The $0 to $1M Blueprint | Lewis Howes

I'm not an astronaut. I don't need an astronaut. Audiences have spoken. Project Hail Mary is an awe-inspiring masterpiece. So I met an alien. If you've fallen out of love with going to the movies, this one will bring you back. Leggo! Ryan Gosling in the first must-see movie of 2026. Project Hail Mary, rated PG-13, may be inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters March 20th. The School of Greatness is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. It feels good to be understood. Amica goes above and beyond to customize the right coverage for you by taking the time to really understand your needs, because creating peace of mind is at the heart of Amica's mission. And whether you are at home or on the road, Amica knows it's not just about where you are going, but who you go with. Go with the insurer that truly understands you. As a mutual company, Amica puts its customers' needs first. Visit amica.com and get a quote today. Hiring isn't just filling seats. With Indeed Sponsored Jobs, they'll help you match with candidates who can actually move your business forward. Target candidates by skills, certifications, or location. Join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results now with Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help you get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed. If you're looking to make more money in your life, there is one core belief that you need to shift in order to create that abundance for yourself. Because people only value you as much as you value yourself. And until you change your mindset around money and around your own personal value, you're never gonna make the money you truly want, and you're never going to feel free with the money you actually have. So today I'm here with a member of Team Greatness who's gonna be asking some questions that you've asked me personally online to help you figure out how to go from zero to a million and really how to set yourself up for financial success. So what is some of the questions that we're hearing that you'd like to share? So can you talk about how people can really recognize their value? Yeah, I think it's first, like, you have to, you know, if you're just chasing a career or if you're chasing money and you don't believe that you have value within you, you're not going to have the confidence. So if you're going into an interview or if you're trying to sell something and you don't believe that you're valuable or that you've created a certain amount of skill sets or that you have worth, then it's going to be hard to get someone to give you money. It's going to be hard to sell something because you internally don't believe that you're deserving of it. So I think we need to do a couple of things is do a skill assessment. With yourself first. When I was starting out, I didn't think I had any value to give anyone because I was a football player. I struggled in school and I didn't really study for the real world in school. So I didn't develop skills. The only skill that I really had was typing. That was kind of like a skillset. I took one class that I really focused on because I thought maybe I need to learn this skill so I can actually type really fast. But I was like, how am I going to make money with typing? And I didn't think I had any other skills that would actually be valuable in the marketplace. But what I started to do is someone told me this early on. They said, create a list of all your skills, even if you don't think you have anything worth value. And I just started writing down stuff like, I'm a good person. I said, you know, I'm good with people. I like asking questions. You know, I'm courageous. I can try stuff and fail, but none of these things made sense to me of how they would make money. But it's everything I'm doing now with the School of Greatness. Like I ask questions and that's how I make money. Like I try new things and I make mistakes and I'm good with people, but that I just didn't see that there was value there because I saw all of my limitations. I saw all the things that I struggled in. Struggled in school, you know, I couldn't keep a job in school, whatever it might be. So I looked at all the things that I struggled with and I put emphasis on the lack of value rather than these kind of invisible valuable skills that I had that I eventually learned how to make them more into money. And so I think first creating an assessment, and if you still at the end of the day can't think of anything that you find valuable about yourself, I would ask the people closest to you. I would ask your friends or your partner or family member and say, hey, I'm struggling with, with figuring out where I add value. Where do you think my skill sets lie? You know, what am I good at? What am I talented at? What would you come to me for advice for? And I think if you can self-assess and also get an assessment from the people around you, you're going to start to say, okay, here's some of my value. Now you have to also figure out how to turn that value into money eventually. How do we make money from our value? Again, I didn't know the School of Greatness was going to come from being curious, not having the answers to anything, and being good with people. I didn't know I could build an 8-figure media business around that. And so I think it was being okay in the first step with not knowing how you're going to make money and first collecting the the skills, the knowledge that you have first, and being aware of your talents first. That's the first key. It's just being aware of the value you already have. Can you explain the cross-section of skills and passion? If you can do something that you are, or have value and really enjoy, then I think you've like won the lottery. I think it's like the best thing ever. It still doesn't mean, you know, I love doing what I do, but I still have challenging days. I still have hard work to do. I still have work that I don't like doing. I still have things that need to take on that maybe aren't the, the most fun and joyful moments. But because I'm excited about the mission that we have, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. So if you can have both the things you're passionate about and excited about, or be in that space that excites you, and be around people that are good people— because you could also be working on something but have people around you that are draining your energy and it not be fun or enjoyable anymore. So it's like, you want to be around the people that are fun or enjoyable to be around. You want to be working on something that is enjoyable for you and using your skills and talents to making money. I think that's kind of like the jackpot. But you know, we're all human beings, so we have flaws and we have good days and bad days. And so you just have to navigate life that way. But that's really the sweet spot. But there were many times where I had jobs early on before I kind of got into this space. I was a truck driver and it wasn't like this thing I was passionate about. I was driving a truck 6 hours a day And I was making $250 a week driving 6 hours a day. So I wasn't making a lot of money. I, it wasn't a skill that I was excited about to use. I wasn't around people or asking questions. And I think sometimes we need to be willing to try certain things also that we don't like to realize like, okay, I tried that. I don't want to do that. But at that time, I just needed to make money. I needed a way to make money. And that was a season of life where I was making money as a bouncer at a nightclub on the weekends, even though I don't drink alcohol and never drank. I, that was the job that was available. The truck driver job was the job that was available. You know, the odd jobs that I would do is like whatever was available for me to make money. I still had to go make money. That's maybe the least desirable thing is just being completely broke and having no job, no opportunity. The second least desirable thing is making money doing something that you hate. And we want to work our way up to like, okay, how do we find a job where it's like we can use our skill sets, our talents? We can also grow as individuals and develop skills while making money. We can be around people that are hopefully good people overall, maybe not perfect, but hopefully good overall, a good environment, and then doing something that we are inspired by with a bigger mission. Behind it as well. And I think if we can find that eventually, and it may take time, that's the sweet spot. What's the next step after identifying your value? You want to be thinking about the skills that can make you more money. And again, in the beginning, I had an assessment of my skills, but I didn't know how to monetize them. And I thought I really, I really needed to learn how to develop different skills where I could maximize the original skills I had. Good with people, curious, courageous, willing to fail. Like those skills I had, but I needed some other skills to marry them with, to partner them with that could actually help me make money. So early on, I read a book called The 4-Hour Workweek, and it was teaching a lot about how to build an online business. This was in 2008 and 2009 when I read this. It was actually Christmas of 2007. But I started kind of researching more in 2008, 2009. At that time, I was learning from a lot of these thought leaders about copywriting. They were like, if you want to sell, if you want to make money, you need to be able to sell. And you can sell through the spoken word or the written word. And at the time, I didn't know how to do either. I could type, but I didn't know how to communicate, right? All I did was ask questions. I didn't know how to sell myself. And so I was afraid to speak in public still. I had courage to try things, but that's something that held me back. And so there were two things I did. I started studying copywriting like a maniac. I started reading copywriting blogs, teaching you about headlines, teaching about hooks, intros, you know, but more from a marketing standpoint, not from school. 5-page essay structure standpoint. Like, how do you persuade someone to buy? And that became a fascination of mine is learning persuasion, reading the book Influence by Robert Cialdini and reading all these books and blogs about copywriting and persuasion gave me skills by practicing it. I was writing then almost weekly newsletters, blogs. I was creating landing pages for webinars. I was trying all these things to see what would work. And through that repetition and through the study of, of copywriting, that became a superpower of mine, you know, building an email list, getting people to buy products and courses and coaching from me, getting them to buy books, whatever it might be. And so I learned that you don't have to be good on camera to make money, but you do need to learn to develop these other skills. So that was one skill was the, the written word. Then I also realized that a big fear of mine was speaking in front of other people, and I didn't want that to hold me back anymore. So I started going to Toastmasters every single week for a year to learn public speaking. And this gave me more skills, more tools that increased my value, right? So I had original value based on assessment and what other people told me. Then I saw where I was deficient in my skills. That if I really want to make money, I need to grow and expand my value. So copywriting was one thing, just consuming more knowledge. So I had knowledge and information was another. Learning how to do public speaking was another. Then I started creating webinars and doing online presentations. The more confidence I got, I started doing these weekly webinars teaching what I was learning. So it was just like practice, rep, practice, rep. Let me see what's working. Are people responding to this?. And those practice reps gave me more confidence based on the feedback I was getting, right? People were like, wow, that was really helpful. You know, do you have any more information? I was like, yes, I do. So it was okay, let me learn, develop new skills, let me practice. And now I'm expanding and growing my value internally and externally. And I was building an audience in that, in that, in that process. And another skill that I was expanding on was just learning the value of building a personal brand. Making content, doing photography, doing videos, you know, doing social media back in 2009. It was kind of the early days of personal branding on the internet. And it was something I was leaning into, even though I didn't know what I was doing. But all these things, it's like marrying the innate skills that I had with developing money-making skills and then fusing them together and saying, okay, now how can I really make money? And that's where the School of Greatness eventually was born from, was like, okay, I had years of these reps from learning these new skills and now let me launch this show as well. And I was already making millions doing online courses, coaching, membership sites, events, books, retreats, all these different things before the School of Greatness through these repetitions, the repetitions of building and growing my value. And I think that's a lot of times people are so afraid to try something new or they'll just learn a skill, but they won't apply the skill because they don't want to fail. And so you hear this all the time from people saying, you know, I've had a dream of writing a book for 10 years, but I have just been waiting for the right moment. And, or they've always wanted to launch a podcast, but they haven't done it yet, but they've been thinking about it for years. What does what are the chances actually mean? I heard this at a mastermind early on. I think it was 2009 or 2010. One of my first masterminds I went to, a guy named Paul Evans said this. He said, these 3 words will change your life. What's the chance? And then he was giving these examples and I was like, huh, I'm just going to start trying this. And I guess it's been 17 years now since that I heard that. And I've used those 3 words. What's the chance? I don't know, thousands of times over the last 17 years because it works and you can use it with yourself. You can use it with others. I did it as a game and an experiment early on just at like, if I was going to a coffee shop, I would just say, what's the chance you can give me this for free? I was just like, what are they going to say? Maybe they say no, maybe they laugh and say no way, but what's the chance they'll give me this coffee for free, this $5 coffee for free? And sometimes people would, and I, or I would just say, okay, what's the chance you give this to me for free? And they wouldn't. And then say, what's the chance you can give me 20% off? Come on, really? You can't give me 20% off the store discount. I know you have that employee discount. Can you give it to me? What's the chance? Can you, can you just break the rules a little bit today? And almost every time people are like, yeah, I'll give you 10% off. Like people have the power to do so much more for you than you think. If you're willing to risk looking a little silly or embarrassing yourself or people saying no. And I think it's just the willingness to be audacious enough to ask for things that most people are afraid to ask for. And I don't look at it as like a bad thing. I look at it as, and listen, I can afford paying for my own coffee. That's not what it's about. It's about developing the skill of feeling uncomfortable asking for something that most people never ask for. Because when you can do that with a $5 thing and then you're asking someone for $50,000 and you're building up to that, you're— or you're asking for a 20% raise or you're whatever it is, it's like you're developing an inner value. You're expanding that value inside of you and externally through results, and you're showing your value to the world. Again, whether that's in a career, whether that's to your audience online, if you're building an audience and selling a product, it doesn't matter where it is. We need to expand our value. And you can expand your value through skill sets, results, and the perceived value that you have of others, which is your personal brand, or how people perceive you around you. It's what they think about you, based on the results you're getting. And if they see you're getting results for other people, they're going to say, wow, Lewis is— he coaches a lot of top entrepreneurs and he helps them get clear on their mindset and get exponential results in their business. Huh, maybe I should sign up for his mastermind, his coaching. Maybe I should get his book. Maybe I should listen to his show. It's the perception. Hopefully the real perception. You don't want to lie to people because if you have fake results and you're perceiving that, you're going to get found out. But if you have real case studies, real results for people you've worked with, or people have— you've had a product and people have gotten results there, then those testimonials become a perceived value as well. They become your brand, what people say about you when you're not around. And all of that plays into developing skills, knowing your value, and expanding your value. Imagine never buying gas again. Just plug in your car like you plug in your phone. That's the power of driving electric. It's not just good for the planet, it's actually more convenient and more affordable. I've actually been driving a Tesla for a couple of years now, and I love it. I can charge it overnight in my garage, and when I'm on the go, I hit a fast charger and I'm back on the road in no time. No gas stops, no oil changes, just smooth, quiet, reliable drives. EVs are built for real life. With daily range that lets you go wherever you need to go without worry. And the savings? Up to $2,000 a year just by skipping the gas pump. And with over 100 new and used EV models available right now, there's truly something for every lifestyle and budget. The way forward is electric. Learn more at electricforall.org. Running a small business is not easy, and I know how much pressure comes with it. And when it's time to look for funding, It can feel overwhelming trying to figure out who you can trust. Big banks turn you down. Online, you see offers with sky-high rates and fine print that makes your head spin. And whether you're covering payroll, managing cash flow, or investing in your next phase of growth, you deserve real options. If you're in the small business marketplace, you need Fundera, powered by NerdWallet. It's a free, easy-to-use platform that lets you compare real financing offers from trusted lenders all in one place. You don't need perfect credit to get started. No spam, no bait and switch. Just personalized options that fit your business needs. And here's the best part: for a limited time, when you visit nerdwallet.com/greatness and fill out the no-obligation form, you'll get VIP treatment and talk with a real person who knows all the ins and outs of small business lending. Don't risk your business on unreliable lenders. Go to nerdwallet.com/greatness to find the funding you deserve. Fundera Inc., NMLS ID number 1240038. There's side sleepers, back sleepers, stomach sleepers, even those starfish sleepers who somehow take up the whole bed. And honestly, I think I might rotate through all of them in a single night. But luckily, no matter what kind of sleeper you are, the adjustable pillows from Coop Sleep Goods are designed to work with how you actually sleep. Coop's adjustable pillows are crafted from a super comfy blend of memory foam and microfiber, so you can add or remove fill to get the exact height of firmness that feels right for you. It feels supportive without feeling stiff, and you'll feel comfortable from night one. Their Cool Plus adjustable pillow is perfect for even the hottest of sleepers like myself. That's the one I have, and I cannot recommend it enough because I'm someone who needs to be cold in order to sleep comfortably. And this one stays noticeably cool and breathable throughout the night. And what I love is that if you are like I was and you don't really know which pillow is best for you, Coop has a sleep quiz you can take to find the perfect pillow for you. Let Coop help you show up feeling rejuvenated and ready to go. Get 20% off your first order and try Coop risk-free with a 100-night sleep better guarantee at coopssleepgoods.com/greatness. That's coopssleepgoods.com/greatness. Are there ways outside of buying courses to grow? It's not about buying courses. I think whatever, you know, I've invested in a lot of money into individual coaches, courses, softwares, but also just kind of like experiences where it takes time to learn. You know, I'm investing in— I'm not spending a lot in learning Spanish right now. That's $100 for Duolingo or something. I don't know, a year. I don't even know what it is. It's not a lot of money, but it's a time investment. And the time investment in public speaking, you can't fake the reps. I showed up every single week in front of an audience and humiliated myself. It's time investment, it's embarrassment investment. It's like the emotional pain that you feel from not being good at something, being a beginner and trying something new. It doesn't it's not enjoyable to suck at something. And this is why a lot of people don't develop a skill because they're not good at it. But that's how you make more money, or that's how you add more value and expand your value by developing skills. You develop skills in a relationship. If you learn how to navigate your emotions and consciously communicate, that relationship will expand. There'll be more love, more joy. It'll feel like there's a depth to the quality of the relationship rather than a surface level, because you have expanded your value, your skill set about how you communicate. And I just, I don't think we can put a price on how much we should be spending either financially or time in developing skills that bring abundance to our life. And it doesn't need to be around making money specifically. I know this is about making money, but it should be about creating a richness of life with relationships. You know, I'm investing in my health, I'm investing in my relationships, I'm investing in coaching, I'm investing in courses, I'm investing in retreats, all these things, because it's only going to help me for the future by developing more skill sets. And I think it's based on the season you're at right now. You know, if you're just starting out, Um, the skills— you may not have a lot of money to invest in things, but you have time to invest. And you can spend $50 a year to do Toastmasters, or you can go through free courses online and invest your time in getting reps and practicing. But the more skills you develop that help you make money, the easier it will be to make money. What else could be holding people back from financial freedom? Based on our mindset and our belief system. We get comfortable with the amount of money we believe we deserve making. So it's like a thermostat. You know, we get comfortable. I'm— it's 68, 69 degrees in here. For me, it's comfortable. If it was 3 degrees less, it would be too cold. If it was 2 or 3 degrees more, it'd be too— it'd be uncomfortable. This is a comfortable setting for me in this stage, right? Um, and when people are just getting started out making money, if they're making $10 an hour and that's all they're used to, they're comfortable. They may not enjoy it, but it's a comfort level. It's what their mind believes they're supposed to make. Unless they believe they're supposed to make more, then you need to figure out, okay, do I have skills? An inner belief that I deserve to make more? Is my comfort level up here or where it's at now? And if I'm not developing confidence, if I'm not developing skills or shifting the belief that I am deserving of more, and if I can't showcase that to the people around me or find people that believe in that value, that want to invest in that value, then I'm going to stay where I'm at. So, for example, at this season of my life, I'm investing in I've brought in a money, a family office, which is essentially a team of money experts to help me continue to elevate to the next level of financial abundance. I've made a lot of money over the last 20 years in business. And at the beginning, I was trying to figure out how to do it all myself. Then I've had different financial advisors over the years to help me, but it's, I've kind of grown at a certain level. Of comfort. Now, there's a lot that I don't know at this level. There's a lot of tax planning and estate planning and strategies and insurances, which I've done it all on some level, but there's a whole nother level of the financial wealth that I have that I don't understand. And it's not comfortable. It's a little uncomfortable. It's a little like, uh, I don't sound like I know what I'm talking about when I speak about this. Maybe I'll just stay in my comfort zone and I won't do it. Gosh, what if I lose this money? What if this investment— I made a mistake here and I lost money. Like, I don't want people to know this. It's a comfort level around what is known instead of speaking into the unknown. And we all have that. Whether you're starting in your career, you're not sure of what you're supposed to be able to get. You try to ask for something, but then people say no. Then you have to prove your value. And then you can get more money. It's like a process of growing and believing what is possible. So for me, you know, I'm at a stage where it's like, okay, I'm married now. There's a new level of money conversations that need to be had when you're merging money with someone else and their belief system. So how do we navigate this together? How do we get to the next levels together with our financial goals? All these different things. It's an uncomfortable new level. Which I know that's where the greatest growth comes because it means I have to learn new skills to be able to push my comfort level to a new place instead of this is what is known. So it's comfortable here. And I love that the AC just kicked on. So it makes it a little bit colder, right? So it's like, okay, I have to increase my temperature, uh, comfort level inside of me. To feel okay at a different temperature, to feel comfortable, peaceful. Okay. And it's developing these skills, expanding the value inside of me, expanding my knowledge base, having conversations that I don't understand so that I can start to understand them better. And in that process, my financial abundance will continue to grow. Faster than at the level that I've been currently at. And so there's not a right or wrong, good or bad way of doing this. It's just thinking, is my mindset and my belief around money supporting and the value that I believe I have of myself and the skills I have around money supporting the goals that I want to have around money as well of making the amount of money that I have. And like I said in the intro, Do I feel peace with the money that I have? And you can feel peaceful with very little money and you can feel extremely stressed out with very little money. You can feel peaceful with a lot of money and you can feel extremely stressed out with a lot of money as well. In fact, most people I know with a lot of money have a lot more stress. And it's learning how to have peace at all levels. That's what we talk about in Make Money Easy. How do we have a relationship with the money we have currently that is harmonious so that as it expands and grows, it stays harmonious? Because having lots of money but being suicidal is not the solution. It's creating financial freedom and abundance inside of us so that the money is a new tool to serve us and impact our lives in a beautiful way. And I think that's where we need to get to. And I think scarcity can come even when you have money. You could still feel scarce because you don't know the next level. Yeah. And so it's— you have to constantly overcome that scarcity mindset, even if you've created more financial abundance for yourself. How do you package your value? I had a mentorship early on. I was working for a guy named Chris Hawker, and he was an— he's an inventor, and he had a lot of different inventions. And I was working in his kitchen closet because that's the only space they had. So people were coming in and out of the kitchen, and I was in the closet, and they'd come right behind me. And I was working there like 3 days a week, and I learned all these different skills. I was working for free for about 6 months. And one of these skills was around packaging and design of literal physical products. And he was like, I have this idea for an invention. How do we package and brand this? And I learned from his graphic designer and from his team of marketers of like how they packaged and designed products that if you walked in front of a shelf and you walked by it, what would make you stop and look at it? And I just started, it was a new skill that I hadn't learned. So I had to learn this idea of packaging and presenting an idea. And you can do this through the spoken word, through the written word, through images, through video. It's all through book covers. All these things are packaging of ideas. How you present yourself, what I'm wearing right now is a packaging of an idea. I could be wearing a t-shirt instead, which would have a different presentation and packaging. But I decide to wear this essentially black button-up shirt daily almost because of consistency of content to make it more evergreen, to be presentable at some level, but not in a suit because that's not the style of packaging I'm looking for at this moment. But if I was in a suit right now, it would have a different presentation. You would perceive me differently. Now, if I was talking out of my ass constantly, but I was wearing a suit, you might be like, hmm, he's trying to look a certain way, but the words don't match the packaging. So I don't believe him. I don't trust him. He seems a little like untrustworthy. Something is off about that guy. Right. And we've all seen those guys or gals in suits that maybe say something like, hmm, that doesn't sound right. Something seems a little fishy. It's when the packaging, like, doesn't match the actual substance of the messaging or the product. The product could be the person wearing the clothes. Is the packaging representing the product? And, you know, when I'm thinking about a book, a book is just words, but each chapter has a structure, has a packaging to present an idea of an idea of a concept. Of the words. The storytelling is the packaging as well. The COVID the design, everything is very specific on how we design things for people to see it on a screen and also on stores. So we want them to see it. We want to know it's different. It's unique. There's a packaging of uniqueness. The School of Greatness design is a packaging, specific design for a reason. Make money easy is a different packaging as well. And there's, there's all these different things that we should be thinking about when we are putting messages out there online or in person, specifically ourself as a product is our packaging and it, and it all matters. And so for me, your personal brand is your packaging. What you post online is your packaging and how you present your ideas, how we edit our videos is a style of presenting our product, it's our packaging so that people know when they're watching the School of Greatness or listening, they're going to get something they know of value based on how we put it out there. And a lot of people don't think about their own themselves as a product, as a packaging, as a presentation, and they get sloppy with it. I'm not saying you're going to be perfect every day and what you do and say, and it's like you don't have to be uptight constantly. But I think we should be aware of how we present ourselves to the world. And you can always upgrade your packaging or your presentation or your— through developing more skills. I'm not an astronaut. I don't need an astronaut. Audiences have spoken. Project Hail Mary is an awe-inspiring masterpiece. So I met an alien. If you fallen out of love with going to the movies, this one will bring you back. Ryan Gosling in the first must-see movie of 2026, Project Hail Mary, rated PG-13, may be inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters March 20th. When I think about building a great wardrobe, I think about simplicity, pieces that mix well, pieces that last, clothes you can reach for every day without overthinking it and still feel confident. And that's what I like about Quince. They focus on premium fabrics, thoughtful design, and everyday essentials that are built to work season after season. From lightweight cashmere sweaters to short-sleeve magnolia cashmere polos and linen shorts and pants, these are the versatile staples that make your closet actually functional. And it's not just clothes. Quince also has great stuff for your home. Martha and I have the European linen duvet cover set, and it's super soft and comfy. We spend so much of our lives at home, so having quality pieces that feel good and hold up really matters. Right now, go to quince.com/lewis for free shipping and 365-day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it, and you will. Now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to quince.com/lewis for free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com/lewis. How do you remain consistent with your brand as you evolve? You know, for me, when I, when I got into this kind of online world, 2007, 2008, 2009, when I was studying and learning it and getting into it, I was a former professional athlete. I was packaging and presenting myself as this former professional athlete because that's all I had. It was like, okay, I just finished school and I was playing arena football trying to go to the NFL and it didn't work. So I was presenting that story as a packaging. Then I started to learn LinkedIn as a tool to try to find job opportunities, but that tool led into people saying, Lewis, can you teach me how you've learned how to use LinkedIn for my business? Because I had built a massive audience on LinkedIn. I started hosting events through using LinkedIn in person. I was getting 500 people to show up to these events and people were like, how are you doing this? And so people started paying me to coach them how to use LinkedIn. I didn't even know I could make money doing that. Then I was like, oh, let me package and brand myself as a LinkedIn expert. I did that for many years, but then I wanted to upgrade my personal brand. I didn't want to be known as that anymore. So what had happened is I started doing speaking every single week on webinars, teaching LinkedIn because everyone was asking me to present to their audiences. So I was doing that consistently. And I said, oh, I don't want to do this anymore, but everyone's asking me how I'm selling so much online and how I'm using webinars and how I'm using presentation skills. And these are skills that I was developing for years from Toastmasters, from copywriting, from online marketing, all these things. So then I started to rebrand myself as an online webinar expert because people were asking me for that information. So I saw a new level from LinkedIn to webinars. Then people said, hey, can you just teach me more about all the marketing you're doing with social media and all the online marketing stuff you're doing? So it became LinkedIn, webinars, social media, but then just online marketing in general. So I started positioning and packaging my personal brand to a new level, a new thermostat. Something that was more uncomfortable, but I had to go beyond my current comfort zone. Then after years of doing that, I built a multi-seven-figure business doing that and got a lot of opportunities from speaking on stages, et cetera, from that personal brand. But I was like, I don't want to be known as the webinar guy. That's not what I want to be known as. And it's not something that— it's a season right now where I'm good at it. I have a skill set and I can make a lot of money., but is it really like my mission moving forward? And we don't always have the luxury of saying, I'm going to go for my mission, but I had been really good at saving almost all my money. So I was like, I have the luxury now that I've worked really hard for about 5, 6 years to make money, saved it. So I have a few years of a runway, like I'm single. I don't have responsibilities, no kids yet, not married. If I wanted to do anything, what would it be? Then the School of Greatness came to me and that was over 13 years ago now. And I was like, I think I just want to go back to my original skills of being curious and asking questions with people that inspire me and see if I can make money in the future. But it was like, all right, I just want to do this for 1 year and see how this works. This is really what I want to do. And I tried something. It may have, it could have failed. It could have like not worked. And then I would've tried something else, but it worked. And so I kept doing it and I developed skills to continue to grow it. And that has led me into a new personal brand, a new packaging of, you know, launching the School of Greatness and being that guy. And over 13 years, that personal brand has evolved within that space, right? From then writing New York Times bestselling books, speaking, doing bigger masterminds, all these things. That allowed me to expand it within the space. And so I'm always looking to upgrade my personal brand. It doesn't matter if I'm doing the same thing or doing something new. How can I elevate it with where I'm at? I mean, I was doing it on my iPhone. I was like putting down my iPhone and recording audio, just sitting next to someone. Then I had just a couple of mics on a table like this in my kitchen. For about 8 months. And it's funny because Shawn Johnson, the Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, she texted me recently about a book that she's launching. And she goes, I still remember when I was, when I did an interview of you in your apartment, I had a studio apartment in your kitchen, right? And just me and Shawn Johnson in my kitchen table with little headsets. Had I stayed at that level of packaging without scaling and upgrading it, it wouldn't be as successful as it is today. You know, from a kitchen table or an iPhone to we have what, 5 or 6 cameras in here that have all upgraded over 13 years. This was not after year 1. It was like, okay, year 0 through 3 was a certain packaging. Then it continued to, I continued to invest in team, in equipment, in processes, in my own health, in my own skills over the last 13 years to scale this. And I— and you scale it also through thinking of two things, you know, your product and your distribution. If you're a personal brand, you are the product. And you have to figure out how do I reach audiences? How do I get distribution? If your book is the product, you need to be thinking about how do I write a better book? How do I make the book the best book possible, the product, improving it? Then how do I get more distribution? Okay, we're in a digital world. Distribution is podcasts, getting on press, being on TV, getting in newsletters, blogs, getting in retail stores and thinking of all the lever, the levers of distribution that you can scale your personal brand or your products or services and eventually scale your money. And I think that's what you need to be thinking about. How can I scale my product? Whatever it is, if it's you are the message, if it's your books, if it's your content, if it's a service, a course, a ticket to an event, your music, your art, whatever you're selling, That's your product. You need to make it better constantly to add more value to people. And then you need distribution channels. What are those distribution channels? Who are the people that you need to learn how to collaborate with that, that have audiences, that have distribution that you can either sell or market your product to? And that is a process of developing relationships. You need to learn the skill or the art of being a good human being and reaching out to people and also adding value to other people and saying, hey, how can I help you? And also saying, hey, what's the chance that you would have me on your show and talk about my product? What's the chance you'll promote my book? What's the chance you'll put this out there to your audience? And it's a skill and an art of which is hard to do, to improve your personal self, to improve your product and improve distribution. But that's how you scale your money. And if you're working for someone, then you have to say, how can I continue to learn more skills to be more valuable at the company I'm at? It doesn't matter if you're here at the School of Greatness or you're working for Amazon or Google, you need to say, how can I How can I make myself a better product and add more value to this mission or to the team that I'm working with so that I can make more money? And if I make the company more money, then I can show my value. I can scale my value and bring in more money for myself. So it doesn't matter if you're working at a company or you're working for yourself, either way it's hard and you have to figure out how to develop your value. Show that value, that perceived value, scale that value, and then capture that value. Do you need to work harder to earn more money? I hear a lot of people say this too, like really rich people don't work hard or something like that. I just feel like 99% of people who have generated a lot of money work extremely hard. Now, with that said, they have learned a skill set where they have learned how to expand their plate of what is on their plate and to be able to navigate and delegate and choose wisely what is the most important things to work on in the moment to scale their sales, their audience growth, their team, their distribution, and build their wealth. And so In some ways, like when I was starting out, I felt like I worked so hard to the point where I was not sleeping well because I was up all night just constantly working. But it doesn't mean I was smart just because I was working hard and I was getting results. I was limited to how much I was able to generate in revenue based on how hard I was working. So working harder wasn't going to make me more money, maybe a little bit, but it was burning me out emotionally, physically. You know, I gained a ton of weight. They started calling me Fat Louis. Like, I used to be like, they call me Flouis for Fat Louis. They did. I had like, I was like the Michelin Man, you know, I was like Fat Louis. And, um, you know, my wife is like, she'll see photos of me from 15 years ago. She goes, you look way younger and healthier now than when I was 15 years younger. And it's because I was up till 3, 4 AM, just like, I need to grind, I need to work hard, I need to work harder. And that got a certain type of results, but it didn't give me emotional peace or freedom or harmony. And when you're launching something or developing a new skill, there's going to be friction. There's going to be seasons where you're working harder to build something and to launch with momentum. A rocket doesn't take off without a lot of force pushing down so that it can actually launch. Then once it's finally in the atmosphere, it starts to cruise and it doesn't have to work as hard. When you're launching anything, it takes a lot of effort, a lot of thought process, people supporting the launch of something happening. And then it's figuring out how do we continue to build systems to scale and grow the thing we're launching. But I feel like really wealthy people that have figured out how to have harmony with their wealth and not overwork and overstress, they figured out how to have a bigger plate. Like, I feel pretty at peace and I have way more going on than I did 15 years ago. Right? And I just had, I just bought a handball team while in the same couple of weeks having twin girls while having this team here while just getting married, launching a book, doing a book tour, having family in town over the holidays, navigating so many different things happening. My wife in and out of the hospital, trying to keep a business going, renegotiating a new podcast deal. Like all these things on my plate that would have probably crippled me 10 years ago while trying to train, while pursuing the Olympic dream, while doing all these things like I'm, I'm just able to have a bigger plate and it not overwhelm me as much. And I'm able to have a plate that everything's got to fit on as opposed to a smaller plate where all this stuff is piling on top of it and just, you can't even see the plate. Now my plate is so much bigger that all these things can be on there and I can still see space in between them. I can still see them all. And I can move things forward that are the most, the highest level of priority each day with my time. And I have different levers I can pull and I can empower different people to get certain things done at this scale. So I think it's learning how to, but people might think I'm working harder. In some ways I'm just working differently. You know, I'm thinking strategically in a different way and I'm developing the skillset of not doing everything myself, which is what I used to do, and empowering others and training and teaching others to do certain things so that we can scale all of it. And that's a hard thing to do. When you start out, you do everything yourself unless you've been taught how to just delegate everything. Like, I was never taught that. So you have to learn leadership, which is how you scale anything. You develop the skill of leadership within yourself. You create boundaries. You have tough conversations with people. You say no to certain people and you, you stop people pleasing everyone. And I think you stop trying to get everyone to like you and instead to have everyone see you as someone who's a credible leader. And they may not like you. It doesn't mean you have to be a negative, bad person for them to not like you, but it's about developing leadership skills within yourself. With the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card, you earn an unlimited 2% cashback on every purchase. No quarterly activations, no categories to track, just unlimited 2% cashback on every purchase. I know there's someone out there who just spent way too much on a fancy smoothie that tastes just okay, and they didn't even get 2% cashback. You hate to see it. Visit usbank.com/smartlycard to learn more. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from Visa USA Inc. Some restrictions may apply. Dell PCs with Intel Inside are built for the moments you plan and the moments you don't. There for those all-night study sessions, the moment you're working from a cafe and realize every outlet is taken, the times you're deep in your flow and can't be interrupted by an auto update, That's why Dell builds tech that adapts to you. Built with long-lasting batteries so you're not scrambling for an outlet and built-in intelligence that makes updates around your schedule, not in the middle of it. Find technology built for the way you work at dell.com/pcs. Built for you. At what point can you consider yourself financially free? The number is different for everyone, I think. My level of financial freedom 15 years ago, 17 years ago, I was just like, man, if I could make $5,000 to $10,000 a month, like I am rich. It was like, I am like beyond rich is what I thought. You know? And my first time I made $6,200 in an hour webinar. Before that, the most I'd made was like $3,000 in a month, like hustling, like working so hard, running events around the country, doing this LinkedIn stuff.. And then in 1 hour I made $6,200 in 2009. And I was like, this is unbelievable. I was like, I'm the richest man in the world. I'd never seen or had that much money in my account ever. I think like, you know, I was just like, this is unbelievable. I was like, oh, I could do this every single week. And if I can make $6,200 every week, holy cow, my life is forever changed. And that's what I started to do, but I started making a lot more than that. And that's why I saved a lot of my money because I didn't need it at that time. I was like, I don't want to be broke again. So let me just save this for a while. But I lived in an apartment that was $495 a month for almost a year and a half. And I was fine. I had no car and I was fine. And I lived well below my means and I was a happy human being. Now, I was thinking about my future in terms of I want to keep making more so that my future is set up. But at this season of life, of anyone watching as parents or as kids and their parents, you know, the expenses, the, the, the just the costs of having kids is just, it's just crazy. I'm like, where's this money going? It's just going to everything every day. It feels like And so the level that I'm at now with investing in a lifestyle of buying a home, of having different expenses, there's a, there's a comfort level that I would need now that is way different than 15 years ago. Being married, having kids, having other priorities, having a team. It's like I need a lot more to cover everything to feel comfortable. So I'm at a new level of like a thermostat of comfort level.. And if it starts to drop below that in my, my monthly revenue in the business, I feel uncomfortable. I'm like, ooh, I don't like this feeling. And so it's learning the skillset of things being able to go higher and lower without it hurting you. How would you make $1 million in 30 days from scratch? Even if I had no audience, let's say if I had no social media, like social media was gone. Podcast was gone and no money was coming in and I had to make $1 million in 30 days, I actually feel like it would be easier then than it is right now to do that because I would have nothing to lose. Like I've already, everything's gone. And so, and if I had 30 days, I would have such a timeline and I would say, if you have to make $1 million in 30 days, I would have a timeline. And I wouldn't have a lot of distractions. I wouldn't have all my responsibilities that I have to do or get to do on a weekly basis because it would all be gone. And I would literally call people one by one, the wealthiest people I know first, and say, will you hire me for $1 million? That's what I would start with. I would say, I will coach you for the next year for $1 million. And I would create a package for them, whether it's a weekly coaching, whether it's some type of mindset, health, relationship training, whatever it might be. I would create a $1 million offer and I'd probably just call 100 people and I'd make the offer. I'd create a one-page presentation and I would, I'd probably create a survey to them and say, where's your biggest pain? Where's your biggest struggle? Where's the thing that you're struggling with the most in your life or in your business? And what is your biggest goal? What do you want to accomplish? I would survey them in some way and I would get the intel and I'd say, okay, how do I make a million-dollar offer and sell it to one person? And if that, if I didn't see that was getting traction, then I would say, okay, how do I get 10 people to pay me $100,000? And I was like, and I'd create my own mastermind and say, I'm going to bring together 10 of the wealthiest people in the world who struggle with this other stuff, or maybe they don't have the freedom emotionally or the abundance or the relationships, or they've lost the spark. Like the money has numbed them. And I want to get them back into being of service to humanity. It's just funny, I just had a conversation with a doctor who came up to me after the gym 3 days ago, who he's a famous surgeon in Beverly Hills, works with all the biggest celebrities and all, you know, Helps a lot of people. And he came up to me about 6 months ago maybe, and I just saw him again a few days ago. And he came up to me 6 months ago, he goes, you know, I've made so much money, you know, it's like, you know, he's a very specialized surgeon. So he makes a lot of money with his specialty. So he has developed a skill set that very few people can do. He gets people results that are very hard to get. So people are willing to spend a certain amount of money for the skillset he's developed and he knows his value. So he's done all 5 of these steps and he's at the point now where he says, what do I do now? I've done these things, I've scaled this, I'm making so much money, but I've kind of lost this spark, this sense of what's the point. And that's where people I think need to think about, Most people love to have that problem. You make so much money that you've lost the spark of life. But we all have different challenges at different levels. And maybe this was 6 or 9 months ago when he came up to me and he said he was a big fan of the show. He's been listening to the show and he goes, what do you think I should do? And I said, to be honest, man, you got to give back. You've got to do surgeries for cases that really need them that don't have the money where you can actually transform someone's life. That maybe had some type of physical challenge or some type of accident, car accident that disformed them in some ways, that you could give them their life back. Like, do that once a month for free and document it, talk about it if you want to, like, just give back. That's what you need to be leaning into. And he goes, that's a great idea. And I saw him a few days ago and he goes, Lewis, how's it going, man? I go, good, man. How are you? Have you done this thing? We were sitting, standing right over here 6 or 9 months ago. And he goes, man, you got a good memory.? And I go, have you done this yet? And he goes, no. And I go, are you fulfilled with your life yet? And he goes, no. I said, what are you waiting for? If it's not that, find something else. It doesn't have to be this thing that I came up with. Be something where you are of service on a bigger level beyond making money. Because money alone can only bring you so much joy if you're using it only for you and your family. It can bring you lots of joy, lots of fulfillment. But I really feel like once you've mastered money and you have an abundance of it beyond your means and beyond traveling and the lifestyle and the nice homes and the nice clothes and the cars, all the things you want, you got 'em. Great. And you have excess money. Great. You got to find a way to serve. And if you can bring service in your life from the beginning when you have no money, money, then it will grow with you when you start making more money. So something we've been a part of since before the School of Greatness is building schools with Pencils of Promise. Since before that, because I started to have that feeling early on, I was making millions of dollars and I wasn't doing anything to give back. I was like, huh, okay, I'm just going to keep making more money now. Like, okay, cool. But I'm okay in a $500 apartment. I don't need tons of money. Like I need to find a way to use this. And I don't care about cars and fancy things. So why don't I use my talents and gifts to serve people? And it doesn't mean I give all my money away, but use some of it to find meaning and impact as well. And I think that has been— that has allowed me to feel like I've had a really fulfilling life, is being in service and generating a way to give. It doesn't mean you always have to give money, but finding ways to give of your time and talents as well. And so I reminded this doctor of this a couple days ago and I said, you know, when are you going to start being of service? Yes, you're being of service to your clients, but you need to have a different level of service, different level of impact. And if you're just doing the same things every single day, you need something new and fulfilling in your life. So find a way to serve. And hopefully he'll start doing that. We'll see. But I think that's, that's what I would do. I would find 10 of my wealthiest friends. I would get them to give their money away through serving causes they care about and then teaching them how to create a more rich and fulfilling life with the lives they have. And I think that's what a lot of really wealthy people want. They want to be healthier and happier and have better relationships. And I would create an offer and sell either 1 person $1 million, 10 people $100,000, and I would do it pretty fast. Yeah, I would do it within like a week or 2 because I'd be like, I gotta move. So I would have unlimited time because everything would be gone and I'd just be on the phone constantly calling people saying, will you give me $1 million? If not, will you give me $100,000? If not, will you give me $50,000? I would just keep going. What would— what result would you need to give me $1 million in the next year? Okay, cool. I'm going to go give you that result. I'm going to make something that will give you that result. And I would just sell that. That's what I do. If you guys enjoyed this format of Caroline asking me the questions, and if you have a specific question around any topic, feel free to add that question in the comment below, or you can email us over at greatness.com. You can find the email there and email us. But if you're looking for more information around how to emotionally and psychologically and mentally believe that you're deserving and worthy of more money, and then other tools on how to do this, make sure to grab a copy of Make Money Easy. We'll link it up below in the description, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening on audio platforms. And again, what questions do you have for me that you would like Caroline to ask? In the future? Go ahead and leave it below. We'll see you guys in the next episode. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great. Eating healthy doesn't mean you have to eat out at a pricey restaurant. Healthy Choice Simply Steamers Grilled Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo is an easy, high-protein meal with nothing artificial. The steam tray keeps the sauce separate, so you get crisp broccoli, creamy Alfredo sauce, and tender grilled chicken that's delicious every time. And it's a satisfying meal with 28 grams of protein. You can find it in the frozen aisle. Healthy Choice. What having it all tastes like. Look, if you've got prescriptions, the Walmart app is your place to manage them. Transfer your scripts, refill them, and have them delivered straight to you. Migraines managed. Allergies alleviated. Dermatology— derma delivered. Ding dong! Is that your pizza? Nope, Walmart Pharmacy delivery with a refill. Switch to Walmart and manage your prescriptions in the app. The Walmart you thought you knew is now new. Delivery not available for all prescriptions. Exclusions apply.