356 The Power of Positive Self-Talk and Visualization with Super Bowl Champ Steve Weatherford

"Your brain is the most powerful muscle you have." - Steve Weatherford If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video and more at http://lewishowes.com/356 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?

  Episode number 356 with Super Bowl champion Steve Weatherford. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, 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.

• 0:34Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to a special incredible interview with the legendary Steve Weatherford. That's right, my man, my good friend is in town. He was staying at the Greatness Studio with me at my home. And for those that don't know who Steve is, he's a former NFL football punter for the New York Giants. He also played for the New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the New York Jets. Now Steve is a dedicated husband, a doting father, an all-around family man, avid health and fitness role model, and a nationally recognized philanthropist, and Super Bowl winning punter.

• 1:14Lewis Howes?

  Now through his various initiatives, he has served as a role model to over 100,000 youths with his primary outreach focused on children, health, fitness, and family. And Steve is one of the most positive human beings I've ever met, also one of the most shredded, ripped guys that I know. It's pretty impressive just to look at the guy. There's not many men that I'm in awe of looking at, and he is one of those guys, just super ripped, so dedicated. I don't think I've ever met a guy as dedicated and focused on his health as Steve. Awesome human being and up to big things. And in this interview, we talk about why he retired from the NFL in the peak of his career.

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  His advice for women who want a man that is driven in how to manage and navigate that. Also why Steve sees retirement as starting over.

• 2:10Lewis Howes?

  The crazy idea that Steve came up with for him and myself to compete against each other in. Why he wanted to have a big family since he was 15 and he's got four kids at 33. Also, how to get in the best shape of your life and change one simple mindset shift that could transform your life forever. That and so much more in this episode. Make sure if you're listening or watching right now, go to LewisHowes.com/356. Share this out with your friends over on Twitter and Facebook. It's at Weatherford5 and at Lewis Howes over on Twitter. Share it out, let your friends know about it. And also watch the full video over on YouTube as well and share that also.

• 2:54Lewis Howes?

  Without further ado, let me introduce to you the legendary Steve Weatherford.

• 3:04Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got the legendary Superman himself, Steve Weatherford, in the house. Good to see you, man.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  You know that that's like the greatest way to butter me.

• 3:16Lewis Howes?

  I know, I know.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  You know that, you know I love that.

• 3:18Lewis Howes?

  The real man of steel is in the building.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  You know I love that.

• 3:21Lewis Howes?

  In Greatness Headquarters. You actually crashed here the last two nights, so I got to, I feel like I've got some Superman rubbing off on me.

• 3:28Speaker 01

  And you definitely snapchatted me snoring on your couch.

• 3:31Lewis Howes?

  I did, yes. Snoring like a pig, it was great.

• 3:33Speaker 01

  You know, I've never actually seen or heard myself snore before. It's pretty loud.

• 3:38Lewis Howes?

  It's pretty loud. You're on your back, you're past out, man.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  That's a comfortable couch now.

• 3:42Lewis Howes?

  It's not bad. We've had some, we've had Olympians sleep on that couch.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  I was just thinking to myself, like, we're in the School of Greatness HQ.

• 3:51Lewis Howes?

  That's it, man.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  Which is an honor. This to me, I feel like this is hallowed ground. I mean, how many amazing people-

• 3:56Lewis Howes?

  A lot of great conversations, I mean, the wall of greatness.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Have not only come into this room, but what has reverberated out of this room and inspired, including myself. Like, your podcast has made me-

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Enjoy running again, and I hate running.

• 4:14Lewis Howes?

  I hear you.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  You know?

• 4:15Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate that.

• 4:16Speaker 01

  I throw that on and every once in a while, like the podcast isn't done and I've already hit like my time limit.

• 4:22Lewis Howes?

  And I'm like, all right, Tay Diggs is gonna go for four more minutes. I can make it. You know what I mean? I like it. I like it.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  It's cool, man.

• 4:28Lewis Howes?

  That's good. Um, so for those that don't know who you are, you are a 10-year NFL vet. You're also All-American in two sports. You have a Super Bowl ring and you just retired. You were arguably one of the best punters of all time in the NFL, but who's keeping track of stats here?

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Nobody's. I mean, I got four beautiful kids, dude. Don't forget about that part.

• 4:46Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. Four kids and you're only 33. Pretty amazing, man. You've lived a full life already at 33.

• 4:51Speaker 01

  Well, I was just thinking the same thing about you minus the kids that we know of.

• 4:56Speaker 01

  I mean, dude, we're both 33.

• 4:58Lewis Howes?

  33. What's your birthday?

• 4:59Speaker 01

  That's one thing that kinda like, uh, like, like pulled me towards you when we first met on the Summit to See cruise. Uh, cause you stuck out there. Like I was a bigger guy there, but you're abnormally tall.

• 5:12Lewis Howes?

  Nah, I'm not that much taller than you. What, three, two inches?

• 5:14Speaker 01

  Two inches is a lot.

• 5:15Lewis Howes?

  Eh.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  I mean, if I'm two inches taller than everybody there and you're two inches taller than me, you stuck out. I don't know how I stuck out because I, I'm in my own skin.

• 5:24Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  You stuck out. Big guy.

• 5:25Lewis Howes?

  It's good to know.

• 5:26Speaker 01

  And, uh, and then, you know, found out like, oh, he's from the Midwest.

• 5:29Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  You know, multiple sport athlete in high school and in college. World record holder, 418 yards receiving. Dude, my stats are like punting stats. Cool. You actually scored touchdowns, bro.

• 5:43Lewis Howes?

  What was the longest punt you ever had in a game?

• 5:45Speaker 01

  Uh.

• 5:45Lewis Howes?

  High school through pro.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  79 yards.

• 5:48Lewis Howes?

  Oh, that's gotta be a record in something.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  I'm sure.

• 5:52Lewis Howes?

  What was that? High school?

• 5:52Speaker 01

  Probably like a record for like the greatest celebration afterwards. Cause what kind of punter celebrates? But I had a good one.

• 5:57Lewis Howes?

  Were you guys in the end zone?

• 5:58Speaker 01

  We were playing, we were, yeah, we snapped it from, I wanna say it was like the 10-yard line. So I was like five yards deep in my end zone when I caught the ball. And I ripped it down all the way to like the other 11 or something like that.

• 6:10Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  But it was real windy that day. We were playing the Iowa Hawkeyes.

• 6:14Lewis Howes?

  I've, I've competed in Iowa, man.

• 6:16Speaker 01

  All I needed to do was like get the ball up in the air. Cause it was like 30 mile plus. And it felt really good. And then in the next quarter, I had to punt the ball into it.

• 6:27Lewis Howes?

  That's

• 6:28Speaker 01

  I wasn't celebrating quite as much.

• 6:30Lewis Howes?

  Dude, I was competing in the

• 6:31Speaker 01

  That's it's

• 6:32Lewis Howes?

  It's hard.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  Humbling experience, my man.

• 6:34Lewis Howes?

  I competed in the national championships for the decathlon my senior year. The first time I did the decathlon was my senior year and the national championships was in Iowa at, man, where was it?

• 6:45Speaker 01

  Drake.

• 6:46Lewis Howes?

  No, I got invited to run at Drake, but I didn't do it.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Really fun.

• 6:50Lewis Howes?

  I went to Waverly, Iowa.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  Never been there.

• 6:53Lewis Howes?

  And I remember it was the second day and I'm throwing the javelin into the wind and I just couldn't hit it. I couldn't pierce it, man.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  Like you would think that a javelin, there's really not that much surface area.

• 7:03Lewis Howes?

  Pierce it? No. I mean, it was like, it was bad.

• 7:05Speaker 01

  But the nice thing is, is everybody had to throw into it.

• 7:08Lewis Howes?

  Everyone did, but I wanted those extra points, man.

• 7:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:10Lewis Howes?

  You know, so anyways.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  Javelin was one of my weaker events.

• 7:13Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 7:14Speaker 01

  It's just, it's real technical. Like it's something you have to practice a lot. You can't just be like a good athlete and grab a spear and chuck it 180 feet.

• 7:21Lewis Howes?

  Man, that's what I did.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, but dude, remember when we were kids and they had the presidential physical fitness test? I was, I would have made it in like second grade, but I couldn't do the pull ups.

• 7:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Interesting.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  I wanted that patch so bad, man.

• 7:34Lewis Howes?

  I hear you. I like it, man. I like that.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  I like that. I've listened, I was actually, for the listeners, I've listened to so many of Lewis's podcasts that I've picked up on all of his uh, common

• 7:47Lewis Howes?

  Segues.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Segue words, you know, like

• 7:51Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 7:52Speaker 01

  Somebody will say something compelling or like emotionally, um, inspiring and Lewis will, I like that. Or, or it's interesting. And then he goes into his next, and then he goes into his next question.

• 8:07Lewis Howes?

  So I'm going to start with, uh, what I usually end with is a question of what's your definition of greatness? I'm going to mix it up because I know you're waiting.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  You knew that I was prepared for this though.

• 8:17Lewis Howes?

  The end though.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  But you know what I did is I, once we kind of set a date that we were going to do this, I thought about what I'm going to say, but I didn't really want to prepare anything. So what is my definition?

• 8:28Lewis Howes?

  Greatness.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  Of greatness. Um, I think it's for me, it's identifying what your gift is and then finding a way to leverage it.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  To inspire, motivate, educate, just bring other people up with you. Um, and it was like, I had to do a lot of soul searching in my own life because I was like, well, like, what's my gift? Like, is my gift kicking a football? It's like so like obscure. But I, I think my gift is motivating and inspiring. You know, I love public speaking. I'm not nearly as polished as you, but I, I genuinely get so much fulfillment from it. And it could be, uh, an amphitheater of a thousand people. Or it could be a second grade class of 18 kids. Like to me, like I get the same like buzz when I leave the, you know, when I leave them like hanging on every word that I'm saying.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  So I was able to take my dream of playing in the National Football League and being a professional athlete. And that kind of gave me the platform to be able to share my gift. And my gift is motivating, inspiring, and you know, I mean, you know, my story. Sure. Um, you know, being a freshman in high school, a hundred and eight pounds and having dreams and aspirations of, you know, one day being a professional athlete. And then for me to have the vision of being that professional athlete and set the goal of one day achieving it. But then you have to develop your own plan. And it's not like there were podcasts like yours that would give you the tools that you need to be able to kind of apply into your life.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  And, and mentors, because whether you know it or not, you're mentoring millions of people, like literally 1.3 million people per month. Yeah. You know, you've mentored me over the last eight months, you know, it's like weird to say you're the same age as me. You know, I'm a 10 year NFL veteran and you know, the stuff that I've done there. Uh, but you've mentored me by kind of bridging the gap between all of these amazing people who have gifts of all different industries and spaces.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  And you've brought them to me and all the other like listeners. It's heavy, man. It's really cool.

• 10:42Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate that.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  It's, it's, it's fun to be able to sit my butt cheeks in the same seat that all the people that I've been listening to. Cause I haven't listened to all 356 of these, but I've listened to well over a hundred of them and we did the math. I've listened to, since we met, I've listened to at least three per week.

• 11:01Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  Um, so yeah, I've spent, I like that. I've spent a good three and a half hours with you every single week. And you didn't even know it.

• 11:12Lewis Howes?

  That's good. The thing is that I think is interesting is that you're so successful. You've achieved a lot. Uh, you know, you're in the top one percent of one percent of your niche as a punter. You know, you're one of the best in the world at what you do, or you were, and you have.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  I still am. I just don't want to do it anymore.

• 11:30Lewis Howes?

  It's true. Yeah. You're still in the top one percent of one percent. You've got four kids. You've got a loving family. You've been married for 10, 15.

• 11:37Speaker 01

  Uh, almost 10 years.

• 11:38Lewis Howes?

  10 years. You're transitioning into the next thing and you're still learning. You're still growing. And most people don't realize that the people that are on the top already are the ones that are constantly learning. And they're like hungry for information. They're starving to feed their soul and their mind for ways to continue to stay on top or grow. And so I think people need to hear that, whether you're listening to me or someone else, you're doing the work still. And that's important for people to know. You've worked really hard over the last two decades to get to where you were. And now you're still working hard.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  Just not still working hard. I feel like I'm starting over.

• 12:10Lewis Howes?

  You're starting.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  You know, cause I'm like, you know, I'm sure we're going to get into it later, like why I decided to retire from the NFL.

• 12:16Lewis Howes?

  So why did you?

• 12:17Speaker 01

  And I've actually never officially announced it, so.

• 12:19Lewis Howes?

  So why are you retiring? Why are you retiring?

• 12:22Speaker 01

  Um, it's because.

• 12:24Lewis Howes?

  I mean, you're at the top of your game. You've got another 10 years you could play.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, but it's.

• 12:28Lewis Howes?

  You're a physical specimen. You're one of the best athletes in the league.

• 12:31Speaker 01

  I mean, I don't know if I'd say one, what do you, what do you consider?

• 12:36Lewis Howes?

  Physical, strength, speed.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  Like if all those other guys competed against me in a decathlon.

• 12:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you would win.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Mop the floor.

• 12:44Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 12:45Speaker 01

  You know what I mean?

• 12:46Lewis Howes?

  A well-rounded athlete, you're one of the best.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't have a lot of weaknesses, but I'm not. The cool thing about the decathlon is it's you don't have to be the best in any of those 10 events. Like they could be 20 guys and I could get fourth place in every single event.

• 13:01Lewis Howes?

  But win.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  Crush everybody.

• 13:03Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 13:03Speaker 01

  Um, so it's about the decathlon is about not having weaknesses.

• 13:08Lewis Howes?

  It's one well-rounded.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  Right. So like when I first went to college and tried the decathlon for the first time, I'd never pole vaulted before or touched a javelin or a discus and those are like technical events.

• 13:17Lewis Howes?

  So hard.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was not a good pole vaulter, but you know, you work hard on something and you know, I eliminated that weakness. Now, pole vault was never a strength of mine, but I got it to where it wasn't a weakness.

• 13:28Lewis Howes?

  What was your highest pole vault?

• 13:30Speaker 01

  1410.

• 13:31Lewis Howes?

  That's good. Mine was like 14 and 143, I think.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  Right. You know, I mean, you probably crushed me in javelin though.

• 13:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  You know what we should do one day?

• 13:38Lewis Howes?

  Go to the Catholic.

• 13:39Speaker 01

  Go do it to Catholic.

• 13:40Lewis Howes?

  I'm in, man.

• 13:40Speaker 01

  I would do it.

• 13:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, let's do it.

• 13:43Speaker 01

  Dude, could you imagine running a 1500 right now like hard?

• 13:46Lewis Howes?

  I would die.

• 13:46Speaker 01

  Like with spikes on.

• 13:47Lewis Howes?

  I would die with a unitard and spikes.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:50Lewis Howes?

  I would die.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Can we put that in the show notes whenever him and I compete against in.

• 13:54Lewis Howes?

  That would be the event I can beat you in right now, a 1500. That might be the only event. You'd beat me in the end straight up.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  Dude, I'm probably overconfident, but I feel like I could run a 530. 1500.

• 14:05Lewis Howes?

  My best was 455.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  I want to say that like mine was like right there. I might've been 457.

• 14:12Lewis Howes?

  I might be a 530.

• 14:12Speaker 01

  I broke five minutes. I know that.

• 14:14Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  You know what?

• 14:15Lewis Howes?

  Barely.

• 14:15Speaker 01

  So how funny is this? When I was 12 years old, I ran a 502 and I don't think I could run a 502 right now. Like by train I could.

• 14:24Lewis Howes?

  Also 108 pounds.

• 14:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:26Lewis Howes?

  It's a lot harder to push around.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  Dude, when I was 12, I was like 79.

• 14:29Lewis Howes?

  It's a lot harder to push around 240.

• 14:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. There's no question.

• 14:31Lewis Howes?

  A lot harder.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, we went and ran the other day and you were leading the pack, man.

• 14:35Lewis Howes?

  I mean.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  That was a fun run.

• 14:36Lewis Howes?

  It was fun. It was good.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  That was a great little route we went on.

• 14:39Lewis Howes?

  So why you're at the top of your game, you're making a couple million bucks a year as a punter.

• 14:46Lewis Howes?

  People still want you. Why say I'm done 10 years? You got another 10 years in you probably to punt. This is people's dream.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  My wife is asking me the same question.

• 14:55Lewis Howes?

  People would kill to be a punter in the NFL, to have your career and you're walking away from it. Why?

• 15:03Speaker 01

  Um, I don't wanna sound as if I didn't appreciate it because man, it was my dream.

• 15:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:08Speaker 01

  You know, it was my lifelong dream to be a pro. Um, you know, when I dreamed it up, I wasn't a punter.

• 15:14Lewis Howes?

  What were you?

• 15:15Speaker 01

  I was in the NFL.

• 15:15Lewis Howes?

  What were you playing?

• 15:16Speaker 01

  Uh, something cool, like wide receiver.

• 15:19Lewis Howes?

  Strong safety.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  You know, not running back, but yeah, like a wide receiver, safety.

• 15:24Lewis Howes?

  What'd you play in high school?

• 15:26Speaker 01

  Um, I punted, kicked, cause I, I punted and kicked at the same time as playing soccer. So I would play soccer games on Tuesdays and Saturdays and football games on Fridays.

• 15:36Lewis Howes?

  So you weren't a receiver in high school or, or running back? Just, just kicked only?

• 15:40Speaker 01

  Just kicked.

• 15:41Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 15:41Speaker 01

  I played safety for like the first six games of my senior year.

• 15:45Lewis Howes?

  And then you were like.

• 15:46Speaker 01

  Then I got a, then I got a stinger, uh, in practice and I'm like, screw this. I don't like hitting. I don't like getting hit. I'm a kicker. Let me go to the other field.

• 15:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Okay. And then you got the college scholarship at the University of Illinois, right? And then you just punted there the whole time?

• 16:02Speaker 01

  Punted and kicked. I actually got to campus and we were doing summer conditioning and my team wasn't that good. We didn't have a lot of talent on my team. Great school, uh, would not trade the four years I had there for anything, but we didn't have a ton of talent.

• 16:16Lewis Howes?

  Where is Illinois, uh, where's?

• 16:17Speaker 01

  Champaign, Illinois.

• 16:18Lewis Howes?

  How far from St. Louis?

• 16:20Speaker 01

  Um, it's on the, on the completely other side. So St. Louis is on the edge of Missouri and Illinois west side.

• 16:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  Um, and Champaign is on the east side of Illinois.

• 16:30Lewis Howes?

  Two hours away?

• 16:30Speaker 01

  So probably about three hours.

• 16:31Lewis Howes?

  You know, we were playing the same time. I was playing in Elsa, Illinois and you were playing in Champaign.

• 16:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. No, we do. We have so much, like the more time I spend with you, like just talk about like.

• 16:40Lewis Howes?

  We're both two sport All-Americans in the same sport.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  You played four sports in high school.

• 16:44Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy.

• 16:45Speaker 01

  It's really cool. And so like when I see you finding all this success and like impacting.

• 16:51Lewis Howes?

  After sports.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. Impacting millions of people like, dude, I'm kinda peanut butter and jealous, man. You know what I mean?

• 16:59Speaker 01

  I am, you know, because you would have loved to play in the NFL.

• 17:02Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man, it was a dream.

• 17:03Speaker 01

  That was your dream.

• 17:04Lewis Howes?

  It was a dream, man. And arena football was like.

• 17:06Speaker 01

  But what you're doing is my dream. You know, maybe, maybe it's podcasts, maybe it's public speaking, maybe it's TV. I don't, I don't know like what my dream job is, but I want like, to me, it's impact. And I didn't feel like playing in the NFL, I was having an impact anymore. I felt like I had reached the point where financially I had saved enough money to, to follow my passion. Like, do I need to still generate some money? I mean, I got four kids. I'd love to have another one, God willing. I want to spend more time with my kids. And so after I finished, like I set my goals, you know, to get into the NFL. And then I got into the NFL and then my next goal was to make it to four years.

• 17:48Lewis Howes?

  Oh, that's right.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  Because the league average of the, the duration of a career is 3.1 years. And so when I made it to four years, I achieved that goal, but I also became eligible for the retirement and the pension. And so I hit that mark. I was like, man, you know, what about 10 years? Do I think maybe I can do it? And I'm like, you know what? If I make it 10 years and I have a Super Bowl ring, I'm going to reevaluate and see if I want to set more goals or, you know, it's been real, but I'm out. Um, and so, um, really when, when my mindset changed, I really wasn't thinking about retiring at all before my 10th season had started in the off season of my career.

• 18:34Speaker 01

  Before my 10th season and I was in Southern California and my wife was about to give birth to our fourth child, uh, Josie Jaclyn. And my wife had the child, smooth delivery. Baby came out 10 and a half pounds, just beautiful. And, and the very next day I had to leave and go back to New York because, uh, the mini camp was starting. And so I called coach and cause he was on kind of like high alert because there was a chance that I wasn't going to be at the start of practice on Monday. Because of the baby. Because of the baby. So if she didn't have the baby on time or whatever. And so it was on a Saturday night at 7pm. She had the baby. I spent the next

• 19:16Speaker 01

  five or six hours with her. Then I went home to my other three kids and then brought them to the hospital in the morning. We spent three hours with baby JJ. And then I left my three older with my mother-in-law and got on a plane to fly back to Newark, New Jersey. And once we got probably about 60 miles out from Newark, New Jersey, there was a big storm that was happening in Newark. And so we circled for about an hour. And we still couldn't land because of weather. And so we redirected to Dulles Airport in DC. And we ended up landing at like, I want to say 12:30, like 30, 30 minutes past midnight. We landed and they said, United said, you know, we're going to have a bus that's going to drive

• 20:01Speaker 01

  everybody the three and a half hours up to Newark and then you guys can all disperse from there because your, you know, your luggage and this, that, the other will be brought with you. And so the bus never came. 2:30, 3 o'clock, still no bus. So I was like, man, if I don't, if I don't leave now in a rental car, then I'm going to be late to practice. And I've never missed a practice or a workout in the nine years up until that point. So I'm like, I'm not going to start now. So I rent a car and I'm driving and the roads are bone dry. No rain or anything. And then I get to about mile marker 58 on the New Jersey Turnpike. And it's not raining. I'm running about 75 in a, you know, the speed limit 70, you know, it's kind of

• 20:44Speaker 01

  standard protocol. You go five miles over and I wasn't in a rush because I was scheduled to get up to, to practice at about 6 o'clock and I didn't have to be there till 7. So I wasn't rushing. And there was a blockage in the drainage system on the New Jersey Turnpike. And I was driving a red Volkswagen Jetta and I hit that body of water. And my car hydroplaned and it it spun three times and it was almost like it was like slow motion. So I gripped the wheel as I saw the the center, what is it? An embankment? Cement embankment. I knew I was gonna hit it. So I tucked my chin. I gripped the wheel. And and as I hit it, my car came up off off of all four tires and like went sideways

• 21:29Speaker 01

  on the embankment and then bounced back down across all the way to the other guardrail off across three lanes of traffic, bounced off of that back into the middle lane of the New Jersey Turnpike. And it's like three o'clock and four o'clock in the morning at this point. Wow. And I had my eyes closed the whole time, but I could feel myself pinballing around. Then I opened my eyes and I'm like, I touched myself. I'm like, oh my God, I'm alive. And then for whatever reason, I'm like, I gotta get out of the car. I'm in the middle of the New Jersey Turnpike. And so real quickly, I buckle, um, my seatbelt, my door won't open, the passenger door won't open. And so I crawled through the middle between the seats and then the back right door opened. I got out and I went to the shoulder of the

• 22:13Speaker 01

  road, called 911. No more than 30 seconds goes by, hear another splash. I look to my left, another car hit the same body of water, hydroplaned three times and smashed into my car going at least 75, 80 miles an hour. And I rush over there and there's a big dude, probably 250 pounds, much bigger than me, slumped over the steering wheel, blood gushing from his face. He's unresponsive. Um, I can't get any of the doors open. And then the back right door, the same door that I crawled out of in my car, I end up like getting my fingers into the door jam and prying the door open like Hulk. And then I crawl into the crawl into the backseat, wake this guy up. And he's like, what happened?

• 22:55Speaker 01

  I'm like, dude, you were in a bad car. We gotta get out of the car right now. And so I I pull this gigantic guy through the middle of the seat. It was like a Nissan Altima or Sentra. Wow. And then he like spills himself onto the onto the road, the New Jersey Turnpike. And get him to the get him to the shoulder of the road. And the whole reason I'm telling you this story is after that happened, like something in my mind changed and.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  I wasn't, I wasn't passionate about football anymore. I wasn't like, I got to practice on time and I was there and it just like something changed. Like it was, I, I just knew that that wasn't my journey anymore. And so, you know, I was committed to the team. And so I kind of, you know, I tried to fake it, you know, fake the motivation and, you know, but it just, it wasn't there for me anymore. And so then after that season was over, it was like, you know, it's, I think it's time. So, um, and I've always got the most fulfillment from, from sharing my journey and sharing my experiences and sharing what I've learned from people in my life, like you and the people that you've had on the show, you know, whether it's the three gratitudes in

• 24:05Speaker 01

  the morning, or it's perspective, or it's, you know, little things that I've learned on the show, like the, you know, the, the art of giving, you know, these things that I've applied into my own life, you know, like I picked you up a nice pair of Nike tennis shoes last night.

• 24:19Speaker 02

  I got them on right now. Nice.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  I'm thankful that you let me stay at your home. You know, like there's no reason you, I came here to visit you two days ago. You're like, no, man, just stay at my house. I'm like, nah, man, just go get a place. He was like, no, I insist. So it's just like little things in my life that I've learned from mentors and friends and, and people who are prosperous, you know, when I say prosperous, it doesn't mean they make tons of money or they drive this car. Prosperity to me is like a combination of health, wealth, happiness, love. And, and I gravitate towards people like that because I want that in my own life and I want to share that with other people as well. So that's kind of what brought me to the decision of pursuing more of

• 24:59Speaker 01

  that and, and being to other people what you are to, to your audience and your friends and your family and the people that you surround yourself with and motivate on a daily basis, myself included. I want to be that for other people. When I grew up, I want to be Lewis Howes.

• 25:15Speaker 02

  I appreciate that. Thanks, man. I want to be as fit as you. I don't know if that's possible.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Being fit is cool when you go to the beach, but it really doesn't inspire anybody. You know, it's cool on Instagram. You throw a couple of filters on there and you actually look even better.

• 25:35Lewis Howes?

  Love it. What um, when was the last game you played then?

• 25:38Speaker 01

  The last game I played.

• 25:40Lewis Howes?

  Did you know that was your last game?

• 25:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, so this is a good story. So um, after I decided I was done, I accepted a job with ESPN. So I'm in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, hosting my ESPN radio show. I'm sitting next to my co-host, Dave Rothenberg, and we're, we're taking phone calls and we're, it's a Saturday at about 11 a.m. My show was from 9 to noon. And we're taking calls and we're kind of teasing up, previewing the games that are gonna happen tomorrow, which would be Sunday. And it was New York radio, and so we were talking about the Jets-Patriots upcoming game. They're division rivals, it's a big game because the Jets were killing it at the time. And they were actually like, half a game back from the Patriots, and so it was a big game.

• 26:27Speaker 01

  So I talked about the, the Jets and their quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and you know, how he's done an incredible job this season, having the best season of his career in his 10th season. And you know, it's, I made some really positive comments, but then I also said, you know, he really lacks the arm strength to be able to compete against Tom Brady, which is not a knock on Ryan Fitzpatrick. Tom Brady's probably the best quarterback of all time.

• 26:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  And we go to commercial break and my cellphone rings and I pick it up. And the caller ID says Jets front office. I'm like, my mind is racing, I'm like, oh my gosh. What did I say? Did I, did I say something bad? Because I had their number saved because I used to play for the Jets.

• 27:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 27:05Speaker 01

  So I answer the phone and it's their general manager. He's like, hey Steve, how you doing? I'm like, I'm doing great. Um, hey, you wouldn't happen to be in New York, would you? I'm like, yeah, actually I'm in ESPN radio, uh, you know, ESPN studio, uh, doing a radio show. He's like, what are the chances of you getting to Boston tonight? And I'm like, um, do you guys need me to do the pregame show? I'm not kidding you.

• 27:26Lewis Howes?

  No clue what he was asking for.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  And he was like, no, he's like, uh, you know, our, our punter has an infection in his shin. And we're not sure if he can play tomorrow. And he's like, you know, we'll give you X amount of dollars. And I was like, I don't have to practice? I just show up and play? He's like, yeah, we don't have any time to practice. He's like, uh, tell me what size jersey you wear, what number you want to wear on the back of it, and I'll meet you in Boston. And so I went up to Boston. It was the first time in my pro career when I stepped in between the chalk lines onto that football field. I had no idea how it was gonna go.

• 27:57Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 27:58Speaker 01

  Because I hadn't practiced, I hadn't punted a ball in like two months.

• 28:01Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 28:02Speaker 01

  It wasn't my best performance. It wasn't bad. I mean, I think I averaged like forty one yards a punt. Sure. Um, but that was my last. That was the last game. That was my last. For the Jets. For the Jets. Before that, it was. I played five years with the Giants. And. So I started my career in New Orleans, played three years, then I played a year, uh, Jacksonville Jaguars, two years with the Jets, five years with the Giants. And then at that point I was like, you know what? This has been a wild ride. I'm so blessed. I'm so thankful. I'm ready for a new pursuit. What was the last game with the Giants when you thought it was gonna be your last game? Um, I was also playing against the Patriots preseason game. It was preseason game? It was a preseason game. You retired in the preseason?

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Well, I didn't announce my retirement. I was cut because, um, I, I mean, my heart wasn't in it. Yeah, yeah. And my salary was, I think it was two point nine million that season. A rookie for half a million. And so what they ended up doing, final cuts, is they, they traded a seventh round draft pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers to get their young punter that I think his salary was like maybe four hundred thousand. And so they're gonna save two point five million dollars by cutting me and they had to find a, a place where they could save money because they were about to give Eli Manning a ninety million dollar contract. And it's really easy to say, hey, what's more important, the, you know, the weight room junkie punter? Right, right.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Eli Manning, two time Super Bowl MVP. So. Okay. But I got, I have no, I am so thankful for the Giants. Like a lot of people, when they get cut, they're like really sour about it. But I had the greatest five years of my athletic life and really my life because, um, you know, they gave me the ability to pull my son out of the stands in Lucas Oil Stadium while confetti is pouring down on us as Super Bowl champions. And my son's four and a half years old. And I pick him out of, I mean, it's like, it was like a movie. I pick him up out of the stands. He's like, Dad, we did it. We won the Super Bowl. And I'm like, mmm, start crying, you know, like, nobody could make me cry like I cried right then because it's like,

• 30:07Speaker 01

  you dream about sharing something like that with your legacy, with your son. Wow. And so he was, not only was he able to experience it and I was able to experience it with him. Like I asked him, I'm like, do you remember that? He's like, I remember everything. So you know, I'm super fortunate that and blessed that he was there for that. And I'm fortunate that my first born was a son. And not that I wouldn't want to enjoy that with my daughters, but it's, it's, it's different with your son, you know, because he might play football.

• 30:37Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. What was that like going into the Super Bowl game? I mean, what was that whole process like?

• 30:42Speaker 01

  It was 47 miles from my hometown. Yeah. Talk about like a storybook ending, except for I played for former years after that. It was amazing, man. It really was because we got there on a Monday.

• 30:55Lewis Howes?

  Who'd you guys beat?

• 30:57Speaker 01

  Patriots. A long, long, rich history with the Patriots.

• 31:00Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 31:02Speaker 01

  So we get there on a Monday. We're playing the game the following Sunday and we arrive and you know, like all of the news, news reporters from my hometown are there. I mean, there's news reporters from all over the world, but from my hometown were there and they hadn't really interviewed me since I was in high school and just kind of brought me, you know, brought me back and helped me to kind of realize the gravity of like how far I had come and how blessed I was for the opportunity that I was about to have. And then Tuesday is media day where they put us in the stadium and all of the media has an opportunity to interview us. And so after that media day was done at about 2:00 PM, I had, um, my parents picked me up in Indianapolis and drive me to Terre Haute,

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Indiana, 47 miles from Indianapolis. And my high school had a pep rally for me.

• 31:51Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  And it was, it was so cool, man.

• 31:53Lewis Howes?

  That's really cool.

• 31:54Speaker 01

  It was, I was, my second favorite part of my NFL career was the pep rally at my high school. My first favorite was, uh, the Super Bowl parade in Manhattan the day after the Super Bowl.

• 32:08Lewis Howes?

  Must've been nuts.

• 32:08Speaker 01

  That was unbelievable.

• 32:09Lewis Howes?

  So that whole week, you know, there's two teams that one team's going to come out a champion.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 32:14Lewis Howes?

  How do you not psych yourself out to be like, wow, all I have to do is punt well and hopefully, you know, Eli does his job and my team does job and I'm a champion?

• 32:23Speaker 01

  Or you know, what are you thinking about?

• 32:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's uh, well, you know, because there's Yeah. Media everywhere you go. So it's almost kind of like you're like locked in a hotel for a week. But you, for me, it was really, I don't want to say easy, but it was, I just relied on my teammates like, because they had won a Super Bowl in 2008, just four years earlier. Hmm. And so I remember going to like Eli Manning and Justin Tuck and Brandon Jacobs, the guys that had won a Super Bowl four years prior. And I was, you know, just how do I handle this week? You know, I, I want to play my best game on Sunday. I know you guys want me to play my best game on Sunday. You guys have been here before. You've done it. You had great games.

• 33:04Speaker 01

  You know, school me up a little bit. And, uh, you know, so they just gave me the advice of, you know, take lots of pictures, but don't, don't emotionally get invested in the hype surrounding this game. Take the pictures, take the videos with your phone. And then when the Super Bowl is over and we're champions, go back and look at them and then revel in that excitement because if you get too caught up in the hype leading up into the game, you're gonna, you're gonna change the, the way you approach the game. You know, you're the best punter in the world. Do what you've done for every other game up until this point and just go out there and, and play the game. Play. And I, I took that advice and it could not have been better advice because I had the greatest game of my life. Really?

• 33:48Speaker 01

  And the biggest game of my life. My first punt was down to the two, two yard line and the very next play, Justin Tuck, uh, sack. It was our first possession. We drove down to the 42 yard line and then we ended up stalling out. We punted, I punted to the two yard line. Justin Tuck sacks Tom Brady on the very next play. So the first two points of the Super Bowl. Were set up by you. Were set up by me, but it was one of the things that like validated my importance to the team, at least to me, was after Justin Tuck sacked Tom Brady in the end zone, he went on a beeline straight to me. On the bench and like pulled me off of the bench. He was like, he's like that, you know, you gave me an assist on that sack, man. Couldn't have done that without you. That must have felt nice.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. Because I mean, punters are not a cool position. You know, like if you're looking at the hierarchy of the team, I'm barely above the water boy, you know? Exactly. But for the, the four time, uh, team captain to, at that moment of one of the biggest plays of his entire career. The biggest stage. On the biggest stage to come, tell me that and validate my worth to the team. It made it so much more special when we got our Super Bowl rings and I put it on because he told me, he's like, we couldn't do this without you. And then, you know, I had, I ended up having three more punts. And, um, out of my four punts, three of them were in this, inside the 10 yard line.

• 35:12Speaker 01

  Uh, that's a Super Bowl record and Wes Welker was the punt returner and he had zero return yards the entire year. He's one of the best returners in the game. He never, he never touched the, never touched the ball. Yeah. Pretty sweet. You guys won by two points, didn't you? Yes. No, four points. Four points. Four points. So on their last possession, they technically could have kicked the field goal to win if that wasn't for the safety. So yeah, you can play, you know, if this would have happened, that would have happened. But you know, to me, what Justin Tuck said to me, validated my entire career. That's pretty cool. And it was, it was special. I'll never forget that. And when he retired, I actually, um, wrote him like an open letter. And I'd never told anybody that story before. Um, but I, I posted that, um, as a tribute to him when he announced his retirement.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  Cause a lot of the guys that I came in with are retiring now, but they have a whole lot more mileage on the tires. You know, I mean, there are concussions and surgeries. They're getting hit every day. You're kicking them all. And me, man, I'm super fortunate. No concussions. Actually, I think I had one, but undiagnosed and no surgeries, you know, only one. Marginal injury, so I'm walking away from the game healthy.

• 36:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:19Speaker 01

  You know, with enough money in the bank to pursue what I'm passionate about. You know, I didn't make 500 million dollars, but I made enough to be able to say, I want to do what I want to do.

• 36:30Lewis Howes?

  Right. It's great, man.

• 36:31Speaker 01

  If I can make money within my passion, that's fantastic, but I'm not, I'm not handcuffed to be able to have to do that.

• 36:38Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So what's missing in your life then? You've created a lot. You've achieved your dream. You're still 33. You've got four amazing kids, amazing wife.

• 36:49Speaker 01

  I.

• 36:49Lewis Howes?

  Health is on point. I mean, it could be a little better. You're a little chubby around the waist.

• 36:54Speaker 01

  I'm a little soft in the side.

• 36:55Lewis Howes?

  Um, what's missing in your life?

• 36:57Speaker 01

  That's a good question. I've never really asked myself that. You ask good questions, Louis. You, you, you drive this show well.

• 37:04Lewis Howes?

  Thanks.

• 37:05Speaker 01

  What's missing in my life? I literally, I mean, I have, when I was 15 years old, the first goal that I really set out for myself was I always wanted a family. I always wanted a family.

• 37:19Lewis Howes?

  Why?

• 37:20Speaker 01

  Um, I don't know. I just, the way my dad fathered me and the things he did for me and the, and the way that he, you know, mentored me and he was patient with me, um, and he, you know, unconditional love for me. I wanted, I wanted to give that to, to my kids. And so that was a, a really, really big motivator for me was to, you know, to get married and start a family. And I've done that. You know, I wanted to have multiple kids. I've, I've got four and love to have another one, but I feel like that I, I definitely have everything that I wanted as far as my family is concerned.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  And, um, you know, I have a relationship with my wife that I like genuinely enjoy to be around her. There's a lot of people that, that can't say that, you know, like they're married and they have kids, but. You know, they're like, ah, my wife, you know? I mean, don't get me wrong, there's days where I'm like, oh, man, she's killing me.

• 38:18Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 38:19Speaker 01

  But there's a whole lot more days where, you know, she's feeling the same way about me. So she's helped me grow so much and mature so much. Cause when I started dating her, I was nineteen years old and I probably had the maturity level of like a fourteen year old. You know, and I was probably always like five years maturity wise behind where I really needed to be. And, and she's, she's helped me grow up a lot. I mean, I'm thirty three years, right? Thirty three year old, thirty three years old right now, and I still, I have so much self-improvement to make. Yeah, but she's patient with me, you know, and she knows like there's things that I struggle with, you know?

• 38:59Speaker 01

  Like, like there's things that, you know, innately you struggle with and innately I struggle with. And she's just, she's very patient with me. Um, but one thing she's always very proud of is when she identifies something to me that, that I can improve. I'm, I'm always gonna work hard, you know? So as long as she sees me working hard to improve something, you know, maybe it's my time management. Maybe it's being less, less self-centered. Maybe it's, it's being more patient. You know, I'm not a patient person. I'm, you know, innately self-centered. And I think in order to be the best in the world at something.

• 39:35Lewis Howes?

  Gotta be a little bit.

• 39:36Speaker 01

  You've gotta be a little bit self-absorbed because it requires a lot to be able to become the best at what you do. And, um, so yeah, she's, she's very patient with me, man. I, I love her. She's, she was a godsend.

• 39:50Lewis Howes?

  What advice would you give to women out there who are, want a guy who's going after being the best at what they can be? But, um.

• 39:58Speaker 01

  Don't try to change them, you know? I, I say, don't.

• 40:01Lewis Howes?

  Don't make them wrong for it.

• 40:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, don't make, and she still struggles with this now because, you know, I worked so hard and I became the best in the world at, at what I was pursuing. But now I'm starting all over again, you know? I wanna be an entrepreneur and I, you know, I'm, I'm in the middle.

• 40:16Lewis Howes?

  It's even more time now.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh.

• 40:18Lewis Howes?

  You gotta obsess even more because you don't know the skill yet.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, because I, you know, I'm sitting, I gotta spend a lot of time with people like you. You're like, I, I don't know anything.

• 40:25Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:26Speaker 01

  Um, but I'm hungry and I'll work hard. And so she, I think she felt like when I retired.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  Then I was just gonna be home. Right. You know, but I I'm not wired that way. Yeah. I I'm always, I I wanna do something. I can't sit still. Yeah. Um, I got ADHD like next level, you know? Yeah, yeah. But I've I've been able to use that as uh as a benefit, you know, almost as a weapon. You know, when I was in school, it was really difficult. I couldn't sit still and, you know, I know that you weren't a good student in high school either. And I don't wanna say school wasn't for me because I enjoyed school and I enjoyed classes that I was interested in. Yeah. But it's really difficult for me to sit still in general. Mm hmm. You know, I was. Especially when you're not interested in it. Yeah, so um when I had teachers that were receptive to the fact that I had ants in my pants,

• 41:18Speaker 01

  you know, and I had to go to the bathroom every twenty minutes, I got good grades, even if it was a class I didn't like. Uh, because I was fairly above average intelligence. I worked very hard, but I I can't sit still. If I if I have to sit still longer than twenty minutes, then I lose my focus. Yeah. So it's really difficult for me to sit and read books. It took me like three weeks to read your book. Yeah. It's not that many pages. That's good. But I would read like twenty minutes at a time and then I'd have to be done because if I tried to read forty minutes, I would retain the knowledge of twenty minutes of it and my I would be reading the words, but my mind would go to La La Land. So um the teachers that that were receptive to that, and my son is the same way. Hmm.

• 41:59Speaker 01

  You know, he's he was diagnosed with the exact like impulsive, um, you know, energetic. And I I learned to use that overabundance of energy and my parents funneled that into sports at a really young age. And so when you're playing sports and you don't get tired, obviously, you're gonna get better at them. Mm hmm. Or you're just gonna outrun everybody else. And and I've got um a little bit of OCD, not nearly as bad as ADHD, but I've also been able to use that in goal setting. And so I will. Find like have this vision and set my goal and I'm just obsessed with it. And so everything I do during the day, I'm thinking about that goal.

• 42:40Speaker 01

  And that that drives my wife nuts because she's the opposite of me. When I think something, it comes out of my mouth. And so I may offend some people, but they know where I stand, you know? And it's good and bad because if I love somebody, I'm like, man, I love you. I I won't keep it inside, you know? If I appreciate somebody, I'm just like, I really appreciate you. And I wear my emotions on my sleeve and it's good and it's bad, but that drives her nuts.

• 43:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:09Speaker 01

  You know?

• 43:10Lewis Howes?

  You know, thing is, we need to fully immerse ourselves in anything we're doing if we want to become great at it. You can't just say, I'm going to dabble a little bit and have a balanced.

• 43:20Speaker 01

  I kinda wanna be successful, no?

• 43:22Lewis Howes?

  No, you've gotta, there's gotta be a moment of of time. There's gotta be a span of time where you're all in on something and that's all you think about. If you want to learn and master the skill, you didn't just punt for an hour a day and not think about it the rest of the day. When you're in high school or college, you probably watched game film or watched specific video of a punter that you wanted to emulate over and over. You watched yourself, you went to camps, you studied.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  I mean, how many times have you listened to podcasts of people that you admire? You know, just researching.

• 43:53Lewis Howes?

  Right, I mean, I do a ton of research.

• 43:54Speaker 01

  Right, that's what I'm saying. Like you did, I'm sure you did a ton of research for your interview with me and.

• 43:59Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  We're, we're boys, like you know me well, but you're, you're gonna come in well prepared.

• 44:04Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. I'm curious now, I think people want to know, you do a really good job of Snapchatting your day and Instagramming things. What does a daily routine look like you for you? Like, what would an optimal schedule be for you? Obviously, you're traveling and things change, like you got up this morning at three fifteen, drove to Venice, you worked out at four AM.

• 44:21Speaker 01

  I was gonna come into your room and Snapchat you snoring like you did to me, but I was in his home and I was like, you know.

• 44:29Lewis Howes?

  Maybe we'll download the video.

• 44:31Speaker 01

  I'm very thankful for Louis and, you know, I don't want to disturb his beauty rest because he's got to interview some wildly successful punter today.

• 44:40Lewis Howes?

  Give me the breakdown.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  All right, so my, my perfect day.

• 44:43Lewis Howes?

  Like, what would it be?

• 44:45Speaker 01

  I'm going to bed at ten PM.

• 44:47Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 44:48Speaker 01

  I'm waking up at five AM, a nice seven hours of sleep. When I wake up, I'm gonna have six egg whites, two whole eggs, spinach, avocado, turkey bacon. Then I'm gonna have Why? One piece of wheat toast, dry. Why? Why would I? Why that food? Just it, to me, I've grown accustomed to like that. And I know if I eat that, my energy levels are gonna be where they're, where they need to be. I'm gonna get enough proteins, I'm gonna get the right amount of carbs, it's gonna fuel my day. And so after I eat that, at this time, it's 5:35, I'm gonna go to the gym.

• 45:31Speaker 01

  I'm gonna start out with a nice 15 minute yoga slash static stretch session. Then my favorite body part to train is probably back. So I'm gonna do a good 80 minute back workout, finish it up with 10 minutes of core, then I'm gonna Why back? I don't know, I just, it used to be my weakest muscle group about four years ago, and I trained it so hard. You love it so much. I love it now, cuz I'm, I'm good at it now. You know, I, my chest sucks, still to this day, and I hate training chest, you know? Okay, so Jim's So then, I'm, I'm gonna be finished up with all that around, call it 7:30. And I'm gonna go home, I'm gonna get the kids dressed, I'm gonna take them to school.

• 46:16Speaker 01

  I'm gonna fix them breakfast, I'm gonna take them to school for 8:15, kiss them. Uh, get them into school, then I'm gonna come home, and I'm gonna bust up my emails. Um, and I forgot to mention, I'll be Snapchatting what I'm eating for breakfast and my workouts, the reps, the sets, the technique tips. Um, and then I'm gonna, I'm gonna work for about three hours. And, um, at that point, I'm gonna go have lunch with my wife. And, um, you know, whatever she wants to do for the next, call it two hours. Then I'm gonna pick the kids up from school at 3 o'clock, and take my son to some type of sports activity. Take, and then I'll get home at about 5 o'clock, and then I'll have two hours with my three little girls, and

• 47:01Speaker 01

  They go to bed at 7:30, then I'm gonna watch a movie with my wife. And then I'm going to bed at 10 o'clock again. That's to me, that's a great day.

• 47:09Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty good. I like that.

• 47:10Speaker 01

  That's a great, I like that too.

• 47:12Lewis Howes?

  Okay, so I want you to, I want you to go into a zone for a second.

• 47:16Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 47:17Lewis Howes?

  And you've got.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  What kind of zone are we talking? We talking about like a happy place, like Happy Gilmore?

• 47:21Lewis Howes?

  You're about to go in a zone to give the speech of your life.

• 47:24Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 47:26Lewis Howes?

  You're about to go in a zone in a place where there is a, a high school athlete who's preparing for the state championship in football or basketball. There is a, a man or woman about to go and give the speech of her or his life in front of 20,000 people, or there is an athlete that's going to prepare for the world championship or the Super Bowl. And they call you, they say, we need Weatherford, he's our guy.

• 47:56Speaker 01

  So I'm gonna speak to 20,000 kids?

• 47:57Lewis Howes?

  You're gonna speak to one person.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 48:00Lewis Howes?

  We need Weatherford to come in here and, and get this person ready. We need to have Weatherford get them in the zone. For the speech that's going to inspire the world, that's gonna bring the greatest performance of their life to this moment, to this hour, speech, Super Bowl.

• 48:16Speaker 01

  I'm gonna speak for an hour?

• 48:17Lewis Howes?

  No, you're about to speak for one minute.

• 48:19Speaker 01

  Oh boy, okay.

• 48:19Lewis Howes?

  You got a one minute to go into the room, into the locker room backstage.

• 48:25Speaker 01

  Right.

• 48:25Lewis Howes?

  And speak one on one with this person, or one to 10 people on the team. And you get to move them into the state they need to be in to prepare for this game. They've done all the hard work, they've gotten to this place, but mentally and emotionally, they're not ready.

• 48:44Lewis Howes?

  You gotta get them ready.

• 48:45Speaker 01

  So I need, I need to take them into their zone.

• 48:49Lewis Howes?

  You gotta take them into their zone.

• 48:50Speaker 01

  Good.

• 48:51Lewis Howes?

  Whether they're, again, any stage, any big stage.

• 48:55Lewis Howes?

  What would you say? But also, you could also think of this as a moment of like, essentially what I want you to do is get us into a place where you think about before you go work out. Because you get into such an incredible mental state before you train. And I want to know how you get into that place every single day. So how can you?

• 49:12Speaker 01

  Some days it's harder than others.

• 49:13Lewis Howes?

  Sure. But if you're gonna give me the speech of my life, before I go into the biggest stage.

• 49:18Speaker 01

  Let's say you're in the Olympics for the handball team.

• 49:21Lewis Howes?

  And I'm about to go on.

• 49:21Speaker 01

  And you've got an injury. You're our best player. And I need to get you ready.

• 49:27Lewis Howes?

  You gotta get me ready.

• 49:28Speaker 01

  To win.

• 49:28Lewis Howes?

  Mentally, emotionally.

• 49:29Speaker 01

  To bring it home for America.

• 49:30Lewis Howes?

  That's it. What would you say? One to two minutes.

• 49:34Speaker 01

  One to two minutes. All right.

• 49:36Lewis Howes?

  Give me your hand up when he's got 10 seconds left.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  You know what? I'm a big quote guy. And I'm gonna start right now.

• 49:41Lewis Howes?

  Bring it to me.

• 49:42Speaker 01

  My favorite quote of all time, to give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift. Now, for me, Lewis, tomorrow is the biggest opportunity that you've had in your life to show your mother, to show your father, to show your friends, to show your family. Everything that they have invested in you is gonna come to fruition tomorrow. You're gonna have an opportunity to cement your legacy and put your mark on this life. And it's not only affecting you, it's affecting every person that you've met, every person that you've spoken to. You have the opportunity for them one day to say, I knew him.

• 50:25Speaker 01

  I coached him. I taught him. I was his preacher. I rode the bus with him. You have an opportunity to inspire every single one of those people who has ever touched your life. But what you need to do is the best that you can do. You've done everything that you needed to do up until this point to prepare yourself for your greatness. There's, you're not doing it for anybody else but you because you've done the work. But the reverberation of your actions and performance tomorrow needs to be for an audience of one, it needs to be for you. There's a million people that have invested in you up

• 51:08Speaker 01

  into this point, but if you show up there tomorrow and do everything that you're capable of doing, when you leave that court, or you leave that field, or that gym, you'll be proud of you and so will everybody else. Let it rip.

• 51:22Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 51:23Speaker 01

  I'm gonna drop the mic.

• 51:24Lewis Howes?

  I just got a little chills at the end there. That was good.

• 51:26Speaker 01

  Do you want to go play in the handball championship?

• 51:28Lewis Howes?

  Let's do it. I like it. That was great.

• 51:29Speaker 01

  Play for an audience of one, man.

• 51:31Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 51:31Speaker 01

  You know?

• 51:32Lewis Howes?

  I like that, man. I do like that a lot. Thank you. That was good.

• 51:36Speaker 01

  Let's go work out.

• 51:37Lewis Howes?

  I'm in. I'm ready, man. And what do you say to yourself before you prepare when you're at the gym? Is there a state that you take yourself in? Do you go through a mental ritual?

• 51:46Speaker 01

  I think about my goals, man. You know, I, one thing I've always prided myself on is being the hardest worker in the room. And one thing I've changed in, in my routine in the last four years, it's kind of taken me from an elite athlete to, you know, in the upper echelon of, of elite is I've, I've done it smarter. And so I've, I've done a lot of research and research is difficult for me because I can't sit still. And so I have to kind of like compartmentalize the amount of time that I invest into researching. So I have to schedule that. So like, you know, 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, and I have

• 52:30Speaker 01

  to have like a to do list that I want to accomplish with that 20 minutes. But I've garnered a lot of knowledge and wisdom to be able to get maximal effect for minimal input. So like you've trained with me, like I train hard.

• 52:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:47Speaker 01

  But I don't train as hard or as long as what a lot of people think. I, I train really smart, you know? I don't throw around thousands of pounds in the weight room. I'm very cerebral with my approach to what I'm doing, but more importantly, you have to ask yourself, like, what is your why? Why are you doing this? Are you doing this just because like you saw somebody do on Instagram doing it? Are you doing it because it's going to be a cause and effect? If you do this, you're going to get that. And so my approach to nutrition, my approach to training, my approach to recovery, my approach to kind of attacking your day.

• 53:25Speaker 01

  The way that I'm able to be most efficient and get the most out of every 24 hours that I have is planning. I mean, it's because I I'm a bad time manager even now. But I've been able to accomplish some pretty amazing things because I I plan my day out. So every Sunday before I go to bed, uh, my business partner, Michael Martocci, and I will sit and write down goals that we have for the following seven days of things that we want to accomplish. And some of them are within my family because he actually lives with me now. Some of them are within business, some of them are fitness related, some of them are relationship related.

• 54:07Speaker 01

  And I map out kind of, I don't want to call it my to do list because it's not picking up laundry. It's not going grocery shopping. It's more things that that I want to accomplish for that week. Now, my week never goes exactly as I planned, but you have an overall arching plan for that week. And then I break it down into days. And so at the end of Monday, Monday is like the day that I attack the the most. You've spent a few Mondays with me, man. We get it, you know, like I only slept, I only slept two hours last night. But I knew it's Monday and no matter what the weekend had in store for me, I get up early on Monday because that sets the tone for the rest of my week.

• 54:47Speaker 01

  That's the most important day for me because I'm setting the tone for my mindset, my productivity, my efficiency, um, just everything. So tired or not, I've got this routine on Monday. I call it Monday momentum. Like today is the day that I create momentum for myself and carry that through the rest of the week. Now, will I crash and burn tonight and probably sleep like nine or 10 hours? Yeah, I'll have to clip my my afternoon short and get into bed at like nine and to be able to get up early tomorrow. But it's that important to me, so. The question is, you know, how do you achieve those goals the rest of the week?

• 55:27Speaker 01

  At the end of the night on Monday, I'll go back and look and kind of self scout myself like as an athlete. You know, you self scout yourself when you play a game, you come in on, you play a game on Sunday night football. You'll come in on Monday and watch the game film with your team and see the things that you did well and identify the things that you did poorly. And then you, the rest of the week, you work on your weaknesses to improve them to hope to execute better the next Sunday. And I do that every single night.

• 55:56Lewis Howes?

  Do you have a planner? Do you just have a notebook?

• 55:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, my, my phone. I've always got my phone on me because I, I treat Snapchat like a video diary. You know, I mean, I'm snapchating all day, but the reason that I do that is, man, I'm, I get to do some really rad stuff. You know, like this, this is a very cool life experience for me because this is a show that has motivated me to do things that I'm uncomfortable doing, you know, things I've never done before. It changes the way that I live my life. It changes the way that I treat people. It changes the way that I love uh, my friends and my family and, and it's, it's taught me a lot about myself through other people's journeys of successes and failures. And so I, I think um, for me, it's, it's about self scout.

• 56:42Speaker 01

  So I self scout myself every single night to see how I did in that day. Identify what I did well, give yourself a pat on the back and identify the things that you did poorly and try to, you know, lock and load for the next day.

• 56:55Lewis Howes?

  What's something that a lot of people are missing that you think they could learn about you to gain experience from, that they could be better in their lives from, or something that you do? What's missing from a lot of people that you see and a lot of people that follow you, ask you questions? What are most people not doing that you think?

• 57:11Speaker 01

  Most people don't do enough positive self talk. They don't speak things into existence. Every single morning that I wake up, I tell myself out loud, today's going to be a great day and I will literally. Talk, I will tell myself exactly how the day is gonna go like I'm I'm like my my buddy Mike, my business partner is with me pretty much all day, every single day and every single morning, we'll get in the car on our way to wherever we're going. And I'm like, man, today's gonna be a great day. We're gonna go to this meeting and and I'm gonna crush the meeting and then, you know, we're gonna go and do this podcast and I'm gonna deliver, you know, the thunder in there. I'm gonna leave these these listeners with with something that's

• 57:56Speaker 01

  going, at least it's just one thing that's gonna change their life or the way that they live it or the way they treat people or their view, their perspective on chasing their own dreams. And and I'll positive self-talk myself through the perfect day.

• 58:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 58:12Speaker 01

  Exactly how everything's gonna go.

• 58:14Lewis Howes?

  Does he do that, Mike?

• 58:16Speaker 01

  I did it. I did it this morning. I do it every morning.

• 58:18Lewis Howes?

  Does he ever say anything negative out loud? If you say something negative, he'll shoot you down right away.

• 58:24Speaker 01

  I've I've said a few negative things and Mike won't be like, dude, you gotta be positive, but like, no, I have the look on his face and he won't even have to say anything. I'm like, you're right.

• 58:33Lewis Howes?

  When he says something negative, though, you instantly switch it.

• 58:37Speaker 01

  I knock that out.

• 58:37Lewis Howes?

  What will you say when he says something negative?

• 58:39Speaker 01

  I'm like, no, you're wrong, man. It's gonna go exactly like this. And then he's like, I'm just being realistic. I'm like, no, you're being negative. You know what I mean?

• 58:47Lewis Howes?

  My business, my my buddy Matt is more of a realistic person and I'm like,

• 58:50Speaker 01

  That's I don't believe in realistic, man. I mean, what do you set out for the day to be realistic? No, man, I set out in the day to crush. I wanna crush the day. I every single thing that I do during the day, I want it to go perfect.

• 59:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 59:05Speaker 01

  Does it? No, but I have

• 59:08Lewis Howes?

  But if you come from a realistic place.

• 59:10Speaker 01

  Not even the expectation. I have the dream that it will go. And up until this point, I got up at 3:15 this morning. We got a great workout in this morning at Gold's Venice, which is like the Mecca of fitness and bodybuilding and weightlifting. Had an awesome workout there. Then we went and had a great breakfast on Venice Beach. Then we showered up. Then we went to my meetings. I had meetings with NBC today for You know, possibly being on some really cool shows like, you know, possibly Dancing With The Stars. I don't know if it's gonna happen, but when I left that meeting, I felt great. I crushed the, the meeting and then we left there. We went to In-N-Out, celebrate, give me a triple patty, animal style, hold the cheese.

• 59:56Speaker 01

  And, uh, and then we went to the park, we ate those, snapchatted the whole thing. And then, and then we actually saw, uh, you know, poor homeless guy sitting, uh, sleeping under a picnic table next to us and I went, searched through my car to see if I had any food in there. I wish I would have seen him before I ate that gigantic hamburger. Cause I had to given it to him and gone back and got another one. But I had some Jack Link's beef jerky. I gave him that and a quest bar that I took from your pantry this morning. And then we came here and I could not be more excited for how my day has gone, but for this opportunity right here. So yeah, if to go back to your question, what could I share with other people that they may not be doing right?

• 1:00:41Speaker 01

  Positive self-talk, like you have to see things happen in your life before, before you can do it, like it's visualization. And I learned that as an athlete. Don't ever go out on the field of competition, thinking about what you don't want to happen. Because there's been times where I, you know, you know, we're, it's two minutes to go in the game. The ball snapped from the four yard line. I mean, you know, my heels are on the back of the end zone and I need to hit a good punt because we're up two points and if they get a field goal, we lose. You don't ever get in that situation of like, man, I hope I don't shank it here. I hope I don't catch it fat and it goes 15 yards out of bounds.

• 1:01:24Speaker 01

  Because once you let those negative thoughts in your mind, they manifest. And that's when negative things happen in your life. But if you are in a, a place of. Positivity and it sounds so cliche, but man, I'm telling you, I encourage people to try it, to think about the perfect scenario. And before I go out, you know, it's third down and oh, we had an incompletion. Now I have to go out and punt. I'll close my eyes and even if it's just for three seconds and just rerun the clip in my mind of what the perfect play would be for me. Don't think about, oh, man, it's, it's, it's wet. It's windy. What if the long snapper skips it back to me? I don't want to think about negative things. All I can control is me and I

• 1:02:07Speaker 01

  see myself hitting a 55 yarder out of bounds. And you go out there, your percentage chance of hitting the perfect punt is higher, much higher because you're thinking about what you want to do, not what you don't want to do, or you don't want to happen. So it's, it manifests itself inside of your brain and your brain is the most powerful muscle you have and it controls so much. And it's kind of like that, uh, the movie on Netflix, the book. I say the movie because I can't sit down and read. The secret? The secret. You know, it's like the energy that you project, you know, you attract. Yeah. It's the same thing for being an athlete. Like if you think positive things, chances are,

• 1:02:52Speaker 01

  if you've worked hard up into that point and you truly believe that it can happen, it's gonna happen. Yeah. You know, and, and the, the greatest example of that, that I have had in my life was the Super Bowl. And it sounds cliche to say it, but I saw myself having the greatest game of my life. Before it happened. Before it happened. And then after the game was over and I'm holding my son and confetti's coming down and then I start crying, you know, and then there's Al Roker interviewing people. Like it was surreal. And then you hold the Lombardi trophy and I remember the long walk from Lucas Oil Stadium in this underground tunnel.

• 1:03:33Speaker 01

  That you know, like fans couldn't get in. So it was like a safe passage to our hotel. And I remember getting to the after party and like Kenny Chesney singing and you know, everybody's spraying champagne everywhere. And I always thought like in my mind, I'm like, man, if I ever win a Super Bowl, I am going to get so loaded, you know?

• 1:03:51Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 1:03:52Speaker 01

  And I got to the party and you know, my mom and dad are there and uh, you know, my uh, my sister-in-law Betsy and her husband Todd are there and they're like my favorite people in the world. My grandmother is there. She's like my best friend and my, and my kids are there. And you know, there's beers everywhere and I grabbed the first beer I, I could find and I took like two drinks of it. And I remember, I'm not kidding you. I remember looking at my wife. I'm like, I'm not going to finish this because I don't want to feel any different, you know? Cause I've had nights where, you know, you party so hard and you don't even remember the night before. I did not want that to happen on this night because I, there was so much self-sacrifice and discipline and,

• 1:04:36Speaker 01

  and people investing in me and giving me opportunities, maybe that I didn't deserve or giving me love, unconditional love that I didn't deserve or compassion. And, and it all led up into this opportunity for me to play for the audience of one, but for it to touch them. And, and it did, man. It was like, I, I couldn't have played a better game. It's crazy to think about that. So for me, like, it's not hard for me to, to walk away from what I thought was my dream and it was my dream, but I lived it. And now I want to, to take that

• 1:05:12Speaker 01

  experience and share the tools that helped me to be able to not only get to that level and get to that opportunity, but then grasp it and squeeze it for everything that I could. And, and then when it's over, just to walk away and feel fulfilled.

• 1:05:30Speaker 02

  That's great, man.

• 1:05:31Speaker 01

  You know?

• 1:05:31Speaker 02

  That's great. What do you think is the biggest obstacle in your way now for getting what you want?

• 1:05:38Speaker 01

  Um, I would say it's focus because there's so many, I'm overwhelmed right now. You know, I'm, there's, I feel like there's like so many things I don't know how to do. I feel like there's so many things that are out of my control. I feel like I don't know where to start, you know? It's, it's overwhelming because I have dreams and aspiration of where I want to be in, you know, in this journey. But there's so many things that have to happen in between now and when I reach that place. Yeah. And so it's just, to me, it's about being a taskmaster and focusing on one thing at a time.

• 1:06:18Speaker 01

  And I think if I could do that and surround myself with, with positive people who encourage me, but also teach me. Then I really don't feel like I can fail. I feel like it's, it's going to take some time. Uh, but I'm okay with that. I've never, you know, when I had the dream and the vision and the, and I set the goal of being a professional athlete when I was 14 years old, I was five foot eight, I was a hundred and eight pounds. I didn't share that dream or that goal with very many people, you know? Because the people that I did make the mistake of sharing that with, they laughed at me. You know, it's not a good feeling for you to, to have a dream or have a goal and have somebody just not even shoot you down, but laugh at you.

• 1:07:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. You know, there was one, there was one guy, uh, who bullied me every single day. Hey, Joey Sotarski, if you're listening to this, thank you for your motivation.

• 1:07:20Speaker 01

  He bullied me every single day for like two years. He made me hate school. And, uh, and I remember coming back after the, the summer between my, I finished my freshman year and I literally lived in the weight room. Because of this guy? Like, no, I mean, he wasn't my main motivation, but.

• 1:07:47Speaker 01

  He was a motivator for sure, you know? He made me miserable.

• 1:07:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:07:51Speaker 01

  And I remember coming back after the summer break and I, I left school at, I don't know, like maybe 1:25 and I came back at like 1:45, 1:50 and I wasn't jacked, but I had put on a lot of weight.

• 1:08:03Lewis Howes?

  More confidence.

• 1:08:04Speaker 01

  I was, I put on a lot of weight and I like started to feel myself a little bit. I'm like, I hope, I hope Joey Sotars comes up to me. You know what I mean? I mean, I still only 150 pounds, but I feel like I had like, I had earned the confidence. And so, um, it was, it was a pivotal moment for me because I felt like I earned the right to stand up for myself at that point.

• 1:08:29Lewis Howes?

  How important is mastering your body and your health in terms of achieving any other goal in your life?

• 1:08:36Speaker 01

  That's, that's one thing I really love to, to go and speak to kids about is, is my formula for prosperity. And, and it's real simple. It's, you know, it's identifying what your vision is. And for me at 14, my vision was to be a pro athlete one day. And right now my vision is different, but I'm just as far away from being where I wanted, where I want to be in this journey as I was when I was 14. There's a lot of things that I'm going to need to do before I'm able to realize that. But I've already done it once. I know what it takes and it's just about maintaining my focus, trusting my plan.

• 1:09:18Speaker 01

  And then, you know, working every day and, and being diligent and consistent and, and optimistic and positive. Because, you know, you, you have your vision and then, okay, that's my vision. That's where I want to be. You set your goal and then after you set your goal, you have to spend some time researching and, and seeking out advice and wisdom and humbling yourself to people, providing them value so they want to help you. And then you can put this plan in front of yourself of what you need to do.

• 1:09:56Speaker 01

  And that's the third step of the formula for prosperity. And then the fourth step is where 90% of people will fail in reaching their full potential or reaching their goal and making that dream become real to them. And it's work. You know, people just, they don't execute. There's a lot, there's people, there's dreamers everywhere. This is Los Angeles. There's dreamers everywhere. But how many dreamers are consistently making that daily investment, that daily sacrifice? That it's going to require in order for those tiny, very small decisions over time, the compounded

• 1:10:39Speaker 01

  interest of sacrificing this to get just that much closer to your goal. People, people have a real problem choosing what they want 10 years from now to what they want today. Right. And, and I did that. And I was able to, to be able to experience, you know, seeing the manifestation and the culmination of all those sacrifices and all those, those times that instead of going out and smoking cigarettes and smoking dope and drinking beers with my buddy, I decided to go to bed and wake up early and, you know, put the work in in the weight room. And it's not just about being in the weight room and, you know, going through the motions. It's being

• 1:11:20Speaker 01

  committed and being present in that moment and invest in everything you have. Cause that's one of the things that I love about fitness is it's one of the only things in life that you're going to get out exactly what you put in, you know? Doesn't lie. You're a really kind person. You're a really generous person. You're one of the, the most well-rounded guys that I know, but you're not always going to get what you deserve, man, you know? But if you take that well-roundedness and you funnel that into fitness, a fitness journey, you're going to get, you're going to get what you deserve. Like you can't, you can't cheat on a diet and then expect the results of your body to reflect the sacrifice

• 1:12:05Speaker 01

  because you didn't make it. Yeah. You know? So that's one of the things that, you know, I, I don't use my body to compete in athletics anymore. Um, but we were talking about it the other day. There's something I really enjoy and I admire about people when they walk into the room and they're real fit, not like, oh, he's pretty fit. Like, I'm talking about a one percenter. When a one percenter walks in and you, and they don't even have to have their shirt off. I'm just talking about, somebody's got a t-shirt on, but you can tell they're tuned up. There's several things you can tell about them instantly. You know, you can tell that they practice self-discipline, self-denial, consistency, hard work,

• 1:12:49Speaker 01

  having a vision, a work ethic. So, all of those things, you can tell about somebody without them even opening their mouth.

• 1:12:57Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:12:58Speaker 01

  And that's one thing that I like about fitness because it says a lot of things about me when I enter a room that I don't even need to tell people. You know, they know I'm a hard worker. They know that I'm goal-oriented. They know that I'm willing to be disciplined and work towards a goal. Like, you don't, I was gonna say arrogant to say, but you can't look that way with genetics. Genetics play a role, but there's no way that you can be a one percenter with just genetics. It's gonna take some work. It's gonna take some sacrifice. It's gonna take consistency.

• 1:13:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. All right, final couple of questions. First one is, what are you most grateful for in your life recently?

• 1:13:39Speaker 01

  Recently? Okay, I'm glad you put recently in there. I'm very, very thankful

• 1:13:48Speaker 01

  for two people. And I mean this, I'm really, really thankful for you and your willingness to

• 1:13:58Speaker 01

  just give, man. Cause I don't feel like I have nearly as much to offer you because, you know, I'm not good at what you need. I can help you get bigger arms. You know what I mean? I can help you get a six-pack.

• 1:14:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:13Speaker 01

  I mean, those are, those are important things to have as part of the full scope of what Lewis House is.

• 1:14:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:23Speaker 01

  But you have so much more to offer me and you've been, I mean, every single time I call, every single time I text, every single time I FaceTime you, and I FaceTime you a lot. I FaceTime Lewis.

• 1:14:39Speaker 01

  Eighty percent of the time versus a phone call.

• 1:14:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:41Speaker 01

  The only time I don't FaceTime you is when I don't have very good service. And I've already tried to FaceTime you and then it won't go through, so then I'll call. But your, your willingness to just be transparent with me and honest too. You're like, Steve, I don't think you're doing it right, you know? And you're not arrogant with it. You're not boastful. You know, I mean, did you, you've built something that, that's impressive on a multitude of levels. But you've remained incredibly humble and, and willing to like, you want to rise the tide. You know, you, you want it to rise, not to just bring your boat up, but all of the boats that are in your vicinity.

• 1:15:26Speaker 01

  You want them to come with you and that's, it's very rare. You know, you don't belong in Los Angeles, man. You know what I mean? I think you're like an evangelist out here.

• 1:15:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:35Speaker 01

  For how people should live their life.

• 1:15:37Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate that.

• 1:15:37Speaker 01

  You belong in Ohio, man.

• 1:15:38Lewis Howes?

  Thank you.

• 1:15:39Speaker 01

  You belong in the Midwest.

• 1:15:39Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate, I know. I'm from there, man. That's why.

• 1:15:41Speaker 01

  So to finish your question, uh, it's most, cause you said most recently. Now, if you would have said, what are you most thankful for? Real easy to say my wife and kids because they're going to be with me for the rest of my life and they were my life goal. And they're my life purpose. Uh, but most recently you, uh, and my, my partner, Michael Martocci. He, uh, he's a very good balance for me. He's actually very similar to my wife. He's very, very good at what I'm not good at. And dude, he's a 21 year old kid.

• 1:16:13Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing. Yeah.

• 1:16:14Speaker 01

  But he's a hard worker and, uh, and he's receptive. He gets a little grumpy at times. He's sitting here smiling at me right now, but I'm very thankful for him because he is helping me fulfill my dream. And I, I couldn't do what I'm doing right now without his, his help. And it's kind of weird, but I mean, he's given me guidance too, because you know, a lot of that, you know, the, the knowledge that, that I need is in books.

• 1:16:42Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:16:43Speaker 01

  Guess what?

• 1:16:44Lewis Howes?

  You're not reading them.

• 1:16:44Speaker 01

  I don't get along with books, dude. Unless it's on an audio book or a podcast while I'm running, I'm not going to garner that knowledge. So, uh, most recently, that's what I'm thankful for.

• 1:16:53Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate that. Thank you.

• 1:16:55Speaker 01

  I love you, man.

• 1:16:56Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it. Okay. This is the, uh, the three truths question.

• 1:17:00Speaker 01

  So what are you? I didn't prepare for this. I don't even need to cue this up, so. No, so listen. What are your three truths? Steve Weatherford, you're a Super Bowl champion, you've got four kids, you've been on countless fitness magazine covers, but they're all gone. Exactly. So what are three things, what are three truths? Yep. That you want to share with the world? That you know to be true before you die? You got it. Is that it? That's it, you got it. This is episode 356 and you're here with Steve. Um, three truths. You're gonna die.

• 1:17:33Speaker 01

  But it's. It's not that that's gonna happen, it's like, what are you gonna do in between? The moment that you realize that that is gonna happen? And now, you know, I mean, it's. It's a heavy thing to think about that. You know, as hard as you're, you're working and hard as I'm working, when we die. We can't take that with us. No. You know, but like, what are you gonna do in between now and when you die?

• 1:18:03Speaker 01

  That's gonna impact people. Cause that's, that's why I'm retiring from the National Football League. Is I want to have a legacy. I want to have an impact. Yeah. You know, it's like cool to have. A Super Bowl record, but dude, in 10 years, nobody's gonna care, nobody will probably even remember my name. You know, but they'll remember if. I impact their life, you know? I don't want to be remembered for entertaining somebody. You know? Yeah. Although I felt very blessed to do that, it was so much fun. Yeah. But I just, I didn't feel like. I was making an impact anymore. Yeah. Um, so that's, that's one of them, you're gonna die. Okay. Uh, the second one is. You're always going to get out of life.

• 1:18:48Speaker 01

  What you put in?

• 1:18:51Speaker 01

  Because even if you don't get the tangible return.

• 1:18:56Speaker 01

  Knowing that your investment was the best that you could make, your return is knowing, knowing that you did your best. So that's one thing that helped me mentally with like performance anxiety before games. Like you're going, oh, I'm playing in the Super Bowl tomorrow. There's going to be 79 million people watching. If you make a mistake, guess what? They're all going to see it. Yeah. But one thing that helped me to be able to get that negativity out of my mind is I knew I did everything up until that point to prepare myself for that moment to, to be my best. And so all I needed to do was go out there and let that be shown, you know, play for the audience of one. Because I knew that I was ready.

• 1:19:40Speaker 01

  And if I do my best and I fail, I'm okay with that. And it's, that took me a while to be able to kind of embrace. But just giving your best in life, you're going to, you're going to get that in return. If you don't get it in the return of your goal or a Super Bowl trophy or a million dollars, you're going to get that in a return of the fulfilling feeling of knowing I gave it everything that I had. Yeah. What is my third truth?

• 1:20:10Speaker 01

  That's a, that's, it's a, I, I should have written these down because every time that I listen to this show, I always ask myself like, what would my three truths be? You know? You got the chance now. Um, man, what would my, what would the third truth be?

• 1:20:33Speaker 01

  I mean, to me, I feel like when I, when I ask myself that question, it, the one thing that always I think in my mind is that you just, you have one, one life to live and grow, you know? Yeah. Grow because every mistake that you make, uh, every failure that you have, like to me, my mindset is I'm going to win or I'm going to learn. So when I live my life, I don't, I don't spend any time thinking about, uh, when I fail because I, that's an opportunity for me to grow. And that's also another, another thing that as an athlete.

• 1:21:19Speaker 01

  Was athletics taught me that athletics taught me that you know you are gonna win and lose on a scoreboard but in order to evolve as a person and then you know on a smaller scale in order to evolve as an athlete you need to learn from those mistakes and so I just encourage people that I guess to sum that that truth up is you're never gonna lose you're never gonna fail you're gonna win or you're gonna learn so don't let the fear of failure paralyze you from trying Right. Because when I was 14 years old I'd never touched a football in my life and the high school football coach comes over to the soccer coach and he's like hey we don't

• 1:22:03Speaker 01

  have a kicker or a punter do you have anybody that you know you think would be that has a strong leg that could do it and I was 108 pounds and the soccer coach points over he goes that kid over there he might not look like much he's got a good leg you know and he's a he's a cocky little wiry bastard you know and and so the coach walks up to me is like do you want to be our kicker and I'd never touched a football in my life and I'm so thankful that I had the courage and the bravery to try something new and not try something new and and not try to fail try something new and give it everything you have Yeah.

• 1:22:44Speaker 01

  Don't be afraid to fail because you're either gonna be really good at it or you're gonna learn Yeah. So don't let the fear of failure paralyze you. I like that one. Don't let the fear of failure stop you from achieving your greatness. Boom. Boom. This has been Steve Weatherford on episode 356 the school of greatness. I like it.

• 1:23:10Lewis Howes?

  Okay, before we close, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Steve. I want to acknowledge you for your incredible realness and your ability to visualize any dream and spend years going after it and make it come true. I also want to acknowledge you for your huge heart. You have, uh, you're a big guy, but you've got an even bigger heart and you give more than you give yourself credit for. You give constantly to your friends, to people you don't even know. You're constantly giving to your following, showing up consistently every day in such a loving, huge way. And you do something that you say, that you make seem so easy and so simple, but for a lot of people, it's almost impossible. And that is being positive every single moment.

• 1:23:55Lewis Howes?

  I don't know if I've ever seen you in a negative state, like Mike said. And that's a, that's a gift that you have to inspire positivity in other people. Like you said, it's the thing that most people don't do. It's the thing we need the most and you are leading the world with positivity. So I want to acknowledge you for your incredible inspiration, your incredible.

• 1:24:13Speaker 01

  It's my favorite compliment ever, man.

• 1:24:15Lewis Howes?

  Incredible example, you lead by example constantly. You may not, uh, you know, you, you say you may not be the smartest guy in the world, but you lead by example of your actions with your integrity, with your hard work, and those are a couple of qualities that you can't fake. And, you know, I'll always have you on my team, man. I appreciate you and I acknowledge you for your gifts, so.

• 1:24:35Speaker 01

  Thank you, man, I appreciate that.

• 1:24:36Lewis Howes?

  We, we, we've already, you've already said the definition of greatness. So I want to ask you one final question, but before we do, where can we follow and connect with the legendary Steve Weatherford?

• 1:24:48Speaker 01

  So I am on Snapchat, um, every single minute of every single day. Um, and in addition.

• 1:24:56Lewis Howes?

  What is it? What is it?

• 1:24:57Speaker 01

  It's at Weatherford5, which is also my Instagram, which is also my Twitter. And I'm on Facebook as well, and, um, that's Steve Weatherford. But I monitor all of them pretty much all day, every day, because that is. The most direct way for me to kind of like bridge my gap in between myself and the people who are supporting me, I'll never call them followers because to me, I don't, a follower is behind you. You know, I, I want them right next to me. I want to push them, uh, I want to push them along as, as I go along. Like when I grow and I learn, I want them to get that same experience.

• 1:25:37Speaker 01

  And you know, I, I feel like I do a, I, I try to do my best and also sharing my failures because um, I'm not losing when I fail. You know, I'm learning, you know, as we talked about earlier. You know, I, I'll share the Super Bowl stories and all that, but I'm also, I try my best to, to share the shortcomings and, and the failures in my life and how I'm, I'm learning from those. So, um, I love social media. I don't think you'll probably have somebody on the show that's more active on those platforms than I am because, uh, that's, that's the easiest and most efficient way for me to, to share my journey and share things that, that I learned from amazing people in my life like you. So I want to thank you, man. It's been a lot of fun to be on the show,

• 1:26:21Speaker 01

  but, um, it's been a really special relationship that I've had with you because you came into my life at a time where I needed that guidance. You know, I'm transitioning from, from one career into another and I don't want to say I was lost because I knew where I wanted to go, but you need somebody in your life to show you the roadmap to get there. So, you know, you've been, you've been incredibly helpful and generous and thoughtful and, uh, and transparent with, with everything that you've learned from, from the people that you've had in your life that have mentored you yourself. Muchos gracias.

• 1:27:01Lewis Howes?

  Of course, man, of course. And you also have a book coming out, right?

• 1:27:03Speaker 01

  I do.

• 1:27:04Lewis Howes?

  So, and it's called Armageddon. Is that right?

• 1:27:06Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:27:07Lewis Howes?

  So if you guys want to learn how to get in shape like this guy, like Superman over here, you're coming out with your first ebook on how to get bigger arms essentially.

• 1:27:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. So it was, it would.

• 1:27:16Lewis Howes?

  Is there a website for this that's going to be coming out?

• 1:27:18Speaker 01

  The story of it is, is to me what makes it most exciting. You know, I'm gonna give you a 90 second condensed version of how I kind of like stumbled upon this journey. My whole life I've been into fitness. You know, at 14 years old, I had to change my body in order to pursue my dream. And one thing that had always bothered me, you know, I beyond these different fitness magazine covers, but one thing that always bothered me is I always had small arms by comparison to the rest of my body. And so, once I decided that, you know, my football career was gonna, gonna be over, January 1st, I wrote down my New Year's resolutions. And the first three or four of them were, you know, I want to be a better communicator with my

• 1:28:02Speaker 01

  wife. I want to, you know, be more present with my family and, you know, put my phone away when I get home and, and be, be more in the moment. And the last goal that I, that I wrote down for 2016 is within 90 days, I want to have 19 inch arms. And the day that I wrote those down, it was 16.75 inches. And it took me 104 days, but I went from 16.75 to 19 inches, which is

• 1:28:31Lewis Howes?

  That's hard to do.

• 1:28:32Speaker 01

  2.25 inches. And I'm not taking some of the vitamins that other people do to be able to make that growth. So it's something I'm super proud of because as much time as I had spent in the gym, that was one thing that had eluded me for the past 19 years in the gym. I'm 33 now, 19 years in the gym. And, and I wrote this program down. I was never planning on turning it into an ebook, but I wrote that my New Year's resolutions down. I put them on Instagram because to me, if I make those resolutions and I share them with everybody on Instagram, they're gonna keep me honest. So if I knew I put it to a timeline of 90 days and 90 days went by and I didn't have 19 inch arms, the people that support me on, on Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat, they're gonna be like,

• 1:29:16Speaker 01

  what are you doing? Your arms look the same. So I shared that journey and after about six or seven weeks, I started to get questions like, dude, your arms are getting huge. What like, what, what are you doing? And it was about like the eight week mark, I had, I had like another month to go. And I decided I wanted to put it into an ebook and, and share it because it was working so well for me. And it was something that I always struggled with. So now I'm coming out with, with

• 1:29:43Lewis Howes?

  Armageddon. What's the site gonna be? Do you know the link? Okay, so follow you on Instagram.

• 1:29:47Speaker 01

  All of the, I'm gonna be sharing it heavily on Instagram, at Weatherford5, Snapchat, Twitter.

• 1:29:52Lewis Howes?

  In the next month or something, right?

• 1:29:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm hoping that it's gonna come out in the next four weeks. The, the programming is done, the story behind it is done. You know, the, the daily and weekly motivation and, you know, I tell the story of like, hey, it's week five. This is exactly where I was at. This is what I was thinking. It's, it's fun because I tell the story of exactly like, I went through it.

• 1:30:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:13Speaker 01

  Um, and so I'm excited to, to share that with people because I've never done any, I've never written a book before. You know, I'm not a New York Times bestseller. I'm, I'm a punter.

• 1:30:22Lewis Howes?

  Nah, it's good.

• 1:30:23Speaker 01

  So, but you've been, you've been super helpful with me of, you know, arranging it and, you know, now I'm kind of putting together the, the promo videos to put on Facebook. So people can kind of see, you know, where I was, a before and after picture. It's gonna be a lot of fun. So, people are gonna love it.

• 1:30:39Lewis Howes?

  So look out for Armageddon. Follow.

• 1:30:41Speaker 01

  Armageddon is coming.

• 1:30:43Lewis Howes?

  Follow Steve. He'll announce it soon. Um, and the final question, let's do this. Since I already asked you the, what's the definition of greatness? Let's do, what's the question that you want to ask everyone listening to answer?

• 1:31:00Speaker 01

  So if I can ask all of the listeners, all 1.3 million that downloaded it this month, what would I ask them?

• 1:31:08Lewis Howes?

  What's the call to action you want them to do in their own lives to get better?

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  Okay, this is what I want all 1.3 million people out there to do in their own life. You know, they have the three gratitudes in the morning. I want to encourage people to look at their schedule for the day. Whatever it may be, you know, picking the kids up from school, it could be a board meeting, it could be a delivery they have to make. I want them every single morning, out loud, not in your head, I want you to speak out loud. Whether it's while you're drinking your cup of coffee, or you're having your green juice, or you're in the shower. I want you to positive self-talk your way through the perfect day.

• 1:31:56Speaker 01

  And I want you to do that every single day for 30 days. And I want you to tweet or Snapchat at Lewis House or at Lewis underscore House on Snapchat.

• 1:32:10Speaker 01

  And I want you to tell him, or me, or both of us, how your life has made a massive change, because I know that it will. If you stay consistent to the routine of the positive self-talk,

• 1:32:26Speaker 01

  a perfect day, waking up every single morning and say, "Today is gonna be a great day, and this is why, because I have this, and it's gonna go like this, and then I have to go here, and it's gonna go like this." When you can visualize your day going perfect, and I'm not talking about waking up and, "Oh, the sun will be shining." No, no, no. I'm talking about in detail how your day is gonna go. I'm gonna go into this board meeting today, and I've got this presentation, and it's gonna go so well that my boss is gonna come up to me in the hallway after, and he's gonna tell me, "That was the greatest presentation anybody has ever given. You completely paralyzed the entire room because they were so focused on the material

• 1:33:11Speaker 01

  that you were covering with the passion that you were delivering it." I want you to go into great detail on how, not just, "Oh, I'm gonna have this meeting, it's gonna go good." Go into detail and tell me why it's gonna be so great. If you will commit yourself to a habit of doing that, you can see yourself giving a presentation like that, or, or, or leading a team like that, and how you're gonna lead the team, your life will change. I guarantee it.

• 1:33:38Lewis Howes?

  Steve Weatherford, thanks for coming on here.

• 1:33:40Speaker 01

  Appreciate you.

• 1:33:41Lewis Howes?

  Thank you.

• 1:33:45Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. My man, Steve Weatherford, in the house, rocking the Greatness Headquarters. Super blessed and grateful for this man in the world, and also this man in my life. He's an incredible, genuine human being. Lots of positivity, hardworking, and cares deeply about people. I think that there's no greater characteristics than working hard. Dedication focused on giving back and caring towards other people. In my book, that is a winner and the definition of greatness. So, super grateful he came on. Make sure to share some love and post this out to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, @weatherford5 and @lewishouse.

• 1:34:29Lewis Howes?

  Let us know what you thought of the interview and make sure to connect with Steve. All of his info is back at the show notes. LewisHowes.com/356 where you can learn more about him and see the full video interview there as well. As always, guys, you have a choice. You have an opportunity every single day to make yourself better. Your thoughts will determine how you act and how you react in situations. You get to decide every day, am I going to make an action that's going to move me towards my dream or make an action that's going to hurt me and hold me back? What choice are you going to make today? It all starts with positive mindset.

• 1:35:11Lewis Howes?

  Positive affirmations, positive mindset, what you speak into the world, you create. So, continue to say and think positive things and take that step in a positive direction today. That's going to get you closer to your own greatness. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.