Break Your Limitations, Reinvent Yourself & Become A Champion w/ Phil Heath EP 1272

Today's guest is Phil Heath, a legend in the bodybuilding world. He’s a 7x Mr. Olympia Winner, going undefeated in the competition every year from 2011 to 2017. Phil is tied with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the second-highest number of wins, just behind Lee Haney and Ronnie Colman who each have 8 wins. Phil is also the Founder and CEO of Phil Heath Labs and the founder of Gifted Athletics. His competitive mindset has enabled him to be a top competitor in the bodybuilding world as well as a successful entrepreneur and advocate helping others achieve their goals. In this episode, you will learn:Why you shouldn’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. How to be vulnerable with yourself. How to learn from every mistake you make. And much more! For more, go to lewishowes.com/1272Andy Galpin on Weight Loss, Stress Management, and Reversing Your Age: 1247Dr. Joe Dispenza on Healing the Body and Transforming the Mind: 826Gabrielle Lyon on How Muscle is the Key to Living Longer: 1267 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

  You're a salesman of the year, why can't you do that next year? Oh, well, why can't you be straight A's every semester? Once you hit that champion level, that becomes your new standard. Everything else is zero now. Everybody else will look up to you, but you should be looking.

• 0:15Lewis Howes?

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

• 0:38Lewis Howes?

  I never saw models of men opening up, showing that it can be vulnerable to talk about healing and that, hey, actually, I did go through some pain or some challenges and it sucked, you know?

• 0:51Speaker 00

  Right, just to say that part.

• 0:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's hard.

• 0:53Speaker 00

  You get grown men later on that we've seen in their 50s, if 60s, then shedding a tear over it. To me, it's almost too late doing that.

• 1:06Lewis Howes?

  It's hard.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  Because I imagine, I guess the way I look at it is, like, my father passed eight years ago at 64. So what I'm thinking is, grew up in Dallas-Fort Worth, so you gotta think back then, tough, tough, you know? No crying, no nothing. I, I, I'm trying to think, I only saw that man cry maybe once. And it wasn't like a boo hoo. It was just like a tear, like watery eye. But I remember, um, my girl, Cherie, said, let's go see a spiritual medium. And I was like, nah, I don't believe in this stuff.

• 1:52Speaker 00

  I'm just like, if she's prophetic, all right, cool, we'll do it. But I went to a lady prior to her, just to do like some energy work, some breathing and all that stuff. They did like this tapping technique and stuff. Next thing you know, I'm like boo hooing.

• 2:08Lewis Howes?

  You're crying, you're bawling.

• 2:09Speaker 00

  I'm bawling.

• 2:10Lewis Howes?

  They're just doing some little tapping, energy work?

• 2:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And she's like, and she could sense it. She could sense like, oh, don't worry, I'm prophetic, like.

• 2:21Speaker 00

  Your dad is okay, like, he says it wasn't about you. Wow. But you need to let this go. You were a good son. So now it's just like, waterworks, right? Oh my gosh. Now I'm thinking of like, when he and my mom split and I was only like three, like two and a half, three. And he didn't show up for certain things. He always showed up for my birthday. I will give him that. Like, he always did. And certain other events, but there was a lot of times that he was supposed to and didn't. And I held on to that, like, I wasn't good enough.

• 2:53Speaker 00

  So that anger, that frustration, like, why am I not a good enough, like? Now I'm seeking that in other people in all the wrong places and stuff like that, when really it was just, I just wanted it from him. And, um, essentially I had to put like a, uh, I had, I was instructed to visualize what that weight felt like on my chest. And I pictured an anvil. Oh my gosh. Sitting on my chest. When was this, when you were? This was like, I wanna say four years ago, five years ago? So you, this whole time, or just looking back, how did that feel like at that stage? At that time, when I'm laying down and I'm listening to this woman speak on this. And I'm doing this tapping technique and all that stuff. And I'm envisioning an anvil sitting on my chest.

• 3:36Speaker 00

  And I have to pull this away from me and now hand it to him. Holy cow. So I envisioned handing it to him. Because this was not for me to hold. This was his stuff. This was his generational trauma that came into my life. We share DNA. We share some experiences, but not this. I created that negative belief in my own head, based on some experiences that I had. That weren't true. He loved me. Right. I was his first son. He had another one with another woman. Who, you know, I loved dearly. And, um, I have a brother from it. Um, but at that time, you know, I'm laying down. I'm like, no, I I must give this to you, Dad.

• 4:22Speaker 00

  So it allowed me to be at peace with it because I was already at peace, like when I was seeing him off. Um, I would visit in Seattle where he was, you know, um, in the hospital. Before he pass. Before he passed, I made sure like, and he actually passed away. I've I've told the story a few times. I was I was actually guest posing at a Dave Lieberman show in Cleveland. Really? Mm hmm. And I was guest posing. I get off stage, find out on the phone as I'm going to uh meet with some fans to do a VIP event. That he passed. Wow. Yeah, but it was cool though, because I realized like, no more pain, he's good. Mm hmm. I get to go spend time with these other people, make it about them, it ain't about me, make it about them, give them a really good experience.

• 5:05Speaker 00

  But I always look at it now, like even uh going from that part of dealing with early childhood and being an adult, life has no rehearsal. We talked about this. But um make that your message, man, and and know that you're not alone. Everybody's lost a parent. Yeah. Or will. And or loved one. And it is how we process these things. Yes. And as far as a lot of men like myself, who grew up without their biological father, present constantly. Um, I admire guys like Tony Robbins. I mean, talk about a man that had to endure, you know, those different things. He had it way different than I did. Yes. In in fact, I think it was worse, but he made that message to a message. So I think it's very encouraging to have the conversations like what we're doing.

• 5:51Speaker 00

  So that we know that we're not alone, we can express ourselves and we can still be strong. Right. Crying is not weak. It may be leaving your body so you can just hone in on. Wow, like this is a really cool experience. What does this mean? Why, what, where are these tears really coming from? Why did I think like that? And really dissect our thought process at twelve, fifteen, thirty?

• 6:17Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 6:18Speaker 00

  So then we don't bring that into a relationship.

• 6:20Lewis Howes?

  Well, man.

• 6:21Speaker 00

  Cause I'm sure as hell, I know I probably messed up in a relationship or two, whether it be a guy or a girl, because of some generational trauma that I didn't deal with.

• 6:32Lewis Howes?

  You carried that with you.

• 6:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, cause we don't have the emotional intelligence. Maybe because our parents were too busy trying to make a living.

• 6:38Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 6:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. Trying to take us to school or whatever, just to try to keep a home together and let us figure out life on our own. That was me. I was a, you know, I had a key to the house at ten years old. Most of my parents worked nonstop, so, you know, I didn't have a school bus. I didn't have, I was an only child, so I had to deal with a lot of things on my own, but I didn't. I dealt with school and sports.

• 7:02Lewis Howes?

  Right. Did you cry a lot as a kid then when, you know, just going through the confusion of being with your mom by yourself and not having your dad or?

• 7:10Speaker 00

  You know, I, I, I was fortunate for her to get remarried very early to a, to a man who was, in, in his own right, very successful. We weren't rich or anything like that, but he was a very hard worker, very mature. He didn't speak a lot. He just acted. So I was able to play life with my eyes. Not by what he said, but what he did. And same with my mom. They didn't really sit me down and say, well, this is how you're supposed to live life. It was just like, we're too busy working and you'll figure this out, kid. You go to school to go figure this stuff out. They put the belief in them. But, um, no, very hardworking people

• 7:53Speaker 00

  that I definitely developed a work ethic from. I mean, my mom would get up at like four forty-five, five in the morning. I'd hear her on the treadmill. And hear her doing those, remember those old school ESPN body shavings?

• 8:06Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 8:06Speaker 00

  With Galad?

• 8:07Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. Wow.

• 8:09Speaker 00

  She would do that. So I understood that getting up early was important for her to go to work by six thirty a.m. So for me to get up to go to school was like, she didn't have to wake me up. Cause I wanted to be up and I always hear her on that treadmill working.

• 8:26Lewis Howes?

  Inspiring.

• 8:27Speaker 00

  Yeah. So I think sometimes kids do, actually, I think all the time, kids look at their parents. See their habits.

• 8:33Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest lesson your mom taught you?

• 8:37Speaker 00

  Like your car, you must take care of it. So it could take care of you, but your body's the same.

• 8:42Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 8:43Speaker 00

  So her getting up in the morning, taking care of herself allows her to go deal with. She worked in cargo services for a company called Sealand back in the day. They got acquired by uh CSX Lines Logistics Company. That later got acquired by Mattson.

• 8:58Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 8:58Speaker 00

  So she was always the, when you talk about, you know, the hardest worker in the room, I mean, that was her.

• 9:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 9:05Speaker 00

  Um to be in upper level management through a couple of acquisitions and stuff like that. You know, being a black woman during that time probably wasn't heard of. For her to have that type of role of telling people, especially longshoremen, what to do.

• 9:17Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 9:18Speaker 00

  A lot of guys don't want to hear direction from any woman.

• 9:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:21Speaker 00

  You know, let alone someone that don't look like them.

• 9:23Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 9:23Speaker 00

  So I I learned a lot of work ethic from her. Um and also my stepdad, I mean, and my real dad too, I mean, they always, they were never unemployed. They were always, they came from that era where you just worked your butt off and you didn't complain. So I never really saw them complain. They may have done it, but I didn't see it.

• 9:41Lewis Howes?

  They didn't see excuses.

• 9:42Speaker 00

  Uh uh. So how could I produce any?

• 9:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:45Speaker 00

  So.

• 9:46Lewis Howes?

  What was um, so your father was kind of in and out? He was there for birthdays and some events, but he wasn't consistent, is that right? Where do you think you'd be if you had this like loving father that stayed with your mom? For your whole childhood, where do you think your life would be?

• 10:01Speaker 00

  Honestly, I think it would have been effed up.

• 10:03Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 10:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, because I think.

• 10:06Lewis Howes?

  With two loving parents staying together.

• 10:08Speaker 00

  They loved each other enough to have me, but I think they just weren't compatible.

• 10:15Speaker 00

  I just don't think they were compatible. As I got older, I realized this.

• 10:22Speaker 00

  My dad, see, I almost thought that my dad was kind of villainized.

• 10:27Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 10:27Speaker 00

  But I think he was just dealing with shame that he wasn't able to do both. He wasn't able to be a great husband and a great father. He could do one or the other. Um, he didn't mistreat me or anything like that. He probably mistreated my mom at some point, whatever. They just had disagreement, maybe not. I don't think they knew how to communicate.

• 10:43Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 10:43Speaker 00

  I, I honestly don't feel like they knew how to communicate. I think when I look at pictures of them both, I mean, it was just like most gorgeous couple.

• 10:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 10:52Speaker 00

  And it does make me think like, what if, but I don't think, you know, with.

• 10:56Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think he would have been messed up though?

• 10:58Speaker 00

  Because he was dealing with alcoholism.

• 10:59Lewis Howes?

  Ah.

• 11:00Speaker 00

  And, but he was a binge drinker. So I mean, like it was more like he would binge drink. But I'm, I'm assuming it was because he lost his mother very young and he didn't have the ability to communicate through that because he didn't have time. His father was raising four kids by himself and that was unheard of.

• 11:20Lewis Howes?

  You couldn't heal or express your emotions.

• 11:21Speaker 00

  It was a process. It was just like. Dad's got stuff to do, son. You need to go to work, you know, go to school, whatever, be somebody. So he had four kids to raise.

• 11:30Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 11:31Speaker 00

  So my dad probably just, yeah, he didn't have a stepmom. He didn't marry like that.

• 11:36Lewis Howes?

  In one of your videos, you were talking about recently about not having a chip on your shoulder to prove others wrong, but instead being focused on your mission, your vision, your goals and proving yourself right. Were you always in that mindset growing up or did you think I'm going to prove everyone else wrong about me? When you were building yourself up?

• 11:56Speaker 00

  In and out.

• 11:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 11:58Speaker 00

  There's some moments where you're like, I just want to blend in with the, with my friends. Cause I grew up short. So I remember not making a basketball team one time and I'm like, but I just want to play with my friends.

• 12:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:11Speaker 00

  So I'm gonna, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna get better. So that fueled me. And then when someone would tell me no, I'm like, oh, I'll show you. Oh, I will show you. Or even if I didn't get a good grade on an exam. I remember going to. I mean, this happened in high school. This also happened in college. If I didn't like the grade I got, I would literally go back with that Scantron sheet. And say, I want to redo this. No way. Oh, hell yeah. Scantrons were. Scantrons, bro. That was the death of me. Right, right. Yeah, hanging in the bubble, bubble. Yeah, man. Yeah, and I, I still recall like a time like in college where I was doing a business law class.

• 12:52Speaker 00

  And the, uh, the professor was like, if you don't like the grade, you can arm wrestle me for it. So he was a seventy seven year old man. He was just talking trash. So I knew this, this was not the grade that I deserved. And I believed that he had like the wrong answer key. And he did, but we had to argue about it. So he was like, no, just take it again. I said, but use the answer key. What? I think he just wanted me to work for it. I was cool about it. I said, how about this? I'll do the test right in front of you right now. Give me twenty minutes. I'll get this done. Wow. It took an hour, but I'll get it done in twenty minutes because I got practice here soon. I will get this done in twenty minutes.

• 13:32Speaker 00

  But I guarantee you, you can give me the B test. Here's the A test. Use the correct answer key on that one. We'll compare. Pretty much same score. But it wasn't that D. It was actually B plus. So I'm like, and he was like, oh, get the hell out of here. But it was good because I was just always competitive. If I didn't like something, I would change it. If I didn't like what my coach said, I would say, well, what can I do to improve?

• 13:56Speaker 00

  And where do you think that mindset came from? Just growing up, man. I mean, growing up in, you know, South End of Seattle, we weren't, we didn't have a whole lot. Um, violence was everywhere. I mean, just like any other inner city, you know?

• 14:09Speaker 00

  I just knew that in order for me to get out, and I just want to be something. Be something where like my community would be like, we're proud of that guy. Wow, yeah, that's cool. Guns, violence, you know, gangs and stuff was very prevalent. He didn't do that. But he didn't do that. He might have looked like a square. But deep down, we knew that we were just trying to pull him down because. You know, why wouldn't we? Just so he could screw up too. Mm hmm. Misery loves company. Yeah. But eventually, those same people that were screwing up was like, no, don't mess with him. Be somebody, he's doing something. He's doing something greater. That kid's student vice president and captain of the track team and basketball team. He's all state, leave him alone. Don't, don't do this, don't do that to him. Like the OGs would say this. That's cool. I'm like happy about that. That's cool. Cause I got protected. Uh huh.

• 14:54Speaker 00

  And it all mattered. Because I did do something with it. You know, I did go to college and, and you know, that helped a lot of other young men and women in my area to do the same. Mm hmm. So I think sometimes you, it's all proximity, you know? Sure. So when you don't see people, you know, live in a nice house, you don't think you could have one or drive a nice car or go on vacations, using a passport, until you actually know someone that did. Mm hmm. Getting a college scholarship. All I heard was junior college. Right. All I heard was Juco. Mm hmm. You know, and when I went D one, then more people went D one. Right. Now, I'm not saying that was because of me, I'm just saying I know that that helped. Absolutely. Open up someone else's eyes. Sure.

• 15:36Speaker 00

  So it was very important for me to try to be a trailblazer in my own right, take care of my own stuff, then go back to that same area and say, guys, this is pretty easy as long as you don't screw up. Right. You know, there's a lot of things they're gonna pull at you. But if you could just do this. Focus. Focus, hyper focus and still look, we all have friends that were doing wrong. Doing some real wrong. Yeah. Still be cool with them, just don't hang with them. Mm hmm. Just, we were talking about discernment. Mm hmm. No. That guy's about to do something stupid. Don't hang out right now. Just don't hang out right now. Holler at him like during lunchtime, you know what I mean? Exactly. You're not gonna, no, he about to go rob that 7-Eleven. Uh huh. He about to do, do something ignorant. Yeah. He's about to stay out a little too late.

• 16:22Speaker 00

  Go home. Mm hmm. And you gotta do that even when you're, you know, in business, in athletics, both. When you start getting some fame, some notoriety. Mm hmm. Head starts to get big. Mm hmm. Head starts to get real big. Oh, he's making some money now. All people know his name. Oh, you get started getting invited to parties and stuff like that and then you, you start veering off. Uh huh. Start losing focus. So for me, it was always like, how disciplined can I be? Because I know in life, that's the only way. And I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna sin, I'm gonna make mistakes. But. How expensive is this choice I'm about to make?

• 17:01Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:02Speaker 00

  Cause you're gonna pay.

• 17:02Lewis Howes?

  Man.

• 17:03Speaker 00

  Is it li- little expensive, small, like a parking ticket? Or is it a DUI?

• 17:09Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:09Speaker 00

  Or vehicular homicide, something like that. You know, like, choices and consequences is something that I always play in my head.

• 17:17Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 17:18Speaker 00

  We got choices and we definitely got consequences. And I think the more kids understand that, and even adults, like, we have to know that too. Cause a lot of people make stupid a- decisions.

• 17:31Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely, man.

• 17:32Speaker 00

  We're, we're flawed and we get our information from people that maybe not have our best interest.

• 17:38Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 17:38Speaker 00

  We have to use better discernment and realize this choice, eh, this isn't a really calculated choice here, man. This could, this could put me in jail, or this could hurt someone.

• 17:49Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:49Speaker 00

  Then ask myself, why am I making this choice right now? Is this for my own ego?

• 17:54Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest choice you made, the biggest, let's say, eh, mistake you made that could have led to something much worse for yourself? That woke you up to saying, I gotta stay more focused? Whether it was in high school, or college, or while you were, you know, doing Mr. Olympia stuff? Was there ever a time where you're like, oh, I almost did something really stupid that could have messed up the rest of my life?

• 18:22Speaker 00

  Um, when I wasn't playing in college, I happened to, um, get really, eh, suicidal.

• 18:32Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 18:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:34Lewis Howes?

  Why's that?

• 18:35Speaker 00

  Because I felt like I was owed something. You know, here's a guy that was recruited by much bigger schools, goes to a smaller school because he felt like he could be the man. Going to a big D1 school, you're, you know.

• 18:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. At the back. Sitting on the bench, yeah.

• 18:51Speaker 00

  I'm five nine. I could dunk, I could do all that cool stuff, but five nine, playing D1. I mean, eh, let's go to a smaller D1, let's be the man. And is because. I had played uh my senior year with a pro. I played with Jamal Crawford. So I knew he was gonna go bigger places and I'm like, I'm not that good. I'm good, but like that good to where I could go to a major like Big Ten, Big Twelve, you know, ACC and actually play. Oh, no. I just didn't see that. So I thought, well, let's just go to the smaller school. Everything will work out great. And it didn't. And you know, coaches do what they want to do. I mean, at the end of the day, they can play whoever they want. It's their job to put themselves in the best position to win. It's their job.

• 19:35Speaker 00

  And I just did not like how I was being talked to. I didn't like how I was being treated. I didn't like the fact that I was already being recruited by larger schools and I felt like I could have been playing somewhere else. And I trusted you, Coach, to, you told my mama, you recruited me. I didn't come to you like hoping. You came to me.

• 19:54Lewis Howes?

  Saying you're gonna be a playing time, you're gonna be a role player.

• 19:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, and then now, uh, you know, imagine an eighteen year old, nineteen year old kid, you know, you go on, you go on the game, you're all excited. You're thinking, I just need to get my name in that book. Hit a couple of threes and you get benched and you're like, why am I getting benched? Well, that's what we need you for. I'm like, but I could do more. I've been practiced for this.

• 20:14Speaker 00

  What the hell? And then they tell you, oh, just keep coming back. Just keep coming back. And then you keep coming back. And then you're not getting no time. And then when you do, you don't have game reps and you know game reps matter. Now you're not playing as good. So then it kind of justifies why they're.

• 20:28Lewis Howes?

  They throw you in for two minutes and expect you to be an all-star.

• 20:30Speaker 00

  You're like, that ain't gonna happen.

• 20:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:32Speaker 00

  So I just, yeah, so I started, um, while everybody else went to the dorm or their college house, I put sweats on and went and went for a long run.

• 20:42Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 20:42Speaker 00

  And that's where I cried my eyes out the most. And then next thing you know, I started laying out in the streets, like laying in the medians and stuff, hoping that someone would just end it, end the freaking all. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's really.

• 20:56Speaker 00

  You know, mental health is a big deal and we're talking about this, you know, earlier. I didn't feel like I had anyone to talk to. I was very embarrassed. Um, that even had those thoughts and I, you know, like I said, I was twenty, maybe twenty-one. So I didn't really understand how to communicate.

• 21:15Speaker 00

  Just dealing with the shame, man. Yeah. You know, all I wanted to do was play. Now I'm watching other my, other friends of mine playing. Different schools, you know, grew up in the same hood. They had it worse than I did and they're, they're. You're, you're better than them. Yeah, and then I'm just thinking, man, this ain't working out.

• 21:33Speaker 00

  You know, and I realized I put my identity into a game that I shouldn't have done. I didn't look at the bigger picture. But then I realized when, you know, obviously I lived.

• 21:45Speaker 00

  I had to really think about. What God is saying, it's like, this is not the way, man. I got something bigger for you. I didn't know what that was. I didn't know what that was, but I knew the disappointment that my parents would have. If they read about me in the newspaper. My real friends. How they would feel. But then most importantly, I'm like, how many times? Has God saved you from a really bad situation? And then I had to sit there in my room and actually think about that.

• 22:20Speaker 00

  And say, why would you punk out like this right now? You're gonna be out of this game soon.

• 22:31Speaker 00

  Do you really think that this is it? Or do you think you have something else to live for? But I didn't have any certainty of what I was gonna do in the world because you gotta think nine eleven just happened as well, like. Those dot com jobs gone, so I'm in I T. And in business, those jobs went from like first year out of college, like sixty-eight, sixty-five, sixty-eight thousand. Low forties, I'm like, I can go be a adjunct professor, go get an M B A and make ends meet. I could, you know, do something. I was putting money to, you know, I was like, this is, this is not adding up. And. And you weren't gonna go play professional basketball. And I put, and I had to put some real science to it. I was like, okay, Phil, like, let's just be realistic. Write it down.

• 23:16Speaker 00

  Yeah. Let's write this stuff down.

• 23:20Speaker 00

  You're gonna go play ball overseas? Okay, you can do that. For how long?

• 23:23Lewis Howes?

  Five, ten grand a year?

• 23:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, like, and then bring it back, get taxed, whatever. You'll be twenty-eight years old with no job experience. The same people that you graduated college with will now be your boss. They'll be very senior. And they will probably punk you. So you'll, they'll be putting their thumb over you. So now you gotta work that corporate politic crap.

• 23:40Lewis Howes?

  At twenty-eight?

• 23:41Speaker 00

  At twenty-eight. Oh, so now you, now you're like, oh, what do I do? Oh, now you wanna be a coach? Now you wanna be assistant at thirty years old? Think you're gonna find a wife? Now you got a kid. Now you have a mortgage. Now you have all this other stuff. I'll be forty, like, barely getting my feet wet in the college life. Is that something that I really dreamt about? No. Okay, then you need to start dreaming about something else. So, I just was like, alright, let's just put one foot in front of the other 'cause life's coming at me a little too fast, man. And then, lo and behold, I found a guy, like, sitting next to me in IT class that was viewing some images of bodybuilders and stuff. And I was asking him about it. So then he was like, hey, you just come to the student gym. I know you train in the varsity weight room. Just come to student gym, a lot of us compete. I didn't know what that meant.

• 24:26Speaker 00

  Went to a couple of shows, next you know I'm competing. Next you know I'm winning everything.

• 24:29Lewis Howes?

  Really? How, how fast did that happen, like?

• 24:33Speaker 00

  That was, that was like the spring of like, uh, so spring of oh-two, I was done.

• 24:38Lewis Howes?

  You were twenty-two?

• 24:39Speaker 00

  So I was, yeah, I was twenty-two. That full calendar year, I was competing.

• 24:45Lewis Howes?

  And you were winning in?

• 24:46Speaker 00

  And I was winning.

• 24:46Lewis Howes?

  Your first competition?

• 24:47Speaker 00

  First competition, I did a show in Boulder, Colorado. One that novice and open overall. Just like that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did that.

• 24:54Lewis Howes?

  How did that make you feel when you had that new kind of hobby? Did that turn into a dream right away? Or was it more of like, this is just for fun to give me something to do right now?

• 25:05Speaker 00

  It was something dope because I actually took a photograph on October eighth, two thousand and two. I've never shared this online, ever. It'll come out later. But, I waited, I was still living in the basketball house. So I did five years of college. So during that fifth year, I was just completing those degrees and then got into bodybuilding. So I needed something physical, you know, to keep myself going. And from the October eighth point, I said, no more basketball. If you play, it's just to screw around. But, you're gonna dive, really take a deep dive into this bodybuilding world.

• 25:33Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 25:34Speaker 00

  And, six months later, I did a show, April fourth, two thousand and three, in, uh, the Boulder Theater. I happened to put on those little posing trunks, man, and, you know, put the tan on, did all that, and actually blew everybody out of the water. I mean, blew them away.

• 25:52Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 25:52Speaker 00

  And didn't know what the heck I was doing. I mean, I only learned from reading those Flex magazines, Muscle Fitness, and then a couple of VHS tapes, and just went on a tear. Was winning every amateur show. I turned pro two years later, uh, winning the Mr. USA in Las Vegas. So I was Mr. USA in 2005, Mr. Colorado in 2004. And during that time, I had, um, met Jay Cutler, who was already competing.

• 26:18Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:19Speaker 00

  He was guest posing at my very first contest. And that following year, he guest posed again.

• 26:23Lewis Howes?

  He was before you, right?

• 26:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:25Lewis Howes?

  He won a bunch before you.

• 26:26Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. He was much senior than I was.

• 26:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:29Speaker 00

  So he had believed in me pretty early on. And come 05, we were guest posing at the same show that I competed at my very first contest. And he pulled me aside, he was like, dude, like, you're doing the, you trying to go pro this year? Cause I think you're gonna go pro easily. He's like, if I could help in any way. I was like, dude, like, that's, that'd be great. Get my name out to some sponsors, stuff like that. So, sent him over some pictures. Next you know, I'm flying to Cali, um, getting picked up by the, um, senior editor of Flex magazine, Muscle Fitness, Peter McGuff. Um, uh, rest in peace, Peter. But, um, but yeah, he, um, he picked me up, got to meet Joe, Joe Weider.

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  Uh-huh.

• 27:06Speaker 00

  Next you know, I'm getting a contract. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I can get paid? Right?

• 27:11Lewis Howes?

  I'm like, you're what, 25 now?

• 27:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm 25 when I turned pro. I'm 42 now. So at that time, I'm like, wait a minute. I have no money.

• 27:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. How were you making money in those three years, from college to?

• 27:21Speaker 00

  Oh, man, I, I, there was no.

• 27:23Lewis Howes?

  Working at Chipotle or something?

• 27:24Speaker 00

  Right, right, right. No, I, I was working at a Valley Total Fitness.

• 27:27Lewis Howes?

  Okay, yeah, training, personal training.

• 27:29Speaker 00

  No, I was working retail. I was a retail manager. I was like, you know what? I want to learn how to run a, a store. Because I wanted to be in a gym because I already committed to be in this bodybuilder. So I thought, well, where could I immerse myself into bodybuilding?

• 27:42Lewis Howes?

  Being there, yeah.

• 27:43Speaker 00

  So, but where could I use my business acumen from college? Oh, running a store. You do the hiring, firing.

• 27:50Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 27:51Speaker 00

  You do all the ordering.

• 27:52Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 27:53Speaker 00

  You do all the, you know, the backend, you know, like what's on hand, what isn't.

• 27:57Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 27:57Speaker 00

  And understand the profit margin and stuff like that. And you have to report to someone. So I thought, oh, this is really cool. I can learn a lot. I can move up in the ladder of this company. And I wasn't even thinking like, oh, I'm gonna turn pro. I'm gonna make money and all sorts of stuff.

• 28:09Lewis Howes?

  You weren't even thinking that?

• 28:09Speaker 00

  No, I was just thinking, this is a way for me to pay for my hobby, learn a new skill. And then also I was bouncing on the weekends. I was working security downtown Denver at a couple of nightclubs. So I thought, well, this is easy. Uh, I get to work during the day and at night. But, you know, I'm single, so I'm like, I can meet girls at the gym. I can meet girls at the nightclub.

• 28:30Lewis Howes?

  At the nightclub.

• 28:31Speaker 00

  And I get paid to hang out at both, kind of.

• 28:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 28:34Speaker 00

  So this all worked out, all while, you know, I'm still, you know, reading these muscle magazines, but also books, because we didn't really have the internet the same way we do now.

• 28:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 28:45Speaker 00

  The information highway was a lot different.

• 28:47Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 28:48Speaker 00

  So you really had to immerse yourself differently. I mean, I would literally get up one day out of the month and drive over to Golden Colorado, where they used to have the old EAS headquarters. I would wait out there because they would do an employee sale at their factory.

• 28:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 29:00Speaker 00

  Because I couldn't afford supplements. So I would wait outside.

• 29:03Lewis Howes?

  Get in for sixty, seventy percent off.

• 29:05Speaker 00

  Oh dude, like those Myoplex Deluxe packets?

• 29:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 29:07Speaker 00

  That used to be like five bucks, I get them for a dollar. So you think like, okay, I could buy some, then I could sell them to Lewis.

• 29:14Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 29:15Speaker 00

  Right? And then make my money back.

• 29:17Lewis Howes?

  My friends at the gym, yeah, yeah.

• 29:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, so I was doing that. But that was a way for me to minimize my cost, but then also buy more tapes of understanding, like the body, biology, chemistry, all this other stuff. What are amino acids? What does that mean? Why should I ice over putting heat? Like, and I already had these things go on already, working, you know, playing hoop, being on training tables and stuff. Now I understand, now I understand a little differently.

• 29:42Lewis Howes?

  We were in the cold pool every day, man.

• 29:43Speaker 00

  Right.

• 29:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 29:44Speaker 00

  But we didn't know why. It was just like something that you do.

• 29:46Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 29:47Speaker 00

  So.

• 29:47Lewis Howes?

  It always felt good. Felt like you got a little pop back in, you know? You got a little bounce after that cold plunge, man. Every day that whirlpool with like four dudes, just.

• 29:55Speaker 00

  Freezing fifty-five degrees, man. And then you get the person that just had the ice packs and then you pour the ice on it. And you're like, oh no, but uh. You know, learning all those things and just having a willingness to learn new things. And not, for me, it was not about the job title. It was about what I was gonna learn. Uh huh. And be the best at that. And then next thing you know, like I said, I was able to basically quit my two jobs, focus solely on competitive bodybuilding. What's the most you made in that first year of going pro? So first, yeah, first full, oh wow, yeah. So first full year, so I turned pro. I didn't compete until that following year, so I was making like, close to like eighty grand. Mm hmm. Which wasn't bad.

• 30:39Speaker 00

  And then, um, after I won my pro debut, so I won my pro debut in the, in the show after that. So one of my first two pro shows, back to back weekends. Wow. And then I signed, not only, I was already signed with Weeder Health and Fitness, but they allowed me to just be exclusive with them on the publication side, even though they had nutritionals, but they were selling that part, so they allowed me to go get my own supplement. Oh, that's cool. So, I was, I signed with Metrics at that time. Uh huh. So I was making like, collectively, like a couple hundred grand. Wow. Like very early. Twenty five. Twenty five. Twenty six, yeah. Yeah, twenty five, twenty six years old, making a couple hundred grand. It's pretty big. And then, one of the things I also did was, when I had won my pro debut, I qualified for the Mr. Olympia.

• 31:22Speaker 00

  I didn't compete, because I didn't feel like I was ready. Really? Yeah, so everybody would just throw their name, you know, and like after they compete, you know, after they get qualified. I was like, I am not in a hurry to get my [BLEEP] right now. I need to learn more. So, I understood that the magazines just now started putting me on covers and stuff like that. How about, I get myself in better shape and grow an audience? I can't grow an audience if I go to my first Mr. Olympia and get waxed. No. They're gonna expect that though, every rookie, you know, you're a rookie, but. Try to get in top ten. Right, but top ten, you end up twentieth, basically. And I, and I'm just not gonna be one of those guys that wants to be, I'm just happy to be here.

• 32:04Speaker 00

  The pressure I had, I'll be honest, um, was very big. Because I had to go to the Weeder headquarters and actually tell.

• 32:14Speaker 00

  Joe, Peter McGuff, Robin Chang, who was putting on the event that I'm not doing it. But yet they're paying me, but they're not paying me to compete, but they are, right? And I just kept telling them, I was like, just believe, just believe in what I'm doing. And they're like, okay. You're crazy. Yeah. So then, that was in 2006, 2007 comes around, I do the same thing again. Two years you don't compete, Mr. Olympia. Now I'm getting called out by athletes saying I'm scared, all this. I'm getting called out at the Mr. Olympia press conference. I'm just sitting there and they're just calling me out. Because you're winning other competitions. Compete, yeah, I'm competing and I'm, like I placed fifth at my first Arnold Classic, which qualified me for the Mr. Olympia.

• 32:55Speaker 00

  I went right ahead, went up to Frank Seppi, who was running the athletes over at Metrics at the time. I said, hey, is it cool that I take a year off?

• 33:05Speaker 00

  And I do the Olympia, he was like, yeah, sure, no problem. He was like, yeah, but you gotta go tell Reader now. Good luck with that. So I'm like, damn. So the second time, that's when the internet became, you know, more prevalent. And I was not, that was not well received by fans, by, you know, people, but my coach and I, we, we believed that. This was for longevity, this was for long-term, you know, like, I turned pro very quick. Didn't mean I was an expert. So what I did do on the business side was we, we had a catalog. Kind of like a yearbook called the NPC Catalog, National Physique Committee Catalog. Had all of the pictures throughout the year of different competitions.

• 33:47Speaker 00

  So if you want to scout other people or just look at shows, you know, like, oh, this is before social media. But in the back pages, they had every competition in there for the calendar year, along with the promoter's name, email and phone number. Guess what I did? Pulled out that pad of paper, started calling people up. Hey Louis, this is Phil Heath, 2005 Mr. USA. How you doing? Oh, you're doing great. Alright, cool. I see you have a few events going on. Do you have any guest posers for those? Oh, you don't? Oh, great. I would like to provide my services for you. I'll fly in. I can pay for my own way, but you know, do a flat fee of this. And if you happen to like it, I give you one week to come back and we'll do it again.

• 34:28Speaker 00

  Same price, but if you wait past that, we're gonna have to renegotiate. Because my stock is probably gonna go up.

• 34:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 34:35Speaker 00

  And, oh, you're not, oh, okay, no problem. And click, next one, next one, next one. So my goal was, how do I get more fans? There was no social media, so you had to wait for the magazines to come out. That took two, three months, right? How would they know?

• 34:52Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 34:54Speaker 00

  Go on a world tour, go on a tour.

• 34:55Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 34:56Speaker 00

  So I did my own tour. I had no booking agent, no nothing. But I knew, go through that catalog, I'm just gonna cold call everybody. I'm just gonna cold call them all, and at least those promoters are gonna know who I am. They already knew because I was that

• 35:09Lewis Howes?

  Up and comer.

• 35:09Speaker 00

  Up and comer. I won, I was on the cover of Flex the night I turned pro.

• 35:13Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 35:13Speaker 00

  I mean, I was one of them. I liked Kobe, the LeBron. I was that guy. But they need to also recognize the fact that I was business oriented and that I wanted to work. And you know, sometimes, I ain't too proud to get on the phone. So it showed that, you know, I wasn't gonna get taken advantage of either. Not to say that I wasn't at some point in time, because I was very green in the business world as far as entrepreneurship, but at least I showed some, you know, some eagerness to learn and to put myself out there. So during that time, for those two years, I did more appearances than the people getting ready for the Olympia.

• 35:51Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 35:51Speaker 00

  Think about it. When you're getting ready for Olympia, it's four months out of the year that you can't, you're training, eating, sleeping, rotation. Very few appearances, because you're staying clothed.

• 36:04Lewis Howes?

  Ah. This is back then. Why are you not doing appearances when you're training for the

• 36:07Speaker 00

  Because you want people to see what you look like.

• 36:09Lewis Howes?

  Ah, you don't want your competition to know.

• 36:11Speaker 00

  Right.

• 36:11Lewis Howes?

  So you're like, I know I'm not gonna do Olympia, so I'm just gonna do all these guest appearances and build my fanbase.

• 36:17Speaker 00

  Build my fanbase, and guess what? I made more money than the fifth place person.

• 36:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:22Speaker 00

  So I was basically getting fifth, or even third. And now the fans in like the, we're talking about like places like, you know, I go to Fremont, Burbank, go guest post there. I go up to Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington. I go to Tribeca, New York. I go to Florida. I go to South Carolina. I'm going to, I mean, little places like Missoula, Montana. I'm going to, now I'm starting to hit Kalamazoo, Michigan. Sure. Like these little, smaller places too. And they speak your praises because normally when a person's getting ready for a show. They're not show up to these events. They're just eating. And if they do, there's just, they're so hyper focused on the eating and the sleeping and the training and stuff. You think they're gonna have this type of interaction? No.

• 37:08Speaker 00

  They're so hyper focused that they're not, they may say the wrong thing. They may be grumpy that day, but they're getting paid to do a job. And for me, I thought, I get to make this about them. Thanks for waiting in line, Louis. How can I help you, man? Tell me about your story. Tell me what you want to know. Tell me what you want to know. Anything you want to know about me, we could just talk shop. Me coming from a different background of sports, majority of the time, people just enjoy just hanging out. Absolutely. But they were paying for that too. So it allowed me to, you know, help them with their training as well, like just waiting in line. We signed an autograph, this and that, selling a hat, T-shirt, what have you. But then they felt like, oh wow, like I actually had some value by meeting him.

• 37:52Speaker 00

  And I would always tell them like, hey, if you really liked this, you know, and I say it on stage, I'm a little posing in chunks after I'm done guest post. I'm like, guys, like, if you really, if you really like this, and I put the promoter right on the spot. Tell them to bring me back. Tell them to bring me back. That's smart, man. Tell them to bring me back. Y'all want to see me come back next year? Yeah. I'm like, hey, if you don't do it, bro, we're having dinner later. That's smart. And don't worry, guys, I'm keeping the same price. So I let them know, I'm keeping the same price. For next year. For next year. Yeah. Even though I'm gonna be bigger. Even though, yeah, and they knew that. And to this day, there's certain, like, I'm doing an event this weekend in LA for one of those type of promoters. That I kept the rate the same. Wow.

• 38:35Speaker 00

  You know, could I charge 10 times? Oh, yeah. But loyalty is everything. Loyalty because of what happened in college. Right. Right? So that, so yeah, that's, that's really how I played it to my benefit of growing a brand, growing.

• 38:51Speaker 00

  And it's just been a, it's just been so awesome to share. And to just be passionately present with people from all different walks of life. Yeah. My fanbase, I, I, I'm so thankful. Because they don't look like me.

• 39:05Speaker 00

  But we all have a story and I'm always eager to hear it. Not to make myself feel better, but more like, I just am so curious. Yeah. Meeting people that have, um, from drug addiction to sexual abuse to, you know, suicidal thoughts. To just, oh, I lost a hundred pounds or had a bad breakup and it made me into a great bodybuilder now. I'm just interested to see these things because I, I feel like now I'm in this pa- in this space where I have the credibility. And I can have these conversations in a much more mature setting. Yeah. Cause I've experienced more. Of course.

• 39:46Speaker 00

  And I wanna, and I want to help. I just, you know, that's my job. That, that's really my calling. Be of service, yeah. Yeah, man. Like, I, I've been so freaking blessed to, you know, I, I can say, yeah, what country haven't I been in? You know, I got murals of me in different countries of the world. Crazy. Never thought about this. Someone, I got a guy tattooed my signature on his bicep, on his forearm. I got a girl that literally has a tattoo of my most muscular pose, one in fine detail, on her arm. Another girl on her calf. Wow. What? I didn't, this is a guy that was laying in the street. This guy was willing to not stand up to the pressures of life.

• 40:30Speaker 00

  And was willing to just pack it all in and God save me. And I'm so thankful for it. So when I won my first Mr. Olympia, you talk about going from

• 40:41Speaker 00

  thirty, thirty-one, back to those different moments growing up, all these different lines on the road. All these times where I thought it wasn't gonna work out and I kept going. All those different synapses in your head and then it, life flashed before your eyes and then you're. Well, I'm here, 10,000 people screaming and hollering. And that's why the tears flow.

• 41:04Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 41:05Speaker 00

  Because I didn't give up. But even when I wanted to, I had a higher power that was just like, nah, man, I got something bigger. And even now, it's not like, you know, I wanted to win 10 Mr. Olympias, I got seven. How do I digest that into making that not feel like failure?

• 41:23Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. So when you, because you won seven in a row, isn't that right? And then that next one, did you get second, is that right?

• 41:31Speaker 00

  I got second, yeah.

• 41:32Lewis Howes?

  How did that feel going from number one in the world, seven years in a row?

• 41:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:37Lewis Howes?

  To number two? Did you think you should have won?

• 41:41Speaker 00

  Of course.

• 41:43Lewis Howes?

  I still do, but like. How did that make you feel though? Did you, did it, did you lose the confidence? Did you feel, still feel like you gave it your best? Or did you feel like, oh, now I'm not as good as I once was?

• 41:54Speaker 00

  I was hurt.

• 41:55Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 41:56Speaker 00

  I was very hurt emotionally because after I won number seven, I, I had a emergency hernia surgery. And in the world of bodybuilding, that's almost like a death sentence because long recovery, but also it's an aesthetic issue. Because you can have a scar or something like that, so. Where the, different sport, just packs you up and go back in.

• 42:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you play.

• 42:19Speaker 00

  Bodybuilding.

• 42:21Lewis Howes?

  It's all aesthetic.

• 42:22Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. So I re-tore that incision getting ready for 2018, three weeks out.

• 42:28Lewis Howes?

  Oh.

• 42:28Speaker 00

  So to have to deal with that emotionally, the physical part, I was able to deal with the pain, like the pain tolerance that I have.

• 42:35Lewis Howes?

  Right, you're a machine.

• 42:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:37Lewis Howes?

  You can push through pain.

• 42:38Speaker 00

  I'm in my, yeah, exactly, I'm in my subconscious mind, I'm just like.

• 42:41Lewis Howes?

  You're not feeling it.

• 42:41Speaker 00

  No.

• 42:42Lewis Howes?

  You just push through.

• 42:43Speaker 00

  Just push through. But when I realized that there's a high.

• 42:51Speaker 00

  When I realized that I more likely was not gonna win, as I was getting on that stage that night for the evening, for the second day, because there's two days, I said to myself, I'm not going down without a fight. And you can't fight. So, what, what can I control? Well, during the pose down, you're gonna be as aggressive as possible. You're just gonna hit shot for shot with this guy. You're gonna call him out. I grabbed his damn wrist and I walked him over and I said, no, you hitting this shot right now. Because right now, I'm still your senior, type seven. If you want this and you're gonna probably win, but you're gonna, no, this is for me too. Because I need to see these photos later on. Wow.

• 43:35Speaker 00

  And I need to prove it to myself that I didn't just let you have this. Even though I was told little birds here and there from judges telling my trainer that like, yeah, it's probably not gonna happen for Phil. I still, for my pride, man, I was like, oh, no. You could tell me that I'm gonna lose and I'm like, oh, I don't, I don't give a damn. Like, I'm going to fight. And I'm glad I did do that. He probably already knew he was gonna win, so he was like, I don't care. I'll get these shots, you know, whatever. But the feeling I felt,

• 44:10Speaker 00

  you're just standing there. The next thing I read is gonna be your 2018 Mr. Olympia. And when they said Sean, and when they said Sean Roden, not Phil Heath, I've been used to hearing Phil Heath, Phil Heath, Phil Heath.

• 44:23Speaker 00

  It hurts so bad. I mean, you talk about knives. It was more like someone took the sawed-off shotgun and just blew me away. Oh, man. But yet I was still alive and I could still see the hole. And I'm just like, did this just happen? And now the roar from the crowd.

• 44:44Speaker 00

  I was trying to digest that part. Cheering him, not you. I was trying to digest that. Was that more, like, what does that mean? At the time, I don't know what that means. Is it just for him or is it the fact that they just hated me? Because I definitely developed the Tom Brady effect in my industry, for sure. Like, they just wanted to see me lose. Of course. So you got people that just want to see you lose. They don't care who it is that wins. So I knew there was a combination of all that, but then I'm like, but you have to.

• 45:14Speaker 00

  You gotta acknowledge the guy. So I hugged him and told him. Congratulations, you look great. Oh. Which he did.

• 45:26Speaker 00

  And I told him.

• 45:30Speaker 00

  Thank God that we can make money for our families doing this. How cool is that? Wow. How cool is it? I said, congratulations, man. And I remember what he said back. But I do remember now I'm having to deal with more roars. I it's just. Ear piercing. And you're trying not to look in the crowd because I don't know if they're laughing at me. I'm thinking like all of the negative. You're embarrassed. Like I'm embarrassed. I'm the second in the world at something and I'm very embarrassed. But yeah, that's what you do when you're a winner. You do feel embarrassed. You do feel like they're laughing at you. You do feel like you're you didn't complete the mission. This isn't completing the mission. The mission is to to win, to be the greatest of all time. This was taken from me.

• 46:14Speaker 00

  These judges like they they ruined this for me. I ruined. It wasn't because of my own lack of diet and training and this. But I my insitions toward like, what the hell?

• 46:26Speaker 00

  Why? Now. Why? That's starting to play. But as you can see, like. All milliseconds. Trying to digest, trying to digest. They put the second place. Ooh. Around my neck.

• 46:43Speaker 00

  To be honest with us, I don't even know where that is. So. I get the handshake from our league president.

• 46:53Speaker 00

  Try to smile. Try to be cool, but it's like, what's he supposed to do, man? Like, you know, he can't show like favoritism as far as like me as a human being.

• 47:03Speaker 00

  Did it probably maybe hurt him too? I'm sure it did. Because he knew I'm. I love that. Because I went from basketball not having it. To bodybuilding and struggling and not having money to to finally earning and traveling around the world and and wanting to be Mr. Olympia. Going through all this crap and now you win it over and over and over and over and over and over. Over again. To not having that feeling.

• 47:30Speaker 00

  I got on one knee.

• 47:33Speaker 00

  And I prayed. On the stage? On the stage while they're awarding. I don't know what they're doing with him.

• 47:41Speaker 00

  I said, Phil, before you walk off, you're gonna give credit to your creator because you know what? This is the defining moment of you as a human being, not as you being a champion anymore. This is about you. You can't be a hypocrite. You got on your knee and you pointed up in the sky, you prayed, you thanked God and all this other stuff. But this is where it matters the most. This is such a character building moment for yourself. This is not for show, this is not for everybody else, but you, well, you made winning habitual. Well, you're gonna make these, these are habitual things too. This can't just matter when you win.

• 48:18Speaker 00

  And I thought about my future self.

• 48:22Speaker 00

  What that would look like. So as I walked off, I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to do. I remember having that check, I was like, this is BS. Take, I took all the medals off. I remember one of the ex-betters like stuff like, guy, I was like, I quit. I was like, F this, he was like, it's just so bad for me to, bad sportsmanship, but I was just pissed. I'm like, F this, I'm done, you know, like, because now I gotta go get surgery again, I'm just like, I don't know if I can go through that, like, this is just too much. The internet was getting to me, like, you know, it was just a lot, man. Because I was knocking on the door of Lee Haney and Ronnie Coleman. And that got taken from me, so I don't know, like, if I could, and if it was really worth it.

• 49:05Speaker 00

  So I go backstage and,

• 49:10Speaker 00

  you know, I'm friends with Tim Grover, you know Tim? And he talks about that book, Winning, talk about winning.

• 49:18Speaker 00

  Phil, you're a winner, but not tonight. It's sleeping with him.

• 49:25Speaker 00

  And all that applause, all those people that were cheering you on, or even booing, you didn't get, you loved it.

• 49:32Speaker 00

  There was someone else right now.

• 49:35Speaker 00

  You're walking offstage into something unknown. You've been second at the Olympics before.

• 49:42Speaker 00

  But it was different because you now lost a title. Mm hmm. Before you got second, the year before you won, it's different. Mm hmm. How do you process this? So I'm like scatterbrained and I'm diet, I'm depleted, I'm trying to figure this stuff out. Got no sugar. Yeah, so I'm like, what do I do? I'm like, okay, subconscious mind, where's my bag? Drink some fluids. Yes. Put your clothes on and get the hell out of here. You know, it's interesting with winning, it's like when you're winning,

• 50:14Speaker 00

  all the pats on the back. Mm hmm. Even the people that hate you kiss your. They do. Yeah. They do. When you lose,

• 50:24Speaker 00

  you get to see some reality. They're with him now. Right. There was no one backstage, there was no interview, there was no one there. They claimed that they were. But I was like, well, what am I supposed to do? I'm supposed to sit here and wait while you guys, and that's part of winning? Yeah, you're supposed to wait until he's done. We're done with him and then we'll talk to you. Yeah, I was like, no, I'm out of here. Wow. So going to that hotel room, long, long walk, man. I wanted to walk home. I wanted to walk home, get to the hotel room. You know, you have bottles of champagne, you know, you got the, a big old sheet cake.

• 51:10Speaker 00

  Do I eat this?

• 51:13Speaker 00

  No.

• 51:15Speaker 00

  Oh, Instagram.

• 51:18Speaker 00

  This is what, twenty? Twenty eighteen. Eighteen. Give credit where credit is due, go on Instagram and congratulate them. Now I gotta deal with that. And, oh, and do I punk out and leave the comments off? Cause there's gonna be some people that are gonna let you, they're gonna get some, they're gonna clap back at you. Oh yeah, you deserved to lose, F you, this and that. I was getting all that. You know, even before, you know, I was winning, you're gonna get that times ten now because you literally said that you were gonna win. You know, they're gonna be like, oh, he's arrogant, he's this, he's that, let me, let me, you know, them, those devils come out, man. Wow. Cause they saw vulnerability. So I realized I was so emotionally raw.

• 51:56Speaker 00

  That I I had to trick myself into just staying in gratitude. So hard sometimes. Imagine all those years, you're being invited to the best nightclubs. I would party at XS and Encore Hotel. They'd shut down the lights when I walk in and play. The champ is here. Alright. Oh, they do all the cool stuff.

• 52:21Speaker 00

  I didn't have no after-party that year. Ooh. I didn't want it, though. Why? Cause I was at the point in time of my career where I wanted more intimate moments with people who really mattered. Right. And I knew that a lot of my even close friends and relatives were taking advantage of that of that hospitality. Sure. So I just wanted like. It's funny, though, cause when you're winning, you have all those the entourage and stuff. I literally had ninety people on a guest list going to that nightclub and stuff. You know how much that costs? So much. So much.

• 52:48Speaker 00

  Imagine how many people poured me a cocktail. Pat me on the back. That's how it works, though. That's the other side of winning, though. Yeah. You know, you deal with those hangar-ons and stuff like that, but when you're losing. I didn't I didn't I didn't have any text messages. What was the biggest lesson losing taught you? We're all in individually. I had to look at life like a space shuttle.

• 53:13Speaker 00

  It's big when it starts and it blows off.

• 53:17Speaker 00

  When it gets to the moon and comes back, it's very small. I'm halfway through right now. Parts have fallen off. They fell off. Those are people.

• 53:28Speaker 00

  And I have to be okay with that because they were necessary. And I was necessary for them, too. Of course. But I have to accept that. So that best friend, that the best friend or that business partner that screwed you over, that person, that whatever, that ex-wife or whatever. I it's still going somewhere. They've fallen off and they got their own stuff. It just taught me that life's not finished, man. Don't go in a downward spiral because you're so emotionally raw, because you felt like you you gave it everything you got. Did you give it everything? Yes. Did you get hurt? Yes. Are you the first person to ever get hurt? No. Did you ever think that you would be the best in the world at anything? No. Wow. Did you not have a conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Arnold Schwarzenegger

• 54:12Speaker 00

  Classic to say that you were gonna win number seven and you were gonna honor him? Yes. You won that? Yes. Did you get hurt while you were doing it all those years? Yes. But you still won seven. Arnold didn't win seven in a row. Remember, he won six, he retired, he came back and won seven. He won seven, dude. That's a big deal, man. There's only three people in the world that have done seven, if not eight. Learn. It's not just smelling the roses right now. It's thanking your body. And that was very hard. Yeah. Because what would be the first thing, what is like, if you got hurt? You get patched up and you, "Coach, put me back in, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna handle this."

• 54:53Speaker 00

  When it comes to double hernia and intestinal strangulation and, uh, yeah, you know, diastasis recti, where now I gotta put everything back in, titanium staples, mesh here, mesh here. You're gonna leave a scar and you got six months of inactivity? Oh. Or very low active? And now you gotta sit at home as a loser? That's tough. Honey, can you spike this coffee? Sure. Then I realize, I, I, I can't turn into alcoholic. Mm-hmm. But I can't go to the gym, that's my fix. So what do you do? How am I feeling? Is that when you really started the process, emotions and feelings? Yeah.

• 55:38Speaker 00

  On that recovery stage? I had some good friends, man. I had some good celebrity friends that dealt with some stuff. Cause really at that moment in time, there's only certain people that you get advice from. Let's just keep it real, man. Who can really understand what you've gone through. There was three people that reached out and I'll name them. Who's that? Shaquille O'Neal hit me up the night of. Mm-hmm, wow. He came to the show and, um, I was very thankful for the words that he said. You know, he's basically saying like sucks, happens unfortunately.

• 56:04Lewis Howes?

  Happened to him.

• 56:05Speaker 00

  You know, you just come back and if you want to come back, you kick the out of them. That's what he said, you know, he's like, you just.

• 56:11Lewis Howes?

  That's what you do.

• 56:11Speaker 00

  Recover, heal. Yeah, and then come back stronger. Dave Batista hit me up.

• 56:16Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 56:16Speaker 00

  Told me that, hey, um, this is big bro hitting you up and, uh, don't, uh, maybe stay off Twitter for a little bit. You know?

• 56:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course.

• 56:25Speaker 00

  And, uh, Isaiah Washington. The actor, he hit me up. And he said. You're too emotionally raw right now to deal with the world. You need to give yourself some time to process.

• 56:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:39Speaker 00

  So maybe hold off some interviews. Maybe say the wrong thing. Did I listen to that halfway? I probably did some interviews I probably shouldn't have done.

• 56:49Speaker 00

  But I, I, no one taught me how to be a champion during the social media era either.

• 56:54Lewis Howes?

  It's tough.

• 56:55Speaker 00

  I didn't have a publicist. I didn't have PR. The whole industry doesn't have that. So no one was willing to even. No one was willing to do it because they didn't know how to digest it themselves. There was no one from the league office that was like, hey, Phil, like, I know this sucked. I didn't really get a phone call. I got text messages. That's not, that's not good enough for me. That.

• 57:15Lewis Howes?

  So I was seven time champion.

• 57:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, man. Now I'm like nothing.

• 57:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, call me. Yeah.

• 57:20Speaker 00

  So. I had to rely on the fact that I did have, instead of focusing on the people that didn't show up, focus on the people who did. You got three people that have definitely gone through some certain things individually in their careers. Listen. Write down your feelings.

• 57:37Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 57:38Speaker 00

  Challenge yourself to write down these honest feelings. You don't have to share them with your world. Cause see, you know what happens with social media is. We're gonna pull that phone out. We're gonna say something and we're gonna look back and say, damn, I shouldn't have said that.

• 57:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:48Speaker 00

  That sounded stupid. I write it down.

• 57:51Lewis Howes?

  What was the theme, the consistent theme that came up for you the more you wrote down things over those six months? That, that kept coming up?

• 57:59Speaker 00

  That I'm hurt.

• 58:01Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 58:01Speaker 00

  That I'm hurt. I, I gave, I gave everything. And I felt like it was taken away and I'm trying to understand, even writing to God, like, what does this mean?

• 58:12Speaker 00

  I don't know if I can do this anymore.

• 58:14Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 58:15Speaker 00

  I could do it, but like at what level? To my standard. To my standard.

• 58:22Speaker 00

  The standard that everybody else has for me, I've already surpassed that. They didn't think I was gonna win more than two. But my standard.

• 58:30Speaker 00

  Why does everybody else get to have this moment? They're not even half as good as me. This is my thought process and people even go watch it now and be like, that's crazy. No. I knew how good I was.

• 58:41Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 58:42Speaker 00

  Because I was creating so much distance that the even the announcers would say it like, the only way he's gonna lose is if he gets hurt.

• 58:48Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 58:51Speaker 00

  That's a Madden curse. Like, oh, it happened. So the inevitable happened. Cause eventually we all get hurt.

• 58:59Lewis Howes?

  You get hurt or someone's younger or bigger?

• 59:03Speaker 00

  But I was on a roll. I thought I was really gonna win ten of these things consecutive. Oh, yeah.

• 59:07Lewis Howes?

  So if you didn't get hurt, you think you would've won ten?

• 59:09Speaker 00

  For sure. I already had it bookmarked. I was like, I'm, I already know how this is gonna play out. I know how to strategize this.

• 59:16Speaker 00

  Even even through twenty eighteen, I was like, if I win this one, I'm gonna have to get the surgery. I'm gonna know how to come back. Maybe I still sit out twenty nineteen and I'm gonna come back even better and then win that and then win that ninth one and I'm gonna go for ten. And I'm gonna call it the decade of dominance. I'm gonna write a book. I'm gonna go on tour. I'm gonna go non-stuff. I'm gonna hire freaking PR people. We're gonna travel the world. I'm gonna go do seminars. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do everything. Cause I was already doing stuff with Make-A-Wish. I was already doing stuff with the USO. I was already doing stuff, you know, like around, you know, I was doing all these cool things. But then what stopped me? I stopped me. Cause I lost. I stopped my own damn momentum because I was hurt.

• 59:54Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 59:56Speaker 00

  So I had to learn that. And even the past couple of years, I had to learn that.

• 59:59Lewis Howes?

  Do you think you could've come back and and after recovering and and won or was there something that?

• 1:00:05Speaker 00

  I think COVID messed that up.

• 1:00:06Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:00:07Speaker 00

  I think when I came back, I was also filming a documentary called Breaking Olympia with Adam Score G. And.

• 1:00:14Lewis Howes?

  This is one of the rocks.

• 1:00:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, this is, yeah, this is so cool. So like, so Danny Garcia, shout out to Danny and Dwayne.

• 1:00:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:21Speaker 00

  Um, yeah, they're co-producing, Seven Bucks Productions co-producing this.

• 1:00:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:26Speaker 00

  It's, it's, and I'm so excited about it, but yeah, I was able to, we were already slated to do this, but it just so happened that the pandemic was going on. I was like, well. I wasn't really thinking about competing again, but I thought, you know what? So you thought you were done? I thought I was done in 2018. I was like, you know what? I watched the 2018 Olympia in Denver. Cause I wanted to know what it felt like to not go to the show. After you lost, I didn't lose, after you got second, the next year you didn't go. I didn't even go. Everybody was like, dude, you should still go. I was like, why? Cause you weren't gonna compete. I wasn't gonna compete, so why do I need to go? You weren't ready to compete yet. No, and actually, I probably could have. But there was something about me, like in the mind and the spirit that it just wasn't. Cause to me, I have to have all of that going on. All connected, yeah.

• 1:01:10Speaker 00

  All connected. It can't just be for the money. It can't just be, you know, it can't just be for ego. It has to like really make sense. And I also needed to know, I was trying to find answers.

• 1:01:21Speaker 00

  Is this where I'm supposed to be? Like, God, is this where, like, I'm trying to be humble about this, like.

• 1:01:27Speaker 00

  How about I just take a time out? That's interesting. Because I felt like the first surgery was four months, second one, six months. So why put that type of stress on yourself? Or cover, get a full recovery. Yeah, get a real recovery. See what that feels like and honestly, see what it feels like to be home and if you really love it. If you miss it, if you're got the itch. Yeah, and then be away from it. And also see if people miss you. And they're like, hey, where you at? We miss you. And then people were doing that and I'm like, but I think it. That was 2019, right? That was 2019, but I think what happened then was that a lot of people thought that, they made up their own narrative that I hated it. Or that I was a sore loser or whatever. And it was, and I tried to process that and I was like, well, maybe it's because you're such a big time competitor that they just made this.

• 1:02:11Speaker 00

  But you don't have to prove yourself to these people and I think that was the biggest thing. Is that I would have been going to the Olympia in 2019 just to prove to people that I'm tough enough to sit there and watch it. And it's like, but I sit there and watch it, I'm gonna be a fish in a fishbowl, they're gonna stare at me, stare at my girl. They're gonna analyze every reaction to everything. Why put us through that? That's more stressful. Why not just, we sat around, we went to a Mexican restaurant, we sat around and put the phone up like. Watch it there, yeah. And I was like, this is bull.

• 1:02:39Speaker 00

  I should, I should totally. And then the waiter was like, aren't you supposed to be somewhere? Around the same time of year. I was like, yeah, but they're like, oh, yeah, that. Aren't you supposed to be doing that? I was like, and then that's when it started messing with my head. Oh, you're not doing that no more?

• 1:02:53Lewis Howes?

  Oh, you're retired? Are you, you're washed up or you're?

• 1:02:55Speaker 00

  So I'm trying to play with that. So then in 2020 came.

• 1:02:58Lewis Howes?

  Did you think you could have won it that year, watching it on?

• 1:03:00Speaker 00

  Hell, yeah.

• 1:03:01Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:03:01Speaker 00

  Hell, yeah. But, but, but that's how I feel though, right?

• 1:03:04Lewis Howes?

  Were you physically, was your body ready?

• 1:03:06Speaker 00

  The problem is that I wasn't training for it, so I don't know.

• 1:03:09Lewis Howes?

  But if you would have taken the three months before and really trained.

• 1:03:12Speaker 00

  But, but.

• 1:03:13Lewis Howes?

  Who knows?

• 1:03:13Speaker 00

  Should I could have, would have like, you know, we're all champions in our own mind.

• 1:03:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:03:20Speaker 00

  I can still throw that football to the mountains, you know, Rico type of talk, right? So, you know, and that's disrespectful to everybody competing too. So I thought, you know what?

• 1:03:29Speaker 00

  View this as a real spiritual, emotional timeout. Cause you already got the physical part. This is a real timeout. Let's figure out who you are as a man. You decided to come back. After watching that Olympia, I was like, let's just do it. But then when March 2020 came, I was like, well, how the hell am I gonna do this? How am I gonna do this? But then I thought. This would be even better. Because what if I do win during a pandemic? And you're filming this? It's already being documented?

• 1:03:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:03:59Speaker 00

  What would your story be of triumph? And if you lose, and this was really cool because I remember meeting up with Dwayne. Dwayne was shooting Titan Games. And I was in his trailer and he was.

• 1:04:13Lewis Howes?

  Out here in LA, right?

• 1:04:14Speaker 00

  Oh, no, he was in Georgia.

• 1:04:15Lewis Howes?

  Okay, yeah.

• 1:04:16Speaker 00

  So he had, he gave me some really good advice and he was like, you know, you have to, you have to figure out why you're really doing this.

• 1:04:21Lewis Howes?

  Why are you coming back?

• 1:04:22Speaker 00

  Yeah. And, and it might have to be, this is your last one. It might have to be that way. You might have to put yourself in that, that mindset.

• 1:04:30Lewis Howes?

  That's what he said to you.

• 1:04:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, because there's other goals that you have that may not coexist. They may not coincide with one another. They may not work. Cause I wanted to get in TV and film and do other things, you know?

• 1:04:41Lewis Howes?

  Start businesses and.

• 1:04:42Speaker 00

  Businesses, coaching, you know, seminars, all that cool stuff.

• 1:04:45Lewis Howes?

  It takes a lot of time and energy.

• 1:04:46Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:04:46Lewis Howes?

  Focus.

• 1:04:47Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:04:48Lewis Howes?

  All your time, training.

• 1:04:49Speaker 00

  I could be fifth at the Olympia going halfway, no question about it. But to be, that's not gonna satisfy me. Chasing a paycheck like that, that's not gonna, no. You, you become a weaker version of self just chasing, no, I'm chasing history if I'm doing this. But then I started figuring out the upside. What's the upside? If I win, one of the greatest comebacks in history. If I lose, it'll depend how you lose. And how you honor yourself. Because they've not seen you for now 27 months.

• 1:05:20Speaker 00

  I got third.

• 1:05:23Speaker 00

  Did I like it? Hell no. I'd be lying if I said it. Hey, did you think you could have won? I think I could have. I, it was the first time in my career that I felt like my coach and I, we, we missed our peak. Because in bodybuilding, it is about peak week and stuff like that. We're able to nail down that formula, but during COVID, we weren't able to see each other. He lives out in the Bay Area, in Denver, just, he was dealing with, his father had passed away during COVID and this and that. He's dealing with California restrictions, I'm dealing with Denver restrictions. It was just like,

• 1:05:52Speaker 00

  there, there's a lot of things that could, probably could have changed. I felt like I looked really good two, three weeks out, where I should have won. And it's a timing issue. And this is how I've beaten so many other people is that I got the timing right. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger said in Pumping Iron, you gotta get the timing right. So you wanna, you wanna run this race with world-class, world-record speed, not in the semifinals of the 100 meters. It's the Olympic final that you want to do. Yeah, exactly. Right? So. You want to peak in the playoffs, not like during the regular season. Yeah. I don't, yeah. So,

• 1:06:26Speaker 00

  I didn't do that. I felt like I would, if I would have, no question in my mind, I would have won. But that didn't happen. And I have to deal with that reality too. So when I was announced third, I didn't like it. The crowd didn't make a sound, which was very interesting. When they announced you as third? Yeah. No cheers, no nothing? No, because they're like, they realize, I, the way I digested that was, they're not used to seeing me lose. But they're also trying to figure out how I'm receiving this information. That's how I digested it. So, it triggered me to think back when you're playing ball and you're in practice and your coach is putting you through this thing called attitude check.

• 1:07:09Speaker 00

  They call a penalty or something in practice and you're like, that clearly wasn't a penalty. Oh, oh, oh, foul, you know, technical foul on Phil, da, da, da, da. But the ball was out of bounds, you didn't call the foul. Double T, yeah. Right. And they do this in practice to teach you not how to react. They teach you how to learn how to respond better. So respond to the negativity of that bad news. So I was like, okay, well, this is bad news. I think it's total BS. But eyes are on you, not just in this arena, but all over the world. Yeah. You got first, you got third at your first Mr. Olympia in 2008.

• 1:07:43Speaker 00

  This ain't too bad, man. You've dealt with injury? No one has a story that you do. You've beaten these guys for over 10 freaking years. Also, what, 40 at that time, 41 or something, yeah? Like, what are you tripping, like, you know, I'm trying to, like, as I'm walking. This is BS. Right. This is BS. Oh, man, this is so stupid. Damn it, I thought I should at least got second, but really, if I got second, it wouldn't matter. It might have hurt worse. Actually, you're right. Because you're like, oh, I was that much closer. And then maybe come back the next year, you know what I mean? Like, you're still chasing. But without them cheering or booing, it was just like they're observing.

• 1:08:24Speaker 00

  This is a very interesting, you know, point in my career. Then let them see you smile.

• 1:08:33Speaker 00

  I got all my teeth.

• 1:08:36Speaker 00

  And I'm honoring myself.

• 1:08:40Speaker 00

  I'm honoring myself. Thank God I was able, you know, now it's more gratitude, like, thank God that I was able to do this. You're healthy. For so long. And you're not injured now. Yeah, man, like, third in the world, you got people that have competed for 20 years that never even got third. That don't even make the Olympia. There you go. And who, who are you going to inspire right now? Your entire fan base, your entire world that's watching? Because they're going to look at you as a human being right now.

• 1:09:06Speaker 00

  You're, it's not like you're not Mr. Olympia. It's not like you're not seven time anymore. You're still seven time.

• 1:09:13Speaker 00

  And try to find as much gratitude as possible in that current period of time, so I did. You know, and I had to remember, oh my goodness, the guy that won in 2019, Brandon Curry, just lost his title in 2020. So you think you're upset, he probably pissed. And then you got one of your other friends, uh, you know, Big Rami, he won, he won, and he looked up to me so much. Congratulate him. So, you know, I congratulate, you know, Brandon. Cause I know. Everybody wanted to beat me.

• 1:09:44Lewis Howes?

  Of course, and that first win for someone is probably like.

• 1:09:45Speaker 00

  They're probably like, man, like even though I got second, I still got a chance to say that I placed ahead of Phil. Regardless of how he looked, like I, I got, I. That's a scout, that's a helmet, like he can say, hey, I got him. That, that burns me up even now, you know, cause the competitor, I'm like, damn. But then I'm like, oh, you look great, this snap. Go to the Ram, I'm like.

• 1:10:07Speaker 00

  You look great, man. And he's like, I love you now.

• 1:10:11Speaker 00

  You know, big old three hundred pound mountain of a man. And I, but I told him. This is your time. But you better come in better. Because I could have beat this and you know it.

• 1:10:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:10:24Speaker 00

  I said, but I love you, man. But. As champion. You have to be better. We talk about Ferrari, stuff like that, you gotta be zero to sixty nine in eight seconds, you gotta keep going, going, going, going faster, faster, faster, better, better, better. You gotta be better in your performance all the time. You're, you're a salesman of the year, why can't you do that next year? Oh, well, well, why can't you be straight A's every semester? Once you hit. That champion level. That becomes your new standard. Everything else uh is zero now. Everybody else will look up to you, but you should be looking not down, not even straight ahead, you should be looking up. And that's how I looked at it. Another mountain. That I have to climb, so I had to remind him that, because if I can be, my nickname was always the gift. What can I give him?

• 1:11:10Speaker 00

  What can I give him? This is a person I'm competing against, but what can I give him? Because what do I really wanna do? Is imprint my soul within this sport.

• 1:11:19Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:11:19Speaker 00

  I must give him a piece of me.

• 1:11:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:11:23Speaker 00

  No matter how much this hurts right now, this ain't about me though, it's about him. He put in the work. You did too, Phil, but this is his moment. And you know how it felt when people didn't give you your shine? They didn't pat you on the back. They talk trash about you even though you won. You're not gonna do that, you're gonna be better. You're not gonna be bitter. You're gonna give him a piece of you. Because in, in order for this sport to grow. We have to do that. And if I decide to come back, he knows. That I elevate everybody's game. I have that effect.

• 1:11:57Speaker 00

  I can give them secrets or anything, but I'm telling them what this means. You got this title, but you must be better. And because if you're not, you might lose it, and I know how that feels. And it's not okay if you don't give it everything. Plus, it's not, you know, when people talk about the nth degree.

• 1:12:15Speaker 00

  I'm not the biggest mathematician or whatever, but why not N plus one?

• 1:12:22Speaker 00

  That's, that's what I live by. Should always be N plus one. Oh, is the, oh, you gotta go to the nth degree. Add one to that. Try doing that, and people start squirming in their seat. Because they don't want to do it. Because they're afraid. They're afraid that they have to reinvent themselves. They're afraid to, to, uh.

• 1:12:42Speaker 00

  You're salesman of the year.

• 1:12:45Speaker 00

  Pat on the back. Here's the check, the bonus. You get to take your wife on the cruise. January first.

• 1:12:55Speaker 00

  Budget cuts. And your quota goes up twenty-five more percent. And you're supposed to be winner. How do you do it? You start complaining. Majority of people start complaining, no question about it. But if you get hurt.

• 1:13:11Speaker 00

  So what? I was hurt in twenty sixteen, still trained, twenty seventeen, still trained. Still dealt with the pain. Understood that the pain did not matter, because what I was trying to.

• 1:13:23Speaker 00

  My why was too big, and I knew my purpose was. If I quit now, then I just, I, I crap on every person that poured into me. Every fan that waited in line for me. I, I was probably one of the first guys to, after I would win. I would go with my trophy to the end of the stage and put my hand out. Just to shake their hand. Because I wanted them to feel what I was feeling.

• 1:13:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:13:54Speaker 00

  Because physical touch is amazing.

• 1:13:56Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:13:57Speaker 00

  You see NBA players, and I can't stand, I'm just gonna call it out. NBA players, NFL guys, they all do it. This is what they do when they walk out.

• 1:14:05Speaker 00

  Imagine when you look up and they do this. And they touch. Sometimes they just wanna touch you, man. Now, I get it, like, everybody ain't like that. But why not look at the person and say, "Thanks, man." Maybe they, maybe their dad or their mom. That was the first and only time they were able to see you.

• 1:14:22Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:14:24Speaker 00

  It ain't gonna be about how many titles you win, it's gonna be about how you make people feel.

• 1:14:27Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:14:29Speaker 00

  And I get being a winner and you, you gotta have this game face and this and that, but can you do both?

• 1:14:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:35Speaker 00

  I was able to do both and I wanted to share that, cuz now, I already won, like, let me shake your hand, man. So it's always been about, like, trying to deliver different moments for people.

• 1:14:44Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:14:45Speaker 00

  And, and that's why I'm here. You know, fortunate enough to chat with you.

• 1:14:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:50Speaker 00

  You know, it's all about sharing different philosophies. Um, mindset, but also just understanding that. We have to deal with our own emotional traumas as we go through it.

• 1:15:00Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:15:00Speaker 00

  We have to raise our hand to say that this is, um, this is not right. We all need to give ourselves some type of rest. We also need to understand when we are on vacation, we are on vacation. And you laughing because I'm sure you've been on vacation.

• 1:15:13Lewis Howes?

  Working away, yeah, yeah.

• 1:15:15Speaker 00

  Working away. I've been on vacations where the nicest places in the world and I'm too busy worrying about the next. But that's the hard part, too, it's like, so we talk about winning, you're always, you know.

• 1:15:24Lewis Howes?

  Strategizing, thinking.

• 1:15:25Speaker 00

  Oh, my gosh, I'm already thinking on Olympia stage where I'm gonna be doing for next year or next month. You know, I'm gonna detox and then get ready for the next one. But sometimes you, you still, even if it's for just a couple of days, you can just have to write it down and say, "For the next two days, I'm gonna make this about my family."

• 1:15:39Lewis Howes?

  Plan for rest and recovery, yeah.

• 1:15:40Speaker 00

  I need rest, I need real rest, and I need some real time to reflect and write things down. And then look back at those things I wrote down.

• 1:15:48Speaker 00

  Because it, it's, it's very interesting to see what you write down in those moments, right?

• 1:15:52Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. I'm curious, when in your life were the, were you the most insecure? Was it pre? Uh, Olympia days, during the height of your Olympia success, or it, since, you know, the last few years?

• 1:16:09Speaker 00

  I've had insecurity probably throughout my entire life in some way, shape, or form.

• 1:16:12Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:16:13Speaker 00

  Growing up as an only child, um.

• 1:16:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know, it it took me until, I'd say like sixteen, when I had a, or fifteen, when my, the varsity coach at my high school, Mike Bethia, he's still there,

• 1:16:31Speaker 00

  knew that I I had a killer instinct inside, but I was always trying to be liked and just blend in with the crowd sometimes. I mean, I was a hard worker, don't get me wrong, and I was still competitive, but I but I could have been better. So for instance, like, I could dunk a basketball at fifteen. That's crazy. At five nine? At five, shoot, five seven back then. Oh, that's amazing. But I would lay it up and it would get beat up off the glass, you know? And he benched me one time and he yelled at me and made me run sprints during halftime. Everybody else was doing their thing and he got me running sprints.

• 1:17:08Speaker 00

  As a punishment, to saying like, you, I will drill this into your head, one way or the other, I will embarrass you. He yelled at me, remember he hit me on the shoulder one time, my mom wanted to run down the the bleachers and like, you can't touch my son, you know? I'm like, Mom, he's got it.

• 1:17:22Speaker 00

  We had our own relationship. He was like a father to me because he saw, he saw it. And he knew that I was just, just holding on to something, like, what what was it? And I, you know, I didn't know what it was and I was just like, oh, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of missing or I'm afraid. And he was like, you're gonna learn.

• 1:17:40Speaker 00

  He put me in that game, he said, if you don't dunk this damn ball, I will bench you. I remember dunking that damn ball so hard. Really? Oh, I dunked it. I mean, I, it was like, like, dunk just hard, you know, the ball bounces and then, and then I was like, I did it, you know, it was like one of those moments, like, in my mind, like, I did it. And I'm like, but you've been doing it in your backyard, you've been doing it with your friends, but you didn't do it on a bigger stage. So that was one of those moments of insecurity of like, I could do that, what else can I do? Oh, I had an AAU coach that would say, If you can shoot six out of ten on any place on the floor, you can do it in a game. You could just pull up. I don't care. Pull up on fast break for a crying out loud and just shoot the three. I don't care. But if you can make it six out of ten with a hand in your face in practice,

• 1:18:23Speaker 00

  you can do this in the game all day because that's going to translate to maybe like four out of ten in the game. I don't care. I played percentages. That's what got me to college, just having that confidence. But I needed someone to pull it out of me. So I'd say that in bodybuilding, I had some good friends that were just trying to pull that out of me just to say, you know, drop your pants and pose. You know, you're like, wait a minute, man. I don't want to do this. First bodybuilding show, you're like, wait a minute, I, I, I, I wear, I, I wear, I wear gym shorts. I don't want to do this posing trucks, man. I mean, I'm good. I got a physique, man, but I was so worried, like, you know, I was naked.

• 1:18:58Speaker 00

  And I was worried that other people wouldn't like it. Because you are being judged by strangers who are physically judging you and then in the audience. So there's that insecurity and then just.

• 1:19:13Lewis Howes?

  When you looked yourself in the mirror where you're in the height of Mr. Olympia, were you insecure or were you more confident?

• 1:19:18Speaker 00

  I'd probably say after number, the second one. After the second Mr. Olympia win, I,

• 1:19:26Speaker 00

  I really owned. Oh, this is, this is amazing.

• 1:19:32Lewis Howes?

  You owned your body, you owned yourself, you owned the moment.

• 1:19:35Speaker 00

  You don't have to like have this like, oh, crazy face all the time and try to be something that you're not. It's like, winning can be habitual, bro.

• 1:19:46Speaker 00

  You don't have to be like everybody else to, to make people think, you know, a lot of the time we, we may put on a front because we think if we look a certain way, we talk a certain way, people think we're serious. If I can just get, if I can just get the job done with a smile on my face, that means I'm a real professional. Bruce Lee didn't have to be like, he was just like, chill. I'm, I'm just in my mind and I can punch you. I could do this. I know what I can do. I don't remember Michael Jordan have to be like, oh, grunt and cuss and this and that. They just do. Mm hmm. I don't need to put on a show for you. I am the show. You come in to see me. Mm hmm. And that may sound arrogant to certain people, but technically you are here to see the champion. Either win again or be dethroned. Right.

• 1:20:30Speaker 00

  I earned this place. I earned it. So I used to have to, I would argue even with my coach, my nutritionist. He, you know, cause we'd be peeking for a show and he'd be like very, very nervous. Well, that's just who I am. I'm like, that's you, but don't bring that over here, man. Mm hmm. We've been here before.

• 1:20:48Speaker 00

  We've been here before. I ended up drilling in his head. I almost shake him sometimes. Literally like, we fight like brothers, you know, I tell him to go F off this and that. Walk out the room and I'd be like, dude, you don't get it. What worked for the first one or the second one, don't have to do that now. Once you have a system in place, I don't have to, I can be more mature. And be more wise and say, this is a more controlled aggression. I should know how to do this. I should know how to strategize and operate. I should know how to adjust better. I should make people have to guess what I'm actually thinking now. Like playing poker. Mm hmm. Person that's sweating or the person that's chill. I know who I am. Yes.

• 1:21:28Speaker 00

  So around that third Olympia title, I was like, oh dude, in that third one I won. I only did one call out in the prejudging, which is unheard of. That hasn't happened since like 1988. Where you do like one comparison and they're like filled back in line. We don't even see anything else for a two day show. Wow. Actually for a two day show, that's never happened. For a one day show, that happened back in 1988 with Lee Haney. So what, explain for people that don't know, what is that? You just go out there for a few minutes and you pose? Yeah, the prejudging lasts anywhere from an hour to two hours. Just depends on how many comparisons they want to do with different numbers. Let's say there's 20 people. They bring you out in groups of four or five. You just do quarter turns, maybe hit a couple of different poses.

• 1:22:08Speaker 00

  They basically see you come out individually as well. So then after they've seen you individually with a group, now they see. Okay, we've seen all twenty people. Let's compare some of them, yeah. We've seen everybody individually, so we kinda know who's on, who's off, but we don't know until we compare them. We compare them in a group numerically. And then we say, okay, out of the twenty people, we need number five, number seven, number eight, number twenty, number, you know, sixteen. And then we compare them quarter turns, hit front double bicep, all these different poses. And then they may bring in another person, move people around, because the judges are sitting like this. So the judges sit over here, they need different angles and stuff. Imagine going through that, you know, first full call out of the top five, who the judges feel is top five. They move me around to the center. Usually if you're in the center.

• 1:22:52Speaker 00

  You're the go-to guy. They're comparing everybody to the center. And then they brought us out one more time, and they just say, feel back in line. And the whole crowd gasped. And I'm like. Which means you won. I just basically, unless if I do something stupid tonight, going into tomorrow night, this is a wrap. We're gonna do some victory laps right now. But instead of thinking like that, I'm like, straight up Kobe Bryant, stop, job's not finished? Let's go ahead and pour it on even more. Let's go. Oh. La. Oh, let's like, create, now, let's create. Let's create a real moment. Let's create some real distance. Let's remind them who the hell I am. Ooh. Let's, let's.

• 1:23:35Speaker 00

  When you're on stage and you can actually feel someone's energy, and I'm sure you felt this on the field. Mm-hmm. It could have been like, coin toss, it could have been after a play. I don't feel anything from these guys. Ooh, I just snatched their souls. I just snatched their effing souls. Oh, and they know it. They know. Ooh. You know, in my mind, I'm like, ooh. Shame on you. But then, I'm thinking, what are you gonna do with it? Mm-hmm. You gonna get arrogant about this? You gonna keep going N plus one, N plus one, N plus one?

• 1:24:16Speaker 00

  And that's what I did. So I wanted to be so good that even if I was off, I was so much further ahead. Yeah. That they could say, well, this isn't his peak performance, but it's so good that he's gonna win. And I know that that was hard to digest for certain fans. It's not like, you can't expect Kobe to hit eighty-one every game, Jordan to hit sixty-nine every game. His off night could still win.

• 1:24:41Speaker 00

  That's what determines who's the greatest and who ain't. Your greatest is like my average. And that's what I did. Wow. And a lot of people, like I said, it rubbed people the wrong way because I would literally go Ali's style. I'm like, I'm gonna win this. And people were like, what? I'm like, so you're trying to tell me that I'm supposed to down talk myself when I've put the work in and I have the social proof? Mm hmm. And then even fans would chime in and I hated that because I was like, I would never tell a child or even an adult. If someone said, if I say, Louis, like, so I hear that you're doing this business venture this and that, tell me about it. Oh, you shouldn't do that. But I'm sure you've heard people say, oh, you should reconsider this. Yeah. Why are you telling me how to run my life?

• 1:25:24Speaker 00

  If I need to bump my head a few times, maybe just tap me on the shoulder after I bumped my head once and be like, I was gonna tell you. Yeah, yeah. Um, don't do that again, bro. Let me help you. Sure. But, you know, we live in a society where, you know, it's hard to share everything because people are gonna tell you what they feel based on their own insecurities. Mm hmm. They're not living my life. They're not the director of my life. They're not the lead actor of my life. They're not even the co-star of my life.

• 1:25:57Speaker 00

  They ain't even the co-pilot of my life. Mm hmm. I'm the lead. Yeah. I'm gonna do what I wanna do.

• 1:26:06Speaker 00

  And I've gotta live with those choices and consequences. And it all worked out. Mm hmm. It wasn't perfect, but life ain't got no rehearsal, brother. Yeah. You gotta just know how to, know how to move, you know, know how to bob and weave, you know? And you're gonna get hit. You're gonna take a standing eight count. You're gonna take that eight count. You're gonna take that timeout.

• 1:26:32Speaker 00

  Because if you don't take that timeout emotionally, you cannot battle physically in anything, whether it be in a relationship, business, anything. You gotta know, like, okay, this is a sign that this didn't work and, yeah. And one of the other things I've learned is that you can't be a sore winner either. Mm hmm. Because when you're trying to do stuff to please other people so much, thinking that after you do succeed, you think that that's gonna satisfy the world. It may have just pissed more people off.

• 1:27:05Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:27:06Speaker 00

  So then you get angry because they're not giving you your respect. So I had my Kanye moment numerous times throughout my career like, you ain't giving my respect like. But really, does that matter so much?

• 1:27:20Speaker 00

  But it did. The opinion of others, that's where the insecurity is like, but then I had to dissect that.

• 1:27:27Lewis Howes?

  Was that one of your biggest fears? Was it fear of failure, fear of success, or fear of other people's opinions?

• 1:27:34Speaker 00

  What's the fear? Well, it started off with fear of success because you know that once you attain a certain level, that becomes your new standard and anything less is. But it all kind of ties in together.

• 1:27:45Speaker 00

  Because once you get to this standard, people accept that.

• 1:27:52Speaker 00

  Now they may judge you even worse.

• 1:27:55Speaker 00

  Your bullies, actually, the people that talk the most trash, I call them bullies.

• 1:27:59Lewis Howes?

  And how did you learn to really overcome the bullying or the opinions or the judgments of so many people?

• 1:28:07Speaker 00

  Just keep working.

• 1:28:09Speaker 00

  Whatever I had to say to myself. If I had to curse them out in my mind, I did.

• 1:28:16Speaker 00

  Fortunately for me, I had the gem to use as a profession. It's not like everybody else where they have to go back in that boardroom and stuff like that, a little different. I had the way.

• 1:28:30Lewis Howes?

  You could get it all out.

• 1:28:30Speaker 00

  I could literally get it all out and that was my job. So it's not like I could go do this for an hour and then make it three hours if I wanted to. A CEO of a company can only make it maybe an hour and then they still got to handle that board meeting and stuff. But I think what coexists is making sure that you got it out in that period of time.

• 1:28:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:53Speaker 00

  So then you don't hold on to it so much because it will make you a sore winner. And you won't deliver your message because it'll mess with that frequency of your voice. And because real ones can see, oh, man, he's hurting. That's why he's lashing out on Twitter, Facebook, this and that. There's something different with him.

• 1:29:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:13Speaker 00

  He's smiling, but he's not happy. And I would look at some of my old pictures and I would realize there's many years where I, yeah. I thought I was happy, but I was masking it.

• 1:29:26Speaker 00

  Mask my divorce, mask getting screwed over in business, mask, mask, mask, you know, mask dad dying, stepmom dying, still winning during those years though. So when you win in,

• 1:29:39Speaker 00

  I just labeled things that happen to everybody, but I still had to be the best in the world. It's not for me to do this, it's for the fact that I knew what I was dealing with and I'm like, and I, even now, I'm like, how the hell did you do that? Cause I have to speak to people about these things.

• 1:29:55Speaker 00

  I focused on winning. A lot of people think that winning is such a bad thing. When the chips are down, man, there's winners and losers, man. That's it. And everybody's got a gift to themselves, to the world, man, and you give yourself an opportunity to be successful by understanding that it will rain, but it also will shine, the sun will come out eventually, man, like it, but if you're in a dark place, man, be, be your own light. Yeah. I can't be my own light being negative all the time. You can only go so far with that. Now, I'm the first one to raise his hand, both hands and say, using the dark side is dope. But at some point,

• 1:30:38Speaker 00

  even Darth Vader realized he was anakin, man. And he didn't like it. Mm hmm. He didn't like it at the very end, though. I'm fortunate to realize that um, there's a time and place for that, dark side. Mm hmm. I had to mature and to understand that it's always, it's still within me. I can transfer this into business, into everything uh, I put my mind to, based on my experiences. But I can do it much more mature. And I can do it with a heart of knowing that I just love people. Yeah. The reason why I competed so hard is because I really loved people. I still do, because I realize

• 1:31:20Speaker 00

  if someone was to make a mural of me, that means that they love this physique so much that they actually, this is not their physique. Right. These are not like, just like some stick figures that they're doing, this is like real, like thirty foot murals in different countries and stuff. Like I can show you online, like you're like, what the heck? This person put a lot of time and effort, his own resources, her own resources, people, like I said, the tattoos and stuff like that, wait a minute.

• 1:31:41Speaker 00

  This is inspirational. I want people to aspire to be like this. Not like me, but like to want better for their own life. You know, you talk about the school of greatness. Everybody can be great. Yeah. But when you're hungry for greatness, that's one thing, man. I've been starving for greatness. There's a difference. Yeah. See. So before you decide to use that, that's mine.

• 1:32:05Speaker 00

  But it is. It's one thing to be hungry. Everybody been hungry. It's different when you're starving. Why were you starving? What made you have that? I wanted to win. I knew what it felt like in.

• 1:32:16Speaker 00

  Whether to be an A grade on a test. Excellence is excellence. Break down, how does it feel to do things the right way? Does it feel good or not? It feels good. When you run through a marathon, people, there's some people that run through the finish line like, oh, no problem. And there's that one person, they look like they dying. And they crawl through that finish line. There's always the one person.

• 1:32:39Speaker 00

  It felt like they were dying and they still finished. And within an hour. It's not that they can do it again, but they could probably run 400 meters if they really had to.

• 1:32:51Speaker 00

  I hated running the 400 meters. I was a one in the deuce. That's it. When I had to run that four by four in high school, I hated. They should want to puke every time. But. Okay, so you puked. Thirty minutes later, oh, let's go for burgers. You know what I mean? But what did that feel like to cross the line? That's life. It's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt like hell. You're gonna want to pass out during the squats. So I always tell people, if I were to say, hey, let's go train arms or chest, everybody sign up. Train legs or maybe back. Especially legs. Oh, man, uh, what happened was, you know, the wife and the kid, you know, like, it's gonna take too much time. And I don't want to slow you down, Phil, but.

• 1:33:37Speaker 00

  What changed?

• 1:33:39Speaker 00

  Negative belief.

• 1:33:41Speaker 00

  You asked me to go boxing tomorrow.

• 1:33:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:43Speaker 00

  Okay. I might have to do it just because it's something different.

• 1:33:46Lewis Howes?

  Sure. Try it out.

• 1:33:48Speaker 00

  I mean, I'm gonna be a novice.

• 1:33:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:51Speaker 00

  I might fall in love with this. Maybe this is a sign that I shouldn't do it or not. But you don't know what you don't know.

• 1:33:58Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:33:59Speaker 00

  And I think variety is the spice of life, man.

• 1:34:02Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely, man.

• 1:34:03Speaker 00

  And you have to ask yourself, so why? Cause I'm not good enough. I look stupid. He's better. What are they gonna think? Okay, we just said all kind of negative stuff. Let's talk about the positives. I get good cardio from this. I get to learn a new skill. I get to have a moment with someone I just met.

• 1:34:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:23Speaker 00

  Um, this could turn into a new hobby that I can actually afford. And, and like I said, I said a useful skill.

• 1:34:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:31Speaker 00

  That could turn into something more relatable. Cause I'm meeting all other type of athletes.

• 1:34:37Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 1:34:38Speaker 00

  And I could say, man, you can't bodybuild and I can't box, but man, we could talk about, you know.

• 1:34:43Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 1:34:44Speaker 00

  And it's just new the conversation. It's like when you learn a new language, you learn a little bit of here, a little bit of there. Why not just learn a little bit here, a little bit there?

• 1:34:51Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:34:51Speaker 00

  And I have to say, sitting here with you, I really appreciate it. Because I know you get to meet a lot of different type of people.

• 1:34:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. I'm curious, what would you say is the greatest mental skill that you developed?

• 1:35:05Lewis Howes?

  Whether it was in the gym training, whether it was visualizing at night when you're thinking about, uh, you know, the events you were gonna compete at. Was it the strategy? Was it the nutrition game? Was it the ability to not feel any pain or go beyond the pain? And just do rep after rep, even when you knew you're just ripping, you know, your muscles? What was that the greatest skill that you developed?

• 1:35:30Lewis Howes?

  Was it a belief in yourself?

• 1:35:31Speaker 00

  I wasn't afraid of myself.

• 1:35:35Speaker 00

  I wasn't afraid of myself, meaning I decided to put no limitations on myself. That really summarizes everything, right? Like, I would still go to amateur bodybuilding shows. You know, obviously, I would do guest appearances and stuff, but I'd still go to the pre-shows and watch people. Where you learn? Hmm, from amateurs. This guy's a really good poser. Maybe I should try that. I never heard about this diet, maybe I try that in the off-season. Hmm, and I get to travel around the world. So I get to do seminars, this and that, talk about what I believe. But then, you know, I'd start being able to meet with different doctors. Um, I, I, I think my willingness to try new things, especially on the recovery side,

• 1:36:18Speaker 00

  because I knew that if I could recover faster, smarter than everybody else, I could have more frequency of training. So if you can't recover in bodybuilding, like, forget it. I mean, like, you know, we put through people through workout, like, oh, I'm too sore to go back the next day. It's like, but what if I could teach you how to recover faster? So I learned that. So I knew how to recover faster. And then, obviously,

• 1:36:38Speaker 00

  I enjoyed hurting people's feelings.

• 1:36:46Speaker 00

  How so? Just by dominating? Yeah. Yeah. It's like a road game. You know the feeling, man? Blow them out by thirty, yeah. Just blow them out. Yeah. And I'm just being honest. Mm-hmm. It felt, it felt awesome to know that I had that much rent in their head. Mm-hmm. I would screw with people so bad, like, as far as, like, the competitors. And maybe, I guess we should ask them, but I would train multiple times a day, but I wouldn't put it on social media of me showing you that I'm training, but I'd show you that I'm there. Mm-hmm. So if you're over in Italy, Egypt, whatever, I'm training at ten PM, Mountain Standard Time,

• 1:37:30Speaker 00

  you're just now waking up, or you're just getting your day going. Phil's already in the gym. When you go to sleep, Phil's in the gym. Just messing with people all day long. All day long, cuz I have keys to the gym. Wow. So I was just relentless in my approach. And if you showed signs of weakness, huh, I was gonna expose it. Wow. But I was humble enough to know that if you, like you talk about boxing, so like if a person has a good, you know, jab, then you know how to stay away from it. You try to neutralize that opponent's strategy, especially their strengths. So then they have to deal with yours. Yes. And you minimize your weaknesses at the same time, so bodybuilding, the same thing. You have big legs, I don't have as big legs, doesn't mean I have to have them bigger than yours. Maybe I can find out what I'm really good at.

• 1:38:14Speaker 00

  For me, I was always good at very good conditioning and I had more bubbly, like rounder physique. Yeah, yeah. So therefore, I didn't have to get three hundred pounds in the offseason. I could be two seventy offseason, but I could look bigger than everybody else when I stood next to them. At two seventy offseason, and then pre-contest, I would be two forty, two forty-five. They would be three hundred pounds. Holy cow. Two hundred eighty pounds, I still beat them. How? Because I focused on the shape. I focused on what I was really good at. See, they were so concerned with being the biggest person. Size, yeah. And they couldn't get, and they didn't allow themselves. See, they didn't allow themselves to adopt a different philosophy. They didn't even try. By the time they tried, it was too late. Because now they're asking their body to do something last minute. I was like, nah, man, you guys should just focus on being conditioned and see where, see where it goes.

• 1:38:59Speaker 00

  So I was always willing to, um, listen to myself, not listen to others. But my greatest strength was just my competitive spirit. I think ultimately, I just, I raised everybody's game level. If they, if they said that I didn't, then they're lying. But I've had people on record say that when we knew that Phil Heath was coming back in twenty twenty. We stepped up. We stepped up our game. We're in the gym a couple more times a day. And even the fans knew. If Phil comes back, man, like, you know, and, and that's good to know because we, so, it's really good to know that you get people to believe in, in your own expectations too. They may not have believed that first, but then they, they believe in your standards. Yeah. Because you're gonna prove it.

• 1:39:43Speaker 00

  It's one thing to like run your mouth and not have the goods. Yeah. You got the goods. Oh, no. Look at this. Uh huh.

• 1:39:56Speaker 00

  Larry Bird did it, Jordan did it, everybody done it. Usain Bolt? Yeah, man. I'm like, you're, no, there is no way you. You work too hard. Hey, if you didn't bring it, man, sucks for you. Michael Phelps splashing the water. He letting them know.

• 1:40:13Speaker 00

  Better brought you lunch, man. If you ain't ready, if you're not for peak, top performance, if this isn't the, the best of your life. Aw, man, you just got a front row seat to watching me do it. Watching me do it. My whole goal was letting people know who the hell I am, giving them a show. But then in life, I should be able to transition and take that, knowing who I am.

• 1:40:41Speaker 00

  If I'm a public speaker, I gotta know who the hell I am to convey a message. Yes. I gotta be willing to write down notes, review film of myself. How was my body language? Oh, maybe I cursed too much. Maybe I said this too many times. Maybe I said, uh, or the. Maybe I wasn't comfortable. What was going on that day? Oh, you got a bad phone call, this and that and the other, or you lost a business deal. Well, that, let me readjust. See, I looked at every posing routine that I ever done. And I normally wore the same color of trunks every year, just so I could compare. I even micromanaged every, um, uh, posing that I did getting ready for the show.

• 1:41:22Speaker 00

  I would get on the scale, but I'd also have the food diary of what I ate.

• 1:41:29Speaker 00

  What I also trained, because let's say 10 weeks out from the Mr. Olympia. Last year, I was 260 pounds or 270 pounds. Let's say I was 270 pounds 10 weeks out. But my chest looks flat. Did I look at my diet and look at what I trained the day before or the day of? Maybe my chest is flat because I just trained legs and my legs look bigger than 10 weeks out the previous year because it was flip flopped. See, I micromanaged everything because you're gonna have this self doubt. It's like when, I remember Tim Grover saying this, like he counted how many steps Michael Jordan took in a practice and different points on the floor and this and that. Yes, that matters. That is the point one percent that one must take.

• 1:42:13Speaker 00

  Sales guy, how many phone calls did you actually make? Yes. How long did you hem and haw on the phone with someone that was already sold? That you could have said, alright Louis, like that's cool man, we'll chat later, I got some more calls to make man, I know you got, got things to do. Talk, give the wife and kid hug and kiss.

• 1:42:31Speaker 00

  But if I spend too much time with you, I'm not, I could have. Less productivity. Yeah. So, all of this stuff matters. So, I was always about. Going all out. Reinventing everything. But understanding. When you talk about lifting, like, oh, you gotta put on the music, this and that and the other, but were you really feeling it though? Were you feeling every rep the best that you could? Maybe not. Maybe not, but maybe the, you got through the set. Okay, well, I can shoot two and free throws, but I ain't Steph Curry. There's a difference. Sure. I can shoot them. We can all shoot them. But can we make ten out of ten, or, I'm sure Steph Curry could probably make a hundred out of a hundred, or ninety-nine out of a hundred. If you give him an opportunity.

• 1:43:15Speaker 00

  I'd probably make seventy-five, maybe eighty. There's a difference. Break down the mechanics. Am I confident? Yeah. Break everything down. So, I have to now do that in business as an entrepreneur, I have to do it continuously in my current relationship, I've been married before, so that didn't work. So, let's break that down. I've conquered certain things with that. Immaturity, this and that, like a communication, lack of accountability, lack, lack, lack. Also acknowledge the good stuff, but what can I learn from this and actually learn from it now that I'm in a new relationship? Yeah. Cause I can't ruin this one. Because now the common denominator is me. Yeah, of course. Right? But how many people? Are open to criticism? Feedback.

• 1:44:00Speaker 00

  Feedback? But on self accountability. When you talk about, like, David Goggins, a huge fan of his, I, I love that guy, I gotta meet him someday. Yeah, he's great. Accountability mirrors are important, man, what do you say to yourself in the morning? What do you say every time? Self-talk is so freaking important. You're living in a world where. Man, stuff is messed up.

• 1:44:26Speaker 00

  Things on the phone will make you doubt who the hell you are. You're comparing your life to strangers nonstop. Based on something that you saw.

• 1:44:34Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:44:34Speaker 00

  That you can't quantify.

• 1:44:37Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:44:38Speaker 00

  If that's real or not. Oh, but he's on a yacht and this and that, but man, like that's his friend's yacht. That's his friend's car. Or maybe he's money laundering.

• 1:44:47Lewis Howes?

  Right, who knows?

• 1:44:47Speaker 00

  You don't know.

• 1:44:48Lewis Howes?

  You don't know what he's doing.

• 1:44:49Speaker 00

  Maybe he's doing it right. Take the characteristics of how he really got there, how she got there.

• 1:44:54Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 1:44:55Speaker 00

  Maybe start digging that out, and if you can't find anything from that, maybe they are a fraud. You can probably figure it out pretty quick.

• 1:45:00Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 1:45:01Speaker 00

  But we have to be better concerning and discerning individuals to figure those things out.

• 1:45:06Lewis Howes?

  So true, discernment is key, man. What's the thing you're most excited about now? You mentioned this documentary. What are you doing now? And this, this new chapter, this kind of like what you're creating in your life?

• 1:45:19Speaker 00

  My goal with the documentary, that'll be released later this year.

• 1:45:24Lewis Howes?

  That's exciting, where's that going?

• 1:45:25Speaker 00

  So that's the cool part, is that, the cool part is that I've never had an opportunity to have it be with someone like a Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson.

• 1:45:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, they're awesome.

• 1:45:37Speaker 00

  To have more eyeballs from like Netflix, ESPN, and NBC Universal. It's just amazing, it's such a good blessing to have people that are very interested in purchasing this. So we are very excited to unveil this at a film festival here later this year.

• 1:45:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow, I'm going to come watch it.

• 1:45:57Speaker 00

  We are definitely pumped for that. Obviously, it's, it's something of my life's work. It talks about a lot of the things that we discussed here in more depth, and you get to see it rather than just to hear it. I'm very happy about it.

• 1:46:12Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:46:13Speaker 00

  Because it's about me as a human being, not just a bodybuilder.

• 1:46:19Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:46:20Speaker 00

  And I enjoyed filming that. That produces so many other things, obviously entrepreneurship, you know, I'm looking into different endeavors, whether it be in supplements, clothing, stuff like that. I'm working with various brands at the moment. And I'm actually considering, um.

• 1:46:39Speaker 00

  You know, being a part of the Olympia in a different way, whether it be onstage as a commentator or actually maybe not competing, but maybe giving back in a certain way. You know, I actually got with a company who I'm partnered with, it's a hormone clinic that actually, our mission, well, I went with them because I had COVID pneumonia and I needed to get that blood work done to make sure that my blood cell counts and all that stuff were intact and liver kidney enzymes were intact. There was a lot of death in the sport. In bodybuilding. In bodybuilding over the last couple of years. Really? Over forty. Forty people died? The guy that beat me in twenty eighteen, Sean Roden, passed last year. So I had to, you know, go on tour with a lot of these guys and meet their families and,

• 1:47:22Speaker 00

  you know, I always say you don't know what you don't know. Where are the deaths coming from? We don't know. So you could say it's animal steroid use, right? You could easily say, that's the first thing someone's gonna say. Well, it could be a combination of that, it could be a combination of, you know, were they just too big during their offseason? Because if you're three hundred pounds, you're three hundred pounds. I don't care if you're muscular. It's a lot on your organs, right? Exactly, so. Joints, organs, everything. And then, are you really getting a physical? Every woman that watches this gets a yearly. How many men get a yearly? Unless you're playing college sports, you know. And when I say yearly, like yearly physical, real physical, right? I'm forty two years old, I raised my hand saying, I didn't get my prostate exam. I probably should go do that, should probably get routine blood work.

• 1:48:03Speaker 00

  And then I thought, well, okay, if you're not gonna compete this year, what can you do to, to help the sport that you love? Get with a company that will help provide blood work for athletes. Not to make it mandatory, but to give them an option, because you've got choices and consequences, right? So you could say, well, these athletes maybe not, maybe they feel like they can't afford it, maybe they're just scared to do it, but maybe they need to hear from someone like myself. So, using my platform and actually getting with a company that's, I can actually speak to, and that's the beautiful part about being who I am. I can actually sit down with CEOs and actually have dialogue. Sure. And ask questions. And one of the questions was like, would you guys be interested in maybe partnering up with the Olympia?

• 1:48:47Speaker 00

  And whoever qualifies for Olympia, maybe we give them a discount or a free blood panel. Sure. Just so they know certain things, and if they wanted to get it done repeatedly throughout their prep, they can. So in the event that there was a marker that is out of whack. At least you're informed. You can catch it hopefully early. You can catch it early on. If you're a female that says, you know what, I was, I wanna have kids. Catch it early on. You, now you know. So, it's all about gift giving. Mm-hmm. I could easily just say, oh yeah, I work with this hormone clinic and I'm on, you know, testosterone just to keep myself going and feeling energized and this and that.

• 1:49:25Speaker 00

  Or I could say, you know what, I want health benefits for athletes. I wanna make sure that we don't see death. Right. I wa- I wanna make sure that these guys and girls are doing the things a more healthier way. And if they don't have, cause not every pro is making a ton of money. See, so, and maybe they don't have those resources available to them. Sure. If I can bring them those resources through what I've accomplished, then, then that's not for me to be on some pedestal. That's for me to share. That's for me to say, don't worry. You're gonna be okay. Because I'm very thankful that I'm forty-two years young. Mm-hmm. And I get my blood work done every three, four months. I know what's out of whack, I know how to adjust it. The beautiful thing about being a competitive bodybuilder is that you do know how food works. Yeah. You know how PEDs work, you know how everything works.

• 1:50:08Speaker 00

  But it's about having a certain type of understanding. That you can just sleep well at night. So, you know, that's another endeavor that I'm very excited about, you know, and a, and a ton of other things, you know. Overall, my, my goal is to be a man of service, no matter what. And whether you're a competitor, whether you're just a, a person that's just wanting to look good, to feel great, have the confidence. Sure.

• 1:50:37Speaker 00

  Look, no further, I'm, I'm, I'm your guy, like, I'm your guy that will visit with you.

• 1:50:43Speaker 00

  No shout, no, no shade to any other professional athlete, but I'm more accessible. Sure, sure. I can go to a local gym. Yeah. We don't have like professional training facilities that only we can go to. Yeah. I can go to a local gym. I'm around. You can ask me a question. And this is about your life. I used to drive to the gym. And I'd cut through this cemetery to get there a little faster. And I remember, um, having the guys from Flex Mizing Muscle Fitness with me in the car, and they're like, why are you going, why are you talking about this? And I said, everybody's going there. Mm-hmm. Everybody.

• 1:51:24Speaker 00

  You see people embracing each other. See people crying, see people laughing, you see people celebrating, you see people, I mean mourning hard. And I have an opportunity to do something that I never thought I could do growing up.

• 1:51:40Speaker 00

  I have a privilege of being a professional at something where I get paid a lot of money. And to get to now share my experiences with people. Yeah. I'm working toward that. I'm working toward if something, one day I'm gonna be in the dirt. Mm hmm. Or be in the ocean or whatever, but.

• 1:52:01Speaker 00

  What will people, oh man.

• 1:52:04Speaker 00

  Holy smokes. Son, come here, grandson, come here. This man right here changed my life. Hmm. This is Phil Heath. Hmm. Well, who's Phil Heath? Well, he's seven time in Olympia, but it wasn't even about that. I met him at a store. And he was signing autographs, he talked to you. He held you when you're a kid. Hmm. Took a picture with you. That's cool. I'll show you too when you get home. I can't believe he's buried next to grandpa. Hmm. I look forward to that. Right. Because I get to meet so many people. So I wanna meet everybody. This world better open up and it's better stay open. I know that. It's where to hug everyone. I have to.

• 1:52:45Speaker 00

  I wanna cry with them. Mm hmm. I, I really do. Yeah. Because I know right now people are dealing with so much pain. Hmm. So much adversity.

• 1:53:00Speaker 00

  And so much uncertainty. Yeah.

• 1:53:05Speaker 00

  Young men, grown men, need strong men. Yeah. Cause the world is messed up, but it always has. Hmm. But I just feel like right now, like if I don't speak up, if I don't have these moments, if I don't put myself out there, if I don't let people see me, hear me. Say it's okay. I'm gonna meet people this weekend. I want them all to just, I didn't even bring an autograph. I brought no merch. People were like, why are you bringing merch? My team were like, why are you bringing merch? Cause I'll be too busy selling merch. Mm-hmm. Just wanna say hi to people. I just wanna hang out. Yeah. I have the same, you know, I even told the organizer, you don't have to give me this massive booth, just give me a stand. Yeah, say hi to people. I just wanna say hi. Because you can buy, you can buy stuff another time. I actually took everything offline.

• 1:53:50Speaker 00

  Because I just, I needed time to just recalibrate everything. And this is what I like. I love competing, but I love meeting people. Anyone that is lined up to meet me at an event will probably tell you the same story. Which is, it didn't matter what you look like, it didn't matter what, if you're buying something or not. I gave you my time. Mm-hmm. And I wanna continue to do that. Now, I know I only have so much time to give, but I'm gonna give it. I will give you my time because I love to talk and I love to hang out with people. And I know everybody has a story. And I don't want everybody, I don't want people to feel like they're alone. I don't want people to feel like, oh, this guy has this big ass exterior and he's, and he has no depth.

• 1:54:34Speaker 00

  Or they have all these questions and they're afraid to ask. It can be the dumbest question in the world. Mm-hmm. It could be the most common question in the world. I'm gonna give you my time. Yeah. And I think that's, I think that's something that, um, people need. Yeah. Because I, I

• 1:54:50Speaker 00

  I have to finish this back nine of my personal golf course strong. Yeah. I gotta do it, man. Because I know without focusing on money, there's enlightenment that awaits. Mm-hmm. And my future self depends on how I stay in gratitude during these moments in time. Absolutely, man. My future self depends on how I handle the good, the bad, and the freaking ugly. Mm-hmm. And how much personal work am I willing to do? I literally have had to make some nasty, not, I shouldn't say nasty, I was gonna say nasty phone calls. But I hated confrontation. Yeah. I, I hate it with friends, family, et cetera. I've had to make those phone calls.

• 1:55:34Speaker 00

  And just confront and say, this hurt me. Or if I hurt you, I didn't know. And I'm apologizing for that. I can't go back and change it though. But I can change who I am today. And I have done that. And if you feel that great, if you don't, case or else or up, man. I gotta keep going though. Good chatting with you and I gotta go. I got more things to do. Overall, brother, I just wanna continue to impact this world. I just wanna do in a different space. I don't wanna have to wear posing trunks to do it.

• 1:56:09Lewis Howes?

  I love it, man. I'm excited to watch the documentary. Wherever it comes out. But at the film festival or on the streamer or wherever it is on TV and the movie, the movies. You've got amazing content, man. I love your inspiring content on Instagram. People can check you out there. Phil Heath on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all the places, YouTube as well. This is a question I ask everyone at the end. It's called the three truths. So imagine a hypothetical scenario. It's your last day on earth, many years away. You live as long as you wanna live. You accomplish everything in the back nine, maybe go 18 more rounds, whatever it is.

• 1:56:46Lewis Howes?

  And you live a beautiful rest of your life. But for whatever reason, everything you create, all your content, your information, the videos of you, social media, this interview, it's gone. It goes to another place. So when you go, all your information goes with you. No one has access to it anymore. But you get to leave behind three lessons with the world. Three things that you know to be true from all of your experiences that you would leave behind as your lessons. And this is all we would have. What would you say are yours, Phil? Three truths from you.

• 1:57:21Speaker 00

  Be as vulnerable as you can

• 1:57:24Speaker 00

  with yourself and with the people who you love. Learn from every mistake.

• 1:57:31Speaker 00

  And always have faith in yourself.

• 1:57:34Lewis Howes?

  I love those, man.

• 1:57:37Lewis Howes?

  I got one final question for you, Phil, but before I ask it, I want to acknowledge you, man. It's been a pleasure to connect with you here and to see someone who is the epitome of a strong masculine man be vulnerable. You know, you haven't had a perfect life and you've made mistakes and things, no one's perfect. But you are the image, literally, on covers of every magazine of what it means to be the biggest, strongest, most masculine man in today's society.

• 1:58:05Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:58:06Lewis Howes?

  Projected, right? Winning the Mr. Olympia seven times in a row, all these different things. And yet you show up with a vulnerable, service-based heart. And I really appreciate and acknowledge that from you.

• 1:58:17Speaker 00

  And I thank you so much.

• 1:58:18Lewis Howes?

  Sharing how to be okay with yourself as a man when you lose or when you get second place or third place, that it's not the end of the world, that it's just a lesson. And there's another, there's another element for you to grow from that. So I really acknowledge your journey, your growth, your incredible success and where you're at now in your life, man. It's really beautiful.

• 1:58:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:58:40Lewis Howes?

  And I'm excited to see what you create moving forward.

• 1:58:42Speaker 00

  I am too, and I just want to tell you, it's a real honor and privilege to be here with you and share this time because, you know, I think timing is everything.

• 1:58:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:58:52Speaker 00

  We could have done this years ago and not have the same interaction, right? And I definitely was not in the same space.

• 1:58:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:58:59Speaker 00

  So I always look at these moments of saying, "Thank you because you allowed me a safe space."

• 1:59:05Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 1:59:06Speaker 00

  To be that way.

• 1:59:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course, man.

• 1:59:07Speaker 00

  And that says a lot about you as a human being because in order to get that out of me, you have to have a good heart.

• 1:59:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:59:13Speaker 00

  So I appreciate that very much. And I wish you all the best as well because, you know, life throws you a lot of curveballs, brother, but you can step in the batter's box and take a freaking swing, man.

• 1:59:22Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely, man.

• 1:59:22Speaker 00

  I know you're doing it and I wish you nothing but success. But most importantly, you know, just that confidence of knowing that you're giving it everything you've got.

• 1:59:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:59:35Speaker 00

  That you can want more. And I know you already have it, but it's just like you want more because I want people like yourself to elevate. Because when you're friends with people or you look at people like yourself, to me, I'm like. I like what he's doing. Hmm. Proximity is everything. Yeah, man. I wanna be affiliated with real people that are doing. Yeah, man. That want more, though. Uh huh. And I know you want a ton more. Of course, man. And I love. Just getting started, man. That's what I'm saying. Just getting started. That's what I'm saying. It's like, I just wanna see it because. Of course. How cool would that be of allowing like this space and time and you've met a ton of people. Yeah. You can only be so-called friends with so many people. But just to know like he's over what thirteen hundred episodes and stuff. I look at that and I tell myself, why not me?

• 2:00:20Speaker 00

  And why not right now? Yeah, of course. And I have that Van Halen right now. Yeah. Right now. It's good, man. Can't wait for tomorrow. Yep. Right now. That's great, man. Come on, it's everything. Yeah. Right, I'm gonna probably have to come out to that next time I speak. That's good, man. Because. Because think about it, right now. And right now, you're doing this. Right now, we're having this. Two, two masculine dudes like talking about stuff that really impacts our lives and other people's lives. And I just pray to God that people receive this as well as they can. Of course, man. I just wanna tell you, thanks, bro. Of course, man. I appreciate it, man. I got your back. Final question, what's your definition of greatness? Ooh.

• 2:01:03Speaker 00

  How you impact other people's lives to do great things.

• 2:01:08Speaker 00

  I believe in a higher power, I believe in God, so he gave me a lot of cool things.

• 2:01:14Speaker 00

  But in order for him to be happy, I had to use it. Yeah. And I gave it all, him all the, all the glory because I have used a lot of it and I've messed up a lot, but.

• 2:01:25Speaker 00

  You know, I continue to work harder just to show him that, you know, you gave me a lot of great things and I didn't waste it. But I feel like I have an opportunity to give people something too. Maybe it's just a reminder of who the hell they are. Yeah. And go after it. But just having that will to, to go after it when the chips are down. And having that journey and that story of triumph, that's what develops greatness. You have to go through it. Yes. It ain't gonna be perfect. In order to be great at something, you must learn how to deal with the crap. Yeah. And it ain't the same crap as your crap. Right. Mine is different and you're in a different phase in your life than I'm in in my life. I can't, therefore I can't compare.

• 2:02:10Speaker 00

  You have to strive for your own personal greatness in everything you do. And that requires vulnerability. That requires a heavy faith-based system, in my opinion. And you just, in order to overcome fear, you have to become freaking fearless and be okay with just knowing who the hell you are.

• 2:02:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:27Speaker 00

  And say it. It's okay to be great. It's okay to say it. We did it this, this big. I'm gonna be the best soccer player. I'm gonna be the best lawyer. I'm gonna be the best. And it stopped at thirteen. It definitely stopped at eighteen. It stopped at thirty, because people stopped asking you. Don't worry about everybody asking you. You tell yourself, I'm here to be great.

• 2:02:52Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 2:02:52Speaker 00

  I am not here to blend in. That is lame. I'm here to stand out.

• 2:02:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:59Speaker 00

  Because when I stand out,

• 2:03:04Speaker 00

  I know in my heart that I gave it my all and I became great based on caring about my dreams and creating reality. And knowing that life has to suck. When I go through stuff, I'm like, ooh, this burns. This hurts. What's on the other side of that pain? Greatness.

• 2:03:27Lewis Howes?

  That's it, man.

• 2:03:27Speaker 00

  That's it, man.

• 2:03:28Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 2:03:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:03:30Lewis Howes?

  My man, Phil.

• 2:03:31Speaker 00

  Yes, sir.

• 2:03:31Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it. The gift, the gift keeps on giving, you know? I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's show with all the important links. And also make sure to share this with a friend and subscribe over on Apple Podcasts as well. I really love hearing feedback from you guys, so share a review over on Apple and let me know what part of this episode resonated with you the most. And if no one's told you lately, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.