208 Q&A: On Focus, Routine, and Family

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 208 with me, Lewis Howes, doing a Q and A, making it great. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:34Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to the episode today. This is episode number 208. We're making it great. Doing a Q and A today because I did one of these last week and I got an incredible response from people. You guys said, "Hey, I have more questions. Please do another one of these." And I got some great questions when I asked you guys what you are interested in learning about. And I've also been doing more on Periscope where I'm answering some shorter questions. You know, I don't really get to dive in deep there on Periscope, but follow me on Periscope, @lewishowes. I'm doing that on a regular basis now over there, but I wanted to go dive a little deeper here. But here are the questions, and I'm taking these from the top that I'm seeing here. Jay asks, "I'm a big fan of your podcast since the beginning."

• 1:18Lewis Howes?

  This is Jay Pena. I think your last name is Pena. "I'm a big fan of your podcast since the beginning, so I wanted to ask how the idea of having a podcast came to your mind? Which other platforms you considered and why you think it is so successful now?" It's interesting. I was just telling someone this today. I met someone on the street who is a listener here in New York City, who was asking me about this. And he said, "Hey, are you Lewis Howes, School of Greatness? I was just listening to you today." And I was like, "Man, it means a lot to me." Gave him a big hug and I thanked him for that, so I appreciate it. He and another guy who recognized me from the show as well, asked me this question. He said, Why did you start the podcast? And I will tell you, it's actually kind of funny. I moved to, three years ago, about around this time, three years ago, I moved to Los Angeles

• 2:03Lewis Howes?

  from New York City. And I moved for a girl that I was in a relationship with and, you know, went out there and tried to make it work and it didn't work. But when I was out there, I had just sold my company to my business partner at the time. I was kind of going through a transition. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next, how I wanted to reinvent myself from just talking about kind of LinkedIn and social media products that I had in my business to what is the essence of what I want to put out there? And I realized that I wanted to create inspiring, motivating, actionable content for people to get inspired and take action in their life and give them the tools and resources to make their dreams a reality. And I was asking a few friends, I was asking my buddy Derek Halpern and Pat Flynn from

• 2:49Lewis Howes?

  Smart Passive Income and a few others. I was like, you know, what are you guys doing right now that is bringing in the most traffic, the most leads and you're just kind of surprised with how it's working so well in your business? From all the things you do, from the blogging, the eBooks, the products, everything that you do. And I remember Derek and Pat Flynn, Pat Flynn specifically said, man, my podcast, it's really taking off. And this was 2012. Yeah, 2012, is that right? No, 2013, excuse me. Yeah, end of 2012 is when I asked this question. So I was like, really? And as I was in LA, I was driving around LA a lot and it was, for anyone who lives in LA or who visits LA, you know how miserable it is driving in the car if you have nothing else to do.

• 3:34Lewis Howes?

  And the wait time and the commute times, just to go three miles, it takes 45 minutes. It's annoying. And I said, interesting, you know, all these people need more inspiring content when they're miserable in cars or they're just frustrated and the music is on the radio is not inspiring them anymore. And I said, I think I could, you know, do this podcasting. I think if these guys can do it, then I could probably do it as well. It can't be that challenging. And I already had a lot of great influencer friends and relationships with, you know, inspiring people around the world. I said, I think I could do something different than everyone else is doing and really make an impact and make a splash. But I had no clue how it was going to do from the beginning. I was like, this might take a couple of years to build up.

• 4:16Lewis Howes?

  And within the first couple of months, it really resonated with people and iTunes emailed me within, I think, the first 90 days. Might have been even sooner. They emailed me and said, "We love what you're doing. Can you please send us a graphic so we can feature you on the homepage?" And I was blown away at that point. I was like, "Wow." "Okay, this is, this is something interesting." And you know, at the time, I think there were about 250,000 podcasts online, and they were reaching out to me to be featured at the top of the iTunes page. And I was like, "Interesting. Okay." So, I realized that, um, there was something happening here. And with people wanting to listen to content on demand and not have to listen to commercials, and with smartphones having more access to podcasting platforms and

• 5:00Lewis Howes?

  podcasting being more in the news, it took off. I think a lot of it was timing. Um, I also, to answer the question, why I think it's so successful now, I think a lot of it was timing that I got in at a good time, two and a half years ago. And I've been consistent. I think that's been the key, because I have a couple of friends who launched podcasts that were really successful, then stopped. And now, they've got to catch back up. So, I did one episode a week for the first year, then the second year, people were asking for more. So, I said, "Okay, I can do two a week, but that's a lot." And I did two a week for the second year, and now I'm on a third year, and I'm doing three episodes a week.

• 5:38Lewis Howes?

  And, um, two kind of more faint, uh, full episodes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and on a Friday, I'm doing like a little five to 10 minute inspiration to get people into the weekend excited for what's happening in our lives. And thank you guys for the great responses for that. So, I think that's one of the reasons why it's been successful, also because I've gotten, I believe I've gotten a caliber of guest on the show that I really screen my guests and bring on people that don't do the podcast rounds. Now, sometimes they do, but typically, I try to find people who aren't doing podcasts all the time, who aren't just saying the same thing all the time, and even people that don't even do interviews that much in the mainstream media. I'm really looking for those inspiring influencers on all walks of life,

• 6:22Lewis Howes?

  um, that are doing incredible things that can inspire all of you. And so, that's why I think it's successful. Other platforms I considered, Jay asked as well, uh, I considered Doing a YouTube show, you know, my friend Marie Forleo, she has done an incredible job with her Marie TV and she's been doing, I think like four or five years now consistently every week and it's just crushed. So I considered doing that and I've been doing more video and the YouTube subscriber account is growing and the views are growing and people are loving that. I just haven't been as consistent with that. It's just a lot more energy and work and money and investment into that, but hopefully that answers your question. Jay, thanks for letting me share and hopefully you guys are inspired by that, but the

• 7:06Lewis Howes?

  really the consistency, the quality of guests over time and my hustle getting it out there. You know, I'm constantly hustling every day to promote it. And I think a lot of people just want to launch it and they just ask people to share it for them, but they're not doing the work to really get creative, to get people to promote it and to promote it themselves. Paul asks, how do you balance wanting to grow and achieve more with being grateful for the success you have already achieved? Already reached, sorry. Paul Jackson asked that question.

• 7:40Lewis Howes?

  How do I, how do I balance wanting to grow and achieve more with being grateful for the success I've already achieved? I think they go hand in hand, so it's not really a balance for me. It's a consistent gratitude. I'm constantly grateful for every day and every success I achieve and every setback. You know, I look at my my quote unquote failures as feedback and that feedback is actually what's considered, you know, dark matter or what's considered uncertainty that happens to us that we build upon this, these foundation blocks of dark matter of failures. It's actually foundation that we're building upon to then be successful and achieve success on top of that.

• 8:25Lewis Howes?

  And if we were just successful at everything we do, life would not be that interesting. It would actually be pretty boring. If we, if everything we did, we achieved the first time we tried it. You know, if we're like, I want to be an NFL player when I'm 10 years old and I did it the next day and everything I did didn't take any time. Didn't take any hard work, never had any setbacks. It wouldn't really be that fulfilling. So I look at it as gratitude in everything that happens, you know, the failures, the emotional pain that I go through, the emotional stress, um, the uncertainty, all those things, I look at it as things I'm grateful for. In the moment, not always am I grateful for it. I'm actually, you know, sometimes really set back for a couple of months and

• 9:08Lewis Howes?

  I'm frustrated and I'm angry and I'm kind of just like in the moment of the frustration. But I always look back on it and say, yep, I needed that lesson and that was, that's what helped me get to where I am now. So I'm constantly growing to achieve more, but I'm always being grateful for uh, everything I have. And I think because I express gratitude so much and I believe in gratitude and I am grateful, I firmly believe that's what allows me to continue to grow as fast as I do. And it's because of that gratitude. If I wasn't grateful, then I'd just be selfish. So that's, that's my come from. So thanks for the question, Paul. Um, Shanae, I believe it's Shanae, uh, Penny said, how do you stay focused on a daily basis?

• 9:51Lewis Howes?

  It's a great question and I'll, and I'll tell you, I don't, I don't stay focused on a basic daily basis. Some days I do literally nothing. Like my, my good friend Matt, who started working with me, um, about three or four months ago. I was just feeling overwhelmed from some things that were happening in my personal life emotionally that I was struggling with, with my business, with my team. There was a lot of, my team was going through a lot of different emotional challenges. It seemed like we're all kind of going through some emotional challenges in different ways in our lives. And I felt like I was, had all this weight on my shoulders and I was carrying the burden and the energy of my entire team and I, I felt like I couldn't get anything done. You know, first off, I was out of it emotionally, myself. And then my team was

• 10:35Lewis Howes?

  struggling here and there. And I felt like I couldn't solve their problems and I couldn't be there for them. And my buddy Matt said, you know what? I just want to let you sit around and do nothing today. Like you just need to like sulk and you know, kind of be depressed today. He was like, just allow yourself to just lay there and watch TV and do nothing and just. You know, don't beat yourself up for feeling depressed, just be it. And I said, okay, thanks, man. So, um, you know, I think that I do my best to stay focused on a daily basis. But if I'm not staying focused, um, I allow it to happen every now and then. But if it's like a constant thing, like three days in a row where I'm not doing a focus at all, then I'll snap out of it.

• 11:17Lewis Howes?

  And really what I do is I focus on my vision and my vision is my why. And I think, uh, Sine, when we have a powerful why, when we have a powerful vision, that it's, it doesn't matter what happens to us. It doesn't matter the adversity. It doesn't matter how we're feeling that day. It doesn't matter what someone says to us, if we have haters, if everything breaks in our business. If we are so passionate about our vision, if we're so passionate about our purpose and our mission and what we were born to do, then we will find a way to stay focused because we're so committed to our vision. So find a vision and a passion that you believe in so strongly that it doesn't matter what life throws at you.

• 12:00Lewis Howes?

  You will stay focused because you want to achieve that vision and you want to make it happen. And that's what I would say, Sine, is what I do and what you should consider as well. Okay, Nikki Swindle says, as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I frequently find it hard to narrow down and really focus on one thing. I have so many things I love to do. What would you or your advice be to help a multi-passionate entrepreneur succeed without feeling like they're pigeonholed and just doing one thing, spreading themselves too thin? Nikki Swindle, this is a great question and what I'm about to say may be, may not be the right answer for you. And I think you got to think about what works for you. And I'm going to say what works for me because a lot of people will say you just got to have narrow focus.

• 12:44Lewis Howes?

  You got to focus on one thing and master that thing and just put all of your energy into that. And in some ways I firmly believe that and agree with it. I think if I was trying to be a professional football player when I was 22, 23 years old, and I was trying to be a professional in two other sports at the same time, I probably wouldn't be as good at any one. One of those sports and I probably would have been more average on all three than great at one of them. So in some sense, you really want to find that one thing that is your bread and butter. And this is what I do. I have one or two things that are really my bread and butter, my, my money maker. The thing that is selling like crazy, the thing that I've built, that's running, that

• 13:26Lewis Howes?

  works, that I know when I put energy into it, it brings in money, it gets results from my customers, my students, and it gets me, it builds my audience and it brings in results and value for everyone. So you gotta find your bread and butter first. Then when you have that, you've got to build the team around it so that you can go on to the next thing. And I think this is where some of us entrepreneurs get caught up. We, we do something that works and then we go on to the next thing and we forget about the thing that works because we're like, okay, I'm off to the next thing. But what you gotta really consider is, okay, if I'm going to be a one man band or one woman band, then I gotta stick to my bread and butter because that's what's gonna bring in the bacon for mama. You know what I'm saying, Nikki?

• 14:09Lewis Howes?

  But when you scale that and when you can make your bread and butter, something that your team can spread for you, then you can let them grow that and then you can go on to the next thing. Or you can have your hand in both of them a little bit, but you've got other team members adding value to that bread and butter thing, that business that you're running so that you can start doing some other things on the side and still have your creative juices flowing. So with me, Nikki, I've got my team that, you know, and we automate and really manage a lot of things as a unit, as a team. And it's not just me anymore like it used to be years ago. I used to just try to do it all on my own and then I wasn't sleeping and I was getting overweight and exhausted because I was trying to do it all by myself.

• 14:52Lewis Howes?

  But by having a team allows me to really be a multi-passionate entrepreneur and succeed without feeling like I'm pigeonholed to one thing or spreading myself too thin. So hopefully that answers your question. Nikki, thank you for asking it. Um, here we go. The next question, Rosalie, Rosalie Gasparian says, hey, Louis, thank you for all your episodes of the School of Greatness. It's a very powerful thing. Thanks to your podcast. I'm not only inspired, enjoying it, but I'm improving my English. Awesome. Thanks. I'm not sure where you're from, but thank you. My question is, what is your daily routine? Ah, man, it's a great question. I get this a lot, actually, Rosali. Thank you for the question.

• 15:32Lewis Howes?

  I will share with you my morning routine and my, my evening routine. This is the intention that I try to go into to create. Now, some days it doesn't happen, but if it was my ideal morning and evening routine, uh, when everything worked well and I wasn't traveling and, you know, I didn't have late night meetings sometimes, then this is what I would do. I would get up at seven thirty. I would meditate for twelve to thirteen minutes with my guided meditation right away. I would go work out after that. Um, whatever the workout may be, it doesn't matter for me. I just need to move and start sweating and, and get my heart rate up and, and move because that allows me to clear out anything and get really prepared for the day. This is just what I do.

• 16:16Lewis Howes?

  Then I come back and I'll stretch. Um, I'll have a green juice or a green smoothie, sometimes both. Then I will shower, brush my teeth and get ready for the day that way. So I'm really just kind of, and I, and I make my bed every morning. That's something I really intend to do every morning. And that's the process of the morning. The day is very different, uh, but a lot of it coincides with, it depends with what we're launching, the products that I have, a book that I have coming out soon. But really it's working with my team. It's meeting people. It's connecting with, uh, friends who are in business, I'm in business with. It's building relationships. It's creating content, doing the podcast, writing content, speaking, things like that.

• 16:59Lewis Howes?

  And then at night, it's really about, for me, if I didn't work out in the morning, I work out at night. I play, I try to do something, play frisbee, play basketball, play, get my mind off the day. Because when I'm active in a sport, um, I have to be in that zone and I can't think about anything else. I can't think about business because then I'll lose the game. So I need to be competitive and do something where I'm active. Um, and then at night, I, I try to wind down and, um, journal.

• 17:28Lewis Howes?

  And go to bed, but I usually meditate in that as well with a 12 or 13 minute guided meditation. So that's my daily routine. Every day is different though. And I think if it was always the same, then it would get boring as well. And this is the final question for today. I will leave you guys with, this is from Rob Bastler. Rob says, among all of your accomplishments, which makes you most proud so far? What do you consider to be your greatest strength as an entrepreneur, greatest weakness?

• 17:59Lewis Howes?

  Tell you what, Rob, I am very, you know, I'm not, I'm not trying to do this, say this to be self, to sound selfish or egotistical, but I'm very proud of a lot of the things I do because I put so much passion and focus and sacrifice into my vision. And I know a lot of you listening who have big dreams and goals can resonate with that because you put so much energy into something you want to achieve and you want to create and give back to the world. So for me, I am very proud of everything I've achieved because a lot of the things I achieved, I at one point didn't know if it was possible to achieve. And at one point, it seemed like it was so far away, it was so unlikely that I could achieve it.

• 18:41Lewis Howes?

  That I put all of my heart and passion and energy into it over years, sometimes, sometimes over 10, 15 years to achieve something. And then I finally achieved it. And that's, that's how I've lived my life is dedicating my energy to my passion and to my dreams. And that's why I feel so proud of so many of them. I will list the top three that come to mind right now. The first one is being a two-sport All-American. For me as a, you know, five to seven year old, that's what I dreamed of was being a collegiate All-American. And I did it in two sports, so I'll name that as one. The second one is.

• 19:22Lewis Howes?

  Representing my country, I think for me, I've always been proud to be born in the United States of America. Very proud of my country, of the freedom and the privileges. You know, I know that I'm already blessed to live in this country. I've traveled the world a lot and you know, I could have been born in a third world country and not have had the opportunities. So for me to make the USA National Handball Team, the men's national team, play with my country, wear USA across my chest and represent my country around the world, for me, that is one of the greatest gifts that I've received and been able to give as well. Because I'm so grateful for the opportunities I've had to be an American and to be born here.

• 20:07Lewis Howes?

  I just feel so blessed and I've given so much sacrifice of my time and my body. You know, I've been injured multiple times over the last five years playing with the team and training that, you know, it's just, it's been a lot of hard work and it's been a lot of hard work at an age that people say I shouldn't be playing anymore. And so I'm very proud to be able to show myself that I can achieve that dream. And then the third thing I would say is I'm proud of my family. I'm proud of, you know, sometimes I wish I was a better brother and a better son. And I try to do my best and all I can and I, you know, some of my siblings and my mom works for me part-time

• 20:51Lewis Howes?

  and that hopefully will be full-time soon. You know, one of my sisters works for me, one of my other sisters is going to be working with me here soon as well. And my brother, you know, hopefully he'll be working with me or I'm going to create a project where we can work together sometime. So for me, I really love that I'm able to give back to my family. And my dad, you know, I pay for his physical therapy. He got in an accident 10 years ago and he's still recovering. And so I'm able to pay for his training, for a personal trainer to come in and work on him twice a week. So for me, I'm very proud that I've been, I'm proud of my family. I'm proud of my family for raising me to be the man that I've become,

• 21:33Lewis Howes?

  which I'm definitely not perfect and, you know, I definitely don't have it all figured out. And I know that I make a lot of mistakes still and I don't please everyone and I don't make everyone happy in every area of my life. But I try to do my best and they've raised me to, to give my best and, um, and I'm trying to work on that every single day. I'm working on being my best and giving my heart to the world, to the people around me. And, um, following my truth and following who I am and what I believe and going after it. And sometimes who I am and what I believe and what I do, what I wanna do, other people don't agree with or they don't believe in as well.

• 22:15Lewis Howes?

  Whether it be my followers or friends or people in relationships, they don't, they don't, uh, see eye to eye with me and that creates conflict. And, um, for me, I'm just proud of my family for stepping up in the way they have with all the adversity that they've gone through. Man, we've gone through a lot together and individually and I'm just so proud of them. And I'm proud to be their brother and son. And, um, uh, I feel grateful to be in the family that I'm in. So that, my friends, uh, is my Q and A. I hope you guys enjoyed this. Thank you all for those questions.

• 22:54Lewis Howes?

  And if you enjoyed this, then please, uh, share this on Twitter and Facebook with your friends. It's LewisHowes.com/208. Um, and if you want me to do more of these, tweet at me, at Lewis Howes and let me know. I say, "Hey, Lewis, love the Q and A. Would love for you to do more of these." Thank you, guys. These are a lot of fun for me to do. And I'm gonna be doing more solo rounds, cause I know I'm getting feedback from people saying, "Hey, we wanna hear more content from you on your business and really diving in deeper on some of these things." So I'm gonna be doing more solo rounds, so shout out to some of the people from back in the last couple of years who've heard me on the solo rounds. Those are some of the most ...popular episodes actually, we're doing more of those.

• 23:36Lewis Howes?

  I will do more Q and As if you guys like this format as well because it's fun for me to really kind of reminisce on all these ideas and share it openly with you here in a longer format. So if you want more of these, tweet me at Lewis Howes, say you liked the Q and As. And that is it, guys. I appreciate you, I love you. Thank you all so much who come up to me and say hi in the streets and say you listen to the show. Please make sure to scream at me if I'm down the street and you see me to say, "Hey, Lewis." Come up and tap me on the shoulder and say, "Hey, let me know which episode you enjoy the most. Give me a hug." If I don't give you a hug, force me to give you one. And because I really want to give you one, it means a lot to me.

• 24:18Lewis Howes?

  And I'm just so grateful for all of you for listening and for sharing and constantly supporting the show. So, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great!