3 KEYS to Your DREAM LIFE (UNLOCK Success, Health, & Connection!) | Steve Aoki

Today we dive deep into the extraordinary world of Steve Aoki, a true visionary in the realm of music and beyond. With nearly 3 billion music streams and a Guinness World Record for being the "Most Traveled Musician in a Single Calendar Year," Aoki's journey is nothing short of awe-inspiring. In this captivating conversation, you'll discover the profound impact of collaboration on creativity and how it has been a driving force behind Steve's remarkable music career. If you're eager to explore more of Steve's wisdom, consider picking up his book, "Blue: The Color of Noise." It's a journey you won't want to miss! Counting nearly 3 billion music streams to his name, Steve Aoki is a true visionary. Billboard described the 2x-GRAMMY-nominated music producer, artist, fashion designer, entrepreneur, NFT futurist and Dim Mak Records founder as “one of the most in-demand entertainers in the world.” A Guinness World Record holder for the “Most Traveled Musician in a Single Calendar Year,” Aoki has performed at nearly every top festival around the world, including Coachella, Ultra Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Fuji Rock Festival, Tomorrowland and Electric Daisy Carnival. In 2022, Aoki also graced recent covers of Entrepreneur Magazine, Electronic Musician, and Adweek as their “Visionary of the Year.”If you're eager to explore more of Steve's wisdom, consider picking up his book, "Blue: The Color of Noise." It's a journey you won't want to miss! In this episode you will learnThe profound impact of collaboration on creativity and how it has played a pivotal role in shaping Steve’s incredibly successful music career. What being a 'futurist' means to Steve and how this futuristic mindset influences his decision-making and creative process, offering valuable insights for your own endeavors. The remarkable experiences and projects where artists and scientists joined forces, unveiling the transformative potential that emerges at the intersection of these two worlds. How artists and musicians can bridge the gap between science fiction and science fact, inspiring innovation and fostering a deeper connection between imagination and reality. Insights into the defining moments and challenges faced by Steve on his journey to global success, and how these experiences have contributed to shaping his character and resilience. Buy Steve’s book - Blue: The Color of NoiseFor more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1523For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960Want more episodes like this one? How Your Beliefs Are Keeping You From Being A Millionaire w/ Alex Hormozihttps://link.chtbl.com/1324-podEmbrace Your Artistic Passion & Turn It Into A Full-Time Living w/ Harry Mack https://link.chtbl.com/1321-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.

• 0:01Lewis Howes?

  My friend, I am such a big believer that your mindset is everything. It can really dictate if your life has meaning, has value, and you feel fulfilled, or if you feel exhausted, drained, and like you're never going to be enough. Our brand new book, The Greatness Mindset, just hit the New York Times Bestseller back-to-back weeks. And I'm so excited to hear from so many of you who've bought the book, who've read it, and finished it already, and are getting incredible results from the lessons in the book. If you haven't got a copy yet, you'll learn how to build a plan for greatness through powerful exercises and toolkits designed to propel your life forward. This is the book I wish I had when I was 20, struggling, trying to figure out life, 10 years ago, at 30, trying to figure out transitions in my life, and the book I'm

• 0:46Lewis Howes?

  glad I have today for myself. Make sure to get a copy at lewishouse.com/2023mindset to get your copy today. Again, lewishouse.com/2023mindset to get a copy today. Also, the book is on Audible now, so you can get it on audiobook as well. And don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  The power of collaboration to get the best output for what you're doing is really about giving more, and also learning and becoming more of a student and listening.

• 1:27Lewis Howes?

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

• 1:50Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back, everyone, to School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Steve Aoki in the house, my man. Good to have you back.

• 1:57Speaker 01

  Again, yeah, second time around.

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  The thing that I really appreciate about you is the way you think about your life, your career, your business, through the lens of art and collaboration. Something I really admire about you. You know, I've seen your stuff a decade ago. I've watched documentaries and seen things evolve. And a lot of it seems to have this artistic expression along with collaboration. And obviously, drive and hustle is moving all these things forward. You're like one of the most... Booked DJs in the world, right? And I'm curious, did you always think that collaboration was going to be a big part of your success?

• 2:39Lewis Howes?

  And learning how to build great art with other people and lifting others up as well? Did you feel like that would always support you in this career, in this endeavor?

• 2:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think, uh, when I think collaboration, I think of, of, of your contribution. And so this brings me back to day one for me. So when I got, when I found music as like, okay, this is going to be my life, my lifestyle, my culture, everything, uh, when I was like 15 years old. That's when I understood this, this, this term collaboration. But more this, this idea of like, how much can I contribute to something I love? To this community? And then it's a collaboration because you have to come to the table with something, right? So if you're going to collaborate, if we're going to collaborate, it's not like, oh yeah, I'm just going to be just chilling and you're going to do all the work and it's a collaboration.

• 3:33Speaker 01

  Like the best collaborations is, is, is like the, like premium contributions from everyone in that group. And then you get a one plus one equals 100.

• 3:43Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  But if everyone's too passive, then you're going to get a one plus one equals two, you know? So it's like, I learned, luckily I learned this, this idea of contribution and how important that is to my community. When I was so young.

• 3:57Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Because, because in the punk hardcore scene, which is what the music genre I got involved in. It was so small that everyone's, everyone had an impact. And we felt the impact, you know?

• 4:11Lewis Howes?

  How did everyone have an impact? Cause you all had to like bring like two friends and you had to create the experience and the, and the whole thing, right?

• 4:16Speaker 01

  Like, so you think about it like this, like the way religion works, way like, you know, sports work, whatever communities are there that have like, you know, strong sense of like, oh, I, I, you know, I want to be part of it. This kind of feeling of bonding. It's all based on like, how do you spread the message? How did you get people to understand what you believe in is so strong? Like I, I, I believe in this so strongly, I'm going to knock on every door and tell everyone about the word of Jesus Christ or whatever it might be. So very similar to that with this scene, our scene's so small, there's only like a few kids. I remember there's like five kids in my high school that listen to this music. And no one gets it because it's screaming music and crashing guitars.

• 4:59Speaker 01

  But like, once you feel it, you're like, oh, this is like, this is changing my life. I just wanna like, figure out, how do you get the message out? You have to write a zine, you have to interview bands, you have to put on shows in like abandoned warehouses. You have to start a band because you can, because there's no one else like else doing it. You have to learn music, you have like, it's all these things, it's like, you're not, you're no longer a passive participant. And this is like the main differential, I think, is when I listened to music before then, I was, I was a passive participant, like listening, oh, this is cool, I'm like, I love these lyrics, I'm gonna sing the songs.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  You know, I like this band or this group to like being a creator in the space because you now have an impact. Like when I make a zine at Kinko's and I'm like putting my stuff together and my poetry and putting this in and I give it to someone, it actually, people are gonna care about it because there's not many people doing it. Right. So it was like, at that point, I was lucky to have this kind of onboarding into contributing. And then that essentially that's collaboration. So like, the more you contribute, that's actually a quality service or quality thing. That's like actually impacting your liberal culture. You, you, once you feel it and resonates with you, then you wanna do it again in a different means.

• 6:23Speaker 01

  You know, like, I first started doing a zine, then I see a band, I'm like, oh, I could do that too. I wanna like pick up guitar and with my friends that don't know how to play, and we're gonna, we're gonna thrash around. And all of a sudden, like, we get good by the, by the nature of just doing it, you know? And then that same philosophy.

• 6:41Speaker 01

  Has transcended in every single industry and every single evolution of my, my identity.

• 6:49Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  Like everywhere, it doesn't matter what it is. It's like, I have this ability to just, as long as I have this passion to contribute whatever I know, like my toolbox, like I'm bringing to the table. And then also, when you go into a collaboration, when you contribute, you can't be like running the show and trying to, trying to be like the, the big man.

• 7:11Lewis Howes?

  But it seems like a lot of people just want it to be easy. They want someone to collaborate with them and them to do all the work. The other person as opposed to also contributing. Have you always had that mindset of I want to add maximum value to this collaboration or partnership? Or where did that come about?

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Whenever you add the maximum value, your output is going to be greater than what you think. So that's like, it's just, this is the kind of thing you learn early on. So once you put in all the time, then, you know, at least for yourself. You know, there's obviously like records that I've spent like a lot of time, way more time than records that just, that naturally flowed in. It was, it was a very quick process and they blew up. And they, and these ones don't happen, you know?

• 7:59Lewis Howes?

  You spend more time on stuff that doesn't blow up.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 8:02Lewis Howes?

  Other things, it's like one day and it's like the biggest thing ever.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  Yeah. So what, like to manage that, okay, this is like, I'm going to digress, but to manage that, I, I, once I started seeing that and it like kind of hurts your ego a bit. Right? You're like, I spent so much time on this and it just didn't pop off or make the impact you expect it to make. You just have to, you have to like level the whole field of your expectations of, I mean, back then it wasn't streams, but you know.

• 8:28Lewis Howes?

  Downloads, streams or whatever, yeah.

• 8:30Speaker 01

  Whatever it might be, how you indicate a success of a song. I have, I just like, at this point, I don't even think about, I mean, we have this managerial conversations, which like, that's what the managers do. Is like, how do you, how do you make this record get more visibility or, you know, listenership?

• 8:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  Um, but for me, it's like, I just need to know, like in my heart, like genuinely, I'm, I'm happy with it, whether it gets like. You know, whatever.

• 8:57Lewis Howes?

  A billion streams or a hundred streams.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 8:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:59Speaker 01

  And then.

• 9:00Lewis Howes?

  You gotta love it.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, like that's, that's the core of it for sure. And then like in, in the, then I look retrospectively. Okay, then I could be strategic. But like in the moment, it, I don't want to affect my creative process.

• 9:17Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 9:17Speaker 01

  But retrospectively, I'm like, okay, these, this didn't work. And now I have to learn to pivot. And I have to learn to try things and that's the nature of being a, a, I, I guess an entrepreneur in many ways or an innovator is that you need to learn how to pivot. And, and with culture being so unforgiving and so fast paced.

• 9:38Lewis Howes?

  Constantly changing.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  And yeah, and how, how fast, how fast the attention spans are going and, and how, you know, you have to be ahead, you have to constantly reinvent yourself and, and pivot fast. So, and it's like, it's why it's never, it's a very tiring. It could be very tiring as a creator because you can't just like rest on your laurels or you can't do the same wheel that you've already created. You have to, I mean, you have like this general, like general wheel of how you do things, but you have to constantly like change, change the parts.

• 10:11Lewis Howes?

  This is fascinating stuff, man. I want to continue on this conversation about collaboration because I feel like there's a lot of people and I grew up in the sports world, playing sports. And it was a lot about competition. It was like you need to win in order to succeed. You, there's a winner and there's a loser.

• 10:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:28Lewis Howes?

  Sure, you need to collaborate with your teammates, but you're always trying to beat someone. And I took that into my kind of entrepreneurial journey after sports in my mid to late twenties, where I was very competitive, win, lose. And I realized that that got me success, but it left me feeling very unfulfilled. And about 10 years ago, I realized that's not how I want to be anymore. So everything became about collaboration.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:52Lewis Howes?

  Became about how can I interview someone else and make it about them, not make it about me. How can I elevate other people and collaborate? But it seems to be like a lot of people in business, in music, in the arts are still, there's still a competitive mindset in the world for a lot of people, not everyone.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:11Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think so many people are still in a competitive mindset in different industries? As opposed to in this collaborative mindset like you've been?

• 11:20Speaker 01

  So I, before we get to that, I do like this thing you're saying like how you would like to elevate who you're interviewing. It's like this collaboration is more about elevating someone else. So that really is the magical sauce in the studio. So when I'm in the studio with, with an artist that comes, you know, now they end up coming to my house or because my studio is in my house. And I have a studio here in LA. Actually, I did, I did some legendary sessions here in LA. And it's still here. So I have a studio here and I have a studio in Vegas. But in any case, the, I think the magical dust in this whole thing is, is like to elevate them.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  You know, it's not about me. Like they, they're already coming to me. That's already enough. They already know that like, that, that they were like, I want to work with that Steve Aoki, like power production, whatever it is that they come for. So I, like, I don't need to, I don't need to flex or do anything. I'm, I'm gonna do it anyways.

• 12:18Lewis Howes?

  Right. You're gonna have your moment.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  I'm gonna do it. I'm, I'm like, I don't need to show it. It's about like empowering them.

• 12:25Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  And giving them center stage and giving them this feeling of, well, you're talking about this, this, like, like this is about you.

• 12:33Lewis Howes?

  Letting them shine.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I want to let you shine. And then we could decide how we want to take it. What direction, what emotion, what like, you know, are we going to go more in your lane? Are we going to go more in my lane? Are we going to take a whole new different lane? You know, and that's, that, that you find out later on. Once the creative process is going like, oh, actually, we're going to go more this direction. Because that flow is more reminiscent of this. And now what we want it to resonate with people here.

• 13:01Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  So it's like, I think that's like, um, the power of collaboration to get the, the best output for what you're doing is really, is really about giving more. And also learning and be, becoming more of a student and listening. So yeah, I mean, it is a power of contribution, what you're contributing. But when you've already kind of made it, you don't need to show that because you're going to contribute anyways.

• 13:27Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  So by the track record, you're like this, this particular person, you could tell they contributed plenty. They, you know that their pattern is to contribute, contribute at the maximum level, right? You want to work with those people.

• 13:42Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Because you've already seen the track record.

• 13:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  So like, I want to work with them. And then when you're in the studio, then you, then the human to human connection starts.

• 13:52Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  And if you're like overpowering, you're gonna, you're gonna take away their creative space. Like I'm here to like, let you shine. And the more and more they feel that, and the more environment I give them to be in that zone as it's, it's them.

• 14:08Lewis Howes?

  Beautiful.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  Then, then the magic will happen, but you have like, it takes time to get there sometimes.

• 14:14Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  Sometimes it takes a whole, like two sections.

• 14:17Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  Sometimes it's like immediate, you know, it just, you just don't know because everyone's different.

• 14:22Lewis Howes?

  Different process for everyone. Do you feel like if you had more of a competitive mindset for the last, you know, since you started in this industry? If you were more like, I'm going to hoard my secrets and my talents and my skills. I'm going to make it all about me and I'm going to try to, you know, you know, build this thing about me and only me. And kind of, you know, work with some people here and there, but really working with people to build my platform more as opposed to shared collaboration. Do you feel like you'd be more successful financially or have more of an audience if you made it more about you this time?

• 14:58Speaker 01

  I don't think so.

• 14:58Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 14:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think if you hoard too much, the, I mean, the world loves like this transparency. You know, it's like, and like now the way, the way the world is, is like, like they want to see all of it, you know? So if you're hoarding and you're like, I mean, there's like, there's no real secrets though.

• 15:21Speaker 01

  You know, of course, like, yeah, yeah, it's like, you know, the secret sauce to pizza and like the sauces and the secret, you know, like, yeah, of course, it tastes a little different, but like the ingredients are all the same. Yeah. You know, music's music, it can be made differently, you know, so at the end of the day, it's, you know, it's like, I don't care to hide any of that, because it's, there's nothing to really hide. There's no like secret in the cakes. You know, there is, there is a six-page cake writer that goes, it's sent to like promoters, so they have to follow, because I need that cake to explode all over someone's face. Sure, sure. There's no secrets to my production. Uh huh. Um, and, and honestly, my music, I want it to evolve and change.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  So the secret, or whatever, the ingredients of, of my production's always gonna innovate and change anyways. And the more people I work with, it's gonna change even faster. And, So you'll pick up ideas, you'll learn something, yeah. Right, and I, and I want, and I, and I bring in not just like singers to the studio or the producers, I bring in instrument, like instrumentalists, musicians, I'm like, I wanna hear a sax player this time, I wanna hear someone else. I, I play guitar riff, I'm like, I need to get that played better and different, but here's the, the bass of what I want. Hmm. And I bring in like a guitarist that's gonna like, you know, take that to the next level. Wow.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  Cause at the end of the day, I have to remember, I'm the producer, so as a producer, you're listening for what is the best of all the takes. And so the best of all takes, you can't be selfish and be like, they're all my takes. No. You know, there's gonna be a better singer, I've, I sing, I sing a line, I'm like, I need someone else to sing it better. You know, or I have like a bunch of different people coming to my house, we do writing camps. Hmm. And take different rooms and, and we build like the, kind of like the mood board of what we're going for over the day, but with freedom to kind of expand and then, you know, just allow everyone to be free and then,

• 17:22Speaker 01

  as the producer and the A and R, the ear, which I trust that, then I kind of pick my favorite parts and then go, we're gonna Frankenstein or Compenstein all these together. Compenstein's cool. And comp these like ideas into one thing, you know, and, and then, and go, oh, this fits, these five different artists I'd like to hit up, you know, and then, then I do some. Outreach.

• 17:48Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  And then, you know, and like, you know, it's like, most of the times, like, you can't, if you hit up like, hey, manager, can you hit up their manager? And like, yeah, they can, but like, that usually falls on deaf ears. Like you, it's like, it's usually artist to artist that starts the conversation. Cause they have to really want it too. And then they'll go, all right, team. You guys do the work that, that.

• 18:12Lewis Howes?

  We started this, now yeah, moving forward. It's like with me and podcasting is, you know, probably 95% of the bookings are through me having a relationship, sending someone a message, a DM.

• 18:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:23Lewis Howes?

  Commenting on it, say, hey, I'd love to have you on. And then figuring out the timing with our teams of when this is going to happen, you know? Most of the time, that's, that's the way it goes down.

• 18:33Lewis Howes?

  So what I'm hearing you say is that if you were more in a competitive mindset this whole time and hoarding your talents and information, you wouldn't be as successful as if you were been collaborating this entire time.

• 18:44Speaker 01

  So I'm absolutely competitive.

• 18:47Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Absolutely competitive. I, I like, everything is a competition. Not necessarily with other people though.

• 18:54Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  Okay. So that's like, I think that's a major difference.

• 18:58Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 18:58Speaker 01

  So, and I, I compete with myself with everything, you know? And this is not just like for music, this is like my health.

• 19:06Lewis Howes?

  I know.

• 19:07Speaker 01

  Biomarkers.

• 19:08Lewis Howes?

  Sleep stores, everything.

• 19:09Speaker 01

  Everything. Yeah. Like, you know, I got my, I got like all kinds of data. Like data is everything, right? So I love data in this regard because that's how you truly can better yourself, compete with your previous self. And, you know, I do my, my, my blood draws and just check all my levels and go, okay, I need a little bit more here, a little bit less of this. How do I tool this? I, that's a fun game to gamify. How you compete with yourself is actually fun and it engages you more. And, and I'm a big, I'm really big into gamifying. I like gamify everything I do.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Cause it makes it more interesting. And then, of course, you know, you do something consistently over time. It's no longer a chore. Right? So I already know, understand that you do that.

• 20:00Lewis Howes?

  It's your lifestyle.

• 20:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. In the beginning, like if you don't gamify it, it makes it more difficult. Whether it's like stop eating certain carbs to working out a certain amount of time. To doing something that you need to do consistently, that's that takes a lot of time. Uh, or doesn't like meditation, whatever it might be, or reading a book or something like that. Where you could easily disregard it and carry on through your life and, and feel satisfied. But you could always be more enriched.

• 20:27Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  So I, I gamify competition with myself on all levels.

• 20:33Lewis Howes?

  But to collaborate with others.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  Yes. I mean, collaboration is part of this competition.

• 20:38Lewis Howes?

  Tell me more about that.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. So like, like to be, to be more like, like at the end of the day. I think one of my goals is just. One of my consistent goals, I, I don't, I don't say it out loud. It's like unconscious. I care deeply about being a global artist. Because I love touring the world. I love playing in front of fans from all different. Like aspects and parts of the world. Right? So I love that. I love that. I've been consistently touring and playing in front of. You know, playing all over the place for, you know, for 15 plus years. I want to continue doing it. So with that intention, the collaborative process is a huge part of that.

• 21:15Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  You know, if I, if I like go to Australia, I'm like booking myself in a studio. You know, whether it's not, you know, I remember I did that. I worked with Trippy Red there, but I didn't. Yeah. I didn't work with Australian artists, but like my intention is to work with artists in of that region. To like, to learn, to collaborate, to try to, you know, build bridges and make new kinds of music. And new kinds of art.

• 21:38Lewis Howes?

  What I'm curious about is. Health and relationships with you, because I remember years ago, watching the documentary you had. Talking about, uh, you know, this new obsession of health. I think it was like five years ago or something. And you've really dialed in, you know, the data, the measuring and tracking things with your health over the last, I guess, five. Years, you're deep in. Nutrition, sleep, sauna, ice baths, all these different things. You've set up your life to really optimize health.

• 22:10Lewis Howes?

  But with 250 plus tours a year, how do you maintain that with all the travel? For me, when I travel, I'm like, man, it's like hard on the body.

• 22:19Speaker 01

  It is true.

• 22:19Lewis Howes?

  Big guy and yeah, even if you got a private jet, it's still like, ah, man, just being up in the air and

• 22:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:25Lewis Howes?

  Feeling bloated or whatever it is, how do you, how do you stay healthy? Is the first part. And then I want to talk about how do you keep healthy relationships in life? While you're always on the go.

• 22:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. So the health part, I think it's about eliminating certain things. So when, as an artist, you're pampered. You're a spoiled little brat. So you get whatever you want. Really? I mean, it's like, you can just get whatever. So like, you could become a gluttonous human and just be like, just feed me everything I want, you know, like you can get to this point. So it's about not, you know, having discipline. Discipline is a really important key aspect of, of survival. One, and, and figuring out what, like, you know, what is healthy for you long-term? The long game.

• 23:16Speaker 01

  Because, you know, we all want to have that dopamine rush. We all want to have that, that, you know, luxury, you know, of, of not, of being, not being comfortable, whatever it is, because we have the means and we have the finances. And we have the access to, to be comfortable.

• 23:33Lewis Howes?

  Right. And there's, there's alcohol and desserts and food and you're throwing cakes at people and you have every type of sugary alcohol. Gluttonous thing you could have at your fingertips every day.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  It's just, it's just easy to do, to have it all. And, but it's just, it's a discipline game. So like, it's about like, what's more important to you? So I think that question, you need to answer that question and have a firm understanding of your answer. Early on and be very clear. I think like a lot of these like self-affirmations and things like that are really important for any artist to be like, what is it that you really want? Do you just wanna like live fast, die young, that kind of style and just like be gluttonous and just go through life and then, and then, but you will be hurting later on, I promise you that, or you're gonna just be burnt out and not, not wanna do this.

• 24:18Lewis Howes?

  Cause you're gonna have that lifestyle early on, right? Where it's like, I'm just gonna go hard and I'll, you know, just run it to the end and burn the candle on both ends. Wasn't that kinda like early on?

• 24:27Speaker 01

  That, that was early on, yeah.

• 24:28Lewis Howes?

  And then what was the switch for you to be like, actually, I wanna live a long, healthy life and not die young?

• 24:35Speaker 01

  I think it was, um, it was after my father passed away in 2008. A lot of these questions about life and death and, you know, dealing with tragedy in a way where like death is as real as it gets. And then seeing, you know, friends of mine pass away, other DJs pass away, um, artists pass away. It's, it's like, you, you could, you could have it all and just die. You know, and then like, that's it, life's over, you know, or your career is gone. You know, uh, like, and you're like, how do these careers just disappear? It might, it might be of their own accord as well too, you know, you don't, you don't, it could be for any reason. But I love what I do and I don't wanna see that end. And I also don't wanna die.

• 25:19Speaker 01

  And I also wanna make sure people around me have that same kind of knowledge base that I'm learning on how to play the long game. You know, how do you play the long game? Because you love what you do, for one. I love my life. I love the fact that I can do what I love to do. And so then it becomes an easier answer for me. Once I start putting those questions in front of me. And then because of, you know, where I am, I was lucky to get the access to like find out not just, what everyone already has the access to, because the, the internet is open, it's free to learn so much about health. I mean, a lot of what I learned about health is just like going on like Huberman Labs Podcast or,

• 26:01Speaker 01

  Joe Rogan or whatever these different like avenues are, they're free. And there's different people interviewing these experts, you know, you know, giving tips on like, oh, this could help. Okay, let me try that if it's like in my means, you know. I, you know, I was sitting with Brian Johnson, who was like, you know, really studying his body on a daily, weekly, monthly basis on what works, what doesn't work. And it's interesting because he's like in his own space, like always. I'm not, I'm moving. So we had a really interesting conversation of, you know, how, what are the applications I could take from what you're doing?

• 26:44Speaker 01

  That, that like, that, that for, for someone that's moving as much as possible.

• 26:49Lewis Howes?

  Right. He's in the same environment every day. You're in a different environment.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  Controlled environment every day. So he's going to always have.

• 26:54Lewis Howes?

  Perfect air temperature, perfect water, perfect food, all these different things like.

• 26:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. So his, his like, his biological age might be 20 or 21 or something. Mine's 33, which is pretty good to be 45, you know, and I want to reduce that further by tooling and tooling and tooling and then keeping check, check up on my metrics, on my analytics, on, on, on my blood, on, on my whole levels and everything. So that's where I really spend, and I gamify it and I have fun with it.

• 27:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 27:26Speaker 01

  And then I spend a lot of time on getting the diagnostic checks. I always tell my mom that she's 80 now. Like you have to have a really true sense of your diagnostics. Cause that's the only way you know what was working, what isn't working, how to like, you know, stop yourself, you know, now with AI, you can have these predictive models to, to, so that you don't get the cancer, you don't get certain things that, you know, will debilitate your energy levels or debilitate you and, and, and kill you.

• 27:58Lewis Howes?

  That's fascinating, man. I love this. Um, and I'm curious about relationships. Again, health is challenging enough, being in one environment, but you've gamified it and you do the tracking, the measurements and the diagnostics, which is powerful, which helps you stay aware of where your health is at. What about relationships? How do you keep friendships, business partnerships going, intimate relationships going? How do you manage to navigate that when you're always on the go?

• 28:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, friendships is tough as far as like, you know, these long-term friendships like, you know, and luckily I have a few that always keep tabs on me, which like encourage myself to make sure that I am consistently building, you know, those long-term relationships and keeping finding time for them. That's difficult. That's like a very small piece of the pie chart as far as my time. And then the majority of my friendships are people I work with. I think this like generally just how.

• 28:52Lewis Howes?

  You're around them all the time.

• 28:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm around them. So the people I work with, I have to make sure that they're great people.

• 28:58Lewis Howes?

  That you like them.

• 28:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're not just like great for what they do, but they have to be great people. Because like the energy is going to sink into just me, whether it's my business or whatnot. It doesn't matter, it's just about me, you know? At the end of the day, we have to always work with people that are just healthy for you. And then intimate relationships, I'm single, which is probably the, the, the, the big deficit as far as my relationships go. I, I've like somehow held on to some long-term relationships through my really intense schedule. But I'm like, as you get older, you, you're, you're, you're kind of like what you're looking for becomes a little bit smaller.

• 29:41Speaker 01

  And there's a certain, it's the window is small, so.

• 29:45Lewis Howes?

  More and more selective.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. So like, it's like, they have to fit in your world as much as you fit in their world, which makes it even tighter for someone like me. But I don't mind being single right now. It's not, I'm not like lonely and desperate to find someone. I'm, I'm very fulfilled in all these other categories that I think I'll let time eventually just.

• 30:06Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 30:07Speaker 01

  Let it ride itself to, to the, the right person.

• 30:09Lewis Howes?

  Unfold it, yeah. Cause you mentioned, you know, the. The amount of love that you feel doing a massive show is overwhelming. You know, emotionally overwhelming. You feel it in your body. You know, you're emoting and expressing yourself in beautiful ways. And you mentioned the only other thing that you get that from is love.

• 30:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:28Lewis Howes?

  Potentially, right?

• 30:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:28Lewis Howes?

  It's like, the only way I could feel that more on a consistent basis would be love or in a relationship.

• 30:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:34Lewis Howes?

  That loving feeling.

• 30:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:36Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you're missing out if you're not having that love also with one person to celebrate all these things with?

• 30:42Speaker 01

  It's true. It's true. Like, I do think about that, but I'm not rushing it.

• 30:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  You know, I think when I was, if I was younger, when I was younger, if, when I was younger for sure, I was like, I really need this, have this person. But then that becomes more of this codependent thing that, that I've learned to, to, you know, I understand what the codependency looks like, feels like and is.

• 31:04Lewis Howes?

  It's not healthy.

• 31:05Speaker 01

  Yeah. And it, and like in, in a lot of my relationships, they were codependent.

• 31:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  And it felt so good, but I didn't understand what codependency meant until my last relationship where we, we got to, uh, go to couples counseling and really understand what, what makes our relationship healthy, what, how do we sustain through that, you know? And what codependency feels like, cause I always ended up becoming that way. So, and once I realized that, then you just, you, you have more self-love and you just, you don't need to fall or rush for something that might be unhealthy for you. And luckily I have an immense love and relationship with my, my mom and my sister and my brothers and my, my, my, all my siblings. We have a great, loving, bonding relationship.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  Then I get fueled from that and I see them consistently, like knowing that my mom is around the corner from me and from my house. I see her, we have lunch together, dinner. We, we hog, we talk and we just, and we, we feel the embrace. Like that, that's already, I'm so lucky to have that. That's like a really big part of, that's like really big core of my love bank. So I'm, I'm so fortunate to have that consistently.

• 32:16Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful, man. That's really beautiful. This is inspiring stuff, man. I'm excited about everything that you're working on and everything that you're doing. I'm curious, this is a question I've been asking some of my guests because you've had a wild last 15 years. I mean, you've had so much success. We haven't even talked about the entrepreneurial mind that you have and the businesses that you've built and the IP you're building and the fashion lines and all these other things that you're doing as an artist, not just in the music, but art and business in lots of other ways that you've done. But I'm curious, if you could go into the future 15 years, you know, you've had a wild 15 years and incredible run, but if you can go 15 years in the future, you said you're 45 now, is that right?

• 32:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, sixty.

• 32:59Lewis Howes?

  So sixty, right? You've turned sixty. And, and if you could just put yourself in that emotional mind space for a moment, and if your 60-year-old self could give you three pieces of advice for today, for everything you're about to experience over the next 15 years. And again, I've seen behind the scenes, a lot of the things that you've done just in the last three years, you know, being in text threads with you and WhatsApp groups and seeing all the things that you've been doing. The speed of your acceleration in the last three years has been astronomical. You're also going, planning to go to the moon at some point, which I want to talk about that as well, but

• 33:37Lewis Howes?

  I can only imagine what the next 15 years look like if you keep with this speed of acceleration. If that is your vision, I don't know what your vision is. But if you're 60 and you go through everything that you know you're about to go through over the next three, five, 10, 15 years, what would be three things that you would say to your current self to prepare you for what's to come? So you create the best experience possible.

• 34:03Speaker 01

  Okay, so the first one is, is, is, um, you probably wouldn't expect, but this is what, I'm, I'm going back to what I would say when I was 15.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  Which is a big one for me. What's that? Wear earplugs. Like, and actually protect your hearing, because my hearing, we talk about like biohacking and having like a slowing down the aging process and, and you know, like my obsession with health. Hearing is a big one. My hearing is like old as dirt. Like it's probably a 60 year old hearing at this point. I have, tonight is I can hear ringing right now. Wow. Consistent, constant, forever. So, and I've done neurofeedback and I understand like my, my markers and my brain. There's two areas of, of problems. One is hearing, because it's like dominating my whole brain. It's so loud. Like all the time, 24/7.

• 35:01Speaker 01

  And it just gets louder. How do you sleep when it's always ringing? I can, I'm just used to it at this point. So it's like I had to, I live with constant ringing in my ears forever. So it's just. There's no way to heal it? There's no way to like? No, there's no way to heal it. Like, oh, maybe in the future, hoping, but at this point, like I accept that it'll be this way forever because this is how it is. And I'm okay with it. Once you accept it. Yeah. It's like, it's like being in COVID. Like, once you accept that you're stuck at home, you're actually okay with it. Like, I love being home. So I'm, I'm almost like, you have to accept and like, love it. Like, hey, ringing, you're cool. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Yeah, so. Protect your hearing though. Yeah.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  So I, I, here's another thing with the neurofeedback that I learned. So, uh, the hearing is an issue. My memory is also an issue. And, uh, I did a spec scan on my brain as well with Dr. Amen. Yeah, me too. I did that, yeah. Fascinating, isn't it? Your brain. Yeah. So my, um, my, uh, what do you call it? My temporal lobes, you know, they're, they're actually right near my ear, ear. Like they're like, they come down like a helmet, you know? That area that's like kind of messed up. And like you can see in the video. Near the ears, huh? Yeah. So I think that has a lot to do with like the damage to the temporal lobes is the like loud music. And the, the problem I have is when I'm playing shows.

• 36:23Speaker 01

  I need it loud. I want to feel it from the inside. Like, like, it's so important. I can't just be like, it's not like I'm playing like, you know, music, listening to home cooking or something, you know, whatever, you know, I don't cook, by the way. But, um, you know what I mean?

• 36:38Lewis Howes?

  Can you play it loud to the audience, but also have headphones and still be loud enough, but not damaging?

• 36:43Speaker 01

  I, I'm like blasting my monitors.

• 36:46Lewis Howes?

  So you can hear?

• 36:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I have earplugs in. So like, like, uh, I, there's, I know there's some level of damage that's happening, but I need to feel it. So I'm blasting and putting earplugs in. So I'm like cutting out the highs and lows. So that's like issue one, but my memory is being affected. I think, I mean, if I'm not mistaken, memory, a lot of your memory is in the temporal lobes, possibly.

• 37:07Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 37:07Speaker 01

  I think, I think that's what he said.

• 37:10Lewis Howes?

  So number one, you'd say to yourself, protect your hearing.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  Protect my hearing.

• 37:13Lewis Howes?

  And a sixty year old, yep?

• 37:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. Number two, protect my memory. Which, cause like, those are two aspects of my brain that I have issues in.

• 37:22Lewis Howes?

  Of aging too, right? When you lose memory, you, you age more, right? Or isn't that part of it?

• 37:27Speaker 01

  We just, I mean, your life is memories.

• 37:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it is. Your brain is an artifact.

• 37:31Speaker 01

  Collection of memories.

• 37:32Lewis Howes?

  Your brain is an artifact of your, all your experiences and memories.

• 37:36Speaker 01

  Yes. And I'm like neurotic about this idea of losing my memory. It's like, you know, a kind of unconscious reason why I started my foundation to focus entirely on brain health. Because I want to find cures for degenerative brain disease, for Alzheimer's. Also to do some really interesting, like science fiction kind of stuff. Um, cause a lot of that stems with, from one, our imagination.

• 38:06Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  And two is a lot of it's like, if we can understand how the brain works, we're going to be able to do things that are extraordinary. You know, and, and we're doing it right now. There's like certain things that are happening in, you know, in the labs and in real life that aren't really being discussed, that are very science fiction based. But regardless, um, I'd say like those two.

• 38:29Lewis Howes?

  Okay. And the third?

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Protect my brain, my memory as much as possible by doing whatever I need to do that. So at 60, I'm still, I can remember everything I'm 45. Cause memories are so important to life. They are. So important to life. And like, it's just like those movies you watch, you're like, the science fiction movies are like, okay, hey, I'm gonna zap your memory of your wife. And you could feel the dread you feel when like, someone's gonna do that to someone as like, a torture mechanism. I remember seeing that, I forgot what movie it was, and he's like, if you don't give me this information, I'm gonna zap your memory of your wife and, or your daughter or something, and you're like, you're like, no, I'll give you everything, you know, it's like such a big part of,

• 39:15Speaker 01

  you know, and then that could just naturally happen. Alright. Right, and you don't want that to happen, you don't wanna lose memories of things that, that give you love and make you who you are. So, um, hearing, memory, uh, are very important, and I think the most important is quality time with the people you love. Because when I really break down, what are the highlights of your life? They're spending time with my mom, my family, my sister, like, and I, and I limit that because I'm touring so much. You know, so when I, when I like, I talk to my, my sisters on the phone, my brothers on the phone,

• 39:56Speaker 01

  and we're all traveling doing our things, and like, some, like, a lot of things we say is like, we have to spend more time together. Because life goes by so fast. You know? So I, I think like, that is the number one. Is quality time with family because, because life is finite. It is. I, I, uh, you know, in, in this understanding of what life is, it's finite, until we, we reach this technological breakthrough point. But as, as it is now, it's finite, and anyone, any one of us can be gone, and like, we're like, God, you know, the first thing you say is, I wish I had more time. So the quality time with the people that you love is the number one thing. And then memory and then here.

• 40:41Lewis Howes?

  Wow. That's good advice from sixty year old self.

• 40:44Speaker 01

  Because I think that, I mean, career, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna excel, you're gonna succeed, you're gonna fail, you can do all these things and that you're gonna do. But that's not really gonna be like, if I win a Grammy, I was like, you know, it's like a career highlight, a goal for mine, get a Grammy, you know? It's not gonna change anything emotionally for me that I'm like, oh, like, if I can say Grammy or like having more and more like amazing memories with the people I love, I'm gonna be like, the Grammy? Who gives a shit about this award? You know, like, it's, it's clear that you need, like, the, the time you spend with the people you love is

• 41:24Speaker 01

  by far, you know, exponentially greater.

• 41:27Lewis Howes?

  You've got some new music coming out pretty soon.

• 41:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:30Lewis Howes?

  Can you share more about that?

• 41:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Hero Quest two.

• 41:32Lewis Howes?

  And you're touring as well and all these different things.

• 41:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly, yeah. So this is the second part of my new IP called Hero Quest.

• 41:41Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  And it's called Double Helix. And it's a full list of collaborators on there. I guess I have Paris Hilton's on there. We're gonna drop our single next month. I have a song with a country singer named Ernest is incredible.

• 41:58Speaker 01

  It's a really great song, really excited to drop that new song with Dana Paula from Mexico. We're dropping that on the twenty ninth, right before the Canelo fight.

• 42:06Lewis Howes?

  Very cool.

• 42:07Speaker 01

  I think she's gonna be out there too, so we're gonna be able to do some fun stuff around our single.

• 42:12Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 42:12Speaker 01

  In Vegas. Every album I do is just tons of different collaborations. Latin, I got Gracie on, on the album too. She's a Colombian artist.

• 42:21Speaker 01

  You know, like I dropped a bunch of singles already. And it's a, the continuation to the Hero Quest story. So what's exciting to announce with this one is for the first album, I dropped a CD. Which, I mean, no one does CDs anymore.

• 42:37Lewis Howes?

  Right, correct.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  But I, I put inside a HeroQuest card that you opened in a pack. People got so excited to get these packs that the CD sold thirty thousand copies in five hours.

• 42:48Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:49Speaker 01

  Which is ridiculous because I, you know, like, most CDs just don't sell. So people were obsessed with these HeroQuest cards. And then I dropped like a second series of cards around the remix album. And we sold thirty thousand packs there. So like, there's this real interest in collecting this IP and, and, you know, cards of the IP.

• 43:12Lewis Howes?

  Right. Is this the same business that you launched recently?

• 43:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:16Lewis Howes?

  The card business?

• 43:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I launched, um, this company, I, I founded, co-founded this company called Metazoo. And it's, uh, we create our own world based on cryptids. So like, you know, like Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabra, you know, uh, grizzly, uh, like, uh, Smokey the Bear. You know, like, like, things that are made up by human lore, like, we just make up because we see a ghost in the corner, like, oh, that's the ghost of...

• 43:44Lewis Howes?

  Christmas past or something.

• 43:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. That's, that's, that's a cryptid. So we, we made a whole world of all cryptids.

• 43:50Lewis Howes?

  That's interesting.

• 43:51Speaker 01

  It's all public domain.

• 43:52Lewis Howes?

  That's so cool.

• 43:53Speaker 01

  And, and then we, like, you know, people that are like obsessed with Bigfoot. Now, we have twenty million of, of the people that are obsessed with Bigfoot. We might capture like five million of them, or one million of them. And they'll collect those cards. And we, we started in February twenty twenty one, uh, with a Kickstarter box, with Kickstarter. And by December twenty twenty two, we already grossed like forty million dollars in selling cards.

• 44:20Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible.

• 44:21Speaker 01

  And building community, you know? Once again, the community is this collaborative process of, of, of how you can, you just need to enrich and grow and really believe in what you're doing.

• 44:32Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible.

• 44:33Speaker 01

  That's Metazoo. And then HeroQuest is its own IP that, that I created, which, um, combines music culture, like my music culture, with, with like collectible card culture and creating a whole new IP of characters. And this new album, I'm dropping a book I wrote with Jim Kruger.

• 44:55Speaker 01

  Which I'm still finishing up. So like the album's gonna drop. And then this, you know, what's becoming to be around 250 to 300 page book that um that uh me and Jim are writing right now. Um and Jim I work with, he's an Eisner award winning writer for D D C Marvel Hero Neon Future for me and Tom Bilyeu.

• 45:15Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 45:16Speaker 01

  So we wrote this together. The story of Hero Quest and it's also coming with cards and the CD. And like all kinds of fun stuff. And you know, um that's gonna be like the the entree or the onboarding into the world of Hero Quest now. It was all like pre IP, you know, what I was doing before. And now I can drop the story.

• 45:38Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible, man.

• 45:39Speaker 01

  Cause I want people to read the story of Hero Quest. You get the album, musical story, the musical album and how it ties to the story. And then you get the cards that people love to collect. So that's exciting to be able to finally do all that.

• 45:53Lewis Howes?

  This is amazing. Where can we get access to all this stuff?

• 45:56Speaker 01

  So the obviously when the album drops, you can just listen to it everywhere, you know, on streaming. But the book and the cards and all that and the CD. That's gonna, I mean, we're we're gonna have links everywhere on steveoake.com. It's like, you know.

• 46:12Lewis Howes?

  steveoake.com will have all this stuff.

• 46:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's yeah, it's basically, once you know, once you follow me, it's it's I'll be I'll be it's gonna be out there.

• 46:20Lewis Howes?

  You're everywhere on social media. I love your social media content. Steve Aoki on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all these places. But steveoake.com for tour dates, the album drop for everything that you're working on, the cards, the fashion. I mean, you got 30 businesses. It feels like you're everywhere. So but that's the main hub where they can find everything.

• 46:39Speaker 01

  Exactly, yeah.

• 46:40Lewis Howes?

  Get on the newsletter, see everything.

• 46:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:42Lewis Howes?

  And how many, how many tour dates are you doing the rest of this year? Or or nights are you doing?

• 46:47Speaker 01

  Um, well, like this year, I'll probably do about over 250 shows. So yeah, it's like, it's interesting. Like since COVID, I thought it was gonna slow down. Because.

• 46:58Lewis Howes?

  When is Steve Ok slow down? Come on.

• 47:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I was doing 300 at one point and then I it was just literally like no time off. But 200 or 250 is like my sweet spot. Cause then I have at least 175 to 100 days at home, which I love being home. So what I've realized, it's a mindset thing. It's a mindset shift. So once I I put my mindset into treating the road as my home and my home as my vacation, then it all works.

• 47:26Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. That's beautiful, man.

• 47:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:29Lewis Howes?

  I'm excited for you, man. This is, this was various inspiring to hear about your creative process, your collaborative mind and just the way you think about all these things as an artist. It's really beautiful, man.

• 47:39Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 47:40Lewis Howes?

  And hopefully I can get out to Vegas one of these days and just come, come watch a show as well.

• 47:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, we do the cold plunge sauna.

• 47:46Lewis Howes?

  I'm in, man. Let's do it. I'm in. I don't know if I can stay up till 3 a.m. I might have to I might have to take a nap, then come for a part of it. But make sure if you guys are in Vegas to go watch Steve. I think you're there. We're 50 nights a year.

• 47:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:58Lewis Howes?

  50 shows a year right now. So if you go there, look up if he's doing a show there for sure and go support him. Follow him everywhere on social media. I've got two final questions for you. Before I ask them, is there anything else we can do to be of support to you today?

• 48:12Speaker 01

  No, I mean, I think, you know, it's just, I guess, check out my social media, I guess. I don't know.

• 48:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, check it out. The album, all these different things. I want to, I want to acknowledge you before I ask these final two questions. I want to acknowledge you, Steve, for and your consistency and your commitment. Cause I think you mentioned this. There's a lot of artists or just people in different industries, whether it's business or writing or music. There's a lot of people that don't stay consistent over time. They, they might have big moments, but then they fall off or they, they treat people poorly and people don't want to work with them. But I really acknowledge you for, you know, 15 plus years of consistently showing up and adding value to your communities, to other artists, to other business partners and saying, how can I provide value as opposed to only take? And I think in the world of

• 49:04Lewis Howes?

  You know, at least what it seems like in the world of social media, in the world of celebrities or big artists who are on social media. You can't always tell if they have the best intentions in mind. And I really appreciate how you show up for people. I know you're not a perfect human being, but I appreciate your consistency over 15 years and just constantly showing up saying, how can I collaborate? How can I add value? It's really cool, man. So I acknowledge you for that. This is a question I, uh, these last two questions. I asked you about your 60-year-old self on the advice you would give your current self. But I have another hypothetical scenario. I'd love for you to imagine that you get to live as long as you want and accomplish everything you want to accomplish.

• 49:48Lewis Howes?

  Uh, but, but it's the last day on earth for you at some point. Live as long as you want. And for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your work with you. All of your art, your music, this conversation, anything you create, it's got to go with you to the next place. So we don't have access to your content anymore. All your IP, gone. But you get to leave behind three lessons to the whole world. Three things that you know to be true from all the life you've lived. And this is all we would have to remember you by are these three lessons. What would be those three truths? What would be those three truths for you?

• 50:21Speaker 01

  I love sci-fi. I was like thinking of myself in this, this, uh, this whole new world of what, where things are going to be.

• 50:30Lewis Howes?

  Um. What would be those three, those three lessons of truth? That's all we have to.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  I, I, well, one is, is to, is going back to what I was saying. Uh, the, the most important thing is, is you have to really give your, the best quality time to the people that you love. Um, when you, when you give. It's so much more powerful than receiving. And because like I think it's very selfish to give. Because it feels better. It feels incredible, you know? When you give something, you could see someone's face light up with like, like genuine joy and happiness. It's the greatest feeling, especially when you love them. And you want to just continue this, this like feeling.

• 51:20Speaker 01

  Because at the end of the day, that's like life. You want to feel amazing in that, in that regard. Because if you can go to sleep and wake up with that same feeling every day, you're like, what could be better? Yeah. And that's free. You know, that, that feeling of gift is, it's a, it's like, it doesn't cost any money. So anyone could do that. You know, just by just, you know, helping and being, being part of someone's life in the, in a positive way that's fulfilling. So that's, that's, that's like one for sure. I, I think, I think that's like, they're all, they're all there. It's like, one is that. And then two is, and going back to what we're talking about, the contribution, like always

• 52:05Speaker 01

  give the most. Mm hmm. Because like, at the end of the day, when you think about, um, you know, reputation, things like that. Whenever I think about people that have great reputations, they're transparent. They always, they always like offer more. And, and you know, like, you know, like, of course, we all, we get, we get greedy, we get selfish and we're like, oh, but if, if I just take right now, then I'll have more. But if you keep doing that, like you're, you're going to lose all, like all your relationships. Right. You know, I, I, that's, that's a hundred percent certainty.

• 52:45Speaker 01

  If you think short term only for yourself, you will hundred percent have like no future in with those people. That's just, that's just unless it's like a unconditional like mom. It's like, I have to like take care of my son. It's like always just taking, taking, taking, taking, taking, taking, you know, even the mom might get a little. So I think you have to give maximum level of like, you know, give as much as you can on contribution. So I think it's about maximum value of what you you put out. Whatever you do, don't be passive. Don't give the bare minimum. If you're gonna do it, you have to give as much as possible. Yes. And the more you do it, you're always gonna be someone that people want to work with.

• 53:30Speaker 01

  You know, someone that people will remember like, like, oh, they're great to work with. They're great that they they give because they always do more. And they don't want, they don't want anything else in return. So that that's actually a big thing to remember. The people that give a lot and they don't want anything returned consistently, they're like, they don't, they actually do it just to do it. You know, those people, like you want to work with those people. You want to be those people. Right. That is like a powerful one is like giving as much as you possibly can if you are going to do it. If you don't, like, you don't have to do it all. Like, saying no is just as important too. Like, I can, I can't give as much time, so I'm not gonna do it. Right? So you have

• 54:16Speaker 01

  to make that decision. So I think how you contribute has to be the the best that you can. So that's two. Yep. And, and three, I think three would be

• 54:30Speaker 01

  on the idea of collaboration.

• 54:33Speaker 01

  Let's, let's stay within the box here. Three is having an open mind.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  To try many different things and to learn and always be a great listener and always be a great student to learn, you know, to receive, you know, and like really truly be present in the and the receiving side of things.

• 54:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 54:57Speaker 01

  And be grateful in that. This is where like gratitude will help you be a great listener. Cause the more grateful you are, you're you're going to be more present. Cause the second you're like, oh, I'm so honored to be here. I'm so grateful to be here. You are 100% going to be present and you're going to receive everything coming to you. You know, the people that go to school and that they don't, they have to pay for it are usually the ones sitting in the front of class.

• 55:26Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 55:26Speaker 01

  And they're like, I paid so much money to be here. I have to listen. I have to learn. I, I need to learn this. And the people that like, like their parents will pay for the education. A lot of the time they're, they're like, oh gosh, to be here. Oh my God, you know? So it's like, if you, you have to be grateful just to be in the room to receive. And then you're going to be able to use that information to go to number two, you know, to contribute that.

• 55:53Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. To give the most maximum value. Those are, those are powerful, man. I love this. Um, final question, Steve, what is your definition of greatness?

• 56:02Speaker 01

  That's you. That's your whole thing, right?

• 56:06Speaker 01

  Oh my God. I'm winging it right now at this point.

• 56:10Lewis Howes?

  I love it though, man. It's great.

• 56:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I've been like stopping to think. Cause I didn't even like think about these things. Yeah. What's the definition of greatness?

• 56:16Lewis Howes?

  For you, what is it?

• 56:18Speaker 01

  Um.

• 56:21Speaker 01

  God, what's the definition of greatness? Like, oh, this is a good one. This is a good one.

• 56:27Speaker 01

  Um, I feel like I said it already, you know, but I know this is like, you, you need this one. You need this one. This is, this is all you. The definition of greatness.

• 56:38Lewis Howes?

  It can be simple. It can be short. It doesn't have to be long.

• 56:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, I'm trying to think. Cause it's like, it is like a important one, you know? I mean.

• 56:48Speaker 01

  The definition of greatness is very similar to like the definition of success. You know, like what is success to me? It's not, it's not like up to someone else to define that success. That's really important. That's like, you know, I think it's like, it's, it's a little bit complicated because um, I think what we think of what's great is always what other people think is what's great. You know, like success is always what like society deems is what's successful or what's great. So I, it's really about like, how do I feel about myself? Do I feel great because I was able to accomplish these things? So it's, it's more about how I feel like, like, did I, did I do something where it made me feel great for myself?

• 57:34Speaker 01

  You know, whether it's finishing a song or it could be simply just having lunch with my mom. You know, like, these are things that they make me feel great today.

• 57:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:44Speaker 01

  So it's, I think it's all more subjective and, and, and it's always, it's always like, it's always a new challenge.

• 57:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:53Speaker 01

  I think that the, the, the idea of greatness is a challenge. It's always a challenge. It's not, it can never be within your comfort zone. It has to be not, it's gotta be outside the comfort zone, but not impossible. So in this like, kind of like this, this area where it's, you need to go beyond what's comfortable and into the zone of that's what's, what's like attainable, but it's difficult.

• 58:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 58:21Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, Stevie O'Keefe, my man. Thanks for being here, brother.

• 58:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.