Unlock The Power Of Your Mind & Live Your Best Life Today EP 1403

I firmly believe that taking charge of your mindset allows you to be in the driver's seat of your life and unlock your potential. And that's why I'm thrilled to share that my new book is out right now. It's called the Greatness Mindset. In it, you'll learn how to build a plan for greatness through powerful exercises and toolkits designed to propel your life forward. This is the book that I wish I had 20 years ago. It's everything I've learned in the last decade with the research and the science to help you unlock your mind. Make sure to go to lewishowes.com/2023mindset to pick up your copy of my book, the Greatness Mindset, today. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to this special master class. I'm very excited about this because I wanted to dive deeper into developing a meaningful mission and how to live a more fulfilling and enriching life. And the new book is extremely inspiring for me because it's been 10 years of effort, research, learning, practice mistakes. And I've had the privilege of interviewing some of the most inspiring people in the world. One of them is my good friend, New York Times bestselling author, Rory Vaden, who's really been critical towards the strategy of this book in the early on phase of writing this book and really helping map out some of these key principles. So I'm very excited to have Rory here. we're gonna kind of do something a little different in this masterclass. Rory's going to interview me and we're gonna riff back and forth on some of these principles and dive deeper in the book. So I'm so excited that you all are here to watch and listen to this experience in this masterclass. And Rory, I wanna pass it to you if you wanna quickly introduce yourself and then we can kind of dive into this.

Man, what an exciting honor and privilege to play the reverse interviewer of the master interviewer. I'm so pumped about this. And literally, I mean, you and I became friends several years ago at this point. I think right after my first book came out and we became friends. And then four years ago, we got a chance to start working together. And I remember sitting right here at our basement in our house talking about what the next book and what the next content concept would be and to see it come all the way. And y'all, This book is so moving. I'm telling you, within the first few pages, I had goosebumps, just chills. And I've heard your story so many times, but it's so powerful. And yeah, so thanks for letting me take over the interview chair. I just wanna try to get into your mind and understand a little bit and help everyone get access to why did you write this book, Louis? Why the Greatness Mindset? Why this point in your career? Why this point in history? What was sort of the impetus for the timing?

It's interesting because my first kind of bigger book, the School of Greatness, came out in 2015. So, essentially eight years ago, right? About eight years ago, it came out. And it came out in a time when it was really about at that time, I was kind of trying to bring myself into the mainstream world more. And I felt like I'd spent, I don't know, five, seven years at that point, building my personal brand, learning, building a business, interviewing people, adding a lot of value to people, networking, learning about marketing and design and copywriting. Like I was trying and doing and, and, you know, learning a lot of things and growing in a lot of different ways. and I was trying to kind of get out of one industry and into a new industry. I was trying to do something I'd never done before, which was write a bigger mainstream book. I'd done ebooks and things like that and self-publish, but kind of going into the masses and being more in the press and the media and seeing what that felt like. I remember feeling like it's really scary, like getting on my first kind of news station and being in the media. I was still really nervous because it was something I'd never done before. And so the first book was kind of all the principles I'd learned from my podcast, but also just the years of sports and business and everything else and the lessons I learned about greatness. From there, I wrote the Mask of Masculinity because during that time, kind of those first five years of business, I had learned a lot about myself and realized that there were a lot of things that I had to overcome, a lot of insecurities, fears, doubts that drove me to be successful externally, right? The fears and the doubts and insecurities. I was taking a lot of action so that I could be rewarded and celebrated and feel loved by others. But I had to do a lot of inner work and learn how to love myself, learn how to heal, learn how to just understand and navigate emotions and, and, and forgive myself so many different things. that I still hadn't yet done. And during that process, I started to do this, I started to take a lot of emotional intelligence workshops and just learn about my inner world and start to heal. And that's when the mask and masculinity came out, which was about how can I be of service in a greater level or level for men in the world specifically and for the women who have men in their lives that want to understand them better about what holds them back.

With mask and masculinity, it really did move people emotionally. And it really, it also gave the world a chance to see you and learn about you and really, I feel like kind of get intimate access to who Lewis is, really. And then with the greatness mindset, though, there's a lot of healing in this book as well. There's a lot about that. And so it's got some of the kind of energy of the first one, but also some of the healing elements of the second one.

So so this is the book that after 10 years essentially of doing the podcast, because the podcast is now 10 years.

10 years.

This is the, this is the book that I wish I could have read 10 years ago. This is the book I wish I could have read when I was 21, 20, 28, 16. And now I'm turning 40 this year. It's like the book that I want now for myself, the book I wish I had then, the book I want for my future self as well to keep me on track of the most meaningful things in my life, what is most important, how to overcome the fears that will hold me back at different stages and seasons of life that we go through, and continue to have really peace inside while I'm delivering and executing on a daily basis my mission. And so this book is the culmination of everything in one.

What is some of the healing that you personally experienced through the process? I mean, writing a book is, you know, it's kind of like, having a baby or something, it's a huge transformational moment, just the amount of work you have to go through. Like this being your third one, 10 years into the podcast, hundreds of millions of downloads later. I was so honored to do this because I've believed in you from the first time that we've met that I believe you're gonna be one of the most influential people in our entire generation. And yet you're constantly learning, you're constantly growing, you're always sort of improving. What's some of the kind of like emotional journey that you've been on just in the last year putting the book together?

Well, it's interesting because I feel like I was never taught how to understand my emotions as a kid. I felt lonely, alone, not seen, I.

Felt.

Misunderstood, all these different things. And I'm sure a lot of us had felt that way at different stages of life. I'm sure it felt like-- I've got.

People listening right now that feel exactly that way.

They might feel that right now, right? And I felt that way for many, many years, many decades, really. And it wasn't until really in the last couple years where I felt like I was able to fully accept appreciate and love all the aspects of myself. It doesn't mean I have to. To like everything about me and like, and just be lazy and be. And accept that, but really love and accept where I've been, what I've gone through, things I've done that I'm not proud of, things I've done that I am proud of, the journey, the ups and downs, everything, and then be at peace with where I am now, knowing that I'm gonna always be improving, and I've got to be disciplined in certain areas, and I've got to keep showing up and. you gotta be in full integrity and all these different things. But I feel like I wish I would have known how to understand and navigate my emotions better. And we are really, you know, made up of our thoughts, our emotions and our actions. You know, those three things kind of make up our identity and who we are. What we think on a consistent basis, the emotions we feel, on a consistent basis and then the actions we take based on our thinking and our feeling and our emotions. And so we are a culmination of those three things essentially. You can add in our environment and, you know, where we come from and our identities that we've built up over the years, but that all ties into what we think and how we feel and our daily decisions, our actions. And I made a lot of, you know, actions based on emotions that were struggling to me and thinking that was criticism, criticism thinking and emotional stress.

And so I'm criticizing yourself.

Criticizing myself, saying I'm not good enough. I'm never, I'm not smart enough. I'm not talented enough. I'm not good looking enough. I'm not intelligent enough. I'm not, I don't pick up things as fast as everyone else. I'm, I'm dumb. I like just saying critical things and feelings and then deeply, deeply feeling them and believing them. And then my entire body embracing those thoughts. And so I would make decisions, I would take action based on that level of thinking and the level of feeling. And there was never a master class growing up. And my parents didn't have the tools at the time on how to teach, you know, understanding your emotions and how to teach your level of thinking. They actually did a really great job of giving me some tools, but when to model their experiences, you know, we model our parents or what we witness a lot. They were unable to regulate their emotions a lot of their times. And sometimes they weren't the best thinking as well. So they would give tools, but then it was kind of confusing based on how I'd witnessed things and all that stuff. And what I realized is that we, you know, when we can become better influencers of our own thinking and our own emotions, we can really have a beautiful, peaceful, abundant, joyful life. and instead of being critical of ourselves when we think, we should learn how to be a better coach to ourselves. So we should learn the skill of coaching our thoughts and emotions rather than being critical of ourselves. And I think a lot of people just haven't learned the art of self-love and really acceptance and loving yourself. I'm not saying acceptance if you've been lazy and you're and unhappy and not getting the results you want, but having a level of acceptance and knowing I must be willing to face the fears, the insecurities, the doubts, and go all in on them if I want to have a different result. It's learning to forgive and not keep beating yourself up of, oh, for the last 10 years I've been eating poorly, so let me just beat myself up. Forgiveness is the foundation towards growth and then starting to think and feel differently. And that took a long time for me to reprogram to unlearn and to practice on a daily basis of how to be a better coach of my thoughts and my emotions instead of being a critic of them.

Yeah, and I'm sure there's people right now as they're hearing you talk going, I have that soundtrack running in my head. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I don't have access. I don't have the following. I don't have the money. I don't know how to whatever. It's really amazing for us, like your fans and your friends, to be able to watch where your life was 10 years ago, you had a lot of this inner turmoil and your external life reflected that. And over the last 10 years, and I think really when I look at the greatness mindset where you're summarizing many of these things, and the greatness mindset really is a prequel to the School of Greatness. It's like you said, it's what you wish you would have had it when you started. to go as you have created this reconciliation internally, as you have found this self-love internally, as you have been able to find a sense of peace internally, the external around you has just become so abundant and magnificent.

Yeah, because when you learn to, I mean, I really didn't understand this until the last couple of years. When you learn, I did at some level, but not fully. But when you learn to love yourself and you learn the art, I believe it's an art of loving yourself. And it doesn't mean having a massive ego and being overly confident and being, you know, making it about me, me, me. But when you learn to love yourself, what I have learned is you create incredible boundaries in your life. You become more disciplined because you know that the actions you take are going to support you today. to support your body, your emotions, your thoughts, and they're going to support you in the future. And so you no longer, you can see the world in a different way. It's like you take off the veil, you can see things clearer, and you just don't allow certain situations to happen. You start to make better choices in certain relationships. You're not going to do business partnerships that don't feel good anymore. Even if there's money on the table, you're not going to enter into a new intimate relationship without seeing everything fully and without being very clear on your alignment, on if you guys are aligned. There's so many things that you'll do differently when you fully start to love yourself and start to see yourself in that light. At least that's been my experience in the last couple of years. And again, it doesn't mean I'm not going to make mistakes and I'm not going to be, you know, I'm not going to be perfect and I'm still have to learn and grow and all these things. But I'm just a much more aware before I make decisions and before I act on things. and it. And it feels better inside. And when our energy on the inside is in a place of Harmony and alignment and elevation, it just feels like I'm able to attract more and more and more. And if I look back at results, you know, if we measure based on results, not only do I feel better, do I sleep better, do I, you know, I can look myself in the eyes in the mirror and I feel like I look better. But if we're talking about, well, people are like, well, what about money and results and business growth and sales and these things? My business grew more last year than it has in any other year. And I can truly honestly say it's because of the inner work and the stuff that I'm talking about, you know, in the greatness mindset. It's all this stuff that I've learned in ten years of interviews through making tons of mistakes, doing it the hard way. I feel like, you know, I feel like my, I kind of feel blessed, Rory, because I had three older siblings, and I got to watch all their mistakes growing up as a kid. And there were certain things that they did that I was like, I never want to experience that type of pain. I'm not going to go down that route. But there are certain things that I, and I, and I didn't do those things. Like, I've never been drunk in my life. You know, I was like, afraid to do drugs, all these things because of certain things I witnessed. But it doesn't mean I haven't made other mistakes that they didn't do. So it's like I still had to learn the hard way a lot of things.

Well, as you know, when you talk about self-love, I think the way you talk about it here and in the book is like this is an important concept where people sometimes think of boundaries as restricting. But what you said, I think, is so important that boundaries aren't restricting. boundaries are a sign of self love. It's sort of like when you have a dog, you put a fence for your dog to run, not to restrict your dog, but to keep your dog safe and healthy and happy. And it's like when you love yourself, that's sort of what you're doing. And to hear you say out loud, right, like, I've never done drugs. I've not been drunk. Some people would say, oh, well, what fun is that? And you go, no, it's the opposite. those boundaries you put in place have allowed you to have the discipline and create the sort of inner peace and resolution that is now manifesting itself in all of these incredible, this global influence.

Yeah, it's been a fun journey. It's been a fun journey, but I feel like it's hard for us to fully learn without going through some type of pain, some type of challenge, some type of obstacle to overcome. and so I've faced my own obstacles, and everyone listening and watching right now has their own obstacles that they've got to face and overcome as well. And I think that's what makes life also interesting, is some of the obstacles that we've got to face and overcome. If you rang in the new year with someone special and 2023 will be a new chapter in your relationship, Indochino is ready to help you look your best on your big day. With their huge variety of customizable details and fabrics, Indochino can help you create anything from made measure blazers and suits to a custom tuxedo, all with no tailor necessary. Shop online by setting up your measurement profile and choosing the fabric and customizations you want, or book an appointment at an Indochino showroom and work with an expert style guide to take your measurements and walk you through your customization options. Design a look that suits you perfectly. Suits start at just $499 and premium fitted shirts start at $89. Plus, fine tune every detail, lapels, linings, monograms, and more. When I'm dressing to impress, I focus on the smallest details. and Indochino has thought through every detail. If you can't make it to a showroom, no worries. Shopping online for the perfect fit is so easy. They really have perfected the online fitting process. If you're ringing in 2023 with wedding bells ahead, start planning your custom look with Indochino. Go to indochino.com and use code GREATNESS to get 10% off any purchase of $399 or more. That's I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O.com promo code Greatness.

I'm curious about your thoughts on dream killers, because you've obviously interviewed tons of the world's most successful people. You've also got millions of fans reaching out and you get to talk to people who share their dreams with you. I've seen this at the Summit of Greatness, watching people come up to you and they just want to tell you this is their dream. And so many people come to you and share their dream. And yet, a lot of those don't come true. And a lot of those dreams, you know, die pretty quickly. And, and, you know, I know it's, I know it's heartbreaking for you to watch when that, when that happens. Why do you think so many of those dreams die or they don't make it? Like, what, what, what's the number one dream killer that is going on in the world? Well, there's a couple things.

One, when we have a dream, a dream is a lie because it's not realized yet. So it's a, it's a It's an idea that has not become realized. So it's still not truth. It's an idea in the future. So in our minds, it's a lie. We aren't that person who has accomplished this thing or made this thing come true yet. Maybe a lie is harsh, but that's the word I'm using right now. So it's hard to turn a lie into not being a lie anymore. Something that you want to be true that is not true yet. It's not a belief yet. It's something you might be able to accomplish, but you're gonna have to face so many obstacles and challenges. And all of the things inside of you that you haven't yet faced yet is typically what is going to need to happen with a big dream. It can be extremely daunting and scary, especially in a world of instant gratification. The bigger the dream, the longer it typically takes. Now, it doesn't mean you've got to be limited by time. And I'm a big believer that you can still cut the time in half or even less than that based on what it is a lot of the times if you shift certain things. But it's so challenging to have a big dream because you have to completely change your identity and be disciplined in a way you've never been before. That is tough. When you have an identity, you need to break through that identity into reinventing into something new, someone new, letting off the old skin, shedding the old weight, letting go of relationships, removing yourself from a tribe, leaving the city you came from, whatever it might be, you've got to start doing new things. And that is extremely scary. We love to be in our comfort zone. We love the familiar. We love the norm, the things that are routine. We love those things. But the routine is not going to the Old routine is not going to get us the new results. And so that's the challenge. And, you know, when I thought about love that, when I thought a couple things, I'll give an example. Two dreams that I had 10 years ago. One was to be an Olympian and play with the USA handball team. Right. That was probably a dream I had since 2008 when I saw handball played in the Olympics in China for the first time I saw the sport. And I was like, boom, this is a new dream of mine. I don't know how it's going to happen, but I feel like there's a chance because the USA team is not that good. And it's unknown sport in America, and it's an unknown sport in America, and there's not professional leagues and no one plays this. So I was like, okay, let me go. Maybe I could make the team. Let me explore first if I can make the team within a couple years. I started working towards it. I moved to New York City to meet the team that was the club team national champions and said, okay, can I even play this sport? So I had to overcome a lot of obstacles to see if I could even play a new sport by moving away from my city because there was no team in Columbus, Ohio. So I had to leave. That's a big jump. Moving is a big jump. Then I had to show up, and there were so many obstacles just to get to the first practice because there was no phone number, of who I could call on how I could join this club team. It was so challenging. So it took a couple of years for me to make the money to move to New York City. Then it took me finding the address on the website and showing up during a practice. Then I was the only American. Everyone else was a foreigner who spoke different languages. And I said, hey, I'm here to make to join this team and learn the handball and then go play in the USA team and then make the Olympics. And they all laughed at me. So then you're facing social criticism and social judgment and social pressures of people saying, you don't belong here. Who do you think you are? You're crazy. That's a crazy dream. So you've got to overcome all these things. Then you've got to go through the pain of training. You know, then you're in the rocky training Montage season of life where it's like, you just gotta train. What is this thing I got to learn? I want to be a public speaker and be on stage. Okay. Me and you did Toastmasters for a year. I was in training mode as a public speaker. I want to be an Olympian athlete. I'm in this training mode. Like, I'm sacrificing, I'm dedicating, I'm committing myself to something new. And I had to leave all these old ways of being and step into a new way of being for years. Then I made the USA team. And then I traveled the world with the team for seven or eight years. And we never made the Olympics because it was just so hard to make. But I still played with the USA national team. I represented my country. I played against other Olympic national teams who played in the Olympics. And I had this incredible journey and experience. And I didn't accomplish my goal of being an Olympian, at least not yet. I'm still not counting it out. But I'm in the 10 years of pursuing this one dream. It hasn't happened. But who I've become in the process, the lessons I've learned, the people I've met, the places I've traveled to. I mean, I've played in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and London at the '02 and I've played in Brazil and Uruguay and Mexico City and Canada and I've played all over the world this sport and met some incredible friends and relationships and got to be in shape and wear USA across my chest and sing the national anthem before international competition. it was a dream come true, even though the dream didn't come true. And I got to experience a rich life for almost a decade pursuing a dream. And it was a beautiful journey, right? It was a story I got to tell. It was a journey. It was an experience. It was enriching. It was culture. It was athletics. It was competition. It was sacrifice. I mean, so many trips, sacrificing so many early mornings training. It was a lot of work while trying to run a business and having other dreams. So it's like you got to sacrifice a lot. But that was one dream that I had, you know, 10, 12 years ago. I had another dream, which was, I want to reach a hundred million lives every single week to help them improve the quality of their life. I had this dream 10 years ago. We still haven't accomplished it with the School of Greatness and Greatness Media. but it doesn't mean we haven't impacted hundreds of millions of lives over the last 10 years and made a massive impact. And I've connected with some incredible people and interviewed some of the most inspiring people in the world and written three books and been on stages and all these different things have happened and done the Summit of Greatness a number of times. And so many things have happened in the journey of pursuing a big dream and done a lot of personal work on myself and all these things. come and gone in relationships. And so it's been 10 years of pursuing a dream that still hasn't come true. It's still essentially a lie because it hasn't been actualized. I haven't become the person I need to become yet, or time hasn't passed enough yet, or I haven't learned certain skills I need to learn yet, or found the right people on the team, or technology hasn't caught up, or whatever needs to happen has not happened yet. So those two kind of big dreams still have not come true. But it doesn't mean I look back at my life and say, I'm such a failure and I can't believe I haven't accomplished this and I'm a liar and all these things. It's just, it's giving me direction. It's a meaningful pursuit of a mission that gives me something to focus on on a daily basis, something to be excited about and something to overcome all the time. And it's why I have coaches in many different areas of my life. and why I keep saying, how can I improve? What can I do to grow? What do I need to learn? What do I need to let go of? It's reinvention through consistent action and improving coaching my thinking and my emotions on a consistent basis as well.

I think it's fascinating to me how that it starts, you start in the season of self-doubt, like whenever you're doing something and that feels real because it's your present circumstances. and the dream feels like a lie because it's not yet real. But then it's like, as you start moving down that path, like you're saying, your old routine will not give you the new results. You start doing those things, and then the dream starts to become what's real. And the self-doubt you look back and you realize, actually, the self-doubt was the lie. The self-doubt was just the thing I was telling myself. And then I love what you said there about how it was a dream come true, even though the dream didn't come true.

And one of the things is, you know, I used to be really upset and frustrated or, you know, get down on myself if I didn't accomplish the goals that I had set out, if I didn't win the game and Athletics, if we didn't, you know, win the playoffs, if I didn't hate the certain numbers on a, on a launch I was trying to do, I used to get really to be frustrated and upset and down when I didn't accomplish the goals. Now something has shifted because of this perspective that it's really not about the dream coming true anymore. It's about, you know, just living a dream life on who you're becoming on a consistent basis. And all the fun things that come on the pursuit of the dream. And if the dream happened, if we reach 100 million lives, a week consistently forever. Cool. If we don't, it's all good, too. And it's not like I'm gonna beat myself up every day, like I suck and I can't do this. And I'm. Because that doesn't support me and it doesn't support people around me. So I've shifted that energy a lot in the last few years of just surrendering the results, but being intentional about the process and. And not. Not saying that I don't. I don't want to hit the results. I do want to hit the results, but not beating myself up. if I'm not hitting the results.

Well, and so in the book, so in the greatness mindset, like this is the concept of meaningful mission. Like this is what you're talking about here, which is a really core concept. I feel like in the book, you know, and you talk about yours being impacting 100 million lives and going, it seems like it's more like the direction that matters than it is the dream that matters. It's more like you're saying, It's, it's your, how did you say that? You surrender the results, but you commit to the process.

Exactly, yeah. And I think it's making sure that your dream and your direction are in alignment with each other and they're in harmony with each other and making sure that, you know, I've got this dream. I've got this meaningful mission like we call it in the greatness mindset. Now, first off, because a dream can be self-centered. A meaningful mission is really us centered, we centered. It's not about me centered. And so a dream can be inspiring for just you or it could be for selfish reasons. But when you make it a meaningful mission, it's no longer just about you. Yes, you're involved. Yes, you're the hero on the journey trying to overcome something. but it's more about including others in the dream when it's a meaningful mission. And so I think when you just have a self-centric dream and you're just taking a lot of action to accomplish it, it's still not rewarding or fulfilling unless it's meaningful, unless it's a meaningful mission. And that's where I learned sports about having a goal and being, you know, accomplishing the goal But I would accomplish all these goals and I'd still be unfulfilled for many years. And so I was just like, okay, maybe the goal is not big enough. I need to go for a bigger goal and I'd accomplish more. And I would do that for so long. And I was like, well, I'm accomplishing these goals, but why am I still unhappy? And I realized that I was creating dreams centered around me and not around we, not around win-win-win. Powerful. And service. It was about how can I just build myself up, look better, you know, have more accomplishments so people are inspired by me. It was all about me, me, me in my teens and twenties. Not maybe like fully all that. And I wanted to inspire others as well, but it was more focused, I think, on how I lacked loving myself inside and needed the validation outside. And so therefore, unconsciously, I was like, well, I just need to accomplish more so people will accept me. but I didn't accept myself. When we accept and love ourselves and appreciate and acknowledge ourselves for how far we've come, where we're at now and where we're heading, then we can create from a more renewable space, an energy that is more abundant as opposed to scarce and exhausting. And so that's really been the process now is marrying the dream with the direction, with the with a deeper meaning why behind both of those things. And we can do that. It just feels like, you know, 10 years into the podcast now, I don't feel tired. I'm like, I'm still excited. I think a lot of people would be like, man, it's probably time to, like, stop what you're doing and haven't you had enough? And it's been a lot of work, but it just feels like it's not about me. If it was about me accomplishing all the time, I'd probably be tired. and want to break. But I'm so inspired by a meaningful mission of impacting 100 Million Lives weekly that it gives me energy to wake up and, and keep creating and showing up and learning and developing because it's, it's about we, not me.

That's so powerful. I think it, it is a healthy perspective. And, I mean, there's something powerful about achieving a certain level of success and dreams to where you realize, oh, this isn't going to keep me fulfilled for long, right? Like making a certain amount of money or getting whatever recognition or title. And ultimately, you come to the place where you arrive and you go, man, the only fire that never burns out is that commitment to serve other people. And that's the meaningful mission. So in the greatness mindset, you talk a lot about, like, how to find, like if somebody's listening going, okay, how do I find mine? So if I know that's what I'm looking for, what are some of the ideas? Now we kind of know some of the characteristics of what one looks like. How does someone begin to find the process of finding their own?

Yeah, we've got an exercise in the book that's about the three Ps: the passion, the power, and the problem. And one of the things that you said that has stood out to me over the years, I believe this is your quote, is that you are perfectly positioned to serve the person you once were. I think that's how you said it. Is that exactly how you said it.

Or am I... That's, yeah. Your most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were. But perfectly fits good. Maybe I should change that.

You're perfectly positioned to serve the person you once were. And, and I think that's, that's exciting to me because I feel like that's kind of what I've done naturally, organically, without knowing it over the last 15 years, you know, from, from being out of sports and then into the business world and into, into the, the business world that I'm in now, it's been like, oh, man, this is the thing that I was struggling with. How do I overcome this challenge? and then once I learned to overcome it, how can I help others overcome a similar challenge? Something that I understand, something that I know about because it's personal to me because it was a problem I had to overcome. And that's why I think where a lot of us can start. And that doesn't mean you have to, you know, launch your own thing or be an entrepreneur. I think it's very rare to be an entrepreneur and not everyone's supposed to be doing that. I think it's about aligning your talents, your skill sets to a mission. And that could be with a business or with a charity or with a community or with a cause that excites you. And so again, going back to the passion thing, it's important to remember what you're excited about. I'm excited about people. I'm curious about people. I'm curious about asking questions. I was doing all that before the podcast. I was doing it just for my own benefit and taking action from meeting inspiring people. So it was something I was naturally like doing. I didn't know I could make a business out of it. I didn't know it could be a show. I didn't know any of these things. I had no thought in my mind that being curious could be something that I could monetize. But I'm telling you, when you just start to lean into the things that excite you that you're passionate about, the world opens up. The world makes room for passionate people. And it's more effortless when you are excited about it. When you ask a friend, what are you most excited about in life right now? They start to light up. Their face starts to, like their eyes go up.

Totally.

They look into the sky. They think about, man, I'm so excited about this project or this thing or whatever it is. Like lean into that curiosity. So, thinking about what lights you up. Don't think about money. You know, more so than ever today, you can figure out how to make money around things that light you up.

And.

But think about what lights you up. What do you love? And I remember after I sold my old business, I asked myself a lot of these questions. I was just like, okay, money was not a problem for maybe a year and a half, two years. I could live a. A reasonable lifestyle. have an apartment, you know, eat the food I wanted to for about a year and a half, two years after I sold my business. So I asked myself if I could do anything for a year and not have to worry about money because I didn't have to worry at that time. I was younger, no kids, not married. I was like, what would I do? And I was like, I kind of, I think I just want to interview people because it excites me and let me do this as an experiment. So that was the thing that I started. And I was like, I'm not going to try to make money around it. I'm just going to do this. So you gotta ask yourself what lights you up, what excites you, and just be curious about that question. The next thing is passion alone isn't the only thing. You've gotta have some type of strengths, skills, attributes that can support that. And so it's thinking about, otherwise it's just a hobby, otherwise you're not gonna get hired somewhere, you're not gonna be able to monetize it if you're doing on your own.

This is what you call the power in the book, right?

Power session. Yeah.

There's the passion part and then the power part is like, you actually have to be good at the thing.

You have to be good or you have to become good.

Or you become good.

Because I wasn't a natural public speaker. You were the runner-up at World Championships at Toastmasters. I was the, if I would have done it my first time, I would have been the last place of all Toastmaster participants on my first speech. I probably would have been the last place. because I couldn't look up at the audience once. I had to read my script the whole time. And I was stuttering and trembling and it was just, you know, felt like a failure. So I was, I didn't have power or strength around presenting, communicating, speaking in public. That was not a strength. So I realized, okay, part of my dream is to impact a lot of people. I must learn the skill set of communication. That means I've got a big fear that I've got to overcome, and I've got to develop skills and really make the insecurity and the fear a superpower. You know, like Batman made, you know, he was afraid of the dark, afraid of the bats. And then he said, I'm going to become the bat. I'm going to live in the dark so that this becomes a power of mine, not a weakness. And I think you got to figure out what are your natural strengths. lean into that first. It's much harder to turn your weaknesses into a strength, but when you do, you become so powerful, you become unstoppable because you realize, oh, no longer is this fear or insecurity or thing I've been doubting myself for decades holding me back. No one can stop me anymore. I am unstoppable. So it's almost a strength even more when you overcome your insecurities and turn that into a skill set rather than people who are already naturally gifted but still have fears and insecurities and they just use their natural talents.

I think that's part of your I think that's part of your superpower, Louis, like is overcoming self-doubt, right? It's you know you have a lot of skills, but like what you've done in your life is you have systematically, repeatedly, consistently taken on new endeavors that maybe people would say, you don't have any business doing this. You have your own internal negative thinking that shows up around that, or a circumstance happens to you that makes you start to question yourself and you systematically work through it. And I think that's another huge part and theme of the greatness mindset is going, Louis Howes didn't become Louis Howes. He wasn't Louis Howes to start. You became it by overcoming self-doubt. And anyone who's struggling with self-doubt, or if you know anyone struggling with self-doubt, that's what this book and the greatness mindset, it can help walk somebody through that.

Exactly. Yeah. And it's been a journey. I feel blessed to have had all these insecurities and and fears and doubts now. But when you're a child and you're growing up and you feel alone and you feel scared and you feel uncertain, it's not fun. I was telling my girlfriend Martha this this morning, I'll go, for four years my brother was in prison from eight to 12 when I was eight years old. And I felt alone every day. And I felt scared every day. And I felt uncertain every day. And I didn't feel like I had a lot of friends. you know, from 5 to 13. And a lot of my memories were not happy memories. I had good memories. I had happy memories, but our brains tend to focus on the more fearful, you know, scary ones more. When I reflect on the good stuff, I know there was lots of good stuff as well, but I just felt like, man, am I ever going to amount to anything? Am I ever going to make an impact? Am I ever going to just be accepted by one human being? as a peer, you know, my friend. Am I gonna have any friends? Am I going to be good enough? Am I going to be smart enough? And so there was a lot of insecurities that I didn't want to have. And I felt like, oh, other kids are more talented and smarter and musically gifted, and they can speak and they can, you know, more athletic and all these things are better looking or get more attention, whatever it is. And I was just like, I don't feel like I get any of that. And I'm grateful now because I was able to overcome a lot of that. But when you're in that time, you don't want to experience it. It is the most uncomfortable, painful, scary place to be emotionally and mentally when you're a kid in that space. And that's why I wish I had this book when I was 16, you know? Because they would have given me the tools then.

But I think that's why so many people relate to you personally, not just your guests in the show, but they relate to you because that's what we're all struggling with. Like all of us have that self-doubt. We're all looking for strategies to get past that. There's people around us that have self-doubt. It's our kids, it's our spouse, it's our teammates, it's our colleagues, it's our, like, you know, and we're, it's just a part of, you know, what we struggle with is part of the human experience and going, how do I learn to love myself enough to acknowledge it and then move past it? Sure. And, One of the most powerful themes that you've talked about that always inspires me is when you talk about service. And I know the greatness mindset is actually the prequel to the School of Greatness book. And then in the last chapter of School of Greatness, you talk about service. And so I'm curious, all these years later, do you feel like service continues to be a theme that you come across in the world's most successful people and, you know, how much is that coming up?

The world's happiest people. That's what it comes across. And the world's happiest people who are wealthy and the world's happiest people who are healthy. You know, one of the questions I asked early on in my kind of entrepreneurial journey and trying to figure out how to make money when I didn't know how to make money in the beginning, I would ask wealthy people, like, what's, what's one of the secrets to making more money? And they were like, giving, giving back more, like, finding ways to give your money to help others. And it didn't, you know, I wasn't really understanding what that meant. I mean, I understood the concept, but I was like, well, when I'm broke, I can't really give money because I don't have money to give. And they were like, even just a little bit, like, the practice of and then as you make more practice and giving a little more. But when you're in scarcity and you ha, you don't have very much, it's hard to think even giving like five, ten dollars because you're just, you're in debt, you're in credit cards, all that stuff. But I started to practice it early on. And I remember in 2010, is it 2010 or 2011? So 11, you know, 11 or 12 years ago. I was like, okay, I'm gonna practice this. You know, I don't know what I don't want to just give to give. I want to find something that is connected to me in some way. So let me research, let me see what this is like. And then I found a guy named Adam Braun who was building schools for kids around the world and heard the story of the impact they're making. And I go, this is something I can get behind. Maybe I can build one school to start. And it was for me at the time, I just started making some money. I think my business did half a million dollars that that year, which was a lot of money, but it also wasn't like, you know, after taxes and paying and expenses, it wasn't like I had all this money left over and it was a business. And and I remember it was like $25,000 to make this, you know, donation. And I remember being like, that's kind of a lot of money, but I think it's going to be worth It's going to be worth it to help people. It's going to be worth it beyond what I'm even aware of, right? I wasn't just thinking, let me do this so I can make more money. I was like, okay, let me practice this because that's the right thing to do. And that's something I've been doing for, you know, 12 years now is just building schools and finding other things that relate to me that are that connect with my soul to be of service and give back on. And, you know, being a service doesn't mean giving money, it can mean that. And that's one way that we like to serve and give back through our business and me personally, but it's also just how can you elevate and support other people? And that's why I feel so blessed and grateful that my business is about service. It is about giving a platform to inspiring people, sharing a message that I think is important, telling stories that will help other people overcome challenges. giving people tools and master classes to support them. So it's, I feel like it's a win-win-win because I can, I can give unconditionally and I can also give and be rewarded from it in a business as well and feel like the things we are doing as a team are impacting people, whether we make money or we don't make money, it's all service. And so it feels very sustainable. renewable, evergreen that I just have this, this energy to keep showing up because my mission is aligned to giving to service. We're giving financially, we're giving to our team, all these different things. And it just gives me a lot of peace inside knowing that my life is not just about how do I become successful for me, but how can I grow and develop for everyone.

I think, Louis, you and I have spent a lot of time together, especially the last four years. And so many of the things you've said have hit me. But I think from this interview, service is not necessarily the secret of the world's most successful people, but it is the secret of the world's happiest people. That's going to stick with me. for such a long time. And you are that example, right? Like you have given a platform to me and so many people. Every time you give, every time you help somebody, it just comes back to you. Whether it's the form of money or some other connection, or if it's just joy and happiness and peace and like that internal satisfaction that we're all seeking.

And here's, I appreciate you saying that and I want to add to this because I think some people might think, okay, I'm going to make my life about service and I'm going to start giving more and I'm going to start doing all these things. And I interviewed Robin Sharma one time and he said something really important that's that I remembered and stuck with me today. This was probably four years ago when I first interviewed him. And he said, I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like, you know, if you want to be on a big mission to serve and give, you've got to make sure that you're serving just as much to yourself, if not more, so you can have the energy to give to others. So he told me at that time, I don't know if he's still doing this, but he was like, I do body work twice a week on my body because, you know, he's getting two massages a week or something like a massage twice a week. He's got coaches, he's got me time, he's got time alone, he's got time where he goes on vacations. He was like, I feel such a, desire to serve at a great level. That means I must be willing to serve myself as well. I must be willing to give to me, to love me, to take care of me so that I have the energy to give to others. And I think a lot of people forget to truly take care of themselves, to truly love themselves and accept themselves. That talks about the physical, the mental, the emotional, the spiritual. A lot of people might be in giving, giving service mode. but they haven't forgiven themselves or they still don't feel like they're enough. And that's defeating the purpose. It's never going to be enough unless you're willing to serve yourself, not in a selfish way, but just a way that you can have more energy and more abundance and peace when you're giving to others. And so I think it's a balance of being in service to the little boy, the little girl inside of you who needs what he or she needs. when you were growing up and now and constantly needs to be taken care of and loved and soothed with whatever is going on in your life. That's why I have coaches in different areas. That's why I do therapy. That's why I take care of my body. That's why I work out. That's why I nourish my body with healthy things to support and serve myself so I have renewable energy to give to others.

Yeah, that I think the renewable concept is is really powerful. It's like this self-regenerating thing where our highest obligation to other people is to be our highest self. And then our highest self becomes being our highest value to others. And they fuel each other. And you're such a great example of that.

Nice, man. So are you.

Well, thank you. this book, the Greatness Mindset, people have to get it. I mean, they have to get it. Now, if you're watching this part of the video, you already have it, right? But part of what I wanted to do is when you invited me in to be a part of your book launch team, which is you know, been an is always an honor to work with your team behind the scenes. I remember one of the first things that I came to you and I said, Louis, we have to give people an opportunity to meet you. You have so many fans and so many people who want to get a chance to just be around you and to learn from you and to sort of draw, I think, some of the energy that you put out there. And I know you get asked for coaching all the time. Like people are going, can I coach with Lewis? Like, you know, and you don't have the capacity to do it and you're so focused on the show. But, you know, when I brought this to you, said like, what can we do? What could we put together where you could be of service? And I want to just tee this up since I'm sort of like, you know, an intermediary intercessor here I don't have a dog in this fight. But my proposal was, you have a book you're trying to get out to lots of people. What if we created an opportunity where if people bought several books where they could be of service to you, and then they could be of service to all the people around them that they care about, their family, their friends, their colleagues, the charities that they support, their churches and synagogues, and they could take the Greatness Mindset book and share it with people. So it would help those people and it would help you. Could we bundle that with the idea that they could also, you could be of service to them by spending some time with them. And you went for this idea and we haven't talked much about it publicly, but I want to just like, can you just tell us a little bit about what you've decided to do and what we're doing? Because this is happening for a few people. There's not going to be very many, but can you just like tell us a little bit about what we're doing, what you're doing, what you're offering here?

Yeah, of course. We're doing some exclusive stuff and for a limited number of people, if you buy a hundred books, you get a private VIP day with me and you're actually going to be there too. So it's going to be a private VIP day. It's going to be roughly 50 people. We'll have some other surprises. I'm sure I'll bring some other special guests. who have been on the show to come in and be incorporated in some way. So a private day with me and you in LA for a hundred books. So that's, that's something, you know, I don't really do these one day things. It's not something I do. So this is an opportunity to spend a day with me and also 50 other inspiring, entrepreneurial, passionate individuals who are up to big things as well. So there's great opportunities for networking and meeting people and collaboration, but also just just being there to get coached by me and Rory in LA. So that's for people that buy 100 books. And then also, yeah, so just one.

Thought, just one thing on that, y'all. Like, it's 50. I know that 20 of these were gone. Like, we made one little quick sale.

I think we already had, like, 30. I think we're at, like, 35 already who have been sold.

Yeah, there's a bunch of them are gone already. But, so there's, there's only a few spots left. But if, if this is, this is the chance to, like, come literally be in the same room and, and. Yeah.

So that's the main thing they're gonna get. They're gonna get the, the, the VIP day with me and you all day in La. Plus, we're gonna give them two preferred tickets to the Summit of Greatness, September 2023. And six months access to Greatness Academy. So all of our trainings, all of our courses, all our materials. you get the access to that for six months. So that's 100 books. That's what you get there. And then we've got- and here's where.

You want to go for this, everybody. So if you go to lewishouse.com/bundle, lewishouse.com/bundle, there's actually a few different packages. There's a 10 book package and a 40 book package. But the thing that I was like, we gotta do this, was the 100 books gets you this day. with you, I'll be there. And then I was like, could we do something that would be even a little bit more intimate? And it was like, what about a dinner? Could we create for just a few people, 10 people? And if you get 250 books, all right, so if you get 250 copies of the greatness mindset, which just to pause it there for a second. Yes, it would be, I mean, this is going to be awesome, all these things you get. But the 250 books you get, those are 250 lives that you're blessing separate from what you get out of this and being able to help Lewis, which is an awesome thing. If you've enjoyed the podcast and you've gotten value from everything that he's done, this is an opportunity to be able to bless him and the team and what the work that they do. But it's also like you end up with 250 books, Louis doesn't actually make any money on this because the money goes, we take the money and we use the money to get books back to you and then you're dishing them out, like you're handing them out to people on the street.

Your clients, your audience, your community, your family, your friends. If you've got a business with clients, it's a great way to give back to them and to add value to people in your your, your communities. You know, if you've got an audience online, you can do a giveaway or some type of thing with that as well. So lots of different ways you could get the books to the people that you care about the most. But it's thinking about, you know, how can you, how can you help us, you know, with, with our mission, but also help the people in your community and give back to them as well. So. And so the dinner.

So tell us about, we're going to go to dinner together.

So you're gonna get the private dinner. You get the VIP day with us. then afterwards you're gonna do a dinner, private dinner with us as well. That's just for these individuals who've done 250 books. So you get the private VIP day, private dinner on top of that. Again, two preferred tickets to the Summit of Greatness. So you're gonna get Greatness Academy for six months and you're gonna get 250 books. So that's where you can get it. If you go to lewishouse.com/bundle, you'll have all the details there and you can see what option works best for you. But with whatever you guys decide to do, we appreciate your support on getting one book or 250 books or thousands of books, whatever you decide to sign up for, we appreciate it. But all the info is at lewishouse.com/bundle where you get the bonuses, how to order them, you know, when you're going to get your stuff. So make sure you guys check that out and go sign up right now for it.

Yeah, amen. And, you know, if you can't swing the 100 or 250, there's a 10 book package, there's a 40 book package. And one last little thing, those of you that have book clubs or should have a book club or want to start a book club, the 10 unit package is the perfect way to go, I'm going to give this to 10 other entrepreneurs in town or 10 other people at my whatever Bible study or my kids, and you start a little book club and then you also get to be in the Greatness Academy for six months is included with this.

That's it.

You end up getting way more stuff than the cost So, lewishouse.com/bundle. And, it's a good looking book cover, huh? It's good. It's good. Unlock the power of your mind. I love it.

Let's go.

Last little thing, Louis, if there is somebody who has listened to this and they're in the place right now that you were all those years ago when you started this journey, and they are sitting there going, I don't think I can do this. I don't have what it takes. I I don't know how. I don't have the connections. I'm not smart enough. I'm not whatever. Like, if there is somebody living right now in that moment of self-doubt and they're. And they're watching this, like, what would you. What would you want to leave them with?

I would say I see you and I feel your pain. because that's what I believed at one point with myself. And what I realized is that if you are here on this earth, then you have the skills somewhere inside of you to learn the things you need to learn, to overcome the things that are holding you back or scaring you for moving forward. They are available. The resources are already within you, even if you don't believe that they are, or they are around you somewhere. They are online. They are the people closest to you. There are people in your city, in your town. And if you still feel like, well, no one will help me, I'm telling you, it is inside of you. You know, the Alchemist is one of the most inspiring books for me. It's something I read at a time when I doubted myself after I got injured playing football, not believing that I was going to amount to anything else after my dream was over, thinking that I don't have any skills, I don't have the talent. I hadn't graduated college yet. You know, who's gonna hire me? The economy just crashed in 2008. People were freaking out in the world about the economy. I didn't know how to make money. I didn't have the skills. And I was afraid. I was afraid little boy in a 23 year old, 24 year old man looking body. But inside, I was afraid that I didn't have the abilities.

To.

To make anything of myself. But sometimes you got to dig through a lot of mud. You got to go through a lot of stress and obstacles in order to find the jewels, in order to find the. The gold, the diamonds inside of you. And it doesn't happen by staying in your comfort zone. I will tell you that it doesn't mean it has to be hard and exhausting, but it doesn't happen. You don't find. the resources to create what you want to create by staying comfortable every day. That's why it's so important to go through this process that we talk about in the book and discover and mend and build and form your meaningful mission. It may not come clear right away and it may evolve season by season, but figuring out what that is so that you can have the renewable energy, so you can have the strength and the courage to face the fears that have been holding you back for so long. That's what this is about. And I'm so excited for you on your journey because as I look back over the last 15, 20 years, when I was unsure of myself, scared, insecure, and had a ton of fears, I look back and those times were some of the most rewarding times going on the beginning of the journey. because I got to face all the things that were the darkest in my life early on. And they were scary, but it is so fun and rewarding when you start to see a little bit of improvement and you start to say, oh, this isn't as scary anymore. And oh, I can do this. I can get in front of an audience. I can write an article. I can take this step. I can go to the gym, whatever it might be. I can ask the girl that I've been afraid to ask out. And you overcome those fears with these steps. It becomes like a snowball effect where you can build momentum. so that's what I would say to you. If you feel stuck, if you feel scared, if you feel unsure of yourself, this is actually the perfect time because it's the time you get to overcome a lot. And that's when you start to build more belief in yourself. That's when you start to build momentum. That's when you start to gain confidence when you overcome those initial fears. So those are the times I reflect back and I think, man, those were exciting times. and it's going to be the foundation for your greatness. So I'm so excited for you and all you got to do is take action and get started.

Louis, on behalf of all your fans and your listeners and your friends, man, thank you for the work that you put in. Thank you for the sacrifices that you've made. You inspire us so much and we know that you've given up a lot to be able to do what you do and the work it takes to put this book together. I know the moment that people get their hands on it, I mean, when they read the first chapter, they're going to immediately be so grateful because of just the way that you connect with us and what you share. So thanks for those sacrifices and thanks for inspiring us to live the greatness mindset, brother. I love you.

Appreciate you. Love you, Roy. Thanks, man. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels @LewisHowes. I really we love hearing the feedback from you, and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and Do something great.