779 Using YouTube to Bring Your Dream to Life

IT' ALL ABOUT THE HUSTLE. What gatekeepers are holding you back from doing what you love? I’m inspired by the creators on YouTube. They are people who have forged their own path. They didn’t wait for someone to allow them to make videos- they just went out and did it. They’ve dealt with negative comments. They’ve had failed videos. They’ve faced countless setbacks. And they still continued to create. You have to give yourself permission to find and express your true self. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I created a mashup of all my favorite interviews with the women of YouTube: Lilly Singh, iJustine, Bethany Mota, and Lindsey Sterling. Lilly Singh (aka iiSuperwomanii) is a multi-faceted comedian, entertainer, actress and the founder of #GirlLove. She has found worldwide fame through her comedic and inspirational YouTube videos, amassing 12 million subscribers. In March 2017, she released her debut book HOW TO BE A BAWSE: A Guide to Surviving Conquering Life, which became a #1 New York Times Best Seller. As a role model to women and girls around the globe, Singh created her #GirlLove initiative to break the cycle of girl-on-girl hate and encourage women to build each other up. Justine Ezarik, the YouTube personality better known as iJustine, took the internet by storm. She's been around for more than a decade, first popping up on YouTube in 2006 where she has accumulated millions of subscribers and fans. The vlogger still remains beloved and has since branched out with a bustling Instagram account and a memoir. Bethany Mota started with her channel, Macbarbie07 in 2009. She rose to fame for her haul videos, in which she shows her fashion and style purchases via the internet. She uploads videos of outfit ideas, makeup and hair tutorials, recipes, and do it yourself ideas. She has since expanded into her own fashion line at Aéropostale. She has gone on multiple tours, which she calls her "Motavatours" to meet and interact with fans. She also appeared on Season 19 of Dancing with the Stars. Lindsey Sterling is a violinist with 10 million YouTube subscribers, over 1.9 billion views on her YouTube channel, 2 Billboard Music Awards, Billboard chart-topping hits and sold-out tours worldwide. All of these women share a common drive that forces them to keep putting themselves out there and keep being better each day. So get ready to learn how to find creativity and inspiration on Episode 779. Some Questions I Ask: Where does your hustle come from? (4:00) Who do you want to be? (6:00) What’s your vision for what you’re creating? (8:00) What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned about yourself? (9:00) If you could put up one final video, what would you post? (11:00) What is your biggest fear? (14:00) What’s the feeling you get when you’re on stage? (17:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: Why Lilly Singh dedicated her book to the person she was three years ago (5:00) Why it’s ok to constantly change your goals (7:00) Why you should surround yourself with people with different skills than you (10:00) How to drop your ego and do things out of love (16:00) How to find your sense of true self (18:00) Plus much more... 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is episode number 779 with the powerhouse women of YouTube.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  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.

• 0:33Speaker 00

  Welcome to this episode. We've got some inspirational powerhouse females who are taking over the world with their creativity, with their passion, making their dreams a reality. And they all started in one place, and that was YouTube. They built this massive following on YouTube, which has allowed them to create a passionate following, an audience to take their dreams to the next level. We've got Lilly Singh, who just got a late night talk show, who has gained a massive following on YouTube and done so many other creative projects from TV to movies. We've got I Justine, who's a huge YouTube personality, one of the first vloggers that really became famous. We talked about her and how she's built her channels.

• 1:17Speaker 00

  Bethany Mota, who was also on Dancing with the Stars and taking over the world in fashion and beauty and styling and makeup and hair tutorials and recipes. We've got Lindsey Sterling, one of my favorite people, who has turned the violin into one of the coolest things in the world with her music and her dancing and her choreography, doing massive sold out shows around the world. She also spoke at the Summit of Greatness last year and performed and blew everyone away. And this is all about how to really take your dreams that people think might be a little weird

• 1:57Speaker 00

  or quirky or different. And these women have turned this creative thing that most people think you can never make money doing, and they've built massive businesses, massive brands, and led inspirational lives that have impacted and changed millions of people's lives around the world. And in this interview, we talk about how to sustain this level of intensity. All these women have done something. Unique with their hustle. But how do you sustain the hustle? How do you reinvent yourself through burnout? How do you continually grow? When you feel like you might be getting capped out? We talk about how to surround yourself with people who lift you up. Because there's a lot of negative haters.

• 2:42Speaker 00

  That can say mean things about you on YouTube. When you start to grow and any platform. And how do you really surround yourself with the right people? And not worry about that. Talk about how to overcome the fear of failing. The fear of failing when you launch something that you think maybe other people don't believe in. But you launch it anyways because you love it. How to overcome the fear of failing? Once you become successful and you have that pressure to stay successful. And also how to find your true self through all of this. I'm so excited for you to listen to these women who are on this mashup episode. About their YouTube dreams and how they built their brands. I'm super pumped about this. And make sure to share this with your friends.

• 3:25Speaker 00

  Tag a friend, text a friend, spread the message of greatness. Help other people become dream makers like yourself. By taking action on the wisdom they learn from this episode. Big thank you again for everyone who is here. And let's dive into this episode with the powerhouse women of YouTube.

• 3:50Speaker 00

  One of the things that our mutual friend Humble told me about. I was like, what's something that really inspires you about? And he goes, she, her level of work ethic and hustle. Whether she's working fast food or some job she hates. Or putting together furniture is like the same level of energy and passion and hustle. Of across everything you do in life.

• 4:11Lilly Singh?

  Right.

• 4:11Speaker 00

  He said, he's really like inspired by that. Why, where does that come from? And why do you do that?

• 4:16Lilly Singh?

  Yeah, honestly, I don't know where it comes from. Part of me thinks that, and this is me being really honest. I think it's a great pro and a strength. But often at times, it's also a really big con.

• 4:25Speaker 00

  Why?

• 4:26Lilly Singh?

  In my life. Um, I'll give you a prime example. The other day, we threw a barbecue for once. Someone on my team got engaged, he's sitting right over there. And I threw a barbecue and I was like, alright, pretty good, simple barbecue. Get some stuff for the barbecue. I'm gonna make that barbecue, great. Then I'm like, I should do a fruit plate. And I was FaceTiming Humble. And this is why I know he said this, because I was FaceTiming Humble. And I was cutting strawberries into stars and bawling melons to make them look like flowers. And he was just looking at me and he's like, What are you doing? He's like, why are you putting this much effort into this fruit bowl? And it did not even occur to me. I was like, why wouldn't I spend five hours on this fruit bowl? What do you mean?

• 5:05Lewis Howes?

  Five hours.

• 5:06Lilly Singh?

  And I think it's just that I like to challenge myself. And when I do anything, I treat it as if it is the most important thing. And that's great because then I get to do amazing things like this that I'm really, really proud of. But then also I spend five hours making a fruit bowl. So it's kind of problematic.

• 5:24Lewis Howes?

  Making your bed for two hours.

• 5:25Lilly Singh?

  Yeah, it's, I haven't gotten there yet. But it's, yeah, I don't know. There's something in me that's just obsessed with improving and productivity all the time. And when people ask me, how do you do that? Don't you get tired? The answer is, I don't know. I don't get tired. I get tired of doing a lot of things. I don't get tired of making this one thing the best it could be.

• 5:47Lewis Howes?

  You obsess over it?

• 5:48Lilly Singh?

  I obsess.

• 5:48Lewis Howes?

  Do you think there's something underneath it? Like, what if you didn't have the perfect fruit bowl?

• 5:54Lilly Singh?

  I mean, it wasn't perfect. The kiwis were kind of whack.

• 5:56Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 5:57Lilly Singh?

  I'll say that. Um, I think it's just, we have X amount of energy in a day. And if I'm going to spend that energy anyways, why not just spend it on doing something really well? It really bothers me if I just do, like, here's an example. If I take a break, I usually watch a TV show. And in my brain, it's not just me, oh, I'm gonna do nothing and watch TV show. In my brain, it is, no, no. You are going to get inspired, but you have to proactively watch this TV show now so you can get inspired.

• 6:24Lewis Howes?

  It's like homework. It's not relaxing.

• 6:25Lilly Singh?

  Exactly. And I'm obsessed with that. I'm obsessed with productivity at every level and being the best I can be and extracting the best I can out of everything. And it's obsessive.

• 6:37Lewis Howes?

  Who do you want to be?

• 6:40Lilly Singh?

  Who do I want to be? I want to be.

• 6:45Lilly Singh?

  I don't want to fill anyone's void. You know, I think Humble and I learned this when we were in Italy at the honor of talking to Pharrell. And he said something that really, really impacted me. When Humble was asking him, he said, Humble said something like, "I want to fill the Andre 3000 void." You know, that's what I want my music to be. And Pharrell was like, "You should fill the Humble the poet void."

• 7:02Lewis Howes?

  Ooh.

• 7:03Lilly Singh?

  And I was like, "Ooh." I mean, Humble talk about that all the time. And that got me thinking where I don't want to fill the, I don't want people to be like, "Oh yeah, you could be the next Mindy Kaling." You know, they're just saying that because I'm also a brown girl. I don't want people to be like, "Yeah, you could be..." No, I want to fill the Lilly Singh void. I want to be the best version of myself.

• 7:22Lilly Singh?

  That gives me goosebumps. You know, I want to make little Lily get goosebumps when she looks at my success. That's how I want to be.

• 7:30Lewis Howes?

  I love the dedication that you had. I'm just gonna read it.

• 7:33Lilly Singh?

  Yeah.

• 7:35Lewis Howes?

  "Dedicated to the person I was six years ago. I told you to keep going. Thanks for listening."

• 7:39Lilly Singh?

  Mm-hmm.

• 7:39Lewis Howes?

  It kind of reminds me of the Matthew McConaughey speech.

• 7:42Lilly Singh?

  Oh, yeah?

• 7:42Lewis Howes?

  Did you remember seeing his speech? Was it the Oscar or the Oscar where he was like, "My inspiration is myself three years from now." And like chasing that guy who's going to achieve those things that I want to achieve. And it's like, what do I need to do now that's gonna make that happen? And like always chasing that myself, not someone else.

• 8:01Lilly Singh?

  Right.

• 8:01Lewis Howes?

  So I think it's cool that you kind of dedicated to that.

• 8:03Lilly Singh?

  Yeah, that dedicate, I was thinking long and hard about the dedication. I'm like, of course, I want to dedicate to my mom. Of course, there's all these people. Put them all in the acknowledgements. I'm like, cut the BS. The person that's actually dedicated to, that actually got me here is the person that was like, "I feel like crap, I'm still gonna get up tomorrow." That person.

• 8:21Lewis Howes?

  That inspires me. I just, I just finished my book, my, my next book. And I might have to change my dedication.

• 8:29Lilly Singh?

  Really?

• 8:30Lewis Howes?

  And like, and give you the props for the inspiration. Not saying the same thing, but do it in my own way.

• 8:34Lilly Singh?

  You don't gotta give me any props for the inspiration.

• 8:36Lewis Howes?

  No, I like it though. I think it's really cool. Cause I dedicated my family in the last book and I'm like, okay.

• 8:40Lilly Singh?

  Which is great.

• 8:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:41Lilly Singh?

  Families are great.

• 8:42Lewis Howes?

  But they're in the acknowledgements as well.

• 8:43Lilly Singh?

  Yeah.

• 8:43Lewis Howes?

  So maybe I'll change it up.

• 8:44Lilly Singh?

  But I think sometimes as humans, we need to be like, we feel pressured to always be giving people credit and always, and that's very, very important. But sometimes we don't give enough credit to ourselves.

• 8:54Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 8:55Lilly Singh?

  You know?

• 8:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 8:56Lilly Singh?

  At the end of the day, it's still you that did the thing.

• 9:03Lewis Howes?

  So what's your vision then for your growth strategy for, or just for your strategy in general for what you're creating? Just to have fun? Or do you have a vision of like, I want to hit 10 million subscribers, or I want to make this much a year, or do you not even think about that?

• 9:15Speaker 03

  I don't really.

• 9:16Lewis Howes?

  As long as you make enough money that comes in, you're happy, you're not like focused on a big dream or a big goal with that?

• 9:22Speaker 03

  No, and the weird thing for me is like, setting goals is I always set these goals. I'm like, I'm bored. I don't want to do that anymore. And I find something else that's even cooler than that. And I've talked to a lot of people who have set these goals that they will do nothing until they achieve that. And they're so pigeonholed in getting to that goal, that there's other things that you could have been doing that are so much better than that.

• 9:41Lewis Howes?

  So what are the things you want to be doing? And what's the, what's the dream for you then?

• 9:45Speaker 03

  Wow. I don't, that's, I don't know. I mean, I have so many things, like every day, there's something else I want to do. And it's like, if I don't want to do that the next day, then I change.

• 9:52Lewis Howes?

  You don't do it?

• 9:53Speaker 03

  Yeah. So, I mean, I know, could be working on a movie, which is really fun.

• 9:56Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 9:57Speaker 03

  Yeah. And I think another reason I started writing the book too, is because I wanted to pitch sort of a web series idea based around my life, but nobody could really grasp their head around the crazy things that have happened. So I was like, I'm just going to put it in a book and then we'll talk.

• 10:10Lewis Howes?

  What do you think is the biggest thing that's opened up for you since doing your first YouTube video till now? The biggest thing you've learned about yourself?

• 10:18Speaker 03

  Learned about myself? Hmm.

• 10:20Lewis Howes?

  Cause it's been a journey.

• 10:21Speaker 03

  I am not good at staying on task. I am a procrastinator and no matter how much I try not to be, I am. So that's why it's very helpful that I was like, I need to have people surrounding me that are able to sort of compensate for the things that I know I'm not good at. Um, you know, even like my sister, like, I know if we hang out, we're probably not going to get any projects done. So I need to make sure she's at her house telling me what to do.

• 10:45Lewis Howes?

  It's your FaceTiming as opposed to being a person.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  Yeah. Cause then we'll just play video games. So, you know, I think just surrounding yourself with people that are able to sort of, um, you know, lift you up for the things that you're not good at is just super important. So I think that was kind of the stepping stone for me is learning what I wasn't good at and finding people to help fix that.

• 11:01Lewis Howes?

  Got you, got you.

• 11:05Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious if you, you know, with all the content you put out there, every video out there, if it all got erased. What I'm curious is if you could ask, put up one final video.

• 11:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:18Lewis Howes?

  That would be the only video people see for the rest of time. From you. And in this video, well, first off, I'll ask you two things. One, what would you post in that video if it was the only video people would ever see? And just say it was under five minutes, what would you think you'd post?

• 11:33Speaker 03

  Five minutes, which that's a good average YouTube link. Um, I don't know. I don't ever plan my videos either. So if all my videos got deleted today, I would probably just turn on the camera and just start talking. And I have no, I don't know what I would say, though, is the problem.

• 11:50Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Well, I'll give you a better question.

• 11:51Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 11:52Lewis Howes?

  If you had one video left.

• 11:54Speaker 03

  No.

• 11:55Lewis Howes?

  Everything was deleted. All your social network was deleted. The internet was done, but you got to put one video out there that the world can see. And you can never record again. You can never have any of the other masters go out there. And you got to share three things that you know to be true about the world. And your experience and what you've learned. What would those three things be?

• 12:16Speaker 03

  Nothing is as big of a deal as you probably think it is. Nobody actually really cares as much as you think they do.

• 12:25Speaker 03

  And yeah, just have fun and be nice.

• 12:29Lewis Howes?

  Be nice.

• 12:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:30Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you've been pretty nice?

• 12:31Speaker 03

  Definitely.

• 12:32Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 12:32Speaker 03

  I think I'm sometimes too nice.

• 12:34Lewis Howes?

  Too nice.

• 12:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:35Lewis Howes?

  Does it hurt you sometimes?

• 12:36Speaker 03

  I think so.

• 12:45Lewis Howes?

  What would you say is the biggest fear for you then? Again, you've gone through a lot of the bullying, the cyberbullying. You've had other people criticize you for things you've done. You've had failures, like you said, but what's the big fear for you moving forward?

• 12:58Speaker 04

  Biggest fear? I think it's funny because my fears have changed. My biggest fear used to be failing. And I failed. We've all failed. But I used to be very affected by failure. I used to take it so personally. I let it stop me for months.

• 13:17Lewis Howes?

  And what did failure look like for you? Was it just not achieving something that you set out to achieve? Or what was the failure?

• 13:22Speaker 04

  I think it's when you have expectation. When you expect something to happen and then you feel entitled. You allow yourself to feel entitled to that happening because, oh, I put the work in. Why didn't I get the result? And then you start. You know, it affects your ego.

• 13:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:38Speaker 04

  And I think I used to let my ego have too much control. Because I simply, I just wasn't aware of it. I wasn't aware of the ego and when my ego was in control. And when my ego was in control, that's when I would focus on numbers. And, oh, I didn't get this many views. Oh, my gosh, what am I doing? Take it really personally. And I wasn't happy because I wasn't focusing, again, on the passion, on just loving it and doing it out of love. Because when you do things out of love, there is no ego there. You don't take it personally if you don't get the views that you wanted. You just love the fact that you're able to create something. And so failure was my biggest fear.

• 14:20Speaker 04

  And now I embrace failure because anytime, I don't even consider it. That's cheesy, but like, I really don't consider it failure anymore. Anytime I've experienced failure or pain, somehow something beautiful always comes out of it. It's really strange. But cyberbullying, when I went through that experience, I started YouTube. If that didn't happen, if I wasn't cyberbullied, 100% would not have started YouTube.

• 14:46Lewis Howes?

  Where would you be now?

• 14:47Speaker 04

  And there's so many other experiences like that in my life that have happened. Even, you know, maybe yesterday, like little things where it's like, if I didn't go through that challenge, I wouldn't have known that I was this strong. I'm excited. Like, what's the next challenge going to be? Because I know that I'm going to learn from it. That's amazing. Because the stronger that I can get, the more wise I can become. What I'm working on, what I'm creating, hopefully can be more helpful to the people around me. And if I can be more helpful to the world.

• 15:18Speaker 05

  Then I have purpose. So now I no longer fear failure. I think I fear losing passion. And as I, as long as I'm aware of, I think awareness is so powerful. I believe that as long as I stay aware of why I'm feeling things, because obviously I'm still going to feel insecure. I'm still going to feel doubtful at times, but if I can be aware of the fact that this is just a reaction. It's possibly just an illusion.

• 15:47Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 15:47Speaker 05

  It might not even be real. Then I can keep the passion alive.

• 15:52Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, hmm, amen to that. I always talk about for me, failure is feedback. It's information that's telling me what's working and what's not working.

• 16:01Speaker 05

  Right.

• 16:02Lewis Howes?

  And when I figure out, okay, this isn't working. It's not allowing me to achieve or create what I want to create. So it's feedback. What's the information I need to learn to help me get there? And so I think, again, you're doing a great job of saying it's just something that's going to challenge me. That's going to bring something beautiful to life and it's going to make me stronger.

• 16:19Speaker 05

  Right.

• 16:19Lewis Howes?

  So I think if we, if we reframe failure or fear or any of these things, there's really opportunities to grow. That's pretty powerful.

• 16:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 16:32Lewis Howes?

  What do you see yourself creating now? You're like this phenomenon, fans all over the world. Number one songs in all these different countries. You're touring everywhere, sold out. Like where do you see yourself going? Who are you trying to become?

• 16:45Speaker 05

  Oh, that's such a good question. I've been asking myself that since I was five years old. Um, I would say, I mean, I love what I do. My favorite part of, I think the whole thing is I love touring. And that's kind of why I started originally was the YouTube channel, the music, everything was a mode so that I could like, then go out and share it and perform. Like I love being on a stage and seeing people smile. Like there's nothing that like gets me alive like that does. And so, I mean, I definitely want to keep touring and I'm, I'm working on my next album right now and.

• 17:17Lewis Howes?

  Comes out sometime this year.

• 17:19Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 17:19Lewis Howes?

  That's what we're about to say.

• 17:20Speaker 05

  Sometime this year. I have my goal date, but I'm, who knows if I'm going to make it. I'm hoping for the summer. But yeah, so I'm working on new music and. And I hope to produce a film someday with my dad, actually.

• 17:32Lewis Howes?

  Oh, that'd be cool.

• 17:32Speaker 05

  You know, that's something, we're actually working on a script lightly right now and, but yeah, that's, that's part of the goal. It's been amazing to, to live my dream, but also bring the people I love along with me, whether it's like now my, my tour family, getting to bring them along on the journey has been, you know, amazing. Um, and then also like, you know, writing a book with my sister and, you know, I work with my other sister Jennifer and, you know, right, hoping to write a script with my dad. That's kind of what makes it so exciting is to do the thing you love with the people you want to be with.

• 18:01Lewis Howes?

  Sure. What's the feeling you get when you're on stage? What's, explain it to us.

• 18:06Speaker 05

  Oh, how do you explain it? Um, when I'm on stage and when I'm performing and dancing and, you know, doing the whole thing, I honestly feel like that's what I was created to do. Like this sense of true self of just like, just empowerment and, you know, and I look into the faces and, you know, you can always see there's lots of people that are excited to be there, but you can usually find like one or two people in the front row that you can tell they are so happy and that they've been waiting for this for months and being able to look into their eyes and just, I mean, it's, it's so selfishly validating, you know, it's just like, you know, I, I mean, I hope it's not too selfish, but it's amazing to have that moment of connection where you realize that you're connecting with someone

• 18:50Speaker 05

  that you've never even met and you, you, you have these moments with people that are just amazing.

• 19:01Speaker 00

  There you have it, my friends. You are the dream makers in this world. You are the ones who are taking on your dreams in a massive way and you're making them happen. You're manifesting your dreams each and every day when you consume this information and you take action on it. Spread the dream making ability for other people as well. Send this to a friend's, text your friends, post it on your social Instagram stories, your Twitter, Facebook. Spread the message of greatness and the ability for other people to dream and make those dreams come true as well. That's what this is all about, paying it forward. Ladies of YouTube Mashup, LewisHowes.com/779. Share this with your friends.

• 19:45Speaker 00

  Spread the message of greatness. We're taking over the world one day at a time, one person at a time, helping people live their dreams and live greater. That's what this is all about, baby. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.