The Hard Truth: Why Your Hardest Days Create Your Greatest Success | Ed Mylett

What if the hardest season of your life is actually building the strongest version of you? In this mashup episode, I’m bringing together some of the most powerful conversations I’ve had about adversity, resilience, purpose, and what it really takes to keep going when life hurts. I believe one of the greatest separators in life is the ability to play hurt. Anybody can perform when they feel great, when the momentum is there, and when everything is going their way. The real test is what you do when you’re tired, disappointed, grieving, afraid, or unsure of yourself. Those are the moments that reveal who you are becoming. Jay “Jeezy” Jenkins shares how adversity became one of his greatest teachers and how going inward forced him to confront the parts of himself that success alone could never fix. Eric Thomas breaks down the level of work, discipline, and self-evaluation required if you truly want extraordinary results, and why sometimes the answer isn’t simply working harder, but raising your systems, your standards, and your entire level of execution. James Lawrence gives one of the most powerful examples of the One More mindset when he explains why, after completing 100 brutal endurance challenges, he got back up and did 101. Not because he had anything left to prove, but because he wanted people to know that even when you feel completely broken, there is still one more inside you. Dean Graziosi and I talk about changing your relationship with fear, pain, and hard things. The people who win at the highest levels don’t spend their lives searching for the easiest path. They train themselves to move toward the difficult things that other people avoid. Jim Kwik reminds us that attention is everything and that one of the fastest ways to grow is to learn with the intention of teaching, because when you teach something, you begin to own it at a completely different level. And Maria Shriver offers the other side of resilience that we don’t talk about enough. She reminds us about the power of the pause, reflection, and understanding that a meaningful life is not only about doing more, but also knowing when to slow down long enough to understand who you are becoming. I want you to understand something about the pain you’re going through right now. It does not have to be wasted. Your hardest season can become your greatest testimony, your deepest pain can become the thing that qualifies you to help somebody else, and your breaking point can become your building point. You don’t have to have your A-game every day. You just have to stay available, stay in the fight, and keep moving. Sometimes winning looks like one more call, one more meeting, one more workout, one more prayer, or simply getting up one more time. Key Takeaways: Why the ability to “play hurt” separates extraordinary people from everyone else Jay “Jeezy” Jenkins on turning adversity into purpose and becoming more self-aware Eric Thomas on matching your expectations with the level of work and systems required to achieve them James Lawrence on why doing “one more” matters most when you feel completely depleted Dean Graziosi on training yourself to move toward fear, pain, and difficult challenges Jim Kwik on improving attention and why teaching what you learn helps you own it Maria Shriver on the power of pausing, reflecting, and finding richness beyond constant achievement Why your pain can become the very thing that prepares you for your next level Your hardest days are not disqualifying you. They may be preparing you. So when life knocks you down, don’t automatically assume it’s time to retreat. Sometimes that pain is your opportunity to discover a level of strength, faith, and resilience you never would have found any other way. Get up, stay available, and do one more. 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LINKEDIN⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WEBSITE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 AM to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 PM and my third day, 6:00 PM to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's

• 0:42Ed Mylett?

  favorite small business lender and for good reason. Over 20 years in business, over 12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 1:36Ed Mylett?

  This is the Ed Mylett Show.

• 1:40Ed Mylett?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome to my weekend special. I hope you enjoy the show. Be sure to follow the Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Now on with the show. Welcome back to the show, everybody. So grateful you've decided to join me again here this week. This week I have a question for you. Do you play hurt? Because I think playing hurt is one of the invisible skills of all the great ones. And if you think back in your lifetime, the people that you've been the most emotional about when you've watched them perform in sports or life in business, they were overcoming some pain they were in currently at the time. Typically in sports, it's some type of an injury that they have. And so I ask you, can you play hurt? Because I think that's the great separator in life and in business,

• 2:24Ed Mylett?

  is that the great ones are able to perform even when they're not at their best, even when they're hurt, even when they're wounded, even when they're down. And average, ordinary people succumb to the injury, succumb to the pain, the down cycle in their life. You know, I really believe the separator in life is not what you do on the days where you're feeling great, you're feeling healthy, you're feeling emotionally strong, everything's going your way. Everybody performs well on those days. It's what do you do on the days that you don't feel that way? In sports especially, the greatest moments of my lifetime in sports, we'll talk about them in a minute, have been watching athletes perform under pain, under injury, under hurt. And in business and life, you know, we're not on television. And so

• 3:07Ed Mylett?

  sometimes we don't realize that's the separator. The difference between winning and losing in life and sports is so small, it's almost too scary to talk about. One of the things that worries me is, I have to be candid with you, I think everybody can help someone. But one of the things that's happened in the business space, the entrepreneurial space is there are just so many people that are giving advice and information that have never built a business, that have never accomplished anything other than telling you how to accomplish something. And so oftentimes, I hear their messages and I'll commiserate with other people that I know that have actually done something in their life and like, can you believe that they teach this stuff? And that people are believing this? I worry sometimes that you don't get told the truth about what it really takes to win. And that so many of you are listening to so many different voices, many of which aren't qualified to help you in

• 3:49Ed Mylett?

  the area that you're looking for help. And I say that with respect because I think everyone can help somebody. But by and large, if I want to get fit and in shape, I want my trainer to be fit and in shape. If I want to become wealthy and build a big business, I want to listen to someone who's wealthy, that's built a big business. If I want to become happier and more influential and more passionate in my life, I want to listen to someone who's done that. And so I know that one of the separators from the people that I know that have become mega successful in their lives, is their ability to play when they don't have their A game, their ability to win and step up, and sometimes play better. And so, ask yourself this question. The last year, on days when you were down, or not even feeling physically well, you had the flu, or cough, or you had an injury that you hurt yourself

• 4:34Ed Mylett?

  and your knee or your back was hurting, or someone had hurt your feelings the day before, or maybe a week or two before the day before you lost an account, or didn't get a sale you thought you were going to get, or something's going on with your kids. How did you perform those days? Because that's the separator in life. And so we're so moved often by the people we see when they do this. I'll give you an example. I was recently moved by a young man, and I'm sure this will get back to him, and he might be surprised that I saw this, but a young man named Cade Baloo. And he's a college baseball player at Auburn University. I played college baseball. He's a lefty. I was a lefty. And so, I took note of this young man. But the reason I saw him wasn't because he played college baseball, or because he played at Auburn. He's a much better college player than I was, by the

• 5:18Ed Mylett?

  way. But the reason I saw him is that his mother had died. And the day that his mother had passed away, he still played in the game that night. And I guess evidently went to the coach and says, you know, mom would want me to play tonight. This young man, under tremendous pain, just lost his mother. Can you imagine? Just hours before, he said, I think mom wants me to play. And this young man steps up to the plate, I believe it was his third at bat. Guess what he did? You know it. He had a homerun.

• 5:48Speaker 02

  Mother of Auburn baseball outfielder Cade Baloo. Stacy passed away this morning after a battle with cancer. Our hearts and Auburn baseball are with the Baloo family during this time.

• 6:07Speaker 03

  Hit ball, right center. It's deep. It's gone. He hit it out of here.

• 6:15Speaker 04

  But, you know, some things just transcend the human experience and how sports can bring everybody together. And that's one of them. One of the most inspiring things I've ever seen in 32 years of coaching was Cade Baloo getting a homerun.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  First strike, that's it.

• 6:42Ed Mylett?

  First one of the season. Hadn't hit a homerun on all the good days, but he had a homerun on that day to honor his mom when he was under tremendous pain, where many people would have said, hey, hey, Cade, we wouldn't blame you at all, man. Sit out the game. Sit out the weekend. You know, that's okay. And by the way, that would have been okay. You know, heal up a little bit. You know, there's so much this stuff in person about healing and all that stuff. And by the way, I think you can take action and still win while you're healing. And sometimes the winning can be the healing. Instead of just sitting around and machinating in your thoughts and trying to evaluate yourself all the time, get up and do something, right? And I say that out of love. I would say this if you were my children. I talk to the audience as if they're an extension of my family. I

• 7:25Ed Mylett?

  also don't say these things sitting on some high horse, because I've made the mistakes of not taking action on the days when I was down or hurting. I've sat out games when I was an athlete, when maybe I could have played. And now in life, you know, as I got older, I realized that's the separator. And so, Cade Baloo, man, congratulations, brother. Way to honor your mom. Just want you to know, I saw it. And now you've moved millions of people through our audience here today. On the day he was probably hurting the most in his life, he stepped up and hit his first homerun of the season. I have to imagine that inspired his teammates. Have to imagine that his mom's very proud of him. The rest of his family's very proud of him. By the way, would we've been proud had Cade hit a homerun? Sure. Would I be mentioning a guy at Auburn who hit his first homerun of

• 8:08Ed Mylett?

  the year on my podcast to millions of people if he wasn't hurt? No. And so what I'm saying is some of your greatest accomplishments, your greatest story, we've all heard the saying that your test can become your testimony. Your mess can become your message. But it's true. In fact, oftentimes, this adversity is a gift. It's an opening to get something for your pain. I've always said that I don't believe God's going to give you pain without a gift on the other side of it. That if you look for the gift of the pain you're going through, that all pain is temporary. And if you can survive the temporary, whatever the pain is you're going through, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, if you'll survive the temporary, but while you're surviving and getting through it, look for the gift. Look for the miracle. He's going to give you something. He's going to give you a new

• 8:53Ed Mylett?

  friend, a new relationship, a new insight, a new thought, a new talent, a new ability, a new innovation, a new, whole new life oftentimes. A new reference, a new whatever. It comes your way through pain. And so, this is the people that we admire in life. You think about in your sports life, think about Michael Jordan. Of all the championships that Michael Jordan won, he was winning the 1997 NBA Finals, the flu game, where most people wouldn't have played. He had 104 degree fever. No one thought he was even going to show up and play that night. And somehow he comes through and wins the NBA title, playing with the flu, right? I mean, we remember this. It's iconic. Now, he won a lot of championships, but that's

• 9:35Ed Mylett?

  the clip that you see the most. Why? Because he played hurt. He played hurt. It's Tiger Woods, of all the majors that he won, he won the 2008 US Open, they tell us, on basically a broken leg? Are you kidding me? This is, these are the stories of legends. These are the stories that are what icons do. And you have a chance, when you're going through this down day, these are the days where, maybe you're going through it today, and you're like, man, I needed this today, brother. Or send this to somebody who needs it. My gosh, this is actually an opening for me. This is where I separate. This is my separation season. Because almost, you know, I almost get off in my mind on these days because I'm like, I know nobody's working as hard as I am. Not after how bad yesterday was, not after how bad I'm hurting, not after that letdown. Most people are licking their

• 10:18Ed Mylett?

  wounds and staying down. And there's all this stuff, as well, maybe you should stay down for a while. Evaluate what happened. Learn the lesson. Yeah, maybe. Or maybe you should get your ass up. And go back to battling. Go back to fighting. Go back to winning. Get in motion again. I think you can heal, learn, and take action at the same time. Tiger Woods winning that US Open on a broken leg, they tell us. Kirk Gibson, in the 88 World Series, hitting a homerun coming off the bench. He was so injured, he couldn't play. He didn't, he didn't play the game, and he didn't play at all after this homerun. He had one at bat, limps up to the plate. He couldn't play a position, so they put him in to pinch hit. He gets up there, two strikes, Dennis Eckersley, bam, hits a homerun over the right field

• 11:00Ed Mylett?

  fence to win the World Series game. One of the most, if not the most iconic homerun in the history of baseball, one of them. Why? Because he had a homerun in the World Series? No, because he had a homerun hurt in the World. By the way, I was at that game.

• 11:15Ed Mylett?

  Funny anecdote, my dad wanted to leave that game the inning before. We got up to leave and we ran into my T-ball Little League coach in the, we were in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium and my T-ball coach says, "You don't leave World Series games early, Mr. Mylett." My dad went, "Ah, alright." And we walked back to our seats, true story. Sat down in the next inning, maybe the most famous homerun in the history of baseball was hit by Kirk Gibson, but we remember it because he played hurt. If you're really old like me, it was the year before I was born, but I heard about it all my, Willis Reed for the Knicks coming out and inspiring his team to win. You know, when I speak, I walk out onstage to Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Everyone thinks that's because he's such an AC/DC fan. Well, I am a fan of that band, but that's not why I walk out.

• 11:59Ed Mylett?

  I walk out to AC/DC when I speak because my favorite fighter of all time is Arturo "Thunder" Gotti. He came into the ring to Thunderstruck. My favorite fighter of all time, Gotti. Why? Because he was the best fighter of all time? Arturo was not the greatest fighter of all time. If you don't know him, go watch his clips. I don't care if you're a boxing fan, female, male, go watch Arturo, guys, because the shots he would take and keep coming, his fights with Mickey Ward, I mean, I'm just going to tell you, like, inspired me to want to be somebody. If you think about the movies, it's Rocky Balboa, it's how he came back from being hurt, Cut Me Mick, right? It's, those are the things that move us. The greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali, and how he beat George Foreman and would come back from being hurt. The wonderful Carrie Scruggs.

• 12:43Ed Mylett?

  Most of you don't know this, one of the greatest clips of all time. Carrie Scruggs, 1996 gymnast, ends up basically winning the gold on a torn ankle. And I remember watching that and crying, literally crying when she won. I wonder, by the way, why do we cry when we see somebody accomplish something great and overcome something amazing? Whether someone heals from cancer and they come back and they live, or an athlete that overcomes an injury like precious Carrie Scruggs did in the Olympics and just, the world cried watching her go through this pain and win. I submit that we cry when we see these great acts of courage because we know that exists

• 13:24Ed Mylett?

  within us and we're not using it. We're not even crying out of happiness. There's a part of us like, "Why can't I do that? I have the same capacity. I'm also a human being. I want to be proud of me. I want to overcome my pain." You know, the story that you're going through right now, or have gone through, it's only inspiring if you win. It's only inspiring if there's a fairy tale. There's only, it's only inspiring if there's a lesson, if there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And so you've got to play hurt. And sometimes, I'll be honest with you, I think we exaggerate the pain we go through. We make it a bigger deal than it really is. You know, I've had people cancel, goes, "Well, I've got a cough or I've got the flu."

• 14:08Ed Mylett?

  Heck, this is a Zoom call. I'm, I'm doing this today. My, my producer will tell you, I'm sitting here today, I've got at least two teeth that I need a root canal on today. I, I've got something wrong with my jaw where I can't really open my mouth to eat. It's enough that I can talk, right? And I've got the flu. But no one asked me to run a marathon today, they asked me to do six Zooms. I'm sitting in a chair. What's the difference between sitting on the couch and doing nothing and sitting here and helping change the world? And I'm not bragging about me. Heck, I'll just tell you this, I played this whole year hurt. I haven't been on social media in a year. I've had issues with my heart, I've had a back issue that's just very significant, I've had surgery on my back, I've got a, I played hurt all year. It's one of the best years I've ever had. Now, has it been the biggest growth year?

• 14:53Ed Mylett?

  No, but I've played hurt. Deion Sanders, Coach Prime was on my podcast a few weeks ago. His agent and my agent, Constance Schwartz, was also on some of the most popular shows we've ever had. And Coach Prime's this legendary coach now at Colorado. But what a lot of people don't know is Coach Prime played entire Major League Baseball season and NFL football season at the same time, multiple years in a row. You imagine playing, imagine how hard it is to get to the NFL? Imagine how hard it is to get to MLB? He got to both and played both and some days would play a Major League Baseball game and an NFL football game in the same day. Imagine that. And guess what? One year he did it with a bronchial infection, walking pneumonia basically, for the entire

• 15:38Ed Mylett?

  year. Imagine that. You got a bronchial infection, almost borderline walking pneumonia for a year, and he plays a full NFL football season and Major League Baseball season and went to the postseason in baseball. But some people can't get on a Zoom because they've got a cough or their tummy hurts, right? But you want to be a millionaire, you want to be one of the great ones ever, but any chance you're hurt, a little bit down, I'm just being honest with you, maybe this isn't the message everybody wants to hear, but it's the message everybody needs to hear. The separator is what you do on the days you're hurting. This man played an entire football season, entire baseball season, both with a condition that most people would cancel their Zooms for. Can you imagine?

• 16:23Ed Mylett?

  And so it's about how many punches you can absorb. Remember this, your breaking point is God's building point. Just when you're ready to break, just when you think you've got too much, if you'll push to that next level, that's when God starts to build. That's when he starts to break through. That's when the growing happens. But we don't take advantage of these opportunities. I'm almost to the point in my life where I believe adversity is a gift. I can't tell you that every time bad things happen like today, I didn't want to wake up with my jaw and I didn't want all that stuff. It's just like a year of stuff in my physical being. I've had issues personally and socially, so it's been a tough year, you know? I'm not saying I would wish that. Same time, it's, I've learned a lot about myself. I've learned how much, to be honest with you, I love what I do and how much I care

• 17:07Ed Mylett?

  about you all, because a long time ago financially, I didn't need to do this. And I kind of always thought in my life, when I got very, very wealthy, I probably wouldn't work like I work still. But then when I got here, I fell in love over my lifetime with people and making a difference and serving them, almost like, feel like it's my home and it's my calling. It doesn't feel like that much work to me. And so who am I to be, you know, telling you to do all these things? And so when I'm not feeling great, I don't. And so I'm really convinced that your breaking point is God's building point. I'll tell you another story of a guy you probably haven't heard of unless you live in Australia. I've been reading about this guy for a few years now. 1983, it started the, one of the world's toughest ultra marathons, 540 mile trek from Sydney to Melbourne.

• 17:52Ed Mylett?

  I want you to imagine this, some of the top runners in the world are running in this race and a farmer shows up. True story, dressed in overalls and like galoshes over his boots is what they say. I'm just telling you what they tell you. And so people are like, "Who's this farmer? This guy's got overalls on." There's this combination of runners, but some of them are the best in the world, 540 miles. And so reporters ask who he was, he replies, "His name's Cliff Young." Oh, by the way, Cliff is 61 years old, sheep farmer. Picture this, a marathon's 20 something miles. Guess what? Five days, 15 hours and four minutes later, he won. He finished first in this race, grueling race.

• 18:36Ed Mylett?

  He beat the next closest competitor by about 10 hours. He becomes this Australian national hero, total icon of ultra marathon running, you know, example of determination, perseverance. But what he was really an example of is pushing through pain, pushing through pain. You know how he won the race? He slept less. Now, there's some legends that say he didn't sleep at all. Evidently, that's not true, but he just slept less. He didn't know how much sleep was really required of him. And all the training of chasing sheep on his farm is what equipped him for the race. So while these other guys were just running their normal race, this dude's chasing sheep for years and years and years around his farm, some days having to run days at a time. He was totally built for this.

• 19:21Ed Mylett?

  And so when the actual race comes along, he dominated because he'd pushed through pain for years and years and years and years. The actual race was nothing. And so I believe when you push through pain over and over and over again, it starts to not affect you like it once did. But if you avoid pain, if you shrink to it all the time, if you give in constantly, it weakens you. This episode is sponsored by Row. A lot of people assume GLP-1's a cost of fortune and that assumption keeps them from even looking into treatment. Row helps people find a more affordable path to FDA-approved GLP-1 treatment. Row wants to help people lose weight, that's why they have more affordable GLP-1 options, whether you're paying with insurance or cash.

• 20:05Ed Mylett?

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• 20:50Ed Mylett?

  and I spent a fortune in the first half of the place. And I'm like, "I don't want to do this anymore, but I want the best stuff." And that's where Wayfair came in. My wife wanted to get this new garden bed and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand vetted by product specialists that use a 10-point quality inspection system. Here's all I can tell you, the stuff has lasted over time, it looks great and I get compliments on it. Shop thousands of products across every style and budget, whether you're trying to refresh your space for fall or transform your space for Halloween. Use filters, custom photos and reviews to find the right fit for your home. More than 20 million verified five-star reviews, 20 million. So transform your space with the pieces that hold up to real life.

• 21:33Ed Mylett?

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• 21:47Speaker 05

  Wayfair, every style, every home.

• 21:50Ed Mylett?

  Remember this, when you've gone through a difficult, painful, mental experience, a bad day yesterday, physical, spiritual, maybe it's in your relationship, maybe you're just losing confidence, this is an opportunity to either strengthen you or weaken you. And how you respond means everything. I'm pretty sure Cliff, at 61 years old, in overalls, didn't have all of the pedigree to be the guy to win that race, never mind by 10 hours. But what he had done is trained himself to sleep less than most people. What he had done is trained himself to push through pain over and over and over. This wasn't something he trained for, it was his daily life. And he becomes this national icon. Isn't that incredible story? It's just incredible. So can you push through pain until you find your truth?

• 22:35Ed Mylett?

  I think of so many of my female friends, and they'll tell me the greatest experience of their life is having children, yet they'll tell me the most physically painful experience of their life for many of them was childbirth itself. And so for that unbelievably painful experience, you get the greatest gift of your life. Isn't that amazing? If you really look back at your life, man, you've come a long way. And if you look back, most lessons learned, most gains were made during your flu game, during your broken leg round, most of your great experience of your life were the painful ones. In some odd way, it's God's gift to us, because when you go through the real pain of life,

• 23:19Ed Mylett?

  I believe it draws you closer to God, at least in my case, I had to conclude, I can't do this on my own. I need you. Lord, please help me. And so ironically, sometimes pain is one of the great gifts we can have to strengthen our faith, but it also strengthens our resolve. There's also something that happens in us where we develop grit, and toughness, and resiliency, and a relentless pursuit, that our conditions aren't the thing that determines our behavior. Conditions and behavior can be separate. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:10, "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and

• 24:02Ed Mylett?

  make you strong, firm, and steadfast." Life can be heavy. There are moments when the weight of the trials we go through, it feels unbearable. Pain can linger, sometimes prayers seem unanswered, and oftentimes, we wonder whether we're ever going to feel whole again. But take heart, because your suffering is not the end of the story. Remember this, God sees every tear, every struggle, every weary side, and He's promised that after you've endured for a while, He'll step in and restore you. You've got to endure for a while, usually, and He steps in, strengthens you, He'll make you unshakable over time. Your pain is temporary, all pain is temporary, the only thing that's permanent is our souls.

• 24:45Ed Mylett?

  But God's grace is eternal, whatever your faith beliefs are, just know that. And what feels like brokenness now, it's simply the ground where He's planting something new for you. Just remember that. His hands are holding on to you all the time, they're rebuilding you, the storm you're facing right now, it's not going to destroy you, because you're going to get up, you're going to persevere, and you're going to fight. One way or the other, you're going to get through it. One way or the other, you'll get through this day. Remember this, one day at a time, one meeting at a time. My book, The Power of One More, I tell you this because I believe it to be true. You don't need to decide to never quit, you just need to decide, right now, I'm getting up. Right now, I'll make one more call. Right now, I'll do one more workout. Right now, I'll read one more book. Right now, I'll go one more day. Right now, one more. Just do one more.

• 25:29Ed Mylett?

  It's such a powerful concept. If you've not read The Power of One More, go get it. By the way, I should say this to you, you should be on my email list. Everything I send you is going to be free. If you go to edmylett.com, just put your email there, I think it says, "Join here," or "Follow here" at the top, whatever, go to edmylett.com and be in there. And by the way, let God's grace carry you, and trust that He'll bring you through, but you've got to step up and be resilient. Remember this, by the way, the best ability is availability. You've got to be available. The great ones, like Deion Sanders during that season, the best ability was he was available. So many people just aren't available. They missed too many hours, they missed too many meetings, they missed too much stuff. They allowed too many things in their conditions to affect their behavior.

• 26:11Ed Mylett?

  The great ones do not do this, and that's why habits matter, rituals matter, routines matter, because when we're down, when we're under pressure, when we're hurting, we resort to habit mode, because our brain kind of checks out. If your habit's to get up and fight, if your habit's to get up and do it anyway, if your habit is to show up and give it your best, regardless of how you feel, then that will be your default setting. But if your habit has always been, and it's been mine in the past, yeah, I've got to rest a little bit, I've got to evaluate this, you know, I'm really hurting right now, I'm going to take a breather, because that's what everybody does. But everybody's not successful.

• 26:54Ed Mylett?

  There's this whole thing in the world now, everybody wants to be successful, everybody wants to build a big company, everybody wants a great body, everybody wants a great relationship, everybody wants a bunch of money, but nobody's willing to do the work on the hard days. They're willing to do the work on the good days. Man, I just listened to a great Instagram video, man, I'm fired up. Yes, someone said yesterday, here we go. But what happens when three no's in a row, somebody quits on you, somebody hurts you, and you're feeling physically ill? Can you get up those days? Can you push through? Can you do what winners do? And when you do what winners do, you get what winners get, you get what Jordan gets, you get what Kerry Scruggs gets, you get what Tiger Woods gets. There's a great story, Kobe Bryant tears his Achilles tendon, but they need him to make the free throw, to stay in the game to win.

• 27:38Ed Mylett?

  They're like, Kobe, you tore your Achilles, it's okay, bro. We'll show you the clip. He walks out on the court and makes two free throws with a torn Achilles tendon. That's why he's Kobe. That's why he was Jordan. That's why he's Tiger. That's why she was Serena. That's why Kerry Scruggs is Kerry Scruggs. And I promise you, if you went through the lives of these people you admire, they played hurt, they found a way, they built that muscle. It's the separator. I tell my kids this all the time. Max, when he golfs, and he's like, Dad, I don't have my swing. Hey, Max, it's the days you don't have your swing, hang in, shoot a decent score today, go work on your swing on the range after, come back tomorrow with your A-game, but you've got to score with your B-game, or your D-game.

• 28:23Ed Mylett?

  This is the separator. And let God's grace carry you through. We all go through pain in our lives. We all do. It's part of life. It's like, if you're not in pain right now, you're probably going to be soon. So why not have a blueprint, a mindset, a habit, a way of being, that says, oh, I see what's going on here, devil. Okay, I'm stepping up, I'm getting more faithful, I'm taking more action, I'm coming back stronger, I'm built for this. And by the way, I know some of you listening go, I've just never been that way. That's okay, neither were these people until they started to be that way. No one's born like that. What happens is, they all hit a wall at one point and said, I'm tired of running, I'm

• 29:05Ed Mylett?

  tired of quitting, I'm tired of giving in when I'm hurt, I'm tired of backing up, I'm going to stop. At some point, Kobe Bryant said, I'm going to stop backing up, I'm going to stop making excuses, I'm going to stop quitting, I'm going to stop flinching, and I'm going to step into this. At some point, I did, and I'm not acquitting myself with those people, but I know what it's like to give in to an injury. I know what it's like to lay down too long when I'm down. I know many years ago, even at the prime of my health and fitness, I didn't work like I do now, and I'm probably in the worst physical condition I've been in in decades, actually, certainly ever. Yet I think I've been delivering the best content of my life.

• 29:47Ed Mylett?

  Most athletes will tell you, by the way, any of you that played sports, my dad used to tell me this when I'd play sick, most athletes, most business people, play better hurt, especially if you've got a little bit of a fever running, everything kind of slows down a little bit. It causes you to focus a little bit deeper, and a little bit more. You kind of have to move out all the noise and stay in the moment, because that's all you have energy for. A lot of times, you're better. And here's the truth, none of that's real pain. I was thinking about real pain this morning, I woke up, had a lot on my mind, and I was still fuzzy from waking up, and I thought, oh, I'll call Dad. And it wasn't for about 10 minutes, until I got up and started to move around, I remembered

• 30:31Ed Mylett?

  I can't call my Dad. My Dad's been passed away now for three years. I don't know if any of you's ever lost somebody, but every once in a while, you forget. You have a great moment, you think you'll call him, or you have a dream that's so real when they're in it. And I woke up this morning, and for about 10 minutes, I was planning on calling my Dad this morning, and then I realized I can't. You don't know real pain until you crave a conversation with someone that's no longer with us. That's some pain. And then I had to decide today, don't feel real good, wish I could call my Dad, and I can't, that hurts.

• 31:13Ed Mylett?

  I think I'll honor him with what I do today. I could have chose a different decision. Yeah. I worked real hard. I've got a little bit of money. Be okay if I kick the curb, can down the curb a little bit. Did this tomorrow.

• 31:30Ed Mylett?

  I don't want to do that. Fact, what my producer will tell you is I texted him about two hours ago. I said, let's do one more today, too. So we're actually doing more today. He probably wondered why. He's learning right now. I decided to do more today. Because it's one of those days. I'm not going to meet my normal standard. I'm going to do one more.

• 31:51Ed Mylett?

  So real pain is that stuff.

• 31:55Ed Mylett?

  And if you have that in your life where you can't call someone because they're not here anymore, honor them and make them proud of you with what you do. On the days you're hurting. Very short intermission here, folks. I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far. Don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Now on to our next guest. Welcome back, everybody. I've been talking to this man about having him on the show here for, I don't know, like six or eight months. And you would think, well, you want to have him on because he's this, you know, Grammy nominated artist that everybody knows. And it's not really why I wanted him on. I wanted him on because this man has dimension and depth.

• 32:30Ed Mylett?

  He's a really unique person because he's obviously very talented, sold millions and millions of records, but he's got this dimension and depth because of his life experience and because of his work on himself and personal development. He's also got a book out called Adversity for Sale, and it's really, really good. I read the entire thing in two days. So Jeezy J Jenkins, welcome to the show.

• 32:49Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  What's up? How you doing, my brother?

• 32:51Ed Mylett?

  It's so good to have you and I'm doing very well.

• 32:53Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  It's an honor to be here, man.

• 32:54Ed Mylett?

  Well, thank you. I'm honored to have you.

• 32:56Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I listen to your show every morning. Well, I do, you know, you put episodes out like every couple of days. I check you out.

• 33:01Ed Mylett?

  Thank you.

• 33:02Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 33:02Ed Mylett?

  You wrote one about adversity.

• 33:04Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yes.

• 33:05Ed Mylett?

  And I'm like, because this is a ton of topics. You could have done about, you know, overcoming limited beliefs, overcoming your environment, because you had, you transcended an environment, which is very rare in life. Why is adversity the topic of the book? And why did you think this is the thing I want to talk about?

• 33:21Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Oh, wow. That's a great question.

• 33:24Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  That's what I pride myself in. You know what I'm saying? Like, I would be that adversity specialist, if you will.

• 33:31Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 33:33Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  That's what keeps me going. That's, that's, that's my purpose. My purpose is to continue to evolve no matter what. But to continue to give that information back to my culture and to my people and to be an example of what it's like to, to come out of that. Because every situation that I've been in, and it's funny that we was talking about God. I don't care how crazy it got. He always puts somebody in my life around the time that I needed some information or a ear or a connection or just the process. It never fails, right? And

• 34:13Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I believe, I truly believe that he does that for me to show people that you can maintain your integrity and, and, and be a solid individual and still survive, right?

• 34:26Ed Mylett?

  Love it.

• 34:27Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You know, without, without doing anything that would go against who you are as a man and then your legacy. Because you, you know, you, when you think about some of the great leaders, they did great things, right? But their integrity is what kept you locked into them, right? Because you got people that's successful, but they did a lot of foul things. And when you hear people talk about them, you're like, wow, I never knew that. And, and adversity to me is that small glare of hope. Because if I tell you what I went through in this book, your life might be totally different, but you might be up against the same odds.

• 35:05Ed Mylett?

  I can tell you that that's the truth. My life is totally different than yours. But I see, great storytellers tell me stories with a you meaning.

• 35:14Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 35:14Ed Mylett?

  So as I read your work, I didn't grow up like that, but I have my version of it in my life, right? And so the lessons in the book, the lessons in this conversation. I don't care what someone's life story is. These are facts. Like, you said something so important that God has sent you that person when you needed him, the information, the insight, whatever it might be.

• 35:34Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 35:35Ed Mylett?

  I want everybody to hear this man said this, and the reason that I want you to hear it is he does that for you too. The difference is you need to be in expectation that he's going to and aware that he's going to, because he has probably sent those people to you previously in your life. And if you're not aware he's doing it or open to the possibility he's doing it, you will miss them.

• 35:54Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 35:54Ed Mylett?

  You will miss them. It's like that analogy of the people that are sitting on the roof during the flood. Someone comes by and says, hey, jump in the boat. Nope, I'm waiting for God to save me. Somebody else comes by in a boat. I'm waiting for God to save me. Third guy comes by in a boat. I'm waiting for God to save me. Then they drown and they get to heaven and they go, God, I thought you were going to save me. He goes, I sent three damn people in a boat.

• 36:13Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Three boats.

• 36:13Ed Mylett?

  Get in the damn boat, right? And so there's a, there's some, there's, you have to be in expectation that God is going to send you a blessing at some point. But if you're not looking for it and expecting it, you don't hear them or see them or feel them, and then you miss them. So you know those pieces in your closet that you find yourself wearing like on repeat all the time? That sweater that kind of just goes with everything or these perfect pair of pants? Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy, and that's what Quince does best. Quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples with premium materials like a hundred percent Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton. The styles are timeless, versatile and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for every day. It's what I'm wearing right now. They give you the softness and quality you'd expect from a luxury brand without the price tag.

• 36:56Ed Mylett?

  Quince also makes premium pants, fitted tees and polos and breathable activewear. Quality basics designed to work with your wardrobe and hold up to everyday wear. I love their cotton tees. I'm wearing one now and I get a ton of compliments when I wear them on the podcast and when I speak. So find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com/ed for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q U I N C E dot com slash ed. So you know, I've been trying to take my health and my morning routine to the next level. And I used to do a whole bunch of different stuff, tons of different supplements, and then I found all in one in a drink with IM8. IM8 is the way to simplify your supplement routine. Finally, once and for all.

• 37:42Ed Mylett?

  16 supplements replaced 90 ingredients across nine major organ systems in one drink. You can have all these supplements for $2.61 a day. I've changed my mornings. The whole IM8 routine has changed my mornings. I feel great and I bring energy to the entire day. Go to im8health.com/ed10 right now or click the link in the description and use code ED10 for a free welcome kit. Five free travel sachets plus 10% off your order. That's code ED10 at im8health.com/ed10. Code ED10 at im8health.com/ed10. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

• 38:27Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You have to be in a good place too, though. You have to be in a good place with yourself. I really realized that because there was times that I wasn't in a good place for myself and it was just a bunch of noise. I let things on the outside of me control my emotions, how I felt, you know what I'm saying? I, I just had to come to a place where, and I'm not there yet, of course, but I just started to understand what, what peace was like to get a little taste of that. And I started to understand what going inward was about. Because the minute I started going inward, everything changed, right? Because now I'm not, I can't fault anyone in my life for what they done to me.

• 39:07Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I have to look inside and see what, how I reacted or what I've done to contribute to that, right? And, and I can't blame anyone else, right? And for me,

• 39:20Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  when I started to understand that is when things started to slow down, right? Because I wasn't present. I go have conversations with people. It's all on the surface. Yeah, it's all good, whatever. I'm gone. But then I started taking time, like to look people in the eyes and be like, are you all right, man? How, how you feeling? Like, what's going on? And I started to have conversations where I wasn't, you know, leading all of the conversation. Like, you know, just tell me, you know, how you feeling? What's going on? And when people came to me, I, you know, you know, and I pride myself on having a lot of advice. That's just like my thing, you know, I think I'm like, you know, the therapist among the crew. You know what I'm saying? But I ask them. And I ask them now, though. I say, you know, one is, you know, do you want me to just listen? You know what I'm saying? Two is, do you want me to tell you what I think? Or three is, do you want me to side with you? Because I could do that too.

• 40:03Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You know what I'm saying? So I could be like, oh, that's crazy. That shit would never happen. And I started to understand because, you know, where we come from, it's hard for somebody to tell you how they really feel. It took me until I was 40 to tell somebody I was, I wasn't, I was sad or I was depressed. You know what I'm saying? Think about that. Or, or I don't, I, I don't feel confident about this. You know what I'm saying? Or, or that I, I might be, you know, concerned.

• 40:27Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 40:28Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Because when you're that guy, you have to.

• 40:30Ed Mylett?

  Can't show weakness.

• 40:31Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah, you can't show anything.

• 40:32Ed Mylett?

  You said earlier, I'm depressed. I'm drinking.

• 40:34Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 40:35Ed Mylett?

  I'm drinking a bottle of champagne in the morning, moving to tequila in the afternoon.

• 40:38Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 40:38Ed Mylett?

  You're eating, you're heavy.

• 40:39Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 40:40Ed Mylett?

  Right? You're stressed, you're worried, you're running, you're running, you're running. Is there any one thing you did? Or was there any one moment or was it just an accumulation of things? You're like, that's enough. I can't do this anymore.

• 40:49Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I would say this, I didn't have a purpose before then. I was just chasing money and trying to get out of my situation. And he did that. God did that for me. He took me out of my situation. And I'm four albums in, about eight million records sold.

• 41:03Ed Mylett?

  Crazy.

• 41:04Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Like, but what am I doing for him? What, what, how am I continuing his message? What, what am I doing? He, he, he took me out of a situation where I could have had a life sentence. It was there. I, I still don't know how I, by the way, I, I think about that all the time, but it was there, right? And I've lost, you know, so many people and I sat there and I'm just like, yo, like, you know, right now I'm the issue. I need to work on myself because the things that I have going on the side of me is no way to lead anyone, right? And I'm making music. So I got millions of people listening to me and, and listening to what I'm saying. I'm not a saint. But I do got common sense, right?

• 41:44Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And it's just like, I'm, I'm saying things that might affect people in different ways, but I'm like, and, and my thing is the audio got to match the video, right? So I'm saying, you know what I'm saying? I'm saying this stuff, but I'm doing something else, right? And I gotta get online with what I'm saying, right? So now I'm, I'm walking into, and it was the scariest thing in my life. And by the way, this will be clear, like, I was met with a moment where I knew it was a moment, meaning I was, I was, my first album came out, I was selling, um, and this is a, a, a statute of limitations, by the way, anybody listen, I'm good. I talked to my lawyers about it. And I had to make,

• 42:28Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I had to make a decision, uh, which was one of the, the biggest decisions. I had to make a decision. What I was gonna do, because I was trying to balance the streets and music. And I had some small piece of success. And I had to walk away cold turkey from the streets. Now, mind you, and that mean depend on music, right? And when I did that, I had three of those next tail chirp phones. That's what we used to talk on. And all those phones had a lot of money on them, like I had people owe me money. And I woke up and I just said, I'm not doing this no more. Put the phones in the bag, threw them in the trash bin in my building and I, and I walked away. Right? And that was like my first, like, okay, I'm gonna do this music stuff.

• 43:09Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Now, mind you, about eight months later, I'm performing at a show and tear my vocal cords. Now, I can't talk. I got a record deal with a major label. I can't talk. I got shows booked up from here to two thousand, whatever. I can't go on the stage. And that was the first time he humbled me. He humbled me. He humbled me. He humbled me and I had to really look at this and go, I'm so close. I'm, this could happen. What, what do I need to do? And that was just a lot of praying, a lot of confusion. And then he let me live. I got a throat surgery that I didn't have insurance at the time. Imagine I had Lamborghinis, all this stuff and no, no health insurance. Imagine that.

• 43:54Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  So I had to pay for my surgery with cash. And then I got back out there and I started the same, same thing. And then that's when he hit me again with Bell's palsy. He hit me with Bell's palsy in my face.

• 44:06Ed Mylett?

  For real?

• 44:07Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  He hit my face. Got crooked and my mouth was, and it was like my eye was shut.

• 44:12Ed Mylett?

  Was that from stress?

• 44:13Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  That was God. Cause I, he, he, he let me live again and I went back out and started doing the same thing. And was going about it the same way. And after that, I was just like, you know what, man? I gotta change something because I've been too blessed. You know what I'm saying? And, and, and, and now I'm, I'm looking at it and I'm going like, the next thing might not even be something I can recover from. And that's what started me to just start to understand that I gotta start fixing some of my ways. And it first started with like a lot of my personal stuff I would do. Like, you know, just, you know, I, I came from a situation where if you sit down with somebody, it's like sitting down and you're being interrogated. I'm not gonna tell you the truth. You know what I'm saying? I can't, you know what I'm saying? It's like, it's against the code and it might get me in a lot of trouble. But then I started to notice that a grown man should never lie.

• 44:59Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Even if it's gonna get him out of trouble. You know what I'm saying? So now I gotta change this, you know? And that wasn't easy to do because I was taught to say whatever I had to say to get out of any situation. And now I'm having to work through this. And that was like the first step, but then it started going on different steps, different steps. And when I got to a place where I started to, um, to answer your question, when I started to realize that I gotta, I gotta do some work. Right? I didn't know where, I didn't know where to start. I just started YouTube and stuff, talking to older people, telling I had my business partner now. He's been my business partner for like 20 years. I would just go sit with him and tell him what's really going on. I'm like, man, I got about five people trying to kill me.

• 45:39Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I got beef with these guys over here and that. And then this is happening, that was, I was in a shootout last week. And now this is that, and I gotta go to California and this is happening. And he's just like, okay, okay, just calm down. Okay, what are you, what are you concerned about most? And then we started to like work through problems. And he's like, okay, well, you, have you ever thought about reaching out to them and, you know, just having a conversation? But my thing was, you know, they're the opposition, so I gotta, I gotta, I gotta press. Cause I can't, I can't let my guys think that I'm trying to sort all these things out. And, and I just started to understand that there is a such thing called conflict resolution. So that started to help me out a little bit as far as my life. And now I got in a space where I started having a little peace. And I was able to start like working on myself, like my health and reading books and just all these different things.

• 46:25Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And that thirst for knowledge kicked back in, cause I hate learning in school. When I was in school, like I dropped out of school in the sixth grade. I got my GED when I was in bootcamp.

• 46:32Ed Mylett?

  That's crazy.

• 46:33Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right? And then when, and like, in, in the, around that time, it just hit me again. I just had this thirst for like knowledge. And I just started going around asking people questions and think about this now. It went from me asking, you know, somebody that I knew that worked at a restaurant that I just felt like was, had some type of prestige. From that point to me calling John Maxwell and going, hey, uh, I got seven questions I need to ask you. You know, John, he like, shoot them at me. To that, to Robert Greene, you know, to Robin Shurma, to all these different people.

• 47:03Ed Mylett?

  Tony.

• 47:04Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Tony Robbins. And all these, and, and not to like name drop, but it's just like, I'm getting this information now to give back to the culture. Because I'm able to go outside of my comfort zone and get it. But this stuff helps me with my life as well. Like we was talking about Louis earlier, like, but I've always been that type of person. So to answer your question, I got the information from the people that I respected at the time that I was able to mingle with. And I don't come as a, you know, my reputation exceeds me. Meaning like I don't come, and by the way, the most gangsta's guys where I'm from are the coolest guys you ever see. They're not loud, they're not boisterous. They're like Denzel in, uh, uh, uh, American Gangster. They're real smooth. But they will reach out and touch you.

• 47:49Ed Mylett?

  I gotta tell you, this is like an all time great conversation. It's all time great conversation. A lot of things about you that I noticed. One is like how self-aware you are. Just driving out here, it's like, I think you're here today, like there's millions of people around me like, oh my God, this is unbelievable. But at the same time, lately on this show, God sends me the right person in that seat for me. Like I was, I've got some stuff going on in my life right now that's not great. And, um, some of it's betrayal stuff with other people, like we're talking about. However, I was just talking to somebody, actually someone that's producing a TV show I'm doing right now. Literally before you got here, I was driving out here. And I said, I wanna figure out what God's trying to teach me with this lesson. And that's one of the things you said earlier is like, what am I supposed to be learning from this? What am I supposed to be?

• 48:32Ed Mylett?

  I'm not gonna get nothing for, Eric Thomas says all the time, you better get something for your pain.

• 48:36Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 48:36Ed Mylett?

  You know? And the other thing you do very well is a lot of times, when you begin to teach things you're learning, you begin to own them more. So a lot of you that are learning things, listening to the show, you don't teach it enough to other people. And the more you begin to teach it, the more you actually begin to live it. People think, I can't teach any of this until I'm living it. No, you could say, look, I'm not good at this yet, but this is what I'm learning. And the more you begin to teach something, I've found in my own life, like not everything I've taught all the time I was doing at the time, but I was honest enough to say I wasn't. This isn't me yet, but let me tell you, this is what so and so gave me advice on, or what I know I need to change about me. And the more I taught things, the more I own them. The other thing I've always wanted to know about you, because, and I know the answer because it's in the book and in interviews you've done.

• 49:20Ed Mylett?

  But of all the people you collaborated with, one of the other things that holds people back in addition to, and by the way, I wanna step back. You play such an important role in culture right now because of what you just said. There are not enough people reaching people in the communities you come from, or young people.

• 49:36Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 49:37Ed Mylett?

  With this knowledge and information. The world's different. This isn't 30 years ago where you could just get a Tony Robbins tape.

• 49:42Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 49:43Ed Mylett?

  There are dudes like me, guys like you, people like John, that this information's there. But it's not what most people from these communities are consuming on their feed every single day. And the fact that you're saying, hey, listen, I come from this, let me teach you this. And this could be someone from a particular culture, particular age group, particular part of the world. That's why I do this. This isn't, podcasting is not a big source of revenue for me. Like I got businesses.

• 50:10Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  That's real.

• 50:10Ed Mylett?

  Right? But what it is for me is, and by the way, serious, no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We're in the middle of a negotiation right now. That's a whole other story. But having said that, um, but, but I, I wanna make sure to acknowledge you and the role that you're playing. And again, this combination.

• 50:26Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I received that.

• 50:27Ed Mylett?

  It's a fact and the combination of your humility with your confidence is crazy. That was a great conversation. And if you wanna hear the full interview, be sure to follow the Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Here's an excerpt I did with our next guest. Welcome back to the show, everybody. Well, I wish this was in person, but it'll still be fire today. I'm with, uh, there is no better motivational speaker of all time. That's what you all know him for. But I got to know him a little better and I'm gonna tell you one thing about him. I don't know a better man. I wish I was around him more so I could tell you more stories. But I will tell you this, when my book came out, very few people stepped forward and said, hey, brother, how can I help you?

• 51:08Ed Mylett?

  And this man stepped forward in a way like nobody else did and helped me in ways that I will never forget till the day I die. His support for me and my family. And as great of a communicator as he is, I admire him. I look up to him as a husband, as a father, as a friend, and as an entrepreneur as well. But particularly as a man of faith and as a husband and a father, I know no better man than him. And I could give somebody no bigger compliment, man to man, than I'm giving him right now. So ET, Eric Thomas, welcome back to the show. I love you and it's great to have you here.

• 51:39Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  What's up fam? Man, I love you as well.

• 51:41Ed Mylett?

  You've been around lots of highly successful people and you are one. And one of the things that I think most people don't know is the level of work required of effort. Meaning like.

• 51:55Ed Mylett?

  I don't know. I, I, I think if someone spent the last five years with me in business and they, I'm not trying to brag, but like if they thought they worked hard, there's levels to this game. Or like in the speaking game, you and I talked when the, the stuff hit the last couple of years. There's just levels to the work ethic and the grind, the things you gotta do. You look at a Steph Curry in basketball, oh, he's such a gifted shooter. Actually, he's not. Actually, it's the grind. Actually, Tiger and Jack Nicklaus, the amount of golf balls they hit. Actually, Judge and Otani in baseball, you have no idea the amount of work. And even in coaching, you and I've been around all these great college football coaches, but I think it's one of the hardest jobs in the world. There's a level to where Saban played at, Dabo Sweeney, who I know you've been with.

• 52:37Ed Mylett?

  Like, so I think most people are like it about, and you talk about this a lot, like maybe the 50, 60% of their capacity or effort. And that is not going to get it done, no matter how much you sit around and do other things that serve you. There's a level to this thing and you've been close to it and you are at it. Talk about that for a minute.

• 52:56Eric Thomas?

  Look, I, I want to say this to everybody that's listening. Here's what I think would be the easier thing to do. Just lower your expectations. I'm just being real. Like, you know, when I was with Ed and he was doing the book launch, I'm just being real. I did a book launch, it would probably 70% on that level in terms of, I wasn't just in the, bruh. Don't get it twisted. I'm not a good guy. Okay. I'm, God makes me a better man. I was in the room learning. I wouldn't, I, I promise y'all, I wasn't just in there talking. Listen to me. I don't even know if Ed knows this. After, before I did my thing and after I did my thing, I was all the way in the back sitting down. I was all the way at the back of the room with a pen in the bag.

• 53:41Ed Mylett?

  I didn't know that.

• 53:41Eric Thomas?

  Like studying, like yo, E, bruh, this is being real. You not on this level. Like you're not, you're not, one, you're not on this level in terms of like maximizing, you know, your network. Like you're not, you're not, you're not on that. The, the space that we were in. Listen to me. I don't know if I told you this, but your, your, your guy, he end up helping me, um, like what, what would you call it? Like renovate the church and put beautiful sign on it. He don't even live here. He don't even live here. He, he helped, he helped me. He made some phone calls. He called and he's like, E, if I gotta leave Charlotte and come down there, I got you.

• 54:22Eric Thomas?

  But I, I'm gonna try to find somebody. This is what I'm talking about, y'all. Like, so I was in the building, learning, seeing who Ed was connecting with, then connecting with them afterward. Look, so here's my deal. When I was in the room, I had to say to myself, E, if you want some of this stuff, Ed got. E, you gonna have to, gotta raise your game some. So you got an option. You could even go, hey, me being in the room with Ed and watching what Ed was doing, this, this is strictly for recreational purposes. You feel me? This, hey, this recreational purpose, bruh. Go ahead, get out of here. Or, hey, E, you, you, God showed it to you. He showed it to you. He showed you a level. Are you ready? And so for me, it was like, absolutely, I'm ready. So I just want to say this to you guys.

• 55:07Eric Thomas?

  Either lower your expectations because you don't have to do everything you see other people do. You don't have to do it. You could just go, man, I, I, it's like going to a basketball game. You're not trying to suit up and do what Curry does, but when you look at it, you kind of thinking, oh, he human, like I'm human. So I can't, watch yourself. Okay. Watch yourself. You might not want to put them sneaks on. You might not want to get in that gym. And when I saw Ed do, when I went back, I was like, okay, E, number one, you gotta get more organized. So like you got passion, you got energy. But what you saw in Ed, you saw a system. You saw a structure. You saw people over here and people over here and people doing it and people in the back. And when you get in, people in the parking. So it's like, E, when you get to the crib,

• 55:52Eric Thomas?

  from a speaking standpoint, you, you definitely give it 1,000%. But from a structural standpoint, you're not giving 1,000%. Then I look at the packages in the dip and I was like, E, you don't got, so y'all might've saw, if you watched it, it was a group in here, then it was a group out there, and then the level of men that was on stage, who are also dominant in their particular area. Bruh, I was with people who I've only seen in a podcast. I only see these dudes on social media. I ain't never been in a room with them before. I was in a room with them. And so, yes, you know, I had to come home, not necessarily get up earlier, not necessarily grind physically harder, but I had to take my mental game to another level.

• 56:34Eric Thomas?

  I had to take my systems game to another level. I had to, this is a grind that you probably don't know. I had to remove people, which hurts to bring in a different group of people to take me where I wanted to go. Because I realized a group that was with me, phenomenal group of humans, phenomenal group of people. They probably would get to heaven before I get there. But in order to take me from number four to number one, they weren't necessarily the people that could do that. So to Ed's point, I personally went home and, and did it, um, an evaluation on ET. I personally studied ET and said, yeah, you got it going over here. But this seed is an apple seed, an orange seed. This is not a watermelon seed.

• 57:17Eric Thomas?

  And these seeds that you're planting will never get you watermelon. So, so yep, you got some dynamic. Are you posting every day? You putting out dynamic stuff, but that will not get what you saw Ed do in terms of systems. And so you gotta come home and your new grind is system. I don't know what your grind is, but I'm telling you, I had to start reading books. I had to go to conferences. I had to shift what I was watching online. I had to shift who I was following. Great humans, great people. They were only going to help me sustain this energy. They weren't going to help me with the structure. Here's what I realized. E, nobody's better than you, but there are some people who's got better systems than you.

• 57:59Eric Thomas?

  And so if you want to see growth, you gotta start grinding on the systems level. So don't, I don't want you to get what Ed said and you miss it. You like, oh, I gotta get up earlier. I gotta grind. Maybe you don't have to get up earlier to accomplish what you've already accomplished. But to get this done, you do have to make some adjustments. And that's what the grind looked like. And that's what the hustle looked like. And can I say this, Ed? I'm mad, I don't even know if I ever said this before, but sometimes, and I don't know if you've experienced this, sometimes, bruh, you putting up 40 with 30 rebounds and you like whatever, and then you go somewhere, God shows you. And I was talking to my son the other day and he, he kind of was hurt because he was like, dad, you know, you, you, you acting like I'm,

• 58:43Eric Thomas?

  and I said, hold up, I'm sorry. You putting up 30, you putting up 10, but the 30 points and the 10 rebounds have nothing to do with the assist. You don't get credit for assists because you scored and you got rebounds. They, they don't, they don't take your points and go, well, we gonna put those over and rebound. They don't take your rebounds and go, we gonna put those with your assist. And when I left you, you know, I, I, there was a part of me that was like, God, you want me to do more?

• 59:11Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 59:12Eric Thomas?

  You want me to do more? Am I not grinding enough? He was like, absolutely. And every seed you planted is gonna grow. But you just looked at what Ed was doing and you saw there was a gap. So you have a choice to make here. You got rebounds, you got points, but the assists, huh? You, you at zero. So what do you want to do? And there was a, there was a moment where I had to go,

• 59:40Eric Thomas?

  you're not overwhelmed. You're just rising to the level that God is asking you to rise.

• 59:45Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 59:45Eric Thomas?

  There's no anxiety. The Bible said, be anxious for nothing, but in all things, through prayer and supplication, make your request known to God. But there was a 32nd boy was like, man, God, how am I gonna be blessed? When I, he said, how? One, that's your boy. So you can just call.

• 1:00:03Ed Mylett?

  Of course.

• 1:00:03Eric Thomas?

  Then I had Rory in the back interviewing me. God like, yo, you don't have to do it. You could just, and then just, and then I did just that. My relationship with Rory, you know, went from a person that, you know, respects him, to sitting at his feet, to listen to the podcast, to studying you guys. And I can honestly say, after that event, system wise, you know, I've gone to another level. So to me, that's what it looks like when your expectations, your dreams, your goals and your grind match. And if y'all not ready to work, it doesn't make you a bad human. Just lower your expectations.

• 1:00:37Ed Mylett?

  Gosh, that's so, so good. And that idea of the grind, I want to say one thing, everybody. When he's talking about rebounds and points, the application of that for you is this, is that if you're average, you keep giving yourself credit for the things you're already doing. But if you want to be extraordinary, you gotta go, what's the thing? Like the power of one more in the book. I talked about you're one decision away. I think all of you listening to this right now, if I can be honest with you, you already know what it is. You know the thing you're not doing, you need to be doing that would change your life and your business. You already know what it is. It's having the guts, the courage, the faith to call the shot. Like in ET's case, I'm gonna go back, I need to work harder. I gotta get more systematic. Maybe I could even work less hard if I put these systems in place. For you, it might be something you are doing or that you need to stop doing to get your life to the next level.

• 1:01:21Ed Mylett?

  Before we start the interview with my next guest, just want to remind you all that you can subscribe to the show on YouTube or follow the show on Apple or Spotify. We have all the links in our show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Now on with the show. All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. Hey, have you ever thought about like running a marathon? Cause I've thought about it. I'm like, there's a, there's an Ironman in Coeur d'Alene where I spent my summers. Just the marathon part of it. I was like, that's bananas. 26 miles, you know? And have you ever thought about doing that? Or you ever watched one of these Ironmans and go, man, I'm gonna do that someday? And by the way, it's like about a two and a half mile swim, 112 miles on a bike, 26 mile run.

• 1:02:02Ed Mylett?

  That's kind of what an iron length triathlon is. What you imagine doing one of those? Then I want you to imagine getting up the next day and doing it again. Can you imagine? Back to back days. Then I want you to contemplate, thinking about doing it, 30 freaking days in a row. You got that? How about 50 days in a row?

• 1:02:28Ed Mylett?

  How about a hundred days in a row? Get your mind around that. Okay? That would be one of the great all time athletic endurance feats in the history of the world and simultaneously, one of the great mental toughness and resiliency feats of all time. Guess what? I got the dude here today who did it. A hundred in a row in a hundred days. His name is Iron Cowboy, James Lawrence. Welcome to the program, brother.

• 1:02:59James Lawrence?

  Okay, so I, I, I don't know if you tuned out after day 100. Do you know what we did the next day?

• 1:03:07Ed Mylett?

  No, I don't.

• 1:03:10James Lawrence?

  So, um, we did 101.

• 1:03:14Ed Mylett?

  Did you really?

• 1:03:15James Lawrence?

  And, um,

• 1:03:16Ed Mylett?

  Did you really?

• 1:03:17James Lawrence?

  Yeah, so we went live every day during the swim and, and I, I think this is important because of who you are and, you know, your tagline of, uh, max out. And, and we turned on the live the following day when I would have normally been swimming every single day. And it was, and it was just me in the pool by myself, um, doing one more. And I got asked the question a lot, why did you do one more? And I had a lot of people understand, and then I had a lot of people just, they were confused. And I, I, I hate the, cause my, the way I feed my family is I, I get on stage and we tell our story.

• 1:04:01James Lawrence?

  We, we motivate and we do coaching and whatnot. Um, and I, and I love, um, talking from stage and impacting people. And I, I, I don't appreciate the speakers that are out there telling, uh, trying to teach a lesson when they haven't done it. They haven't been on the battlefield in the battle. And I felt like I would be a hypocrite if I told people that you can get up and you can do one more. And it, the campaign, day 100 was on a Tuesday and Sunday night I said, I just got the most intense impression. James, you need to do one more.

• 1:04:47James Lawrence?

  And, and I was like, are you freaking kidding me? Like I am broken, like I am mentally exhausted. I've been showing up for a quarter of a year. Why would I do one more? And they, and, and I got the impression it's not for you. And, and I felt like our team needed to show up and do one more because on your journey, when you're broken and when you are at your limit, I promise you, you can get up and you can do one more. And that one more might be by yourself. And I don't know how many times you're going to have to get up and do one more by yourself.

• 1:05:27James Lawrence?

  But I promise you, you can get up one more. And I didn't feel like I, I could bring integrity to our story. If I didn't go out and as a team, we did one more. And so we did, we did 101 because I, I want to lead from the front and I want to show people when you are broken. And when you have reached your limit, you can do one more.

• 1:05:54Ed Mylett?

  James, the book I'm writing right now is called One More.

• 1:05:58James Lawrence?

  You just stole the title of my next book, Ed. We're in a fight.

• 1:06:02Ed Mylett?

  I'm gonna be out before you. It's, uh, and I'm adding your story to the book because I have the rights to this podcast.

• 1:06:12Ed Mylett?

  But I'm not exaggerating. I'm almost done. And I told you that you went on this journey. You did this. I know you did it for my audience, but you just did it for me. And so I'm sure the books will be very different in content. But yeah, the, my book is The Power of One More and it'll be out in the fall.

• 1:06:27James Lawrence?

  I am so excited for that book, Ed.

• 1:06:29Ed Mylett?

  I'm just blown away that you just said that. That may be the craziest thing that's ever been done on the show. And it was at the end. I hope everyone's still listening because that's a, that's a wow. Thank God you added that too. An unbelievable conversation. So that was a great conversation. Be sure to follow the Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Today is very easy for me. It's a joy because I get a chance to share one of my best friend's brilliant mind and incredible heart with you guys. He's been on the show multiple times and you guys know I'm, I'm pretty judicious about who I have on the show more than one time. And so when someone repeats, it makes me know and you should know that there's somebody that I just believe makes a huge impact in the world.

• 1:07:13Ed Mylett?

  And so my dear friend that's here today is the co-founder of mastermind.com along with his partner and friend and my friend, Tony Robbins. And he's here to talk today about changing your life, but also an event they have called the game has changed live event. It's a live event. It's called the game has changed. It's June 13th through 15th of 2024 coming up. And if you're interested in the event, which you should be, just go to deanandtonylive.com/ed. Deanandtonylive.com/ed. And that means Dean Graziosi must be here today. So Dean, welcome to the show, brother.

• 1:07:49Dean Graziosi?

  It's always so good to be here with you. And, uh, this is how we get to catch up. I know we're both busy, so we get to catch up on a podcast every two years. It's fantastic.

• 1:07:58Ed Mylett?

  Here's something you're gonna have to all accept and, and, and if you already have at an even deeper level. If you're gonna win, you gotta change your relationship with pain. You gotta do hard things and build the habit of doing hard things. And what you wouldn't know about Dean, but I'm gonna make him speak to it right now. This dude leans, his tendency is to drive through the smoke. I tell a story about, we used to sponsor Carl Edwards, the NASCAR driver. I said, what's the scariest thing about driving NASCAR? He goes, easy question to answer. When there's an accident in front of you and there's all this smoke and you're gonna drive 150 miles an hour through that smoke and you don't know what's on the other side, you could be hitting something head on and you're done.

• 1:08:41Ed Mylett?

  And he said, I've learned to drive through the smoke. And the people that I know that are ultra successful, they have a different relationship with fear and pain and they drive through the smoke. They do hard things. They build the muscle fibers mentally of doing hard things that other people avoid doing or try to find a way around a smarter, easier way. And that is not you. You've gotten where you are and I don't want you to be humble about this because this dude does difficult things. He does difficult things, quite frankly, like most people do easy things. He just runs towards the smoke. Tell them about that about you. Don't be humble.

• 1:09:21Dean Graziosi?

  And I appreciate the, the kind words.

• 1:09:25Dean Graziosi?

  I would have to say it's true because what I realized at a young age is my father, I'm not going back to childhood, but my father stressed about all the little things. And, and you know, you don't realize this stuff when you're in it, Ed. You realize when you look back after 20, 30 years, but my dad freaked out and stressed about hundred dollar ideas, thousand dollar ideas. And I watched the pain this guy went through. And I remember at a young age, just thinking to myself, if I solve, like my dad worries so much about the little things, what if I put that much energy in just the bigger things? And, and what happens when you're young and you start that way of thinking? It's honestly a lot easier because I was 17, 18, young, naive, dumb in some cases, right? So I just ran towards the fire saying, if my dad's gonna stress so much about a thousand dollar deal,

• 1:10:10Dean Graziosi?

  what if I did it on 5,000, $10,000 deals? And the proof is in the pudding and you know this, Ed. Some of your biggest deals that you probably have done in your life had less stress than one of the smaller deals you've done. And what I've done is just programmed myself to say, how could I go after something bigger? You know, I just be honest. I, I read, um, Green Lights by McConaughey, right?

• 1:10:31Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 1:10:32Dean Graziosi?

  I get done with that book, just like I felt with your book. I got done. I'm like, damn, this is good. I want more. Like, uh, the world needs more McConaughey. So I had a mutual friend. I found, I got a voice memo over to McConaughey. And I told my team, we're gonna, we're gonna help this dude build a course through what we do, right? We're gonna help build a course. We're gonna do a live event and, uh, we're gonna help get this course in the hands of tens of thousands of people. My team's like, ah, how the heck could we get that done? Right? When I got on the phone with his attorney, uh, working with celebrities is different. You have an agent, you have attorney, you have somebody and, and rightfully so, this crazy world, you do one thing off, it could hurt your brand, right? We get done with a meeting, my team gets off and goes, no way this is happening. How do you make that person happy, that person happy, that person happy?

• 1:11:16Dean Graziosi?

  McConaughey is the sweetest man on the planet. You've, you've interviewed him. He's, he's sweetest guy, but my team's like, no way that's happening. So we get done with this meeting and I go in and sit with my team. I'm like, what do you guys think? Like no way in hell. It's never gonna happen. How do you satisfy so many people? And I'm like, listen, you guys, that means no one else can do it besides us. Let's, let's just do whatever it takes. And if we go all the way and it doesn't happen, then I'm gonna love the lessons we learned along this journey. And I, I know it takes years to get up to that, you know, to, to, to do an event like that. But it was one of the toughest events on the planet and the most rewarding in my life.

• 1:11:57Dean Graziosi?

  And tough in the meaning of just every ad that we did, every, every, every visual that we did, how to be approved by five different people, how to work. And I would not change one bit of it, Ed. I've, I've created new friends. McConaughey became a friend and we did the largest event in the history of the world. We had two and a half million people on day one live. Like insane what we did. And we put his course in the hands of tens of thousands of people. They all loved it. They thank him to this day. They, people find him on the street and thank him. In fact, the, the last thing I'll say, I said to McConaughey, would you think of the whole experience? And he said, well, I thought you were crazy at first. I thought I'd never do something like this. I said, well, what do you think now? He said,

• 1:12:36Dean Graziosi?

  I realize it's the greatest experience of my life. Cause my whole life I play, he said, my whole life I've played a character that was written by somebody else, directed by somebody else, edited by somebody else. He said, I got to play me. So when people come up, they don't go, I love the character. They say, thank you.

• 1:12:54Ed Mylett?

  That goes to my point from earlier, brother, which is that you get to play you. See, you're most fulfilled when you're expressing the real you. And even someone like Matthew McConaughey, who's had all these external accolades, says is the best experience of his life because he got to express him. And that's when we're fulfilled. I really believe probably the most un, under pursued, underspoken about part of fulfillment in life right now in the personal development industry, is the level of fulfillment one feels when they're the fullest expression or the truest expression of themselves. And serving people. And if you're looking for a pathway to have a little bit more juice in your life, peace, happiness, fulfillment. I believe that's the place to look.

• 1:13:38Ed Mylett?

  Am I expressing myself, my love, my gift, my knowledge, my information, my feelings to the people around me, to the broader world in a way that fulfills me? And if you're not, if you're holding these things in, which is what most people do, they hold their feelings, they hold their thoughts, they hold what they believe in, they hold their opinions, they hold their knowledge. I believe you're dying. I believe that's the beginning of a death of our spirit. And I believe, you know, not to be very, you know, faith-based here, but I really believe this, God did not make you to, for you to repress your greatness, for you to suppress your expression of you. You're not, you're not doing what I believe is God's will in your life.

• 1:14:23Ed Mylett?

  When you suppress your stance, when you suppress your knowledge, when you cheat another human being out of the gift of you helping them. And I always say this, my life changed because my dad got sober. But my dad got sober because somebody helped him get sober. Another human being said, I can help you. And by the way, what qualified them wasn't they were this magnificent, perfect person. What qualified them is they at one time were also an alcoholic and a drug addict. And that's what was qualifying them. So ironically, the great pain they went through in their life was the qualifier to help other people. Perhaps that what you should be looking at right now, my friend, maybe this pain you've been through somewhere is the pathway for that expression to help other people and to your fulfillment.

• 1:15:06Ed Mylett?

  Very short intermission here, folks. I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far. Don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Now on to our next guest. Welcome back to Max Out, everybody. I'm Ed Mylett. Let me ask you a question before we begin today. Do you have any sense right now, like you feel like you're just overloaded? And you're overwhelmed with information in your life. Maybe you're having a hard time getting focused. You get distracted pretty easily. Maybe your concentration sort of suffers a little bit, your memory issues. Well, my guest here today is an expert on optimum brain performance, on learning, on learning quickly. And on maxing out your capacity to think and perform in your life. And it was barely born out of some tragedy, out of some, some difficult events out of his childhood.

• 1:15:50Ed Mylett?

  He's turned those tragic events into becoming a world renowned expert on brain performance. And today I'm really blessed because I've been chasing this guy for a while. I've wanted him to share his brilliance with you, the audience. And I'm grateful that he's here today because we're about to change your life and change the way you learn, think and perform. So my guest today is the great Jim Quick. Jim, thank you.

• 1:16:11Jim Kwik?

  Ed, thank you so much. I've been looking forward to this so much.

• 1:16:14Ed Mylett?

  Me too, brother. We've been, we've had great conversations off camera. And I'm so excited because I know, there are some shows I know that we do that are inspirational. And then there are shows I know that are going to inspire, but also by the end of the program, people's lives are just measurably better and they can perform better. And today is heavy note taking. If you're driving in the car, you're going to want to hear it, but you're going to want to get back and listen to the video or something too, to write the notes down we're going to cover. So.

• 1:16:39Jim Kwik?

  I believe, Ed, like you, that ultimately the life you live are the lessons you teach. The O in Max Out stands for observation. A lot of people say, I have a horrible memory and it's there, they blame their retention. It's not your retention, it's your attention. You know, I got to, the story I tell is.

• 1:16:56Ed Mylett?

  Come on, that was great.

• 1:16:57Jim Kwik?

  The second time I got to, I got to meet President Bill Clinton. And regardless of people's political ideology, everyone would agree, he's got a lot of charisma, he's a great connector, a great communicator. What people don't know, he's got an incredible memory, an incredible memory. The first time I met him was very, very brief, but the second time he remembered my name. And I was like, okay, he was fed that by security. And then he, he remember our last conversation. I was like, nobody was there. He definitely remembers this. And I was like, you know, you know, I'm the memory guy. How do you do this? What memory technique are you using? Cause I believe genius leaves clues. And he tells me these stories about his grandfather in Arkansas and the living room, telling the grandkids all these stories, but he would do something different afterwards.

• 1:17:41Jim Kwik?

  He would quiz every single one of them to see if they're really paying attention. And I was like, wow, that's, and he went, he went deep in that rabbit hole. And I would notice when he was explaining this to me, we're at, we're at a fundraiser, it's 2,000 people. And I was sitting right next to him at dinner and it was like me, Forrest Whitaker, one of the, had a reward, Richard Branson, Ashton Kutcher, Ashton Kutcher's twin brother. I put this on, on, you know, Facebook.

• 1:18:05Ed Mylett?

  I've seen that.

• 1:18:06Jim Kwik?

  But I was like this, when he's talking to me, he's like, there's a lot more important people in that room, certainly at that table. But I feel like I'm the only one, Ed. And this is a quality that you have, like I can feel this. Because I believe, like, you know, you go to events, you were talking about remember names and they're looking over your shoulder.

• 1:18:22Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:18:22Jim Kwik?

  And like, who else is important in this room? You know, and everyone feels, especially women, they feel like when your attention goes somewhere else, they know it right away. Or if it's not being distracted outside, you know, they're not paying attention.

• 1:18:34Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:18:34Jim Kwik?

  Because what are they doing? They're not listening. They're waiting for their turn to speak. Or they're thinking how they're going to respond, right? Another, another habit of highly effective people, seek first to understand, then to be understood. Most people, they want to be understood and they're thinking about all that and they're not.

• 1:18:50Ed Mylett?

  So powerful.

• 1:18:50Jim Kwik?

  And they're not interested, they're trying to be interesting, right?

• 1:18:53Ed Mylett?

  The most, oh my gosh, they're trying to be interesting, they're not interested. That's powerful. Let's just slow that down a little bit. The people whose company I enjoy the most, who are some of the most influential people I've ever met, have that exact skillset that you've just described. They're less interested in being interesting and they are more interested in you. That is a hundred thousand percent true.

• 1:19:15Jim Kwik?

  And Ed, just an explanation, like they're, they're present with you, you know what I mean? Like, like you are, since I walked through this door, you're, you're there. And that's, and that's a trained skill. Listen, if you write the word listen on your phone or just in your notes, and then scramble the letters, it spells another word perfectly. It spells the word silent. And most people, they can't, they're not silent. They're talking to themselves and they're distracting. And if you're talking to yourself and listening to a new person talk, you can't listen to two conversations at once. You can't multitask. And by the way, just as a side note, there's a myth to multitasking. Everybody, I just have to address this.

• 1:19:50Ed Mylett?

  Give it, I know.

• 1:19:50Jim Kwik?

  Yeah. Because, and you know this, the science is saying, everyone who thinks you're doing two cognitive activities, I'm not talking about riding a bike and chewing gum. I'm talking about two cognitive activities, you're not really doing it. It's called task switching. That when you go from one thing to another, which are, you're making more mistakes, science has shown this, you're making more errors and you're wasting time. It takes anywhere from five to 20 minutes to regain your focus and your flow. What do you do? You hydrate because your brain is mostly water. Even a two or three percent decrease in water in your brain could, could reduce your reaction time, your thinking ability. When you're fully hydrated, it boosts like 30% reaction time, thinking, hydrate and then breathe, deep breathing, right? Get those six deep breaths in. Actually, to create neurogenesis, neuroplasticity, to literally just get smarter,

• 1:20:33Jim Kwik?

  you need two things, novelty and nutrition. Just like if you want to build your body, you give it novelty, you work it out.

• 1:20:39Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 1:20:39Jim Kwik?

  And then you give it nutrition, you feed it and then you rest. Because the rest is really important because that's where you consolidate short to long-term memory. So the O is observation, the U, I would go to use. And I'm doing this on the spot because I know these are the principles, but I would say, to remember a name, use the name in the conversation. Right? So you, somebody introduces themselves and you get it and you say, and you use it because you want to make sure you heard it right. You don't want to have a conversation with, with Ed and say goodbye Ted. Right? Because some people, you're at a wedding, you're at an event, it's allowed, you get distracted. Better to be, it's corrected in the beginning. And then I'm not saying, I'm not going to say, use it a million times. And you have a beautiful home, Ed, what do you want to talk about? Ed, that's abuse.

• 1:21:22Jim Kwik?

  But use it three or four times in the conversation. Now, in the context of non-remembering names, use it because anything you learn, if you want to learn it better, right? If you want to max out with your ability to apply, then you want to always think about, how do I use this obsessively? When you're reading something, how can I use this? When you're listening to podcasts, how can I use this instantly, right? So even people listening to this can be thinking, okay, I have this event tonight or I have this event tomorrow, which, what am I, how am I going to use this, right? To use it. And then finally, the T in Max Out, I would say, teach. You know, intention, intent matters. Intent matters. And what I would suggest everybody do, and I would challenge everyone who's listening to do this, because with challenge comes the change that you need, right?

• 1:22:03Jim Kwik?

  I would challenge everybody who's listening, if you're really serious to use this and not just be like, oh, that was entertaining show. I would say, think about somebody you wish was listening to this right now. And let's say you had to teach them tomorrow or teach them or give a TED presentation on Monday about the things. If you were to learn with the intention of teaching, would you focus better? Would you take better notes? Would you ask better questions on social media, right? You would own that information. And so when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. When you teach something, you get to learn it twice. You know, when, when we grew up and we heard that phrase, those who can't do, teach, you can't do, you know, business, so teach it in business school.

• 1:22:42Jim Kwik?

  You know, yes, there's a certain truth, but then also I always thought it wasn't a negative. I was like, wow, if I can't do it, teach it and then I can do it.

• 1:22:49Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:22:50Jim Kwik?

  You know, I could get better at it because when you teach it, you own it and it becomes you. And you're not using their words, you're using your words. It becomes, you know, who you are.

• 1:22:58Ed Mylett?

  About 20 years ago, I got into the space of teaching people. And so since that time, everything I've listened to, related to these topics, everything I've read, every seminar I've attended was at the, was with the intention to teach it.

• 1:23:10Jim Kwik?

  That's beautiful.

• 1:23:10Ed Mylett?

  It's exactly what you just said. So I'm, I'm getting a double whammy every single time on all of these, today. And having you here, I'm listening with the intent to teach these things.

• 1:23:19Jim Kwik?

  And you, and you, because it becomes you. And then that's a double benefit, double whammy. Because you, why learn anything? Number one, so you could benefit from it, but why learn it also? So people you care about could benefit it too. I always believe is you learn to earn to return. You learn and then with the learning comes earning and then you could return, you could you could pay it forward.

• 1:23:39Ed Mylett?

  That was a great conversation and if you want to hear the full interview, be sure to follow the Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Here's an excerpt I did with our next guest. Welcome back to the show, everybody. Today's special for me because I get to, I get to share with you, I just think, one of the most remarkable people walking the earth. She's, she's an amazing woman. I just, I just know I like her very much. And so, any chance I get a chance to, any opportunity to spend time with her is a blessing for me and I know it'll be a blessing for all of you. You all know who she is. There's a lot of things I can say. She's a journalist, she's an author, Emmy Award winner, she was the first lady of California, she's a philanthropist, but she's just a remarkable and good human being and you're going to feel her spirit today. So, I'm really grateful she's here.

• 1:24:23Ed Mylett?

  Maria Shriver, welcome to the show.

• 1:24:25Maria Shriver?

  Thank you, Ed. I'm kind of blushing.

• 1:24:27Ed Mylett?

  It's all true and there's like 80 other things I could say. You know what else? She's an amazing mother, too. And so, when you have someone that's this diverse, she had an amazing life, by the way, everybody, you can go in a lot of directions. So, we're going to talk about all kinds of things. We're talking about, you know, life, wisdom, parenting, we're going to talk about Alzheimer's, it's going to be a far-reaching convo.

• 1:24:51Maria Shriver?

  That's a lot.

• 1:24:52Ed Mylett?

  Are you ready?

• 1:24:53Maria Shriver?

  Oh, I'm always ready. I'm all ready, I'm always ready to go in whatever direction you take me.

• 1:24:58Ed Mylett?

  All right. I'm going to take you all over the place today. So, I, when we met, yeah, obviously, I'm, you have the spirit, I immediately loved and liked you very much, but then I'm like, I'm going to learn more about her. So, I read a couple of your books right away, like within a couple of weeks of us meeting. Yeah. You guys, she's an ama, she's known as a journalist, I think most people think TV or something like, she's an amazing writer. She's an amazing writer. And so, I want to ask you this, there, you wrote this book, 10 Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World.

• 1:25:29Maria Shriver?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:30Ed Mylett?

  Right? Can you share with everybody what one or two of those things where I know what they are, but could you share with them? Because people watching the show, a lot of them are younger, some of them are our age, but they're all looking for some kind of wisdom to make their life better. And in this book, there was a bunch.

• 1:25:43Maria Shriver?

  That was a while ago. I wrote that, I gave a graduation speech, actually, and it came out of that graduation speech where I talked about career, I talked about marriage, I talked about motherhood, I talked about working your way up from the bottom, I talked about who you work for being more important than what you do. I talked about the definition of success. I, I thought I would actually write a sequel to that book, kind of 10, 15 years afterwards, and I started it and then kind of my life blew up. So, I loved a lot of things that would go into the sequel that I never anticipated.

• 1:26:27Maria Shriver?

  But I think one of, a couple of the things that really still, I think, apply these many years later is the importance, I believe, in working your way up in whatever it is you do. I know some people say, well, you don't have to do that anymore and I couldn't disagree more. I think it's really important to do every kind of a job in the profession that you choose to be in.

• 1:26:50Ed Mylett?

  Why? Why?

• 1:26:52Maria Shriver?

  Because I think you learn, first of all, it gives you self-confidence, I think it gives you knowledge, I think, you know, in journalism, for me, I started on the overnight, I did the police radio, I logged other people's tapes, I wrote other people's scripts, I was a producer, I was in the edit room, I learned lighting, I was a sound woman. So, when I go out into the field, I know about lighting, I know about sound, I know how to produce, I know how to write, I know how to edit, and it's helped me in every way in my career and also it helped me build up my self-confidence that I could take care of myself out in the field and then behind the anchor desk.

• 1:27:35Maria Shriver?

  So, that, to the point where when I got to the anchor desk, I felt like I deserved to be there regardless of what anybody else said.

• 1:27:42Ed Mylett?

  You deserved it.

• 1:27:44Maria Shriver?

  I deserved it and I knew I deserved it. So, I think that's super important. I think also who you work for is super important.

• 1:27:52Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:53Maria Shriver?

  I think you can go get a big job for someone you don't respect or admire, or you can start at the bottom with someone you respect and admire and then work your way up. So, I'm a big believer in that as well. And so, you know, there's a lot, I think also kind of the whole superwoman thing being overrated. I think that was a big chapter, I think, for women when I was starting out and I still think it worth, it's worth talking about. There's a lot on women's plates if you choose to have a high-powered career, if you also want to be a wife, if you want to be a mother, if you take on the role of daughter, if you take on the role of caretaker, whatever, all these multiple roles.

• 1:28:34Maria Shriver?

  I think pacing yourself is really important and acknowledging the kind of marathon of life as opposed to the moment where everybody looks like they're getting ahead of you.

• 1:28:47Ed Mylett?

  Gosh, Maria, I got to tell you, that's very true for me. I just acknowledge that. I think I've discovered that maybe just in the last year or two, that there, there should be a pacing, because that pacing, I think, gives a richness to your experience that you don't have if you're just whoo all the time.

• 1:29:03Maria Shriver?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:04Ed Mylett?

  It steals some of the richness out of your life of being even present in certain places because you're so focused all the time on do, do, do, do. And I do think you miss so many things. I totally agree with you on that.

• 1:29:14Maria Shriver?

  I think we don't really have a culture that honors that, right? We don't really have a society that honors you kind of going slow. Everybody, when they meet you, what are you doing now? You write a book and they're like, what's next?

• 1:29:28Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 1:29:29Maria Shriver?

  You meet a guy, what are you getting married? When are you having a kid? When are you having your next kid? We're always, I gave another graduation speech called The Power of the Pause, and I really think that that's super important is to, you know, pause in your life, particularly in journalism where everything is like, you know, reactive, let's get this up, let's get it up now. Wait a minute, should we get it up now? Do I really need to send that text? Do I really need to respond from that place? Do I really need to be first with that story even if I haven't double, triple-checked it? So, I think there's a lot to honor in the pause, but we don't honor it when someone says, I'm taking a pause.

• 1:30:14Maria Shriver?

  We think, hmm, what, what's that about?

• 1:30:16Ed Mylett?

  You're right, that's a weakness almost.

• 1:30:17Maria Shriver?

  Yeah, well, not almost, we don't, we don't see it as a sign of strength, as a sign of getting to know yourself, as a sign of trying to be more present.

• 1:30:30Ed Mylett?

  You know, it's interesting, I was just writing about this, actually, and I was saying, you know, a full life requires some reflection during it and I think that's part of the pause. Don't you though? I mean, I think that, I think if, in order to grow, there has to be some rest period of reflection. If you just worked out in the gym every day on the same muscle and it never had a chance to pause and grow and reflect, that you're just tearing it down all the time. And so, a lot of times, I think you can get a little bit further in your life and there's stages for this, obviously, but, you know, there's, you get further in your life and you, you've acquired all these things or achievements, maybe they're not even material things, they're just awards or you were first at this or, but there was no real richness to your life and that's why I'm so grateful that you're on and you're actually saying

• 1:31:14Ed Mylett?

  these things, like, I'm writing about it right now, so I agree.

• 1:31:17Maria Shriver?

  That's great that you're writing about it because I think oftentimes people can't see that. You know, they don't see the pause.

• 1:31:25Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:26Maria Shriver?

  They don't see reflection. They don't see you taking a break and going in and thinking about, what do I think about this? Somebody once, you know, they, they told me that they were sitting there at a desk and just kind of staring into space and someone came in and said, what are you doing? And they said, this is what thinking looks like.

• 1:31:47Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome.

• 1:31:49Maria Shriver?

  You know, we need to have like, what does it look like to pause? What does it look like to daydream? What does it look like to be bored? What does it look like to be reflective? I came from two parents who went to mass every single day and that was where they were quiet. So, I had a visual of what praying looked like. I had a visual for going to church, you know, but I didn't have a visual for being.

• 1:32:24Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 1:32:25Maria Shriver?

  I, I had a visual for doing.

• 1:32:27Ed Mylett?

  Doing those things.

• 1:32:28Maria Shriver?

  Doing, doing, doing, but I didn't have a visual for sitting down and going, okay, what does that look like?

• 1:32:38Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:39Maria Shriver?

  And so, I've tried to model some of that for my children, that, you know, how I feel about you, my love for you is not predicated on your doing, on your accomplishing, on your winning.

• 1:32:54Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:55Maria Shriver?

  My love for you is there.

• 1:32:58Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:32:59Maria Shriver?

  Far less.

• 1:33:00Ed Mylett?

  Unconditionally.

• 1:33:01Maria Shriver?

  Unconditionally and does not, I, you don't have to do something to earn it. Yeah.

• 1:33:08Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. You know, it's amazing, I, I have not been a perfect parent. That's one thing.

• 1:33:12Maria Shriver?

  No one is, no one is.

• 1:33:14Ed Mylett?

  You know, but that's one thing I did well, was that. I really don't think my children think in any way my love for them is conditional on something they do externally or achieve. I think it's a great lesson. By the way, on the topic of thinking, she has another book called I've Been Thinking, which I recommend, okay? So, I do my research, Maria, but I, I, and what is thinking, everybody? Just so, before we move on that, thinking is the process of asking and answering your questions to yourself. And if you don't have that pause, there's no time to ask yourself the questions, there's no time to reflect. And so, this is a really, it's counterculture right now, as she's saying. That's why it's so valuable to have you here.

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