514 Wilmer Valderrama: Create Fearless Confidence and Achieve Anything

"Things are going to be as complicated as you want them to be." - Wilmer Valderrama If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/514 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is episode number 514 with Wilmer Valderrama.

• 0:07Speaker 00

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

• 0:33Speaker 00

  If you're not having any fun, then you're definitely doing something wrong. I am super pumped about this episode and interview with the one and only Wilmer Valderrama. And for those that don't know who he is, he's an American actor, singer, producer, and television personality, best known for the role Fez in that sitcom, That 70's Show. And he's done many other shows, including American horror television series from dusk till dawn. He was also the host of the MTV series Yo Mama and voiced a character of Manny in the children's show Handy Manny in 2006 to 2012, and had recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy and NCIS.

• 1:15Speaker 00

  But more than his fame of TV and acting, producing, he is the spokesperson for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and is the founder of their Ready to Lead program, which educates and empowers the Latino youth. He also works with President Obama's Organization for Action Campaign on future events involving immigration reform and education. I really love this interview because it's all about dreams, possibilities, what's possible that we can create in our lives in the mindset that is necessary in order for us to achieve these things. And in this interview, we talk about what Wilmer learned about an opportunity while growing up in Venezuela

• 1:58Speaker 00

  and moving here in his young teen years to the United States. And the biggest advantage he had by being an immigrant and coming here. We also talk about how he cultivated fear. This confidence as an actor, even when he didn't understand English at the time. Why you should fear success over your failures. We also talked about what Johnny Depp told him that shifted everything in his career when he was at the top. And how becoming an activist has changed his perspective on his acting career and his future. I am super pumped about this one. And if you enjoy this one, make sure you're sharing it out because it is a powerful lesson, powerful story that I think we could all resonate with.

• 2:42Speaker 00

  So make sure to share it out right now. LewisHowes.com/514. Tag me at Lewis Howes and Wilmer Valderrama over on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. And let us both know what you enjoyed the most and took away from this interview while listening to it. And again, big thank you to our sponsors, but I'm so excited about this interview and this episode. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, Wilmer Valderrama.

• 3:13Speaker 00

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got the legendary Wilmer Valderrama in the house. Thank you so much.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  Thank you, man. Thank you so much for having me, man.

• 3:20Speaker 00

  Excited that you're here. Mutual friend Andrew Sandler connected us and he said, we gotta have you on. He said, you're one of the most inspiring guys he knows.

• 3:28Speaker 01

  Oh, that's nice.

• 3:28Speaker 00

  So I said, all right, I actually didn't know much about you. You know, I don't think I've watched much of your stuff. Obviously 70's show, I watched a few little moments here and there, but I was not like a big fan of the show. Not that I wasn't a fan, but.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  No, no, I get it.

• 3:41Speaker 00

  Yeah. And I was like, all right, I want to learn more. So I was like having Andrew kind of tell me more about you, but I was like, if he recommended it. And I know you're friends with Scooter and a bunch of other mutual friends that we have. So I was like, I'm sure he's more than just a character on a show. So I'm excited you're here. I appreciate you being here.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Thank you, no, and vice versa. I'm excited to, you know, to be, to be on your show. I really appreciate what you're, what you're trying to do with, you know, with the simpleness and of, of, of a philosophy that works for, for anyone who's listening, you know, I think it's, it's inspiring to, to share your stories. I think that, you know, today. The only, the education we need the most is, is peer to peer, right? The education we need the most is, is having, you know, young people share their stories and having those stories create their own personal philosophy and how to navigate life in, in, in the most effortless way possible. And I think that if you're doing this on, on, on every pot, you know, podcast basis, I think that you're moving the needle on, on making it a better place.

• 4:41Lewis Howes?

  That's the goal, man. Connect the human race and help people live their best lives.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 4:45Lewis Howes?

  That's what we're all about, so. Now, I'm curious, you, you grew up in LA for a few years, then you moved away to another country, is that right?

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, so what happened is, my, my, what happened was my, my mother and my father met in Miami. And when they got married there, and they had my sister and I in Miami. We were born in Miami and when I turned three years old, you know, back then the dollar and El Bolivar, which is the, the national coin in Venezuela, was actually very close.

• 5:12Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 5:12Speaker 01

  You know, so because Venezuela is the number one reserve oil in the world and was one of the richest countries when it comes to natural resources, so they were exporting, you know, you know, a very, very influential amount on a global scale.

• 5:27Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  So, um, the agricultural industry was booming because they were exporting, you name it, right? And my dad, you know, found passion in the agricultural industry and he decided that it was time to move back to Venezuela for business and we went back to work, you know? And also he's Venezuelan, my mother is Colombian.

• 5:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 5:47Speaker 01

  You know, so they went back to what they knew, you know? And that living in America was amazing at the time, um, but you know, they went back to their roots. And so they brought my sister and I into Venezuela and we were raised in Venezuela. Um, probably a third in Colombia, most of the time in Venezuela.

• 6:03Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  And so we were raised in Venezuela until I was about, uh, about thirteen and, thirteen and change, almost fourteen years old. And, um, around that time. The the country politically and economically was showing signs, you know, there was there was flags being thrown on the field.

• 6:19Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy right now.

• 6:20Speaker 01

  I mean, and and the point is that I saw the, you know, the start of the evolution.

• 6:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Of the deconstruction of of a country that that was that that that was, you know, so influential in South America.

• 6:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  And so my dad saw the first, you know, national coup, you know, and when it didn't succeed, the first one didn't succeed, and it was led by a young military guy named Hugo Chavez. And my dad said, OK, guys, this is not looking really good. Corruption is taking a toll on the economy. Corruption is taking a toll on the last 10 years of growth. And my parents decided it was it was time to come back to the United States. And really, the reason why we came back was to, and I quote from my dad, to say, you know, me, I'll get the education that I never had. You know, and, you know, to me, that was really significant, and that was something that I was told when I was 13.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  And so when I came to the United States, I felt like that was my job. My actual full-time job was to get the education my parents never had and opportunity to have.

• 7:28Lewis Howes?

  And you didn't speak English then, or did you?

• 7:30Speaker 01

  I didn't even know how to speak English. In fact, this is the thing that sucked the most about it, was that my my dad is like, my dad was like, OK, so here's what happened. So I was, you know, in in Venezuela, in Latin America, they make you take an English class. And if you don't have an interest in English class, it's OK for you to flunk it.

• 7:48Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 7:49Speaker 01

  You failed it, you know, and I was failing all my English classes. I was failing all my English classes. And then my dad, literally, one month tells me, OK, Marilyn, Stephanie, Wilmer, we're moving back to the United States. I go huh. Cause I literally at this point, I was always saying to myself, you know, I never, I'm never gonna have to need need how to speak English like I live in Venezuela, I speak Spanish over here. Why would I ever learn how to speak English? You know, I'm never gonna go to America. We'll cut to packing our bags and you know, and, and having to, having to relocate to, to United States. And, and knowing that the first thing I had to do was learn how to speak English and be the first one in my family to speak English.

• 8:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Yeah. And where did you guys move? Right to LA?

• 8:34Speaker 01

  So we were in Miami for a couple of weeks and fairly quickly we realized that there was really not much for us there. My dad had a brother.

• 8:40Lewis Howes?

  How many jobs there?

• 8:42Speaker 01

  I mean, it's, you know, my dad, it, it just literally, it was not necessarily what my dad wanted for us, you know? We, we drove across country, across country.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  Got to know the, the country on a different level, you know, seeing the American flag everywhere was, was so eye opening, you know, it's just, you, you knew it was a line of the opportunity, you know, and, and we, we went all the way to Los Angeles and when we got to Los Angeles.

• 9:07Lewis Howes?

  Why LA?

• 9:08Speaker 01

  Well, my dad had a brother here.

• 9:09Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  One of his brothers had a little, a rental car place, you know, uh, close to LAX. And he said, you know, come out here, stay with us, you know, for, you know, a couple of weeks, six weeks or whatever. So while you, while you get it together and get a job and do your thing. My dad said, okay, perfect. And, uh, we landed in Los Angeles. Well, we drove into Los Angeles and we went to stay with my uncle and his wife and a couple of my cousins. And, um, you know, I, the point was that my dad had sold everything he had in Venezuela. So we can have enough capital to establish a life out here without having to really struggle with it. And being at my uncle's house for a couple of weeks, you know, you know, maybe, I know maybe like two, three months or something

• 9:53Speaker 01

  was gonna help him really slowly, really get the right house and those different things and, and help him get enough of a job. So he can have at least a month of income, you know? Well, we can, that really went south. It's not gonna work. You know, my mom and, and, um, my, my uncle's wife just did not get along. Um, and, uh, there was something terrible and really bad that happened between them. And we were just like, okay. Okay. We probably should move out, you know? And, uh, really what happened was, and, and you know, if I can be just super open and, and, and raw about it, you know? My, my, my parents were helping with the groceries too, you know? So. You know, I went to open the refrigerator, so stupid, it's so silly, but I opened the refrigerator and I got a popsicle.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  And my uncle's wife grabbed the popsicle off my hand, put it back in and said, that's not for you. And my mom just lost her mind, like lost her mind. I've never seen my mom blackout, you know? And we're calling my dad and my uncle and like, hey, that, that, that time, we're like thirteen years old, fourteen years old. We're like, what am I, what would we do?

• 11:02Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  And, um, you know, my parents came and he was like, you know, we have to figure out. So we, we got into a hotel, you know, and then, and then, and during that hotel stay, you know, my dad was, you know, obviously burning some cash to try to keep us going, you know? And then eventually we got this little tiny house in Van Nuys, you know, in Van Nuys, California. And got a house, um, it was like a two bedroom little house where the, you know, the living room and the kitchen and the, and the dining room was all in one space, you know, and we had a nice tiny little backyard. Um, and, uh, my sister and I share one room and my younger sister was sleeping in the same room with my parents. So, uh, and that's what's the beginning. That was how we just kinda got, you know, kinda got established out here.

• 11:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What, um, were you acting before that or into entertainment or producing or singing before this or?

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Well, back in Venezuela, I lived in a very small town. I'm talking like, like, I don't know, nineteen thousand people, right? And spread out in two little zip codes that were basically so small that were pretty much considered as a city. You know, it was called Acariwa and Araure. So when people talked about Estados Portugueses, you know, Acariwa and Araure, they, they'd be like, they'd be like, where, where are you from? They'd be like, Acariwa Araure, you know, because it was this small little town. Went to school there. Um, but they only have one movie theater all year round.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  And they have one movie theater and they only play one movie all year round.

• 12:32Lewis Howes?

  One movie for the whole year?

• 12:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it was RoboCup. And I would watch RoboCup back to back to in English. And they had the subtitles.

• 12:40Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 12:41Speaker 01

  Um, but I would watch RoboCup and ever since I started watching RoboCup, I'm like, oh, this is so cool. That's so fun, you know, and and I was a huge fan of the bad guy in it. And that's relevant because I come full circle to it, you know? But I, um, there was nothing to do, so performing arts is something that's big in Latin America, you know? And in Venezuela, it's also even more serious, you know? So, so I, uh, I enrolled into these classes and I started doing singing, dancing and acting. And, uh, I started doing a lot of theater and, um, but I was doing it since I was six or so. So when I came to the United States, I felt like the one thing that was gonna improve my speaking skills and was gonna force me to read and force me to speak out loud and like, you know,

• 13:24Speaker 01

  and, and kind of break out of that, that show, uh, was to go back to theater.

• 13:28Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 13:29Speaker 01

  So I went back to theater, not even really knowing how to speak English. And, uh, I think my first character was playing the Beast in Beauty and the Beast in, in junior high. And here's why that's really funny, uh, is because I didn't have any lines. So I basically some, my teacher would literally recite the Beast's lines off, off, off stage and I would just mime as, as if I was speaking.

• 13:56Lewis Howes?

  Perfect.

• 13:57Speaker 01

  So it was the easiest job, but the funnest too. I'm like the Beast, you know, I'm the Beast and Beauty and the Beast and, you know, and the whole time I'm like, someone is speaking for me off camera and I'm just pretending off camera, off stage, pretending that like, you know, I'm the one saying it. But that was my first acting thing.

• 14:13Lewis Howes?

  That's funny.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  Because I really didn't have to speak English, but I wanted to be in theater. And the teacher was kind enough to let me in there. And I know and I couldn't even read a script.

• 14:21Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. That's cool. So you got back into it pretty much right away. And being in L.A. is probably like different opportunities here to do that.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think, I think mostly, mostly what happened was for me was, um, you know, it was just, I, the more I, the more I did theater, the better my English became. And, uh, the faster I learned how to communicate. And then fairly quickly I realized that knowing how to speak English was the only weapon I needed in order to go out there and defend myself and conquer, right? As soon as like, English was part of my. My, you know, my utility belt. I knew that absolutely anything can happen now. Because if I could learn how to speak a crazy language like this at fourteen, fifteen years old. I'm gonna be unstoppable.

• 15:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, and and that's kind of happened, you know, I mean, did did a lot of theater and then at some point the teacher said to me, you know, hey, you know, you're pretty funny. You should I should give it a try, you know, and I said, I said, well, maybe. Maybe I should give it a try because I don't even know how to start, you know, so she told me doing a couple of commercials here and there, you know, you. You make some money and stuff and. I sold it to my dad as like. Dad, I have good grades, so. If I keep continuing my good grades, can you take me to some auditions?

• 15:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:38Speaker 01

  And my dad said, Miho.

• 15:42Speaker 01

  You uh, uh, my dad always sounded like he was drunk.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  If you wanna do it, it's okay. It's okay, but ace.

• 15:54Lewis Howes?

  Ace.

• 15:55Speaker 01

  That's all he wanted, it was ace, I was like, okay, dad, so I was kind of a pretty, pretty good student.

• 16:00Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Um, but yeah, so that that's that's kind of how I started.

• 16:03Lewis Howes?

  What was the first kind of big break, I guess, before the seventy show, was there like some a big commercial or something else you got through like, oh, I'm actually. I can do this and I can like keep going and.

• 16:13Speaker 01

  So I think it was. My theater experience in high school that made me feel like. I can get used to this, like I I'm having a lot of fun. Maybe I should do more theater.

• 16:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 16:25Speaker 01

  I knew this was, I wasn't thinking I was gonna be in the commercials and the movies and TVs, like my ambition was to. You know, was to just kind of continue to do theater because I was, you know, I wanted to be a pilot for the Air Force, you know. And if not, I wanted to be a psychologist, you know, I just wanted to like study minds and help people and all that. And then, um. You know, they said to me, the the teacher said to me, hey, listen. You know, I think you should go out and audition and stuff, you know, and I had met this this drama teacher outside of my high school named Celeste Boyd. And Celeste, uh, honestly is the reason why I confidently said, I confidently said, I'm gonna be the best at this.

• 17:07Speaker 01

  I'm gonna be the best at anything I do will be remembered. Like, she was the one that kind of groomed me. And she started, she said, hey, I want to teach you. I want to, I want to bring you to my acting class on Wednesdays.

• 17:19Lewis Howes?

  She's a pretty well-known, right? I feel like I've heard that name.

• 17:21Speaker 01

  Celeste, Celeste, I mean, if you're in the industry, you know who she is.

• 17:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I've heard her name before.

• 17:25Speaker 01

  She is, uh, she's someone that iconically has helped so many people too.

• 17:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's what I've heard.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  Uh, and I hope that she continues, and she's still doing it because she's, she's an amazing woman, but.

• 17:35Lewis Howes?

  She brought you into her class?

• 17:36Speaker 01

  She brought me to my, into her class and I said, I can't pay for it. I was about sixteen. I was, yeah, I was about sixteen years old. I said, by the way, I can't pay for it. I have no money. And she was like, no, I want to teach you for free.

• 17:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  And I said, wow, that's amazing. I said, can I bring my sister? She's like, okay, you can bring your sister. My sister and I did everything together. And she, you know, her class, it was forty-year-olds, thirty-year-olds, twenty-year-olds, you know, and I was a sixteen-year-old just trying to do scenes to learn from all these awesome actors that were older than me was, was, was great practice. And she introduced me to an agent. The agent said, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna represent you, but I'm gonna take you out and see what kind of feedback we get. Right?

• 18:13Lewis Howes?

  It's kind of like representing, right? I mean.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  Kind of, but it's like, it's like probation.

• 18:16Lewis Howes?

  Without committing.

• 18:18Speaker 01

  It's like a probation, a way of, of representing somebody. So, you know, so he, he sent me on this, um, on this Doritos, Doritos commercial. And they called him and he says, look, the kid is awesome. Like, he's really, really good. He's really funny, but he has a crazy accent and we cannot take him because Latinos on television shouldn't have an accent. And this was back in ninety six, you know, so. So, so they've, but, but I just know the kid is really good and Adrian's like, all right, cool. So he sent me on, on another commercial, which I got, literally the second commercial I got. Wow. Which was a Pacific Bells marginal pages commercial. It was a regional commercial.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  Pages? Pages, like the, the yellow pages. The, the, the, so it was the Pacific Bells marginal pages. Uh huh. And it was original, it was for California. And it was in Spanish. Perfect. It's perfect. Perfect. And I had, the irony is that my, the only line in the commercial was the Pacific Bells marginal pages. I didn't speak Spanish at all in the, in the, in the commercial. But it was very nice. They had my fake family and I was like, well, I got a fake family. It's my fake dad, my fake mom, it's my fake sister. This is crazy. And then so I went in there and I did the commercial. It was awesome. And with that money, I paid my dues and I became a Screen Actors Guild member. I became a SAG member then. And then he's like, okay, you know, send you a couple of other things and.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  And I started booking things back to back to back because I was having so much fun. Ah. Like I wasn't scared, no pressure. I was no, I wasn't scared like this, this. I have to get this. That's right. The audition, I didn't, I didn't pay on that audition. So, so, uh, so I started booking job after job and then. I, I remember, and this is the part that's the most significant to me in my life. Um, I remember there was a time where. When I was, uh, was about, I was about to turn eighteen years old. And it's about almost, almost two years into me auditioning and stuff and getting little commercials here and there, little spots and. I'm still doing theater in school.

• 20:21Speaker 01

  My dad was running errands for this mechanic shop. So he would bring parts over and that's how he would get paid with these errands and you know, he did that for a couple of other places and. You know, he would get in there and, and try to, you know, get with the mechanic shops and stuff. And I remember. That one night, there's a little commotion in the house, two AM in the morning. And I see my mom and my dad scuffling in the living room and I said, what's going on? I get up. And I asked my dad, what happened? And my dad said to me, um, they stole our car. And, and, and if you know anything about anything in Los Angeles, if you don't have a car, I mean, it's like,

• 21:00Lewis Howes?

  You can't get anywhere.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  You can't get anywhere. And my dad's complete hustle, like relied on that car. And my dad is really worried, my mom is crying, and I just at like fifteen years old, I, you know, I looked at my dad, fifteen, sixteen years old, so I looked at my dad and, and I said, Dad, don't worry, because, you know, I'm gonna be this famous actor, and I'm gonna be a famous actor, and I'm gonna produce, I'm gonna direct, and I'm gonna have these companies, I'm gonna have restaurants, I'm gonna have all these businesses, and we're never gonna have to worry about this, and I'm gonna buy us a house. And my dad looked at me and he said, Okay, mijo, you can do that. And it was, to me, it felt like he gave me permission to do it.

• 21:45Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:46Speaker 01

  When he said, you can do that, I feel like in that moment, I felt like my dad has said, Go ahead, you can do that. Well, I figure out this car situation, you go ahead and become what you wanna become.

• 21:57Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:58Speaker 01

  So I went, the next day I went to school, and we walked to school the next day. And I got to school, and I, I hit the books extra harder, and every time I got on stage, I was performing louder than anybody else, and I would eat everyone's meal, and I was like, this is, this is mine. And, and he, you know, and then this teacher, um, said, man, you're, let's take you to the advanced class, you wanna, and so I was helping producing the, the plays, and then at some point, I was even supposed to say this, but my drama teacher will go on her own additions and will leave me teaching drama.

• 22:32Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 22:33Speaker 01

  So it was like, I was like so into it, like this is gonna work, you know, and, but I also, in like the afternoons, I would play with my Salvadorian, Mexican, you know, I was in a soccer league. So people always wonder, you were in the country for so long, how do you still have an accent? And I go, well, because I play soccer with, you know, with Mexicans and Salvadorians and with the Matecos, and you know, every day, and I feel like that's the reason my sister has zero accent, because she had a bunch of white girlfriends that would go to the mall all the time, and she would say the word like a lot, you know? Um, but anyhow, fast forward. That happened, I told my dad that and I remember, you know, I kept auditioning and stuff and at the worst time of our lives. Uh, my teacher, my teacher, my agent sends me on this audition, it's my first pilot audition.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  And he said, uh, here's the sights, da da da, go, go in audition. I go in, have a meeting, audition, they called me back, called me back again. And they said, hey, we're gonna bring you back to producers. And I go, I'm getting a callback, that's great, but in my mind, I'm like, this is mine. I'm getting this pilot, this, I'm getting this pilot. It's my first pilot ever. And I went to the last audition and they told me, just have a little more fun with it. It's very cool, so. So I went in, uh, audition, you know, first of all, they, outside, they bring you a contract, you know, when you go to network auditions, they bring you a contract and they go, hey, listen.

• 23:56Speaker 01

  You were gonna make, I think fifteen thousand dollars for the pilot. And if it goes to series, you're gonna make ten thousand dollars per episode. And.

• 24:05Lewis Howes?

  That's a lot of money back then.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  Are you kidding me?

• 24:07Lewis Howes?

  That's a seventeen year old, you're like.

• 24:09Speaker 01

  That was like more money than we made in the year.

• 24:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  So I, I looked to my dad and I said, dad, could you imagine if I get this? Could you imagine if I get this right now, even if it doesn't go to series, it's gonna really help us, you know, and. And my dad said to me, without missing a beat, he said to me, miho, uh, if you get it, uh, very good. If you don't get it, uh, very good. And I said, okay, very good. And I walked in and I just auditioned, stress free, because I knew if I got it, awesome, if I didn't get it, awesome too, we're back to the drum board, you know?

• 24:48Speaker 01

  I go home, um, my agent calls me and says, uh, hey, good news. Uh, they want you to come back tomorrow. And I told my dad, hey dad, and everyone's on the phone, like, listening, I say, hey dad, we got a callback, we're, we're really close. And then the, the agent says, um, and says, they, they want you to come back tomorrow. And the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and everyone's like crying and going crazy and we're like, Jesus Christ, what just happened, Lord? Thank you so much. And, and then that moment. I looked out, saw the American flag, and I said, this is what it's about. How much more can I do? How much more can I go? How harder can I go, you know?

• 25:29Speaker 01

  And I said to myself that everything I did in this pilot was gonna be the most memorable. I would say to myself, this is everything that comes out of my mouth. I'm gonna just, I'm gonna work and I'm gonna, and nobody's gonna fire me from this job. All I kept saying is, I don't wanna get fired. I went in, did the pilot. Maybe like a month later, I get a phone call from my agent again, says, hey, listen, congratulations, they, um, uh, he said, he said, good news and bad news. I said, what's the bad news? He goes, well, the bad news is they changed the name of the show from Teenage Wasteland to That 70's Show. And the good news is that you're going on television, the show is going on Fox, and they ordered 13 episodes.

• 26:09Lewis Howes?

  It's huge.

• 26:10Speaker 01

  And I, and I said, wait, the show's about the 70's? No idea. I was like, oh, I think this is American stress, I guess, in Wisconsin, I don't know, you know? I had no idea the show was about the 70's. And then, comes to find out, the show goes on for eight years, 200 episodes, and can't pay the way for everything I'm doing today now. And, and then, I, you know, I, I remember the day, like, that, the week before I got this, this pilot. My mom and I were walking over to the, you know, to the 99 cent stores to, to get our groceries, you know? And I remember walking over and, you know, walking a couple of miles to get back to the house with the bags, and see my mom's hands, you know, really red, taking, you know, taking the bags.

• 26:49Speaker 01

  And, you know, we would rest every two blocks, we put our bags down and carry and continue. And I looked at my dad, and I looked at my mom, and I said, Mom, don't worry, cause one day we're gonna drive, you know, and one day, we did. And that's just, that was the example. That was just, you say it, and you just have to do it. It just not, it's not even gonna come to you. You just, if you're gonna say it, you have to follow it with your actions, and you have to manifest it with, with, how much do you want it? And is it, is it within your spirit that once you have it, can you hold it? Can you keep it? And that is only your etiquette that's going to dictate whether you're gonna keep it or not.

• 27:28Speaker 01

  You know, so I look back on my mom and my dad, I retired both of them, and, you know, the first thing I did when, when we got picked up on the show, I bought a house. And I said, we're not paying rent anymore. Cause we were like three months late in rent when I got the pilot, you know? So, so that was, that was the beginning of, of my career and, and, and really the, the American dream I was about to experience in America.

• 27:49Lewis Howes?

  Unbelievable, man.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:50Lewis Howes?

  Unbelievable. I'm so curious to know about, you know, these, how many years were you in Venezuela? Twelve years, you say?

• 27:56Speaker 01

  I was about, uh, almost 11 years.

• 27:58Lewis Howes?

  11 years in Venezuela. What do you think was the biggest thing that you learned? Growing up there in South America that is different from the kids that grew up in US or in LA that? Kind of gave you an advantage.

• 28:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:10Lewis Howes?

  Going in with this like mindset and this belief in yourself.

• 28:13Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 28:14Lewis Howes?

  You could create whatever you wanted. What do you think was that lesson you learned that was different?

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Reality.

• 28:20Speaker 01

  You live a reality in our countries that kids out here will just never feel. Will have a tough time understanding empathy. Everything. Like. We can sympathize in our countries with opportunity. We can take advantage of opportunity. South America. Um, specifically Venezuela. We, a reality. That unfortunately, most young people today can only appreciate through an Instagram post. Um, that gave me the edge.

• 28:57Speaker 01

  When I came here and I saw, you, you gotta keep in mind, our six o'clock news was the capitations and school buses getting sprayed by AKs and, you know, cartel movement and, and, you know, and, and, you know, bombings and, and, you know, you know, senators getting murdered and police corruption and all that stuff. And you're talking about a crazy level of, of, of danger. That affects the poorest and the richest community, all at the same. And. Then you come to America and people are talking about. Oh, another drive-by. And they're talking about like the violence and, you know, in the hoods. To me, that was like, what?

• 29:43Speaker 01

  This is Disneyland. We are in Disneyland. Like this, the United States is the best, is the most, is the, is the purest place on earth. Like, literally, anything can happen in this place.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  You have an environment, you can literally choose the environment you wanna be in.

• 29:59Lewis Howes?

  Right, you can get out of the hood and be somewhere else.

• 30:01Speaker 01

  That's correct, that's correct.

• 30:03Lewis Howes?

  Or it didn't happen in Venezuela, or where you were.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  You move three blocks away, same thing as you block, eight blocks away, or if you go to a different state.

• 30:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  So I think the edge for us was, was that, is also appreciating the best and worst of your country. And then coming over here and appreciating the best and worst of the United States.

• 30:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:21Speaker 01

  You know, and, and I think.

• 30:22Lewis Howes?

  What do you mean, we're not perfect here?

• 30:24Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly, exactly, no, but, but I think, and to elaborate a little bit more, what I mean by that is, is that if you can really keep your eyes open, and if you can listen

• 30:37Speaker 01

  to your atmosphere, and if you could pay attention to what's happening in the world, you can be invincible. Especially if you live in this country.

• 30:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:48Speaker 01

  You can absolutely achieve anything. Like, I just gave you a glimpse at, at, you know, the first 10 years of my life, and literally the first four years of my life in this country.

• 31:03Speaker 01

  And in that glimpse of it, it doesn't tell you that, like, you have zero excuse. You know, I don't know what else can, you know? But I come full circle to, like, coming from Venezuela, knowing that, right now, 20 years later or so, Venezuela is, you know, middle-class people have to stand in line, doctors, you know, doctors, uh, um, you know, professors are homeless right now. You know, uh, you know, they're standing in line to get a carton of milk, and, and a bag of rice, and, and then they X their hands,

• 31:44Speaker 01

  so they don't come back for a second one, and they're, they are organized based on the last digits of your driver license, and your ID, and, and you think about a country that.

• 31:56Speaker 01

  You know, that had, I mean, the richest resources and was exporting and was, you know, i- i- it's sad, you know, and you, you look at that and, and then so, so knowing where you come from, it's crazy important. Never forgetting where you came from is, is really the edge you have on anyone that maybe consider a competition. And something else I tell young people when I speak and I do speeches and stuff is, is, you know, competition is a state of mind. You know, if you believe in competition, um, look, in sports, a hundred percent. But an athlete that wins over everyone and is, and goes out there and plays harder than anybody else is because they know that the only person they're competing with is

• 32:40Speaker 01

  themselves. And you've heard it and you've seen it and, and billboards and you see it and inspirational, uh, posts, but you should really study what that means. Because the only one that holds you back is yourself.

• 32:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:51Speaker 01

  Um, I never compared myself to anyone when I got here. Um, I was embarrassed about my accent for a second and then I learned to find pride in it.

• 33:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:00Speaker 01

  And then I, then at that point, anything, anything counted, but my edge was that, you know, knowing, knowing where you come from.

• 33:06Lewis Howes?

  You probably didn't compare yourself because there was no Instagram.

• 33:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:10Lewis Howes?

  You were probably comparing their life to everyone else's life, right?

• 33:12Speaker 01

  It's true, it's true.

• 33:14Lewis Howes?

  Um, what was the biggest lesson, uh, the most inspirational lesson that your, your dad and your mom taught you growing up?

• 33:21Speaker 01

  Um.

• 33:23Lewis Howes?

  That has, that has supported you your entire life?

• 33:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think my dad, you know, I think my dad said two things that, that really kind of made all the difference for me. And I think that, the first one was, you know, in that auditioning room, before I went into the semesters, he says, Mio, you know, if you get it, you know, very good. If you don't get it, very good. It was so simple in the moment, but I've carried that, you know, through my mind throughout my career. And honestly, what it did is it made me fearless. It made me fearless to experience, uh, failure. Like, some, any of us put so much emphasis on winning something, or achieving something,

• 34:07Speaker 01

  or getting a job, or getting a break, or, or getting that part, or, you know, the truth is that that thing, that was one of the most substantial pieces of, you know, metaphorical lessons that I got was that if you win, great. And if you don't win, that's awesome.

• 34:25Speaker 01

  You walk away with something anyways. And that's a success, is a version of success. And I think that that's what really, that's what really um changed my perspective. And that's why I felt like I was booking so much back to back to back. And I was and when I went to that, you know, that audition of the seven show, it made me so fearless that I went in there. I had nothing to lose.

• 34:45Lewis Howes?

  Nothing, yeah.

• 34:46Speaker 01

  And then when I walked away gaining everything.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  And and I think so. I think that was, that's something that I, that I hope young people can listen and say, hey, wow, it's, don't fear failure.

• 35:01Speaker 01

  To be honest, you should fear success. That's the thing you should fear. Failure is, is a consequence of maybe, you know, chance, uh, lack of preparation.

• 35:14Lewis Howes?

  Timing.

• 35:15Speaker 01

  Timing.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  There, there are so many elements.

• 35:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:20Speaker 01

  And none of those elements are personal, except for, did you prepare? Were you not prepared enough? Did you give it your all shot? If you can walk away saying, I gave it everything, I didn't get it, awesome, it wasn't for me. But it's when you don't give it your a hundred percent, that you fear the failure. That's a fact, especially in my line of work, especially if you're an actor, if you're a musician. If you go on stage and you do a showcase, if you're doing theater, if you're doing your first commercial, whatever, you get fired, you say they let you go, they give you less lines or whatever. There may be preparation, you know, but if it's not, it's also not personal.

• 35:54Speaker 01

  I think the other thing that my dad said that made a lot of sense to me was, um, it, it wasn't what he said, it was mostly the way he lives life. You know, he laughs at a funeral. Like, my dad finds a way to, to really find humor in the most, the most dramatic moments, you know, and I, I learned that from him. And that also made me accept faster.

• 36:22Speaker 01

  It made me analyze and accept and find the positive and the bad. So seeing my dad have a great sense of humor, like even when they stole the car, you know, my dad, it was really stressed. And then like an hour later, he goes, he goes, okay, we're gonna have to buy new shoes, you know? You know, so it it and that and that's like that kind of mentality is what made me feel like, oh, okay, well, you know, I I can accept life and these punches and its hurdles and its disasters and.

• 36:52Lewis Howes?

  It's kind of like the book, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, because it's all small stuff.

• 36:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 36:55Lewis Howes?

  It's like when you put it in perspective, it's like, okay, you know, yes, maybe something is horrible in the moment, but bigger picture, where can we find the humor, the joy and how can we move forward?

• 37:05Speaker 01

  That's correct.

• 37:06Lewis Howes?

  Supposed to holding on to this pain forever, you know, or this stress.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  And it's a state of mind, right? So like, so I always tell people and and tell me what you think about this, but I always tell people, and I'm curious to see what you think about this, but I always tell people and people in relationships and friendships and sometimes they have fallouts and people are break, you know, they they hurt each other's feelings and relationships and all stuff. And and they dwell on on the things that were that were done, you know, and and they stress and they make things really complicated. And I always think that things are going to be as complicated as you want them to be. And they're also going to be as simple as you make them to be.

• 37:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:44Speaker 01

  Right? So I I always feel like for how come when something complicated happens, you have to remove yourself. You gotta pull on the parachute and be like, let me look at it from bird's eye because, you know, because when you're in it too much and you you put the blinders, I feel like the problem is way bigger than you can control it.

• 38:02Lewis Howes?

  Consumed by it, you can't get out of it. Yeah.

• 38:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 38:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I agree with that for sure.

• 38:06Speaker 01

  Cool. I'm glad you agree with that.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  But that was my, that was.

• 38:12Speaker 01

  But it is, it's going to be as complicated as you want it to be and it's going to be as simple as you want it to be.

• 38:16Lewis Howes?

  It's all perspective, I think.

• 38:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 38:17Lewis Howes?

  I think a lot of these things come down to like

• 38:21Lewis Howes?

  being grateful for where you're at. You know, you could have been like, oh, or your dad could have been like, the car is gone. Someone stole it. We lost this money. Now we're gonna have to struggle. He could look at the negative. that come from it or he could say, oh, we get to buy new shoes and we get to lose a little couple extra pounds. I get to have some exercise.

• 38:39Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 38:39Lewis Howes?

  Now I get to see the world in a different way and I don't have to be in traffic all day long with like jerks who are screaming or I'm gonna be safer now because I don't have to deal with LA traffic, you know, it's all perspective and gratitude, I think, so. It's anyway how we look at it.

• 38:54Speaker 01

  Correct, yeah.

• 38:55Lewis Howes?

  And what about your mom? Biggest lesson from your mom?

• 38:58Speaker 01

  To get down from there. To get down from there because I got, I got hurt every time.

• 39:04Lewis Howes?

  Get down from that tree.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  From there, get down every time because you know, she knew I was gonna get hurt.

• 39:09Lewis Howes?

  That's funny.

• 39:10Speaker 01

  You know? And, and this is why I think it's one of the best words of advice I've ever gotten. It's because there are certain things you know you're pushing. There are certain things you just know you're trying to get away with. And when she told me, get down from there, it was this like hunting voice was like, get down from there, you're gonna get hurt.

• 39:36Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 39:37Speaker 01

  And I got hurt every time.

• 39:38Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 39:39Speaker 01

  I got hurt every time and, and I think it's like, in the times that I climbed the tree or the times that I pushed the envelope on whatever subject or category of the conversation. I pushed it without knowing whether I was gonna win or not. Or I pushed it without actually really knowing whether I was right or wrong.

• 40:01Speaker 01

  So knowing that you have this voice in the, in, in your head that says, get down from there, which came from my mother. Most of us have this voice that tells us either yes or no, you know? My mom just kind of set a precedent that she just knew better than me.

• 40:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 40:18Speaker 01

  And FYI, your parents are always and will always be way smarter than you, no matter how smart you think you are. Period. They're always gonna have 30 years on you and you can never get to 30 years or 40 years of experience. So your parents will always be smarter than you. And if you think your parents don't relate to you.

• 40:39Speaker 01

  Because they don't understand what you're going through.

• 40:42Lewis Howes?

  They do.

• 40:43Speaker 01

  You're so wrong. Cause you gotta remember they were teenagers too.

• 40:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I think all, I think that's a great point to make, but also if your dad said you should be afraid of going to this audition, you shouldn't listen to him. Cause he may have some predestined fears of his own failures and be like, I don't want you to get hurt. So I don't even think you should go do it. Or you're probably not gonna achieve these dreams because, so don't get your hopes up.

• 41:07Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 41:08Lewis Howes?

  So I think you need to be discerning sometimes of what your parents say. Now, if you're getting hurt every single time, then you should listen.

• 41:13Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 41:14Lewis Howes?

  But if it's their fears trying to put on you, I don't think that's necessarily the case, but.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  No, I, I agree. I mean, that, that's the, that's the upside. I mean, I went, what I, you know, mostly what I, what I want to come across with my mom saying that is that, is that, you know, when you have the support of your parents, you know, you should have your heart open, you know? And they supported me through everything I wanted to do. They never limit me. They never told me I couldn't do it, you know? But there is families, man, there are, and I tell you, it happened in my family. I had family matters. I had uncles who were telling my dad, what is your kid doing? He's wasting his life. My kid is honors in mathematics.

• 41:50Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  My mom was like, well, what is he gonna do with that?

• 41:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 41:53Speaker 01

  You know, and, and I had certain ads from my mom's side that would be like, my kid just graduated with honors in something, something, something. And my mom will be like, oh, well, he just did another play. And yeah, he was very funny.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  But, you know, but my parents, you know, were, were pretty cool with that. But my, but you have to be aware that even sometimes your family

• 42:19Speaker 01

  will be the problem.

• 42:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:21Speaker 01

  You know, but you have to believe in yourself, you know, in order for you to identify that moment too.

• 42:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Now, the 70's show was like the big hit for you, uh, starting out. And how many years was that for?

• 42:33Speaker 01

  We did eight years and we did 200 episodes.

• 42:36Lewis Howes?

  Unbelievable. Eight years, you're, you know, you're making more money than you ever thought you're probably gonna make. You have this massive platform, you have this huge audience that's watching you. How, what were the big lessons you learned over those eight years? How did you stay grounded? When all the attention of you being amazing and everyone watching and the biggest show and all this celebrity and dating all the big girls or whatever in the world, uh, not big girls.

• 43:05Speaker 01

  No, I love big girls. Just go on the record.

• 43:09Lewis Howes?

  Nothing wrong with that. Um, but how did you stay, what are the biggest lessons over those eight years and how did you stay grounded?

• 43:15Speaker 01

  Um, you know, I was very lucky, um, because the cast of that seventy show, um, Ashton Kutcher, Topher Gray, Danny Masterson, Laura Prieban, Mila Kunis, Kurt Wood Smith,

• 43:28Speaker 01

  you know, Deborah Jo Robb. And the creators of the show, Bonnie and Terry Turner and Mark Brazil and the producers, Tom Warner and Marcy Carthy. And Peter Roth, the president of Fox at the time. They were, I mean, they were great role models and they, they give us really early advice that really kind of helped us stay grounded, you know, and but there was a moment, there was a window of my life where I thought, I thought I had to do certain things because those certain things were what defined an actor in success.

• 44:02Lewis Howes?

  Like what?

• 44:02Speaker 01

  Um, like going out a little too much.

• 44:07Lewis Howes?

  Partying.

• 44:07Speaker 01

  You know, like, no, you know, uh, yeah, going to the places you're gonna get photographed for no reason, you know, uh, you know, things like that. And like, and then only for like one year, I hung out with people that I really, like I had no interest and had no,

• 44:24Speaker 01

  relativity with. Like we couldn't relate, we didn't see things the same way, but when the loud, when the music is loud, you kind of drown all that out and then you just kind of think that that's a real friendship.

• 44:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:37Speaker 01

  I had to do a real inventory in my life to, to understand that, um, I had bigger purpose and that I um that my ambition was bigger than than just being out at a club all the time.

• 44:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:51Speaker 01

  I enjoy celebrating my successes. So if you ever see me out, it's because something awesome just happened and something I closed a monster deal or something like that.

• 44:59Lewis Howes?

  And celebrating.

• 45:00Speaker 01

  And I'm celebrating. But the days of me just randomly going out for a run, that's just that doesn't happen. It's eight eight years, eight years, eight years, nine years or so. Um, I think that that that was that's something that really helped me get center and get some of that youth back, you know? And I think when you're young, you you should allow yourself to go out there and experiment and do what you gotta do. But but based on the road and what I wanted to achieve, um, I needed to make certain changes. So but the cast of the Seventy Show, we held each other down, right? We we never had to hang out with anyone else because they we thought they were cool. In the in the most in the most humble terms, I can say we were the coolest.

• 45:39Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 45:40Speaker 01

  And we just.

• 45:41Lewis Howes?

  You're fucking hang out with, yeah.

• 45:42Speaker 01

  Uh, we're gonna hang out with the coolest in this crowd, you know, and and the and the reason why I say that is because we were real people that just so happy to get an extraordinary job. And think about the generation before Dawson's Creek and the Seventy Show and the generation after. That moment in time.

• 46:01Lewis Howes?

  The reality shows, the.

• 46:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, before that hit and and right as soon as Seinfeld was leaving the air, there was some new kids in town. And I remember it's the cast of Dawson's Creek.

• 46:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:11Speaker 01

  And it was the cast of that Seventy Show. Merrill's Place and and I don't know, we're having their last seasons. And it was back in nineteen ninety eight, between nineteen ninety eight and two thousand and six.

• 46:24Speaker 01

  We were real people that had extraordinary jobs. And I'm talking, you know, Justin Timberlake, uh, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, you know, Ashton, the whole cast I just mentioned. Um, by the way, um, Jamie Foxx, Mark Wahlberg, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby Maguire, real people that you talk to and and and and you feel connected to. They were it was a very, very unique uh, country club.

• 46:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  And uh, we'll never have that moment again, you know, but but I I gotta tell you, that really also helped. Uh, cause those people had no problem telling you, hey, man, you don't gotta do that. You know, you should hang out over here instead.

• 47:04Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 47:04Speaker 01

  You know?

• 47:04Lewis Howes?

  Don't do that stuff.

• 47:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:06Lewis Howes?

  Kind of like your mom, get down.

• 47:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, get down from there.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  But yeah, so I think that helped. I think that truly helped, you know, that dynamic that we had back then really helped. And you look at now, I'm thirty seven years old. And from eight, from seventeen years old to thirty seven, the fact that all of us are still here, swinging as hard as we did and and doing absolutely anything we want to do when we want to do it and the world and the studios and the Hollywood and the fans are still welcoming us is, it's like, I don't even know what, it's the biggest blessing we could ever count.

• 47:43Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. Who inspired you the most from that show? Maybe from a moment or from the entire experience or something they did or said?

• 47:54Speaker 01

  You know, from the Castle Show?

• 47:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 47:57Speaker 01

  You know, we inspired one another, you know, we kind of held each other up, you know, and I think it was, it was how real we were, you know, I do have to say that Danny Masters really said a really great, you know, he'd been, he'd been in the game longer than us at the time. He'd done Roseanne and Sybil and all that. He was already in that company for a while and, you know, he kind of showed us a couple of places that we could hang out and stay out of trouble. And we would go to, you know, this, this, um, you know, every, you know, Friday night after the show, we would go to this bar called Apple Bell on Franklin. And we just kind of just sit outside, fresh air, chill, talk and laugh and and that was fun. So Danny kind of set a good tone for all of us, as in like he, he never had to, he was never in the scene.

• 48:39Speaker 01

  You know, we kind of created our own, you know, bubble and and he started that, you know, and then after that, I think, you know, Ashton, Danny and I became best friends and we never let it one do something that, you know, would be jeopardizing or anyone. I think that's one thing I, I think Ashton, Danny and I did for each, for one another and they really helped me understand. I said, I didn't have to do anything. Based on any other perception or assumption that I could just be.

• 49:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. Do you have any regrets from anything in that show?

• 49:11Speaker 01

  No, no, I don't. I don't regret. I tell you, I don't regret anything. I appreciate every mistake. Um, regretting mistakes is is a waste of time. You know, you gotta embrace the mistakes. You know, I there was there was times in my life where I, you know, I felt things and and have made mistakes, you know, and and misjudge certain things that I did or said. Um, that really cost me a lot of, a lot of pain and a lot of sadness. Um, but, you know, I also appreciated that lesson because it made me a better man, a better friend. Um, and realized that I had to make some quick changes if I was gonna really still be around at thirty seven.

• 49:55Lewis Howes?

  Now, you had this massive hit for eight years. That was all over the place. What did you do after that to, I mean, was it a challenge afterwards to, I guess, reinvent yourself and not just be known as this one character? I've had a few actors on who were on massive shows, big stars. And then they said for two years afterwards, they were like, I can't even get in a room because I'm so typecasted as this character and people won't even let me come read.

• 50:22Speaker 01

  Right.

• 50:23Lewis Howes?

  And there's like, the money's going down, they're attached to this old show.

• 50:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:27Lewis Howes?

  They don't know how to move forward. Did you have that challenge? Did you, how did you reinvent yourself and what advice would you give to others?

• 50:34Speaker 01

  Well, I learned, I learned really strong lessons from the sitcoms of the eighties. And in the early nineties. Um, you know, I mentioned the cast of Dawson's Creek and the cast of Seven Inch Show. I feel like, again, we were in this moment in time where for the first time, the studios, the film studios, were looking at this group of kids as real estate. Like, what if, what if we get, you know, James Randevic to be in Varsity Blues? What if we get Ashton to be in, you know, whatever movies he did, right? And what if you got Wilmer and Summer Catch and, you know, and and and a bunch of company miners and all the early things that I did?

• 51:17Speaker 01

  Same thing with the rest, you know, Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson, you know, like at that time that we were given an opportunity to kind of prove ourselves for more than a TV actor.

• 51:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 51:28Speaker 01

  Because at the time, the perception was that if you were a TV actor, you did TV.

• 51:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 51:32Speaker 01

  If you did movies, you did movies. If you were in the category of supporting characters like a Fess on that seven show, you were destined to never work again.

• 51:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 51:47Speaker 01

  Somehow, you literally, you're supposed to get stuck.

• 51:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 51:51Speaker 01

  You're supposed to just be like forever.

• 51:53Lewis Howes?

  You're the Karate Kid forever.

• 51:55Speaker 01

  Like you're literally gonna be that, right? But I think that my, I think, I think Shani Ross is why I go over at UTA and my whole team, my management team at the time too. Shani and Nancy Gates and Tracy Jacobs at the time, and they saw me for so much more. And they saw me for so much more than, like I really believed in myself, but they had to teach me to believe that, that I could be everything else I wanted to be, right?

• 52:27Lewis Howes?

  Producer.

• 52:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:29Lewis Howes?

  Director.

• 52:29Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 52:30Lewis Howes?

  Entrepreneur.

• 52:30Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 52:31Lewis Howes?

  Singer, dancer.

• 52:33Speaker 01

  Everything, everything. If I had the talent, then we should be using it. That was the philosophy.

• 52:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:42Speaker 01

  And, but, but, you know, I also have to thank a few people for that transition because it was a slow burn. We were still on the seven show when I was going out and doing, you know, the summer catch with Freddie Prince Jr. and Matthew Lillard. And then I went and did Party Monster with Randy, Randy and Fenton over at World of Wondered, and that was my first, you know, crazy, dark, underground movie. There was a Sundance darling who was open, you know, Pride Festival and, and it was the life of Michael Ali in New York City. And then I got to perform with, you know, Seth Green and Macaulay Culkin's Return film and Marilyn Manson and Dylan McDermott and Chloe Sevigny and you had, I mean, To be given an opportunity to do a movie that was so raw and so and it became such a cult that was really important to me.

• 53:27Speaker 01

  So I started doing things that we show the industry. Not so much like the masses, right? Like unfortunately, the masses only see me maybe in Summer Catch. Maybe Seventy Show, maybe Unaccompanied Minors perhaps, because that was a big studio movie too.

• 53:39Lewis Howes?

  But in the industry, everyone's seeing it.

• 53:41Speaker 01

  Right, so the industry was seeing Party Monster, they were seeing, um, oh, and Fast Food Nation. Fast Food Nation was one of the biggest moments in my career.

• 53:52Lewis Howes?

  Is this the documentary? What am I thinking?

• 53:54Speaker 01

  No, the film by Richard Linklater.

• 53:56Lewis Howes?

  I'm thinking it's supersized me.

• 53:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're thinking it's supersized me, yes. So, so, so back in two thousand and four, I was twenty-four years old. I have a meeting with Richard Linklater. And Richard Linklater is doing a movie by the, by the book, you know, from Eric Slosser, Fast Food Nation. And it's gonna be like the traffic of activism.

• 54:17Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 54:18Speaker 01

  And he's putting together a ridiculous cast. And I, I was privileged to meet with him and tell him, I'm an immigrant, I can relate to his story. I relate with him, he's coming to America, taking jobs and doing whatever. That movie took me to Cannes Film Festival, standing next to Ethan Hawke and Craig Kinneard and Patricia Arquette and, you know, Bruce Willis and, you know, and, and be, be looked at as an actor. My entire role was in Spanish. I played an undocumented worker that crosses the border with his families and takes a job at a slaughterhouse. And then Richard Linklater and Eric Slosser said, hey, some young people are listening and people are giving some attention right now. You have an opportunity to say things that matter. And I said, me?

• 55:03Speaker 01

  Actors are not supposed to get involved in politics. He goes, yeah, but politics are human issues. And that's what changed everything for me. So in two thousand and five, you know, I go in front of Congress and talk about, you know, immigrant workers and all that. Because Richard Linklater and Eric Slosser were the ones who, who mentored me to do that. And that's when I started, that's when I became an activist, back in two thousand and five. That's when I said, you know what? I have a responsibility with every character, I have a responsibility with everything I say. You know, that's when things drastically changed and slowed down for me.

• 55:36Lewis Howes?

  Slow down in terms of the acting world or in terms of?

• 55:39Speaker 01

  No, I slowed down in like life.

• 55:41Lewis Howes?

  Oh.

• 55:41Speaker 01

  I was going around, yeah, yeah, yeah, like, not even the party, like, I was just trying to do

• 55:46Lewis Howes?

  Everything.

• 55:46Speaker 01

  Everything, you know, and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's be more strategic about this, you know, and but, but it was thanks to my agency at the time and all that, that they were, that we were, we had a great partnership. Shani is my queen, she's everything, Shani Russell is, I guess, is the best, and she, she was the one that was like, take your time, take a deep breath, you know, and, um, and, and that, that moment in time was defining for my transition, you know, and every character I did during the time of the seven show in the movies, was telling the industry, oh, wait a minute, he's not Fes, he's not Fes, he's not Fes, whoa, I didn't think you could do an entire character in Spanish, well, he's playing a gangster in this Spike Lee thing, or like, you know, so all these things are happening where the industry took notice that

• 56:29Speaker 01

  at any minute now, I could have a character in any of these things, you know, and so they, it really opened the doors. And, um, you know, I remember another point for me when I was, I was doing, I remember I was doing a seven show, I was doing Handy Manny, I was doing Your Mama, and I was just finished, and, and Fast Food Nation, I just premiered in Cannes. And Entertainment Weekly had honored me with six pages, The Arrival of Wilmer, and it was like this thing. And I had this anxiety. How much, wait, we gotta do some, what is the next thing, what's the next thing, we gotta do the next thing, what's the next thing, and I, and my agent's kinda slowing me down, he goes, that's a lot.

• 57:05Lewis Howes?

  Six things or whatever, yeah.

• 57:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, you, you only have seven days, and I was doing, you know, seven days. So during the weekdays, I would rehearse seven show in the afternoons, I would do Handy Manny, and on the weekends, I would shoot uh, Your Mama on MTV, and then on my weeks off, I would shoot Fast Food Nation.

• 57:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 57:24Speaker 01

  And, or, or, or another movie. So, literally, I was addicted to

• 57:31Speaker 01

  How much more can I do, you know, and, and, um, and it was consuming me and it, and I was sick every three weeks and I was, you know, I have bags under my eyes and I still found time to actually go out and meet my friends and, and, and drink a little, you know? Yeah, yeah. And there was, there was just not, I was just wasn't really balanced in the approach, you know? Yeah. So Tracy Jacobs and Jenny Russell Swag say, hey, we need you to meet somebody. I go, ooh, okay, where, where are you going? They took, they take me over to Disney Studios and we walk in to this big soundstage. And, um, I just remind, reminded this actor I'm going to mention of this story. But, um, walk into the soundstage and there's this huge ship. Huge ship. And I go, whoa, where are we?

• 58:15Speaker 01

  We walk out, there's pirates everywhere. I go, this is, this is, wait, this is, wait, wait a minute, where are we? So Tracy represents Johnny Depp. Uh huh. And she wanted me to meet with Johnny. Never met in my life. Pirates everywhere. I am, I am a fanatic of Johnny Depp. Really? Because I, I relate to him and, and how fearless we are when it comes to creating characters, right? Like I'll create something that's so far removed from who I am and people are like, who is this guy, right? And he's perfected that and he's a pioneer of that. Yeah, yeah. So, so we go into his trailer and we sit down and, you know, he's playing a little music. Is he a full character or no? He's in full Jack, Black Jack Sparrow. Is he speaking like a normal human or like Jack Sparrow?

• 58:57Speaker 01

  No, he's, no, no, he's speaking like a human, you know, but you know, he still has the lingo, you know? So Wilmer, come on, just welcome, uh, how was, how was it, my friend? And I, so, so we're, we're talking and, and she just wanted us to kind of meet. She goes, I think you guys should, you know, you guys talk, you have some things in common and he shares some of his struggles in his early career, how like people sort of only wanted to see him as certain things, but he wanted to be scissor hands, you know? And, and I started talking to him about, you know, all, all their things like, you know, well, here's what I'm doing. I'm doing this and the animated and the, you know, my one and two and this and whatever, blah. But I feel like we, what's the next thing? Like I gotta get the next thing.

• 59:37Speaker 01

  And, and, and I just get this anxiety that I feel like, you know, I'm, I'm, I feel like I'm having a moment right now and like there's, it's, we're gathering heat. I feel like we gotta keep fueling the fire and keep the, the steam going, you know? And the, and the, and so the train keeps going fast, you know, and I'm talking like this. And he's smiling and he looks at Tracy and then he smiles back and he goes, uh, Wilmer, Wilmer, let me, let me. Let me ask you a simple question. I go, okay.

• 1:00:05Speaker 01

  He goes, what's the hurry?

• 1:00:11Speaker 01

  Wait.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  What? What's the hurry?

• 1:00:17Speaker 01

  Why are you in such a hurry?

• 1:00:21Speaker 01

  And it changed everything in me. Because I knew exactly what he was telling me. Because life is a marathon. If you make it a spring, you may not make it.

• 1:00:38Speaker 01

  And then I realized I just need to take my time. And because of that advice, I'm a thirty seven year old, still swinging. You're not dead. I'm not dead. And then he asked me, what kind of actor do you want to be? Whoa, nobody's asked me that before.

• 1:00:59Speaker 01

  Do you want to do everything? Or do you want to do every character you want to do? If you want to do every character you want to do, then you want to say no to everything you don't want to do. Because if you're in this hurry, you're gonna do things you don't want to do.

• 1:01:13Speaker 01

  And it just like. That's powerful. It was the recipe. It was a recipe for the like minded who can believe in themselves and who could take a deep breath and say it's gonna happen when it happens. And when it happens, I'm gonna love that moment. Yeah. And that's, that's how it happened. And, and that's, and that's one of the things that really, really changed my life. It was, what was the hurry? If you make it a spring, you're not gonna make a marathon. You know, and and what kind of actor do I want to be? How would, how do I want to be remembered? Really, I asked myself. And, uh, you know, Fast Food Nation was exactly what I wanted to be remembered for. What it stand for, what it said, you know, who it defended,

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  who I played, the person, the real human being I played in Fast Food Nation is who I wanted to, to pay respects and honored in every character I did after that. And if it was entertaining, it was like I play a villain, then I was like, it has to be the most awesome villain that you wanna be.

• 1:02:11Speaker 01

  And, and, and then after that, I would say what to take it, be brave. And I just, I took about a six year break from television.

• 1:02:17Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:02:17Speaker 01

  I took a six year break from television and started producing, started directing, started developing, started my production company and focused on making Handy Manny, one of the most, you know, the biggest show. And because he was helping people and because families were so proud of having this little bilingual character teach, they're either Caucasian or African American or Asian or, or, you know, or everybody else that will watch this show of any ethnicity to be proud of appreciating a second language, appreciating your culture, never forgetting your roots. And I was like, that's what I wanna do. And then in those six years, I became an activist. And Rosario Dawson and I, you know, were part of the whole wave of Voto Latino, started with

• 1:03:02Speaker 01

  the census, then went registering people to vote. Then after that, it morphed into more activism and starting, you know, programs like Ready to Lead for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which was a college readiness program for, for minorities, so they understand what's out there and how they can actually make college obtainable. And then, you know, after school programs, and I just kinda got addicted to touching people and, and, and having them, you know, see a light that I saw at one point. And then, and then eventually from then on, you know, I started, I somehow I started working with President Obama on immigration reform. And working with him was one of the proudest, proudest moments of my life, you know, and then from then on, you know, we went on to create other things and, and today, you know,

• 1:03:44Speaker 01

  America Ferrera and I created Harness, Harness That Space, you know, you can go check it out and, and it's really an organization that kinda puts together all the community leaders and the movements of the human rights and having them not only commute with one another, but share each other's strengths and weaknesses. And then have a second category of, of people that have certain resources, whether it's filmmaking or funding or, or, or, you know, certain ideas or tech or, or marketing to leverage that and have them all be in the same room and help one another move the needle when it comes to defending what the country should be about. And, and Harness is something that's one of my proudest, you know, things that I co-founded

• 1:04:26Speaker 01

  as well, but, but in those six years, I became fearless to defend my family. My Latino family, my parents were immigrants. And so that I came from an immigrant family who came fearlessly to America and built things. And then, you know, from then on, I, in those same years, I went and traveled, I went to Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, uh, you know, Greenland, you know, South Korea, visiting the troops and, you know, and, and, and really getting to know the men and women who fight for our freedom and for the flag that we, we celebrate and the American dream that we all live. And, um, in that moment, since that moment, when I met, you know, Johnny and then getting those words of advices from my, from my agents and, and remembering what my dad told me,

• 1:05:10Speaker 01

  my, my parents told me, in that window, I perfected the man I wanted to be.

• 1:05:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:05:14Speaker 01

  And became exactly who I am right now and who won't change, but only learns. And.

• 1:05:21Lewis Howes?

  And who are you now?

• 1:05:23Speaker 01

  Well, today, uh, I look myself in the mirror and I say, you are Wilmer Valderrama. And you know, what does that mean to you, Wilmer? That means someone that, um, is fearless. Um, you know, uh, someone that, that believes that anything is possible and the only thing impossible is what you told yourself was gonna be. Um, and, and honestly, uh, just a proud, you know, a proud son, you know, a proud, proud of his parents and proud of the sacrifice. Um, but, you know, humbly so, I just think, you know, I've become exactly the person that

• 1:06:06Speaker 01

  I would look up to if I was Wilmer.

• 1:06:09Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, that's cool.

• 1:06:10Speaker 01

  And, and, and again, I only say it in the most humble terms. That only means so much to me, doesn't mean anything to anybody else, but I've become exactly the person that Wilmer Valderrama will look up to. And that's the only person I wanna be.

• 1:06:23Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:06:23Speaker 01

  You know, so, so when I, when I think back at all those years and all those mistakes and all those, you know, lessons, um, it's hard to regret anything, you know?

• 1:06:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:33Speaker 01

  Um, because it's, it's, it's, uh, it's giving me the spirit that, that, that makes me live life today, for sure.

• 1:06:38Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing, man. In the last 20 years, you've created so much. What's the vision that you have or the dream you have moving forward?

• 1:06:45Speaker 01

  You know, it's simple now. I mean, it's simple is to continue to do things I like. It really is simple, you know, if you asked me this ten years ago, I would be, I would say an empire.

• 1:06:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  You know, I'm gonna build an empire. And now to me, the empire I have is only as influential as the people I surround myself with. And the reach and the change and the, and the impact that it has on people and on society.

• 1:07:17Speaker 01

  And unity has become really this period of that empire.

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  It's not about how much can I achieve, is how much can we do? And it's never, I mean, I learned very quickly that I dream very slow, very small. But we dream very big.

• 1:07:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:36Speaker 01

  You know, I also, you know, learned that the vision for what's next, it's about

• 1:07:43Speaker 01

  creating a seed, divorcing it, emptying your pockets in the table. Everybody around the table empty their pockets and then build a Lego house from there. That's it. That is to me, the recipe for success today and for the future is understanding you have weaknesses and those weaknesses are gonna be somebody else's strength. So you have to never assume that that weakness, you're gonna make a strength. Because if you only focus on your strength and you allow somebody else to share their strength with you, you both just win.

• 1:08:18Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, that is strong.

• 1:08:20Speaker 01

  And, and, and I was a one person band for like almost ten years of my life.

• 1:08:24Lewis Howes?

  Tried to do it all yourself.

• 1:08:25Speaker 01

  Tried to do it all myself. And, and I, I, I got some things done, but not at the impact that I thought it would be. Cause it wasn't about the credit and it wasn't about the ego, it was about like, no, I can do this. Right? But a real leader empowers, right? A real leader inspires. And that empowerment and inspiration turns things into reality. You know, it's not, it's not you did it and you came and assembled this table. It's not that somebody had to cut this wood. You don't cut wood, you're not a carpenter?

• 1:08:58Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 1:09:00Speaker 01

  You don't make legs of steel either, right? But you know, to build this table, I gotta get us all together. You're the carpenter, you'll build the steel, but I got the screws and I know exactly how we're gonna angle it.

• 1:09:11Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 1:09:11Speaker 01

  And now we all can successfully, you know, share this table together.

• 1:09:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:16Speaker 01

  And everybody wins.

• 1:09:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:09:17Speaker 01

  You know, so, so, so I think that that's, that's my vision is to continue to, to share the success that I build with the people that I respect and love so much that I happen to be sharing my everyday with right now. And having a heart open to welcome everybody else to say, hey, man, what else can we build together, you know?

• 1:09:36Lewis Howes?

  That's powerful. You know, when the interview goes well, when I don't ask any of the questions that I have here for you. And it just flows.

• 1:09:43Speaker 01

  I'm gonna bring into, I feel like I could've trimmed that a little bit more.

• 1:09:46Lewis Howes?

  I loved it, man. I loved it. I've got three final que- I've got a lot of questions for you, but I wanna kind of bring it together with three final ones. Um, the first one is called the three truths. Three truths. So if this was, uh, the last day for you and every-

• 1:10:04Speaker 01

  Define last day.

• 1:10:06Lewis Howes?

  You're, you're dead tomorrow, right? Uh, but you, or it's many years from now and it's your last day and you've created everything you wanted to create. You've done it all. Every dream you've achieved, every person you wanted to meet, and you made it happen. You had multiple hang sessions with Johnny Depp and your life is complete. You learned all the lessons you needed to learn. But for whatever reason, all the, the creations that you had out in the world, no one has access to anymore. So they can't watch any shows or movies or anything that you've ever created, they don't have access to. But you have a piece of paper and a pen and you get to write down the three truths. Three things, lessons, truths that you would share with the world and that's all they would have to remember you by. These three lessons.

• 1:10:48Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:10:48Lewis Howes?

  What would be your three truths?

• 1:10:51Speaker 01

  Um, I mean, very simple for me. I, I've, I live by them and I just hope I can pass this on to my children as well. Um, and a number one is what my dad said to me, you know? I think it's, you know, if you, if you win, great. If you didn't, awesome, right? Number two, um-

• 1:11:14Speaker 01

  I think that, you know, um, never live life um with anxiety that you're not going to achieve, right? So what's the, what's the hurry, right? Take your time in building a foundation that's not gonna be broken, right? Take your time. I think that's number two. Take your time and enjoy the time, right? Take your time and enjoy that time. It's a moment that we have, right? The last one is something that Robin Williams, I had the privilege of asking him for advice. Robin Williams said to me, he came to the Set of Seventy Show visiting Kerwood Smith because they've done Dead Boys Society. And I said, you know, at like nineteen years old, I said, hey, uh, Mr. Williams. He goes, call me Robin. And he was already on, you know?

• 1:11:58Speaker 01

  I said, okay, Robin, uh, word of advice for a young buck like me, man. I look up to all your comedy and all that stuff. And he said to me,

• 1:12:06Speaker 01

  he said to me, um, okay, word of advice. He gave me two. Um, but I'm gonna give you the one that I want on that list, right? So he said, uh, always remember and never forget that it's supposed to be fun.

• 1:12:21Speaker 01

  And that set a tone for the guideline. If it wasn't fun, I was doing something wrong.

• 1:12:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:29Speaker 01

  If it wasn't fun, um, I wasn't prepared enough. If it wasn't fun, um, probably you're at the wrong place. Shouldn't be here.

• 1:12:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:39Speaker 01

  But everything is supposed to be fun. I apply it to my acting. If I'm not enjoying this character, I'm not doing something right. Or this is not, I'm not at the right place where I'm supposed to be. So I would say those are the three things, you know? The last one to me is, is one of the most important ones because we, we forget to have fun when we work for our goals, you know? We sometimes feel like we have to sacrifice and we have to put ourselves through pain and that we have to be sore in the morning.

• 1:13:04Speaker 01

  But you, you have to understand that you, you have time. Um, then no matter the outcome, you're gonna win anyways. As long as you make it fun.

• 1:13:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What was the second thing he said?

• 1:13:16Speaker 01

  The second thing was about fans. He said to me, um, he said, so when you meet your fans, because you're gonna have fans.

• 1:13:27Speaker 01

  They're gonna have two or three minutes of your time for the rest of their life. What two or three minutes you want them to walk away with?

• 1:13:36Speaker 01

  I never have a bad day in front of my fans. My fans come up, they wanna say hi, take a deep breath, if I'm going through something,

• 1:13:44Lewis Howes?

  You smile.

• 1:13:44Speaker 01

  I'm stressed, I wanna give them the same energy they give me. When they give me, they have this, when their eyes, when they meet me for the first time, sometimes there's tears, sometimes there's laughter, sometimes they go into this place where they remember all these characters, or they listen to all the quotes that I put on Instagram or Twitter and all that, and they quote me back and they say, "You've helped me so much, you know, the things that you said really helped me while I was getting through this hard time," or even as far as saying, "You know, today I didn't think about harming myself because you made me smile today." And all these things have to be met with the same compassion, the same love they give me.

• 1:14:29Speaker 01

  And, you know, if all my fellow actors and musicians are listening to this, it's a lot easier to give a smile in the moment, it's a lot easier to take three minutes than hide and elaborately not connect with your people.

• 1:14:45Speaker 01

  So to me, that's, you know, that's very, very important to me, you know? Two, three minutes, yes, of course, picture, no problem, what do you wanna sign, of course, what do you wanna tell me, this and this and this, great, keep digging.

• 1:14:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:58Speaker 01

  Keep climbing.

• 1:14:59Lewis Howes?

  Thanks for saying hi.

• 1:15:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I appreciate you saying hi, that's the only way, that's the way I finish every encounter, thank you for saying hi, I appreciate you coming up. I know not everyone's like that, but I will say that that is, that's my philosophy.

• 1:15:12Lewis Howes?

  That's cool, man.

• 1:15:15Lewis Howes?

  Well, I wanna acknowledge you for a moment, Wilmer, for opening your heart and for listening to the mentors that were there before you, who gave you great advice, but also making a massive impact on so many people, not only for your work as an actor, but really what it looks like now is mostly your activists, your work in trying to make an impact back in the world with. Other things that aren't related to acting and I think that's what's going to be most remembered about you is how you made an impact for people that didn't have the voice. And you using your voice for something more than just fame or recognition or money, but using it to really make a difference in people. So I want to acknowledge you for

• 1:15:55Speaker 01

  Well, thank you, man.

• 1:15:56Lewis Howes?

  Constantly reinventing yourself, staying grounded, because I didn't know you were this grounded of a human, and having such an open heart for all of us to witness it.

• 1:16:05Speaker 01

  Oh, well, thank you.

• 1:16:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:07Speaker 01

  Well, I'm blessed that I was able to, you know, share my thoughts with you and pay tribute to the people that really, really helped me.

• 1:16:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:14Speaker 01

  To be honest, it was about my parents, really.

• 1:16:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:16Speaker 01

  But thank you. Thank you for having me, man.

• 1:16:18Lewis Howes?

  Of course. Before I ask the final question, where can we connect with you online? What do you want us to take action on? Websites, social media?

• 1:16:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, sure. Sure to, um, so, you know, the, you know, the predictable ones, you know, I'm obviously, I'm on Twitter. I'm at @WValdorama. On Instagram, I'm @WilmerValdorama. And on Facebook, the same thing, WilmerDrama. And there's a couple of places that you want to know more about different things in activism. I think that, you know, Voto Latino is a good one if you like voting registration and

• 1:16:47Lewis Howes?

  What is it?

• 1:16:48Speaker 01

  Voto Latino.org.

• 1:16:49Lewis Howes?

  Voto Latino.

• 1:16:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. And the other one, which is America for Us and Ron Pierce Williams, uh, in my organization, is called Hardness. Uh, Hardness is quickly growing into something that we're, we're going to be very proud of as a community, I think. Uh, and I think you can go to hardness.space for this and just to get more information on that. That'd be cool. Uh, other than that, you know, I think, you know, I think, uh, I welcome you to kind of follow me on social media and stuff. I'm silly at times.

• 1:17:19Lewis Howes?

  Where do you hang out the most? What do you like the most right now?

• 1:17:21Speaker 01

  Um, I'm actually hovering a lot on Instagram.

• 1:17:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:24Speaker 01

  I get lost on Instagram a lot. On Twitter, I tend to, you know, promote a little bit more and then also do some inspirational quotes and stuff. If you want inspirational stuff, I, I post it there. I hope it's inspirational.

• 1:17:37Speaker 01

  And, um, but I think Instagram and Facebook are going to be my most elaborate. You know, I blog a lot. I live a lot and do a lot of story stuff. It's just cool.

• 1:17:45Lewis Howes?

  Cool, man. Final question is what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:17:49Speaker 01

  What's my definition of greatness? Oof, that's a loaded question, but my definition of greatness, but I think greatness is

• 1:18:04Speaker 01

  The ability to only live within your strength and making that your lifestyle. If you can live within your strength and not lie to yourself that you can do other things you can't, that's one thing I feel like is greatness. You can make something truly great if you just execute within your strength. And I think this is the definition of greatness. Stay within your strength because if you're within your strength, it's always going to be fun, you know? And that strength will perfect your practice. And when you perfect your practice, you achieve greatness.

• 1:18:44Speaker 00

  Wilmer, thank you, man. Appreciate it.

• 1:18:47Speaker 01

  Thank you, bud. Appreciate having me, man.

• 1:18:49Speaker 00

  That's great. There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this one. I loved connecting with Wilmer and getting to hear more about his story and just being in his presence for, you know, an hour during this interview really showed me who he was. He opened his heart. He was so open and giving and present. And I just love when people really connect and take the time. You know, he's got a lot going on, a lot of different businesses and shows that he's running. And for him to share his story so openly, just really, I really appreciate that. So if you guys enjoyed this and it resonated in any way, then go ahead and tag your Instagram stories with a screenshot of this podcast episode and tag me @lewishouse and @wilmer Valderrama and post it on Twitter.

• 1:19:33Speaker 00

  Again, the link is lewishouse.com/514. Let a couple of friends know about this episode. We want to get more people connecting to the message of greatness, learning the tools, the inspiring stories to help everyone get to the next step, reach bigger results, feel deeper, have a more open heart, connect to the human race on a bigger level. That's what this is all about, striving for greatness in our own unique way. If you enjoyed this, again, share it out with your friends, leave a review over on iTunes. Just search the School of Greatness podcast on your iTunes app or on your podcast app on your phones. And as always, you know what time it is.

• 1:20:16Speaker 00

  It's time to go out there and do something great.

• 1:20:24Speaker 00

  You