473 Meditation That Works for Anyone with Suze Yalof Schwartz

"Greatness is thinking it and doing it." - Suze Yalof Schwartz If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/473 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 473 with Suzy Yalof Schwartz.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a 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?

  Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. Oh, I love the topic we're about to cover today. It's one that's near and dear to my heart. It's about the power of meditation and not just anyone's coming on. We've got Suzy Yalof Schwartz, who was a fashion editor and makeover guru that worked at Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, and Glamour magazine with regular appearances on GMA, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, and many more. She was the queen of this for many years. And in 2012, she learned a three-minute meditation that turned her world upside down and changed her life forever. Once she got the meditation bug, she was on a mission to keep it going.

• 1:18Lewis Howes?

  And after taking hundreds of hours of classes and courses, reading every book possible, and listening to every podcast, lecture, and more from the world's most famous meditation teachers, she realized that meditation needed a makeover, and she was the one to do it. Now, she is the founder of the first meditation studio here in the US. It's called Unplug Meditation, and she's also the author of the new book called Unplug, A Simple Guide to Meditation for Busy Skeptics and Modern Soul Seekers. Now, Suzy was extremely skeptic of this and was a go-go-go hustle mentality worker in New York City.

• 1:57Lewis Howes?

  A lot of stress, a lot of anxiety. And in this interview, we talk about the story of how she went from a popular fashion stylist to a meditation studio owner and what that transition looked like. Also, how to get mainstream press when you're just starting out with your business because Suzie has done that incredibly with her business been everywhere. Who meditation is for and who it's not for, what actually happens in our brains when we meditate? And a simple meditation you can do the next time you're stuck in traffic, this and so much more. Before we dive in, I want to share our iTunes review of the week. And this is from Maribel 19, who says, I'm currently transitioning from the army.

• 2:39Lewis Howes?

  After 20 years of service as a human resources technician. I've been having a hard time finding a job as a civilian and was even thinking about downgrading my experience to match my reality. After hearing your upgrade your beliefs episode, it was literally like a wake up call to be creative, to break my mind free of my limiting beliefs and the fixed mindset. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Don't downgrade your dreams to match your reality. Upgrade your belief to match your dreams. So Maribel 19, thank you so much for your service to the country and for the review of the week.

• 3:21Lewis Howes?

  It means a lot to me and I hope to continue to hear about how you're progressing in your career and on your dreams. Thank you so much. All right, guys, this is a good one. Make sure to share with your friends, LewisHowes.com/473. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, Suzy Yaloff Schwartz.

• 3:44Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. Excited about our guest today, Suzy Yaloff Schwartz in the house. Thank you so much for being here.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Feeling good, Lewis.

• 3:52Lewis Howes?

  Yes, yes.

• 3:53Speaker 01

  How many times have you heard that?

• 3:54Lewis Howes?

  I've heard it a lot. I've heard it a lot. You've got a new book out called Unplugged. Make sure you guys pick this up right now. It's a simple guide to meditation for busy skeptics and modern soul seekers. Now you used to be in the fashion world, correct?

• 4:09Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 4:09Lewis Howes?

  What were all your different titles and the places that you worked at, the big fancy places in New York?

• 4:14Speaker 01

  Okay, well, you know the movie The Devil Wears Prada? That's kind of was my start. So I started at Vogue magazine as an assistant accessories editor.

• 4:22Lewis Howes?

  So it's based off of you?

• 4:23Speaker 01

  No. Believe me, the good news was we didn't have cell phones in that day. That was the only savior.

• 4:30Lewis Howes?

  Right?

• 4:30Speaker 01

  It was nuts and it was fun. I mean, I loved, I loved working at Vogue and we were there for the 100th anniversary. It was amazing. It's an amazing magazine. And then I went to Elle magazine as accessories director. And then I went to Marie Claire before they launched Marie Claire in the US. And I was there for two and a half years and then Glamour called me. And I went to Glamour and I was there for fourteen and a half years. And there I was, market director covering New York Paris and Milan. And then I became the fashion director. And then I became the fashion editor at large. And when I was, then I started getting into television. And then I started doing Good Morning America, the Today Show, the Oprah Show, doing makeovers.

• 5:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you're like the makeover queen, right?

• 5:13Speaker 01

  I was. It was funny because I don't remember what year it was, but the New York Times came and they, this, and the reason why this whole thing happened, actually, was because at Glamour magazine, they used to put swimsuits on mannequins to show, this is good for your bust. This is good to slim you down. And I'm like, let's show them on the real people because we were trying them on the real people. I'm like, look at what she looks like here and now look at what she looks like there. And they're like, that's amazing. Next thing I know, I'm on the Oprah Winfrey Show with Tyra Banks and Oprah in the Bahamas, doing before and after makeovers.

• 5:45Lewis Howes?

  For both of them?

• 5:46Speaker 01

  For, no, we, for the show.

• 5:47Lewis Howes?

  Okay, gotcha.

• 5:48Speaker 01

  And then in Atlantis. And then after that, the New York Times picked it up and the woman picked up her camera and she said, just so you know, after I take this picture, everything's going to change. I'm like, what does that mean?

• 5:59Lewis Howes?

  Of you?

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Of me. And I, she said, just trust me. When I take this picture, your whole life is going to change.

• 6:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  So she took this picture, they called me the fairy godmother of makeovers. And then I literally did change. I did makeovers for the next fourteen years of my life.

• 6:15Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 6:16Speaker 01

  And I was basically doing, I mean, I did them at the Westminster Dog Show. I did them, I made over a rabbi.

• 6:23Lewis Howes?

  For dogs?

• 6:23Speaker 01

  Synagogue chic. No, I had the owners try to look as good as their dogs.

• 6:27Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  Because these dogs, I mean, have you ever been to that?

• 6:29Lewis Howes?

  They're unbelievable.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Yeah. But the owners, yeah, they could use a little help. So we went down there, even though I was allergic to dogs and I totally made over all of the, you know, it was pretty cool. Yeah, so I mean, basically I had a dream job.

• 6:41Lewis Howes?

  Fourteen years, the fairy godmother of makeovers. Did it ever get tiring or boring or old?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  No, because, you know, I love potential.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  Just like you do, Louis, you know, seeing something one way and then seeing the best it could possibly be. So like for me, I was able to hire the top makeup artist, hire, you know, the Serge Norman, the hairdresser, then get in, you know, clothes from Louis Vuitton and style them with the best photographer ever. So they saw the best they could ever look in their life. And for me, that was, it gave me pleasure. It was fun and they had fun and it was fun.

• 7:20Lewis Howes?

  They felt good.

• 7:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:21Lewis Howes?

  It was good. It was.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  It was fun.

• 7:23Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. Fourteen years. Okay. And what happened after that? Why did you end this fourteen year dream job?

• 7:29Speaker 01

  Well, I had three children in Manhattan and my husband.

• 7:32Lewis Howes?

  That's a tough life right there.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  It was a good life, I'll tell you that.

• 7:35Lewis Howes?

  Three kids in Manhattan.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  I'm lucky.

• 7:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:37Speaker 01

  Um, my husband wanted to move to Los Angeles. He had always like wanted to be near a golf course because he plays golf. And this amazing job. Well, what really happened was I was doing Robin Roberts. I was doing her outfit for the Oscars. I was dressing her for the Oscars. And I went to go visit my friend Joe Flanagan and he had three kids playing in a field in Malibu. I'm like, Flanagan's kids are playing in a field in Malibu. Our kids are climbing up the walls. And he was like, oh, you would move to LA? And I'm like, maybe. And then out of the blue, he got a call to work for like the biggest man in Los Angeles and to run his finances. And he's like, we should just do it. He's like, let's be adventurous.

• 8:17Lewis Howes?

  He was doing finance in New York?

• 8:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  He's like, let's be adventurous. Let's just pick up everything, just pack a suitcase for the boys and let's go.

• 8:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow. How long were you in New York for?

• 8:28Speaker 01

  I was in New York my whole life.

• 8:30Lewis Howes?

  You grew up there?

• 8:31Speaker 01

  I was born in Manhattan, grew up in New Jersey, moved back to Manhattan in eighty-nine and I was there until twenty-ten.

• 8:37Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Your whole life and then you decided to come out here?

• 8:40Speaker 01

  And he was like, let's just do it. Let's be adventurous. So I was like, you know what? Okay, you're daring me. I'm in. And so I did it and it was fun. I was, I decided when I moved here that I wasn't going to compare New York to Los Angeles and I was just gonna love it. Even if I didn't love it, I was gonna mentally convince myself that I did.

• 9:01Lewis Howes?

  The first year, I moved from New York City. I was only there for a year and a half and I fell in love like hard. I was like every moment I was outside, it was just like, this is incredible. I was like a kid at a candy store every time I went out the door.

• 9:14Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:15Lewis Howes?

  And just like the feeling of possibilities and the energy and just the people. I was like, this is a magic. Every block was magic to me. And then when I moved out here, the first year, I was like, it doesn't have that same magic. But I started to love it as well in a different way. So you were good at not comparing too much, but I compared it every day for the first year. I was like, this place sucks compared to New York.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:34Lewis Howes?

  But now I'm in love with it. So you just gotta learn, learn how to, learn how to love it, I think. Um, so you moved out here in two thousand and ten.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:42Lewis Howes?

  And then you didn't have a job, you quit your job or were you still doing?

• 9:45Speaker 01

  I quit my job because I wanted to kind of settle in my three boys and then my husband was starting his new job. And what happened was I got a call from Lord and Taylor to do their taxi TV commercials. So I don't know if you were ever in New York and saw those, but I was like, hey, you.

• 10:01Lewis Howes?

  Which commercials?

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Driver, take us to Lord and Taylor.

• 10:04Lewis Howes?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 10:04Speaker 01

  I did those for a long time and then I was so stressed from going back and forth that my mother in law is like, you need to breathe.

• 10:11Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  So she did this three minute exercise with me. Close your eyes, slow down your breath, imagine you're in Jamaica. And I opened my eyes, I'm like, what was that? That was amazing. And she said, oh, that's meditation. You should learn how to meditate. I'm like, okay. So when I moved back to Los Angeles, I'm like, places to meditate in Los Angeles. Oh, this fourteen hundred dollar course. Oh, I have to go at seven o'clock on a Saturday night for two hours and who knows where. Oh, strange guy's apartment, Buddhist temple. I'm like, where's the dry bar of meditation where you're like, go in thirty minutes later, you feel better. I'm like, New York, Paris, Milan. Ching.

• 10:55Speaker 01

  And I said to my husband, I have this great business idea. I'm going to quit fashion and open up a meditation studio. He's like, you should really learn how to meditate.

• 11:04Lewis Howes?

  So you didn't go to meditate yet?

• 11:05Speaker 01

  I, not really, no.

• 11:07Lewis Howes?

  You just did like a couple sessions with mom?

• 11:09Speaker 01

  The idea, I did learn from her. I saw how inconvenient it was. Yeah, the idea came before the practice.

• 11:16Lewis Howes?

  And then you said, okay, let me learn all these different meditation styles or what?

• 11:20Speaker 01

  Well, so I wanted to learn every single style because Mark said if you're going to open up a meditation studio, you need to know every single kind of meditation. So I kept comparing them to my mother-in-law. It's three minutes. I'm like, well, why does this have to be so long?

• 11:34Lewis Howes?

  An hour, 10 days.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, why am I spending four days when? And at the end of each thing, because I was a producer and worked with Good Morning America and, you know, figured out producing for Glamour a lot. I realized that you, in a television segment, you have to sum everything up into five minutes.

• 11:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, or less, right?

• 11:53Speaker 01

  Actually, two and a half or four, four, like five is if you are really lucky.

• 11:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:58Speaker 01

  Um, so I was like, wait, how can I sum up everything everybody's saying in four minutes? And I realized that there was a formula of meditation that was the basic foundation for every single kind of meditation that there is. Step one, focus on a single point. Step two, let it go and just expand now. Be in the present moment, expand it as long as you can. Step three, brain hike. You have 50,000 brain hikes a day, by the way. And then you just, err, bring it back to a single point of focus. And it's the thinking and the redirecting the thought to the single point of focus that's like brain conditioning. That's the curl you do for your brain.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  And that's it.

• 12:44Lewis Howes?

  That's the basis, yeah.

• 12:45Speaker 01

  It's basically that in every single style. And I've spoken to every teacher and at the end I'm always like, so basically, step one, step two, step three, and they're like, yeah.

• 12:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, they have all their own little flair or style or music or guided or not guided or whatever. Chanting or humming or something, right?

• 13:02Speaker 01

  Well, again, so chanting would be step one.

• 13:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  Om. Or focusing on a mantra. A hum, a hum, a hum, a hum. Or focusing on my breath. Or smelling a flower.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  Moving my hands. All the same thing, except one.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  So every style can be like, put into that camp.

• 13:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. So you decided to master it. How long were you doing this for? Like a year before?

• 13:36Speaker 01

  Well, what happened was, so I was kind of working in fashion at the same time that I was doing this. So I'd get calls from Good Morning America to talk about what the princess, um, what's the new princess, the woman who's married to?

• 13:48Lewis Howes?

  Kate?

• 13:49Speaker 01

  Kate, what Kate Middleton was wearing. So every day they would come to my house and like film me talking about what Kate Middleton was wearing.

• 13:55Lewis Howes?

  Here in LA?

• 13:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, in LA. I'm like, okay, whatever. Um, and then finally I'm like, I can, I'm going to UCLA to take the UCLA six week mark program. Or I can, I'm doing a, you know, Vedic program here in West Hollywood. I was so busy taking all these classes that I actually couldn't do anything.

• 14:12Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 14:13Speaker 01

  And then what I noticed was, I didn't really care about fashion anymore. But what I did care about was, learning about sambhas, learning about crystals, learning about imam therapy.

• 14:23Lewis Howes?

  You're a true LA person.

• 14:24Speaker 01

  Learning about mantra. I totally went LA.

• 14:27Lewis Howes?

  You might as well live in Venice.

• 14:29Speaker 01

  Right, exactly. They're like, don't go LA when you go out there. And I like could not have gone more LA. So yeah, so that's kind of how it all happened.

• 14:37Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. Um, and so when were you like, okay, this is happening. I'm going to create like the yoga studios of meditation or?

• 14:43Speaker 01

  When the thought first occurred. So when I told you I had that.

• 14:48Lewis Howes?

  Like it's happening.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Ding dong moment. I'm like, this is, and then I couldn't stop. And then I became obsessed. Like when you're into something.

• 14:57Lewis Howes?

  It's hard.

• 14:58Speaker 01

  You could be the most boring person on the planet earth because all you want to do is talk about that thing and you're really into it. And I was meeting people whose lives were just transforming. And then I was noticing that my life was transforming. And then I was getting into the fashion of it too. Like this teacher's hot, not hot like looking, but like everybody's going with this teacher.

• 15:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  Or, um, you know, what do I want the studio to look like? You know, because I used to do stuff with Domino magazines. I'm like, okay, it's going to be white on white on white. And then what do I want the products to look like? And how is it going to feel when you walk into the room? Like so when you walk into the door? You're bombarded by, this smells amazing.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  It looks amazing. The sound of the music chills your brain out and then the lighting just like changes everything. And then the teachers are epic. I mean, we have the best teachers.

• 15:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, well, it's the only place to go.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, there's actually other places to go.

• 15:56Lewis Howes?

  Now there's other studios popping up, right?

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Studios and they're all good. And I think like the more people doing this, the better. That's the goal.

• 16:02Lewis Howes?

  I mean, what was it like 15, 20 years ago was like, you know, yoga, there was probably like 10 yoga studios in the US or something. I don't know the number, but

• 16:09Speaker 01

  Right.

• 16:09Lewis Howes?

  Probably around, you know, I remember Jonathan Fields, you know who he is?

• 16:13Speaker 01

  No.

• 16:13Lewis Howes?

  He's another podcaster, author, and he had a yoga studio that opened up the day before nine 11 in New York City.

• 16:23Speaker 01

  Oh, gosh.

• 16:23Lewis Howes?

  The day before, day after, like one of those, it's like, he opened it up and then that happened.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 16:28Lewis Howes?

  Uh, what do I do now? But he actually found that it was a great place for people to come and heal.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 16:32Lewis Howes?

  From nine 11 in the city, but there weren't many yoga studios back then.

• 16:36Speaker 01

  Right.

• 16:36Lewis Howes?

  You know, um, like there is now, right? There are like on every block, like a Starbucks.

• 16:41Speaker 01

  Right.

• 16:41Lewis Howes?

  And it's, you know, I see meditation and I'm sure you do. That's why you were like, this is happening as the trend. In India, when I went there to study at One World Academy, they were telling me that one of the teachers there used to be on TV with like a million people watching every afternoon for like an hour, just meditating with the teacher.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 16:59Lewis Howes?

  It's like a normal thing on cable TV over there.

• 17:01Speaker 01

  Right.

• 17:02Lewis Howes?

  I was like, this is mind blowing, but it seems like we've taken over these practices that they've been doing for, you know,

• 17:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 17:08Lewis Howes?

  hundreds or thousands of years that we're starting to implement. Is that right?

• 17:11Speaker 01

  Yep. And, you know, when I started, I reached out to this teacher named Steve Ross, who has his own yoga studio and he was known by so many. I mean, I, you can, we can't even fit the amount of people want to go into his class at our studio. And he was just like, we have to chant mantras in this space. And when I told him my idea, he's like, I'm in whatever you need. Let's just make this happen because nobody ever had, I guess, the guts to just open up a place where you don't do anything but meditate.

• 17:38Lewis Howes?

  No yoga and meditation, but yeah.

• 17:40Speaker 01

  People have probably thought about it before, but nobody did it.

• 17:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  So.

• 17:44Lewis Howes?

  It was too risky.

• 17:45Speaker 01

  All the teachers who had nowhere to go actually for this were just so supportive. I mean, everybody was so nice.

• 17:53Lewis Howes?

  I'm sure.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  It's the nicest industry ever.

• 17:55Lewis Howes?

  Give me a place to teach, right?

• 17:57Speaker 01

  Right. It's not like fashion where they're.

• 17:58Lewis Howes?

  Competitive, yeah.

• 18:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, this place is the opposite. This business is like.

• 18:02Lewis Howes?

  And so how many teachers? So you open, so from the moment you thought about it to when did you open it up?

• 18:07Speaker 01

  I thought about it November of twenty twelve and then I opened it up April of twenty fourteen.

• 18:12Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 18:13Speaker 01

  And.

• 18:13Lewis Howes?

  You're now halfway.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 18:15Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:16Speaker 01

  And then now I have about thirty six teachers and we're expanding. We're gonna open up one in Hollywood soon. I think that you should teach there now that you're a certified meditation instructor.

• 18:25Lewis Howes?

  Make it happen near me.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  I will make it happen. I have, I have a spot. Hopefully that'll happen.

• 18:30Lewis Howes?

  Do it, yeah. So you're gonna expand.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 18:32Lewis Howes?

  Um, what was the first few months like for you? Was it scary to try to figure out how to get people in the door and like, you know, rent's expensive in Santa Monica? What was that like?

• 18:40Speaker 01

  I was never scared. I started with a certain amount of money that I knew I could lose. I'm like, this is the amount of money that if I lose it, then it would suck. But at least I would not be out on the street.

• 18:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 18:54Speaker 01

  And that was it. And my husband's like, this is all you get. Make it happen. I'm like, okay. So I show up and I didn't plan. I jumped. And that was probably not the wisest thing to do. I mean, I had like a weak business plan, but I didn't really fully plan.

• 19:08Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 19:09Speaker 01

  And so the second that I opened up the studio, I was by myself alone with the teacher for months on end.

• 19:16Lewis Howes?

  No one showed up?

• 19:17Speaker 01

  No, it was me. And I'm like, where's everybody? All my friends who said they were gonna come and all these people that said they would be there. Like, we had a party, everybody showed up. But then when it came time to like pay, to take a meditation, crickets.

• 19:29Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 19:30Speaker 01

  And finally, I'm like meditating seven times a day. I'm like, I can't do it anymore. I'm like, I don't wanna hurt your feelings because I'll be showing up for your class, but like, no. And what happened was this guy came into my life and he's like, you don't have any intro offer. Like, you gotta cook them. You've gotta start them off with an intro offer and then they're gonna wanna get their money's worth and then they'll get into it and then they'll become members or they'll come. And it was that little thing that shifted everything.

• 20:06Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. What was that? What was that hook?

• 20:08Speaker 01

  That was September. I was like a one month unlimited for forty dollars.

• 20:12Lewis Howes?

  Oh.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Like a yoga thing.

• 20:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, makes sense.

• 20:14Speaker 01

  Which of course I didn't know. No, I didn't know what I was doing. I just did.

• 20:17Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  That's a thing. I just did. But I you asked me if I was afraid or no, I've never felt fear because I honestly felt this was gonna be the biggest thing ever.

• 20:28Lewis Howes?

  It was gonna work out.

• 20:29Speaker 01

  But I'm an optimist like that.

• 20:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  I've always been that way.

• 20:31Lewis Howes?

  After a few months of knowing coming though, you're still like, oh, people are gonna show up eventually.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  I still really knew it.

• 20:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 20:36Speaker 01

  I I I had a knowing.

• 20:38Lewis Howes?

  Well, luckily you were listening to the guy who gave you the recommendation. So you started this offer and then people started to come or?

• 20:44Speaker 01

  Started to come and then they started to fly from all over the world, like Japan and everybody started hearing about it. Vogue covered it. New York Times wrote about it. We were in on Good Morning America on the Today Show. Like all of a sudden, people were like, this is the new brain gym. Vogue wrote that. Equinox even did a story on us. So all of a sudden, everybody started hearing about it. And since I'm a journalist, all my friends work in publishing. They're like, that's so cool. I'm gonna write about that.

• 21:11Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 21:12Speaker 01

  So.

• 21:12Lewis Howes?

  Do you think getting the press helped with the membership?

• 21:15Speaker 01

  I think getting the press helped get people there.

• 21:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  You know, we were in Goop and we were in the LA Times the exact same day. And that was one of the most interesting days because the people that came in from Goop were all like these young, gorgeous, amazing fashionistas. And the people that came in from the LA Times were intellectuals. And it was just an interesting day that day. And that was kind of the start.

• 21:39Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:39Speaker 01

  Of all, and that was two thousand and fourteen. So the I'm, yeah, I would say that was starting in September, all the glossies and all the magazines started coming out.

• 21:46Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. And so now it's been what, four years? Is that right?

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Nope, three.

• 21:50Lewis Howes?

  Three years since you launched.

• 21:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:52Lewis Howes?

  And I don't know if this stuff is public or not, but do you have, how many members do you have? Or how many people are coming through every week? Or is there like a?

• 21:59Speaker 01

  We have about five thousand five hundred visits a month.

• 22:02Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 22:03Speaker 01

  That's amazing.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  And so we have like over three hundred members and we have people that are on the ten pack and the five pack. We make it easy. So, you know, some people don't wanna be members. They just don't have time or they're traveling between New York and LA or so. And some people like to pay for like the full price for a single. So they'll just do that. Some people buy ten pack, five pack. I mean, so we've got a lot of people coming in. And it feels like a party every hour on the hour cuz it's about twenty five plus people. So you just meet all these interesting and they have nothing in common, like nothing.

• 22:40Lewis Howes?

  Except for meditation.

• 22:41Speaker 01

  Except for meditation.

• 22:42Lewis Howes?

  They're the class together.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  So you have this like Auschwitz survivor who's ninety six years old. And then you have someone who's like twenty three years old and working in the tech industry. And then you have a stressed out mommy and a lawyer who's working upstairs and the psychiatrist's patient that comes because they're they've been told that this will help the cancer patient, the pain patient. So it's just, you know, hipsters. It's a it's like an open house party and you never know what you're gonna get.

• 23:10Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. What's been the biggest challenge for you so far in starting like a a new concept? You know, spa- a retail space which is challenging. What's been what's been that no one's ever done before?

• 23:23Speaker 01

  Well, so everything I've been doing has not been done before, but the challenging part is like trying to do all the things that are in my head. I have a million ideas and I'm actually doing them, but I can't do them quickly enough. And so to me, that's the biggest challenge because I have three kids and a family and a husband that I'm keeping forever. I have to know I have priorities and I have they're split. So I try to be present when I'm at work, I'm at work when and meditation's definitely helped me with that. When I'm at home and I'm I'm at home. But because of the time limitations of that, I'm unable to achieve everything in my brain than I would like to.

• 24:07Speaker 01

  But I'm I'm making a lot of progress.

• 24:09Lewis Howes?

  You have been.

• 24:10Speaker 01

  And I decided to jump in and then improve. Instead of

• 24:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, me either.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  That's a school of greatness too, like um that's a question I have for you, Liz, is, you know, how do people do that?

• 24:25Lewis Howes?

  How do people do it?

• 24:26Speaker 01

  How do you do that?

• 24:26Lewis Howes?

  How do I do?

• 24:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:27Lewis Howes?

  Get it out of my head and launch?

• 24:28Speaker 01

  Get it out of your head, execute, and you know, you've done a lot.

• 24:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's been fun. I think, uh, you know, I like to strategize and research something for years. Like, for example, this book, um, I was like, I want to be a New York Times bestseller. I don't want to just write a book and put it out there. So I was creating other things along the way, but I was researching and breaking down every New York Times bestseller campaign for five years.

• 24:55Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 24:56Lewis Howes?

  I would study the authors, I would, I would research, I would ask them questions about it, I would just watch how they did it and reverse engineer it.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:02Lewis Howes?

  So the time that I was ready, which I still felt like it was a little bit before my time being fully ready as like a writer. I wasn't really like a trained writer.

• 25:09Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:10Lewis Howes?

  Um, but I felt like I'd done the research enough to know what it takes. And I was like willing to do whatever it took, so. But for me, I'm always launching.

• 25:19Speaker 01

  Did it work? New York Times bestseller?

• 25:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  That's so awesome. That's not an easy thing to do, by the way.

• 25:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:25Lewis Howes?

  So.

• 25:26Speaker 01

  It's impressive.

• 25:27Lewis Howes?

  It's been fun, but who, what is, um, who is meditation for and who is it not for in your mind?

• 25:32Speaker 01

  Um, it's not for anyone, like, everybody can meditate. If you can breathe, you can meditate, and if you are breathing, you should meditate, in my opinion.

• 25:42Lewis Howes?

  Everyone should.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  I think everybody should. And you know, here's the thing, like, we're so hooked on our devices now. Meditation is what we, the way that, I don't know if you grew up like this, but I used to go and I would sit in the field and chill.

• 25:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:57Speaker 01

  Nobody does that anymore.

• 25:58Lewis Howes?

  Play basketball, play frisbee in the grass.

• 26:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, and just hang out.

• 26:02Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  Nobody hangs out anymore. They're either hooked on the device.

• 26:06Lewis Howes?

  Have to check.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  Or they're actually doing something to stimulate themselves.

• 26:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:10Speaker 01

  Like, sports or whatever. So, for me, I think that meditation should be in every single classroom, starting in kindergarten and it's already starting.

• 26:18Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:19Speaker 01

  But I believe that's gonna happen in the next five years. And I think it's great for kids, because there's a lot of anxious kids out there because of the internets. I think starting there would be a great way to just blanket the whole world.

• 26:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, or just video games that are on all the time or whatever, any device. They're doing it in Ohio now, do you know that?

• 26:35Speaker 01

  I know.

• 26:35Lewis Howes?

  Tim Ryan is implementing it in in schools in Ohio.

• 26:38Speaker 01

  I think it's smart. I think that's the beginning. I think it's gonna be everywhere.

• 26:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:41Speaker 01

  So I think they should be doing it. I think anyone who has an illness should be doing it.

• 26:45Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 26:45Speaker 01

  I think anyone who has stress, and here's the thing, like, stress can kill you. So meditation can save your life. Because meditation deletes stress.

• 26:57Lewis Howes?

  So anyone with stress or anxiety or?

• 27:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like going into a room saying, if you've ever experienced stress, raise your hand. And by the way, everybody's

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  Everyone.

• 27:06Speaker 01

  So then those are all my clients.

• 27:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and meditation really for me is just taking a moment to breathe.

• 27:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 27:12Lewis Howes?

  And let go of the obsessive self centric thinking with a fear that's consuming, that creates the stress.

• 27:18Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 27:19Lewis Howes?

  When we let go of that fear, we're much more calm.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  Right.

• 27:23Lewis Howes?

  But we have so many more fears today now than ever with all the, you know, the reactions, all the devices we have, all the things we're taking on. It's a lot more stressful because of those fears. So for me, that's why I think, you know, this this morning, I do it every morning for about ten to fourteen minutes, depending on how long I go for, but for me, I just feel so much more calm and intentional throughout my day when I do it. And I talk about meditation a lot on this show, and I think people are probably like sick of me beating it down their throats, but for me, it's like a game changer.

• 27:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 27:52Lewis Howes?

  And I don't feel like it's an option to not do it.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  Right.

• 27:56Lewis Howes?

  I feel like it's a must if you want to be, reach your peak performance.

• 28:00Speaker 01

  Right.

• 28:00Lewis Howes?

  Or be an optimal human being.

• 28:02Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 28:02Lewis Howes?

  Or strive for some type of optimal level of existence in my mind. Unless you're able to be calm and stress free without it, awesome.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  Right.

• 28:12Lewis Howes?

  But I feel like if you have a dream or some type of passion or some type of hunger to create something in your life.

• 28:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 28:19Lewis Howes?

  Or to take a risk and be in a relationship or whatever it may be, there's gonna be some type of conflict. And if you're on, uh, and if you're not making sure that you're practicing being calm in that conflict, then it's going to be a challenging experience. So that's why I think it's necessary. And when I started doing it in college, actually, for sports, because I used to be like really nervous and stressed out all the time with, with games coming up. When I started doing it, I felt like I was almost like in control of the whole game. It was like I was looking at myself from above and it was like I was just playing with everyone else in the field or in the court. And things just started to become so easy. Like my vision was so clear. I could see where the players were to go and how to score like before it happened.

• 29:04Lewis Howes?

  And it's because I was just practicing meditation and calming down as opposed to being in fear. I think that's important to think about.

• 29:11Speaker 01

  And also you were a hundred percent present and that is the gift. I think people are turned off by the word meditation.

• 29:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  And I love this teacher. I love this teacher David G. He's like, look, when I go into the military, I call it tactical breath. When I go into the schools, I call it mindfulness. And when I go into the Buddhist temples, I call it meditation. So it's the same thing. People don't understand. It's really a technique of just centering and focusing and getting present. And that's a weird thing is we're always in the now.

• 29:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 29:41Speaker 01

  But like our brain is dragging us out of the now all the time. So it's time to take back your brain. And just live your life as it's happening. Because that's where all the good stuff is. And that's kind of what I talk about in the unplugged book is getting to where everything's good and everything's good in the present moment, like right now. I'm having a great time with you, Liz.

• 30:02Lewis Howes?

  Me too. Yeah. I mean, as an athlete, it's again, it's all about framing and kind of marketing it. You know, as an athlete, you want to talk about meditation, you talk about getting in the zone. Like, how do I reach the zone so that I can achieve my goal?

• 30:14Speaker 01

  Right.

• 30:14Lewis Howes?

  And be the best athlete. Well, to get in the zone, you got to be present. So how do we activate that right now? Well, you got to let go of the fears or the other things, the mistakes that you're potentially going to make, or who's watching, or whatever's happening, going to focus on the moment and the play right now. And that's meditation.

• 30:30Speaker 01

  Right. That's just focusing, slowing down your breath.

• 30:32Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 30:33Speaker 01

  Signals to your brain, everything's okay and it helps you get present. And that's another thing. We should call, instead of calling it meditation, we should just call it the zone.

• 30:41Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 30:41Speaker 01

  And if you called it the zone, then everybody would be doing it.

• 30:44Lewis Howes?

  They'd be doing it, yeah.

• 30:44Speaker 01

  So let's just do the zone.

• 30:46Lewis Howes?

  Call it the zone, get this out.

• 30:46Speaker 01

  Oops, okay, I'm gonna have to change the, when it's in the fourth printing.

• 30:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's funny. I interviewed, actually, this author here, Jim Aframo, the champion mind, champion's mind. He's a sports psychologist and talks a lot about meditation in, in the book. And he says with athletes, you know, in practice, you want to try to kind of amp yourself up to be more present. But when you're in a game, you have so much anxiety or intensity already that you want to try to like slow your breathing down.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:16Lewis Howes?

  Like when you're in the game, so you can be more present. Because if you're so like amped up in the game, you're gonna be tight, you're gonna be stressed. And you want to kind of slow down the breath and let things come to you in sports. But yeah, I mean, meditation is everything for athletes, for musicians.

• 31:30Speaker 01

  For CEOs.

• 31:31Lewis Howes?

  CEOs.

• 31:31Speaker 01

  Cause CEOs, you have to make serious decisions. And if you're coming from an emotional place, they're not gonna be good ones.

• 31:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  But if you're coming from a, let me slow down, let me press my inner pause button. Do I really want to do this?

• 31:45Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 31:45Speaker 01

  Let me press play and let me go.

• 31:47Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  And I do that every day. And people say, when do you meditate? I'm meditating.

• 31:52Lewis Howes?

  All the time.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  I'm meditating now.

• 31:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:54Speaker 01

  I'm in it.

• 31:55Lewis Howes?

  Om. I'm just kidding.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Om.

• 31:59Lewis Howes?

  So what else is in the book that we should know about? What does this guide really do?

• 32:02Speaker 01

  Oh wow, okay. So for anyone, first of all, this was really made because I get the same question all the time. What's the best book to start off meditation? And there's a lot of great books out there, but most of them are one direction. So it's either mindfulness or medit, mind, or mantra-based meditation or guided imagery. But this kind of covers all of them in a very simple way.

• 32:23Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:24Speaker 01

  So in this book, you're gonna start off with, what is meditation? Why should I be doing it? How do I do it? And then 15 practices to actually do it.

• 32:34Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 32:34Speaker 01

  Starting at one minute, doing those for a week, and then bringing it to like five minutes to 10 minutes, and then basta, you're done. And after you read the book, we have an app. So if you want to learn from the best teachers, you can go on the Unplug Meditation app and actually click and play. And there's nothing else on that app. You just click it and play it. And. Do these meditations or other meditations. My, some of my favorite are the guided imagery meditations, which are not about curing stress. They're really about finding your purpose in life, achieving your dreams, knowing what people you should let go of, what things you should cultivate. They're so interesting. I mean, they're like going to the movie of

• 33:17Speaker 01

  your life. One of them is called Your Ideal Life. This guy's name is Johnny O'Callahan, and he guides you into a movie theater, and the movie theater opens, and there you are, Lewis, in your ideal life. And you, mine was not what I thought my ideal life was. I'm like throwing a dinner party and having fun, not working, not doing, I was just like hanging out with my friends. So, I mean, you can discover, one, how to pause, how to be present, how to be happy, how to get centered, and then how to find what you want to do in your life, all in about 200 pages. And by the way, we say you could skip page 99 if you just want to get to the meat. The beginning is a science simplified. So, we talk about

• 33:58Speaker 01

  how age, meditation slows down aging, because this is one of my favorite facts. 25, your brain's at peak, and then it declines after that period. And what they've done is a study of people who are over the age of 55, who start practicing meditation 28 minutes a day for eight weeks, and their brain became the same sharpness as the 25-year-old. And Sarah Lazar on our website, she has a TED Talk also that we feature on our website. She shows the before and after MRIs of the brain based on her study at Harvard Medical in Massachusetts. It's pretty amazing.

• 34:39Lewis Howes?

  So meditation is anti-aging.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. And by the way, like you get wrinkles when you're like, eh, but when you're not stressing.

• 34:47Lewis Howes?

  You look like you're 30.

• 34:49Speaker 01

  And I'm 50, and I have no Botox or any of that.

• 34:51Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy. Your skin is like so clear, and there's no wrinkles.

• 34:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, because I'm not freaking out. Because when I do freak out, by the way, like, things amp me up, but I'm able to be like, it's okay, it's all cool.

• 35:06Speaker 01

  Okay, move forward.

• 35:07Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 35:08Speaker 01

  My kids are like, "Just breathe, Mom." I'm like, "Okay." "Okay, now you're in trouble."

• 35:13Lewis Howes?

  How often do you stress out right now? With all the meditation you do, practicing every day, in the classes, you're talking about it all the time?

• 35:19Speaker 01

  Well, like, I stress out every day because I have three kids and I have to let them out of the house. So it starts there. But then I calm myself down and then I do step one. And then I might like go to work and there'll be like a hundred people coming at me and I'll feel like, "I can only do what I can do," you know? So I stress out, but I quickly, you know, regroup. So I would say I'm not, I might be stressing out, but I'm not doing it for long periods of time.

• 35:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:46Speaker 01

  It's never over a minute.

• 35:47Lewis Howes?

  Sure, that's good.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:49Lewis Howes?

  And you're aware of it and you're like, "Okay, calm down."

• 35:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:51Lewis Howes?

  So as the person who's studied all the different meditation techniques, with been with all the best teachers in the world, you've practiced it with everyone, you've gotten the best insights. What's the practice for you in the morning or at night that you do with yourself?

• 36:06Speaker 01

  Okay, Olivia Rosewood says that there are more ways to meditate than there are to make an egg. And I love all of them. And I have to say, I do all of them. So I will wake up sometimes and just do a breathing exercise. I will wake up sometimes and use one of my sixty mantras that I have.

• 36:24Lewis Howes?

  Sixty?

• 36:25Speaker 01

  I have sixty at this point.

• 36:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:26Speaker 01

  I have more mantras than I do shoes. And I was a fashion designer. So, or I will do a gratitude practice with, which I love. It depends how I want to feel. So every morning I would say, I really just do a breathing exercise. And that is a solid like ten.

• 36:43Lewis Howes?

  Ten minutes?

• 36:44Speaker 01

  Ten minutes.

• 36:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, just breathing.

• 36:45Speaker 01

  Just breathing, ten minutes. Then I try to hit a class or I'm filming all these classes all the time, so I'm going through them. So I might see my inner child or I might see my future self. Or I might just do a three second, uh, three center check-in. You know, so I don't know what meditation I'm going to be doing. It's always a surprise.

• 37:04Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 37:05Speaker 01

  So, and then I will breathe periodically throughout the day. I like the traffic meditation that's in this one.

• 37:12Lewis Howes?

  What's that?

• 37:12Speaker 01

  It's basically, A, it's an ABC meditation. A, attention to the road. Eyes open, you're focused, it's now. B, body scan. So I feel my feet on the ground, my rear in the seat, my hands on the steering wheel. And then C, I consciously connect with my breath.

• 37:33Speaker 01

  And then I'm like, I just close one in and I'm stuck in traffic. So like, traffic to me is great. It's another opportunity.

• 37:41Lewis Howes?

  It's therapeutic as opposed to traumatic.

• 37:43Speaker 01

  Never stressing about traffic. I don't do that.

• 37:45Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Wow, that's great. Well, most people do here in L.A. You know, the podcast School of Greatness started because of stress and traffic for me.

• 37:52Speaker 01

  Really?

• 37:53Lewis Howes?

  It did. My first year I was here, I was driving around, I can't remember which highway, but everyone was like stressed around me. It was traffic, it was stopped, and people were screaming and honking and flipping people off. And I was like, people are really stressed out out here and pissed off and unhappy. I want to create something where they can listen in the traffic and feel inspired as opposed to stressed. And that's how the catalyst, that was the catalyst for me.

• 38:18Speaker 01

  That's amazing. It's funny, I heard about you because Lauren Ekstrom, who's one of our incredible teachers, said she listens to your podcasts on her drive because she's driving from the valley all the time.

• 38:28Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 38:29Speaker 01

  And I'm like, I want to hear it. If she likes it, I'm gonna like it. So that's how I discovered you and I listen to you in my car.

• 38:36Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate it. Yeah, that's fun. That's fun. What else do we need to know about meditation? Anything else?

• 38:43Speaker 01

  Well, one is, you can do it. Two is, the three things, the hurdles, I think I told you about that don't exist. So, and making time, like just waking up and getting it done. And if you just wake up and did 10 minutes every day, two weeks from now, you would see your brain change. Even though the science doesn't back it up, I've actually seen it in my studios. So I see people changing in two weeks.

• 39:08Lewis Howes?

  The physio, their, their physical appearance changes, their energy.

• 39:11Speaker 01

  Their attitude. So there is this, it's like a jar that we fill with glitter and water in a mason jar. And we kind of say, your mind is a jar and the glitter represents your brain. And then we shake it up and we say, this is what your brain looks like when you're stressed or angry. And then as you notice, everything settles and becomes clear again when you breathe. Your thoughts and your feelings are still there, but everything becomes clear when you breathe. So if people just took the time to get in the zone, then I think the world would be a much better place. And I think this book is a foundation for that. I feel like the Unplugged book is your great go to to just start and make it happen for yourself.

• 39:51Lewis Howes?

  What's your vision for the future of this? You're gonna have studios all over the place? Or what do you think the trend is gonna be in the future?

• 39:58Speaker 01

  If I was gonna be honest with myself when I started and I, my son has this huge map in his room. And I'd say, oh, there's gonna be one in Tokyo, there's gonna be one in Paris, there's gonna be one in Milan. There's gonna be one in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. I mean, my dream and my vision is to go big, cuz that's just the way I go. Um, I would love to see that. I would love, the app is already being seen in thirty five different countries and used in thirty five different countries. And we just launched it a month ago.

• 40:24Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 40:25Speaker 01

  That's amazing, right?

• 40:26Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing.

• 40:27Speaker 01

  Um, the book is gonna be published in fourteen different languages on top of being in the US. So I guess I wanna just touch as many people as possible and get them to meditate.

• 40:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 40:39Speaker 01

  For themselves, because I would say, and this is a fashion term, haute couture, which is clothing that's made specifically for you. It's super expensive, but it's like couture. This is couture, cuz meditation is for you, you're an athlete, you need to focus, you use it. For me, I'm a stressed out mom and entrepreneur. I need to calm myself down and get centered and focused. For, you know, a pain patient, they use it to get away from pain. For people with anxiety or panic attacks, like it works up for panic attacks like really well.

• 41:11Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  They just press their pause button and breathe. So it works for everyone and there's no negative side effects.

• 41:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:17Speaker 01

  I just want everybody to do this for them.

• 41:21Speaker 01

  That's my goal.

• 41:21Lewis Howes?

  That's great. I love it.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  And then who knows what my next thing will be?

• 41:24Lewis Howes?

  Right, yeah, I hear you.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:27Lewis Howes?

  Well, it's powerful. I'm so glad that you, you started this in LA. I know it's needed and I know when I went to the class, people were just like such at peace. And I saw different business people there and moms and everyone else who was feeling stressed out. And when they left, they feel like it's such peaceful calm and they can go back to their day. You know, with more clear intentions. So I'm excited for what you're creating and hopefully I'll do a class, I'll teach a class one of these days.

• 41:50Speaker 01

  Yes, you would be great, now that you are a certified meditation instructor.

• 41:54Lewis Howes?

  Up to practice now. Um, a few final questions for you. Uh, one is, what are you most grateful for recently?

• 42:02Speaker 01

  I would say my husband. I'm most grateful for him. He helped me have three children. He is always there for me. He's just, he's awesome. I would say my husband, I'm the most grateful for.

• 42:15Lewis Howes?

  How long you guys been together? Married?

• 42:17Speaker 01

  Um, sixteen years.

• 42:18Lewis Howes?

  Sixteen?

• 42:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:19Lewis Howes?

  Wow, three kids, how old?

• 42:20Speaker 01

  Uh, fifteen, twelve, and ten.

• 42:22Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:24Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. They're in high school now, how, two of them are in high school?

• 42:26Speaker 01

  I guess the other thing I'm most grateful for is my attitude. That I got from my mom. Which is, I'm always happy and I can always make the lemonade. Like, I've never gotten, you know, it's hard for some people, they get stuck.

• 42:41Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:41Speaker 01

  They're miserable. And they don't realize that gratitude can shift you to happiness. Just doing a gratitude practice every day, you can be an optimist. I'm an optimist, so I appreciate my own optimism because people are like, "You, you're just an optimist, you can't do that." I'm like, "I've done everything."

• 42:59Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 42:59Speaker 01

  Okay, so, maybe I'm just an optimist, but it works. So, I guess my attitude.

• 43:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. I think it's important to have an optimistic attitude.

• 43:08Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 43:09Lewis Howes?

  It's hard to get things down when you're pessimistic, I think.

• 43:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 43:11Lewis Howes?

  When you're negative and you're like doubtful and all these things. Um, this is called the three truths question that I ask everyone at the end. So, if this is, uh, you know, a hundred years from now, and it's your last day on earth, and you've made meditation a global phenomenon, there's studios in every major city, millions of people on your app, and then you went off to do some twenty other big things in the next hundred years. Um, and for whatever reason, everything you've ever created has been erased. It's been gone. And it's your last day, everyone's there, and you have a piece of paper and a pen, and you get to write down three final thoughts. Your three truths about everything you've learned and experienced that you would pass on as kind of your three lessons on how you think people should live life.

• 43:56Lewis Howes?

  What would be your three truths?

• 43:58Speaker 01

  One, go for it. Two, everything's gonna be okay. And three, don't forget to have fun.

• 44:07Lewis Howes?

  There you go. Simple. I love it.

• 44:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:09Lewis Howes?

  Um, before I ask the final question, uh, where can we get the book? Where can we connect with you online? Are you on social media?

• 44:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I actually am the social media person for Unplugged Meditation. So you can get the book at any Barnes and Noble store. It's in all the airports right now. It's on Amazon. It's in indie bookstores. So it's everywhere. So that's, or it's at the Unplugged Meditation Studio in Los Angeles, 12401 Wilshire Boulevard. Um, and obviously everyone should try to take the class because it's amazing in there, right?

• 44:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  Um, and then what was the other question?

• 44:44Lewis Howes?

  Um.

• 44:44Speaker 01

  Where can they get the book? Oh, social. So I am Unplugged Meditation on Instagram. Um, and I am Suzie Yalof Schwartz on Facebook. And I'm also Unplugged Meditation on Facebook.

• 44:56Lewis Howes?

  Unplugged Meditation?

• 44:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:57Lewis Howes?

  Cool.

• 44:58Speaker 01

  I'm unplugged meditai because I couldn't finish it on Twitter, but I really never do Twitter.

• 45:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, okay. Instagram, Facebook. Awesome.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:07Lewis Howes?

  Well, uh, make sure you guys go get the book. It's called Unplug. Make sure you go pick it up. Go check out a class. Mention, uh, when you go to the class that you heard Suzie on School of Greatness and maybe she'll give you a hug or something else.

• 45:19Speaker 01

  Or five.

• 45:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, give you five. There you go. And, um, before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Suzie, for taking the risk and for yourself to become a better human being and less stressed and to inspire other people to be calmer, present, loving, gracious human beings and change their life. You're transforming lives by providing this service for people, for creating the information, for creating the classes. It's really inspiring that you took the risk when no one else was willing to create a studio. You did it. So I acknowledge you for, for jumping in and making it happen.

• 45:54Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 45:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you're welcome. The final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 46:00Speaker 01

  Um, thinking it and doing it. I think that's my definition of greatness.

• 46:07Lewis Howes?

  Suzie, thank you so much for coming on.

• 46:09Speaker 01

  Thank you, Les.

• 46:09Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it.

• 46:10Speaker 01

  It was great.

• 46:13Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, greats. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, make sure to share it with your friends. LewisHowes.com/473. And let me know what you thought. Tag me on Instagram Stories, or on your Instagram posts, or on Twitter, or on Facebook, @LewisHowes, everywhere. And also, if you haven't left a review yet, if you want to be considered for the review of the week, go to iTunes.com/Greatness right now. We only get one life. There are many opportunities for your dreams, but if you don't take action every single day, and continue to grow, and learn, and evolve, and treat people well, those dreams

• 46:57Lewis Howes?

  are never going to happen, and you're never going to feel fulfilled. Make sure you're doing the best you can every single day. Be and give your best to your dreams and to others in the world. I love you, I thank you very much, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.