How To Pursue Your Dream & Make A Living As An Artist w/ Derek Hough EP 1167

Today’s guest is Derek Hough. He’s an Emmy Award winning Choreographer and New York Times Best-Selling author. Derek started dancing at age 11 and has since become the only six time champion in franchise history of the hit ABC show Dancing with the Stars. He has a new live show in Las Vegas that I’m incredibly excited to go and see myself called No Limit where you will go on a journey through a true fusion of dance and music, as Derek explores styles ranging from ballroom and tap to salsa, hip-hop and everything in between. He’s performing from September 22nd to November 21st, 2021, so make sure to check it out! In this episode we discuss what drove Derek to pursue his childhood dreams, what to do when you don’t feel enough, how to make a living as an artist, how to let go of being a perfectionist, and so much more! Sign up for the Greatness Challenge: www.lewishowes.com/challengeFor more got to: www.lewishowes.com/1167Check out Derek's show: Live Event - No limit Derek HoughThe Wim Hof Experience: Mindset Training, Power Breathing, and Brotherhood: https://link.chtbl.com/910-podA Scientific Guide to Living Longer, Feeling Happier & Eating Healthier with Dr. Rhonda Patrick: https://link.chtbl.com/967-podThe Science of Sleep for Ultimate Success with Shawn Stevenson: https://link.chtbl.com/896-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 1,167 with Derek Hough. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:28Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back, everyone. Today's guest is my friend Derek Hough. He is an Emmy Award-winning choreographer and New York Times bestselling author. And Derek started dancing at age 11 and has since become the only six-time champion in franchise history of the hit ABC show Dancing with the Stars. He has a new live show as well in Vegas that I'm extremely excited to go watch myself called No Limit, where you will go on a journey through a true fusion of dance and music as Derek explores styles ranging from ballroom and tap and salsa, hip-hop, and everything in between. He's performing from September 22nd to November 21st, 2021, so make sure to check it out in Vegas. And in this episode, we discuss

• 1:10Lewis Howes?

  what drove Derek to pursue his childhood dreams, what to do when you don't feel enough, how to make a living as an artist. I thought this was fascinating how he shares this. How to let go of being a perfectionist, and so much more. I know you're gonna love this. And if you do enjoy it at any moment, make sure to share this with someone that you think would be inspired by Derek's message as well. And if this is your first time here, click the subscribe button right now over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and leave us a review letting us know the part you enjoyed about this interview and inspirational story the most. And I want to give a shout out to the fan of the week who left a review over on Apple Podcasts. This is from Kevin, who said, "Lewis's podcasts are like athletic tape, keeps us in the game, and allows us to compete. I get something good out of every

• 1:54Lewis Howes?

  episode. These are deep and meaningful talks and are useful to everyone." So Kevin, big thank you for leaving your review and being a subscriber and a fan of the School of Greatness. And I can't wait for you all to check out this interview. So in just a moment, the one and only Derek Hough.

• 2:12Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone at School of Greatness. Very excited about my guest, my friend Derek Huff in the house.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  My man, how you doing?

• 2:18Lewis Howes?

  So good to see you and catch up on everything. I was, we were talking before this interview started and I was reflecting on the conversation we were having, how much both you and I have grown so much in the last five years. And in the last couple of years, both of us, I didn't get to share stuff that I've been going through, but we've both had multiple layers of transformations. And you have been extremely successful your entire career since you came on the scene with Dancing with the Stars, six-time winner, two-time Emmy winner as well, up for two more Emmys right now. You've got a tour coming out here in Vegas soon. But you've been successful since pretty much the moment you came into the TV Hollywood scene.

• 3:01Lewis Howes?

  You've accomplished, you've won awards, you've been judging on massive shows, you keep accomplishing.

• 3:11Lewis Howes?

  But there were certain lessons emotionally that you've learned, especially over the last few years, that have helped you elevate as a human being. What would you say are a couple of the lessons that you've learned the most in the last few years that have really helped you with your inner world?

• 3:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:28Lewis Howes?

  Not just the accomplishments and the success from the outer world. And then I want to talk about how you've accomplished your success as well.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  Well, first of all, it's a pleasure being here, my man. And I'm in the, I'm here, this is the School of Greatness.

• 3:39Lewis Howes?

  Finally, man, we made it happen.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  It's amazing, man. So, I don't know, for me, to answer your question, something that I've learned along the way, you know, my whole life has been a competition. My entire life, even from growing up. I mean, I had four sisters, I was the only boy, and so, you know, competing for attention, like, you know, hey, look at me, look at me. And then, of course, becoming a competitive dancer, it was always about judging, being judged and becoming, wanting to get the best. And then being on Dancing with the Stars, you're being judged in front of millions of people and there's this pressure and there's like this feeling and desire of wanting to win and be the best.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  One thing I realized along the way that really, really helped me tremendously and transformed my whole life experience was realizing, and it actually happened to me when I was in my apartment in Los Angeles, I had won Dancing with the Stars for the third time, and I was a world champion Latin American dancer before Dancing with the Stars, you know, won all these big competitions and peaked, you know, in that.

• 4:42Lewis Howes?

  As a ballroom dancer, right?

• 4:43Speaker 01

  As a ballroom dancer, yeah, traveling around the world, you know, peaked in that. And then I'm on the TV show and I've now won it more than anybody else ever had, like three times, and I'm feeling like, super depressed.

• 4:55Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 4:56Speaker 01

  And I'm like, and I felt super lonely, I felt just in a dark place, and I was like, what the heck is going on, man? I feel like I should be like buzzing right now. And what I realized, I had this massive emptiness, looking at all this hardware, all these trophies, because I realized that my whole life, I really felt like, success equaled love.

• 5:21Lewis Howes?

  Ooh.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  I felt like, achievement equaled love. And in order for me to get love, I had to become something, I had to be good at something, I had to be the best, and then I would be worthy of love. And what I realized was like, wow, that's not the case, that's not the case, because, once you, we all know, once you achieve something, you're just like, alright, what's the next thing?

• 5:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 5:48Speaker 01

  So you never really fully feel resolved, or feel...

• 5:52Lewis Howes?

  Did you feel loved at all, when you accomplished those things?

• 5:54Speaker 01

  For a second.

• 5:56Lewis Howes?

  Ten minutes, right?

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Like, that.

• 5:58Lewis Howes?

  God, we're very similar, man.

• 5:59Speaker 01

  Dancing with the Stars, like, for a good example, it's like the biggest high, you know, like, there's like confetti everywhere, screaming, you know, everybody's happy.

• 6:05Lewis Howes?

  You're like, good morning, America.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  You're on your private jet, you know, good morning, America, you wake up the next day, and for the longest time, I had such a huge negative association with New York, because every time I'd go there for GMA, I was so depressed.

• 6:18Lewis Howes?

  Like, on the show, or afterwards?

• 6:20Speaker 01

  After the show.

• 6:21Lewis Howes?

  So you'd be celebrating on the show, and then you're like, okay, no one cares anymore?

• 6:24Speaker 01

  And then I was just like, oh, now what, you know? But what helped me throughout the whole journey was realizing that...

• 6:34Speaker 01

  Somebody told me this, actually. They said, "Listen, man, if you are in a field by yourself with no clothes, no possessions, no trophies, absolutely nothing, just you by yourself, you're enough. That's it. You're enough. You always have been and you always will be, no matter what." And that struck a chord in me because I always felt like I had to have something to be enough. I had to achieve something to be enough. And I think y'all can relate to that. It's a deep fear of all of ours, you know, "Am I enough?" And realizing that was such a huge shift for me. Because then I started doing things and, you know, performing or creating, not because I wanted to win or be the best, or because I wanted love.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  It was just because I wanted to do it for the joy of it and for the love of it, while realizing that I didn't have to do it in order to receive love or to feel loved. Yes. Not just from other people, but for myself, you know? And so that was a huge shift for me. And it's interesting because after that shift, I can look back at my sort of career and I can think, "Oh, so many things just accelerated so much from that point." When was this point? This point was right after I danced, um... It was actually when I danced, after I danced with Shawn Johnson. And I actually became second that year. Wow. And I remember feeling really deflated, really disappointed because I was like, "Sure, we had it in the bag."

• 8:06Speaker 01

  But it was so good for me because it got me to that point realizing, you know, "Why am I doing this again? Why am I doing this? Why am I dancing? Why am I performing? This all just seems so pointless and frivolous and useless. Like, who cares about any of this stuff?" And then I realized the importance of it, you know? Not just for me, but just bringing joy to people and, you know... I was in the hospital with my mom, actually. She had fallen and hurt her head. And there was somebody next to her. And I was really contemplating giving up the whole thing. I was just like burnt out. I just didn't enjoy it anymore. And she was just like, I just love watching you on the show. It just made me so much joy. I look forward to it every week.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  And I was like, man, I'm being so selfish right now, thinking like, oh, I'm so over this and I'm so done. I'm so burnt out. And because I was thinking about myself, you know, I wasn't thinking like, oh, how can I like bring joy to somebody else? How can I bring joy to others? And it's so much, so much more of a sustainable energy.

• 9:07Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  Because up to that point, it was all about me. I was like, I want to be the best. I want to get good.

• 9:12Lewis Howes?

  That's exhausting.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  And it was, by the way, it worked.

• 9:15Lewis Howes?

  It did work. You got results.

• 9:17Speaker 01

  For a certain amount of time.

• 9:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  But it's temporary. You can't, that's not sustainable. That's not a sustainable energy to think like, to think about you.

• 9:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  It might work for a little bit of time, but a sustainable energy and a sustainable thing that will get you through the longest time is how can I serve this person? How can I give my talents or the things that I've trained for? How can I like uplift somebody or how can I give something? And man, I just like, my batteries just got like rebooted. I just had this like copious amounts of energy and, you know, started going on tours and creating these opportunities. Creating tours, creating, you know, show concepts and just creating all this stuff. And then just so many things started to grow from that. And it's pretty cool, man. It's pretty neat.

• 10:03Lewis Howes?

  And we were talking beforehand about you've always been like the positive guy. Like every time people around you are like, you were like the positive, hey, everyone's happy. Everything's good.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:13Lewis Howes?

  And I would say I'm a very positive person as well. I'm always coming from a place of like gratitude and appreciation and positivity. But sometimes there are things that will trigger us or affect us or that make us feel angry. But you mentioned that you never really allowed yourself to feel anger. And I think that's great to come from that as a baseline. But when something happens or you go through an experience that really triggers you or makes you angry, what have you learned about allowing yourself to express a wider range of emotions in general?

• 10:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned about a wider range of emotions because there's a great analogy, you know, with like a pendulum. And, you know, you can imagine something hanging here and swinging side to side. And you have the range of emotions. You have this side, which is like, you know, let's call them the negative emotions. You know, anger, frustration, disappointment, sadness, resentment, all these things. Then this side is all the positive, positive stuff. Happiness, joy, love. The thing with the pendulum is if you're only swinging on the negative side a little bit, right, if you're only experiencing your emotion that much, then it's only gonna swing that much on this side. So you're kind of having this like very like restrictive amount of range of emotion.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  So for me, when I realized, I was like, wow, I don't allow myself to feel like anger, or I don't allow myself to feel sadness. I don't allow myself to like to swing and fully experience this emotion over here, so then I can fully experience these emotions too. Doesn't mean to stay there, right, you're not gonna like live in that emotion, acknowledge it, feel it fully and swing it and then fully experience that full range of emotion. And I realized for the longest time, for years, I was living in this this emotion. So I felt good. I felt happy. I was like, yeah, things good, alright.

• 12:12Speaker 01

  And but what I didn't realize is that I had a lot of like emotions that I never really allowed myself to feel and to acknowledge. And there's a great sort of analogy for that where it's like, you know, emotions are there to give you messages. And you know, if you're in a room and an emotion comes to the door and you're like, nah, nah, nah, nah, you lock the door. And then another emotion comes like, nah, nah, nah, you move the couch against the door, you're like, nah. And another emotion comes in, you're like, nah, I'm good, everything's good, everything's good, everything's good. And eventually, all these emotions are just there, like, hey, man, we got, we have something to tell you, we need to tell you something. And then eventually, you open that door and all those emotions come flooding in at once

• 12:55Speaker 01

  and you go through this insane experience and you're just like, it's confusing, it's loud, it's it's hard to unravel. Yes.

• 13:05Speaker 01

  So now I try to practice, you know, if I feel something, if an emotion comes, I'm like, I open the door, I'm like, hi, how are you? What's up? What are you? What message are you here to bring me? Alright, thank you very much, thank you. And then they're like, cool, then they're on their way.

• 13:19Lewis Howes?

  Right. You don't have to hold on to the emotion. You don't have to lock the door with the emotion inside.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  No.

• 13:23Lewis Howes?

  You can let it in and then let it out the back door.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And you know, there's a great expression, you know, whatever you resist persists. You know, we've heard that before and it's so true. When you resist things, they're just gonna keep persisting until you eventually acknowledge it and then you can decide what you want to do with it.

• 13:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:43Speaker 01

  But yeah, man, it's been an interesting journey because for me, I always looked at people who were, would get angry or get like as weak and you know, I'm like, oh, that person, they can't control themselves or something. And the truth is that, at least for me, in a healthy way.

• 14:04Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  There's a healthy way, of course, of expressing that feeling. And for me, it's like, I'll go box or I'll have something, I'll co-connect with something. But I'll just allow myself and I judge myself or shame myself for feeling a certain way. And I've really noticed that when I allow myself to feel that way and accept it, then it dissipates.

• 14:21Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  Very, very quickly.

• 14:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it goes away.

• 14:23Speaker 01

  Very quickly.

• 14:24Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful, man. And it's, I'm curious, what do you think is the thing that drove you to accomplishing so much from your childhood? The thing that drove you to accomplishing so much? And also, what's the thing that held you back from experiencing deeper amounts of love? So the thing that drove you and then the thing that made you feel maybe trapped or locked inside, where you didn't allow yourself to feel the depth of love for yourself or from other people or whatever it might be?

• 14:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think something that might have driven me. You know, when I was younger, I I went to, you know, a few different schools and I would get bullied severely, get beaten up and. You know, my neighborhood, I had um uh these neighbors and they would like hang me up in a tree by my feet. No way, upside down? Upside down, yeah, by my feet for hours and spit spit on me. No way. They put a gun to my head, told they were gonna kill me like. A real gun? Real gun, yeah, a real gun, cuz it was, they they hunted and stuff, so they'd have. How old were you? I was about six years old. Holy cow, they hung you upside down? Yeah, and sometimes like they would actually like hogtie me, they would like tie my my wrists, my ankles together behind my back, on my feet, and then leave me in a field.

• 15:37Speaker 01

  And I'll never forget, I remember there'd be like an anthill there and I was just like trying to move away from the anthill cuz I didn't wanna get ants all over me. So it was. Holy cow. And so even as I say that now, I kinda say it like this. Right. Not really, sort of really saying it into the magnitude of really how bad that was. Yeah, that's intense. And for me, you know, growing up and and and thinking about that and carrying that with me, I had a lot of like fear. I was a scared kid. I mean, I wet the bed till I was like eight years old and it makes sense cuz I was just living in fear constantly.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  And um going and being from a fearful kid and then being like beaten up at different schools, I went to six different schools in a very short amount of time. Um cuz I just, every time I would just get picked on and I'm getting beaten up. Um and then once I found dance, I was like, oh, this place feels like I belong here and I love the music. And then my teacher, Rick Robinson, who was the most incredible guy, is from Chicago, lived in Provo, Utah. And he brought me in, he was like, yo, Heavy D, you know, come on in here, man, and I was like, oh, he gave me a nickname, well, that's cool, you know? Yeah. And taught me about dance, taught me about life, you know, all these different things. And then I had the opportunity to move to England when I was twelve years old by myself.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  So going from a really scared kid, afraid of a shadow, afraid of the dark. Couldn't sleep over at somebody's house. Cause I wet the bed, you know.

• 17:15Lewis Howes?

  And then get picked on and made fun of.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  Yeah. I would, then I moved to England by myself at 12 years old.

• 17:21Lewis Howes?

  That's nuts.

• 17:21Speaker 01

  So it was, it was like one extreme to the absolute next extreme. But I grew up real fast and I suddenly became unafraid. And.

• 17:33Speaker 01

  Part, part of the, part of the, why I was saying that was because. You know, when you look back at the time and I think about those kids who would do that to me.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  There should be a lot of anger there, right? There should be a lot of like resentment there.

• 17:51Speaker 01

  However, through the time of experiencing that and understanding and being curious. Right? Cause this was something I always also say as well is like, we gotta stay curious. Stay curious with people.

• 18:02Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  Especially in this day, climate with like. Politics or.

• 18:07Lewis Howes?

  Cancer culture and everything.

• 18:08Speaker 01

  Cancer culture, like be curious. Why did that person do that? What, why do they believe that? Like, why? And so for me, when I look back at those kids, like I have empathy, like I actually have compassion for them. Like, wow, man, they must've been going through some stuff. It's like they had to do that to that little boy.

• 18:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  But I can also be angry about it for that little boy.

• 18:26Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  You know, on behalf of him. But not hold it, you know what I mean? Just feel it for him, honor it and then let it go.

• 18:36Speaker 01

  But I can't remember what the original question was, but I just kind of.

• 18:39Lewis Howes?

  The thing that, the thing that drove you.

• 18:41Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 18:42Lewis Howes?

  To become successful and accomplishing so much. And then the thing that, yeah, so what was?

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Well, part of that drive, I think, was me wanting to get out of there.

• 18:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  I was, I was like, let me get out of here. And once I was in England.

• 18:56Speaker 01

  I just felt this desire to. Just become better and, and, and I didn't do it because I wanted to prove anybody wrong.

• 19:04Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 19:04Speaker 01

  I didn't do it because I wanna like.

• 19:07Speaker 01

  That wasn't really my motivation. It was.

• 19:11Speaker 01

  Truly, I think my motivation was going back to what I said before. Where I really felt like in order to receive love, I had to be good. In order to receive love, I had to feel like I accomplished something and I was worthy of it. Not just for being myself.

• 19:26Speaker 01

  But yeah, and that was good. And that was good. That was a good drive for a while, but it wasn't sustainable.

• 19:32Lewis Howes?

  Right. And what was the thing that held you back from feeling a deep sense of love?

• 19:38Speaker 01

  A deep sense of love.

• 19:39Lewis Howes?

  For yourself and receiving love for just existing.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:46Speaker 01

  What held me back?

• 19:49Speaker 01

  I think it's just that belief system. That belief system and feeling like, you know.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, kind of the same thing, I think. I just.

• 20:01Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 20:01Speaker 01

  I was just holding on to that feeling of I'm not good enough. Like, just me as I am is not enough. I have to accomplish something. I had terrible acne, all these things, so I. I would lock myself in a room and learn how to play drums, because I was like, nobody's gonna love me.

• 20:16Lewis Howes?

  If I'm not talented.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  If I'm not talented.

• 20:18Lewis Howes?

  Dude.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  Nobody's gonna love me unless I like, unless I have a skill. Because I like, look at my face. Like, if I smile, like, you know, stuff comes out, like, it's awful.

• 20:27Lewis Howes?

  Dude, I remember those years.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. So it was a lot of insecurity, a lot of fear of not being enough, which I'm sure everybody experiences. And but that definitely drove me a lot, a lot. And I had a lot of encouragement from people, but. You know, we talk about that sort of. We talk about like, bad people, right? And, you know. And I talk about being curious about other people.

• 20:52Speaker 01

  One thing that really stuck out with me that I heard that.

• 20:56Speaker 01

  Made me so curious about just human beings and the human condition is. You know, there's that whole word out there, like, evil people or bad people, and it's just like. That's just what it is. You're bad. That's it. And what I heard is like, you know, they're not bad people trying to be good. They're wounded people trying to heal. Because I really truly believe that people aren't innately bad. Right? I think that I look at people and I think like they were once a young boy, they were once a young girl. Something happened along the way that created, you know, these behaviors or these things that have happened. And that, those are wounds. Those experiences that they've experienced are wounds.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  And I'm not saying that what they've done, you know, things have happened, things have happened to me and it's not okay that they've done that. By any means.

• 21:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  But it doesn't mean that I can't look at them and go, they're wounded. That's a wounded person. And I, I hope that they can heal through that, you know?

• 21:55Lewis Howes?

  What's the, uh? How did you learn to heal the different parts of your life? And what's the, the experience that you've, that was the hardest to learn how to heal?

• 22:08Speaker 01

  To heal, I mean, acknowledging it first and foremost, you have to just realize that it's a...

• 22:15Lewis Howes?

  The pain or the hurt or the upset or the thing that happened?

• 22:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:17Lewis Howes?

  Acknowledging it?

• 22:18Speaker 01

  And do some detective work too. Because sometimes what you think it is, isn't actually what it is. You might think, oh, I'm really upset about this, but then when you actually start asking yourself more questions and digging a little deeper. You're like, actually, that's actually not what's upsetting me. It's something that happened even before that. You know, where actually, did I feel a little abandoned? Did I feel a little bit of abandonment? Even though I went to England. And I, and I cherish that. I'm like, thank God I had that experience and it took me on this course. But maybe a part of me felt like I wasn't wanted. And I never felt like that consciously.

• 22:58Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  But as I like dug deeper, I was like,

• 23:02Speaker 01

  wait, that's, that's in there.

• 23:04Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  Maybe I didn't, I didn't feel wanted actually, subconsciously. And maybe that's what kind of drove me, that I had to be...

• 23:11Lewis Howes?

  You wanted to get away.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  To be good, so I could be wanted.

• 23:14Lewis Howes?

  Ooh.

• 23:15Speaker 01

  You know? So it's interesting, sometimes the thing that you think it is, isn't really what it is. You keep digging and you're like, oh wow, I didn't even think of that.

• 23:24Lewis Howes?

  And isn't it interesting, when you started to have all the skills and accomplish all the success, you still didn't feel like you were, maybe you felt wanted like on the surface or at a certain period of time, but you didn't personally feel wanted.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:38Lewis Howes?

  Like with yourself.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  No.

• 23:39Lewis Howes?

  Like it's still not good enough.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  No, I never like really truly happy with yourself, you know? And again, that's good, with good fuel.

• 23:47Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  To a certain extent, you know? But again, not sustainable, you can't sustain that, you know? You have to, not just accept yourself, but like, love yourself. And it's so cliche, of course, we hear all those things, they're Hallmark cards. You hear those things and they go in one ear, out the other, because you hear them so often. That's why I tell people, it's like, usually when you hear like, like believe in yourself, or like, love yourself, don't, don't just be like, oh yeah, I've heard that before.

• 24:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:15Speaker 01

  There's a reason why we hear that so much. There's a reason why you hear it everywhere. At every show, every movie, every postcard, it's because it's so important.

• 24:25Lewis Howes?

  When did you feel like you, oh, go ahead.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  No, I was just gonna say, it's so important, and then to look into that, not as just a slogan, but as like, really look into that, what does that mean for you?

• 24:35Lewis Howes?

  For yourself. When did you feel like, what age did you feel like you started to really love yourself? Not for the accomplishments, not for the skills, not for the talent and what you've done, but for who you are being.

• 24:49Lewis Howes?

  Like yesterday?

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Still working on it, man, still, still working on it, man. I think that's the thing, is like, there's days when you feel, or moments, I should say, not really days, not prolonged times for me, I feel like now. I don't let myself dwell in sort of self pity, if you will, or like, woe is me. But there's definitely moments where that ego comes in and that voice, that roommate comes in your head and is like, hey, you're, you're a phony, you're a fraud, like you're, you're, you're not this, you're not that, and you're seeing all these things, and you're like, oh yeah, you're right. And you start listening to them and. It's the great book Untethered Soul.

• 25:33Speaker 01

  We talked about that, the roommate in your head. If you had a roommate in your house who was telling you, yo, you're a piece, like you're useless, you're loser, you suck. You'd be like, hey, you need to get out here, you need to go. But for some reason, we allow this roommate to, you know, live rent free in her head and and sit there and call the shots and say things. So I think it's just being aware of that, but so still, still practice, still learning. But I think at least for me, I started to accept myself a little bit more and love myself more. When I was being a little bit more congruent with myself too. Cause I also realized that I would say certain things, you know, to people. Cause I'm coaching them, right?

• 26:15Speaker 01

  I would be like teaching them on the stars and I'm teaching them like, hey, we need to work on this, do this. And you need to believe this. And then I would go home and I was like, I wasn't living that.

• 26:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 26:26Speaker 01

  I wasn't being what I was preaching essentially, what I was teaching. And I hated myself for that.

• 26:32Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 26:33Speaker 01

  I hated myself for that because I was like, I'm a fake, I'm a phony, I'm a fraud. I'm not being congruent with what I know what is right or what I know is going to be helpful. So by being congruent fully, when I say something, I live it. Then I'm like, then I can love myself.

• 26:52Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 26:53Speaker 01

  I really love myself because yeah, there's no sense of like feeling phony, if that makes sense.

• 27:00Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 27:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:01Lewis Howes?

  What's the thing you're most proud of that you've either overcome or embraced in the last couple of years? Since the, kind of since the pandemic.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:09Lewis Howes?

  Like a lot of people have uncovered things in their life. Some people on health or relationships or finances or their career path. What's the thing that you're most proud of that maybe people don't even know about? That you've, that you've overcome?

• 27:22Speaker 01

  That I've overcome?

• 27:25Lewis Howes?

  Or are overcoming still?

• 27:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, no, there's, there's, there's been lots of things, I think, you know.

• 27:34Speaker 01

  I think, you know, I'm trying to think about that, actually, just like.

• 27:39Speaker 01

  You know, it's interesting, the pandemic taught me a few things. I'm sure it's taught many people, you know, a lot of things. For me, it was being an overachiever that I am, it was a good moment for me to like, pause and be okay with not doing a whole lot, you know, and enjoying watering the plants.

• 27:58Lewis Howes?

  You're becoming a TikTok star.

• 28:01Speaker 01

  Which, by the way, that's been a whole other animal, man. It's just like, that was another thing, too. For me, I was like, alright. I take myself seriously, but I also don't take myself too seriously. And I think that was a good.

• 28:13Lewis Howes?

  Be a goofball.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  It's a good outlet to just be my inner dork. You know, we talk about our emotional home. You know, where's your emotional home? My emotional home is dork. That's where I live.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  But I think as well, something that I feel like I've overcome, that's been,

• 28:34Speaker 01

  I think letting go. Letting go.

• 28:37Lewis Howes?

  Just the art of letting go.

• 28:38Speaker 01

  Letting go, you know, and realizing that you not only can't control other people, you cannot control your environment, but you certainly can control the meaning. You certainly can control, you know, what it means to you and what are you gonna do with that? You're in full control of that. And there's been a lot of situations where

• 29:03Speaker 01

  there's had to been a lot of forgiveness, you know, from others or for myself, or a lot of letting go,

• 29:11Speaker 01

  of, you know, certain things not working out.

• 29:17Lewis Howes?

  Expectations that weren't met.

• 29:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, and just being like, and just being like, hey, this is, it's the is-ness, like, this is what is. And then when you realize that there's like this beautiful release that happens. But it is, but again, it's like, it's never like a magic pill and everything just like happens and everything clicks and you're good to go. It's in daily practice.

• 29:39Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 29:40Speaker 01

  You know, you know, it's a, it's the, the physical fitness, it's the emotional fitness, it's the mental fitness. You know, it's probably have to do it every day and I know, I, I'm sure you do too. Like I know, like when I haven't been working my emotional fitness or my mental fitness, things start creeping in.

• 29:58Lewis Howes?

  Knock in the face, man.

• 29:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, you're like, oh, man, I was not ready for that. I wasn't ready. And you're like, wow, I haven't been like lifting, lifting my emotional weights essentially and it bites you sometimes. So it reminds you, you gotta, you know, be consistent, you know, letting the good things come in your mind and.

• 30:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, man, I just feel like, uh, going back to the healing, I just think that when we look at certain wounds in ourself and look at wounds in others. I really feel like that when you heal your wounds, you heal the world. You know, because I think that's really what all this trauma is. And that we're feeling in this world, it's like, there's just, there's wounds and we just need to, you know.

• 30:43Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. If we're not willing to heal the things that are hurting us, we're going to be taking that out on other people. Whether that's actually reacting in situations where we don't need to react, whether that's holding back our love for other people or our generosity and our gifts. Whatever it is, it's hurting other people by us not being our full, authentic healed selves.

• 31:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:03Lewis Howes?

  And that is the, that is the work, man. That is, it took me a long time to learn how to heal. And so I turned about thirty, I actually learned how to start healing certain things. And like every couple of years, there's new things that come up where I'm like, oh, I've got to learn how to heal this. And I thought I was done, but it's like, you're constantly learning. But if we don't learn the art of healing consistently, then man, we're holding back something from the world.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I think the, the, the whole prospect of healing is something that's, you know, the difference between guilt and shame, right? The guilt is, you know, I did something bad and shame is, I am bad. It's your identity and that's so, you know, terrible. So I feel like it's.

• 31:45Speaker 01

  When we, when there's something wrong with us or, or, sorry, not wrong with us, but when we have a feeling or an emotion.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  We like to sort of.

• 31:55Speaker 01

  Look at it as something wrong with us, right? And, and we don't allow ourselves to heal because we think that's who we are. Instead of looking at it and being like, hey, this is not who I am, this is...

• 32:05Lewis Howes?

  Something I did.

• 32:05Speaker 01

  Something I did perhaps, or something that happened to me, or whatever it is.

• 32:08Lewis Howes?

  I don't even hold on to it.

• 32:09Speaker 01

  What happened for me. And, yeah, I can use that and turn it into something beautiful. You know, these problems that we feel like we have in our lives and look at these, you know, adversities and I think Tony Robbins says this beautifully, but, you know, what if your enemy is your angel? You know, what if your enemy is your angel? When you look at my bullies, you know, back in the day, how are they my angel? Okay, well, it taught me how to have compassion for people. You know, you were hanging up, hanging me up in a tree. How, how is this person, this person who you're like, I cannot stand being around this person. They're just like so annoying, or, ah, I just...

• 32:52Speaker 01

  That, that person is your angel, teaching you patience. They're in your life to teach you something. And so, looking at certain things in your life as not your enemy, but your angel. I think that sometimes that opens up an amazing door of, empowers you.

• 33:07Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 33:08Speaker 01

  You know, in a beautiful way.

• 33:09Lewis Howes?

  Everything's about the perspective on, on every event or moment that happens. There are so many artists, creatives, actors, dancers, people who work in the arts that struggle.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 33:23Lewis Howes?

  There's not many that, um, there's not many dancers that make a full-time income.

• 33:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:31Lewis Howes?

  You're one of the, I don't know, hundred, you know, that are making like consistent full-time income in the world, probably, right? At the level of your... You're probably in the top 10, I'm assuming, in the world of like...

• 33:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, you definitely don't get, become a dancer to become a millionaire.

• 33:44Lewis Howes?

  Exactly, exactly. But you've learned how to use your creative artistry and also turn it into a business for yourself. You've learned how to earn a living, let's say, and, and multiply it abundantly. But there's a lot of artists out there, whether it be writers, or painters, or dancers, or any type of creative.

• 34:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:06Lewis Howes?

  Actors. That struggle.

• 34:09Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 34:10Lewis Howes?

  They struggle to get gigs, they struggle to get their work be seen.

• 34:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:14Lewis Howes?

  And even just talked about, not even purchased, but just talked about, they struggle to, again, book stuff. What would you say to all the artists in general out there, whether they're a dancer or just a creative individual that wants to express their art in a certain way, who is struggling to get noticed, seen, booked, paid for their talent, what would you say would be the process or the roadmap from going to making nothing to little to making a full-time living?

• 34:45Speaker 01

  Well, I think we live in an amazing time right now.

• 34:48Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 34:49Speaker 01

  For artists.

• 34:49Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. TikTok.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh.

• 34:51Lewis Howes?

  Instagram, TikTok.

• 34:52Speaker 01

  Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, I mean, there's, there's creators out there who are making millions of dollars. And, and here's, here's the thing, I, we were just talking about this the other day. And I was talking to a friend of mine and I said, you know, when you get like a reel, like a sizzle reel.

• 35:09Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 35:10Speaker 01

  You know, choreographers, casting directors, things like that, they, they might look at it, but then they immediately go to your Instagram page.

• 35:18Lewis Howes?

  They do, don't they?

• 35:18Speaker 01

  Immediately. I know I do. I was casting for my Vegas show and I was like, wait, who's this kid? Let me go check his Instagram. And I'm looking at his Instagram and the way I look at it, the way they, you know,

• 35:30Lewis Howes?

  Perception.

• 35:30Speaker 01

  Thing of dancers.

• 35:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  It's a real-time reel. It's a real-time. So it's like, what are they doing now?

• 35:37Lewis Howes?

  What day, yesterday, this week?

• 35:39Speaker 01

  I don't want to see your past 10 years of whatever. Like what's happening like last week? Let me see where you're at. And, and, and that's, that's incredibly helpful. And that's kind of where things have been going. So I would say, stay up to date. Don't wait for somebody to give you an opportunity. Create your opportunities. You, you have the platforms to do that now. You really do. You truly do. If you're not sure about something, University of YouTube, you know what I mean?

• 36:06Lewis Howes?

  YouTube.

• 36:06Speaker 01

  I mean, my girlfriend and I, she taught herself how to do Premiere Pro last year.

• 36:11Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  Edit everything. And I see that a lot. I see a lot of people kind of like, well, you know, I just, I must not get in these jobs. And I'm like, well, what are you doing? Like, whoa, what do you mean? I'm like, are you putting content out there, you know, weekly or once a month or something, whenever it is?

• 36:29Speaker 01

  And I think that you just gotta stay on top of it. And also, don't ever, just never lose the love for it as well.

• 36:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:35Speaker 01

  Cause I know for me, I got burnt out of it. The love of it, because I forgot why I did it in the first place. And I did it because I was dancing in my living room with my family. And I just remember it just bring me joy and I love the music and I love the way it made me feel. I think that's partially why too, on TikTok, I'm kind of a goofball. Because I'm kind of staying in touch with that sort of inner dork, that inner kid. Where I'm like, hey, I don't have to take myself too seriously. I can have fun. And I can be serious and I can be deep and I can be emotional. And I can be a leader and I can be a coach and I can be a performer. There's no, there's no limits anymore. Where you're like, you're a dancer and that's it. I mean, we live in a time where you can be whatever you really want to be. And you can create your own audiences. And that's what's so special.

• 37:20Lewis Howes?

  I think it's really hard to make a full-time living without creating some type of consistent content as an artist these days. If you're not using the platform to create and showcase in a unique way for the platforms. It's hard to just be talented and someone just discover you.

• 37:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:36Lewis Howes?

  Without you putting stuff out there. It's really hard.

• 37:39Speaker 01

  You know, it's, um, that's the problem too, I realized. It's execution.

• 37:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  Execution is everything. Again, you know, ideas are a dime a dozen. Everybody has ideas. Everybody has like these like, oh, wouldn't this be cool? And then you see this guy over here execute something that's not even as good. But it's getting, just blowing up. And you're like, oh man, I can't, they're not even that good. But you're like, but they executed. They actually saw the idea. They saw it through. They put it on tape. They made it happen and it's out there. Whereas your idea is dying in your mind, sitting there. So.

• 38:21Speaker 01

  Keep it simple, you know, complexity is the enemy of execution.

• 38:24Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  And something that I do as well is I book a date. I book a date before I have an idea. I go, okay, it's I need it, it's time to create something. And I just go, all right, I'm gonna pay for a space, I'm gonna pay for a camera, I'll pay for this, and I pay it. So now I'm invested.

• 38:44Lewis Howes?

  Without knowing what the thing is gonna be.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  Don't even know what it's gonna be yet.

• 38:46Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 38:47Speaker 01

  I invest in it. That way I'm like, now I have the pressure, now I have to do it. You know, I don't have, it's like, I'll do it when I'm ready.

• 38:55Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  You know, cuz you're never really ready, truly, right? Never ready. And that was something I learned from my coaches. I would have a few hours rehearsal and then compete that weekend and I'm like, we're a mess. They're like, the biggest.

• 39:07Lewis Howes?

  Make it work.

• 39:07Speaker 01

  The biggest learning curve is on the floor.

• 39:09Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 39:10Speaker 01

  You could rehearse for months, but you're never gonna learn the biggest lesson, which is like, being in the ring or being on the floor. You have to have that experience. So.

• 39:20Lewis Howes?

  And the more you do it on the floor, in front of people, the faster you're gonna learn and the better you're gonna become, more confident, everything.

• 39:26Speaker 01

  It's, it's, it's, you know, it's incredible. And like immersion, you know? Immersion is huge, massive. I mean, you know, you wanna be a good guitar player, you know, you say, oh, I'm gonna take a, an hour lesson, you know, a week. It's gonna take you years to be a good guitar player.

• 39:43Lewis Howes?

  Every day.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, Dance with the Stars is a good example, you know, people are like, wow, they get so good so fast.

• 39:48Lewis Howes?

  It's like four or five hours a day, right?

• 39:49Speaker 01

  Seven days a week for three months, like, hopefully they get better. I mean, you know, it's hard for some other people. But, um, but yeah, it's that immersion. If you really wanna do something, there's absolutely nothing holding you back.

• 40:03Lewis Howes?

  Who are some examples you saw in the last year who were like, blew up? There were nobodies, there were creatives, whether it be artists or dancers or singers that you saw that blew up and actually, you know, have an audience and are making a full-time income now. Do you have a few examples?

• 40:18Speaker 01

  Um, I don't even, some of them, I don't even know their names, honestly, properly, uh, properly, but, um, cuz I just kinda follow them. But I've seen them go from like, you know, a hundred thousand to now like, four. And then you see, you know, they're doing deals and brand deals and doing things. And you're just, and for me, it makes me so happy because I'm like, wow, that didn't exist two years ago.

• 40:44Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  That opportunity didn't exist, that person. Might not have had the opportunity to to even do that. And and I you know, and I hear a lot of people be bitter about that. They're like, oh, I can't believe that. And I'm always like.

• 40:59Lewis Howes?

  They executed.

• 41:00Speaker 01

  They executed, man.

• 41:01Lewis Howes?

  They took action consistently. And something you said a few minutes ago was about some of your most viral content was shot on an iPhone that wasn't produced. That was like last minute. Let's just shoot this thing real quick and and put it out there. It was you being your dorkiest self, not your most like professional dressed like in a suit.

• 41:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:20Lewis Howes?

  You know, production choreographed for months. It seems just been like.

• 41:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:24Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my God, we.

• 41:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Which, by the way, which. We go wee. We go wee. No, but that's what's funny about that is that it and listen, sometimes that hurts because you're like you put all your heart and soul into something and you're like, oh, nobody saw that. But the way I look at it is I do a lot of those and those are like for me.

• 41:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:45Speaker 01

  Right, the quality.

• 41:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course.

• 41:47Speaker 01

  Like the content that I look at, I'm like, ooh, that was beautiful. And if like 10 people see it, so be it.

• 41:52Lewis Howes?

  Like the rain falling down on you and the lights and ah.

• 41:56Speaker 01

  So be it.

• 41:56Lewis Howes?

  Tap dancing on buildings and ah.

• 41:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. And that because that was like dreams you had, like, I love to do that. And and you, by the way, even if nobody saw that, the amount of pride that you feel for just seeing it through is, you know, that momentum carries you through to the next thing. But you're right, there's some things where I'm like, I do something really silly, dorky, and it blows up. And um, and you're like, and then it's funny because then I was at the candy honors recently with Dick Van Dyke and Garth Brooks and legends, you know, and and uh, 10 people come up to me like, hey, you're that TikTok guy, right? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that doesn't bother me. People are like, doesn't that bother you? Absolutely not, because it's just a new audience, it's new people. And and it's kind of fun because then you get to surprise them.

• 42:43Lewis Howes?

  Look what I can really do.

• 42:44Speaker 01

  Which is like, check this out, you know, so it's it's pretty cool.

• 42:47Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing, man. What do you think is going to happen over the next two to four years for artists, creatives and singers, dancers? What do you think is possible?

• 42:56Speaker 01

  I mean, that's. Really, anything is possible, you know, really. And that's very vague and very general to say.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  But we've seen it, we've seen, you know, it's been disrupted. You know, the whole industry's been disrupted. You know, the power is in the artist's hands now. Where they can do live streaming shows. And make a ton of money, which is something they never had before. You know, you had to be physically on a show, onstage, doing something.

• 43:28Speaker 01

  And it's just gonna continue to innovate, you know, continue to branch out. You know, I have some fun ideas, and actually, it's interesting, a lot of creative ideas that I had, or I have, have actually come from TikTok. Where I reach out to them and say, hey, I love what you're doing. I have this project I'm doing on television coming up. And I really would love to use your talent for this project.

• 43:47Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. So you're finding talent online.

• 43:50Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh.

• 43:51Lewis Howes?

  And booking talent for your stuff.

• 43:53Speaker 01

  Because that's the thing too, I think sometimes people think that it's just like, whatever. But there's some legit, like, people on there that are really good at what they do. Top of what they do.

• 44:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:04Speaker 01

  And there's some projects next year, early in the year, before the Oscars, leading up to the Oscars, that I'm working on right now, and it's, I'm really excited about it. Because it's something I've played with for a long time, but the technology's never been there. And now the technology's there, so.

• 44:21Lewis Howes?

  That's exciting.

• 44:22Speaker 01

  It's pretty exciting.

• 44:23Lewis Howes?

  How important is artists not competing against each other, but collaborating with each other?

• 44:28Speaker 01

  It's become a collab universe now. It's all about collaborating.

• 44:32Lewis Howes?

  Because you were all about competition growing up.

• 44:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:34Lewis Howes?

  The answer was, no, I'm gonna win, I'm not gonna tell you my secrets, we're gonna be the best.

• 44:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, you never collaborated, you were like, especially in the ballroom world, you know, competing, you was just like, out for blood and barely spoke to people, at least for me. Yeah, I was like, I was, yeah, I was very competitive. But, no, now, I love collaborating, because.

• 44:53Lewis Howes?

  I see you do collabs all the time now.

• 44:54Speaker 01

  I love learning, like, you know, I mean, you know, just a forever student. You know, I think whenever I see something and I'm like, man, I love to tap. Or I love to do this, well, I saw that, like. That drum thing and I think for me it's wildly inspiring to to work with somebody that has talents, skills that I don't have and I'm just like in awe of them, you know, and I think that that's the thing for me is I'm I always want to live in a state of awe in everything when traveling and people and just I never want to lose that like wow, you know, that feeling, that hunger.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  Cause I think that we've all been there, I'm sure, where we lose that hunger, that drive.

• 45:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, man.

• 45:38Speaker 01

  And you're like, wow, what are we doing?

• 45:40Lewis Howes?

  What are we doing?

• 45:41Speaker 01

  What are we doing? Like what's so to remind ourselves and I think that a lot of times bringing people, fresh people in with new perspectives and ideas revitalizes that hunger, you know, so.

• 45:52Lewis Howes?

  What's your process for, you were just mentioning about visualizing something in the future, you wanted to create and choreograph. You've had these ideas, but now the technology is there. I'm curious, what's your visualization process in general for projects, competing, wanting to land a judging spot for a big TV show like? How do you visualize and manifest and attract so much? Is there a method, a process, is just?

• 46:17Speaker 01

  I think.

• 46:17Lewis Howes?

  You're good looking and things come to you like what's, what uh, you know, what is that?

• 46:21Speaker 01

  I think, I think for me, when I look back at certain opportunities and I, it's a good example. During the quarantine.

• 46:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:29Speaker 01

  How certain things manifested in quarantine, I

• 46:35Speaker 01

  everything shut down, no entertainment, no shows, my tour, you know, the Vegas show was canceled, everything's, you know, on the back burner. And we're at home, we're chilling out and I say that my girlfriend Haley, I was like, say babe, I was like, let's, let's do something like, let's dance. Like, let's just dance around the house. Let's just dance around the house. I'll jump up on here, we'll spin around, I'll do a dip, we'll edit it on the thing, we'll learn how to edit on the computer and. Anyways, we put it up there. And then from that, you know, this guy's named Nick and RJ who do Pink's Tour and they do multiple television shows. They do everything. They saw that and they were about to work on a project called the Disney Sing-Along. And they were like, "Oh, that would be perfect for this." So they called me up, said, "Hey, we saw this video. We would love for you to do something like that for this."

• 47:21Speaker 01

  So I'm like, "Great." So we did that.

• 47:23Lewis Howes?

  So you booked a gig at home?

• 47:25Speaker 01

  Booked a gig to do that.

• 47:25Lewis Howes?

  For Disney?

• 47:26Speaker 01

  And then we edited the whole thing ourselves.

• 47:28Lewis Howes?

  I saw it. It was amazing.

• 47:29Speaker 01

  We filmed it. Michael Buble has called me. He's like, "Bro, that was, I love that. That was so great." "We need to work together. I love you so much." And I was like, "I love you, Buble."

• 47:38Lewis Howes?

  Dude, he's amazing.

• 47:39Speaker 01

  He's the best. Oh, I directed a music video for him like years ago and we kind of had this like little bromance from afar. Still haven't met in person.

• 47:46Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 47:47Speaker 01

  No, it's crazy.

• 47:47Lewis Howes?

  This guy's unbelievable.

• 47:48Speaker 01

  I love him.

• 47:49Lewis Howes?

  The Christmas time is my favorite because of him.

• 47:50Speaker 01

  Because of him. He's-

• 47:51Lewis Howes?

  He's incredible.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  He's legendary. And he's, by the way, he's the, he's a better person than he is even as a singer.

• 47:56Lewis Howes?

  He's Canadian, right?

• 47:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 47:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm like, "Yeah."

• 47:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. He's just a nice guy.

• 48:00Speaker 01

  But then from that, it was just like opportunity from opportunity and it just kind of, there was so many more that came from that. And now like an Emmy Award possibly nomination for, for one of those performances.

• 48:11Lewis Howes?

  The Disney choreographed or something else.

• 48:13Speaker 01

  That one that led to the Christmas one that led to this. And then now we're judging on Dancing with the Stars and then... So my point being was, you know, it's, you just, if you have an idea, like go with it. Don't worry about it like it's perfect or polished. Just start where you stand and, and go with it. Because you don't know where it's going to lead to you. And, and almost everything I have in my life that I look at, it's because of me saying yes to so many things. You know, the small gig over here, I'd be like, "Yeah, okay, let's do it." Doesn't pay anything, but I'm going to do it. And then there was somebody there who saw that, who does over here and... So, yeah, so I would just say, say yes more. Say yes more and to yourself.

• 48:58Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. What's your thoughts on the law of attraction? Is this something that you study or implement in your life or is it more of just you have an idea, you create it and...

• 49:07Speaker 01

  I think that it's, I think that, uh...

• 49:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think, I think what you focus on is what you feel, right? What you focus on, what you feel, and what you feel, I think that is what you manifest.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  And I've noticed that, at least for me, if I'm a little bit more optimistic and a little bit more, and I see the light and I see the opportunities,

• 49:33Speaker 01

  they, they, I, I, I see them more, if that makes sense, right? I'm aware of them, I'm turning on that like, I'm looking for them. You know what I mean? Like, I have my, like, filter on of the possibilities versus, you know, if you're looking cynical and like, oh, there's just nothing going on, I just...

• 49:52Lewis Howes?

  You're gonna feel that way, and you're not gonna try.

• 49:54Speaker 01

  Well, you're just, well, also, you're just gonna see what's wrong. Right? You're just gonna see what's wrong, you're gonna see how this opportunity is not gonna work, you're gonna see how this idea you had isn't gonna work. You know, and, go to quote Tony Robbins again, my guy, you know, he's one of my biggest mentors since I was 15 years old, and, you know, it's about that state. And I really feel like that, actually. I went to a seminar of his when I was 15 years old.

• 50:19Lewis Howes?

  Me too.

• 50:19Speaker 01

  In Cardiff, Wales.

• 50:20Lewis Howes?

  I was 16, I was 16 when I went.

• 50:21Speaker 01

  Really? Would you go, would you come here?

• 50:23Lewis Howes?

  He was in St. Louis, Missouri, when I was there at that time, yeah.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  And, but first of all, we're like, being 15, 16 years old, we're like...

• 50:30Lewis Howes?

  It was amazing, dude.

• 50:31Speaker 01

  Unbelievable.

• 50:31Lewis Howes?

  It was crazy. It shifted my life, in a sense. I don't know if it was dramatic, but it was like... I don't know what type of event it was for you. For me, he was doing this tour in the USA that was like this kind of success principles event, where he brought in a lot of other speakers, like... It was, yeah, Larry King was there and Donald Trump, and it was like all these different, like, coaches, NFL, Super Bowl coaches, and, you know, actors. But he came down on stage one time, I was maybe, you know, it was an arena, and I was in like the middle court, if it was a basketball court, and he came down and kind of stopped right in front of me.

• 51:04Speaker 01

  He was like...

• 51:05Lewis Howes?

  And I was like, is this God, you know, it was like...

• 51:07Speaker 01

  Oh, actually, actually, sorry, you were probably like...

• 51:09Lewis Howes?

  I was sitting down, and he was like, yeah, no, I was sitting down, yeah. But I remember him being like, hovering over me with his powerful energy. And I can't remember what he said, but I remember the way it made me feel. And I was just like, I wanna be able to create that for other people when I grow, when I grow up. You know, I wanna be able to do that for the people. But, so when he went to Cardiff, and you were at the event, what did you experience?

• 51:30Speaker 01

  Well, that's, it was, there was that. It was just like... That energy that's being, you know, shown and also too is the tools too, the state. Just controlling your state. Yes. That was a game changer for me because being a competitor, you know, um, and this is actually what happened to me. I went to the seminar, I'm buzzing, you know, you're like, wow, I could do anything, wow. And then my partner at the time dumped me. Oh. And she was like the best in the world. She was like the one that everybody wanted to dance with, like she was like. The fifteen year old. The gem. She was fifteen, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, we were like, in our little ballroom ladder world. And she dumped me and I'm like, uh, but because I was so pumped, I was like, let's go. Well, who's next, who am I gonna find?

• 52:13Speaker 01

  And I ended up dancing with this girl who got dumped by her partner. So we were like the dumps, like we were like the rejects. Right. And, and they were the super team. They got together. Oh, they got together. Yeah, and but. You beat them, didn't you? We did. Let's go, baby. We were at Royal Albert Hall in London, in this like arena, like, like a bullfighting ring and we, we ended up beating them, but. So that was kind of a cool moment, but what I realized, and I kind of forgot about that whole seminar and the whole thing. But my whole life, it was ingrained in me, the state thing. Yes. Changing your state, just like your physiology, the language, your focus. That stuck with me for so many years and when I look back at all my world championships or my competitions that I did and.

• 52:59Speaker 01

  When I was on stage in London doing eight shows a week and I like was sick, but I had to go on there. You know, I was, I would do that. I would, I would get myself in state and I would get myself in a place where I was like, I would deliver every time and. And I think that that really honestly really helped me throughout my life. I look at opportunities. Dancing with the Stars and they call me and say, hey, can you do this thing? And I'm like, yeah. I don't know how to teach. Really? How old were you? I was twenty-two. Twenty-two. But I was like, I was faking it big time. I didn't know what I was doing. I was like, yeah, I think you. I knew I knew how to dance, but didn't know.

• 53:35Lewis Howes?

  So hard to teach, man.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  Teaching is so different, so different.

• 53:38Lewis Howes?

  I I've been salsa, you used to be salsa dancer, I've salsa danced for.

• 53:41Speaker 01

  I just saw, I just saw your, uh, the teacher the other day.

• 53:44Lewis Howes?

  Oh, yeah, okay, yeah, I see, yeah.

• 53:48Lewis Howes?

  And I've been salsa dancing, social salsa dancing, not Latin ballroom style, but social dancing.

• 53:53Speaker 01

  I've seen you salsa dance, man.

• 53:55Lewis Howes?

  It's a different style.

• 53:55Speaker 01

  It's pretty amazing.

• 53:56Lewis Howes?

  It's a different style, and I'm intimidated to actually be in the ball, because when I watch ballroom, I'm like, I have no idea what you guys are doing.

• 54:01Speaker 01

  It's very different.

• 54:02Lewis Howes?

  It's a different language.

• 54:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:04Lewis Howes?

  Anyways, I've been doing it for sixteen years. And, um, I can't remember what I was gonna say now, but it's.

• 54:09Speaker 01

  It was, uh, listen, all I remember is seeing you at, um, I was thinking it was like my sister's engagement party.

• 54:15Lewis Howes?

  Dancing.

• 54:16Speaker 01

  And you were dancing with Haley, and you all sweating.

• 54:18Lewis Howes?

  Dripping sweat, man.

• 54:19Speaker 01

  And just, and I remember just being like, I had no idea Louis had this.

• 54:24Lewis Howes?

  I know, right?

• 54:25Speaker 01

  I did not know he had this, this is amazing, it's incredible.

• 54:28Lewis Howes?

  You know, but being salsa dancing puts me in that state too.

• 54:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:31Lewis Howes?

  It makes you feel, when you move your body.

• 54:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:33Lewis Howes?

  It puts you in that state, and I think a lot of people don't know how to get there, probably as a dancer, you know, when you move your body, you get in that flow state. You're releasing it, negative emotions, you're heightening your vibration.

• 54:45Speaker 01

  I think it, well, it's primal, right? I mean, you look at like your body, it's, it's, you know, I always say this, like, you know, you look at a toddler, you know, before they can walk, before they can crawl, you put them on the ground, you put some music on, what do they do? They're like.

• 54:57Lewis Howes?

  A little worm, he's like.

• 54:59Speaker 01

  Nobody taught them to do that, nobody showed them to do that, it's in us, it's primal, and then somewhere along the way, you know, we would dance around as a kid, like on couches and stuff, and somewhere along the way, you know, we just got afraid of it. We got afraid of dancing and moving.

• 55:13Lewis Howes?

  And singing and dancing, we got afraid.

• 55:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, but people say this, they say this all the time, oh, I don't dance, and I'm always like, well, when did you decide that? They're like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, when did you stop dancing? They're like, I never danced, I was like, really? Not even like when you were like a kid, like, well, yeah, sure, I like, like goofed around, I'm like, well, okay, so what made you stop? And then usually they're like, oh, actually, there was this one time when like somebody laughed at me or where somebody said that I wasn't good or and then boom, they just switch off that part of themselves. And they and they stop, they deprive themselves of this like primal thing in us that is meant to move, which is why movement, we were meant to move. Yes. And I it's the best thing to see, especially on Dancing with the Stars. It's one of my favorite things, like working with Amy Purdy.

• 56:00Speaker 01

  She's amazing. Paralympian. She's amazing. Two prosthetic legs, we're sitting there, we have no idea how to do this. There's no handbook, there's no rulebook of how to, you know, dance with prosthetic legs. We're making it up, you know, we had to go through, find these swimmers' feet that were pointed, all these different things and my favorite moment ever was we were just got done finishing rehearsal in this Argentine Tango and she sat on a stool and she started to cry and I was like, oh gosh, what did I say? What did I do? I was too hard on her.

• 56:33Speaker 01

  And she just said like, this is the first time I felt truly feminine since I lost my legs. Oh. And it was so powerful because she just felt like this like reintroduced to this part of herself that was missing. Hmm. And I and I literally that happened almost every single partner where they were like, there was like this like reintroduction, like, oh, hey, remember this person? Wow. Remember the remember her? Nastia Lukin, same thing. Really? Yeah, we had this amazing connection where I actually asked her, I said, I was like, what's your, what's your real name? Is it Nastia? She goes, no, no, no, it's Anastasia. And I was like, oh, wow, that's such a different, I just see you differently instantly.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  It was just, and her face softened, her whole demeanor softened. She's like, Anastasia, when did you stop being Anastasia? She's like, well, when I started gymnastics. I was like, well, who was the girl before that? Dude, it was the most powerful like, and she just like, it was incredible. It was, so going back to that movement and how important it is and the physiology of our bodies. It's, uh, obviously I'm very passionate about it because I'm a dancer, but it's, it's just, it's so helpful.

• 57:46Lewis Howes?

  I'll, I'll speak for, you know, as a, as a guy who grew up in Ohio in the Midwest, it wasn't cool to dance.

• 57:52Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 57:53Lewis Howes?

  Right? And, and Twitch talks about this too. It was like, it wasn't cool for him to dance in Alabama growing up or whatever.

• 58:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:02Lewis Howes?

  And I remember, I didn't really, I don't think I ever danced in like middle school or high school. I actually did take a tap dancing class in high school for one semester and I felt like it was amazing.

• 58:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:11Lewis Howes?

  But other than that, I wasn't like, feel comfortable dancing. I like, whatever, on social dances with girls or something like that. I was just gonna sat in the corner. And when I was 24, 23, 24, I started to learn salsa. And for three months, I would go, I used to live above a jazz club. My brother was a jazz violin, he's a jazz violinist.

• 58:31Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 58:31Lewis Howes?

  The best in the world at jazz violin. He's a freak of nature. And I needed, I needed an apartment and he knew of a person who owned this jazz club. He was like, oh, there's like an artist loft upstairs. Maybe I can get you up there. So I ended up renting this place for $250 a month. Little studio. And downstairs, they had jazz music, but once a week, they had a live salsa band come out. And all the salsaos in Ohio would come once a week. And I would go down and I would watch and just be like, this is another world. This is amazing. The guys are just so smooth, the women looking beautiful. And I went down there every week for months.

• 59:09Lewis Howes?

  And I never would step on the dance floor because I was so scared, so intimidated of looking bad, of being made fun of. Like the fear is crippling for people to try to sing in front of others or dance or do something like this.

• 59:24Lewis Howes?

  And I can, I can have empathy because I know what it felt like. And then finally, I was just like, I need to do this. Someone grabbed me on the dance floor. I was resisting it. I made a, I felt like I was making the biggest fool of myself trying to learn the basic steps.

• 59:37Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 59:37Lewis Howes?

  Stepping on this girl, just like bumping into people. I was like, I'm just this like giant white guy in the middle of like the sea of incredible dancers. And everyone's got to laugh at me. This is like the self-talk.

• 59:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:48Lewis Howes?

  And then after like five minutes, I s- I look around and no one cares. No one's looking at me, no one cares.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  Who cares?

• 59:54Lewis Howes?

  And even if they did, who cares?

• 59:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:56Lewis Howes?

  Even if they laughed at me, who cares?

• 59:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:58Lewis Howes?

  And I went all in from that moment.

• 1:00:00Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 1:00:00Lewis Howes?

  Obsessing over salsa dancing, every day practicing.

• 1:00:03Speaker 01

  Dude, seeing your videos when you're, I'm so impressed. Cause here, cause here's the thing, here's what's interesting is that like social, social salsa dancing.

• 1:00:12Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:00:12Speaker 01

  It's, it's the feel, right? And you're just flowing and you're just kind of leading and it's just improvised.

• 1:00:17Lewis Howes?

  It is.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  I'm not good at improvising.

• 1:00:19Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:00:19Speaker 01

  It's not my forte.

• 1:00:20Lewis Howes?

  I bet you'd be great at it.

• 1:00:21Speaker 01

  It's not my forte. Like it's, whenever people go, oh, you're, come on, dance with me. And they grab me and I'm like.

• 1:00:26Lewis Howes?

  What did you choreograph this?

• 1:00:27Speaker 01

  It's, I was like, give me, give me a couple of hours to like choreograph this routine. And they're, I'm always like, they're always kind of like slightly disappointed because they're like, like, oh, he's not as good as I thought he was. But like, cause I'm always like, mine is like, mine's very like choreographed and like I have to like, it like work things. It's all about the tech, you know, all that stuff. So I have such admiration for people like, hey, let's go. And they just start dancing and I'm like, ah, okay, great. So I love that dude. I think it's amazing.

• 1:00:52Lewis Howes?

  It's fun, man.

• 1:00:53Speaker 01

  And it is liberating, especially for the guys.

• 1:00:54Lewis Howes?

  Dude, it's liberating and I, and anyone listening or watching, if you haven't experienced yourself dancing in a long time or singing in front of people, one of these expressions, when you tap back into it, like when you were a child, like you were saying.

• 1:01:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:08Lewis Howes?

  It's going to bring a whole nother level of energy for you in your life.

• 1:01:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:12Lewis Howes?

  Your relationships and your confidence and just enjoying life. So I highly recommend people to get back into it because the first, first few days doing it is going to be hard, but it's the freeing.

• 1:01:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:24Lewis Howes?

  It's incredible.

• 1:01:25Speaker 01

  My favorite thing is seeing like Super Bowl champions.

• 1:01:27Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:01:28Speaker 01

  World Series champions, like.

• 1:01:29Lewis Howes?

  Come in and.

• 1:01:30Speaker 01

  Come on, dance with us. And they're like, yo, this is insane. Like how do they, what do you, what, this is amazing. And they fall in love with it and they find it so challenging. And it's been cool to see like, even just from like 12 years ago. You know, people been like, what? Dance, cha- pasta, what? And now, you're in the street and some dude in a football jersey with a beard is like, "Yo, I love that pasta doble you did. That sachet cake was beautiful."

• 1:01:56Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:01:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:56Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:01:57Speaker 01

  They like their own terminology and they're like, they're so into it, cuz it's, um, they, they understand it. They appreciate it more now, so.

• 1:02:04Lewis Howes?

  That's exciting, man.

• 1:02:04Speaker 01

  It's been cool to see that, like, massive shift.

• 1:02:07Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:02:08Speaker 01

  In just appreciation of this insane sport and, and artistry. Cuz dancers, dancers for me, um, artistic athletes.

• 1:02:18Lewis Howes?

  The greatest athletes in the world are dancers.

• 1:02:19Speaker 01

  Artistic athletes. That's, that's sort of my, that's my phrase for when I look at dancers, so.

• 1:02:23Lewis Howes?

  I feel like the, the ability to control your body and have freedom and control at the same time.

• 1:02:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:29Lewis Howes?

  As a dancer, it's one of the most inspiring things for me to watch. That's why I love watching you and Haley, your girlfriend, because just in awe of the artistry and the physical talent that you guys have. It's like you're incredible athletes. Don't they say dancers are like athletes from the gods or something like that? What's the, what's the term?

• 1:02:46Speaker 01

  I know you're saying.

• 1:02:47Lewis Howes?

  Something like that.

• 1:02:48Speaker 01

  I think Einstein or something, or something like, yeah, I don't, yeah.

• 1:02:52Lewis Howes?

  It's like the.

• 1:02:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, uh.

• 1:02:54Lewis Howes?

  The athlete of the gods or something like that.

• 1:02:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's something like that.

• 1:02:56Lewis Howes?

  Anyways, what you were talking about before is, um, what you focus on, you feel, and what you feel, you manifest. Can we talk about that a little more? Because I think there's a lot of people, whether they're artists or an entrepreneur, or just someone that wants to attract the right relationship, and they wanna learn how to manifest these things better. And I like the way you, you worded it. What you focus on, you start to feel, and what you feel, you manifest. So how do we change our focus, our focus and our feeling, so we can start to manifest more quality things in our life as opposed to the negative things?

• 1:03:35Speaker 01

  Well, I think, and I'm, I feel like I'm just quoting my man Tony all day here, cuz, I mean, he's my guy, but, um. You know, what's bad is always available, but so is what's good. Ooh. It's always available. All these things are available for us, right? They're all there. It's just up to us to decide what we decide to focus on. You know, a good expression, actually, a good situation is Kelly Pickler, I was working with her on Dancing with the Stars, and she had insane nerves. Really? She would just get, we rehearsed and she was great, begin rehearsal and onto the floor, it'd fall apart, because the nerves just got the best of her. And so I said to her, we go back to the state change, and I said to her, I said,

• 1:04:18Speaker 01

  I said, "This is what I want you to do." I said, "Don't say that you're nervous. Just say that you're excited." Because as we know, nervous and excited are chemically identical, right? The body doesn't know the difference. The only difference is our focus, right? And also our language, what we're saying. Yes. So when we say we're nervous, we're focusing on what's bad. We're like, "I'm nervous because I'm gonna fall over. I'm nervous because they're not gonna like it. I'm nervous because I'm not good enough."

• 1:04:47Speaker 01

  But your body doesn't know it could be excited. So I said, "Just say you're excited. Just say it." She's like, "Okay, I'm excited." I'm like, "Okay, now just say I'm excited. Just fake it." Yeah, yeah. Just say it. Don't even feel it, just fake it. "Okay, I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm so excited." And all of a sudden, you could feel like, all of a sudden, her posture changed, her body changed. Now she was like changing her feeling. She was feeling excited, even though it was the same chemical response. Because now she's focusing on what's good. Like, "I'm excited because I worked hard on this. I'm excited to show these people. I'm excited to, you know, show what I've been working on." And, man, that was the antidote. That was it. We won that season. And we would not, I'm telling you, like, we,

• 1:05:29Speaker 01

  it was crazy. Like, all that work would fall apart on the day, until we changed that, and that became a ritual of ours. That's cool. Where we were like, "I'm excited. I'm excited." And we're focusing on what's good. And so that manifested a good performance. Manifested results. So what you focus on is what you feel. So let's focus on, like, the solutions. Let's focus on the tools that we need in order to achieve what we want, you know? Let's focus on what's good. I mean, social media will hijack you. You know, you're just like, bad, negative, awful. And then you're like, "Why do I feel like crap today?" Like, okay, well, because you're focusing on what's bad.

• 1:06:09Speaker 01

  And so, yeah, I don't know, I think for me, that's been a, don't get me wrong, I have to catch myself many, many times, and I still use that to this day for myself. My heart's beating fast, my palms are sweating, I'm like.

• 1:06:23Lewis Howes?

  Mom spaghetti.

• 1:06:25Speaker 01

  You know, knees weak, arms are heavy. Keep on spaghetti while you're rolling down. Eminem, please don't say it.

• 1:06:32Lewis Howes?

  So how do you prepare then for, you know, you've been on so many big stages. You've been on TV many times, you've been on big stages touring for, I don't know, hundreds of cities over many years. Do you still get nervous before you perform in front of an audience?

• 1:06:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I get excited now.

• 1:06:48Lewis Howes?

  So how do you prepare an hour before a big performance? Whether you're shooting in front of just cameras and no one's watching, but you know this is for something meaningful, you're on stage in front of thousands of people.

• 1:07:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:01Lewis Howes?

  You're on cameras in front of millions of people watching from home. How do you prepare that hour leading up to make sure that you're in your best position to nail it?

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's the ritual. It's my rituals, it's, you know, everything from stretching, getting my body right. I have like a heater, you know, I get hot, I sweat, I have to break a full sweat.

• 1:07:22Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  Before I do anything. And there's something about that, I just, I feel like, it's like my body just kind of awakens when I act, like there's physical perspiration, I'm sweating. And it's also, again, listening to things, you know, going back to focusing on what's good, you know, I'll listen to a podcast, you know, I'll listen to my mind school of greatness right here, you know, I'll put something on that is nurturing and uplifting and nourishing, I should say.

• 1:07:54Speaker 01

  And that gets me in the right mindset, the physicality's there, the focus is there. And it just, and the rest just flows.

• 1:08:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:01Speaker 01

  You know, I think.

• 1:08:02Lewis Howes?

  You put in the preparation and the practice, so you just fall through now, yeah.

• 1:08:07Speaker 01

  And when it becomes routine, it's reliable.

• 1:08:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:09Speaker 01

  You know, I know I'll be, I'll be in that spot, I'll be in that place.

• 1:08:14Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:08:15Speaker 01

  By doing these things, I know I'll be in that spot by the time it comes to performing or doing what I have to do. And also trusting that it's going to work out. Cause I used to drive myself nuts.

• 1:08:27Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:08:28Speaker 01

  Like.

• 1:08:30Speaker 01

  Like it's never gonna happen, it's not gonna work, I'm a perfectionist and that was another thing too, I used to pride myself on being a perfectionist, I was like, I'm such a perfectionist.

• 1:08:38Lewis Howes?

  What does perfectionism do to you?

• 1:08:40Speaker 01

  Oh, it's paralyzing, right? Cause it's like, cause it doesn't exist. It's not real, it's, you're never gonna be perfect. And even if it is perfect, you're still gonna think that something's wrong with it, right? So you're living in a constant state of disappointment. Constant, cause you're just like, it's never gonna be perfect. So realizing that the perfection is the experience. The perfection is that is your heart beating fast, the perfection is you being prepared and giving it, you know, putting in the hours and knowing that you've done the time, that's the perfection, like, that's that feeling. It's not actual perfection, you know what I mean?

• 1:09:23Lewis Howes?

  When did you learn to let go of perfection, or is it something you still?

• 1:09:25Speaker 01

  Dancing with stars. Oh my gosh.

• 1:09:28Lewis Howes?

  Cause it was like, ah, this person doesn't wanna dance, we gotta go out there and do something.

• 1:09:32Speaker 01

  No, literally, dude, it was crazy.

• 1:09:36Lewis Howes?

  But let's go have fun.

• 1:09:37Speaker 01

  When I competed before Dancing with Stars, I was a terror. I was honestly a terror, like my coaches hated me, like, I was like,

• 1:09:44Lewis Howes?

  Again.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  It wasn't good enough, I was like, ah, but you won, I'm like, I know I didn't deserve to win, I was like, I was off tonight and I was so hard on myself and it just was never good enough. And Dancing with Stars rolls around and you're dancing with somebody who's not a dancer and it feels like, it feels like nails on a chalkboard. Because in that environment dancing, it's all about connection. It's all about the feeling of it, it's not even like what you're looking at, it's like the feeling. And that takes years to get that like, that connection going with your partner. That takes thousands of hours. And here you are, you're like, oh, this is, and man, I had no choice, I had to just like, okay, I, this is what it is.

• 1:10:30Speaker 01

  But then I look back on it and I'm like, and I had to change the definition of what perfection meant to me, which was the perfection is I get to help this person, I get to serve this person, I get to see their face light up when they get to do something they never thought they were able to do. Like those moments became so much more rewarding and things that I look forward to versus like, Man, that felt terrible, or their frame was down, or they missed the turn.

• 1:10:59Speaker 01

  Not really worrying about that so much. The first couple of seasons, though, I was still like that. And I apologize to all my partners out there, and they know, and I love them, and we're still friends. But I was a terror, man, I was.

• 1:11:11Lewis Howes?

  It's gotta be perfect.

• 1:11:12Speaker 01

  I was like, let's do it again. Then eventually, halfway through, I was like, wait a minute, what am I doing? Gotta relax, man.

• 1:11:18Lewis Howes?

  Has there ever been a moment where you went on stage, whether it be Dancing with the Stars, or your own, some other show, your own show, where you felt like, I'm not fully prepared? Like, we didn't practice enough. The dancers don't know their steps two hours ago.

• 1:11:36Lewis Howes?

  Have you ever felt that way?

• 1:11:37Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:11:37Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:11:38Speaker 01

  So much, so many times.

• 1:11:39Lewis Howes?

  How do you go out there knowing you're not ready?

• 1:11:43Speaker 01

  Just wing it. Well, here's the thing, the first two tours I did with my sister, I learned the whole show in two days.

• 1:11:50Lewis Howes?

  Shut up!

• 1:11:51Speaker 01

  Two days, and it was on the stage where we were performing it. And sometimes I was doing the routine the night before in the lobby, hotel lobby, before we were onstage in front of 5,000 people. And it was, it didn't go great sometimes. But I realized, I was like, as long as you're enjoying it, even if it goes wrong, the audience are with you. They're with you. You know, if you go into this like, oh, the audience feels that, you know? And so it's this, it's this, hey, that didn't go quite right. And you acknowledge it, you're just like, hey. And the audience are like, hey, that's awesome. You know, it's like somebody on SNL laughing in a skit or something. You know, they're like, oh, this is

• 1:12:36Lewis Howes?

  This is actually amazing.

• 1:12:36Speaker 01

  This is actually pretty fun. And it's personal, you know, and it's human, it's real. But also too, being a dancer, and I guess is sometimes good in life as well, but. You know, it's uh, you're going to make mistakes. You know, and at least when you're competing, it was for me was about like, how well can I recover from those mistakes, right? How, how well can I, ooh, I missed that, let's get back into it and then let me get back on balance. Let me get back into, you know, my center.

• 1:13:06Speaker 01

  Cause if you get frantic about it, if you hold on to that mistake, you know, it's, you become slow, sluggish, you're missing more steps. So you, you have to learn to let go of mistakes in a routine in order for yourself to get back to center. And I think that's kind of, you know,

• 1:13:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:24Speaker 01

  Good in life.

• 1:13:24Lewis Howes?

  Speaking of getting to center, when you have accomplished so much from a young age, for the last fifteen plus years now, you've been on a global stage, at least a national stage and a global stage in different areas of your career. How do you stay centered and grounded and not allow ego to take over when you're winning everything and on covers of magazines and you know, celebrity gossip, all the things, all the opportunities and people feeding into the ego of like how amazing you are. How have you stayed centered or grounded, or maybe you haven't, you know, at certain points. But what's the process there to stand grounded with success?

• 1:14:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, you know, for me, I feel like I've, I've never got too carried away with, with all that, you know, to be honest with you, I think maybe that's my competitive side of me where I feel like, like I said before, like, it's still not good enough or there's still more to do and,

• 1:14:20Speaker 01

  it, I, listen, I, I appreciate like the accolades and I love like hearing people, you know, who appreciate what I do and,

• 1:14:30Speaker 01

  but you're never, again, I go back to the teach, the student thing. I'm a forever student, I love learning and I think that it's hard, at least for me, I think that it's hard for me to allow myself to get to a place like that. Because I always feel like I'm, I'm constantly growing and I'm, I'm wanting to learn more. And I'm in this sort of state of like, not like, hey, I'm the guy, I know everything and like, y'all lucky, you know, it's like, never like that. And also you never, realizing that you're never as big as,

• 1:15:01Speaker 01

  You are individually never as big as like, like the project or the show, whatever you're working on. I'm here to serve. I'm here to like, how can I make this better? How can I make this, how can I give myself to this audience and make them feel great in a certain way? Not, how can they love me more and appreciate me? That's not it, you know, and I think that keeps me super just motivated, you know, to give. But also things you were having a family, you know, in early years because when you're a teenager and, you know, things are going great, you, you start to feel a certain way about yourself perhaps, but, but that would be quickly.

• 1:15:42Lewis Howes?

  Family keeps you grounded.

• 1:15:43Speaker 01

  That would be instantly.

• 1:15:44Lewis Howes?

  A little Derek.

• 1:15:45Speaker 01

  Instantly checks. Yeah, never allowed to even go there. Yeah.

• 1:15:49Lewis Howes?

  What do you feel like is something that's missing in your life? That if you were able to tap into it more, would give you more abundance, freedom, peace, love, intimacy? Is there, is there anything missing or?

• 1:16:06Speaker 01

  You know, I don't necessarily think there's something missing. I think there's some things I can, I can water more. I can grow on more, you know, I think there's things that I

• 1:16:18Speaker 01

  can definitely improve on and dive deeper into.

• 1:16:22Lewis Howes?

  What's one thing that's resonates with you right now as you think about it?

• 1:16:30Speaker 01

  Man, I think going back to the idea of like execution and

• 1:16:40Speaker 01

  it's a good question. I'm just trying to think about it. Yeah.

• 1:16:44Speaker 01

  What's one thing that I think?

• 1:16:45Lewis Howes?

  Dive in deeper.

• 1:16:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:46Lewis Howes?

  Internally, something internally. You're an execution machine.

• 1:16:49Speaker 01

  Cause, cause here's, cause here's what's interesting with me like, cause here's the thing. Usually I would usually say my relationship, a relationship, like intimacy and things like that. And I think that that's been something that's been missing in my life so, for so long. True intimacy, true love, and I feel like I'm in a place now in my life where that has,

• 1:17:13Speaker 01

  I feel, I feel like it's there and it's, it's beautiful. It's, I feel very like, oh, that's been sort of the, that's been a piece that's been missing for so long.

• 1:17:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, so yeah, I don't know.

• 1:17:30Lewis Howes?

  You know, it's interesting, your body language shifted, right? When you, this is the first time you sat back.

• 1:17:34Speaker 01

  Sat back, I know, I'm like, this is my uh.

• 1:17:37Lewis Howes?

  But why do you think that something shifted when I was thinking about relationship?

• 1:17:40Speaker 01

  I think it was like, you know, it's interesting, actually, I think because there's a groundedness about it. I think maybe, you know, here I'm like engaged.

• 1:17:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:17:51Speaker 01

  My body language here, I felt really grounded and I think that I'm at ease.

• 1:17:57Lewis Howes?

  At peace.

• 1:17:58Speaker 01

  At peace, at ease, of like, of of

• 1:18:03Speaker 01

  feeling like if nothing were to happen, no other things happened in the life, like I'll be, everything's be okay. You know what I mean, like um.

• 1:18:11Lewis Howes?

  Because of a, of quality intimate relationship?

• 1:18:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, there's a beauty about that.

• 1:18:16Lewis Howes?

  That's interesting, man.

• 1:18:18Speaker 01

  I will say, it's pretty hilarious, the amount of comments, there's just like, when are you popping the question?

• 1:18:23Lewis Howes?

  All the time, right, yeah, yeah, you get that all the time, don't you?

• 1:18:25Speaker 01

  All the time, all the time.

• 1:18:27Lewis Howes?

  I think, I think, I think people should never pressure a man to make that decision.

• 1:18:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:34Lewis Howes?

  As men, we should say, this is a decision I want to make in this moment, or when I'm ready. And, and lean into it because we want to make it, not because we're pressured by society or friends or family, like, you gotta do this now.

• 1:18:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know, I know.

• 1:18:48Lewis Howes?

  That's not the right thing for people, I don't think. I think you can encourage depth of the relationship and growth and these things, but pressuring someone to make that decision?

• 1:18:57Speaker 01

  Well, here's what's interesting, like, usually, but at least what I've seen in relationships is, you know, people, they get like in it and then they get married, and this is not every relationship.

• 1:19:06Lewis Howes?

  Sometimes too quick.

• 1:19:08Speaker 01

  Well, they get in a relationship and then there's lots of trials and tribulations and things that go through, they go through a lot and, you know, sometimes it doesn't work out and sometimes it does. The way I've looked at it is like, we've gone through so many different versions of our relationship in the past six years, so my eye is twitching.

• 1:19:24Lewis Howes?

  You're good.

• 1:19:28Lewis Howes?

  The stress of the pressure of getting married, yeah?

• 1:19:32Speaker 01

  No, but I think we've gone through so many different versions of our relationship over the past six years and so many ups and downs and so many beautiful things that have really just, they, you know, deepened our relationship that I know that when that day comes.

• 1:19:47Speaker 01

  That there's gonna be no doubt.

• 1:19:51Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:19:51Speaker 01

  That there's nothing we can't get through.

• 1:19:53Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:19:54Speaker 01

  There's gonna be no doubt that, you know, what we do is gonna be forever and a beautiful thing. And, uh, yeah, yeah, it's awesome.

• 1:20:04Lewis Howes?

  It's exciting, man.

• 1:20:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:05Lewis Howes?

  What do you think is possible for a man? When they create that intimate connection with someone, their partner? That they deepen and strengthen and evolve over time? As opposed to being single as a man? What do you think is possible? From you, single Derek, to now you committed intimate, you know, expanding growth in an intimate relationship? What's possible on that side versus where you were? Single, kind of all over the place, having fun?

• 1:20:33Speaker 01

  I think possible is the possibility, at least for me, what I feel, what I see is, is just consistent, consistency of happiness. Not just consistency in a relationship, but consistent happiness and consistent joy. Because an amplification where I feel like experiences are amplified because you're sharing them with somebody. You know, one thing I love about Haley is like, we love adventures. We love going on these amazing trips and we'll go diving and she's down forty feet and I'm like, oh, well, I gotta go go be down there with her and it's just, it's really great to experience these things together.

• 1:21:08Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:21:09Speaker 01

  So for me, the, it's not necessarily just the possibilities of like, what it does for like business or creativity, all these things. For me, it's the possibility of just the quality of life.

• 1:21:18Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:21:19Speaker 01

  That I feel like, you know, at least for me, I was, I was sort of searching for and looking for in other things. There's, there is a, a breath. There's a breath, there's an ease, there's a groundedness that's there. Especially, and she's a very like grounded person too. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm, I'm very airy. I'm like, I'm up here, you know what I mean? And she's very here, so it's a good combo. And, uh, yeah, it is interesting because I have friends like who, um, they'll be in this relationship or this relationship and they're dating and they're like, oh man, I wanna be in a long-term relationship and

• 1:21:59Speaker 01

  and I just said, I said, dude, you gotta stop, stop with the, having the appetizers.

• 1:22:04Lewis Howes?

  I know, man.

• 1:22:04Speaker 01

  Like, meaning, and I don't say that as talking about women like that at all. I have four sisters, like, my respect for women is, you know. But it's more in the sense of. Be on your own.

• 1:22:16Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:22:17Speaker 01

  Be on your own.

• 1:22:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:19Speaker 01

  Be on your own and like love yourself, figure yourself out, find yourself and gain that appetite for like, like love.

• 1:22:27Lewis Howes?

  Depth and deeper connection.

• 1:22:29Speaker 01

  Like get yourself the appetite for that and and it's yeah, at least that's kind of what I felt like I did at least will help me, you know, from being sort of dating, you know, a serial dater to stepping back, being sort of on my own for a while and then allowing myself to, you know, be ready for it.

• 1:22:47Lewis Howes?

  To dive in.

• 1:22:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's a.

• 1:22:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. It's exciting, man. I've got a couple of final questions for you. Love our time together. I love how how real you've been and how just open and honest. It's been really inspiring, Derek. Before I ask the final questions, people got to follow you, derekhoff.com, derekhoff on Twitter, what derekhoff on Twitter is on Instagram, Twitter.

• 1:23:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:10Lewis Howes?

  And TikTok.

• 1:23:11Speaker 01

  All the things, derekhoff. That's it.

• 1:23:13Lewis Howes?

  Yes. Follow him on TikTok if you want to be inspired, if you want to laugh, if you want to be, you know, get some creative ideas.

• 1:23:19Speaker 01

  I think inspiration is the wrong word. I think inspire, inspire to be a dork yourself.

• 1:23:23Lewis Howes?

  That's good, yeah, to be authentic self.

• 1:23:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:25Lewis Howes?

  People need that. People need that, man.

• 1:23:27Speaker 01

  You know, literally, I'm just like, yo, just have fun with it, man.

• 1:23:30Lewis Howes?

  Be a goofball. I think that's part of life, man.

• 1:23:32Speaker 01

  It's okay.

• 1:23:33Lewis Howes?

  But one of the coolest experiences I've ever done is been to your live performances. I think I saw two of them with you and Jules, but you're doing your own.

• 1:23:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:43Lewis Howes?

  Here in Vegas, coming up September 22nd through November 22nd. It's called No Limit Derek Huff, right?

• 1:23:50Speaker 01

  No limit, yeah.

• 1:23:51Lewis Howes?

  No limit, baby.

• 1:23:52Speaker 01

  No limit.

• 1:23:52Lewis Howes?

  Let's go. So September 22nd through November 22nd, if you're in Vegas or make a trip to Vegas, they can see your show. Where can they get tickets to that? How can they?

• 1:24:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, go to Ticketmaster, Ticketmaster.

• 1:24:06Speaker 01

  That's it, right?

• 1:24:06Lewis Howes?

  Ticketmaster.com

• 1:24:07Speaker 01

  Go to Ticketmaster.com, yeah. And it's at the Venetian Hotel.

• 1:24:10Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 1:24:11Speaker 01

  And, yeah, it's a great night. And this show is like, live band, the, an all-star cast of dancers. I mean, these dancers I picked from, you know, they won World of Dance.

• 1:24:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:24:23Speaker 01

  They were like, first place.

• 1:24:25Lewis Howes?

  They're on your show?

• 1:24:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:26Lewis Howes?

  On the show you were judging?

• 1:24:27Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:24:27Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:24:28Speaker 01

  And they, you know, are just extraordinary dancers, like, beyond. Of course, Hayley's gonna be dancing on the show as well, and she's sensational. But it's, they're singing in it, it's like...

• 1:24:40Lewis Howes?

  You're gonna sing?

• 1:24:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, it's a big band music.

• 1:24:43Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:24:43Speaker 01

  Actually, Michael Buble, he sent me all of his tracks. His authentic musician stems. So the music just sounds so full.

• 1:24:52Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:24:53Speaker 01

  Motown music, rock and roll, you know, Latin salsa, tango, contemporary. I mean, every different genre you could think of, something for everybody. And it's just, it's a great night. And we, we, we dance, man.

• 1:25:10Lewis Howes?

  Hard. You're sweating, you're dripping your...

• 1:25:13Speaker 01

  It's full out, and it's so much fun, and, uh...

• 1:25:17Lewis Howes?

  It's an athletic performance. It's like you guys are full-on athletic performance.

• 1:25:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, it's top-notch.

• 1:25:24Lewis Howes?

  Ninety minutes, what is this, like, a sixty, ninety-minute performance?

• 1:25:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it's, the difference about Vegas is there's no intermission.

• 1:25:29Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 1:25:29Speaker 01

  It's just like, straight through. And, um, yeah, it'll be like, it'll be like, an hour twenty.

• 1:25:35Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing.

• 1:25:36Speaker 01

  Just non-stop, you know, action. But it's gonna be a lot of fun, a lot of fun. You definitely need to go check it out.

• 1:25:42Lewis Howes?

  I'm excited, man, I'm gonna be there for sure, at least one night, if not two. I'm gonna bring some friends. Uh, so check Derek out, September twenty-second through November twenty-second. Called No Limit Derek Huff. You can get it on his Instagram and Twitter, you'll be linked up to it as well.

• 1:25:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:54Lewis Howes?

  Uh, so make sure you guys check that out. This, this question I ask everyone at the end, it's called the three truths.

• 1:26:00Speaker 01

  Uh-oh.

• 1:26:01Lewis Howes?

  So, imagine, there's a hypothetical scenario. So, imagine it's your last day on earth, many years away.

• 1:26:07Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:26:07Lewis Howes?

  You get to live as old as you wanna live. And you've accomplished, yeah, you've accomplished everything you wanna accomplish.

• 1:26:14Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:26:15Lewis Howes?

  You've lived the great life. But, for whatever reason, everything you've ever created has to go to another place. All your dance, your videos, this interview, your book, all these things have to go somewhere else. No one has access to your content.

• 1:26:29Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:26:31Lewis Howes?

  Would you have a piece of paper and a pen? And you get to write down three lessons that you've learned in your life that you would leave to the world? I call it the three truths. The three lessons you would leave behind. And this is all we have to remember you by. What would you say would be those three lessons or those three truths? Without being prepared? What's resonating with you in the moment?

• 1:26:54Speaker 01

  I think...

• 1:26:57Speaker 01

  Man. And I just, I'm just a walking infomercial for Tony.

• 1:27:02Lewis Howes?

  I love it, man.

• 1:27:03Speaker 01

  I'm telling you. But truly, some of the things have really stuck with me and really changed my perspective dramatically. And really, in really dark times, have really

• 1:27:16Speaker 01

  changed my perspective almost instantaneously. And one of them was trade your expectations for appreciation. We've heard it before, but it's something that

• 1:27:31Speaker 01

  when you really sort of apply, it's an absolute game changer. And that applies to everything. Everything, like your environment, especially your relationships. You know, for me, like whenever there's a fight or there's an argument or something happens, there's usually an expectation that's not being met. And so you realize, okay, how do I switch this? How do I appreciate this person right now? How do I appreciate them listening to me or them being... You know what? They actually did this for me. Man, game changer. So...

• 1:28:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's number one.

• 1:28:03Speaker 01

  That's number one.

• 1:28:11Speaker 01

  Man.

• 1:28:17Speaker 01

  I feel like, I feel like I think that like you're enough. You always have been and you always will be. And I think that's important too, that it's not just you are enough. It's you always have been and you always will be. I feel like that that for me has been really powerful as well because it's just a reminder of like, hey, man, that kid or those things that ever happened to you when you look back, you are enough. You already were enough. Already. And you are now. And you always will be.

• 1:28:52Lewis Howes?

  That's big.

• 1:28:53Speaker 01

  So I think that that one and the third one, drink lots of water.

• 1:28:59Speaker 01

  Stay hydrated.

• 1:28:59Lewis Howes?

  It's true, man.

• 1:29:00Speaker 01

  Stay hydrated, man. No, um.

• 1:29:02Lewis Howes?

  That's a good lesson, though.

• 1:29:03Speaker 01

  I know, right? Stay hydrated.

• 1:29:08Speaker 01

  I go back to this one again, because it's such a go-to, but, you know.

• 1:29:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think that, I think one of them would be,

• 1:29:23Speaker 01

  what the world isn't happening to you, it's happening for you. That's another one that I've heard that was so powerful for me, because we fall into that victim mode, you know, why is this happening to me? Why did that happen to me? And it goes back into the, what if your enemy is your angel? So I'm like, well, how did that happen for me? You know, what lesson did I learn from that? How can I grow from that? So those have been really key pivotal things that have helped me in my life that I would love to, you know, carry on and share and pass on.

• 1:29:56Lewis Howes?

  Those are great, man. This has been inspiring. Again, I want people to follow you everywhere on social media, Derek Huff, especially on TikTok. And go to the show, I'm telling you, if they go to the show, text me or message me on Instagram or Twitter with a photo that you're there, and you're going to be inspired, I'm telling you, it's going to be worth the show. So make sure you guys go and tell your friends to go. I want to acknowledge you, Derek, for, again, the transformation you've had. I think I've known you for like five, six years, maybe. We've hung out a little bit here and there, but it's been more over the last couple of years here and there. And it's fun, because I see your transformation in myself, because I see how I've continued to grow and evolve through adversity and heartache and things like that.

• 1:30:40Lewis Howes?

  And I, you know, I know other things off-camera that we've talked about, that you've grown into a different person. And it's really inspiring to witness the growth.

• 1:30:49Speaker 01

  Thank you, brother.

• 1:30:49Lewis Howes?

  Because I think some people might think that you just had it all figured out, and things are perfect in your life, and you've got no problems because you're successful, and you look good, and you've got this amazing blue eyes and all these things. But we all go through challenges and adversity. And to know that you've been doing the intimate, vulnerable work for yourself, the inner work to improve, to grow. To be more connected to people is really inspiring. So I acknowledge you not only for the incredible athletic human that you are, the athlete from the God that you are, but and the creativity you bring to the world and the joy and the passion, but for you growing as a human being and as a man. So I really acknowledge you for that. It's really inspiring, man.

• 1:31:32Speaker 01

  Means a lot. Thank you, my man.

• 1:31:34Lewis Howes?

  This is the final question. What's your definition of greatness?

• 1:31:38Speaker 01

  Definition of greatness?

• 1:31:45Speaker 01

  Definition of greatness?

• 1:31:50Speaker 01

  Wow, my brain goes crazy because there's so many things you could possibly say, I guess. And that's probably why you asked that question.

• 1:31:56Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. What's it mean for you?

• 1:32:00Speaker 01

  I think honestly, the definition of greatness for me is,

• 1:32:04Speaker 01

  I'm just trying to find a way to make it a little bit more. Well, I'm just gonna keep it streamlined, but really is, is serving others. It really is. I feel like that to be truly great is to, is to lift others. And I think in any sense of the word, you know, in a career, in a relationship, in your family.

• 1:32:26Speaker 01

  And at least for me, that's when I feel the most great. Or the most aligned with myself is when I'm helping somebody.

• 1:32:38Speaker 01

  So yeah, I feel like you'd be, you'd be serving in some way. And by the way, it doesn't have to be huge, a huge gesture. Could be a small gesture, just like listening to somebody. But yeah, I think that that would be my definition of greatness.

• 1:32:52Lewis Howes?

  That's it. Derek Huff, my man. Appreciate you.

• 1:32:54Speaker 01

  Thanks, brother.

• 1:32:55Lewis Howes?

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