Ice Cube: Working with Dr. Dre, The TRUTH About Hollywood, & Inspiring Generations

More than just a cultural icon, Ice Cube is a man of many layers - a music legend, a film star, and a sports enthusiast. He warmly opens up about his transition from the streets to the stage with Dr. Dre, and how he's evolved into a dynamic force across various industries. Ice Cube takes us back to his roots, sharing the tunes that sparked his musical flame and the pride he feels in his diverse achievements, including his leap from hip-hop into the world of acting with roles like 'Boyz n The Hood'. It's a heart-to-heart as he candidly talks about the thrills and challenges of wearing many hats in the entertainment world and staying influential in a constantly changing landscape. Ice Cube, a legendary figure in the world of music and entertainment, has proven time and time again that his talents and passions extend far beyond the realm of music and movies. While he initially gained fame as a member of the groundbreaking rap group N. W. A.,Ice Cube has since carved out a multifaceted career that spans acting, directing, producing, and even sports ownership. Following N. W. A., Ice Cube pursued a successful solo music career and later established himself as a prominent figure in the entertainment industry through his acting roles and contributions to filmmaking, starring in numerous films such as "Boyz n the Hood," "Friday," and "Barbershop." In 2017, he co-founded the BIG3, which aimed to bring an exciting 3-on-3 basketball league to fans, featuring former NBA stars and other professional players. Among Ice Cube’s many awards and honors, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of N. W. A. in 2016 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017. In this episode you will learnThe significance of maintaining peace and positivity in personal and professional life. Strategies for successfully transitioning between different career paths. The importance of creative independence in the entertainment industry. Insights into building and maintaining collaborative relationships in personal and professional lifeThe art of balancing fame, success, and family in a high-stress career. For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1562For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Jeezy – https://link.chtbl.com/1480-podRhonda Byrne – https://link.chtbl.com/1525-podJohn Maxwell – https://link.chtbl.com/1501-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  But I was used to it because I got the sad flack when I did my biggest song, which was "It Was A Good Day." Some of my guys was like, "Man, you do hardcore music. Why do you think you need to talk about a good day?" And I was like, "Well, I don't do hardcore music. I do reality music." And the reality is, if I'm having a good day, I should be able to do a song about it.

• 0:23Speaker 01

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

• 0:47Speaker 01

  I mean, what was the dream for you growing up before you found music? Because I think you were like 12 or 13 and you started rapping and getting into the music world or being creative with it. What was the dream before that? Was it to be an athlete? Did you want to grow up and do something?

• 1:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know, it was really all about, you know, wanting to play football, basketball. That was just a dream. You know, when you're young and you got skills and you can beat people in your neighborhood, you think, okay, maybe I'm good enough.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:19Speaker 00

  And then it turned to music when I realized that I like playing sports for fun. And the higher you go, the more serious the coaches get. Because they feel like they're gonna lose their job if you don't win.

• 1:36Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:37Speaker 00

  So they put a lot of pressure on kids to perform. And so I played till it wasn't fun no more. You know, I was like, "These dudes is too serious. I'm not trying to..." Go to college and go to the pros and you know, it was a dream to at a certain point. I knew, okay, this wasn't something I was gonna.

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 2:00Speaker 00

  Pursue to that level, you know, I was just gonna play as long as it was fun.

• 2:05Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 2:06Speaker 00

  And so, you know, thank God, at around the same time, I was making this decision, you know, I I started getting into music, hip hop and, you know, writing raps and, you know, just being interested in this new style and new, new form of music that was, you know, sweeping through the eighties.

• 2:27Lewis Howes?

  Was there something you heard that made you say, wow, that's really unique and different that I want to try to get into? Was there like a song or someone you saw that was doing it on the street or what was the first inspiration?

• 2:39Speaker 00

  You know, I was just a fan of the music, you know, I was turned on to the music at ten years old.

• 2:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 2:47Speaker 00

  Rapper's Delight was the song. My uncle was taking me to the dentist and he had a, he had a radio on his backseat about this big. Somebody had stole his block pump radios. He had boombox in the backseat playing the music and he, he was a DJ, so he would make tapes, but he had his style, Cameo, Confunction, Isley Brothers, and then this one song come on Rapper's Delight and I'm blown away because this is different.

• 3:22Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 3:23Speaker 00

  This is different. I just made him play it over and over and over again. He played it like seven or eight times. Now, you gotta remember, Rapper's Delight is twelve, fifteen minutes long. I just wore him out with it. He just was like, no more. Not playing this again.

• 3:42Speaker 00

  And so I would go to school and there was a guy named Darryl Lott, who was like the, you know, he was watching the kids, you know, he was like teach, you know, the aide that watches the kids after school. And we was playing on the playgrounds and he would bring his radio and he would have a lot of hip hop, you know, or a lot of beats, you know, from from More Bounce to the ounce, you know, to, you know, Rocket by Herbie Hancock and all these, you know, kind of hip hop flavored songs. And I used to just, I wouldn't want to play. I would be just listening to the next song and just be over there where the music was. And and he brought these pop lockers to the class.

• 4:27Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 4:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, and um.

• 4:29Lewis Howes?

  Like older kids or?

• 4:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, they were older, you know, they were in high school. We were still, you know, in um.

• 4:35Lewis Howes?

  Middle school?

• 4:35Speaker 00

  Elementary.

• 4:36Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  You know, it was twelve, eleven, twelve, thirteen, you know, still elementary and they would bring these high schoolers up. And they would pop lock in the in the in the classroom, you know, and I was just amazed.

• 4:49Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 4:50Speaker 00

  And they always had a little one with them, you know, somebody like our age and and he was the baddest one out the group.

• 5:00Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 5:00Speaker 00

  You know, if you, it's like a little Michael Jackson. If you see, if you see a little one with the tall ones, the little one, he's there for a reason. He's better than the tall one. So that's, I just said, damn, somebody my age can really, you know, get down and and and steal the show and, you know, and so I just was intrigued by the music. And by the time I was fourteen, I started to write raps.

• 5:26Lewis Howes?

  Really? Do you remember the first rap that you wrote that was like, oh, this is actually kind of cool, kind of catchy or kind of interesting?

• 5:31Speaker 00

  Well, the first rap I ever wrote, the first line I ever wrote was, my name is Ice Cube. I want you to know I'm not Run DMC or Curtis Blow. That was my first line. So. I don't remember the rest of the rap. I have it in a notebook somewhere at home.

• 5:49Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 5:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:51Lewis Howes?

  From when you were that age?

• 5:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 5:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:54Lewis Howes?

  I've got to be worth something today.

• 5:55Speaker 00

  Probably is. Probably is.

• 5:58Lewis Howes?

  Man, with all the, uh, the awards, the success, the money, the fame, the accomplishments that you've had in multiple different areas of life, what would you say is your greatest accomplishment?

• 6:10Speaker 00

  Professionally, I've had milestones, you know, that I can't overlook. And they've all contributed to me being right here. And, you know, proud of my work, for sure.

• 6:24Lewis Howes?

  Jeezy was also telling me about how he was so inspired that you were able to cross over from, you know, the music world into lots of other things, movies, TV, other different things you've created, the business world, being a great entrepreneur. And he said, especially coming from, I guess, the rap world, where they might try to keep you in that world or keep you in a box. He said he was so inspired that you were able to break free of that and reinvent in the different things that you've done, acting, movies and stuff like that.

• 6:54Lewis Howes?

  How do you think you were able to do that where most people don't transition so gracefully? Where they don't, aren't able to evolve?

• 7:01Speaker 00

  Well, I was lucky because I was discovered by John Singleton.

• 7:07Lewis Howes?

  For Boys in the Hood?

• 7:07Speaker 00

  Boys in the Hood, you know, I never thought I was qualified to be an actor.

• 7:12Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 7:13Speaker 00

  I thought you had to go to Juilliard or one of these professional schools to be an actor. And I didn't know, you can just be like,

• 7:22Lewis Howes?

  Off the street?

• 7:23Speaker 00

  I think you can do it.

• 7:24Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 7:24Speaker 00

  Want to try and then?

• 7:26Lewis Howes?

  How did that happen? How did he find you or how did you just meet him? And how did he say, hey, I've got a part for you?

• 7:31Speaker 00

  Well, you know, it's, it's a, it's a cool story. He was an intern at the Arsenio Hall Show. And I had got backstage because I wanted to talk to Arsenio because he had just had the two live crew. On his show and I was saying if you can have the two live crew, you can have N W A. You know, that was what that was. I was going to plead my case. Interesting. How old are you at this point? Eighteen, nineteen. Wow. I'm going to plead my case and I'm waiting. You know, he's, he's one of them guys that stay in his dressing room and when it's showtime, it's like, you know, so you got a few seconds to get it in.

• 8:15Speaker 00

  And, um, John, here comes this guy like now this early N W A era. So, I wasn't a recognizable face. It wasn't like, oh, that's Ice Cube. You guys weren't that big yet. We were big, but it was all about E Z E. You know, it was like E Z E and N W A. You know, it was kind of like Gladys Knight and the Pips. You know what I mean? Like you might not know the Pips, but whatever. So he comes up. He's like, you're Ice Cube. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. He's like, oh, man, you're an N W A. I'm like, yeah, you know, who are you? You know, I'm an intern working up here, you know, and he's like, I want to put you in a movie.

• 9:01Speaker 00

  And I'm like, He's an intern at this talk show. He's a junior at U S C. He's like, I'm a junior at U S C Film School. And I'm writing this movie. And when I graduate, I'm gonna get it made and I'm gonna put you in it. Wow. I'm like, Okay. Okay, dude. But he's talking so long. I miss Arsenio. He goes on and I'm like, not waiting. So I don't pay this no attention. I'm at another event at the Bonaventure Hotel in L A.

• 9:37Speaker 00

  This is six months later or something and this dude runs up. Hey man, Ice Cube. Remember me? And I'm like, no, who are you? Yeah. John Singleton. Uh, I met you at Arsenio. The one that's gonna put you in a movie. I'm a senior now at SC. Oh, my gosh. When I graduate, it's gonna happen. I'm like, okay, you know, buddy. Sure. I break up with NWA. I'm solo now. And I'm working with Public Enemy on my first album. And they, they have a show at the Palace in LA, Public Enemy. So I'm like, I'm gonna go check out my guys coming right here in LA. I go check them out.

• 10:21Speaker 00

  At the end of the concert, guy taps me. Remember me? No way, man. I'm like, I remember you now, dude. What's up? He was like, you know, I graduated. You know, this is, he was like, this is my last week. And, um. I'm gonna make this movie. He starts wanting to tell me about the movie, you know? And if anybody ever wants to pitch you a script, tell them, you know, let's do it on another day. Cause it took forty minutes for him to go through this movie. I'm kinda listening, half listening. We at my car. I'm seeing people in the parking lot leave. He's lingering around. Yeah, you know, his, his ride leaves him.

• 11:06Speaker 00

  His ride leaves him. He's still trying. Yeah, it's like two o'clock in the morning. We in the parking lot at the Palace. And he's like, looking around. I'm like, oh. He cut, he walks around, he comes back. And he's like, man, my ride left me. Can you give me a ride to my dorm at USC? My dorm. Ah, what? That get myself into. So, give him a ride, he's still telling.

• 11:34Speaker 00

  I dropped this dude off at his dorm and I forget about it. I'm solo. My solo album is really, you know, doing well and I'm in the mix. My manager, and I'll make this a long story short, but my manager comes and says, somebody want to put you in a movie? I forget about, I'm like, who, huh? What? But, but my record is hot, so I'm like, well, maybe people see, like Ice T that, yo, I'm a hot rapper, put me in a movie, so I'll try it. I'm thinking I'm gonna go see basically some white guys that's doing a movie. Uh huh. I walk in, I didn't read the script, throw it in my backseat.

• 12:15Speaker 00

  They gave me some lines to audition to, so I was like, I'll just read these right before I go in and I go in and it's him sitting there. Oh my gosh. Production office. Casting, that was the whole thing. Casting, he's doing the whole thing. He's like, I told you. Oh my gosh. He's like, I told you. And I'm like, it's you. Wow. He's like, yeah, I'm do- we doing this movie, man? And I audition and I'm terrible. I suck. I, I mean, I suck. I don't know what I'm, I'm reading. I'm forgetting lines. It's just very choppy. He's like, man, did you read my script? Cause you obviously don't know nothing about the movie.

• 12:57Speaker 00

  I said, man, I, I didn't even know it was you. I just took it for granted. He was like, I'm gonna give you one more shot. Wow. It's like, go home and read my script all the way through. Come back tomorrow, same time, give you one more shot. But if you're this terrible cue, I gotta, I gotta cast somebody else. You know, I need, I need a real actor that could do this. So once I read it, I'm like, oh, they're doing a, they talking about our neighborhood, like, whoa. This is gonna be a movie, like How We Grew Up? Wow. So now I got the picture. I understood who Doughboy was and all this. So when I went to read the next time, I was, I was good, you know?

• 13:41Speaker 00

  And I got the ball rolling. That got me into acting. Wow. And he got me into writing scripts. Cause now that, now that I was doing the movie, we was hanging a lot. He would have me come there as a house and we'd watch movies like A Clockwork Orange. And like, this is, this is a good movie. This movie sucks. This is why this is one was good. You know, he was like putting me through film school. And um, he said, dude, when you gonna write a script? He say, you think everything is gonna be, he said, you think every movie for your ass is gonna be good as boys in the hood? He said Hollywood has no movies for you.

• 14:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 14:20Speaker 00

  You gonna have to write your own.

• 14:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow, this is fascinating, man.

• 14:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, I said, I went and bought a computer that day. And in the final draft script, software. That day I started writing a movie and he started to help me and

• 14:40Speaker 00

  I wrote two or three scripts that were

• 14:44Speaker 00

  but, but, but my third one was Friday.

• 14:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 14:48Speaker 00

  So that was when I, you know, got it on point on what a movie needs to be and do and.

• 14:55Lewis Howes?

  This is fascinating, man.

• 14:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:57Lewis Howes?

  So if you wanted to shown up to that audition and then come back the next day and actually prepared.

• 15:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:03Lewis Howes?

  And auditioned and gotten that role.

• 15:06Speaker 00

  If he didn't let me.

• 15:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 15:08Speaker 00

  He could have been like.

• 15:09Lewis Howes?

  Screw this guy.

• 15:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, this dude is not serious.

• 15:11Lewis Howes?

  Where do you think your life or career would be without doing that initial first movie?

• 15:16Speaker 00

  Man, you know, I think I would just be, you know, hyper focused on, on the music. And I think at some point I would have tried to flip it into something. You know, that was more creatively satisfying, like movies, movie making. If you're an artist, you know, it's the biggest canvas you can paint on. It's nothing, it's nothing.

• 15:48Speaker 00

  Bigger than a movie if you're trying to paint a picture.

• 15:52Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:53Speaker 00

  You know, um, you can't, it's no medium that's better than a movie. So, you know, this is creating on the highest level, which turns me on, you know, which I dig. We even made records that sounded, you know, we have a lot of sound effects and, and, and acting and skits and stuff on our music because we wanted it to sound as real as a movie. And so to be able to actually do a movie, it was, you know, I was kinda in creative heaven for myself, yeah.

• 16:27Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible. So you've done what, over forty movies now?

• 16:31Speaker 00

  That's what they say. I, I haven't counted. I haven't, I haven't went down the line, but.

• 16:35Lewis Howes?

  How many have you written that have been produced and?

• 16:38Speaker 00

  At least nine or ten, maybe even more. You know, I've polished every script that I've produced. So even if I didn't write it from scratch.

• 16:48Lewis Howes?

  You're adding to it.

• 16:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, just making sure that is.

• 16:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man.

• 16:52Speaker 00

  You know, um, a good movie that you can watch over and over again. Cause I think that's the, that's the key to a successful movie.

• 17:01Lewis Howes?

  What is it?

• 17:02Speaker 00

  Not how much it makes. Cause if you can only see a movie once and you don't wanna see it again, do you really care how much you made? And if you can watch a movie over and over, or when you catch it in the middle, you continue to watch it cause you know you love this movie and it's always a good time. Do you care how much it made? You know what I mean? It's like, you know, you love one movie and you may like the other movie. Uh, so I believe, you know, I make movies that you can watch over and over and over again.

• 17:33Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:33Speaker 00

  And to me, those are the best movies.

• 17:37Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest lesson you learned doing Boys in the Hood versus making your first movie Friday?

• 17:44Speaker 00

  You gotta have great producers. You gotta have, you know, people who really know what they're doing. Because you have to execute every day. Movies are broken down in today's, the money. If you got thirty million dollars.

• 18:02Speaker 00

  That breaks down, how much does it cost to shoot per day? And then that gives you how many days you're gonna shoot. Sixty million, you may have more days. Twenty millions, you may have less. You know, with our movie Friday, we shot it for two point three million.

• 18:19Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:20Speaker 00

  And we shot it in twenty days.

• 18:22Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 18:22Speaker 00

  Which is four weeks.

• 18:24Lewis Howes?

  That's fast.

• 18:25Speaker 00

  Five day, five day weeks, not seven day.

• 18:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:28Speaker 00

  So twenty days. So you have to know what you're doing, you know, you have to have great producers and.

• 18:36Lewis Howes?

  But you didn't really know what you were doing still. I mean, you'd done one movie, but it wasn't your movie. You'd acted, but how did you know what you were gonna do for your first movie that you wrote and produced?

• 18:46Speaker 00

  Well, you know, I had, um.

• 18:48Lewis Howes?

  Did John help you?

• 18:49Speaker 00

  You know, John helped, definitely. He helped us kinda corral it. We knew we were making it low budget, so it was contained, which helped us, you know, we was pretty much.

• 19:01Lewis Howes?

  One set.

• 19:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. One street, not too many locations. And, you know, it was really about just making sure what we shot was funny, you know, and it's getting through the day. You really have to start with a funny script. If you start with a funny script, then you can enhance it when you shoot. That's what it's really all about. It's about executing every day and making your day and making sure you you have a certain amount of scenes to shoot per day. You gotta get through it no matter what.

• 19:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow. My fiance is a, an actor, writer, producer. She's, I think she's done about the same amount of movies as you, forty movies. She's, she's from Mexico, so she's done a lot of Spanish films.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:42Lewis Howes?

  She's crossed over into the US as well, but um, she's written, I think, seven or eight, produced a bunch of them. She hasn't directed yet. And I'm curious, when you are.

• 19:55Lewis Howes?

  The writer, the star actor, the producer, or you're directing as well, how do you stay present, you know, on those four weeks or eight weeks of the movie? And how do you lead others? The production team, the crew, the cast? How do you lead everyone while you're trying to make your movie and act and produce it as well?

• 20:17Speaker 00

  Well, you know, what's great about movie making is you basically have to build each scene as you shoot. You have to, you know, you have your locations down, you have your actors, you have your props, but you still have to figure out, how does this scene play out? How many sequences to get to the end of the scene? How many shots do you need? You're doing what's called marks. So you're setting marks on, okay, first they sit here, they talk. One guy walks over here, we gotta mark him over here because he talks from over there. Another guy goes to the refrigerator. So you, you, you laying it out and you have to do that every day with every scene.

• 21:02Speaker 00

  So as you're doing that, you're getting a chance to interact. You rehearse the scene a lot. During that rehearsal, you could tell the actor, hey, no, do it this way. So you, you know, it's no pressure, the camera's now rolling. So you get a run through, you know, you get to kinda, to beat the scene out and then you play it out, you know, without shooting it, just to make sure everything works and flows. And then from there, the guys figure out how to shoot that. And so it gives you time to beat it out, get your interaction and then, you know, it's guys that you gotta trust.

• 21:46Speaker 00

  Now you can go look at playback so you can go see if you're acting in the same scene, you can go after the scene and see, did we hit it? Did we get it? And the key is to not to move until you get it. I don't care what anybody's yelling. We're running out of time, running out of time for this. Keep, stay there until you get what you.

• 22:10Speaker 00

  Said, you know, we've worked months for this moment.

• 22:13Lewis Howes?

  Right, get the shot.

• 22:15Speaker 00

  You gotta get it, cuz if you don't get it, you're gonna be in the edit base saying,

• 22:20Lewis Howes?

  We missed.

• 22:21Speaker 00

  We should've stayed there another fifteen minutes.

• 22:22Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 22:24Speaker 00

  We'd had a perfect shot, now it's funky. It's not really working cuz we, we were so worried about getting to the next scene, we didn't execute the scene that we were on. So, you have time to beat it out, work it out. You do this with each scene throughout the whole movie until, you know, you, you, you finish.

• 22:45Lewis Howes?

  You've done so much creatively as an artist with the, the movies you've made, the films you've made. I'm curious, and so many of them have, or at least they seem to be, so many of them seem to look like you had a lot of fun making them.

• 23:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:03Lewis Howes?

  It's enjoyable for you, you've had fun. I'm sure there's breakdowns and stuff, but it seems like it was fun to make. They were culturally, you know, relevant and did extremely well successfully and, and people use lines and part of scenes in culture for decades.

• 23:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:21Lewis Howes?

  Which is amazing.

• 23:23Speaker 00

  Yes, great.

• 23:24Lewis Howes?

  And they make a lot of money.

• 23:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:26Lewis Howes?

  A lot of them, I'm assuming.

• 23:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:28Lewis Howes?

  How do you kind of hit that trifecta where you make a movie that you enjoy as the artist, that culture consumes, they love and they use it. They use these scenes, they use these lines, they, the phrases, they use it in daily culture, and it makes money. How do you get that trifecta when you make a movie?

• 23:47Speaker 00

  Man, it's, you know, it's, it's hitting the sweet spot. I think having fun on set, not to the point where you're not handling business, but, you know, some people make movies in the set as very hostile and

• 24:04Lewis Howes?

  Tense.

• 24:05Speaker 00

  And intense and, you know, people act like it's brain surgery. You know, it's kind of like, uh, like I was saying with the sports, you know, it was like, some guys out there having fun, some guys you think they were, you know, they life depending on whether you get this first down or not, you know what I'm saying? It's kind of, so, I've always made sure our crew and everybody is having a good time, none of this yelling, none of this, uh... You know, on the next department because we're the this department and you're that department. You know, none of that, you know, hierarchy mess. Let's have fun. We're making a comedy.

• 24:50Speaker 00

  Let's keep in a perspective, you know what I mean? Let's make sure we have fun doing it and it's not uptight. So I think that's a big part of it.

• 25:00Lewis Howes?

  The environment's gotta be fun, playful.

• 25:03Speaker 00

  The script has to be funny before the actors get a hold of it. You can't depend on comedians to make your funny, your scripts funny.

• 25:12Lewis Howes?

  How do some of these scripts get greenlit in Hollywood? That these movies they're out sometimes, I'm like, how did this get past these executives or the financiers? To make this movie when it's not a good script?

• 25:25Speaker 00

  Well, I think Hollywood has two agendas. It's profit, but it's also propaganda.

• 25:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, really? Tell me more.

• 25:35Speaker 00

  Well, I think they want to influence society, you know, with these movies, you know. And sometimes that's more important than making the money. And then sometimes the money is the most important, you know? You never know which god, you know, is being served here. You know, which master is being served here, so to speak. Sometimes when you're making a movie, because, you know, cer- certain things are done purely for the propaganda of it.

• 26:08Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think, I mean, I'm assuming not everyone in Hollywood is into propaganda, but it seems like some movies are. Why do you think a part of Hollywood wants to project propaganda so much and and serve an agenda? Versus just make great art?

• 26:25Speaker 00

  I mean, I think movie companies, you know, for the most part, a lot of them. Started and were owned by the same people who won the engineer's society anyway. You know, it's kind of, this is just part of their portfolio. Some of these folks are so rich, this is Hollywood's a toy. Just like guys that own a football team, you know, some of them, the team is, is the family legacy. You know, maybe like the Cowboys, you know, but to some, you know, maybe the Rams, you know, this guy who, I don't know if he own Home Depot or whatever else, it's probably a toy, you know?

• 27:06Speaker 00

  So I, I just think, you know, the people who have the ultimate say are people who engineer society in other ways anyway, whether it's, you know, banking or

• 27:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 27:21Speaker 00

  School, medicine, you know, hospitals, colleges, you know, they wanna, they want people to think a certain way anyway, and these are the same people who own studios. So that's how

• 27:36Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 27:36Speaker 00

  That, that junk gets made.

• 27:38Lewis Howes?

  How important is it for you to have your own creative thinking outside of that? When you make music or films or any type of

• 27:46Speaker 00

  Very important.

• 27:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 27:48Speaker 00

  So important that I, I don't know, doing a studio movie does not turn me on more than doing an independent.

• 27:56Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 27:56Speaker 00

  Yeah. I would just love to just do independent movies and never deal with a studio meeting or studio notes ever again in life.

• 28:08Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 28:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:10Lewis Howes?

  Just too much stress or too much?

• 28:12Speaker 00

  You just never know what bullshit they are. You never know if it's profit, propaganda, you know? You never know why certain movies get made and other ones don't. You know, sometimes Hollywood doesn't know a good movie until they see it. We've had people turn down movies like Ride Along and Straight Outta Compton. Studio even turned down The Joker till they saw it.

• 28:38Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 28:39Speaker 00

  It was like, oh damn, we shouldn't have turned this down. So sometimes you have to actually make the movie for people to understand how good it really is. And I know that, you know, so I would rather go make my movies and then present it to Hollywood and say, who, who wants to distribute this movie?

• 28:57Lewis Howes?

  If someone wanted to make a movie today and they didn't want to deal with Hollywood, what would be the the formula you would create for someone if they didn't, you know, maybe they only got a half a million or a million bucks, or they can only get that from friends and family or an investor, whatever it is. They don't have some huge budget. They want to kind of break the system in some way. How can they do that from the financial side, the production side, and also the distribution, which seems to be the hardest part?

• 29:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:24Lewis Howes?

  How can they do that today and actually be profitable and make a great movie?

• 29:29Speaker 00

  Well, you know, at some point, you wanna, you do want to get distributed. You do want the studios to put their machine behind.

• 29:42Lewis Howes?

  The marketing.

• 29:42Speaker 00

  Promotion and marketing machine behind the movie for awareness and for, you know, ultimately, you want people to see it. You know what I'm saying?

• 29:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 29:51Speaker 00

  But you don't have to include them in making it. You just gotta have, you know, the courage to go make your movie and bring them a finished product.

• 30:03Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 30:04Speaker 00

  And, you know, that's what, that's what, you know, the movie festivals are for, when they have the try back of this.

• 30:10Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 30:11Speaker 00

  It's for people to show their movies to distributors and hopefully get somebody to, to buy it and and put it out. But there's ultimately, to me, so many different streaming services and so many different ways to actually get paid from a movie that, um, you know, it's a lot, it's a lot easier than it than it used to be. You know, I think people that make movies can get them seen and made and, you know, get people to watch them a lot easier than before.

• 30:41Lewis Howes?

  Did you feel like you had a lot of criticism when you were trying to transition though, from N W A to to, I guess, Boys in the Hood, the movies and doing Friday? Did you get? Negative energies or people trying to pull you back or saying, what are you doing? Trying to do this acting thing? Who do you think you are? Or did you get a lot of support?

• 30:58Speaker 00

  I got a lot of support, but you know, people did raise their eyebrow when it was, when I was doing Friday. And they were like, well, you know, you do hardcore music, you do, you know, your movies that you've done have been dramas, like, why do you think you could do a comedy? And that was weird for people. But I was used to it because I got the sad flack when I did, um, my biggest song, which was, it was a good day. You know, some of my guys was like, man, you do, do hardcore music. Why do you think you need to talk about a good day?

• 31:41Speaker 00

  And I was like, well, I don't do hardcore music. I do reality music. And the reality is if I'm having a good day, I should be able to do a song about it. You know, why should I, you know, just talk about the heart without talking about everything? You know, and it's, it's my biggest song.

• 32:00Lewis Howes?

  Really? Talking about a positive thing?

• 32:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, because it was from the heart.

• 32:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 32:05Speaker 00

  And I'm saying with N W A, you know, we, we didn't know we were gonna be big stars with this kind of hip hop. Like going that hard. We thought we was just gonna be underground.

• 32:17Lewis Howes?

  LA scene.

• 32:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know, just, you know, neighborhood stars, you know what I'm saying? Getting the girls in our neighborhood to pay attention to us.

• 32:27Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 32:27Speaker 00

  We thought that was about as far as it was gonna go. And we just came from the heart. And then it adds up being our ticket to success.

• 32:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow. And you met, I think I heard you talk about meeting Dr. Dre, Dre back when you were 12 or 13, isn't that right?

• 32:43Speaker 00

  14.

• 32:43Lewis Howes?

  14?

• 32:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:45Lewis Howes?

  The synchronicities that you've had in your life are pretty amazing. You know, from Dre to John for the movie, like, he kept just pursuing you and you weren't even acting.

• 32:56Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 32:57Lewis Howes?

  Like, you've been.

• 33:00Lewis Howes?

  You know, maybe the environment wasn't perfect that you're in, but there were synchronicities that perfectly aligned for you to have opportunities to then take a chance, work hard, show up, and create what you created.

• 33:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, it's been, you know, and looking back, it's just been right place at the right time. And also the courage to pursue things that you've never done. Like, go for it.

• 33:29Lewis Howes?

  How did you know to trust that courage as opposed to be like, eh, I'm just gonna stick to football. Eh, I'm just gonna hang out, you know, ride my bike around. I'm not gonna go past your Dr. Dre and be like, hey, let me learn from you.

• 33:41Speaker 00

  I, I mean, I was so interested in the creative process of making records. Like,

• 33:48Speaker 00

  first, I never thought I was gonna meet anybody who made a record.

• 33:53Lewis Howes?

  And Dre had at that time.

• 33:54Speaker 00

  And Dre had made a single, you know, he made a song called, uh, Dr. Dre and Surgery.

• 34:02Lewis Howes?

  How old was he then, when you were like 14, how old?

• 34:05Speaker 00

  He had to be 19.

• 34:08Lewis Howes?

  So why would, you know, why would a 19-year-old allow a 13, 14-year-old to even come hang out with him?

• 34:14Speaker 00

  Cause I was dope. I was fresh, you know, I could rhyme, I could write.

• 34:19Lewis Howes?

  So you had some talent.

• 34:20Speaker 00

  I had talent. That's the only reason he let me hang around.

• 34:24Lewis Howes?

  Cause otherwise he'd be like, get out of here.

• 34:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, he's like, you know, watch out, man. But I was helping him write rhymes. I was trying to, you know, he was in the world-class wrecking crew at the time, which was, they were more of a DJ party crew who did, you know, do parties around the city and then they were starting to dibble and dabble and make records. And, um, and I was a good writer, so I started to, you know, they wanted a LA hit, you know, they wanted to be played on K-Day. Like the LA Dream Team and the Uncle Jam's Army, Gibson Lover, so they, you know, they wanted to, you know, have, get in rotation and they had a slow song, but it wasn't, you know.

• 35:10Speaker 00

  Full-throated hip-hop. It was kinda like a slow jam with a girl singing and then they had this slow, I need love kinda raps.

• 35:18Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 35:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, turn off the lights. So they wanted a hit, you know, so I would.

• 35:25Lewis Howes?

  And you had, you had, you had talent. You had, you had value you could provide.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:30Lewis Howes?

  You weren't just like sitting around doing nothing. You had something to contribute.

• 35:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:34Lewis Howes?

  So that's a big thing to know. It's like you had the talent that they didn't have that at the time.

• 35:39Speaker 00

  Um, I mean, a few of them did, but you know, the, when you're trying to get on, it's like best idea win.

• 35:45Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 35:46Speaker 00

  More the merrier, you know, the more talent you can find, the more you have the opportunity to make a hit record. And so.

• 35:53Lewis Howes?

  How did you have that confidence at fourteen to be like, I'm gonna hang out with these nineteen-year-olds who made a record or made songs that are, you know, DJing around, doing clubs and gigs around town. I'm just gonna wrap it up.

• 36:03Speaker 00

  I'm from LA, they from Compton. I'm from South Central. So it was fun. It was a whole new world, you know. Being in Compton was a new world for me, you know what I'm saying? In a lot of ways, it was different than our neighborhood.

• 36:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:17Speaker 00

  But a lot of it was the same.

• 36:18Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 36:19Speaker 00

  And, you know, hanging out with dudes who, you know, I used to pay to get into the party.

• 36:25Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 36:25Speaker 00

  You know, and now I can walk in with the DJs and, you know, we're carrying crates of records and we're moving Seren Vega speakers and we part of the party, you know what I'm saying? We in the DJ booth now. We, we actually part of.

• 36:44Lewis Howes?

  The crew.

• 36:45Speaker 00

  The, the crew that makes the party happen instead of us going there and just the music already set up and, you know, it's already going on. You don't know who's who. You know, now, you know, I was part of the actual wrecking crew, you know, in a lot of ways. So it was exciting. It was different than what was happening in my neighborhood. And, um, I just wanted to be a part of it.

• 37:11Lewis Howes?

  When did you know, like, you guys had something special? When, was there a moment or was there like a gig you played where you're like, oh, people are actually like singing our stuff back to us or there's a crowd here or, you know, we're in the studio or this, something just feels like we're in the flow? When did you know, like, we got something here?

• 37:30Speaker 00

  Well, we. You know, I was hanging around Dre, but we had our own crew. His cousin is named Sir Jinx. That was your neighbor, right? Yeah, he lived down the street. This is why I was, you know, even close to Dre because his cousin lived down the street. Then Dre ended up moving in with them till he found his apartment. So, you know, I had better access to it. Sure, sure. So we had our own crew and we were trying to, you know, do cool stuff. We joined this contest called the Best Rappers in the West Contest. And, um, and we came in second because, you know, they messed up our music.

• 38:15Speaker 00

  And, you know, back then it was a tape. It didn't start from the beginning. It started in the middle and they had to rewind it. It just killed our momentum. And so we was upset. And then, and then Dre, who had came to watch us, you know, do the finals. He was like, man, don't worry about it. You guys was good. Y'all should come perform at Doodo's where we DJ. Wow. Compton. Come, come perform one of your songs. Yeah, yeah, in front of the crowd, but you gotta be good. Don't mess up like this. Yeah, you gotta, you know, and I advise you guys to be funny or put a little fanny in there or something. And we was like, okay.

• 38:57Speaker 00

  We was thinking about, okay, we got our original song, but we need, you know, we wanna do something that's gonna really get the crowd going and, and, and be funny. And, you know, all the, all the ingredients Dre told us that we should think about. What we did was like, you know how Weird Al Yankovic would take a song and flip it? Make it, you know, funny or whatever. So we took a song called Roxanne Roxanne by U T F O. And we did. A dirty nasty version called Diane Diane.

• 39:31Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 39:32Speaker 00

  We was using their cadence, but we was changing the lyrics. And and they just went over like.

• 39:38Lewis Howes?

  People are crazy.

• 39:38Speaker 00

  Crazy.

• 39:39Lewis Howes?

  Do you still have that recording?

• 39:40Speaker 00

  Nah nah, we.

• 39:42Lewis Howes?

  That'd be cool.

• 39:42Speaker 00

  We did it live, we never recorded.

• 39:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that'd be cool.

• 39:45Speaker 00

  Um.

• 39:45Lewis Howes?

  Be cool to recreate that one day.

• 39:47Speaker 00

  You know, but we did, we did a second version of that. Cause we had, we performed again. And we flipped a few songs, so. I think we made a record of that.

• 39:58Lewis Howes?

  That'd be cool to see that.

• 39:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, it doesn't have a label on it. Because. Lazo thought we would get sued for, you know.

• 40:07Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, of course.

• 40:09Speaker 00

  So it just says dirty rap, it's just a white, white label. But um, that was where we was like, oh, you know, this is. Just turn the crowd on. We should just make original songs.

• 40:22Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 40:23Speaker 00

  But, you know, we shouldn't worry if we're using Phantom and that. Cause nobody gonna play us on the radio anyway.

• 40:30Lewis Howes?

  Right. What is the, what's the greatest lesson? I know you and Dre had like some history at some point. Cause you left the, you know, the group, but then I think you guys are friends now from what I've read and. What's the greatest lesson that Dre taught you? When you were in that season of life or even now?

• 40:47Speaker 00

  Trust yourself.

• 40:48Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 40:50Speaker 00

  Trust yourself. And I think that's the biggest lesson, when I really think about it. That it's not about anybody but what's going on inside. You know, you can, you can listen to all the noise and sometimes the noise can make you change direction. Sometimes the noise can, can get you off your position. And, you know, I look at it like you wanna be the tree in the flood. The flood is so much, everything is rushing past. Going, you know, a million miles an hour and the tree is just still there. With his roots dug in, which is your conviction.

• 41:33Speaker 00

  And live or die with your convictions. And um, I think that's the greatest lesson because, you know, we argued a lot making that N W A record.

• 41:44Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 41:44Speaker 00

  And the arguments was.

• 41:47Speaker 00

  You know, what's dope, what's not? Should we use this or not? Should we do this or not? Should we say this or not? You know, it was, you know, us trying to get to the best version of ourselves and and sometimes he was staying on what he believed in. Sometimes the best argument would move him. So if you had something better or, you know, something that was more impressive, you, you know, you would see him change his position. So that was great too, cause it was like,

• 42:21Speaker 00

  oh, you can affect the record. You just gotta be better than what's already here.

• 42:26Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Did you ever feel like, I don't know, intimidated though? Cause you're like a late teens, he's his mid twenties. You know, he's a little further, I guess, in success or when he's created, a little bit older. Like, did you feel intimidated ever? Or was it more, you felt confident to express your argument? Or if he was like, no, then you felt like you needed to back down or?

• 42:47Speaker 00

  Well, you know, you wanted to argue your point. You know, you know, ultimately he's the producer, so what he say is gonna go. The intimidation factor was just you wanted him to like what you was presenting.

• 43:03Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 43:04Speaker 00

  But if he didn't, that doesn't mean to be discouraged or, or even what he was saying was true. You had to fight for your position, argue your point. Best argument win and sometimes you won it, sometimes you lost.

• 43:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 43:20Speaker 00

  But you have to come in with conviction. You just can't have an idea that hasn't been thought out. So you just knew you had to come correct. And you know, if you wasn't great, you wasn't gonna make the record. So that was something else that kept your quality. You know, he, he was quality control. So, you know, you had to get through him to get on the record.

• 43:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. I think it's a good piece of wisdom, trust yourself. And I'm curious, did you ever not trust yourself? In the last kind of thirty years of your career? Was there ever moments of doubt or insecurity?

• 43:56Speaker 00

  You know, yeah.

• 43:58Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 43:58Speaker 00

  Just, you know, to be.

• 44:02Speaker 00

  With all humans, I don't think anybody, I don't care how confident you portray to be, that you can walk into every situation and be totally confident about the outcome, you know? So self doubt can always creep in. You know, I've noticed that the least I'm prepared, the more I doubt. But the more I'm prepared, the the least I doubt.

• 44:30Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 44:30Speaker 00

  So when you know what you're talking about, you're very confident. When you're not, when you don't quite know what you're talking about, kind of trying to fake it till you make it. Then you're gonna not be as confident and you're gonna second guess and you may make a big mistake because you didn't study.

• 44:53Lewis Howes?

  Like your first audition?

• 44:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:55Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 44:55Speaker 00

  That was a big mistake, you know, that could have been, that could have changed my whole life.

• 45:00Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that crazy?

• 45:01Speaker 00

  You know, just think if it wasn't John Singleton, it was just some director, producer who wanted to try me out for a role and I would have blew it that day. So you take your opportunities serious or don't take them at all.

• 45:15Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 45:16Speaker 00

  You know, what I should have said was, I don't want to do no movie, you know? That's what I should have told my manager. I don't want to do a movie, but I tried to go out, go down there and just see what was up.

• 45:29Lewis Howes?

  Wing it.

• 45:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, and it could have been a fatal mistake.

• 45:33Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 45:33Speaker 00

  Which, you know, thank God that he gave me another shot.

• 45:37Lewis Howes?

  What do you think it was in John, what he saw in you? That he kept persisting you for a year and a half, two years? And you show up to the audition, you kind of vomit, and he still says, I'm gonna give you one more shot. What did what did he see in you for the role in Boys in the Hood?

• 45:55Speaker 00

  I mean, he knew I could do it. You know, he knew I could do it before I knew I could do it.

• 46:00Lewis Howes?

  Wow, really? What, how did he know that, though? It's like.

• 46:03Speaker 00

  Because he saw something in me or in an interview or in a, you know, it's what, it's what, you know, I've, I've brought in a lot of different actors, you know, from Chris Tuckey to Mike Epps, Cat Williams, Terry Crews. Um, you see something, you know, you see something in a, in a person and you're like, yo.

• 46:25Speaker 00

  I could set you up to to win, you know, I see you as something different than what you're doing bigger, you know, I could I could see you as a character.

• 46:38Speaker 00

  And if you look in, you know, it's this is it's a lot of talent around here. And, you know, if you really think about John Singerton, he's helped me, Tupac, Busta Rhymes, Tyrese, you know, we were all Ludacris, Think Fast and Furious, and Hustle and Flow. You know, so we, you know, we wasn't thinking about acting, you know, he he saw something in us. And said, hey, you know, what you're doing in music is cool, but you had a charisma to be on the big screen. Wow. And we, you know, we all are very appreciative

• 47:23Speaker 00

  of him for that because it opened up a whole new world for us.

• 47:26Lewis Howes?

  What is it that you wish people knew about success, fame, and money? Because you've had it all over the last thirty plus years. And I think a lot of people dream about having a career like yours, or even a fraction of your career, or having some of the success, the fame, the money. But what is it about those things that you really wish people knew? Before wanting to dive into having it all?

• 47:54Speaker 00

  It's it's hard to sustain it. Getting to the top is one level of struggle. Staying there is a whole different struggle. And look, nobody stays at the tip top. Everybody rolls down the mountain. But the the difference is how far do you want to roll down before you stop? Wow. And find your

• 48:21Speaker 00

  place. So you know, you might get to the tip of the mountain and you know, just know you're gonna roll down.

• 48:30Speaker 00

  Just don't roll down all the way to the bottom, you know, just find a landing spot somewhere near the top and figure out how to maintain, you know, what got you there, you know? So it's a lot of hard work. It's like the duck in the, in the pond, you know what I mean? If you look at him from the outside, everything is smooth. He's cruising along.

• 48:58Speaker 00

  Under the surface, it's going down. You know what I mean? That's where all the work is being put in. He's just making it look smooth, but he putting in work down there. And it's the same thing with success. You know, people see the finished product. They don't see defeat paddling to, to get there.

• 49:20Lewis Howes?

  And how do you, how have you stayed focused over the last three plus decades? Because, you know, the whole idea about trusting yourself that Dre gave you early on, or that wisdom, or what you learned from them, it seems like it's worked for a long time for you. But also you get opportunities every day, I'm assuming, or you have for a long time. You should do this or try this, which could be great opportunities or big distractions.

• 49:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:47Lewis Howes?

  How do you know to stay the course? And what the course is when you have so many cool opportunities at this level now?

• 49:54Speaker 00

  Well, know your wheelhouse, know, know what you do best. Know what's outside of your wheelhouse. Know what's gonna take you reaching and the extra effort and you could fall over trying to get to it. And, you know, it's like a, a pitch, a hitter, you know, waiting for his pitch. You know what I'm saying? You gotta know what's outside your strike zone or what's outside your, your wheelhouse. And don't swing it. Things that's too far outside of your wheelhouse. And when it, when it comes in your range wheelhouse, take advantage of it.

• 50:40Speaker 00

  So all money's not good money. So you know, know what you're really, what you can deliver. Don't accept it if you can't deliver.

• 50:50Lewis Howes?

  Have you turned down some big money before?

• 50:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, really, yeah.

• 50:54Lewis Howes?

  What's the most you've been offered that you turned down because you didn't feel like it was in your wheelhouse?

• 51:00Speaker 00

  Well, it was a different situation, but I turned down, I mean, I've turned down plenty of movie roles. You know, I wouldn't even go audition because I just felt like this wasn't my kind of thing. But, you know, I just turned down a nine million dollar movie because I didn't want to get vaccinated.

• 51:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 51:19Speaker 00

  So, you know, that's not in my wheelhouse.

• 51:22Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. And so they said you couldn't, unless you want to do this movie, you gotta get vaccinated.

• 51:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, that was the requirement from the producers that everybody on the movie has to be vaccinated. So I'm like, nah.

• 51:36Lewis Howes?

  It's not for you right now?

• 51:37Speaker 00

  I don't need it and I'll take, I'll get tested every day.

• 51:42Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right.

• 51:42Speaker 00

  But I'm not gonna take something I don't need.

• 51:45Lewis Howes?

  Right, wow. So you turned down nine million. I remember I had Matthew McConaughey on and he said he turned down, I think it was fourteen or fourteen and a half million for another romantic comedy role when he wanted to get out of romantic comedies and do other things. And he was like, first they gave me, they offered me something like eight or nine. I turned it down. Then it was eleven, turned it down. Then it was fifteen and he goes, let me read that script one more time.

• 52:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 52:11Lewis Howes?

  You know, that is a little funnier, a little better script.

• 52:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, without a doubt.

• 52:15Lewis Howes?

  But then he said, you know, if I really want to transform into a new evolution of myself and reinvent myself, I can't keep doing the things that I've always done. And I want to start getting into these more dramatic roles.

• 52:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:30Lewis Howes?

  And, you know, he did that and it really took off. He won the Oscar and all these different things from that. So, but sounded from him, he was like, I had to take a few years off essentially and risk being forgotten and not working again.

• 52:43Speaker 00

  Yeah. You have to make that decision.

• 52:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:47Speaker 00

  To, you, you know, when you need to pivot. You know, when it's time, when you've kind of do like, we don't want to the well.

• 52:57Speaker 00

  So many times on the same thing. It's time to pivot. We shouldn't do nothing until we pivot.

• 53:04Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 53:04Speaker 00

  And sometimes it's better to not do anything than to do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons at the wrong time.

• 53:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Do you feel like you mentioned this idea of like getting to the top and staying at the top? Do you feel like you've hit your top of the mountain yet? If so, when was that if you have? And if not, what do you think you need to become in order to get there?

• 53:29Speaker 00

  Well, you know, I believe.

• 53:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, I've done a lot of cool stuff, you know, I've.

• 53:38Speaker 00

  I'm in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

• 53:39Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing.

• 53:40Speaker 00

  I'm on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And now we're gonna have something in the Basketball Hall of Fame. So music, movie, sports is what I've been pushing. And, um, you know, I've made it to the Hall of Fame in all three. So I feel like, you know, I have been to the mountaintop. But I still got, you know, it's higher, higher mountains out there to climb.

• 54:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 54:05Speaker 00

  So.

• 54:06Lewis Howes?

  So you might hit the top, come down a little bit, then go to the next one.

• 54:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, go to the next mountain and get to the top of that. So, you know, I feel like I still got a lot of great work to deliver and do and explore.

• 54:19Lewis Howes?

  This is, I mean, this is something I'm really curious about is.

• 54:24Lewis Howes?

  Cause you mentioned this a little bit, like sometimes it's really hard to get to the top, right? Make as an artist, like get your voice out there and, and, you know, pop in an industry, get to the top of the charts or a movie hits number one or whatever it is. It's really hard to make that happen. It's hard to sustain that, right? It's really hard to sustain that level of success. How do you stay confident? And what advice would you give to others? Who have first made to the top of their world, whatever that might be, their industry, their town, their whatever? Their sports dreams, things like that. But then they keep going and they're not hitting the top anymore. They've fallen down and maybe they keep falling down. How do they stay confident on the way down?

• 55:06Lewis Howes?

  When they're not the talk of the town, getting the big offers? The one people are calling up for the best roles anymore? How do you stay confident and not doubt yourself? And go back to what you said, trust yourself when you're going down?

• 55:20Speaker 00

  Well, I think it's, you gotta understand that it's not personal. It's not you. It's the Eminem Florida industry.

• 55:30Speaker 00

  It's a law of nature. What goes up must come down. And, and you gotta really understand your fan base. What they may want from you, what they expect from you. And then you gotta decide if you wanna deliver. On that, or do you wanna give them new? Different things that you may have churning inside of you. You know, so I think, you know, when a first, when an artist first comes out. He's, he's searching for the biggest fan base. He can get, you know? But then there's a, a point where.

• 56:15Speaker 00

  These fans that you've accumulated are like, like clientele, like your, your customers.

• 56:22Lewis Howes?

  You gotta serve them.

• 56:23Speaker 00

  You have to, yes. You don't always need to be searching for the new fan. The new fan needs to find you. So it keeps you from reaching outside your wheelhouse and you stay. Doing the things that you should be doing. You know, in a creative, updated way, but. You gotta serve your fans if you've been in the game. You know, to me, I've been in the game more than 10 years. You have a fan base that you need to focus on. Satisfy and cultivate. And nothing else needs to matter. Everybody else gotta get it on the back end.

• 57:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:07Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? So kind of get in where you fit in, but.

• 57:11Speaker 00

  These are my folks. These are who I'm gonna please with my art. You know, and everybody else got a kind of. If you like it, great. If you don't, great. You know. We're still gonna have our.

• 57:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 57:28Speaker 00

  You know. Our party, you know what I mean? So I think you have to really. You know, understand. Why people like you. Why, you know, people have invested. Ten or more years into you. Um, and. And figure out a way to.

• 57:50Speaker 00

  To touch those people and let those people know that. You see them, you understand them, you appreciate them, and you're gonna continue to do cool. Just for them.

• 58:00Lewis Howes?

  Wow. I want to talk about this, you know, third mountain you've been climbing. Uh, here in a minute with the Basketball Hall of Fame. I want to, I want to ask you a few questions on that. But this just brought something up for me when you were talking about this with the fans. Because, um, someone on my team, Sammy, she, you, you met her beforehand. I guess she's a millennial, maybe she's Gen Z. I'm not sure the exact age range, but, um. She's a, she's a big fan of your music. But your. You know, music you made thirty years ago. And she was like, for five years, this is. What I was listening to, you know, my early twenties, and it's something I still love. How do you, as an artist? Make something that is timeless for your current generation, but lasts for generations to come?

• 58:45Lewis Howes?

  And they, it's still fresh for people ten, twenty, thirty years later. How did you create something like that?

• 58:53Speaker 00

  You know, it's, it was, it's kind of like a turn of events that happened that created this unique cycle. When it comes to. Um, my fans and, and. What they're interested in. When I did the movie, Are We There Yet? Which a lot of people. Gave me. Because they like you. You do gangster rap. How you gonna do? They call it a Disney movie, but I've never been in a Disney movie. It was actually Revolution Studios, but. We did a great kids movie called Are We There Yet? And the reason I did it is because. Look. Guys told me not to do R-rated comedy. We did Friday.

• 59:38Speaker 00

  It blew up. We was like, okay. What if, what if we go PG thirteen? So we did Barbershop, blew up. It's like, okay, what if we, can we, can we get to PG? Bigger audience. And so I wouldn't go down to G, but PG, I felt, okay. This is great. I did this movie because I knew my fans were having kids now. And I didn't want to be

• 1:00:11Speaker 00

  that kind of artist where the parents say, you see Ice Cube, boy, he used to be, you just don't know. Boy, you know, he was, man. I didn't want to be that guy, you know, I wanted the kids to know who I was. Interesting. During this movie, my fans would put their kids in front of this movie. And their kids would fall in love with Nick, you know, the guy I'm playing in the movie, know nothing about my music. And as they start to get a certain age, you know, people showing that movie at seven, eight years old. But then as they get eleven, twelve, thirteen, somebody might slide them Barbershop. Somebody might slide them Friday.

• 1:00:54Speaker 00

  So now they're like, oh, this is my guy. Interesting. And he's a little more edgy, you know, he's like doing stuff that I'm not even supposed to hear. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, they love Craig. Interesting. You know, and then

• 1:01:11Speaker 00

  as they get a little older, somebody's like, do you know he rap? Wow. So they would slide them my music.

• 1:01:20Speaker 00

  And then, so now they're like, oh, wow, yo, this is, oh, he's talking some real stuff on this, you know, I'm ready for the real stuff. I'm mature enough now, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. And, and what put the cherry on top of all this was the Straight Outta Compton movie. Cause now they can actually see, okay, this is how Ice Cube became Ice Cube. So now it's like this, so now these kids in their twenties.

• 1:01:56Speaker 00

  They've, they've been through the, are we there yet? They've been through the Fridays. They've been through my music. They saw Straight Outta Compton.

• 1:02:04Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:02:04Speaker 00

  They're locked in. And now they have kids and they put their kids in front of.

• 1:02:10Lewis Howes?

  The whole cycle again.

• 1:02:10Speaker 00

  And the whole cycle starts to repeat. So.

• 1:02:14Lewis Howes?

  Was this strategic for you or was this just kind of?

• 1:02:17Speaker 00

  No, it's just, it's happenstance.

• 1:02:19Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:02:19Speaker 00

  But it's something I realized that, that when we did, are we there yet? We put this cycle in motion that could continue to churn, you know, so.

• 1:02:33Lewis Howes?

  One thing feeds the next thing, feeds the next thing and it just keeps.

• 1:02:36Speaker 00

  And it keeps coming around because people love, are we there yet?

• 1:02:40Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:02:41Speaker 00

  And there's not a lot of black kid movies out there. So, you know, my fan base really puts their kids in front of that. And then we did, are we done yet? You know, we did a few of them. So I think it's the movies and then they get turned on to the music after the movies. And then that kind of just locks them in and it's become lifelong fans. And hopefully we can just keep this cycle going, you know? That's why I did Ninja Turtles, you know, and keep doing that because you're, you know, the parents don't have to say, do you know who that is?

• 1:03:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:03:18Speaker 00

  The kids are saying, did you know Ice Cube rap?

• 1:03:24Speaker 00

  Did you know Ice Cube rap? Yeah, we do.

• 1:03:26Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man, that's amazing.

• 1:03:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's, it's been a, it's been an amazing set of events that, that's kind of, it's like creating its own weather in a way.

• 1:03:38Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible, man. Um, I want to respect your time and get to a final few questions for you. Before I get to that, I want to talk about the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame that recently established the Ice Cube Impact Award, which is pretty cool. Congrats on that, man.

• 1:03:52Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 1:03:53Lewis Howes?

  And this award will honor those who work to improve their community by using basketball as a tool to help kids. And I'm curious, you know, what does this actually mean for you? What, what is? I grew up playing basketball, the, the, the neighborhood gym at the park and it really.

• 1:04:13Lewis Howes?

  Helped educate me, it really helped give me a safe space. You know, there's some fights here and there, but it was no like, no one's getting stabbed. It was just kind of some fists every now and then. But it was a place I could go after school, be on a team, play with other guys, compete, and go until essentially my mom called me home, you know, until dark. And for years I did that. And it was a part of my community and my experience growing up. So, why is this, this award, uh, this impact award from basketball hall of fame so important for you? And what do you hope it will do for communities?

• 1:04:46Speaker 00

  Well, I grew up loving basketball.

• 1:04:51Speaker 00

  Ever since, you know, I couldn't play with my brothers, you know, they were bigger and stronger and I was, and I used to go cry to my mother, looking out the kitchen window. I can't play. She's like, you gotta, you'll get big enough one day, you'll be able to play. And I'm like, I hate being little, you know? And then one day I got big enough, you know, they let me actually play and, you know, I scored a couple baskets. So, now I was invited to play all the time and, and um, we used to have some epic battles in my backyard, like,

• 1:05:25Speaker 00

  that was back when it was phys- it was a physical, physical game.

• 1:05:31Lewis Howes?

  You're not called foul.

• 1:05:32Speaker 00

  Daryl Dawkins and Moses Malone and, you know, watching those dudes and, and we was immolating that, you know, it was, it was very physical games and I always remembered that, you know? Grew up playing local YMCA and after school and tried out for my high school team, but the coach was hating on me because I played football, so I came to camp late. So,

• 1:06:02Speaker 00

  it's just a game that I love. I even played in the NBA entertainment league. They had a, you know, weekend warrior thing at Crossroads High School and they would invite people in the industry to come and wear NBA uniforms, have NBA refs.

• 1:06:19Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:06:20Speaker 00

  You know, just kind of live out that fantasy. And so,

• 1:06:25Speaker 00

  We started the big three in 2017. We saw that for one, a lot of guys were was leaving the NBA before, before we were ready to see him leave. You know, we still knew they had game and the three on three game has been a cousin of five on five. It's been right there under the surface. Um, so when you start a league like that.

• 1:06:52Lewis Howes?

  I played so many three on three tournaments growing up in the summers.

• 1:06:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:56Lewis Howes?

  Can't remember what they were called, but like these, these tournaments that were around the country.

• 1:06:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:07:00Lewis Howes?

  Three on three tournaments.

• 1:07:01Speaker 00

  Without a doubt. And I was like, why isn't it professional three on three? Like, what are we waiting on? Um, and so it was to me a void in the industry, you know, and for fans. Um, so when you starting something like that, you want to start with as much credibility as you can, because everybody think it's a joke. Everybody's like.

• 1:07:23Lewis Howes?

  Some new thing. Yeah.

• 1:07:23Speaker 00

  The hell are you doing, Cube? You, sports like basketball? What are you doing?

• 1:07:28Lewis Howes?

  Stick to movies.

• 1:07:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know, you know, stay in your lane. And so you want to start off with as much credibility to let people know this is the real deal. So, you know, getting Hall of Famers to coach our guys like Dr. J and Iceman and, uh, Rick Barry and, and Gary Payton and Lisa Leslie, um, and Nancy Lieberman. Like, starting off with these Hall of Famers, we knew that would get us instant credibility. And, and we've been fighting to become, you know, credible in people's psyche.

• 1:08:09Speaker 00

  So being recognized by the Basketball Hall of Fame.

• 1:08:14Lewis Howes?

  That's big.

• 1:08:15Speaker 00

  Is as big as it gets when it comes to credibility because everybody knows the Hall of Fame is ultimately where athlete wants to be when they're all said and done. So being recognized by an institution like that.

• 1:08:37Speaker 00

  Gives us all the credibility we've been looking for the last seven years. Wow. And so extremely honored, you know what I mean? Extremely humbled to even be, you know, mentioned, let alone to have an award named after me.

• 1:08:57Speaker 00

  And we're gonna give it out every year. Wow. Make it a big deal, make it a big thing. It's just as cool as it can be, you know, for a basketball fan who started this league, you know, not as a businessman, but as a fan too. I want to see more hoops there. And, and to get rewarded by the recognition of, you know, is, is, is, is, is very publicized how the NBA is not really liking what we're doing. Really? Because they didn't think of it, you know, they, it's like, it's not their idea. I'm an outsider. Right. You know, they kind of want me to. They don't like it, huh? No. Really? No, they, they don't like because we changed the game.

• 1:09:40Speaker 00

  We were the first to embrace mental health. You know, we were the first to let our athletes get off the opioids and take CBD if they wanted to. Wow. You know, so we've, you know, we, we got the four point shot. You know, we got our one on one in game.

• 1:10:01Speaker 00

  You know, foul challenge called bring the fire where if you don't like, you don't like a foul. Wow. Coach can be like, let them go one on one and. That's cool. See, you know, see if it was a really a foul or not, you know? So these are innovations that we've done, not to diss the NBA or show them up, but this is what we needed to do to make our game interesting and make our game special. Wow. And have little wrinkles that you can't see anywhere else. That's cool. And so, um. You know, make a long-winded answer short, man. It's just amazed and, and very grateful.

• 1:10:42Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's exciting, man. So how can people get involved in this? If they wanna, you know, can someone nominate someone every year? Or is that, how's that work? Can they go to learn more about this?

• 1:10:51Speaker 00

  Well, you know, we're gonna really set up a, a committee. You know, we, we'll be able to have a lot of information on that. You know, if they just stay in tune with me. I'm the first recipient. So we're gonna spend this whole year looking for.

• 1:11:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's exciting, man.

• 1:11:06Speaker 00

  Next guy. So we, we want people to, to nominate, you know.

• 1:11:11Lewis Howes?

  Is there somewhere?

• 1:11:12Speaker 00

  People that they know.

• 1:11:13Lewis Howes?

  Can they go online and nominate? Or where's the website?

• 1:11:15Speaker 00

  Right now, they could go to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

• 1:11:17Lewis Howes?

  Okay, cool.

• 1:11:18Speaker 00

  You know, but we're gonna set something up where they can really, you know, dial in.

• 1:11:22Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:11:23Speaker 00

  And, um, and you know, kinda get their suggestions and videos. And, you know, we're looking for great nominees.

• 1:11:31Lewis Howes?

  So if people follow you on icecube.com or Ice Cube on Instagram or.

• 1:11:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:11:36Lewis Howes?

  Facebook, social media, they can, they'll stay up to date on it there.

• 1:11:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, and we're, we're supposed to do the ceremony on January 15th.

• 1:11:43Lewis Howes?

  Wow, it's exciting, man.

• 1:11:44Speaker 00

  You'll see more and more.

• 1:11:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, we'll have this out, I think, right around then. We'll put this out to, to announce it for sure as well. That's exciting, man. Congrats on that.

• 1:11:52Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 1:11:53Lewis Howes?

  Three things around that. One, um, where can people go watch games live? Is there a schedule online where they can watch games live? Or is it on TV to watch?

• 1:12:05Speaker 00

  You can watch us on CBS. You know, our games are on CBS every Saturday or Sunday. Season starts June 15th. Uh, and the schedule's gonna come out soon as we finalize it. We're still locking in a few different cities. Um, but once we lock in the whole schedule, we're gonna make it public.

• 1:12:24Lewis Howes?

  That's exciting.

• 1:12:25Speaker 00

  Guys, you know, we're gonna be all over the country.

• 1:12:27Lewis Howes?

  You guys playing LA too or no?

• 1:12:29Speaker 00

  Anaheim.

• 1:12:30Lewis Howes?

  Anaheim.

• 1:12:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, so you can see us live.

• 1:12:32Lewis Howes?

  I gotta come to a live.

• 1:12:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, come check us out live, you know, once you see us live, you'll be hooked.

• 1:12:38Lewis Howes?

  That's fun, man.

• 1:12:38Speaker 00

  Seeing seven footers play three on three is pretty exciting.

• 1:12:42Lewis Howes?

  If you guys ever do a amateur tournament, let me know so I can jump in.

• 1:12:47Speaker 00

  No problem.

• 1:12:48Lewis Howes?

  If you ever do an amateur tournament.

• 1:12:49Speaker 00

  You know, this thing. Shoe surgeon, yeah, you could have balled in that.

• 1:12:54Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 1:12:55Speaker 00

  Next time we do it.

• 1:12:56Lewis Howes?

  Let me know, man. Yeah, I'll connect with your team and see when I come next. That's fun, man. There's so many things I would love to ask you about Ice Cube, but I want to respect your time and ask you three final questions if that's cool.

• 1:13:06Speaker 00

  Alright.

• 1:13:07Lewis Howes?

  But this is, you know, really inspiring just hearing some of your life lessons and the way you think and the way you analyze life and hearing you talk about marriage and love and relationships, like, all these things are really cool. So I hope people have heard a different side of you that maybe they haven't seen before.

• 1:13:26Lewis Howes?

  One of these questions is about what it's like raising your kids and especially your son who got to play you in Straight Outta Compton, which I thought was really cool. I know you made it harder for him. You didn't just throw him a layup or an alley-oop to get the part, but he had to really kind of prove himself. What is it like for you being able to raise your kids? And be a great mentor and empower them for opportunities in their life as well? What has that been like for you to see them thrive?

• 1:13:56Speaker 00

  I think it's, was been great. And I think it's one of the most important things that that I have to do in life is to show them the way. And be there to support, you know, their dreams.

• 1:14:14Speaker 00

  You know, they don't have to go into the family business, but if they did, you know, we have a path. You know, I told my son, everybody talk about this Nepo baby. I'm like, dude, you you second generation Hollywood. Act like it.

• 1:14:31Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right.

• 1:14:32Speaker 00

  Don't pretend. You ain't gotta go in there like you brand new. Go in there like, yo, my family do this.

• 1:14:37Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:14:38Speaker 00

  You know, we we make movies. We've been making classics. You've been around movies since you were a little baby.

• 1:14:45Lewis Howes?

  You've been on set for a long time.

• 1:14:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, and so. You know, act like you know, you know, I mean, don't go in there like a rookie. And tell them they got a vet. And um, and that, you know, all aspects of this business, you know. Not only acting, directing, editing, you know, marketing, not a seller movie, not a sell yourself. So it's great. Um, you know, my other son, you know, just got married and just had a baby.

• 1:15:14Lewis Howes?

  Grandpa.

• 1:15:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, so it's it's it's amazing that he's. You know, he manages my studios.

• 1:15:21Lewis Howes?

  Oh, that's cool.

• 1:15:22Speaker 00

  He helped me produce Straight Outta Compton, so he's. He's kind of like my uh, my Swiss Army knife, you know.

• 1:15:29Lewis Howes?

  That's great.

• 1:15:30Speaker 00

  He do it all and just very proud of my kids, man. They just good people and I think that's the most important thing, you know, whether they. Get into the business or they follow any of this. It's not as important as that they're just good people. Uh, and you know, I'm just proud of them.

• 1:15:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man, I saw a uh, I saw a video clip online of some billionaire. And the interviewer was asking him what his measure of success was. And he said that at this stage in my life, my adult children want to hang out with me.

• 1:16:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:16:07Lewis Howes?

  Not because I'm rich or have money or whatever it is, but because they just like my company. And it sounds like, and I want to acknowledge you for being a great example for not only your kids, but a lot of people. I mean, being married for thirty plus years, having four great kids, providing opportunities. Uh, for communities with this impact award, like so many things that you've done, you've. You've paved a path for so many people to be inspired by. So I want to acknowledge you, Cube, for your way of life. I'm not saying you've had a perfect life by any means, but you've you continue to show up. You're consistent. You add value and you give with your heart. So I really acknowledge you for how you've done this for so long, when a lot

• 1:16:52Lewis Howes?

  of people could treat people poorly in your position. So I really acknowledge you for the man you are, the father you are, the grandfather you are now, and all the great things you're doing in the world.

• 1:17:02Speaker 00

  Appreciate that, man. Thank you.

• 1:17:03Lewis Howes?

  This question is called the three truths. And so I ask this to all my guests at the very end. And it's a hypothetical question. So imagine you get to live as long as you want to live. But it's your last day on earth, many years away. And you get to create and accomplish everything else you want. All your dreams from here to the end of your life, they all come true. Personal, professional, everything. But for whatever reason, in this hypothetical scenario, you've got to take all of your contents, your music, your movies, this interview, it's all going to go with you to the next place. So we don't have access to your message anymore. But you did get to leave behind on this final day, three truths,

• 1:17:47Lewis Howes?

  three lessons that you know to be true to you. And this is all we would have to remember you by. What would be those three lessons or three truths for you?

• 1:17:57Speaker 00

  Always believe in yourself.

• 1:18:03Speaker 00

  Always be yourself. And always be grateful.

• 1:18:10Lewis Howes?

  I love it. Powerful. Believe in self, be yourself, be grateful. Final question, and I'm curious if you if there's any lyrics that you've written before, if you want to answer them with lyrics, feel free to, or feel free to just answer what's on the top of your mind. Final question, what is your definition of greatness?

• 1:18:33Speaker 00

  My definition of greatness is

• 1:18:39Speaker 00

  Always doing what it takes in real time.

• 1:18:45Speaker 00

  That's my definition of greatness. And whatever it takes depends on the situation, but always do what it takes in real time.

• 1:18:54Speaker 01

  I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend, leave us a review over on Apple podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter

• 1:19:37Speaker 01

  and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com/newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.