445 The Art of Creating Surreal Experiences with Summit Series Founder Elliott Bisnow

"Adventures only happen to the adventurous." - Elliott Bisnow If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/445 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 445 with Elliott Bisnow.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

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

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to a special edition of the School of Greatness Podcast. I am excited because I've got a good friend on, his name is Elliott Bisnow, and he's the founder and managing partner of Summit. Now Summit is the owner of Powder Mountain Resort in Eden, Utah, where the company is headquartered. Summit hosts dozens of gatherings a year, including Summit at Sea, which is where I first experienced this incredible organization. And Elliot is the advisor to the Summit Institute, whose mission is to apply creative solutions to real world challenges related to the environment, education, the arts, health, and social innovation.

• 1:16Lewis Howes?

  And he also served on the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council and co-founded the Get Well Soon Tour. Now, we talk a lot about really how to cultivate and attract the world's biggest leaders and bring them together for a surreal experience. That's right. We talk about the art of creating surreal experiences. And I first met Elliot on a cruise, a cruise with the world's greatest leaders, celebrities, influencers, and tastemakers. And it blew my mind what he was able to put together in his mid 20s to bring these people together to create an experience that literally transformed the way I thought about business and life and relationships.

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  It's still, is the greatest event that I've ever been to. And I learned so much about how to create experiences based on what they did a number of years.

• 2:10Lewis Howes?

  What we cover is why he and his partners bought a mountain in Utah and why they are building a city there. This is unbelievable what they did. Also, the best way to build relationships with highly influential people, why he dropped out of college to pursue his mission, and how to get A-list influencers to speak at your event. Also, the power of letting yourself dream as big as you can dream. Guys, I love this. Elliot's a great storyteller. He's got a great mind. He's so positive and what he is creating and building is unbelievable. Not many people his age have created and cultivated communities the way that he has

• 2:49Lewis Howes?

  done. So, without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Elliot Biz Now. Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got a great guest on today, Elliot Biz Now.

• 3:04Speaker 02

  How you doing?

• 3:05Lewis Howes?

  Good to see you, brother. Super excited about this. I met you, I want to say 2010. Was that the first Summit at Sea?

• 3:14Speaker 02

  2011.

• 3:16Lewis Howes?

  2011. And I'll always remember because it was the greatest three days of my life, probably. Like, there's only a few like three-day experiences that I can remember and talk about with such level of enthusiasm. And I still talk about that three days as like a catalyst for so many opportunities, connections, and just one of the most like unbelievable experiences. I remember like 3 a.m. there's like a laser show and there's a couple hundred people on the, on the deck, we're in the middle of the ocean and like Pitbull's performing with DJ Irie and Axwell and some other stuff was happening. It was just like, what is

• 3:57Lewis Howes?

  going on? And it was such a cool experience. So, I want to go back to kind of how it all started, Summit Series, and this vision for you and creating these influencer events because I think I read that you spent $65,000 on credit cards to throw your first kind of influencer events, or dinners, or events, or parties. And how old were you when that started and why did you want to do these events?

• 4:22Speaker 02

  So I'll start in the middle. Okay. We have a company, there's about a dozen of us, and our biggest achievement to date is we did a conference right before Summit at Sea, and it was in the nation's capital. And we'd had about 700 people attend. And, you know, it was a nice business conference. There were, we'd achieved good speakers and great people coming, and we actually all huddled together. We said, "We want to do something different. We want to do something..." We were actually thinking about what to do. I actually met someone and they asked me a question one day. They were sitting down with me, and I was kind of telling them about Summit and the vision. And they said, "Let me ask you a question, Elliot. Do you keep it real?" And I was like, "Me? Of course I keep it real."

• 5:07Speaker 02

  And they're like, "Everyone keeps it real. You need to keep it surreal." And so we had this little business. It'd been a few years. We had this conference that we'd done in the nation's capital. And we said, "You know what? We're done. We're going to do something radically different." And we chartered a cruise ship. And it was about a million dollars to make the deposit, because it wasn't a hotel. We actually had to put up the money upfront. And we literally took all of our collective savings, all of the company's savings. I mean, I don't know how close the bank account was to zero, but we were talking for weeks. We were like, "Look, if nobody comes, we're going cruising." For a million dollar cruise. We're going cruising. And I think the cost was more actually of the ship, but that was kind of the down payment.

• 5:51Speaker 02

  And we, but we said, "Look, we want to do something different." I mean, there are lots of business conferences. How can we keep it surreal? So we chartered this ship, and we had this vision. We want to create a content, music, and arts festival. On a cruise ship. On a cruise ship, in the middle of the ocean. With our own private island, right? That went to, on day two, stopped at this uninhabited island. I remember this. Richard Branson was one of the speakers, and the Roots were the house band. And there were about 1,200 people from across the globe who came. And, you know, it goes to that mindset. It's okay if maybe 10% of the people don't get it, or it's too far out, or it's over the top, or they're offended. That's okay, as long as 90% of the people are blown away. I think it's why, you know, Burning Man has had so much success.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  It's like, for all the people that don't like Burning Man, that's okay. There's 80,000 people a year who say, "This is the greatest experience of my life." So that was our moment, was we're going to do Summit at Sea. And...

• 6:47Lewis Howes?

  It was a game changer, man. It was life changing for so many people.

• 6:50Speaker 02

  It was just no one had ever heard of a, an event on a ship and to turn off the connectivity.

• 6:55Lewis Howes?

  With the most, yeah, there was no Wi, there was like talked about like, hey, you guys have Wi-Fi, but there wasn't any that weekend, which was beautiful because we actually connected with each other.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, we told everyone, we said, yeah, I'm sure there'll be Wi-Fi, everything's fine. It turned out there would have been if there weren't like a thousand people trying to get out online at once.

• 7:10Lewis Howes?

  The biggest like tech nerds of the world, yeah, yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 02

  There was one person that, that demanded to speak to the captain of the ship.

• 7:16Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 7:16Speaker 02

  I heard that he finally got to the captain, he said, we, we need to turn the ship around.

• 7:20Lewis Howes?

  Shut up.

• 7:23Speaker 02

  So, um.

• 7:24Lewis Howes?

  That's hilarious.

• 7:25Speaker 02

  All right. So back up, how did we get to that point, to that, to that ship with those 1,200 people?

• 7:32Speaker 02

  So I went to the University of Wisconsin. Um, I feel I was very normal, actually definitely below average.

• 7:38Lewis Howes?

  Why Wisconsin?

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Um, well, I grew up in Washington DC and I just thought it was so different. I wanted to do something really, really different. And I, um, it looked really fun. I didn't get into any of the six schools I applied to. I have a list of all my rejection letters.

• 7:53Lewis Howes?

  Georgetown or?

• 7:54Speaker 02

  I applied to like ridiculous schools.

• 7:56Lewis Howes?

  Harvard and Yale.

• 7:57Speaker 02

  I didn't go that high, but I remember they're like, I think I applied to Princeton.

• 8:01Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 8:02Speaker 02

  And I didn't get into any, so I had zero acceptances and I have all my letters, they're actually all ripped up. And they're like, oh, but I, I somehow in, I don't know. If a year later I found the ripped up letters, but somehow I saved them. And, um, I went to Wisconsin, I actually played tennis growing up and so I, the main reason I went there was tennis, but it just seemed like a really fun, great place. I loved it. What a cool spot. I didn't even know you could be an entrepreneur when I got to college. Uh, just it wasn't even a word I'd, I'd heard or associated.

• 8:34Speaker 02

  I had kind of this moment where I saw someone screen printing T-shirts when I was a freshman, I said, and I asked them who they worked for, and they said, I started my own business. I said, I don't understand, but who hired you to start the business? I kind of went through that whole thing, called my parents, I was like, what does this mean? Who does he work for? I had this, um, I had this very humbling moment on the tennis team where. The year before I went to Wisconsin, I went to visit and I met like the cool seniors. And then I was there freshman year and the seniors came back and now they're in the workforce. And I remember this one senior is like, stay as long as you can at school.

• 9:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  You don't want to go out there to the real world. It's bad out there.

• 9:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:13Speaker 02

  It's really bad. And I just, I got this entrepreneurial drive. I started kind of, I started a little t-shirt company freshman year and sophomore year, I started a little creative marketing company. And obviously those didn't work. We, we like poured our hearts and tears into them for two years, one on each business. And I took all my savings, it wasn't very much savings, but I kind of plowed it into those. But I was learning and getting into the groove and figuring things out. And at the beginning of my junior year, I started a business with my dad called Bizna, after our last name. And it was basically like a business insider or, you know, tech crunch of commercial real estate. So it's kind of the who's who, People Magazine, Business Insider of what's happening in commercial real estate. So what's commercial real estate?

• 9:58Speaker 02

  That's every building you've ever been in that's not a residence is a commercial building. So your yoga studios in a commercial building. The restaurants you go to are in commercial buildings. There's this huge industry all over the world of people who build commercial buildings. The developers and the architects and the brokers and the contractors and the financiers. And nobody wrote about it. And my dad was a writer and he started writing about it and just started in Washington DC where we're from. And I said, Dad, maybe I could sell advertising. So he signed me up and I got my dream job. My first day ever was July 1st, 2006, commission only, 20% commission on anything I sold. And I got to be the advertising salesperson. And I was like, this is it. Amazing. I couldn't believe

• 10:42Speaker 02

  it. And I started waking up every day at like 5:00 in the morning.

• 10:45Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 10:46Speaker 02

  And I would hit the phones and I would cold call. I became like, you know, the cold calling king. And I was like, this is it. And I got my first sale on July 20th, 2006. I went into a real estate firm in Washington DC. It was a summer break before my junior year of college. And I put three packages together for, for $4,000. Six thousand or ten thousand dollars because I'd heard they'll always pick the middle package. And he sure enough, he picked the silver package, six thousand dollars. I got 20%. And I remember leaving the meeting like, this is crazy. And by the end of the summer, I'd sold like a hu- uh, I spent a summer, I sold forty thousand dollars of ads. And um, and uh, by kind of the end of that first semester of junior year,

• 11:30Speaker 02

  where I was approaching a million dollars of sales. Wow. And I, I was really just getting the groove of it. And I remember I had this day where I got, I used to get so excited walking to class. Cause there were these thousands of people walking to class and it was just, it was, it was a great energy. It was like walking to a stadium, you know, I would go to the football games and you, you feel like you're on this team with all these people. So I'm walking to class every day and I just love it and this energy. And one day,

• 11:56Speaker 02

  I, I don't know why I had this moment. I just turned around and I like looked at all the faces, the thousand faces like streaming by me and I started walking the other way. And I'm like, how am I ever gonna be different if I'm just the same? Like if I'm just part of it, like think about how many amazing students there are everywhere. I mean, if I'm gonna be a student, I need to be a different type of student. And for me, I said, you know, I got so much out of school. I, I really had a great experience. I started my business there. I met some great people. I said, I don't think I'm gonna achieve my dreams if I keep walking with everyone else where they're going, I'm going the other way. And um, that was it. I mean, I, I, I, I left. Did you go to class that day or did you keep walking?

• 12:40Speaker 02

  I don't remember, but I remember I called my mom and I was like, you know, mom, you know, I know, I've always said I'm not gonna drop out of school. And she's like, are you gonna drop out of school? I'm like, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. You know. I'm gonna take a break. I wanna talk about this thing called a leave of absence. Where you just take a semester, you see how it goes. Anyway, yes, I dropped out of school. Right. Um, but it was with a real purpose, you know, people try to sometimes glamorize dropping out of school. Wasn't that at all. I mean, I was Mr. Discipline, super dedicated, up at 5am every day. You know, I didn't drink. I was just, I was just really focused and I dropped out for a reason.

• 13:21Speaker 02

  I said, "School is to help you get squared away after high school." You know, when you're living in, up until high school, you're living with your parents. So, college is to get you, you know, is to help you grow up and it's to help you further your education. And I said, "It really helped me grow up and my education is the school of life." And my education is I want to be great at business and I'm getting that right now, but I want to go 15 hours a day on it. And so that was it. It was a really thoughtful decision. And I left to start this business with my dad and to pursue and continue the business. Just cold calling, selling ads. And I just hit it. It was years. We actually, we got an office. So, I went back to Washington DC. I got an office. It was this garbage office space.

• 14:06Speaker 02

  But the address, it was a shared office. Like, I had a little interior office. I would sleep in the office a lot of nights. But the address was 1601 Pennsylvania Avenue. And the White House is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That's pretty cool. So, it was, it was actually across the street. But I would tell people like, "Hi, this is Elliot Bisnow. I'm here at our global offices at 1601 Pennsylvania Avenue." Yes, yes, yes, the White House is across the street. You know, I want to talk to you about. Right, right. One time, we're at the shared office. One of my coworkers, I remember, we were sleeping out. One time, we got locked out at night. Like, we were sleeping in the office and got locked out, you know, in our boxer and t-shirts. One time, we thought it would be a good idea to cold call the directory of other companies in the shared office. That was a disaster.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  One time, I had this spreadsheet. I would meticulously keep this spreadsheet of all the companies. I was cold calling, trying to sell advertising. And they had like really kind of ruthless notes, like, you know, "Louis is amazing. Definitely a hot prospect." You know, you know, "Sarah is this. John is this." And it was, but it was all the notes accidentally sent a prospect my spreadsheet instead of the PDF. Thank you. I, we didn't have, you know, Uber or anything then, so. Right. I did advertising deal with a limo company and I got free limo rides in exchange for advertising. So, I was just like, I was kind of just working, like, anything I could. Selling ads, building the business and.

• 15:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, and then basically Summit Series, which is what that ship was, kind of spun out of that. So I was, at that point, I'd been out of school for a year and a half, and I'm about 23 years old. And I didn't know anyone. And I said, you know, in order to build this business, what I really need is I need relationships, I need contacts, I need ideas. I'm kind of like an island. I'm like Siloed. I think there's other islands, but I can't find them. And so I was just, I don't know why I was so cold calling, but I started reading about people in different magazines and newspapers. Not a lot. Being an entrepreneur nine years ago, 10 years ago was not a thing. Not a thing. Like, I didn't know anyone in my high school who ever started a business.

• 16:18Speaker 02

  Well, certainly zero people started businesses in high school. I didn't even know anyone in college who started a business, except this one person I met. But this idea, I'm gonna cold call people that I'm reading about. I read about Tom Shoes. They'd only given away 10,000 pairs of shoes. And I literally cold called Blake, the founder of Tom Shoes. And I read about Vimeo, which had just started in College Humor, and Thrillist. These are all just starting. I just cold called the founder and said, hey, I started a business. I know you guys started businesses. Why don't we do this, a trip? I called it the Under 30 CEO Summit. That was my best name I could come up with. And I said, I'll actually pay for all your flights out, and I'll pay for the whole thing. Because I didn't think they would come otherwise.

• 17:01Speaker 02

  So when I talked to Ricky Van Veen, one of the co-founders of College Humor and Vimeo, he actually thought it was so crazy what I was doing. He has this ongoing joke with his business partner, Josh, that when they get someone who calls them who's so insane, what they do is, they actually tell the person, they say, this is amazing. You're really on to something. And I can just tell you right now, get your pen out. My best friend and business partner, Josh, would love to speak to you. And so, he actually literally did that to me. Of course, at the time, I didn't know. And I was like, amazing. Wow, this is awesome. I talked to Josh. I somehow convinced them.

• 17:45Speaker 02

  They ended up pranking me on the first trip. The guys from College Humor do all these pranks. They ended up pranking me on the first trip. So we're at this big dinner. I'd meticulously planned it. I'd never done an event before.

• 17:59Speaker 02

  And here we are, it's like my big moment, I'm 23, I have these 20 people here. And I go to the restroom, and while I'm at the restroom, they apparently travel with this like beautiful white printed card. And on the card it says, "Your attire is not appropriate to the standards of the club, and we ask that you change immediately." And there's like a little like dash.

• 18:23Lewis Howes?

  From management. I have had that card before.

• 18:25Speaker 02

  Okay, so.

• 18:26Lewis Howes?

  Somebody came to me before.

• 18:27Speaker 02

  So I come back, and I guess they told the whole room.

• 18:30Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  Everyone being on it, they told like the head, you know, maître d' or waiter. And then I come back and I sit down and I'm like holding court and of course I'm dressed just fine. And they hand me the card and go, "Sir, I'm sorry." And you know, hand me the card and walk away. And I think that's the whole gist of the prank, is that they're not there to answer a question, you just get this card. It's like, you don't know who to talk to, you talk to other people in the room, they're like, "Dude, you better go change."

• 18:54Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:55Speaker 02

  Like, "I can't change, I don't have anything, I don't have any extra clothes, what am I gonna do in the middle?" So, actually when we did that trip, it was, I forget the total cost, it was like 10 to $1,000. And I actually got sponsors to pay for most of it. So I lost a little bit of money, but I had this idea, if I get these people to come, I'll get, I got a venture capital firm and a a real estate brokerage firm each to kick in a little bit of money. That covered most of the first trip. Then we went on to the second trip, and that was 60 people, everyone from the first trip invited a couple of people. And after the second one was 60, the next one was 120, 250, 750 was DC. And then, from there, about three years after, the first one was Summit at Sea.

• 19:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I remember getting invited actually, it was either the first DC event or an event before that. I remember getting invited and I was like, "Yeah, I'm good right now."

• 19:44Speaker 02

  It wasn't good enough yet.

• 19:45Lewis Howes?

  Well, I'm sure it was great, but I was just like, eh, it just didn't like appeal to me yet. And the DC event, I was actually gonna go to, but I had some other commitment already, so I couldn't go. And then, yeah, Ryan Holmes and Dan Martel were like, "Dude, they're doing this thing on this cruise ship, you should come." I was like, "All right, cool, I'm in." And it was mind blowing, man, it was like, it was crazy what you guys did.

• 20:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think just, you know, what started, which is getting 20 people and then 60 and, you know, you get some speakers. I remember someone's like, you know, one thing you should really add to the events are content. We're like, content?

• 20:16Lewis Howes?

  What were you doing before that? Just like dinners and hanging out and like?

• 20:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I didn't have any coach or anyone to teach me. I actually, it started because I actually never got invited to an event. I read about other events and I was like, I don't know how to get invited to that. So this is almost 10 years ago. Like I just didn't, I didn't even know what an event would be like. I didn't finish college. I wasn't educated enough to know. There were no TED Talks. There's not, I mean, TED Talks wasn't a, you know, wasn't a video series yet. And so we just tacked it out and then people would come and they'd give advice. And after a couple of years, we started putting in content, but then we started making the content, you know, deeper, more progressive, more thoughtful. We started having really cool panels. Like early on, we had, you know, John Legend, Mark Echo,

• 21:01Speaker 02

  Michelle Ree, Chancellor of the DC School District, and Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America. And we would do an education panel. We had early on, seven NASA astronauts came, or Ishmael Bae, who wrote Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Sean Parker came, we had Mark Cuban came. These are all in the early days. I got Ted Turner to say yes. And then Blake from TOMS interviewed him and I interviewed Russell Simmons at one of the early ones. And so we were, we were getting like really interesting people.

• 21:27Lewis Howes?

  And how were you getting these people?

• 21:28Speaker 02

  You know, it started with just from the 20. And then the 20, someone introduced me to this person, to this person. And at a certain level, you can't cold call anymore. So you have to actually get introductions. You know, you actually need people to, who can validate your work. Cause you can only cold call kind of people who are your peers, or maybe a little bit up. Or maybe if they stay, are trying to prank their friend in like the college humor example. But otherwise, you need to get introductions. So we just built this great product and people really loved the event and they knew, hey, when Summit Series does an event, they deliver, they take it seriously. You know,

• 22:09Speaker 02

  there's, there's incredible execution. And I know the people that come are the real deal. You know, it's people like yourself who are there. And so- So the speaker say, yeah, I want to be a speaker to a cal- an audience of that caliber. And we always said, you can only speak if you attend. We didn't want people kind of parachuting in. So yeah, but it was hard. It was one at a time and momentum got momentum actually at that one right before somebody to see Bill Clinton actually came.

• 22:33Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy. I remember hearing about that. Yeah.

• 22:35Speaker 02

  That was the easiest speaker we've ever had. Like most people, they're, you know, they have their advanced teams. They have all this nonsense and they need a confidence monitor. I'm like, what's a confidence monitor?

• 22:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 22:47Speaker 02

  I can't afford that. And they're like, that's like two screens that show the things in case they forget, I need all these seats reserved. I need this type of water. I need, it's literally this crazy, you know, list of demands like you'd expect from a professional DJ. Well, I was prepared from President Clinton spoke for, you know, get the teams ready, whatever he needs. And I remember talking to, is this in a case saying, all right, what, tell me about President Clinton. What does he need? And they're like, um, well, he just needs to come through the back because he's, you know, former president with Secret Service. But as long as he comes through the back and there's a nice route, all he needs is a microphone and a glass of water. And I'm like, right, right. But like, what else? Like, you know, what kind of stool does he want? What does he want? The room layout? What does he want? The lighting? What about how much time?

• 23:29Speaker 02

  Like, yeah, you just get to the front. When you want to stop, you do like that and then he'll wrap up in five. I'm like, but okay, does the water, does he need ice and does he care about the coming? Yeah, just a mic and a glass of water and just call him out. He's really excited.

• 23:43Lewis Howes?

  That's

• 23:44Speaker 02

  I'm like, wow. And that was one of the best seekers.

• 23:48Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. Oh, sure.

• 23:48Speaker 02

  Have ever had. And it was just an interesting thing because sometimes you have these speakers and like, they're not high profile at all. And they're just, who are they? How are they even speaking? They're listed demands and we had someone who was traveling once, like stopping at us on international trip. And asked us to, to hold their wine that they'd bought. And I'm like, what? This is crazy.

• 24:10Lewis Howes?

  Now, how did you land President Clinton? What was that like? Did you have to pay a huge fee? Was it more of like a relationship thing or?

• 24:17Speaker 02

  Okay. So what happened was that. About a year and a half before that, we did an event with President Clinton to raise money for the Clinton Foundation. And so, we got connected to President Clinton. And we got a chance to set up an event, which is pretty wild. Again, I was like 23 years old at the time, and got connected to them, because they'd heard about our earlier events. Someone connected us. And he was just interested in connecting with this, with the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube generation, right? I mean, that's all new at the time, eight years ago. And he was really interested in connecting with them. And so, we had this opportunity to curate people to meet President Clinton.

• 25:00Speaker 02

  And so, we actually had a chance to pick the host venue. So, we said, "Look, if we're going to host President Clinton, we want to decide where it's going to be hosted, and we want to set up the whole thing." So, we actually decided, you know, we really want Russell Simmons to host. And so, we reached out to Russell Simmons. He was super interested in hosting. And then, we wanted Tom Colicchio from Top Chef. And so, my co-founder Jeff actually went to Central Park, and literally at like a multi-thousand person cook-off, just like screamed Tom's name. "Tom!", you know, till he like came to the fence. Wow. And he was like, "Do you want to cook for President Clinton at Russell Simmons' home?" And he's like, "Yes!". And so, he made this amazing meal, and we had all these incredible folks.

• 25:43Speaker 02

  And we brought about 75 people to meet, you know, President Clinton, and hear remarks from him. And then, like a year and a half later, as we were doing this DC event, we reached back out, and the time worked for him to speak. And, you know, it's just, each event has truly built momentum off the last event. So, from that, we actually had the people. And then, going back to that earlier story, Ari, we don't just want to now do a 1,500-person event, or get better speakers. Let's keep it surreal. Like

• 26:14Lewis Howes?

  Always gotta change it up, right?

• 26:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, the path up isn't always more revenue or bigger names. It's not always the perceived path. The path, in our case, the path up and forward was just a radically different conference. Like, how are we gonna stand out in the business conference world? I mean, come on, there's already so many business conferences. But on a ship in the middle of the ocean, Summit at Sea, its own brand? Like that, and that changed everything. Like, I don't think we appreciated it at the time, but like, giving it its own brand, Summit at Sea. And like, there's something just crazy about it, really. People going on a music festival, an art cruise ship? Insane.

• 26:54Lewis Howes?

  It was insane, man.

• 26:55Speaker 02

  Insane.

• 26:55Lewis Howes?

  It was amazing. So the dinner you did with Clinton, or the gathering you did, you essentially raised money from the 75 people. You donated that to the

• 27:04Speaker 02

  To the foundation.

• 27:04Lewis Howes?

  Foundation. Then he came back to speak because of that?

• 27:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 27:08Lewis Howes?

  Essentially

• 27:08Speaker 02

  And we also, we also made, we also made another donation there.

• 27:11Lewis Howes?

  Got it, got it.

• 27:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 27:14Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing, man. Who's been the, uh, the most interesting person you've had come through over the last eight, 10 years? As a speaker, a performer, or? Cause you've met a lot of interesting people. You've met presidents of other countries, you've had the biggest celebrities. You've interviewed Kobe Bryant, to music stars, to legends, to everyone.

• 27:34Speaker 02

  We always have, um, I'll give a bunch of like, really funny examples. So one time, we're doing an event, and someone's like, the president of Georgia wants to come. I'm like,

• 27:47Speaker 02

  University of Georgia? State of Georgia, country of Georgia? Like, the country of Georgia. I'm like, interesting.

• 27:53Lewis Howes?

  I think I was there at this Tahoe, right?

• 27:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're like, he, he actually was gonna go to Davos, but he, he heard about this summit thing. It's, he likes the energy and he's a young guy. And we're like, yeah, that sounds amazing. We didn't understand like, what it meant to have a president of a country. And he literally showed up with like, a straight up, you know, armed security force.

• 28:13Lewis Howes?

  I remember, yeah.

• 28:14Speaker 02

  It's like dozens of people with like, machine guns and like, I guess we thought there'd be some security and hold the fort. And it's like, no, there's literally like, people with insane weaponry.

• 28:24Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 28:25Speaker 02

  And, um, and then, uh, who's been amazing? Uh, so I went last year, I interviewed Kobe Bryant. He had an There's just this gravitas that he brings. You can just feel it. It sounds like when you interviewed Tony Robbins. There's just certain people, they bring this energy and this presence that you can't just create in a moment. You create it in a lifetime of hard work. Of like, you know, I imagine if you met with like a cultural icon, like you can just feel the weight of the room. Like we had Harry Belafonte in a conversation with John Legend a year and a half ago. And you can just feel the way, you know, civil rights icon, Harry Belafonte, you can just feel it in the room.

• 29:09Speaker 02

  Like we had Herbie Hancock this year and he actually went through and was listening to, he had prepicked his favorite songs, we're in like a 1500 person theater and he'd prepicked songs and he would listen to the music in your seat with Herbie, like Herbie, you know, while he's like nodding, listening, and then you're hearing him describe the music that he'd written and there's just this gravitas. So with Kobe, we go to China, he's if not the biggest, one of the couple biggest celebrities in China. Someone said, you know, be ready for 50,000 people could show up. And you know, what struck me about him was that his answers to his questions were answers I hadn't even fathomed could be real. So I'll give two quick examples.

• 29:50Speaker 02

  Number one, I always thought that pressure and success under pressure is about embracing pressure. Like you realize there's pressure, everyone feels pressure, embrace it. The great people know how to deal with that and pressure creates diamonds. I asked him how he dealt with pressure and he just said, pressure's not real. Pressure's your ego. I haven't dealt with it since I can remember. And so it was just, it changed my entire reality. And the other was, I asked him about, you know, how do you deal with hard times? And I just always thought, including for me, that the best people just got through the hard times. Keep your head up, you know, stay positive, get through it, because you know what? All storms run out of rain. Get through it. And I think that's a very valid point of view.

• 30:35Speaker 02

  But his point of view was just, it never even occurred to me, which was if you want to be great and you really want to learn, when you're in the hard times, I know they're hard, you just, you have to be fully present and embrace those hardest moments. What led you to get to that really hard moment?

• 30:54Speaker 02

  You know, now that you're here, maybe you don't ever want to be back in that hard moment. Like, what put you there and to actually be present? And, I mean, when I'm in hard moments, I'm just trying to get out of them. And I'm like, this is, I'm coming out of the reasons, this is my fault, and I gotta get through it, and I'll get done, and just embrace it, feel it. Why did this thing get screwed up? Why did you get to a really unhealthy place with your diet? Why did you get to a bad place with your relationship? Just feel it and let all the weight of that hard moment sink in and embrace it. And he was just like, growth only comes from embracing hard moments. So, sometimes you get these people and you're just like, wow, they really have, and you can tell, it's not just like a quote, it's like this deep, deep knowledge

• 31:37Speaker 02

  that they've built on for a decade or more.

• 31:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, wow, yeah, an awareness, and that's cool that he goes through that during those hard times. Now, I'm curious, you went from 20-person dinners to bigger events, to doing something surreal, like someone at sea, to building that up. And then, all of a sudden, you decide you want to build, you want to buy a mountain and build a city on top of a mountain. Now, why, how did this come about? Why? And why in Utah?

• 32:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, so about six years ago, a little bit less, I got, I had a crazy meeting. And I met with, I met with someone who'd been to Summit events before. His name is Greg Morrow, and we just met up for a coffee. It was actually right here outside of Los Angeles. So, we met up for a coffee, just like, you know, the idea of never eat alone, like, meet with interesting people, get to know people. And I went for a coffee. And he told me, he's just like, I get Summit, I get the community. You know, all events and communities have a brand. Like, you're building something really special with School of Greatness, and you have your own unique ethos, value system, culture.

• 32:52Speaker 02

  And what you're building is unique to you. And what Summit's building is unique to Summit. And what Coachella built is unique to Coachella. And what Burning Man built is unique to Burning Man. And what Ted built is unique to Ted. And everything is about... Owning and embracing your unique ethos and value system. And that's what we had done with Summit. Like we had this, you know, it was, you know, you could say almost like, you know, the Woodstock meets, you know, business conference meets, you know, Burning Man style event. And so I'm meeting with Greg and he really understands Summit. He says, you know what we really need to do? He goes, we have an opportunity. We could build place. Like there's actually really good precedent for building place.

• 33:32Speaker 02

  And I, I guess, I kind of thought about it, but this, we started mind melding in this idea, like, think about where we live and walk and go and all the towns we've been to, like, why do they exist? Why does Brooklyn exist or Park City or, you know, you know, the west side of LA or the east side of LA or the hills or downtown, you know, all these different places, these different energies and ethos and vibe and values. And why do they exist and who built them? And, and either it's like a group of people just kind of moved to a neighborhood and it started to happen, you know, like you could, and, or is maybe an individual or group that set out to build something. And so we started mind melding in this idea of building a place.

• 34:14Speaker 02

  And he said, you know, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been is called Powder Mountain in Utah. It's less than an hour from Salt Lake City Airport. It's an 80-minute flight from LA or San Francisco. There's a dozen flights a day, literally on the hour. It's the west coast hub of Delta and this place is stunning. And Powder Mountain's this 10,000 acre mountain range. This is in 2011. He's telling me it's basically the bottom of the recession. He's like, it's for sale. Like it's, you know, a private equity firm bought it. They need to sell it. And, you know, he's like, I've been thinking about, you know, wanting to buy it. And he's like, you know, it just occurred to me, it could be with you guys. It's like, you know, my entire background is, you know, it's, it's venture capital, it's private equity, it's finance.

• 34:57Speaker 02

  You guys have built this community that is spectacular. We could partner and build a place.

• 35:02Lewis Howes?

  Crazy.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  Crazy. And I, and, and what's crazier is I said,

• 35:08Speaker 02

  Okay, let's go.

• 35:09Lewis Howes?

  During the coffee meeting?

• 35:10Speaker 02

  During the coffee.

• 35:11Lewis Howes?

  You didn't even have a conversation with your co-founders or anything, you just said?

• 35:14Speaker 02

  Well, I said, okay, we talked for eight hours, so I could, so our one meeting turned into eight hours.

• 35:21Lewis Howes?

  So you asked every question possible.

• 35:23Speaker 02

  We went all over town, the meeting went to like six locations, and then I did, of course, I talked to my co-founder, I said, hey, guys, I had this crazy meeting. Um, but I think we should buy a mountain.

• 35:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:38Speaker 02

  I think we should buy a mountain. I, I mean, I really do. And what's crazy is that the other three of them, they, they were like, yes, we should. So what's even crazier is we flew there the next day. Like, we didn't delay, we didn't, we literally got on a plane and we just flew the next day and we met him there. And we, we just, you know, we rent, we, we, uh, he picked us up at the airport on that trip.

• 36:05Lewis Howes?

  Winter or summer? What was it? Snowing or?

• 36:08Speaker 02

  No, it was, uh, that was summer, it was mid-July.

• 36:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:13Speaker 02

  Um, of mid-July of two thousand, uh, two thousand and eleven, and, uh, and we get there and we, he just picks us up in the car. We don't have any contacts, we don't know how we're gonna buy a mountain, we have no, uh, background buying a mountain, we have no, we didn't know anyone at the mountain, but we just drove and we drove to the mountain. Like, if I was like, oh, let's like, look at, you know, real estate properties, and we just drove up, and there's like, you know, some chains down, like, you know, up, and we just like, walked past and we just started scouting and we, we saw the view and we're like, this is really interesting, this is, this is, like, it was crazy.

• 36:53Lewis Howes?

  Cause you were twenty, what?

• 36:54Speaker 02

  Uh, twenty-six, twenty-six, so, um, so we get there and we literally, just from that moment on, I think we stayed overnight at his house. And we just went into mind meld mode of like, how can we buy it? And, and so the thing is, it's.

• 37:13Lewis Howes?

  How much was it? The offer, I guess?

• 37:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, so, um. All in, we ended up buying it for about $40 million. But here's the thing, so it's really easy to end a deal, end a relationship, kill a deal, like, end an interview. Like, our interview, if you want to end the interview, you're just like, Elliot, the interview's over. And you take the headset off and you walk out. I'm like, the interview's over, I'm leaving. That's it. It's that, anything can be ended in like, under 30 seconds. It doesn't matter, I mean, literally, you know, almost anything. You want to end a friendship, it's like, hey, look, it's been great being friends with you for 20 years, but I've decided I'm going a different way. Uh huh. So it's easy to kill a deal, kill a relationship, end anything. The hardest part is like, dreamscaping it and ideating.

• 37:58Speaker 02

  And we just went into this like, ideation mode, where I think everyone in the room understood, like, guys, this is crazy. If it doesn't work, we're just like, hey, we tried our best for a couple of months, didn't work. So we just went into full dream mode. You know, I imagine, again, it's like starting a band. You want to start a band, if the band isn't successful, you just dismantle it after six months. That's the easiest part. The hardest part is just going for it. So we just went into this dreaming mode, and we just went for it. Like, we're in his little house in Eden, Utah, and we start going out there all the time. This is over a period of a couple of months, and he's coming to visit us, and just all night, all night. Like, my three co-founders and I, you know, all night, we're just, literally, 1 a.m.,

• 38:42Speaker 02

  2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m., we're ideating, coming up. Meanwhile, we're like, well, you know, we're trying to meet people, going back to cold calling, we're like, alright, who knows the best land planners? Who knows the best this? Who knows the best architects? And we're starting, who knows the best lawyers? So, one funny story is one of my co-founders, Brett Levy, after college, he went and he worked, believe it or not, in, he worked in land sales. Like, that was the only job, I guess, he could get after college, right? It's like, we all have stories, you're saying, you're... Yeah, we all have these stories. Like, he worked in land sales, commission only, in Virginia, like, Northern Virginia, he was a land salesman. And he was just, I think he left after like, nine months, he was like, this is insane, like, why would everyone want to do that? What a, like, crazy.

• 39:27Speaker 02

  Who... So he hadn't thought about it in like, six or eight years. And so we're like, how are we going to figure out how to buy 10,000 acres of land? And he was like...

• 39:38Speaker 02

  Actually, I used to be in land sales. Like, I could call my old boss.

• 39:42Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 39:43Speaker 02

  So he calls his old boss who came on and advised us. And we just started, you know, in the same ways that original summit and cold calling people, we started putting together the pieces, you know, albeit at a bigger scale. And we came with a financing strategy. How are we going to buy this mountain? And we came up with a plan. Like, here's the amount of money that we need. Here's how we can raise the money. Here's how we can, you know, develop a town. We had this idea. We want to build the most progressive, beautiful-designed town imaginable. What Tesla did to cars, we want to do to a town. Want to build this beautiful, just inspiring place for people from all over the world to be able to come.

• 40:19Lewis Howes?

  And how is it now?

• 40:21Speaker 02

  Amazing. So it's been, yeah.

• 40:23Lewis Howes?

  It's been a few years.

• 40:24Speaker 02

  It's been almost six, it's been almost six years. So.

• 40:26Lewis Howes?

  You got roads, you got houses, you got like a downtown, you got like a Soho, you got like everything in there, right?

• 40:31Speaker 02

  It's not that far. So we own a Powder Mountain Ski Resort in Utah. It's 10,000 acres of the largest skiable mountain in North America. We've put in three new chairlifts. There's four restaurants. During the season, there's 300 incredible people that work on the mountain. And then we partnered with the county. We've built about five and a half miles of roads, water, sewer, power, about a half a million gallon water tank. We have approaching 150 families that own home sites. We have eight homes that are under construction. And then hopefully we'll be breaking ground on a few dozen homes this summer. We have LOIs with hotels. And, you know, we're, you know, literally moving month after month, nonstop, you know.

• 41:15Lewis Howes?

  Building a city.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  A town. A boutique town, a small town.

• 41:20Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 41:22Speaker 02

  At Powder Mountain.

• 41:23Lewis Howes?

  How many homes will be on there in the next five years?

• 41:26Speaker 02

  In the next five years, probably a couple hundred.

• 41:29Lewis Howes?

  Couple hundred homes.

• 41:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:30Lewis Howes?

  On the top of the mountain?

• 41:31Speaker 02

  Yeah. So the mountain, when you get to the top, it actually cascades, these cascading plateaus, and it lowers about 400 feet in elevation. And so in this like secluded valley at the top of the mountain. So you have these incredible.

• 41:48Speaker 02

  Incredible four state views because you're in northern Utah. So when you look to the north, you look to Idaho and to the east to Wyoming. And when you look west, you're looking to Nevada because you're kind of in this northeastern Utah. So yes, stunning views, stunning land. And you're ski in, ski out. And there's, we've built 25 miles of mountain biking and hiking trails. We have this outdoor land art museum we're building. We have this vision to build the largest land art museum in the world. So it's just about, we have this expression we use called facts on the ground. So a fact is every time you do something, that's a fact. So we're just trying every day or every week or every few days, put a fact on the ground.

• 42:28Speaker 02

  So putting a piece of art or putting a new ticketing system on the mountain or changing a logo or putting new signage or getting a cabin started, like everything's a fact. And eventually, when you have dozens of facts and then hundreds of facts, it starts to become something. And that's been something we've applied that term facts on the ground to everything. It's like one day you had zero podcasts and then one day you had five and then 10 and then 100. And then, you know, the rest is history. Like, but everyone started. One day, Tony Robbins had never done a seminar before and it just started with one. So whether it's like a town or a podcast for Tony Robbins, like it all starts with, and I love that term facts on the ground because it's like you start by doing. So what's your vision for it?

• 43:10Speaker 02

  The vision, the vision is to build the most progressive, beautifully designed town in the world and build a boutique center of thought leadership, a place around entrepreneurship, a place around family values. And we've done a bunch of unique things. So we capped the size of the homes you can build. So you can't build a home bigger than 45 visible square feet. And the average homes are closer to 2,000 square feet. So there's no mega mansions there, right? Almost the entire project is actually an urban walking town. So we have 10,000 acres of land. You actually don't want to put stuff over 10,000 acres. You basically want to make almost all of the land, you know, effectively beautiful,

• 43:52Speaker 02

  conserved, you know, landscape and let it be natural. And then you want everyone to be kind of in this clustered kind of Soho in the mountains. So this idea, you know, build this place where you can retreat to, you can meet inspiring people, eat healthy food and. You know, you can replace and be, we can be a place that speaks to a new generation and ethos and mindset of people.

• 44:14Lewis Howes?

  Amazing, man. Amazing. So you're creating another surreal experience.

• 44:18Speaker 02

  Surreal.

• 44:19Lewis Howes?

  Now, how do you, you've gone from one thing to the next over the last almost decade, it sounds like. Is there a time where the mountain will no longer be surreal and you'll have to one-up it and have like a whole state that you buy or something? I don't know, or country that you buy. Like, is there, is there ever like a limit or have you, you know, what's the next step? Have we not gone that far?

• 44:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't think, we're just really focused on this one thing. So like, we're basic, we're just, I think the vision, so the thing about real estate, the vision to build a town is such a long project. So one of the things when you plan real estate is you, you plan for seven generations. And so here's the interesting thing about real estate, like the best companies, the best in history lasts for like 30 years or 50 years. Occasionally, you hear about a company that's like 100 years old, but that's basically never, right? Like, the best companies of our time that we see are going to be like 30 years or 40 years. So towns last for, and cities last for hundreds of years. Like, New York City is just getting started, right?

• 45:23Speaker 02

  And it's, how many years old, you know, 400 years old, you know? Like, you know, these towns and places last hundreds of years, but the challenge is they take decades to get going.

• 45:36Lewis Howes?

  Long time.

• 45:37Speaker 02

  So you can't just throw up a splash page and have a beta product in 45 days and you're humming in six months with, you know, a couple hundred grand of seed money. Like, it's a big upfront cost and it takes, you know, a decade to have something amazing. But once it's there, it's generational. Like, when people buy homes.

• 45:55Lewis Howes?

  Talk about legacy, this has been around for a long time.

• 45:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, when people buy homes, they have them for their kids and their kids' kids and, you know, that's the biggest purchase people make in their lives.

• 46:03Lewis Howes?

  And who are some of the people that have homes or land plots there that you're allowed to talk about or that are public?

• 46:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, so the big vision is, again, to, we're building a public town. We want, we want to reinvent what an amazing town could be. And people who've been coming to Summit Events, people who are part of the Summit community have. You know, have bought homesites and are part of the community. So we've had anyone from Blake from Tom's Shoes to Tim Ferriss to Richard Branson and his family. So we have over 100 families. Who, yeah, it started with all homesites. So now we're actually starting to develop homes. It started with all homesites and then these folks will build, you know, really boutique, beautiful cabins or homes. Like the average home is, you know, 2,000 square feet.

• 46:49Speaker 02

  And a lot of these folks are building 1,200 or 1,500 square feet or 2,500 square feet, so.

• 46:56Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. That's so cool, man. And you have a home up there yourself?

• 46:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, I have a little cabin that's almost ready that I'm hoping to move into at the beginning of the summer. It's 1,500 square feet.

• 47:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 47:06Speaker 02

  And, uh, yeah, just being in nature, being in a place that can preserve nature, being in the wild, being... There's just something about you show up and you just breathe the air and you're like, I feel creative. I feel alive. I feel amazing.

• 47:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Tell me about, I think it's inspiring. It's amazing what you guys are doing and so congratulations on that. And I remember when you guys announced, I was like, how are they gonna pull this off? And you're doing it, so it's incredible. I'm curious about, um, building relationships. You've had, you know, a decade of experience building relationships with the highest level of individuals. And what is it about connecting with people that most people fail in doing? Cause a lot of people are reaching out with influencers or people to come speak or be on their advisory board or invest or whatever it is. Why, what's the formula for making it work for you where most people fail at building relationships? And what's the best way to network moving forward?

• 48:01Speaker 02

  Well, my favorite piece of advice I ever got was listen. And so unless I'm being interviewed, I try to actually ask questions probably three quarters of the time. So I'm generally just not talking very much and I'm generally trying to ask questions. I'm trying to listen and I would say it goes the same thing in building relationships.

• 48:24Speaker 02

  Listening to people's, not just their needs, but also just like, listening means understanding them. Like, who are these individuals? Like, understand at a high level, understand if someone's in a really busy phase of their career, or is in a family phase of their career, or is in a wanting to meet a certain genre because maybe they want to invest in something. And if you listen and you get to know people, you can have the right approach with interacting with them. You know, it's like, hands off and give them space. You know, it's, hey, let me help you with this. It's knowing when to email and when to, when to hold back. But just, it's all about being super respectful. I remember someone told me, told me, like,

• 49:06Speaker 02

  this great quote about Michael Jordan, which was like, basically, you're either friend or fan. Like, and as soon as MJ realizes you're a fan, you're done. You're cut out. It's over forever. Like, if there's any inkling you're a fan, you're out. And, you know, you, I think, you know, you just have to make that decision. Are you going to be friends with people? And like, a friend means you genuinely care about them. That means, if you're a friend with someone, you're not trying to monetize them. You know, you're their friend. If you're a friend with someone, you're not trying to, you know, build your social profile by even, forget posting on social, even name dropping them and name

• 49:47Speaker 02

  checking them around town. Like, if you're a friend, you protect at all costs. If you're a friend, they inherently know you would do anything for them, to take care of them, to look out for them. And when people say anything about them, you're there to defend them. So I think that, like, value of the word friend, like, I love to think about friend or fan, because like, that real definition and value of friend, if people know you're that person and you actually want to get to know them, it's very different than when you're like, alright, like, guess what? All these successful people, they know that everyone wants something from them, because they have so much to give. And when they get any inkling that like, so and so's hanging around because they're waiting for that ask, they're waiting for that, gonna make a sale, or get their company, they're gonna get that company in the door. That's, of course, they're more successful than we are, so they probably

• 50:32Speaker 02

  have a better intuition than we have, right? So, I think so, yeah.

• 50:37Lewis Howes?

  And how do you? Manage and keep all the high level relationships you have because you have so many people, thousands of people in the Summit community now. How do you stay on top of it and stay in touch with people? And make sure you're not trying to, make sure they don't have that feeling like you're trying to get something from them, but you're just being a friend. What's your process for that?

• 50:57Speaker 02

  I think the best way to stay in touch with people is your product speaks for your engagement. So I often think of Apple, like I don't need someone from Apple to like call me and check in on how I'm doing as a customer because the product speaks for itself. And I think of like often my, the things that I have and use. And you know, the thing, the place that I go, maybe it's a great restaurant. I don't necessarily need, you know, a check in or a waitress or waiter to ask because it's just such a good experience. And I think for us, like I'm always trying to maintain relationships, but everyone has their product. So your product is how you go about your day and business and life. It's your social profile. It's what you actually put out as a business and making sure like everything you're doing

• 51:42Speaker 02

  holistically, you know, 360 degrees reflects you and your values so that, because people are hearing your name a lot more than you're able to touch base with everyone. Making sure everyone's always hearing your name in a really great context. So I'm obviously trying to reach out to people, trying to stay in touch, you know, keeping lists of the people I really care about, making sure, send them a text, an email, try to meet up, be in their cities. But I think for the most part, making sure that like my values and who I am is reflecting that. Because if word gets out, you know, Elliot lost his way, Elliot lost his values, the Summit product has, you know, isn't at an A plus. It's, you know, oh, that thing, that thing fell off. That, that's going to affect you way more than like checking in because you just check in and be like, yeah, good to, good to talk to you again, man.

• 52:26Speaker 02

  And secretly they're like, have heard, you know, three bad things about you.

• 52:29Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Got it. I like it. What's something that's missing in your life?

• 52:35Speaker 02

  More wild nature. Like, I really have fallen in love the last couple of years with wild nature. And I have that a lot in, uh, at Powder Mountain in Utah, but I just love nature and wildness. Like, I was coming here, um, and, you know, looking at the Hollywood Hills and I wonder if anyone's ever said this to you in your entire life, but I felt sad that those hills used to be filled with mountain lions and used to be just wild and like what this place used to be, you know? And, um, and I think there's something innate in each of us that is wild, right? And you can get it surfing, you know, surfing in the ocean, you can get it being outside, but just, I think what I'm missing is I want to connect,

• 53:19Speaker 02

  like, one of my goals here is I want to connect more to wild nature. So that's, that's, that's.

• 53:23Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. That's cool, man. Well, we got to play ultimate frisbee a few weeks ago and it always feels good just to be in the grass, man, for me. You know, being in a city, it's like you're never in grass. And whenever I get to play in grass, even just run in there or just put my feet in, it's like, wow. You know, you forget sometimes what it's like. So it must be beautiful when you're just out in your cabin every day and you look out and you're in the mountains. You can do whatever you want up there. So it's amazing, man. What, um,

• 53:50Lewis Howes?

  what is it you want people to know about you?

• 53:55Speaker 02

  I love playing pranks.

• 53:57Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 53:58Speaker 02

  And I love being, uh, silly and I love being super exuberant. And, uh, doing really crazy things. Like, I'm always like, um, like if I meet a random person, I'll like buy them, and they tell me their dream, I'll try to like fulfill their dream. So like, I'll meet someone, they haven't gone on a vacation in 15 years and I'll like send them on a vacation. Or I'll like get from like stuff like that to like getting someone a book that I know they want. Or like, I'm always trying to like glean little tidbits. Or if someone needs like a spark of magic in their life, I'll orchestrate like a one month, like crazy prank on them.

• 54:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow. This is like some game, like from the game, the movie. I don't know if you've seen that movie.

• 54:40Speaker 02

  No, I.

• 54:41Lewis Howes?

  You've seen the game?

• 54:42Speaker 02

  No, I haven't seen it.

• 54:42Lewis Howes?

  Where a guy like needs more adventure in his life, so he pays an extraordinary amount of money to this company. It's like, okay, for the next month, your life is going to be changed. And he goes on like this wild like chase where he's getting like shot at and there's like all these actors involved and it's like. A huge prank at the end of the day, but

• 55:00Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 55:00Lewis Howes?

  Puts them at this like whole other level of experience in life.

• 55:03Speaker 02

  Well, life is so serious, like, life is so serious, there's no way about that, like, I'm, I'm, I'm on the, I'm, I'm super, you know, on the ground, aware of everything that's happening, like, there's no way in the day and age we live in to not be disturbed and frustrated every day, all day, if you let yourself be that, right? So, in no way does anything I'm doing trivialize the reality of what's happening every day. But I think you have a choice to go through your life, being super positive, exuberant, and bringing the best out, um, or getting sucked in, and it's, it's just really hard to get sucked in unless I'm listening to, you know, to Louis all day, you know? It's, it's hard, you know, the media just, you know, the Facebook feed, it just pulls you in, so.

• 55:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's cool.

• 55:47Speaker 02

  That's been really fun and for me, and inspiring people around me, bring the people around me together.

• 55:53Lewis Howes?

  I like that. Did you get inspired by buried life in any way?

• 55:56Speaker 02

  Those guys are amazing, yeah, I definitely.

• 56:00Lewis Howes?

  I met them at somewhere at sea, and I've become friends with them, and, yeah, but they did that on the show, where they were like, trying to make someone's dream come true, and.

• 56:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's, it's amazing how, um, how easy it is to do in your day-to-day life, like, taking, what they do is more elaborate than anything I could ever hope for. Um, but pulling those little things, you know, into your life, uh, and into the, the, the real world we're in is, is, it's really powerful.

• 56:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, with everything that you know, all the people you've met, all the stories you've heard, all the adventures you've been on, you've been to how many countries now? How many have you been to? Like, 70, 100 countries, something like that? All the experiences you've had with the smartest people in the world, the most entertaining people, the most athletic people, the top, top, top of people in the world.

• 56:51Lewis Howes?

  What's the biggest lesson you'd want to share?

• 56:53Speaker 02

  Adventures only happen to the adventurous. And I apply that quote to all aspects of your life, not just like, you know, a trip adventure. It's, this is like my life mantra. It's all adventures, because everything's an adventure. Like, if I hadn't come to LA to be here with you, like, this is an adventure, like, coming up here and, you know, coming to the studio and meeting, you know, meeting your team and spending, you know, time with you. Like, who knows where this can now manifest itself out and what could come from this? And so, unless you're going to, like, if you don't go on the adventures, you hit a cap. But when you go on an adventure, what's on the other side isn't just a little bit better or even two times better. It could be exponentially better, because when you go on an adventure, that's like, I just got married this past summer.

• 57:38Speaker 02

  Like, that's how you get, like, fall in love. And then that's exponential. Like, you can't quantify the adventures, because the adventures lead to new best friends, they need to new ideas. So it's like, there is that element of like, it's not just 2X. When you open yourself up and you go on the adventures, all these things happen. I got to Powder Mountain, you know? I made the cold calls. I turned around instead of going to class, you know? I did Summit at Sea instead of a regular conference, you know? All those things, the adventures only happen to the adventurous.

• 58:11Lewis Howes?

  That's a good one. I like that. What's a question you wish everyone would tell you, or more people would tell, or ask you? Sorry, the question you wish more people would ask you?

• 58:21Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 58:23Lewis Howes?

  Is there anything you wish people would ask you more about, or that you wish you could share more of?

• 58:30Speaker 02

  I guess just living your, living your best and truest self. Being, uh, being your most authentic self, best self, um, yeah, and from, and, and, and opening yourself to those adventures. I think, I think living exuberantly and positive, that's just kind of, that's kind of me, but not everyone has to be that. But the adventure part, like, everyone can go on adventures and can open themselves up to the possibilities in their life, and their work, and their weekends.

• 58:56Lewis Howes?

  Right. At any moment, yeah, at any moment.

• 58:58Speaker 02

  I guess asking, ask me, ask me about adventures.

• 59:01Lewis Howes?

  Okay, okay. What's the craziest adventure you've been on, Dan?

• 59:07Speaker 02

  Besides the last 10 years.

• 59:09Lewis Howes?

  If you had one moment in the last 10 years. It's like when people ask, who's your favorite guest you've had on? For me, it's like they're all amazing. So I understand because you've had probably a lot of crazy adventures.

• 59:23Lewis Howes?

  But is there one that stands out?

• 59:27Speaker 02

  Yes, there is. There is one. So.

• 59:31Speaker 02

  In about two years into the founding of Summit, I had these three co-founders. And. We read The Four Hour Work Week. And it changed our entire life. We didn't know that you could do that.

• 59:52Speaker 02

  And. I mean, we got on like family trips, but I'd never really left the country.

• 1:00:00Speaker 02

  And we just said, hey, we're gonna go to Costa Rica. We're gonna go work from the road. We're gonna go for a couple of weeks. We're planning one of those events before Summit at Sea. And we went for a couple of weeks. We just rented a house. It was super affordable. And we were doing all of our work. We were surfing in the mornings and. And we're there for a couple of weeks, but we kept hearing, you gotta go to Nicaragua. You gotta go to Nicaragua. So we. So we rented a car and we just drove across the border and we drove from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. We got this little surf town, San Juan del Sur. And we posted up there for like a month and a half. And I mean, we'd never been outside the country for that long, ever. I mean, my 10 days is the longest I've ever been on a family trip.

• 1:00:44Speaker 02

  And it was like a couple of months outside the country. And. I would say that was like one of the big defining points in my life that it broke that barrier. Like we were so close. I didn't have to read The Four Hour Work Week. After I read it, I could have said, ah, you know, we're not gonna go anywhere. I could have gone to Costa Rica and then come back. But to just go there and then rent the car and then kind of continue that journey and. And to know, I got back, everything was still around where I got back. It was transformative, you know, it was really, really transformative. I'm a big, I'm a really big believer in travel, in conscious, aware, immersive travel to change your life. And it doesn't have to be out of the country.

• 1:01:28Speaker 02

  It can be getting in a car and driving up the PCH. It can be driving, you know, from where I live, you know, I live at Powderman in Utah. I can be in southern Utah in Zion in four hours, or Glacier National Park in 10 hours, or you can go to the Salmon River in Idaho in five hours. Like, you know, every weekend is an opportunity. You know, I'm like the person where it's like Friday at 5:00 PM and I'm like, alright guys, we don't have anything till Saturday night. Like, we have 36 hours.

• 1:01:54Lewis Howes?

  Right, let's go to Joshua Tree, let's go here.

• 1:01:56Speaker 02

  I mean, anything, like, how do I get to Catalina? How do, whatever, I don't know, I mean, whatever, you know, so, I think for me, that was, it wasn't always like that. And that kind of opened those possibilities, like, I remember starting that trip and I'm like, I can't be gone for this long, what if I have to see a doctor? You know, it's like, ah, there'll be a doctor.

• 1:02:13Lewis Howes?

  Subway, yeah.

• 1:02:15Speaker 02

  You know, and, like, when we went on our honeymoon, we're thinking, what should we do for our honeymoon? We just went to Africa for a month. And we went to South Africa for two weeks, and Kenya for two weeks. And we just, we went deep, we went, you know, we rented a car, we went all the way, and it's like, you know, I live in America, I don't live in Africa, I want to explore new places, I want to meet people. People everywhere are amazing.

• 1:02:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:37Speaker 02

  And when you go on these adventures, you make friends, you make connections, you get ideas.

• 1:02:42Lewis Howes?

  I love it. That's great. Okay, final couple of questions. This is called the three truths. And you may have already answered one of them, but three truths is, if this is the last day for you, many, many years from now, and everything you've created is erased, for whatever reason, it's gone. Everything you put out there, content, books, the city, it's all just gone for whatever reason. And you have a piece of paper and a pen, you get to write down your final three truths, or the lessons that you would share with the world, and that's all that the world would have to remember you by, are these three truths, what would be yours?

• 1:03:19Speaker 02

  Well, when I was 12, my tennis coach for my birthday gave me a book, Jonathan Livingston Segal. And in the book was inscribed, "For he who believes, all things are possible." And I mean, I couldn't believe it's like my first motivational quote I ever got. So that would be, that would be quote one. My second would be the word "listen." And my third would be, "You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time around."

• 1:03:51Lewis Howes?

  Those are great, man. Great reminders, great lessons. I like that. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Elliot, for your incredible ability to dream. You've dreamed so big for the last decade, and it's impacted millions of people's lives because of your ability to dream and your ability to connect and your audaciousness to go out there and do the things that you can think of and figure out how to put the pieces together and inspire a movement along the way. And I think it's really cool, everything that you've created. And I'm really appreciative that it's all happening to a good human.

• 1:04:35Lewis Howes?

  And your heart is well-intended, and every time around you, it's always like positivity. You bring positive energy to the world. I've never seen you get like angry at anyone, you know, no matter what, if we're playing ultimate frisbee or you're like interviewing President Clinton or whatever's happening. I remember going up on the mountain with you and they were like breaking the roads and you were like just so excited about the possibilities. So that childlike passion, that dream and that execution that you have is something to be acknowledged. So I acknowledge you for all that, my man.

• 1:05:08Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:05:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. Where can we connect with you, Summit Series, learn more about everything that you're up to? If someone wants to attend Summit Series, how can they get involved? Or?

• 1:05:19Lewis Howes?

  You know, all that.

• 1:05:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, everything is at summit.co. S U M M I T dot C O.

• 1:05:26Lewis Howes?

  Awesome. They can get a ticket for the next event, which is gonna be like a town you're building in Los Angeles or something and all this other stuff's happening, right?

• 1:05:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, the next event is in November of this year in downtown Los Angeles. We, we love the possibilities of downtown. You can, we thought we could actually do something more surreal than Summit at Sea because of the, just the amount of venues and options there. The amount of theaters and spaces and warehouses and fields and...

• 1:05:53Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 1:05:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:54Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. So summit.co, go check it out. I'm telling you, it's gonna be a life-changing experience if you guys go. And learn more there. Now, the final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:06:07Speaker 02

  Achieving your purpose and your, I get, and your dreams. But it's not, it's very specifically not about making money. And it's not about how big something is and if your purpose and dreams are at any scale, as long as that's your, your true purpose.

• 1:06:27Speaker 02

  I also believe in inherent good and inherent evils. And I think, you know, ensuring that your greatness is on the good side and that you're really doing something good in the world.

• 1:06:40Lewis Howes?

  Elliot, thanks so much.

• 1:06:42Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:06:44Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, guys. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to share it with your friends. LewisHowes.com/445. Tweet it out. Post it on Facebook. Share it on Instagram. Tag me, @lewishouse on Instagram story when you're listening to it. And let me know what you're thinking and I'll reply to you over there as well. Guys, people need to hear this one. This is a powerful one. So make sure to give Elliot some love by sharing it out. Again, if you're on your podcast app, you can just click on the share button on iTunes or on SoundCloud or Stitcher and tweet it out, post it on Facebook. Or the direct link is LewisHowes.com/445. And let me know what you thought. I wanna hear your thoughts about this. And let me know the biggest takeaway you got as well. That's right.

• 1:07:29Lewis Howes?

  I hope you guys enjoyed this one. It doesn't matter how young, how old you are, how little experience you have or how much experience you have. If you can dream big and you bring passion and energy to every decision that you make, you are going to attract people into your sphere. You're going to attract people into your movement, into your being, and you're going to be able to use that to create something magical, something surreal, like Elliot talks about. And the more surreal experiences you can create for others, the more people are going to be attracted to you and your message. And whatever it is you're looking to create, to sell, to deliver to the world, it doesn't matter.

• 1:08:10Lewis Howes?

  But what you've got to have, and what I love about Elliot, is he's got this mind of possibilities. It doesn't matter if it seems crazy to buy a mountain. He did it anyways. It doesn't matter if it feels crazy to create a new city, of a city that he dreams of, what could be the ultimate city to live in. He's doing that. It doesn't matter how crazy your dream is. The key is to dream as big as you can and then go do it. Attract the people, the resources, the tools you need to take action. This is only one life, guys, only one time, right now. Don't waste the next year, or five years, or 10 years, when you think you're going to be ready.

• 1:08:53Lewis Howes?

  You're never, ever going to be ready to do something outrageous. The time is now. Step into it, lean into it, and take massive action with a positive mind, and attract what you need to make it happen. I love you guys so very much, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.