Scooter Braun On Healing Past Trauma, Building A Business Empire & Finding Peace EP 1244

Today’s guest is Scooter Braun, one of the most prolific entrepreneurs and innovators in entertainment, music, tech and beyond. Braun is the Founder and Chairman of Ithaca Holdings LLC., co-CEO and board member of HYBE, and the Founder of SB Projects. In addition to managing a robust roster of some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, J Balvin, Idina Menzel, Ashley Graham and Tori Kelly, SB Projects has grown their film and television division to include a prolific slate of projects. Scooter joins me today to discuss his incredible journey of self healing in the last couple of years and how his newfound mindset has improved his life on a business, personal, and spiritual level. In this episode we discuss:How to begin healing your past trauma in order to free yourself. What it means to have unconditional love. Three core philosophies and values to building and growing a business. How to not be afraid when investing your money. And so much more! For more go to: www.lewishowes.com/1244For Scooter's last episode: https://lewishowes.com/422Check out SB Projects: https://scooterbraun.com/Mel Robbins: The “Secret” Mindset Habit to Building Confidence and Overcoming Scarcity: https://link.chtbl.com/970-podDr. Joe Dispenza on Healing the Body and Transforming the Mind: https://link.chtbl.com/826-podMaster Your Mind and Defy the Odds with David Goggins: https://link.chtbl.com/715-pod 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.

• 0:00Scooter Braun?

  I've been able to be a part of so many great companies investing wise because I wasn't afraid to lose the money. Really? I always told myself, I believe in this, but if it goes to zero, I'm okay. How do you get to that place though?

• 0:14Lewis 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.

• 0:37Lewis Howes?

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• 1:23Lewis Howes?

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• 1:45Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest, my friend Scooter Scott Braun in the house. Good to see you, brother.

• 1:52Scooter Braun?

  Number three.

• 1:53Lewis Howes?

  Number three, man. People have been begging me to have you back on. We used to do kind of like an annual thing, a recap of the year. And people were like, I can't wait for the next one, but COVID.

• 2:01Scooter Braun?

  COVID hit. Yeah, we missed it. We missed our window.

• 2:03Lewis Howes?

  We missed it. And so now we're back. I'm curious, so you got to start with your three biggest lessons, business, personal. Spiritual of the last couple of years to start it then? What is the biggest awakenings, biggest eye-opening things that have happened for you, to you in these areas of your life?

• 2:20Scooter Braun?

  Which one first?

• 2:21Lewis Howes?

  Business.

• 2:21Scooter Braun?

  Okay, funny enough, the business lesson that I got over the last couple of years that was the most significant happened because my life got taken away from business for the first time in 20 years. My personal life became such a priority. My spirituality grew from me doing self-work. And because of things in my personal life, I decided to step away from business for the first time and really focus on my personal life. Instead of looking at it as, oh, balance, balance, or what I like to say harmonize, because I don't think you should have to weigh one versus the other. I had a decision to make. I was going through a very tough time and friends had recommended me to go to this place Hoffman that you and I have discussed before. Hoffman Process has been around for a very long time.

• 3:04Scooter Braun?

  And I was kind of like lost.

• 3:07Lewis Howes?

  Lost in what way? Internally, spiritually, personally?

• 3:10Scooter Braun?

  I was going through stuff in my personal life that I was confused. I couldn't understand what was happening. And I hadn't done the work yet to have the foundation to handle it, to be honest with you. So I was really lost. I got depressed and I hit a level of depression that I had never hit in my entire life because I couldn't fix it. I couldn't find the answers. And a couple of friends recommended Hoffman, which I had avoided for four years. I was like, what do I need this place for? I had a good childhood. Like, I've had friends who suffered and, you know, gone through stuff. Like, I was fine. And in this confusion, I finally just surrendered to this idea of I'm going to go to this place. And when I called up, my friend connected me with this amazing woman, Liza, who runs the Hoffman Process. And we got on the phone.

• 3:50Scooter Braun?

  She said, I can take you in three weeks to our next process, October 24th, 2020. And I started to laugh because that was the release of my client and like family in the Ariana Grande's album. And I'm thinking, this is my biggest album release of the year.

• 4:07Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm. There's no way I can't be there.

• 4:09Scooter Braun?

  This is what I do. I can't leave. And I started laughing in the parking lot of one of Ariana's music videos. And I started laughing out loud. No one was even around me. And I just looked up at the sky and I said, okay, God, okay, universe, I see what you're doing here. I can choose to stay on this path that I've been on that's very successful, but now I've hit this wall and I'm depressed and I'm hurt and I'm alone. Or I can choose me for the first time, truly me, be selfish about it, and leave. And I went to Ariana and I told her and she said to me, "You were there for me in many different times. It's time for me to be there for you. You should go." And I went and that week changed my life.

• 4:48Scooter Braun?

  I realized that I had built Scooter Braun since I was 18 years old because I didn't think Scott was strong enough in the world. Wow. And I didn't know that. That was a subconscious thing from my childhood. And it wasn't like I didn't have wonderful parents. I do. But they passed on to me what had happened to them. Like, that's what we do as parents. One day, I hope my kids go and do this process, and when they come to me, I'm gonna say, "Thank you for finishing the work that I didn't get to." You know, "Thank you for fixing things that I wasn't able to address." And when I came back, I started to get answers to that darkness. But I wasn't depressed this time. Interesting. I was at peace because I went back and got little Scott.

• 5:32Scooter Braun?

  I would left him for so long that when the foundation of this story I had told myself of what my life was going to be, what Scooter Braun was going to become. When that foundation was cracking, I didn't know what to do. Because I was so invested in a story of my own manifestation, my own will, that the universe was saying, "Oh, no. No, we're gonna show you who's really in charge. And you're gonna have to learn to surrender to this and actually understand what life is about." And Hoffman was the beginning of a very deep transformation for me. I was, I never loved my name Scott since I was seven. Why not? I don't know. I now know. I was because I didn't trust Scott. Scott, I felt, was a popular kid and played sports and was fun and cool and everything

• 6:17Scooter Braun?

  else, but deep down was highly insecure because he was overpowered as a kid. You felt powerless. I felt powerless at times. Gotcha, okay. And I felt transactional love from people who actually loved me unconditionally. But they were doing what happened to them. They were doing what was they were taught. Repeating a pattern, yeah. Exactly. And by doing that, I created deep empathy and deeper love for those people in my life. But also, I went and got that kid and said, "Hey, you created Scooter. You were actually strong enough the entire time." And I loved my name again for the first time since I was seven. Wow. And I realized that Scooter was a part of me.

• 6:55Scooter Braun?

  But Scott had to be in charge again.

• 6:56Lewis Howes?

  Ooh, gosh, this is so fascinating. I think I saw you a couple of months ago at your new place. I believe I showed you my phone. I still have it. It's out there. On my phone, I have a photo of myself when I was about six. Shortly after I was sexually abused by a man that I didn't know. And for years, I had abandoned the inner child inside of me, the little Lewis, right?

• 7:17Scooter Braun?

  Exactly.

• 7:18Lewis Howes?

  And I've been going through my own process over the last couple of years of kind of reconnecting, reclaiming, getting the power back. And being like, I'm here for you. I got you. Holding the little Lewis inside of me, the little Scott inside of you. And developing a new relationship and integrating this healing process. And I'm so glad that you're in the process as well and talking about it because if this was us 10 years ago talking about this on a podcast, people have been like, who are these guys? They're crazy talking about little Lewis, little Scott. You know, inner child work.

• 7:48Scooter Braun?

  You and I weren't ready to do that. We come up with this athlete, male, masculine. Don't show your fears, don't show your hurt, overcome, which is, by the way, important.

• 7:59Lewis Howes?

  Which helped us get to certain places.

• 8:00Scooter Braun?

  And by the way, it needed to be part of that journey. And I also think that telling someone to overcome things and toughen up is important. However, the entire conversation needs to be had. And you need to know that you're enough. You know, I was, I was reading this other book, Fifth Agreement. And it was talking about this lie that we're told, hey, nobody's perfect, but we actually are. Your image is perfect. My image is perfect. You lose a limb, you're still perfect. You mess up, you're still perfect. That's perfectly part of your journey. You are perfectly imperfect, you know, and where this all led me, interesting because I said the first thing was business. I had the best year of my life in business, not working.

• 8:41Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:42Scooter Braun?

  When I stepped away, now it wasn't like it came out of nowhere. I had had.

• 8:46Lewis Howes?

  You've been building momentum for decades.

• 8:48Scooter Braun?

  For years, but I think what the universe was trying to say to me was, you think you can't walk away. You think you can't step away and take care of you, but we're actually going to show you that when you step away. We were always in charge. This, the idea that what happened to me in my life was because of me is ridiculous. It's statistically impossible what happened to me in my life.

• 9:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 9:09Scooter Braun?

  From the day I was born, someone would look and say, "This is statistically impossible."

• 9:13Lewis Howes?

  You mean statistically impossible, meaning like the opportunities that you were able to manifest and create in the career and the business?

• 9:19Scooter Braun?

  Louis, if you were to look at me and you, from the day we were born, and someone's gonna say, "This person's gonna end up here, and this person's gonna end up here." And they brought a statistician, and he'd say, "The odds are very, very small."

• 9:30Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 9:31Scooter Braun?

  Yet, we thought it was us. Because we go through life, "I'm manifesting this." And yes, your willpower and your free will plays a very large role. But the universe plays a bigger role. There's 13 billion years of this universe moving without us, always being able to survive and move on. Yet, we come into the world as individuals and go, "It's because of me."

• 9:50Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 9:51Scooter Braun?

  "I did this." Well, guess what? I'm born in 1981 in New York City, first person in my family born in this country. I won the lottery.

• 9:59Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 9:59Scooter Braun?

  I won the lottery of privilege, being born in this country at that time. I should recognize that. I can, it doesn't mean I don't work hard.

• 10:06Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 10:07Scooter Braun?

  Doesn't mean I don't earn things. But I should admit that the universe gave me certain things, that gave me advantages. And I should acknowledge other people that don't have those advantages, and show them respect. And also acknowledge the universe that it's doing this for me, and that's what happened to me in business. I had this amazing year where I stepped away and I started to learn surrender. And then it led me to my personal life of, "You gotta surrender." And I struggled with that. But my spirituality grew and grew, and you, you know this. I did ayahuasca in the last two years. I did MA in the last two years. I went to Sedona and worked with amazing healers, and did incredible breath work. Where I actually went deeper than I did on ayahuasca on my own breath.

• 10:51Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 10:52Scooter Braun?

  Which was insane.

• 10:53Lewis Howes?

  Without plant medicine?

• 10:54Scooter Braun?

  Without plant medicine, I went deeper on my own breath with this amazing teacher.

• 10:58Lewis Howes?

  I mean, this is a whole other subject. This is why I think that we don't necessarily need plant medicines in order to go as deep as we wanna do.

• 11:04Scooter Braun?

  We do not. It doesn't mean that you can't use them.

• 11:06Lewis Howes?

  I mean, they can still be powerful, but I think you can do it without it as well, but...

• 11:10Scooter Braun?

  I could tell you, I was not expecting it. I thought we were doing some breath work.

• 11:15Lewis Howes?

  You're like hallucinating.

• 11:16Scooter Braun?

  Fully hallucinating. And we started to do this breath work and he had warned me that my hands would turn like raptors, overoxygenating. And I was like, oh, I like getting through it.

• 11:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 11:26Scooter Braun?

  Because, but funny enough, because I had done plant medicine, I understood what was happening to me. And I was able to navigate it better because I had done plant medicine.

• 11:35Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 11:35Scooter Braun?

  And then I had what could only be described as really a DMT dump from my own breath. That was massive and I was fully hallucinating. I had a massive healing and an understanding.

• 11:44Lewis Howes?

  What's the biggest lesson you learned from plant medicine work, but then also breath work? The intense breath work you did, which I call it more of a spiritual breath work experience, probably.

• 11:53Scooter Braun?

  Look, I think the plant medicine was the first time I understood that I have trauma from my childhood and that I'm allowed to acknowledge it.

• 11:59Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 11:59Scooter Braun?

  And that we all have it. No one gets away unscathed. It doesn't mean that someone did something malicious to you or anything else. But we all have, even we interpret things as a child that are different from the reality because we don't have that rational thought yet.

• 12:13Lewis Howes?

  And when was the first time you acknowledged you had trauma in your life?

• 12:16Scooter Braun?

  During, I did M.A.B. before I went to Hoffman.

• 12:19Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 12:19Scooter Braun?

  And it was 45 minutes, I found out the next day I was uncontrollably shaking because I was working through that trauma. But I was able to actually, through the plant medicine, understand it and have a deep healing.

• 12:30Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:30Scooter Braun?

  And I acknowledged it, but I think the beautiful thing about the Hoffman process was when you're in plant medicine, you're not here. You've done it.

• 12:38Lewis Howes?

  You're in a different world. I've never done plant medicine.

• 12:40Scooter Braun?

  Oh, really?

• 12:40Lewis Howes?

  I've done, I've done emotional intelligence training like Hoffman.

• 12:44Scooter Braun?

  So plant medicine brings you to another plane.

• 12:46Lewis Howes?

  I have many friends who've done it, yes.

• 12:47Scooter Braun?

  And with Hoffman, I think doing the work here was really important. I think the breath work was kind of the same thing. I think the breath work, I really struggled with this idea of surrender. With the plant medicine, it helped me surrender.

• 12:59Lewis Howes?

  You had to, eventually.

• 13:00Scooter Braun?

  You had to.

• 13:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:01Scooter Braun?

  But then you come into your real life and I'm not built to surrender. I'm someone who makes it happen.

• 13:06Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 13:07Scooter Braun?

  So this idea of surrender also to me, in my programming, was giving up. And I would do it for a little while, but then I'd be like, but no, I gotta. And one of my teachers said something really beautiful to me. He said, yes, you're, you're trying to make things happen because you see things others maybe not see and you love them, but also a part of you is fearful that if you give someone else the space. They won't choose you.

• 13:30Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 13:31Scooter Braun?

  They won't see you. They won't agree with you. And that's okay. And I had an amazing teacher named Chess in Sedona. And before we talked, we talked about my intentions. Before we did this breath work, which I just thought was gonna be some breathing. I was shocked by what happened.

• 13:46Lewis Howes?

  And what was your intention?

• 13:48Scooter Braun?

  I wanted a deeper understanding and healing. I wanted to be able to surrender. And he looked at me and he said, "Maybe just change the word."

• 13:57Scooter Braun?

  And he said something that changed my life forever. He said, "Maybe allow."

• 14:01Lewis Howes?

  As opposed to surrender?

• 14:03Scooter Braun?

  Allow. He said, "Because you're choosing to surrender. You're allowing it. Why don't you just allow? Still your choice."

• 14:09Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 14:10Scooter Braun?

  And when he did that, everything changed for me. I think life is a lot about allowing. You know, about understanding that you might exert your will on something. But if it doesn't go your way,

• 14:21Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:21Scooter Braun?

  doesn't necessarily mean it was supposed to. Another friend said to me something I love. He said, "Rejection is God's protection."

• 14:28Lewis Howes?

  Uh-huh.

• 14:28Scooter Braun?

  You know, which I loved. You know, this idea that you get rejected and you think, "Oh, we've all had it in our lives." "Oh, man, I wish that went that way." And then a week later, something happens and if that didn't...

• 14:40Lewis Howes?

  Right. You're like, "Thank goodness it didn't go that way."

• 14:43Scooter Braun?

  Exactly. And the universe does these things and, and you know, I wanna say this to you because I'm sure people who are watching this, you know, they'll hear my story. They'll, you'll talk about my business at certain points and they'll be like, "Oh, it's easy for this guy to say." You know, you, you knew me when I wasn't successful, but like, they're like, "Oh, now he's successful so he can..." I wanna admit that. I have the freedom of having the time to do this self-work.

• 15:06Lewis Howes?

  Uh-huh.

• 15:07Scooter Braun?

  I have the freedom of not having to worry about a mortgage. I have the freedom of being able to pay my medical bills. I have that freedom and I don't wanna not acknowledge it. I am privileged in that respect in what has happened in my life. But I've also had the opportunity to ask one of the most successful men in history, a question of what does he want? And I'm gonna say who it is, cuz he usually doesn't, people misconstrue different things. Jeff Bezos cares deeply about people. I've had an opportunity to spend time with him. He cares deeply about people. He's provided more jobs than anyone during COVID. He raised minimum wage when the government wanted to do it for all his employees. He does a lot of good for the world. And because he's so successful, sometimes people want to assume certain things.

• 15:51Scooter Braun?

  But the man himself cares.

• 15:53Lewis Howes?

  And when you ask him, "What do you want?", what do you say?

• 15:55Scooter Braun?

  "I got a cheat code that I wanna share."

• 15:57Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 15:58Scooter Braun?

  I looked at him, I said, "Jeff, what do you want?" Like, one of the most commercially successful people ever. "What do you want?" And he told me he wanted to evolve.

• 16:07Lewis Howes?

  Personally?

• 16:07Scooter Braun?

  Personally. He wanted to be a better friend, a better father. He wanted to grow in intimacy. He said, "I wanna evolve as a human." And I realize you don't need $200 billion to do that. Cuz when I was at Hoffman, all walks, shapes, and sizes. When I go to Sedona, all walks, shapes, and sizes. It is a personal decision of choice to choose yourself, to do self-work.

• 16:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 16:34Scooter Braun?

  And the most gratifying thing of the last two years for me is I've had a lot of success, and I've had more hardship and pain than I've ever had in my entire life.

• 16:43Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 16:44Scooter Braun?

  But I've grown more than I've ever grown since I was a little boy.

• 16:48Lewis Howes?

  Wow. You mentioned something in there about learning to love yourself or accept yourself.

• 16:53Scooter Braun?

  Yeah.

• 16:54Lewis Howes?

  Did you not think you were lovable? Or did you not have, think you were enough until recently?

• 17:02Scooter Braun?

  I didn't know, but yes.

• 17:04Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 17:05Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, cuz we've done these before. And if you watch my other interviews, you'd say, "That's a very confident everything else." Here's the interesting part. Scooter was enough. Scooter was confident. Scooter was, I can conquer the world. Wow. But I forgot somebody. I forgot Scott. I left him back there. Wow. And I didn't realize that if Scooter's world crumbled a little bit. Because we would talk and you'd be like, Midas touch, and you had all this success. Everything was rolling. So I didn't have to address the past. And when that foundation cracked, I found out a deep, deep, deep lie that was in my soul, which is, I'm not enough. And I'm Scott.

• 17:49Scooter Braun?

  I created something that would be enough. So when you presented me, or you met me in the world, you were meeting my creation to protect me. And when that thing broke, I was left with something that I hadn't rehabilitated or looked at in a long time, which was myself. You hadn't accepted yourself fully. I hadn't accepted me as a kid. I had accepted a part of me. I accepted my intellect. I accepted what I had built. And by the way, I'm proud of that. I've done a lot of things in the world that I'm extremely proud of. And anyone who said things about me, I'm not going to go into details on that, but I would say that those just aren't true. You know, and to each their own. But I'm proud of what I've done in the world

• 18:34Scooter Braun?

  and how I've treated people. And I've definitely made mistakes, like all of us. But I've never done anything malicious. But I hadn't taken care of that little boy. Yeah. Because that little boy didn't understand how to be taken care of. I didn't. It's hard to do self-work. It's hard to look back and have empathy for those that hurt you. Have empathy for yourself, that you made choices that hurt yourself. You know, to realize that the way you saw the world and you built it to protect you might be wrong. You know, so spiritually, that surrender and allowing was a big part of my spiritual journey. Allowing is probably the most important thing of spiritually that's happened to me. And also just believing. Like, why not? You know, like, you work with a healer and he says, I'm going to take you somewhere on your breath. Sure, let's go. Let's go. You know? Let's try it out.

• 19:17Scooter Braun?

  And then, and then you asked me, family-wise. I think the greatest lesson I've learned is that family should have unconditional love. And you shouldn't be afraid to say it. You know, like, I grew up in a family with unconditional love. But I think because of certain fears and everything, my grandparents are Holocaust survivors. My dad grew up with parents who had such trauma. You know, my mom's dad died when she was 11. Her mom really had nothing, like, they grew up with a lot of trauma in a really hard world. And I refuse to see that I was getting any of that because they gave me a better life. So I just thought, oh, I'm first generation that has this good life, so I should shut up. Two generations ago was worse than it was better, I got it the best.

• 20:01Scooter Braun?

  But no, we pass this stuff on. Rashi says the greatest trauma that we have is not our own. You know, and I just feel like that's what I learned. I learned that I don't have to hide. I can look across, and even if people don't see, or they're afraid, or they're going through their own stuff, love people where they're at and love them unconditionally. I've had so many friends talk to me about their parents or their relationship with their siblings, and they're so mad at them for not understanding them. But are you mad at them for not understanding? Or are you mad because you're triggered by something that they're doing that you haven't settled inside yourself? You know, and I've just gotten to this point where what my work is with my family is just to love unconditionally.

• 20:46Scooter Braun?

  And, and to be okay where someone else is at, and allow them to be where they're at, and, and let them love you, you know? And, and when you make mistakes, because you will, you'll be triggered, and you'll, you'll burst, and you'll screw up, and you'll everything else. Just give yourself the grace of, of course, that's my human experience. Everyone in the world is suffering, I'm allowed to suffer too.

• 21:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:07Scooter Braun?

  You know?

• 21:08Lewis Howes?

  What's something that you say to your little Scott on a daily basis now? That you never said before?

• 21:14Scooter Braun?

  So I do a meditation, one of my daily practices, where I talk to different parts of myself. It's actually something I learned at Hoffman, and I talk to my emotional self. And sometimes that person's five, sometimes I'm 27, sometimes I'm 14. Sometimes it's right now. Sometimes it's right now, sometimes it's a bunch of them. But I always like to give them a hug, especially when it's a kid. It's so beautiful, man. You know, pick them up, hug them. Yeah. Just be like, you're enough, you know, you always were, you're strong. And this teacher, Chess, he said something to me really beautiful. You know, when I went in, I'd done some work with other healers in Sedona. I did a week of like working with healers. And I've decided, actually, you were one of the people who inspired me. I never got to tell you this, I saw you do Wim Hof. And I decided that, why should I just do Hoffman this one year? I should do something every year. Absolutely.

• 21:59Scooter Braun?

  One week, no phone, no emails, where I just do something for my betterment of myself. So this year, I went for a week to Sedona. And I did this program, Sedona Soul Adventures, amazing woman designs program where you can meet up with different healers that she knows are good. She saw me and she's like, you're younger than most people who come here. Most people usually figure this out later. But I think I want to do Wim Hof next year. I want to do something to betterment myself. And when I got to this breathwork session, I was of the mind of, I have to kill the ego. And Scooter must be my ego. I have to kill it. And when I leave here, I'm only going to be Scott. And then we started to talk, and he said, why? Look at how beautiful this life is that this part of you built.

• 22:42Scooter Braun?

  Look how much good in the world this part of you has done. Look how many people depend on you and you depend on them. And there's a beautiful part of this. The ego has to be cleaned, not killed. You have to forgive yourself for things, these deep down secrets that you have, that you're carrying your shame, just clean it and let it go. And then love what this part of you is. However, and this is the most beautiful thing he said to me, the ego must be cleaned, but the soul is perfect. And he said, and the soul should never be humble. He said, when you get to a place where you're seeing your true soul. Love it like a king, love it like a queen.

• 23:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it should shine.

• 23:22Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, like, don't have any shame, doesn't mean you're better than anybody else. But embrace yourself, like Fifth Agreement talked about, you're perfect. This idea that nobody's perfect, so that we can live in our shame and use it as an excuse? No, let that go. A child walks into the room and they mess up and they cry and they scream, or they get into a fight with another kid, they don't come back the next day and hold a grudge.

• 23:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:45Scooter Braun?

  They don't even talk about what happened. They're on to the next one. And if you look at every major religion, from Buddhism to Judaism to Christianity, I'm not a Christian, but let me tell you something, I love learning about it.

• 23:58Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 23:59Scooter Braun?

  Jesus was asked, "Show me God." He said, "Look at the child." Every major religion says the same thing. We get away from this and then we, we spend like the first forty years of our life, or fifty, learning, learning, learning. And then we spend the second half of our life, if we do it right, unlearning.

• 24:14Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 24:15Scooter Braun?

  Shedding all this stuff, cleaning it.

• 24:17Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 24:17Scooter Braun?

  And then getting back to the kid, like you were talking about. Because it's always about that little kid, not feeling enough, and it's crazy, sorry for going on a tangent, but I just want to say this. We hold a grudge with ourselves, we carry so much blame and shame on a child.

• 24:32Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 24:33Scooter Braun?

  Yet if there was a five or six year old standing in front of us, we'd be like, "That has nothing to do with you." But we do it to ourselves. We carry this deep, I've heard you do so many interviews where you talk about what happened to you.

• 24:44Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 24:45Scooter Braun?

  But it's still to this day affects you and you carry that shame a little bit. We talked about it, like the wave will come in.

• 24:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:53Scooter Braun?

  And it's this constant work to tell that kid, "You didn't do anything, like you were enough from day one."

• 24:58Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. What do you think is the biggest shame that you had to heal or in the healing process of? Because my therapist says healing is not a one moment and you're healed, once you realize it, it's an integration process over time. It's a journey of healing. What do you think is that biggest shame that you're healed or you're in the process of healing?

• 25:15Scooter Braun?

  I blame myself for things. I'll say I've released myself, I will speak them out and no longer carry the shame. We all have things, deep, dark secrets that no one knows, but we know.

• 25:30Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 25:30Scooter Braun?

  Right? We know, "Oh, I did that, that one time." Like, deep dark, I refuse to carry those anymore.

• 25:35Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 25:36Scooter Braun?

  I refuse to be ashamed of anything that I've done, because even when I've done things out of character, and these are things a long time ago.

• 25:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:44Scooter Braun?

  They were so out of character that I hid them. I said, "That wasn't me." And I don't want to be judgmental of anyone else because that wasn't me. So I'm not going to tell anyone that even happened. Yeah. We all have that. And if you're saying to yourself, "Oh, no, you got that and I don't," you're lying to yourself. We all have it. And it could be the smallest thing, it could be the biggest thing, but we have them. I don't want to carry that shame anymore. However, the thing I'm working on in healing is I blame myself. I say, it's almost like a voodoo. Like, I tell myself, if I'm being punished later on for that, and I knew it was going to come, I'm carrying it. And instead of doing what I actually know, which is, there's no such thing as a punishment. I think the best way to explain this, the story of Adam and Eve.

• 26:30Scooter Braun?

  When we're kids, we're told they were punished. They bit the apple, they listened to the snake, and they were cast out, punished. But God's supposed to be like a parent to us, right? I have three beautiful kids now. Think I've ever punished my kid because I'm mad at them? No, because you love them. I love them, and I'm trying to show them something they don't understand yet. I'm trying to teach them something. A punishment is actually a lesson. Same thing with the universe and with God. He didn't cast us out, he didn't punish us. He said, "Oh, I have to give you a human experience so you understand that you were beautiful naked." Yeah. "I need you to go out there and understand what shame is, and releasing shame so you have perspective

• 27:14Scooter Braun?

  that you were always enough right here." Yeah. "So you can appreciate this." And that's what I'm working on. I'm working on letting go of my blame and my shame for everything in my life as if I can control them and understand that everything is a gift. Yeah. And it's easy for me to say, but then those demons, they come in and you work through it. And where do you feel the most naked in your life currently? My family life. Yeah. You know, it's like, it's funny, like, in the last couple of years, I've been attacked publicly in my business life. First time that's happened, it was interesting. It was like before, it was like, nothing, it was only good stuff. Yes. And then overnight, that changed. And it was an interesting lesson because, you know, at first, you can choose to be angry, you can choose this, and, "Oh, that's not true," or all this other stuff. But you can choose to say, "Well, what role did I play in this moment?

• 27:59Scooter Braun?

  You know, what role did I play in this coming about? Was I arrogant enough to think this wasn't going to happen?" You know, and where I choose to look at it in business is I've kind of released that of like, okay, it is what it is, but I also know that it isn't true. And I'm loved by so many people in my business life and I have great relationships. And when other people are saying something about me, it usually has more to do with them or a story that they know that isn't my story. But when I did my most recent deal with my company, I took those lessons. And what I realized is I need to include every single person in the success. So that everyone feels good. There can't be seven out of 10 that feel good. 10 out of 10 have to feel good.

• 28:44Lewis Howes?

  So I've known you for, I think, eight or nine years, I think. I think we met originally at South by Southwest in Austin, which would be this week, like nine years ago or something. Maybe it was 10 years ago, I can't remember. But Adam, your brother, introduced us. Yeah, we played ball. And I've known you and seen your career and your growth and, you know, the things that you've done in business for the last nine years. And you were extremely talented and on the rise then, but you weren't worth as much as you are now, obviously financially. And you did many deals over the last nine years, right? There were many deals you did a certain way. And then now it's public that you just sold your company for over a billion dollars to the, what's the brand, Hive?

• 29:29Lewis Howes?

  Hive, which kind of owns the K-pop conglomerates and all that stuff.

• 29:33Scooter Braun?

  Chairman of Bain, great guy.

• 29:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And so you had been building for years. What were the ways that you were doing deals before versus the way that you did them now? Because I also know that you gave 50 million of stock to your own employees once you did this deal, which I'm not sure if you did something like that before.

• 29:51Scooter Braun?

  Well, I never sold the company before. I had sold Pieces here and they bought it back and stuff and sold other things. I think in the past, I had done deals where... Some people knew what was going on and other people didn't.

• 30:04Lewis Howes?

  Meaning like some people knew like what the deal was?

• 30:07Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, exactly. Like, for example, when I gave stock away, when I gave some of my stock away, I gave it to my artists and my employees and former employees and friends who helped me get there.

• 30:16Lewis Howes?

  And former employees and friends?

• 30:17Scooter Braun?

  Yeah.

• 30:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 30:18Scooter Braun?

  It was just people who helped me build the company. For example, Kenny Hamilton, right?

• 30:22Lewis Howes?

  Great guy.

• 30:22Scooter Braun?

  Hasn't been part of the company in years.

• 30:24Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 30:24Scooter Braun?

  But he was a part of it.

• 30:25Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 30:26Scooter Braun?

  And then you have like artists like Justin and Ariana and Demi and J Balvin and all these people, Tori Kelly, like who've been there.

• 30:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. So you gave them a piece too?

• 30:34Scooter Braun?

  Yeah.

• 30:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 30:36Scooter Braun?

  And the reason is as follows. When I had done other transactions in the past, what I learned from them, when people got upset, where I was assuming that I would have an opportunity after the deal was done to sit down and be like, "I'm excited to work together." This was the vision of why I did this. But that didn't happen. And I thought to myself, when I do this deal, before I close it, I'm gonna go to every single person that this might affect and I am going to make them a part of this in a positive way.

• 31:05Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 31:06Scooter Braun?

  Because I want them to feel a part of this success, whether they are here still or not. If they were just a part of the journey, I want them to look and say, "I feel good. I was a part of this family."

• 31:15Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 31:16Scooter Braun?

  And you can choose, when people don't agree with you, to say, "Screw them," or you can choose to say, "What can I learn from this?" I always look at the story of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. You know, his brothers were jealous that he was his dad's favorite, so they pretended that he had died and actually sold him into slavery.

• 31:34Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 31:35Scooter Braun?

  Later on, really hard life, in and out of jails, he was a seer. The pharaoh of Egypt hears there's this seer in the jail. They bring him out and with the famine, he like tells the pharaoh what to do. He becomes number two to the pharaoh.

• 31:48Lewis Howes?

  Right. It's crazy.

• 31:49Scooter Braun?

  I mean, this guy was one of those powerful people ever at that time. And then his brothers come into Egypt, trying to do some business, and he sees them and he has them arrested, knowing the rest of the family would come. And he brings them in front of them, they're like, why are we in front of the number two guy? They're so scared. And he says, you don't recognize me, but I'm your brother Joseph.

• 32:10Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 32:11Scooter Braun?

  And they're like, we are screwed. We destroyed this guy, we sold him into slavery. And he said, if it wasn't for you and what you did, I would have not had the hardships and the life and learning that I had, and I wouldn't be here. So I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm actually going to take care of you and your families forever.

• 32:28Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 32:29Scooter Braun?

  And it's just how you choose to look at life. You know, I'm grateful to those that hurt me. I'm grateful, and I have to acknowledge that in some ways, people feel hurt by me, doesn't mean that I did it on purpose, it doesn't mean that they're trying to hurt me on purpose.

• 32:45Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 32:46Scooter Braun?

  But I'm grateful for the role that they play in my journey. And trust me, there are times and certain people that I'm like, you know, like, that that fire comes out. It doesn't mean I gotta be best friends with them, I don't have to take care of their families.

• 32:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:00Scooter Braun?

  But it doesn't mean I have to hold that hatred in my heart. And it doesn't mean I have to look at them and say, oh, you wronged me. No, you did something that helped me in my growth.

• 33:09Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 33:10Scooter Braun?

  You know, so.

• 33:11Lewis Howes?

  You can appreciate it even though you don't need to be best friends with somebody.

• 33:13Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, I could just say, I can choose to not carry that. And, and when it goes to my family, I wanna give that to my kids, like, my kids are my greatest teachers. You know, Yale is, you know Yale, mother of my children, one of my greatest teachers in my life, if not my greatest teacher.

• 33:29Lewis Howes?

  What's the greatest lesson she's taught you?

• 33:31Scooter Braun?

  How to really love somebody. It's easy to love somebody when things are going well.

• 33:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:36Scooter Braun?

  It's hard to love each other when things aren't going well.

• 33:39Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 33:40Scooter Braun?

  And I think that we've, we've shown we can do that.

• 33:43Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:43Scooter Braun?

  You know, and, and I'm grateful for that.

• 33:47Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful. And what about your kids, greatest lessons they've taught you?

• 33:50Scooter Braun?

  You know, part of this loving myself again?

• 33:52Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:52Scooter Braun?

  I see myself in them.

• 33:53Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 33:54Scooter Braun?

  You know, I see parts of myself in every one of my kids. And I see the parts of myself that got hurt. And I saw myself before I started this process, starting to pass on those patterns, based on fear, based on, oh, I need to protect because you're too sensitive, you're like me. You can't be as sensitive as I am.

• 34:14Lewis Howes?

  Tough enough.

• 34:15Scooter Braun?

  Yeah. Because I was a sensitive kid, one of my friends, Molly, she calls me HSP. And I'm like, why do you call me that? She's like, you're a highly sensitive person. And she goes, people think you're tough, but you're highly sensitive. Um, but uh, my, my, my kids are like that, and. I just want them to know they're enough. And they're gonna have their trauma, no matter what I do, they're gonna have their stuff. But I'm gonna be rooting for them every step of the way, unconditionally. I drove my kids to school the other day and we were talking, I was talking about accountability. I was explaining what accountability means to a seven and a five year old.

• 34:45Lewis Howes?

  Did they get it?

• 34:47Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, cuz we've talked about it before. And I was talking about the importance of accountability. And Jagger, my oldest, is very funny. He's like, "You also gotta learn about flexibility, Dad." And I was like, "What do you mean?" He's like, "If I want my iPad, should be flexible." He's seven. But, you know, we talked about this idea of accountability. And then I just told him and I said, "I want you guys to know, beyond accountability, that's to yourself. But I will tell you if I think you're doing something wrong. But it doesn't mean I love you any less. I will always be here for you and love you no matter what. I will never leave you, no matter what you do to me or anyone else. If you make any mistakes, I will always be here." And that was something, a talk I had with my father. My father loves me unconditionally. But when I was growing up, he used what he was taught. And one of the things was fear.

• 35:31Scooter Braun?

  "If you do that, you're out. You do that, I'll leave you." That's all he knew at the time. But I had a walk with him.

• 35:39Lewis Howes?

  You told me about this.

• 35:40Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, I had a walk with him and I looked him in the eyes. And I'm, I wanna be really clear, my dad is an amazing man.

• 35:46Lewis Howes?

  Great guy.

• 35:47Scooter Braun?

  I looked at him and I said, "Dad, you love me so unconditionally that I see you would've never left." And he looked at me and he's like, "But it worked." And I said, "No, it didn't, Dad. You and I were great despite it, not because of it." I want my children to know that. I always was a good dad, but there was something inside of me that I knew was lacking and I couldn't place it.

• 36:03Lewis Howes?

  What was that?

• 36:05Scooter Braun?

  It was this. It was now that I've done this work, I'm the dad I always wanted to be.

• 36:09Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:10Scooter Braun?

  You know?

• 36:10Lewis Howes?

  That's gotta feel good.

• 36:11Scooter Braun?

  It does. It feels really good.

• 36:13Lewis Howes?

  And it's good you learned this when they're, you know, five and seven and not 25 and...

• 36:17Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, really, I mean, they were four and six when, you know, I was coming out of this and it was... And my daughter is, you know, two at the time, so you could look at the things and be like, oh, I can't believe this happened or this. And, and there's two things I came out of it. One, I played a role in it.

• 36:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:31Scooter Braun?

  Okay.

• 36:31Lewis Howes?

  Well, for taking accountability and responsibility.

• 36:34Scooter Braun?

  I played a role in this. It's always fifty fifty, whether you want to admit it or not, it's always fifty fifty. Every relationship in your life, you play a role and choose to forgive yourself so you can forgive someone else. And I had to learn that in business and in my life, like all these different things. And then the other side of it is love more. Well, the universe keeps going without us, so why not join it that way?

• 36:56Lewis Howes?

  Right. Didn't you get a tattoo?

• 36:58Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, I got love more tattooed right on my chest.

• 36:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:00Scooter Braun?

  But it's, uh, it doesn't mean you can't be tough. It doesn't mean there aren't going to be times where someone doesn't deserve a punch in the face.

• 37:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:07Scooter Braun?

  You know, that's a human experience.

• 37:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:09Scooter Braun?

  You know, like, that's part of the journey too.

• 37:11Lewis Howes?

  I'm talking about for a kid, yeah.

• 37:12Scooter Braun?

  I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna sit here and say I'm like some zen. I'm gonna have moments.

• 37:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:16Scooter Braun?

  You know, and, and maybe I deserve a punch in the face a couple times, you know, but.

• 37:21Lewis Howes?

  You know, it's funny, it's a funny story. We're at a charity event for Yale. It must've been seven years ago, six, seven years ago, I don't know. Uh, at Bootsy Bellows, I think it was. We're at some event for Af Cancer. I go, tell me why you love Scott so much. And she says something that I always remember. She said, I don't know, it's just something about him. Every day I can't see myself without him in my life, but every day I want to punch him in his face. She said that to me and I thought that was the funniest thing, but I was like, maybe sometimes you need to punch his face, but she was like, you know, I can't not see him in my life.

• 37:54Scooter Braun?

  I mean, look, here's the thing, we're in each other's life.

• 37:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 37:56Scooter Braun?

  We're, we're tied to each other and three beautiful children.

• 37:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:59Scooter Braun?

  So I got, you know, and by the way, that's what real partnership is. You know, my brother always talks about this idea that, um, he never will call Pencils of Promise, his, his nonprofit, a nonprofit. He'll call it a for purpose. And I have no interest in calling anyone what they aren't to me anymore. You know, that's my partner. You know, so it's, uh, that's the way I look at it.

• 38:23Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful. Going back to the business stuff, there's a quote that Jim Carrey says that I love. I'm gonna, I don't have it exactly, but it's something about, I wish everyone became rich and famous and realized that it's not the key to happiness. From your journey, you know, since I met you. You know, you were worth tens of millions probably nine years ago, but now you're worth a lot more. And on your journey of accumulating more wealth and bringing more money into your life, what have you learned about money? What does it actually give you versus what does it not give you? And does it bring you happiness?

• 39:00Scooter Braun?

  It's how you choose to see money, like everything in your life. If you, if you wanted to go swimming in the lake, and the next day you come out and the lake is frozen over, you can choose to be mad or you can choose to go ice skating. You know, like it is how you choose to look at what you're given. Money is an avenue to freedom if you allow it to be. If you are obsessed with accumulating more and more and more and more, then you are trapped by money. If you are obsessed with not allowing it to leave you, then you are trapped by money. If you look at money as this is my avenue to actually implement more time into my life, more joy into my life, then money can be very freeing.

• 39:45Scooter Braun?

  You can say, I have enough money to go to Sedona this week and work with healers. I have enough money to take my loved ones on a vacation they can never have and see joy on their face. You know, I have enough money to surprise somebody and buy them some merch, you know, at a show, or, you know, do something out of kindness. Giving is an incredible thing, and you can do a lot of that with money, but you don't need it either. Because a lot of these things, you don't need money to implement them. Money just takes other pressures off if you allow to look at it that way. I also truly believe that when I give money or lose money, as long as my intent is correct, it will be returned to me. I actually saw that in the breath work.

• 40:29Lewis Howes?

  Really? What do you mean if you lose money?

• 40:32Scooter Braun?

  In the past, if you like... You're doing a deal and you feel like you're overpaying somebody. But if you go inside yourself and you say, "I'm at peace with this," then I truly believe the universe will return it to you.

• 40:43Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 40:44Scooter Braun?

  I don't believe I can lose anything at this point. Because like the more you do work, the more you realize you have enough. My kids, you know, like that's, that's my priority. I mean, it's them and continuing to learn myself and get my kid right inside of me.

• 40:59Lewis Howes?

  The inner kid.

• 41:00Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, the inner kid and, and find more joy and keep learning. I think one of the mistakes I made over the last year since leaving Hoffman is I depended on it too much. I had all these amazing tools and I was like using them and using them and using them. And when I read Untethered Soul by Michael Singer, he talks about this concept that we almost sometimes overuse self-work as a mechanism to continue touching the thorn, continue to stay close to our trauma.

• 41:29Lewis Howes?

  As opposed to process it and move on.

• 41:31Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, so if you, if you hurt your ankle and you put a brace on your ankle and you play basketball with a brace every single day for the rest of your life, you're thinking about your ankle every single day. But if your ankle's healed, shouldn't you take off the brace and stop thinking about your ankle? But if you're like, "No, I gotta keep it on just in case." You're a prisoner to this ankle injury. So with our bodies, when we're not hurt or we're not sick, we just go through life not thinking about our bodies. We're enjoying ourselves, we're eating, we're having fun, we're doing different things. But then our intellect is like taking over. That voice inside our head is constantly putting us down, putting us all over the place. So we're battling with it constantly. He said, "The same way you treat your body when you're not thinking about it is how you should sometimes treat your mind."

• 42:13Scooter Braun?

  You know, so I realized I was relying on it too much. I was staying close to trauma, I was talking about it all the time. I don't have these conversations all the time. I'm just going out and enjoying life, being present. That's been probably the greatest gift that I've gotten of everything. Allowing all this nerd stuff, I didn't know how to be present before.

• 42:30Lewis Howes?

  What were you, what were you focused on as opposed to being present in the past or the future?

• 42:34Scooter Braun?

  My trauma, I mean Holocaust surviving families is you hear stories since you were a little boy of all these people dying. And little boy or little girl, like all these people died and it's on you. Never again.

• 42:45Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:46Scooter Braun?

  I was five, I can't even remember not knowing about it. So. Every single day in my life, I woke up and I said, today's the day it might be taken away. Every single day I woke up saying, how could it be taken away? So I had to keep building to protect, to protect. I wasn't building for me. I think certain people that didn't know me misunderstood. But I was building because I felt like I needed to be prepared to protect.

• 43:10Lewis Howes?

  So like- Protect what?

• 43:12Scooter Braun?

  Anything, any trauma, any bad things. When Manchester happened at the Ariana show, a lot of people were sad and crying and everything else. But I wanted to go do a show right away. I wanted to strike back. Because my entire life, I'd been preparing for moments like that in my trauma. That was good for me in that moment, to be someone who could do that. And Ariana's courage in that moment was beyond. But I also, I'm allowed to live in a world where there isn't that coming. My kids need their dad to just be there. And not be saying, we need to prepare for the storm. Doing this work allowed me to just say, bad things might come.

• 43:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:56Scooter Braun?

  But they're not here right now.

• 43:59Scooter Braun?

  And they don't exist yet.

• 44:00Lewis Howes?

  So you can be present and prepared.

• 44:02Scooter Braun?

  Because the presence is the only thing we have.

• 44:04Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 44:04Scooter Braun?

  You know, it gave me the gift of being someone who could be prepared. But I've learned to be present. I've learned to put down my phone and enjoy the day. And understand, yeah, I could tell myself a story and compute it all, and something scary might be coming. But it's not here right now. Why am I not enjoying this?

• 44:20Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 44:21Scooter Braun?

  Because I don't know if tomorrow's promised.

• 44:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:23Scooter Braun?

  And I got that for the first time in my life, to be present. And it's been interesting seeing how many people have come up to me over the last two years and be like, man, have you changed? You know, you're so present. And I don't feel like I've changed. I feel like I've reclaimed myself. I feel like I'm more me than I've been in years. That's why I'm grateful.

• 44:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, there used to be, not all the time, because we have a lot of time where you're not. I used to see you a lot when you weren't working. We'd play basketball a lot on the weekends, which we gotta start doing again if they do.

• 44:54Scooter Braun?

  We do. By the way, that was my release. That was my meditation.

• 44:58Lewis Howes?

  Saturday morning.

• 44:59Scooter Braun?

  That was being on a basketball court, I'd forget everything.

• 45:01Lewis Howes?

  Because you weren't in the phone.

• 45:02Scooter Braun?

  Well, I think it was just that court. It's just a game. Like, there's something about.

• 45:05Lewis Howes?

  You have to be present.

• 45:06Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, you have to be present, and it took you away from it all.

• 45:08Lewis Howes?

  That was probably the only time every week where you could really be present, right?

• 45:11Scooter Braun?

  Was then. And by the way, now, I'll send you these places. You can be present all the time. It's great.

• 45:18Lewis Howes?

  We gotta get a game going soon. What, um, you know, I've seen you over the years, and again, there's times where you're present and times where you were in like, thinking about the next deal constantly.

• 45:28Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, we're thinking about anything.

• 45:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:30Scooter Braun?

  Anything but there.

• 45:31Lewis Howes?

  Right. How does here feel now?

• 45:35Scooter Braun?

  Great. And you know what's interesting? There are problems in the world. And sometimes they're now. And I think because I was the way I was built, I was protecting against a future that hadn't existed, and I was too,

• 45:51Scooter Braun?

  too distracted to see when things were actually breaking now. And those are the regrets that I have.

• 45:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:57Scooter Braun?

  That I couldn't see when the present was not working, because I was like, oh no, the present's good. Like, we have to worry about tomorrow. And there's nothing more important than the present. There's nothing more important than being with people now. It doesn't mean you can't have a brain that can go there and acknowledge, but then take yourself out of that story, slow down, surrender, allow, and just be like, hold on a minute. What's in front of me right now? Is it really that scary right now? Why don't I address now before tomorrow comes? Instead of addressing tomorrow? And. It's been, you know, your guys love, the last time I was here, I talked about the baseball.

• 46:41Scooter Braun?

  I made up that thing about.

• 46:43Lewis Howes?

  C.C. Sebastian.

• 46:45Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, C.C. Sebastian pitching to you, I'll say it again. I said, you were talking about what makes someone successful. And I said, imagine Cy Young Award, top of his game, at the time of his career, he was top of his game. C.C. Sebastian was pitching to you and whoever could hit a homerun at a Yankee Stadium wins.

• 47:02Lewis Howes?

  A million dollars.

• 47:03Scooter Braun?

  A million dollars, a billion dollars, whatever it was. And I said, everyone gets to hit as many times they want, you can line up as many times you want for free. So obviously, a lot of people don't even come because they see the lines, they're like, screw it up, I'm not waiting in line. There are those people. Then there are people who wait in line and then they quit. Then there are people who get there, they take one swing, they realize how ridiculous, they go home. Then there's people who take two swings, people are screaming at them, there's a million people in line.

• 47:24Lewis Howes?

  Get out of here.

• 47:25Scooter Braun?

  Get out of here, and they stop. Someone takes 10 swings, the person who's successful, I said, is the person who keeps swinging. Drowns out all the noise of everyone telling them, what are you doing, give someone else a turn, everything else. And they keep swinging until they hit that homerun because no one remembers how many times they swung. They remember they were the one who hit the homerun. And I said that to you, and now I want to add something to it. The reason why that person is successful, and I didn't realize it until right now, is because not only are they shutting out the noise of that moment, but they're realizing, as soon as they swing and they miss, they're still standing and the only thing present is C.C. Sebastian in front of them again.

• 47:59Lewis Howes?

  The next moment.

• 48:00Scooter Braun?

  The next moment. They're present to the next moment. They're not thinking about, what if I miss again, or anything else. They're shutting out the loss of the past and saying, I have an opportunity again right now. And this is the only thing that's real.

• 48:13Lewis Howes?

  And they keep showing up, keep showing up consistently.

• 48:16Scooter Braun?

  Well, tomorrow, you and I, whatever we talked about five minutes ago, we're never gonna be able to go back. We can watch it, but we can't go back. Whatever happens five minutes from now, can't go back. But I can do this. That's the only thing that was real in that moment.

• 48:28Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 48:28Scooter Braun?

  You know, and there's a really beautiful book you can read to your kids called The Precious Present. You know, I think it's called The Precious Present. It's about this idea of the greatest present you can give someone is being present.

• 48:39Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh, that's true. That's probably a good, good book to read to a kid at night. I think so many people are fascinated by your business mind because you've built up this incredible empire. Again, just sold your company for a billion and you have multiple other projects and companies as well that you're building up, partners in, on a lot of different companies. If you could share with someone your philosophy on your business mind, the way you've been able to think, the way you've been able to strategize, the way you've been able to build over the last, let's call it the last decade. What would you say are the core philosophies, the core principles on building a business at scale, you know, and really making a splash with the business that you might have? And maybe not everyone has the opportunity.

• 49:22Scooter Braun?

  In my way, like there's, like I said, there's things I've learned that I perfected along the way, but I can give you what I would say.

• 49:27Lewis Howes?

  Looking back from all the stuff, the mistakes you made, the, the things that worked extremely well to where you are now.

• 49:32Scooter Braun?

  Even things that have worked extremely well that I would do differently now.

• 49:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'd like to hear them because I think people are really fascinated by this. I don't think you really dive in.

• 49:40Scooter Braun?

  I actually, when I was in Sedona, I did this deep meditation on the Red Rocks, right? Interesting place, Sedona. And I realized, I started to litigate my past. Oh, I could have done this differently, I would have done this differently. And I realized, but if I had changed anything, I wouldn't be in that moment with all that knowledge. So I don't regret anything. I think everything is part of your process and part of your growth and everything that you need. I think I can do things differently in the future from what I learned.

• 50:06Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 50:06Scooter Braun?

  I think the first thing I would say is be curious. Be curious, why not? You know, why not, why not look in that direction? And by the way, why not you? You know, why not you? Like why? You know, someone you hear the story of if you're intimidated and imagine them naked. No, some people look fantastic naked. That's intimidating.

• 50:27Lewis Howes?

  That's even more intimidating.

• 50:28Scooter Braun?

  Someone's that good looking in front of you and they're naked, you're like, geez, come on. I actually like to say, imagine someone's taking a

• 50:34Lewis Howes?

  Right, because we all do.

• 50:35Scooter Braun?

  Yep, everyone has had that and it ain't pretty and it's vulnerable. And if you can imagine everyone on the toilet, just like you, you'll realize we are all humans having a human experience. Like, have you seen the show Succession?

• 50:46Lewis Howes?

  Oh, it's a great show. So incredible.

• 50:48Scooter Braun?

  When he goes to the bathroom and he's a badass, but then he goes to the bathroom, he can't pee?

• 50:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:51Scooter Braun?

  And he's falling down?

• 50:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, he's peeing on the carpet.

• 50:54Scooter Braun?

  It shows he's human. He's vulnerable.

• 50:56Lewis Howes?

  It's so funny. I had a, I went to a speech of the Dalai Lama. I don't know, five years ago. And one of the first things he said, someone said, how are you feeling today? And he goes, ah, not so good. It was hard for me to go to the bathroom just now. It was like the funniest thing because we're sitting there in front of the Dalai Lama thinking, here's this spiritual guru.

• 51:15Scooter Braun?

  Crazy human.

• 51:16Lewis Howes?

  Man, I couldn't go to the bathroom just now. It kind of hurt. And it was like this funny moment, but he probably does that a lot to try to bring it back to like humanizing himself as opposed to everyone just thinking he's this god or something. But um, yeah, so being curious.

• 51:30Scooter Braun?

  Being curious, telling yourself, why not me?

• 51:33Lewis Howes?

  Why not me?

• 51:33Scooter Braun?

  Why not me?

• 51:34Lewis Howes?

  With your business success.

• 51:35Scooter Braun?

  Anything. Why not you? Why can't it be you? You know, what about you is less than that you are telling yourself is less than? Why not you? You know, every one of us is so unique and so special. Why not you? And then, um, building a family. I think loyalty is important. Doing the right by people. You know, I've been blessed to build a company that people try to poach my employees all the time. Doesn't happen. And when it does happen, I, it's because we talk about it and like I'm happy for them.

• 52:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:08Scooter Braun?

  And they're part of the family still.

• 52:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:10Scooter Braun?

  We have a beautiful family relationship within the company, even though we've gotten big. We still created that dynamic. And I think that's important because when it's late at night and someone's with their family, they have to choose to take time away from their family to help the company.

• 52:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:26Scooter Braun?

  So create something that they can be proud of.

• 52:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:29Scooter Braun?

  Something that they can say, I want to do this and incentivize them to do so. That's why I did the giveaway with my stock because I was like, you're all a part of this.

• 52:40Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 52:40Scooter Braun?

  And then, don't hold on so tight. To what? Maybe fear. You know, it's, I've been able to be a part of so many great companies, investing wise, because I wasn't afraid to lose the money. Really? I always told myself, I believe in this, but if it goes to zero, I'm okay. How do you get to that place, though? And were you always like that in your first few investments? Or was it more like? I got to that place, I think I've always kind of built that way, but I'll give you something that can maybe help someone else get there. How much money? I don't know if you and I have done this before, but if we've done it on another podcast, I'll do it again. Yeah. Who do you love? My family, my friends, my girlfriend. Okay, your girlfriend?

• 53:25Scooter Braun?

  Yeah. You get a call, you leave this podcast, and your girlfriend is sick, and they need you to give $10,000 to help her. Do you give it? Of course. They need you to give a million dollars. Do you give it? Yeah. They need you to give, for her to live, every dime you have to your name. Absolutely. No questions asked? Yeah. Same with me? Yeah. Is she healthy? If she, yeah. Is she healthy right now? Oh, yeah, she's. Is anyone asking for that? No. You already have it. Right. You would give everything away, right now, to have what you already have. Your health. Yeah. And the health of your loved ones. Of course. Everything that you have right now,

• 54:06Scooter Braun?

  if, if life changed, you would give it all away to have what you have right now. And I think that's been one of the hardest lessons for me, because I was able to do it with business, and my trauma made me really good at business. But sometimes what makes you good at business doesn't make you the best at intimacy with your friends and your family, because I felt I needed to protect everyone.

• 54:32Scooter Braun?

  So it made me really good at business, but I didn't show people who I was, because I didn't think I was enough. So I was there for everyone else, but I wouldn't let anyone be there for me. And what I think I've come to realize is that if you ask me, you know, you ask people, what do you want in life? You know, people would say, oh, I want to get this, or I want to get that. Funny enough for me is I think I already had it, I just didn't know.

• 54:58Scooter Braun?

  I was so busy protecting for tomorrow that I couldn't see what was right in front of me.

• 55:02Lewis Howes?

  So what do you want now?

• 55:04Scooter Braun?

  I just want to keep growing and learning and I want to trust the universe. That I've become the best version of myself because of all this and I'm trusting the universe that it's bringing to me where I'm supposed to be. I'm gonna keep leaning in like I love, I just finished Michael Singer's second book, The Surrender Experiment. And he talks a lot about this, about, you know, so many times in life he'd feel this resistance of, no, I gotta get back what I thought I needed. Or we can't do that, that's change. And he just said, there's too many signs here, I'm gonna surrender to it and see what happens. And that's where I'm at in my life. I'm surrendering to it, I'm seeing what's happening and I'm telling you, if I don't go into my story of tomorrow or my story of the past, my present, the person sitting right in front of you and the life that I have right now is really beautiful.

• 55:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 55:45Scooter Braun?

  I don't have much to complain about.

• 55:46Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty nice, man. What would you do if you lost all your money today?

• 55:52Scooter Braun?

  I have my health, my kids have my health. I'd go rebuild and go do another adventure.

• 55:55Lewis Howes?

  What do you think you would create? Would you start a partnership with someone? Would you start a new business?

• 55:59Scooter Braun?

  I don't know.

• 56:00Lewis Howes?

  You're not sure?

• 56:00Scooter Braun?

  You know what? That's a story for tomorrow.

• 56:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Hopefully it never happens.

• 56:03Scooter Braun?

  I mean, if it does happen, it happens. I mean, it's not even a hopefully. If it happens, it's supposed to happen.

• 56:06Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 56:07Scooter Braun?

  It's a weird thing to say.

• 56:08Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 56:09Scooter Braun?

  But it's just gotten to this place now where money has become very, the last two years was self-work and personal. So for me, I realized how much that doesn't matter. How much can be-

• 56:23Lewis Howes?

  The money and the business stuff.

• 56:24Scooter Braun?

  It could, because the things that matter can be taken away. And that's just an avenue to freedom. You know, so I look at money and the access that I have to money as an avenue to freedom and an avenue to giving. And I can enjoy life and I can put together a beautiful life for my friends and my family. And, you know, I have friends who are like, well, it's not like you live a simple life. I do live a simple life. He's like, well, you have a really nice house. I like to live in a nice zen house. I want a house with a view.

• 56:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:50Scooter Braun?

  I've earned that.

• 56:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:51Scooter Braun?

  I can do that.

• 56:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:53Scooter Braun?

  But I can also make sure my friends and my family are good. I can make sure a stranger is good. And I, I think that we get into this weird place where, why do we belittle someone else's success? Why do we assume someone else's success has to be negative? I call this vacation theory. I want all my friends to be successful. Because then I don't have to pay for vacation.

• 57:15Lewis Howes?

  Everyone can pay for their own.

• 57:16Scooter Braun?

  Why should I want to be the only one who's successful? That is such a selfish and not productive for my own life. If everyone in my life is successful, if my best friends I grew up with, they hate it. I'm happy as hell for them because it not only benefits them, it benefits us. So, I'm rooting for everybody. When the world, when you're the only one, that's not a good thing.

• 57:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:40Scooter Braun?

  You wanna live, you wanna live in a society where everyone's eating. You know, so, that's kinda like my mentality with it now. It's why I wanted everyone to do well in the transaction. Because I want everyone to do well. It's, it's, there is a selfish part of giving.

• 57:57Lewis Howes?

  Yes, feels good.

• 57:59Scooter Braun?

  Not only does it feel good, it feels great.

• 58:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 58:01Scooter Braun?

  But you're also in a weird way buying your own freedom when you give.

• 58:04Lewis Howes?

  How so?

• 58:06Scooter Braun?

  If you are in a society where everyone is in need, you will always be pulled on. If you are giving to a society and helping change that society, so that other people can survive. My brother, what he did so beautifully with Pencils of Promise, is he said, "I'm not just gonna go build schools for these third world countries and these communities. I'm going to give them the opportunity to build a school. I'm gonna give them the money, but they have to contribute labor. They have to be a part of this process." And by doing that, they took ownership. And those schools are pristine 10 years later.

• 58:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, nice.

• 58:42Scooter Braun?

  And you want, it's like, it says, it says in the Torah and the Bible, it says, "When you're getting your crops, leave the end of the fields, so that others can come with integrity and take what they need." So, that's giving sadaka, that's giving charity. And I just think it's so important to give, but also do so in a manner that lifts everyone. When you're giving, you're lifting yourself because you're lifting your community.

• 59:06Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. One of the things I learned about a decade ago, when I started to make money for myself. I started interviewing people that had made a lot of money and I was like, what has been the key for you to continue to grow in your wealth year after year consistently? And they say, a lot of them say giving. It's like, the more I gave, even with, oh man, that's a lot of money to give this year. Kind of uncomfortable for me to give this. It's like, but next year it grew, or it stayed the same at least.

• 59:31Scooter Braun?

  Louis, I want to tell you, you do great interviews, but now I want to speak about you.

• 59:35Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 59:36Scooter Braun?

  I want to talk about how I met you.

• 59:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 59:38Scooter Braun?

  I've done all this work and trust me, at that point in my life when you and I met, I was grinding it out.

• 59:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you were.

• 59:44Scooter Braun?

  I was grinding.

• 59:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 59:46Scooter Braun?

  And I was skeptical of people because it was a grimy world I was in.

• 59:50Lewis Howes?

  Right. You didn't know what people were after.

• 59:51Scooter Braun?

  I didn't know what people were after and I wasn't in this place of just trust of like, you know what, you can't.

• 59:56Lewis Howes?

  Surrender.

• 59:57Scooter Braun?

  Like I have friends who are just like, you know, you gotta watch out. And I'm like, I didn't get to this point by not knowing if someone's taking advantage of me. And sometimes if someone's taking advantage of me, I'm good with it. Like, I'm aware. But when I met you, the reason I met you is there was a guy who just kept paying for schools in third world countries. He just kept putting 10,000, 20,000, just one after another. He kept building schools. And I said to my brother, who is this guy who keeps building schools and asking for nothing in return? And he said, he's this really great guy, his name's Louis House. And I was skeptical, I'm like, who is this dude? And I got to meet you and you are as genuine as they come. You are a salt of the earth good dude. You check on me, I check on you. You give without asking for anything in return and you actually believe in that premise

• 1:00:42Scooter Braun?

  that if you give, you will receive.

• 1:00:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:44Scooter Braun?

  And you are the real deal. You actually back it up. And when people support, so the school of greatness and they do everything else, you don't, I see where that money goes. And you're allowed to give a good life to yourself, but you give. You give a lot. And I wanted to say that on here because people should know that about you, they should acknowledge it. And I've, I've received nothing from you. And I've seen you give and give and give and give. The only thing I've ever received from you is friendship and I truly appreciate you.

• 1:01:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course, man, I appreciate it. Thanks for saying that. And I, I think it's, you know, especially someone like yourself is getting pulled on, like you said, by so many people in your life or businesses or whatever. They want your time, they want your money, they want access to something. And I never wanted anything from you. We said to be a friend and you know, just be able to hang out and have fun and play some basketball and help each other in any way we could. And I think you could probably feel that out from a lot of people in your life for the last decade of like, who's wants something from me? And so hopefully you never felt that from me.

• 1:01:41Scooter Braun?

  I've never felt that, but I'm also, I would say this to any friend, have a little trust in me. I'm an adult. I can navigate that.

• 1:01:46Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 1:01:47Scooter Braun?

  You know, and I think if I want to have people in my life, or if I give a friend something, allow me to give it.

• 1:01:53Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 1:01:54Scooter Braun?

  You know, and I've had to learn on the other side how to receive.

• 1:01:57Lewis Howes?

  Receiving is huge.

• 1:01:58Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, receiving is tough, you know, especially when you're, when you're trying to earn it yourself and you want, you want to be seen a certain way. Receiving is really, really hard.

• 1:02:05Lewis Howes?

  It is.

• 1:02:05Scooter Braun?

  But you know, that's the human experience and working together and our traumas all meeting up and, but it's, it's all perfect.

• 1:02:12Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. Well, one of the things I appreciate about you is that you have been consistently giving since I've known you as well to charities and nonprofits and. You know, Pencil Promise, you're a big investor in, in terms of funding that as well. Every year, I believe you've been doing that for a long time. And I think it's really cool to see someone who continues to earn a lot and have a lot of success financially and keep giving back. And, or paying forward, whatever you want to call it. Why do you think that's so important for people to be thinking about, even if maybe they're only making a hundred grand a year, for them to give something, you know? Why is it important to have that mentality of giving service, paying it forward?

• 1:02:49Scooter Braun?

  I've been doing it since the beginning, when I was just throwing parties and like, every fourth party would go to charity and I didn't have much. I believe in on a spiritual level. I believe when you get told as a kid, you get what you give. I actually believe that. I believe karma is a real, and that's part of what I said earlier. One of the things I'm working on is blaming myself. Then when I've made a mistake in my life, I believe karma is so real. I'm like, I'm going to be punished. And I'm realizing, no, it's part of my journey. It's part of my lessons. It's part of my release. Of unlearning and getting back to my core self. But I think with giving, I think it's the most selfish thing you can possibly do.

• 1:03:27Lewis Howes?

  It is.

• 1:03:27Scooter Braun?

  If you are a truly selfish person, you will give because there is no better feeling.

• 1:03:33Lewis Howes?

  It feels so good. How did they, how good did it feel to give all that money, 50 million in stock to your employees and friends?

• 1:03:39Scooter Braun?

  An artist. Who are my friends? It felt fantastic. It felt really good. And some I heard from, some didn't even say anything to me. Like, I didn't care. It was, I knew it was the right thing to do. And I think in the past. Because I didn't love myself, I would do it because it was the right thing to do, but then a part of me just wanted to see a little bit of acknowledgement because I wanted to be loved.

• 1:04:03Lewis Howes?

  I've, I've had that in the past too.

• 1:04:05Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, I wanted to be loved. I wanted, and it was a little-

• 1:04:07Lewis Howes?

  Are you ungrateful? You're not gonna acknowledge me?

• 1:04:09Scooter Braun?

  It was a little kid. It was just because you wanted to be seen by mommy and daddy.

• 1:04:11Lewis Howes?

  I know.

• 1:04:11Scooter Braun?

  You know, and, and you just wanted to be seen by someone for who you were. And it wasn't like you needed them to say, "You're so wonderful." You just wanted to be seen. We all just wanna be seen.

• 1:04:20Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:04:21Scooter Braun?

  I read something the other day I loved. It said, "If we could all just look at human behavior as people choosing love or craving love, we'd have more empathy for each other." And I would give, and now I'm giving for, like, I, I, it's non-transactional because now I'm just knowing I love myself and man, that's awesome. I love that. You know, whether it be giving away tickets or buying somebody merch or, you know, doing something anonymously or, you know, and sometimes you're giving people like, "That's not enough." Like, "Okay, sorry, that's, I wasn't doing it for your acknowledgement anymore. I'm doing it because I wanna give." And I think what I would say to someone who has, someone who says, "Oh, I don't have enough to be given like that."

• 1:05:02Scooter Braun?

  Go on YouTube right now and watch how many videos of homeless people giving away their change.

• 1:05:08Lewis Howes?

  That's crazy, isn't it? I was just sharing some recently on my Instagram of-

• 1:05:11Scooter Braun?

  Constantly, constantly. You're going around, "Hey man, can I borrow money?" "No, no, no, no, no." To a homeless person, "Can I borrow money?" "What do you need?" Boom. And it's always the same thing. It's someone who has nothing, who understands what life is with nothing, who's willing to give. Because they're like, "Look, I just wanna be treated the same way." And, and I think that that's what's beautiful about it. When you give, you do receive. And sometimes people are like, "Well, I've given and my life isn't where I want it to be." Wait. Wait. Because then maybe there's something going on in your life that you, that resistance, that anger you have, that's what the universe is wanting you to deal with. And when you get past that, what, look at what you receive.

• 1:05:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:47Scooter Braun?

  Go towards the darkness. Go towards your triggers. Go towards your trauma and ask yourself, "Why am I angry?" Because behind anger is hurt. Behind hurt is fear. And behind that is- Honestly, in my opinion, that's where all the beauty is.

• 1:06:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Man, this is really powerful. And I think a lot of people are gonna get a lot of value from everything you're saying here. You talked about your parents for a moment, the conversation you had with your dad. I've met your mom many times as well, incredible woman. What would you say is the greatest lesson after having these experiences in the last two years? And having a reflection of like childhood and little Scott and all these things? And having conversations with your parents about all the beauty and maybe the stuff that was hard as well? What is the greatest lesson that both your dad and your mom have taught you?

• 1:06:32Scooter Braun?

  I could say it a couple of different ways. One, I'd say my parents taught me unconditional love, even when they were being transactional. Because they loved me so deeply, I felt it. The second thing I could say that I learned from them is over the last few years doing this work, I finally saw them as people.

• 1:06:46Lewis Howes?

  What were you seeing them before as?

• 1:06:49Scooter Braun?

  As my parents. And I saw them as people, I saw them as children.

• 1:06:54Lewis Howes?

  Ooh.

• 1:06:55Scooter Braun?

  And I saw them as children who were going through the same things I went through. And then passing on some of those things on to me. And the greatest gift they gave me is the perspective. They gave me the opportunity to break those patterns by knowing them. I think one of the hardest things, when you look at groups of people that know their heritage, they have deep wisdom. And then you look at groups of people that had their heritage taken away, or they don't know their heritage, and they're struggling to find their place. And I think that the greatest gift my parents have given me is an opportunity to deeply know them, so that I could do that work to know myself.

• 1:07:37Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful, man. That's really beautiful. We're two years out from now. You've had this two-year kind of experience and it's gonna be continually going for a long time. Are you 40 now?

• 1:07:45Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, I just turned 40.

• 1:07:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'll be 39 this week.

• 1:07:48Scooter Braun?

  By the way, can I just add something before we go on?

• 1:07:51Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 1:07:51Scooter Braun?

  I know you just lost your dad.

• 1:07:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:53Scooter Braun?

  And he was a big part of your life. And he raised an amazing guy. The way I would describe what I just described to you is as much as you miss him and he's gone, he gave you everything you needed.

• 1:08:05Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:08:06Scooter Braun?

  You know? And now that he's not here, he gave you the gift of him. You know, and sometimes when people leave us, we wanna grieve so much, and we should. But there's also a beauty in realizing, like, when I lost my grandmother, I was so sad, but I realized I was sad for my kids.

• 1:08:21Lewis Howes?

  I know.

• 1:08:22Scooter Braun?

  I was sad for my kids that she wasn't gonna be able to give that to them. But she gave me everything that I needed from her. And more. And I just wanted to say it to you, cuz I know we were gonna do this, and then you lost your dad. And I just wanna say, the beauty of the man that you are, he gave you him, and I think that that was an amazing gift. You didn't lose anything.

• 1:08:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, thanks, man. It's been a crazy month, it was a month ago, a little over a month ago. And it's been a it's been a journey, man. I'll tell you what, I mean, it's definitely a lesson that we're all gonna have to learn at some point, if we live long enough, to witness our apparent passing. And there are still moments, almost every day, where I'm just like, I get very emotional, and I'm you know, it's a complex relationship, from childhood to then he had an accident seventeen years ago, where he was a different person because of the trauma of the accident. And so, it's healing from the going back childhood, and then the loss emotionally that I had the last seventeen years, and now the physical loss.

• 1:09:24Lewis Howes?

  But it's been interesting, I feel more spiritually connected to him than I did in the last seventeen years, in the last month. And it almost feels like, cuz his soul, I felt, was trapped in this body that was limited. And now his soul is free. So I feel like I can have an actual conversation with him, where he had memory loss, so I couldn't really talk to him that much, without him saying a lot of the same things over and over. And I think, one of the first things I was really sad about, I was like, I'm really sad that my girlfriend doesn't get to meet him, cuz we were supposed to go see him the next day. We were supposed to go the next day and see him. And I was really sad, cuz I wanted her to meet the man that, you know, raised me and taught me so many lessons. But I kept thinking to myself, what would my dad want?

• 1:10:09Lewis Howes?

  And I'm not sure if you thought about this with your grandmother passing, but I kept thinking to myself, what would my dad want me to do after him passing? And I was like, he would want me to continue to live a joyful, loving, peaceful life. He would want me to express my uniqueness. He would want me to love fully. He would want me to go after all the things that bring me the most joy and serve in the highest way possible, the way that he did, the way I watched him serve. And so that's been my, I've been so focused on just like, I gotta be as present as possible, like you said, because tomorrow I may not be here, just like he was gone. It was quick when it happened.

• 1:10:47Scooter Braun?

  You said that's a gift he gave you of that realization, but also everything you just described was his gifts of his life.

• 1:10:54Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:10:54Scooter Braun?

  You know, and me and you talk a lot about books we read.

• 1:10:57Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:10:57Scooter Braun?

  Many Lives, Many Masters.

• 1:10:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:59Scooter Braun?

  Brian Weiss.

• 1:10:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:00Scooter Braun?

  You read that book and you're not that afraid of death. Because if you choose to believe that, he came here to learn and give what he needed to give, and he's gonna go back and do it again. And so you and I, and we just keep learning and keep growing, and you'll see him again, and you'll talk to him tonight if you want.

• 1:11:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:14Scooter Braun?

  You know, and no one can escape the pain.

• 1:11:17Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 1:11:19Scooter Braun?

  But there's beauty in it.

• 1:11:20Lewis Howes?

  There's beauty, yeah, there's sadness, there's gratitude, it's kind of all of it. What was the, what was the greatest lesson your grandmother taught you?

• 1:11:27Scooter Braun?

  How to choose life. I mean, this is a woman who was in Auschwitz. This is a woman who lost 23 members of her family in a day. And she was 15.

• 1:11:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:11:35Scooter Braun?

  14. And she still was the joyous, most happiest person I ever met. And she went through the worst of humanity. But she chose to love deeply. And I think about that all the time, the perspective, how she chose to love, how she chose to laugh, after everything that she had been through, all the pain. And it didn't mean it escaped. Didn't mean she wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night crying or missing her sister, her mother, her father.

• 1:12:08Scooter Braun?

  But she made a conscious choice to show us love and to be loving in the world. And I think that's the greatest lesson that she taught me.

• 1:12:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, she seemed like a beautiful woman, amazing woman.

• 1:12:17Scooter Braun?

  She was special, loved to dance, too.

• 1:12:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's good. I was about to ask you about, the last two years have been very transformational and a lot of awakening and healing and processing.

• 1:12:28Lewis Howes?

  What do you think you'll be saying to little Scott in two years? What's the lesson you're gonna be learning and realizing two years out from now?

• 1:12:36Scooter Braun?

  I'll probably say, "You didn't see that coming."

• 1:12:38Lewis Howes?

  Really? What do you think that'll be?

• 1:12:39Scooter Braun?

  I don't know. I just know that every single time I think I got life figured out, it surprises me.

• 1:12:44Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 1:12:45Scooter Braun?

  You know, and I'll say, "I didn't see that coming." I'll say, "That was fun. That was exciting. What incredible learning experience." And I'll tell you, even from doing the work in Sedona versus a year ago at Hoffman, so many more realizations, so much more growing to do, so many more things I need to give myself grace for. So I just think two years from now, I'll say, am I what I hope to say? "You're better now than you were two years ago. Keep going."

• 1:13:09Lewis Howes?

  That's good. And what lesson do you think you'll learn? What do you think you'll grow into?

• 1:13:15Scooter Braun?

  I just wanna be the best version of me. You know, I just wanna keep looking in the mirror and saying, "Let's keep going." And I wanna just have more joy with the people I love.

• 1:13:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's beautiful, man. I always love doing this with you. What's something we can do to support you before I ask the final couple of questions? You've got, you're always doing something big. I see Justin launching his, relaunching his tour. You see all your artists are just exploding. What is something we should be excited about or be aware of right now?

• 1:13:39Scooter Braun?

  I'm good. Honestly, like, it's, I'm looking for what's next.

• 1:13:44Lewis Howes?

  You mean after selling the company?

• 1:13:46Scooter Braun?

  Just in general. I mean, I'm still running the company. It's, you know, it's still our company. But I'm just talking in life, you know, whatever comes next. So I think the best way you could support me is doing what you do. I feel comfortable here. I like having these conversations. Over the years, you and I have both gotten messages that these conversations help people. And like I said, giving is selfish. So the way you're helping me is by allowing me to be a part of your platform and hopefully we help some other people.

• 1:14:12Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:14:12Scooter Braun?

  So I think if I was to make one ask, which camera could I look at to talk to?

• 1:14:17Lewis Howes?

  Right here.

• 1:14:18Scooter Braun?

  Okay. My ask would be, actually, the person who's watching this. I said earlier, "Why not you?" And I would honestly like to look in the camera and say, "All these things you're hearing, if you're having resistance towards them, or you're saying, 'Oh, that's not for me,' ask yourself why you're having that resistance, because why can't it be you? Why can't you grow and learn and live your dreams?" And... Stop beating yourself up and stop creating a story that creates that resistance and just stop listening to the voice in your head. In Untethered Soul, it says, for there to be a voice in your head, there has to be a listener. You're the listener, you're the soul. So shut out the human experience voice and realize you're perfect and go do it. And don't be disappointed if it doesn't work the first couple of times.

• 1:15:03Scooter Braun?

  Just be present in the moment and realize you have an opportunity and keep doing it. So why not you?

• 1:15:07Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. Yeah, you didn't sell a billion dollar company overnight.

• 1:15:09Scooter Braun?

  No.

• 1:15:10Lewis Howes?

  It took a couple of decades to get there. Lots of lessons and successes.

• 1:15:14Scooter Braun?

  And I'd actually argue with you, and I think it's easy for me to say this now, from this financial point, the greatest achievement of my last two years wasn't that. It was reclaiming myself.

• 1:15:26Lewis Howes?

  Hundred percent. I think when you find inner peace.

• 1:15:29Scooter Braun?

  And by the way, don't have it yet, working on it.

• 1:15:31Lewis Howes?

  There you go. When you have moments of it, it's still better, it's still worth more than any of the money you could ever have.

• 1:15:36Scooter Braun?

  When you have silence.

• 1:15:37Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh, it's unbelievable, man. You have inner peace.

• 1:15:40Scooter Braun?

  Or you're just in a moment when you realize how joyous this moment is and you're present to it.

• 1:15:44Lewis Howes?

  You're not stressed about the next thing. Yeah, that's good, I'm happy.

• 1:15:47Scooter Braun?

  A child's laughter can do that.

• 1:15:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's beautiful, man. I've got this question I've asked you a few times before called the three truths.

• 1:15:54Scooter Braun?

  Okay, let's do it.

• 1:15:55Lewis Howes?

  And now you're at a different perspective in your life. Imagine it's your last day, many years away from now, on this earth. You live as long as you want to live, but it's the last day. And you've accomplished everything that you want to accomplish, whether it's taking over business world or being present with your family, whatever it is, you've accomplished it. You've lived it. But for whatever reason, all of your work has to go with you or go somewhere else. All your content, your message, social media, this interview, it goes somewhere else. No one has access to your information anymore. But you get to leave behind to the world, a piece of paper and a pen, and write down three things you know to be true from all the lessons you've learned. And this is all we would have to remember you buy from your knowledge, your wisdom. What would you say would be those three truths?

• 1:16:40Scooter Braun?

  Well, I'm dying, so it's less about me and what I need and what I can give to the world. So I would, number one would be, I love you.

• 1:16:49Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm, okay.

• 1:16:50Scooter Braun?

  I want the people left behind to know that I love them.

• 1:16:52Lewis Howes?

  That's nice.

• 1:16:53Scooter Braun?

  Number two.

• 1:16:56Scooter Braun?

  I want them to know that they are enough. And number three, I would tell them the journey is perfect. Enjoy the journey.

• 1:17:03Lewis Howes?

  Beautiful.

• 1:17:04Scooter Braun?

  You know, it's funny, when you asked me that question, I thought it was gonna go in a different direction. And it actually led me to one of my deepest, darkest fears.

• 1:17:11Lewis Howes?

  What's that?

• 1:17:13Scooter Braun?

  I thought you were gonna say something to the effect of like, you're on your last day, and what do you hope happens in that last day? Like, what do you hope someone gives you, or you give someone else?

• 1:17:21Lewis Howes?

  What do you hope?

• 1:17:22Scooter Braun?

  Well, I was thinking about it, and that's where the "I love you" came from. But I realized that saying that I told you earlier, that we all are doing something from either love or craving love. And I think my hope on my last day is, without me having to say "I love you", someone looks at me and truly says "I love you".

• 1:17:40Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, that's beautiful.

• 1:17:41Scooter Braun?

  You know, it's that I don't wanna have to ask for it. I hope that on my last day,

• 1:17:47Scooter Braun?

  I'm seen and loved for exactly who I am.

• 1:17:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, we all just wanna be, we wanna be seen, celebrated, and loved.

• 1:17:54Scooter Braun?

  And you wanna be able to give that same level of love and intimacy to somebody else.

• 1:17:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Well, I wanna acknowledge you, Scott, for reclaiming the inner Scott, the little Scott.

• 1:18:04Scooter Braun?

  Thanks, buddy.

• 1:18:05Lewis Howes?

  And knowing that Scooter has been a big support for you. You know, the alter ego, the personality, the brand of Scooter Braun has been amazing for you, and it's helped you and a lot of people. But reclaiming the inner Scott and bringing that back into presence, and connecting it to your heart, and really loving the inner child within you, I think is one of the most beautiful things I've heard you say that you've been doing. Over all the business success and all the celebrities you've worked with, for me, when you love yourself, I know that you can heal people around you and heal the world in a bigger way. So I'm super proud of you, man. And I acknowledge you for doing that work. This is probably the hardest work for me that I've ever done in my life, and I'm assuming it was extremely challenging for you to do.

• 1:18:47Scooter Braun?

  I'm still in it. You don't stop. The work continues.

• 1:18:49Lewis Howes?

  I still have a photo of my inner child on my phone that I look at every day.

• 1:18:53Scooter Braun?

  Louis, I'm gonna say something to you to really think about.

• 1:18:55Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:18:55Scooter Braun?

  Because as you're telling this, I appreciate what you're saying. Thank you.

• 1:18:58Lewis Howes?

  First off, before you say this, you gotta learn to receive. So let me finish the thought.

• 1:19:04Lewis Howes?

  Because you gotta be in receive mode, because I know what you're doing. The strategy. So I acknowledge you again for, for doing the work. And you're not perfect. You make mistakes, you're gonna continue to make mistakes. You're going through stuff in personal life, business, all these things. But I acknowledge you for constantly showing up and being willing to do the work. And I think that's a powerful thing. And it's extremely challenging for someone who has it all. Financially, career, business-wise. Extremely challenging, specifically for someone at that level, to say, "I'm gonna do the inner work of healing." Because most people in the world say, "They have everything I want financially, business, career." And they don't, you can get away with it. You know what I mean? You can keep getting away with it if you wanted to. So I acknowledge you for doing the work.

• 1:19:48Lewis Howes?

  One of the hardest things to do, I think, for a human being is to heal the inner child. So I acknowledge you for that.

• 1:19:53Scooter Braun?

  Thank you.

• 1:19:53Lewis Howes?

  Now you can go.

• 1:19:54Scooter Braun?

  Thank you. The only reason I was gonna add in was because you said, "This is the hardest work for me." So I wanted to offer you something that a teacher of mine said to me that really made me think about how you get through this work. Thank you, I do receive it. But I also want to acknowledge not only the people who helped me see it, but the ones who hurt me also. Because the only way you really get there is by acknowledging and appreciating, truly appreciating everyone in the process. The ones who hurt you and the ones who helped you. Equally.

• 1:20:28Lewis Howes?

  And I think acknowledging yourself when you hurt yourself.

• 1:20:31Scooter Braun?

  Correct.

• 1:20:32Lewis Howes?

  I think that's the hardest to do. One hundred percent. Give yourself for all the things that you did to yourself or to others, whatever. So, what a journey, man. I'm excited to do the next one at the end of the year.

• 1:20:42Scooter Braun?

  You're a great man. I always love being here.

• 1:20:44Lewis Howes?

  Final question, at this point, what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:20:47Scooter Braun?

  Other than Lewis Howes? The mindset I'm in right now

• 1:20:51Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:20:52Scooter Braun?

  is my definition of greatness is, is being present. Is being here, you know, having the ability to truly be here.

• 1:20:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. My man Scooter Braun, appreciate it, man.

• 1:21:03Scooter Braun?

  Appreciate you. Thanks, buddy.

• 1:21:04Lewis Howes?

  Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's show with all the important links. And also make sure to share this with a friend and subscribe over on Apple Podcasts as well. I really love hearing feedback from you guys, so share a review over on Apple and let me know what part of this episode resonated with you the most. And if no one's told you lately, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.