610 Competition, Leadership, and Playing to Win with Coach Urban Meyer

We don't talk about the end all. We talk about how to get there. Having grown up in Ohio, I have always been a fan of Ohio State University. If you weren't aware, they have the best coach out there: Coach Urban Meyer. What I love about Coach Meyer is that he doesn't just set up a team for winning in football, he sets them up to win in life. Even though football is just a game, there is a lot you can learn from it. The power of teamwork, what it means to be a great leader, and what truly defines a loser (hint: it's not losing). Coach Meyer really sets all of his players up to have a solid career and foundation when they leave university because he doesn't just run a football program. He runs a leadership program. Coach Meyer has also led an incredible life himself. He is a 3 time national championship coach and a NY Times bestselling author. I'm so excited to share this interview with you. If you are in any type of a team or leadership position I know you're going to get so much value out of this. Learn all about teamwork and what it means to be a real winner, on Episode 610. Some Questions I Ask: How do you get complete strangers with big egos to to buy into your philosophy? (10:40) When you're cultivating a relationship with someone out of high school, what are you speaking into? (13:16) Have you evolved your philosophy since your first coaching job? (16:00) Do you meditate as well? (18:21) How important is it to have big dreams? (21:06) You're developing a leadership center, not just a football program right? (22:44) What's the biggest loss you've had in sports and in life? (25:34) When you start the season, do you sit down and talk about your team's vision? (27:33) What do you think is the biggest weakness you still need to improve on? (31:12) In This Episode You Will Learn: When he gets people to buy into his philosophy (12:42) What makes him different from other coaches (14:38) The one thing he must do every single day to be at the top of his game (17:10) How he gets kids to be disciplined (19:03) Coach's biggest dream right now (21:40) Which builds more character: winning or losing (24:46) The importance of striving to win in everything we do (26:23) The greatest lesson he's learned throughout his coaching career (29:28) Plus much more 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 610 with three-time national championship coach and New York Times bestselling author Urban Meyer. 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. Henry David Thoreau said, "It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants."

• 0:42Lewis Howes?

  The question is, what are we busy about? Whew, I am pumped up for this one. You all know that I am from Ohio. I'm a big Ohio State Buckeye fan. Love the football team. And we have a wonderful pleasure to have Coach Urban Meyer on the podcast. He's someone that I've looked up to for many years and always admired his leadership, his tenacity, his competitive drive, and his will to win. And I really loved connecting with him and learning about how he taps into the heart and the mind to enroll all of his players, all these young guys, to buy into his vision,

• 1:22Lewis Howes?

  his mission, and really a vision of excellence and competitiveness, and how to be a great leader, and not only on the football field, but outside of the football field as well and beyond many years after we are done playing football. So I'm very excited about having him on. And for those that don't know who he is, he's the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeye football team. He was the head coach of Bowling Green University from 2001 to 2002, then Utah in 2003 and 2004, and Florida Gators from 2005 to 2010. And when he was coaching at the University of Florida, he took the Gators to two national championship game victories.

• 2:07Lewis Howes?

  Then in 2014, he led the Buckeyes to their first Big Ten. Conference title under his tenure as well as the program's eighth national championship title. He's one of three coaches to win a major college football national championship at two different universities. And he worked as a college football analyst for ESPN as well, and is also the author of the book Above the Line, which was a powerful book that came out actually the same week as my first book, The School of Greatness, and was one of the most inspiring books that I read all year. And I went to the Ohio State facility. We sat right in the, uh, the coaches' room where they talk to all the players and they brainstorm and they strategize.

• 2:50Lewis Howes?

  And some of the things that we covered are how to get men with big egos to buy into a new philosophy. How do you get people who've maybe had a lot of opportunities and been the big fish in a small pond, all of a sudden to buy into this new philosophy when they get to the school? What he's seen over the years on how leaders fail, also what separates a top coach from an average coach. How to inspire kids to live at a higher standard, and whether winning or losing builds more character. Which one actually builds more character? That and so much more in this episode. I'm super pumped. And if you want to watch the full video interview, you can go to lewishouse.com/610 to check

• 3:35Lewis Howes?

  out the full highlights on the video, learn more about Coach's book and everything else that we talk about in this episode. But before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the fan of the week. This is from Kelsey Mead Fit, who said, "I came across Lewis's podcast in early 2017, and I've been an avid listener ever since. Lewis has such a charismatic way of engaging with every single guest, which draws me in and captures my attention as a listener. It often feels like it's just you, the guest, and Lewis sitting across the table from one another. Each episode gives me new perspectives, opens my mind to new creative ideas, or reinforces the growth mindset I have been cultivating. Great guests, great hosts, great content."

• 4:20Lewis Howes?

  Trifecta. So Kelsey, Mead, Fit, thank you so much for your review over on iTunes and you, my friend, are the fan of the week. All right, guys, I'm super pumped about this. For me, I learned so much from Coach Urban Meyer. Make sure to take a screenshot of this, tag your friends, let them know about it, tag me on Instagram, tag Coach on Twitter, and let us know your thoughts. I'm super pumped to introduce to you to the one, the only Coach Urban Meyer.

• 4:55Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about this. Our guest is the legendary Urban Meyer. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. We're in the offseason, but unfortunately, there's never an offseason here. So we got a few minutes with you and I'm very excited to be here. You know, the last time I was in this facility was 13 years ago. I did my pro day at Ohio State. Yeah, I heard that. I was playing at Capital and for whatever reason, they let a D3 guy come in here during the pro day with Santonio Holmes and A.J. Hawk and Bobby Coverton, those guys. It was probably the most nervous I've been in any football setting, seeing as Ohio State was a dream of mine. But I was kind of a late bloomer, didn't really develop till my sophomore, junior year in college. But some good memories here. Running that 40 on that sprint turf was a challenging

• 5:40Lewis Howes?

  time, but it's good to be back and I'm glad to connect with you. You had a book come out a couple of years ago, actually the same week that my book came out. It's called Above the Line. If you guys don't have this yet, make sure you get this book. I rarely read many books. I have researchers that read for me when I'm interviewing people and give me the notes. But this was a book that I bought myself and read almost all of it. Super inspiring. Make sure you go get this book. Very powerful. I'm just really grateful for who you are and who you've become as a human being. You know, you've had an incredible career as a coach. Joshua Harris is a buddy of mine that I used to train with. Wow. 13 years ago at the, uh, some facility where the Columbus Destroyers train at. We

• 6:22Lewis Howes?

  would train for about six months together and I texted him last night. He said, tell me he's the greatest and I love him very much and wouldn't be where he is without you as a coach at Bowling Green. Wow. And you've had an incredible career as a coach and you've transformed your entire mindset, which is what I'm really excited about from. Being obsessive about things that hurt your mind, and I think that hurts your health, into now being obsessive about things that help you and help your team. So I'm really inspired by your transformation, Coach, and congrats on everything you've done.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  Well, first of all, welcome home.

• 6:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, thank you.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  We did our homework too, and I can say that I had my research team research you.

• 7:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Because we get asked to do a lot of things.

• 7:02Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 7:03Speaker 01

  And at this point in my life, and we talked about this a minute ago, you say what kind of interview, what kind of podcast we do, if this can help someone, let's do it.

• 7:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  If it's not, if it's just about football, or you know, who's going to play quarterback, or you know, I'm busy, we got things to do.

• 7:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:18Speaker 01

  Especially with what's going on in this world right now, you just, and I'm, I watch news like everybody else, sometimes I, I wonder where we're at, what time period are we in, and what in the world's going on. Then you've been given a mission statement to, or a responsibility to coach 120 guys that the next 40 years are going to be dependent upon what goes on for these next two or three.

• 7:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  That's strong. And so we devote the majority of our time to making sure that the people in this room, our team room, that we're making an impact with these people.

• 7:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and you're being on leadership and developing leaders. I heard that you have nine captains coming up this year, is that right?

• 7:54Speaker 01

  That was last year.

• 7:55Lewis Howes?

  Last year, nine captains.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, we had nine captains, and we haven't done the captain thing yet. It was a very unique team we had a year ago. It was all, as I say, very well earned, and I think when you restrict the number of captains, then, I don't believe in that at all. We've always had the number of captains according to how many leaders we have.

• 8:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Now, I asked Josh if there's one question that I should ask you, what would it be? He said, let me get his exact words. His ridiculous amount of focus, his belief in his system, and then obviously his ability to get a bunch of strangers to quote unquote buy in. So your ability, you know, you went to different schools for a year or two, a couple of years each, you know, Bowling Green and then Utah. You were there for two seasons. How do you get guys to buy in who are complete strangers? Who are 18, 19 with big egos, think they've got it all figured out, have been courted their whole lives, everything handed to them. How do you get them to buy in to a philosophy, a belief system, and to this obsessive competitive nature that you guys cultivate? And get these kids to believe?

• 8:56Speaker 01

  You know, Tim Kite, who was my leadership consultant, and he very instrumental writing that book. It was after our national championship season. And I used to live by this quote that or my own definition of leadership was, it used to be, set a standard, demand all live up to that standard. And then you start thinking how shallow of a, that has nothing to do with leadership. And I never believed that because there's much more to it than just set a standard. So the one that is in the book and that we talk quite often about, I teach our players, leaders, and I teach our coaches, and it's nonstop, is the job of a leader is absolutely first and foremost is to earn trust. You can only push and lead a person as far as

• 9:39Speaker 01

  he can trust you. So the first thing I've done at each, and I look back now because, you know, I've been doing this for a while, is the thing that we've done very well, and the best group of coaches that I've had, the best thing that we've done is we've earned their trust because they understand we care deeply about them. Didn't say anything's gonna be warm and fuzzy. I didn't say anything's gonna be easy. But we care deeply, I mean, like deeply about them. And once you start to get those relationships with Josh Harris, John Madsen, the young man you know in Utah, the players here, that once those players realize that you care deeply about them, now you can really expound upon that definition of leadership. So the first part is earn trust, and then be with extreme clarity, set the

• 10:20Speaker 01

  expectations, and inspire and equip the people to fulfill those expectations. But before you can do anything, you have to earn their trust. That's where I think a lot of leaders fail. Coaches fail because earning trust, put a timetable on that. When does that, sometimes it takes years to earn trust. And sometimes you only got a player for, so earning trust is the key.

• 10:41Lewis Howes?

  How do you do that in two weeks of the most grueling, you know, boot camp that they go through?

• 10:46Speaker 01

  You don't do that then. You know, I think that's, that's just setting us, just understanding that they know that this is going to be very hard. We want you to commit, we want you to invest, but it takes much more time than that. You know, we're very instrumental in getting to know the players' families, getting to know what their dreams are after football. And once the players know, wait a minute, this guy can really help us, or this staff can really help us, that's when the trust takes place.

• 11:10Lewis Howes?

  When you're recruiting or cultivating a relationship with a young kid out of high school, what are you speaking into most of the time? Are you speaking into their time at Ohio State, the future, what's possible for them? Or is it more speaking into the vision of their dreams after Ohio State?

• 11:24Speaker 01

  I did, I was felt guilty. I think collegiate athletics have used players for many, many years. And I'm not going to get into the, do they get paid or not get paid? Because that's a topic for a much different conversation or different time. But it all changed when my daughter, my daughter was a very successful volleyball player. And I would go on unofficial visits with her and listen to these coaches talk. And I'd be like, wow, do I really sound like that? You know, they're talking about locker rooms, they're talking about jersey numbers, they're talking about music. And I don't care about any of that. I care about what are you going to do for my kid? And so when I start speaking and recruiting to players now, much deeper than what I have in the past, we're looking much further beyond getting a degree. We're looking much further beyond holding a national championship trophy or whatever, or the first round draft pick.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  We're looking farther, much further beyond all that. We're looking into what do they want to do?

• 12:15Lewis Howes?

  With their life after football?

• 12:16Speaker 01

  After football, because this football thing is going to come to an end. For some people, it's in two years, three years, four years. If you're very lucky, it's maybe eight, but it's going to end for everyone. And we try to push that as hard as we, we don't try, we push that as hard as we can. And that's one of the first pieces of conversation I'll have with people that we're starting to recruit.

• 12:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. You were able to recruit top athletes at these less desirable schools, let's say, than Ohio State, when you were coaching at other schools.

• 12:43Lewis Howes?

  What's the difference between you and other coaches? What's the things that you're talking about that separates you to want to go to a Bowling Green or Utah as opposed to being recruited somewhere else?

• 12:52Speaker 01

  Those are great questions. I'm not sure they did. I think, you know, I had some great evaluators, you know, Kyle Whittingham, head coach of Utah. Never forget, we recruited players that weren't not wanted.

• 13:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:01Speaker 01

  But we had such a good plan on how on to identify who those under the radar player, Eric Weddell was a perfect example, one of the best safeties in the NFL in the last 20 years.

• 13:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:11Speaker 01

  Was a guy that was unrecruited.

• 13:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  And we go to Utah and we weren't trying to beat people for him. That was more, when you're at a Bowling Green or Utah, a smaller school, the premium's placed on evaluation as much as anything. Evaluation or projection, because you're usually looking at an undersized, a guy like you.

• 13:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  What's the visual of this in two years? Because you're not going to go beat Ohio State.

• 13:32Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:32Speaker 01

  When I was at Utah, our staff would get mad at me when all of a sudden USC came and offered them and, "Oh no, what do you think?" And I said, "Go to USC, that's what I do. And don't hold that against them."

• 13:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  We have to do a much better job of identifying the under the radar guys.

• 13:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What did, Joshua, also wanted me to ask you about your philosophy and how it's changed or stayed the same since your first head coaching job to now, the different schools you've been at. Have you evolved your philosophy or has it always been what your mentors have taught you?

• 13:59Speaker 01

  No, it's evolved. Josh Harris had a 36-year-old nut job that was a head coach. Thank God we didn't have cell phones back then or we didn't have, it was wild. And I took over a program that had a great coach named Gary Blackney. There was a lot of drugs, a lot of other issues that the program kind of slipped a little bit.

• 14:16Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  The leadership on the team was nonexistent and we had to make some changes.

• 14:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:21Speaker 01

  When you go 2-9 and you're getting pounded, you know, obviously there's, there's guys there that shouldn't be there.

• 14:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  So we went in and cleansed it. We made it so hard that we had 18 to 20 players quit within the first couple of weeks. And they should have. Colleges, Division 1 football wasn't for them.

• 14:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:36Speaker 01

  But the ones that stayed, we went from 2-9 to 8-3 in one of the best turnarounds in

• 14:41Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy.

• 14:41Speaker 01

  College football history. And still to this day, maybe the best group of seniors I've ever, ever had.

• 14:46Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 14:46Speaker 01

  They were so appreciative. Their whole goal was let's find a way to have a winning season and we ended up having a heck of a year.

• 14:52Lewis Howes?

  You guys were top 25, I think. Weren't you 24, 23, I think?

• 14:54Speaker 01

  Well, we got up to 16 the year after that.

• 14:57Lewis Howes?

  Oh wow.

• 14:57Speaker 01

  The first year, I don't believe we made it to top 25. The second year, we got up to 16.

• 15:00Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty impressive. What's a non-negotiable for you, every single day that you must do in order to be at the top of your game?

• 15:09Speaker 01

  Non-negotiable is I start my day with a Bible study that Tim Kite puts on and I have to do that. I have to get.

• 15:14Lewis Howes?

  Is he the one that texts you the quote or Bible?

• 15:17Speaker 01

  No, Chris Spielman does that.

• 15:19Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 15:19Speaker 01

  And then, uh, Tim Kite, it's an email. And, uh, we'll go through the book of Galatians, we'll do something and I have to get that 30 to 40 minutes of that my time.

• 15:29Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 15:29Speaker 01

  I have to, or I'm sick about it. And we have a coach on our staff, Greg Shiano, that will all go into his office, he'll come into mine and we'll actually, we're getting ready to play USC in the Cotton Bowl. And we're gonna have a conversation about that. To say I've always been like that, I've, I've tried to be good about that, but not to the point I am now. I'm non-negotiable, as you put it.

• 15:49Lewis Howes?

  Every morning?

• 15:49Speaker 01

  Have to have that every morning.

• 15:51Lewis Howes?

  Is there a certain time or does it?

• 15:52Speaker 01

  Six o'clock, 6:30, right between the six and 6:30.

• 15:55Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 15:56Speaker 01

  Have to do it.

• 15:57Lewis Howes?

  And how many times would you say you miss a year? Or do you not miss in the last 365 days?

• 16:02Speaker 01

  Well, I'll miss once in a while, but then I catch up throughout the day. You know, if we have a mat drill like we did today at, uh, 6 a.m. when the whistle blows, cause he doesn't send it out early enough, and I'll get it right afterwards. But I don't miss.

• 16:12Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 16:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:13Lewis Howes?

  And what happens to your day when you do miss?

• 16:15Speaker 01

  I'll find time to go get it.

• 16:17Lewis Howes?

  No matter what, you'll have to, yeah.

• 16:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, cause I will feel empty without it.

• 16:20Lewis Howes?

  Do you meditate as well?

• 16:23Speaker 01

  I like to use the word prayer.

• 16:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  You know, but I, I think it's very similar and I think it's time to get your, it's a, it's actually part of what we train our players. There's times you gotta get your mind right. And some people, unfortunately, the below the line behavior, getting your mind right is drinking and acting like a fool and doing college stuff or doing other stuff, which I've done.

• 16:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  I've also tried to learn and be disciplined and learn from great leaders on how to get your mind right. And meditation, prayer by, by yourself or with someone like a Shiano, someone like, like-minded people, that's how you get your mind right. And it's a must.

• 16:57Lewis Howes?

  How do you get kids who wanna live the life, you know, they're getting stuff thrown at them all the time, they live a little bit below the line, right?

• 17:04Speaker 01

  Little?

• 17:05Lewis Howes?

  A lot, right? Some, some of them a lot, some of them little. How do you get them to want to say, you know what, live above the line? Don't have fun, essentially, you're telling them not to have fun in their mindset, right? Don't go out and party, don't go do this with girls, don't do drinking. How do you get them to say, you know what, don't have any of that fun, is what they're thinking, and live above the line?

• 17:24Speaker 01

  Well, I think

• 17:24Lewis Howes?

  Eighteen, nineteen.

• 17:25Speaker 01

  And I don't say, "Don't, don't, don't."

• 17:27Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  God created the way we are. And I think, as long as you live the disciplined life, you can still have a lot of fun in your life.

• 17:34Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 17:35Speaker 01

  And I certainly don't want to preach at you, because like I said, thank God there weren't camera phones back when I was eighteen years old. However, I always like to say, "You're here. Everybody's here, and you want to be here. The fastest way is draw that straight line and stay away from anything that pulls you off of that straight line." Then we can start talking, you know, for this alcohol, whether it's a bad relationship, whether it's, obviously, drugs. Those are the three big things that you deal with in college right now. You want to get pulled off that line, those are the three quickest, well-known ways to do it. But don't, there's a great quote, actually, right over there that says, "Do your habits reflect your dreams and goals? And if it's not, then change." That's too easy. And when I have my son, I changed that quote, and it's behind my son, has it up in his bedroom, right next to his bed.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  If your habits don't reflect your dreams and goals, change your habits. And then I added, "Or change your dreams and goals." Don't lie to yourself.

• 18:27Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  I hear people say, "I want to go play in the NFL, but you're acting like this." You lie to me is fine, but don't lie to yourself. And that's when the people start to, you know, start to think, "Wait a minute now." You know, I get where I'm not going to tell everybody exactly what I'm doing, but then you got to look in the mirror and say, "Do I really want to be a first-round draft pick? And I'm doing this?"

• 18:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  And that's when usually it hits home. Now, if you're dealing with someone that, you know, is really that far off the beaten path, then, you know, it's going to take years. But I've seen a lot of transitions pretty quickly when they start saying, "I want to do this, but don't lie to yourself."

• 19:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. How important are having big dreams for human beings, do you think? Do you think it's important that we have, go after big dreams?

• 19:08Speaker 01

  I think you know the answer. You know, and that's every, I don't know if I've ever met a person that didn't have great dreams. You know, what do you do then? What are you just looking for the next sandwich? You're looking for the next meal? Or what are you? God created us to have these great dreams. So I would say, I don't know if I've ever met a player or person or human that's not had great dreams. Now, some are a little more serious about achieving them.

• 19:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  Which that's what makes us all so different.

• 19:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, what's your big dream right now?

• 19:37Speaker 01

  My dreams has changed over the years. You know, there was a long time to go win a national championship. And we did. My dream right now was to be a, I'm a grandfather. I want to be the best possible grandfather there is and really support my family. But my professional dreams now is I want to see this room of 120 people have 100% effective rate of having a job offer waiting for them when they're done. When they finish Ohio State University, we're close to that right now. That they're so well-prepared for life after football that, what we talked about earlier, you want to have, you want to see any group of people, any group of people. I don't want to get into black, white, Polynesian when I was at Utah, or southern, northern, eastern, western, it doesn't matter. Any group of people.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  And you take away their hope, and you take away their opportunity, it's combustible. It's going to blow up. And I think it's my coach's job and our job and this university's job to make sure that, we can't control some what's going on in this world, but it's our job to make sure there's hope and opportunity for every player that comes through this program.

• 20:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's powerful. You're really developing like a leadership center for kids. It's not a football program, it's a leadership center.

• 20:45Speaker 01

  That's where we changed.

• 20:46Lewis Howes?

  Right?

• 20:46Speaker 01

  We have really changed. And I'm glad you said that.

• 20:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:49Speaker 01

  That's a big part of what's in there. That's why I thought it was so important to get that on paper. Because after the 2014 season, it was illogical for what happened that year. We lost our starting quarterback a week before the first game. The starting quarterback was a redshirt freshman. He gets hurt in the rivalry game. And then the third-string quarterback takes us

• 21:08Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy.

• 21:09Speaker 01

  on a three-game journey for a national title.

• 21:11Lewis Howes?

  It was unbelievable.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  When I heard him say one of the number ones reason is he didn't want to let his teammates down. Now you know that. What we're teaching around here was working. That particular year.

• 21:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and I love that you guys have, you know, it's all about playing for each other, playing for your unit, right? You have nine different units, is that what I've?

• 21:29Speaker 01

  Nine units.

• 21:30Lewis Howes?

  Nine units? Yeah, I was debriefed. Everything's about playing for one another, but also competing at the highest level. And I heard from Quinn that you guys track everything.

• 21:38Speaker 01

  Everything.

• 21:39Lewis Howes?

  Is that from like, who sits down the first in team meetings to?

• 21:43Speaker 01

  No.

• 21:44Lewis Howes?

  Catching passes to?

• 21:45Speaker 01

  It's any competitive environment. We're actually, that's part of our mantra right now for the 2018 season is that. You know, it's unfortunate, it's unbelievable. I looked one day during the season last year, I just was very upset. We lost a game, and it wasn't just because we lost a great team, but. I didn't feel our team, and I didn't feel the competition. So I looked, I just hit on my iPad competitor. And I was so disappointed what came up. One of the definitions I saw, someone who takes part in athletic events. And I can't disagree more, that's not a competitor, that's a take-parter, that's a guy that.

• 22:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 22:18Speaker 01

  You know, he conforms and he does what he, but he's not competing. And then, so I just started playing again, and then I looked up fierce competitor. And that's what I want, that's who we all need to be, and a fierce competitor is a refuse to lose. Basically, I added this, when they keep score, we're gonna try to win. And we try to teach that throughout this whole program, as long as we're. Someone's keeping score, we're gonna do our very best to go win that. And that's why we train so hard.

• 22:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What do you think builds more character? Those that win a lot, or those that lose a lot?

• 22:48Speaker 01

  I gotta be politically correct here, but I just. I don't buy that losing builds character. I don't, I think losing just teaches you, hopefully that teaches you that, gets you that feeling that we all have, that you may want to work harder so you don't want to lose.

• 23:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  A winner-loser, and we use this around here quite often. Just because you lose, you shouldn't be tagged a loser. If you accept losing, now you're a loser.

• 23:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  If you accept it and say that's okay. In this line of work, I'm talking about college football, and I think. I don't know many professions that aren't like that. If you fail to win, that does not make you loser. It just makes you want to work that much harder to never let that happen again. And that's gonna happen, where you're gonna get knocked down. But a competitor gets right back up and finds a way to win it next time.

• 23:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, wow. What's the biggest loss you've ever had in sports and in life?

• 23:37Speaker 01

  Well, I lost my mom and dad and that was tragic, not tragic, but you know, my mom was, lost her at 63 years old and far too young and

• 23:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  She never got to experience, never got to see me coach a game and she used to always talk to me about that, being a head coach.

• 23:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  My father passed away in my arms two weeks before I took the Ohio State job.

• 23:55Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 23:55Speaker 01

  And that was tough and that was, I had a great, have a great family. Those are off the field losses that, that was very tough.

• 24:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and what about in sports, biggest loss, whether as a player, coach?

• 24:07Speaker 01

  In the games, there's several that stick out, you know, and we had a tough one this year, but it's hard for me to quantify which was the hardest. It's not fair, probably, you know, some come to my head.

• 24:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  I'm just not gonna share.

• 24:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. How important is it that we develop a winning mindset? And that we strive to win at everything we do? Not from a sense of needing to be right and needing to win to hurt someone else, but just that competitiveness. How important is that, that we strive to win in everything we do?

• 24:39Speaker 01

  I think it's essential. I think it's, once again, that's, I think we're created to do that.

• 24:44Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think that?

• 24:46Speaker 01

  Well, I think God has a plan for us. Just believe that when, not many people that don't have that burning desire to go win. And those who haven't, I would imagine, just haven't had that euphoria, that feeling of, and not so much for yourself. That's why I love football. My daughters played volleyball.

• 25:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  The euphoria winning isn't, say, I won. The fury is for me to hug my teammate and say, we found a way to accomplish something.

• 25:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  And I think that's, what's the greatest fulfillment that I have to this day of, in that locker room after a win? Not saying we, I won, look what we did. We put all the egos, all the selfish, all the selfishness, all the other stuff out of the way and we went and got something done together. I think we're created that way.

• 25:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:32Lewis Howes?

  When you guys start the season, I remember playing in high school. I played sophomore year in high school was the first time I played football. That's why I was a late bloomer. I didn't really understand the game until I got into college. Even then, I was still confused. They just said, here, go run here and catch the ball. But I remember the coach had us all sit down and talk about the vision the first day. What's the vision for the season? What do we want to create as a team? Do you have a process in either the first day or the first kind of day like that where you talk about your vision as a team or what the team wants to create together?

• 26:04Speaker 01

  Sure. We're not a big goal team. You won't see around here like win the national championship. That's too abstract. There's too many variables involved. And what happens if you lose one early? Do you just not play?

• 26:15Lewis Howes?

  You give up, yeah.

• 26:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it's a nine-strong. I want to maximize every unit on our team. It's a militaristic model that we use around here. And that is that what's our goal every year and that's to be nine-strong. And that means every unit within our team, and it's what we call small unit cohesion, is that every unit performs at their maximum capacity. And the way we recruit around here, the great players we have, if we're performing at maximum capacity, you're probably not going to lose. You won't see, let's go win the national title, let's go do this because there's too many injuries and there's too many, you're counting on committees to pick you to go play in the games. But you know what? It's all very comfortable, or not comfortable, but it's all fulfilling. If we can look in the mirror and say, you know what, we were nine-strong.

• 27:00Speaker 01

  We maximize to where we are. And I'm not just talking about on the field, but that's our goal. That's a big part of that year or two. I learned so much in the last probably seven, eight, nine years of my career that we don't talk so much about the end-all. We're talking about how to get there and the end-all that we're all shooting for is nine-strong.

• 27:21Lewis Howes?

  I love that. What's the greatest lesson you've learned throughout your coaching days?

• 27:26Speaker 01

  Oh, no question. One that I've shared with my son and my daughters. I have three athletes in the family and the one thing's athletic teach you that's not about you. And that's why I love team sports. I wasn't much into the individual sports, not on purpose. But I'll never forget that my son, in Florida, we started a seventh-grade high school, or a seventh-grade football program. And so I was helping him out. I was a consultant, not a coach, but I was a consultant. And I would go there. I wanted to make sure that everybody's teaching the game correctly. The first couple of days of practice, it wasn't football. It was the most disgusting display of whatever they were doing. It was a bunch of kids running around, falling down and all that. But what I saw happen, and the coaches were outstanding, but every day they got better. Every day they got better. And I'll never forget, my son Nate was playing safety.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  And he goes, and football's a tough sport.

• 28:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  Tough, tough sport. And this big running back came through and he goes up and he, you know, had no choice. Because if he had a choice, I'm not sure it'd hit him. And he kind of turned into the guy, the guy ran him right over. And I was right there looking at him and he looked up at me. And he had, you know, water in his eyes, little tears in his eyes. And I said to him, I said, "Get up." Because football and sports teach you to do what? If you're gonna get hit, get up. And the good thing in team sports, rarely do you have to get up by yourself. There's always a hand, someone's gonna help you. And I think that's what's family, that's what's, you know, my family's all about. That's what this program's all about. And you tell me where else to learn that better than on the football field. Or my daughter's in volleyball.

• 28:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 28:57Speaker 01

  You get knocked down, when you reach your arm up, what's gonna happen? Someone's gonna grab you, they're gonna pick you up, dust you off, and let's go again.

• 29:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Couple final questions for you. I just want to respect the time. What do you think is the biggest weakness that you still get to improve on? Either as a human being or as a coach?

• 29:13Speaker 01

  I regress, you know, the win at all costs. College football is very competitive. When you lose a game, you just, I just take three steps backwards sometimes. And you have to get your 6:30, get your mind right time. And you have to get everything back in order. So sometimes I disappoint myself with that. Not near the extreme that it was before. But that's hard not to fall back into that win-at-all-costs mentality.

• 29:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. This is a question I ask at the end to all my guests. It's called the three truths. So imagine this was many years from now. And you got to pick when it was your last day on earth. It's your last day, you're 100 and however old you want to live. And you say, "You know what, I think it's time." You've written many New York Times bestsellers. You've coached as many teams you want to coach. You've achieved everything you could imagine. More national championships. You've done it all. Whatever you want to do, you've done it. All those big dreams. But for whatever reason, all the information that you've put out there, your spoken word, the videos, the written content, has been erased for whatever reason. Hypothetical, right? So, no one has access to your information anymore.

• 30:17Lewis Howes?

  But you have a piece of paper and a pen by your bed before it's the last moment. And you get to write down three things you know to be true about all of your experiences you've had in your life. Your lessons, things like that. And I call it the three truths question. So, these would be the lessons that you would then give to the world. This is all they would have to be remembered by you as your message to the world. What would you say are those three truths?

• 30:43Speaker 01

  There is a God. We're created by a great God. The second thing is family is everything. And then that is at all cost. You protect your family at all cost. And teach them, prepare them. And the final thing is that team is stronger than me. That group of people. If you get the right group of people, you tell me what you can accomplish. And you get the right group of people in a right setting, you can move mountains.

• 31:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:10Speaker 01

  And that's an absolute truth.

• 31:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Those are great. I like those. Before I ask the final question, I want to make sure you guys get a copy of the book. Go get this right now. I'll have it linked up. Powerful book, great message. If you want to build leadership in your company, we have a lot of entrepreneurs that watch this. If you're trying to build leaders in your company, your team, if you're a teacher or a coach, get this book. It's very powerful information. They have great equations that you guys talk about. What is it?

• 31:34Speaker 01

  E plus R equals O.

• 31:35Lewis Howes?

  E plus R equals O, right? Experience plus...

• 31:38Speaker 01

  Events in your life.

• 31:39Lewis Howes?

  Events plus response equals outcome, right? Yeah. You've got it on there. I'm gonna have to get one of those too. If you have an extra one, I'm gonna steal one. So, make sure you guys go get this. And you're pretty active on Twitter? Or is that someone on your team?

• 31:51Speaker 01

  Someone on my team.

• 31:52Lewis Howes?

  But maybe you jump in there every now and then. Make sure you go follow Coach on Twitter. Is there anywhere that you do hang out online? If people wanted to reach out and leave a comment somewhere to you?

• 32:00Speaker 01

  Twitter, I do. I go through it myself.

• 32:02Lewis Howes?

  Go check it out. Okay.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  I have a team, but I also

• 32:05Lewis Howes?

  Of course, yeah, of course. So make sure you guys go follow Coach on Twitter. We'll have that linked up. Before I do get to the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Coach, for your incredible authenticity. As a guy that loves Ohio State football and just sports in general, you're such an authentic leader and human being, and I love witnessing everything that you've transformed into, like I talked about in the beginning, and how you continue to evolve as a human being, to be there for your wife, for your kids, in a more powerful way, to be there for all these young men who are constantly learning so much and evolving, and for your coaching staff, for everything. You're a blessing to Ohio, and you've brought a lot to the,

• 32:47Lewis Howes?

  one of my favorite places in the world. So I acknowledge you for all the information that you put out there and your competitiveness as well. It's very powerful and inspiring.

• 32:56Speaker 01

  Great to be with you.

• 32:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. The final question is, what is your definition of greatness?

• 33:01Speaker 01

  Greatness to me is you're maximized. You maximized your gifts that were given to you. If I'm supposed to be a 4.0 student, become a little bit better than a 4.0 student. So you're maximizing your, if you're a 2.2 student, and that's your maximum capacity, push a little bit further. So greatness to me is you're operating at maximum capacity.

• 33:19Lewis Howes?

  Coach Urban Meyer, thanks so much.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 33:21Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it.

• 33:22Speaker 01

  Appreciate it.

• 33:26Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode with the legendary Coach Urban Meyer. If you enjoyed this, please take a screenshot of this right now, tag me on Instagram, @lewishouse, post it over on Twitter. Again, the link is lewishouse.com/610. Share it out with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, all over the place. I want to make sure we get this one far and wide, because Coach doesn't really do many interviews like this, where he dives into the mindset about competition, leadership, and what he's really building there. So I think this is extremely valuable information to have from one of the top coaches to ever coach in college football.

• 34:09Lewis Howes?

  So again, share it out, lewishouse.com/610. And all of the resources, the full video interview is back at that link as well. So you can get all the links that we talked about. And make sure to pick up a copy of his book as well, Above the Line, if you want to learn how to compete at the highest level, no matter what industry you are in. Oh my friends, I am so excited for this episode that we just did and so many good things coming to us. We've got some big interviews and episodes coming up. So if this is your first time here, make sure to subscribe to the podcast. So you can stay tuned every single Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we release new episodes. And the whole intention is to help you unlock the things inside of you

• 34:54Lewis Howes?

  that you know can support you in having a better life. We want to unlock the greatness within you. You were born with a world of possibilities. Unfortunately, some of us get trapped, get insecure, get held back, feel stressed and overwhelmed. While others of us use the other things that we have available for us. Joy, passion, vision, excitement, competitiveness. All these things are available for us. You get to choose every single day, the life you want to live. This is your opportunity. In every single episode, we try to bring you the most inspiring people in the world to help you unlock those opportunities for your life. I love you so very much and you know what time it is.

• 35:39Lewis Howes?

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