527 Coffee Conversations​: Building an Empire, Overcoming Overwhelm, and Mother's Wisdom

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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  Ah, yes, we are back. Episode 527, Coffee Conversations.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  "Don't start a company unless it's an obsession in something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession," said Mark Cuban. We are back with Coffee Conversations, sitting down with the one and only Caesar, the guy who runs my business, to talk about all the behind the scenes, about how we're building our empire, the strategies, the launches, the programs, the products, all the behind the scenes of how we make it all work, and overcoming the overwhelm that seems to come when we pile on more and more things. Should we be piling on things, or should we be just focusing on one thing at a time and just doing that one thing as well as we can? Plus, Mama Howes, my amazing mom, comes on at the very end to share some mother's wisdom,

• 1:18Lewis Howes?

  which was super inspirational and inspiring. So make sure to enjoy the entire thing. Let me know what you think over on Instagram, @lewishowes, by tagging me on your Instagram story while you're listening to this, and post where you're listening to this in the world, and tweet this out, lewishowes.com/527. Powerful one, I really love this. I could have gone for a few hours. Maybe I'll extend some of these in the future. But for this one, I think you're gonna like it. All right, guys, I hope you enjoy this Coffee Conversations with Caesar, behind the scenes look on building an empire, overcoming overwhelm, and a mother's wisdom.

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to Coffee Conversations. We are late night again with Caesar. Giving a little cheers to Caesar while he puts his headphones on. I'm excited to dive in.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  Take a sip of that coffee. What's up Caesar?

• 2:19Lewis Howes?

  Here we go. Here we go baby. This is round two of Coffee Conversations. Um, since last time, Matt had a baby three weeks ago.

• 2:29Speaker 01

  Yes, I did.

• 2:30Lewis Howes?

  Baby Bella.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  Greatest moment of my life.

• 2:34Lewis Howes?

  Greatest?

• 2:35Speaker 01

  Greatest, without a doubt.

• 2:36Lewis Howes?

  You mean, meeting me for the first time wasn't the greatest moment?

• 2:41Lewis Howes?

  Your life did change when you met me.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  Uh, I'll, I'll say that's a close, I'll, I'll just say maybe top 10.

• 2:47Lewis Howes?

  Top 10, alright, I'll take it.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  I'll give it the top 10.

• 2:49Lewis Howes?

  I'm in the top 10. Uh, beautiful baby, baby Bella. Very excited. I was there within hours after she was born. She's beautiful. I was in tears. It's amazing moment. Super happy for you, proud of you, brother.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  Beautiful moment, thank you.

• 3:04Lewis Howes?

  It's been three weeks, right? Three weeks and a few days, huh?

• 3:06Speaker 01

  Three weeks, three weeks on Friday, yeah.

• 3:08Lewis Howes?

  What's it, what's it like?

• 3:10Speaker 01

  28th.

• 3:10Lewis Howes?

  What's it like being a dad and um, running a business?

• 3:17Speaker 01

  I have hit.

• 3:18Lewis Howes?

  Cause for the first week out, you were kind of like taking time with the baby and now you've now this is like the first couple of days you've been back kind of full time.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  I have hit a drive in my life like I've never had before. Like, I mean, I wake up every day and I just feel like so excited about just everything that's coming. So even if it's breakdown or, you know, hard conversations, everything, I don't know, it's hmm, I feel like I went through rebirth in myself as well. So it was, I'm telling you, I, I really don't know that I could put it into words. Joy, um, excitement.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  You know, there's always gonna be a little bit of that, oh my gosh. Like, I have so much responsibility over a human being.

• 4:05Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy, right?

• 4:06Speaker 01

  It's unbelievable. So, um, but it's beautiful. I mean, everything is beautiful. And yesterday, I mean, shoot, uh, my wife and I just, just had our first wedding anniversary and that was powerful. So a lot of just beautiful firsts, you know, that we're going through right now. And again, it's taken me to a different level of drive. That I didn't even know was possible for myself.

• 4:28Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean? Are you more focused when you're not with her or what's it?

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Everything. I don't know. It's, it's not like, absolutely. You know, you want to maximize your time, obviously more than you ever have before. Because you know that there's a part of your time that you have to dedicate to one thing. And that's taking care of my child, you know, and cultivating that child's, you know, life. So I would say that knowing that that time is literally taken out of your day. The time is so much more precious. Like it's, it's something that just hits you, um, square in the face.

• 5:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  So I think I've got a new respect for time. I mean, shoot, we, as a team this morning, we, we just outlined our, uh, greatness fitness challenge.

• 5:16Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  Three weeks. Yeah. 21 days till summit of greatness. And we did this last year and we, we made a challenge for the team because this is the hardest time production wise. Three weeks before our event. And so, I mean, knowing that I'm also throwing this fitness challenge in there. It's, it's like, let's do it.

• 5:35Lewis Howes?

  It's seven thirty at night and you haven't worked out yet.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  I haven't done it since we, we declared, we declared the challenge. Yeah. Parents are leaving tomorrow.

• 5:43Lewis Howes?

  Maybe you start tomorrow morning.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  Nope.

• 5:45Lewis Howes?

  You do it tonight. All right.

• 5:47Speaker 01

  Let's just, let's just hit it head on.

• 5:48Lewis Howes?

  Eleven o'clock tonight and you'll be running.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  That's it. I'm going to be on the treadmill, do my pushups and situps and. You know.

• 5:55Lewis Howes?

  Two miles, baby.

• 5:55Speaker 01

  Burt my baby before bed. Make sure she's sleeping. I sleep. She wakes up. I wake up. Get her back to sleep.

• 6:02Lewis Howes?

  Crazy man.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Do it again.

• 6:03Lewis Howes?

  You you've been waking up like four or five times a night, right? Does it feel? Do you feel tired? You seem pretty awake right now.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Like I said, I don't know. I I feel like I've had a rebirth. So it's like a place of energy like I've never had before.

• 6:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  I am exhausted. But I think mentally I'm just so stimulated. My body's just following, you know, my mind. So it's a beautiful thing.

• 6:24Lewis Howes?

  Amazing, man.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:25Lewis Howes?

  Well, congrats on that. Caesar's a father. Uh, got a baby, baby Bella. And uh, we've got a lot going on, man. And let's just recap what we got going on. We've got someone of greatness in three weeks. Which is crazy that it's already here. We were talking about it like six months ago. We're like, oh, we got so much time and now it's here. So we got a. Luckily, we've been every week we meet as a team and. Um, our event planner, which is my sister Catherine. And we have been getting so good at being ahead of schedule and pre-planning everything. There's only a couple few little details. We're still finalizing. But I feel so much more at ease about it. Than last year. First year was like so stressful.

• 7:07Lewis Howes?

  We were like last minute, like figuring out stuff still. We're like, oh, do we put this in? Do we not?

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Right.

• 7:13Lewis Howes?

  Remember, I was just so many things we did last year that we had no clue what we were doing.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  We went through the growing pains. I mean, first time, I mean, you always have.

• 7:20Lewis Howes?

  You had no idea.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  So much more to learn.

• 7:22Lewis Howes?

  So much work.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:23Lewis Howes?

  This year has been probably five times more work, but we've just been efficient. At making it great and making it. And as a team, we've been delegating well to like everyone to make sure that they do things that we need to do. Um, so we've got the someone of greatness. We've got, I just signed today a thousand. Took me like three hours. I signed a thousand templates. Of the Mask of Masculinity book template. For a thousand signed copies that I think Barnes and Noble is running. So we got, we got the book coming out. We've got. Uh, Mask of Mas-

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Hold up one sec, because I just, those, when I saw you motor through a thousand pieces of paper. Like laser focused. What was going through your mind? Because I was like.

• 8:05Lewis Howes?

  This is a type of focus that is, it's not easy because it's such a menial task, but you have to complete it and get it done. The thing dude, I'm just Lexic, so writing my signature, even though I know how to sign my name, I was like misspelling stuff.

• 8:19Lewis Howes?

  I was like just misspelling it. So I just like, okay, let me just do the L and the H so I don't forget.

• 8:26Lewis Howes?

  I was, you know what I was thinking about? There was moments, it was like phases. I was trying to just get in the zone with the music. And then I was thinking about like, man, a thousand people are gonna get this. So I was trying to think about each of the people as I was signing it. And what it would mean to them, how it could support them, how it could help them and who they are from all over the world. So that's what I was thinking about throughout is like the people. And I was like, these thousand individuals, I hope that they get something valuable from it and it supports them. Fantastic. So that's what I was thinking about. But I was also thinking about, you know, I want to reach hundreds of thousands of people with this book. So. I hope we sell a lot more than a thousand. If you guys haven't got your copy yet, maskofmasculinity.com, a lot of preorder bonuses there.

• 9:08Lewis Howes?

  So we've got that. And then we've got, and then I was editing with my mom who's here and she's leaving tomorrow. Actually, she was visiting me. We're editing this other booklet that we're creating called, and I haven't really talked about it. It's called The Millionaire Morning. It's like habits in the morning ritual routine, the mindset. That I learned from a lot of different millionaires and how I've applied to my morning routine.

• 9:32Lewis Howes?

  So a lot of people talk about habits and morning routines, but they don't talk about it in a way to help you make more money. That I've really seen out there. There's a lot of people writing books on habits, The Power of Habit. You know, Brendon Burchard's got a great new book coming out about habits. You know, I see a lot of people talking about their morning routine. And the different things you should be doing to have an optimal life, but no one's talking about it. From a morning routine habits in terms of making more money. And so I thought like, what would be those things? And even today we were talking about this. I was like, you know, the first thing in the morning we should be focusing on are the bigger. Projects that'll lead towards more sales, business development, increasing revenue.

• 10:15Lewis Howes?

  Because otherwise we'll get into the habit of just going through emails for the first couple hours and getting to those things later.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 10:22Lewis Howes?

  When it's a business, if we want to thrive, we've got to focus those on those things first thing in the morning. I think we've got to focus on health first thing, mindset, and then sales if you're an entrepreneur.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 10:32Lewis Howes?

  Like what is going to drive more revenue? Otherwise, you're always going to kind of be behind or stressing out towards the end of the day to try to do that. So, you know, it's kind of the eat the frog mentality first thing in the morning.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Got to have that healthy respect for the money conversation without a doubt.

• 10:46Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. I mean, it's such an important part of our lives. I mean, decisions we make, every decision we make almost is based off of how much money we have.

• 10:55Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 10:56Lewis Howes?

  You know, you were, you were just looking for a new, a bigger place and you're like, well, what can we afford? What, what part of town? What makes sense?

• 11:03Speaker 01

  It is an ongoing dance, that money conversation.

• 11:06Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 11:06Speaker 01

  Everything does in a, in a way funnel down to that.

• 11:11Lewis Howes?

  It does, man. It's a lot of decisions are made from money.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  It's definitely that.

• 11:15Lewis Howes?

  And it's the cause of so many, uh, relationship breakups, challenges, the cause of so much stress and anxiety. You know, we're seeing this with someone in our lives right now who's having a lack of financial abundance and the stress and anxiety causes them.

• 11:30Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 11:30Lewis Howes?

  It's something that I experienced for a few years and you would always support me, you know, not fully financially, but you'd always support and like give me money or pay it for dinner or drive around or whatever it's to take care of me for like 20 to 40 bucks here and there.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  That was a long time ago.

• 11:45Lewis Howes?

  A long time ago.

• 11:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:46Lewis Howes?

  But still, you always had like all this extra cash and working hard in the summer and saving it. So I always respected your, your level of commitment in terms of saving money.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:56Lewis Howes?

  You were like so good at like, working hard, saving it and not just spending it on random stuff.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I mean, listen, we, it's, it's not an easy thing and I wasn't perfect at it. And I don't think anybody is.

• 12:10Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  I mean, it's, it's very difficult dance, uh, to have with money and it's important to have, like you said, right at the outset even of every day, especially as a business owner. It's an important thing to come back to and, and, and step into to lead conversations for the day.

• 12:25Lewis Howes?

  I think if we're, if you're an entrepreneur or a freelancer or anyone trying to make money on the side, I just think that's got to be one of the first things you think about.

• 12:34Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 12:35Lewis Howes?

  If you're running a business or you're freelancing or you're trying to pick up clients or whatever it is, and that's not the first thing you think about. Then you're not making money unless you're actively working on it.

• 12:45Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 12:46Lewis Howes?

  You're maintaining something, you're going through tasks, you're getting through emails, you're servicing clients. But if you're not thinking about how can I generate more money right now, it's not just gonna magically happen.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  Totally. I mean, when you put on your business hat every, you know, every work day. And as an entrepreneur, that's every day, right? Let's be honest. That's every single day of your life.

• 13:08Lewis Howes?

  Every moment.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  Right. You know, you know that as a business owner. I mean, we talk Saturday, Sunday, it doesn't matter. Seven days a week.

• 13:14Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  Open for biz, you know? So I think it, you know, obviously you need to have your rituals that allow you to yourself to come from a mindset that you're ready to tackle business during the day. But once you put that hat on, once you sit down in front of your laptop and tackle things, it honestly should be one of the first things you you consider every single day.

• 13:34Lewis Howes?

  First thing, how am I gonna make more money? How am I gonna generate more sales? How much, how am I gonna build more partnerships, whatever it is?

• 13:41Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:41Lewis Howes?

  Uh, how am I gonna get more distribution so I can make more? Otherwise, your business is staying the same or slowly dying.

• 13:48Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:50Lewis Howes?

  And it's not gonna thrive unless you focus on them. We haven't even announced it yet. We're gonna be launching it probably in the next week or two. Uh, to let people know. So if it'll be a free book that will literally ship to you. It'll be like a thirty page book, so a shorter, a smaller, really quick. You can read it in probably like less than an hour, forty five minutes to an hour. Max, giving you exercises, examples, morning routine, the mindset from all these millionaires I've interviewed and been around. What I felt like was the most powerful stuff to take away on how you can do this in the morning. It'll be free, we'll ship it to you. All you gotta do is pay for shipping, which is pretty cool. So we're trying to create more and more powerful tools and resources for people on how they can optimize their life at every

• 14:32Lewis Howes?

  uh, every level of where they're at. So if you're just beginning, or if you're advanced, we're always trying to think of people no matter where they're at.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  Absolutely. I think the powerful thing about this is, you know, as a business, we have, you know, beginning to end full courses that take weeks to complete. But this, however, is is this bite sized piece that can cause real habit in your life. If you get yourself up every day and read this book and do the things that it's it's supporting you to create in your life, then I think it's gonna create these habits that are then going to be the things that'll continue to last. Every time you wake up every morning.

• 15:08Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 15:08Speaker 01

  So I think, you know, this is, I mean, that was your vision when you created this booklet is, you know, I mean, you have the School of Greatness book. Fantastic. Love the book. It's been very powerful, not only for me, obviously, in my life, but, but a lot of our other listeners and readers. The booklet itself, I like personally because, you know, you could sit down in one sitting and read it and apply it.

• 15:34Lewis Howes?

  Yes, take action.

• 15:35Speaker 01

  Every day.

• 15:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  Because, I mean, we don't have the ability to sit there and read a full book, cover to cover 300 pages every day.

• 15:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it takes a lot.

• 15:42Speaker 01

  And, and take the action within that. This is something that's bite sized. And, you know, it's like your bowl of cereal. Like, get up and do it.

• 15:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:50Speaker 01

  Get up and do it, so.

• 15:51Lewis Howes?

  So I'm excited about that. And then we have, um, what's the next thing? We've got, what did I say? The Summit. We've got the book, Mask of Masochism. We've got the booklet, the Mayan or morning. Um, we're in the middle of a launch right now. I forgot to mention this. We're in the middle of a launch for our bigger, one of our bigger courses called Legacy, which helps people who are looking to really build an online business, an online brand on the full circle and helping them from lead generation to marketing to branding to design to sales to copywriting, kind of all spectrums to creating courses, to doing sales with webinars, all these different things. We cover it in our complete program called Legacy. So we're in the middle of a launch there while we're editing this book and a booklet and.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  It's our, it's our, that's our mecca course. I, I just want to stop because that is, that is our mecca course. I remember back in 2015, before the School of Greatness book came out and you were, you sat down on my rooftop and you're like, I have something I need to get out of my mind.

• 16:50Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 16:50Speaker 01

  It's, it's my entire business course. You know, you had smaller micro courses over the course of your career on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on YouTube, all these different things. But this one specifically, you're like, I have to get everything out of my head because. I think it's valuable. I think it's valuable to share the things that I've learned over the course of my, you know, entrepreneur entrepreneur journey. And I was like, goodness gracious, this is going to be a heck of an undertaking. And then, you know, we got the rest of our team rallied behind this.

• 17:20Lewis Howes?

  And it took so much time.

• 17:21Speaker 01

  So much energy last year, 2016, I think we took.

• 17:24Lewis Howes?

  Eight weeks, probably filming, editing.

• 17:26Speaker 01

  Totally. I mean, it was a full six months of of birthing.

• 17:31Lewis Howes?

  Design, concept.

• 17:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:33Lewis Howes?

  It took a long time, man.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:34Lewis Howes?

  The people that have gone through it have said it's the most powerful training. They make the most money from it. They're constantly increasing their brand value. It's really powerful.

• 17:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:44Lewis Howes?

  Um, where do they get that? Legacycourse.net?

• 17:47Speaker 01

  Legacycourse.net.

• 17:48Lewis Howes?

  If you guys want to learn more about that. So we're in the middle of a launch right now for that. So we're constantly, you know, I've got a webinar we're doing on that. We're constantly doing ads from Facebook and Instagram. We're constantly trying to give free information to people to help them get clear on their vision and implement by step-by-step action plan. That's our goal is to always add as maximum amount of value as possible. And it starts with this podcast where we're like, you know, people who love to listen to this, they may have nothing or they may have millions. And we have, I personally know there's CEOs of billion dollar brands that listen to this podcast, which just inspires me every time

• 18:32Lewis Howes?

  I do an interview, because I know there's so many powerful people listening to this and paying attention, based on the type of guests we have on and the insights that they can learn from people we bring on.

• 18:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:43Lewis Howes?

  So we're always looking for ways to break down a complex idea into simplistic, step-by-step, actionable points.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 18:56Lewis Howes?

  And that's, that's our goal with everything we do, from the podcast to books to. You know, our paid programs to our, our live event to our high end mastermind to everything. And it's been a fun journey with legacy.

• 19:09Speaker 01

  You gotta create a system with things. Otherwise, you know, you have, you have like anarchy in your mind. It's, you know, it's like, if you don't wake up and have a morning routine, you're going to start changing things and your productivity is not going to be there.

• 19:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:21Speaker 01

  So, I mean, you know, I remember as a business, you told me when you got me on board, you're like, my goal as a business is to give people information. Make it easier for them.

• 19:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:31Speaker 01

  I mean, that's as simple as, as you could say it. Just make it easier for the end user. And, and you can't go wrong when you just break things down, simplify, simplify, you know?

• 19:43Lewis Howes?

  And I think any entrepreneur listening right now, uh, my challenge to you is to figure out the biggest problem of your audience and then figure out how to make such a simple solution for them to solve that problem. And when you can do that, I truly believe it's a no brainer for those individuals to, to sign up for your services or your software, your program, or your events, or courses, or books, or whatever it is you're offering. But when you can solve someone's biggest problem, you can pay a premium, you can, you know, they'll take action the quickest because it's their biggest pain point. So find the biggest pain point with your audience and then create simple solutions. That's what it's all about.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  And save them time.

• 20:27Lewis Howes?

  Save them a lot. If you can save them time, they'll pay for it.

• 20:29Speaker 01

  That's the thing that I, I've realized after having a child, like time is that much more valuable. When you can save somebody time. I mean, that is the most valuable commodity.

• 20:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  I mean, time is it.

• 20:41Lewis Howes?

  And that's why in our courses that we do also, I'm always thinking about, let's not make this the longest program that just gets people exhausted. Let's make it the shortest and most powerful. So let's go over only things that add value. And if we court, if we record stuff, I'm like eh. Does that really gonna help someone? Is that really gonna be helpful? If so, let's shorten it to like three minutes as opposed to 15.

• 21:05Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:06Lewis Howes?

  There's no, let's try to take away all the fluff and make it powerful information.

• 21:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:10Lewis Howes?

  Uh, and that's what we try to do with all of our programs and I recommend doing that in your programs also.

• 21:16Lewis Howes?

  Then we've got a, a secret project that I've been working on for, I think almost nine months now, eight or nine months that I'm not gonna talk about yet until it's fully officially announced. We'll do a full episode on it when it is. But I've been working behind the scenes tirelessly on this project.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  I feel like, I feel like the PR person over here like, oh my gosh, is he gonna, is he gonna break the?

• 21:42Lewis Howes?

  I'm not saying it right now. I'm not saying it. But, um, once it's official and the partners that we've partnered with have announced it and it's happening, then I will be announcing it like crazy, but it's something I've been very excited about. I've got, I've got big, big dreams to impact 100 million people a week. So I've always been thinking, how can we reach these people faster? How can we get in front of a bigger audience faster? That can serve that audience and help them, uh, live a great life, solve their biggest problems, and help them find a, a quicker path to achieving their dreams.

• 22:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:21Lewis Howes?

  That's what I've always been about.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:23Lewis Howes?

  And so we've got this that's been happening behind the scenes. It's been a lot of moving pieces, a lot of individuals from legal teams to other partnerships to so many other things that are happening. And, um, I'm excited to announce that, but that's been, you know, 10, 15, 20 hours a week at least of meetings and back and forth and emails, phone calls. So I'm excited about that and it's, it's probably gonna launch literally in the middle of everything. Right after our event and before our book launch. And so it's gonna be unbelievably. Fun experience, wild ride, and I want to talk about overwhelm and how to manage overwhelm

• 23:05Lewis Howes?

  when there seems like there's chaos happening in your life. I want to talk about that in a minute. But we also, I forgot to let you guys know about this. We just launched, I did a, about a half day session with a guy named Brendan Burchard, who's actually one of our keynote speakers at Summit of Greatness. He's one of the, you know, arguably one of the top internet marketers right now. He's a number one New York Times bestseller, top YouTube show, huge Facebook pages. You know, he's, he's just crushing it on many levels. And he's a phenomenal speaker and a great human being. He's speaking at the Summit of Greatness. And he did a deep dive with me and, me and Caesar, what was it, six, eight weeks ago, maybe? Wasn't that long ago? Maybe six weeks ago? No, it was, it was close to eight weeks.

• 23:46Lewis Howes?

  Eight weeks ago, maybe. And I was just kind of showing Brendan all the stuff we're working on. And I was like, you know, where do you see an opportunity for us? Like, where are we missing? How can we grow? Because I'm always looking for feedback. And he was like, you know, having some form of continuity program or membership opportunity where your most passionate customers, clients can be a part of an exclusive community with you. Because a lot of these people want more access to the information you have and how you're doing all the things you're doing in business and entrepreneurship and all these things. And they can only get a taste of it from social media. You don't really give the full thing.

• 24:27Lewis Howes?

  It's more inspiration there. But if they can get behind the scenes, again, step by step, live training access from you, live group coaching from you every single month, thousands and thousands of people would pay for that. And I was like, really?

• 24:41Speaker 01

  And the cool thing is, as a business, what you try to do here is you want to give them the latest, greatest things that you're learning as a business. And no matter what, any course, we continually, you know, update it, upgrade it as we go. But this, every single month, we're coming to the table.

• 24:58Lewis Howes?

  What's not working?

• 24:58Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly that. What's working? And what, you know, can you do for your business right now? Take action right now to see results.

• 25:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And so a lot of people, you know, me and Caesar go back and forth on this because I like to create premium price programs and services and coaching because I have found that people who...

• 25:21Lewis Howes?

  Are willing to pay the premium, are willing to take bigger action and they're they they they get it. They're invested more and they're committed to taking massive action because they want to make their money back right away. You know, they don't want to spend a lot of money and not make the money back. I wouldn't either. If I invested thirty five, forty grand in a coaching program. I'd be like, okay, how can I triple that in the first thirty days? That would be my mind mentality. And I said, you know, I'm not sure if I want to do like a low end, you know, fifty to a hundred dollar a month program. And he was like, trust me, do it. And here's the structure. So it makes sense for you. So it's not a ton of your time, but you're also delivering incredible results for the audience.

• 26:02Lewis Howes?

  And so we said, okay, we'll just test it and see how it does. We did a test. I said, all right, we'll launch with a a training on Instagram, a free webinar that so many people have been asking me how to, you know, in the entrepreneur world, how are you growing your Instagram following? Well, I think we're at three hundred eighty thousand followers now. Um, and they were like, how are you using it? Because we've been, we've been making money on Instagram in a lot of different ways from our courses to I've sold tons of books over there to just driving traffic to our podcast, which helps increase sponsorship numbers and dollars there. I launched my greatness mastermind, which is a thirty five thousand dollar program on Instagram. And we had twenty three people sign up. Most of them came from Instagram.

• 26:45Lewis Howes?

  So right there brought in, you know, over ha- almost a half a million just from people signing up on Instagram. You know, we sold tickets to our summit of greatness last year. We sold, you know, we just sold so many different things that we had to offer from Instagram. And now we're maximizing with Instagram ads and there's so many things with the stories and all these other opportunities. And so all these other entrepreneurs are like, how are you doing this? I just want to learn how to grow this and maximize the way you have. So I said, let's do a free training on Instagram and You know, at the end, we will sell an advanced training course on all the secrets, all the tools, all the information that we've been using and from all the, you know, I've been interviewing all these top Instagram experts behind the scenes that I haven't been

• 27:28Lewis Howes?

  publishing on the podcast, who are these like super ninjas that get millions of followers and just drive a ton of sales. And I said, okay, we're going to do a free training and then I'm going to deliver, I'm actually going to record like a two hour advanced LinkedIn marketing course, which I would think it's, you know, I'm not sure many more people know all the information that we know on Instagram from all the interviews we've done. And we had, I think, close to 8,500 people register for this webinar. Was that right? It was like 84 something.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 27:58Lewis Howes?

  I was blown away. It was the most subscribers we've had for a webinar in a long time.

• 28:03Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 28:03Lewis Howes?

  8,500 people and, you know, it capped out within like a few minutes. There was over 2,000 people on live. So our, our go to webinar platform doesn't allow for more than 2,000. So it was just, you know, this overwhelming amount of response for people wanting this information. So what we did is we gave the free training and then at the end we said, okay, if you want to get the ultimate Instagram marketing course, that's going to teach you everything about what I know, sign up for it. It's only 49 bucks. And I thought that was a huge steal. 49 bucks for this complete Instagram training. And also, once you sign up, you'll be in our membership program, our inner circle, which is what we call it.

• 28:46Lewis Howes?

  And every month we'll release a one hour live training from me, teaching you the latest and greatest on how to increase traffic, leads and sales online for your business. And, you know, we had over 525 people sign up right away. It's been overwhelmingly amazing response and people have gone through the first couple of months of training that are just blown away by what they're learning and how much they're growing. On Instagram and other platforms that we're talking about. So that's been a fun experience to launch something new and test it. I always like to test things. And I think you were kind of hesitant. You were like, eh, I don't know if this is gonna do well. Like eh, maybe we shouldn't put too much energy in this.

• 29:25Speaker 01

  I was, I was, I was. We have premium, you know, price points and, and we had always as a business subscribe to that model.

• 29:33Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  And uh, when Brendan Burchard came in, I mean, he, he sold me. I mean, it's, I mean, he's, he's like fantastic at what he does. When he can, he can take a look at everything going on in a business, you know, even yours with, with so many moving parts and go, I think there's an opportunity there, you know, whereas we thought as a business, we had, had figured everything out. So, again, that's, that's also feedback for, for other businesses. Whenever you think you're doing everything perfectly, the way you should be, have somebody come in and take a peek.

• 30:03Lewis Howes?

  From an outside perspective.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Completely outside. And you know, I, I think that was very supportive for us and shoot, first, first webinar, I mean, over 500 signups right away. That was powerful.

• 30:15Lewis Howes?

  Very powerful.

• 30:16Speaker 01

  And, and that's going to be something that we're going to grow and curate. And, and we pull that group to find out what they want to know. You know, what's exciting to them? Where, where, what is their pain point? You know, where are they having trouble? Where are they caught up? So,

• 30:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:31Speaker 01

  It's a great group.

• 30:33Lewis Howes?

  Amazing group.

• 30:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. So I think, I think those are the main things that we've been up to uh, in the last, you know, month. And you know, we're always got a lot of, a lot of things up our sleeves and we're talking about the future. You know, we're always talking about like next year and the following years. We're planning next year's event already. I'm always trying to think a few steps ahead of what the industry is doing. I'm like, okay, where can we be before anyone else is there? So that after we've blown it up, then people are like, oh, now I need to get on this thing.

• 31:05Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 31:07Lewis Howes?

  And we want to be the innovators of, you know, greatness on the internet and in the real world and really just find people where they're at and support them on their journey. Um, and these are just a few of the things we've been up to. It's been a fun journey this last, you know, month, just getting everything together. And I wanted to bring it back to overwhelm because. There's, you know, this is not even on top of me doing five to six interviews a week for the podcast, bringing people in. Uh, you know, I was just speaking, I've traveled to Houston last week to interview Brene Brown, and then flew to Vegas to do another speech, and then spoke twice over this last weekend, San Diego and here in LA. So this isn't even top, this is, you know, not even talking about the regular stuff that

• 31:52Lewis Howes?

  we're doing day to day.

• 31:53Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:54Lewis Howes?

  This is just extra stuff we're doing. And there are moments where I feel like, man, am I doing too much? Are we doing too much?

• 32:01Speaker 01

  Listen, I mean,

• 32:01Lewis Howes?

  Like, should we just simplify and do one thing and just do it every day?

• 32:05Speaker 01

  The one thing you do, which I admire, is you stretch, man.

• 32:09Lewis Howes?

  Stretch.

• 32:09Speaker 01

  You stretch yourself, your team.

• 32:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  It's a powerful experience. I mean, even on our team calls, you know, the fitness challenge.

• 32:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:18Speaker 01

  Like, we stretch each other every single day. I mean, you got to, you really have to. And I have to say, I mean, that's the one thing, I, sometimes I feel like, you know, I'm the, I'm the negative Nancy over here because I'm like, ah, you know, I'm, I'm seeing the workflow with the team and I'm like, I don't know if we can, we can handle that load right now.

• 32:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:38Speaker 01

  You know, that's, that, that's another project on,

• 32:41Lewis Howes?

  On top of like,

• 32:41Speaker 01

  Five, six other projects that we have going on simultaneously. And listen, you're always about having the conversation of scaling all of our verticals. And we've got a lot of verticals, a lot of those revenue streams. So when you come in and, and continue to stretch, I admire that. And I, I urge you to continue to do that, obviously, always.

• 32:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:59Speaker 01

  Even if I'm the one saying, I don't think it's possible right now. Let's renegotiate the timeline. I don't say no, but let's renegotiate the timeline if this is something you're passionate about.

• 33:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:09Speaker 01

  So, um, yeah, I mean, that, that is something very serious. Managing overwhelm when you're being stretched is an important thing because it's just a matter of managing the overwhelm when you're being stretched.

• 33:21Lewis Howes?

  And that's why I think you, you can easily manage it if you take care of yourself in the mornings, at nights, if you do have a routine, if your fitness and nutrition is on point, if you take time out of the day for you to take a walk, to separate yourself from situations.

• 33:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:40Lewis Howes?

  If you are doing that for yourself, then you can handle it. Now, You know, maybe there's a balance of like too much is too much or whatever. But I feel like if I was just doing a couple of things, just doing them over and over again, I would be feel like I'm wasting my potential.

• 33:55Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 33:55Lewis Howes?

  So I think there's a balance here because there's a book called The One Thing by a couple of guys I really respect. It's like just get really great at one thing and implement that over and over again. And maybe that works for some people. For me, it doesn't work because I'm too creative. I got too many ideas.

• 34:09Speaker 01

  We have too many opportunities too. You have so many ideas and opportunities. We might as well test those opportunities. And that's what we're still doing is business. We're testing those opportunities and seeing which verticals are going to take us to being the greatest at, you know, that whole idea.

• 34:24Lewis Howes?

  We're still so new. I mean, even the podcast started four and a half years ago. Um, and it's just so new still as a business. Like I just, it just started as an idea. Let me interview one person.

• 34:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:37Lewis Howes?

  Then School of Greatness Academy came, then the book, then all these other programs. What people wanted, they had these pain points. And I just keep listening. I say, what do people, what's their pain? And how can we support and serve them to the most? So I'm just constantly trying to listen to what people want, what they need. And we test these things. If Inner Circle didn't work right away, if I didn't see eighty five hundred people saying, hey, I'm interested right now in this. I'd be like, you know what? We tried it. At least we don't have to think about this anymore. And let's move on to something else or go back to something that is working and scale that.

• 35:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 35:11Lewis Howes?

  And I think as a, if you're listening, as you're an entrepreneur, it's, you know, feel, figure out what works for you. What excites you? You know, I'm a creative person and I feel like I gotta be working on a few things at once. So I'm always got things in the pipeline for next year, the following years. And I'm thinking, I'm already thinking about my book for next year. I'm already thinking about, you know, so many different things that we're doing. Oh, not to mention, we're doing these motivational tracks where we're recording kind of like these inspirational albums with fearless motivation. So I'm recording these new music motivation tracks. Like there's so many things I'm always testing.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  Right.

• 35:48Lewis Howes?

  And, and I can already hear people saying like, oh, that sounds exhausting and sounds like you're scatterbrained.

• 35:53Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, I have to say that's, that's sometimes, that's what it feels like. It's like, oh my gosh. We wake up in the morning and, and our team's like, all right, where's Lewis gonna take us today?

• 36:02Lewis Howes?

  They have no idea.

• 36:03Speaker 01

  What new exciting thing does he want to tackle today? Which is fantastic. You get to be the visionary.

• 36:08Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:09Speaker 01

  Entrepreneurs, that's what you have to do. Listen, if your, if your one passion is one thing and you want to do it the best.

• 36:16Lewis Howes?

  Do it.

• 36:16Speaker 01

  Great, do it. But when you see that you have other opportunities as a business and you just let them sit on the table, I gotta say, you gotta get, you gotta pick it up from the table and start running and see if it's possible.

• 36:28Lewis Howes?

  Try it.

• 36:29Speaker 01

  Gotta try it. Absolutely.

• 36:30Lewis Howes?

  Or, or completely let it go and say, oh, it's not for me, let it go.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  Sure, sure.

• 36:34Lewis Howes?

  Stay focused on what you want to do. How do you manage all my ideas then? Are you structuring it in a certain way? I know we write everything on the whiteboard and we're kind of like seeing it and organizing it, but how do you? As the head of operations?

• 36:47Speaker 01

  It's a loaded question, but I mean, it is, as we started the conversation, you have to simplify it. You have to take a breath, take a beat, see what's possible. I mean, listen, as a business, you should have a pulse on, on workload of everyone and know what's, what's even able to, to be done at any moment within your team. You don't want to burn not only yourself out, but everyone around you, working with you. That's not a, that's not a powerful way. You're not setting people up for success. So it's, it's taking a pulse and knowing, and again, we get on a team call every Monday and we connect as a team.

• 37:25Lewis Howes?

  I think it's powerful.

• 37:26Speaker 01

  It's so powerful to connect as a team and allow people the opportunity to come to the table with sources of pain and upset.

• 37:34Lewis Howes?

  Feedback, ideas.

• 37:35Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 37:36Lewis Howes?

  Inspiration, everything.

• 37:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:37Lewis Howes?

  What's working, what's not, what are they in support with?

• 37:39Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 37:40Lewis Howes?

  I think that's important to have that team call for sure. Um, and then we're also, you know, based on the projects. Oh, I mean, also, I forgot to mention this, we're doing a documentary right now. There's so many things I'm forgetting to mention. I'm sure there's like seven other things. We're filming a documentary to document kind of this 10-year journey of chasing greatness and from our live event to the book tour to these other things that are happening. Um, so we've got that. We're also managing and in the process of, um, And I think one of the questions is to come back to your vision, like if you want to do a new idea, a new project, a new thing that you have on the table and you want to test it, ask yourself, does this fit in alignment with my vision for my business, my brand or myself?

• 38:23Lewis Howes?

  So I'm always asking myself that as well, like, is this going to serve my vision? And is this going to serve the, the income goal that we have? So in the millionaire morning, we talk about the money, uh, the money goals and really creating those financial goals for yourself. And if you're going to come, if you're going to start a new business or a new project that's going to take a lot of time, money and energy to launch and it's not going to make you that money back for a long time, it may not make sense right now. If you have a clear money vision that you want to achieve within the next six to 12 months. So that's why with Caesar, I'm always asking him about the numbers, where are we at with the numbers? Because numbers and results do not lie. And if you have a vision for what you want in your business and you have a money vision as well,

• 39:08Lewis Howes?

  then it means the projects you tackle and take on need to support both those visions on the impact you want to make and the income you want to make for your money vision. So I think you want to come back to yourself, which project should I do? Cause a lot of people say, I've got these seven product ideas I want to do, which one do I do? Say the one that fits your vision and your money vision, what's going to make you the maximum amount the quickest?

• 39:31Speaker 01

  Right.

• 39:31Lewis Howes?

  Cause that's going to give you resources to be able to do more projects.

• 39:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 39:34Lewis Howes?

  But if you do the one that doesn't make you any money, but you, it's the most fun, then you're going to be struggling financially. So it just comes down to choices. Do you want to struggle or do you want to earn money fast? So you can use that resources, invest it in other projects.

• 39:48Speaker 01

  Right. So, I mean, to your original question, it is a loaded question. How do you manage that? You have to know your business.

• 39:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 39:55Speaker 01

  You also have to first know that you're not overextending your team because it takes a lot of people to pivot to a different project at any given moment.

• 40:06Lewis Howes?

  You don't want to break momentum if they're on something else.

• 40:09Speaker 01

  Exactly. When you pivot and create something from scratch, I mean, you're taking time away from, you know, having mental and, and actual man hour investments in other things. So you really have to see big picture and then get down into it and go, does this make sense for the business? And again, yes, you're right. It is about the numbers. We talk about the numbers daily. It's important. Every business.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  Has to make money to

• 40:35Lewis Howes?

  To thrive. Otherwise, it's, you know, business that struggles.

• 40:39Speaker 01

  Right.

• 40:39Lewis Howes?

  Business that is staying average in terms of its sales and its revenue. So it's like, you gotta focus on the numbers.

• 40:46Speaker 01

  Right. And, and there are times, and, and this will be, I'll share with, with our listeners, there are times where I know you want to focus on something different, Lewis. Like, there really are times where you want to, you want to jump in because something is so exciting to you.

• 40:59Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:59Speaker 01

  And I always want to follow your passion. But when there are things that are clearly working for us.

• 41:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, we gotta stick to it.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  And if it takes away from those things that are generating revenue for us consistently.

• 41:09Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 41:09Speaker 01

  Then is it worth it? No, it's not worth it.

• 41:12Lewis Howes?

  That's why I have you on the team. That's why you're running the business. So I'm clear that, you know, I can't get too excited. I have to always check in with you and say, does this make sense for us? Yes or no? And that's why I lean on you for that. So make sure you guys have someone like Caesar who's running the numbers, running the operation. Got a pulse on the team who is able to give you the feedback of, no, this doesn't make sense right now. Or, okay, it makes sense, but we need to hire two new people if you want this to happen and the numbers to still work for the other stuff.

• 41:44Speaker 01

  Right. A business operator has to have a pulse on the numbers.

• 41:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 41:47Speaker 01

  I know sometimes businesses separate those functions, but they're, they need to be having a conversation if they are separate. You need to, you need to connect that. So I think being that, you know, both of those into one, um, it allows me, you know, first of all, I, I love being in the numbers.

• 42:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:02Speaker 01

  It's what I studied.

• 42:04Lewis Howes?

  Finance major.

• 42:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. It's what I studied, mathematics. So, I mean, I would say, to get to a simple answer, you have to take a look at personnel. Make sure you're not overextending people. Go to the numbers and you'll find, you'll find your solution within that. Take a minute, though. Take a breath. Don't just jump and start running.

• 42:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, take a moment.

• 42:26Speaker 01

  Um, and I know you don't like to do that at times.

• 42:28Lewis Howes?

  I like to jump.

• 42:29Speaker 01

  I, I, I know sometimes you're like, well, let's go, let's go. You know, that's, that's our company motto, I would say.

• 42:34Lewis Howes?

  Let's go.

• 42:35Speaker 01

  Let's go. You know, so, you know, I, sometimes you do need to take a beat.

• 42:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:41Speaker 01

  Check in with people, check in with numbers before you actually commit to, you know, another vertical, another revenue stream.

• 42:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 42:47Speaker 01

  Another project.

• 42:48Lewis Howes?

  Um, anything else we should add here about this? Overwhelmed before I bring my mom in for 10 minutes to ask her a couple of questions, because we had her on the vlog. Last week and people were, you know, inspired by her 60 seconds of inspiration on the vlog. If you guys aren't watching the vlog, we're doing it twice a week now. So go to YouTube slash Lewis Howes, subscribe on the YouTube channel and watch the vlog. They're shorter, five to seven minute videos behind the scenes of what it's like in our business and life and travel, things like that. Anything we should wrap it up with before we should bring her in?

• 43:24Speaker 01

  I'm excited. I'm excited to hear what, you know, Mama Howes has to say. Now Diana Howes, AKA Mama Howes, she also supports the business and the numbers. So her and I connect very often and it's, and it's powerful. She brings a lot of wisdom and knowledge to the numbers.

• 43:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:42Speaker 01

  And, you know, I gotta say, we've, I've learned to manage overwhelm sometimes by, like you said, taking that walk in the middle of the day, just to stop, pull away, pull yourself away from your laptop and your mom's like, let's go take a walk.

• 43:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:55Speaker 01

  So I've taken that walk and it has increased my productivity, actually.

• 43:58Lewis Howes?

  It's good.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  Just to step out, take a walk, charge my mind again and, and get back down to the laptop and, and crush.

• 44:06Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 44:07Speaker 01

  But, uh, you know, I gotta say, it's been, it's been cool having your mom in town.

• 44:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, she's been visiting for 10 days. She lives in Illinois and she travels to be with her grandkids in Ohio and Charlotte, North Carolina. And she's here for 10 days. She wants to move here later this year for six months during the winter. And I got her out. I, she was working somewhere else six, seven years ago, wasn't happy at her job. And my old business partner and I pretty much said, okay, come work for us full time because she's great at numbers and accounting and bookkeeping. So we had her come work for us full time. Then I sold that business. She had gotten other clients as well and she's had other clients also throughout this, but I brought her back on years ago for School of Greatness. And she works, I don't know, part-time for here and she's got multiple other clients that

• 44:55Lewis Howes?

  she works with. But she, you talk to her pretty much every day. You talk to her more than I do.

• 45:00Speaker 01

  I would say, you know, it's important to connect. Yeah. I try to connect with everybody on our team quite often. I mean, that's an important thing.

• 45:07Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 45:08Speaker 01

  You know, especially when you're a small business.

• 45:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:10Speaker 01

  Especially when you're a small business.

• 45:11Lewis Howes?

  Let's bring her in. You want to grab her?

• 45:12Speaker 01

  Let's do it. Absolutely.

• 45:13Lewis Howes?

  Go grab her. All right.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 45:15Lewis Howes?

  There you are. Can you hear yourself?

• 45:17Speaker 02

  Uh, yes.

• 45:18Lewis Howes?

  Okay. All right. So my mom is here. Mom is the best mom ever. I love you very much. Thank you for coming on. And did you have a fun 10 days here?

• 45:28Speaker 02

  I did.

• 45:29Lewis Howes?

  You love, you love LA, don't you?

• 45:30Speaker 02

  I do love LA. It's so nice and sunny and.

• 45:34Lewis Howes?

  Healthy food.

• 45:35Speaker 02

  Healthy food, lots of people, young people. I get to be around all your crew and.

• 45:41Lewis Howes?

  You seem energized when you're here.

• 45:43Speaker 02

  I am, I am.

• 45:45Lewis Howes?

  Relaxed and energized. We got you a spa day today for a couple hours, right?

• 45:48Speaker 02

  Yes, it was very nice. Thank you.

• 45:51Lewis Howes?

  Yes, you're welcome. And we were just covering what we've been up to as a business, Cesar and I. And maybe we should ask Mama Howes three or four questions. Any question that we can think of and see what wisdom she brings in general. Do you have a question to start?

• 46:09Speaker 01

  I would say to keep in line with what's going on, Mama Howes, what would you say you'd do to manage overwhelm in business?

• 46:15Lewis Howes?

  Yes. You have a lot of clients. You manage our business, which was a lot. Yeah. What do you do to overwhelm or to manage overwhelm with all your clients and yourself with managing it all?

• 46:27Speaker 02

  Well, I do have overwhelm in the early parts of the month and during tax season. Well, I should say before, yeah, to get ready for tax season.

• 46:40Speaker 02

  So I delegate. I have some team members. This is me. I delegate.

• 46:48Speaker 02

  I do go out for walks and I do yoga.

• 46:53Speaker 01

  I was just sharing that Mama Howes, actually, when we introduced you, I was like, this week has been, or last week, I should say, has been great because we would go out for walks and they would really support me to kind of recharge my mind, get away from the computer for a minute. Allow yourself, you know, the time to separate for five, 10, 15 minutes. However, long it takes for you to get motivated to get back to what you're doing. And the productivity for me increased every time we got back from the walk. So.

• 47:22Lewis Howes?

  That's great.

• 47:22Speaker 01

  Thank you for that.

• 47:23Speaker 02

  Well, and I also meditate.

• 47:25Lewis Howes?

  You do?

• 47:26Speaker 02

  Mm hmm. I do.

• 47:27Lewis Howes?

  For how long?

• 47:28Speaker 02

  About 15, 20 minutes. I'm the type to lay down and meditate. I don't sit up and meditate. It just works better for me. I prop myself up. Semi-reclined and put my little meditation music on and just have to give my brain a break.

• 47:46Speaker 02

  Let's see, what else? Well, I believe, I believe that we generate within ourselves.

• 47:54Speaker 02

  A way of being or the way we feel and that we have the ability to manage that or control that or shift that in any moment. So being aware, first of all, I have to be aware that I'm in overwhelm or be aware that it's time for break or be aware that I just need a little meditation and then give myself permission to take that break, do the meditation. Oh, and I also, oh, I definitely knit a lot.

• 48:24Lewis Howes?

  You do need a lot. She makes a blanket a day, scarves, t-shirts. You made a great, you made a couple blankets for Matt's baby, Caesar's baby. Beautiful. And a little lamb doll, which is so cute. With a blanket attached to it, which is kinda cool. That was awesome. Thank you, Mama House, for that.

• 48:42Speaker 02

  You're welcome.

• 48:43Lewis Howes?

  A lot of knitting that helps calm your mind or what?

• 48:45Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, so it's, it's not quite a blanket a day, but I do probably knit at least an hour a day.

• 48:51Lewis Howes?

  What does knitting do for you?

• 48:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:52Lewis Howes?

  Cause there's kind of a lost art. Not many people knit anymore. Maybe in other countries or something or, I don't know, but I don't see anyone knitting in the United States wherever I go.

• 49:02Speaker 02

  Well, there are a lot of knitters out there. Just because you don't see them is just because they don't knit in public. I-

• 49:09Lewis Howes?

  I don't hear too many people talking about their knitting either, though. It's not like a popular thing that I'm aware of. It's a very small niche, right?

• 49:17Speaker 02

  Hmm, for sure. Yes, for sure. I mean, just like any craft, there's a niche for it. So I'm, I take my knitting everywhere, particularly if somebody else is driving or driving a long distance, I knit. It actually does something for my brain. It's hard to describe. So if I'm thinking about my knitting, I'm not thinking about other things, although I can do both. But it's, it keeps me from being anxious, being overwhelmed, or it is something if I'm in overwhelm, I'll just stop and knit for a little bit and then it calms me down, much like meditation, you know.

• 49:58Lewis Howes?

  Like an active meditation.

• 50:00Speaker 02

  Hmm, hmm, yeah.

• 50:01Lewis Howes?

  You always seem very relaxed when you're knitting and focused.

• 50:04Speaker 02

  I am.

• 50:05Lewis Howes?

  You knit all, I mean, literally traveling, flights, cars. If you go to the restaurant, sometimes you'll bring it there and knit.

• 50:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:13Lewis Howes?

  You'll knit, watching movie, going on in the background.

• 50:16Speaker 01

  Well, I had you guys over Friday. You know, and I had friends and family, my brother up for San Jose, my parents are in. I mean, in my, in my, you know, thousand square foot apartment in West Hollywood, I had thirteen people.

• 50:29Lewis Howes?

  It was awesome.

• 50:30Speaker 01

  And Mama Howes is over there enjoying the conversation and knitting. It was a cool thing to see.

• 50:36Lewis Howes?

  You don't see that much, do you?

• 50:37Speaker 01

  No, no, it was very cool. You know, I have a glass of wine, we're talking stories here, talking stories there, people connecting. It was a cool social, social time on Friday night. And there is Mama Howes focusing on her knitting. It was cool.

• 50:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 50:52Speaker 01

  So what I'm hearing, you know, the way you manage overwhelm, first of all, you have to acknowledge it. Give yourself permission.

• 51:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:00Speaker 01

  Either delegate or give yourself some self-care. The knitting, the taking of the walk, you know. You know, focusing on yourself in that moment of overwhelm is, is what I'm hearing is, is a good, good way to, uh, to start.

• 51:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:16Speaker 02

  And I, I am somewhat of an introvert, I've always been versus the extrovert. You know, I'm not totally an introvert, but, but I do do bookkeeping because it, it is a numbers thing. It's an analytical process and profit analysis is also an analytical process. And that's a comfort zone for me. I also enjoy, um, jigsaw puzzles again.

• 51:39Lewis Howes?

  She does tons of puzzles.

• 51:41Speaker 02

  No.

• 51:42Lewis Howes?

  Lots of puzzles.

• 51:43Speaker 02

  I have done lots of them now.

• 51:44Lewis Howes?

  And she like lays it on the whole table. It's like a week long project.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  Analytical mind for sure.

• 51:49Lewis Howes?

  I wouldn't have the patience for that. No patience for puzzles.

• 51:53Speaker 01

  But the, the numbers don't lie, Mama Howes, right? The numbers don't lie. That's why I love numbers.

• 51:58Lewis Howes?

  And every piece has its place.

• 52:00Speaker 02

  That's right. Yeah.

• 52:02Lewis Howes?

  Your puzzle.

• 52:02Speaker 02

  But, but part of why I carry my knitting with me in social occasions is because I am, it's an overwhelm for me to be around a lot of people.

• 52:11Lewis Howes?

  And so when everyone's talking and there's a lot of chaos, you can just kind of sit and knit and relax and chime in when you want to.

• 52:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:17Lewis Howes?

  That's nice.

• 52:18Speaker 02

  And it's a multitask function. I easily converse or watch a movie while I'm doing it. So. But it does provide something for me. And so it's kind of selfish. I knit because it provides something more. A lot of knitters are like that. You could say I'm addicted to knitting.

• 52:34Lewis Howes?

  You are addicted. Do you knit every day or just sometimes you don't knit?

• 52:38Speaker 02

  A little bit every day.

• 52:39Lewis Howes?

  No matter what?

• 52:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:40Lewis Howes?

  Do you ever miss days?

• 52:42Speaker 02

  I don't know. Uh, I'll get in 15 minutes here or 15 minutes there. I don't think I've missed too many days, but I'm sure I do occasionally.

• 52:51Speaker 01

  Suffice it to say, it sounds like a healthy habit.

• 52:53Lewis Howes?

  It's a great.

• 52:53Speaker 01

  That has created.

• 52:54Lewis Howes?

  It's creative, it's creative, it's meditative, it's you're creating, you know, value that you can give to people as gifts. You don't have to pay for gifts, right?

• 53:04Speaker 02

  Well, I always have gifts that I can make.

• 53:07Lewis Howes?

  That's great.

• 53:08Speaker 01

  Look at that. So that's part of your morning routine that has cultivated success for you.

• 53:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 53:13Speaker 01

  It really has.

• 53:13Speaker 02

  I do. Sometimes I knit in the morning with my breakfast or with my tea, just for a few minutes, not too long.

• 53:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. I like it. Uh, let's dive into another question. Let's, did you, what was your vision growing up? Did you ever think that you would have this life? Be a mom of four kids? And did you, when you had us kids, did you have any idea of what we would be doing?

• 53:38Speaker 02

  Well, let's see if I can answer one question first.

• 53:42Speaker 02

  So when I was in high school, they had a, um, a career fair. And they had these.

• 53:50Lewis Howes?

  This is back in when?

• 53:51Speaker 02

  Uh, senior year of high school. And they had these professionals come in and I went to the.

• 53:55Lewis Howes?

  The sixties, right?

• 53:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, grad 2069.

• 53:58Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  So I went into this one about accounting. And, uh, there were only about three girls in there and the rest were guys, you know, and. I asked the speaker presenter, I said, well, why are there so few women in this session? And he said, well, accounting is a male profession.

• 54:17Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 54:17Speaker 02

  And you might be interested in some other career.

• 54:20Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 54:20Speaker 02

  I mean, he really said that. So, uh, so I pursued music in college, but, um.

• 54:29Lewis Howes?

  You were an opera singer, correct?

• 54:31Speaker 02

  Yep. And two years of that, and then after that, first child came along. So, um, so no, it was not my vision to, uh, to raise four children. And, um, that was not in my vision, my cards.

• 54:47Lewis Howes?

  After the first one, why did you keep having?

• 54:50Speaker 02

  We, we don't need to go down there.

• 54:56Speaker 02

  It's too much information.

• 54:58Lewis Howes?

  Of course, okay. We'll be, we'll be here a while. Yeah. That's real it is. All right. So that wasn't part of your vision.

• 55:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:04Lewis Howes?

  You had us for.

• 55:05Speaker 02

  Had four of you.

• 55:06Lewis Howes?

  And then you, what did you think that, you know?

• 55:09Speaker 02

  You guys would be.

• 55:10Lewis Howes?

  I'm the, I'm the youngest, I'm thirty four, thirty four years. And, and Chris is the oldest at forty five.

• 55:18Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 55:19Lewis Howes?

  So you've had forty five years of raising kids.

• 55:21Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 55:23Lewis Howes?

  What did you imagine would be our, our lives like?

• 55:27Speaker 02

  Well, first of all, you, you don't really think ahead because you haven't lived ahead. So, but we did, uh, we did take, uh, Chris to music lessons when he was five and we felt that music had provided a value to our lives and we want our children to have the benefits of music. And so, um, Chris, the oldest, got music lessons and Heidi got some and, and then Catherine got a little less.

• 55:57Lewis Howes?

  And then I got none.

• 55:58Speaker 02

  And then you got none because.

• 56:00Lewis Howes?

  I took one piano lesson.

• 56:02Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 56:03Lewis Howes?

  Dad forced me to go to a piano class and I hated it. He was like, you're going no matter what. I was like, I do not want to go to this music class. I wish I would have kind of stayed in it now because. You want to play sports. I know you just want to get out there on the field. Yeah.

• 56:18Speaker 02

  Well, I'll tell you why you were encouraged to play sports from a very young age.

• 56:23Lewis Howes?

  Cause I had a ton of energy, right? I was like rambunctious and a brat.

• 56:26Speaker 02

  Well, I was tired of taking everybody to music lessons.

• 56:30Lewis Howes?

  Oh, yeah.

• 56:30Speaker 02

  And it was long drives from Delaware, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio.

• 56:33Lewis Howes?

  And it was expensive.

• 56:34Speaker 02

  And it was expensive in time and energy. And I said to your father, I said, I don't care what Louis does, but it needs to be within walking distance from home.

• 56:45Lewis Howes?

  And I started doing soccer like walking distance from home at like five or six years old, uh, at the Mingo Park or whatever it was, right?

• 56:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, and you played uh basketball with.

• 56:54Lewis Howes?

  T-ball.

• 56:55Speaker 02

  With the older boy next door.

• 56:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 56:57Speaker 02

  And uh, that was walking distance from home. And then he encouraged you to go down to the rec center, which was walking distance from home.

• 57:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:06Speaker 02

  And of course, your father taught all of you. He was your coach for all of your T-ball. You all played T-ball.

• 57:12Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 57:13Speaker 02

  So he was the athlete in the family. I was not, but he encouraged that.

• 57:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:18Speaker 02

  And so that's why your expertise was in the area of something athletic because I wasn't gonna drive you anywhere.

• 57:25Lewis Howes?

  Right. Well, there you go. Was there anything about, I'm curious, not that we need to talk about me, but was there anything about me that you ever thought that I'd be in this position? Like, growing up in the first fifteen years, did you ever think that I'd be doing what I'm doing or?

• 57:41Speaker 02

  No, because what you're doing wasn't a profession that I was familiar with. But uh, yeah, no, I hadn't hadn't thought what you would be doing.

• 57:51Lewis Howes?

  Did you ever think I would have this much like focus on something? Because I was all over the place. In terms of like my energy levels and just like attention span. You would come to class to teach me. You're, cause I wasn't like the read, special needs reading classes and you would always be there supporting, which I always found very helpful. And embarrassing at the same time. It was helpful in the fact that I needed the help and you were always there for me. Embarrassing because I was a young kid that had my mom supporting me in school. So it was always like conflicting. Um, but did you ever feel like I'd be able to actually have focus on something?

• 58:26Speaker 02

  Well, yes, uh, you definitely were driven in your sports.

• 58:30Lewis Howes?

  Oh, yeah.

• 58:30Speaker 02

  I mean, and uh, you know, you were, you were an inspiration to me. Uh, because you were just. Unstoppable and just kept going and I, you know, I would be in awe how you did it. And then it was fun to watch you in football and you would just jump up and reach for that ball. And it was like, how can he jump so high? You know, you were, you were a star in uh your field of expertise with the sports and we enjoyed that.

• 59:02Lewis Howes?

  Cool.

• 59:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I, I had no idea where it would take you, but it definitely, you were definitely disciplined. That was clear.

• 59:10Lewis Howes?

  I was. When I found something I loved, I was disciplined.

• 59:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 59:14Lewis Howes?

  I remember the first few years of launching kind of like the online business stuff, this was eight, nine years ago. You and kind of like all the siblings were like, uh, what are you doing? Like, no one understood it. I don't think I really fully understood it. I just saw an opportunity. But everyone was like, I think it took like four or five years till people started to be like, oh, okay, Louis is gonna be okay. Like he figured something out or like he's gonna be all right. We don't need to worry about him or something. And no one really knew what I was doing, I think, right?

• 59:42Speaker 02

  Well, we knew about your LinkedIn.

• 59:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 59:44Speaker 02

  And uh we could relate to that LinkedIn. Um, it actually, it's interesting, they, they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And your grandmother, my mother, uh, she wrote resumes for people.

• 1:00:01Lewis Howes?

  That's funny. And she did.

• 1:00:03Speaker 02

  She did. And that she would come to her home and she wrote resumes and she would encourage them to send out a hundred, at least a hundred.

• 1:00:10Lewis Howes?

  I remember this when I was like seven, eight, she would do this for people, yeah.

• 1:00:13Speaker 02

  So I often relate your LinkedIn activities where you taught people how to develop their LinkedIn profile because that was a resume. And you encouraged them to connect with a lot of people. I just felt like that you were, you know, following in your grandmother's footsteps.

• 1:00:28Speaker 01

  She was the promoter type as well. Wow. Yeah, you're right. Apple does not fall far.

• 1:00:34Lewis Howes?

  Crazy.

• 1:00:34Speaker 02

  Only in modern day.

• 1:00:36Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 1:00:36Speaker 02

  Modern day tools.

• 1:00:37Speaker 01

  Right, right. Alright, well, what else? What were you gonna say?

• 1:00:43Speaker 02

  Well, um, and then, uh, you just kept creating things and had networking events and kept connecting with people and you were having your own apartment and so.

• 1:00:54Lewis Howes?

  You were like, oh, he's got his first apartment. He doesn't need his sister's couch.

• 1:00:58Speaker 02

  That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So it just.

• 1:01:01Lewis Howes?

  Start figuring it out. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:01:02Speaker 02

  And of course, since I was doing your bookkeeping, I was very aware. I saw the numbers and.

• 1:01:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. You were like, oh, I'm always wondered. Now you don't have to tell me the answer to this if it's confidential. I always wondered how much dad made in a year for his business. Was there like a, and if I was ever made more than him? Are you allowed to share? You don't have to tell the numbers, but have I reached a year where I generated more than he did in his best year?

• 1:01:29Speaker 02

  Uh, yes.

• 1:01:30Speaker 01

  Oh, that's good.

• 1:01:31Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:01:31Lewis Howes?

  Let's go. Let's go.

• 1:01:33Speaker 01

  Let's do it.

• 1:01:34Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Next question from, last question from Caesar. Caesar gets the last question. It'd be about anything.

• 1:01:41Speaker 01

  All right. Oh, man.

• 1:01:46Speaker 01

  I would say just to keep online with, with, with the theme. I, I do like themes. I, I do like to, to, to package things nicely. I would say, you know,

• 1:02:00Speaker 01

  hmm, what things have you let go of that used to be routines for you that you felt maybe held you back? What are the things that you've, I guess, learned over your career? You know, based on trial and error. If, if there were routines that, that you tried that didn't work well for you, what were they?

• 1:02:21Lewis Howes?

  Or even mindsets or.

• 1:02:23Speaker 01

  Sure, mindsets, yeah.

• 1:02:24Lewis Howes?

  Beliefs.

• 1:02:25Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 1:02:27Lewis Howes?

  Activities.

• 1:02:28Speaker 02

  Um, okay. So, um, I've done a lot with landmark education over the years since ninety-four and I've, I would say, uh, things that I have, um, taken on that make a difference is, uh, being responsible for, first of all, recognizing if I'm creating upset within myself or upset within others. Recognizing it, um.

• 1:02:59Speaker 02

  Committing to like have a promise for myself that I'm not going to upset myself or others. Like it's a promise to not cause upset in myself and others.

• 1:03:11Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean to cause upset with yourself?

• 1:03:13Speaker 02

  Well, um, my.

• 1:03:17Lewis Howes?

  Feel guilty or upset about something?

• 1:03:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, so generating, first off, you're generating anger or being pissed off. Um, one of the things, one of the things that I have that comes up in my head oftentimes, when I wake up in the morning, I'm lying there in bed, I will have memories. You know, the brain does what it does and memories from the past. And they can be unpleasant memories or sad memories or memories of something that happened that I have a regret. So, um, first of all, I recognize my brain is doing that. And I say, okay, this is doing nothing for me. It's going nowhere.

• 1:04:00Speaker 02

  So I just get up out of bed and, you know, just turn that switch off, so to speak. Um, but being responsible for what I'm generating in my own thought. And, uh, so one, if it's a negative thing, being responsible for that doesn't serve me, doesn't serve the person that I might be angry with. And then instead generating something, uh, that is, you could say, positive or something that is calming or something that is a request. Uh, like having a straight conversation with somebody inside of a request. Um, what else?

• 1:04:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think the, the managing what I am generating, managing what my brain is generating. You know, it's the, um, It's these thoughts that occur between your ears and we can either let them drift through like a cloud and let them pass, or we can dwell on them. And I would say that my ability to be present, aware, and saying, "I'm choosing not to dwell in this thought at this moment," and then generating a new thought.

• 1:05:16Speaker 01

  So it's just, it's just a matter of telling yourself, "I'm not going to dwell," that really helps you from not continuing to dwell on that?

• 1:05:24Speaker 02

  Yes, and so, like, I don't like to watch violent TV because then I go to bed and then I see those violent images, or I wake up in the morning and I have this violent image memory, and that doesn't serve me, so I don't watch those things.

• 1:05:40Speaker 01

  You are what you consume, right? I mean, sure.

• 1:05:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I don't, since I know that it has that impact on me, then I choose to not allow it to have that impact on me by not having it around me. So who you are is in that work of conversations, and that implies not only to the people, but to the media, you know, the TV, the movies, whatever. So, having the ability to choose and recognize the thoughts and manage them, and choose to generate something of value versus something that's an upset. Or to choose to generate something that's positive or a growing experience for myself

• 1:06:26Speaker 02

  or for others. Those are just certainly more enjoyable, and also not dwelling in the past, like totally noticing if I'm dwelling in the past, and quickly letting go of that and moving into the present or future.

• 1:06:45Speaker 01

  Powerful. That's really powerful.

• 1:06:47Lewis Howes?

  Well, to close us off, what is 30 seconds of inspiration that you would share with people? If you had anyone listening right now, what would you like to say to them to bring us home?

• 1:07:00Speaker 02

  Definitely create the space that works for you and allow it. Give yourself permission to have people around you who uplift you, inspire you, and cause you to be great.

• 1:07:18Lewis Howes?

  Mama House.

• 1:07:19Speaker 01

  Mama House in the house.

• 1:07:20Lewis Howes?

  We appreciate you, Mom. We love you.

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  We love you, Mama House.

• 1:07:24Lewis Howes?

  Thank you for coming on and, and sharing Coffee Conversations with us. Uh, thank you for coming to visit. We're excited when you move here, if you do move here later this year. And thanks for all you do for us, for helping our business thrive.

• 1:07:40Speaker 02

  You're welcome. My privilege.

• 1:07:42Lewis Howes?

  Um, any final thoughts for you, Caesar?

• 1:07:45Speaker 01

  No, this has been another powerful Coffee Conversations.

• 1:07:48Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 1:07:48Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 1:07:49Lewis Howes?

  That's it, guys. I hope you guys enjoy this one. Make sure to let us know. Tag me on Instagram at Lewis Howes and let me know the most helpful part of this conversation for you. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.

• 1:08:06Lewis Howes?

  There you have it. I hope you enjoyed Coffee Conversations. If you like this format, please let me know over on Instagram at Lewis Howes or on Twitter at Lewis Howes. If you want more Coffee Conversations, for me, it's fun to kind of do a, a deep dive, brain dump of behind the scenes of what we're doing with me and Caesar and the team, of all the projects, of kind of like the strategy of all that's happening. And to kind of share with you guys some of this stuff, the stuff that we're allowed to share at least, that's not confidential. So if you like this and you want more of it, maybe we'll come on here and do this once a month. Um, and really give it to you because the last time we did this, people loved it. They wanted more. So we'll keep doing it if you like it. So again, make sure to share this out on Instagram.

• 1:08:48Lewis Howes?

  Tag me, lewishowes.com/527 and share it over on Twitter or Facebook as well. And let me know what you think. Again, you've got to be obsessed with the business if you want it to be great. You've got to be obsessed with anything if you want it to get great results. What Mark Cuban said at the beginning, don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy. It's not an obsession. I love you guys. I hope you enjoyed this coffee conversation. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.