EVERYTHING You've Learned About Money Is WRONG | Lewis Howes

Lewis house is a New York Times bestseller keynote speaker and industry-leading show host he's a two sport All-American athlete former professional football player and member of the USA men's national handball team he showed the school of greatness is one of the top podcasts in the world with over 500 million downloads and he was recognized by the White House and President Obama as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs in the country under 30. today we got to sit down with him and discuss everything he knows From Success wealth what's the most you've ever made in a month um probably like three and a half million what what's your and of course greatness so if you guys like episodes like this feel free to subscribe it would mean a lot thank you so much and on to the episode but first we gotta thank today's sponsor streamyard you guys see this studio right here I am so sad to admit it was incredibly expensive it hurt grams in my pockets very badly but if you want to get into content creation it can be very affordable thanks to our sponsor stream yard stream yard is a live streaming Studio platform that is perfect for people looking to get into content creation to be honest Graham I liked you a lot more when you're over there really yeah all right with stream yard all you got to do is turn on the camera and start creating the content that you want to do and they will take care of the rest you can create high quality content right from your browser and stream directly to Facebook YouTube LinkedIn and several other platforms they also make it simple to brand and customize your videos before you even go live you can also multi-stream to all of your social media platforms at once to maximize your content's reach not to mention you also get powerful analytic tools that help you measure the success of your stream so whether you want to start live streaming or just easily record new content streamyard makes it simple to get professional and polish con content every time give stream yard a try today and start creating professional looking live stream videos in minutes if there's something I could do for you to sign up to stream yard comment down below let me know what Jack and I could do we will do our best to make it happen in one of the next episodes just to get just to get you to sign up guys we'll even do the next integration in an ice bath no we won't yes we will if you guys comment something down below we will do that during the next stream yard sponsor thank you so much stream yard and back to the podcast okay my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the iced coffee hour thank you so much for coming on man we really appreciate you hosting us here in the studio yes I know it's a different set yeah it's a great set it's been so nice to come to LA and not bring any equipment with us and just show up and it's all done I can get used to this I could tell once a month we really should that's what he was saying last night that's what he was saying we had this idea where uh well I had the idea we ended up getting so much done like brainstorming we went out and I had a beer yeah never been drunk never been high never done drugs why I'm not saying that it's like you know you've got to do that so many opportunities man you know I just it never served me you know as an athlete like you're mentioning like I would go to kind of the college football parties after the games and and everyone was like cake standing and drinking and I was just like this is going to be my Edge to make me better than my teammates they're going to be hungover the next day we have practice I'm going to be able to perform better and get more playing time so it was all about just the mental and physical Edge and will this make me a better athlete because there were so many people that were more talented physically but I was like I need to be sharper mentally so that was what it was for me did you see results like it actually worked for yeah yeah and the guys that were freak athletes but were drinking and just like up late at night and partying when I was going to bed and just getting up and working I could see that I was emotionally and mentally sharper on the field and it paid off over time now I've heard the culture has changed a lot in the last few years of that because we were speaking with Austin Eckler and he was telling us that like himself and everyone on his team is like so disciplined and now like that's required like you can't slip up at all yeah you gotta be so has this changed over the last few years from your experience I think so I mean I stopped playing I don't know 15 years ago 2007 was my last game playing arena football but and even my teammates there they were drinking a lot it was kind of like the party Vibe but I just knew that my nutrition had to be dialed my you know sleep had to be dialed in at that time because they were all more physically gifted than me so if I was partying and not sleeping well I just wouldn't perform well at all so I think now the competition is so much better everyone's got the best nutritionists and trainers like to stay healthy in the NFL or in any sport on a professional level you've got to be dialed in with your body and your mind at a high level consistently otherwise you might be able to make it but I can get on a team for a while but you just can't be out partying all night like after a game it's just like it's not gonna work yeah so tell us about your background like how you got into uh to sports my whole my whole childhood was about trying to overcome the feelings of being insignificant I was really bad in school I don't know you're probably the top of your classroom right and no okay I'm serious really is that a joke you're much smarter than me so I'm assuming you did way better than me no I I was terrible really oh yeah I barely passed wow I was in the bottom four every year High School in my in my high school they would they would rank you yeah in in our school on our grade card that's humiliating exactly so I was always in the bottom four and when I went to eighth grade um they had us started to do the standardized tests and they uh my reading test I had a second grade reading level in eighth grade so I always felt insecure and really just dumb and stupid because I was always in the special needs classes the extra you know classes when people were kids were doing recess I had to have a tutor after school I had to do a tutor just to stay in my grade so I always just felt kind of never good enough in school uh and I really and I was also like this tall when I was like 11 years old so I was like six four in like 11 12 years old so I was a foot taller than everyone but super skinny and kind of like goofy looking so I was goofy looking and poor in school so I didn't have a lot of friends my brother went to prison when I was eight years old for four and a half years and growing up in a small town in Ohio um that was rare to have someone like in the neighborhood go to prison and so I wasn't allowed to have friends for those four years as well because the the parents wouldn't let their kids hang out really what did he go to prison he sold drugs to an undercover cop so we sold LSD to an undercover cop thanks okay when he was 18 in college and they gave him they sentenced him six to 25 years that's a lot you know why was this first offense because this was back in the late 80s when uh I think it was Clinton like early 90s late 80s when it was about the War on Drugs I think he was I can't remember late 80s early 90s but the War on Drugs was like a big campaign they were like we're gonna crack down on anyone doing drugs in America and so for his first offense he got six to 25 years and he got out in four and a half on good behavior but it was really challenging to go at eight years old to watch your brother in a you know in a prison we would we were able to go once a week to visit him during visiting hours and like a kind of visiting room and so that really shaped a lot of my childhood was driving two hours on a Sunday to go visit my brother with my family and be in a room full of convicts on their families and hear the stories about what was happening in jail and in prisons um and then coming home and just dealing with the stress of it having like a family member you loved and cared about being in jail and he was young he was 18 19. so it was when he was in college did he feel safe in prison because I've heard these stories it was crazy it was it was really scary to hear the stories that were happening like people getting stabbed because he was in a he was in two different prisons they transferred him after one and and um this is the stories that I remember and I might get some of it wrong but I remember him telling me one night they were in a big room with like a hundred guys sleeping and kind of cots you know with a few feet apart one night um someone like a few people down from them got like stabbed in the middle of the night with like a shank and so he woke up to hearing screaming you know a few people down so it'd be probably really terrorizing to try to sleep at night after you hear that and then another prison he had a cell with a cellmate so it's like a little more contained but I just heard crazy stories every week and it was challenging so I would I didn't really have friends during that time I wasn't really able to hang out with other kids I was really poor in school and I was kind of tall goofy looking eventually I just started to I have a lot of I had a lot of extra energy and I was just like I need to have some activities so my parents put me in sports and I started to get pretty good at sports um to the fact when I was about 13 I was you know on varsity teams and all that stuff in high school so I put all my energy into how can I be the best and get validated through Sports because school wasn't giving me the validation I needed now I was very poor at it and that's why I was so as I got older in life I was like I wish school would have taught me the skills on how to deal with failure the skills on how to manage my emotions the skills on how to get into a relationship and manage love and connections the skills on how to do a bookkeeping and accounting and my taxes and understand money and that's why I created my own School because I was like I wish they would have taught these lessons that I was neglected I feel like growing up and so that was the um the early kind of childhood was feeling very insecure feeling like I wasn't smart enough and also just I didn't have any friends and it wasn't until high school when I started to be able to grow into my body and perform as an athlete that I gained a lot of my confidence and then walk us through what happened like during high school after high school did you finally make some friends now I'm like the youngest you know person on the vars so I'm hanging out with upper classmates it's gonna be cool right it's cool but you're also still getting picked on so kind of like I'm getting picked on in my childhood then I'm better than the upperclassmen right but they still treat you like a rookie like and they pick on you and they make fun of you even though they need me like that was needed on the team but I was still like you know kind of picked on so it felt really weird when I was a senior because finally I was like the oldest person and I had to learn how to be a leader as opposed to be kind of the the younger person on the team but but high school was just interesting in terms of like I'd learned the developed a lot as an athlete and then my whole goal was to you know get a scholarship and play uh Sports in college and then end up playing three Sports in college I was a an All-American football player an All-American decathlete so I was an All-American two sports in college and I also played basketball for one year so I had three Sports in college I transferred around multiple times to different schools and um my whole goal was to be a professional athlete and so I tried out for some NFL teams I wasn't fast enough that's why I never had the talent but I was willing to work hard and I was willing to strategize and I was willing to keep my mind sharp enough on the field so I made it to uh I got some offers to play Arena Football which is you get paid 250 a week they give you food stamps and they pay for your apartment but for me that 250 dollars represented so much more I was like I'm no longer an amateur you know I'm a professional even if I was 250 a week yeah I know you remember the first time you made 250 bucks a month on a YouTube video and you're like this is unbelievable I'm a professional right I can buy sushi um and so for insurance too exactly so 250 bucks a week was huge um and we I lived in Alabama Huntsville Alabama for six months with this team with my teammates playing Arena Football and we were doing you know 14-hour bus rides stacked with like three people sleeping on top of each other in a bunks on a bus um going 14-hour rides to Florida to you know wherever it might be to play these arena football games in front of 10 15 20 000 people and just beating the crap out of each other for 250 bucks a week but for me it was a dream come true and the whole goal was to try to make it to the NFL but I got injured my rookie year I broke my wrist you can kind of see like that so they took a bone out of my hip they did a surgery they took a bone out of here they put it into here I was trying to catch a football I was a receiver I was trying to catch up when I dove into the wall and broke my wrist and snapped it man and I played 14 games with a broken wrist because it was my dream I didn't want to give it up and so they had to take a bone out of my hip they put it in here for six months I was in a cast from here to here in this position I don't know if you saw the movie rookie of the year that baseball movie it was kids in a cast like this anyways I was in this position for six months when I was 21. giving him a high five yeah but it was this huge cast right hang in here I couldn't straighten my arm for six months because the bone had to heal in there that they took from my hip so this was a at this point it was the end of 2007 going into 2008 it was end of August 2007. I'm sleeping on my sister's couch at this point I've got no money I couldn't save any money in 250 a week I've got no money I didn't know how to make money my dad who was a life insurance salesman for 32 years the year prior got into a pretty severe car accident where a car hit his car on top of his car came through the windshield and split his head open and he was in a coma for three months and he finally woke up and he passed last year after 17 years he never fully recovered but he was physically alive but emotionally and mentally you couldn't really have a conversation with him and his personality was completely different but after his accident I was like I need to go after all my dreams like whatever it takes I need to go do it but when I got injured I didn't have him as a backup to support me financially or emotionally or mentally he was being taken care of by his wife at the time and you know nurses and things like that but my sister took me in when I had this surgery so I was with her for six months while I was recovering and then I stayed for about another year because I didn't have any money this was the end of 2007 2008 you know the housing crisis they weren't hiring people with master's degrees I hadn't even graduated college yet and I still had to finish college then I went back to finish and no one's going to hire a semi-professional you know football player with no skills at that time so I got one gift that Christmas 2007 going in 2008 it was a book and I I rarely read at the time I'm a slow reader it's the wrong gift to give a dyslexic kid who had a poor reading level but the book was a four hour work week and I don't know if you read that book yep I read that book too when I was 18. yeah so this was 2000 it was Christmas 2007. I finished it in three days and it opened my mind to the world of online marketing entrepreneurship business passive income when I knew nothing me too VA and sell I know diet pills online we go to the Philippines and I'm gonna run magazine ads and all the things that he talked about I thought and so I was like wow this is fascinating and I started to how old are you then in 2008 18. yeah I'm 20 I don't know four at the time or something and so I um I started obsessing so I have all this free time on my hand right in my free hand that I have so I have a laptop I'm on my sister's couch for a year and a half and I just started researching and reading every blog that I can find that Tim Ferriss references right all these people that are talking about entrepreneurship and social media at the time Twitter was blowing up and I was like okay let me get into this Social Media stuff and that's when the whole journey began I started a a membership site a year about a year later called um sportsnetworker.com that's still out there that still pays me today because I had a Sports Marketing kind of like background in college and I got I don't know like almost 100 people to pay 27 bucks a month the rating of the long form really cool creating long-form blogs on a site you can still see it today sportsnetworker.com and then I created a membership for sports Executives to teach people how to get a job in sports I was trying to get a job trying to figure it out and I was researching how to find a job how to get opportunities I was going to networking events at that time and I was just interviewing people in the sports industry about how to get a job how did you get this job how did you get to this next level in your career write articles about it and then I created a membership for kind of a sports Executives even though I still didn't have a job in the business I still have no job and that was my first kind of experiment of like how do I figure out this online marketing stuff how do I do how do I get paid and back then there were no easy solutions for like memberships and it was all extremely hard back then in 2008 2009 to figure stuff out but it was I was obsessed with it I just wanted to learn everything about online marketing so I researched copywriting I learned how to write better I learned I wrote I wrote an e-book I did you know the membership site I started doing webinars in 2009 and um that was really the thing that was early on a lot of that too and I was using LinkedIn a lot so at the time my thing was linked in people we're talking about Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and a mentor of mine said why don't you check out LinkedIn I hear you can get a job there and so I spent about six hours a day when I was on my sister's couch networking with people on LinkedIn building my profile and then people would start asking me hey can you show me how to use LinkedIn the way you're doing it so I started helping people for free I started hosting LinkedIn networking events in Ohio and I made I remember making a thousand dollars hosting and networking event and I was like I'm rich I charged five dollars for people to get in the door of this kind of networking event at a restaurant and tons of people showed up because in 2008 people were looking for opportunities so I was promoting these events on LinkedIn getting people together and then people were like can you teach me this stuff so I started doing LinkedIn profile kind of makeovers for people for for free and then one guy gave me a hundred dollars after I did it I was just like a thank you he goes this is going to help me in my business so much here's a hundred bucks I go really I'll get paid for this it's just something I'm doing for fun to do these little networking events and then I was like huh maybe I can charge more people to do these makeovers and so I started charging 200 300 Consulting on how to use LinkedIn 2009. and then someone asked me this guy named Joel calm he said I'm doing a boot camp a social media boot camp and I don't know anyone talking about LinkedIn the way you are back in that time I've got an expert on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube that are going to do like an hour-long presentation webinar can you do one on LinkedIn and I was like sure no problem I was terrified to speak I didn't know how to present I didn't know how to create content really in a in a webinar I don't even know what a webinar was at the time but I asked some friends for some help and I created this presentation and he said at the end of the content that you teach for free I'm going to bring the audience I want you to sell a product something around your program and I didn't have a program so I made up a program I pre-sold a advanced LinkedIn training to people I said hey if you enjoyed this hour-long presentation on LinkedIn I've got this other bootcamp I'm gonna give you it starts in two weeks it was 150 bucks and I said sign up here I had a janky like PayPal link I didn't have a landing page or anything I just said here's a PayPal link you know type in paypal.com 6784 star you know there was no simple link I give the people this and instantly in my PayPal account when I shut down the webinar and open up Paypal it said there was 6 200 in my account and I literally was like freaking out screaming running around the house I was like I am the richest man in the world because at that time I was barely making anything and it was kind of a breakthrough for me I was like wow I've been doing these in-person networking events making like five bucks a person to come in like really working hard to get people to show up in person this guy just asked me to come on and do a webinar presentation to teach the thing I'm already teaching and I gave it I gave the information away for free and I asked people if you want more of this type of training here's a link to buy and they bought I was like this is unbelievable I could do this every day for the rest of my life if I'm gonna make sixty two hundred dollars in an hour now granted I gave 50 of that money to the person who hosted it because that was our deal but I was like wow how can I learn how to get my own audience to show up for these webinars right and how can I get better at these webinars so I started using LinkedIn to promote webinars and building audiences with LinkedIn groups and that really helped me for the next probably seven years I did a webinar almost every week for like seven years and started making ten thousand dollars a webinar twenty thousand fifty thousand dollars in an hour and I just became obsessed just like you were obsessed Graham with like I'm gonna show up at any moment to anyone that wants to buy a house I'm gonna be there for them I'm gonna go to I'll show 20 houses a week if I have to I'll be at every open house I'll meet everyone you did that for years until you got like really big opportunities that came through and I was just like every week if I just show up and do this I can build my net worth I can get off my sister's couch I can have my own apartment and and actually be you know responsible for my own life and not rely on others and it just became an obsession of how do I learn online marketing how do I learn copywriting how do I learn headlines how do I learn how to offer more value to people how to learn how to package a program better how do I learn better price points how do I learn branding and design and now social media I just had to learn all of it to to drive awareness to a presentation for free and then offer people a program on the end and that was yeah about seven years of doing that two things one I love having podcasters on this podcast the way that you're able to relay that information just like it dumbs it down just like it's so digestible I love it great job second thing were you nervous when you pre-sold this thing that you didn't even necessarily have any like tangible thing that you were I was terrified because everyone else said come up with something everyone else had a program that they had already developed and were selling they were all I was a 23 24 year old bum right they were all like 40 year old professionals business owners that had just knew what they were doing and I was just faking everything I was just like yeah I've got a program yeah I can do a webinar yeah I've got a presentation for you he goes cool awesome can you do it this day it was like yeah I think I'm free yeah okay I can do this but I was I was blogging about LinkedIn and kind of just commenting on every other blog back then blogging was a big thing back then you were like five right you were like seven years old and leaving comments was kind of like leaving comments on Instagram or YouTube on a Blog back then and people would see the comment they'd see the face of the image of the person and they'd click on that would take you back to your site and that was how you got traffic by leaving comments on blogs but you have to give a great comment with like feedback and suggestions and I did that on YouTube to get my first 100 subscribers and here's like three things that I would add to this you know article that is additional contents you're like wow okay this person's smart and what about people like questioning your credentials because you're kind of like exactly selling okay this is how you get a job on a LinkedIn thing but you will struggling to find a job yourself unemployed well I started teaching people more about how to make your profile look great so that you look more credible like how to make it because a lot of people didn't have a photo they didn't have a good headline they didn't have anything in their bio and I was like you just gotta update it and hear the things to look for also I learned early on how to rank the first page of SEO for any keyword on LinkedIn so any one that if you're like real estate Los Angeles [Music] plumber Ohio whatever it is like I could get you to be on the front page if not in the top three uh people searches of any keyword on LinkedIn this is back in 2008 2009 there's only about 10 to 12 million people on the site at that time so people weren't really using LinkedIn and testing it like that and I was just had all this free time in the world where I was like trying everything so I was obsessing over it and it was early days it was kind of like back in YouTube in 2010 where it was a lot easier to rank in the top four for any keyword you know 10 12 years ago sure so I was able to do this guaranteed with any profile um for any keyword to get you on the first page if not the first three so I was just teaching people and here's what I did I remember trying this on this first webinar I go because there was a live chat on the webinars and I said okay what industry are you guys in and so part of the presentation was teaching the other part was actual live application so I would say I want you guys to open up your LinkedIn profile right now and I'm going to teach you a few things to edit right now it's going to help you and I think that was the Difference Maker where most people were just kind of like okay here's how to you know here's a presentation on something I said I want you to take action now and get results right now so they would open up their their profiles live on their end I wasn't seeing it but I could see their chat and I'd say what what industry are you in I'm in real estate I'm an accounting I'm a financial advisor I'm a designer I'm a web developer I say great all these keywords that you guys put in here's what I want you to put them here's where else I want you to put them first I want you to type it in on LinkedIn search and see if you show up on the first page and none of them would I said okay now I want you to add these things and edit it and I would walk them through on my profile you're gonna go right here and click edit you're gonna go here and type this in so I'll show a live demonstration then I would say I want you guys to do this and the comments were just people freaking out because they're all like I'm number one in the world on LinkedIn for realtor for money advisor for video editor whatever and they were just in all of the live results that they could get from just a couple things that they got for free from this presentation and I think that as opposed to just like okay go through a program watch something and take some notes and then now you have this wisdom they got results right then and that's what I think people are like oh man if I could get results from this free thing then I imagine what the advancing would be yeah sure I'll sign up for this training so I I just took the opportunity it was an opportunity um just like you said with the oppenheim group like you've got to learn from people they took you on your wing that you have to hear how people talked about it this guy kind of brought me under his wing Joel calm and he said here's an opportunity can you present and do this thing and it was an amazing experience but I was terrified before the webinar terrified I was like profusely sweating I was like nervous I was like freaking out I remember it took about 20 minutes I was I watched all the other presentations before and I tried to be like okay what are they doing and how can I mimic them and for 20 minutes I rambled rambled and said nothing no value and Joel had to jump in the presentation because he was co-hosting it he's like okay Louis let's like let's like get into the content now you know he was like okay let's let's get into some of the value I was so nervous um but then when he said that I just said okay I'm gonna give as much values as I can and 6 200 came in and my my world changed because for a year and a half I was learning and researching and trying and developing skills and hosting these events and making a little bit of money but it was so much work and then it all kind of came together when I did this live webinar and I was like now I can just do webinars every week forever and it's evolved since then but um it was a big breakthrough for me financially and how long did it take for you to start making like some serious money because six thousand dollars let's say if you say you know six thousand dollars a month that's great income but it's 12 000 a month six thousand a week you know half of that so three thousand times four twelve thousand so you immediately started doing this I did this one webinar and then I was like okay I'm gonna do another webinar I think I waited a month um because I certainly have a big audience so I had to find other people who had audiences to promote it so I did another webinar maybe a month or a month and a half later and I was so excited and I made zero dollars I got no sales and I go this must have been like luck you know maybe it was just this guy's audiences and so for about four and a half or five months I didn't do another webinar because I was like oh it's not gonna work it was just this one guy's thing his audience was perfect for this I tried it again and it didn't work and thank God someone else like convinced me to do one more and I was like I just don't know if webinar is going to work right and he like let's just try it and it made like 12 Grand wow I was like okay after that we were doing them like every what happened with the one though that didn't make the money it was the wrong audience no it's like the wrong audience someone else was like promoting it but the audience wasn't really the right fit for it and so we had all these people on I don't know maybe it was only a couple hundred people on and no one bought and I was devastated I was like oh man I sucked I'm not good enough like it was just luck or this other guy told people to buy or whatever it is but then thank God a few months later I did another one and we made like 12 Grand with another guy I did it with and I said let's just do this every week together you know let's just try to do this every week and replicate it and get better at it we did that for couple years together and then I just started doing it on my own and um yeah I grew from there but you had to create a course at some point right I created so what I did is I recorded I recorded that live training so I I delivered this kind of like four week boot camp where I would do like a two-hour training once a week for four weeks and then I just recorded that and then I put a design around it and I sold that over and over again then I redeveloped the whole course into something you know a little more better and pre-recorders and things like that as opposed to like a live training recording so in 2000 yeah 10 I started making so 12 years ago I started making courses now they're everywhere but that became one course on LinkedIn and then I did that for like a year almost every week for a year I was just doing this like free teaching on LinkedIn selling my course in the first the first I started that at like the end of the last six months of a year we did like a half a million dollars in sales for the first half uh the second half of the year when we started it and then the second year we did like 1.2 million or something just selling one course over and over again every week but now if you keep selling the same thing doesn't eventually like ever no never got to find new audiences but not everyone could also rank in the first page so isn't it like people how to compete with each other and then it's like nobody ranks enough no because then it was like okay real estate Columbus Ohio realtor Los Angeles get more and more Niche yeah exactly one more niche um but then it was also okay now linkedin's adding events and linkedin's adding this so how could you use the tools that they're bringing into LinkedIn as well teaching that stuff but then people are like hey thank you you've helped me so much on LinkedIn can you help me with Facebook I was like why do I know Facebook that much but I can learn it or I can find an expert and they were like can you help with YouTube and I was like well I'm not really using YouTube that much but I found the expert so I started publishing other experts courses and selling their courses so we would create the content we would we would record it for them they would they would create the content we would develop it record it package it and then sell it and we'd split the profits so I started kind of being uh yeah a publisher of courses have like all social media types of content and that was the next few years yeah but then I kind of got burnt out from just getting on a webinar every week and talking about how to upload a photo to your LinkedIn profile and I was like I so I've done this for years and I'd saved enough money where I was like I had a couple years to live off of maybe right you know how much that was it's probably about a couple hundred grand you know two to three hundred grand range where I was like and I was living pretty frugal because I didn't want to I didn't want to go back to being broke on my sister's couch yeah so I was like okay I've got enough money I don't really spend that much maybe on travel but I had to you know a very small lifestyle and I was like what do I really want to do with my life next this helped me get off my sister's couch this gave me you know I was able to accomplish some goals here I was able to make some money I learned a lot I met some people but I don't want to be teaching LinkedIn for the rest of my life I was like I'm really love interviewing people so in 2012 I was like podcasting was starting to be talked about as like a little word and I knew a couple people that had podcasts and so I called them I just moved to LA um I moved here for a girl I was dating and the day I got here she broke up with me what happened like how long had you been dating yeah maybe six months we were dating at that point yeah I met her when did I meet her originally this was so long ago I met her at an event through a friend and then we were kind of doing the long distance thing back and forth I was in New York City at the time she was in LA she had just moved from New York to LA and she had said after a while we were having a great time or at least it felt like that and after a while she was like I really want I don't want to date long distance anymore I want to be in the same city and at the time I was like I can do webinars anywhere I can come out here for two weeks a month I can be back in New York but I was loving New York City at the time and I was like why don't I just come visit you know two three weeks a month but I stay in New York and she was like no I really want your stuff to be in La I want to feel like you live here right like grounded in L.A okay and I was kind of frustrated by that and I was like well but we are having a good connection or at least it felt like it and I was like you know what I'm young like I can do whatever I can be flexible so after a few months of her saying that and she was like listen it was kind of getting some tension because she was like I really want to be in the same city with you I don't want to do this long distance anymore I was like okay let me try it I'll come out there I'll get an Airbnb for a couple of months right so I can let go my lease in New York City I have two suitcases a laptop and a guitar I fly to La I land she gets in this fight with me and breaks up with me like within 30 minutes of land okay we're always the fight about this is the thing there was the fights never made sense it was just kind of like she's self-session she's self-sabotages and she's self-sabotaged it she was a i and this is all goes back to many other many other things of of me choosing in the past women based on a wound so I used to choose based on a wound not based on alignment and values and so it's not her fault or any of the people have dated fault it was my responsibility to uh you know get clear on what I wanted and is this the right person for what I want and so she just wasn't the right fit so nothing wrong with her I don't blame her anyone I take responsibility kind of sounds like to me just a bystander that she didn't think you'd call her Bluff like she was trying to adjust that sounds like I don't want to be long distance and then she's like ah move over here and she wants to build up that tension and slowly kind of like yeah and then you go and she's like oh my God he actually I didn't think he'd actually do it there was a knight that made me you know when you look back on things you see the signs there's tons of signs but there was a night we were having a great time for a few months and it was peaceful and and fine and then there was a night we were having a great time out at some I don't know some event or something and all of a sudden she just starts getting really angry at me and I go what happened what did I do and there was no reason there was no like thing I said or did or didn't do and after like an hour of this later in the night I go what is going on like why are you upset she was like I never thought I would meet you at this age of my life she was I don't know like mid-20s or something like that or 26 I can't remember and she said I thought I would meet the person like you when I was like 30 31 32. a person who was kind generous successful all these things that wanted to like be in a relationship she was like I just wanted to like have fun and kind of party I didn't want to like him but she didn't want to like me but she liked me so she got mad at me because she liked me and she had feelings I'm like okay well what are you doing you know so she wasn't good at communicating right she should have said hey I can't be in a relationship right now but she was like I really want you to be here but then she was like actually I don't want this so she wanted it but she didn't feel like she was ready for it right and I was you know I didn't have the courage to be like well I don't need this crap I'm gonna get out of here I had my own insecurities at that time and so I was like okay let's try this out what can we do to fix it what can we do to make it better sure and so it was up and down she broke with me we got back together it was up and down for six months until I finally I was like I can't deal with it anymore um and I spent you know many many times repeating that pattern until I finally healed and chose differently but um that's what got me to La and so wow so you you owe her a decent amount yeah what happened afterwards I wanted to leave I was miserable for the first year in L.A I was like screw up I didn't stay for a year well I remember saying like after I was going to try this out with her I again I didn't have a place to stay I was living in an Airbnb I finally got a place to rent and then we broke up within six months fully and I was like I'm done with this girl this girl's too much and I was like La sucks that was my thought like La sucks you know my I was in a bad mood from just dealing with this stress from this part the relationship and I think I went to like a couple La parties like in the Hollywood Hills and people are doing Like Cocaine I went to like a club and I was like man this is not for me but then I started to meet the entrepreneurs and people that were content creators entrepreneurs and inspiring people in LA and after about a year I started to really love everything about it the lifestyle the weather and you know the just everything about it the people the food and it took about a year year and a half where I was like okay this feels good now but I think it was just going through the emotional stress of the relationship and moving from a city that I loved and the energy and the grit to like a different lifestyle so it was but it was during that time where I was like what do I want to do I don't want to do these webinars anymore like this I really want to start interviewing people so I was stuck in the 405 in my car I had a 4 500 car that I bought from a mentor of mine 1997 Cadillac Eldorado and I was stuck in on the 405 in the middle of this year of up and down the relationship stress trying to figure out why am I in LA and I remember seeing around me stuck in the car um because we're all stopped at one point everyone was like Angry in all the other cars honking and screaming flipping people off and I was just like man there's a lot of people who feel like me in life right now who are stuck and during this car ride I was like man I've been hearing about this podcast thing I've been thinking about maybe doing some interview show or something but I don't know how to do this I called the two people I knew who had podcasts at the time this is 2012. and I asked them about it I said is podcasting a thing tell me about it and both of them are like it's the most fun thing that we're doing it's allowing us to connect with our audience and build a community in a new way and I'm learning so much and I was like okay I'm gonna launch a podcast and I'd heard at that time like maybe the podcasts are going to be built into cars later so it's kind of this whole thing that they're gonna be built into cars and I was like man people are commuting all the time in New York I was just walking everywhere but I was like people are stuck in traffic everywhere in America so maybe I could make something where people are stuck to help them improve and maybe I can learn on how to improve my situation in my life right now and so that's where the school of greatness was born it was like I need help in life let me find the mentors who can help me and it seems like a lot of people need help as well let me see if I can help them and so now it's 10-year anniversary in two weeks of the school of greatness what are you gonna do to celebrate it you got to do something for taxes man I don't know why I watch like you gotta get something you never bought a watch I'm kind of like you I spend more than you but I'm like I wear the same black T-shirt or blue shirt or a Rolex Daytona stainless steel black dial 10 years really that's a good tenure how much does that cost uh depends if you get it like retail which you could probably get a hookup at like 15K if you get a good deal on it you're not just throwing away money though you can sell later if you could get it around retail which I hear that the demand is like going down right now so if you could get it around 15 like you'll never lose money right right or even if you do like a few grand but I don't think so yeah maybe I'll get a cash maybe I gotta watch yeah we'll see I've never I've never really bought stuff to myself celebration now 10 years I'll think about it yeah you know so it's interesting to me you you come to La yeah you know you and your girl you guys have your tribulations you end up separating you're in the car you come up with this podcasting idea all the while you're still running this webinar thing right yeah still doing that and you're making good money good money but it was like okay I'm gonna keep doing this because I was like what am I gonna do that's going to bring me a lot of joy and it's going to be Challenge and interesting for me so the podcast was like an experiment I was like I'm not going to try to make any money in the first year I just want to do this for fun it's a passion thing yeah right and uh and I'm gonna use it as a tool to kind of promote my webinars you know if I if I can and like build my audience I had a small following back then you know 10 years ago maybe like 10 000 Twitter followers or something like that I mean it was small right I'm a few thousand I don't even remember but I didn't have an audience so this is a way to interview people with audiences and then I would send messages every day for a week I do one episode a week and I would say who on LinkedIn do I think would like this content this type of interview and I would send personalized messages every day hundreds a week with a link to go listen to the show with like here's why I think you'd like this or in this section we talked about this and I see in your profile this is an interest of yours and I would just do that every day for for the whole year really and I remember the first year it only got 750 000 downloads that's not only 75 000 for the whole year man I was like 52 episodes yeah it's really good it's incredible great to me what were you hosting on at the time oh man I was not hosting on Soundcloud because I knew the founder and I got the hosting for free and I was like okay I'm just gonna use SoundCloud and you were just sending out people within LinkedIn link and then Facebook friends you know I had like a few thousand friends from like the years on Facebook so I was like sending messages to people Twitter like I would do the garyvee thing like hashtags look for anyone who's posting about these topics and I just reply to people check out this episode I was just trying to learn how to be a marketer but it was one-to-one for that whole year right but there had been some like organic spread right it's like word of mouth or you know over time certain things yeah you get some people sharing it with a few friends or whatever but it wasn't until like year three or four when I started to be like okay now they're starting to see more growth it's hard to make audio go viral it's almost impossible and that's why like after year three I was like man I feel like YouTube's gonna be big I was just like I feel like maybe I should film these because I was just doing Audio Only what year is this my 2015-16 something like that and I was like I think I should film these but no one's filming their podcast at that time it wasn't a thing except for maybe Joe Rogan but no one else was like filming content like that and I just started filming them and I was like I'm just gonna throw them up on YouTube and and for five years I did that until 2000 beginning of 2020. for five years yes it must have been 2014 because the end of 2019 is when I was like you know what I'm going to it's a full circle moment because you guys just had Tai Lopez on I saw famous um here in my garage with my Lamborghini commercial right yeah he said that in front of us by the way and we both correct it's like yeah it was like that you're like wow in front of us like I heard that yeah direct from the source that was so cool so I remember seeing that and a lot of other kind of get rich quick you know ads on YouTube around what was it 2014 15 16. kind of around those time right yeah and I was like I'm gonna put up my YouTube videos my content I'm gonna do it for free I'm not gonna have advertising on there I'm not going to run any ads and I did it for five years and then I thought to myself can I make any money if I turn these ads on let me test this the end of 2019 I tested it on a few videos like oh just turn it on but I don't want to rub people the wrong way if they're going to be mad if there's like an ad in the beginning I just wanted to help people and I think in the first month I made like five thousand dollars on like a few videos I was like it's not nothing you know it's something but it wasn't like or my my course business was still making a lot of money if you say about how much it was making probably like four million dollars and just like course sales and 20 like 18 or something and then what's your profit on that pretty high it's like 80 probably 80 so you're making a ton of millions like three million plus a year yeah and I had a small team like five six people but you know we're California you're getting taxed a lot okay so one and a half take home basically after taxes 100 000 a month really after tax but also like you I'm showing up every week yes grinding right doing these live presentations saying you know it's just like it wasn't just like rewarding feeling anymore it felt like a lot of work at that point whereas the podcast was like this is the thing I'm most excited about it's like effortless that's the thing I love to do but I wasn't making money still it took like a while I think maybe 2017 or 2018 when I made like 200 Grand on the podcast from like the Audio I wasn't monetizing YouTube I was just like I want to help people I'm going to give it for free and try to promote back my courses [Music] and um and then in 2020 I was like you know what let's just turn it on all the videos and see what happens I think we had none of them 700 videos or something 600 videos or something right and I remember the first month after that it was like 20 grand I was like well okay let's I can pay for a few people that can help out some things I was like not it's not nothing and then it was like okay 20 grand for a few months I was like there's got to be a way to make more and then one month it just boom hit like 40 Grand ago it's not bad 40 Grand a month if you deal every time and then they hit like 60 and then they had 100 Grand a month and then they had a 200 Grand in a month and I go holy cow and then this is something I did which made me want to throw up I look back to all the views I had before then when I started posting these videos and I thought how much money I could have made had I turned it on earlier and I probably lost about a million and a half dollars yeah so that made me sick but um but it also made me excited about the possibilities with YouTube and really it's been two years now of just kind of going all in on YouTube and making content not only for audio but also separately for YouTube and even like I said before we did our interview yeah I was like okay here's the title of the video because we've been doing the research of what we think is going to work and what's going to rank and what's going to click and all these different things and we already know the title we already know like what's going to go in the thumbnail based on the the data right so it's not doing the interview and seeing what happens it's yes that but also saying what's the first couple of questions that people want the answers to and build the content around that and then see what happens and create Magic so when you pick a guest are you picking a guest to get a niche or like thinking of a ranking and be like we need this ranking here who which guest could we pull that would solve this for this person it's a lot of different things one is like people that I'm inspired by yeah and I decided to sit down with that's number one so I'll have people that have no audience but I'm just like this person's got an amazing story um but sometimes the people that are unknown won't do well on YouTube but they'll do well on audio with the right storytelling with the right title with the right topic so I've got to think strategically based on audio audience versus YouTube audience because they're different and what works well in audio doesn't always work well on YouTube and vice versa so it's almost like I'm thinking strategically of two different styles of content when I interview you you know there's a different title on the audio and a different title on the YouTube and we'll edit it maybe a slightly different in the beginning of the hook for YouTube whereas the audio would just kind of run it through and people are used to that format but obviously the bigger names usually do better in the content world it's funny because you know celebrities tend to draw in brand awareness and credibility but they don't always do as well on YouTube like I had Kevin Hart on and I think he got like 20 000 views really and it didn't do as well in audio but it was like you know Apple podcast is going to feature that he's on my show and they're doing a promotion but for some reason it didn't do as well as if I had a therapist or a financial expert or a um a doctor who could teach you how to optimize your life so I've conditioned and trained my audience to to receive content that's going to help them in their relationships their health and wellness their money or their mindset let's get on to some of those clips that you had I'm curious how do you get Kevin Hart on like how do you how do you that was exactly those five and a half years of me reaching out to the publicist every few months you wanted him specifically on oh he was his publicist I reached out to his publicist for about five and a half years every couple of months and I would email her and and asked to get them on what was it about and it was a no I mean he was just inspiring he had an inspiring story for me he was one of the biggest entertainers in the world he still is um and I was just kind of inspired by his mindset as well from like being in the underdog comedian that was kind of a nobody getting these little roles in movies to then building a massive Global tour to then being a smart business owner and entrepreneur and I was like this guy's got a bulletproof mindset you don't just do this by accident there are things that he had overcome and strategies over decades that he developed to get him to where he was so I wanted to learn inside of his mindset about how he became such a successful entrepreneur a talent how he manages emotions all this stuff his community everything and I'm fascinated by that with people who have accomplished something like that and overcome a lot so he was just one of the people that was kind of like on my top you know 20 list I was like I'd love to have a Kevin Hart I'd love to have the rock I'd love to have you know Sylvester Stallone I'd love to have Jim Carrey so I would reach out to their publicist monthly almost and Pitch them okay now the podcast is this big I see he's got a new movie out I see they've got a book out I see they've got a TV show out we love can I get in the Press circuit with them doing the press for the week or two and uh some people would say yes and some people say no but there's a lot of people that were just a no until he had a book on self-help and then it was a yes and how do you keep track of everybody like do you have a spreadsheet and is this you doing it personally I've been booking for 10 years myself but how do you keep track of my mind but let's say you have a hundred guests like how many guests do you have at a time where you like constantly rotate through the list well we get pitched a lot now right so I'm getting constant inbound requests um but there's just kind of people in my mind that I really want to interview I've been trying to get you on for two years I've been trying to reach out to you for two years two two and a half years maybe since 2020. I've been messaging Graham on Instagram on Twitter but hey man I'd love to connect I've reached out to people that know Graham you know I finally got read like read I hate asking for intros but I was like read can you see if Graham's gonna be in town sometime like you just connect us and that was nice that was like three days ago you would have been here man that it was like three days ago well you know what I was telling him I've been so bad lately like these last two years I have been in a mode where like my head is just down I don't leave my room it's I am in the same room from 8 A.M to 8 P.M six to seven days a week and any free time I had I needed to zone out like I didn't have the bandwidth now it's been the first time I've ever been like but I've been trying to get him so it's like and I will try in in multiple different ways I'll message people on Instagram I'll leave comments I'll tweet them I'll email them I'll I'll find a way to do something wrong I feel like it's just you've got it like the right timing the timing of this worked out like the the timing of this happened to be so perfect that like hey I'm gonna be in La this works house this time it's like I've never seen something flow this quick yeah we're like can you want to do it on Saturday yes so I'm you know I'm like I'll do whatever because I'm trying to make it work and something I've wanted for a couple years because I feel like my audience could get value from the wisdom you have right so I'm thinking who can my who can help my audience with the knowledge that they have on MoneyGram is one of the experts on YouTube and in the world right now he's researching this and he creates a unique perspective just like a billionaire has their unique perspective which I've had I don't know seven or eight billionaires on so it's like I'm getting different perspectives of people that I think could reach my audience and also bring in new audiences and then serve them in their relationships and serve them in their health and serve them in the different areas of life that could help them their mindset and so yeah I messaged him for I don't know I probably messaged him like five to seven times I barely read DMs like very rarely every now and then I'll kind of scroll through but it's like I don't take it personally you know it's just but that's the game I play I'm just like okay I gotta constantly follow up just like you said in in our interview yeah one of your keys is never giving up you would show up at a listing or an open house whatever you call it anytime a buyer was interested you would show up Sunday morning Saturday night Friday you're like okay I'm there and so I just do that with people over the years and I'm like eventually they'll say yes maybe it takes five years um but eventually work it out and like you said it's timing Kevin Hart was the right time and my audience was bigger at that time so it made sense you're in town right now so we're just like I happen to text Reed and I said hey man can you make an intro at some point he said yeah and then you responded and you're like I'm in La I'm like let's make this happen now it was just being available to when the timing is right and for someone like Kevin Hart though what's the process like because I didn't imagine he has a whole team behind him he's so strict about what goes out I was so I think one of the reasons why it did it did fine I just thought it was going to be even bigger than it was and I was so bummed because we had booked it months in advance and then it was supposed to happen like March 16th of 2020. but then that was like booked months in advance but then that was the week Covenant happened right my birthday was the day that was March 16th was that Monday everyone was like okay don't go into the office today yeah and like let's see what happens over the next few days and I was like damn it and so we were supposed to do in person we had to reschedule a few months later it was over Zoom his laptop like the battery went out so we had to stop for 10 minutes he had to charge his computer in the middle of the interview it's just like it's not the same as it is in person yes so the connection the intimacy the relationship so it's just kind of like a weird timing of everything it was covered time it was like it's still great and it was awesome to connect with him but it wasn't in person so I didn't get to build that intimacy like we're doing now so like you said timing yeah part of me worries that we want to get on uh like a different caliber of guests and I think actors would be fantastic directors I think would be great billionaires players athletes yeah but I feel like there's a level of professionalism um that you have to be at and I worry they see us as like you know an amateur like oh it's just YouTube how did you bridge the gap between like oh he just does webinars to like yeah this is a person we should take very seriously I had to reinvent myself very thoughtfully from the internet marketing world that I was in which was a lot of people were doing I would say not shady things but not high level quality stuff they were more like how do I get as many people to sign up for my thing and how do I their landing pages were kind of ugly and just like all like headlines with with yellow highlights and it wasn't like clean and aesthetically pleasing and so I early on was just like I want to become a master of branding and design I want to look mainstream I want to look mass media not internet marketing so in 2012 1314 I started investing in like a lot of money in a makeover for my website like personal brand of design yeah and I think I put like 25 Grand into like a design but I was like so thoughtful about finding the exact designer that I wanted and having it look a specific way I hired a photographer to do like this elevated kind of like gcube magazine shoot I was like I need photos that look like what celebrities do on my website and I need typography to be exactly like what Mac is you know an apple and all these different things I need everything to be elevated beyond what the other people in my industry were doing so I was just like I want it to be different a friend of mine early on said different is better than better and just being able to stand out and be unique because I knew I was never going to be smarter than any of my colleagues more talented uh have more experience than anyone but I was like I think I could share things from a different perspective and I can make it look unique so design photography video was something that I leaned in early where a lot of the people in the internet marketing space were not doing they were really good at making money but it didn't look pretty and so that's something I did early on was to try to reinvent my personal Brands to look different than others and then when I got into podcasting um early on before a lot of people did I had a lot of relationships from just the years I've been into marketing that I was able to get people on early from those relationships I had but getting the bigger guess was challenging because I had to constantly find the angle that would serve them not about what's in it for me but what's in it for them so I was building relationships with apple podcast and I was like hey if I get a big celebrity on can you feature it on the home page so early on I was able to get featured a lot so I could use that leverage and say to someone Tim Ferriss early on that I was like Hey I want to get you on but he was like who are you you're a nobody you know I was like hey I'm Gonna Get You featured on the home page of Apple for a whole week on the top character how can you guarantee that though did you have something in a relationship I had a relationship with them I went up there I met someone at Apple at an event back in 2012 and I went to freaking the headquarters in San Francisco I flew up there and I met with it was a small team at that time of podcasting it was like four people and I built a relationship and I said and they used to you know back then just like they have now they have the rankings the top 200 the the featured categories all this stuff but there was no competition back then so I was like if I'm going to be a celebrity will you promote this and they're like sure just if you tell us in advance who it is we'll let you know so I would give them a list of names like hey I'm thinking about booking this person this person this and would you feature it if I can get them and they'd say yes yes yes and so I would tell them hey I've got Apple that says they will feature you I know you've got a book coming out I could also do a webinar to my audience to sell your book and I'll probably sell a few hundred copies all right now you got the movie or the TV show whatever like I'll do whatever to push it so I would send this whole kind of pitch letter of how I can offer value to them in 45 minutes of their time of giving me an interview and then one interview gets another of interviews and gets another interview and builds credibility and then I wrote a book my first book in 2015. I was like I need to break through into more the mainstream as opposed to just being the webinar guy I need to start doing things and packaging my content in a way that's more mainstream available so that the media will want to interview me 2015 was kind of a breakout year because I wrote a number two New York Times bestseller and I got a lot of press and media and for the next couple years I was on today's show and Good Morning America and I went on Ellen Degeneres Show twice and got on you know ESPN and Sport like I was everywhere in the press and I started going to a lot of these kind of networking events and social media conferences leading up to it and I would just find the journalists and I'd find the reporters at all these different TV networks and I would just say how can I help you remember I got a spread in details Magazine with Gary vaynerchuk and Seth Godin and then me right in the middle of this like big you know spread yeah and and details magazine and I would just leverage one piece of press and build the relationship with the journalists and say what is the story you're looking for who do you need to meet who can I introduce you to and it just became like I'm going to connect with every journalist and help them as much as I can with their problems and then pitch them a story that might make sense with what they're looking for about what I'm doing what I'm up to my book or something like that and so my whole 10-year career has been about how do I add as much value to people as possible before I ask for anything and really how do I never ask for anything but people feel like they just want to help because I've given so much to them and that's been the journey so 2015 I kind of broke through in the mainstream media more got some opportunities then I pitched a show to um I had a talk show on Facebook the first show on Facebook watch I had one of their first shows it was a talk show called inspiring life um six episodes it was a lot of work it took about a year and a half to develop and produce and I did hold the rounds in LA and all this stuff and then within right after it ended another show came out called red table talk and they were like Hey we're gonna go with this talk show over your talk show and so uh which is funny because I was just on red table talk like a month ago it's kind of a full circle moment but that was kind of the Breakthrough it was like okay let me create more value to my community and my audience was asking for a book after a few years of doing all these interviews they were like hey Louis can you package all this and show us like the top strategies of all these great people you've had on on what they're doing to be successful so I was like yeah okay I'll put it in a book and give it to people and then I wrote the next book and now this is the third one so that's been the journey is just constantly listening to my audience thinking what does they need how can I serve them and how can I give it to them in an easy digestible way so they can make sense of it and how do you feel about podcasting 10 years into it do you still have that same excitement or do you want to keep pushing forward to something else I love it but I I know that I need to keep evolving to be excited so we've built our greatness plus you know kind of network so now we have eight shows where it's just me and one show now we have eight shows and we're building more original shows um and that excites me to create new content that doesn't rely on just me uh so that's what I feel like is the next thing I feel like everyone's going to be building a network on their podcast in the next two years I feel like you're gonna have a network with two shows you already have two shows right and you might you might bring in some other person who wants to do a third show so like producing another podcast like we'll bring in somebody yes and then you build that up yeah and you take your commission from that as well so I feel like people who are bigger creators are going to start doing a network whether it be on YouTube Network or audio Network I think that's going to happen a lot in the next two years because Apple's pushing that YouTube's pushing that so I think people are going to see that they're not going to want to work as much themselves and they're going to want to say how can I push my audience own other IP and build up those assets that I make commissions on so what's your schedule like now do you have like a set like Tuesday Wednesday Yeah Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I block off for interviews and I will try to do two interviews a day if I can wow and I'll block off two hours for each interview sometimes I only go an hour but sometimes go two hours so I do two interviews a day which takes a lot of time I'll do a prep work before I'll take a break in between to give myself time to kind of get some food and do prep work again for the second interview and after kind of five hours of either sitting down with someone or interacting with them in between beforehand after hand just building relationship like we did connecting I'm pretty done like so Tuesday Wednesday Thursdays is set for Content creation interviews and me delivering the content in this space and then really I start you know checking my email at like 5 PM or something you know four or five I'm trying to just going through like the daily stuff that came through to me talk to my team if I need to and then you know kind of go home Mondays are for team calls goal setting reaching out to people booking stuff doing things I need to do with my assistant like planning scheduling all that different stuff and then Friday is kind of like recapping of the week seeing what my team I was able to execute on what they can improve on goals for next week checking in with my business partner about you know strategy strategy time just be like what do we need to do who do we need to hire what do we need to fix um and that's kind of the week yeah but I wake up pretty early I go to the gym I meditate and I get ready for the day it's kind of the thing and then or were you investing right now [Music] um what does that look like I put maybe seven eight years ago I started putting money in index funds and I don't do it daily like you do like the five grand a day I think it's a smart thing I was just putting chunks in of like 50 to 100 Grand at a time quarterly for many years I stopped putting in there a couple years ago and I just kind of let it sit now see you next one um I have a little over like 2.3 million in real estate funds uh mobile park funds and apartment funds different people and then the rest of it is in my business and in investing in my skills so I spent a lot of money investing in coaches for my health my nutrition my my heart my business and I have different coaches that help me in these areas of my life that I'm looking to grow in so I invest in them I have them in the index funds I tried to do individual stocks a little bit I just lost them all sure you know what I mean I just try it's kind of like you with Robin Hood yeah and it's like you know why I like some Robin in the real reason why jackpot in oh wow the wrong time yeah it's now anything Jack buys don't immediately dumps Dogecoin acceptance wow but what was funny is that I finally convinced Jack to uh to sell Robin or you just did it actually I was gonna pay Jack to sell his stock at like 15 18 a share he's like no I'm gonna get and then he sold on his own I was gonna pay him to sell it because they knew as soon as he sells it's going to go up the day he sold he went up Robin Hood went up like 15 come on yeah it made no sense a day yes it sucks yeah and I was like what happened and Jack was like I sold oh literally you see the moment he sells skyrockets yeah they were trying to teach me a lesson yeah I feel like I you know I feel like a lot of people I tried to do in 2020 2021 I was like okay let me put a 100 Grand in stocks and 100 Grand at crypto and it's pretty much all of it's gone yeah and so I feel like you know it's just kind of an idiot like just trying to get I was I was and I've always realize when I try to do something quickly without being an expert at it and without really going all in and studying it and owning it myself it usually doesn't do well but when I take longer time and I wait and I strategize and I don't try to go for the quick Buck it always pays dividends kind of like the podcast like YouTube like the website these things pay dividends when I invest in early on so I used to want to be successful growing up and I think a lot of us were like I want to be successful and I realized that success and greatness are different success is about yourself greatness is about others and anytime I strive for success I felt unfulfilled inside I didn't feel like complete inside I felt like there was something missing and I still didn't feel like it was enough I would accomplish goals I would make money I was successful externally but I didn't feel successful internally and I realized because I was living more of a selfish mindset I think success is selfish there's nothing wrong with that but I don't really feel like you can be fulfilled unless you think about greatness unless you think about service being of service to other people Graham is successful because he has accomplished a lot in his life right he's accomplished a lot people look at him in a certain way he's got a big audience he's got a certain net worth he's he's accomplished but he's also great because he serves other people and it's not just about Graham right and that's why um it's more sustainable to have that type of energy so I think there's nothing wrong with wanting to make millions of dollars with wanting to have the cars and the fancy things but I just feel like at some point there needs to be something more after that and if you can do it during it as well I think it's even better so I got into just thinking about 10 years ago how can I give back of my time my money in ways to serve people as well through Charities and through just like showing up in other ways and it's brought me so much more inner peace as well as financial prosperity in the process how is your relationship changed to your uh philosophies about like work and fulfillment because you said your eyes moving right now put an offer on a house and so it's got to go through inspection and make sure everything's good but um so my relationship with work and my relationship what he means with the girl Grandma loves talking about it yeah I like I like so how is my relationship in terms of in what way how's that evolved your mentality after the last relationship ended and didn't end well it was like five months of therapy trying to make it work and it didn't work and I finally ended it Why didn't it work we didn't have the same alignment I it takes me a long time to to learn something you know I feel like you and Graham probably learned things pretty quickly it took me I don't know 15 years of repeating the same mistakes over and over again until I finally learned this so after the last relationship I realized that you know it was always me choosing people based on a wound as opposed to based on heat being healed in that wound so I was always had something that I needed to feel like I fix with someone else as opposed to just saying I'm good I don't even need a relationship I'm happy with who I am so I would always give in in relationships anytime I'd meet a person after six months everything would be fine until they were like okay well I don't like this about you and I don't like this about you and you need to change this and I would do it just to make them happy so I would change who I was my values my my vision in life my lifestyle to fit theirs so that they would be okay with me I needed the people please and there was a wound inside of me and after a lot of emotional intelligence work healing different exercises that I did for for a while and integrating that over years a couple years ago I finally got to the point where I was like I am 100 happy alone I will not compromise or settle my values my vision or my lifestyle for any relationship ever again and I'm happy to be single if that's the case if someone won't accept me for who I am that's fine quickly after that I met my girlfriend Martha who's who early on as we were kind of like just hanging out not exclusive I was like this is exactly who I am these are my extreme values this is my lifestyle this is where I'm going to be in 5 10 20 years and uh this is my role in responsibility in a relationship kind of if I ever get in a relationship again this is how I'm going to be this is what I will do this is what I will not do this is my views on parenting this is my views on marriage this is my views on money I laid it all out in the first few months I shared everything trying to get her to essentially say okay I'm scared of you I don't want to be in a relationship with you and the the exact opposite happened she was like that's incredible that's exactly what I've been looking for so I kind of tested her for many many months as we were just hanging out and I said um listen I'm not going to change just so you know so you have to accept me and she's like yeah I like who you are I'm not asking you to change that's been a game changer is finding someone who has shared values vision and lifestyle and I always found people before that didn't have those things hoping that they would and they didn't and I didn't have the same things as them and they wanted me to change so we both wanted each other to change whereas with Martha I don't want her to change at all I accept her for who she is and she does the same for me how'd you meet Martha it's funny because she started following me on Instagram and I saw it happen and I go oh sorry I saw you just waiting there yeah no I saw like I was one of the things I do is every few days I'll see like I'll say anyone with a blue check mark on Instagram this was following me it could be a potential interview right it's one of the ways I book people is like who knows who I am already it's easier to book them um so I saw that she had followed me and I was like who is this girl she looks familiar in a couple years prior I saw her on a TV show and I thought she was brilliant in this show called altered carbon which is a Netflix show and she was one of the stars in that show and I was like man this girl is really magnetic on screen but I never thought I would date an actor being in La I was like I never want to date an actress they're all high maintenance and dramatic and all these different things um so I saw she'd follow me and I just followed her back but I never messaged her it wasn't until about six seven months later where I just replied to one of her things that she was sharing on her stories and we ended up connecting in person who's like hey I hope you're doing well and I was like yeah I hope you're doing well I'd love to meet you sometime but I wasn't trying to like date her I just wanted to meet her because I thought she was inspiring and I asked her how did you find me in the first place because I saw you follow me and she goes oh I was watching a interview of yours on YouTube with this guy Dr Joe dispenza who's Big in the Neuroscience meditation world and she was like I'm a big fan of his his work and and as I was watching him I noticed you and I was like oh he's he's asking interesting questions I like the way he is and this and this so she followed me from an interview she saw me on my podcast and we connected that way and you know so thanks to Dr Joe Spencer for being on the show that's so cool yeah and we just went to his Meditation Retreat like two months ago together wow it's just fun like a full circle moment so what are you said you shared some of your extreme values with her yeah I said I would never change a diaper that was an extreme value it's more of like a role and responsibility yeah why don't you want to change it it's not a sniper it's not a it's not about the diapers it's about the expectations that I feel like um some people have right now in relationships where they just don't communicate before getting married or before having kids what it roles and responsibilities each partner plays in the relationship and so I said my values are extreme honesty and integrity right that doesn't mean I've always been honest in Integrity in the past but I was like this is what I want this is what I'm creating and I want extreme trust so I'm never going to be in I said I will never get upset at you for who you are you living your life if you are an Integrity if you're honest if you live your life if you're acting and you're doing scenes with people and I knew she was an actress and she'd done kissing scenes before right so I know this is possible in the future that she might be doing kissing scenes and so I had to ask myself would I be jealous or insecure if she did this in the future because I don't want to change her I want to accept her and I was like no I won't be jealous or insecure I'm confident with who I am I understand it's Arts it's an expression it's not and so I said I will never get upset at you I accept you and I trust you if you are out of Integrity if you live you cheat that's on you and we'll just end it like but I don't need to be worried I don't need to be stressed or insecure and I want the same level of respect with me I'm going to be traveling I'm going to be speaking I do events there's women that are around me I need full trust respect and acceptance of who I am in my lifestyle don't tell me that I can't travel and do events anymore don't tell me you don't want me speaking uh on stages don't tell me you don't want me interviewing certain people like don't change who I am in my vision you got to accept me otherwise we're just not the right match and that's okay we can just be friends or not but this is who I am I'm not asking you to change your lifestyle your vision I want you to accomplish your dreams now I hope that you just make wise decisions and pick certain roles that maybe you're not doing something to like whatever but but you know I trust you so well that was that was good and it was just about like you know money money stuff relationship stuff family stuff I was in previous relationships where I was expected to be around their family almost every weekend for family activities and I was like I need time to like just relax and recover and just rest so I was just like I'm not going to be around your family every week you know I'll go you know once a month or once every couple months and like do that but don't expect me to be available every weekend for this don't expect me to play this role I was like a team does well when each individual knows their roles and responsibilities if I try to be the point guard on a basketball team when I'm actually really good at being a center or a power forward I'm never going to do that role that well when you ask me to do 50 of the role of being a point guard I'm going to do a poor job because that's not my skill set but put me in my position put me in my role as a partner as a father as a husband whatever it might be I'm going to play that role the best and I'm going to give it a hundred percent to the relationship but I feel like at this time in our society at least in America a lot of people are expected to do 50 50 of everything 50 50 contribution of money 50 50 contribution of changing diapers or whatever the thing is it's not about the diapers it's about that's not my best role and I want to be put in the best position to succeed for myself and I want you to be in the best position to succeed for yourself so we can come together 100 100 together in our roles and responsibilities so it's just about being clear on what does that look like are you comfortable with this are you not if not that's okay then maybe I'm not the right person for you and that's fine you can find a guy who does want to change diapers 50 of the time and I'm sure I'll change diapers at some point it's not about the diapers right it's about the expectation and creating agreements so one of the things that I said to her another extreme value was I will not get get committed to you in a relationship unless we do therapy together not because something is wrong we need to fix something because I want to minimize pain stress and unneeded uh frustrations by getting Clarity on our agreements as early as possible and so we did therapy once every couple of months together she was like yeah I'm in and that has been a game changer I highly recommend it doesn't have to be a therapist it can be a mediator a coach or whatever it might be to just say here's what I really value and have the challenging conversations with someone else because first almost every relationship I've been in prior to this I always would say something early on in the relationship about what I'm committed to and they would say what they're committed to and then whatever reason a yearly they say I never said that or it's changed now I never said that I'm not gonna do this anymore or now that we're together it's not going to be this way and I'm just like never again you know if someone says they're gonna do something I want a third party witnessing it to know that we better just get it in writing at that point sure but it's like it just creates a better process of communicating again I didn't have a school growing up that taught me how to manage emotions in relationships tell me how to communicate with people from a completely different background they didn't teach us this in school so that's why I keep trying to find the experts on my show to teach me and then give the lessons to others I've just been a guinea pig of making mistakes for a long time and trying to improve myself while helping others so you think for any relationship out there that's in that like couple phase the dating phase if you want to take it to the next level you should just have a serious long conversation or maybe a couple serious long conversations lay it out on all in the field and just like make sure your values are aligned each person understands their role and has these like uncomfortable I think from all the different therapists and relationship experts that I've interviewed over the last 10 years there are so many problems in relationships the data is at least 50 of marriages end in divorce right now it's going to be going more now and of those 50 of people still together most of them are not happy so you're entering relationships where they're going to end fifty percent of the time flip a coin it's going to end in divorce a lot of the time the other 50 they haven't figured out a solution where they're thriving they're just surviving and then there's probably a 10 15 that's doing really really well and lasts 10 20 30 years but it's rare how many people do you know who've been married for 30 years who love each other a lot not like we're sleeping in separate rooms and we like can't stand each other and as arguments but how many people do you know on the top of your head who've been together for 30 years happy not saying it's perfect there's you know ups and downs but overall very happy do you know I could think of three right now three just very close family like my parents I sure hope like I think they're great yeah they're happily married yeah for 30 years that's great but three people what's that grandparents that's great it's rare though something that I don't know if you fully know because they could be putting on a great course in the same bed yeah sometimes but sometimes you don't fully understand like it's easy to put on you're trying to convince me of with my business they're very good uh very no you're right but in general it's rare to know a lot of couples who've been married for a long time who are also happily married right not because they feel like they have to be in it because of the religion or because they're kids but like stain it because they really love each other and for me I'm just like why I've been in enough challenging relationships that were emotionally draining I take full responsibility because I chose the women and I stayed in the relationships out of fear of being alone I could have easily left the relationships much sooner but I tried to make them all work and they just weren't a right match so I just said I'd rather be single one alone and living in peace than forcing a relationship that doesn't align with values vision and lifestyle and that's why I was like I'm willing to have all the uncomfortable conversations now instead of wait another year in a relationship and repeat the patterns that I did in the past the mistakes that I made without having these conversations because I just think a lot of people don't have the conversations that are scary up front I don't know have you talked to your girlfriend about like hey when we have kids what is your existence fiance sorry what is it what is the exact expectation you have of me when the child wakes up at 3 A.M what is the exact expectation when he's throwing up everywhere am I supposed to clean it up are you cleaning up there's no right or wrong here it's just what are the expectations you know is you could have your mom stay here with us for a certain amount of time how long are they staying here I've just asked every single question possible but some of those I feel like you don't really know until you're in the moment like you can expect a lot of that 100 but most people just don't ask any of it sure they just expect oh yeah we're gonna figure it out and so it's just trying to minimize it which you know and I know you probably have the conversations around money 100 with her um but most people gosh but most people don't have the conversation around money they just expect well I guess we're going to merge our money or where I get 50 of what you have now or it's like this expectation without communicating it so the goal for me has been how do we have a third party support us in just navigating every conversation and when there's like oh okay you think a little differently here well how can we create an agreement we both feel good about so I don't feel like I'm getting walked all over or you're getting taken advantage of or whatever it might be and it just brought me so much more peace inside so I can have energy to create on the outside that's been the game changer sure all right super smart it's but it's scary it's uncomfortable it's not fun like no one wants to go and spend four or five hours on a Saturday doing compost therapy in the first three to five months of the relationship Dave Ramsey recommends that it does it all couples yeah before they get married is to do marriage counseling yeah I think I think it's great before marriage for sure but I was like I want to do this one first start dating because why go a year or two if we're imagine that being a first date yeah it kind of was but we're also you know it's like I'm in my late 30s so is she it's like we've she was married and divorced so she was like I don't want to deal with this again sure you know so it's interesting I am a firm believer that your life partner is the most important decision you are ever going to make a lot of people kind of Waltz into that decision and you really have to explore every single possible outcome of this decision or and how compatible you are with that person and I'm not saying it's gonna be you and I'm not saying you're gonna be perfect and it's going to be like seamless and there's no challenges but it's like are you at least in alignment on the core things in life that could cause a lot of stress for me that's that's been key have you figured out who your partner's going to be yet uh I mean I have like ideas of what I want you know them to be like you know and he's got a list just on the podcast yeah I have celebrity crushes and whatnot oh nice but uh no I haven't figured out I'm open to exploring that that's great figuring it out yeah it's fun yeah your DMs are gonna get flooded right after no certainly not every single time to say that they never get flooded so one girl I'll get a lot of DMS but it will not be from you maybe if you've got a sister that you want to be with him yeah that could be it yeah sure yeah a mom he never You Never Know Jack I'm saying that's a good point yeah a mom I'd like a son right now yeah she wants Jack to be here uh what is it stepfather The Stepfather oh my god there you go in here Godfather I'm 24. 24 yeah I'll tell you what though I mean I if I could do it all over again I'd probably just he lived more life single you know and just experience life and Travel and Adventure and learn things and live in another country for three months and like practice a language and just take more time alone because I feel like I'm really grateful at I'm going to be 40 this year that I'm like getting into a committed relationship now like where I feel clear about myself and clear about the relationship um so in your 20s man I would like feel free to be in relationships but I think it do as much exploring as you can about yourself I think is a wise thing to do it's always a tough spot to be in like this age that I'm in right now and you know the last couple of years because I know what I want to do with my time I know how I want to spend it right but I hear everybody when they're like 40 50 60 like man if I was in my 20s I wish I did this and I'm like well I really don't want to be in my 50s wishing I did stuff different in my 20s mid-20s but I'm doing kind of what I want that's great and do I really want to be doing what I think I'll have wanted myself to do when I was in my 20s you know what I mean so do what you want to do now then yeah whatever it is you're doing if you feel like you're doing it if you feel like you're doing it now then keep doing it but I I feel like I did it I feel like in my 20s and my 30s I want to go back and like change I would have had I would have gotten out of relationships sooner to have less stress and pain and been single more time before I like went into a different relationship and given myself more single time that's the only thing I would have done differently because I just tried to make every relationship work that just was never a right fit because I was just trying to be a good guy and a nice guy and all that crap so I would have just said well I was just like trying to give in who I was not being authentic right by trying to make someone else happy so it was it wasn't good and so I would I wish I had the courage to end things sooner so I could have just been like oh I've got six months alone where I can go travel or do this or have more energy you know with my friends so I just dealt with a lot of stress I didn't have to but I traveled I went after all my dreams I went to you know I played professional handball for many years I was on the USA national team for eight years I traveled all around the world uh I met interesting people I said yes to events last minute like I did the stuff that I wanted to do and I lived where I wanted to live you know so what advice do you have for us like how can we improve familiar with kind of like the channel the operations the podcast I think the podcast has a lot of potential they have a very objective view of this in terms of advice for building the the podcast yeah what would you do and I would I would hire a coach on I would rank the area I'm going to give you advice on things you don't think you would do okay I would um I would give yourself an assessment from one to ten on how you're doing in your your mindset huh your relationship to others in your relationship to yourself your health and wellness and then your purpose and on a scale of one to ten I would ask myself am I at the top of my game in this category being a 10 one being I'm horrible where am I in there and which category is the lowest do I have a healthy relationship with myself meaning I have a ton of self-confidence I have humility at the same time I love myself I accept myself I feel peace in my heart consistently I sleep like a baby or am I up all night thinking and analyzing and stressing where am I in a one to ten my relationship with others all my family members are they out of 10 or there's some people that I haven't talked to a long time do I have close relationships with friends intimacy where am I do I feel uh my money is in the right place maybe for you it's too too much here 15 right but uh wherever you are think about one to ten and then for me I would just say okay when you improve the thing that you feel like you're deficient in in your life you're going to elevate your confidence in your business so that's what I would think about and for me coaching having coaches has probably been the best investment because the more I feel good about myself the more my business grows and you know when Kobe Bryant wins the championship he didn't say I don't need a coach anymore he said how can I find better coaches how can I find specialist coaches who can help me in this parts of my team to keep him at the top and then improving he didn't say well I'm here now I'm good he just kept going and that's what top athletes do so I would think about that and then I would start you know I would talk to people not you can talk to me but other people who are doing podcasting on YouTube and really see what they were doing right when you guys walked in I was like what are you guys doing here's what I'm doing you should try this you should do this if you did this it could double in a year so just finding other people networking which you don't like to do uh replying to your DMs yeah when you were talking about that I was like that's the one area ml1 but I think you know it's being willing to invest in a coach who could give you like one of two things that could really help you in a big way when I got into youtubing it's like okay I reached out to a few friends who did YouTube and I said can you tell me a little bit about this and a couple of these people just told me a few things that got me down the rabbit hole and I'm like oh I just need to turn this on and do this and try this differently and look at the growth so it doesn't need to be some drastic thing but maybe something that we talked about today beforehand will give you an idea to help you grow it and all you had to do was show up and just try it and it's like do that with a few different people and see what other ideas you get it's a great advice yeah it is I like that a lot you know what I mean it's like and I would ask you to start asking yourselves different questions for example are you talking about the this podcast or your other YouTube show everything I see everything is like I would ask Sam umbrella I would ask yourself this how many hours are you spending a week on your main show a lot give me a rough uh 20 hours 40 hours no 10 hours probably eight hours a day at least eight to ten hours a day five days a week and that's like that's the floor that's the minimum what's the most you've made in one month from sponsorships and AdSense on your YouTube channel kind of like 800 Grand 800 Grand so I wouldn't start asking yourself different questions and I think a lot of people don't do this which I wish they would and that's why I think a coach can allow you to have a different perspective and ask these questions um 800 Grand how many hours uh a month on average do you think it is roughly um most months in a month 40 hours a week you said oh yeah but that's just one channel and then there's everything else on top I would say most weeks are probably 70 hours ago so what is that in a month 70 times four what is it or call it a roughly four weeks 300 hours probably it's okay so if I if you had to if you're life depended it on it yeah you had to make a million dollars a month in a hundred hours or less of work how would you do it on YouTube if you're life dependent on it that's the question I'd ask first yeah then I would say for Life depending on how can you make it doesn't need to be a million put call it 800 000 right a month or whatever number you want it to be how can you make that with 10 hours a week not 70 hours a week like how to cut it inside that would be even possible like I'd have to be like selling everything I everything I have in the Arsenal would be like you know I want to be but how would it be possible if it were possible how would it be possible I would have to sell everything what do you mean sell everything I would pull every like program I've ever made in the past and discount it and just like but if you know if you didn't have to Discount things so if you if you weren't allowed to Discount things if you had to work half the time and make the same amount of money someone else would have to do it um let's just call it down if you want to have to make the same money and you could only work half the amount of hours how could you do that without selling stuff and discounting everything and going what would you have to do so this is a question I asked frankly I don't sure multiple times when I interviewed him because the first time he came on or I've had him on multiple times but one of the first times when he was like I've raised like 200 million dollars like what's the goal he's like it's 400 million I go why isn't it a billion he goes well it's just it's not possible right now I go but if it were what would you need to do and he got really mad and frustrated I don't know I couldn't you couldn't do it and I go but if you could what would you do he goes okay well I'd reach out to 10 other different types of people with 100 million dollars in assets I'd start reaching out to these people and finding them I'd start going here I'd start doing this and then it came back a year later and he blew past the goal like double the goal that he thought he was even capable of doing in less the time and then we did it again he was like okay I want four billion I was like 1 out of 10. he's like ah you just can't do it that fast it's not possible and I was like but if it were what would you do so it just gets you to start thinking differently and Jack said it right it's like you need other people well I guess you need to hire other people to start doing some things you need to start delegating something yes and that's hard for you to do because you've been the one who's been able to do all of it for five six years same for me it's been hard for me to delegate to other people because I learned marketing 12 years ago and I learned this and whatever but that has been once been able to help me grow in less time where I'm just focusing on the main thing that I do and letting everyone else training everyone else it may not be as good as me but eventually it can scale Beyond me and I think that's the next level for you is figuring out how can I find a few people train them up half my time down so you can have more critical thinking space you can have more time to like read a book and get a better idea in the middle of a day and not feel stressed so you can go take a walk and get some nature time whatever it is eat an extra piece of sushi or whatever it might be and you can feel like okay I can think strategically with more time as opposed to doing the business I can think about it and expand from there that's what I'd be thinking about for you is asking different questions if I had to do this and half the time I make the same amount of money or more money what would need to happen and it's not about discounting everything and you know making all these courses and selling it all for nothing or whatever it is it's just about okay what what are other successful people do and half the time making more money probably be those interviews like the Mr Beast interview like doing those and just picking like big guests but you know one day production having that edited um yeah you can do a mulch problem a series with someone you can do a four-part series with Mr Beast and it's like okay we did one day but that's a whole month of content for whatever it might be so and in your main show you got to think differently about that too yeah that's my opinion okay I got a question just because I'm asking different questions you ask Graham this what's the most you've ever made in a month well I mean most of her brought into the business um probably like three and a half million that was like a big deal that came in that was like you know that doesn't happen every month but that was uh that was like an advance of a big like multiple year deal sure that I got in podcasting and stuff like that so I'm just saying but like a normal month out I don't know it's in the like like a I mean I used to do a lot of course launches we did like a million dollar launch in a month one time you know so but that's like putting so much effort and energy into like a big thing and selling you know a course to everyone and stuff like that but but then you have Affiliates and you have other people and you pay spend money on ads so it's not like you keep all that money you know what I mean so if you were to get a monthly average of let's say an annual income you know then we'd be able to figure out what it is generally that it is yeah I don't really pay myself that much I put it like all back in the business I have to live a very simple lifestyle and I just you know you guys see where I'm at the expenses of this place and it's got 50 people you got to pay every month I'm thinking about how do I keep money in the bank to pay people for the next six to 12 months I'm not like oh I just get to have all this extra money and I right again I don't have any watches or fancy things I have the same like v-neck that I wear yeah and I have a a simple setup it's not like I'm balling over here with cars and Lambos that's not my lifestyle you know I've been in an apartment for the last 12 years in West Hollywood that's because you're very humble you're just a humble guy but it's so it's like I've invested back into the business back into like you know I spent a year writing this book it took time and energy and I had a Ghostwriter helped me and I had you know production I paid for the design of this cover I played for all these different things I put my money into buying a domain about into buying you know content all this different stuff that could help me for the future so it's not like how can I spend it now for me and just stack the money to buy stuff it's how do I invest it for a brighter future see part of part of me worries and the taxes here I'm saying I know yes it makes sense dude it was like 400 Grand last year just to live in LA on Prop on state tax who had to pay it's like it makes me want to throw up she works so hard there's a way around it no I forget what it was it was something that you you are able to deduct it through your corporation so you got to Google it because I'm very unfamiliar with it like I learned about this after after I already left California but there uh to my understanding there is a way to run it through the business you pay it through the business and that way it's deductible on that level before you take a sound so I'm gonna have to look this up yeah so I think it's a gray area as far as I'm concerned I don't know if I should probably do it then but you know I think unfortunately the the more I get into like taxes the more I realize that the whole tax system is a gray area very great it is insane and everything is open to interpretation and it's like how well you argue your case for XYZ very little of it is like black and white like obviously certain deductions yeah but it's it's crazy and it's like Whoever has more money could learn these gray areas and hire the right people to do it correctly in such a way that's like compliant it's insane but I was about to tell you that I worry that I feel like part of my strength and maybe this is the reason why I haven't scaled it's just like it's always been my angle from the very beginning is like hey it's just me in a garage it's like I'm not a big team I'm not a corporation it's just a dude making videos for Fun on YouTube and really up until like a year ago where Alex started editing the main Channel videos like that main channel was just like me doing everything from start to finish work everything it was just and Jack and I would just goof around for thumbnails like title thumbnails for like an hour and it was just ripping back and forth like what do you think of this flame like what about this color on this and like that's funny what's another word for this and and that was the extent of it and I feel like there's something special about like hey I'm just like it's me and you watching this right now not a team no one else is editing this it's like I'm doing this for you and that's like a strength that I feel like not many people could say that it's a strength but what gets you here won't get you there that's what it is let me ask you this let me ask you this question if Mr Beast was just Hamming a camera would he be Mr B taste no if it was just like hey guys I'm just here with you I'm still doing the same things in my little like you know uh my garage my bedroom which was like him like how can I read the encyclopedia for 24 hours and this is cool Emma Chamberlain was a great example of that I'm sure she has a bit of a team now but like him now she was able to like scale her career so well what got her here won't get her there the next level of results and I think what's gotten you here will continue to get you here and grow at a certain pace and you'll have to keep putting the same amount of hours doing the same things to get the same results maybe a little bit more every bit every year but it's like again if you had different goals which was maybe don't you don't have to have these goals but if you're like if I wanted to get 20 million subscribers and 30 million views a month I'm just throwing a random number what would it take for you to do less work to get there you can't keep doing the same things to get new results sometimes you can you use your strengths in different ways you still have the same personality the same connection the same intimacy the same look and feel but you have a team that's doing the thumbnails for you for an hour every day you create multiple content in different strategies you have someone doing man in the street content for you and you're reporting back in a new style of content where someone's out asking questions about finances and you're kind of doing man on the street from your desk and Reporting with them whatever it is I'm just coming up with some random ideas where you're expanding your creativity and using the power of your intimacy your wisdom your knowledge your research your creative ability to come up with ideas and still connecting with the audience but in different ways and I think testing new stuff new formats you don't have the ability to do as much of it right now because you have so much of your time doing the same things yeah you don't have to bring on a massive team you can bring on a couple of Freelancers to do some of these things and it doesn't mean that they're going to work out right away and you'd be still means you have to train them and it takes time and energy but it will start to free you up to do more things in the future when you can start to Empower others to support you sure Mr Beast has got a massive team now massive I'm not saying you need to have that regular team or not but it's like you got to have some people supporting you yeah you know part of me though what I've really learned is that like I've taken a lot of advice over this last like year I would say and really like trying new things and one of the hormozis things is like you gotta like do this and this and this and I took that to heart and it did and it made me miserable like the more things I took on the more I realized it like it it made me realize just how happy I was just sitting on the couch planning a video and like that's what I wanted to do and so at that point I cut everything that wasn't just the podcast second Channel main Channel and that was it and I was so happy doing that if you're happy then don't do anything differently if you're if you're happy with your lifestyle then keep doing it but if you're looking to grow in other ways I want to probably grow in other ways that are maybe just not that yes I want to you know just because it's like I tried this that direction was not I remember someone gave me advice early on I was like ah what are ways I can make more money and he was like Lewis you don't have enough products you got to make a whole Suite of products and different price points and have tons of options next year I went out and built all these products and I was like this is not fun for me so just because someone gives you that advice doesn't mean it's the right advice for you yeah and again for me I'm thinking how can you do it in less time and get better results so if you only want to do a couple videos a week on both the channels then cool how do you just do it in less time so you have more energy to do other stuff sure that's what I'm thinking about okay you don't have to hire the team but it's just I get it you don't have to do everything you know it's just like do the things that make you the most happy that's why I started hiring the team so all I'm really doing is interviewing before I was doing everything and because I could but just because I can doesn't mean I should and it's not supporting my strengths of doing what I do best and having energy so I can work out and be with my girlfriend and try other stuff so that's my suggestion thank you yeah what did being a pro athlete teach you about life what were the biggest takeaways outside of just like sports um planning your life in the seasons um and really having clear goals uh seasonally because every every sports team I was on was used typically three to four months right and there is a preseason there's the regular season there's the playoffs and then there's the postseason just kind of like in life there's four different seasons just like in sports and before the season would begin so before you take on a new project or a new Endeavor or new relationship or a new business venture I would really get clear do I want to play this Sport and what is my goal for playing with this team and this Sport and going after this thing that I'm looking to do and what is the goal that this will take me to the next step so I was always thinking about okay High School football is going to get me as cars from college because I want to play professional football so I need to have go to a good school in college and I need to get good stats in college so I can have game film to get into the professional leagues so I can fulfill my dream it was like all these steps to fulfill a dream of like 15 years that I had and I played lots of sports but I remember my senior year going into senior year I didn't want to play baseball anymore so after the season was done my junior year of baseball I was like I'm not having as much fun anymore so in the postseason I reevaluated do I want to play this sport next year and I didn't so it gave me time to reflect and think after the season was done and then I use that effort and energy to do something else so for me I take that in my business and I really think about the seasons you know the first quarter we have a big ramp up into not to plug but March 7th I've got a this book coming out and so I knew that for January February leading up to March I've got a full regular season of energy and effort actions I got to take to get me ready for the playoffs the playoffs is the book is out and I'm out promoting it and talking about it I spent a whole year before preparing this is the off season this is the training mode this is writing this is researching this is developing this is packaging designing this product then I'm in the regular season doing interviews for the product right now with you guys and other people and then it comes out and I'm going to be even you know it's like the championship level this is the playoffs I got to show up even greater then after the book is done after kind of a couple months afterwards the season is done the playoffs is over it's now the off season I evaluate do I want to do this again what's the next thing so it's always thinking about the next season ramping up having some time off ramping up again but visualizing the dream far far in advance so I thought 15 years in advance that I wanted to be a pro athlete in business I think very far ahead and I every decision is based off of one sentence a meaningful mission in my life and everything I do I ask the question does this serve the meaningful mission that I have for my life and my business and the meaningful mission is to serve and impact 100 million lives weekly to help them improve the quality of their life so I make decisions based on is this action going to help impact 100 million people improve the quality of their life if it doesn't help that then I don't do it and it gives me Clarity and I think a lot of people don't have Clarity when they get into business or just whatever they're just like oh here's something that's coming up it's exciting let me do it what being a professional athlete taught me is do I really want to do this thing because being a pro athlete is hard you have to train your body and your mind for hours every day it's extremely demanding you have to love it you have to love winning uh more than training right you have to really like love the idea of like I want to do this because I want to win and play and have fun but it's so demanding on the body it's exhausting you have to love it and so that's what it taught me is like writing a book can feel exhausting if you don't love the idea that will impact People based on your mission so do you guys have a one sentence meaningful mission is that something you have in your like button subscribe that's really that's it goal yeah I would want to take a lot of time to figure it exactly and it doesn't mean you have to be like oh this is my life's Mission and it doesn't mean and and just like uh you know their seasons of Life there can be seasonal missions right when I was on my sister's couch with a broken wrist I was like I just want to make enough money to have my own apartment that was my meaningful Mission I couldn't think Beyond like other stuff I was like I just need to make a couple Grand a month because I'm broke and I want to feel like I can get on my own feet then when I had basic needs met and I had enough money I was like okay what do I really really want for my next season of life my next chapter whether it's a six months two years ten years whatever and this doesn't it doesn't mean you have to figure out your life's mission right now like I'm gonna cure cancer at 24. that's my goal can be but it doesn't have to be but what I think would be meaningful for you is to think about these next two years what would really excite me if I was spending my time and energy doing and if we accomplished what it would be a rewarding goal to accomplish it would be a fulfilling thing to accomplish not just like look at me I'm successful and I made a bunch of money and I you know but I would feel rewarded spiritually inside as well and I think when we again just think about success and we don't have the greatness effect which is about service which is about the inner fulfillment as well I think we're always gonna be saying wow what else am I missing I'm not feeling everything like I have everything I want so for me I'm that's what sports has taught me about business and life is being super clear on my not just goals and dreams but a meaningful Mission I talk about the whole process actually in this book of how to create it how to develop it how to find it and then make it come true and then just from there setting up a simple game plan for getting there faster for accomplishing the goal quicker just like we were talking about here it's asking different questions it's becoming a different leader than you currently are it's developing new skills for yourself that are uncomfortable you're very comfortable what you do because you're extremely talented and gifted but what gets us here won't always get us there it the elements of that could help us get there but we might have to do a few things differently right so it's not like change who you are in your personality and what you how you think it's just like Empower people to support you another thing I learned about being a professional athlete is you cannot accomplish everything alone can't you need a team no one great even in single Sports you know even in tennis the greats have a team around them supporting them but you must have a great team on your meaningful mission in order to accomplish the goal so you can't do it all on your own you know you wouldn't have this show without Graham and vice versa it wouldn't be the way it is without you guys together that's a team your relationship you want to experience love without your fiance that's a team that's why again I just think coaching is a great thing to have in general because you want to have players on your team and you want to have coaches or mentors or guides who've been there before to support you as well just give you yeah I mean I see you're doing that that's great keep going did you think about this too maybe look at that I see a little deficiency here maybe watch out for this in the future just to save time from a headache that's what I learned about sports in life that makes sense it makes perfect sense I got a question for both you guys do you love winning or hate losing more go ahead Graham uh I don't I don't really worry about losing so I I love winning more I used to hate losing more than anything you know I couldn't stand it so it drove me to be the best I could so I would always win but that left me feeling very empty um you know because when I would win I would still criticize myself for what I could have done differently or better so there's kind of like this perfectionist mindset I love winning I don't enjoy losing but I love focusing more on the process of like the efforts and how I'm showing up on a consistent basis even more if the results never happen it's it's okay now like if my goals never are accomplished it's okay um as long as I know that I'm doing everything I can in the process to get there because I had a goal of being an Olympian spent eight years with the USA national team playing team handball I traveled the world I played against the Olympic team in Brazil and Argentina and I played in Canada and the UK and Israel and all over the world played in the Pan-American games you know against all the teams in North and South America and my goal was to make the Olympics we never qualified but that doesn't mean because I didn't the dream didn't come true it doesn't mean it still wasn't a dream come true of the whole journey and the process of who I became over those eight years so we didn't win we didn't even go there but I was on the national team I was close and what I developed in that time the people I met and who I over whoever whatever came is the prize but I I still love winning I have one final sentiment I want to add you know I'm kind of dragging this along but Graham one thing I wanted to mention to you on the card over here but you're on a phone call is the fact that I think you are too comfortable in life I think that like although to a lot of people that view the podcast and they know you they're like wow Graham is always in the trenches he's always working he's always like grinding away that must be so tough but for you that isn't hard I feel you that's easy and for you that's comfortable and it's really hard for you to put yourself in uncomfortable situations such as last night where you had a beer you're like that I know this is silly I just don't drink it's like I don't like the way I feel the next day yeah right and the next day the way you're reacting oh gosh I can't believe I'm so hungover like after a while I get hungover after a beer it's bad he's like I don't wanna like I don't want to ruin this podcast like yeah I told Jack if I'm like anything less than a hundred percent it's bad if I show up and like it I'm 95 that would be bad and I didn't feel well either like I for some reason I only had a beer and a half like I didn't feel good either but the thing is I told Grandma I'm like yo if you wear your emotions on your sleeve like this it will affect you ten times more than just saying you know what I feel good let's go and just being oblivious to whatever you know suffering that you may be inducing and I think this also applies because I've seen it in so many other areas of your life like you'll touch like a toothpicking out really yeah like he'll accidentally toothache will slide underneath it like paper cuts yeah like that or like it's cold out and Graham like he's like I'm like do you wanna I'm like do you want to wear my jacket like I'll give him my jacket sounds like me like any little thing any little thing like we go in the we go in the pool he's not Tough Enough no he hates cold weather I would try to try some extreme stuff it's it's uh and what I was really proud of you I was really proud of you when you did the boxing match because that was like the most uncomfortable place how was that for you good looking back now I'll never do it again did you lose I did lose yeah yeah but he got uncomfortable he reflects back on it and he's and he's happy he did it he loved that he did it I'm sure you probably got a lot more confident putting yourself in a really uncomfortable situation yeah and I think that you just need to get a little bit more comfortable being uncomfortable I like that advice all right yeah I agree like Outsourcing although it's kind of actually the easy thing to do right for you it's extremely uncomfortable and it's like foreign because it's worked and so that's the way he's in control of every penny right he's obsessed with everything and it's comfortable to be that way it's it's worked for him but it doesn't mean it's gonna and it doesn't mean you don't have to be in control in certain areas of your life still and you know just give up all responses what it's learning to get out of the comfort zone I think it's good wisdom you know you know best so even when we go on runs that's just another thing so we'll go on runs Graham will run like especially in the beginning he'd run for like 30 seconds and just be like oh I can't do this anymore but I would he listened to his voice and he's barely panting you know what I mean I know it sounds like I'm just like dreaming in this is funny I really feel like this is like what friends and business partners yeah it's good if I were you guys if you're asking for advice I would hire a full-time nutritionist and trainer that comes with the house every day or four or five days a week and put you guys through your own individual workout plan tailored for you both and you do that for a year business life relationships will change 100 if you had a full-time dedicated trainer and invest in it making that investment spending the money what you want to want to do yeah would be like okay now I need to make the return on this investment you would be like I'm committed I'm going to do this and you would show up and you would suck but I think eventually you'd start to see results and you'll be like okay this is this is inspiring sure you guys both did that do you just run right now is that all you're doing uh no I go to the gym yeah does he yeah I go to the gym you do pretty much every day do you have a trainer though uh once a week the gym for me is a place where I could zone out and think it's one of the few times for me where I just like I download all my YouTube videos and I go on the treadmill and I just zone out and it's like reflection it's like uh meditation for me but what if you delegated other things and you had those two extra hours a day to do that not at the gym and you can just chill but have a trainer focus on like improving you perhaps and pushing you beyond your comfort zone yeah perhaps I don't like being pushed I I like like I I'm very particular about like I like to do things my own way yeah I know that maybe to a detriment but like I don't know I've gotten a good Rhythm at the gym I've been going like pretty much every day and that's my way of doing it it's like being able to zone out that's good yeah you know it's good good culture here thanks yeah Graham and I are we're hard on each other and in different ways and I think that's what makes it really good we have a deep respect for each other we really value the other person's opinion what's the one thing that Jack could do differently that would improve the quality of his life in a big way if he added something or eliminated something from his life oh gosh uh I don't know I always tell Jackie could work harder but he tells me I could work less yeah so it's [Laughter] I don't know I got to think about that think about it yeah on you guys next episode you can talk about the therapy session together yeah that's cool he's a good partnership thank you good team I think so thanks all right cool anything you want to shout out yeah take your time go for I got I got this book greatness mindset this is the main thing I'm I'm focused on and it's really a lot about the stuff we talked about today so cool if people want to check it out they can check it out do you have an extra copy that's yours are you serious that's yours it's the galley copy so it's not like the physical Hardware yeah but it's uh wow yeah can you sign it I'll sign up for you yeah but the greatest mindset this is the book I wish I had when I was 16 when I was 21 when I was 35 and today I wrote this for myself my younger self and My Future Self feels good feel the cover I like the material yeah this is like a galley yeah all right thank you so much for coming on this really means it's been an honor meeting you appreciate it and uh we hope to meet another time some days I'm in let's do it I wonder how this would have turned out had we met two years ago I'm so curious how it would have been different but you know what it worked out the way it did it's perfect yeah perfect timing thank you guys thank you appreciate it thank you so much