WARNING: Most People Stay Poor Because They Ignore This ONE Law...

Leave an Amazon Rating or Review for my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Most people stay broke for life because they ignore one simple truth that governs every result in their bank account, relationships, and life. I discovered this after years of struggling as a bouncer, truck driver, and living on my sister's couch, feeling like no matter how hard I worked, financial abundance remained out of reach. The breakthrough came when I learned these seven fundamental laws that shifted everything - from finding a penny worth $4,000 to generating half a million dollars in 30 days through the power of proximity and generosity. These laws will help anyone ready to break free from financial struggle and create lasting wealth by aligning their internal world with external abundance. The Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life TodayThe Mask of Masculinity: How Men Can Embrace Vulnerability, Create Strong Relationships, and Live Their Fullest LivesThe School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a LegacyIn this episode you will learn:Why your internal conversation directly manifests your external financial reality and how to shift itThe counterintuitive reason gratitude and generosity unlock more wealth than grinding harderHow to map your financial future using 9 specific questions that create unstoppable momentumWhy focusing on one income stream might make you richer than chasing multiple revenue sourcesThe proximity strategy that generated $500,000 in 30 days from one weekend mastermindHow knowing your role in the pack accelerates wealth faster than trying to be the leaderThe tongue technique that steers your life toward abundance instead of defeatFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1798For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Rory Vaden – greatness.lnk.to/1792SCDaniel Priestley – greatness.lnk.to/1795SCBrendon Burchard – greatness.lnk.to/1770SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  If you're struggling financially right now, it's probably not because you're lazy, unmotivated, or unlucky. The truth is, most people stay broke for life because they ignore one simple law. This first law is something that really helped me unlock everything financially. And for many years, I was struggling. I was working multiple different jobs. I was a bouncer. I was a truck driver. I was doing odd jobs here and there, wherever I could. And I wasn't feeling like, no matter how hard I worked, I wasn't creating financial abundance.

• 0:39Lewis Howes?

  And there was one main law that I needed to shift that started to unlock everything for me. And this is the law of mindset. Because your internal world shapes your external world. Now, there's a quote I want to share with you from Lisa Nichols that says, "Your life is a physical manifestation of the conversation going on in your head." For many years, I lived with a conversation of, "I'm not good enough. I'm stupid. I'm never going to figure this out. Everyone else around me is smarter than me. Why are they getting these results? And I'm struggling when I'm working so hard?"

• 1:21Lewis Howes?

  It was just a constant movie playing in my mind that was telling me, "I'm not good enough." And it was manifesting physically in my life, the results of, "I'm not good enough." And it was exhausting. And I don't know if you're feeling this right now, or if you can ever relate to this in your life, where you've had this script, this conversation, this critic in your mind telling you how hard things are, how unfortunate things are, why it's not fair, why other people are getting results and you're not getting it, how you're never going to be able to create financial freedom for your life. I don't know if you've ever had that script. If you have, leave a comment below or like this to, to confirm that you have, so I can see that.

• 2:03Lewis Howes?

  Because this is one of the things that holds you back, is your mindset is shaping you. It's shaping your external world because it's manifesting within your internal world. And I want to share this clip from Lisa Nichols, where she really shares this in a powerful way. So watch this.

• 2:19Speaker 01

  Your life is a physical manifestation of the conversation going on in your head. So if you said nothing but thought everything, your life is gonna show up to make your thoughts true. So you have one job. You have one job in your life for you to make what you think about life true. So that you're not wrong. You don't wanna walk around wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. You wanna be right about the life you see. So you're going to work hard, work hard, to produce the life that you talk about in your mind.

• 2:46Lewis Howes?

  You've gotta see yourself there in your mind. And if you're seeing yourself in struggle in your mind, you're going to manifest it externally in your life. It's not just gonna be all of a sudden easy times, you know, money's not gonna fly from the sky and just fall in your lap. If you're in struggle in your mind, you're gonna create struggle in your physical manifestations as well. Maybe you're creating some results, but it's just harder. Maybe some opportunities come to you, but it feels like you had to work so hard to make it happen. As opposed to shifting the mindset and the narrative in your mind first, saying something like, "Opportunities flow to me effortlessly and abundantly.

• 3:28Lewis Howes?

  People want to be around me who have opportunities and they want to see me succeed." If you start shifting your self-talk into more empowering messages, more empowering beliefs, even if you don't fully believe it right now, it's okay. But when you start to speak negatively about yourself constantly, why it's so hard, you're gonna confirm that because your, your, your life doesn't want to be wrong about what you're saying. So you don't wanna be wrong about what you're saying. You're gonna manifest that, like Lisa just said. So you need to figure out ways to start shifting it with the positive self-talk. You need to be thinking about ways that you can create empowering validation from what you're speaking.

• 4:13Lewis Howes?

  And there's a great story that I've talked about before, which is how I found a penny that ended up being worth $4,000. And I just wanted to do an experiment for myself. When I was on my book tour, Make Money Easy, I was traveling around the country and I was in New York. And I have a video about this that I want to share, share with you in a moment that, that showcases what happened. But by just by saying something over and over again, thinking of it, setting an intention, you're creating the space for physical manifestation to occur. It doesn't guarantee that you're gonna create these results in a moment, or in a day, or in a week, or month. It doesn't guarantee anything. But by putting yourself in a negative mindset constantly,

• 4:55Lewis Howes?

  this law is going to guarantee negative and stress and anxiety. You're going to validate what you're thinking constantly. So we need to be shifting our thinking so that we can validate with a more empowering experience in life. And I'm going to share this penny story video clip right now. Can you manifest millions? Yes. I was in New York last week. Every morning when I woke up, I just said this to myself, money comes to me abundantly and freely. I see it everywhere. Someone was carrying a box and a penny fell and I was like, alright, it came to me. Let me do this again. The next day, I'm in the subway and I see a penny heads up. And I thought to myself, this is filthy. It's not valuable. It's not enough money. I don't need to pick this up. But I was like, no, I'm doing this experiment. Money comes to

• 5:38Lewis Howes?

  me abundantly and freely, and I'm going to manifest money. And so I pick it up, put it in my pocket. And I just say, thank you, money for coming to me. I put it on my bedside table. I don't think anything of it. The next day, I look at this penny and I noticed something. It said 1945 on this penny. That's an 80-year-old penny. And I go, huh, that's unique. I haven't seen a penny that old in a long time. And I flip it over and I get chills thinking about it. I notice it's a wheat penny. And so I Google 1945 wheat penny value. And one just sold, guess for how much? I have no idea. $4,000. No way. Online. There was more value inside of that penny than what met the eye originally. And all I had to do was be willing to look for it, be willing to pick it up and say, I receive, thank you.

• 6:20Lewis Howes?

  Again, I love this example because I didn't know that this was going to add value to my life. It just looked like a penny, but later I found out that it was actually much more valuable than, than what met the eye originally. So again, you have to be open to possibilities. You have to be open to magic, but you have to shift your mindset with this law first. And the second law is just as important, and it's the law of generosity. You need to be thinking, how can I give first? And then multiply later. Because gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. And if you can think this, I don't care if you print that out and you put it on your wall,

• 7:04Lewis Howes?

  you put it on your phone screen, you say this to yourself 100 times throughout the day, and you just say gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. Gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. That needs to be your mantra. You need to be thinking, how can I give? Not, how can I gain? And when I was broke, living on my sister's couch, I felt over and over again, man, I could really use some help from someone right now. I wish someone would come and help me right now. And I would reach out to people on LinkedIn, one by one, asking for advice. Hey, can you give me a job? Hey, can you teach me something? Hey, can you show me how to do this? I was reaching out and asking constantly for people to give to me.

• 7:48Lewis Howes?

  And it was hard. I got a lot of rejection. People don't want to give me the time. And I realized, after many months of failing at this, that I was just being a taker. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't reach out for help. You should. But we need to be thinking, how can I live in gratitude and generosity while I'm reaching out for help as well? And there are so many different things you can do with that, but I'm just always thinking about how to give. Now, it doesn't mean also you need to be a doormat and you have to give all your money away and you have to give all your time away for free constantly. That's not what I'm saying. Life is about balance and boundaries. But the more generous you can be with your energy, the more generous you can be with

• 8:30Lewis Howes?

  your time, the more generous you can be with your knowledge, your wisdom, your experience, the more results will come to you in unexpected ways. And I've been doing this podcast, School of Greatness, for over 12 years. Every single week for 12 years, three times a week for the last 10 years, we have put out a free episode for you and for millions of people around the world. Now this costs me money, it costs my team money, it costs us time, energy, it costs resources, it costs building relationships to ask people to come on the show, to spread their message and get wisdom from them as well.

• 9:11Lewis Howes?

  And that is 12 years of weekly, consistent effort, energy, time, money, resources, resourcefulness, to create something for free and share it with you in the world. And because of that, so much good has come back to myself, to my team, to the business. Because we're thinking, how can we add value? How can we serve? How can we give? What is it that people need right now? What is their biggest pain? What is their biggest challenge? Their biggest struggle? We read the comments. So if you're leaving a comment below right now about what you're experiencing, what your challenge is, we're reading these comments and saying, how can we help you with your specific problem and your specific pain?

• 9:55Lewis Howes?

  How can we find the top expert and add value? How can I ask the right question? So you get exactly what you need in this season of your life. And that level of how can I be generous? How can I be a giver? And how can I be grateful for the experience and the opportunity to sit across some of the most inspiring people in the world? Like, I'm so grateful and blessed for that opportunity as well. It's like this circle of abundance that comes and goes and comes and goes. And the more I give, the more I receive. And I could block the flow of abundance. And we can talk later about how not to block the flow of abundance. But by giving constantly and also receiving,

• 10:40Lewis Howes?

  I'm allowing for more abundance to flow to me and to others. And again, so many people have said also, Louis, thank you so much for having me on the show. It helped me sell thousands of copies of my book. I made an extra million dollars in my business from all the leads that came in, whatever it might be. And so many people, I'm just like, take it. Like, I want you to make money. I want you to be happy. I want you to see your business grow. I want you to get opportunities, speaking gigs, whatever it might be. The goal is to be of service and also to be open to receiving abundance to yourself as well. So the more you can think about being grateful for your life every single day, even when there's a challenge. Even when there's stress, thinking about the perspective of life,

• 11:23Lewis Howes?

  "Man, I'm so blessed right now because I'm not living in a war zone." "Man, I'm so blessed right now because one of my parents is still alive." "Man, I'm so blessed because I have a beautiful wife." "Man, I'm so blessed because I have an amazing team." "Man, I'm so blessed because I'm healthy right now." "I'm so blessed." Even if there's overwhelm and stress and struggle in your life, I'm not saying you have to discount those things. But what I am saying is you can look at the things to be grateful for. You can wake up in the morning and say, "Thank you." "Thank you for another day to open my eyes and to take another breath." And so many people live in this state of frustration and stress because the mindset, the first law, is blocking your abundance to generate more internal freedom,

• 12:08Lewis Howes?

  internal peace, internal worthiness, to then create external worthiness, external financial results, opportunities, resources, all these different things. So we've got to start shifting the mindset and also the gratitude and the generosity. And that's the law number two. Law number three is the law of sequencing because you need to map your life. If you never map out your future, you'll tend to retrace your past. Because poor people try to jump steps. They try to invest before they save, or they scale without a foundation.

• 12:52Lewis Howes?

  But wealth is built through layers, through seasons. First earning, then managing, then multiplying. Like nature, money has a rhythm. There's seasons to the rhythm. And if you ignore it, you'll stay broke or you'll constantly be going up and down, up and down in the financial system. And In order to figure out the law of sequencing and how to map your life, I want to give you this application for yourself. And I want you to take notes and write these questions down. I'm going to give you nine different questions that you can ask to figure out where you are in your life, what sequence you need to take and the map for yourself to guide you moving forward.

• 13:36Lewis Howes?

  Because I can already hear you saying, well, I'm not sure what I want. I'm not sure how much I want to make, or I want to make tons of money, but you're not clear enough. And in order to really create more financial freedom and abundance, we've got to have a map. So here are nine questions for you. I want you to write these down. And if you want extra credit, you can even write these down, these questions in the comments below, so other people can see it, copy and paste and use this. The first question is, how much do I want to make? How much do I really want to make? What's your number? And why do I want to make that? So how much do I want to make is number one? Why do I want to make that? Why do I want to make that much? There's got to be something underneath that's deeper than just, I want to make a million dollars because I want to be rich.

• 14:21Lewis Howes?

  Okay, well, there's not going to be fulfillment at the end of the day if you're not clear with why. The third question you want to ask yourself is, what will I do with the money when I make it? Because when we are clear on how much we want to make, and we know what we're going to do with it, like I know how much money I'm going to be giving to charity this year. So I'm clear. That empowers me to get up and do things that I don't normally want to do, that I'm struggling to do. It gets me more motivation to say, okay, I'm going to go the extra mile in this one place. Or I'm going to go fly here and take this extra speaking gig, because I want to use this money to serve more people.

• 15:02Lewis Howes?

  Because I know in the previous law, the law of gratitude and generosity, that when I am given so much, it's also an opportunity to give back so much. It's also an opportunity to pay it forward. Because when I was broke on my sister's couch, not making a lot of money for a couple of years. There were people that showed up for me, that were people that paid it forward to me. And it's my responsibility and it's your responsibility to keep paying it forward to others as well. This doesn't mean if you're broke, you need to give all your money away to people. That's not what I'm saying. But are there people in your life that are maybe a few years younger than you?

• 15:43Lewis Howes?

  Whether it's a younger brother or sister that you can pull up with you and inspire and speak confidence into and empower from time to time and show up for and show them you care. Show up to their events, to their graduations, to their first day of whatever they're doing. Can you show up for people in your life and show them and speak confidence into them and remind them how much they are loved and how much they are worthy and how much they matter?

• 16:13Lewis Howes?

  That's really what we're all looking for. So, third question is, what will I do with my money when I make it? The fourth one is, when do I want to make it? So what date? Could you give yourself a timeline, a deadline, a date of when you want to make it? If you want to make a hundred thousand dollars, by when? By when do you want to earn that one hundred thousand dollars? And you have to see where you're at currently. And, okay, how much time do I really think it's going to take to get there? And I remember I was broke on my sister's couch, not making anything for a while. And I just gave myself a crazy goal for me, which was I want to make five thousand dollars. And I gave myself a deadline. It was nine months. Now, again, I was broke. I was broke.

• 16:56Lewis Howes?

  I was making two hundred fifty bucks a week as a truck driver. But I was like, I want to make five thousand dollars in one month. And I want to do it in nine months. I didn't know how I was going to do it. I didn't know who was going to help me do it. I didn't know what I needed to do to do it. But I gave myself a deadline and a date. And I literally signed the date with the number five thousand dollars. And I hung it on my wall. And this was a reminder every single day. That's where I'm heading. This is the law of sequencing. It's where I'm heading. It's my map. It's my, it's my vision. It's my mission. It's the guide. I don't know how to do it, but I know I need to get clear of what I want to make, when I want to make it by, and what I'm going to do with the money.

• 17:37Lewis Howes?

  It's going to give me more empowering energy to go make it happen. The fifth question that you want to ask yourself is, what fears do I need to overcome? Oh, man, when I was broke on my sister's couch, I had every fear you could imagine. A hundred more fears than you have right now. I had them all. Because I went from being a cocky 23, 24 year old who was playing arena football and in best shape in my life and thought I had it figured out to breaking my wrist, to having to retire from playing football, from ending my dream, from the crash of 2008 in the USA to not having an opportunity to get a job,

• 18:21Lewis Howes?

  to living on my sister's couch for a year and a half, broke as a joke, and really unsure of myself. Unsure of what's the future. How do I make money? I have no clue. What am I supposed to do? And I made a list of all my fears. A mentor said, "You need to make a list of all your fears." And he said, "You need to go all in on your fears until the fears disappear." And I want that to be your mantra as well. "I want you to write a list of your biggest fears right now." For me, it was public speaking. That was a big one. And I need to write a list of these fears. It was the fear of looking bad, the fear of criticism, the fear of judgment. It was like writing all these things down, all the flaws that were inside of me.

• 19:05Lewis Howes?

  I was good at hiding it and acting confident, but deep down, I was a scared little boy. And in order to overcome the fear, you must go all in on your fear until the fear disappears. And it might take years of practice. It may never go away. But if you can constantly act in the fear and feel more comfortable with the fear, you're eventually going to feel like, "Oh, I'm okay. I can do this." Maybe you're never going to be the best in the world of that thing. I'm never going to be the best public speaker in the world, but I can go on stage in front of 10, 20, 50,000 people, and I can deliver my message with poise and confidence.

• 19:48Lewis Howes?

  Before, when I was 24, 25 on my sister's couch, I couldn't get up in front of five people without stuttering, stumbling, and trembling. Like, it was, I was just sweating profusely. Anytime I'd get in front of a small group of people to just say something for a minute. It was like, ah, I was so worried about what people thought of me, what people were gonna say about me behind my back. And I don't know if you have that fear right now. If you have the fear of what are people gonna say about me if I post something online? Or if I try to go all in on this dream that I have? Leave a comment below if you're worried about what people think about you, you're concerned about people judging you or criticizing you by putting yourself out there.

• 20:33Lewis Howes?

  And I get it, it's a real fear. It's not enjoyable to have people say nasty things about you. But for me, it was much more important to go all in on the fear, be judged, be laughed at, be criticized, you know? It was much more valuable doing that than waiting a year, five years, 20 years, my life, never going all in on that fear and looking back and saying, gosh, I was crippled because I just lacked the courage. I lacked courage to go try something. So what fears do I need to overcome? I want you to think about that. Create a list of your fears and start going all in on them one by one.

• 21:16Lewis Howes?

  The sixth question is, what do I need to learn? So again, we're sequencing. You're figuring out what you want to make, by when, the fears that are holding you back, and what you need to learn. So at that point, I needed to learn public speaking. So I found a mentor who is a professional speaker. And I said, what do I need to do? And he said, you need to go to Toastmasters. And you need to go every single week for a year. They're gonna give you a workbook. It's a curriculum on how to be a better public speaker. You need to show up every single week and you need to speak every single week. And I want you to film yourself and watch back and get a coach who can critique you in a positive way to see what you're doing well and what to improve on.

• 22:00Lewis Howes?

  And that's what I did for a year. I was horrible. I was terrified. I was like so, it was so stressful to go to a meeting with 20 people. And speak for two minutes. It was the hard, it felt like I was gonna die. But that's exactly why I needed to go. And that's why you need to go and do whatever it is fear you're stressed out about right now. So what do I need to learn to help me overcome this fear, to help me accomplish this goal in this law of sequencing? The seventh question is, with whom do I need to connect? So who do you need to meet? What mentor, what coach, what guide? Um, and maybe it's not a person you're gonna connect with, maybe it's a book you're gonna learn from.

• 22:44Lewis Howes?

  Maybe it's a podcast like the School of Greatness where you're gonna learn from some top expert to teach you the thing. You know, you may not get access to the top person in the world to be your coach or mentor. Nor do you may not have the money or the resources to be able to invest in a coach or mentor. But there's so much value online right now. There's so many books that you can buy for 20 bucks. That can give you a lot of the expertise from that person. So think about who do I need to connect with? And it might be a multiple people. Um, number eight, what skills do I need to master? Again, this is kind of goes into number six, what do I need to learn? There are multiple skills that I needed to master in order to overcome these fears that were blocking me.

• 23:28Lewis Howes?

  But also in order to create more financial freedom. And I didn't understand money. I didn't know about money. I was afraid of money. So I also started reading money books. I started asking questions just to people who had more money than me. You know, it didn't have to be like some billionaire, but just I lived in Columbus, Ohio, and I just found people who are a little bit older than me, who had made a little bit more than me. And I just said, hey, what did you do here? How did you learn this? And I just kept learning new skills to master. And I'm still needing to learn and master new skills because as we reach new levels, there's new things to learn and break through to. And the ninth

• 24:08Lewis Howes?

  Uh, question to ask yourself, hopefully you're writing this down, is what actions do I need to take? So all these questions are just guiding to support you within the law of sequencing, to set you up to map your life and create a game plan. Because without a game plan in life, we're really just going to be wandering around, asking yourselves, what do I do next? And with a game plan, at least you have a clear direction. It doesn't mean it's going to be a smooth direction. There might be a lot of bumps along the road, but at least you're going in one direction and you can see improvement from where you've gone, week after week, month after month. That's the third law.

• 24:49Lewis Howes?

  And if you're really looking to create more financial peace and external abundance in your life, you also got to make sure to check out the book that a lot of this stems from. It's called Make Money Easy. It's all about creating financial freedom and living a richer life. Because we dive deeper in the subconscious stories that you've been telling yourself that have been blocking your abundance financially. It talks about your money story and the things that are hurting you every single day. So if you want to unlock the freedom in your life financially to a whole new level, make sure to grab a copy of this book as well. The fourth law. Hmm, this is an interesting one, and I'm curious where you stand on this law.

• 25:33Lewis Howes?

  This fourth law is called the law of abundance. One income is a trap. Now here's a quote from my friend Rory Vaden, who says diluted focus gets diluted results. Now everyone's money journey is different, and some of the richest people have only one stream of income. They go all in, they focus all their energy and, and they put all their time and all their resources into one business with one main product. And it blows up into this massive financial success.

• 26:09Lewis Howes?

  Um, because they went all in on their focus and their energy. One income or multiple incomes streams, there's no right or wrong on how you can create abundance in whichever one you choose, because so many people will say, well, you need multiple streams of income in order to create financial freedom. And other people go all in on one and they crush it. So you have to be thinking about where are you at in your life? What season of life are you in? And what feels right for you? Now, give an example. In my business, when I started out, I was broke, my sister's couch. And I was like, I just need to make money wherever the opportunity comes. And let me know if this speaks to you, if you feel like you might be in this place right now. I just want to make money anywhere I can make it.

• 26:55Lewis Howes?

  And originally I was doing one-on-one coaching, teaching people about LinkedIn. Then I wrote a book. Then I was doing workshops. I was doing speaking, speaking gigs and I was doing workshops as well. Then I created a course online. Then I created a membership. Then I created a mastermind. Then I had group coaching and one-on-one coaching as well. Then I did live events. And then I said, how can I just keep creating? Then I did affiliate marketing. Then I did ebooks. Then I did audiobooks. I had all these revenue streams. And then I created new courses. I had like 12 courses at one time. And I just kept growing it. Then I launched a podcast and I was getting sponsorships and advertising. And I was like, how can I get money everywhere?

• 27:40Lewis Howes?

  Like there's money opportunities everywhere. Let's just go build this thing, then build this thing and ah. And my friend says diluted, uh, focus gets diluted results, right? So if I'm focusing in 13 to 18 different places of we're going to create and launch this, then I'm going to launch this thing, then I'm going to write a book during it. Then I'm going to do interviews, then I'm going to do sponsorships. Now we're doing an event. We have to plan all these things. It's like, it's exhausting. And I did that for, I don't know, eight or nine years. And it, it made money. It's not that it didn't make me money. But it left me feeling like I was playing at a six or a seven out of a 10 in life. And I remember I was at a mastermind with Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi.

• 28:23Lewis Howes?

  This was 2019 or 2018 in Fiji. I was with Tony Robbins and about 20 of us were at his private resort for a mastermind. And I said this to Tony, I was like, man, I feel like I'm like a seven out of a 10. And he goes, do you want to be a seven out of a 10 type of guy or a 10 out of 10 type of guy? I was like, oh, man, uh, yeah, I want to be a 10 out of 10 type of guy. And I think you just have to ask yourself, do I want to be like a five out of 10, an eight out of 10 type of gal or guy? Or do I want to be a 10 out of a 10? Now, you may never be at a 10 level, right? I still don't feel like I'm a 10 every moment of every day. But I'm putting my energy and my efforts to be a 10 every day, right?

• 29:07Lewis Howes?

  I'm, I'm, I'm focused, my efforts, I'm focused, my energy. And after that conversation, literally that one conversation, I was like, you know what? I think I need to scrap all the courses, all the memberships, all the coaching, all the one-on-one stuff, all the masterminds. We need to scrap it all. I need to scrap all the webinars I'm doing every single week. Facebook, like scrap it all and let's go all in on the podcast, which is the thing I was most excited about. You got to ask yourself, where is the most joy come from, the most fun, the most fulfillment? How can I put all my energy into that one thing and make that bigger and better? Versus have 20 streams of income.

• 29:48Lewis Howes?

  Now, depending on the season you're at, you know, your business may be able to take on two or three extra streams of income. You may need an entry level product, a middle level product, and then a high level product. You may need a cross-sell or an up-sell or a down-sell to help you generate more revenue. So I'm not saying you have to pick one or the other, you have to pick what's right for you of this season of life. And I've kind of done it all, right? And it doesn't mean I only have one stream of income right now, but I don't have as many as I did. And it gives me much more peace, which creates more abundance. So you want to be thinking about the law of abundance. Either one income or multiple streams of income, whichever is right for you for this season of life. But it doesn't mean.

• 30:33Lewis Howes?

  You're trapped with one income stream and it doesn't mean you're trapped with multiple income streams. You can create abundance either way, but make sure you're putting your energy, your effort and your focus in the right places that feel more abundant for you. That's the key. It's feeling abundant with the energy and the effort you're putting out into the world. If I'm distracted because I have so many things to work on, it doesn't feel abundant. Sure, I'm making more money, but internally I'm overwhelmed. I'm scarce because I have my time spread everywhere and I'm not living at a 10, I'm living at a six or a seven. And it doesn't mean this is right or wrong, good or bad. It's not judgment.

• 31:17Lewis Howes?

  It's just how do you want to live your life? And what is abundance to you? Answer that question. Leave a comment below of what abundance means to you. I'd love to hear your definition of abundance. Now, law number five. This is a big one. Every law is big to help you create financial freedom and abundance in your life, but this one is probably one that has created more financial opportunities than anything else. And law number five is the law of proximity. Now, Tony Robbins said proximity is power. If you want to level

• 32:00Lewis Howes?

  up, get around people who are already playing at the level you aspire to. I don't know about you, but I was in the bottom of my class in school all throughout middle school and high school. Once they started grading our grade cards and ranking us with everyone else in our class. Talk about defeating your confidence. Every semester, I hated the look on my grade card because at the top right, it would show you your ranking amongst all your peers in the grade. I never broke out of the bottom four in my class. And it was just always this like defeating moment. It's like, man, I am the dumbest kid in this class. And I

• 32:43Lewis Howes?

  Essentially cheated my way through middle school and high school by asking people to help me on homework and quizzes. And it was just like, ah, Scantrons back in the day. I don't know if you remember that where it's like you're just filling in bubbles and you're like, ah, who's filling in what? Like, I had to just survive to get through high school and graduate and I almost flunked out of English class. So for me, it just felt like, man, am I ever going to be able to amount to anything in life because I'm so stupid in school? So it was just a confirmation that continually put in this self-talk that was negative. You're dumb, you're stupid. Uh, no one's going to give you an opportunity because you're not smart enough.

• 33:25Lewis Howes?

  That was the thing. And it wasn't until later in life when I realized, oh, it's actually not about being smart. It's actually about being kind. It's actually about being present, about being generous. Have you ever been around someone who's so smart, who won't look you in the eyes? That's always looking around to see what else is going on, or they're just on their phone distracted. They're kind of a jerk. It's like, hey, I'm right here. Like, what's going on? But they're just so in their head and they're speaking in such an intellectual way that just makes you feel like inferior in some ways. And they don't, they look right through you and just like, what? I don't want to create a relationship with that person. I don't care how smart you are, how talented you are.

• 34:09Lewis Howes?

  I'm not going to be like, hey, let me add as much value to you in the world and you just look right through me or don't even talk to me. It's just, you're not building a relationship. And the key to success in life is relationships. And the key to successful relationships is being a generous listener, being vulnerable, being open, being kind. Like, that's what you remember. And it's important to be a generous human being in front of someone else. I'm not saying we're going to be perfect at this, like I make mistakes all the time. I'm sure I'm distracted all the time as well around people, but I do my best to be as present as possible.

• 34:51Lewis Howes?

  I do my best to try to be giving as much as I can. And I think that's the key. Proximity is power. And most people treat networking like collecting business cards and transactional. How can I just get something from this person right away? How can I ask them for help right away? And again, this goes back to the gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. Proximity is power, right? It is powerful. But if you approach it in the wrong ways, it could hurt you. And people will remember your first impressions the most. They'll remember if you are kind, if you're generous, you're a curious listener.

• 35:34Lewis Howes?

  And I'm going to share with you a couple of quick stories. One was the time that created so much financial opportunity for me. It blew me away and it was a two day weekend. It was the first mastermind I went to. And I was starting to build my business. My business at the time, this is probably like 2008 or something like that. 2009, maybe it was. My business at the time, in one year generated $250,000 roughly in sales. And it was like working my butt off. It was like day and night. I was up till three, four AM, just like constantly marketing, constantly learning, growing. It was just grinding that first year.

• 36:19Lewis Howes?

  And it did $250,000 in sales. It wasn't my first year ever, but it was like my first year, full year, really in like business. Once I started making some money in January. So after that first year, January starts and I go to this mastermind. And at this mastermind, there's probably 20, 25 people that were way farther ahead than me in the online marketing world, authors, speakers, people who had, you know, million dollar plus businesses, things like that. And I was like the young little guy. I was like, I barely made it in this mastermind. And I was like, I'm just here to learn and add value. And for two days, all I did was ask people questions about their business and see how I could help them.

• 37:02Lewis Howes?

  That's all I did. I asked them questions. I listened and I said, how can I help you? And at the time I knew a lot about LinkedIn and LinkedIn was powerful in helping people grow their business. And that's how I got into this mastermind. So all I did, there was five different people that I really kind of connected with the most over two days. Cause you can't connect with everyone, 20 people over two days for an hour at a time. It's like I connected with about five different people, the people sitting next to me and added as much value as them. Right there, I was like helping them on the LinkedIn profile, strategy, follow-up stuff and just asking them how I could help them. I didn't ask anyone if they could help me. I just said, how can I help you? And I did it for them right there. I added value right there.

• 37:44Lewis Howes?

  Within a week afterwards, I just followed up with each one of them. I got their email and their cell. I just texted them, hey, it was great connecting with you. Please let me know if I can help you with more of the LinkedIn strategy that I helped you with at the event. And each one of them were just like, thank you so much. I'm already seeing results come in. This has been really helpful. I was confused about this. You've really helped create peace and clarity for me. Thank you. They said, is there anything I can do for you? Right? So they followed up and I said, well, I'd love to do a webinar with your audience. And all these guys had big email lists and audiences and I said, I'd love to do a free training for your audience to serve them, to teach them what I taught you in this last weekend.

• 38:26Lewis Howes?

  And we can do it absolutely free and I'll give them all my strategies for free, just to add value to your audience. And then if you want, I'm happy to offer my advanced training course that can help them with more tools on optimizing their LinkedIn profile and their business. And they were like, amazing. So literally all five of these individuals. Did a webinar with me over the next 30 days. And over the next 30 days, that generated almost a half a million dollars in sales. Half a million dollars over that next month. And for me, it was life changing. It was mind blowing.

• 39:07Lewis Howes?

  It was like I had worked my butt off for a few years to learn how to make money. Then kind of in the first real year of making money, did about 250,000 in sales. I had a business partner as well at the time that was helping generate that with me. And then we do a half a million within the next 30 days. All because of one mastermind and five people that I had added value to and built relationships with. The power of proximity. But if I had gone into those relationships saying, hey, help me out right now. And not paying attention and not asking questions and just being a taker. None of that would have happened. Proximity is power.

• 39:50Lewis Howes?

  And if you can focus on getting around the right people and asking them questions. So many times I went to events and trade shows and conferences in the first few years of doing business. As kind of the young guy in the industry. And somehow I would just get around the right people and ask them questions. And at the end of the night, everyone would be like, hey, you guys got to meet this Lewis Howes guy. He's like the most interesting guy here. And I never said anything. I never said anything about me. I just asked them questions and listened. But the more interested you are in another person, the more interesting you become to that person. And the most interesting person in the world is the most interested person in the world.

• 40:34Lewis Howes?

  And I think it's one of the reasons why the school of greatness has done so well is because we want to be here, we want to add value with people sitting across from us. We want to ask questions, we want to listen. It's not all about me taking over the show when I've got one of the leading billionaires, experts, scientists, researchers in the world. I'm not, I'm not here to fricking teach them. They're here to teach me and to teach you. And I think that's the key is how can you listen more? How can you add more value by listening? So. That is law number five. Law number six is the law of roles. You don't have to be number one to win. Now, a few years ago, I took Team Greatness, my team,

• 41:19Lewis Howes?

  on a little retreat to go see the dog whisperer himself, Caesar Milan. And I love Caesar Milan. He's amazing. I've watched a lot of his shows for many years. We've become friends. He's been on the School of Greatness and we've connected over the years. But he lives, I don't know, within an hour from here, near LA. He's got his dog sanctuary. And I was like, man, wouldn't it be cool if I could just take my team and we could learn from Caesar? We'd learn from him, walk with the dogs. He's got like, you know, alpaca and birds and turtles. And it's like, we're walking with the pack, right? You're with Caesar Milan and the dog pack and all the animals on his, on his land. It was really cool.

• 42:00Lewis Howes?

  And Caesar said that you need to know your role in the pack. Know your role in the pack. And so many people are like, I want to be the guy. I want to be the girl. I want to be the one who's like building the empire and doing all these things. But we have to know our role and know our role in the season we're in right now. And poor people fail because they pursue status over self-awareness. The wealthy align with their strengths, whether that's leading, supporting, building, or selling. You need to know your role and play your role like a master. And again, when we went to Caesar Milan's facility, sanctuary,

• 42:44Lewis Howes?

  he was talking about this. He goes, there's dogs that are the leaders. There's dogs that are in the middle of the pack. And there are dogs in the back of the pack. And each role is important for the pack. You need to know your role and each role is important. And you can't have the back of the pack leading leaders in the middle of the pack. It's going to be like a dogfight the whole time. No one's going to be able to go anywhere. You can't have the middle of the pack in the back and the weak ones in the middle. It's like, you can't have the leaders in the back. You've got to know your role and the season of life. And this could depend where you're at. You know, when I was playing football, I started playing football when I was 15. So I was a sophomore in high school.

• 43:29Lewis Howes?

  My freshman year, I was playing goalie in soccer and the football coach came out to a game and he saw me like, you know, blocking goals and catching everything. And he goes, you should come play football for me. My mom never wanted me to play football because she didn't want me to get hurt and she said it was too dangerous. I ended up getting hurt a lot, actually, but um, I was like one of the biggest kids in school and she was afraid of me getting hurt. So she wouldn't let me play, but then I convinced her to let me play when I was a sophomore. And I was a little afraid because I'm playing varsity with, you know, sophomore, junior, seniors. All these older guys who've been playing for, I don't know, eight or 10 years.

• 44:10Lewis Howes?

  I didn't know the rules of the game. I didn't know what to do. They give you this massive playbook in the beginning. And again, it felt like more school to me. I was already struggled memorizing like for tests and quizzes. This was a massive playbook with all these different plays and defenses and off. I was just like, what am I doing? And I was like, I'm not trying to be the guy. I don't want to be the guy. I was like, I don't, I'm not trying to be the captain. I'm not trying to be the starting quarterback. Just put me in my role. I said, I just want to play receiver. Tell me where to go. I'll catch the ball. That's all I wanted to do. And I could barely get through the first season, just being like, tell me where to line up.

• 44:55Lewis Howes?

  What does each play? Where do I go? I had to ask the quarterback almost every other play, which side do I go on? What route am I running? Well, I'm in the huddle. It's embarrassing, but I wasn't the guy. And it took me until my junior or senior year of college, you know, seven, eight years later, when I finally felt like, oh yeah, like I'm, I've learned a lot. I'm seasoned. I've trained. I've failed a ton. I've made mistakes and I've succeeded a lot. I think I can be the guy. Like I've, I'm building the confidence where like, yeah, I think I can be the guy now. Like I think I could be the lead of the pack. I can be the captain. I can take on more challenge. I can take on more stress because I've experienced it all and I've learned.

• 45:38Lewis Howes?

  And whether you're in a career right now where you're more of a junior person, sometimes you just need to know your role and own it and master it. And the more energy, the more positive attitude, the more effort and results you get, you're going to move your way up towards from the back of the pack to the middle of the pack pretty quick. And if you're able to get results and show the leaders of the pack that you are so valuable, you're going to jump the pack and start leading groups within the pack very quickly. And it just depends on the season of life, season of life for where you're at and the skills you have. But you've got to know your role, you've

• 46:20Lewis Howes?

  got to own your role and master your role, then you can elevate to new roles. And I, again, I never, I never thought of myself as like the leader, you know, I was never like, I'm the leader because in, in school, I was always in the back of the class and the bottom of the class. I was the back of the pack in school setting. In sports, I was athletically one of the best, but I didn't know the most. So I was intellectually in the back of the pack on the sports team. I was scoring touchdowns and, you know, making plays, but on the team, I was kind of like, hey, you guys just tell me what to do. It

• 47:01Lewis Howes?

  wasn't until later, more seasons in football and seasons of life, where I started to gain confidence and gain experience. And I was like, okay, I can take on more. I can step into this role. I have this wisdom, this experience, and it's okay if I fail as a leader, right? It was like, yeah, I can take this on and I understand this role. You're going to make mistakes, but that is, um, that is something that I, I challenge you to reflect on and know your role right now. And if you're chasing a dream that fits your ego, or are you chasing a dream that fits your gifts and align with where you're at right now? That's the important thing to think about in knowing your role and mastering

• 47:45Lewis Howes?

  your role with this law. And the seventh law is, man, these are all powerful, but this seventh law is going to make you feel better as a human being on a daily basis. And this law is the law of affirmation. Don't speak defeat. So many people, I learned this in sports, you can tell the team that was going to lose. In in warmups, based on their body language and their energy, are they looking energetically down and defeated? Are they, you know, going to the bench? Kind of like, oh, man, already slouched down with their shoulders and their head?

• 48:30Lewis Howes?

  Are they already looking like we've lost this game? If you're in your mind, speaking and your body language is speaking defeat, you're probably going to get defeated by a superior team or just life is going to beat you down. So the law of affirmation is don't speak defeat. Your tongue is the rudder that steers this vessel that you're living in right now. Chad Wright, a former Navy SEAL and endurance athlete says this. I just want to play this clip really quick so you can see it. Because this was from an episode that I did on the School of Greatness. Let's watch this right here.

• 49:08Speaker 02

  Your tongue is your rudder. It's going to steer the direction of your life and the outcomes of your situations.

• 49:16Lewis Howes?

  Your tongue is the rudder that steers the vessel that you're living in. And when you speak something and you speak it out loud or you're speaking internally, it is just going to affirm what you're going to create and manifest externally. You know, the body follows what the words say. Again, Lisa Nichols kind of shared this a little bit earlier in this episode as well. We've got to be thinking and speaking in alignment with what we want to create. And poor people talk themselves out of wealth with phrases like, I'm broke, or I can't do this, or it's too hard. Whereas wealthy people understand that what you say creates what you see. What you think creates how you feel.

• 50:00Lewis Howes?

  What you say creates what you see. So you want to guard your language like you guard your bank account. It's all energy. And the more positive energy that is swirling in your mindset, the more positive energy that is swirling in your heart, the more positive you can speak with affirming what you want to create in the world. No matter how challenging or hard it is, it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. You're creating now an alignment from your mindset within your heart, your energy within your body, and you're speaking it with an alignment of all three things. And then you're acting in accordance with these three things. Now you're creating harmony. Your mind.

• 50:41Lewis Howes?

  Your heart, your words, and then your actions are all in alignment, creating a harmonic energy that allows you to move through the world to affirm and manifest what you're looking to create. It's just gonna make it easier. Doors are gonna open up. The right people are gonna show up because you're thinking and speaking and acting in accordance, in alignment with your vision. You're sequencing what you want. You have the map, so it's clear. And the more clear the sequencing, the more clear that you're gonna have everything in alignment, because the law of affirmation allows you to confirm it. Again, if you can

• 51:21Lewis Howes?

  follow these seven laws, it will set you up with so much more success, so much more joy, more peace, more abundance in your life. And I want to remind you that you don't have to have this all figured out right away. But if you can go back and watch this video, go back and listen to this, take the notes, and actually do these steps, step by step, and do it every single day, it is gonna unlock so much freedom and abundance in your life that will support you forever. People are not gonna recognize you, because you're gonna show up with so much joy, positivity, you're gonna be present, you're gonna be curious, you're gonna be listening, you're gonna be adding value, you're gonna be grateful and generous.

• 52:04Lewis Howes?

  You're gonna be unrecognizable, my friend, because people are gonna be like, wow, most people are takers. Most people only think about themselves. Most people are talking about how hard life is, and they're victims, and they're gossiping. Who is this human being in front of me right now who is actually kind, compassionate, curious, driven, who's willing to go all in on their fears, who's willing to be courageous and take risks? Who is this person? I want what they have. I want to help this person. That's what you have the ability to do right now. But you have to say, I am going to commit to start doing this right now. Don't wait. Start this seven law steps right now to support you in your

• 52:48Lewis Howes?

  life. And I'm telling you, in three months, you're gonna be a completely different person if you're doing this, and you're doing it courageously with gratitude and generosity in your heart. 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

• 53:33Lewis Howes?

  and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.