181 Arianna Huffington on Building An Empire and Her Key to Success

"A good day starts the night before by getting enough sleep." - Arianna Huffington If you enjoyed this episode, check out video, show notes, and more at lewishowes.com/181. 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 181 with New York Times bestselling author Arianna Huffington.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

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

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to today's episode with the one, the only Arianna Huffington. For those who have not heard of her, then you've probably never been online because she runs the incredibly successful and popular Huffington Post. And in 2012, the Huffington Post became the first commercially run US digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize. And as of 2014, she is listed as the 52nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She is also a TV personality and New York Times bestselling author for her newest book called Thrive, "The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder." Very excited to dive into this interview with Arianna today.

• 1:17Lewis Howes?

  She's an incredible woman. I had an amazing time connecting with her and doing this in person at her studios in New York City. Make sure to check out the full episode back at lewishouse.com/181 and to see the full video interview as well over at lewishouse.com/181. Without further ado, let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one, the only Arianna Huffington.

• 1:41Lewis Howes?

  All right, welcome everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast with Arianna Huffington. How are you doing? So good to see you.

• 1:47Arianna Huffington?

  Great to be with you.

• 1:48Lewis Howes?

  Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day and connecting with me and all my listeners. Very excited. You've got a book out called Thrive. It's been out for a while. We're going to talk about this in a second. But I want to start off with a question because I love to talk about gratitude all the time in my daily life. So I'm curious, what are you most grateful for in your life right now?

• 2:09Arianna Huffington?

  So I am... Constantly feeling grateful, first of all. I wanted to be like a big part of each day. And to be grateful for big things like our health. You know, my two daughters, my sister, our amazing team here at the Huffington Post and around the world. But also, I want to be grateful for little things. Like the flowers that somebody sent me this morning in my office. The fact that spring is here.

• 2:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 2:42Arianna Huffington?

  The fact that we can now walk and have walking meetings, which I love, much better than meetings in my office.

• 2:48Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 2:49Arianna Huffington?

  So for me, when I remember to be grateful for little things as well as the big things, then the stresses of everyday life are counterbalanced.

• 2:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I like that. Even though it's still a little bit cold today in New York City.

• 3:03Arianna Huffington?

  Yes, but you can walk.

• 3:04Lewis Howes?

  Yes, you can walk, yes.

• 3:05Arianna Huffington?

  You haven't been here in the winter.

• 3:07Lewis Howes?

  It was miserable. I was here in January. It was miserable, yeah. So we're very close to your 10-year anniversary for Huffington Post, right? It's incredible. Congratulations on that.

• 3:17Arianna Huffington?

  Thank you so much.

• 3:18Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious, what was your original vision when you decided to launch Huffington Post? What was the vision? Did you exceed your vision as well in 10 years?

• 3:27Arianna Huffington?

  My original vision, when we launched on May 9, 2005, was to offer a platform to anybody who had anything interesting to say, whether they were well-known or completely unknown, whether they were presidents of a country or a homeless student with something interesting to say, to say it on the Huffington Post. And at the same time, to build a very robust journalistic enterprise, as we have done. So from the beginning, my dream was to create a hybrid, both great journalism and a great platform.

• 4:04Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 4:04Arianna Huffington?

  And I would say, we've exceeded the dream in many ways. Let me just mention a couple. One is that we are now all over the world.

• 4:16Lewis Howes?

  You're opening up in the countries every week, it seems like, right?

• 4:19Arianna Huffington?

  Well, we're in thirteen countries now, including all over Europe and Japan, Korea, India. We're launching in Australia next month, then in the Arab world, then Mexico, China. So that's a dream come true. And the other thing that I'm really, really excited about is that we started as a primarily news and politics site, but now our content around thriving, around reducing stress, and helping our readers and our viewers, because we do more and more video, lead more fulfilling lives. It has been like, has seen a phenomenal growth.

• 5:00Arianna Huffington?

  We have over twenty sections on these themes, ranging from sleep, meditation, parenting. And so I love the fact that as well as informing people, we can inspire them, empower them, and help them lead the lives they want and not just the lives they settle for.

• 5:19Lewis Howes?

  Right, I like that. And what would you say is the thing you're most proud of that you've done, what the Huffington Post has done over the last ten years?

• 5:27Arianna Huffington?

  So I'm very proud of the fact that we are working to reimagine journalism. So it doesn't just focus on all the things that are dysfunctional, corrupt, all the crises, the rapes, the beheadings, which of course we will continue to cover relentlessly and robustly, but that we also put the spotlight on all the good things happening. We have a dedicated section called Good News. We have a section called Impact, about the impact often ordinary people make on the lives of others. And we've just launched a new global editorial initiative called What's Working, where we focus on solutions. Because right now...

• 6:12Arianna Huffington?

  The way we journalists cover the news leaves out a lot of news.

• 6:17Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 6:18Arianna Huffington?

  It's not the full picture.

• 6:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 6:20Arianna Huffington?

  And as a result, our coverage leads to a lot of copycat crimes and not a lot of copycat solutions. But there are amazing things happening in the world.

• 6:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 6:34Arianna Huffington?

  And if we cover them with the same kind of journalistic integrity and drama and color, we're going to get a lot of people trying to replicate them and we'll have them scale our solutions.

• 6:48Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. Okay. Now, over the last 10 years, I've grown a lot. I'm basically a completely new person, right? When I was 22 to now 32, I'm a different human being. So I'm curious, what was the biggest lesson you learned about yourself in the last decade during this process?

• 7:02Arianna Huffington?

  Well, that's really the whole theme of Thrive, this book that I wrote. Because eight years ago, two years into launching The Huffington Post, I collapsed from exhaustion, burnout, and sleep deprivation. And that started me on this journey of recognizing that it wasn't just me, that our whole world is suffering from what a Belgian philosopher has called civilization's disease: burnout. And that we are all living under the collective delusion that burnout is the only way to succeed.

• 7:40Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 7:41Arianna Huffington?

  And I'm really excited now that modern science is proving this wrong. And that's why, at the end of Thrive, I have 55 pages of scientific endnotes to prove that, in fact, contrary to what we have believed for decades, sleep, meditation, pauses to renew ourselves are performance enhancement tools.

• 8:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:04Arianna Huffington?

  And I'm actually thrilled to be talking to you because you come from the world of sport.

• 8:08Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 8:09Arianna Huffington?

  And athletes.

• 8:11Lewis Howes?

  We need our sleep.

• 8:12Arianna Huffington?

  You know, you're ahead of business people. You're ahead of the rest of the world in recognizing that there is no trade-off.

• 8:20Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 8:20Arianna Huffington?

  Between taking care of yourself and winning.

• 8:22Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 8:23Arianna Huffington?

  In fact.

• 8:23Lewis Howes?

  Because our muscles won't recover unless we sleep.

• 8:25Arianna Huffington?

  Exactly. I mean, as a marathon runner, an Olympic marathon runner said, he said, "I can run really hard. The problem is recovery."

• 8:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:36Arianna Huffington?

  And, and that's why I'm just launching this Thrive e-course with Oprah, which launches on May 3rd. And every week, it's a six-week course.

• 8:47Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 8:47Arianna Huffington?

  Every week, we work on two steps and have a different guest teacher. So my first guest teacher is Kobi Bryant.

• 8:54Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 8:55Arianna Huffington?

  Because I wanted to have somebody unexpected to talk about sleep and meditation.

• 9:00Lewis Howes?

  He's probably one of the best.

• 9:01Arianna Huffington?

  And Kobi talks to everyone on the course, well, we will talk when we start on May 3rd, about how important sleep and meditation has been on his performance.

• 9:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:11Arianna Huffington?

  And also on his ability to be a good dad and a good husband. But even if somebody only cares about the performance at work, which I hope is not the case.

• 9:21Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 9:21Arianna Huffington?

  And we have done it wrong. You know, we've been congratulating people for working 24/7. And for not taking care of themselves. Not taking a vacation. And all these things may make people actually less productive and less creative and less healthy.

• 9:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:39Arianna Huffington?

  In Germany, for example, a lot of companies are taking measures to reduce stress in the workplace because they're seeing the impact of burnout on the bottom line.

• 9:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 9:50Arianna Huffington?

  Like Volkswagen gives employees smartphones that are automatically turned off at 6:00 PM and turned on at 7:00 AM.

• 10:01Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that is interesting. So they can't work at night.

• 10:04Arianna Huffington?

  So they can actually take time to be with their children, their loved ones themselves.

• 10:10Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 10:11Arianna Huffington?

  Because again, the science shows that people need predictable time off.

• 10:15Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 10:16Arianna Huffington?

  If your boss expects you to be on all the time in case they send you an email, you can never really unwind and truly recharge. And therefore, you're not going to be as effective in the morning.

• 10:27Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. So what are the practices that, when you started to learn that, what did you implement here at Huffington Post?

• 10:32Arianna Huffington?

  So we implemented, first of all, two nap rooms.

• 10:36Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 10:38Arianna Huffington?

  At first, there was a lot of eye rolling because, you know, here we are in the middle of New York City, the city that never sleeps. And people sort of said to me, is anybody going to be seen walking into a nap room? Well, of course, they're always full now. And people have appreciated the fact that they can go have a nap for 20 minutes and instead of having a third cinnamon bun or a fifth cup of coffee when they have an afternoon drop of energy.

• 11:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, okay.

• 11:07Arianna Huffington?

  We also have yoga, meditation, and breathing classes, healthy, free snacks everywhere, and an email policy that makes it clear that people are not expected to be on email after work.

• 11:19Lewis Howes?

  I'd fight for that. Now, I'm curious, you talk about in the book how you, the importance of seven, eight hours of sleep every night, right?

• 11:27Arianna Huffington?

  Eight.

• 11:28Lewis Howes?

  Eight hours.

• 11:28Arianna Huffington?

  The vast majority of people.

• 11:30Lewis Howes?

  Eight hours every night.

• 11:31Arianna Huffington?

  I'm talking about over 90%.

• 11:33Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 11:34Arianna Huffington?

  And do best with eight hours of sleep.

• 11:37Lewis Howes?

  Now, with all of the success you have, with all the things that are, you're launching in new countries, traveling you do, you're constantly working still, are you still able to maintain that eight hours of sleep?

• 11:48Arianna Huffington?

  Absolutely. And for me, a good day starts the night before, by getting enough sleep.

• 11:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 11:57Arianna Huffington?

  Like all of us, I'm a work in progress. I don't do it perfectly.

• 12:01Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 12:01Arianna Huffington?

  But I would say 95% of the time, I get eight hours sleep.

• 12:07Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 12:07Arianna Huffington?

  And I make it a priority. And it often means not doing things I would like to do. Like when I was on the book tour, you know, sometimes I would go into cities where I have good friends. They would say, let's go to dinner. But let's say I had to be on a 6:00 a.m. morning show. I would forego the dinner. And the reason is because I don't like me when I'm sleep deprived. I don't like that feeling of walking through my day like a zombie.

• 12:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:36Arianna Huffington?

  Not being able to enjoy what I'm doing. Not being able to be really creative and productive, or becoming overreactive. You know how when you're tired, you overreact to everything? If somebody looks at you the wrong way, you...

• 12:49Lewis Howes?

  You look at them back the wrong way. I like that. I like that you're committed to that. What is your morning ritual like then, every morning? Do you meditate? Do you read a book? Are you... What's your morning practice?

• 13:02Arianna Huffington?

  Well, first of all, the most important thing is what I don't do. I don't immediately go to my phone, which is what most of us do.

• 13:10Lewis Howes?

  That's a struggle for a lot of people.

• 13:11Arianna Huffington?

  The key is not to charge your phone by your bed, which is also important because if you charge your phone by your bed and you wake up in the middle of the night for whatever reason, go to the bathroom, whatever, you're going to be tempted to look at your messages.

• 13:26Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 13:26Arianna Huffington?

  And that makes it much harder to fall asleep and go into a deep sleep. So the first thing is not looking at my phone, taking a minute to set my intention for the day and remind myself of the things I'm grateful for. So even if you have one minute, just do that. I like to invite people to take very small steps to change things. You know, not to try and do something overwhelming and huge because then a lot of people will be reluctant or unable to do it right away. But if we take small steps, like do five minutes of meditation. I meditate for about 20 minutes.

• 14:07Lewis Howes?

  Do you have a guided meditation? What type of meditation is it?

• 14:10Arianna Huffington?

  I meditate by focusing on my breath. But also, at the end of Thrive, we have an appendix with 12 meditation apps.

• 14:21Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 14:22Arianna Huffington?

  So you can just take any of these meditation apps and check them out, like Headspace, for example.

• 14:28Lewis Howes?

  Okay, sure, sure.

• 14:29Arianna Huffington?

  And see which one appeals to you.

• 14:31Lewis Howes?

  Okay. So with all the success you've had, how do you stay so grounded? And how do you... What advice would you give to someone who is starting to achieve a lot of success, getting acknowledgements? How do they stay grounded as well?

• 14:44Arianna Huffington?

  Well, I would say the most important advice I got from my mother was what she used to tell my sister and me, which was angels fly because they take themselves lightly. So not to take ourselves too seriously.

• 14:59Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 15:00Arianna Huffington?

  To value ourselves way beyond what the world values us for. Because if you think of it, our resumes are very different than our eulogies.

• 15:10Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 15:11Arianna Huffington?

  And as the Onion headline put it, "Death rate holds steady at 100%." So if you actually have been to a friend's memorial recently, you see that nobody ever eulogizes someone by saying, you know, "George was amazing. He increased market share by one-third." You know, there are different things that we really value when we sum up somebody's life. So I think it's important to remember these things while we're living our lives and not get to the end of life and regret what we missed or how we were not present for our children, for our loved ones.

• 15:52Arianna Huffington?

  We became disconnected from ourselves because we were constantly busy and checking our devices and getting into that breathlessness that so many live our lives with.

• 16:06Lewis Howes?

  Sure. I want to wrap it up with a couple of quick questions. One, you've written, I think, 13 or 14 books, right? 14. 14 books, many articles, and it's the last day for you. Let's say 100 years from now is the last day, right? All your books have been erased. Everything you've ever written has been gone. And you're on your bed, having your last night, and you've got a pen and a piece of paper in front of you, and you get to write down three truths. The three truths that you know to be true about what you've learned in your experience on this world, and that's the only thing that people are going to see. Your family, your friends, the world, because all your books have been erased for some weird reason. What would you write down in those three truths?

• 16:47Arianna Huffington?

  So the first one is that no matter how magnificent our job is, who we are as human beings is much greater than our job. That there is something in us which is incredibly sacred and important and more important than anything we're doing right here, right now. And the second thing is that we are a soul having a human experience, rather than a human being having an occasional spiritual experience. And then, and the third thing is that giving is actually a shortcut to happiness.

• 17:31Arianna Huffington?

  That the more we see our lives as becoming go-givers and not just go-getters, the happier we are.

• 17:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I like that. Well, I want to ask you one final question. Before I do, I want to take a moment to acknowledge you, Arianna, for how much strength you have and how you inspire so many people in the world. You know, so many young female leaders, male leaders like myself, so many people that have been influenced by Huffington Post and all of your writings and your speaking and just the way you show up in the world. It's so inspiring, so I want to acknowledge you for that.

• 18:03Arianna Huffington?

  Thank you, and thank you for what you are doing to help inspire so many people.

• 18:08Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate it, thank you. So, final question. And I want to make sure everyone goes and gets a copy of your book and make sure to check out everything else that you're up to. But the final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 18:19Arianna Huffington?

  So, my definition of greatness is the recognition that we all have in us a place of wisdom, strength, and peace. And when we tap into that place, that center, we are the greatest we can be. So that greatness in the outside world is connected to tapping into that greatness inside of us. And that's why, you know, we always say upward and onward? I like to say upward, onward, and inward. Because the more we go inward, the more we can tap into this greatness and manifest it out in the world.

• 19:01Lewis Howes?

  Arianna Huffington, thanks so much for coming on.

• 19:02Arianna Huffington?

  Thank you so much. Thank you for coming here to our newsroom, and come back.

• 19:06Lewis Howes?

  I will.

• 19:09Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it guys. Thanks again to Ariana for all of her wisdom, her grace, and for all that she shared today on this episode. Again, make sure to head back to the show notes at lewishouse.com/181. You'll see the full video interview of me and Ariana as well, and a lot of other goodies where you can get her book called Thrive, which you're going to want to make sure to check out. It's a great book on the third metric to redefining in success. Again, big thanks to Ariana. Please share this guys online. If you enjoyed this episode and this interview, share it on Facebook, on Twitter, Google Plus, everywhere. Make sure to tag me and Ariana. Ariana is pretty active over on Instagram, so tag us both where you're listening to this episode. And leave a comment on the

• 19:52Lewis Howes?

  blog. I appreciate this community so much and all that you guys do to support me. You know, I get emails and messages from you constantly, and texts over on Facebook and Instagram of people listening to it, and it just brings so much joy to me. And that's why I continue to find people like Ariana to open up and share her wisdom and other people that I'm going to be bringing on the future. It's because so many of you are listening to it, and that's why we are able to bring on guests like Ariana because of how large this community is. So please continue to share this with your friends. If you have a friend today that you think might enjoy this specific episode, again, email them.

• 20:33Lewis Howes?

  The link is lewishouse.com/181. So thank you guys again so much for today, for being here, for being engaged. I love you guys. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.