788 Take Your Power Back with Amanda Nguyen

YOUR MOST POWERFUL TOOL IS YOUR VOICE. We are surrounded by stories of injustice around us. It can be overwhelming. Screaming with anger doesn’t get you very far. Making the other side wrong just makes a war. So how can you make a change? You have to come from a place of compassion. Know the result that you want. Stop leading with emotion and try instead to focus on the concrete change you want to make. We live in a democracy- our voice counts. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I discuss how the legislative system works with a powerful sexual assault advocate: Amanda Nguyen. Amanda Nguyen is the founder and CEO of Rise, a non-governmental civil rights organization. She was the power behind the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act, one of 23 bills to pass unanimously through US Congress. She was in Forbes' 2017 "30 Under 30" Law & Policy list and was an invited speaker at the 2017 Women's March on Washington. In 2018, California representatives Mimi Walters and Zoe Lofgren nominated Nguyen for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Amanda was raped in college and soon after learned of the injustices surrounding sexual assault survivors. Instead of getting angry, she made a change. So get ready to learn how you can make a difference by taking political action on Episode 788. Some Questions I Ask: How does someone rewrite a law? (5:00) How were you able to raise two million dollars in the last two years? (19:00) What’s your biggest fear? (31:00) How does someone who has been through trauma get a message across without anger? (37:30) What makes you feel the most loved? (53:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: About the Survivor Bill of Rights that Amanda helped get passed (11:30) How to avoid “activism fatigue” (18:30) The process for passing a bill (22:00) About Work/Life Integration vs. Work/Life Balance (33:00) How to transcend party lines when trying to make a change (40:00) Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 788 with the inspirational Amanda Winn.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

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

• 0:32Lewis Howes?

  Ross Perot said, "The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river." And Woodrow Wilson said, "You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world." Yes, you are, my friends. Welcome to this episode. You are here to make an impact, and it starts with you. It doesn't start by you screaming and shouting at the world. It starts by you doing the work yourself within and making the impact by doing the work without as well. Amanda Winn is here. She is someone that came on my radar recently and that I've been inspired to follow.

• 1:16Lewis Howes?

  And I'm going to tell you why here in a second. She's the founder and the CEO of Rise, a non-governmental civil rights organization. She was the power behind the Sexual Assault Survivors Rights Act, one of 23 bills to pass unanimously through US Congress. She was a kid who was, who had graduated school and had something unfortunate happen to her personally and said she wanted to make a change and didn't know how to go about changing policies in government. How do you go about these changes? Should you call your congressman? Should you do marches with signs? What's going to actually change the world?

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  And she's been doing that. We discussed the difference between activism and organizing. We talk about how to get a bill passed in your state and what really grabs political attention if you want. Want to make a change. Is it enough just to post something on social media? Or what do you really need to do? She breaks down step by step. How politics is all about emotion and not the logical and the facts part of it. Yes, you need to have some facts, but it's an emotional experience. The difference between work-life integration versus work-life balance. How to really build an organization and a movement at such a young age and so much more. Very excited about this. Make sure to share with your friends.

• 2:41Lewis Howes?

  LewisHowes.com/788 and tag Amanda Nguyen, N-G-U-Y-E-N over on Instagram as well. And let her know what you think while you're listening to this episode. I'm super excited about this one. It's a powerful lesson on what's possible if you have an idea and you want to change the world with the one and only Amanda Nguyen.

• 3:10Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got Amanda Nguyen in the house. So good to see you.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, lovely to be here.

• 3:16Lewis Howes?

  Thank you for being here. Excited about everything that you've been up to. You've been really a change agent in helping move forward sexual assault survivors to have more rights and to pass these laws in the U.S. specifically. And you've done some amazing work over the last couple of years. And you have an incredible story of why you got into this in the first place. Can you share why this is so important for you and such a passionate movement for you?

• 3:44Speaker 01

  Absolutely. So my background's actually in astrophysics and national security. I'm an uber nerd and so.

• 3:51Lewis Howes?

  You want to be an astronaut, right?

• 3:52Speaker 01

  Yes, and I still do.

• 3:54Lewis Howes?

  You still do, okay.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, my expertise is in exoplanets.

• 3:59Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean?

• 4:00Speaker 01

  So exoplanets are, I love this question. Exoplanets stand for extrasolar planets. They're planets outside of our solar system. And my party trick is super nerdy. I tell people, do you want to learn how to discover an exoplanet? I can teach you in three minutes. And then I go on a tangent about discovering exoplanets. Yeah, yeah. But my nerdiness informed my activism. So I started Rise because I needed civil rights. After I was raped at Harvard, I discovered a broken criminal justice system. So like so many other survivors do, to be quite honest. And. In my particular case, in Massachusetts, before the laws I wrote past there,

• 4:41Speaker 01

  rape kits, which are the evidence that's collected in a rape, rape kits could be destroyed at six months, even if the statute of limitations for prosecuting rape is 15 years.

• 4:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:54Lewis Howes?

  So wait, so, so you could

• 4:58Lewis Howes?

  deal with rape and then go get a rape kit used on you to collect the evidence?

• 5:03Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 5:04Lewis Howes?

  And then what you're saying is after six months, they could destroy the evidence?

• 5:07Speaker 01

  That's right, without even testing it.

• 5:09Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. Without testing, they would have it and then be like, I wouldn't want to use this anymore.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  Throw it in the trash.

• 5:13Lewis Howes?

  We just don't care.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 5:15Lewis Howes?

  And so the victim would never have the ability to prosecute?

• 5:19Speaker 01

  That's right. It's much harder.

• 5:20Lewis Howes?

  It was just he said, she said type of conversation?

• 5:22Speaker 01

  That's exactly it. And when I started researching what rights I had, I discovered a patchwork of rights across the United States. So in some states, while they destroy rape kits, other states didn't. And I thought this was very unfair.

• 5:37Lewis Howes?

  Why is that?

• 5:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we literally have etched above our highest court of the land, the Supreme Court, equality under the law. And that was not happening for rape survivors or sexual violence survivors. Literally, two survivors in two different states had two different sets of rights. And I thought to myself, well, I have a choice here. I can accept the injustice or rewrite the law. One of these things is a lot better than the other. And so I rewrote it when I-

• 6:07Lewis Howes?

  How does someone rewrite a law?

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:10Lewis Howes?

  Just-

• 6:11Speaker 01

  It's actually quite simple.

• 6:12Lewis Howes?

  Get out a piece of paper and a pad and you write it up and you say, hey, I want to pass this?

• 6:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's actually, you know, you're not so far off from the truth. What a lot of people I wish understood now in today's political climate is that everyone not only has agency, but that they have a constitutional right to petition the government. That is in our constitution, which means that our democracy should be accessible. After all, we are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is true that- Nowadays, politics is nearly inaccessible. And what I mean by that is there are profit models in politics of people paying a premium for lobbyists, for consultants. And maybe they'll give you access and connections to politicians,

• 7:00Speaker 01

  and then maybe they'll yield some results. But if you ask people, you know, how do you actually pass law? Most people won't be able to tell you that, even though it's your right to. And why is that, right? And so that's why I created a theory of organizing. It's called Hopeonomics. And it gamifies the process of passing a law, and then adds a diplomacy theory to it.

• 7:22Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Um, so over the past 21 months, I'm so proud of my team. We've passed 21 laws.

• 7:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  All unanimously, and it impacts at least 40 million people.

• 7:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:37Lewis Howes?

  So 21 laws, would it be the same law in 21 states?

• 7:40Speaker 01

  That's correct. So some of these laws are bifurcated. So it's not in 21 states. One is a federal law, another is an international law. And the rest are state laws. They're all called Sexual Assault Survivor Bill of Rights. And in this Bill of Rights, I actually, Senator Grassley had asked to name the law after me. And I said, no. The reason why is because I remember walking into my local area rape crisis center, and the waiting room was filled.

• 8:07Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  Um.

• 8:08Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  And I didn't realize how ubiquitous this issue was. You know, I had cared about this issue before, had no idea how broken the system was, and how many lives it impacted and impacts, until I walked into that room and became a survivor myself.

• 8:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow. And. Where was this room, in DC or in Boston?

• 8:28Speaker 01

  It was Boston.

• 8:29Lewis Howes?

  So you went in, there's an actual facility?

• 8:31Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 8:32Lewis Howes?

  A rape survivors' facility?

• 8:34Speaker 01

  Yes, rape crisis centers.

• 8:35Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 8:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, so all across the United States, there are, uh, local nonprofits that work on direct services, helping process rape survivors to have access to counseling. Here's the problem, though. Not all states, not all, um, well, not all cities have them. I'm very lucky that in Boston, they had one. But I walked in and it was filled. And I realized at that moment, it was a critical catalyst moment for me. That one, my story was not mine alone. And that if I was having this much difficulty accessing simple information about what I am supposed to do after my rape. And I was at Harvard and my professor at the law school was my attorney.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  You know, one of the best attorneys in the nation on this. What is other peo- what are, what is everybody else doing? Right? That doesn't have the access to resources that I have. And that was a huge problem. When I was thinking about where to move, you know, from here after my rape, I called different attorneys and they had told me, "Look, rape cases on average take a couple of years."

• 9:42Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's right.

• 9:44Lewis Howes?

  It's almost like it's, you don't forget about it, but it's like, oh, time has passed so much that like, I don't want to rehash these emotions.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  That's correct. Yeah.

• 9:51Lewis Howes?

  It's a very emotional experience.

• 9:53Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 9:54Lewis Howes?

  Do I want to go to court and then two years and try to fight this?

• 9:57Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 9:58Lewis Howes?

  I try to move on with my life.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. So many people choose to do that. And there's no right or wrong answer. But what they presented to me at that time, a senior at Harvard about to graduate, and I had a career, um, opportunity that I really wanted to pursue, was a choice, and that choice was your career or your justice, one or the other. And that is not a choice that anyone should be ever forced to make. So...

• 10:23Lewis Howes?

  Why, why did you have to make a choice essentially? Because you have to spend a lot of time in court or?

• 10:27Speaker 01

  Um, both. So the job opportunity I was offered was to be a presidential appointee in Barack Obama's administration. And I wanted to serve my country. I wanted to serve my country in this way. And he only had two years left. And if my rape trial was going to take two years, which means that I had to come and appear in court, um, in Massachusetts away from DC, that was going to affect my chances and my job performance. But here's the thing. That's why there are long statute limitations or no statute of limitations at all for the crime of rape. Because society has recognized that this crime affects survivors and is trying to give survivors an opportunity to at a moment in their lives when they're ready, come back.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  And so I chose my career. Because Massachusetts had fif- has fifteen years for me to come back.

• 11:18Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Yes, and so.

• 11:20Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  That's when the six-month snag hit for my rape kit because I chose my career, I went to DC. But then.

• 11:27Lewis Howes?

  You did the kit.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Yes, that's right. And I found out that at six months, it would be destroyed. And I'd have to come back to Massachusetts and fight to hold on to my evidence. So here's the double standard, right? The double standard is that convicted rapists in Massachusetts have the right to hold on to the evidence for the duration of their conviction. And then on top of that, class A felony, other class A felony crimes like murder never has the evidence destroyed, right? And so, by the way, it makes no sense for anyone in the party. So one of our biggest champions in Massachusetts was the former executive director of the Innocence Project. Having evidence can exonerate the accused. And then evidence and standard operating procedures helps law enforcement be able to find the truth.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  And so the Survivor Bill of Rights, shorthand, is a collection of laws that have already passed around the United States that have legal precedents. And that worked to better the criminal justice system for all parties at play. So the things that it includes are the right to hold on to the evidence and not have it be destroyed before the statute of limitations.

• 12:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  Super basic.

• 12:36Lewis Howes?

  So fifteen years, is that what you mean there?

• 12:38Speaker 01

  So it depends on every single state. Because every single state has their own rules. Yeah, but it's supposed to match up to the statute of limitations.

• 12:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:46Speaker 01

  So another right is the right to not have to pay for your rape kit. So in some states, survivors are still getting charged for it.

• 12:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  It can cost up to $2,000.

• 12:55Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 12:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, imagine if, oh, and they have creditors calling them if they can't afford to pay it.

• 13:00Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 13:01Speaker 01

  But if your car was stolen, right? You would not have to pay for the police to come to your home, like the gas tank, you know, for the police to come and collect evidence or... So why do you have to do that in the case of rape? It creates this social economic barrier that disincentivizes survivors from coming forth. And many survivors don't report their rape or sexual violence. For many reasons, one of them being that they don't trust the criminal justice system.

• 13:28Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  Which is not an unfounded.

• 13:30Lewis Howes?

  Or just shame, or guilt, or insecurity, or fear, or whatever.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  That's right. Another right-

• 13:36Lewis Howes?

  How many people are sexually assaulted every year in the US? That's-

• 13:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, so there are a ton of statistics on this. The one we quote a lot is that there are twenty-five, at least twenty-five million rape survivors in the United States.

• 13:48Lewis Howes?

  Wow, twenty-five million survivors total?

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Total.

• 13:51Lewis Howes?

  Not yearly?

• 13:52Speaker 01

  That's correct, and what that means is that's the entire population of Texas. Mm-hmm, yeah, it's a lot of people. And after the Me Too movement, right? We now know that everyone in our lives, we know at least somebody who has been affected by this. Rape and sexual violence unfortunately affects all people of all walks of life.

• 14:12Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, so another right that's in the Survivor Bill of Rights is the right to be notified of your rights. Very basic, it's kind of like a Miranda rights. But because there are such different resources that vary drastically from not only state to state but county to county. In moments of trauma, it's really important for survivors to get access to information and quickly. So that's one of the other rights. And the right to have a copy of your police report. It sounds so basic, but survivors are getting denied it. We put together these basic set of rights and aimed to pass it in the United States Congress. And when we first started out, we were a group of twenty-something year olds with no money, no connections, no power. And people thought we were a joke.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  And we just kept relentlessly organizing, putting our heads together.

• 15:00Lewis Howes?

  You used GoFundMe, is that what you used?

• 15:02Speaker 01

  Oh, definitely, yeah, we actually did that.

• 15:04Lewis Howes?

  How much did you raise on there?

• 15:05Speaker 01

  On the original days, I think we raised like twenty thousand, yeah. Now we're at two million.

• 15:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, we'll talk about that in a second.

• 15:14Lewis Howes?

  So what's the two million used for right now?

• 15:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we ended up passing the bill in Congress. But not only did we pass it in a gridlocked Congress where nothing passed. We passed it unanimously and in seven months. So we held the record in the past decade for the most efficient legislative reform movement in US history. And we became-

• 15:35Lewis Howes?

  Because both parties are on board. It's not like it's, everyone understands this.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm, we became the twenty-first bill in modern US history to pass unanimously on an on-the-record vote in Congress.

• 15:45Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:46Speaker 01

  And on-the-record vote means that senators had to come in person and cast their vote. And, yeah, they did that.

• 15:53Lewis Howes?

  They really got behind it.

• 15:53Speaker 01

  That's right, Jeff Sessions and Elizabeth Warren stood together for this. And they had never done that, and they never will do that again.

• 16:05Lewis Howes?

  So how do you pass a bill?

• 16:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:07Lewis Howes?

  How does, I mean, how's the process even work?

• 16:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm so glad you asked that question.

• 16:11Lewis Howes?

  As a twenty-something with no money?

• 16:14Speaker 01

  Fundamentally, I want people to know that the most powerful tool we all have is our voice. And that these institutions, these hallowed institutions of Congress, may seem scary, but it is our constitutional right to go in and talk to these politicians because they serve the people. They're supposed to serve us.

• 16:37Lewis Howes?

  So you can just show up and take a meeting essentially whenever you want?

• 16:41Speaker 01

  That's correct.

• 16:42Lewis Howes?

  With anyone in Congress?

• 16:43Speaker 01

  So, obviously, it's helpful to have an appointment.

• 16:47Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  But technically, constitutionally, you are supposed to be able to access your representative or your senator, both not only in their DC office, but in their home office as well. You're a constituent, you have that right.

• 17:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  But here's how to hack Congress, right? Here's how to pass a law. So, this is the part most people don't understand. It's my pet peeve when people say, "Call your member of Congress," because it doesn't really work.

• 17:15Lewis Howes?

  They're not picking up.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  It doesn't really work.

• 17:16Lewis Howes?

  It's an answering machine part, right?

• 17:18Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 17:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  So, in order to game the system, you need to understand the rules of the system. Let me tell you those rules. When a bill is introduced, it gets assigned to a committee. Most civil rights bills are assigned to the judiciary committee. So, right now, in Congress, Senator Lindsey Graham is the chairman of the judiciary. What this means, and this is a very powerful position, is that the chairman or chairwoman has agenda-making authority. This is very, very important. Agenda-making authority is just like it sounds. That person is the sole person in the entire Congress who can set the agenda for bills to be voted on. So, bills, most bills die because they don't make it on the agenda.

• 18:00Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 18:01Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 18:01Lewis Howes?

  So you can call the senator as much as you want?

• 18:03Speaker 01

  Right.

• 18:03Lewis Howes?

  But it doesn't matter?

• 18:04Speaker 01

  Unless they are the chairperson of that committee, and they are going to set the agenda.

• 18:09Lewis Howes?

  How does a bill get introduced?

• 18:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a great question, too. So...

• 18:12Lewis Howes?

  Like, again, you just take out a piece of paper and pen, and you say, "Here, I want to introduce this to you"?

• 18:16Speaker 01

  So, a member of Congress has to introduce it. But, just like you said... The way that we were able to pass our laws so efficiently is because we did that work.

• 18:29Lewis Howes?

  You did it, so here it is.

• 18:30Speaker 01

  That's correct.

• 18:31Lewis Howes?

  It's all written up for you.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:32Lewis Howes?

  Just sign off on it.

• 18:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:34Lewis Howes?

  And then move it forward.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So, look, members of Congress are very busy. Put it that way. Given the benefit of the doubt, they're very busy, they have many things to do. If you have a good idea and you're able to convince them two things. One, that it's the morally right thing to do, and two, it's the politically strategic thing for them to do.

• 18:52Lewis Howes?

  It makes them look good.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So, one of the things I'm very cognizant of is activism fatigue. A lot of people wake up and there are so many burning trashcans everywhere. And people are like, okay, how do I?

• 19:07Lewis Howes?

  Things people want to be supported with.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 19:09Lewis Howes?

  Shared on social media and donations and vote for this and march for this.

• 19:13Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 19:13Lewis Howes?

  It's like.

• 19:14Speaker 01

  How, what do you do?

• 19:15Lewis Howes?

  So many, so many things you can care about.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 19:17Lewis Howes?

  In a day. When you have your own issues and your own problems too.

• 19:20Speaker 01

  And what most people want to see is a return on investment of their energy. What I mean by that is, okay, if I'm gonna march, what is that gonna result in, right?

• 19:31Lewis Howes?

  Is there gonna be a result?

• 19:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:32Lewis Howes?

  Or is it a wasted day?

• 19:33Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 19:33Lewis Howes?

  A good photo and a sign that I get to share out.

• 19:36Speaker 01

  Exactly. And it's more, activism and social movements are more than just a fashion trend, right? And so, for us, that's why I gamify the process of passing along. But more specifically, I think there's a difference between activism and organizing. So activism, to me, is straight voltage and organizing is directed energy. We need both, right? But in order for social movements to sustain, activism is necessary. Anger can fuel movements, but it cannot sustain movements. Hope does that.

• 20:09Lewis Howes?

  Can anger pass a law?

• 20:12Speaker 01

  I think it can pass a law.

• 20:14Lewis Howes?

  Or make a cha- make a change?

• 20:16Speaker 01

  I think it certainly can, but it cannot sustain it for decades, right? Anger is inherently, to me, a surface emotion. For me, anger comes from somewhere. You're hurt. Whatever it is that's underlying that emotion is fueling that anger and it's not a lasting emotion.

• 20:34Lewis Howes?

  It flames out.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  That's correct. So what happens after you flame out? How can you sustain the change that you're trying to make? And that, that's where hope comes in. To me, there's a difference between a hope and a dream. Dreams are things that you think about, they're nice to have. But in order to have hope, you have to have a plan to get there. From point A to point B. And here's where it comes back to gamification. Games have a couple of different aspects to them. Good games have a very clear objective, a finish line. They have

• 21:05Lewis Howes?

  A next level.

• 21:06Speaker 01

  That's correct. They have skills building, so you're never given more than you can handle. They have a constant feedback loops. So you know, you're playing, you're plus one life, plus one strength, you know? And then they have community. And so I took those aspects and I applied it to lawmaking. So when an organizer, we call them a riser, joins the game, they are never given more than they can handle.

• 21:28Lewis Howes?

  So it's an easy first step.

• 21:30Speaker 01

  That's correct, yes. The first step is that they write what it is that brought them to the table. Why are they there? And along the way, a couple of levels down, they transform that into talking to a member of Congress. And then they transform that to testifying in front of the Senate. And then they transform that to passing through the chamber. And then repeating on the next chamber and then getting it to the governor's desk, right? So these levels make it bite sizable and accessible. People, especially again, in this time of frustration and time of waning faith in our democracy, just wanna know that they have agency.

• 22:11Speaker 01

  And what we are providing with Hopernomics and at Rise is a roadmap to that. There's never been a better or more vital moment in our history for everyday people to understand that they hold the power. And that's what Hopernomics is about.

• 22:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow, amazing, incredible.

• 22:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, we can go back to passing a law too. I can go through that step.

• 22:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, what's the steps to passing a law? Like if I feel like something is unjust and I wanna change, make a change.

• 22:37Speaker 01

  How do you do that?

• 22:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, realistically, can I make that change through passing a law? And how long will it take? And what are those steps?

• 22:44Speaker 01

  Well, take it from someone who's done it 21 times. You can absolutely do that. So going back to agenda-making authority, we're gonna get wonky for a second. So there are a couple stages to passing a law. First, the bill needs to be introduced into a committee. Then that bill needs to be put onto the agenda to be voted out of that committee. If it passes the committee, then it goes to the floor of a chamber. Now, Congress has both the House and the Senate. Let's say that this is the Senate. So it passes out of the Senate committee, goes to the floor of the Senate chamber. Then the head of the Senate needs to put it up for a vote. Agenda-making authority is super, super important here.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  If it is on the agenda and it gets a vote and it passes, then it does and repeats the process on the House. Right? So the process again, introduce the bill to committee. The committee needs to put it onto the agenda to get, to be voted on. Then it goes to the floor of a chamber. Say it's the Senate, Senate floor. And then it repeats its process on the House side. Now, integral in this is the catalyst points. If you look at the process, right, the rules, there are only four people in the entire United States Congress who are decision-makers.

• 23:59Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Those people are the people who hold the authority to set the agenda, right? So.

• 24:05Lewis Howes?

  So you need to meet one of those people to.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  That's correct.

• 24:07Lewis Howes?

  To get on the agenda.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  That's correct. There are 535 members of Congress. And that's why I say it's really important to understand the rules in order to hack the system. You don't need to go to all these other people. Go to the people who make the decision. In today's world, we have platforms that have democratized our voices, social media. But also, you can Google, literally, the emails of.

• 24:33Lewis Howes?

  Everything.

• 24:33Speaker 01

  Of everyone.

• 24:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:34Speaker 01

  Because they work for you.

• 24:37Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 24:37Speaker 01

  These are public servants.

• 24:39Lewis Howes?

  Their phone numbers are online, their emails.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  They are. Set up a meeting. It is your right to do so.

• 24:44Lewis Howes?

  What if the meeting, what if they say, oh, we're busy for the next six months?

• 24:47Speaker 01

  Keep on doing it.

• 24:48Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 24:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, and show up.

• 24:50Lewis Howes?

  Just show up at the door.

• 24:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I'll talk about showing up. In Massachusetts.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  I was told the day before the Massachusetts legislative cycle was going to end that the speaker was not going to bring up my bill and that it was going to die. And I was already in the airport, like about to board this plane to go from DC to Boston. And I went into the bathroom and I cried because I was just like, well, why would I go and watch my own civil rights get slaughtered? And it was other rape survivors who called me and said, just be present in that state house. Make sure that you stand at the door and let each one of these representatives, as they walk out, see your face. And I was the last person on that plane.

• 25:35Speaker 01

  And for the next day, when I got there, even our lead sponsors, the lead senators and representatives who worked on this bill, said, I'm so sorry, it's not going to pass this time. And for the next 14 hours, the RISE team and I literally just walked into the decision makers' offices and said, I'm here, here's why I care about this issue. Respectfully, please listen to our stories. I asked people to call into the speaker's office. I witnessed those calls come in, in person. And at the end of those 14 hours, he brought it up for a vote and it passed unanimously.

• 26:11Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 26:11Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:12Lewis Howes?

  Why would they not pass something like this? That's beneficial to all.

• 26:18Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 26:19Lewis Howes?

  Right?

• 26:19Speaker 01

  The most common.

• 26:20Lewis Howes?

  Doesn't hurt a party, it doesn't like.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's right. It makes them look really good, too.

• 26:24Lewis Howes?

  Right. Why would they say, ah, we're just not going to pass this?

• 26:27Speaker 01

  Politics is not about logic or facts. If it was, we'd have a very different climate now. It's all about emotion, right? And at the end of the day, when you're talking to these people, it's about convincing them to care and prioritize. Politicians get like a, it's like drinking from a fire hydrant. They have so many people coming at them all the time, talking about all the different issues. So how do you rise above that and make the case that they should do this, too? To be very honest with you, this is a very sad reality, but it's true.

• 27:07Speaker 01

  The way that we have done this is by empathy building, um, but also specifically bringing in celebrities. Yeah, the shiny thing that they will, yeah, I'm so grateful for Terry.

• 27:19Lewis Howes?

  So they'll listen to a celebrity?

• 27:20Speaker 01

  That's right. It's press or celebrity.

• 27:23Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 27:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:24Lewis Howes?

  They'll listen to it because it's like more attention, so now they have heat on them.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  That's right. That's right. Yeah. So I had already passed the federal law, the Sexual Assaults Survivor Bill of Rights through the United States Congress, when I asked Terry to come and testify with me in the United States Senate. And the reason why I asked him to do that anyways is because even if the federal law passed, because of states' rights and federalism, most rape cases are adjudicated in state courts. So the federal law impacts 25 million people. However, we still need to pass these rights state by state. And state legislation is not as flashy, um, or as, people just don't look at as much as federal laws.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  And so the United States Senate held a hearing to help us amplify. If I just testified, it would not have had the type of world trending impact that Terry Crews came and testified on. And Terry lent his platform in order for us to do so, and it directly resulted in laws getting passed.

• 28:28Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 28:29Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:29Lewis Howes?

  So one person being up there made a huge difference.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Immense difference. Yeah, immense. You know, our, yeah, absolutely. And I'm very grateful to him. And he serves as an example of someone being able to tell their story and use it for good.

• 28:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and then it was like Gillette commercial headed in there and everything else. And you could spread it even more.

• 28:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:52Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing. So you went out to raise 20 million dollars now from the?

• 28:55Speaker 01

  Oh, no, 2 million.

• 28:56Lewis Howes?

  2 million? Why did I say 20 million? 2 million dollars. Start with 20,000.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  Goal.

• 29:00Lewis Howes?

  Now 2 million. Over the last four years, it's all just been?

• 29:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:03Lewis Howes?

  How have you been able to do that, raise that much money?

• 29:07Speaker 01

  That is absolutely a mental game, if I have to say. Like, I grew up with an immigrant family.

• 29:15Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:16Speaker 01

  My parents were boat refugees from Vietnam. I remember I had a meeting with a high net worth individual, and it wasn't even that person, it was like their person's gatekeeper. And I had calculated, okay, we need sixteen thousand dollars in order to make it to like survive, you know, for another month or something like that. And I asked him that, and I'll never forget his response he said to me. "I'm offended by your request." Right, sixteen thousand dollars is chump change to me. And I was just like, I'd not have sixteen thousand dollars in my life. Like, what? And it was at that moment that I realized, like, my horizons just expanded to understand how much capital there is out there.

• 29:59Speaker 01

  And that if you want something, and if you believe in these rights, then you need to ask for it. You need to ask really confidently for it. Right, look, presidential candidates right now are raising multimillions based on the promise of them.

• 30:14Lewis Howes?

  Maybe, maybe.

• 30:14Speaker 01

  Maybe making it and maybe enacting change. And guess what? At Rise, we've already passed twenty-one laws.

• 30:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 30:21Speaker 01

  For forty million people. We hold the track record for being, again, America's most successful legislative reform movement. And do I believe in these rights? Yes. Do they require capital in order to make sure that our team has the resources to accomplish a goal? Yes. And if ex-presidential candidate can raise ideas for the promise of their idea, then I can raise millions of dollars for actual track records.

• 30:49Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. What's the biggest fear you have personally?

• 30:53Speaker 01

  That's a great question. I think the hardest thing, I think it's, there's like two types. There's a professional one and a personal one.

• 31:01Lewis Howes?

  Personal.

• 31:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, so.

• 31:03Lewis Howes?

  Speak to the heart.

• 31:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:05Lewis Howes?

  In your personal life.

• 31:06Speaker 01

  I think the...

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Hardest thing anyone can do is learn to love themselves.

• 31:13Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  Right, fully and authentically.

• 31:17Lewis Howes?

  Haven't you done that yet?

• 31:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I really do love myself.

• 31:21Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  But it's a struggle. I don't love myself every day, and I certainly did start off with that. Especially for individuals who are part of marginalized communities and have identities, marginalized identities are compounded. Society tells you to be a certain way.

• 31:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  Of course, it's hard to love yourself. That is the greatest challenge that we do when we wake up every single day. Which is how do we live our God-given potential? And be happy with who we are and thrive and contribute to our own lives? And whatever vision it is that we're trying to create. Yeah, and it's so, so hard.

• 32:04Lewis Howes?

  How do you practice self-love?

• 32:07Speaker 01

  It's every day. I don't believe in work-life balance. I believe in work-life integration. So what I mean by that is I deliberately create choices in my career and in my personal life that spark joy. It's like I'm recondowing my life. But in activism, especially for organizers and activists who work on issues that come from their own personal trauma, there is an incredible danger of performative trauma. What I mean by that is a lot of, even let's say sexual violence survivors, when they go speak on an issue are expected to talk about the most gruesome details of their rape.

• 32:52Speaker 01

  And it's kind of a voyeuristic experience for the person who is, you know, they say, oh, this is so terrible. When I created Rise, it was deliberately named Rise to recognize that you're coming from a place but going up.

• 33:03Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:04Speaker 01

  Um, and I structured and architected this social movement to have an outlet. Right? So i- it is a journey. People are moving somewhere and...

• 33:16Speaker 01

  For my personal experience, I found my own form of justice by being able to pen my own civil rights into existence and help other people do that, too.

• 33:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, and that's the next phase of RISE, actually. So, over the past eight months, we launched a accelerator for social movements. So, in cities across America.

• 33:39Lewis Howes?

  Any social movement.

• 33:40Speaker 01

  That's correct. In cities across America, tech entrepreneurs can apply to umbrella organizations. And when an entrepreneur has a good idea based on the merit of their idea, they can get seed funding or mentorship. That doesn't exist for civil rights until now. Over the past 21 laws, we've amassed an honest broker reputation between all political parties. And we are using those resources and that knowledge and the roadmap to train the next generation of changemakers.

• 34:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 34:13Speaker 01

  So, if actors or organizers have an idea about how to change a law specifically and are relentlessly committed to doing so, they have a lot of grit, they can apply. And if they get accepted, we will cover their opportunity costs to start up a social movement.

• 34:29Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 34:29Speaker 01

  So, we pay those people seed funding and give them mentors, coaches.

• 34:35Lewis Howes?

  The tools and how to pass these laws.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. Our mission is to help everyday people pass their first law.

• 34:41Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 34:42Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 34:42Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 34:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:43Lewis Howes?

  What's a law that needs to be passed?

• 34:45Speaker 01

  There are so many.

• 34:47Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 34:48Speaker 01

  Yes, but the first incubation that we've done are with the survivors and friends of the Parkland shooting. So, eight months ago, their founder, Robert Shentrup, came to me and described a meeting that he had had with a senator where that senator said. I want to work on these issues, but I don't think I can because I'd lose my seat in the primary. And instead of being mad, Robert, who lost his sister Carmen Chantrop in the shooting, by the way, Robert turned to me and said, "I don't care. I just want to make it safe for this guy to vote yes, so that I don't lose my other sister to gun violence." And that is what it takes, an understanding of the system and grit and compromise.

• 35:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  And so Robert and a group of incredible young people started this organization called Zero USA for zero gun deaths in America. They have been full-time at RISE for the past eight months and have gone through the hoponomics training. And they are currently in 15 states now. Robert met with President Trump in the Oval Office and met with Democratic House leadership. And last month, he testified in the Colorado State House on a bill that they support. That bill passed and it's on its way to the governor's test.

• 36:04Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's cool.

• 36:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:05Lewis Howes?

  That's really cool. How does someone detach the emotional anger from the pain they feel, the injustice that's happened to them, or they see from someone else that they care about or they're in their community? How do they build a movement so that an idea gets passed without this emotional charge? Because you said that Congress making a decision is like an emotional feeling, but I don't think you can do it if you're just like this emotional person crying and screaming and shouting and pounding all day long. Like, it's not going to get a message across.

• 36:39Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 36:39Lewis Howes?

  So how does someone who's been through this trauma or pain get a message across with passion, but not this crazy emotional energy?

• 36:49Speaker 01

  That is perhaps one of the toughest skills we teach at RISE.

• 36:55Lewis Howes?

  Because I see these activists online that are just screaming. And I'm like, "You're not getting a message across to me."

• 37:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:00Lewis Howes?

  And I'm not even the person you're trying to convince here, right?

• 37:02Speaker 01

  Right, absolutely.

• 37:04Lewis Howes?

  The people passing these laws, they're just going to block that off.

• 37:07Speaker 01

  That's absolutely true.

• 37:08Lewis Howes?

  You're exhausting me.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  That's absolutely true. So the biggest critique that we get is that we are not radical enough. And I own that criticism, right? For me, I did not-

• 37:19Lewis Howes?

  Radical, so you pass laws, though, without being radical.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  You're so- I did not have the political luxury of a cathartic performance.

• 37:27Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  I had urgency. My rape kit had a literal timeline to be destroyed. And what that means is that every six months, it was counting down to this Kafkaesque game where my justice would be literally thrown in the trash. And I needed to work with anyone and everyone within the legislative process in order to pass these laws. That profoundly shaped the way that I negotiated my rights. So here's where the national security side, the diplomacy side of homonomics comes in. In just any relationship, even in our personal relationships, the closer that relationship is, the more it can be distorted, right?

• 38:12Speaker 01

  Maybe you're having an argument with your girlfriend and you yell over something so small. Would you have done that with a stranger, you know? In international relations, in national security, let's say we are negotiating with a dictator on nuclear disarmament. Maybe that dictator has a lot of other issues that they need to get better on. But for that moment, when you're at the table, you're only working on nuclear disarmament. And you're trying to move that ball forward on that one issue. Being able to keep your eye on the ball and focus on that. And not only detach yourself, you're not forgetting all the other things that you're doing, but you are putting that at the door when you walk in

• 38:57Speaker 01

  because you have a very specific goal and trying to make that change. That set of skills is really important when it comes to domestic policy, and it's often forgotten. So just like in personal relationships when things are distorted, citizens of a country may have a sort of different relationship with the type of skills and tools and tactics that they use in demanding their rights from their senators. It doesn't mean don't demand them. Again, activism, organizing, both are necessary.

• 39:23Speaker 02

  Right.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  But. If you want to pass laws.

• 39:27Lewis Howes?

  If you want to get results.

• 39:28Speaker 01

  That's right. Democracy inherently requires its citizens to hash things out. And so when survivors at RISE or any organizer enters a room of a senator, they leave their political tribalism at the door.

• 39:43Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean?

• 39:44Speaker 01

  We are in such a partisan time where when you turn on the TV, all we hear are reduced soundbites for retweets. People are just trying to get at each other. It's theater. We don't really hear steadfast policymaking.

• 40:03Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  And our government can't even keep herself open. And in the meantime, people suffer. Right? And so political tribalism saying, I am right. My party is right and your party is wrong. And just trying to carry each other down. That can get money for political fundraisers because you're literally rooting for your team. That's what it is. But legislation, true lawmaking, and one that helps people, demands that we sit down and we sit in these uncomfortable spaces. We climb over these empathy walls and really engage with the other side. And that's really hard to do. But that's what we train our organizers to do.

• 40:48Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 40:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:50Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. So what's next then? What are you most excited about?

• 40:56Speaker 01

  Every day I wake up and the two burning questions I have are, what is my place in the universe and what am I going to do about it? And I think both civil rights and astrophysics answers that question. But in terms of the civil rights work, this blueprint that we're creating together at RISE is meant to help other people be able to pen their own civil rights into existence. And success to me looks like I'm not needed anymore. Because first of all, I want to go to space.

• 41:31Speaker 01

  You know, I did this out of necessity. And the choices that I've made in creating this social movement was not in building a career out of it, or not in putting my identity around it, but what is the fastest exit for me and most efficient way for me to get rights? And then also empower other people to get rights, because that was a response that we received after President Obama signed our law. And how can I create modes of thinking that are accessible to bring democracy back to be into the hands of the people? And then go to space.

• 42:03Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 42:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So every day I wake up and I still believe that I have agency to change the world around me. And I'm so grateful for that, not only for my own agency, but the agency to have other people have that empowerment.

• 42:19Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing. And how can people get involved or follow the movement? Or if they want to launch their own campaign, what can they do?

• 42:26Speaker 01

  Everyone can go to rise now dot U S and apply. So if you have an idea that you want to enact to change the world, specifically a way, a law that you want to write, you can go and find the application. And if folks want to join other campaigns, that's also available too. So you can volunteer your time. Here's the remarkable part about our first couple of laws. We did this in our spare time. So I ended up choosing my career. I've served in the Obama administration and on the side did rise.

• 43:02Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty cool.

• 43:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:04Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 43:05Lewis Howes?

  It didn't have to be this full-time thing of like activism all day long, screaming and marching and...

• 43:10Speaker 01

  No, there's another way.

• 43:12Lewis Howes?

  There's another way.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  And that way...

• 43:14Lewis Howes?

  Smarter way.

• 43:15Speaker 01

  There is a way to pass laws in an efficient manner that brings back...

• 43:21Speaker 01

  Well, civility, to be honest.

• 43:22Lewis Howes?

  Humanity, yeah.

• 43:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's at the core of what we do. It's recognizing, and sometimes it's very hard to, the humanity in everyone. One of the ways that we were able to coalition build is by bringing unlikely, unsavory allies to the table and saying, "Look, this is what we want to do, and we want to hear you out, too." Most people, again, it's on an emotional level with other people,

• 43:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  which is true with everyone, don't want to be left out. Um, and the issue of sexual violence, as a lot of other contentious issues, doesn't boil down to facts. Right? If it was, then we wouldn't have been litigating so many different flashpoints within our culture, within recent memory, from Supreme Court justices to presidential elections, whatever. You choose, turn on the TV. But the idea here is to have people remember that no one is powerless when we come together.

• 44:22Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What happens now with those who are convicted of rape? What happens like with the laws? What is the crime?

• 44:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:33Lewis Howes?

  The sentence?

• 44:34Speaker 01

  That really varies from state to state.

• 44:36Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 44:36Speaker 01

  It really, really varies, and it really varies depending on the judge as well. That's a whole other arena of reform waiting to happen.

• 44:44Lewis Howes?

  Because it's still kind of like a game of like, well, this is what he said, she said, she said, he said.

• 44:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:49Lewis Howes?

  Unless there's like video evidence, maybe?

• 44:51Speaker 01

  Or a rape kit.

• 44:53Lewis Howes?

  Or a rape kit.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, again.

• 44:56Lewis Howes?

  Even a rape kit, someone could say, "Well, this was consensual. This person wanted it. They said yes. They said, you know, I don't know, I'm just making this up."

• 45:01Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, totally.

• 45:02Lewis Howes?

  So it's all about like, you know, it can be very traumatic for the man as well. If he was like, "Well, I didn't think this was rape."

• 45:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, we are certainly entering into an era where people are being...

• 45:16Speaker 01

  People are having dialogue on this. What constitutes consent? And what constitutes? And what are the ramifications for non-consensual?

• 45:27Lewis Howes?

  And when do they teach you this? You know?

• 45:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 45:29Lewis Howes?

  When are you taught the rules? The laws?

• 45:32Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 45:32Lewis Howes?

  You know?

• 45:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:33Lewis Howes?

  There's like a moral rule? And then there's like an actual?

• 45:36Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 45:37Lewis Howes?

  Law?

• 45:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:38Lewis Howes?

  And when is anyone ever taught this?

• 45:40Speaker 01

  Exactly. I think that's an incredibly important conversation to be had right now.

• 45:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:44Speaker 01

  The laws that I've written don't even go there. It is literally the first step in reforming a broken criminal justice system at the very start. So there is so much work that's to be done.

• 45:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  And one of them starts by recognizing that when we come to the table, everyone needs to have an understanding. And people don't have an understanding now because we haven't had this conversation before.

• 46:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:10Speaker 01

  Yeah. That even extends internationally as well. Right? So one of the campaigns that we're doing at Rise is a universal survivor bill of rights, where we are asking governments to recognize the humanity in all survivors. The United Nations General Assembly has never passed a resolution that has solely focused on survivors of sexual violence. Rape has always been a subcategory of another issue. And rape happens outside of war. Peace is not the absence of visible conflict.

• 46:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:43Speaker 01

  In order for there to be true peace, survivors need to have the opportunity to access justice.

• 46:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:49Speaker 01

  And so our universal bill of rights seeks to have governments recognize the full dignity of survivors and have the priority of having criminal justice systems there to be able to be of service for survivors.

• 47:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I mean, it's such a big issue. I think the stat that I've heard is one in four women have been sexually abused and one in six men.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 47:12Lewis Howes?

  And it's just like, it's such a big issue that. There's two parts with it. There's the healing part of it.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:17Lewis Howes?

  For the victim. It's like how to heal and forgive or move on or whatever you need to do to heal. And then there's the legal part. It's like, how do you process this legally? So this doesn't happen again. Or this person is brought to justice.

• 47:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 47:34Lewis Howes?

  So it's kind of two different issues.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is two different issues.

• 47:37Lewis Howes?

  How do we teach this in the world? So that we have better humanity?

• 47:42Speaker 01

  Right.

• 47:43Lewis Howes?

  And how do we move forward these laws? So it's amazing what you're doing. It's really inspiring. Did I read that you were nominated for Nobel Peace Prize?

• 47:50Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 47:50Lewis Howes?

  Someone nominated you?

• 47:51Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 47:52Lewis Howes?

  How does that even work?

• 47:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:54Lewis Howes?

  When will you know if you get it?

• 47:55Speaker 01

  So I will know October of this year.

• 47:58Lewis Howes?

  Let's go, come on.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 48:00Lewis Howes?

  Get it, make it happen. Is this just one person a year? I'm ignorant to this. Like, how many people get nominated? How many people win it a year?

• 48:07Speaker 01

  So it's actually

• 48:08Lewis Howes?

  Different categories.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  A secret how many people are nominated or rather who gets nominated. They keep it in the Nobel Committee.

• 48:16Lewis Howes?

  I let the secret out, sorry.

• 48:18Speaker 01

  No, it's okay. This one, my nominators specifically issued a public letter to let the world know that they nominated me specifically because they wanted to uplift the work on the international level that we were doing. And I'm so grateful to my nominators. I actually had the immense honor of attending, thanks to the invitation of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, the Nobel Prize Ceremony last year.

• 48:45Lewis Howes?

  Wow, what was that like?

• 48:46Speaker 01

  It was in Oslo. It is literally the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

• 48:49Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 48:50Speaker 01

  I don't want a wedding ceremony. I want a Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Oh my goodness. I mean, the... It was so wholesome. It was magical. And the prize is for goodness. It's for humanity.

• 49:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 49:09Speaker 02

  Looking people up.

• 49:10Speaker 01

  That's right. Um, and it was history and to be able to witness um Nadia and Dennis, the two who won last year, who are in my field, by the way, they're both sexual violence activists.

• 49:22Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  Yes, um, was such an immense honor. Um, yeah, so the room holds about like maybe 200 to 300 people.

• 49:32Lewis Howes?

  Small.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, and the royal family comes, uh, and this whole procession.

• 49:38Lewis Howes?

  The past winners come, probably some of the past winners.

• 49:41Speaker 01

  Actually, they don't, so it's actually, and nominees don't get to go either. So it was really special that the committee extended this invitation for me. And it was because I, I work in the field. So it depends every year, it's based on the committee and how much they, who they want to award.

• 49:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 49:58Speaker 01

  So this past year, there were two people that were awarded. And so the invitees are split between them. Nadia is a member of the Yazidi community and Dennis is from the DRC Congo. And so, I mean, the pride, the immense pride, deservedly so, of these two communities, um, just when they spoke, I mean, these flags were flying, people were crying. I mean, I wish it was a bigger thing in America because it really is based on a shared belief in our common humanity. It was, it was so delightful. Um, yeah, it just makes you remember, maybe everything's gonna be okay.

• 50:38Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 50:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, it also shows the ripple effects of uh what we're able to do together.

• 50:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, how one person can make a huge ripple.

• 50:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:46Lewis Howes?

  Just by starting an idea, starting a movement.

• 50:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:49Lewis Howes?

  Planting a seed.

• 50:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, and speaking up.

• 50:51Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 50:52Speaker 01

  You know?

• 50:53Lewis Howes?

  What makes you feel the most loved?

• 50:55Speaker 01

  Oh, that's a great question. Um, I'm so lucky to feel that love, but it hasn't always been that way. So.

• 51:05Speaker 01

  When I first started advocating for my rights, the first time was in the Massachusetts State House. It was six hours of me telling politicians who just straight up did not care. I remember one of them being like, "Oh, my constituents just don't know me for this, but I'm sympathetic." Or somebody else would be like, "Oh, I have a campaign to run. I don't know how well this would go." And I was like, "Thanks for your brutal honesty." But also, I watched these politicians debate the feasibility of my own human rights in front of my face. And I went home and I cried. I was just like, "I just need one person to tell me that they love me." I'm a pathological optimist. It is sort of required to be an astronaut.

• 51:49Speaker 01

  Certainly required to be an activist. So the next day, I got up and I did the same thing, this time to the United States Senate. And I got into, it was my lunch break, because I was working. And I got into this Uber ride where the driver was this kind of stoic, intimidating guy. He didn't really talk to me. But as we were going to the Senate, he saw that I was going there and he asked me why. And so I told him. And this once intimidating man just started tearing up. And he turned to me and he said, "My daughter is a rape survivor. And what you went through, she went through too." And when he stopped the car, he said, "Can I shake your hand? Thank you so much for fighting for my daughter. Has anyone told you that they love you today? I love you."

• 52:32Speaker 01

  And I'll never forget that, Dad. So one of the greatest things that I tell people is when you're doing this work, it's not in isolation, even though you may feel lonely. The change that you're creating, that vision, impacts more than directly the people you're trying to help. It impacts their loved ones as well. There's so much love out there.

• 52:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Well, you feel it then, right?

• 52:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:58Lewis Howes?

  That's good, that's good. This is a question I ask at the end. It's called the three truths. So I want you to imagine, far time away, that it's your last day on Earth. And you can live as long as you wanna live. Maybe you've extended your life to 300 years because you've got some crazy astronaut space stuff that you've added to your life or something, yeah. But it's the last day and you've got to, it's been a beautiful life. You've achieved everything you want, you've passed every bill that you could possibly think of. You've moved humanity forward. You've got the family of your dreams, everything. But you gotta turn the lights off and you have to take everything with you.

• 53:39Lewis Howes?

  So all of your work has to go with you, your messages, your writings, your books, your videos, your audio, it's all gonna come with you, your message. But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true about everything you've learned in life. These would be the three lessons, or I like to call it three truths, that you would just share with the world. What would you say are yours?

• 53:58Speaker 01

  All right. My first one is that no one is invisible when we demand to be seen. My second one is, I said this earlier, no one is powerless when we come together. The third one requires a little bit of explaining, a little bit of space nerd-dom. So when astronauts go to space for the first time, many of them experience this thing called the overview effect. It's a psychological cognitive shift that happens and it's seeing every living being that's ever lived or died on a pale blue dot.

• 54:39Lewis Howes?

  Crazy.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  And what it does is it inspires awe in the full definition of awe, like fear, but also amazingness. People who go to space and come back say that we are all in the space of Earth together. Why are we fighting over such trivial things? You can't see man-made borders in space. What you can see is that we are all one humanity. And so the last thing that I would hope to leave behind is...

• 55:12Speaker 01

  This idea that we are one and that our brothers and sisters across the world are all in this together. So the overview effect.

• 55:23Lewis Howes?

  I love that. Well, I want to acknowledge you, Amanda, for your courage to take action. Because this is not an easy thing to do. You know, to take action when you were going through an emotionally challenged, probably the hardest challenging time emotionally for yourself. And to say, I want to stand up for myself and try to make change. And do this just after graduating college, figuring it out on your free time. I mean, it's really inspiring. So I acknowledge you for sticking it out and making an impact and getting results. Because most people have lots of money and they try to make a change, they can't do it. And you're showing us that we can, if we're just willing to stick it out. And come from a place of, it sounds like compassion.

• 56:06Lewis Howes?

  And of course, you had a lot of pain and anger and frustration, but you learned how to emotionally shift and get results.

• 56:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:15Lewis Howes?

  And that's a great example of what's possible for anyone. So I acknowledge you for everything you're doing.

• 56:20Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 56:20Lewis Howes?

  For helping people that want to make a change as well. Where can we follow you personally?

• 56:25Speaker 01

  Instagram is where I update most of my life. And so you can find me, my full name is Amanda N G O C N G U Y E N. That's my handle. And then on Twitter, my last name is N G U Y E N underscore Amanda.

• 56:41Lewis Howes?

  Okay, and the website is rise?

• 56:43Speaker 01

  RiseNow.us

• 56:45Lewis Howes?

  RiseNow.us

• 56:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:46Lewis Howes?

  This is the last question, and it's what's your definition of greatness?

• 56:50Speaker 01

  Oh, that's a good one. Why did I anticipate that question?

• 56:59Speaker 01

  It's to love who you are. Yeah, because that definition can change based on each individual and based on every generation. It's up to every generation to define for itself. So ultimately, it's to love who you are.

• 57:16Lewis Howes?

  Amanda Nguyen, thank you so much.

• 57:17Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 57:18Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it, appreciate it.

• 57:22Lewis Howes?

  There you have it my friends, I hope you enjoyed this episode with Amanda Nguyen. Loved everything she talked about in terms of building a movement and building a team around you to help support this movement that you have. If you feel like something is frustrating in you in your life, or with government policy or the laws, you can make a change. She is living proof that you can, and you don't need to have all the money in the world. You don't need to have all these things for you right now. You can just have a voice and start going down the process of making it happen. I'm not saying it's gonna be super easy, but there's definitely a way to make any of this happen. If you enjoyed it, share this with your friends. Tag a girlfriend of yours that you know has some big ideas, but needs that extra kick and inspiration.

• 58:05Lewis Howes?

  Show her what's possible through Amanda Nguyen's story. Again, LewisHowes.com/788. Big thank you to Amanda. Make sure to tag her on Instagram. Let her know you enjoyed this and listen to it as well, and send her some love over there. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you. Thank you guys so very much. You have the power to make your voice be heard, and it's not through shouting, it's not through screaming, it's not through anything that's gonna piss people off necessarily. You might make some noise, but will you be heard? You'll be heard when you build an emotional connection through a story and move people emotionally. Think about that the next time you're trying to communicate to a friend, a business partner, a colleague, a family member.

• 58:48Lewis Howes?

  Move them emotionally and connect with them. Make a change that lasts. And as Woodrow Wilson said, "You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement." You are here to enrich the world. Ask yourself, "What am I doing today to enrich the lives around me? Am I lifting people up, or am I hurting them through my negative energy?" You have the power to make a change in every moment of your life. Thank you all so very much, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.