195 Dr. Oz's Personal Trainer, Donovan Green on Getting Fit with No Excuses

"Success will only come when you think successfully." - Donovan Green If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at lewishowes.com/195. 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?

  This is episode number 195 with Donovan Green.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

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

• 0:32Lewis Howes?

  Very excited about our guest today. His name is Donovan Green. If you guys are looking to take your fitness to the next level and have no excuses, then you're in the right place today because Donovan Green is a lovely human being, very positive, high energy, and he is filled with no excuses. A little about him, he was born in Jamaica and raised in the Bronx. He's a national authority on fitness and self-defense, a motivational speaker, frequent guest on the Dr. Oz Show, and he lives in Connecticut with his family. He's also the personal trainer to Dr. Oz. So Dr. Oz is one of the top health experts in the world, one of the biggest authorities in the world on the topic.

• 1:14Lewis Howes?

  And this is the guy he trusts to make sure he stays in shape. He trains this guy on a regular basis. So we're going to dive into Donovan's story, a little bit about how he got connected with Dr. Oz, and really his plan for helping you stay toned and keeping your body supercharged for optimal health. Without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in with the one and only Donovan Green.

• 1:41Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. Very excited about today's guest. We've got Donovan Green on. How's it going Donovan?

• 1:48Speaker 01

  I'm good, Lewis. It's good to be here. Thank you.

• 1:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'm excited. Our agent, we share the same agent, Steve Hanselman, and he introduced us. And he said, you've got to get this guy on. He's doing incredible things. He's got this amazing energy, positive. He's trained under Dr. Oz. And I was like, let's bring him on and see if we can learn some new stuff. So I want to share some fun facts about you first that I learned. One is that you're a Jiu-Jitsu black belt. Is that right?

• 2:14Speaker 01

  That's right. That's 100% correct.

• 2:16Lewis Howes?

  And how long does that take to become a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu?

• 2:19Speaker 01

  Wow, it can take years. It can take many years. I mean, that's a real jujitsu where it's not, it's not a money thing. So it took lots of years to get the first degree.

• 2:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 2:29Speaker 01

  Lot of hard work and labor.

• 2:31Lewis Howes?

  What is, so what's a full, well, how long did it take you from start to first class to black belt?

• 2:37Speaker 01

  From first class to black belt took me about two and a half years.

• 2:39Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  To get my, my black belt. My teacher.

• 2:43Lewis Howes?

  That's a lot faster than I thought it would be, actually.

• 2:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, right. But I put a lot of work into it, Louis, man. It was, I was training, lots of throws, lot of falls, lot of kicks, lot of punches.

• 2:54Lewis Howes?

  Is that, is that every week? Is that multiple times a week? What does that look like?

• 2:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, it, it looked like class three times a week. And now we're looking at about two hours of class.

• 3:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  I'm a little crazy, so I'll do about three hours. I'll do an extra hour with room to train extra. You know, I'm always trying to do a little bit more.

• 3:10Lewis Howes?

  So, so an average human, it would take three and a half to four years. But it takes two and a half. Okay, just making sure. You're also born in Jamaica, is that right?

• 3:21Speaker 01

  Yes, I was born in Jamaica and I spent, I spent about eight years of my life in Jamaica. And then I came to the United States and I've been here since then, just in the US, just doing what I do.

• 3:32Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. The accent's pretty much gone.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  It's pretty much gone, but I could always bring it back. And if you listen, and if you listen enough, you will hear the accents, though. You would definitely still hear it.

• 3:41Lewis Howes?

  I hear it a little bit.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:44Lewis Howes?

  But still, it's, it's pretty good now. And then you, and then you came here when you were, you said you were in your eight, when you were raised in the Bronx, is that right?

• 3:50Speaker 01

  Yep, I'm from the Bronx. I was raised in the Bronx. I went to elementary school, junior high school, high school in the Bronx. I spent a lot of time learning things and seeing things and just going through goods and going through the bads and, you know, just experiencing the life.

• 4:06Lewis Howes?

  Okay, I like it, man. You've learned a lot. And now you're, where are you living now?

• 4:10Speaker 01

  Right now, I'm in Fairfield in Connecticut.

• 4:11Lewis Howes?

  Okay, cool. Well, I want to talk about your new book and also just your overall approach to mindset and fitness today because you've got your book is called No Excuse Fitness. And there's a lot of people in the world who, you know, most of my audience is entrepreneurs and their their excuse is I don't have time because I'm so focused on my business. I'm running it all myself. You know, it's a one man show, or I've got all these employees I've got to manage. So I'm working all day, all night. And the last thing I can think about is working out at night. Now, for me, I talk about how you're really setting your business up for failure if you're not spending time mastering your body and your health, because that's going to give you the

• 4:55Lewis Howes?

  energy to be productive. Now, why did you come up with this, this topic of no excuses? Is it because everyone gives you excuses when you train them? Or, or is that just the general theme in the world? But why did you come up with this?

• 5:08Speaker 01

  Well, you know why I came up with this excuse was first of all, growing up as a, as a child in the Bronx, you know, seeing all the things that I saw. I, I got to see drug deals going bad. I got to see people getting shot. I got to see people getting stabbed. I saw fights. I saw so many things. And everyone that I was around, a lot of my friends and even colleagues, just people that I knew, felt like they had to be a part of that society, you know, become a product of your environment. This is what we see. So we have to be that person. So I decided to stop. No, I don't want to make that an excuse to join a gang. I don't want to make them an excuse to sell drugs. So what I started doing was I started going to the library and started reading things. I started

• 5:49Speaker 01

  studying carpentry. I became a barber. I started learning about electrical work and plumbing. I started doing all these things as a kid. Then I got into fitness and the martial arts. And as I got a little older, Lewis, I started, you know, meeting people and trying to teach these people what I learned. And everyone had these excuses. Or they're too old. They don't have enough money. They don't, they don't have enough time. They don't have enough energy. And I realized that these people were stuck where they were because they made up excuses.

• 6:20Speaker 01

  So I stopped making those excuses and I started doing what I knew I had to do to survive in these jungles. And that's what I call the streets, the jungle. Because if you're not going to be a predator, you're going to be, you're going to be, you know, you're going to be hunted. So I had to be that hunter, not the hunted.

• 6:39Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  So that is where my no excuses program came from.

• 6:42Lewis Howes?

  Now, why, now, what inspired you to start studying and do this research and really separating yourself from your environment, from the friends who are doing the, the, the negative things, let's say. What inspired you? Did you have mentors? Did you just, um, realize that that's not where you wanted to be in your life? So you're studying your carpentry and all these other things. What was that, that switch?

• 7:02Speaker 01

  That's a good question. You know what? What inspired me was failing. I did not want to grow up a failure. I did not want to become the average guy. I didn't know, I, I did not want to fall into the stereotypical black guy either. Let me be as blunt as possible. You know, because I don't want to be that stereotype guy. I want to be this person that shows people like, look, I'm black, I'm from Jamaica, I'm not American blood, and I'm here to do something different and to do something good, not only for myself, but for the world as well. So all of that inspired me, and I'm talking about as a kid, talking about from maybe the age of 13 years old, I've been learning and constantly learning.

• 7:44Speaker 01

  And I found out that I have a love to learn. If I'm not learning something, I am not happy. So my brain works at its best, my spirit works at its best when I'm learning something.

• 7:57Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. I feel the same way, man. When I'm, you know, when I feel like I haven't grown at all, I feel like I'm slowly dying and it scares me as well. And it's makes me like almost depressed when I'm not learning a new skill, you know?

• 8:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:08Lewis Howes?

  So I'm right there with you.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 8:10Lewis Howes?

  Um, what's the most common excuse you hear from people about fitness?

• 8:14Speaker 01

  I don't have time. That's the most common. I don't have the time to exercise.

• 8:18Lewis Howes?

  What are they really saying when they say they don't have time?

• 8:20Speaker 01

  What they're really saying to me is that they have time to be sick. That's what they're really saying. That's what you're really telling me you have time to be sick and that you're also telling me you have a whole lot of money to pay your doctor as well.

• 8:31Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. Wow. That's powerful right there.

• 8:34Speaker 01

  That's, that's the way I see it.

• 8:36Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  That's the way I see it.

• 8:38Lewis Howes?

  So what do you, what's the first step for people when they give you this excuse? What's the first thing you should say or that you say that's going to switch them so that they understand the value of moving and working out and being healthy?

• 8:51Speaker 01

  I ask them to hold their breath for as long as they can. When I have clients who say they don't have time to exercise, I tell them to hold their breath as long as they can and they will do it because I'm what I say, you know, I approach it like it's a test and it really is a test and they will hold it for maybe 20 seconds, maybe 60 seconds. And then I ask them, why did you start breathing? Why did you stop holding your breath? Oh, because I couldn't breathe. And I say, well, that's how it feels like when your ass is dead, when you're not, when you're not breathing. Now you breathe because you wanted to live. So now, don't you think exercise is going to make you live a little longer? Don't you think exercise is going to bring you closer to your health? Being on top rather than being depleted and dying young? And they said, wow, I never thought about that.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  I said, like, yeah, you have to want it as bad as you want to breathe. And that's, and that's the idea, you know? And, and you know, people would think that the first thing I'm gonna do is talk about jumping jacks or pushups or situps. See, no excuses. Fitness is not talking about that alone. It's really hitting the person's spirit. It's hitting their mindset, how they look at their life.

• 9:57Lewis Howes?

  I love that, yeah. And here's, here's a challenge, you know, I've had a lot of health experts, fitness experts on, um, you know, food experts from vegan to vegetarian to, you know, meat eaters, everyone who's been an expert, I feel like has been on this podcast. What I'm curious about is, you know, there's, there's really not too many new ways to work out that people have come up with, you know? They package it in a different way. They position things a little differently. They call it something different, but really you're moving your body and you're, you're either throwing weights around, you're doing resistance band, you're doing something. Um, why should people be inspired by your message of fitness?

• 10:40Lewis Howes?

  And why are you different than than what everyone else talks about?

• 10:44Speaker 01

  I love that. That's a great question. And you know what? You actually gave the answer. It's all about moving. Forget about the fat, forget about the packaged goods. Like, this is not a package program. What I what I'm teaching is I'm teaching people how to do what we did years ago. What our ancestors did years ago was simply move. There is no, oh, this works better than that. And that works better than this. Oh, you have to do this to do that. No, I simply want my readers and my viewers to get up and simply learn how to move. Now, that might be in the form of walking. That might be in the form of jogging. It might be in the form of lifting weights. Maybe it's dancing, maybe it's hiking, bicycling, you know, whatever it is that comes to mind. That makes you feel good. That's all I want people to do.

• 11:30Speaker 01

  So I'm taking away all of the complexity, you know? Yeah, making it simple.

• 11:35Lewis Howes?

  And where was your, you know, you learned all these other skills when you were growing up. But where did your passion for fitness first come about?

• 11:42Speaker 01

  Oh, I got my butt whooped, Louis.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  I was in, I was in a junior, no, not junior high school, elementary school. CES one seventy three in the Bronx. I got my butt whooped by this guy named Abe. Abe beat me down to a pulp. And um, my uncle Duncan, my uncle Duncan got me into exercise. And at first I didn't want to do no exercise and I don't want to learn or working out. I was a young kid. I wanted to play Atari and Nintendo. I didn't care about anything else. And um, he started teaching me about the importance of exercise and how how it built me up and made me stronger. And I'm like, whoa, this feels good. All right, let me do it. So that's what really got me into this physical thing. I just, I I did not want to feel feeble. I didn't want to feel weak at all.

• 12:30Lewis Howes?

  And were you an athlete as well? Or are you more just like a workout guy?

• 12:33Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm just more, I'm more of a workout guy. Um, athlete in the martial arts, yes. But when I, when I, when I say athlete, people would assume that basketball or football or, you know, track and field. But martial arts is my, my love. That's what I'm really good at. And I love that type of stuff.

• 12:52Lewis Howes?

  And why, why'd you pick martial arts? And why did you commit to that in discipline?

• 12:57Speaker 01

  My, my, um, my spirit chose martial arts because of the discipline, because of the mindset on being humble, learning how to defend yourself, which increased your confidence level. And it also increased my energy and my awareness of my surroundings. See, where I lived, I found it very important to know how to defend myself. And, um, knowing that I was able to do that, it kept me out of trouble because I did not walk around looking for a fight. I actually walked around looking to evade fights. And I, I actually took that same martial arts mindset and created friends rather than enemies.

• 13:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's powerful.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, man.

• 13:39Lewis Howes?

  Now, in that two and a half year span, when, when was this when you, um, you became a black belt?

• 13:45Speaker 01

  In the two and a half year span, when I became a black belt, I want to say it was 2000.

• 13:50Lewis Howes?

  2000, okay, so 15 years ago, wow.

• 13:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:54Lewis Howes?

  Now, I'm assuming that during that time, you learned a lot of lessons about yourself with all that wear and tear and that discipline and dedication. What would you say are the three biggest lessons you learned about yourself during that time, going through that martial arts practice?

• 14:13Speaker 01

  What I learned about myself, the first biggest lesson I learned about myself was I love to teach. I love to teach. I, I enjoy it. The second thing was I also love being a student, which made me, uh, I don't, I guess a mutant. Because some people love to teach and they don't want to be taught. And then some people are born just to be taught, but don't want to teach. So I had the, the love of both of those things. The third thing I realized about myself too was my strength. My ability to internalize and dig deep and come up with some superhuman strength. I don't know how I do it, but I did it and I can still do it. And, um,

• 14:54Lewis Howes?

  What do you mean by that? Like, when, when can you do it?

• 14:57Speaker 01

  The trends would be, for example, if I'm in the gym, I'll give you, I'll give you a, a quick story. I had a gym, I had a gym in the Bronx and I had, uh, three trainers. Diamond was one trainer, Renan was the other, and Kevin. And I had each one of those guys train me for 30 minutes each at their most intense training. They were trying to beat me down, trying to destroy me. They were trying to pulverize me. And I'm gonna tell you something. They came close. And at the end of that workout, Diamond racked on 405 on a bench press. I've never bench pressed 405 in my entire life.

• 15:33Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  The most I've done was to be 15. And I got underneath the bench and I did it. I bench pressed it, one rep.

• 15:42Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:43Speaker 01

  So, it was amazing how I felt.

• 15:47Lewis Howes?

  Awesome. Very cool. I like that. And where do you apply the superhuman strength now? Are you still using this in certain situations or has it only come up whenever you want it to?

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Oh, no, I still apply it. I stop. I apply that superhuman strength also, not just in a physical plane, but also during rough times in life, you know, when things are going bad, when things are bad either financially or if I lose someone, I dig deep, man, and I just connect myself. I reconnect my thoughts to my mind and my mind to my spirit. So, it's, um, just learn how to connect. I look at myself as one big muscle.

• 16:23Lewis Howes?

  There you go. I like it. Now, I'm curious. Everything is about no excuses for you. And is there anything in your life where you don't want to do something that you have an excuse? And if so, what do you do to shift out of that excuse yourself?

• 16:39Speaker 01

  Oh, oh, man, of course. Sometimes I get up and I don't want to go to work. I get up and I don't want to go and train anyone. I just feel like I don't want to do it. And I look in the mirror and I tell myself, why don't you want to do it? These people are dependent on you. You are the no excuse guy.

• 16:54Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  So, you ain't got no excuse. And that is what drives, that's what drives me. And I get my butt up and go. So, when I apply that no excuse, it's, I mean, it is embedded in me like HTML code. It's, uh, it can't go anywhere. So, there's nothing in my life now that I make an excuse for and I listen to it. I do not listen to it. As I'm talking to you, I have a lower back problem. Does not stop me from going to the gym. I just work safely. I work smart. That's it.

• 17:30Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. What would you say is the, the number one breakthrough in your career that you can contribute to all the success you've had?

• 17:39Speaker 01

  The number one breakthrough in my career that I can contribute to is my is me making the decision to open up my gym in the Bronx.

• 17:46Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 17:47Speaker 01

  Yes, you know, people would assume because I became Dr. Oz's trainer. No, it's because I opened up a gym in the Bronx, which the area where I live was a Prospect Avenue. And the people there were struggling financially, they were struggling spiritually, and a lot of people were doing great. You know, people thought the Bronx was all poor and all broke and all gangs. No, it was some great people. And when I opened up my gym, I got to connect with all types of people in that community, from police officers to business owners to people who were on welfare, to single moms, to gang members. I connected with everyone. And what that did for me was it showed me that, you know what, Donovan, you can actually

• 18:29Speaker 01

  reach out to all these different type of people and somehow get to them without even trying to get to them.

• 18:37Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, I like that. And when did you open the gym?

• 18:40Speaker 01

  The gym was open in 2008.

• 18:42Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  And it stayed open for three years.

• 18:45Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  And the only reason why the gym closed down was I gave it its time. I told myself, I'm not taking any loan out. I dug into my own pockets and opened up that gym. I bought every equipment in that gym. It was a small gym, used equipment, old school, classical stuff. And I said, the neighborhood is going to be the one to keep the gym open. I didn't do any, I didn't do any monthly contracts. It was all, you know, pay by the day, five dollars a day, twenty-five dollars a month. And people came in and it worked. I mean, people's lives started to change.

• 19:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 19:19Speaker 01

  And I had to close it down though, because finances didn't add up anymore.

• 19:22Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. And did you always set out to wanting to work with celebrities or personalities? Or how did this come about?

• 19:32Speaker 01

  Well, I didn't, I never set out for any of that. Actually, in my book, No Excuses Fitness, it's breaking down how I actually connected with Dr. Oz. The story is, is a good story. And it's teaching people like, wow, how did I become Dr. Oz's trainer? And how did he and I connect?

• 19:52Lewis Howes?

  How did that happen?

• 19:53Speaker 01

  Well, he and I, I met Dr. Oz to his wife, Lisa Oz.

• 19:58Speaker 01

  You know, his wife Lisa, I trained her for a while. And I'm not going to give too much of the details because it's me giving the book away. I want, I want, I want the listeners to actually get the book and listen to my story, read the story and really understand like, yo, this guy is the real deal. This dude is the real deal. But I can tell you that Dr. Oz and I became really good friends. It's no longer just Donovan Green, his trainer. When we see each other, we are just laughing and having fun. You know, it's this natural, everyday fun. And, and what I love about him is that he's as real as you are, Louis, as real as I am. He's not a made up type of character.

• 20:33Lewis Howes?

  Right, that's cool. Yeah, I've got a lot of mutual friends that are, that are close with him and I hear the same stories as well.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:39Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. What's your take on intermittent fasting? Because a lot of people are doing different diets, different training. Um, you know, a lot of my friends have been doing intermittent fasting lately and they, they love it. I'm curious what your take is as a trainer.

• 20:53Speaker 01

  You know what my take is on anything, any kind of fast or any type of diet is that it, what works for one person will not work for another.

• 21:00Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  So I never knock a person's choice. I'd always say, do what works for you. Because every one of us is developed differently. Some people say to fast, some people say don't fast. One person would say it did wonders for them with no bad side effects. The other person would say it is bad for them because it made them get a lot of headaches. They broke out in hives, they lost energy, they passed out, they bumped their head, they had to go to the ER. You know, so many different things that can happen. So my take on things is always neutral. I never knock one thing over the next. I always tell people, just do what works for you and that's it. That's making it simple and making it easy, not making it too complicated.

• 21:41Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. If you could only do one exercise for the rest of your life, what would you do?

• 21:47Speaker 01

  That's a good question. If I could do only one exercise, I'll jump rope.

• 21:51Lewis Howes?

  Really? Why?

• 21:52Speaker 01

  Yeah. Jumping rope is total body. Jumping rope, I'm hitting strength in my wrists, my arms, my chest, my shoulders, my legs, my calf muscles. And it's also hitting my cardiovascular system. I'm also working on the endurance aspect of jumping rope. My abdominals are being engaged. Jumping rope, I love it and it's portable. I could do it anywhere, anywhere.

• 22:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow, yeah. Whenever I do rope for, you know, five minutes, my shoulders are what hurts the most.

• 22:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:18Lewis Howes?

  You're like, ah, you're trying to relax it, but it's like. It's tough, man. And then the calves are burning. Yeah, it's a good exercise.

• 22:27Speaker 01

  It is. It really is.

• 22:28Lewis Howes?

  I like that. What's your favorite fat busting exercise? For those that feel like they've got a little bit of fat they want to get rid of, what's your favorite exercise for that?

• 22:38Speaker 01

  My favorite fat busting exercise is a deadlift.

• 22:41Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 22:41Speaker 01

  A deadlift. Yeah, I love a deadlift. A deadlifting is, oh my gosh, I mean, if someone don't have back issues, you know, if, um, even if you do have a certain type of back issues, if you master how to do a deadlift, your back won't bother you. Cause I do deadlifts with, with, with a back issue and it doesn't bother me. The reason why I love a deadlift, Louis, is it's, um, it's everything. It's everything. It's working every plane of motion that we move in. From the time you lift that weight up, it's bringing you up and you're working every muscle group that you can possibly think of.

• 23:16Lewis Howes?

  I like it. Deadlifts is one of the hardest ones as well for me. Like whenever I do it, um, my heart rate is up so high and my legs are jelling afterwards.

• 23:24Speaker 01

  Baby, that's what I'm talking about.

• 23:26Lewis Howes?

  That burns, that burns the most fat?

• 23:28Speaker 01

  That burns the most fat. You know why? Because it's recruiting more muscles than almost anything else. It's a major compound lift. Major. And a lot of people don't do a lot of deadlifts. And if they do it, they're doing it incorrectly. So they don't get the full benefit from a deadlift. It's not like you're getting it though, because you're saying your heart is up to the roof.

• 23:44Lewis Howes?

  It's up to the roof. How many times a week is it safe to do a deadlift?

• 23:48Speaker 01

  I would say at least two times a week. You don't need to do it too much.

• 23:51Lewis Howes?

  Okay, cool. Now, I love your philosophy. I don't know where I read this, but your philosophy says success will only come when you begin to think successfully.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:01Lewis Howes?

  Think successful, right?

• 24:02Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 24:03Lewis Howes?

  So how, how does someone, what's an approach that someone can do, you know, whether it be fitness, uh, being, you know, being the size they want, the fitness level they want, or in any area of their life, their relationships, business. How does someone in your way, uh, your approach, think successfully and what do they do?

• 24:19Speaker 01

  I tell people to fake it until they make it. That's what I tell people. Fake it till you make it, you know? The idea, when I say fake it till you make it, I'm not saying to go out there and be a phony. What I'm saying is if you, for example, want to take off weight, you want to get the weight off. You know what? Instead of hiding in your big clothing and feeling unworthy or, you know, not feeling sexy enough to put on something that's fitted. Put on something that's fitted. Let it be your motivation to get out there and take some more weight off. You know, that will build your confidence. Instead of looking at yourself and downing yourself with all the negativity. Do something positive. Look at yourself more positive. If you want to make more money, you know what? Get rid of some bills that you don't need to, you don't need to have. You would never be successful until you start to think successful and act successful.

• 25:02Speaker 01

  So how you act successful is number one, change your style of posture. If you're somebody who is droopy and saggy, you'd never look successful and people would never respect you. Change your posture. Lift your chest up, straighten your back up, sit properly. Sit like somebody who has character and demeanor and is dominant in their field. You know, it's just those little things, those little tweaks, the little small tweaks can make big changes in the long run.

• 25:26Lewis Howes?

  I just sat up straighter when you said that because I was leaning over on my microphone. Thank you for the reminder.

• 25:33Speaker 01

  You're welcome.

• 25:35Lewis Howes?

  Uh, I got a couple of questions left for you, Donovan, and I really appreciate your, your wisdom and your energy. The thing that's coming up for me the most during this is your, your passion and your joy. So I want to acknowledge you for bringing your energy and your passion and your excitement. And I love that you make it sound so easy and simple for people because there doesn't have to be a big excuse to, you know, being in the shape you want to be or having the, the fitness levels you want to be. It's really about having fun, doing the things you love doing, uh, the exercises you love doing and just having a good attitude. And, and I love how you say, you know, you know, you have days where you don't want to wake up.

• 26:15Lewis Howes?

  You don't want to go train people and things like that. So it's not like, uh, you're this superhuman where you don't have excuses. You have excuses as well, but you're able to. Face the excuse and push through it. And I think there's going to be, you know, the bigger the dreams, the bigger the things we want to achieve in our lives, there's going to be a lot more opportunities for excuse to come our way. And it's going to be there, you know, that the fear is going to be there. Those excuses will show up. I think the key is acknowledging what is holding you back and saying, okay, I'm going to do it anyways. That's what I'm getting from you.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  Yes, that's it. That's it.

• 26:52Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. Very cool. Okay, a couple of questions left for you. It's the end of your, your life in a, in a hundred and something years, right? Because you've got superhuman strength, you're going to live for more, another hundred years. And everything you've ever said, all the, all the things you've ever created, all of your books, all the TV shows with Dr. Oz, everything you've ever talked about has been erased from time. And you're at your, your bed, you're about to have your final night, peaceful sleep. You, your family is surrounding you and showering you with love. And you're, you just realize that everything had been erased from the information you put out there in the world.

• 27:36Lewis Howes?

  And your family gives you a piece of paper and a pen, and they say, we want you to write down the three truths that you've learned over your life that you want to leave behind to the world and that you want us to be, to have as our tools to move forward. What would those three things, the three truths that you know about life be? That you would write down?

• 27:58Speaker 01

  The three, I love that question. You just put me in a, in a, I felt myself being in that bed, bro. All right. So here it is. So the three truths is, number one is that life is what you make it. That's the truth. Life is what you make it. The second one is persistence is the key to success. The third one is that you can never make it by yourself. You could never make it by yourself. You need to have a team behind you.

• 28:25Lewis Howes?

  I love that, man. That's powerful, simple, powerful and effective.

• 28:30Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 28:31Lewis Howes?

  Final question for you, Donovan. This has been a pleasure having you on and you're got type of, we've never met in person, so hopefully we get to connect and hang out some time and do a workout together.

• 28:40Speaker 01

  Sounds good.

• 28:41Lewis Howes?

  Final question is, what is your definition of greatness?

• 28:45Speaker 01

  So my definition of greatness is simply who you are. That's it. Simple. Who you are. That's it.

• 28:53Lewis Howes?

  Donovan Green, thanks so much for coming on the No Excuse Fitness Book. Make sure to go pick it up. I'll have it all linked up here in the show notes and thanks again Donovan, you're a champion.

• 29:04Speaker 01

  Lewis, you're a champion as well, man. And thank you for being here and doing what you're doing as well. You're doing great things.

• 29:14Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it, guys. Thank you again so much for tuning in today. Hopefully you got a lot of positive insights out of this episode and thanks to Donovan Green for coming on. Make sure to head back to the show notes at lewishowes.com/195. Go there now. Share this with your friends. Get people inspired about their health and their fitness. Thank you guys again so much. We've got some big, big, big guests coming up in the near future. I don't want to spoil it, but I've got someone who is, I've been wanting to get for a while. He's finally coming on. I'm very excited. So stay tuned. Share this with your friends. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.