466 Eric Thomas: Prepare for Greatness & Believe in Yourself

"Start where you are with what you have because what you have is plenty." - Eric Thomas If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/466 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 466 with Eric Thomas.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

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

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Oh, we've got a hot one today on the School of Greatness podcast. Get ready, buckle in, and let's go. Eric Thomas, PhD, is an author, world-renowned speaker, educator, and pastor. ET, as he is better known, has taken the world by storm with his creative style and high-energy messages. His words continue to impact tens of millions of people all over the world. Through a significant social media presence and his recent domestic and international tours, ET, the hip-hop preacher, has become a global phenomenon. He's worked with Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric, Quicken Loans, AT&T, Nike, Under Armour, New Balance, and UPS.

• 1:18Lewis Howes?

  He's also consulted for major universities and the major sports teams within the MLB, NBA, NFL, and MLS. And boy, do we get down today. I am pumped, and I hope you guys really enjoy this one. It's all about how to prepare for greatness and believe in yourself, separate ego from impact, and step into the person you were always born to be. Some of the things we cover today are why hitting rock bottom can be of massive service to you. The difference having a great team can make in your career and your brand versus having an average team. Also, what it means to be grounded versus to be humble.

• 2:01Lewis Howes?

  Why you must prepare every day to perform. And how to overcome the fear of speaking in front of an audience, big and small. That and so much more. I am so pumped, guys. We got down today. And I want to give a shout out before we dive in to the review of the week over on iTunes. This is from Kathy Griswold, who said, "Love, love, love this podcast. Absolutely love it. Every episode is more inspirational than the one before. It's hard to wait for the next one to come out. You help to put me in the right mindset every morning for work. Thank you." Kathy Griswold, thank you for leaving a review and for being the review of the week.

• 2:42Lewis Howes?

  If you haven't left a review yet, make sure to go to iTunes.com slash greatness and leave one right now to be considered for the review of the week. Now, without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Eric Thomas.

• 2:59Lewis Howes?

  Well, welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got a living legend in the house, Eric Thomas, my man.

• 3:05Eric Thomas?

  Living legend. I'm living.

• 3:08Lewis Howes?

  It's good to see you, man. I'm excited about this. This is the first interview we're done in the new space. So we just redesigned this. We're still making some tweaks and things here and there, but welcome to a new year.

• 3:19Eric Thomas?

  In a new space.

• 3:20Lewis Howes?

  A new space.

• 3:21Eric Thomas?

  I don't have to clean it though.

• 3:22Lewis Howes?

  You don't have to clean it. Yeah. We did an interview, I think it was two years ago. Two years ago.

• 3:27Eric Thomas?

  You came to me.

• 3:28Lewis Howes?

  I came about an hour away, like somewhere. I don't even know where it was.

• 3:31Eric Thomas?

  I don't know where we were. Ontario or something. Yeah.

• 3:33Lewis Howes?

  I'd never been there before.

• 3:34Eric Thomas?

  You were high either, so.

• 3:35Lewis Howes?

  And we had a great time connecting then. I think that's the last, that's the first and last time I've seen you in person, right? It was that time. Yeah.

• 3:41Eric Thomas?

  But I've kept up with you ever since.

• 3:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 3:43Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, been listening to your stuff and learning, man. We started a podcast because of you. We weren't on the level to go here, so we kind of just do it in our car and our garage, but we'll get here one day.

• 3:55Lewis Howes?

  No, you guys are great. You guys are doing amazing. And you've been, I've been seeing you on tour. You're going to like a thousand cities and, you know, the last six months or something crazy. You're just constantly on the road and then there's packed audiences, thousands of people showing up. You were in Houston. We tried to connect in Houston.

• 4:09Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, yeah, but you were doing too much.

• 4:11Lewis Howes?

  And you're speaking to like 30 schools a day or something, so.

• 4:14Eric Thomas?

  I just try to stay busy, man. Stay out of trouble.

• 4:15Lewis Howes?

  I hear you, man. I hear you. Well, I'm slightly your back.

• 4:20Lewis Howes?

  Because you have such a unique gift, unique talent, and unique power and presence in the world. So I'm excited you're back. And I'm curious first, what are you most grateful for recently in the last, you know, few months of your life? You've been doing so many things. You've got all these programs, a speaker training thing coming out we'll talk about. You were speaking all over the world, all the NBA teams, baseball, NFL, you're doing everything. What are you most grateful for?

• 4:41Eric Thomas?

  My wife's health, man. She's back. You know, I remember when, um, about three years ago, she was diagnosed with MS and she was like a baby, you know, so I have two children. So, you know, when you think about a child, um, they eat and sleep, you know, that's pretty much it. And that was it. She only had energy to eat and sleep.

• 4:59Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 5:00Eric Thomas?

  You know, so she would sleep like maybe 12 hours a day, you know, just a little energy, you know, and I knew something was wrong. But she would go to the mall and she could only last 20 minutes, 20, 30 minutes and no stabbing. I'm like, yo, she's a marathon runner.

• 5:13Lewis Howes?

  No ladies can do that.

• 5:15Eric Thomas?

  I said, something's wrong here. And, um, we just left, we went to Australia, and I mean, literally, in Australia, we were hitting like, the guys can tell you, we were getting up like at 5 o'clock to catch a 7 o'clock flight, like every single day, you know, and she was murdering it, like getting up before me, getting dressed, you know, boom, and she never complained, you know, we get back, that's what, 24 hour flight, we get back and she says to me, like, yo, I think I'm better, like these trips aren't affecting me like they were three years ago. So I think, man, that's the best she, um, yeah, I don't know when this is getting recorded or when it goes out, but she wrote that letter, you know, and she's like, yep, it's time for me to put this behind and support you, you know, in your ministry. So I think that's,

• 5:57Eric Thomas?

  man, just having my wife back, like we've been dating since we were 16 years old, she was 15, and we never dreamed of a illness, you know, we never had like a chronic illness as a part of our life dream and goal. So when it hit, you know, of course I supported her, but, um, you know, it just wasn't, it came out of nowhere, you know, and so for a lot of people, unfortunately, when they have legions on their brain. You know, it travels to their spinal cord and travels throughout their body and they're in wheelchairs, whatever, and she is fully like back, like 90% back. So I think if there's anything I'm grateful for is to have my high school sweetheart, you know, back to, you know, 100%, man. Yeah, no question.

• 6:36Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. She's gonna be joining the forces with the.

• 6:39Eric Thomas?

  I don't know how cool that party is.

• 6:40Lewis Howes?

  We'll see, right?

• 6:41Eric Thomas?

  We'll see. I'll come back three years from now.

• 6:45Lewis Howes?

  You're getting a marriage workshop here coming up this week or whatever.

• 6:48Eric Thomas?

  Yeah.

• 6:49Lewis Howes?

  And maybe part of that is the space you have, you know, the space between the time you're together, right?

• 6:54Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, so we'll see.

• 6:54Lewis Howes?

  That's what keeps you guys together, yeah.

• 6:56Eric Thomas?

  Even CJ was like, he doesn't know if he wants his wife up there, you know, he doesn't know 100% sure what she's gonna say.

• 7:01Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 7:02Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, but I'll come back and give you the, so maybe you can interview her.

• 7:04Lewis Howes?

  In two years, we'll get another time and see what's going on.

• 7:06Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 7:07Lewis Howes?

  I like it, man. Um, and you've been speaking everywhere, you know, just this year alone, you've been speaking a lot. Again, hundreds and thousands of people that come out. What's the biggest challenge that most of these individuals have? What's the common challenge?

• 7:20Eric Thomas?

  Believe. They don't believe, man, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's all mental and people don't get it. You know, everybody wants to say, okay, well, here go 10 steps to, okay, Lewis said do eight, ET said do nine. You know, this person says this is the 12 steps and everybody's trying to get the steps without the mentality. It's like, okay, maybe you don't need all nine, or maybe you don't need all eight, maybe you need four, maybe you need 12. I don't know, but I think sometimes they see what we do and say, if I can, if, like, if I can duplicate that, just like exactly how he's done in the book, exactly, and it's like, yo, you have a story, you know, you, you have a unique experience. And so your 12 are shaped by, by not just your world, but how your world has shaped your thinking. And I think that's the part they're missing is like, guys, you know, if it was easy, everybody could do it.

• 8:04Eric Thomas?

  If it was a cookie cutter, everybody would just follow it to the T, but there's a mindset. And when I looked at Serena, you know, when I look at the Michael Jordans of the world. Tom Brady. Tom Brady, you know, when you look at Michael Phelps, like it is a mentality, you know, on our new album, The Resolution, I talk about, I got that dog. And I'm not really referring to just this, you know, aggressiveness, but it is a mindset. I saw Belichick said something where, you know, they were like, how you feeling about the Superboys? Like I'm gonna be honest with you, we're five weeks behind. You know what I'm saying? He's like, everybody else is.

• 8:33Lewis Howes?

  For next year.

• 8:34Eric Thomas?

  For next year. Everybody else is practicing, training, they lost, you know, they, they, and so they're trying to get ready. They lifting weights, they're reading books, they're, you know, everybody that lost their study, he's like, yo, we five, what type of mind says? We're five weeks behind.

• 8:45Lewis Howes?

  But they after the Super Bowl.

• 8:46Eric Thomas?

  And they have the Super Bowl. So, but again, it's a mentality and I think a lot of people are missing that mentality.

• 8:53Lewis Howes?

  And what's good to get them to develop that mentality and that belief?

• 8:56Eric Thomas?

  I, I, I, I say for, for me, it was hitting rock bottom. You know, and so hopefully for them is hitting rock bottom or not hitting their goals and, and, and having this cycle of loss. That they'll say like a LeBron, you saw LeBron crying. That was because Cleveland had lost for so many years, like they had never had a championship. So, so, so he, he was just like, yo, we finally did it, you know, but it was year after year of losing. That even when he left and won, he came back because he remembered the loss and say, yo, this is a, this is good. But this isn't what I set out to do. Like I want to be a winner and I want this town to know what it feels like to win. You know, so I think that's it. When you lose enough or you hit rock bottom and you just say like enough is enough.

• 9:38Eric Thomas?

  Just everything will snap and change because you're saying, look, the way I've been doing it is not working. So I have to do something different. So I, I just think, man, you gotta hit rock bottom.

• 9:47Lewis Howes?

  Here's the interesting thing. I, I meet a lot of these people and this is like the deadliest person in my opinion. When someone tells me, you know, Louis, I've got a really good job. I'm making a hundred and thirty grand a year. I've been doing it for 20 years. I got a, you know, really good life, good kids, good wife. But just that, ah, something's missing. And they got those like golden handcuffs, right? Where they, that good life, but it's not outstanding. What do you say to those individuals who are like, it's hard to really, they don't want to hit rock bottom because they got a good life.

• 10:17Eric Thomas?

  Yeah.

• 10:18Lewis Howes?

  But man, it's really tough to break through that top level.

• 10:20Eric Thomas?

  Look, man, I just had this conversation with like my number one client in the world. And that's my son. You know, we just had this talk and I said, son, you are probably at the most dangerous part of your life. And he's like, dad, I got three months and I graduate from college. Like I work with Tom Izzo. One uh uh dad, I wear an elite eight ring, a final four ring dad. I've I got a job offer of of of a lifetime and I was like, that's the problem. I'm like, everything you've ever dreamed of, you are three months away. So what happens three months and one day? Like you have nothing, son. Like I said, so what you have to do for me is now I need you to start all over from scratch. I need you to come up with what's the next four years look like? What's the next grind? I'm like, is it getting the eight hundred credit score?

• 11:05Eric Thomas?

  Is it saving two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Is it finding the girl of your dream and getting married? You know, is it buying a house, helping your mom uh pay for your sister to go to school? I'm like, son, I don't care what it is. But you don't understand, this is dangerous because this is where people mess up. They get comfortable, they saddle and they think, yo, I made it. And like you said, that's the worst place in the world. So I told my son like, yo, just imagine in three months, you're gonna wake up at every dream you've had since you were six or seven years old. It's like who graduates with the dream job? You know, who who who lives in New York? Who who's go, he's in Manhattan, he's gonna be in Manhattan, Times Square. You know, so I said, son, this is a dangerous place. So I say to those individuals, yeah, you're right, you don't wanna hit rock bottom.

• 11:48Eric Thomas?

  But you have to create your own mental rock bottom so that you don't hit rock bottom.

• 11:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 11:54Eric Thomas?

  Wow.

• 11:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. It's kinda like the power broke, right? It's like Damon John talking about the power broke all the time. He's even even if you're the richest guy in the world, you gotta act like you got.

• 12:02Eric Thomas?

  You gotta act like it. Cause for what makes Brady wanna win a fifth? What makes Jordan?

• 12:06Lewis Howes?

  Thirty nine.

• 12:07Eric Thomas?

  At thirty nine, what makes Jordan say, okay, I got four? Like, it's not even a new season, he said, we're gonna buy, we got to get the fifth one. What makes Serena get twenty three and still going? Like, what makes Venus, who was sick and should have been gone, now she's thirty six years old? What makes her fight to get to the Australian Open? And I'm telling you, it's it's not the money, the network, it's not, you know, the vision board. It's, I believe, for those of us who are where we are, it's something within. You know, and and you can't go buy that. You know, I can't give it to you, Louis can't. Like, you've gotta go within and find that and pull that stuff out. Yeah.

• 12:42Lewis Howes?

  What do you think is the best way to develop belief in oneself?

• 12:45Eric Thomas?

  I just think, man, for me, I mean, a million ways, but for me, it's like, you gotta find that why. You know, it's like, I couldn't imagine not getting up at three o'clock in the morning. Because Dee Dee needs me, you know, imagine, you know, and I don't know MS like that. And nobody quote me or call Lewis and say Eric was wrong.

• 13:02Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:02Eric Thomas?

  But I do know the one thing that they know is stress causes it. And, and the way the legions grow is because of stress. So my thing is I gotta keep the stress off my wife and right now she's in a hotel, you know, in, in, in LA. You know, she's about to leave her job and she knows that still financially we're fine. She has a car and we're taking care. So I'm thinking about my son, who I don't want to have a student loan or my daughter who I don't, you know. So for me, it's like, it's my why. And I keep telling people, okay, yeah, Tom Brady, but he was doing it. I believe Roger Goodell. I, I believe his mom with cancer. I believe he cried when he talked about his father. His four Super Bowls. He was crying about his father being a hero. I'm like, this is unbelievable. You, I mean, what more can you ask for? So it's not the car, the house or whatever. It is that internal goal, that internal why.

• 13:47Eric Thomas?

  And so for me, I just think that's it. Like that, like you, ah, it's just, it's something within and you gotta pull it out. And so it's easy when you have a why, a purpose. I'm doing it for this, I'm doing it for that. It's easy to get up and get going, but if it's just for a car, what happens, Louis, when you get the car? Cause you can buy it. What happens when you get the house? And you can buy the house. What happens when you get the jet and you got, but the, when it's for your son, that's forever. Like my wife's MS, the, the, the span of her life is gonna keep me like, it's not, okay, I can get a house and it's over. Like that's gonna take me, if she lives another 50, I'm gonna be grinding like this for 50. And what I try to explain to people, you've seen this happen before. I don't know if you know a person personally, but you've got a guy whose wife, they've been married 50 years and, you know, and she died.

• 14:31Eric Thomas?

  And this guy dies two weeks later. And it's like, how did you get through, like, he got through cancer. You know, he made it through cancer, but his wife dies and he dies a week or two later. Why did he get through cancer? Cause he was doing it for her. But once she died, that was his whole reason for living, his whole reason for existing. And when that why died, he was like, it's over for me. You know, or I don't remember Carrie Underwood, I think was her name. And her, the young lady from Star Wars, what was her name?

• 14:56Lewis Howes?

  Yes, I'm not sure.

• 14:57Eric Thomas?

  Okay, I think it's something like that, but she, okay, and her, Carrie Fisher passed, and I think her mom passed.

• 15:02Lewis Howes?

  Like a week later or something, right?

• 15:03Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, a week later. The next day. Wow. You got some smart people here, right? The next day, so, so why did she die? Her baby, that was her baby girl. She was, all these years that her daughter was struggling with addiction and going through whatever her challenges were. Moms was right there, but once she died, moms, everything died for moms. So, I just think that why Louis is so important. And if your why is a car, well, you're talking 2015 gets old, what, in 2020? So that's it, like, you know, your house, it depreciates in value in what, 10, 20 years maybe? So, I think, but when you have that why, that thing pushes you. You're doing it for cancer, for your mom? Tom Brady's thinking in his mind, and, and one of the players said, hey, remember you doing this for your mom? He said it, like, hey, you're doing this for your mom, I know we're down 25.

• 15:46Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, I know we're down 25 points, but you said your mom, you know, and so Tom is like, yep, I told my mom, my dad, and I don't want to see my mom at the end of the game with a loss. And then mom comes up with the scarf, and you can see she's going through chemo, and he did it for his mom. So, you gotta have something within, man. Yeah, what's your why? Dee Dee, you know, Jalen, Jada, you know, Carl, CJ, they're families, you know? I tell people all the time, you know, I'm not working just for me. I promised these guys that they would rock with me, you know, that they would be rewarded. So they have wives now and children now. They have homes and cars and lifestyles and like, what I do every interview, every video, you know, every presentation. If I don't get better, they don't get better.

• 16:32Eric Thomas?

  You know, and so when I have these other guys saying, you know, we gonna catch you, E, we gonna be a better speaker. I'm like, well, you better have 100 people you working for, because you're not about to beat me. Because I've got people who are relying, like, counting on me. When I'm on the treadmill, I'm on the treadmill not because I need to look a certain way. My wife's been in, she got, she got beat. So she been in for the long haul, I'm fat, small, whatever, she's with me, she's not going nowhere. So I'm not doing it for her, I'm not doing it, my mom not gonna love me no more if I weigh 155 pounds versus 260. My mom's gonna love me. But if, but if my health lasts for another 30, and I can keep this energy, bro, I'm doing three, four gigs a day. If I can keep this energy for another 20 years, financially, you know what?

• 17:14Eric Thomas?

  The team is gonna be, but if I allow myself to get sick, you know, uh, because I'm not taking care of my body and I can't go speak or I, I can't consult. Then, then the guys are gonna suffer, their families are gonna suffer. So I, so I'm, man, I'm telling you, waking up for them, you know, and eating right for them. That's my why, man. And then all those people who see me in the airport, who are crying or those people who see me and say, hey, you got me through prison or you got me through my exams. I, I can't afford Louis to let those people out. Like, I'm not an entertainer. You know, entertainers have the luxury of doing whatever they do. You know, uh, uh, on stage, you know, and then they can live whatever life they wanna live. Like, nobody holds them to, you know, a standard.

• 17:53Eric Thomas?

  But Eric Thomas, people hold me to, like, that's my pastor, or that's my mentor, that's my father. Like, there are kids who would say, I don't have a father. Like, you don't know it, but you're my father. People say, like, yo, you were my business partner before I, like, you were my silent business partner for six years. So if I fall off, they fall off. You know, I've heard CJ say before, like, E, I'm not trying to be funny, and I hope it doesn't happen, but if you got a divorce. I don't, I'm thinking, like, if, if you couldn't make it in your marriage, I'm not gonna be in the marriage. I wake up thinking about that. That was a conversation we had 10 years ago, maybe. But I wake up, like, E, make sure you do what you're supposed to do, because so much is riding on your speaking. You know, not tires, but on my speaking.

• 18:33Lewis Howes?

  How do you, uh, yeah, of course. How do you not allow the pressure to overwhelm you? Or how do you reframe it in your mind, not as pressure or something else?

• 18:41Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, that's what I, I don't see it as. Uh, pressure, for sure. But I don't see pressure as negative. You know, like you probably, I see pressure as it creates diamonds. You know, so without it, no, no one could be great. So Diddy's MS, you know, and I tell people this all the time. I know guys who literally left their wives. When they were, um, diagnosed with maybe cancer or maybe MS. You know, I know a young lady specifically who her husband left her after 20 years. You know, of of her being diagnosed with MS. And I get it, you know, I get, I do understand. But I said in sickness and in health. I can't prove that I really love you without this pressure. Like this pressure proves, like anybody can do it if everything was good. I'm proving under stress.

• 19:26Eric Thomas?

  Brady, Brady was like, fear, we had no fear. God, we gotta score right now. We got, this is, well, okay, now we just score, now we gotta score again. Now it's overtime. Now we really have to score. Because if we don't score now and they score, game is over. So for me, I don't see it as negative. I see it as, yo, pressure is what separates the boys from the men. This is what everybody says, they're a great speaker, they're a great this. Pressure says, okay, we gonna really see who's the champion. And I'm not trying to, I know it's a lot of Falcon fans out there. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anybody, you know, but they were able to handle a certain amount of success. First quarter, second quarter, third quarter, almost multiple quarters. But when the pressure hit, they weren't able to sustain the success they were having.

• 20:08Eric Thomas?

  So once we get to overtime, now all of a sudden, it goes to the Patriots and all of a sudden, you stopped them all this time, but you couldn't stop them when it mattered. Because that, it was, it was a pressure that a lot of those guys had probably never felt Super Bowl overtime. You know what I'm saying? They probably never felt, we gotta stop him now. You know what I'm saying? We gotta sack Brady now. Like, you were able to get a sack in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter. But when you needed to sack most, under the most stressful time, you weren't able to produce. Whereas Brady was like, yo, I've been here. I've been here before, so I got it. So for me, the pressure isn't negative. I like the pressure because it's gonna separate ETA from all the other companies that say they're the best motivational service companies in the world. And they might be, it might be 12 of us, I don't know.

• 20:51Eric Thomas?

  But if it's 12, we will be among the 12.

• 20:54Lewis Howes?

  The top.

• 20:54Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, we'll be among the 12.

• 20:55Lewis Howes?

  And there's room for everyone.

• 20:56Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, absolutely. That can handle the pressure.

• 20:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course.

• 20:59Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, that can handle the pressure.

• 21:00Lewis Howes?

  Of course, and you can't be at the, the Cavs and the Pistons at the same time, so you know.

• 21:05Eric Thomas?

  You gotta choose.

• 21:07Lewis Howes?

  Let's talk about ego. And, you know, we have, I would say, similar kind of businesses where we're, we're in the face, right? We're the personalities, we're leading the charge. And without us, they probably want to be as successful as it is, right? We're speaking, we're doing the videos, all that stuff. How do you separate your personal ego from not getting in the way to being able to be the biggest service that you can in the world? As opposed to, it's all about, you know, me mentality, but all about serving your audience. How do you separate that for yourself?

• 21:41Eric Thomas?

  It's the same way I look at the face. You know, the eye is very important, but not without the nose. You know, and the nose has its significance, but not without the ear. So I don't know if the ear is sweeter than the nose. You know what I'm saying? I don't know if the ear could say, yo, hey, I'm the ear, like, come on. I don't know if the eyes could say, hey, without us, guys, we couldn't see absolutely, but see what? You know, so for me, I think I don't have an ego problem because I understand I, I play a significant role, you know, in a, in a, in a phenomenal organization, you know? And without those other pieces, the success that I'm having, I wouldn't have. You know, so yeah, I may be the face, but I'm not the nose, I'm not the eye, I'm not the mouth, I'm not the ear. So it's no success without those things.

• 22:22Eric Thomas?

  So, and I, and I, and I had a long career without the people who work with me now and had a very good career. And now I have a phenomenal career. So I understand, I, I can, you know, some people have, like, one group, and it's like, this happened with that group. No, I had a group and I have another group. So I played with the Cleveland Cavs back in this timeframe, then I'm playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers at this time. And I had success with the first Cleveland, I got contracts, I got, you know, people knew who I was. But with this one, I'm winning, we got hardware now.

• 22:53Lewis Howes?

  Winning championships.

• 22:53Eric Thomas?

  We won the championship. So it's easy for me now because I've realized, hey, without these guys, I wouldn't have X, Y, and Z. And so I don't see myself as, okay, I did these videos. No, if Carl didn't record them and edit them, nobody would even know who I am. I would have just been that sweet dude in that room.

• 23:10Lewis Howes?

  That one video.

• 23:10Eric Thomas?

  With those 50 people. Those 50 people would have been like, yo, eat a man. But with the videos, you know, with C's, uh, strategic. branding and saying, okay, it needs to be done this way, this way, this way. I wouldn't make the money I'm making. My kids wouldn't have the lifestyle. My wife wouldn't have the lifestyle. So for me, it's not, it's not an ego. It's not. My mother used to always tell us, don't say you're humble because you, you have to have something to be humble. My mother say, say you're grounded. You know, so for me, I'm grounded. I know that I'm not that deep, but I am one piece of a phenomenal puzzle.

• 23:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's great, man. That's funny. In the beginning of every one of my chapters in my book, I talk about getting grounded. Preparing yourself. We say, get grounded, I could get some.

• 23:47Eric Thomas?

  I stole it from you.

• 23:49Lewis Howes?

  Probably not, but it's.

• 23:54Lewis Howes?

  Talk to me about what it means to be a man and your, your opinions and thoughts on masculinity. Because there's a lot happening right now. We don't need to get into politics, but just in the world, there's a lot of frustration, confusion, uncertainty. Uh, you know, battling of the sexes, things like this. What's your definition of masculinity? Yeah, first off.

• 24:16Eric Thomas?

  First off, man, it's responsibility. You know, I think a man is about responsibility. And I think a man, a true man knows he's the head, but plays, you know, the tail. You know, he, I don't have to walk around my house and say, yo, I'm the man. You know, I show my wife I'm the man by ironing her clothes before I leave for the day. You know, I show I'm the man by calling my son and saying, is there any way I can help you? You know, I know you're a senior in college, but is there anything I could do for you? You know, I show my manhood by, you know, saying, see, and Carl, man, I love you guys. You know what I'm saying? And on the podcast, I love you guys or on the calls, I wouldn't be here without you. So I think there's this fine balance of, yep, I'm powerful and I have this strength.

• 24:59Eric Thomas?

  But I don't use it for my advantage. I use it for us. I use it so we can grow. Like, I don't use my platform to tear you down. You know, or say things about you that, you know, would put you in a bad place. I, I use my influence. I use my money. I use my strength. I use my influence. I use my impact to build us up. And not tear us down. So for me, manhood, like the real man says, like, I'm not gonna make no excuses. I'm not gonna point the finger and say, Louis, you didn't do this, you didn't do that. I'm gonna take full ownership, full responsibility of helping us and even you. Uh, you know, it's funny, I, I was looking to get a loan for, uh, I wanted some property for our church. And the bank was like, I'm sorry, but like, we don't do loans, you know, for churches.

• 25:42Eric Thomas?

  And I'm like, okay, well, you know, our history. He's like, it has nothing to do with you. In the last ten years, churches have, with the economy, the way that churches have proven that they have it. And so I'm like, I'm like Louis, I'm like, wow, it has nothing to do with me. Right. But because of the churches and what they, so I'm not just doing this for, speaking for ET. I'm doing this so when Louis does it, and people see ET and see the integrity, they don't look at motivational speaking as, man, that's, that's whack, or inspiration as, that's, that's, that's baloney. Cause you'll go online and there are reports or different videos that say, man, motivation, who does that? Like, that's fake, they trying to take your money. So when, when I do what's right by this industry, it makes it easier for you. And when you do right by this industry, it makes it easier for me. And people are not saying they're scams.

• 26:27Eric Thomas?

  So for me, Yeah. Manhood is responsibility and it's that fine balance of when I was a child, I spoke like, I act like I understood that, but when I became a man, like I put childish stuff away and I'm not competing with you. I'm, I'm, I'm here to enhance you. I'm on the show today, like literally, I don't care how many shows you do. I want this to be one of the ones where people like, I got a fool with Louis. Like yo, the way he interview E, like the whole, they chemistry, like, yo, I got a fool with this guy. Not, I'm on a show to build my following, but like, I've got to let people know. And for real, I'm just being real with you Louis, like I get a lot of calls and I don't, I, I, I do very few interviews. Right. Because when we sit together, whether we say it or not, we are endorsing one another. Absolutely.

• 27:12Eric Thomas?

  We're, we're, we're saying like, yo, I fool with Louis, I fool with ET. You know, so I'm here because I have had a chance to follow you. I've had a chance to meet you. I'm like, yo, he the real deal. Like I'm, I'm, I, I have flaws, but you the real deal. Like you are authentic person, like you're serious about what you do, you're trying to add value. So for me, if I have a chance as a man with a platform to help you, I'm going to do that. So just tearing each other down, this talking to each other in a way, like this tweeting stuff. I'm like, bro, you a grown man, you have something to say to me, like just call me, let's say it to my face. Like we don't have to. We don't have to tear each other down, so I'm just about responsibility is what I think manhood is. Bringing up and not tearing down.

• 27:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I appreciate that. That's cool, man. And who is the most, uh, who is the person you look up to the most? In the world in general, whether it's an athlete or someone in your family, or is there someone that you're like, gosh, that guy or that woman or that person?

• 28:05Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, it's crazy. Like, I'm not, like, that's not me. Like, you know, my biological father wasn't in my life, my father who raised me. So I've never really had that dude, but like 100, if I had to pick a dude, it would probably be CJ. Like, I look to CJ like, wow, like, like, I look at CJ, he younger than me, you know what I'm saying? But the stuff that he does, the moves that he makes, I'm like, yo, that's like, if I could start all over again and do it differently, a lot of what I see in him, I'm like, yo, I, I would do that at 22, 23. Like, I wasn't really on that, like, business wise, like, I might have been praying and stuff, but I wasn't in terms of business, in terms of my marriage, I had to figure some stuff out. You know what I'm saying? Like, I, I wasn't 21, married, and like, oh, I know to do this, this and that. Like, I'm getting into it with my girl. Like, I didn't know, like, okay, E, you need to.

• 28:49Eric Thomas?

  So there's just some stuff that I've seen and the way he handles himself and does stuff that I'm like, yo, I don't have that. You know, I have a dream, like, this man is mine and puts up, but if I had to have somebody that I would say I look up to, it would probably be C. And this, like, in this time of my life, that's who I look to if I had, like, a challenge or like, okay, which way should we go? And, yeah, and I might have a thought in my mind and be like, don't think that thought, ask C what you think he should do. And if his thought ain't your thought, don't worry about your thought, just go with what he say. And the ship, we gonna be all right. So, yeah, that's how I would probably answer that.

• 29:18Lewis Howes?

  And what about, like, someone who you haven't met, who you're thinking is doing something really inspiring, or they're just building a base?

• 29:25Eric Thomas?

  I'd say Michelle Obama, you know, or Oprah, you know, I just, I'm looking at Michelle like, wow, like, that role is a role you could have easily just played, you know, in the backdrop and not really done anything, but she had her own ideas, her own platform, and she used it, you know, to help a population of people who would be considered disadvantaged. And then you look at an Oprah who's in Africa, starting schools, who are putting people's books on and, you know, putting them on her show. And all of a sudden, now they have, they have influence and impact. So I look at those two women as if I could have a mentor, I would love to sit down with those ladies and ask, like, how did you gain your influence? Like, because they started, like, they don't necessarily come from privilege.

• 30:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 30:08Eric Thomas?

  And to be able to now be women of, you know, privilege and impact. I would love to just know, like, what books were you guys reading?

• 30:16Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 30:17Eric Thomas?

  Who were you learning from? And why, ego wise, why did you not let your ego? You look at Oprah, like, even though she big time, you look at Oprah like somebody that, that's like my auntie.

• 30:26Lewis Howes?

  Like a friend.

• 30:27Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, that's like my auntie.

• 30:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:29Eric Thomas?

  Like, I could go sit down and have a conversation with Michelle. You don't look at Michelle as, you know, you can't touch her and whatever. You look at how she was with her husband. She's dancing, kissing, like, she was a normal. The way she treated her daughters, like, they, they had pigtails. My daughter's got pigtails. Like, it's like, they're, they're just normal. They're not, of course, but they are normal people in the sense that they didn't lord over people with their celebrity or with their influence. And so I would love to sit down and kind of learn from those individuals. And maybe you can call Oprah for me and set that up.

• 30:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'm working on that too.

• 30:58Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, all right. Well, whoever gets there first.

• 31:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I like that.

• 31:01Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, whoever gets there first. We'll make sure we say the name.

• 31:05Lewis Howes?

  I like that. Um, what's your dream?

• 31:08Eric Thomas?

  You're gonna change the world, starting with the educational system. I just feel like so many kids who are disadvantaged don't know the power of knowledge. You know, they don't get it. You know, like, you, you, because you are knowledgeable, you were able to write your story. You were able to write your narrative. And I just think because these kids don't understand the power of education, they're not writing their own narrative. And they're letting people write their narrative for them. They're letting people to decide their fate. And I just want to say, look, like, learn, read, write. Like, if you're not good at English, okay, go with math, be an engineer. But like, take advantage. And I want to help teachers. Like, there's so many teachers, I feel like they care, but because they didn't grow up in certain neighborhoods and they're not familiar with the, the language, the rules or the codes, they're not able to coach these kids. Like, and this generation is different.

• 31:53Eric Thomas?

  You just can't throw a book in their face because they don't, they don't have that, you know, um, that, that, that desire for learning. But you can still coach them. Like, you can still get them ready. So I just want to help teachers to go in the classroom, like, really empower, really change, and to give them the tools that they need to do what they went to school for. Like, everybody talks bad about teachers. You think I, I took a $50,000 cut? Like, you think I went into education and not a doctor or lawyer or engineer? That I can fail and teachers want to be successful too. But I just don't think that they have the tools for this generation. So I, I, man, that, that's what I would love to do is change the educational system. And just give more people, man, you know how it is flying, you know, the world, you know how it is being able to eat. But you know what it's like to have choice. You know, you know what it's like to have freedom. It's, it's, it's.

• 32:38Lewis Howes?

  Real nice.

• 32:39Eric Thomas?

  Man, it's great, man. I, I, you know, I, and I don't want people to think, you know, I'm on that, but I walked in the hotel yesterday. It was this long line. And then there was the SPG, I think, line. I was like, I'm in the SPG.

• 32:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:50Eric Thomas?

  And I went in and, you know, checked in quick. I was like, yo, I like this. I'm not against the long line, but it's good to be, you know, a member, you know? And, and that's what I want for other people. I, I don't want just that Eric can put his kids through school or Eric can travel to Australia. Like, I want other kids to know what it's like to have ownership of their own life. Isn't that what America's about? All men are created equal. You know, all men are created, and I want them to enjoy the liberty and the fruit of being an American. Because if you really live the American dream, it's, it's unbelievable. It's, it's not like anything else.

• 33:24Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing, man.

• 33:24Eric Thomas?

  But it's just so few people who actually get that opportunity.

• 33:28Lewis Howes?

  So how are you gonna do that?

• 33:29Eric Thomas?

  Uh, well, you saw Houston, man. I'm just.

• 33:31Lewis Howes?

  You're like three, four schools a day.

• 33:33Eric Thomas?

  This is what I love about ET is he, you really practice what you're preaching about your dream.

• 33:37Lewis Howes?

  You're not just like, I want to change the educational system and talk to a few leaders about it or something. You are actually on the ground. You'll speak to six kids, six hundred kids, you'll speak to a classroom, the whole school.

• 33:49Eric Thomas?

  Funny story, if you don't mind. I got time. My, so my auntie invited me to her school. So apparently she doesn't know I'm ET hip hop preacher. She invites me to her school and so she sends me this text and says, okay, should I invite, um, just my students or maybe a couple more? And I said, well, auntie, you know, get more, right? I get there. She had ten people. In the classroom, like I'm speaking to ten kids, a high school probably about twenty five, I was speaking to ten kids. Just so happens that the lady, talk about the law of attraction. The teacher next door has been following my stuff for years, shows the kids every Monday. She's like, eh, ET, if I'm preaching, is it our school? And my aunt is like, oh, ET, Eric? Yeah, I'm preaching.

• 34:31Eric Thomas?

  So the lady brings her students over, so I went from ten to twenty now. About twenty students that I'm going in on. And the other teacher goes to the principal and says, do you know who's in our building? And so immediately after that period, you know, and I, I do like a auditorium, three hours in a row. They fill up the auditorium and I speak to them, right? But my aunt's still looking like, I didn't know. She's like, why they taking pictures with you? And I'm like, I T, I know I'm not a big deal to you. But to a couple people, they really want to hear this. So that's where we started. I just believe, start where you are with what you have, for what you have is plenty. And then just recently, I was able to sit down with some very powerful people in the education arena. Who are saying, ET, we want to help you take this platform to another level.

• 35:13Eric Thomas?

  You know, we have the connections, we're in the schools and we want to help you. But I, I just think, Louis, there are so many people who are waiting for the meeting. There's so many people waiting for that meeting to happen before they, and I just say, let's go create it. So every city, corporate brings me to, the NFL, the NBA brings me to. I say, bring me in a day early and let me hit every school I can hit, every detention center. And if I keep doing this, you reap what you sow, eventually, somebody's going to see what I'm doing. And somebody, Oprah maybe, Michelle maybe, somebody's going to see what I'm doing.

• 35:43Lewis Howes?

  People listening, make sure you book this guy to do something, yes. And when you're speaking at the schools, are you doing most of it, you know, for free? Is it mostly kind of just going in and just showing up?

• 35:54Eric Thomas?

  K through twelve for the most part, it's free.

• 35:56Lewis Howes?

  It's college, you know.

• 35:57Eric Thomas?

  They got a budget.

• 35:58Lewis Howes?

  They can write that check.

• 35:59Eric Thomas?

  They got a big stadium, man.

• 36:00Lewis Howes?

  I hear you, man.

• 36:01Eric Thomas?

  A few big stadiums.

• 36:03Lewis Howes?

  But you're getting paid to go out for something else.

• 36:05Eric Thomas?

  Absolutely, corporate is bringing me in or NBA, NFL, and then we're using that time. You know, to go back, isn't it the American way? Like, somebody has helped us and then we pay it forward.

• 36:13Lewis Howes?

  Give it back.

• 36:14Eric Thomas?

  See, I told you, I got stuff from the book. He said it the same time I said it.

• 36:17Lewis Howes?

  I feel like, you know, like you were talking about in the beginning. You know, we can make all the money we want, get the cars, the jets or whatever, and have the fancy things, but. When's enough enough, like before you want to start making an impact? And I feel like everything that I do and that we do, it's like if it's not giving back in some way, then what's the point? If it's just for me, or just for us alone, and it's not to serve people in a bigger way, like we're doing something wrong.

• 36:42Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, let me tell you, man, last night, talking about Didi and I've been married 26 years, together 30, and we check in last night, knowing what's going on today and just to be able to hold each other. You know, as for me, I'm like, no child, education, there's no child left behind. And I'm sitting here like, yo, I'm with my, my high school sweetheart, like, we made it through everything and we're doing this thing together. You know, my son calls me this morning for worship, you know, and he's like, Dad, I just want to get the day started. A couple of players in the car and we're doing our thing. And I'm like, yo, I didn't have to leave my wife or my kids behind. Like, we're all together. I'm with the team eating breakfast. I'm like, yo, we didn't lose, we didn't lose. You know, and then you're in the airport and there's somebody that's hugging you and crying. I'm like, yo, we're able, we, we, we're taking everybody with us, you know?

• 37:24Eric Thomas?

  It's like the LeBron commercial in Cleveland, when he's starting to work out and then before you see it, like, everybody's running. And before there's thousands of people with LeBron, I'm like, that's how we feel. Nike hasn't asked us to do that particular commercial yet. You know what I'm saying? But, but that's what we're doing. Like, it's people who are following us in every city. Now, we got Breed University, there are people all over the world, they're on, they're on this movement of this being phenomenal. So they're not forgotten. They're on this, they're on this for real, the school of greatness. Like, they're really about being great and it's not us alone. It's, it's all of us together, man. So it's just been sweet, not getting to the top and like you're by yourself, but I've gotten to the top and all these people that are still coming with us. So it's just, it's what you say, it's money. Okay, yeah, you do need that, you need resources, but it's not about the money.

• 38:08Eric Thomas?

  The money is a tool to help you accomplish that goal you're trying to accomplish.

• 38:13Lewis Howes?

  And you didn't really have a lot of money growing up, right?

• 38:14Eric Thomas?

  No, not at all.

• 38:15Lewis Howes?

  So how did you learn from someone who never made money, really, to build wealth? How was that for you? Did you learn from someone? Did you just kind of figure it out?

• 38:24Eric Thomas?

  I mean, the books, come on, let's be real. You got the, the, the Napoleon Heels.

• 38:28Lewis Howes?

  They can grow rich on the top there.

• 38:30Eric Thomas?

  That's my, that's the one, man. You know, um, you, you know, The Richest Man in Babylon.

• 38:35Lewis Howes?

  I got that in here.

• 38:35Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, so you know, all the classics, man. Um, um, um, um, The Richest Man That Ever Lived. I mean, it's just so many different classics.

• 38:43Lewis Howes?

  Isn't The Richest Man in Babylon, is that the one where he gives away 50% of everything?

• 38:47Eric Thomas?

  Yep, and he puts 10%.

• 38:48Lewis Howes?

  The scrolls, right? Is that what it is?

• 38:50Eric Thomas?

  Yep, the scrolls, Mark 1 and 2 are, um, Well, I'll tell you when I finish, but I got that one. The scroll went one, two. But for me, then I started meeting Dan Gilbert. I started meeting Bob Proctor. And I was saying like, I don't want to meet, get the check from these guys. I want to sit down and learn from these guys. So a lot of those guys have done it, and then we've been fortunate to have our own, you know, um, financial guru now with Josh, you know, being a part of the team, you know, so looking at things from a financial standpoint, because I'll be honest. I always looked at stuff from a ministry standpoint, you know, and ministry is good, but it's not a business, you know, so now we have a business model, you know, and things are happening. So I got around the right people, man, and was honest enough, you talk about ego, was humble enough to say, I don't know, and I'm not going to pretend like I know.

• 39:31Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 39:32Eric Thomas?

  You know, because sometimes you're like, I don't know, you're like, you get these people around you, and you try to act like you know. You know, people, did you read that book? I talk to people, oh, yeah, I read that book. You read that book? Oh, yeah, I read that book. They never read a book a day, and they're like, but I'm like, no, no, like, I don't know, you know, and then we need your help. So I've just surrounded myself with the, with the people who know. I do well at what I do well at, and I let the people who do well at what they do, I give them free rein to do what they do.

• 39:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 39:54Eric Thomas?

  Well, CJ not necessarily doesn't give us all free rein. I get free rein. I get it. I get a free rein.

• 40:00Lewis Howes?

  I like it. What would you say is your greatest gift in the world?

• 40:04Eric Thomas?

  Service. Nobody's going, nobody's going to serve like I serve. You know, I'm going to preach, then I'm going to mop the floors, I'm going to cook. I'm going to cut the potatoes, I'm going to skin them, cut them, boil them. Like, nobody's going to out-serve me. You know, I'm going to serve in the morning, I'm going to serve at night, everybody leaves, I'm going to cut the light off, you know, so for real. People have different gifts. People are intelligent, people write, you know, people are athletic, people are fast, you know, interview, whatever. I, I am the best servant in the world. I am, I've read something, and I knew, you know, it's just stuff just hits you, but I would never forget reading that the greatest among you shall be a servant. And I was like, ooh, that's my lane right there. The greatest among you will be a servant. I'm like, I can do that.

• 40:47Eric Thomas?

  I can, I can wash feet, you know, I don't have a problem with that. Whatever you need me to do, I can do that, you know, so, uh, that's my greatest gift. People think of speaking. Speaking is the platform that gets the attention. But once I get your attention and you come in my life, you, I, you, yeah, I, I will, I'll say, like, you won't want to leave this relationship.

• 41:04Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 41:05Eric Thomas?

  You won't want to leave me.

• 41:06Lewis Howes?

  How did you learn to, to speak the way you do?

• 41:09Eric Thomas?

  Um, paying attention, you know, I think a lot of speakers that I watched, they would come into a building and have a message and I don't care who was in the room, they do the message. I'm like, nobody's listening. Like, everybody's asleep. But my man is so into himself, like, he didn't even realize that everybody's knocked out. I'm like, they're asleep. Like, it's not working.

• 41:25Lewis Howes?

  He's not looking in people's eyes.

• 41:26Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, he's not looking at it. He don't care what's going. He just got his eight, uh, his eight speech PowerPoint, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's going through a hundred slides. Nobody's getting it.

• 41:34Lewis Howes?

  Boy, clap at the end of it, he's like, alright.

• 41:35Eric Thomas?

  If they get that, because this generation now, they're, they're gonna walk out.

• 41:38Lewis Howes?

  They're on the phone.

• 41:39Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, they're on the phone. They, they, they like to, and I, and I realized, like, that's not working, you know, and, um, when I start, like, talking to people, it's weird. People say, you know, how do you do what you do? I'll just go and ask people, like, what, what, what, what be your takeaway? If you were listening, like, what would you want to hear? And I just go up and say what they said. So I spend time with the people. I talk to the custodial worker and I ask him, like, yo, I know the principal's perspective, but my man, he got a lot of paperwork going on. He's behind the desk, like, you're a custodial worker. Like, you see the kids, you hear things that nobody else hears. What's going on with these kids? Well, his parents is divorced and this kid, you know, is from a foster care and a lot of our kids, I'll probably get more, uh, thorough information from the custodial worker. Like, my man is like, believe it or not, very wise and,

• 42:23Eric Thomas?

  and, and very tapped in. Sometimes the principal's not tapped into the pulse, you know, they, they, yeah, but they, but they don't know what's going on. Talk to the teachers and, once I get that, I, all I have to do is go up and say what you told me, but just keep it creative.

• 42:37Lewis Howes?

  That's so true.

• 42:37Eric Thomas?

  And loud. I figured the loud thing.

• 42:39Lewis Howes?

  Keep their attention, yeah. I mean, it's so true. I mean, I, that's something that I like to do as well. I was, I was in, uh, giving a speech in Illinois the other day and I asked them beforehand, you know, a week before, you know, what do you want me to cover? What do you want to talk about? And they said a few things and I was like, that just doesn't feel right. I just don't think this audience wants that. So we get there early and I'm in the back of the room, talking to people, just saying, hey, what's, what are you getting out of today? What do you want to get out of this? You know, they don't even know I'm speaking. I'm just like, what's the big, what's the big thing? What's the big challenge in your life? And I love that you do that as well, because I don't think a lot of speakers do that.

• 43:11Eric Thomas?

  Oh, because they, they're, they're full of themselves. They think, and I, and that's what I tell young speakers. I don't like going to a restaurant where the food is sitting under that, that, that red light. I like to go where I can order and it's made fresh. So as a presenter, I'm not gonna give you the, the, the, the red beam light. I'm gonna give you, you can order fresh. Like, what do you want? So when I come in, my stuff is going, I may have never.

• 43:35Lewis Howes?

  Made to order.

• 43:36Eric Thomas?

  It's made to order. Even Carl has a hard time sometimes. Cause it's like, yo Carl, hey, I don't know what, like, you were talking, I don't know. Just start and he'll go, okay, well, all right, eat. And I'll talk and he'll just kind of fill me out like, okay, I think this is next. I think that, but although it's, it puts more work on us, it guarantees that it's organic and that the people are gonna walk out refreshed. So that's, I'm about being organic, man. That's all I'm about. Yeah.

• 43:58Lewis Howes?

  I was speaking to a, a class yesterday, a small class of students, high school students. And, uh, and they were in a leisure class talking about public speaking. And a lot of them, their biggest fear is speaking.

• 44:09Eric Thomas?

  Right.

• 44:10Lewis Howes?

  So how did you overcome the fear? Maybe, it sounds like you never were afraid to speak in front of a group, but how?

• 44:15Eric Thomas?

  I was, I still am.

• 44:16Lewis Howes?

  How do you, uh, you know, teach that? And I, I know you guys have a, a public speaker training program where you guys.

• 44:22Eric Thomas?

  Just started.

• 44:23Lewis Howes?

  Yes. So it's at ET, it's at ETinspires.com. You guys can learn more about, if you wanna learn how to do that and what your style is, you can get that training there. But what's a, how do people overcome that fear?

• 44:34Eric Thomas?

  When you realize that you're not speaking so that people can critique you, you're speaking to change their life.

• 44:40Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 44:41Eric Thomas?

  So you have the opportunity, I don't know if there's anything, okay, I'm sure there is, but I don't know if there are more ways to change people than being upfront. And like literally speaking, like that, I don't know what the power is, but there is a power. You know, when you sit down and you're letting somebody's like, like control your thinking, control, like they're putting work. And so I realized like, yo E, this is a crazy responsibility, but literally I have a chance when a kid is listening to me for 30 minutes. He can walk on, his life can be changed forever. So when I shift the focus from, how do I sound? How do I look? I want people to say nice things about me to, I'm gonna change your life forever. The, the, I would say, there's still some anxiety because I want to make sure I do it effectively, but it takes the pressure off because it's not about me now.

• 45:26Eric Thomas?

  It's about changing this kid's life, making principals go back, teachers go back, parents go back uh with a, a, a vision or an excitement or, or, or, you know, a, a hunger that they didn't have prior to me being there. So for me, it's like, I think if you're focused on, well, am I gonna get a letter of recommendation? Are they gonna bring me back or are they gonna say positive things about me? Am I gonna get more likes? You know, uh, is my social media, maybe you should be afraid, but if you go in saying, you know, I'm gonna change this kid's life forever, I'm gonna change his life, this marriage forever. If you go in with that, it kind of takes some of the edge off.

• 45:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I love that. And that's kind of like the Michael Jordan approach where he said, you know, every night I knew someone in the arena was coming to watch me and I had to show up to be, to be a catalyst of possibilities or hope for them, right? And it's funny because for years when I was speaking, I was, I was always the other way. I was always nervous about what are people gonna say? Are they gonna like me? Are they gonna boo me? Am I gonna forget my words or whatever? And it was always about the ego, like, am I gonna look okay? And then a couple of years ago, I got some great teaching that from someone who said exactly what you said essentially about, remove yourself from the situation and make it about the audience. Make it about how can you be in service the, the maximum way? So I love that you're teaching that and I'm sure the entire training is gonna be more of those great things.

• 46:41Lewis Howes?

  So make sure you guys go check it out and get it. What, um, how do you prepare mentally before either a, a school of, again, six or a corporation of 6,000? Do you have the same mental preparation or ritual before you jump on stage or get in front of a room? If so, what is that?

• 46:59Eric Thomas?

  I think it's every day. That's why I'm in a school every day. That's why I don't wait until I get a call. That's why if there's a corporate company that I have a relationship with, I just did something for Five Guys. I'm staying in touch with, uh, the owners. I'm staying in touch with the staff. I'm going to Five Guys locally and saying, hey, you, you guys were at the conference. If there's anything I can help you with. So I think that's the thing CJ teaches us to stay ready. You know, that's the theme, stay ready. So a part of staying ready is, yeah, you don't have to get ready. So the NFL players that I work with, I'm constantly on the phone with those guys. I'm on the phone with the coaches. I'm constantly asking questions like, I don't assume that I can wait for the call and then prepare myself in thirty, forty minutes to be ready to, to, to, to.

• 47:41Eric Thomas?

  So I create relationships with these individuals. I create friendships with these individuals. And I stay in touch with them on a regular basis, adding value. Like, how can I add value to your life? And then they just keep me, man, you don't, you don't realize, you know, what's going on in the NFL. It's like, we're watching the Super Bowl and then the day after, we gotta do this. And then, man, it's like, from January to April, like mentally, we just got at home and, you know, we, we got friends that are trying to distract us and we don't wanna. And I'm like, oh, there we go. All right, Carl, let's put some videos together for that. All right, let's put a curriculum together for that. And so I'm talking, talking, talking. So then when the team calls me and says, you know, the Browns called me, Hugh Jacks said, ET, I want you to come and work with me. Well, now, when I get there, I'm already, I already know some of the things that he would need as a coach

• 48:22Eric Thomas?

  to help these young players. And as much as I'm allowed to, I'm, I'm going to have that impact. So I just stay in schools, stay in detention centers. Now my daughter is going to detention centers with me. She wants to be a, a, a social worker, you know, so I'm staying tapped in. My son's a general manager. So when I do stuff with, uh, teams, I bring him along when he can come. So just staying in the environment, staying with the posts, because if you know the posts, it's, all, all you, man, it's, it's easy. All you're doing is just rehearsing, you know, it's like you're doing, you, you, practice, practice, practice, practice. Practice, baby. Yeah, you, you, you, you just lay it out. Yeah. It's nothing different. It's nothing different. You're doing it every day? But if you do it once every month, it could be, it could be a challenge. Challenging, yeah. What do you think about, before you go to bed?

• 49:07Eric Thomas?

  Am I gonna wake up the next morning, you know? And if I don't, what, uh, pieces do I need to put in place so that my wife as well? As a matter of fact, you know, it's funny you asked me that. I felt in my spirit, you know how stuff just comes? I said the other day, because my daughter's eighteen and you know, she's starting to, um, she's probably been interested in dating, just didn't share that with me. Absolutely. So I probably have to be careful. Since she's about to let me problem. I'll say that, you know, I was about to say, my daughter just started dating. No, no, no. She's probably just felt comfortable telling me Yeah, yeah. that she likes boys, you know, so, um, what I've been doing is I say, E, you know what you need to do? You need to sit down on this phone and you need to talk your daughter through a relationship, just in case you don't make it. You know, you talk your son through his twenties,

• 49:48Eric Thomas?

  just in case on one of these flights, something, you know, was to happen. And so that's what I've been thinking about lately, is E, how do you prepare them even in your death? Like, how do, how do you set up your family and structure in such a way that if you're not physically here, that coaching is still here, that your voice is still in their ear, you know, so that's what I've been thinking about. And then more importantly, like the mistakes I made that day. E, I always see it, you know, working with Coach Izzo, one of the things I've learned from Coach is he uses his timeouts wisely. He uses half times wisely. He's constantly trying to make adjustments, you know, during that timeframe. And so for me, going to bed is rest. And so prior to going to bed, I'm like, yo, E, what adjustments, you know, do you need to make? And then, you know, make those adjustments when I make, I wake up that next morning.

• 50:32Eric Thomas?

  Hmm. What do you think your biggest weaknesses are? Man, just wanting to do too much, man, you know, um, you know, you think about, yeah, education, I think about marriage, I think about, and all of them are, you know, equally important. People get divorced. You know, you got kids who don't finish school, you got kids who make terrible decisions and they're on the streets or prisons. Like, I could just do prison, or I could just do educate. So sometimes it's just like, yo, it's just like, y'all want to save the world. And, you know, I have to explain to my wife, I can't help that I want to save the world. You know what I'm saying? Like, I didn't wake up one day and say, I want to save the world. I, I didn't push a button and say, all right, save the world. It's like, I was born with it. I was born to care. I see people, I'm trying to stop, hug everybody before I get on my flight.

• 51:15Eric Thomas?

  I don't carry money anymore because I always give it away. It's like, I didn't ask to be this guy. And it's not a lot of save the world people out, you know what I'm saying? So sometimes you're like a freak, you know what I'm saying? It's like, When are you gonna stop? When are you gonna quit? When you gonna, I'm like, yo, I wanna stop. But when I sleep, I'm dreaming of people. I got a person just recently who unfortunately, um, I was trying to coach and mentor and the relationship didn't work out. I literally had a dream about those individuals, hugging them and their family and, you know what I'm saying? I hadn't even talked to the person in thirty days, but I'm still thinking about them, like in my sleep. I'm, I didn't ask to do that. I didn't ask to care to that level. Like, some people are, like, some people I know, they're good. Like, they can get rid of a person and, like, never think about that person. Like, I, I'm not wired like that. Like, I can't abandon you

• 51:58Eric Thomas?

  because you did something I didn't like. Like, I'm just wired to be a shepherd. I'm wired to serve, you know, so, um, but sometimes it causes challenges because other people are like, yo, well, I'm focused. I gotta do this, or I gotta do that. Or my wife was like, well, what about our family? Cut that off and just us. And I'm like, okay, I'm trying, but I don't know what it, like, I don't know where the switch is. Like, you know, I don't, if, if, if I found out where it was, I would, you know, cut the circuit breaker off and then cut it back on three, four hours later. So I think that's probably my greatest weakness is I do wanna save the world and you gotta be balanced. Like, you gotta take care of your family. You gotta take care of your staff. And you gotta know when to say no and when to say yes, but it, it's still a challenge.

• 52:36Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 52:36Eric Thomas?

  Every school called. Why didn't you come to our school? Why didn't you come to this school? Eric's a big, he think he's big time now. Like, why, he was in our town and he went to these schools. Why didn't he come over to here? Does he only work with this group or does he only work with that group? And it's just like, I wanna save everybody, but it's twenty-four hours in a day.

• 52:50Lewis Howes?

  So what's in the way? What's in the gap for you for achieving your dreams?

• 52:54Eric Thomas?

  Uh, time, you know, um, and just prioritizing and, you know, that's the beauty of having a team you talked about earlier.

• 53:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 53:02Eric Thomas?

  Now, as the team grows, you can have more Chick-fil-A's. You know what I'm saying? You take them from the south now. You're starting to see them in Michigan and Illinois and whatever. So when you get that model, and I think that's what, you know, having a CJ and a Josh right now, what they're trying to do is say, hey, let's try to, ET, if you have a- A program, P70 speaker training, then you're not hitting these two or three people here, ten people there. Now you have this academy, you can bring people, you can do more. So for me, that's not my thing, but having a team of guys now who are saying, hey, let's make it a machine. You know, and if it's a plane, E, and we get you a 757, we could put three, four hundred people on. We still can't do it the way you want to do it, you still can't get a million people.

• 53:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 53:44Eric Thomas?

  You can't create a machine for a million people, E, but we can get you, we can get five hundred people on the plane for you. And you can take care of those five hundred, you know. So, um, I think that has been in a way, it's no longer a challenge, they're actually developing that as we speak. And I think that's going, that's, that's going to help me feel better that I've saved a million this year.

• 54:02Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 54:03Eric Thomas?

  I still gotta get to those, those billions, but we'll take the millions that we can get this year.

• 54:06Lewis Howes?

  I like it, I like it. And who was the most influential person in your life growing up?

• 54:10Eric Thomas?

  Probably my mom, you know.

• 54:12Lewis Howes?

  Biggest lesson she taught you, what's that?

• 54:14Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, mom's like no excuse, you know, she had four, my grandma had fourteen kids, my mom was the only one, you know, really to finish high school.

• 54:21Lewis Howes?

  Fourteen?

• 54:21Eric Thomas?

  Fourteen.

• 54:22Lewis Howes?

  Holy cow.

• 54:23Eric Thomas?

  And lost a set of twins, so it should have been sixteen, in a, like a three bedroom house with two ba, well, one bath, you know, um. And I just saw, yeah, no, Chicago, we're originally from Chicago. And I saw my mom, my mom went back to, my mom went to college at forty-eight and graduated at fifty-two. So my mom is that dog, you know what I'm saying? When I think about that, that's my mom, you know, and even though I used to be upset with my mom because she lied about, you know, who my biological father was, it was a plan. You know, mom's like the original Olivia Pope, you know what I'm saying? Mom's like, we go, you know what I'm saying, they not gonna know who you are, they not, like, how do you get, uh, two families not to say who your father is? And I was with my biological father's family, I was with my grandma and my aunts and didn't know who he was.

• 55:04Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 55:05Eric Thomas?

  So my mom had a straight, like, uh, she had it planned out, you know, like, yo, this is what's gonna happen, you gonna go to school. Uh, my mother would like s- sleep in tents so I can go to special schools, you know, because they had, they, it's like, you on the waiting list. You know, so she would live in like in a tent, really like, you know, just like, you know, camp out if you will, for me to get in. So mom is, you know, she started as a photographer in eighteen, nineteen, turned that into microfilm. You know, for Ford graduate, uh, uh, uh, finish Ford with a degree, you know, and put herself like one of the highest levels you could go. So just seeing my mom grind all these years and not say, well, I didn't have my father in my life and I grew up in poverty on the south side of Chicago. I went, mom didn't make any excuses. Mom said, hey, we'll do whatever it takes.

• 55:50Eric Thomas?

  And so, uh, mom is definitely, man, even though we had an estranged relationship, you know, for a couple of years, I left and was immature, but mom has definitely always been that, that person that I, you know, because some of our challenges, I wouldn't say that I had my mom's picture on the wall, but we've always been emotionally attached, you know, we've always been very close, you know, and so mom has definitely been that person that I learned my grind from.

• 56:12Lewis Howes?

  And what would you say is the biggest lesson you learned from your father or the absence of your father?

• 56:17Eric Thomas?

  Um, that you could fake it like you care, but you can't fake it like you're there, you know, and I think it's so weird, man, like when I worked with the Browns this year, I didn't get to talk as much as I'm used to talking, you know, that wasn't the role. Um, which was weird for me because I'm like, yo, I'm a, I talk, but man, I would literally come to the meetings or I would be on the field as they're coming out, getting ready for the game. And I remember guys saying to me like, yo, I still can't believe you on the field, E. Like, yo, I've been watching you since I was in high school. I cannot believe you standing here with, you know, with my team's T-shirt on, like, yo, this is unreal. And I would have guys from the other team like, okay, I know you with the Browns, E, but hey, when I was with Oregon or Alabama, you came to my school, you know,

• 57:02Eric Thomas?

  and just to see that the talking is good, but being present and holding somebody and looking them in their eyes and saying like, yo, you could do this, like after a loss in Cleveland and just being there. And they're like, yo, E, we lost 10 games. You still here? We lost 12 games. I'm like, yo, I'm here. I'm not here win or lose. Like, I'm not here. I'm here for you. And to be able to be there for people, I'm realizing that's the best as a father. I'm there for my children, you know, the staff, as much as I can be, I'm there for the staff. Like, I'm not in my own world, whatever. We eat together, we fly together, you know, we in the same car. I don't have. Well, I might be Hollywood, I don't know. I might need a chauffeur these days.

• 57:45Eric Thomas?

  But I mean, we still do everything together, you know, so for me, I'm realizing the power of presence. You don't have to always talk, you don't have to give people gifts. Sometimes just being in people's life through the ups, the downs, the bad, the ugly, the snow, the sleet. People value and appreciate you just being present.

• 58:02Lewis Howes?

  Well, I love hearing that a Michigan guy is in Ohio supporting my team.

• 58:06Eric Thomas?

  No question.

• 58:07Lewis Howes?

  We need to let the coach have to speak before every pregame and warm them up.

• 58:12Eric Thomas?

  You hear this, Hugh?

• 58:13Lewis Howes?

  Let's go, come on, Cleveland.

• 58:16Lewis Howes?

  A few more questions for you. And I could, I could talk with you all day. I love this. And what are you most proud of that most people don't know about you?

• 58:27Eric Thomas?

  Man.

• 58:29Eric Thomas?

  I don't know what I'm most proud of.

• 58:33Eric Thomas?

  I don't know, I don't know that I have any like individual pride. I think what I'm most proud of is that I've been able to get with a group of men and we've been able to become brothers. And we haven't let egos get in the way and we've been able to change the world with little or nothing. Like when you look at our company, you know, we're from, we're from Lansing, Michigan. Like that's where we started in Lansing. We didn't have any support. Now, I've got to change. I used to always say, nobody gave us anything, but a lady wrote me a check for a thousand dollars at the free program I do at Michigan State. So that's, I can't say that anymore. You know what I'm saying? But we haven't had a lot and like I said, egos haven't gotten away. It's not a thing of, you know, you're bigger than me or I'm bigger than you, you know, like for real, financial records, just everything.

• 59:17Eric Thomas?

  We've shared everything and for us to be three young men from, you know, Lansing, Detroit, Barbados, and to be able to change the world, like you don't know what it feels like to just have people, like I can't go anywhere anymore. Like people know who I am and, and people, you know, was at the NFL experience. And I remember we went to a restaurant and I saw a hip hop artist that would walk in and nobody wouldn't say anything to him other than, you know, they go, but people would walk up to me and hug me and start crying and say, look, guy, I'm not, I'm not a groupie. Like Eric Thomas, do not get this twisted. I don't take pictures with celebrities, but you changed my life. And this is bigger than, I met a guy when we were at the, when we came in last night to the hotel. He said, yo, E, I don't want to say anything to you, but like I built my business because of you.

• 1:00:02Eric Thomas?

  Like you changed my life. Like I hear this every day. And so for me, it's like, I'm proud of the fact that we were able to build something that helps people and not necessarily just the focus on us. But, but we meet people that say, man, I made 15 million dollars in the last three years watching you guys. Your free podcast, your free this, your free that, you know, so for real, man, a group of guys coming together in a room and having a dream and a goal and having a blue collar, forgive me, but a blue collar. We not Apple, you know, we not Microsoft and maybe, you know, we're not in the big magazines and like, you know, some of the, you know, more powerful people in the world may not necessarily be talking about it. But the everyday people who are struggling to get up and get at it are saying, yo, you helped me.

• 1:00:46Eric Thomas?

  And for me, it's like, yo, we're contributing to America, just like all these other great Apple phones. We're changing lives and to grow. So that's what I'm probably, you know, most proud of, of what we've done. I can't think of any individual thing I've done. It took me 14 years to get, you know, I mean 12 years to get a 40 degrees. So I don't really know that I have anything like, for real, like I, I was homeless, high school dropout, eating out of trash cans. I don't know if I've ever had that thing that I did. Like I wasn't an athlete. Like I, I've never had that thing that I can hang my hat on as an individual, you know what I'm saying? But as a team, I can truly say I can, I can hang my hat on as ETA. We have like, we would be magnum cum laude, summa cum laude, whatever that is like, we would be up there with.

• 1:01:31Lewis Howes?

  Highest honors.

• 1:01:31Eric Thomas?

  Oh yeah, no doubt, we would be up there. Yeah.

• 1:01:33Lewis Howes?

  And what's the total views you've had now on all the videos on YouTube? You guys know the, how many, how many views? Hundreds of millions of views. Yeah, the PhD, right? Yeah, yeah. I remember I was watching it for like a year, building up to it, man, all over online. Yeah.

• 1:01:47Eric Thomas?

  Even that though, as excited as I was for, even that was a collective effort.

• 1:01:51Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 1:01:52Eric Thomas?

  People who supported me in terms of editing, you know, people who made me rethink, you know, like, okay, E, I'll never forget, I, I read it the other day, one of the young ladies who was, was on my committee. She said to me, It was so funny. I sent her the first draft and she's like, I'm not trying to be funny, but I know Eric Thomas. I don't see any passion in this. Like, there's nothing that says roar, beast mode. I'm not trying to be funny, but if you, if this is gonna have your name on it, I would go back and give me some ET. And I didn't know, you know, because that's not my space. I didn't know I could go ET. I said, I didn't know I could bring color to it, you know, in life. Because it's academic. You know, so I didn't say that just because like it's not something that I've done.

• 1:02:36Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, I didn't do that on my own. That would, it would be so many people that would have to be in this room, you know, with me. But in terms of ETA, like I could truly say, I know where my part is in this movement. And I'm very proud of what we collectively have been able to do together.

• 1:02:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's great, man. I love it. What is, um, what is Breed University? What is this? And how can people be part of it?

• 1:02:59Eric Thomas?

  It's a family, man. You know, it's a family. It's a, it's a group of people who believe like we believe, who share our values, who share our passion. And now we've just created a, a, a platform where we can be together, man. It's, look, and I, I, I would never talk about any other platform. But the thing I'm so proud of with Breed U, the young man who runs some of our mastermind calls, he said, look, yo, in the last two or three years, E has missed two calls. So I'm on the Thursday call, I'm on the Sunday call, whatever calls, like, we get to do BU meetup. So like I'm in LA, so all our students that are in this area, will come together and do lunch or dinner together. So it's just a huge family, a fraternity, if you will,

• 1:03:41Eric Thomas?

  of people who started from the bottom. It's like, yo, E, I don't have millions, you know, I don't have, you know, seven, 10,000 to be a part of these programs. And so we're like, hey, we're, uh, you know, we the Kia, you know what I'm saying? You're the Kia of, of this gang. It's a, uh, a, a, a, a great vehicle, you know, 100,000 mile, you know what I'm saying? It's a great car.

• 1:04:01Lewis Howes?

  It gets you from where you are to where you need to be.

• 1:04:02Eric Thomas?

  It may not have the brand recognition of some of those others, but in terms of that.

• 1:04:06Lewis Howes?

  They don't have stars for ceiling.

• 1:04:07Eric Thomas?

  So that's what we are, man. And so we've been able to help people.

• 1:04:10Lewis Howes?

  What are you teaching? What are you teaching?

• 1:04:11Eric Thomas?

  There are marriage courses. We have financial courses. We have personal development. There are spiritual courses, you know, so. Whatever you're looking for, entrepreneurship, you know, CJ and the guys show you how to start with whatever the gift is and no bank account. And still use your platforms that you have to be successful. So everything we've done, the triple double is what we like to call it. You know, we're very successful in our marriages. Um, just yesterday, man, I'm, I'm so, I'm so proud, man, like, I know people might laugh at me or whatever, but yesterday. Uh, my son came by and we had a marital session and so he was leaving and, and I was sitting on the couch and he came over the couch and kinda like grabbed and hugged me.

• 1:04:51Eric Thomas?

  You know, and kinda did his head on my head and was like, all right, dad, I love you. And the, and the couple that was there was looking like, wow, like, yo, he's 21 years old. You know, but he's still coming home, still to hug. And then afterwards, he was like, all right, dad, where's the money at? I, I, I hugged you cause I, I knew I could get to your heart. So where's the money at dad? I was like, oh, so I'm like, you got me. It's up in the cabinet to the left. You know, you could grab it. So, you know, so for us, man, we're, we're trying to teach fathers how to be parents. Cause a lot of dads don't have, didn't have dads. So just everything, man, that you could think of, how to save your money, how to make money. Whatever you need in life, we're the one stop shop. Uh, you wanna learn how to work a camera, Carl can teach you how to work a camera. You know, go viral. So just whatever you need, we're, we're that company to help you get it.

• 1:05:36Lewis Howes?

  I love it, man. I love it. And it's all at ET Inspires.

• 1:05:39Eric Thomas?

  That's what I hear. I've never, I've not been to the site, but I hear it's all there. Yeah, maybe I need to start going to the site.

• 1:05:45Lewis Howes?

  I love it. I mean, you got books, you got apparel, you got mixtapes, videos.

• 1:05:49Eric Thomas?

  Whatever you need, man, to get you pumped up. And on that site, or you get the app, download the Eric Thomas app. It's all free. Eric Thomas 2.0. I think I should be at 7.0, but these guys make the decision. I don't know how I'm still just at 2.0. iPhone 7, like I should at least be 4 by now. So, yeah, so I have to talk with him about that later.

• 1:06:08Lewis Howes?

  And I forgot, I wanted to ask you this question earlier and I forgot.

• 1:06:13Lewis Howes?

  Is it more important to focus on training the rising generation, the youth, or the current leaders who are instilling the information in the world?

• 1:06:21Eric Thomas?

  I, I, I, yeah, I don't, I think it's, um. You know, I think it's, um, you know, both and, you know, not either or. I think it's both and. You know, I think we've got a, we've got a, those people who are influencing them now, we have to get to them and show them, every word you say to them is either tearing them down or building them up. And the older generation has to learn, they, it's not that they don't want it, they just need it in a different way. You know, they want to be successful, they, they, they want families, but the way you used to do it, you can't do it. And now we got to get to the babies because they literally will change the face, you know, of America. And so that's why you see me in elementary, middle, high, college, NFL, you know, and now we have a program for players after the game.

• 1:07:06Eric Thomas?

  And I think that's what makes our ministry so unique is that there are individuals who will see me at the NFL at a game and say, "Yo, I've been rocking with you since I've been in high school, E." And so to have people that you've, that have been listening to you for 10, eight, seven years, and then you get to meet in person, they're like, "Yo, I feel like I'll, I'll never forget when I, I met, uh, RG3 for the first time." You know, he was kind of like, "Yo, E," he's like, "It's funny, I want to say hi, but I feel like I already know you." You know, so it's like, it's weird because I've been listening to you for the last five, six years, you know. So, uh, for me, I think for you, you got to get them young and you got to spend as much time with them as, as possible. So when they become adults, they're not just leaders, but effective and efficient leaders.

• 1:07:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. This is called the three truths. I don't remember if I asked you this last time. So.

• 1:07:50Eric Thomas?

  All three have to be true?

• 1:07:52Lewis Howes?

  Well, your three truths.

• 1:07:53Eric Thomas?

  Okay.

• 1:07:54Lewis Howes?

  So, uh, this is, uh, many, many years down the line, it's your last day, right? Just imagine it's your last day. And you've got billions of views, or however many billions of views now, not just millions. You've impacted the world, you've changed everything you want to change, you've done everything you wanted to do. Everything has happened that you envisioned, which I know is going to happen. And, um, that's it. It's about, you know, you're about to call it quits, it's the last day. And for whatever reason, everything you've ever created has been erased. All your content, videos, universities, everything has been gone, your content, your messages. And you had a piece of paper and a pen, and you got to write down three final truths.

• 1:08:37Lewis Howes?

  The three things you know to be true, from all the things you've said and all the places you've gone and spoken to, from all walks of life. What are those three lessons that you would say, these are the, the principles and the truths? Of what you'd need moving forward. If this is all they had to remember you by, these three lessons.

• 1:08:51Eric Thomas?

  So the first one, you just said it. We gotta get that information back, you know, so we gotta have a love for knowledge. Like, we gotta get all that back because we are what we know. You know, we're no more than what we know. Uh, so people who are, I, I, I heard something recently Carl said where if you took a room of a hundred people and added a hundred billionaires to the room, give it five or six years, the people who are in poverty would go back to being poor and the billionaires would find a way to be billionaires again. And it's because of what they know, you know, so I would say knowledge is power. Number two, I'd say we are where we are because of experiences. You know, so, so find those relationships, you know, find, hopefully Dee Dee would be with me on this last day.

• 1:09:32Eric Thomas?

  You know, find those relationships, man. Find those people that you love, you know, and love on them. Like, don't get so caught up in money and stuff because relationships are really the essence. And then the final one, man, be true to yourself, you know, you know, especially being in, in LA, you know, it's so superficial. You know, some people can be so superficial, you know, there's no depth, you know, it's so dense. You know, and so I would say, you know, to your own self be true. Find out who you are, what your gift is, what you love. Like, eat what you like to eat, go where you like to go, like, be you. And you'll find out that when you're you, you will attract you. You know, you will attract all the happiness, the wealth that you can by being you. But if you're fake, you know, you can't do it. And this last one, I'm gonna get in trouble for this.

• 1:10:18Eric Thomas?

  But my wife's been on the elliptical lately. She's like, I gotta lose my butt. I'm like, well, people paying for that. You trying to lose it, you got folks paying for that right there. So I, I won't know about, but I was teasing her because I was saying you got one group that feels, so who's happy? The person that doesn't have it trying to buy it, the person that has it trying to give, give it away. It's like, this crazy world. You know, why can't we just enjoy what we have? Why are we always looking at what somebody else has? Like, enjoy what you have, especially if your husband's not mad at it. I know she's gonna hear this and be like, what? How did you say that on the Lewis Howes show?

• 1:10:54Lewis Howes?

  Perfect. Those are great. And what's the question you wish more people asked you?

• 1:10:58Eric Thomas?

  Um, how? You know, they don't ask how a lot. They always like the what, you know, you made this money. You got this, you done this. Ask me how.

• 1:11:08Lewis Howes?

  How?

• 1:11:08Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, just ask me, oh, I said, it's like serving, you know what I'm saying, getting around the right people. You know, but people always ask like, what time do you get up? Why you ask me what time I get up? You need to find out why I go to bed when I go to bed, you know, how I, how I'm able to go to bed the same time every night. How I'm able to get up at three o'clock in the morning, like how I'm able to grind throughout the day. Like you, you need to know the formula and you're just, you know, it's like math. Our teachers, I don't know if this is true of you guys, but we wouldn't get full credit in math if we didn't write out, you know, the process.

• 1:11:39Lewis Howes?

  True.

• 1:11:39Eric Thomas?

  If you just had the answer, they're like, okay, I give you two points for that.

• 1:11:42Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:11:42Eric Thomas?

  But like, I give you a hundred if you can show me how you got to that, you know, because if you can show me the formula, I guarantee if you really know the formula, oh, you're gonna get the answer correct, probably ninety out of a, you know, a hundred percent of the time, ninety percent of the time, you're gonna get it right. And so I just think that's the problem. Nobody's asking me for the formula. Everybody just wants what I have. Nobody's asking me how I got here. And I think that's the question that people need to ask more. And that's what I love about being on your show. I'm, I'm just gonna be honest. You can go listen to whatever interviews I did a lot more in an earlier time. Now I'm focused, so I try not to, you know.

• 1:12:13Lewis Howes?

  You don't do too many interviews.

• 1:12:14Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, I don't do it. I don't know I did any really last year, but if you listen to your questions and how you got to those, it's different than what most people ask me. And I, and I stopped doing it because I got tired of what time you go to bed, what time you wake up. I say, most of the stuff you're asking me, you can read the book and get that.

• 1:12:30Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:12:30Eric Thomas?

  Or you can listen to the podcast and get that. Ask me something that is so in-depth that I have forgotten to talk about it, that I no longer think about it, that is not, you know, at the center of my, you know, thought process, like dig deep, because there's some stuff in there. Like it took me twelve years getting four years to get some stuff in there, like bring some of that stuff on. I think you do a great job of doing that.

• 1:12:50Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it, brother. Thank you, thank you. Um, well, before I ask the final question, I want to take a moment to acknowledge you, Eric, because again, you are what you preach. Um, you go to the schools, you're on the ground day in, day out for the last ten, twelve years. You've been doing it. You were doing it before you had the brand, the videos, you've been doing it. And you're still doing it and you're accelerating it and growing it. And so I want to acknowledge you for your incredible level of support and service and impact in the world. Because what you do, how you show up matters. And it's making a huge impact on the youth, which I remember being a kid and having someone inspire me that I looked up to.

• 1:13:29Lewis Howes?

  That was a catalyst for me, that changed my mindset from a destructive, depressed, abusive mindset. Going down a really bad path to a more positive mindset and living a life that was possible to achieve my dreams. And you're doing that every single day for so many kids. So I acknowledge you for your ability to show up with energy, with passion and the sacrifices that you make. To go to bed early and wake up at 3am. Not many people do that. And so you're doing things on a different level and I acknowledge you for the incredible gift that you are. Yeah, of course. Thank you. Of course.

• 1:14:05Eric Thomas?

  Thank you. I'm gonna call Tom Brady and tell him next year, he could just put you in as a tight end. I'm watching right here. You should have been a tight end.

• 1:14:12Lewis Howes?

  I could have been.

• 1:14:12Eric Thomas?

  You need a Super Bowl.

• 1:14:13Lewis Howes?

  I could have been.

• 1:14:14Eric Thomas?

  It's like Girkowski right here from where I'm looking at.

• 1:14:16Lewis Howes?

  I know, I know.

• 1:14:16Eric Thomas?

  Yeah, we gotta get you in, man.

• 1:14:18Lewis Howes?

  I played one year of arena football, but I never made it to the NFL.

• 1:14:20Eric Thomas?

  Well, let Brady know like I'm gonna call and say, Brady, here's the deal. Next time one of you guys go out, I just bring my man in.

• 1:14:27Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 1:14:28Eric Thomas?

  That's all. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:14:29Lewis Howes?

  Uh, my final question is what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:14:33Eric Thomas?

  Um, reaching your ultimate dreams and goals. Like the stuff that you know, you know, because there are kids out here who are doing better than their sister or their brother. And they're like, well, I'm doing better than you, but we know you haven't tapped into your true potential. And so greatness to me is one, knowing what greatness should look like for you. Having your own personal definition of greatness and getting up every single day and going after it, man. To me, that's what, that's what greatness is.

• 1:15:00Lewis Howes?

  ET, my man. Thank you so much, brother.

• 1:15:01Eric Thomas?

  Appreciate you having me on the show.

• 1:15:02Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it.

• 1:15:02Eric Thomas?

  Thank you.

• 1:15:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. There you have it, greats. I hope you guys enjoyed this one. And if you did, please let me know over on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, @lewishouse. Share this with your friends, lewishouse.com/466. If you know anyone who would love this message, please click on the share button right now on the podcast app that you're listening to, whether it be iTunes, or Stitcher, or SoundCloud, and share this out. Let's get the message out there. Let's help people rise to the top in their life. That's what this is about, bringing a community together to elevate, to achieve the greatness within us. But we can't do it on our own, and we need inspiration like this,

• 1:15:48Lewis Howes?

  and messages that can help us with the tools and resources to get to that next level. So click on that share button on the podcast app, or just tweet out lewishouse.com/466. Tag myself on Instagram stories where you're watching or listening to this in the world, and I'll connect back with you on Instagram stories as well. And always tag our guest, so make sure to tag Eric Thomas also. I love you guys so very much. Let me know what you enjoyed most about this episode, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.