5x Mr. Olympia: What People DON’T Realize About SHAME & INSECURITY!

Welcome to The School of Greatness, I'm your host, Lewis Howes. Today, we're diving deep with four-time Mr. Olympia Classic Physique Champion, Chris Bumstead. Chris is not just a bodybuilding icon; he's a beacon of vulnerability, authenticity, and relentless growth. In this episode, we explore the power of therapy, the journey of self-discovery, and the discipline behind his legendary physique. Get ready for an inspiring conversation that will challenge you to look beyond the surface and strive for greatness in all areas of your life. Let's dive in! In this episode you will learnThe importance of therapy and addressing childhood wounds for personal growth. Strategies for embracing vulnerability and authenticity in life. The mental and spiritual shifts required to enjoy life beyond just achieving results. The key components of a successful bodybuilding regimen and maintaining holistic health. How to leverage success in one area to build a personal brand and entrepreneurial ventures. For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1602For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Eckhart Tolle – https://link.chtbl.com/1463-podRhonda Byrne – https://link.chtbl.com/1525-podJohn Maxwell – https://link.chtbl.com/1501-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I want to be better Mr. Olympia. I want to enjoy it more. I want to enjoy the journey and be more present. And it always almost brings you back to your childhood. I pulled up a picture of me as a kid, but I remember looking at it backstage like before getting on and just starting to cry a little bit. I mean, like if that kid could imagine being me right now, you know?

• 0:28Speaker 00

  When I won my first Olympia, all I felt was relief that it was over. I didn't really feel joy and happiness and all these things because there was a lot of stress around the Olympia that I was just suppressing. All these fears are in my brain right now and I never even let them come up and think about them. I would just put them down.

• 0:42Lewis Howes?

  Never spoke about it.

• 0:43Speaker 00

  Never spoke about it. And just letting that out, I just like immediately felt better. What people don't realize is that like when you feel that pain, that shame and insecurity, that is that little boy. It's the same person. There's no separation there, you know?

• 0:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man. This is powerful. I'm so happy that you're having this conversation right now.

• 1:02Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest, the inspiring Chris Bumstead in the house, my man.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  What's going on?

• 1:08Lewis Howes?

  Good to see you, man.

• 1:09Speaker 00

  Happy to be here.

• 1:10Lewis Howes?

  Very excited about this. And the thing that I'm excited the most to talk about is the first thing you said when we embraced and hugged each other. Within a few moments, you said that you just got off a therapy call.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:22Lewis Howes?

  With your wife. And I was just like, this, I love this man.

• 1:25Speaker 00

  7:00 AM therapy call.

• 1:26Lewis Howes?

  I was like, what? 7:00 AM therapy call. We're here in Vegas. And I was just like, I was so happy to hear this. One, because I've been doing therapy for years.

• 1:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:37Lewis Howes?

  And when I talk about therapy with people, I really look at it as emotional coaching. It's really a coach that supports me in understanding and navigating my emotions, my feelings, my thoughts, and helps me improve who I am.

• 1:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:52Lewis Howes?

  And so when you said this, I just thought to myself, this is awesome. Because you to most people are kind of the epitome of what a masculine man should look like. Or that a lot of men are striving to.

• 2:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:05Lewis Howes?

  Mr. Olympia, five-time champion, you know, jacked, chiseled, strong, beard. You're like, you're a man, right?

• 2:14Speaker 00

  Bald now.

• 2:16Lewis Howes?

  But... You talk, the first thing you said is you're going to therapy, which I'm just such a big fan of. So can you tell me, when did you first start going to therapy? Did you go alone ever, or did you do it with your wife originally when you were dating? Or how did this start for you?

• 2:34Speaker 00

  I mean, I have a bit of a cheat code around the younger because my mom was a social worker. Not exactly a therapist, but she was very like encouraging of getting help like that and therapy and all that stuff if you needed it. And I never really entertained it when I was younger. But it was more so when I started getting into the competitive bodybuilding world and going through a lot of like pressure and stress and managing things. And then in 2018, I got kind of sick. And then in 2019, I was just kind of scared about being sick and I was trying to like balance competing. Should I, should I not? And I like, my brain was just pulling me in all these different directions where I didn't know where to go. And I would just like, my mom always told me that like a therapy session can just be like a sounding board sometimes to organize your own thoughts. Whether or not the therapist is there to actually give you insight, it helps you find your own insight as well.

• 3:16Speaker 00

  It's almost like a cheat code of journaling, you know, especially the crazier life you live. I imagine yourself traveling around doing podcasts, me bodybuilding, everything. It's sometimes it's hard to actually sit down and reflect inward about how you're feeling, what's going on. And what's not making you happy was making you sad, vice versa, and how to manage your life in the best way. And therapy is a great way to just to put all that on the table, organize your thoughts and create a game plan for life to put yourself in the direction you actually want to be going, rather than just running around aimlessly. So that's really kind of how it started. My wife now Courtney was seeing a therapist when we were first dating. And she reached out to me and she was like, you know, I can help you with some, almost like performance coaching stuff, like you said.

• 3:58Lewis Howes?

  She got into the right angle for you.

• 3:59Speaker 00

  Exactly. So like, I can help you enjoy your Olympia more and be better at handling that pressure and job. I'm like, all right, that's got me, you know, that's got me hooked. I'll try it. And it was funny because. And I mean, I can give a lot of examples of this and other people I've spoken to too. But you often go into therapy because of a problem in front of you or a stress about this. Or, you know, I want to be a better Mr. Olympia. I want to enjoy it more. I want to enjoy the journey and be more present and not be so stressed out about it. And it always almost brings you back to your childhood.

• 4:28Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 4:28Speaker 00

  And I'm sure you've done therapy. I know you've experienced that. Everybody who's done real therapy with a good therapist, you know, it all goes back to your childhood. And I did a really cool podcast with some Navy SEALs, like you talk about masculine, like the biggest gangsters on the planet. Like, these were like tier one Navy SEALs and they were talking about how they've done some work as well. And almost all the Navy SEALs they spoke to, when they're going through their stuff, they expect it to be all their trauma from the war and losing their brothers and all these things like that, which obviously hurt them greatly, but a lot of their wounds come from their childhood too. And that be able to heal those allows them to move forward through all the other stuff they lived through in their life too. So I started to notice that as well and it plays into every aspect of your life, your relationship, your relationship with yourself, everything.

• 5:13Speaker 00

  So we started performance based, trying to be better Olympia and it slowly went back to my childhood. And I was like, I had the perfect childhood. My parents are still together. I was happy. I was good. I was good. I was great. And they were like, all right, sure. Let's try and unravel some things. And the more I unraveled, I was like, you know, I still didn't have anything like horrible happen to me, which I think a lot of people think.

• 5:32Lewis Howes?

  You didn't have a big T trauma.

• 5:34Speaker 00

  Exactly. Just because you didn't get hit in the face with a bat doesn't mean your head doesn't hurt, you know? Like it's, it's hard to kind of tell people that because they think nothing ever happened to me, which is exactly how I felt.

• 5:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. You had loving parents and, you know, a good home and a safe environment and encouragement and all those things, right?

• 5:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:51Lewis Howes?

  But what was the big wound or a little wound that became big over time that you never addressed?

• 5:57Speaker 00

  A big one for me was feeling.

• 6:02Speaker 00

  I guess not seen and not truly like not fully like important and valued and I kind of felt like a little bit on the back burner because my parents tried their best and they did amazing but there was a lot going on in life sometimes and you know my sister was going through a lot who was older than me and then I was the kid who was like good at sports doing this and that so I was all good like don't worry about Chris he's got it all together

• 6:24Lewis Howes?

  He's got it figured out.

• 6:25Speaker 00

  He's good you know.

• 6:26Lewis Howes?

  But let's put our attention on on your sister.

• 6:28Speaker 00

  Yeah or the sister on this on that on everything else because he's got it together and I saw that so I was like okay well I'm good at all this stuff and I don't want to add stress to my family so I'm just gonna hold it in handle it all myself and kind of bottle it all down compartmentalize and do my own thing and you know I wasn't thinking that clearly like that when I was younger but it's just naturally how you cope you know you build defense mechanisms depending on your environment when you're young so that was one of the ones I kind of did when I was younger and to me it was just normal you know I handle myself on my own I don't really need a lot of connection I don't really need a lot of intimacy I'm just very independent and I can do things by myself and then ol- older and older I got I started to realize partly in the Olympia I bring a lot of stuff back because the Olympia has taught me so many things

• 7:10Speaker 00

  but I when I won my first Olympia all I felt was relief that it was over I didn't really feel joy and happiness and all these things because there was a lot of stress around the Olympia that I was just suppressing and then my big story or lesson that I tried to share with people this year with that if you numb the bad you numb the good so as you numb your emotions everything kind of gets dulled down so I've tried to process all that move through it and I'd realize that as I compartmentalize everything in my life I compartmentalize all the good too and it's kind of just suppressing all these feelings and then you get older and stuff just starts to feel dim and like sad and alone and all these things and you don't understand why and it's because you've I've created this environment where I don't let people help me or I don't ask for anything I need I'm just like I'll help everyone before myself and then I'm good on the side

• 7:55Speaker 00

  and it leaves you kind of alone because everybody needs connection.

• 7:59Lewis Howes?

  So what was life like for you in your teens early twenties and mid twenties until you started to dive into therapy?

• 8:09Lewis Howes?

  Was it always lonely and sad and depressing? Or were there good moments too?

• 8:14Speaker 00

  There were definitely good moments and it's almost hard for me to like communicate this sometimes, but I really try to because I know I'm not the only one who didn't have like this depressing childhood. But I also expect a lot of like myself. I don't want to just be like, well, I'm good. You know, I wanna be great. I wanna feel love and connection and closeness and everything. I don't wanna like drift apart from my wife in difficult times and all these things. I want to like understand and grasp and be the best relational person that I can be.

• 8:42Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:43Speaker 00

  So while I didn't really feel depressed or anything when I was young, I also didn't really feel like I had anyone that I could go out to and reach out to in hard times. And if I was scared or sad about something, there was someone who I could lean on or talk to. I just felt like it was normal for me to hold that in myself.

• 8:58Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 8:58Speaker 00

  And the reason it was tricky for me is because I knew that my parents did love me so much. And I did have people who loved me and if I were to share with them, they would be there for me. But I just felt like it'd be better to just hold it on myself because that's just the way, that's just the way I operate.

• 9:12Lewis Howes?

  Isn't that interesting? So you knew your parents loved you.

• 9:14Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 9:14Lewis Howes?

  You knew they would show up for you if you needed something.

• 9:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:17Lewis Howes?

  But you didn't wanna be a burden.

• 9:19Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 9:19Lewis Howes?

  You didn't wanna stress them out. So you didn't wanna show them that you needed support or help, right?

• 9:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly.

• 9:25Lewis Howes?

  Isn't that interesting? You know, it's funny because we have about a 12 year age gap, I think. And so I grew up in the eighties and nineties. And I was never allowed to show emotion, cry, say that I was having a hard day without being made fun of or picked on or bullied or, you know, what other guys kind of just like picking on you and making fun of you. I was never really allowed to do that. So it took me until I was 30 years old, until I started to do more emotional healing and reflecting on kind of these traumas, little traumas, big traumas, everything.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:57Lewis Howes?

  And started to really release my emotions and heal them. And it's been a journey. But I love that you openly cry, you openly talk about your feelings, your emotions, and conversations like therapy. Because we just didn't have that, you know, you know, ten, twelve years before you, that wasn't available. Now it's becoming more available. And I'm just so happy that guys like you are using your platform to express this. Yes, you're showing that you're like the most jacked human in the world. But you're also saying, hey, listen, I'm willing to continue to improve on all areas of my life. And I really think of the ultimate man being someone who is emotionally evolved, not just holding their feelings in constantly and saying, I've got it figured out.

• 10:42Lewis Howes?

  Mentally constantly growing, spiritually growing, and relationally growing. And it sounds to me like you're making an importance to value all of those things. And financially as well, you're building your business. But you're telling me like, I want to make my, my wife and my relationship a high priority. So I'm gonna go to coaching, you know, once a month or whatever, and work on this. I'm gonna take care of my health, my nutrition, my mindset, my business, all these different things, to become the most well-rounded man that I can be. Not just strong physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. And I just think that's beautiful, man.

• 11:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, for sure. And I mean, as you grew up, you know, obviously, it's, it's so easy to have empathy for our past generations of why they had to be like that, you know, like going through a lot harder times than we have right now. You know, we're lucky we're even on an opportunity to like, be able to like, search for our emotions in relationships, because there was a lot of going on. When our parents were coming up, where they didn't, they didn't have that opportunity. They had to kind of like, get through some hard times. So obviously, they were like that. And now for each generation to kind of like, move through those like, pains and kind of beat the previous generation's trauma is difficult. You know, but my parents, I think they still did a great job. Their parents were, I'm sure, a lot more shut off than they ever were. And my parents did a really good job at trying to do the best that they could with me.

• 12:02Speaker 00

  And while I still left with a little bit of irks and pains, I also came with the strength and the knowledge to work on them myself. And enough belief in myself to do the work and understanding that I was worth doing that kind of work. So it was.

• 12:16Lewis Howes?

  That you were worth doing the work. Did you not think you were valuable or worthy of doing that work beforehand?

• 12:23Speaker 00

  I don't think I ever really processed it that much, you know? I think there were times where I didn't think I was worth the stress of worth putting stress on others by sharing how I was feeling.

• 12:34Lewis Howes?

  Like burdening, burdening it with your emotions.

• 12:36Speaker 00

  Being a burden with them, exactly, yeah. But obviously, as you start to unravel relationships, especially you learn it's not only is it not a burden, but it's actually a privilege for the other person to receive that. And it's very like hypocritical sometimes, especially as a man, you know, you're like, you want your wife to come to you in hard times and lean on you because you can support them, but you don't want to do the same to them. It makes you feel special when they come, when they need something and they're sad and they come to you for protection, but you don't go to them, so they're not going to feel as important either. So it's very much a give and take thing. And like you said, it's, I think it's very difficult in the masculine, masculine and the way things are now. And I've always, not always, I've recently been trying to incorporate a lot better the masculine and the feminine energy

• 13:19Speaker 00

  within myself and just be better at that because it's, it's really easy for a man to just like focus, like I have a lot of, I have bodybuilding going on, I have a lot of travel, I have business, I have all these things going on, a lot of things that's required of me. Sometimes either just shove everything down and go into work mode and be like, I'm going to provide for my family.

• 13:36Lewis Howes?

  Let's dominate.

• 13:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, let's everything up, get everyone up on stage.

• 13:40Lewis Howes?

  Let's win and dominate.

• 13:41Speaker 00

  Make some money, my family's never going to need to work again, let's take care of them. But like, if they're not, if they're missing me at home emotionally and through connection, then what's the point of doing all this work on the other side? You have to be able to balance both worlds together.

• 13:52Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm. Yeah, and this idea of balance, you know, I think I even heard you talk about balance at one point, where I, I look at balance more as alignment. I think people try to balance and navigate everything, or it's more aligning your values, your vision and your lifestyle in harmony with the people in your life, your health, your businesses. And sometimes you'll be out of balance of what the rest of the world looks like is balance, but you'll be in harmony because you're communicating and you're working on those things.

• 14:20Speaker 00

  For sure.

• 14:20Lewis Howes?

  In seasonal times.

• 14:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:22Lewis Howes?

  And so, man, that's so cool. Now, did you? Did Courtney, your wife, did she inspire you to open up more about your feelings and kind of tap into the feminine side when you met her? Or was that before you met her?

• 14:34Speaker 00

  I think I've always been a little bit of a softer male.

• 14:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:37Speaker 00

  You know, I've always been a little bit more emotional. I've never been like the intense, like gritty, like everyone up kind of thing, you know? I'm like, I'm at the Olympia, I'm making friends with people, I'm chill, I'm like here to win, but like, I'm not gonna like step on your throat.

• 14:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 14:51Speaker 00

  And I think, well, it's also cool with her and she definitely inspired me way more. And a lot of men don't think women even want that. They think they want like that tough man on a horse who doesn't cry kind of thing. But what actually attracted Courtney to me, which was really cool. Talk about law of attraction and people trying to find the right woman, trying to find some, someone who loves them for who they are. You have to actually show yourself to be loved for who you are. And I put out a video in 2018. Just being like, I was expected to win the Olympia that year, you know, I was a young guy coming up, all this stuff going on and that's when I got sick. Didn't win, came second, still did really good, but I went through, I was in the hospital four weeks out, I was really scared. I didn't think I'd be able to compete again and I just had a lot of emotions going through me and I put out a video talking about all that.

• 15:36Speaker 00

  And I cried in the video and I was super vulnerable and I just shared how I was feeling and what I went through in that journey. And that was the video that she saw. She kind of heard of me, didn't know what, but then she saw this video and she's like, okay, this is that guy. Who's like, like you said, the big, strong bodybuilding guy. And now he's on YouTube crying, like there's a mismatch there, something's different about him. And she watched it and she's like, this guy's, this guy's gotta be different. And then she actually flooded my DMs.

• 16:02Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 16:02Speaker 00

  Messaged me, hit me up and I already had a crush on her from before, because she was Miss Olympia in 2016. I was going after it in 2018 and I already had a crush on her. I'm like, damn, this girl's in my, my DMs, this is crazy. And then we just kind of hit it off, but I, if I hadn't put that video up and decided to be vulnerable.

• 16:18Lewis Howes?

  You wouldn't have attracted her.

• 16:19Speaker 00

  I wouldn't have attracted her. You know, we wouldn't be together, we wouldn't have our baby girl on the way now. It was, it's, everything would be different.

• 16:25Lewis Howes?

  One piece of content changed your life.

• 16:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:27Lewis Howes?

  Isn't that interesting?

• 16:28Speaker 00

  Crazy.

• 16:28Lewis Howes?

  But it was you being willing and having the courage to say, this is who I am and being willing to share and reveal this with others.

• 16:36Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 16:36Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think most people hold back their emotions and their true authentic self in life?

• 16:43Speaker 00

  That's a good question. I definitely don't have all the answers to that, but I think part of it is it hurts a lot more to be rejected for who you really are, because then it's a real rejection. It means if you put your real self out there and it gets rejected, it means you're really not good enough.

• 16:59Lewis Howes?

  Oh.

• 17:00Speaker 00

  But if you put a fake self out there and people are like, I don't like that, you're like, it's not really me anyway. So like, it's a layer of protection. You're kind of protecting yourself from like a real stab in the heart, you know?

• 17:10Lewis Howes?

  How have you learned to trust yourself by revealing who you are and being fully authentic, both privately and publicly? And also be okay if people don't like you, leave nasty comments, think you're a failure and reject you? How have you been able to handle those emotions and still be you?

• 17:33Speaker 00

  I mean, it's been a long journey and I think I owe the beginning part to my parents. You know, they really just, they always just told me just to be myself. And since then, it's kind of hard for me to, that's why I couldn't put a camera on after Olympia and just do give some hardcore thing. It was like, I'm sad and I'm gonna cry because I can't really put on a fake show right now. And I just, I'm not a good, I'm not a good liar. So I think I just did it and I got some.

• 17:56Lewis Howes?

  Why were you sad?

• 17:57Speaker 00

  From that one time?

• 17:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, why were you sad afterwards?

• 18:00Speaker 00

  I was scared. You know, I was in the, I was in the hospital truly and they didn't know what was wrong with me. I didn't know if I was A, gonna be able to compete, if I was gonna be sick for the rest of my life, if I was gonna have to be on meds for the rest of my life. I didn't know what was wrong with me. It was, I'd put on like 20 pounds of water weight overnight and I was just, shins were inflamed. I was super inflamed. I'm like in the hospital alone, just like scared, not knowing what's happening. And I just, again, I didn't know how to process all that, so I just bottled all down, compartmentalized. They let me out of the hospital like three weeks after the Olympia. I'm like, I don't know what to do right now, so I'm gonna go back into prep. And I'm gonna do the Olympia. I probably should have dropped out, but as my way of numbing my emotion, I'm like, if I put all my focus over here, I don't have to think about that.

• 18:37Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:38Speaker 00

  And then afterwards, all that emotion just started pouring out of me and all that fear and the unknown of what the future held and what was going on with me and just all that kind of, anything around your health can be really scary. So.

• 18:50Lewis Howes?

  What, what has been your biggest fear most of your life?

• 18:55Speaker 00

  My biggest fear?

• 18:58Speaker 00

  That's a good one.

• 19:00Lewis Howes?

  Like, what was it personally for you that was either the insecurity or the fear that you think was underneath everything you were doing? Because it sounds like you have a better handle now on those fears and you're processing a lot more, but before you started processing, you know, before you won and started to figure it out, what was that big weight and fear you were carrying?

• 19:21Speaker 00

  I think there was a a fear that if I

• 19:27Speaker 00

  if I like tried to lean on someone and rely on someone to like hold me while I was falling or whatever, or when I needed someone to lean on that they might not be there for me. So instead of ever leaning on anyone, I just didn't. And it was easier to protect myself like that and just like create this facade that I can handle all on my own because it's a lot scarier. Like I said, the same concept of putting your true self out there to be rejected. If I try and lean on someone who I need and they're not there for me, that's really gonna hurt. So I was just like, no, I'm not gonna do that.

• 19:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What is the greatest rejection you ever had?

• 20:01Speaker 00

  Greatest rejection I ever had?

• 20:03Lewis Howes?

  The one that like really hurt you? And maybe it was like, you know, maybe it was a small thing, but it really hurt you in a big way for whatever reason.

• 20:12Speaker 00

  I don't know if I can pinpoint one, honestly.

• 20:15Lewis Howes?

  Was it like a girlfriend that rejected you or was it like you went after something you cared about and you didn't get the part? Or you didn't win the competition? Was there something you were like, I feel like a loser and rejected?

• 20:26Speaker 00

  I'm sure there were some more, there's a lot of my trials that I don't really remember. I don't have the

• 20:31Lewis Howes?

  You blocked it out?

• 20:32Speaker 00

  I I don't, I don't, didn't block it out because it was bad. I just, I think maybe as I was kind of pushing aside some emotions, I pushed aside some memories too. But I do have like some memories of after there's already been some of this pain in me when I was really young, giving like talks and speeches and stuff or like something in class where I had to get up in front of people and like getting made fun of for my lisp, something like that and just feeling like really small and like embarrassed and just like, I don't want to ever talk in front of people again.

• 21:00Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 21:01Speaker 00

  Like that created some stage fright in me and like public speaking anxiety and all that stuff, which I think most people have, but it was pretty extreme for me. But I can't remember an exact giant rejection at any point, really.

• 21:13Lewis Howes?

  But I mean, I have a similar, you know, my childhood is very similar in the fact that I would get made fun of when I would, they would ask, the teacher would ask us to read aloud, you know, open up chapter one and read aloud and each kid would go around. And I couldn't read the words. I had dyslexia and I had a second grade reading level in eighth grade. I just couldn't comprehend and understand what I was reading. So it was very intimidating for me to stand in front of my peers and read or speak at all.

• 21:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:40Lewis Howes?

  And I think I channeled a lot of that anger into sports to say, let me prove people wrong who are making fun of me. Let me find somewhere where I do have abilities and skills so I don't feel like a loser and rejected. Is that what you started to do with with bodybuilding and lifting? Kind of like, make yourself be seen and bigger and stronger so that no one could hurt you that way?

• 22:04Speaker 00

  I think in a way, it was never, I was never anger for me or anything like that, but I did. I did start to see when I started working out at a young age, put on muscle very easily. Obviously I have good genetics. Started to get some attention for that. It felt good. And there was a way to be like seen and important in some way. So I was like, let's keep doing this. And then in forms of, when it's hard to like feel a lot, like you see people like the crazy free climbers who like climb, whatever Yosemite with no ropes or anything. Those guys are probably numb as hell, just trying to feel some kind of feel something. Just to get that rush out of it, you know? And when I would compete, it was something that really scared me to be on stage in front of all the people. And it was a lot of like,

• 22:46Speaker 00

  it was a lot of suppression and pushing things aside and just working really hard and focusing on one thing. And then at the end, it's this big feeling at the end. So it's like, all right, if I work really hard for this one day, there's a big feeling at the end.

• 22:57Lewis Howes?

  If I work for a year, every day it busts my butt, I'll have like two minutes of release.

• 23:03Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 23:04Lewis Howes?

  Isn't that crazy?

• 23:04Speaker 00

  It's insane. Yeah.

• 23:06Lewis Howes?

  It's kind of like Olympians. They train for ten, twelve, fifteen years for one minute.

• 23:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  For a minute race or a minute swim or a one game or whatever it might be for the chance of gold.

• 23:18Speaker 00

  Every four years.

• 23:19Lewis Howes?

  Isn't that crazy?

• 23:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, at least I get it every year.

• 23:21Lewis Howes?

  That's true. Have you seen the documentary Weight of Gold?

• 23:24Speaker 00

  No.

• 23:25Lewis Howes?

  It's incredible documentary where it's interviewing a lot of Olympic gold medalists or Olympic medalists.

• 23:34Lewis Howes?

  Talking about the depression, the anxiety, the stress, the overwhelm, uh, the, the loss of identity after winning the Olympic gold medal.

• 23:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:43Lewis Howes?

  Because they go for their whole lives for something and they think it's supposed to feel like euphoric.

• 23:49Speaker 00

  Life changing.

• 23:50Lewis Howes?

  And like they're gonna have joy and happiness now.

• 23:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:53Lewis Howes?

  But they still have to face the stuff within them. So the, the documentary covers a lot of athletes that committed suicide and their friends and family members that within a year who committed suicide or just who'd never returned back to themselves because of the weight and the pressure. So you were training for years for these, for this one moment on stage. And when you got it, it wasn't what you wanted, right?

• 24:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:16Lewis Howes?

  The feeling.

• 24:17Speaker 00

  It was.

• 24:17Lewis Howes?

  What was the feeling you thought you were gonna get? And what was the feeling you received?

• 24:21Speaker 00

  I mean, I guess the first year I won, like I kind of mentioned before, I, I thought I was going to just have like this overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment and joy. Just like I did it. You know, I, I'm accomplished. I've got it all. Like I did it.

• 24:35Lewis Howes?

  I'm the man.

• 24:36Speaker 00

  I'm the man. Yeah. And what I felt, I just remember feeling relief. I just relieved it was over. Believed I didn't have to do it anymore. At least it was done. Believed I made it there. Like I was just like, thank God.

• 24:47Lewis Howes?

  Like on stage, you're thinking that?

• 24:48Speaker 00

  Yeah. Literally. It was like, you kind of relaxed your shoulders like, you know, which is, which is crazy. And I remember going out and you have this 10 layers of spray tan, just like brown paint all over you.

• 25:01Lewis Howes?

  You're sweating. You're just like.

• 25:03Speaker 00

  And I remember you always love going to take a shower to get that off. You remember going in the shower and like crying because I was expecting to feel all that joy and I didn't get it. And it was almost like this disappointment afterwards where I was like, what am I missing right now? Like, why, why am I feeling all this? And that was a huge pivotal moment in my life where I was like, this isn't right. There's no way I'm gonna dedicate this much of my life, sacrifice this much to feel like this. There should be, there.

• 25:29Lewis Howes?

  A payoff at the end. Yeah. There should be something better than this.

• 25:32Speaker 00

  And I, and I believed, I didn't think that the journey I was on was wrong. I just think of the way I was approaching it was wrong. So I was like, there's gotta be a way where I can change other aspects of my life and manage my mind and other things better. So that when I get to there next year, and I do this again, I'm able to enjoy it and have a lot more fun.

• 25:49Lewis Howes?

  So the, the journey you were on wasn't wrong, but it was the process that you were implementing.

• 25:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:54Lewis Howes?

  Which was off.

• 25:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:56Lewis Howes?

  So the process before it sounds like I'm gonna work as hard to do whatever it takes to to win, to prove myself that I can do it, or whatever it might be, get this monkey off my back, whatever it is. And at the end, you didn't get the feeling you wanted, which was, I guess, a better sense of peace, or freedom, or love, or self-acceptance, or whatever you wanted.

• 26:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:16Lewis Howes?

  So how did the process change mentally, spiritually, and emotionally to enjoy life every single day as opposed to wait for the result to feel better?

• 26:28Speaker 00

  Yeah. Good question. So, a lot of what translated, and again, I relate almost everything to the Olympic, because it's been such a bulk of my life.

• 26:37Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 26:37Speaker 00

  But a lot of what translated into that feeling was the fact that I got so sick in 2018, that I spent 2019 afraid I was gonna get sick again. And instead of really processing the amount of fear I had in the past, and like, truly, at one point, I thought I was gonna die in the hospital. It wasn't that bad. I would just, I was creating that kind of fear and anxiety in my mind, and I never really accepted that I felt that, and allowed myself to process through that, and move on from it. I just was kinda like, don't feel like that, push it down. So it was still in there. So all of 2019, I'm like, I don't wanna be back in the hospital. I don't wanna be back in the hospital. I was just living like that, instead of being like, in the moment. And I wasn't allowing myself to really like, allow those emotions to come up. So in 2020, the next year, I remember, my life always goes in like this, depending on prep.

• 27:20Speaker 00

  So after Olympia, it's like this kinda low, I didn't really feel great, and I'm kinda working myself back up, started doing a little bit of therapy then. I didn't have the therapist I have now, which I wish I had, because she's a beast, but.

• 27:31Lewis Howes?

  But 2020 is when you kinda started therapy a little bit.

• 27:33Speaker 00

  2019-ish.

• 27:34Lewis Howes?

  2019, okay.

• 27:35Speaker 00

  And so, started doing that, and then I felt a little bit better, because I wasn't in prep, wasn't in Olympia mode, get a little bit busy with business, starts picking up, travel for sponsors, all this stuff, and I'm like, ah, push that stuff aside, I feel okay right now.

• 27:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 27:46Speaker 00

  And then all of a sudden, prep starts again, and I'm like. There's that fear again. The pressure. Feeling that pressure, that fear of getting sick again, this expectation now, you know, I won last year. But people are like, did you really deserve to win? It was pretty close. You shouldn't have won. And I'm like, well, I have to dominate this year so they don't question me this time. And all these things going on and I remember sitting on my stairs with Courtney and her and just like kind of sitting there. I think we were going to the gym or something and she just noticed something was up with me and she's like, what's going on? I'm like, nothing, I'm fine. And then she's like, what's going on? She just kind of prided me enough. And this is like, she's helped me so much with this because if you were to ask me how I feel, I'm like, I'm fine. And I would believe it. And then you ask me 10 more times and I'm crying on the stairs and I'm like, damn, like what's in this right now? And she's like, what's, what are you feeling? I'm like, I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm gonna, I'm gonna like lose again.

• 28:31Speaker 00

  And then they're gonna prove that I shouldn't have won last year. I'm scared I'm gonna get sick and not even gonna make it on stage. I'm scared I shouldn't be competing and I'm putting my health at risk and this is so stupid, like bodybuilding is not healthy. I have an autoimmune disease. Why am I doing this? This is dumb. I'm gonna hurt myself. Like all these fears are in my brain right now. And I never even let them come up to think about them. I would just put them down. You never spoke about it. Never spoke about it. And just letting that out and like crying with her and like talking about it. I just like immediately felt better. It's a release. It was just released. And she was just like, she just listened. She just heard me and with like a sounding board. And I just felt this pressure off of me. And I was like, wow, like that, I feel better now. Like, let's go to the gym. Like I actually feel better now. It's not like it's pushed out and I can go perform.

• 29:15Speaker 00

  It's like, no, I'm really here right now and I feel better. And I think that's a huge thing that, a lesson that I, I love to share, especially to men is that, you know, because we, there's always that joke with your wife. She tells you a problem, you're like, all right, how do I fix it? What's the solution? And it's like, no, she's just trying to release it. And if men were better at understanding that, there doesn't need to be a solution. Sometimes you just need to let that energy out, to speak about it, to allow it to exist, to accept it's there. Sit with it for a minute and then just see how you feel. And usually you feel a little bit better and then you move forward in it. And then by embracing those things and allowing those kind of fears to come up and me to talk about it. It allowed me to be a lot more present because I wasn't fighting those down.

• 29:55Speaker 00

  So I allowed that fear to come up. I had a moment of it. And then I went to the gym and I was like, I feel really good here. You know, I'm excited. Like, I can do this. You got more energy. I had more energy. I just had it pouring out of me, just a larger sense of belief, some more pride, just more emotion period, more feeling. That I hadn't, because I hadn't been suppressing all of it. And then that whole Olympia prep was kind of a back and forth of that. I wasn't perfect, but I was learning how to bring things up. And it was also COVID. So I mean horrible things happened during COVID, but it was a blessing in disguise for me because I had no distractions. I couldn't travel. I couldn't do anything else. I was at home all day. Just bodybuilding, sleeping, connecting with my wife, chilling, therapy, just cycling that in and that was it.

• 30:36Speaker 00

  And then that year on stage was completely different. The whole peak week I was like present. I was enjoying it. I was having fun. You know, I won that Olympia and the people were shocked at how much better I looked. My whole body looked younger, bigger, leaner, healthier, like everything was just more vibrant. My confidence on stage was different. Like everything about me was like a different bodybuilder on there. And I got a perfect score. I won and there was no question if I deserved to win that one or not. They were like, forget about the last guy. Chris is the champ.

• 31:03Lewis Howes?

  Wow. It wasn't even like close. It was undeniable.

• 31:07Speaker 00

  People like the, the, that transformation is one of my most like proudest physical transformations.

• 31:12Lewis Howes?

  Year one to two.

• 31:13Speaker 00

  Nineteen or twenty, because it was such a big change.

• 31:15Lewis Howes?

  Now, what I'm hearing you say, correct me if I'm wrong, that you did a lot of the same things physically. You ate a lot of the same food. You trained in a similar way. You slept in the same bed.

• 31:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:27Lewis Howes?

  You know, there wasn't, you were in the same relationship. You didn't change anything really. Maybe minor tweaks, except your thoughts and your emotions.

• 31:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:37Lewis Howes?

  That's all that changed.

• 31:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:38Lewis Howes?

  And what I'm hearing you say is by changing your thoughts and emotions within a year period consistently. Healing, processing, improving and growing and transforming them. You looked and became a completely different human being on stage in one year. To the point your success was undeniable. Is that what I'm hearing you say?

• 31:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:59Lewis Howes?

  Correct me if I'm wrong. I just want to make sure we got this right.

• 32:01Speaker 00

  No, you're putting in the nice words, but yeah.

• 32:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Okay. So thoughts and emotions started to shift and transform. And physically you became and looked different.

• 32:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:12Lewis Howes?

  Isn't that interesting?

• 32:13Speaker 00

  It's crazy. Yeah. I wish I.

• 32:14Lewis Howes?

  Wait, there was no like different supplements you took or like you didn't eat like some steroided chicken or you know, something different?

• 32:21Speaker 00

  Probably less supplements that year because I was like, I'm caring more about my health now. I'm going to like see what I can get away with. And it was, it was that whether, and I think it's a combination of, like you said, I. The the energy I released and brought into my body and allowed it to circulate allowed me to also probably sleep better, therefore recover better, therefore train harder and all these things. But also, I think it just, there's something I don't know how to explain. I'm sure people are better than me, but I think there's some like misunderstood thing within ourselves of how much our emotion affects our physical body.

• 32:56Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 32:56Speaker 00

  And the biggest translation, and I hear a lot of stuff about this now because I've done a lot of kind of research into autoimmune stuff, which is based off stress, inflammation, kind of like disorder within the body. And, you know, in twenty nineteen, I won and I got through it, but I still had like some physical inflammation. I was holding some water in my shins, you know? I wasn't fully healthy. And in twenty twenty, it was like, I was like reversing my autoimmune disease, like I was getting healthier through prep, which was like inexplicable, you know? Like, I I really, I really don't think I should be able to still compete, given what happened to me in the past, but my body's gotten healthier every year.

• 33:33Lewis Howes?

  What did you do besides the, you know, the the emotional and mental

• 33:39Lewis Howes?

  release and healing? What did you do physically that allowed for that, you think? Was there a different style of eating? Supplements, nutrition that you incorporated?

• 33:49Speaker 00

  Not since the year before, no. Because in twenty eighteen, I changed a lot. I got a lot healthier, started eating like organic foods and eat fast food. I started to treat my body more like the fuel that went in matter, rather than just like get protein in, even if it's from McDonald's, you know, I gave that up.

• 34:03Lewis Howes?

  Is that what you're doing before?

• 34:04Speaker 00

  When I was young, yeah, for sure.

• 34:05Lewis Howes?

  A lot of fast food, just as much as you can.

• 34:07Speaker 00

  If I need to get calories in, I'd go get a burger.

• 34:09Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 34:09Speaker 00

  But I changed all that years before, but in twenty twenty twenty with all that, I didn't really change much. I'm maybe was allowed to rest more because of COVID, like I said and stuff, but there wasn't a lot I changed. And since then, I've added more physical things, like I do a lot of stem cells and. Peptides and a lot of different type of therapies now, but back then I didn't have the the knowledge or the means to be able to afford that stuff anyways, so.

• 34:32Lewis Howes?

  What would you say is kind of the optimal diet for you right now? To keep you healthy, but also building mass and allowing you to compete? What is that ultimate diet for you?

• 34:42Speaker 00

  I mean, really just Whole Foods. I keep it super simple. I think if, when I'm done competing and it's not about that, I'll eat a lot less, a lot less carbs, higher fat, cause I just personally feel better. Then I think everyone has to experiment in what feels best for them. But the number one diet that I, anyone asks me like, what's the best diet? I just say Whole Foods, like.

• 35:01Lewis Howes?

  What does that look like for you? What do you eat on a typical day when you're training to stay healthy? But also to build mass and stay lean?

• 35:11Speaker 00

  It's usually five or six meals a day. It's been five recently because I've been traveling so much. But I, I try and lighten it up and make it a little bit more fun, but I'll have like bison, eggs and avocado in the morning with some like ghee butter and coffee with MCT. So really high fat. And then I have some basic chicken and rice, chicken and turkey after that. Maybe like a wrap at night, some kind of homemade burrito, you know, Courtney's super into like organic healthy foods. So she gets all these like organic minimal ingredient, like almond flour wraps and all this stuff. And she makes stuff for me and just super simple stuff.

• 35:44Lewis Howes?

  Are you trying to do mostly protein and some fiber and vegetables? Or what's kind of like the, and fats? What's the ratio, would you say? Is there? I've never done the whole macro thing.

• 35:54Speaker 00

  I don't have a concrete ratio, honestly.

• 35:55Lewis Howes?

  Really? So are you weighing your foods daily or are you just?

• 35:58Speaker 00

  I haven't been recently, but when I'm like seriously into stuff, I do. And I, I mainly in my off season, I, I just, I'm very like knowing of my body, my body weight right now. And I eat so similar all the time. I'll just like start with something, eat it the same. I'm like, oh, I need to put on way more weight. I'll add more to it.

• 36:14Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 36:14Speaker 00

  And I, cause I'm just very consistent with it. But I really just try and hit like about three hundred grams of protein.

• 36:20Lewis Howes?

  Three hundred a day?

• 36:21Speaker 00

  Three hundred a day, yeah.

• 36:22Lewis Howes?

  That's a lot of food.

• 36:23Speaker 00

  It is a lot of food, yeah.

• 36:24Lewis Howes?

  Three hundred grams of protein?

• 36:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:26Lewis Howes?

  So give me a, a calculation. What is three hundred grams of protein in the foods that you're eating? What does that look like?

• 36:31Speaker 00

  Approximately?

• 36:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, what is that? It's like five chicken breasts and twenty eggs. Like what is that?

• 36:35Speaker 00

  I mean, I don't know based off chicken breast size, but it's probably like in the morning, the hundred and eighty grams of bison with three whole eggs.

• 36:42Lewis Howes?

  What is a hundred and eighty grams? Like a half a pound of meat or something or like?

• 36:45Speaker 00

  Four hundred and twenty-five grams, I think is a pound.

• 36:48Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 36:49Speaker 00

  So a little under a half a pound.

• 36:50Lewis Howes?

  Okay, quarter pound or something.

• 36:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, about that. And then I'll have like two hundred and twenty grams of chicken, probably two times and then like two hundred and twenty grams of turkey once. And then I'll have like a protein shake with like fifty grams of protein in it.

• 37:03Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 37:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, there. It's a good amount.

• 37:06Lewis Howes?

  Now, what is the key to burning fat and building muscle at the same time? Is that even possible? I always hear people say you've got to put on like the bulk first, the bulk phase. Then you can slim down. Is it possible to burn fat and build muscle and stay lean at the same time?

• 37:24Speaker 00

  It's it's very dependent on where your body is. You know, if you're someone who has never worked out and you're like three hundred pounds overweight, then of course it is. You know, you can, your body can change with some very minimal work. But if you're like me in prep already, then it's very hard, you know? I'm just trying to maintain as much muscle as possible because I'm already at a very elite level of muscle and a low level of body fat. So it's harder to make those changes. So I really can't answer. It's very dependent on the person. The least trained you are, the easier it is to put on muscle and lose fat. And then the more like regimented and strict you are, the harder it is.

• 37:58Lewis Howes?

  Really? Man. But you're really intentional about your nutrition right now, what you consume, right?

• 38:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:05Lewis Howes?

  How important is it to take like, you know, over the counter supplements, like protein powders, protein bars, you know, vitamins, like is that important or do you put more the importance on getting it within the whole foods?

• 38:18Speaker 00

  I'm all about whole foods. And I always say that I own a supplement company and I still tell people, people like, what's the best supplement? I'm like, whole food. You know, if you can get it from food, it's always, it's always better. And obviously there's like this kind of crisis going on right now of a lack of nutrients in our foods based off farming and pesticides and mass produce everything and all that stuff. So it's kind of hard to manage. And I think a lot of people therefore need to supplement a lot. And I take some supplements, but I think the healthier you eat, the less you need. And if I wasn't trying to get 300 grams of protein in a day, I probably would only have a shake when I'm like, feel like when I want one, because I wouldn't need to add that extra protein.

• 38:54Lewis Howes?

  Really? But you need to get a certain amount, so you're going to supplement with, you know, water and protein.

• 38:58Speaker 00

  Exactly. It's a lot easier than eating another 300 grams of chicken breast. After a while, it gets hard to put that down.

• 39:04Lewis Howes?

  Gosh, man. And you can't really put sauces or anything on it. You've got to like really keep it.

• 39:09Speaker 00

  As long as I'm not in prep, I can.

• 39:11Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 39:11Speaker 00

  But when I'm like deep into prep, then I'm allowed like some hot sauces, kind of, but then they mess up my digestion. So my coach tells me I'm not. And then I'm just allowed like yellow mustard.

• 39:20Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 39:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:21Lewis Howes?

  Now, when you're getting into prep mode, what is that, three months out where you're like, I'm really dialing it in and taking this serious? Or?

• 39:28Speaker 00

  It's about 16 weeks.

• 39:29Lewis Howes?

  16 weeks.

• 39:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:31Lewis Howes?

  Four months out. Can you walk me through your mindset? Four months out, when you're about to get started, where you're like, okay, this is day one. We're four months away from Olympia. What are you thinking day one of prep after obviously six months of maintaining and training, but not, okay, we're in camp?

• 39:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:49Lewis Howes?

  What is that mindset during that moment? Is there a switch? Or is it just elevated emotions and energy a little bit? And how does that build all the way up to the moment before onstage at Olympia? Where does the mindset evolve before that moment of onstage?

• 40:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:07Speaker 00

  So it's been different every year and it's been, this past year was the hardest to, it's never like it switches on. For me, it's, I probably need a 12 week prep, but I do 16 because it takes a rolling start for me, you know, I gotta kind of.

• 40:20Lewis Howes?

  Takes some time to warm up.

• 40:21Speaker 00

  Gotta push the car first to get that clutch going, you know? But in the past, when I didn't have anything else going on like the bodybuilding, it was a little bit easier. But now, like, for example, since December, I've been home for like seven days, I think, for the last two and a half months. Because it's just go, go, go travel. There's lots going on with business and work. And I'm pulled in a lot more different directions right now because I have a lot more going on. So me being able to manage that is a little bit harder. And I learned quickly this year that while I thought I could manage it all together, I can't.

• 40:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 40:52Speaker 00

  And my therapist had a great line to me. She's like, Chris, you love being the 1% of everything. He's like, you want to be, you want to have the biggest, best business. You want to have, be the biggest, best bodybuilder. You want to have the most beautiful, loving, connected relationship. But you can't, you can't have it all. She's like, I hate to tell you, but the more you pour into perfection into one, you're pulling energy away from another.

• 41:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 41:13Speaker 00

  And you can't do it all. And I was like, really? I was like, are you sure? I think I can. And I tried for a while and it, it started to beat me down. You know, I was, I was traveling all weekends, coming back, trying to connect with Courtney, trying to get to the gym at the right time, trying to get all my meals in, trying to manage it all. And my body started to get like just tired. My mind was stressed. I wasn't taking those times to really reflect in myself and check in where I was at. And I wasn't even really enjoying it either. Cause there was just, there was just too much that I wasn't allowing myself to slow down and like, enjoy and be in the process. So in August, I think I was about 10 weeks out. All this is going on, boom, I find out Courtney's pregnant now. I'm like, oh, here we go. I was so excited. We weren't planning it, but I was so excited. I was like, I didn't, you know, bodybuilders don't even think that's possible during prep.

• 41:58Speaker 00

  So I was like, all right, this is a miracle.

• 41:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow. You mean not possible to get pregnant with like,

• 42:03Speaker 00

  We was taking P D's and stuff. Yeah. It's harder, it's harder to get pregnant.

• 42:06Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:07Speaker 00

  Cause you're less fertile. But super excited, but still a huge shift in my mind. You know, there's a lot more responsibility. There's a lot more change in my life right now. You know, like this is a lot more coming. So even more on my mind now and stopping me from slowing down. And then I remember I went on one trip and I was doing some work in Canada and went back to see my family. And then I would just feeling kind of strung out or something. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't really realize I wasn't in tune with myself. And one day I woke up, I weighed myself and I was just feeling like, and I had lost like 12 pounds. And it wasn't good weight. I wasn't leaner. I just like lost a bunch of water weight. Cause my body was stressed, something like that. Wasn't feeling good. Went to the gym. I'm working out, feeling tired, but like whatever, like normally I'll do like, four eighty-five or something on RDLs. I'll do four oh five this time because I'm feeling tired.

• 42:52Speaker 00

  On like rep nine or something, she would pop and my lat just like kind of pulls and I tore my lat and I was just like,

• 42:58Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 42:59Speaker 00

  Like what just happened? I just tear my lat and I like couldn't move my arm. I'm like processing like all this like overwhelming stuff that I've been feeling and I just hit was the roadblock. I'm like, you haven't even been focusing on prep, you haven't been prioritizing and now you might have just gotten taken away from you because of all that. And I remember I was like devastated. I was in the middle of the gym. I didn't want to tell anyone. I just done it because I didn't want anyone to know. So I like walk out arm like this and I start crying behind the gym. I'm like, Really? I'm just crying. I'm like, what are you doing, man? Like, I feel like I just lost the Olympia, you know? This is going in for my fifth title and now I'm not gonna be able to compete. All this going on. I call Courtney and I'm like freaking out. She's like, she wasn't with me at the time either. So she's like, oh, I'm so sorry. Do you need me to come out there? Like, what's going on? I'm like, no, like, just let me handle this, you know?

• 43:44Speaker 00

  Let me take it back on myself. I got this. I go back in the gym and I'm like looking around like, okay, I can't tell anyone. I just hurt myself so. And I didn't want to be an asshole. So I started taking the weights off the, off the bar. I'm trying to take four plates off just with one arm. Oh, my gosh. Move it, put it away and then I leave and I drive home. And there was this huge just like mental, like what's going on? And I got back home and I'm talking with Courtney and she's like, remember what Jordan told you about being able to manage everything at once? Your therapist. She's like, this is life literally slapping you in the face and being like, I told you so. And I'm like, ah, yeah, you're right. You're right. And she, I didn't even read the book yet, but I listened to a little Cliff Notes version. But she told me to listen to this book called The One Thing. And just talking about if you want to be the, the best at something, good at something, you need to focus on the one thing.

• 44:29Speaker 00

  And I was like, all right, you know, I didn't get into the book, but I get the concept just from the title. I'm like, let's start focusing on one thing, you know? I'm like, I'm not gonna go into work from nine to five anymore. I'm gonna leave at 12 and I'm gonna go to the gym at one because that's when I feel the best. And I couldn't even train my upper body for a while. I could just do legs and a little cardio and stuff. So I'm like, let me just focus on one thing at a time and get through this. I'm gonna stay off my phone at night. I'm not gonna do any emails, nothing. So I can actually sleep because I was staying, I was up all night thinking because my brain was on other things. So I allow myself to sleep better, allow myself to rest more, allow myself to connect with Courtney more, which helps me feel more grounded rather than more all over the place. I cut out all travel. I'm like, I'm not doing any more trips. I'm not getting on a plane until the Olympia. Like, don't even ask me. So I started actually prioritizing what I needed and saying no to all these things.

• 45:12Speaker 00

  And it was all those things essentially that this year made me turn on that switch. And then I think it was about six weeks out the Olympia where I had my first, it was about four weeks after that incident. I had my first back workout and it was okay workout, but I did it and I got through it. I remember being like.

• 45:30Lewis Howes?

  You recovered enough?

• 45:31Speaker 00

  I recovered enough. I'm like, all right, if I can just lock it in right now, I can get through this, you know? You've been stressed, worried, traveling, all these things, everything you've learned about being present and enjoying this journey. You just forgot about it for the last couple of months. This is your wake up call to get back together and come back into it. And that was like my like, hey, lock it in, be here, be grateful that you even have the opportunity now to heal from something so fast that you can actually at least try and compete again and have the opportunity to push through it. And then just enjoy this, you know? And that's when I was like, like this could also be my last Olympia, you know? You never know when it's your last one and I'm not gonna allow all this stress to ruin that me look back and like, I didn't even enjoy the last one because I was so worried about all this stuff. So I, I pushed through kind of all that. I allowed my mind to come back to center.

• 46:17Speaker 00

  Focused on the one thing, the Olympia training, myself, rest, all that stuff that I could do. And I got through it and I enjoyed that Olympia and it was cool because I've documented all my Olympia preps.

• 46:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:29Speaker 00

  I have a videographer who follows me around, does all the stuff.

• 46:32Lewis Howes?

  Great videos, man.

• 46:32Speaker 00

  Close friend of mine.

• 46:33Lewis Howes?

  It's great.

• 46:34Speaker 00

  And he got a photographer who's now a close friend of mine too. And then she started taking pictures and video at the Olympia. And you compare a lot of my years and I used to come in super like Michael Jordan and be like, you know, sit at the press conference just locked in like hardcore. This year I'm just, I'm just chilling this year. I'm laughing, I'm smiling. And you could just tell there's this lighter energy about me because I allowed myself to truly be like as present as possible. In the last five years, I've been working towards allowing myself to really just like have fun with it and not knowing if it's gonna be my last one and just being there and being present. And it was really cool to see the physical evidence and pictures of like that stoic face to just like a goofy Chris smiling, kind of having fun with it also.

• 47:13Lewis Howes?

  Kind of going back to the beginning of the conversation of being authentically who you are.

• 47:16Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 47:17Lewis Howes?

  Cause that's kind of who you are.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:18Lewis Howes?

  You know, it's not about like being this stern, like stoic. You know, focused man, it's about being focused, knowing that you've done all the prep.

• 47:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:27Lewis Howes?

  You've done all the prep, so you have the focus to be able to be kind of like Usain Bolt. And just like be relaxed and loose and like have fun and then go out and dominate.

• 47:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:36Lewis Howes?

  Which is what he did. I don't know if you ever watched his stuff in the Olympics where he was just like playing with the camera, he's high fiving people right before the, you know, the Olympic gold race.

• 47:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:45Lewis Howes?

  He's, he's relaxed and loose and then just dominating his competition. And I think there's something to that, you know, we were talking about, there's a different type of mentality. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but the Michael Jordan or Kobe that was just like focused and didn't show really a lot of that joy, let's say that joyful or relaxed energy. Maybe it was a different type of relaxed, but it was more of like, we're here to work and it worked for them.

• 48:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:12Lewis Howes?

  I mean, they dominated.

• 48:12Speaker 00

  It did.

• 48:13Lewis Howes?

  But there's also something when it shifted and you started to be more relaxed, you felt emotionally different as well. It's like you can have fun with it and dominate.

• 48:20Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 48:22Lewis Howes?

  So what were you thinking about the moment you walk from backstage onstage for the most important part of the Olympia? What are you thinking of knowing that you spent a year of training and preparation? Knowing you've documented daily, your lifting, your nutrition, your sleep, knowing that you ripped your, your lat. You healed, you came back from it, knowing that your fiance is pregnant at the time. Like what is going through your mind right before you go on for that main performance on Olympia?

• 48:57Speaker 00

  This year was a, an interesting year for that and it was, I think I've heard you speak about this too, but some of the work I've done in therapy has been in healing my like younger self and like giving that kid what he needed. When, cause he didn't get it when he was younger, he didn't know what he needed. And now I'm smart enough, I can give it to him.

• 49:17Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 49:17Speaker 00

  Cause I don't need anyone else to do that.

• 49:18Lewis Howes?

  Let's go.

• 49:19Speaker 00

  And so I was backstage and I actually remember my therapist told me to do this a while ago and I didn't really do it enough, but I pulled up a picture of me as a kid.

• 49:25Lewis Howes?

  Come on.

• 49:26Speaker 00

  And I looked at him right before, and I might even cry right now thinking about this. But I remember looking at it backstage, like before getting on and looking at it and just looking at that picture and get starting to cry a little bit. I mean, like if that kid could imagine being me right now, you know?

• 49:40Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 49:41Speaker 00

  Like how hard I've worked since being that kid to now to be where I am. And like how proud he would be of who I am and how proud I am of him and back and forth and. Just kind of allowing myself to feel proud of myself and all the work I've put in and like what would I if that kid was the one getting on stage right now, what would I tell him? What would I want him to feel? What would I want him to experience? You know? I wouldn't want him to have any pressure, expectation to feel like he has to win or he needs anything to enjoy it. I would just want him to go out there. Understanding he's already done all the work he can to have fun with it, to relax, just to make the best of it and to not be too hard on himself. And I really like embodied that. And I stepped on stage with a light, open heart. I remember like standing on there, looking up at the lights, found my my family in the crowd.

• 50:26Speaker 00

  The picture of me like giving him a heart and pointing at them and I just had fun with it and I was up there, super present and really enjoyed it. And it was a it was a pretty like beautiful ending to what was a hell of a journey that year.

• 50:38Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my goodness, man. I'm so happy you're talking about this and I can imagine my sixteen year old self, if I was watching this video at sixteen, being like, what a bunch of wusses. What are these guys talking about, man? Just toughen up and just like, but also I could have been like, wow. If this, you know, guy who's won at the highest level, if he is able to enjoy his life in this process and this is what he did. Maybe I would have been able to shift it and be like, okay, how can I reflect on my life? And not worry about all the material things to like impress people or chasing girls or looking flashy so that people like me, but actually figuring out a way to like myself.

• 51:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:20Lewis Howes?

  The the younger parts of me that felt neglected or not seen. And I'm just so happy for you that this was the moment before you went on stage. I had no clue you were gonna say that.

• 51:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:33Lewis Howes?

  But I'm so happy for you because I used to have on my my phone, I used to have a photo of my younger self at five. Now I've got me and my fiance, but I used to have a photo of my little Louis, you know? And I would spent for like a year reconnecting with the younger part of me that felt neglected, not seen, abused, abandoned, all these different things.

• 51:56Lewis Howes?

  And created that intimacy and relationship with my younger self. And I'm so happy for you that you started this and you did it right before you went on the biggest moment for yourself. Yeah. What a beautiful moment, man. I'm just, I'm so happy for you and I'm so happy in this moment that this is something you're talking about because there are billions of men in the world who will never reconnect with the parts themselves where they feel the most ashamed, most insecure. Yeah. Least amount of love within themselves. Mm hmm. And so I'm so happy that you just said this right now and that we're having this conversation because I know the pain that men are going through. Yes, women are going through pain as well, but I know men in general don't like to talk about these things.

• 52:40Lewis Howes?

  And I'm so happy that you have, are using your platform. I watch your vlogs, your videos, I see you talking about this in interviews. And I just want women watching or listening to send this to the men in their life, even just this clip. You don't have to listen to the whole thing, just send them a few minutes of this and really take this in. Because the man I'm sitting in front of right now is a beautiful man with a big heart. And to watch you pursue your life, not perfect, but pursuing it in progress. Pursuing it with reflection in yourself, healing the parts of yourself in a journey of healing. While pursuing your external goals as well is so beautiful, man. Yeah.

• 53:25Lewis Howes?

  And I really acknowledge you for this incredible gift that you're giving people right now with this conversation. I just wanted to put that out there because I'm just so happy that we are speaking about this. Yeah. Cause there's so many men that will never take the time to heal. And I hope they do. I hope they realize you speaking about this, sure, you were successful before externally. But internally, you still didn't feel like you loved yourself fully, or you weren't able to enjoy the wins. Yeah. So what's the point of winning if you still don't feel enough? I heard you talk about a quote with Jim Carrey one time, which I love this quote as well. Um, we're gonna paraphrase this, but.

• 54:04Lewis Howes?

  Jim Carrey said at one point, I wish everyone could become rich and famous and achieve all their dreams and realize that's not the key to happiness. Like being rich and famous and successful is not the key. I'm paraphrasing the quote. But it's learning how to be at peace with yourself and the parts of you that you do not love. That is an incredible life. And you're doing it. And I wish at 28, 29, I was able to be where you are. It's inspiring, man. I want to ask you about, is there anything you wanted to add to that right there? Just what we've been talking about here. Is there anything that came up for you during that?

• 54:37Speaker 00

  No, I mean, like you said, it's a message that, you know, I try and share, hoping a lot of people can understand that. Cause what I'm, a lot of what I'm working on right now is I think a lot of people feel X about themselves. And they're like, well, like if I have my own family or my own kid, I'll treat them differently than myself. I'll, I'll do it for them. But, but like, well, my therapist has always told me, she's like, it's too late then. You know, there's a reason that this stuff kind of repeats through generations is because a lot of the love that you give to others does reflect on the love that you give yourself all the time. And if you don't learn how to, if I don't learn how to do this now to give myself, I'm going to struggle to give it to my daughter.

• 55:14Speaker 00

  And if, the way you were talking about the way men talk to themselves, if they were to really walk through and see their younger self and be like, what would you tell that little boy? Versus how, what would you tell yourself? They would, it would be two different things.

• 55:26Lewis Howes?

  You would never say these negative things to a little boy?

• 55:28Speaker 00

  No, no, definitely. Even if you were saying it to you as a little boy, they wouldn't, they wouldn't do it.

• 55:32Lewis Howes?

  Never treat yourself that way as a little boy sitting in front of you.

• 55:35Speaker 00

  Yeah. But what people don't realize is that like, when you feel that pain, that shame and insecurity, that is that little boy. It's the same person. There's no separation there, you know? So.

• 55:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man. This is fricking powerful. I'm so happy that you're having this conversation right now.

• 55:52Lewis Howes?

  I heard you talk about your dad one time where you, you know, you have a great relationship with him and he loves you. But you never saw him model kind of the self-love with himself, I guess, in this way. He would just kind of take everything on, but he wanted to express like, hey, can you give me a hand? Can I get support? Like, he would just take it on, which is not a bad thing or wrong thing. It's inspiring.

• 56:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:14Lewis Howes?

  But it's also empowering to allow others to support you, right?

• 56:19Speaker 00

  It is.

• 56:20Lewis Howes?

  And so maybe he wasn't able to even have the tools to model this type of relationship you have with yourself right now, right?

• 56:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, definitely. Like, I mean, like I was talking about, previous generations had no idea of this stuff. They didn't have these podcasts or therapists or education or studies or anything that would allow them to kind of work through this. Nor did they really have, probably, maybe it would have been honestly a disadvantage for them to feel some of this because they did have to get through a lot of hard stuff. So, you know, he wasn't modeled that and he was like the greatest father I could have ever imagined. But he, he wasn't able to model that, like requesting of help and showing a vulnerability. And he almost created, almost like a false expectation of what I was looking for. Me thinking that's what I wanted. I wanted to be the rock that always held the family together. That wasn't stressed out, that could, you know, just take everything on by himself and like have it together.

• 57:10Speaker 00

  And I was like, I'm not that person. Like, I can't do that, you know?

• 57:14Lewis Howes?

  You're like, I need help.

• 57:14Speaker 00

  Yeah. It was hard for me to kind of realize that because I was like, I want to become the man who can handle that. And then I was like, I don't think there was a version of me, at least not a happy one, that exists like that.

• 57:23Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. So, did you feel like a failure as you were growing up because you didn't think you could be like your father?

• 57:28Speaker 00

  There were times where I felt like I was more angry, more sad, more upset, unable to handle as much stress where I was like, like my dad could do this, you know? And I was like, a little kind of hard on myself. And it did exist, but I, I, I'm sure there's a version of my dad who maybe like wishes at times he didn't, he was going through and he didn't feel like he could handle it.

• 57:49Lewis Howes?

  But it's all he knew.

• 57:50Speaker 00

  He didn't know how to talk about it. It's all he knew, so. It's a lot, but he, what I love about him is he's so like open to this and like I talked to him now. We're trying to like work on it now and he's like, he's so open to like learning and being there for me and he's so proud of me for like doing this work myself. He's always like encouraged me to like, to, to be this best version of myself, so.

• 58:12Lewis Howes?

  I think that's beautiful because some parents, if they didn't have the tools to do these things themselves, they may say, why are you doing this? Why are you going to coach or therapist? Like, just suck it up, man. Like, I'm able to do this. Your grandfather was able to do this. We went through wars. We went through famine.

• 58:29Lewis Howes?

  We, we didn't have time to express our emotions. We were surviving. We were trying to survive. We didn't have the time or the privilege to talk about the pressures that we have. We just had to step up.

• 58:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:39Lewis Howes?

  So I'm glad that your dad is empowering and encouraging you to be able to process the pressures in the past in a beautiful way and not just saying, ah, what are you doing? That shows that he's got a growth mindset as well.

• 58:51Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, absolutely.

• 58:52Lewis Howes?

  What is the, when did you know?

• 58:56Lewis Howes?

  That you were in love with Courtney?

• 59:02Lewis Howes?

  Was there a moment that, that you were like, okay, obviously I like this girl and you know, we're hanging out or dating, but like, was there a moment where you're like, this is the one that I want to be with, the one that I want to choose?

• 59:12Speaker 00

  I don't know if there was like a concrete moment, you know, we, we went through a rocky start to our relationship.

• 59:18Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 59:18Speaker 00

  She, we were long distance and she had had some like kind of health stuff that was going on with her in the past. Also something that we were able to relate on and we kind of like, long distance is hard and we were kind of struggling. And I remember there being some times where we were like, we weren't doing hot and we were on the edge. We weren't super connected and I just like, I remember thinking like, no matter all the we're going through right now, I just never want to like lose her.

• 59:41Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 59:41Speaker 00

  No matter what, I felt like I just, I was like, I always want, we weren't, I didn't see the perfect version of ourself now, but I believed in like a better version of ourself. And I just, I don't know. I just remember all that. And then we actually took a break at one point.

• 59:54Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 59:54Speaker 00

  It was during COVID. She got stuck in America. I was stuck in Canada. Borders were closed. We were kind of going through our stuff. And we were like, stuff wasn't really working out. We took a short break, kind of took a step back and we're focusing on ourselves. And then after a few months, I was like, I felt nothing for a while. That's done. Whatever, you know?

• 1:00:13Lewis Howes?

  You're like, I'm done with the relationship. Moving on.

• 1:00:16Speaker 00

  And then all of a sudden, I just like, I got hit by this overwhelming like fear that like she would be gone forever. And I like started to really like process that. And I was like, I don't know if I can live without this girl. Like, I don't know. I don't know if I can. Like, if we bring this back together, it's gonna be hard. We're gonna have to not only build what we didn't have, but repair what we've now lost and work forward and go through a lot of this stuff that we've now created more pain. But I was like, I feel like that I need to do it because this girl is so special, you know? And she really is like a great, like yin and yang to me, you know? Like, she's very emotional and relational and connected. And whereas for me, sometimes I can go into like that performance mode and it's hard for me to like come back and connect. She's always like ready for an embrace and a hug and to be there and to be present.

• 1:01:01Lewis Howes?

  You're like, just drop me. I need to focus right now. Yeah.

• 1:01:03Speaker 00

  She's, she's just always there, you know? And I'm not, I wasn't always the best at that. So she was a great model at me for being able to express your emotions and kind of like be more relational.

• 1:01:13Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Okay. So you guys got back together and was that the time where you said, let's do therapy together too?

• 1:01:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think, I guess we had only done solo therapy up until then, but we did start doing therapy together after that. Yeah.

• 1:01:27Lewis Howes?

  What was the, what has been the greatest lesson that you've learned through couples therapy?

• 1:01:32Speaker 00

  I can't remember the, the exact quote that my, it's my therapist quote, Jordan through name. I'm stealing it from her, but it's like, compatibility isn't a precursor, it's earned. You know, like people, we're not just gonna like meet and be compatible and her, her aches work with my like positives and all this. It's not gonna be like that. We're gonna actually have to like work at understanding each other and giving and taking and being there for each other. Cause it's not always perfect. And I think understanding how much really like work goes into a relationship working, you know, just, I don't think you find your soulmate. You build your soulmate, you know, you have to earn it. And I think really like, understanding that, first of all, a victim is someone who has no control over anything.

• 1:02:13Speaker 00

  So if something's out there and you need to find it, you have no control if you find the wrong one, you can't fix it. So I find that gives you a lot more control to be able to, empowerment, to be able to make your relationship what you want it to be, rather than to try and find a relationship that you want. So I think that was a huge thing for me. And also,

• 1:02:32Speaker 00

  obviously, like, we've spoken about women have a lot more like emotional needs that they're vocal about at least than men aren't. I think one of the biggest things I've learned is that her needs that she requests aren't just for her, but they're actually for me too. So when she's like missing connection and I'm like, I don't need that, but I'll do it for you. It's like, no, that I need it just as much as her. So I'm not, I'm not doing it for her, I'm doing it for us. And understanding that the relationship is an us thing, not a you and me thing, is like a, a huge thing that's a huge mindset shift. Cause in a relationship, you feel like you're doing someone, something for someone else. Sure, you love them, you'll do it, but it's not the same as if you're truly believing it's making both of you better.

• 1:03:13Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What's missing for you right now in your life or in the relationship that you feel like you don't have yet? Besides the daughter on the way?

• 1:03:23Speaker 00

  That we don't have yet?

• 1:03:25Lewis Howes?

  Is there something missing within you that you feel like you still get to develop? To have the best relationship possible?

• 1:03:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I think

• 1:03:37Speaker 00

  a le- less of a drastic dial in life.

• 1:03:40Lewis Howes?

  What do you mean?

• 1:03:41Speaker 00

  So let's say, last couple of months, I've been traveling a lot, right? So I'm dialed into work. And then I come home and I'm trying to dial back into a relationship. And if I'm all the way a hundred to negative a hundred back and forth, that's a big change to go. So it's hard, I need to learn better at not, when I'm gone, not disconnecting too much. So that when I come home, it's not too hard to continue to connect again. But I feel a lot more at peace and, and just joyful and happy when I'm really connected with her. So that's more important to me. So I need to put more energy into prioritizing that dial to be over there more often.

• 1:04:13Lewis Howes?

  That's interesting. So not be a hundred at one thing only. Be like, okay, I want to be on the road for three weeks. I'm at eighty percent, but I'm going to give twenty percent over here as well. So it's not completely eliminated.

• 1:04:23Speaker 00

  Exactly, yeah.

• 1:04:24Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. What is the thing you love about your wife the most?

• 1:04:28Speaker 00

  Another tough one. Not tough to find anything, but to pick one.

• 1:04:32Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 1:04:34Speaker 00

  This isn't what I love the most, but something we were kind of joking about is, and I kind of touched on the stairs. I'm, I've been obsessed with efficiency in my life sometimes. And efficiency means that you're also missing out on a lot of like, things that are just joyful to be present. You know, things that don't really matter, you know, like if I'm like trying to get up and go, go, go, go, go. Then I'm like, I gotta wake up, get in the shower, eat my food, get out the house. Like everything's gotta be on like a thing where she can just kind of like, get up and be like, hmm. Just kind of sit there for a bit, drink her coffee, wanna just sit with me and just like be there with me and just like, and be super present with that. And she's, I used to be like, we gotta go, we gotta move, we gotta move. And she's just like, why, you know?

• 1:05:14Speaker 00

  So I think that is something that I really admire about her, that it really helps me kind of slow down too. And she's also just the most selfless person I've ever met. Like she truly almost had a fault, puts everyone else's needs before hers. And so I'm needing to learn and she said, no, like I don't need this. So it's like, no, I know you need it, so I'm gonna give it to you. But I still love that she's always trying to like, look out for me and no matter what we're going through, she really tries to see my side of it. She's just, she's very able to empathize with how I feel. And a lot of men I know are afraid to show all the emotion, to cry and all these things. Cause they're afraid that they're gonna be like, their wife's gonna be like, oh, you're weak. Why are you crying? I need a tough man. She's never made me feel like that.

• 1:05:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:05:55Speaker 00

  She's truly made me feel like, the more of my like insecure parts of myself that I show, that she loves me more. That she accepts me more for who I am, not less, not the same, but actually like it's, we have more love. She has more love for me when I show her more things that I'm afraid to show.

• 1:06:11Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man, that's beautiful. I think every man wants to be able to reveal themselves in front of the woman they're with and feel seen and safe at the same time and secure of all their insecurities, shame and.

• 1:06:24Lewis Howes?

  Past guilt. They wanna feel seen, safe and secure to reveal themselves. And I remember many relationships I was in, I remember a girl was, I was crying one time because I was bringing up something that was really emotional for me.

• 1:06:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:38Lewis Howes?

  And I would say I'm a sensitive human being, but it's not like I'm crying every week or something, right? It's like when something feels something, I'll feel it.

• 1:06:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:46Lewis Howes?

  But then I'll move through it and I'm back to myself. It's not like every day, right?

• 1:06:50Speaker 00

  You're human.

• 1:06:51Lewis Howes?

  But when I, I was going through like something that was challenging and I started to tear up and cry, and she started to laugh at me. She was like, I know I'm supposed to not think this is funny, but you look weak.

• 1:07:03Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 1:07:04Lewis Howes?

  And I remember just feeling like, what are you talking about? Any ma- any woman would want their man to be able to show their emotions. But some women aren't able to handle those emotions. Some women just don't have the skills or the tools for whatever reason from their parents.

• 1:07:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:07:17Lewis Howes?

  I'm not making her wrong or bad. It's just, it didn't make me feel safe or secure to wanna reveal myself like that ever again. And I think all women watching or listening, if you wanna have a, a man that is in his masculine and driven and on his purpose, allow him to be all the parts of himself. Even the insecure scared little boy parts that he has inside of him. Embrace it because that'll make him feel safe to go bigger on his purpose moving forward.

• 1:07:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:07:48Lewis Howes?

  So I'm so happy to hear that, that Courtney is, is that for you.

• 1:07:51Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:07:51Lewis Howes?

  And she embraces all the parts of you. And that is a beautiful thing. It sounds like she's still gotta do a little work with her and her Courtney, her little Courtney as well, but um.

• 1:08:01Speaker 00

  She started it before me, but.

• 1:08:02Lewis Howes?

  Oh, she did. That's good. Yeah.

• 1:08:03Speaker 00

  We're both working on it.

• 1:08:05Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful, man. Um, I got a few, a few more questions for you if that's okay. I wanna ask you about

• 1:08:14Lewis Howes?

  health and longevity. I wanna ask you about, a little bit about your business and your social media empire.

• 1:08:22Lewis Howes?

  And then I want to wrap things up shortly after that.

• 1:08:27Lewis Howes?

  You know, five time world champion Olympia, right?

• 1:08:33Lewis Howes?

  You've mentioned every year, you're not sure if you're going to do it again, or if you're, if you're done, or you're thinking about it and you're still in that season. How do you think as you're, you know, we were talking about this beforehand, how do you approach your health? Let alone like pursuing more Olympias and championships, but how do you, how do you think about your health? With bodybuilding, with training this hard, with the amount of intention you have on building the body? When you've seen, you know, giants of the past go through now, heart attacks and surgeries and back repla- you know, surgeries and all these different things, knee replacements. When you see kind of like the, the giants before you, start to not only fall stumble, but have heart, health challenges.

• 1:09:18Lewis Howes?

  How do you think about your approach to health and the world of bodybuilding?

• 1:09:25Lewis Howes?

  To live a long, healthy life of harmony, not of, I was a champion for, you know, five, 10 years and then suffered the rest of my-

• 1:09:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:09:34Lewis Howes?

  How do you think about that? And is that a fear of yours?

• 1:09:37Speaker 00

  It's definitely a fear of mine. And I've always said, if you're a bodybuilder and you don't have that fear, then you're just ignorant. Because it's a reality of what I do for sure. And I do the best that I can within the realm that I'm in to manage it. But I know what I'm doing isn't healthy for my body.

• 1:09:53Lewis Howes?

  Really? You know, right now it's not healthy for you.

• 1:09:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, for sure. You know, the bodybuilding is making me healthier. Absolutely not. I know that. I know there's a lot of steps I can take to mitigate that as best as possible. But it's not healthy. And that's why I've always, I've never been like, I'm one of the younger competitors. A lot of the open bodybuilders at least are like 35 years old when they peak. A lot of them win around then. So I'm like, I could go all the way for another- Six, seven years, but I've always been like, if I'm ever bodybuilding past thirty, like, you guys just cancel my gym membership. It's like, just don't let me, you know, I'm done. And I wouldn't, I would never go past thirty. So I'm coming to the end of my career and I'm, I always had the goal of if I start and I'm successful young and I end young, then I'm at least better off than pushing past. Cause obviously the younger we are, the better our body.

• 1:10:38Lewis Howes?

  Can recover and heal, yeah.

• 1:10:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. And I also just had the goal of winning Olympias. That was my only goal. So I didn't want to do the Arnold, which is in March. I didn't want to do any other shows throughout the year. I was always gonna do one show. So it allowed myself after the Olympia to take some time off the gym completely.

• 1:10:53Lewis Howes?

  That's smart.

• 1:10:54Speaker 00

  Give my body, my organs, my digestion, everything a break. And then a lot of other people I compete, they want to go get other titles. And I'm like, well, you're actually all falling behind because I'm already preparing for the next Olympia and you're preparing for a show in between and then the Olympia. So it always kind of gives me an opportunity to stay ahead.

• 1:11:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, there's no off season for them. There's no time to recover.

• 1:11:13Speaker 00

  They get like a week off and then they're back at it.

• 1:11:15Lewis Howes?

  Oh man, that's tough.

• 1:11:16Speaker 00

  And that's, that's mentally exhausting. It's physically exhausting on your body. It, it's a lot. So I think that's a huge benefit that I've tried to give myself is a lot of bodybuilders throughout their career, they'll do like thirty to fifty shows. And I've only done like twelve.

• 1:11:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:11:29Speaker 00

  You know, and I've won five Olympias already. So it only goes up one a year. So that's.

• 1:11:33Lewis Howes?

  It's a good batting percentage.

• 1:11:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Not too bad. That definitely helps me this year. I've been, like I was talking to you about, I got with a new trainer, Justin King, and he's more of an athletic trainer, but he's doing a lot of prehab, I guess you could call it, like injured prevention style stuff, doing more like.

• 1:11:51Lewis Howes?

  Mobility and stretching.

• 1:11:52Speaker 00

  Mobility, isometric holds, all these kinds of things, like hold, like concentric negatives and all these different things. So help my tissues and legaments and everything get stronger. So I don't hurt myself in the future.

• 1:12:02Lewis Howes?

  Smart.

• 1:12:03Speaker 00

  You know, I used to squat six, seven hundred pounds all the time. Now I'll like do leg press, squat extension, all these things first and then squat like three hundred pounds.

• 1:12:10Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:12:10Speaker 00

  Because it's a lot lighter. It's a lot easier on my joints.

• 1:12:12Lewis Howes?

  And you're not compressing your back also. And that six hundred pound of bar, your back, man, geez, that compression.

• 1:12:17Speaker 00

  I was like, why do I get headaches every week? I want I used to tell I used to go to my phys my massage therapist. I beg. Why do I have such bad like headaches and neck pain? He's like, bro, you squat and deadlift six hundred pounds twice a week. What do you expect your body's gonna do? I'm like, it's a good point.

• 1:12:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you're lifting a small car.

• 1:12:34Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:12:34Lewis Howes?

  Your shoulders, man.

• 1:12:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:12:35Lewis Howes?

  I mean, that's crazy.

• 1:12:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, so I pulled away from that. You know, I do a lot of blood work throughout the year.

• 1:12:40Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 1:12:40Speaker 00

  I have a good my business partner in the supplements actually owns a health clinic called Relive.

• 1:12:44Lewis Howes?

  Nice.

• 1:12:45Speaker 00

  So I can like walk in there and just do blood work whenever I want. I can get IVs, glutathione, all these things that I need and keep on track of that. So I know my blood markers, especially the specific ones that bodybuilders monitor, like liver EGFR inflammation, all these different things that you can monitor. At least are a good show. They don't show everything, obviously, but it's a good test at least to see where you're at. So that's helped me a lot. My diet has been focused on just health rather than purely like getting calories in. It's actually caring what kind of foods I'm putting in my body.

• 1:13:16Lewis Howes?

  Quality of calories too.

• 1:13:17Speaker 00

  Exactly. You know, I don't I don't drink. I don't party as much anymore. I really emphasize sleep because I think that's the biggest thing. Um, I've been doing the more progressive stuff I've been doing. That's not really in reach of everyone. I've been doing a lot of stem cells.

• 1:13:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:30Speaker 00

  And peptides.

• 1:13:31Lewis Howes?

  How has that done? How has that worked for you? Peptides and stem cells?

• 1:13:34Speaker 00

  I think they've helped me a lot. You know, I've I've gotten some stem cells and some injuries which have healed faster than an injury should heal.

• 1:13:40Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:13:40Speaker 00

  I tore my bicep two years ago before the Olympia, got stem cells in that and it healed in like six weeks or something. So it was pretty crazy. But overall, what I've noticed is especially for autoimmune, it reduces inflammation.

• 1:13:53Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:13:54Speaker 00

  And one of the biggest things they've studied around it is mitigating autoimmune diseases. So I haven't had any flare ups or inflammation or anything like that since I started doing that consistently. So that's helped a lot. And just kind of balancing all these things together to make the best lifestyle I can within what I'm doing. Because every time I try and talk about doing something healthier, people like, you're taking steroids, you're killing yourself. I'm like, I understand they're not healthy, but I'm also everything I'm doing, you can do without steroids and be even healthier than me. Or if you are going to decide to do it, you can follow along like this too. And at least if you're gonna do it, you're making the best of what you got with it.

• 1:14:28Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 1:14:28Speaker 00

  So you know, it's not it's like the person who People are like, you go to McDonald's and you get a Diet Coke. What's the point of that? I was like, well, you don't need to add all the sugar on top of McDonald's if you're gonna have it. You can do a little bit better, you know? There's ways to do the best you can within what you're doing. So the few things I'm trying.

• 1:14:43Lewis Howes?

  That's great, man. Uh, we're here in Vegas at, uh, our friend Omar's studio. He's a, he's a video master and he's been building his social media and really talented as well. In this world of social media, but you have built a social media empire. I mean, millions of followers on YouTube, millions of views every video, 20 plus million, I think on Instagram. And it just exploded around the world.

• 1:15:08Lewis Howes?

  What is your thought around content, media? And, and building this social media empire? Are you intentional with it? Or is it just, I'm gonna throw up a photo of myself jacked and it's gonna go viral? Cause there's tons of jacked dudes that, that don't get this big on social media. What is your business philosophy and creative mind around building the brand of you?

• 1:15:34Speaker 00

  I mean, obviously winning five Olympics is a bit of a cheat code, you know? You got a good amount of media attention for that. So that's helped a lot. But I also think there's a lot of successful people out there in different fields who haven't been able to grow a social media for whatever which reason and.

• 1:15:49Lewis Howes?

  There's, there's NFL champions, there's NBA champions, there's, you know, tennis champions that don't have a fraction of the audience that you have. And, and they're at a bigger platform.

• 1:15:59Speaker 00

  Well, yeah, like Tom Brady, I think has less followers than me, but you go, you did a poll in America of how many people know him? He would beat me a million times over the amount of people know his name, but his social media isn't really authentic and vulnerable and like genuine. It doesn't look like he's on there thinking, how can I put myself out there on social media? And get people to know me. It looks like he has a PR agent being like, you know, check this out, check that out. And all these things, kind of like a more of like a highlight reel, more professionalism. So with that being said, my only philosophy that I've ever had is just no one logs in on to my Instagram. No one makes any captions for me. No one tells me what to post on my Instagram. I'm just gonna put out what feels authentic to me and what feels like I'm really showing myself.

• 1:16:44Speaker 00

  And that's all I'm ever gonna do. And I've never really chased like the, the trends, the algorithms or all these things like that. And I've just tried to, my captions often sometimes are either like a philosophical thought I was thinking one night and I tried to write it out in the caption like a journal and I post it. Or there's some stupid joke where I'm making like a lighthearted joke about myself, trying to be funny and just, I never take myself too seriously. I try and just be my like authentic self on there. And I think especially in a world with a lot of right now and. You know, people mistrusting politicians and all the fake news out there, people appreciate authenticity.

• 1:17:21Speaker 00

  And I got in at a good time. I got lucky, I've won some Olympias, you know, and I just tried to stay true to myself and I think people appreciated seeing that authenticity. And they also really appreciated that, yes, I got the immediate attention from winning Olympias and all of this stuff, but through all that. Anyone who's followed me since the beginning and everyone who knows me personally, all these people, number one thing they say that I'm most like proud to hear that I haven't changed. Like I'm still the same kid, I'm still the same person. I've grown a lot, I'm a lot smarter, but to my core, I'm the same person.

• 1:17:51Lewis Howes?

  Beautiful, man.

• 1:17:52Speaker 00

  So I think really people have just appreciated seeing someone make a lot of external growth and internally remain true to themselves.

• 1:18:00Lewis Howes?

  When did you start to make the transition of like, okay, this is actually a business where I can make money and build a business rather than. I'm assuming a lot of guys are just more sponsored athletes and they're getting paid by sponsors or winning competitions. When did you make that shift of like, oh, I'm gonna make money as a business, not just as a, an athlete or a sponsor influencer. Uh, and get endorsement deals. When did that shift?

• 1:18:25Speaker 00

  Um, I think twenty nineteen or so was the first year I ever was like trying to make some merch, you know, I'm like through it, I'll make a T-shirt. And see how it goes. And I was in my sister's living room, printing stuff on a piece of paper because I didn't have labels, taping it to a bag. And I shipped out like two hundred and fifty T-shirts and I was like, that was pretty good money, you know, that was easy like. And I made it all. I did some work, it was satisfying, it was like, that was easy, I could do that.

• 1:18:49Lewis Howes?

  She's posted on social media, hey, there's a shirt, buy it and you sold out.

• 1:18:53Speaker 00

  Literally like DM me your address and then. PayPal or Zelle me or something, you know, I did each single interact in whatever one at a time.

• 1:19:01Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's how you all start.

• 1:19:03Speaker 00

  I typed out the address on on Microsoft Word, printed it out, cut it, like it was, it took me probably like a week to do 250.

• 1:19:12Lewis Howes?

  I know, man. That's how we all start though. You have no clue what you're doing. You're like, ah, who wants this? Just give me some cash and I'll, you know, deliver it to you.

• 1:19:18Speaker 00

  Yeah. So that's how that all started and I met a, a good friend of mine now who's still my business partner, who was my athlete manager.

• 1:19:26Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 1:19:26Speaker 00

  And he quit his job because he didn't like it. Came over to be, help me on that backend business side of things. And we're still doing stuff now. And then as I started to gain a lot more popularity, one of my sponsors was like, how about we make your own product? And I was like, yeah, let's do, let's see how it goes. Like, we'll try it. So I got to make the label. I got to make the product.

• 1:19:45Lewis Howes?

  But it was still under their brand.

• 1:19:46Speaker 00

  But it was still their brand.

• 1:19:47Lewis Howes?

  It was in your business. It was like you get more commission.

• 1:19:50Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:19:50Lewis Howes?

  It's not yours.

• 1:19:51Speaker 00

  I got a royalty off of it, but I didn't own anything. So I did that and it exploded. It did super well. It was probably one of their best selling products, definitely the best drop the company's ever had. I made like $80,000 over a weekend and I was like, that was 10x the money I've ever made. I was like,

• 1:20:07Lewis Howes?

  You're like, I'm rich.

• 1:20:08Speaker 00

  I was like, wait, this much money is out there? And I'm other company, the company's making this much money? And I'm only getting the salary.

• 1:20:15Lewis Howes?

  You're getting like 2% of what they're making. Yeah.

• 1:20:17Speaker 00

  I'm like, all right, something's not adding up here. So that was when I started to be like, all right, I need to do this for myself. And then I had a bunch of people reach out to me and try and do it with me. And then some people tell me I should do it all by myself because I can do it, all these things. And then I ended up going down to Florida to meet with Matt Jansen and Dom, my two partners now, just to talk about some things. And they had a supplement company of vitamins called Revive. And they were starting a different one and they wanted me to come on as a partner and be a, we were all going to be equal partners in it. And I was like, you know, some people are telling me I should own my whole thing and do it all myself. But I went down there and I spent some time with them and I really connected with them. They were good people. They had a great operation for their previous company. I could tell they were smart and they were genuine, like good people, like that I could be friends with. And I was like,

• 1:21:02Speaker 00

  This just feels right. You know, my God, I was like, this feels right. So I ended up moving down to Florida. We started a company called Raw. Made another product with my name on the side of it. By this time I owned the company and it's, it's just been exploding ever since. And what's cool is I'm good at some marketing stuff. I'm good at ideas and pushing the brand in the direction I want, but I don't really want to run operations and sales calls and manufacture, shipping, all the buying raw materials, like all that, you know, I don't want to do that.

• 1:21:30Lewis Howes?

  You gotta build your body, man. You don't have time for that.

• 1:21:31Speaker 00

  I gotta check out Olympia. I gotta do all these things. So having those partners is the best thing I ever could have done. And they're amazing. And obviously the company wouldn't be as big as it was without all of us being the system that we are. So we've created something really cool and really big now. And what the risk that I took within all that is I was making of being fully transparent, I was probably making probably $10,000 a month salary. And then I had gotten that like $80,000 commission. And then I was offered to stay with them, a small piece of that company, and I think $60,000 a month.

• 1:22:06Lewis Howes?

  So you're like, okay, this is, it's a lot of money.

• 1:22:08Speaker 00

  That's like 700 grand. I was like, you serious? Like this is, you know, my whole thing with money in my life was that if I made a hundred grand a year, I was rich. I made it. That's the only thing I ever thought about. So I'm like, that's like seven times that.

• 1:22:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:22:21Speaker 00

  Yeah. And then with Raw, they were like, there's no salary. There's no commission. Coming out of the start, you're not going to be making any money right now, you know? I'm like, and they're like, but we'll front the money to start the business. We'll all be equal partners and it will be like a long-term play. And I was like, yeah, it just felt right. You know, I'm like, I'm, I'm gonna take the risk. I'm gonna bet on myself, you know, I might be cutting the salary right now. Like I could go buy these cool, like a nice house and a nice car and all these things right now, but how about I wait a little bit? And I mean, I only had to wait like two years and I was able to make good money from it. And now I still not making that big of a salary, but the equity that I own in the company is worth infinitely times more than that.

• 1:22:57Lewis Howes?

  What did the, what did the total first year, what did you guys do total sales in the new business? Do you know?

• 1:23:03Speaker 00

  The new business, I think it was just under ten mil.

• 1:23:07Lewis Howes?

  Ten million. So you're building, you know, ten million of equity, which something like that you could potentially sell for, you know, thirty, fifty, eighty million after one year of sales.

• 1:23:18Speaker 00

  Not that company, no.

• 1:23:19Lewis Howes?

  Cause it's. The company that the company you do, you just built the first year?

• 1:23:22Speaker 00

  At that, that first year, the way the multiplier works in supplements is more of like a ten, ten X off EBITDA. So if we were really only making like one to two mil profit.

• 1:23:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, okay. But still. But if you build it, you know, over time, then it's, it's getting.

• 1:23:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, that was year one and it was way more fun like that. I was way more passionate about it. It felt way more authentic to promote something that I owned and that I got to decide all the products that were coming out. How we marketed it, how it looked, everything. I got to be a part of it. So it made me a lot more involved in it and people also felt that authenticity of how much I cared about it. It's not like buy this brand and a year later someone offers me more money. So I'm like, wait, no, buy this brand. Now buy this one. It's like, no, this is it forever. This is like, I'm going to make this the best possible.

• 1:24:05Lewis Howes?

  That's exciting. Um, this is, this is a question I ask everyone towards the end of the interviews. So I've got three final questions for you, but before I ask them, I'm going to send people to your Instagram. I want them to follow you. My, I don't think my audience probably follows you yet. Maybe there's some of them, but I don't think my audience. Fully, most of your audience is men, I'm assuming, right?

• 1:24:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:24:25Lewis Howes?

  It's like ninety percent men. Yeah. Well, I'm more like fifty, fifty men and women.

• 1:24:28Speaker 00

  Really?

• 1:24:29Lewis Howes?

  Uh, but I'm, I think the women are really going to love this so much to see someone like you speak in this way. Uh, and have a beautiful relationship with your wife and, you know, building yourself to be a father and all the work you're doing. I think they're going to love this. So I think they're going to share this with all the men in their life and say, you need to watch this.

• 1:24:50Lewis Howes?

  But I want people to check out, like, your vlogs are awesome. I just love how real you are in your content. I just want people to see it. You know, watch it to be entertained and inspired, but also to study the way you do things on social media. I just think you do a great job. So I want to congratulate you there. Where can people check out the, uh, the supplement business? Where can they go for that?

• 1:25:09Speaker 00

  Uh, it's called Raw Nutrition. So GetRawNutrition.com is the website.

• 1:25:13Lewis Howes?

  Get Raw Nutrition and your favorite is what? The pre-workout, the protein? What do you like the most?

• 1:25:19Speaker 00

  I mean, cookies and cream protein is my favorite right now.

• 1:25:22Lewis Howes?

  Should have brought me some, man. Let's go.

• 1:25:24Speaker 00

  I'll send you some. It'll be a good energy. And then, yeah, the pre-workout too. Those are our best-selling SKUs. Everyone loves those.

• 1:25:31Lewis Howes?

  Okay, cool.

• 1:25:32Speaker 00

  Nice pre-workout protein.

• 1:25:33Lewis Howes?

  Get in there. Get raw nutrition.

• 1:25:36Speaker 00

  That's what the website is.

• 1:25:37Lewis Howes?

  Get raw nutrition.com to check that out.

• 1:25:41Lewis Howes?

  Your YouTube is awesome. What's the, uh, the name on the YouTube?

• 1:25:44Speaker 00

  You can just search Chris Bumstead on social.

• 1:25:46Lewis Howes?

  There's a C bum though on the, on the.

• 1:25:47Speaker 00

  Instagram C bum.

• 1:25:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. So check that out. Watch the journey of you with your, you know, your daughter coming in a couple of months, man. I'm excited for you, man. What is the thing that you would tell your younger self, your 12, 13-year-old self about? What is about to happen in your life to become a father? What's that thing that you would say to your younger self if you could go back and tell him something?

• 1:26:13Speaker 00

  In regards to becoming a father?

• 1:26:19Speaker 00

  I would probably just say, take it a little easy on yourself, you know, to, to understand that it's

• 1:26:28Speaker 00

  not as easy, nor is it maybe even possible just to, to give the kind of love you want to others without giving it to yourself. So if you want to show your baby girl and her for her to feel the love that you want her to feel, then understand that you deserve that same love.

• 1:26:42Lewis Howes?

  Oh my goodness, man. You give me the chills the way you're talking. This is beautiful, man. Uh, this is a question I ask everyone at the end. It's called the three truths. So imagine a hypothetical scenario. You get to live as long as you want. You've taken care of your health, so you're living long.

• 1:26:57Speaker 00

  Beautiful.

• 1:26:58Lewis Howes?

  But it's the last day on earth for you, many years away.

• 1:27:03Lewis Howes?

  And you get to create everything you want. The family, the relationship, the business, the adventures, everything. It all happens the way you envisioned from this moment until the last day of you, for your life. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your content, your work, your products, your businesses with you. So no one has access to your information. This interview is gone. Anything you've ever shared is gone.

• 1:27:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:27:26Lewis Howes?

  Hypothetically.

• 1:27:28Lewis Howes?

  But you get to leave behind one final message. And this is all we would have to remember Chris by.

• 1:27:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:27:35Lewis Howes?

  And I call it the three truths. So what would be the top truths that you would leave behind or the biggest lessons you would leave behind? To the world, to your younger self, to your friends and family, what would those truths be?

• 1:27:47Speaker 00

  Oh, man.

• 1:27:51Speaker 00

  This is tough. You're gonna have to go home and think about this one deeper and come back with another answer, but I would say understanding utmost importance, the value of connection. Connection with people around you, connection with yourself. And how important relationships are, you know, I think people really, they think they understand that. But when you look at their life, they're pouring more energy into work and then coming home too tired to focus on it. Or they're harder on themselves rather than like showing themselves a little bit more grace. And I think truly being able to prioritize that, you know, and I also think even my, I'm guilty of this too. I'm like, well, I'm busy right now. So in the future I'll focus on that.

• 1:28:32Speaker 00

  I'm, this is going on right now, you know, I, I want to be able to retire young so I can do all that. I'll do it later, you know, and I think it's often too late when you keep saying that and something will always come up. So I guess lesson number two is whatever you want to do, do it now. Because tomorrow never comes, you know, just get after it. Connection is the most important thing. Don't wait to focus on that. Focus on it now. And some a little bit more performative, I always say this little saying called set the standard. And it started off very external, like be the best, set the standard of the classical physique that I was in. But it became more so set your own standards to, to rely on the standards that you hold true and you hold important to yourself.

• 1:29:17Speaker 00

  Rather than the standards that other people think are important. So figure out what you truly feel is important and focus on those and prioritize your life to, to set those standards for yourself. And maybe your family as well, because usually that all ties in, but not caring what other people's standards are, but focusing on what matters most to you.

• 1:29:34Lewis Howes?

  Those are great truths, man. You don't need to reflect on this. You got those right there. Uh, before I ask the final question, Chris, I want to acknowledge you for, man, the journey, man. Not only the journey physically and performance-wise and athletically in terms of your goals and dreams in the external world, but the journey and your relationships with your wife, your friends, your family, and with yourself now and little Chris. I think the fact that you have gone on a journey and an adventure to heal the parts of you that were hurting is, I think, the greatest thing you've, the greatest accomplishment you've ever created for yourself, more than any Olympia. And so I want to acknowledge you for that journey, man. It's a beautiful thing that you're doing.

• 1:30:16Lewis Howes?

  And a, and a beautiful standard that you're setting for the rest of a, a young men's generation coming up right now. So, thank you for setting that standard for yourself, for your wife, for your daughter and your family, and for the millions of people that, that watch you, man. It's really beautiful.

• 1:30:35Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 1:30:36Lewis Howes?

  Of course. My final question, what is your definition of greatness?

• 1:30:41Speaker 00

  My definition of greatness? Oh, man. You have tough questions you're throwing at me. I should have, you didn't let me prep on these.

• 1:30:53Speaker 00

  I would say that greatness to me is

• 1:30:59Speaker 00

  truly living in alignment with like your authentic self and being the best version of yourself in all aspects of life. So like I was saying, not just in like the physical, but emotional and relationally and being the best version of yourself. And in my concept, what comes with that greatness of the best version of yourself is also a version that elevates the people around you and makes everyone around you a better version and is Caring and loving enough to yourself and to others that as you become better, you're making other people around you better so that your family, your community, your friends are all kind of being elevated alongside you because if you're only up there by,

• 1:31:38Speaker 00

  up there by yourself, then you're by yourself and you feel lonely. So yeah, I guess something along those lines.

• 1:31:45Lewis Howes?

  C-bomb, my man. Thank you, brother.

• 1:31:48Speaker 00

  Thank you, sir. Appreciate you.

• 1:31:49Lewis Howes?

  I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately,

• 1:32:28Lewis Howes?

  that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.