389 TJ Dillashaw: Inside the Mind of a UFC World Champion

"You can create the greatest things with belief." - TJ Dillashaw If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/389 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?

  Episode number 389 with UFC World Champion TJ Dillashaw. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  I am still so fired up from this incredible weekend experience, Summit of Greatness. I'm still to do a recap podcast, episode, video about it. I'm still processing it, guys. We've, we've already sold almost half the tickets of the whole theater for next year in the first couple of days. Just from the people who attended the, the previous event, you know, recently, there was, the, the feedback has been mind blowing. So for everyone that came, thank you so very much. We're about to release tickets to open up for the general public here soon. So stay on the lookout for that. But again, we, I'm so proud of my team for what we created for our first event.

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  And our, our closing DJ, DJ Irie said, we, we screwed people over because we made it too good for the first event. So that just gives us something to stretch for to make it even better the next time. But I'm still on a high and I can't wait to share with you guys everything that happened in a follow-up episode. Today's interview is with the one and only TJ Dillashaw, who is a UFC bantamweight champion. And after graduating from college, he planned to pursue a career in the medical field before being introduced to mixed martial arts by his former assistant wrestling coach. So soon after college, he chose to follow his athletic compass and decided to dedicate himself to the sport of MMA and into full-time training mode.

• 1:58Lewis Howes?

  And in 2011 TJ was cast on the 14th season of The Ultimate Fighter, where he fought his way to the finals. And the success of the television show led to a contract in the UFC and in 2014, he won the UFC bantamweight championship. It's unbelievable. And in today's interview, we cover the mental and physical routine every single day that TJ follows as he trains. Also, what the characteristics of the championship fighters have versus the rest of the people who get second, third, fourth, fifth place, etc. How any athlete today can build a brand that can support them financially. So what he's done when he was first starting out, he's only making, I think, $8,000 a fight, doing

• 2:42Lewis Howes?

  two fights a year. You can't make that much, you can't make a living off of that. So how he's built his brand to bring in other streams of revenue and teaching essentially how anyone can do that if you're building a brand. Why the sport of MMA has grown so fast. He shares his opinion and how MMA has changed since it's become so popular. This and so much more with the one, the only TJ Jilishaw.

• 3:10Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got the legend TJ Jilishaw in the house. Good to see you TJ.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on, man.

• 3:17Lewis Howes?

  I'm excited. We met through Aubrey Marcus a couple of years ago in Austin, Texas. I think it was the opening for, on it, like gym or something?

• 3:25Speaker 01

  The DeFranco Gym. They just started their DeFranco Gym and yeah, they were having a podcast and that's why we were all out there. Kind of grand opening.

• 3:32Lewis Howes?

  And what we do, was there a UFC fight that weekend too or something?

• 3:35Speaker 01

  There was. Yeah, there was a fight out in Austin because I was out there coaching Joseph Benavides as well.

• 3:39Lewis Howes?

  That's right. I remember. So we met originally then a couple of years ago and you are the former and soon to be bantamweight UFC champion, correct?

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 3:49Lewis Howes?

  And how long have you been in the UFC?

• 3:52Speaker 01

  I've been in the UFC since I was on The Ultimate Fighter, which was season 14 and that was...

• 3:58Lewis Howes?

  2011?

• 3:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. I think it was 2011, yeah.

• 4:02Lewis Howes?

  And you graduated 2009, is that right?

• 4:05Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:06Lewis Howes?

  And so shortly after, you were doing exercise science, correct?

• 4:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:09Lewis Howes?

  And, and you, did you ever think you were going to be in the UFC or you were going to continue wrestling?

• 4:13Lewis Howes?

  Or doing any type of fighting?

• 4:15Speaker 01

  No, not at all, man. I was on a full ride scholarship to Cal State Fullerton. I was doing clinical

• 4:19Lewis Howes?

  For wrestling?

• 4:20Speaker 01

  For wrestling, yes. Sorry, for wrestling. And I was doing clinical exercise science at the time and kinesiology there. And when I graduated, my plan was to go to grad school. I was already enrolled in summer school to get my prereqs done to go to grad school to become a physician's assistant and was all gung ho on it. And I got talked into fighting by my assistant wrestling coach that was a fighter at the time, Mark Munoz. He knew that I was an aggressive wrestler and thought I'd be good at it and kinda put it in my brain. And I was at one of his wrestling camps and yeah, I just kinda got, kinda got intrigued to do it, you know? I didn't feel like I was done competing yet. I didn't reach my goals in wrestling, so I was real intrigued and continued to compete. I just didn't know what it was gonna be at, you know?

• 4:58Lewis Howes?

  You never won the championship in college, but you were like a top 10, correct?

• 5:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I uh...

• 5:03Lewis Howes?

  Went to national championships a couple of times?

• 5:05Speaker 01

  I qualified three times for the NCAA's. Goal was obviously be a national champion. Set your bar high, you know? And I didn't become an All-American, never placed top eight. I did, you know, did pretty well. I was ranked top 10, just never panned out, you know? Yeah, it was...

• 5:18Lewis Howes?

  It's a tough weight class though, right? What was the weight class you're in?

• 5:20Speaker 01

  133, yeah.

• 5:21Lewis Howes?

  It's like really competitive, right?

• 5:22Speaker 01

  It was stacked. It was definitely stacked. But it was heartbreaking. I remember my senior year after I graduated, just kinda like bawling my eyes out that I didn't really like do what I wanted to in my career, you know? That like, that was it. It was all for, for nothing, you know what I mean? Just kinda, kinda crashed, but you know, greater later. It all, it all turned around and, you know, wrestling got me to where I'm at today, and so I owed all to it.

• 5:45Lewis Howes?

  Great foundation for the UFC, obviously, right?

• 5:47Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Not only for the UFC, but I just think in work, work ethic and athletics in general.

• 5:52Lewis Howes?

  I tell you what, man, I did wrestling for like one season when I was in sixth grade. And now granted, I was about 6'3" in sixth grade, about 140 pounds or something. And the first day, I just remember just getting put on my ass so many times. And all these little guys were just shooting at me. And I was like, this is not my sport. I need to go to something where my height matters.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:12Lewis Howes?

  Um, and I quit. That was like the one sport I did not continue. Like every other sport I continued, I was like, this is not for me. These guys are like the toughest. They're like just grinding your face in the mat all day, just sweating on top of each other, like...

• 6:24Speaker 01

  That's why my nose and my face looks the way it is. I've been beat up for my whole life.

• 6:27Lewis Howes?

  You got the cauliflower ear a little bit.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:29Lewis Howes?

  It was just like, man, this is a tougher sport than I want to be a part of. So you're a real man in the sense of you gritted it out and I was not able to.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  I appreciate that, man. Wrestling's a...

• 6:39Lewis Howes?

  But I always have a lot of respect for wrestlers, man. You guys really grind.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  One of the toughest, it's still, it's the toughest thing I've done to date. Even after all the fighting, all the training I've done through that, wrestling is by far the toughest martial art. Teaching dedication and how to compete and cut and weight and it's a lot of work, you know?

• 6:56Lewis Howes?

  You're training hours and hours every day.

• 6:58Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 6:59Lewis Howes?

  Especially at the collegiate level. It's just like a whole nother ballgame.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, usually having to wake up at six in the morning for practice, go to school the whole day and then practice in the evenings and

• 7:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  compete every weekend for the most part. It's a grueling season.

• 7:12Lewis Howes?

  What are the, what are the three or four principles that you learned from wrestling at any level that have helped you for the rest, you know, since wrestling in your life and your career and relationships?

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, first and foremost is the dedication. How serious I'd always take every season. It seems like most wrestlers that I meet are that way. The dedication of giving yourself, self up to something, you know? And when I was a young kid in high school, my friends are going out partying, want to have some fun and, you know, I was intrigued to go do that. I wanted to, you know? But instead I was waking up at six in the morning, running to school and had a dream, had a dedication and I think, I think being out in front of all those people one on one is what, what creates that, you know? You don't have a team to back you up. You don't have anybody to support you. It's kind of, you're out on the map by yourself going against another man and that, that, that fear of being humiliated, I think, is what creates that dedication. And that's what's carried me through, through everything is the dedication from it, you know?

• 8:08Lewis Howes?

  Wow. So that's the first thing.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  I would say, I would say that's the first and then the, the second would be my health, you know, making sure my body stays tip top shape and I'm eating the right foods and on the right diet and, and living that kind of lifestyle.

• 8:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:24Speaker 01

  You know, that's helped with my life now and just like kind of pursuing being, being healthy, you know?

• 8:29Lewis Howes?

  When you talk about the fear of humiliation.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:32Lewis Howes?

  Did you ever feel humiliated a lot growing up or?

• 8:35Speaker 01

  Um.

• 8:36Lewis Howes?

  You just?

• 8:37Speaker 01

  No, I guess not. I guess it was just the fear of like, there's no one else to blame if you mess up. You know, all eyes are on you. It's because wrestling, you know, you don't have a team out there. It's just one on one. And so if you mess up, it's all on you.

• 8:49Lewis Howes?

  You lose, not the team loses.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:51Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  And my dad was a good wrestler and he was my coach and there was kind of like high expectations for me because I was a good wrestler as a kid. And so those high expectations just creates pressure, which creates the fear to be embarrassed, I guess.

• 9:02Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  Not saying that I ever really was, but it was a fear of mine though, you know?

• 9:07Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. What drives you today?

• 9:09Speaker 01

  Um, that's that dedication. I guess I've learned to push and want to be the best, you know? I just have that drive, that absolute drive that I want to be the best in the world.

• 9:20Lewis Howes?

  Why do you want to be the best?

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Because it's just a great accomplishment. I don't know. Because of greatness, you know? Like I want to be someone that's remembered. I want to be someone that I know I've always tried my hardest and that it's just, you know? I don't know. It's a tough question. It's just, it's just embedded in me. My dad raised me this way, you know? My dad's the same kind of personality, real intense and wants to be the best at everything and real competitive, you know?

• 9:44Lewis Howes?

  If you could map out the rest of your career,

• 9:47Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 9:47Lewis Howes?

  how would each year go and how long would you go till? And what would be the final story of your UFC career?

• 9:55Speaker 01

  If I could map it out, I'm going to get my belt back here before the end of this year. Um, you know, defend it, defend it, um, as many times as needed. I'd like to do a super five, maybe drop down to 125s and beat Demetrius Johnson. He's known to be the pound for pound, one of the best in the world, you know? I can make 125, so I'd love to do something like that. And then, you know, I don't, I don't want to fight forever, you know? I've, I've seen the wrestling's taken a toll on my body, fighting's taken a toll on my body. I'm 30 years old, you know, I got to start setting my life up outside of athletics and instead of, uh, being an athlete. And I'm starting to do so now and, you know, I like to create a family and, uh, Yeah.

• 10:33Lewis Howes?

  What would be the final year, you think? If you could map it out, if you could have the perfect story.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  I would, I would hold two belts under my name. I'd have, I'd have a weight, a belt in each weight class and I would probably call it good. You know, I'd probably maybe do the mic drop after my fight and say, thank you UFC, I'm out of here, you know?

• 10:48Lewis Howes?

  So really two more fights in.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  I mean, it could be, you never know.

• 10:51Lewis Howes?

  And be done.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  I'm sure it'll take longer than that. Yeah.

• 10:54Lewis Howes?

  How many years, what would be the last year thing for you?

• 10:56Speaker 01

  That's so tough to put.

• 10:58Lewis Howes?

  If you could, if you could map perfectly for like, yep, okay, I'm gonna be healthy this whole time and I'm gonna win it here.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. I guess it's, it's hard for me to put a number on it because I want to be able to live the lifestyle I want to live. And, and with fighting, you never know when that's gonna be because your career could end tomorrow in practice. It could continue to last forever. Um, I, you know, I wanna, I wanna build, be successful and be able to live the lifestyle I have now. So that's a hard answer, but uh, as soon as I feel comfortable, I don't know.

• 11:23Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  You know?

• 11:24Lewis Howes?

  For a few more years.

• 11:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:25Lewis Howes?

  Okay, cool.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 11:27Lewis Howes?

  What do you think about when you set your goal? Okay, you, you lost the fight and then what do you think about next? Okay, it's to get it back.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:34Lewis Howes?

  What is the day-to-day process like for you when you wake up? Do you obsess over this vision? Do you have this, something written on your wall? Do you have the image of the person you're gonna fight, like Rocky style? Like what is the process for you mentally and physically to prepare for that goal?

• 11:49Speaker 01

  Uh, more inside my head than, I, I don't have to put the image on the wall or the, you know, the believe or anything like that. It's more of, I kinda wake up and live that lifestyle every day. You know, if I haven't worked out in a couple of days, I was just telling my wife in the car that, I gotta get back to working out. I gotta, I gotta get better. I gotta do this. I gotta get my belt back. It's just something that I always have to remind, remind myself to almost calm down because I always want to work out. I always want to get better. Um, so I, I think it's more of just that mental battle of, of.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  I'm easily motivated, you know, and me to get that belt back, I, I'm pushing for it every day. So she want me to.

• 12:25Lewis Howes?

  She's gonna rein you back more than anything.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly. I gotta rein me back on that stuff. So, you know, I'm wanting to train three times a day and and sometimes my body won't let me because I'm injured or, you know, I need to go visit family and do these other things. So I do have to be pulled back all the time.

• 12:38Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. Three times a day, you're usually training or you want to?

• 12:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I want during camp, I'm definitely training three times a day. You know, some days I'll take, I'll take it and do two and then take one day off a week usually, but yeah, usually three workouts a day. Try to be, yeah.

• 12:50Lewis Howes?

  What is the 24 hour process before the fight? The night before, what's going through your minds, when you wake up in the morning and then also probably the two hour window before, walk me through it.

• 13:01Speaker 01

  Um, so you make weight the night before and uh, the week of, you're, you're, you're focused on your fight, you're nervous, but the day, the day before, you're worried about making weight, you know, and you think about nothing but making weight because you want to drink some water, you want to eat some food, you're depriving your body, you know? After you make weight, you're about 36 hours out most likely from fighting if you're towards the end of the card and from that point on, it's being ridiculously nervous and, and thinking about the fight and thinking about situations.

• 13:27Lewis Howes?

  You feel really nervous.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, if I wasn't nervous, I'd be worried, you know, because I, I feel it's that fear of humiliation or of what, fear of the, you're not going to perform to your best, you know, fear that you're not going to go out there and do everything like the 10 weeks I've worked as hard as I possibly can in my entire life, that it's not going to happen the way that you want it to, you know, and you have that fear in your head for the next 30 hours of thinking about what you want to do and how you want to do it and breaking it down through your head, motion by motion and as you do that, you're getting more and more nervous all the way up until, like you said, the two hours before, I'm in the back room warming up and then all the nerves go away. It's super excitement, it's warming up, it's still nervous, but it's excitement nervous, you're about to walk out there.

• 14:11Lewis Howes?

  Game time.

• 14:12Speaker 01

  You're the most pumped up you've ever been in your entire life, you know, you're going to get locked into a cage to fight another human being. You know, so it's a, it's a big bag of mixed emotions, you know, go for being scared. Well, first it goes from being hungry and starving and wanting to feed yourself to going to being scared to being really pumped up and that walk out, just putting a smile on your face and getting ready to have some, try to have some fun if you can.

• 14:35Lewis Howes?

  I had a Randy Couture on here and he said that, you know, 20 minutes before, he was just happy all the time. He was smiling because he did all the hard work and he got there and now he wanted to have fun.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:45Lewis Howes?

  Um, it sounds like-

• 14:47Speaker 01

  He's a guy that was greatly prepared, you know, so you can't, you can't have a smile on your face and you can't be happy because he trained so hard.

• 14:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  You know, maybe guys that don't feel so confident that they did give it their all, then they're gonna be a little bit more scared going out there.

• 14:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. But you feel pretty relaxed once you step into the cage, or?

• 15:01Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Um, I don't, I don't think it was always that way though. You know, it took time for me to get that. It's just this mental battle, you know, it's uh, the, the process of being scared and the process of being excited and, and pumped up and then mixing that when you get in there to having fun.

• 15:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  Usually, if you've seen from my last few fights, I will usually walk out and I'm inside the cage with a smile on my face. You know, I'm ready to relax and I'm only, I'm only gonna fight well if I'm having fun and I'm relaxed. If I'm in there thinking too much and, and too scared of what's gonna happen, then I'm gonna be too slow and I'm gonna, I'm gonna lose, you know?

• 15:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  So, I've kinda had to learn throughout my career to kinda learn to have fun and be relaxed, have no thoughts, just relax.

• 15:39Lewis Howes?

  What's uh, your most proud moment uh, in the, in the cage where you did something that you either shocked yourself or you were like, this is exactly what I wanted to do or you came from behind? What's a, what's a moment you're so proud of?

• 15:52Speaker 01

  Um, it's gonna have to be me winning the belt, you know, in 2000, May of 2014.

• 15:56Lewis Howes?

  Cause you were a big underdog, weren't you?

• 15:58Speaker 01

  I was an eight to one underdog. No one was giving me a chance to win. The only people that believed in me were like my teammates and my coaches and myself, you know? And I'm sure even some of my teammates were like, "Yeah, right," you know? I mean, Hittin' Braw was pound for pound the best fighter in the world, unbeaten in 10 years and-

• 16:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 16:13Speaker 01

  It was, it was a big deal, you know, and uh, everything kinda, this never happens, but it went down as planned. I, I fought exactly how I wanted to. I did the moves I trained. Everything happened exactly how it was supposed to, at least how you wanted it to when you're training. Usually you have to mix up your game plan or change some things up and that just went so smoothly that- I think after the first round was when I had that feeling, you know, I knocked him down. I almost finished him. I felt great. I walked back to the corner and I sat down. I was like, wow, that just happened. You know what I mean? I almost just knocked out the best counter pound fighter in the world. Like this is happening, but then I had to control myself and not like get overly happy to get beat the next round.

• 16:51Lewis Howes?

  It's one punch, you could be done.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  MMA is crazy like that. Absolutely. Yeah.

• 16:55Lewis Howes?

  There was a clip I see on Facebook, people posting over and over. It's got like 50 million views or something. I forget the guy's name, but one guy is just getting pummeled like over and over and they keep, and Joe Rogan, I think is announcing it saying like, oh, this fight is over. Like he's about, he's like almost unconscious, but somehow he keeps grabbing onto the guy and then he comes back and hits him in like a minute and knocks him out like that. You just never know.

• 17:17Speaker 01

  That's the

• 17:17Lewis Howes?

  Get tired at any moment, right?

• 17:18Speaker 01

  That's the craziest thing about our sport. It changes so fast, you know, a blink of an eye, any fight can be finished. The scoring is all over the place. You never know what's gonna happen.

• 17:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 17:29Speaker 01

  I think the unpredictability of MMA is what makes it so great. I think that's why the sport has grown so fast is because of that, you know?

• 17:35Lewis Howes?

  What do you love better, wrestling or MMA? And what's?

• 17:39Speaker 01

  Wrestling was by far my first love and I appreciate it the most because of what it's done for me. It's got me to where I'm at and there's no way to have this work ethic without it. But I like fighting. I felt like, I felt like I'm built to fight, you know? I was always good at wrestling. I was a very aggressive wrestler, kind of like mean and it kind of transferred over to fighting and I don't know, like I said, I just felt like I was made for it, you know, it just kind of came so easy.

• 18:04Lewis Howes?

  What were the skills you needed to learn coming to the UFC that you didn't have yet? Where you did with wrestling, obviously there's lots of different arts that people have in MMA. So what did you need to train to become better at?

• 18:16Speaker 01

  Definitely stand up, you know, having to do kickboxing and boxing was the thing that I needed to pick up on to become a good fighter, you know? Being a wrestler, coming over and doing jiu-jitsu, it takes a very short time to be good at jiu-jitsu because I've wrestled my whole life and I've been on the mat. I've been

• 18:30Lewis Howes?

  It's very similar, right?

• 18:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's very similar. There's small changes you gotta make to not get submitted, not put yourself in trouble. Like in wrestling, you don't want to put your back to the mat because you're giving up points. In jiu-jitsu, you want to put your back to the mat so your opponent can't take it, you know, because if someone gets on your back, you're

• 18:44Lewis Howes?

  And just pummeling you.

• 18:45Speaker 01

  Pummeling you or choking you out, you know, you're done.

• 18:48Lewis Howes?

  So you want to be on your back.

• 18:49Speaker 01

  In Jiu-Jitsu, you want your back, if you're on, if you're on bottom, if you're in the defensive position, what's in, in Jiu-Jitsu, it's also offensive because you're, you've got so much offense from your back.

• 18:57Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 18:58Speaker 01

  If you're on, if you're on the bottom, you want your back to the mat because you have so many more chances to submit the guy on top of you and you're actually kind of controlling him. In wrestling, you don't want to take your back to the mat because that's how you give up points. That's how you get pinned. And so that's the one big thing you gotta learn to change too, when you start grappling is that, you know, because a lot of wrestlers will go to the hands and knees and then someone takes their back and then the match is over, they're gonna get points, they're gonna choke you out, you know, so, but those are minor things that I feel like are pretty easy, were easy for me to change. It was the stand-up and getting comfortable doing stand-up was what took a little bit of time, you know, um, it's almost like getting comfortable and learning how to dance and having some rhythm and

• 19:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  You know, it definitely took a little while, but I fell in love with it because I wasn't as good at it, you know, something, it was like a challenge for me.

• 19:43Lewis Howes?

  Could master it, yeah.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was something that, because I wrestled my entire life, so I was over, I was like, I've done it for so much, as soon as I got to pick up another art, I just instantly fell in love with it and now I, I love kickboxing more than anything. I'd rather, I'd rather strike, yeah.

• 19:57Lewis Howes?

  I do a, a kickboxing, I mean, nothing like what you do, I do it like, once every couple of weeks, a private class or something, but it's so much fun with like a Muay Thai, kickbox fighter and it's just like, the aggression, the timing, like the pacing, the art of it is so much fun, so.

• 20:10Speaker 01

  For me, it's, it's a perfect anger management.

• 20:13Lewis Howes?

  Yes, you get out everything, man.

• 20:16Speaker 01

  You get to hit things as hard as you want, you know, you work out really hard and then it's insane how well the cardio is for kickboxing.

• 20:22Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh, man, I've never sweated so much in my life.

• 20:24Speaker 01

  You get in such good shape, for anybody that hasn't ever kickboxed, if you want to get in shape, find somewhere where you can go do some cardio kickboxing, you'll get your butt kicked.

• 20:31Lewis Howes?

  It is amazing.

• 20:32Speaker 01

  You'll lose so much weight just sweating every practice, it's, it's a real tough workout. It's good.

• 20:36Lewis Howes?

  That's cool, man. Um, so how do you decompress then, from training and how do you relax when you're just so focused? Because I know how obsessed I get with a goal sometimes and it's like, I can't rest at all.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:48Lewis Howes?

  How do you do it?

• 20:49Speaker 01

  It's tough, it's tough, um,

• 20:51Lewis Howes?

  And it's something you need to be able to recover too, right?

• 20:53Speaker 01

  Absolutely, if you didn't, if I didn't stop thinking about fighting, then I would be so stressed out, my body would be producing cortisol non-stop, I'd be breaking my body down, so it's something that I have to, I have had to focus on doing. Um, I think how hard I work out during the day helps out with that as well, because when I get home, I want to do nothing but hang out with my dogs, my wife and watch TV, you know, so. That's pretty much my decompression is just hanging out with my wife at home. We're big time homebodies. You know, I'm out all the time and working out nonstop or traveling the world to fight or to do seminars. And when I'm at home, I just kind of want to veg out. You know, I don't want to have to think about anything. I don't go, I don't watch, everyone thinks I'm a fight fan. Like, I know everything about fighting. But when I go home, I kind of, I don't want to watch any kind of TV that's got fighting involved

• 21:37Speaker 01

  with it. I just want to completely forget about it.

• 21:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you watch Real Housewives or something.

• 21:41Speaker 01

  Right, something like that, yeah.

• 21:42Lewis Howes?

  She does. Kardashians and Housewives. Yeah, of course.

• 21:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, watch something that's gonna just get me to forget about fighting completely, you know?

• 21:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Who is the toughest competitor in the UFC right now in your mind? No matter what weight class, but just in your mind, toughest?

• 22:00Speaker 01

  Hmm. I think Demetrius Johnson's got, I think he's a pound-for-pound, is the best in the world. He's the 125 pounder, the champion, 125s.

• 22:09Lewis Howes?

  The one you want to jump down to after you get this belt back?

• 22:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. I think he's pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world right now. He's been on a crazy win streak. He's been very dominant. He's kind of found himself as a new fighter. Like, he's been fighting in 135s and then they created 25s when he dropped down. I felt he just kind of like recreated himself and he's just on top of the world right now. So, that's the kind of guy I want to push for. I want to be known as one of the best in the world. And that's someone I need to beat to do so.

• 22:32Lewis Howes?

  Sure. Wow. And Conor McGregor, what are your thoughts on him?

• 22:36Speaker 01

  He is very smart. You know, his theatrics has pushed him very far. You know, he's a good fighter. He's done very well for himself. But I almost think his acting and his, his whole-

• 22:47Lewis Howes?

  Persona.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  Persona is what's so smart. You know, he knows what to say and when to say it and what pauses to take during his interviews and how to bash someone that's created so much drama. Has brought a lot of attention to our sport. I don't really love it that much, but he's done very well for himself, you know?

• 23:02Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like his, outside the cage game is better than inside the cage game?

• 23:08Speaker 01

  I believe so, yeah. He's got some holes in his game that Nate Diaz has shown and he is not very good jiu-jitsu and his wrestling is not very good and

• 23:16Lewis Howes?

  What weight class is he?

• 23:17Speaker 01

  Uh, well, he's been all over the place. He has, he has the belt at 145s.

• 23:20Lewis Howes?

  So 10 pounds more than you?

• 23:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's supposed to defend it, but he was just fighting at 170.

• 23:25Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, he, he's a big guy. He cuts a lot of weight to make 145s.

• 23:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 23:30Speaker 01

  He's a real big guy.

• 23:31Lewis Howes?

  How do you think you'd handle with him?

• 23:32Speaker 01

  I actually have said that I wanted to fight a guy. I think I would do really well. You know, I'm faster than he is. He's really big. He hits real hard. So you gotta be careful with that stuff. It's also obviously giving up a lot of weight, but you gotta believe in yourself and I believe that I would beat him. You know, that would be a, a great fight for me.

• 23:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow. So you'd have to gain a little more. He'd have to drop down to 145 or what?

• 23:50Speaker 01

  The only way, the only

• 23:51Lewis Howes?

  135 or what?

• 23:51Speaker 01

  There's no way he can get lower than 145. So I think even make 145 is hard for him. I would have to put the weight on.

• 23:56Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. You think that's a possibility?

• 23:58Speaker 01

  Uh, it could be, yeah. Absolutely. He's got, he's got big fights lined up already, but I, I know I could do it. It's just all about first step first.

• 24:06Lewis Howes?

  Get your title back.

• 24:07Speaker 01

  So I gotta, like you said, I gotta have some long-term goals, but the first goal is to get my belt back and then I can start thinking about those things. I, I mean, I have a stacked weight class though, too. 135 is a very stacked weight class. So when I do get my belt back.

• 24:18Lewis Howes?

  People are coming after you.

• 24:19Speaker 01

  I'm gonna have a target on my back and there's a lot of good kids that I always call them kids, but we're grown men.

• 24:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  They're, uh, gonna be coming after me. So I'm gonna have to be defending my belt. If I'm gonna be pushed or something else, it's gonna be a feat. I'll be very busy, that's for sure.

• 24:31Lewis Howes?

  If you had, say you win your wel, your belt back and then Dana's like, okay, you wanna go after Conor or the guy at 125? And you say you get to choose what you want. Which one would you rather have first?

• 24:44Speaker 01

  That's a tough one. I think, I mean, the money fight's Conor McGregor. You're gonna make money fighting that guy. If you, if you wanna get paid in this sport, that's the guy to fight.

• 24:52Lewis Howes?

  How much would you make as a challenger against him?

• 24:54Speaker 01

  I would make a lot more than I even make being the champion in my weight class. Yeah, absolutely. So you're gonna have to probably push that way. I mean, it's very enticing to wanna, wanna fight a guy like that. It's gonna be a lot of attention. And a lot of drama, a lot of talk, you know, which I don't really like that much of.

• 25:09Lewis Howes?

  I don't like that stuff either. Would you rather just be quiet? You think you'd be quiet the whole time? Just be like, say what you want and I'm whatever?

• 25:14Speaker 01

  I'm probably, instead of playing his game, I would just kind of play the opposite, you know, I would just let him talk and just kind of.

• 25:19Lewis Howes?

  Be calm.

• 25:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, be calm about it and not get too emotionally invested and just kind of, you know, let him do all that, let him hype the fight up and I don't have to, I don't have to hype it up, but he's already doing it for me, you know? I think that's the one thing that's kind of bad about McGregor is the attention, he's bringing a lot of money, he's bringing attention to the sport, but for me, he's bringing the wrong attention.

• 25:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, the negativity.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  I like the sport for it being the sport, you know, I got, I fell in love with MMA because of MMA. I didn't fall in love with the theatrics and all the drama, which it seems like nowadays it's who talks the most crap and, you know, you're gonna bag on this guy and everyone's in, like, all the new fans are invested in the drama.

• 25:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:57Speaker 01

  They're not invested in the sport, you know, and I'm more invested in the martial artists and being respectful and, and being the baddest man on the planet, you know? I'd rather be known as the aggressive professional rather than the guy's gonna yap his mouth off to get what he wants, so. You will make more money doing it, but I really, I really just don't like it, you know?

• 26:15Lewis Howes?

  What is the biggest thing you learned about yourself since transitioning into UFC and MMA in these last five, six years? Uh, you know, since before, you had a lot of information in wrestling, but then what did you learn personally? How did you grow in this sport?

• 26:30Speaker 01

  A lot. Um, so first and foremost, I think, uh, mental aspect of it and, uh, learning to believe in myself more and learning that my mind can control so much, you know, it's, you're always going through this, this battle inside your own head, like, yeah, these negative voices that want to tell you that you're not good enough, that you're not doing the right things, that, you know, this guy's better than you, how can you beat him? And then this other side to where you gotta talk yourself up and, you know, bash that negative, that, that voice in your head all the time, you know? So I've learned to control that more and learned to believe in myself more and to. Should just have a better outlook on the sport and have more fun, which I still think that took me, you know, half my career of fighting to even get that way, you know, it took me a little bit because I was, you know, very negative and put too much pressure on

• 27:14Speaker 01

  myself until halfway through my career, when I learned to have a little bit more fun with it and believe, once you believe in yourself, you're gonna have more fun, you know, and once you can get control of that, that helped out a lot. I think that's the biggest thing I've learned. And then next is just how my body works. You know, I was a kinesiology major, so I was always intrigued in it, but I didn't have the best diet wrestling. I cut weight, but I cut wrong. I didn't really know how the body worked as well as I do now. I've learned, being a professional athlete and getting paid to do it, you want to take every advantage you can and train the smartest way possible. So you learn more about your body, you learn the diets that are gonna help you out and the best way to train and not to overtrain. I overtrained a lot in wrestling. I always put too much emphasis

• 27:56Speaker 01

  to which pressure on training. I always figured if I want to get better, train harder, you know, but instead it was learning how to train smarter.

• 28:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's cool. What would you say are the championship characteristics of the best UFC fighters? What do they all have in common that second, third, and on doesn't have?

• 28:15Speaker 01

  Confidence. I think it's definitely a confidence mental aspect, you know, I mean, and everyone can talk a big game of being confident, but you can kind of see how they carry themselves, you know, positive about every kind of situation. Some, most of the greats that I've met are very easygoing people too. I feel like they kind of, they can enjoy life. They can kind of recognize everything and enjoy it, you know?

• 28:39Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. How does someone build confidence?

• 28:43Speaker 01

  Um, I think it's gotta be trial and error kind of thing and learning what kind of helps you out personally. You know, I don't think everyone's gonna build confidence the same way. Some people need to go to a sports, like a sports, what do you call them?

• 28:56Lewis Howes?

  Psychologist.

• 28:57Speaker 01

  Psychologist and have someone help you do that, or it could be a mental battle with yourself and self-taught. It could be you accomplishing goals and realizing, oh dang, that was awesome and start doing, mimicking it.

• 29:09Lewis Howes?

  How do you overcome the self-doubt, that, the conversation?

• 29:13Speaker 01

  Um, I think mine was learning to have fun. You know, I think I, I, my path was created on per- like it was perfectly created for me to where I met some people in my life that have really helped me out. I still think to this day, the person that's helped me out with that is a friend of mine, a training partner of mine, uh, Justin Buckles. Uh, he's always been in my corner. Um, he's a coach at a team Alpha Male now and uh, those guys know how to have some fun. You know how to relax and have some fun and get, get rid of the pressure. And I remember after I lost to a sense out in 2013, my next fight was against Mike Easton and I was nervous before I walked out for the fight and you know, real, real nervous. I remember, I remember this always stick with me. Buck, Justin Buckle said,

• 29:54Speaker 01

  "Hey man, you gotta learn to have some fun with this." Like, think how many people would pay millions of dollars to be in your situation right now, to be as good as you are, to walk out in front of all these people and show off. You know what I mean? Go out there and just absorb this, absorb this atmosphere. Like you've worked so hard to get here. People would pay so much to be here. Enjoy the process before it passes you up, you know? And I think ever since then, I've kind of been like, "Yeah, what's, what's the point of being so stressed out that I don't enjoy this?" You know, I mean, life's too short. So I still think today that's what, that's what stuck with me forever. And I think that's when it kind of flipped a switch and I've actually started fighting better ever since that day too. I've just been able to realize I've been able to relax and have fun.

• 30:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I mean, that's what Randy said too. He's like, "I want to just have fun." And I felt like I could be less nervous in that process. What's your big fear today then?

• 30:39Speaker 01

  Big fear today? I mean, sure, I'd say it's a bunch of small ones that add up to make them big, but it's always like making enough money, being happy, having, being healthy, you know, like wanting to create a family. But I'd say

• 30:52Speaker 01

  biggest fear, um, no, I mean, I don't, I don't know. I don't, I don't know what my biggest fear is. Yeah, I guess not. I mean, I always, I always have fears. There's always thoughts that go in your head, but you gotta kind of conquer them yourself with giving them some positive influence on them, but uh, Um.

• 31:09Lewis Howes?

  Nothing coming off the top right now.

• 31:10Speaker 01

  Nah, yeah.

• 31:11Lewis Howes?

  Talk to me about um becoming a professional athlete brand and the business of becoming a pro athlete.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 31:17Lewis Howes?

  Because we don't, you don't have to tell me specific numbers, but I'm just curious if someone is an athlete who wants to become a pro at something.

• 31:24Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 31:24Lewis Howes?

  How does it work for you and how have you been able to design a lifestyle where you're able to make good money to support yourself, your family, your lifestyle, pay for coaches? Because originally you said the UFC doesn't pay well when you start out. You get like eight thousand or twenty thousand or whatever is a fight.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 31:40Lewis Howes?

  You only have a couple of fights a year. So how does an athlete today, in today's age, build a brand around themselves and bring in multiple streams of revenue and how are you doing that?

• 31:50Speaker 01

  It's with creating a name and interest behind yourself. You know, I think with anything, it's um getting a following, you know, having people like you for a reason or hate you. You know, you could be the complete heel, you know? I mean, I think that's how, I mean, people, there's people that, there's a whole country that love Conor McGregor. They follow him no matter what he does. But I think it started out because he talks so much trash. He'd get under so many people's skin that so many people wanted to watch him lose or be able to back up what he's saying. And so he created this interest behind himself and things have flourished. And now he's the highest paid MMA fighter, you know? Um, it's creating a brand, but for me, it's creating a brand that you're going to be happy with in the long run, you know? I mean, I could be, I mean, actually, I don't think I could be. I don't think I could do it. I can't do what Conor McGregor does, you know?

• 32:30Lewis Howes?

  It'd be fake.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. It'd be completely fake. I'd be forced if I tried doing that. And so, you know, my persona is kind of creating a level-headed professional that's going to go work hard and try to, try to get, get what he can out of it, you know? Um, do good things along the way, hopefully, and have people appreciate it.

• 32:48Lewis Howes?

  And what are the revenue streams for an athlete then? You have the, the money you win from fighting?

• 32:53Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 32:54Lewis Howes?

  Sponsorships? What else can you bring in? How other ways could you bring in money as an athlete?

• 32:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, so you have your, the way the fighting works is you have a contract that you, you're paid a certain amount to show up and then that, that amount doubles when you win. For the most part, everyone's contract's a little bit different, but the money doubles when you win. And then you have endorsements, you know, depending on what you like to do or who you want to push. And the way I believe in endorsements is I go for the companies that, things I like to do already. Like I'm a big avid hunter. I love to be on the water, wakeboarding, wakesurfing and things like that. Finding endorsements is gonna kind of push you along and create a fanbase as well. And then setting up, using your name to set up businesses and things you like to do outside of it, which I'm trying to do now.

• 33:35Lewis Howes?

  You're starting other businesses?

• 33:36Speaker 01

  Trying to, yeah. I started a woodworking company with my brother-in-law. He's a, he works for a tree trimming company, so he's cut down big redwoods up in Northern California and kind of seen them just get rid of the wood, not use anything with it. And he's a very artistic guy and he's had this idea to start making furniture and big wood slabs and cool stuff. It was a hobby of his that we're, we're trying to slowly now start into a business. It's called Murphy's Woodworks. Just started a website up, we got an Instagram going. We create custom furniture and wood slabs and it's a pretty cool little thing, you know. It's a hobby, like I said, that's growing now into a business. I've gotten into my body a lot in nutrition and I wanted to be a physician's assistant.

• 34:20Speaker 01

  So I teamed up with my nutritionist, Perfecting Athletes is who they are called. And we're going back to the wrestling community and trying to kind of give back to them. And they've written a couple of books on how to cut weight and feel great for an athlete, athlete-based cutting weight. And then also for people that just want to help their lifestyle out as well. And we're kind of going back to the wrestling community specifically for me. Cause I wish I would have known what I've known now, wrestling, because it would have helped me make weight. Actually would have helped my body maybe mature a little bit faster and maybe not stunt my, I think I stunted my growth from cutting weight, so at least that's what I like to tell myself, you know? But just kind of being a healthy human being that way. And so we're doing, going back to California, used to wrestling, trying to give them back to them and kind of get involved with some charities and do that whole bit.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  So trying to kind of set some things up outside of fighting and try to be smart inside the cage and outside of it. But so I think that's the main ways of being a professional is kind of tapping into everything.

• 35:15Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. What do you think's the biggest misconceptions that women have about UFC fighters?

• 35:22Speaker 01

  They were all like meathead tough guys, you know.

• 35:25Lewis Howes?

  Savages.

• 35:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, just a bunch of jerks and yeah. Uh, cause every, every, for the most part, every MMA fighter I meet doesn't have a chip on their shoulder. All pretty good guys. I definitely could hang out with them all and very respectful. When you're an MMA fighter, what you have to do for practice and what you have to do for your lifestyle, it's hard to have an ego because everyone gets beat up. You know, I don't care how good you are. You can be a world champion. You're going to go to the gym. You're not going to have your best day. You're, I mean, you should be at a place where you're going to get tested. You're not going to get better. Like all of my days where I get my butt kicked and I'll come home just distraught. So mad about it and just like, I'm supposed to be the best in the world and I just got my butt handed me in practice. You know, we got kids like one of my buddies, Corey Sanhagen, that I, I train with now at a muscle farm in, in Colorado.

• 36:07Speaker 01

  And he'll get the better of me and he's not even in the UFC yet, but he'll be a great fighter and just kind of like, dang, if I can't beat this guy, what's going on? But then the next day you kind of turn around. So you learn to let go of that ego. You learn not to have a chip on your shoulder. And so most MMA fighters that I, I meet or fighters in general, kind of have the same, same mentality.

• 36:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And I think it's hard to sustain being in the UFC. Maybe you can make it, but after a couple of fights, if you're not able to, I don't know, have some humility at some point, you're not going to be able to sustain it. You're going to be burnt out probably, right?

• 36:36Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. You're going to be a lot worried about everything for so long. Yeah. It's going to be tough to, tough to stay involved in the sport.

• 36:42Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Who's about the most positive brand in the UFC in your mind?

• 36:45Speaker 01

  I think George St. Pierre. I think George St. Pierre is someone that I, I like, would like to image myself after, someone I like to carry myself and what he's done with his career and.

• 36:55Lewis Howes?

  He retired many years ago, right? Or?

• 36:56Speaker 01

  He's coming back supposedly. He's supposedly coming back. Yeah.

• 36:59Lewis Howes?

  He was a machine, man.

• 37:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. Greatest of all time, you know?

• 37:02Lewis Howes?

  He was a mutant. What happened to him?

• 37:03Speaker 01

  He just. No, he's just been fighting for a long time, was on top of the world, just, you know, and just kind of getting a little bit older and just, I don't know, just kind of wanted some time off, you know? And I think that time he stayed in the gym, he stayed hungry. So, uh, the word is on the street that he's hopefully signing a new contract with the UFC and going to be coming back.

• 37:21Lewis Howes?

  How old is he now? Do you know?

• 37:22Speaker 01

  Let's see, he's 35, somewhere around there?

• 37:24Lewis Howes?

  No, it's not that old.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  Like mid 30s?

• 37:26Lewis Howes?

  It's old, but not that old.

• 37:27Speaker 01

  For fighting, it's towards the end of your career, you know? One part of me doesn't want him to come back though either, you know? Because he's the greatest of all time. I think he's the best image for fighting.

• 37:36Lewis Howes?

  He might ruin his image, yeah.

• 37:37Speaker 01

  I hope not. I hope he comes out and looks awesome, you know? But you never know. He could come out and show everyone how much the sport has grown in the last 10 years, you know? So, but that's why I think he's got the best positive influence on the sport. He carries himself the best way and gives fighting a good image, you know? A better image than someone like Conor McGregor would or something, you know?

• 37:57Lewis Howes?

  Now, there was an image on Instagram or Facebook that I saw of Conor's wife or girlfriend, his wife?

• 38:05Speaker 01

  Girlfriend.

• 38:06Lewis Howes?

  Girlfriend, who's like in the ring after like him winning the first championship? And a message about how she was always there for him and always supported him even when he had nothing and this and that? How important is it for you to have an incredible relationship to be able to continue to grow as an athlete? Or do you think you'd be able to be where you're at and win the title without the relationship you have?

• 38:30Speaker 01

  I wouldn't be able to. My wife's been with me. We've been together 10 years, married for two. She was through my whole entire wrestling career, so she's followed me around, helped me out with everything I needed, you know? She's got my back for when I need mental support, when I do come home from those practices and just distraught about getting my butt kicked. And she's like, "This is normal. Don't worry about it. This happens all the time. Every camp, you're always worried about it." Having a strong woman behind you helps out a lot, you know?

• 38:56Lewis Howes?

  So you don't think you'd be where you're at as an athlete without that?

• 38:58Speaker 01

  I mean, I've never, never thought otherwise, you know? I've always, yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't think so. I think it's, I think it's a very important thing to, I mean, she keeps me level-headed, you know? I can't let my head get too big because she'll, she'll smash it down, you know? Keeps you in check.

• 39:11Lewis Howes?

  Is that true?

• 39:14Speaker 01

  Helps out, you know, helps out with my diet, helps out with the things I need and yeah, I think it's, I think it's very important to have a good home life, you know, I mean, home life for someone else might not be having a wife, it could be whatever, it could just be good friends that are around you all the time, you know, but for me being a homebody, good support system, yeah, and for me, that's my wife.

• 39:32Lewis Howes?

  How important is having the right coach train you for the UFC?

• 39:37Speaker 01

  Very important, am I, I mean, I think it's, it's very, very important. It's good to have great teammates, great gym, but most importantly, a great coach, someone that you can believe in and trust your career with, you know, because-

• 39:47Lewis Howes?

  Trust your life with.

• 39:48Speaker 01

  Exactly, my life, yeah, I mean, he's the one that's telling me what I should be and shouldn't be doing, and if I don't believe in that, if I don't like take that to heart and know that he's got my, my best interests at heart, then it's hard, you know, it's hard to, to get better with him, it's hard to grow with that person and, and to find that coach, I think means so much. To, to be successful in this sport, I think finding that right coach is, is really important and that's why I moved from Sacramento to Colorado, because I found that person, you know, I, I was fighting for three years before I met Dwayne Ludwig, I was with Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, great team, awesome gym, still to this day. Dwayne moved to Sacramento to, he retired because he blew his knee out and was done fighting and wanted to start coaching, this was his first

• 40:29Speaker 01

  coaching position he ever put in for, and we, and Team Alpha Male accepted it and he moved to Sacramento and started coaching us, and the first practice he taught, I knew that he was the coach for me, we just kind of clicked perfectly, same mentality, and then our, our relationship continued to grow from there. Um, the next two, two years I met him at Alpha Male, I won a belt, I made huge gains with him being there, and-

• 40:50Lewis Howes?

  You won the championship, right?

• 40:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, I won the championship.

• 40:52Lewis Howes?

  Two years.

• 40:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, and just knew that that was the guy that I needed to continue to be with, you know, not, not so much a crutch, so much as, as someone to help guide me and someone that I, I trusted in, you know, and believed in, and knew that he would always give me the way I needed it, just a straight shooter.

• 41:07Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you could have won the belt without a coach?

• 41:10Speaker 01

  Oh, I don't think so. No, I think everything that I've done in my life, you know, the way I was raised, the woman I have, the coach I had, was all meant to help groom me, to, to get that belt, at least I like to believe that, you know?

• 41:22Lewis Howes?

  You know, it's funny, as an athlete, or former athlete, I still play with the USA handball team, but as a former pro football player, I just knew that there's no way I could have gotten there without the coaches I had, and I tell all the listeners who- Either played sports or didn't play sports is like, listen, you need to have a coach in business, in your life goals. You need to have someone coaching you who's great, who's been there and done that. Otherwise, it's gonna be really hard to do it on your own. So I talk about the importance of having a great coach, even when you're at the top of any area of your life, because that's gonna serve you in moving forward.

• 41:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, I was, I was a champion of the world when Dwayne was coaching at Sacramento and moved to Colorado. And I knew that me being in the best of the world, I needed to have the best coaches in the world, and I believe that was him. So I packed up my entire life, my whole family was in California. And I live in, uh, live in Boulder, Colorado right now and train with Muscle Farm out in, out in Colorado.

• 42:15Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 42:16Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, having a, having a coach is very important. If that doesn't show it enough.

• 42:21Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. Um, a few final questions for you. What's something you're most grateful for recently?

• 42:27Speaker 01

  Um, most grateful for is my family, you know, the way that I've been raised and I feel like the ethics I have and the way I kind of carry myself is all kind of stemmed down to how I was, how I was raised, I believe, you know? And so I think I, I'm happy with everything I've done in my life, you know? Good or bad, I'm happy that it's happened and I'm, I'm happy of my path and I believe that was the way that I was raised.

• 42:50Lewis Howes?

  Sure. Do you believe, I'm writing a book about masculinity right now, doing research.

• 42:55Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 42:55Lewis Howes?

  Do you believe you have to be physical to be masculine?

• 43:03Speaker 01

  That's a tough question.

• 43:04Lewis Howes?

  It's not a trick question, I'm just curious.

• 43:05Speaker 01

  I know, but it's tough though, because I, I wanna say yeah, but I'm sure, I mean, because when you think of a manly guy, you know, he's like, oh, he's working out, he's, he's out hunting, he's building a house. He's doing all these manly things, which usually cause physical activity as well. So I almost kind of wanna say, yeah, you know, it's kind of hard to be a man's man without being physical.

• 43:23Lewis Howes?

  Sure. What is your definition of masculinity?

• 43:26Speaker 01

  Um, being able to support a family, um, take care of things, um, you're a handyman, uh...

• 43:35Speaker 01

  You know, for me, it's an outdoorsman that's gonna take care of of your family and bill provide is masculinity for me.

• 43:41Lewis Howes?

  Sure, okay. Do you feel like roles have changed between men and women since we've been growing up?

• 43:49Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I feel like there's a lot more. I mean, you know, you so you have the equality you want. Every woman wants to be treated like a man, which I believe in, but is also creating this stuff where they have a completely different lifestyle now, you know, it used to be. You look at my grandmother, I mean, she lived to wait for us to get home and cook us a meal and take care of our everything at home, you know, and now it's a lot of women are doing both of that or only working, you know, and there's stay at home in now too. So I mean, think roles have definitely changed.

• 44:17Lewis Howes?

  How do you think that's affected us as a as a culture or society? Do you think it's created more conflict or more harmony or?

• 44:25Speaker 01

  I'm sure a little bit of both, you know. Um, it's funny, we were just kind of talking about this on the Rogan podcast. Boss Root was bringing up the fact of, you know, going to war and and women serving in the military because men will always want to protect a woman like that's so instinctual and you want to protect women, you know, and now we have women on the battlefield. Is that a good thing? Do these men push to try to still protect these women even though on the battlefield and, you know, so we're kind of pushing like, you know, is that good or bad? But you also can't say that because you don't want to be a sexist either, you know? So I think I think it creates maybe a little bit of both, you know, some harmony because everyone can be treated equally, but then some.

• 45:02Lewis Howes?

  Confusion with our like our mental makeup or something, right?

• 45:05Speaker 01

  Exactly, because we all mentally absolutely have this genetic code of how you're supposed to think and make, you know, and yeah, I think it kind of pushes the limits on that.

• 45:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. Do you like where things are moving towards or what are your thoughts?

• 45:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I mean, I like it. I mean, like you said, there's a lot of confusion up in there in here, but that kind of makes life interesting, you know? You're never gonna be able to to meet someone and know exactly what to do by looking like by judging a book by its cover, you know, you can't just see someone's wife and be like, oh, she stays at home and takes care of him. You know, when she could actually be the breadwinner out and taking care of him, you know, so I think it's it's a lot of fun, actually.

• 45:41Lewis Howes?

  This is a question that I call the three truths.

• 45:44Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 45:45Lewis Howes?

  I ask everyone at the end of the towards the end of the podcast. So say it's your final day. Many, many years from now, you've achieved everything you want to achieve. You've got all the kids you want, grandkids, whatever it is you want, you had it. And at the end of the day, you get to write down on a piece of paper, three things you know to be true about everything you've experienced in your life that you would pass on to the world, your kids, the world. But they would have nothing else to remember you by, except for these three truths written on a piece of paper.

• 46:13Speaker 01

  Three truths about myself or how to live.

• 46:15Lewis Howes?

  Truths about, yeah, your experience in life and what you would tell people to do. As kind of these three principles, these three things you know to be true.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think the first would be that life is tough. It's very, very hard, you know, and emotional.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  That'd be the first point. I think the second point that any problem can be conquered and to believe in the process of life and what you're doing and to follow your instincts, you know. And then the third would be to find love, you know. I think that that kind of makes everything in harmony and kind of helps you relax and keep it all together. I think the love is what keeps the whole life together, you know. Without love, it'd be all anger.

• 46:56Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 46:56Speaker 01

  You know.

• 46:56Lewis Howes?

  That's true. I like those. Those are good.

• 46:58Speaker 01

  Good, sweet.

• 47:01Lewis Howes?

  Before I ask the final question, where can we connect with you online?

• 47:05Speaker 01

  My social media, it's all my Instagram, my Twitter, my Facebook is TJ Dillashaw. I have a website, TJ Dillashaw, Inc. Or, I'm sorry, TJDillashaw.com. And then created Murphy's Woodworks, and I'm always putting stuff on there as well, so.

• 47:20Lewis Howes?

  You guys ship all over the place, all over the country?

• 47:23Speaker 01

  We haven't started yet. Like I said, yeah, this has been, that's the big picture goal, right? Be able to ship all over the place, but as of now, it's all been kind of locally and, yeah.

• 47:32Lewis Howes?

  We check out the art online, though.

• 47:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 47:35Lewis Howes?

  Check it out for now. That's cool.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:38Lewis Howes?

  And we don't know when your next fight is, but you might be.

• 47:40Speaker 01

  So the push is the fight, the end of this year. I mean, it all depends when Dominique Cruz is held. So Dominique Cruz is the champion that I supposedly lost my belt to. It was a bad, it was a bad decision in my book and a lot of people's book that I should still have my belt, but that's the way life goes and. You gotta follow the process and so I'm hoping to fight Dominique Cruz by the end of this year.

• 47:59Lewis Howes?

  Nice.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  Um, nothing's been announced yet, but uh, you know, I got a call from Dana White before we did this podcast. So hopefully that's what I'm waiting to hear here in the next few hours.

• 48:07Lewis Howes?

  Well, if this is announced, we'll put it up on the show notes of when it is.

• 48:10Speaker 01

  Perfect.

• 48:11Lewis Howes?

  If you let me know later.

• 48:12Speaker 01

  I'll definitely let you know. I'll, I'll, I'll keep everyone informed, but yeah, hopefully fighting for the belt by the end of this year.

• 48:17Lewis Howes?

  Awesome.

• 48:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:18Lewis Howes?

  Uh, before I ask the final question, TJ, I want to acknowledge you for a moment for your ability to transition in all these areas of your life. You transitioned from a great wrestler to UFC, to being an underdog, eight to one odds, is that what it was? Eight to one and shocking the world. I remember seeing a photo of Aubrey Marcus after you won. He was in like the second row or something, maybe the first row, like a photo of him in complete joy and shocks and like he did it.

• 48:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:44Lewis Howes?

  I just remember that moment and being like, wow, what an amazing underdog story of someone who just shocked the world.

• 48:52Speaker 01

  And it kind of gives me goosebumps, you just saying it right now.

• 48:54Lewis Howes?

  Exactly, man. That's something that was so vivid for me is like this, this kid who's like had a dream, who made it happen.

• 49:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:00Lewis Howes?

  So I want to acknowledge you for your incredible work ethic, your ability to believe in yourself and show others what's possible. Because when we do believe in ourselves and work hard, look what we can create. You're an amazing example, man.

• 49:12Speaker 01

  Appreciate it. You can really create the greatest things with belief, man. There's a, there's a video on YouTube. It's the power of belief and it's from that fight in my career. And uh, I had a friend of mine that created it and it's a really cool video. It still gets me pumped up today. If I'm feeling down and in dumps and I need to watch a video to boost me up, I watch the power of belief. It's, it's.

• 49:30Lewis Howes?

  We'll link it up on the show notes as well. Um, final question, what is your definition of greatness?

• 49:37Speaker 01

  Definition of greatness is the ability to, to conquer everything that you want to, I guess, you know, the way you set yourself to and not giving up. You know, cause it might not be the, the, the biggest goal in the world, but as long as it's something that you hold high in your own heart and pushing for it. You might not get it, but as long as you're always pushing for that goal and always pushing to be that, I feel like that's greatness. You're pushing for greatness. You're pushing for that one object, you know? And uh, I feel that that's greatness for me.

• 50:05Lewis Howes?

  TJ, thanks for going on, man.

• 50:06Speaker 01

  Absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you.

• 50:10Lewis Howes?

  Boom. Mama said knock you out. Hope you guys enjoyed this one and you got a burst of inspiration and motivation to kickstart your day and your week, whatever time it is for you. Very excited about this. Make sure to share it with your friends. LewisHowes.com/389. Make sure the next time you watch the UFC, you are supporting my man TJ De La Shaw. And leave a comment over on the YouTube channel, on the blog, on social media. Tag me and TJ. Check out all the show notes, videos, links to connect more with TJ on social media at LewisHowes.com/389. Hope you guys enjoyed this one. And if this is your first time listening to the School

• 50:55Lewis Howes?

  of Greatness podcast, make sure to subscribe over on iTunes because we do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And it's all about bringing you the greatness to inspire you, educate you, and lift you up in your life, in your business, in your relationships. That's what we do here at the School of Greatness. We teach the things that they don't teach you in school, the things you need the most to get the most out of life. Boom. Super pumped for all the incredible guests we have coming up. Just interviewed a guy named Wim Hof today, who is considered the Iceman, who has broken, I think, 26 world records in freezing cold temperatures without clothes on. He can run marathons with shorts on only. He can climb mountains in shorts. He can

• 51:39Lewis Howes?

  do all these crazy things. Hold his breath underwater for four or five minutes or something crazy in sub-zero water. He is a machine and he teaches other people how to overcome any challenges, overcome any stress, anxiety, fear, doubt, by mastering the mind and mastering the breath. So many incredible interviews coming up. I'm super pumped to be sharing them with you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So make sure to subscribe on iTunes. Share this out with your friends. LewisHowes.com/389. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.