683 Make Your Dreams a Reality Mashup

"You get respect in culture by finishing your projects.” - Steve Aoki They give some powerful insights into how they make their dreams come true. I put a lot of thought into this, and wanted to make sure you heard from a wide variety of fields. We have wisdom from an amazing musician/DJ, a comedian/YouTuber, a health fitness guru, and a world class magician. On this episode of The School of Greatness, they break down their steps to achieving their dreams. They talk about the struggles, and steps they took to get to where they are today. Be ready on this one, and get keep a pen handy. I know you’ll get a lot of information out of this one that you can apply to any industry. This is powerful stuff guys. Get ready to hear what it really takes to make dreams come true, on Episode 683. In This Episode You Will Learn: How Steve made his decisions when he was younger (7:15) Ways you can find your culture (9:27) Where true value lies (11:57) Why you need to fill your own void (14:08) The power of YouTube (15:44) The importance of being a hustler (17:18) How Cassie got into being an entrepreneur (20:37) How Cassie finds her trainers (24:42) What made Julius get into making videos (25:46) The steps to success for Julius (31:22) 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 683, Make Your Dreams A Reality.

• 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.

• 0:32Lewis Howes?

  Tom Bradley said, "The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you." And Martin Luther King Jr. said, "You don't have to see the whole staircase, you just take the first step." Welcome to today's episode. It's all about making your dreams a reality. We've got some powerful people that I want to bring light to, and I know you have big dreams that you've been wanting to accomplish. We all do. I hear this all the time. "Lewis, how do I achieve this in my life? How do I launch this thing? I've got a dream of being this. What are the steps?" And sometimes the hardest part is taking that first step. It's the fear, it's the unknown, it's the anxiety. "Well, what if I fail? What if this all goes wrong? And what if people make fun of me?"

• 1:17Lewis Howes?

  And that's why I wanted to bring you a new interview series with entrepreneur creative masters, who shared what they did to make their dreams a reality. And in this episode, you'll hear wisdom from Steve Aoki, the iconic and world-renowned DJ, Lilly Singh, one of the most influential people on the internet, Cassie Ho, one of the most influential fitness icons of the decade, and Julius Dean, the magician who has over 20 million fans online from around the world. Get ready for this one, because I know it'll inspire you to take the action you need, have the belief in yourself, and take that first step. And again, this is all about how to make your dreams a reality.

• 2:02Lewis Howes?

  And without further ado, let's dive into this episode about how to make your dreams a reality.

• 2:13Speaker 01

  One thing I learned, especially when I was in high school, and I said this before many times, is the hardcore music scene that I got introduced to that became my life, that became my lifestyle. To the, you know, every decision that I made was all based on the fundamentals of this hardcore scene. Even the food I ate, I became vegetarian because that's what they did. They were talking about animal rights and I got into that. And it was all really based on passion and community. You know, it's like you have to be really into what you're saying and doing and be educated on what you're saying and doing. And, uh, and learn some instruments and play the music, you know? And play the music of that culture. Essentially, you're ambassador of the culture.

• 2:57Speaker 01

  And the way you get respect in that culture is by finishing your projects, whether it's a song, whether it's playing a show, whether it's putting on a show for other bands. So that scene can prosper and there's an ecosystem. So it's all about making this ecosystem of that community healthy. And the more you do that, the more that you're able to make it healthy, the more respect you get. So it's not about, oh, I just walked in with like the shoes that no one else has or the bike that everybody wants. The more of that element that you bring to the table, the less cool you are. The, like, you're cooler if you actually go, I'm vegetarian, I stopped wearing leather shoes.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  Oh shit, you made a stance, you made something that's like a sacrifice. Or I, you know, I'm putting on a show and all these bands are coming in. Wow, you put on the show, that's awesome. I started a band and I'm playing and I'm representing the sound. Or I made a zine, I interviewed four bands and I went to Kinko's and I made a zine. I'm passing them out to all the different people. It's almost like a religion in a way where you're spreading that goodwill. And it's not about a financial reward as well. It's like, there is no financial reward in what we're, what I'm talking about here. It's all about believing, believing in a culture and, and being rewarded by spreading that culture and building that healthy ecosystem of that culture.

• 4:24Speaker 01

  So it is, in essence, that culture doesn't have to be music. That culture could be in a book club or in a chess club or in something that's like drives you. Because, you know, another thing is as well as I talked to some people, they're like, I don't know what my passions are. And I, you know, I talked to Tom, Bill, you from Inside Quest about like, how do you find your passion? Like what gets you there if you don't know what it is? You just have to keep trying stuff and see what, what pulls you, what's pulling you to a certain place? And then meeting up with those people, that community and finding out ways. Cause we all are smart, we all have ways and we all have different ways of thinking about how to, you know, get more people involved in what we do.

• 5:07Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 5:08Speaker 01

  The idea of being a pusher is a bad thing, but in this case is a good thing. So whenever I could push positive lifestyle and a positive like and health and wellbeing. I feel good about myself.

• 5:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  It's like Christmas when you actually give gifts, it feels much better than to receive. It's weird because when I think about the times when things weren't happening and I didn't really look at it as sacrifice. You know, I guess in retrospect it was a sacrifice because you are sacrificing time and you're not, let's say you're not getting paid.

• 5:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  But it's not a sacrifice to you, you know, it's.

• 5:43Lewis Howes?

  It's an investment.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's an investment, but you don't even think of it as an investment either. You, you think about it, this is different, you know, like this, like when I'm going back to the hardcore community, it's like, um. When we put on shows in our living room, we, we never took a dime. We spent all this time getting people to know about what we did. And once we got the ball rolling, we were, we were on a roll, bringing all these artists in. We never took a dime from any shows, you know, we always had people stay over and, and I guess you could call it a sacrifice. But it's really, it really wasn't, it was, um, it was a real love for what we were doing.

• 6:18Lewis Howes?

  Uh, I think. About 10 years ago or when?

• 6:20Speaker 01

  No, that was like, that was like 15 years ago.

• 6:23Lewis Howes?

  Years ago, you were throwing these weekly parties in your, in your apartment with a few other guys, right, that you lived with?

• 6:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, right. You know, we, we had like about four, over 400 bands play. But it was some some bands that became, you know, bands that everyone knows like Jimmy World or, you know, like a lot of bands, like a lot of hardcore bands, you know, a lot of the bands that were willing to to to play in a living room.

• 6:45Lewis Howes?

  How many people could you cram in there?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Forty people.

• 6:48Lewis Howes?

  Forty people.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, but it felt like a lot more, you know, the energy was pretty wild.

• 6:52Lewis Howes?

  Electric, yeah.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, so like for me as well, I'm DJing, obviously to a much larger audience, but I find a value in playing in front of five people. I, because I used to love, I played in front of five people many times.

• 7:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  As a band.

• 7:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  You know, like it's, um, because like sometimes we would do tour and we would play in houses, basements, a warehouse that was abandoned, you know, with a generator.

• 7:17Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest thing you learned about yourself playing in the, in front of those five, 10, 20 people rooms for years, I'm assuming, before anything ever picked up? What's the biggest lesson you learned about going through that process and that journey?

• 7:29Speaker 01

  It's connection. It's like, um, having a real connection with people and and looking at them in the eye and actually communicating. Uh, we'd actually, after the shows, we'd hang out with them. Like those five people that came to the show, I'd want to know them. Be like, you came, you spent money, you drove all the way to my show. There's only four of you, five of you here, 10 of you here. Let's hang out, let's do something. Let's like, I want to know about you and like what what your scene's about. And then building a network and actually like treating them as peers, not as fans so much as peers, because I am a fan as well as them. I was those people at, when I was in, when I was in teenager. And I'm still those people with other shows. I'm like in the crowd and and if I really

• 8:12Speaker 01

  um, uh, track it to a message or a sound, I'm always a fan. That's another thing I've learned is that you can't forget about the fact that the reason why I do it is because I am a fan. We're all the same level. That fifteen year old kid that's like up front screaming or like bawling their eyes out or like that energy. I'm like looking at him like I'm you. I was you, I still am you. You know, and I'm and I'm so happy that they that they don't give a fuck about anybody else and what they're thinking. Cause I was that kid in the front like screaming, wanting to sing along and be connected to the bands. And when the bands and artists connected with me, it changed my life, you know?

• 8:52Speaker 01

  So I always wanted to be that and then remember like, hey, we're we are we are emotional beings and we're here to express this connection.

• 9:09Speaker 02

  I don't want to fill anyone's void. I think Humble and I learned this when we were in Italy at the honor of talking to Pharrell. And he said something that really, really impacted me when Humble was asking him. He said Humble said something like, I want to fill the Andre three thousand void. You know, that's what I want my music to be. And Pharrell was like, you should fill the Humble the poet void. And I was like, oh, I mean, Humble talk about that all the time. And that got me thinking where I don't want to fill the, I don't want people to be like, oh yeah, you could be the next Mindy Kaling. You know, they're just saying that because I'm also a brown girl. I don't want people to be like, yeah, you could be, no, I want to fill the Lily sing void. I want to be the best version of myself that gives me goosebumps. I want to make little Lily get goosebumps when she looks at my success. That's what I want to be.

• 9:52Lewis Howes?

  I love the dedication that you had. I'm just gonna read it.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:56Lewis Howes?

  Dedicated to the person I was six years ago. I told you to keep going. Thanks for listening. It kind of reminds me of the Matthew McConaughey speech. Did you remember seeing his speech was the Oscar or the Oscar where he was like, my inspiration is myself three years from now and like chasing that guy who's going to achieve those things that I want to achieve. But it's like, what do I need to do now that's going to make that happen? And like always chasing that myself, not someone else.

• 10:22Speaker 02

  Right.

• 10:23Lewis Howes?

  So I think it's cool that you kind of dedicated to that.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, that dedicate, I was thinking long and hard about the dedication. I'm like, of course I want to dedicate to my mom, of course, all these people, put them all in the acknowledgements. I'm like, cut the BS. The person that's actually dedicated to that actually got me here is the person that was like, I feel like crap, I'm still gonna get up tomorrow. When I was in my last year of university, I discovered YouTube, which did not exist when I was younger. And I remember watching these videos thinking. There's people in their rooms making videos and people are watching them like what is happening here? And there was a few creators in my community that, you know, had a few videos and I didn't really think anything of it. I thought it was just them. Then when I went more into YouTube, I saw no people over the world are making these videos and this is a thing.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  And I spontaneously one day put up a video online. I thought nothing of it. It was not even comedy. It was so far from who I am today. It was actually spoken word piece about religion.

• 11:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I heard you took it down, right?

• 11:19Speaker 02

  I took it down, not because it sucked, because I have many sucky videos of. I took it down because it just does not represent who I am anymore. But it was so awkward. I was so uncomfortable in it. And as bad as it was, I just fell in love with the fact that I could write whatever I wanted, say whatever I want, edit it however I want, promote it however I want, and no person around me impacted that success. There was no one else I had to rely on. I learned how to do everything myself and that I fell in love with. And so without thinking, I posted a second video that was comedy. It was based on linguistics argument I had with my friend. And I posted another one, another one, and then suddenly I found myself thinking, well, how can I get better? How can I learn how to edit more? How can I write better, just like the fruit bowl?

• 12:02Speaker 02

  Just like the fruit bowl. And then it snowballed into this brand and career.

• 12:07Lewis Howes?

  The quote about the universe might respect the law of attraction, but it respects a good hustle even more.

• 12:14Lewis Howes?

  I really love that. Was there a point earlier when you weren't a hustler? Or was it even when you were five, you were like always hustling? And then how do you sustain the hustle for people that feel like, man, that just seems exhausting?

• 12:25Speaker 02

  Is there a point in my life where I was not a hustler? Yeah, it was that point of my life at the end of university when I was super sad. That if anyone had met me during that time, they would not recognize me as who I am today. I literally got up at, I mean, I still wake up at 3pm sometimes if I go to sleep really late. I'm just gonna be honest. My sleep schedule is a hot mess, but I had absolutely no goals. I woke up with no purpose. Literally Walker from The Walking Dead, did not care, didn't care to accomplish anything. I would don't, I didn't care at all about how the fruit bowl looked.

• 12:54Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 12:54Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? I was a different person. But prior to that, I do, I do gotta say, everything in my life, when I look back, has been this need to do my best. And the greatest example is, I remember I used to work at Harvey's, which is a Canadian fast, I think your equivalent might be Hardee's.

• 13:10Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 13:10Speaker 02

  Here in America. I worked at, it was my first job, a fast food restaurant. And I remember there was downtime and the store was empty and so I was like, okay, great, I'm gonna refill the cutlery. And I was doing stuff and it did not occur to me that everyone else was just chilling. They were just like, looking at me, fill these forks. And I remember hearing someone say this, and it was the most shocking thing I've ever heard. They were just like, you just always gotta do something, like you're always working. And I'm like, wait, are you guys not? And it was so shocking, but I didn't even realize that was a thing people did. Like, they just did not do something. And so I really think it's just something embedded within me, that I haven't completely figured out why. It's just always been this need to do things and be productive.

• 13:54Lewis Howes?

  Well, I mean, you look at the results, I mean, the results don't lie. You've generated certain results.

• 13:59Speaker 02

  Nor do hips.

• 14:01Lewis Howes?

  They do not.

• 14:01Speaker 02

  You're right.

• 14:01Lewis Howes?

  Do your hips lie?

• 14:02Speaker 02

  Not at all.

• 14:03Lewis Howes?

  Oh, all right.

• 14:04Speaker 02

  Never.

• 14:04Lewis Howes?

  Show me later. Do the dance move. I mean, my results don't lie. And you've created specific results in your life because of this level of hustle and energy that's been consistent. I think if people don't wanna generate great results, then they can take a break and they can pause and, you know, not be productive in certain things consistently. And they're gonna get those type of results. So it all depends on what we want.

• 14:26Speaker 02

  It all depends on what we want. And I think, not the danger, but something I know people think after hearing this conversation is they think, well, that's very unhealthy. That's an unhealthy lifestyle balance. And people say that to me all the time. A lot of my friends are, you're always working, just come out with us. And here's the thing. If I'm really honest, to have a certain level of success, I do believe you do have to be obsessed with it.

• 14:48Lewis Howes?

  You have to be.

• 14:48Speaker 02

  You know, you have to be obsessed with it.

• 14:50Lewis Howes?

  You cannot win a championship in any sport at the highest level without being obsessed 24/7.

• 14:53Speaker 02

  So it depends what your goals are.

• 14:55Lewis Howes?

  Depends what it is, yes.

• 14:55Speaker 02

  If your goal is to be successful, but then also have weekends and also have a certain standard of relationship and have family, that's not wrong. That is your goal and you do that. But when people say that to me, my goals are I want to be exceptionally good at this one thing.

• 15:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:13Speaker 02

  And that is going to require a certain level of dedication. And that is the reality of the situation.

• 15:17Lewis Howes?

  Obsessiveness.

• 15:18Speaker 02

  Obsessiveness.

• 15:19Lewis Howes?

  All of your time involved.

• 15:20Speaker 02

  And Dwayne's a great example, like obsessiveness, waking up at four, working out, no matter where he is, like that is an obsessive level of commitment.

• 15:27Lewis Howes?

  And he gets incredible results.

• 15:29Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  When I was in middle school, well, actually, one thing you need to know about me is that I can't eat chocolate. Not that I don't want to.

• 15:43Lewis Howes?

  You physically can't.

• 15:44Speaker 03

  I, I, I really actually want to eat chocolate. I just can't. I'm what you call a supertaster. So for me, arugula, chocolate, coffee, all that kind of stuff tastes extremely bitter to me. So I can't eat it.

• 15:55Lewis Howes?

  What about milk chocolate? White chocolate?

• 15:57Speaker 03

  White chocolate's not chocolate.

• 15:58Lewis Howes?

  I love white chocolate. Oh my gosh.

• 15:59Speaker 03

  That is a trick costume.

• 16:02Speaker 03

  So what I would do, my sister and I would go trick or treating and we'd take all the candies together and then I would create chocolate creations out of them. Then I would bring them to my friends at school and they liked it. So I was like, well, if you like it, then you're probably gonna buy it. So then I started packaging them, charging them 25 cents for three little balls. And then they went crazy for it. So then I started making value packs and adding cookies and, and rocky road bars and stuff. And I had my first business partner in middle school. In high school, all the other middle schools had heard about it, apparently.

• 16:34Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 16:35Speaker 03

  And so everyone was like, oh, you're, you're Cassie the Cookie Girl, right? And I was like, yep, that's me. And then so I carried this huge bag with me to school every single day. And then some kids were so addicted, I mean, obviously with sugar, that they were like, Cassie, please let me sell for you. So I had five student employees under me selling. So we like had this massive thing going across campus.

• 16:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow, you're like a drug dealer.

• 16:57Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 16:58Lewis Howes?

  Cookie drug dealer.

• 16:59Speaker 03

  Imagine being in Spanish class and people like underneath the table like going like this. That's how it was, passing through like 15 hands getting to the next person. Oh, yeah. Buttercream cookies, sandwiches in M and M flavor. Chocolate chip, anything, sugar, snickerdoodle.

• 17:13Lewis Howes?

  Do you still make them?

• 17:14Speaker 03

  I don't.

• 17:15Lewis Howes?

  I need some of those right now.

• 17:16Speaker 03

  You know, we should do that. We should totally do that. So the crazy thing is that it got so big that the school had to shut me down. I got in trouble. Oh yeah, for sure. But that story got me the full ride scholarship to college. So it ended up paying off.

• 17:30Lewis Howes?

  A full ride scholarship?

• 17:31Speaker 03

  Full ride scholarship, yeah.

• 17:33Lewis Howes?

  Living the dream. Now, your parents were happy with that then?

• 17:35Speaker 03

  They were happy with that, but they can always find something wrong with everything that they do.

• 17:39Lewis Howes?

  Of course, right? They're always judging you. Is it cool that your childhood dream was to be in fashion, right? Fashion designer? And now you have a fitness fashion line, isn't that right?

• 17:47Speaker 03

  That is, that is so cool.

• 17:49Lewis Howes?

  So do you feel like you're fulfilling this childhood dream?

• 17:51Speaker 03

  I do, and it's truly amazing because my dad, when I told him I wanted to be a fashion designer, I think I probably was in middle school or something. And I had binders and binders full of evening gown designs and sketches and stuff. He told me literally to my face, you will not succeed, you'll make no money, and you'll have no friends. That's actually in my book. I wrote that, and I will never let him go for it. And I want everyone to know because that could have broke me right there. And I did cry, and it did break me, but it didn't break me for the rest of my life. But I remember it because I know how I can take that and turn it into something much better. So I proved to my parents and to myself that you can follow your passion and do something you're happy with.

• 18:33Speaker 03

  Because for them, I mean, I understand they really wanted me to be financially stable and all that kind of stuff. And I'm first generation Asian American, so they're coming from Vietnam and that deal with the war and all that kind of stuff. So I understand, but I don't understand imposing your dreams upon mine and not letting me at least try.

• 18:52Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 18:52Speaker 03

  Because this vibrance inside of me, this desire to just make it, I don't think they ever understood how hard and how far we go to actually make it happen.

• 19:00Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Now, so would you say you've achieved your childhood dream then?

• 19:06Speaker 03

  I would say yes, but I think I'm also working on it every day to make it even bigger.

• 19:10Lewis Howes?

  And what would you say is your adulthood dream?

• 19:12Speaker 03

  My adulthood dream?

• 19:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:14Speaker 03

  I would love to see the clothing line in stores, I think, and we're working on that. And my other dream is to make sure that Pop Pilates is a huge group fitness format across the world. And we have a great start this year. We're trying to certify 2,000 trainers.

• 19:33Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 19:34Speaker 03

  By 2015, 4,000 by spring 2016, and that will really bring us to the next level. I mean, everyone would do Pop Pilates at 24 Fitness. It'd be so cool.

• 19:43Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my goodness. Now, how are you finding these trainers or how did you create this training for them?

• 19:49Speaker 03

  I'm working with NAFC as my certifying body. And so together, we've created the manual and everything to make that happen. But my current core team of master trainers are beyond incredible. And, you know, it's interesting, it's not that they weren't fans of Blogolites to begin with. Some of them, maybe like a few, but a lot of them were already really seasoned group fitness instructors. They've been teaching Zumba and Pio and all these things for years. So to impress them, you know, that takes something as well. And I wasn't sure, and you're never sure what people think. And so this group of core, like 15 people have come together. And let me tell you, at the summit, it was magic. And I can only use that word because there was something swirling in the air. That wasn't just learning the format, learning the choreography and that kind of stuff.

• 20:33Speaker 03

  It was just this passion to bring this format to people, to help them change their lives and have a really fun time doing it.

• 20:44Speaker 04

  The first video went viral was not even magic. It was like a snake prank. And I just took a fake snake and I put it on people in London on South Bank. And I made a little compilation of it, posted it online, and it just started getting hundreds of thousands of shares. And I think the video is now 50 million Facebook views.

• 20:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow. When was this? A year ago?

• 21:01Speaker 04

  This was, yeah, about a year ago.

• 21:02Lewis Howes?

  Okay. So it wasn't even a magic trick video?

• 21:05Speaker 04

  Right, yeah.

• 21:05Lewis Howes?

  Prank video?

• 21:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 21:07Lewis Howes?

  And then when did you try to do the magic style of viral video?

• 21:11Speaker 04

  So magic style was, well, I'd basically been incorporating magic the whole way. So bits and pieces of magic, kind of more prank sketch orientated videos. And then my first viral magic video was called the invisible chair illusion. Right, and I basically took, I basically. Where you sit down and one leg or whatever. Right, exactly. And then I can lean back. It's like the Matrix. I always wondered how that trick happens. Ah, keep wondering, my friend.

• 21:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, I always wondered that. I don't know if I saw, I think I saw a video of someone else doing this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if it was with you. Yeah, it's actually funny. They just sit down and they're like reading a paper and you're like. Right, right. That's exactly, that's exactly what I did, yeah. You did that trick? Yeah, I did that trick and then it, it, it trended. It got like half a million views on YouTube and then it's like twenty, thirty million views on Facebook. Just doing it in different locations and getting reactions. Right, right, right, exactly. Homeless people like, well, you know, whatever. Exactly. Interesting. So that was about a year ago as well? About a year, roughly. Right afterwards, that? Right. The state trick? Yeah, I just started, I was a, a production machine. When I, when I started the social media game, I was a production machine. Like I would, I would go, I was third year of university. I'm twenty-three now. I was twenty-two back then.

• 22:17Speaker 04

  Or, you know, maybe just turning twenty-two, so it was about a year, yeah. And I was, you know, intent on building my social media profile. So I didn't have a lot of money in the bank, but I would fi- hire like videographers on Craigslist or Gumtree for like fifty to a hundred dollars. They'd come up with me for the day. We'd come up with a concept. We'd go out, film it all day, have a laugh. And then I would take the concept, the, the, the footage, go home, edit it up. And I would post it online the same day. I was in the drive I had back then. And I was making three, four videos a week. So I was really a production machine. I was production, editing, you know, protagonist and the actor in the video. So, yeah. Creating, you know, creating the storyline, creating everything. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And then, and then I had the situation with one of my videos just pop.

• 23:01Speaker 04

  And the thing about social media is once one thing goes viral, your audience will just come. It's crazy. So the first videos weren't going as viral, maybe it sounds like, until? Yeah, yeah. How long were you doing these three to four videos a week until one popped? Yeah, I was, I was put about six, six, six, seven months. Really? Six of months of, of, of nothingness. What's nothingness? A couple thousand views or ten thousand views maybe? Is this on Facebook or YouTube or both? This is on both, basically, yeah. So a couple thousand views? Well, actually, I'll tell you. It was, yeah, a couple of thousand views. Now. Shall I tell you about my strategy in terms of how I blew up?

• 23:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. But first off, I mean, yes, I want to hear that.

• 23:36Speaker 04

  Alright.

• 23:37Lewis Howes?

  So you did the snake video first, which got how many views?

• 23:40Speaker 04

  About thirty, forty million.

• 23:41Lewis Howes?

  And then after that, you started doing three to four videos a week for months?

• 23:45Speaker 04

  No, no, no. I was doing, I was doing three to four videos. Actually, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, actually, it wasn't the snake video that went viral first. It was a prank video with this, with, with a, like a girl. That was the first video that popped. But it was basically the same time as the snake video. They were within about two, three days of each other.

• 23:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:59Speaker 04

  The first video that went absolutely bonkers was like a prank war I did with this girl, who, who was like my, my girlfriend at the time. And then I posted that video online and that's what popped.

• 24:09Lewis Howes?

  Got it. And this was after six months of you doing videos that weren't doing anything?

• 24:13Speaker 04

  They were, they were doing a little bit, bits and pieces. Yeah, yeah. I, I was getting some traction, but I had about ten thousand likes.

• 24:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's it.

• 24:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. It was a grind.

• 24:21Lewis Howes?

  For six months, trying, working every single day, ten thousand fans.

• 24:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:26Lewis Howes?

  Ten, fifty thousand views, maybe a video, max.

• 24:28Speaker 04

  Right, right, right. Exactly.

• 24:29Lewis Howes?

  What kept you like continuing to do this when you weren't making any money? Your audience wasn't growing? You weren't seeing the views grow?

• 24:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:35Lewis Howes?

  Why'd you keep doing this grind, you know, ten, twelve hours a day?

• 24:38Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, i- it's the social media. Building a following is, is priceless. You can't buy a social media following. So I saw the value in that. I still do. Um, and the fact I was getting some positive comments, I think would drive me on.

• 24:50Lewis Howes?

  Drove you enough?

• 24:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 24:51Lewis Howes?

  And you were at college. You didn't have too many responsibilities to like, do this for a while.

• 24:55Speaker 04

  There was a level of boredom. There was absolutely. I was at university, but I don't know how it is in America, but in the U- in the UK, you, you sometimes get six, seven, eight hours a week of lecture time.

• 25:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, bored.

• 25:06Speaker 04

  Right. My degree was relatively easy. Um, I had a lot of free time. Well, I had some options. I could either go, go to the, the societies or the clubs or, and I was like, right, I really want to build the social media. I've got, I'm doing some magic gigs. I've, I'm quite, I understand the kind of the magic world. Uh, and I understand, you know, also, I, I spent a year in UCLA. So I met a lot of the, I met the kind of Vine community.

• 25:26Lewis Howes?

  Yes, yes.

• 25:28Speaker 04

  So I, I was, when I got back to the UK for my, for my year abroad, I was intent on building what they'd already done. It's crazy, these people in LA.

• 25:35Lewis Howes?

  Machines.

• 25:35Speaker 04

  Machines, they, they, they built, you know, fantastic incomes and fantastic careers off their hard work in, in their childhood and their young adulthood. So when I got back to London, I was like, right, I really should have been making videos. So, yeah, I, I just did it and, and I was driven and I think it was a mixture of, um, free time.

• 25:52Lewis Howes?

  Boredom, yeah.

• 25:53Speaker 04

  Bit, bit, bit of boredom, okay, uh, and also good, good fitness. I think if, you know, when you're going to the gym every day and you're eating super healthy, you, you just, your mind is, is in a different.

• 26:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, clear, you have ideas running all the time and you wanna go do, create.

• 26:06Speaker 04

  Exactly, exactly.

• 26:07Lewis Howes?

  You wanted to build something.

• 26:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:09Lewis Howes?

  But it still took you some time to kind of figure it out, the six month window of time where you weren't really doing much. But it was kind of like your testing ground, you were seeing what worked, what didn't work.

• 26:17Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:17Lewis Howes?

  Uh, then you figured out the model, it sounds like you did a couple of videos that went viral. And is that when you were like, okay, now I see all the elements that need to be in one video for it to have the potential to get some traction? Is that what you kind of recognized was this aha moment or?

• 26:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, so, so let me give you, let me give you the rundown, right? So I had no followers, no likes. Step one, get my friends and family to like my page, right? You, you know, message everyone, hey, can you like my page?

• 26:41Lewis Howes?

  Beg them, please, I don't have anything cool, we do it anyways.

• 26:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, and it's funny, cause I, I, I sent everyone a, a, that question, the same, copied and pasted.

• 26:48Lewis Howes?

  I've done that before too, man.

• 26:50Speaker 04

  Exactly, and it's funny, cause these people hit me up like a year and a half later. And like, oh, hey, like, I'm doing a, I'm doing a fundraiser and I just see like the previous thing, it's me asking them a question.

• 26:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:58Speaker 04

  You know, it's, it's interesting that, but, um, that was step one. And then, so step two, which was gonna take me from about a thousand likes to seven thousand likes overnight, was what I would do is I would, I was thinking, how could I make my videos get some traction? Okay, so, um, on YouTube, it was about Reddit. Reddit, trying to get on the front page of Reddit, just trying to get, I mean, I'd have like fake proxy accounts doing upvotes and stuff, which is how some of my videos got like a million views. But more Facebook orientated, what I would do is I would reach out to pages that have followings. Right. And there are so many pages on Facebook with, you know, 200,000 likes, 400,000 likes, et cetera, as there are YouTube channels with 200,000 subscribers, et cetera. So I would basically message hundreds of them and say, hey, got a great video, can you share my video?

• 27:41Speaker 04

  And the way I would find these pages is I would go on to another viral page. So for example, like, you know, whatever, go on to Tiger's page and then I would click on all the, all the shares. Say he's got 100,000 shares on the video, I would just choose one person, right? Who, and they're public profiles because they appear in the shares. And then I would just go on that profile and just scroll through their newsfeed, this random person somewhere in the world and just see what stuff they'd shared. And it's usually from pages. So then I would just find loads of random pages from around the world through finding these random people from these, you know, public celebrities or viral pages. And I would send them the message, hey, I'm, you know, got a great video, can you share that video? Right. And I would, I mean, I sent so many messages, I ended up getting blocked for a day.

• 28:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. And, and, and what happened is, is after sending a couple of hundred messages, I eventually got a response.

• 28:29Lewis Howes?

  You got 10, 20 different pages that are like, sure, I'll share it out.

• 28:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 28:32Lewis Howes?

  Interesting, right?

• 28:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, it wasn't 10, 20 pages, but there were a few.

• 28:35Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 28:36Speaker 04

  Some asked for, yeah, some asked for, some asked for money.

• 28:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 28:39Speaker 04

  Some did it from the kindness of their heart or, you know, whatever reason, I'm not sure why they did it. But I got a page called Mayor Boss, right? He was just, he had five million followers.

• 28:47Lewis Howes?

  Mayor?

• 28:48Speaker 04

  Mayor, M A Y O R space B O S S.

• 28:50Lewis Howes?

  Mayor Boss.

• 28:51Speaker 04

  He's gonna get an influx of messages now. And for some, for some reason, on, on a thousand likes, yeah, I got a message from him a month later and he said, yeah, bro, got you. I'm like, what? And then I look at my pages and I'm, I'm, I'm refreshing and they're just bombing up the likes on my page.

• 29:06Lewis Howes?

  Cause he shared one video.

• 29:07Speaker 04

  He shared one of my videos, it got reshared and when something gets reshared on Facebook, the traffic will just come back in because your, your video will appear on the newsfeed with the like button next to it. Right. So I went from a thousand to 7,000 likes overnight and that was really what gave me the momentum. I was like.

• 29:24Lewis Howes?

  Oh, when people share my videos, then it's, it'll grow out faster.

• 29:28Speaker 04

  Exactly. And I thought I'd made it. I was like, mum, I'm done with university. That's it. See you later, guys.

• 29:41Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, my friends. We do things differently here. We're all about bringing people together, elevating humanity, and raising the level of consciousness so that we can all be more and feel more fulfilled along the process and the journey. This is episode number 683. LewisHowes.com/683 for the full show notes. And you can check out the full interviews of Steve Aoki, Lilly Singh, Cassie Ho, and Julius Dean as well. Back there, we have all those links, so check that out. Guys, I'm so excited for what's to come. This is a beautiful time of the year. It's a time to complete, it's a time to finish strong, and I'm so excited about what everyone is working on. We have a community called the Inner Circle, where thousands of people from around the world are a part

• 30:26Lewis Howes?

  of, and they're sharing their wins every single week. It's a beautiful thing to see. We're going to be seeing a lot of you in person at the Summit of Greatness here soon, October 4th through 6th, and there's going to be a time for celebration, a time for connection, a time for joy and fun. So many positive things are happening. And my talk show, Inspiring Life, is happening right now. Every single Monday, it comes out for a few more weeks, so check it out on Facebook Watch, Inspiring Life, when you go there. Let me know what you guys think. Tag me every time you're on social media listening to this. I want to hear who's listening to it, who's watching the videos, who's connecting to the community, so I can see and learn more about you. I love you so very much, and you

• 31:08Lewis Howes?

  know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.