. Here's the interesting thing. I meet a lot of these people, and this is, like, the deadliest person, in my opinion. when someone tells me, you know, Louis, I've got a really good job. I'm making 130 Grand a year. I've been doing it for 20 years. I got a, you know, really good life, good kids, good wife, but just that something's missing. And they got those, like, golden handcuffs, right? Where they. Good life, but it's not outstanding.

Yeah.

What do you say to those individuals who are like, it's hard to really. They don't want to hit rock bottom because they got a good life.

Yeah.

But man, it's really tough to break through that top level.

Look man, I just had this conversation with my number one client in the world, and that's my son. We just had this talk. And I said, son, you are probably at the most dangerous part of your life. And he's like, Dad, I got three months and I graduate from college. I work with Tom Izzo. I wear an elite eight ring, a final four ring dad. I got a job offer of a lifetime and I was like, that's the problem. I'm like, everything you've ever dreamed of, you are three months away. So what happens three months in one day? Like you have nothing son. Like I said, so what you have to do for me is now I need you to start all over from scratch. I need you to come up with what's the next four years look like? What's the next grind? I'm like, is it getting the 800 credit score? Is it saving $250,000? Is it finding the girl your dream and getting married, you know, is it buying a house, helping your mom pay for your sister to go to school? I'm like, son, I don't care what it is, but you don't understand this is dangerous because this is where people mess up. They get comfortable, they saddle and they think, yo, I made it. And like you said, that's the worst place in the world. So I told my son, like, yo, just imagine in three months, you're gonna wake up in every dream you've had since you were six or seven years old. It's all like, who graduates with the dream job? you know, who, who, who lives in New York? Who, who's going, he's in Manhattan. He's gonna be in Manhattan Times Square, you know, so I said, son, this is a dangerous place. So I say to those individuals. Yeah, you're right. You don't want to hit rock bottom, but you have to create your own.

Mental rock bottom so that you don't hit rock bottom. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah.

It's kind of like the power broke, right? Absolutely.

Damon John talking about the power broke all the time. He's even, even if you're the richest guy in the world, you got to act like you got to act like 'cause for what makes Brady want to win a fifth? What makes Jordan 39? At 39, what makes Jordan say, okay, I got four. Like it's not even a new season. He said, we're gonna buy, we got to get the fifth one. What makes Serena get 23 and still going? Like what makes Venus, who was sick and should have been gone, now she's 36 years old. What makes her fight to get to the Australian Open? And I'm telling you, it's not the money, the network, it's not, you know, the vision board. It's, I believe, for those of us who are where we are, it's something within, you know? And you can't go buy that, you know? I can't give it to you. Lewis can't, like, you've got to go within and find that and pull that stuff out. Yeah. What do you think is the best.

Way to develop belief in oneself? I just think, man, for me, I.

Mean, a million ways, but for me, it's like, you got to find that why. You know, it's like, I couldn't imagine not getting up at three o'clock in the morning. Yeah. Because Didi needs me. you know, imagine, you know, and I don't know Ms. Like that. And nobody quote me a call Lewis and say Eric was wrong. Right. But I do know the one thing that they know is stress causes it. And, and the way the Legions grow is because of stress. So my thing is I got to keep the stress off my wife. And right now she's in a hotel, you know, in, in La, you know, she's about to leave her job. And she knows that still financially, we're fine. She has a car and we're taking care. So I'm thinking about my son who I don't want to have , my student loan or my daughter who had a, you know, so for me, it's like, it's my why. And I keep telling people, okay, yeah, Tom Brady, but he was doing it, I believe Roger Goodell, I believe his mom with cancer. I believe he cried when he talked about his father. He has four Super Bowls. He was crying about his father being a hero. I'm like, this is unbelievable. I mean, what more can you ask for? So it's not the car, the house, the whatever, it is that internal goal, that internal why. And so for me, I just think that's it. Like that. Like you. Ah, it just. It's something within and you gotta pull it out. And so it's easy when you have a why, a purpose. I'm doing it for this. I'm doing it for that. It's easy to get up and get going. But if it's just for a car, what happens, Louis, when you get the car? Because you can buy it. What happens when you get the house and you can buy the house? What happens when you get the jet and you got. But the. When it's for your son, that's forever. Like my wife's Ms.

The.

The span of her life. Mm-. It's going to keep me like, it's not, okay, I can get a house and it's over. Like that's going to take me, if she lives another 50, I'm going to be grinding like this for 50. And what I try to explain to people, you have seen this happen before. I don't know if you know a person personally, but you've got a guy whose wife, they've been married 50 years and you know, and she died and this guy dies two weeks later. And it's like, how did you get through, like he got through cancer? You know, he made it through cancer, but his wife dies and he dies a week or two later. why did he get through cancer? Because he was doing it for her. But once she died, that was his whole reason for living, his whole reason for existing. And when that why died, he was like, it's over for me, you know? Or I don't remember Carrie Underwood, I think, was her name. And her, the young lady from Star Wars. What was her name? Yes, I'm not sure. Okay, so I think it's something like that. But she said again. Okay.

And her, to Gary Fisher, passed.

And I think her mom passed, like, a week later. Yeah, a week later. the next day. Wow. We got some smart people here, right? The next day.

So.

So why did she die? Her baby. That was her baby girl. She was all these years that her daughter was struggling with addiction and going through whatever her challenges were. Moms was right there. But once she died, moms, everything died for mom. So I just think that why Lewis is so important. And if your wife is a car, well, you're talking 2015 gets old, what, in 2020? So that's it. Like, you know, your It depreciates in value in what, 10, 20 years maybe? So I think, but when you have that why, that thing pushes you. You're doing it for cancer, for your mom. Tom Brady's thinking in his mind. And one of the players said, Hey, remember you're doing this for your mom. He said it like, Hey, you're doing this for your mom. I know we're down 25-30 points. But you said your mom, you know? And so Tom is like, yep, I told my mom, my dad, and I don't want to see my mom at the end of the game. with a loss and then mom comes up with the scarf and you can see she's going through chemo and he did it for his mom. So you got to have something within man. Yeah.

What's your wife?

Dee Dee, you know, Jalen, Jada, you know, Carl, CJ, their families, you know, I tell people all the time, you know, I'm not working just for me. I promise these guys if they would rock with me, you know, that they would be rewarded. So they have wives, nine children now. They have homes and cars and lifestyles and like what I do every interview, every video, you know, every presentation. If I don't get better, they don't get better. You know? And so when I have these other guys saying, you know, we're gonna catch you, we're gonna be a better speaker, I'm like, well, you better have 100 people you working for because you're not about to beat me. Cause I've got people who are relying like counting on me. When I'm on the treadmill, I'm on a treadmill not because I need to look a certain way. My wife's been she's been in. She got. She got beat. You know what I'm saying? So she's been in for the long haul. I'm fat, small, whatever. She's with me. She's not going nowhere. So I'm not doing it for her. I'm not doing it. My mom's not gonna love me no more if I weigh 155 pounds versus 260. My mom's gonna love me. But if. But if I. If my health lasts for another 30 and I can keep this energy, bro, I'm doing three, four gigs a day. If I can keep this energy for another 20 years financially, you know where the team is gonna be. but if I allow myself to get sick, you know, because I'm not taking care of my body and I can't go speak or I can't consult, then the guys are gonna suffer. Their families are gonna suffer. So, man, I'm telling you, waking up for them, you know, and eating right for them, that's my why, man. And then all those people who see me in the airport who are crying, or those people who see me and say, Hey, you got me through prison or you got me through my exams, I can't afford Lewis to let those people that, like, I'm not an entertainer. You know, entertainers have the luxury of doing whatever they do, you know, on stage, you know, and then they can live whatever life they want to live. Like, nobody holds them to, you know, a standard. But Eric Thomas, people hold me to, like, that's my pastor or that's my mentor. That's my father. Like, there are kids who would say, I don't have a father. Like, you don't know it, but you're my father. People say, like, yo, you were my business partner before I, like, you were my silent business partner. for six years. So if I fall off, they fall off. You know, I've heard CJ say before, like, I'm not trying to be funny and I hope it doesn't happen, but if you got a divorce, I'm thinking like, if you couldn't make it, I'm not gonna be in a man, I wake up thinking about that. That was a conversation we had 10 years ago, maybe. But I wake up like, E, make sure you do what you're supposed to do because so much is riding on your speaking. You know, not tires, but on my speaking.

How do you, yeah, of course. How do you not allow the pressure to overwhelm you? Or how do you reframe it in your mind, not as pressure or something else?

That's what I don't see it as. Pressure, for sure. But I don't see pressure as negative. You know, like you probably, I see pressure as it creates diamonds, you know? So without it, no one could be great. So Didi's MS, you know, and I tell people this all the time, I know guys who literally left their wives when they were diagnosed with maybe cancer or maybe MS, You know, I know a young lady specifically who husband left her after 20 years of her being diagnosed with MS. And I get it. I do understand. But I said in sickness and in health, I can't prove that I really love you without this pressure. Like this pressure proves, like anybody can do it if everything was good. I'm proving under stress. Brady was like, fear without no fear. We got a score right now. We got this. Okay, now we just scored. Now we got to score again. Now it's overtime. Now we really have to score. Because if we don't score now and they score, game is over. So for me, I don't see it as negative. I see it as, yo, pressure is what separates the boys from the men. This is what everybody says. They're a great speaker. They're a great this. Pressure says, okay, we're gonna really see who's the champion. And I'm not trying to, I know it's a lot of Falcon fans out there. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anybody. you know, but they were able to handle a certain amount of success. First quarter, second quarter, third quarter, almost multiple fourth quarter. But when the pressure hit, they weren't able to sustain the success they were having. So once we get to overtime, now all of a sudden it goes to the Patriots and all of a sudden you stop them all this time. But you couldn't stop them when it mattered because that it was a, it was a pressure that a lot of those guys had probably never felt Super Bowl overtime, you know, so they probably never felt We got to stop him now. You know what I'm saying? We got Sack Brady now. Like you were able to get a sack in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, but when you needed to sack most under the most stressful time, you weren't able to produce. Whereas Brady was like, yo, I've been here. I've been here before. So I got it. So for me, the pressure isn't negative. I like the pressure because it's going to separate ETA from all the other companies that say they're the best motivational service companies in the world. Sure. And they might be. It might be 12 of us. I don't know. But if it's 12, we will be among the 12. Yeah, we'll be among the 12. And there's room for everyone. Yeah, absolutely. That can handle the pressure.

Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, that can handle the pressure. Of course. And you can't be at the the calves and the pistons at the same time. So, you know, you got to choose. Let's talk about ego. And, you know, we have, I would say, similar kind of businesses where we're we're in the face, right? Where the personalities were leading the charge. and without us, they probably want to be as successful as it is, right? We're speaking, we're doing the videos, all that stuff. How do you separate your personal ego from not getting in the way to being able to be the biggest service that you can in the world as opposed to it's all about, you know, me mentality, but all about serving your audience. How do you separate that for yourself?

Yeah, it's the same way I look at the face. You know, the eye is very important, but not without the nose. you know, and the nose has its significance, but not without the ear. So I don't know if the ear is sweeter than the nose. You know, I don't know if the ear could say, yo, hey, I'm the ear. Like, come on. I don't know if the eyes can say, hey, without us guys, we couldn't see. Absolutely. But see what, you know? So for me, I think I don't have an ego problem because I understand I I play a, a significant role, you know, in a, in a, in a phenomenal organization, you know, and without those other pieces, the success that I'm having, I wouldn't have, you know? So yeah, I may be the face, but I'm not the nose, I'm not the eye, I'm not the mouth, I'm not the ear. So there's no success without those things. And I had a long career without the people who work with me now and had a very good career. And now I have a phenomenal career. So I understand, I can, you know, some people have like one group, and it's like, this happened with that group. No, I had a group and I have another group. So I played with the Cleveland Cavs back in this time frame. Then I'm playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers at this time. And I had success with the first Cleveland. I got contracts. I got, you know, people knew who I was. But with this one, I'm winning. We got Hardware now. We're in the championship. So it's easy for me now because I realized, hey, without these guys, I wouldn't have X, Y and Z. And so I don't see myself as, okay, I did these videos.

No.

If Carl didn't record them and edit them, nobody would even know who I am. I would have just been that sweet dude in that room.

That one, those 50 people would have.

Been like, yo, eat a man. But with the videos, you know, with C's strategic branding and saying, okay, it needs to be done this way, this way, this way. I wouldn't make the money I'm making. My kids wouldn't have the lifestyle. My wife wouldn't have the lifestyle. So for me, it's not, it's not an ego. It's not, my mother used to always tell us, don't say you're humble because you have to have something to be humble. My mother say, say you're grounded, you know? And so for me, I'm grounded. I know that I'm not that deep, but I am one piece of a phenomenal puzzle.

Yeah, that's great, man. That's funny. In the beginning of every one of my chapters in my book, I talk about getting grounded. Preparing yourself. We say, get grounded. I think it's important.

You stole it from me.

Probably not, but it's probably, yeah, yeah, yeah. What would you say are the three biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make? that don't make them successful or three big mistakes that someone who's not an entrepreneur but someone just trying to get what they want. What are those three big things that they do that that are mistakes?

Yeah.

For me, I think most people move.

Without knowing, you know, no vision.

Yeah. I just think, man, you know, for.

A lot of people.

They have not literally sat down and thought through what will this take?

Yeah. You know. Okay.

So I want to be a real estate.

Yeah.

Okay.

Real estate. great. But have you spent months and years asking yourself, what are the qualities of a great real estate, you know, individual? What are the great books that we need to read? What's the knowledge that you need to know? Like, I think people get started from feelings. They get started from these great ideas, but they don't get started from facts.

Yeah.

And I'm telling you, one of the things Warren Buffett said that blew my mind. When they asked him his routine, he said he spends the first-- well, he didn't say first, but he just said six hours a day he's reading. And I'm like, okay, so just in case you missed that, because I don't want you to go and just buy a whole bunch of books and start.

Reading for six hours a day.

What I heard was his decision-making process is so much stronger than mine's because it's based off of six hours of information. That's incredible. so you spent six hours. So a lot of basketball players that I meet D1 ballers, they spend more time playing the game than they do studying the game. So they don't like watching film, they don't like practicing. And so I would say to the entrepreneur out there, it's not about what you know that's going to create success in your life. It's what you don't know. It's the gaps that's going to break your company. It's those little things that you don't do that you didn't know you were supposed to do. that will break the back of your company. That would allow the other guy to get breaks that you don't get. So, for me, I started this company and it was just little things that I just didn't know that going to conferences and meeting people, I did not know that Eric, whether you like meetings or not, you need to have meetings and not just have meetings for meeting's sake. There needs to be measurements. There needs to be accountability. There needs to be immediate goals and long-term goals. There needs to be look at the threats, look at the opportunities. So, the first thing I think is that most people are starting a business without truly being informed. You may have 70% knowledge or 60%, but you're not operating on 100% information and you're so eager and you're so desperate to make money. You're so desperate to move forward that you haven't spent the quality time building a solid foundation. So number two, I think the problem is once we are informed, formed. We don't have the design, you know, if, and when I say design, let me just say this, you guys know I'm from Detroit. We call it recall in Detroit. So, so a car industry would make a car, but the design of that car is not thorough. So they have to call it back. Something wrong with the brake system, something wrong with the acceleration, something's wrong with the ignition, which could create death.

Sure.

Right.

So it has. For many people it has. So what they have done is they have created a car, but the design was not of greatness, it was not excellent. And so I would say to people, number two, after the knowledge, make sure that your design, the design of your company, the strategy of your company, the infrastructure of your company is sound. Because what we've discovered is that most companies don't make it past three years. Now, I don't know the statistics, but they're high. I think it's over 60% of first-time businesses don't make it past three years.

Why?

Because they're building off a sand and they're not building off a solid foundation. So number two, make sure your infrastructure is solid. Now, we're gonna be around for a long time. Now, a lot of people say, you know, we don't, we didn't know who Eric Thomas was before.

Before.

You know, we've never heard of this guy before. And the reason why you hadn't heard of me, because I've been building the infrastructure like an ant. Like if you study the hand, when you look at the infrastructure underground of an ant, they say it's like they're highways and freeway. They say it's like they're building Rome. Their infrastructure is solid. And so you haven't heard about Eric Thomas.

Why?

Because I've been getting the Masters, I've been getting the PhD. You know, I've been meeting with some of the best leaders in the world, the John Maxwell's, you know, the Bob Proctor's, the Les Brown's. Like, I've been meeting with these individuals. So, I've been getting my infrastructure solid, okay? And so now that I'm out, because.

This is what happens.

I don't know if you guys, I want to make sure that because this is radio, that or your audio, you're hearing us. I want to give you the visual. But there was a commercial years ago of a company you know, that had made this great brand. And so they were looking for one.

Of these.

I guess, you know, UPS, FedEx, these packaging companies to, you know, help support them. And so when they started, the very first day they opened, they had like 300 sales, a thousand sales. Before you know, they had like 3,000 sales and it overwhelmed them, you know, because they weren't ready for, while the product was great, they didn't have the shipping aspect great. So it overwhelmed they had like 3,000 and you can see the numbers going up, going up. And they're sitting there like, oh, there's no way possible for us to get, you know, 3,000 of our designs out to the world because their infrastructure was not solid. And the last thing I think is the discipline. I think where most people go wrong is that once they have the knowledge, once they have the infrastructure in place, they don't have the discipline that it takes to become successful. By discipline, I mean there are many opportunities that I've had to do TV. There are opportunities that I've had to work for specific companies, but I had the discipline to say, no, it's not the time. Not right now. No, I would love to be in TV, but TV would take away from my ultimate goal. And no, I don't want to get.

Up and go to class.

And no, I don't want to work on a PhD. And no, I don't feel like writing. And no, I don't feel like working out. And so I find that most people aren't successful because they don't have the discipline it takes. The discipline to say no when they should say no. The discipline to say yes when they should say yes. And more importantly, the discipline to wait. And so for a lot of us, we get broke in that waiting process. And I found that a lot of companies that initially told me no. And I said, no, I can't do it for that price. I can't do it under these circumstances. Three years later, when my videos kept going up, the numbers kept going up, now they're like, Eric, we want to work with you. And they're willing to pay me what I feel my product is valued at. And why? Because I waited. I didn't say yes to everything. I didn't bite at the first opportunity. you know, I wasn't desperate. I knew my stuff. I knew I had put in the time. I knew I had made the investment. And so now I'm considered one of the top motivational speakers in the world, one of the top coaches in the world.

Why?

Because, man, I got the knowledge first. I've been in this thing over 20 years. I've built a strong infrastructure and I've had the discipline it takes to say no to some things, say yes. to some things and more importantly, I've been able to wait. I've been able to wait and now that I've waited, I think I'm on the show with you so apparently my time is up.

I love it, I love it. I was speaking to a class yesterday, a small class of students, high school students and they were in a leadership class talking about public speaking and a lot of them, their biggest fear is speaking. So how did you overcome the fear? Maybe it sounds like you never were afraid to speak in front of a group, but how?

How was I still am?

How do people overcome that fear?

When you realize that you're not speaking so that people can critique you, you're speaking to change their life. So you have the opportunity. I don't know if there's anything, okay, I'm sure there is, but I don't know if there are more ways to change people than being upfront and like literally speaking like that. I don't know what the power is, but there is a power you know, when you sit down and you're letting somebody's like, like, control your thinking, control, like they're putting work. And so I realized like, yo, this is a crazy responsibility. But literally, I have a chance. When a kid is listening to me for 30 minutes, he can walk out and his life can be changed forever. So when I shift the focus from how do I sound? How do I look? I want people to say nice things about me, too. I'm going to change your life forever. The, the, I would say there's still some anxiety because I want to make sure I do it effectively, but it takes the pressure off because it's not about me now. It's about changing this kid's life, making principles go back, teachers go back, parents go back with a vision or an excitement or a hunger that they didn't have prior to me being there. So for me, it's like, I think if you're focused on, well, I'm gonna get a letter of recommendation, are they gonna bring me back or are they gonna say positive things about me? Am I gonna get more likes? you know, is my social media go, maybe you should be afraid, but if you go in saying, I'm gonna change this kid's life forever. I'm gonna change his life, this marriage forever. If you go in with that, it.

Kind of takes some of the edge. Yeah, I love that. And that's kind of like the Michael Jordan approach where he said, you know, every night I knew someone in the arena was coming to watch me, and I had to show up to be, to be a catalyst of possibilities or hope for them. Right. And it's funny, because for years when I was speaking, I was always the other way. I was always nervous about what are people gonna say? Are they gonna like me? Are they gonna boo me? Am I gonna forget my words or whatever? And it was always about the ego, like, am I gonna look okay? And then a couple of years ago, I got some great teaching that from someone who said exactly what you said essentially about remove yourself from the situation and make it about the audience. Make it about how can you be in service the maximum way. So I love that you're teaching that and I'm sure the entire training is gonna be more of those great things. So make sure you guys go check it out and get it. How do you prepare mentally before either a school of again six or a corporation of 6,000? Do you have the same mental preparation or ritual before you jump on stage or get in front of a room? If so, what is that?

I think it's every day. That's why I'm in a school every day. That's why I don't wait until I get a call. That's why if there's a corporate company that I have a relationship with, I just did something for five guys I'm staying in touch with.

The owners.

I'm staying in touch with the staff. I'm going to five guys locally and saying, hey, you guys were at the conference. If anything I can help you with. So I think that's the thing CJ teaches us to stay ready. You know, that's the theme. Stay ready. So a part of staying ready is, you don't gotta get ready. Yeah, you don't have to get ready. So the NFL players that I work with, I'm constantly on the phone with those guys. I'm on the phone with the coaches. I'm constantly asking questions like, I don't assume that I can wait for the call and then prepare myself in 30, 40 minutes to be ready to, to, to, to affect. So I create relationships with these individuals. I create friendships with these individuals, and I stay in touch with them on a regular basis, adding value. Like, how can I add value to your life? And then they just keep me, E, man, you don't, you don't realize, you know, what's going on in the NFL. It's like we watching the Super Bowl, and then the day after we got to do this, and then E, man, it's like from January to April, like, mentally, we just got at home, and, you know, we, we got friends that are trying to distract us, and we don't want and I'm like, oh, there we go. All right, Carl, let's put some videos together for that. All right, let's put a curriculum together for that. And so I'm talking, talking, talking. So then when a team calls me and says, you know, the Browns called me. He Jack said, E.T. I want you to come and work with me. Well, now, when I get there, I'm already, I already know some of the things that he would need as a coach to help these young players. And as much as I'm allowed to, I'm, I'm going to have that impact. So I just stay in school, stay in detention centers. Now my daughter is going to the detention centers with me. She wants to be a social worker, you know, so I'm staying tapped in. My son's a general manager. So when I do stuff with teams, I bring him along when he can come. So just staying in the environment, staying with the post, because if you know the post, it's all you man, it's easy. All you're doing is just rehearsing, you know, it's like you're doing you practice, practice, practice, practice. Yeah. You just lay it out.

Yeah. it's nothing different.

It's nothing different.

Doing it every day.

But if you do it once every month, it could be. It could be a challenge.

Challenging. Yeah.

What do you think about before you go to bed?

Am I gonna wake up the next morning, you know, and if I don't, what pieces do I need to put in place so that my wife is. Well, as a matter of fact, you know, it's funny you asked me that. I felt in my spirit, you know, how stuff just comes. I said the other day, because my daughter's 18 and, you know, she's starting. she's probably been interested in dating, just didn't share that with me. I had to be careful. I say that, you know, I was about to say, my daughter just started that. No, no, no. She's probably just felt comfortable telling me that she likes boys, you know? So what I've been doing is I say, E, you know what you need to do? You need to sit down on this phone and you need to talk your daughter through a relationship just in case you don't make it. You know, you talk your son through his 20s, just in case on one of these flights, something you know, what's to happen? And so that's what I've been thinking about lately is E. How do you prepare them even in your death? Like how do you set up your family in a structure in such a way that if you're not physically here, that coaching is still here. Yeah. Your voice is still in their ear, you know? So that's what I've been thinking about. And then more importantly, like the mistakes I made that day, E. I always see it, you know, working with Coach Izzo. One of the things I've learned from Coach is he uses his time outs wisely. he uses half times wisely. He's constantly trying to make adjustments, you know, during that time frame. So for me, going to bed is rest. Yeah. And so prior to going to bed, I'm like, yo, E, what adjustments, you know, do you need to make?

And then, you know, make those adjustments when I make, I wake up that next morning.

What do you think your biggest weaknesses are, man? Just wanting to do too much, man. You know, you know, you think about it all, right?

Yeah.

Education. I think about marriage. I think about, and all of them are, you know, equally important. People get divorced. You know, you got kids who don't finish school. You got kids who make terrible decisions and they're on the streets or prisons. Like, I could just do prison or I could just do education. So sometimes it's just like, yo, it's just like, y'all want to save the world. And, you know, I have to explain to my wife, I can't help that I want to save the world. You know what I'm saying? Like, I didn't wake up one day and say, I want to save the world. I didn't push a button and say, all right, save the world. It's like I was born with it. I was born to care. I see people, I'm trying to stop, hug everybody before I get on my flight. I don't carry money anymore, 'cause I always give it away. It's like I didn't ask to be this guy, and it's not a lot of say the world people out, you know what I'm saying? So sometimes you like a freak, you know what I'm saying? It's like, when are you gonna stop? When are you gonna quit? When you go, I'm like, yo, I wanna stop. But when I sleep, I'm dreaming of people. I got a person just recently who, unfortunately, I was trying to coach and mentor, and the relationship didn't work out. I literally had a dream about those individuals hugging them and their family, you know what I'm saying? I hadn't even talked to the person in 30 days, but I'm still thinking about them. Like in my sleep, I didn't ask to do that. I didn't ask to care to that level. Like some people are like, some people I know, they're good. Like they can get rid of a person and like never think about that person. Like I'm not wired like that. Like I can't abandon you because you did something I didn't like. Like I'm just wired to be a shepherd. I'm wired to serve, you know? So, but sometimes it causes challenges because other people are like, yeah, well I'm focused. I gotta do this. I got to do that. Or my wife was like, well, what about our family? Cut that off and just us. And I'm like, okay, I'm trying, but I don't know where the switch is. I don't know where the switch is. If I found out where it was, I would cut the circuit breaker off and then cut it back on three, four hours later. So I think that's probably my greatest weakness is I do want to save the world and you got to be balanced. You got to take care of your family, you got to take care of your staff, and you got to know when to say no and when to say yes. But it's still a challenge. Absolutely. Every school called. Why didn't he come to our school? Why didn't he come to this school? Eric, he thinks he's big time now. Like, he was in our town and he went to these schools. Why didn't he come over to here? Does he only work with this group.

Or does he only work with that group? And it's just like, I want to.

Save everybody, but it's 20 hours in a day. So what's in the way? What's in the gap for you for achieving your dreams? Time, you know, and just prioritizing. And, you know, that's the beauty of having a team you talked about earlier. Now as the team grows, you can have more Chick-fil-A's. You know what I'm saying? You take them from the South now, they're starting to see them in Michigan and Illinois and whatever. So when you get that model, and I think that's what, you know, having a CJ and a Josh right now, what they're trying to do is say, hey, let's turn to ET. If you have a program, P70 speaker training, then you're not hitting these two or three people here, 10 people there. Now you have this academy, you can bring people and you can do more. So for me, that's not my, thing, but having a team of guys now who are saying, hey, let's make it a machine.

Yeah.

You know, and if it's a plane, we get you a 757, we can put three, four hundred people on. We still can't do it the way you want to do it. You still can't get a million people. Yeah, yeah. You can't create a machine for a million people, even. We can get you, we can get 500 people on the plane for you, and you can take care of those 500, you know? So I think that has been in a way, it's no longer a challenge. They're actually developing that as we speak. And I think that's gonna help me feel better that I've saved a million this year. I still gotta get to those billions. We'll take the millions that we can get this year. I like that.

And who was the most influential person in your life growing up?

Probably my mom.

Biggest lesson she taught you? What's that?

Mom's like, no excuse. My grandma had 14 kids. My mom was the only one, really, to finish high school. 14? 14.

Holy cow.

And lost a set of twins, so it should have been 16. in a three bedroom house with one bath, you know. And I just said, yeah, no, Chicago. We're originally from Chicago. And I saw my mom. My mom went back to college at 48 and graduated at 52. So my mom is that dog. You know what I'm saying? When I think about that, that's my mom, you know? And even though I used to be upset with my mom because she lied about, you know, who my biological father was, it was a plan. You know, my mom was like the original Olivia Pope. you know what I'm saying? Mom's like, we're gonna, you know, I'm saying they not gonna know who you are. They not, like, how do you get two families not to say who your father is? And I was with my biological father's family. I was with my grandma, my aunts, and didn't know who he was. Wow. So my mom had a straight, like, she had it planned out, you know, like, yo, this is what's gonna happen. You're gonna go to school. My mother would like sleep in tents so I can go to special schools, you know, because they had, it's like, you don't know the waiting list. you know, so she would live in like in a tent really like, you know, just like, you know, camp out if you will for me to get in. So mom is, you know, she started as a photographer in 1819, turned that into microfilm, you know, for Ford, graduate, finish Ford with a degree, you know, and put herself like one of the highest levels you could go. So just seeing my mom grind all these years and not say, well, I didn't have my father in my life and I grew up in poverty on a South side of Chicago. I went, Mom didn't make any excuses. Mom said, Hey, we'll do whatever it takes. And so, Mom is definitely man, even though we had an estranged relationship, you know, for a couple years I left and was immature, but Mom has definitely always been that person that I, you know, because some of our challenges, I wouldn't say that I had my mom's picture on the wall, but we've always been emotionally attached, you know, we've always been very close, you know, and so Mom has definitely been that person that.

I learned my grind from. and what would you say is the biggest lesson you learned from your father or the absence of your father?

That you could fake it like you care, but you can't fake it like you're there, you know? And I think it's so weird, man. Like, when I worked with the Browns this year, I didn't get to talk as much as I'm used to talking. You know, that wasn't the role, which was weird for me because I'm like, yo, I'm a. I talk, but, man, I would literally come to the meetings. or I would be on the field as they're coming out getting ready for the game. And I remember God saying to me, like, yo, I still can't believe you on the field, E. Like, yo, I've been watching you since I was in high school. I cannot believe you standing here with, you know, with my team's t-shirt on. Like, yo, this is unreal. And I would have guys from the other team, like, okay, I know you with the Browns, E, but hey, when I was with Oregon or Alabama, you came to my school, you know, and just to see that, the talking is good, but being present and holding somebody and looking them in their eyes and saying like, yo, you could do this like after a loss in Cleveland and just being there and they're like, yo, E, we lost 10 games. You still here? We lost 12 games. Like, yo, I'm here. I'm not here win or lose. Like I'm not here. I'm here for you. And to be able to be there for people, I'm realizing that's the best as a father. I'm there for my children. you know, the staff, as much as I can be, I'm there for the staff. Like I'm not in my own world, whatever. We eat together, we fly together, you know, we in the same car. I don't have, well, I might be Hollywood, I don't know. I might need a chauffeur these days, you know what I'm saying? But I mean, we still do everything together, you know? So for me, I'm realizing the power of presence. You don't have to always talk. You don't have to give people gifts. Sometimes just being in people's life. Through the ups, the downs, the bad, the ugly, the snow, the sleep, people value and appreciate you just being present.

Well, I love hearing that a Michigan guy is in Ohio supporting my team.

No questions.

We need to let the coach have you speak before every pregame.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Warm them up. You hear this, Hugh?

Let's go. Come on, Cleveland. A few more questions for you. And I could talk with you all day. I love this.

And.

What are you most proud of that most people don't know about you, man?

I don't know. What am I most proud of? I don't know. I don't know that I have any, like, individual Pride. I think what I'm most proud of is that I've been able to get with a group of men, and we've been able to become Brothers, and we haven't let egos get in the way, and we've been able to change the world with little or Like when you look at our company, you know, we're from Lansing, Michigan. Like that's where we started in Lansing. We didn't have any support and I've got to change. I used to always say, nobody gave us anything, but a lady wrote me a check for $1,000 at the free program I do at Michigan State. So that's, I can't say that.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? But we haven't had a lot. And like I said, egos haven't gotten away. It's not a thing of, you know, you're bigger than me or I'm bigger than you. You know, like for real, financial records, Just everything. We've shared everything. And for us to be three young men from Lance and Detroit Barbados, and to be able to change the world, like you don't know what it feels like to just have people, like I can't go anywhere anymore. Like people know who I am. And people was at the NFL experience, and I remember we went to a restaurant and I saw a hip hop artist that would walk in and nobody wouldn't say anything to him other than, you know, they go, but people would walk up to me and hug me and start crying and say, look, guy, I'm not a groupie. Like Eric Thomas, do not get this twisted. I don't take pictures with celebrities, but you changed my life. And this is bigger than I met a guy when we were at the, when we came in last night to the hotel, he said, Yo E, I don't want to say anything to you, but like I built my business because of you. Like you changed my life. Like I hear this every day. And so for me, it's like I'm proud of the fact that we were able to build something that helps people and not necessarily just the focus on us. But we meet people that say, man, I made $15 million in the last three years watching you guys, your free podcast, your free this, your free that. So for real, man, a group of guys coming together in a room and having a dream and a goal and having a blue collar, forgive me, but a blue collar, we're not Apple, we're not Microsoft, and maybe we're not in the big magazines and some of the you know, more powerful people in the world may not necessarily be talking about it, but the everyday people who are struggling to get up and get at it are saying, yo, you helped me. And for me, it's like, yo, we're contributing to America just like all these other great Apple phones. We're changing lives in the grow. So that's what I'm probably, you know, most proud of, of what we've done. I can't think of any individual thing I've done. It took me 14 years to get You know, I mean 12 years to get a 40 degree. So I don't really know that I have anything like, for real, I was homeless high school drop out, eating out of trash cans. I don't know if I've ever had that thing that I did. Like I wasn't an athlete. Like I've never had that thing that I can hang my hat on as an individual, you know what I'm saying? But as a team, I can truly say, I can hang my hat on as ETA, we have, like we would be Magnum, Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude, whatever that is. Like we would be up here, with highest honors. Oh yeah, no doubt we would be up there.

If you want more greatness in your life, then you gotta check out this video right here. You had a great quote that said, rest at the end, not in the middle. And that's something I always live by.

I'm not gonna rest.

I'm gonna keep on pushing now. There are a lot of answers that.

I don't have, even questions that I don't have.

But I'm just gonna keep going.