Hozier Opens Up: “I Was At War With Myself” - How to Begin to HEAL & UNBLOCK Your Creativity

Today, we're joined by the incredibly talented musician, Hozier. At just 24 years old, Andrew Hozier-Byrne captured the world's attention with his hit song 'Take Me To Church.' We'll explore how he navigated the immense success and pressure that followed, and whether he experienced imposter syndrome amidst the praise. Andrew will also share his insights on balancing the desire to serve his audience while staying true to his art, and how he learned to prioritize his passion for music over chasing chart rankings. Now, let’s dive into today’s powerful episode with Hozier! Listen to his new album, Unreal, Unearth - OUT NOW! In this episode you will learnStrategies for navigating the pressures success and maintaining authenticity in your life. The importance of self-reflection and personal growth in overcoming challenges and evolving over time. Techniques for sustaining energy and enthusiasm in demanding careers and long-term projects. The role of spirituality and emotional connection and how to connect with large audiences on a deeper level. Insights into the creative process and the mindset required for successfully releasing and promoting new work. For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1596For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Rick Rubin – https://link.chtbl.com/1536-podZane Lowe – https://link.chtbl.com/1452-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  At just 24 years old, Andrew Hozier Byrne captured the world's attention with his hit song, "Take Me to Church." Today, we'll explore how he navigated the immense success and pressure that followed, and whether he experienced imposter syndrome amidst the praise. Andrew will also share his insights on balancing the desire to serve his audience while staying true to his art, and how he learned to prioritize his passion for music over chasing chart rankings. I'm Lewis Howes, and this is The School of Greatness. Now, let's dive into today's episode with Hozier.

• 0:33Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I honestly felt I was never gonna write another song.

• 0:35Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 0:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, sometimes during the pandemic. And I hit this kind of wall where I couldn't move forward. And I felt I'd written my very last song.

• 0:43Speaker 02

  He first made noise with his breakout single we were all obsessed with, "Take Me to Church," earning a rare diamond certification. And since then, it has become one of the top 30 most streamed songs ever on Spotify. Please welcome singer-songwriter Hozier.

• 0:58Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So I was absolutely at war with myself constantly.

• 1:00Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:01Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:01Lewis Howes?

  How did that look like on a daily basis? What would that mean?

• 1:03Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It's like I couldn't have a thought without an opposing thought, you know? So it's like my brain was kind of split in two. I'd have a thought, and then a thought to combat with that. The artist's question of, okay, like, it's knowing that art has such potential to heal. It's easier to just, once you make the conversation with yourself, well, what am I trying to make sense of within myself? It's quite paralyzing to be confronted with. And the great, great question of, will this heal somebody? Will this fix this thing?

• 1:33Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Maybe music is special in that. You can discover a song at any time, you know? You can discover an artist from the 80s or 70s, 50s. But you gain what you create in that moment as you discover it. It's something that's spontaneous and it's happening now.

• 1:45Lewis Howes?

  What is the biggest thing you still struggle with today?

• 1:47Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Really? Great question, but like, very challenging one. But yeah, I kind of want to phone a friend.

• 1:55Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring, iconic Andrew Hozier Byrne in the house. My man.

• 2:03Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Hey, thank you so much for having me.

• 2:04Lewis Howes?

  So glad that you're here. I remember about 10, 11 years ago, when Take Me to Church came out, and it was kind of the anthem for the world, I feel like. It was on repeat, on my playlist, on everyone's playlist, and it really catapulted you into another level of success, stardom, financial gain, and opportunities. You know, one of the most downloaded, or one of the most streamed songs of all time on Spotify, 13 times platinum, diamond certified, Grammy nominated. I mean, every type of award you could get, you received or nominated for at a very young age, 22, I believe, right?

• 2:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  A little bit old. I think I was 24.

• 2:45Lewis Howes?

  24, okay. So 24, I'm curious, if I would have had that much fame, success, money at 24, I think I would have, my ego would have got the best of me. I would have probably, I don't know, done things that I would have been ashamed of later in life. I probably would have like, I don't know, just not been the best person with that much. Everyone tell me, you're incredible, you're a gift to the world, you're successful. How did you navigate success that early? And the pressure to live up to some potential at 24, when the world was watching and listening to you?

• 3:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah. And I think, thank you. I think, I think, first of all, I give yourself some credit. I think, I think you, I think you navigated very gracefully, you know, and it's when you're in that situation, it is, there's something of your makeup or your ingredients just steers you, hopefully, in the right way. What I will say is that I had really good, I had good friends around me, you know, I had a grounded sense around me. I had a very grounded upbringing. And some of this is maybe cultural and some of this is personal. Cultural side of it, it being Irish, I was naturally suspicious of kind words being said about me or to me, you know, at a time when, especially coming

• 4:04Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  to a city like this, or at a time when, yeah, that's the song was, was making the rounds, and it was, it was, it was a hit. You get a lot of attention and I think my natural response to that oftentimes was not suspicion necessarily, but a kind of a guarded skepticism, you know.

• 4:22Lewis Howes?

  So you didn't buy into your own hype?

• 4:24Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, that was it. That's the way of putting it, you know, and some of that's personal as well, too. I'm not great at receiving praise. Working on that as time goes on, as life moves on. So it never, I never internalized it, you know, I never internalized the noise around the success of the song as something that I would graft onto my person, you know. And that's something that I think hopefully stood to me. I could maybe have done with patting myself on the back one. Once.

• 4:59Lewis Howes?

  Did you not give yourself the credit where you're just kind of like, well, it's still not good enough, or I should be better, or I need to do it again?

• 5:06Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, it was more that I felt, maybe I had, I felt like I hadn't, because it was the first song I'd ever released.

• 5:14Lewis Howes?

  Gosh, that's crazy, man.

• 5:16Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, so it felt like, and it's a song I just like, I threw together in my, in my parents' attic. I had moved back to, I'd moved back home from living in Dublin. And I realized I did not have, you know, it was like that point where I was like, okay, long term, I can't keep paying this rent. I'm going to move back if I'm going to be a musician. I was staying with my parents for a brief time. And then, yeah, I just threw the song together in my attic.

• 5:40Lewis Howes?

  Like, what, a day, a couple hours, a few days?

• 5:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  To be fair, I was writing that song for, like lyrically, for over a year.

• 5:48Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 5:49Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So I had been sitting on this egg, this like lyrical thing. And but it came together musically rather fast. But maybe there was some part of me that felt like, have I earned this, you know? Did I, you know, have I been doing this for 10 years, you know? And I'd been sitting, I'd been obviously stewing over writing music. I'd been writing songs for years at that point. I wasn't sharing them with the world, but I'd been writing them in. To myself and for myself. And I had been for a couple of years doing sort of open mic stuff.

• 6:20Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 6:20Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Working on other people's projects. But it felt very quick and very early. So there was a, an imposter syndrome thing.

• 6:27Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 6:28Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, of course. Yeah, big time. So that's probably another thing that, that I was like, okay, yeah, it's, it's, you know, maybe I felt I had more to do, you know?

• 6:38Lewis Howes?

  Like you hadn't proved yourself enough and done the reps enough or?

• 6:42Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I had a, yeah.

• 6:43Lewis Howes?

  But you were doing the open mic for a couple of years, you said. I think I saw you were in a, you know, a choir for a while, an orchestra choir for a while as well. So you'd been in music. I think I said, I learned that you picked up a guitar at fifteen. So at that time, about nine years at least of guitar, singing, songwriting, open mics.

• 7:01Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 7:01Lewis Howes?

  So wasn't that you just started the year before?

• 7:04Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  True, true. No, I, and as, as time goes on, I'm, I'm able to sort of look back and go, no, you know what? I, I, you know, and part of that is, is that's a personal journey of going, no, like it, it happened because I did, like I worked like a, like a dog, you know? And to, to, to bring that song to, to where it, where it got to. At the time, I, I wasn't, I wasn't present in that, you know?

• 7:29Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 7:30Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And I don't think so.

• 7:31Lewis Howes?

  So in this first, I guess, six months after the song is released and you start to see this meteoric rise on the song's success, where you're getting invited to all the awards ceremonies, you're performing on stages with other big names now. Uh, and everyone wants to talk to you or interview you. What is going through your mind? Are you thinking, I'm not deserving of this or I'm not worthy of this? Or are you thinking I'm an imposter?

• 7:56Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I don't know. I think there's some switch that in your brain soon, soon as somebody says like, you know, I love your song or I love your, you know, great, great work on that or whatever. There's some switch in your brain that just like a, like this little psychic wall goes up and the, the compliment, the, the, whatever, the noise, the glitter and the roar of that moment just hits against that wall and falls, falls away.

• 8:20Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 8:21Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think so, yeah. I think, um. So it's a

• 8:25Lewis Howes?

  Did that, if you had that, you know, that wall, did you feel like it helped you in managing the pressure then because you weren't believing all of it quickly?

• 8:34Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Maybe so, maybe so. It's, there might be a coping mechanism to it in that it's the, the flip side of that is, is that, okay, you can shrug off then the pressure to be this thing rather than internalize this, this being, whatever that everyone else is experiencing around you as your, as yourself that you don't necessarily experience. And yeah, you don't have to deal with the weight of that or the pressure of that or the, the the duality of that. Maybe you're just like, I don't know what you're all, what, what you're all talking about, you know, I don't know what the hype is. And maybe that makes it easier. So there might be a coping element to it. Yeah.

• 9:12Lewis Howes?

  I feel like there's, there must be such a pressure for artists on that type of a platform and stage to create meaning around life for humanity, to have the answers to society's problems, to uh, help people heal with their pain and their problems. Do you ever felt like you were put in a position to try to, you know, answer the world's problems through your art too quickly before you actually lived life enough?

• 9:41Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It's a, that's a, it's such a broad, it's such a deep, broad question about like, about art or it's not necessarily its purpose, you know, or, or it's, it's potential maybe, you know, and and the artist's question of, okay, like, like it's knowing that art has such potential to heal and uh, to comfort and to offer a reflection or offer a new perspective or a new

• 10:13Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  window into meaning, especially around suffering. And there's plenty of that in the world. I think that, that can be a challenge, uh, maybe for, for any artist to even before they step into the creation of a work is, is, and I've, I've definitely felt this, is that you are confronted with the potential of that work and

• 10:37Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And that is, it's very difficult. And I think it's, it's easier to just, it, it, once you make the conversation with yourself and as to, okay, well, what am I trying to make sense of within myself?

• 10:51Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 10:51Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  What is coming up? What, you know, if I pull on this rope, what comes up from the well, you know, what's in that bucket? And then, okay, to, to, to try and feel that, get a sense of that, you know, it's, it's, I think that's maybe, that's the, the starting place. I think it's near, it's quite paralyzing to be confronted with. And the, the great, great question of will this heal somebody? Will this fix this thing?

• 11:18Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 11:19Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  That's impossible. And there is some part of you at some point, and I think, I don't know if, if you're in any way a sort of a, somebody who's tends to, you know, care deeply for people and, and, or is in any way a people pleaser, or is trying to fix people's problems around you. There is this, you're like, oh no, this must be all things to all people.

• 11:38Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 11:38Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And part of the challenge, I think, is, is letting go of that.

• 11:41Lewis Howes?

  So when you write that, you know, I'm assuming you'd written many songs before, Take Me To Church, you know, growing up, you're writing songs, but that was the first one that you kind of released into the world, I guess, right? Were you thinking ever, how is this going to impact others? When you write a song and put it out in the world, are you thinking more, this is how this impacts me, and I just want to share that with others?

• 12:05Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It was a little bit of both. I think there was two things. There was one thing I wanted, I wanted the song to speak to the legacy of, of that institution, of the institutionalized Roman Catholic Church, specifically in Ireland. I didn't think that that song was going to have an international audience. I, I didn't even think that that, that, that song was going to have like a broad Irish audience. I, I wrote this song as an unsigned, unknown, you know, artist.

• 12:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Who was just, I suppose there was an anger behind this. It was, it was, this is the, you know, knowing. And even did not know the extent of the legacy of that institution. You know, we had like a few years after its release. We're still, if you're familiar with, um, yeah, with a, with a, essentially a grave site that they found in a, in a town called Tomb in Galway. Where you'd been, um, I won't go into it now, but like all sorts of stuff with that legacy. So, so what I was just trying to process was the kind of personal, questions of the personal and the intimate and the, and the romantic and the sexual.

• 13:14Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And trying to take back what is divine in those things, take back what can be, what we might consider sacred in those things. Wrestling them back from, from the, uh, from, from an institution whose legacy is so harmful.

• 13:30Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:31Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So it was more that, you know, and, but there was never a, I, it, there was a thought as I was writing it, that yeah, there will be a very, very few people. Who will see what I'm doing here in this song and will appreciate it. But I thought it was like, I thought.

• 13:47Lewis Howes?

  Locals in Ireland or something.

• 13:49Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  A small audience.

• 13:50Lewis Howes?

  Pump crowd who's like, you're gonna go sing an open mic for and sing this song.

• 13:54Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, it would be, I was proud of the song, but I, I, beyond that, it was more, it was more in conversation with me. And it was, a lot of those lyrics I had in a notebook that I kept with me for a year at that point.

• 14:08Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 14:08Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So, yeah.

• 14:09Lewis Howes?

  I had, I had interviewed many bestselling authors, a, a handful who sold five, 10 million copies of their book. I had Liz Gilbert on one time, she wrote the book Eat, Pray, Love. And she did a famous TED Talk about how, you know, how to grapple with her best work or her most known work potentially being behind her.

• 14:32Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Right.

• 14:32Lewis Howes?

  Like, cause she sold 10 million copies, it was this global movie, it was like this phenomenon that took off in the world when, when she wrote it. And how to navigate life after potentially what could be the biggest success you could ever have. She was like, I probably won't write a book again that does another 10 million copies. Very rare to do that. Have you ever thought about that of like just how to navigate a long career with such a big hit early on and not let needing to chase downloads or streams or charts?

• 15:08Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 15:08Lewis Howes?

  Be the driver for you like your first single?

• 15:11Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah. And it's a tricky one and.

• 15:16Lewis Howes?

  And if it doesn't do that well, like, am I a failure or is something wrong? You know, do you ever think about that?

• 15:20Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah. And you know what? It's something that you gain. It's like a relationship thing as time goes on. I'm kind of laughing to myself. My, a member of my label team who's been with me since the very beginning, Betsy is next door. So she's going to hear me talk now about it. Yeah, I don't care about strange. No, no, no. Like, yeah. It's, of course, you love that the work is seen or heard by as many ears as possible if they connect with it. I think there is, and there is one part of you maybe that would love that. I think that as time

• 15:57Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  goes on, and even then, even 10 years ago, I recognize that this, and this is maybe what's most important to me, is that the music that I want to make and the music that I feel moved to make does not necessarily, necessarily belong in the spaces of the top 10. Music that is geared towards social spaces and party atmospheres, music that is like oftentimes points towards like an aspirational sort of whatever it is. A lot of the time it's club life or it's, it's music that celebrates or engages in like a kind of a conspicuous

• 16:41Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  consuming of, of life and its, and its pleasures, et cetera, you know, but one that isn't. But here, I can't, it would be a bit silly of me to. And to be all woe is me and wanna wanna write songs about, you know, whatever. The Roman Catholic Church or songs that that that, you know, the legacy of colonialism or occupation or something like that and go, why, why?

• 17:08Lewis Howes?

  Why is this in? Why is this hitting the world?

• 17:12Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Why is this in the clubs? Like, yeah. And so, but so it's not, it's not, it's just that I don't necessarily feel aligned, you know, and I'm okay with that. And what I am, but this is why I feel like so lucky. So I'm very much at peace with it not being, those are as well, those are oftentimes those are external, those are, that's just external validation. Again, it's that thing of like, when I was in that, I also wasn't fulfilled in any sort of like by that external validation in a very, in a personal way. Yes, there's all of these, you know, it's great and there's wonderful opportunities,

• 17:54Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  but I wasn't getting from that external validation. I wasn't getting a voice in my head saying, oh yeah, now I've arrived and now I feel good about myself. Now, this would be the same for anybody. I'm sure you're probably the very same. So reminding myself of that, you know, helps, but then also just to know that, and this is where I feel incredibly fortunate, I feel like I want for nothing, is that I can write, I write songs, I feel on my own terms with stuff that does, I do, you know, move me or I feel as, I feel moved to write. It's not exactly subject material all the time that that says, come on in, this is

• 18:35Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  easygoing, like listening, you know, and playing around with like literary influences like from centuries ago. And yes, I still see that I'm selling more tickets now than I was when Take Me To Church was hit. Yeah, like we're, I'm sending far more tickets for shows, right?

• 18:51Lewis Howes?

  Go, man.

• 18:52Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It's cool.

• 18:53Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think you're selling more a decade later? After, you know, your first big hit.

• 18:59Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think part of it is time, part of it is there's a whole new generation of people now that are exploring the work, who are maybe 10 years, 11 years old when, when my first songs came out.

• 19:08Lewis Howes?

  And they were listening to it then.

• 19:09Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And they were listening to it and, and, and what's, what's, it's like, it's like, cool. They were listening to it when they were 10 or 11 in the car as they were being driven to school. What's most to me is that they're buying tickets to come to the shows now.

• 19:20Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing.

• 19:21Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It's really, it's, yeah, and I, I feel really fortunate. I feel incredibly blessed at that. And I, I think part of it is that maybe it's just the nature of song is that it's, hopefully that the work is lasting and people are, have, have had 10 years to gain a relationship with the music. And it has been part of their lives for 10 years and, and in, in, in that way. Yeah, it's, it's, you know, and, and maybe music is, is special in that we can, you can discover a song at any time. You can discover an artist from the eighties or seventies, fifties. But you gain what you create in that moment as you discover it is something that's spontaneous and it's happening now.

• 20:04Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  You create a memory, you create a relationship with that work and that's of, of the moment. And if you could buy tickets to go and see that artist now, you would, you know, it doesn't.

• 20:14Lewis Howes?

  That's so true. Yeah. It's interesting, as you're saying this, I'm reflecting on my childhood, like my, my parents would play when we'd go on like a, a trip or something like driving through to go skiing or whatever, camping or something. They would play the Beatles a lot, you know, a season of time where they'd play the Beatles. And I was like, oh, I didn't even know who the Beatles were. Until I did know who they were because they started playing it. And then I got to hear all these songs and I was like, wow, this is so fascinating. And, you know, whatever, 40 years later, then these songs were hits.

• 20:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 20:44Lewis Howes?

  I discover them.

• 20:45Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Totally, totally. And probably have a relationship with those, with those songs in the same way that somebody did in the, in the sixties in some regards.

• 20:52Lewis Howes?

  That interesting.

• 20:53Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  You know, I'm, yeah, I, I think, I, I found that when I was rediscovering a lot of music that my dad would have played in the house that I was unaware of. I'd, when I first, when I was like in my teens, listening to like 12 bar blueses, I was, I didn't, I, I had a feeling of like, oh, this is what home, listening to this music, like this feels like home to me. But there was, there was something that was nearly like I had been listening to.

• 21:21Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Like classic rock and roll, like blues music, twelve and eight bar blueses. He was in a blues band. He was in like, he was covering blues music. There was always tapes. He had like these tapes of the material that his band was working on and stuff like from before I was born.

• 21:38Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  But I did notice that the music that that just was always playing in the house, I had no conscious awareness of it when it was being played. But then when I was a teenager.

• 21:47Lewis Howes?

  It was just in the background.

• 21:48Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It was in the background, yeah. But I was able to, I forged this relationship with it that I just felt very comfortable with at home with.

• 21:58Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I don't know. Yeah, I think that's, that can be powerful too. You know what I mean?

• 22:04Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, I think the relationship you form, they say that, you know, when we evolved as into the beings that we are, that our auditory senses evolved long before our visual. So I think there's something about hearing things, about listening to things. There's something quite deep in us, you know.

• 22:22Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 22:23Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  We hear our parents' voices long before we see them.

• 22:27Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So in some regards, I mean, we hear music before we engage in any other type of artistic medium. We're listening to music.

• 22:34Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 22:34Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  In the womb.

• 22:35Lewis Howes?

  Even before we understand it, we're hearing it.

• 22:37Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 22:39Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious, in the last decade, what has been the biggest transformation you've seen within yourself through this journey of success?

• 22:49Lewis Howes?

  And experience and making all this art? And what is the biggest thing you still struggle with today?

• 22:55Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Really great questions, but like very challenging ones.

• 23:00Lewis Howes?

  So the biggest thing you've learned about yourself and the biggest challenge or struggle you have today?

• 23:05Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 23:06Lewis Howes?

  Even with the success that you've created. It's a school of greatness, Andrew.

• 23:14Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  No, yeah, totally. That's why, yeah. Yeah, got to expect those great questions, you know? But yeah, I kind of want to phone a friend. I think, I think stuff I've learned about myself is, I mean, I've done a lot of personal, personal work. I used to think that realizing that creating, maybe this is one thing I can offer.

• 23:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Being creative and creating. And my relationship with with myself was also. You know. My relationship with the work is very often dependent on my relationship with myself.

• 23:58Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. What do you mean by that?

• 24:00Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  That. It's a thing. It's like whether it's self doubt or it's self criticism. And an internal monologue that is that is largely negative. And something I took for granted my whole my whole life. It didn't catch up with me until a couple of years ago. When I when I realized I I honestly felt I was never gonna write another song.

• 24:22Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 24:23Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, sometimes during the pandemic. And I hit this kind of wall where I couldn't move forward anymore. And I felt I'd I'd written my very last song. And and I I had to come round to. Okay, no, this is this is. This is just it's the same voices, but they're just louder now because there's nothing to distract me. You know, so I think that was, you know, in the pandemic, that was.

• 24:50Lewis Howes?

  You weren't able to tour. You weren't able to go out and distract yourself. Not that tours are distraction, but you weren't able to you you had to sit still now.

• 24:58Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 24:58Lewis Howes?

  And hear everything coming in.

• 25:00Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, and in some ways tour is a magnificent distraction. And it's a job in which you're constantly putting head fires, you know. And every day is another little crisis, you know. And, you know, I still get, I would say, would you call it stage fright? But like, I'm still having to regulate my body constantly. I'm terror. You know what I mean? Every day is like.

• 25:17Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 25:18Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Oh, yeah, ten twenty four.

• 25:19Lewis Howes?

  Before you go on stage?

• 25:19Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, my I can't do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 25:21Lewis Howes?

  Come on.

• 25:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah, there's an element of like nerves and and like. I'm not able I, you know, I'm not able to to to do this. It's so funny. I was joking with some of the band, and this is maybe a musician thing. We're two week. We had a few weeks break. I was a month into a couple of weeks after break and I was I was trying to think. Now, this is maybe because a lot of playing is muscle memory. You don't think about me. It's automatic. You know, um, but I was I was trying to think to myself. It's like, how do I play that song on guitar? I could not visualize or I couldn't visualize a fretboard. I couldn't visualize finger movement. And so, but yeah, no, there is. There's um, there is. There is always this creeping voice that's.

• 26:01Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  You know, and it's, look, it's immaterial. You, you, you find your way around it. You find your way to step over it, you know, and you, and you ground yourself and stuff. But, um. Yeah, but in, in, so, but creatively, I think when you are exactly as you describe, there was no distractions, like during the pandemic. So, but tour, tour is, there's plenty. There's always something to do. Whether it's press, promo, you know, meetings. I'm oftentimes releasing music at the same time. So that's looking at artwork, media edits, mixes, mastering. And I'm constantly, I'll be honest, like constantly a little bit overwhelmed, like just a little bit under overwhelmed, you know, and like I'm just, the nose is like, you know,

• 26:44Lewis Howes?

  You're on the line.

• 26:45Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It's a nostril, you know?

• 26:46Lewis Howes?

  Barely breathe, but I'm.

• 26:47Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah. And part of me, you know, it's also realizing, okay, is this, is this by design? Am I trying to keep myself up here?

• 26:55Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 26:56Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And because.

• 26:56Lewis Howes?

  Cause you didn't want to face yourself, maybe.

• 26:58Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, you just, yeah, you operate, operate well in that space, or at least you function in that way. But yeah.

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  It's not well, but you're like, you're operating.

• 27:09Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, you're operating or you're, you're, yeah, you're operating. You're getting everything that needs to be done, done. And.

• 27:16Lewis Howes?

  So pandemic hits and you, that all stops and you have to face yourself.

• 27:20Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I guess so, yeah.

• 27:21Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest fear that came to you when you weren't able to go on tour, you weren't seeing people and you had to turn around and face the parts of you that maybe you weren't aware of yet?

• 27:35Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I can't, I can't recall exactly if it was a feeling of fear. There was a, there was a feeling of maybe sorrow that came with it and sort of it's just a lowness, you know what I mean? Just a sort of a very, like a, you know, and I think

• 27:49Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think anybody who's maybe prone to sort of depressive episodes or is, is, you know, and will be familiar with it, but it's this kind of I just slowed down in all, in all, in all forms and I just felt no route. I, I saw no um, ability to, to write nor it was, and any, any attempt to make it.

• 28:13Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Was seemed impossible. I also fully believe.

• 28:18Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And this is a funny thing about when you're in that mindset. I fully believe that I could not. I did not know how to write a song despite all evidence against it. I was like, oh, no, I actually don't know how to do this. And so.

• 28:31Lewis Howes?

  How many songs have you written at this point?

• 28:33Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Oh, like, you know, probably, you know, over a hundred or, you know, obviously ones that don't get released.

• 28:38Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 28:39Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Like, yeah, but like, it's something I do all the time. But there's something enters into the mind and then I realize it's like, oh, no, this has nothing to do with this. This is something else. So, and again, it's about relationship itself, you know, and, and so that was something I learned.

• 28:55Lewis Howes?

  What was your relationship with yourself like?

• 28:57Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think I didn't have much of one, you know, so, and I, it was more just realizing, okay, I'm going to have to cultivate a very positive relationship with myself, you know, and actually kind of put, you know, begin to address the root of some of this stuff and put an arm around myself and actually. So that was the beginning of, of, of, one of the more significant changes in, in my life, I would say, is, is tending to actually, you know, into, by the time I was thirty, actually, like, like tending to, let's say, mental health and a relationship with self.

• 29:35Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Which I had, I had just avoided doing, you know, because I, I, I could sort of, I felt, maybe I could work my way around it or I could, I could, you know, but once you can't run anymore, you know, it's, I'd sometimes describe it as a hamster wheel had to stop spinning, you know what I mean? And so you then you're forced to sit in your little cage, you know what I mean? So.

• 29:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 29:56Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Kind of look around and take it in and go, okay, something not right about this.

• 29:59Lewis Howes?

  What is the thing that you realized about your identity with yourself or your relationship to yourself? When you no longer were chasing or on tour or distracted by facing yourself?

• 30:10Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think, I think it was. I'd say you could say it was defined by a large, I had a very large, largely a combative relationship with myself. So I was absolutely at war with myself constantly.

• 30:21Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 30:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:22Lewis Howes?

  How did that look like on a daily basis? What would that mean?

• 30:24Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It's like I couldn't have a thought without an opposing thought, you know? So it's like my brain was kind of split in two that it, I'd have a thought and then a thought to combat with that. So.

• 30:36Lewis Howes?

  Like, no, that's not real. That's not true. This is the real truth.

• 30:39Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yes.

• 30:39Lewis Howes?

  This is real and.

• 30:40Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 30:41Lewis Howes?

  Back and forth.

• 30:42Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah. Or it's, and but when, in, at, at times and like, I guess like your state, you know, you're not always, sometimes you're a seven, some days are a three, some days are a nine, some days are, you know, and creatively, it's like, that could really slow me down because it's like, I think this is a nice idea. I think this is beautiful. No, it's not, you know? So you, I couldn't hold, I couldn't hold one thought at the same time oftentimes. So it was, it was challenging. I won't go into the nitty and the gritty of, of like my whole experience, but, um, that's probably for another, you know?

• 31:20Lewis Howes?

  I agree.

• 31:21Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  But, uh, but no, it definitely put roadblocks up, you know? And, and so that was a big change when I started to address that.

• 31:28Lewis Howes?

  How did you navigate the process? And I'm assuming there wasn't, I mean, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know if in Ireland, growing up, there was a lot of talk around mental health and having a good relationship with yourself and a healthy identity. And, you know, I don't know if there was or not, but how did you learn to develop that then during that time without having any of those skills or tools for the first 30 years of your life?

• 31:51Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  There wasn't, there wasn't really, you know? And, and especially, it's not something even, I mean, more so my parents' generation would have had any sort of, not, not really, you know?

• 32:04Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Not in a kind of a this is something we can talk about. It's a day to day thing, you know.

• 32:09Lewis Howes?

  Kind of like suck it up and let's not talk about it and keep moving forward and just everything's good.

• 32:13Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Very nineteen seventies. Seventies, yeah. But I'm, I'm very grateful to sort of, to, to, to have access to, to more, to be more present in, in, in the day to day with my actual lived experiences as opposed to just, um, yeah, just having this kind of.

• 32:34Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man.

• 32:35Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 32:35Lewis Howes?

  So you're allowed, I mean, I'm, I'm really grateful you're talking about this because I wrote, I read a whole book called The Mask of Masculinity.

• 32:42Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Okay.

• 32:43Lewis Howes?

  Seven years ago now, yeah, where, because growing up, I felt like I had to be, you know, this strong man. I could never cry. I can never show my emotions in school, sports.

• 32:55Lewis Howes?

  And it tormented me inside, you know, it tormented me emotionally. Feeling like I had to wear a mask to fit in and belong. But it wasn't my truest authentic self. And when I hit about thirty, that's when I started to unwind and start to navigate the therapy myself and reflect and heal. And it's, it's, it was extremely challenging. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever done is to let go of those masks. And open myself up to myself. Turn around and look at all the parts of me that I was ashamed of or afraid of or scared of or insecure of and actually acknowledge them and look at them.

• 33:41Lewis Howes?

  And start to heal the, the little boy inside of me that still had a lot of guards up and fears and insecurities and doubts and shame and angers and resentments and all these different things that I was not proud of. And started to integrate my current self with my younger self.

• 33:58Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Is it?

• 33:59Lewis Howes?

  And and and mend the wounds, the emotional or psychological wounds that were stored in the body and the nervous system.

• 34:07Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 34:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, to create alignment.

• 34:08Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 34:09Lewis Howes?

  With the present and the now. And it was the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, but it set me free. And as I'm sure you're you're in right now, healing is a journey. And I'm 10 years deep in the healing work and I've never felt more free. Also, knowing that you can't just stop doing the work.

• 34:28Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 34:29Lewis Howes?

  Like, I still go to therapy every month. I still show up and allow myself to talk about it and process things in a healthy, conscious way. In a safe way. And I think it's really inspiring to hear you talking about this because I can only imagine the amount of pressures that artists feel. To create art.

• 34:52Lewis Howes?

  And I think a lot of artists tend to create from pain or suffering, it seems like. Rather than peace and joy.

• 35:03Lewis Howes?

  But it's probably challenging because you're sharing it with the world, but you also still need to deal with it yourself and just a probably a messy process.

• 35:12Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah. I the whole sharing from or writing from also, let me just, I just want to address, it's like, thank you, thank you for for for sharing that. And it's it's it's it is it's beautiful. It's also it's it's it's very similar to what you what you describe. And I think I was 30 also, took me 30 years of living in a way where we where I realized, oh, I can't do this anymore. I can't live like this anymore. And I've waited too long to feel like I was I can I can cope, you know what I mean? And then.

• 35:48Lewis Howes?

  It isn't interesting that no amount of success or money or fame will give you that peace or freedom that you're looking for.

• 35:55Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, 100%.

• 35:56Lewis Howes?

  Isn't that interesting?

• 35:57Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 35:57Lewis Howes?

  But I think a lot of people, I don't think that's what you were doing. I don't think you were chasing that. You were being an artist and it took off.

• 36:04Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 36:05Lewis Howes?

  But I think a lot of people in society in the world are looking to accelerate their career, to have more status, to make more money, to have, you know. Flashier things or success to fulfill a part of them that is insecure or afraid or doubting something.

• 36:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 36:22Lewis Howes?

  And the more I did that and the more others do that, it doesn't solve the problem.

• 36:29Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 36:29Lewis Howes?

  You still have to turn around and look at yourself at some point.

• 36:32Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Totally. And I think it's largely unconscious and this driving, you know what I mean? This but that sort of thing of drive. And I do think about this a lot, whether would I be driven to be, you know, because surely the work, it's this question, surely the work is enough. Like if I just, if I just loved songs and, and I just wanted to write them, do I need everybody to hear them? You know, what's, what's, what's the part?

• 36:57Lewis Howes?

  Why go on tour? Why do this? Why do that? Yeah, yeah.

• 37:00Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  You know, why did I, why did I need it? So there is, I sometimes wonder, you know, and what, what part of me needed to be witnessed, you know, or what, what, and, you know, and I think a lot of people who are driven towards work in the public view. And I'm not saying everybody, I'm just saying generally there is, I think you, you might be correct in that. There, we're, there is a, there, we're, all, all of us are driven in some way from maybe some, some unobserved place that, that in some way that all of us think, okay, if I get this thing or I do this thing, all my problems will be solved. All my, you know, we all imagine this picture in our, in our heads, you know, of, of that arrival point that just never comes.

• 37:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Or you get there, you'll see the picture and it'll align with the picture in your mind. And then you, but the feeling is, is, is not there.

• 37:50Lewis Howes?

  Or it's still not enough.

• 37:51Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 37:51Lewis Howes?

  Still want more.

• 37:52Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 37:52Lewis Howes?

  Are you still comparing to what your peer might be doing? Oh, they're getting this opportunity, right?

• 37:57Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah, totally. And it's something you shared about, about, you know, that thing. It's kind of that self parenting thing of like getting a relationship with yourself as a child. And a friend of mine once described, described it quite, quite beautifully, I have to say, of like, Getting to this point in that process of then looking out from some moment of their life and just reminding, pausing to remind themselves to invite their child to wa- watch it with them.

• 38:25Lewis Howes?

  Cool.

• 38:25Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And to, to stand in space, either, whether through the, the window of their, of their home, or at some event that they were at, and to imagine in their mind's eye that their child was there, to say, hey, look, you know, look where we are, you did this, you know? And I, I'm quite moved by that, just to, just to bring your child into that and go like, cause there's some, there's some, sometimes there's a, there's this sort of switch that happens where we think, no, I took, I took myself away from these circumstances, and I did all of this on my own. But to turn around to your kid and say, hey, you know, I want you to see this.

• 39:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 39:02Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And how, how great you did, you know, and how you, you did this, you know, and we did this together. Isn't this cool? And just to, to let your kid sort of smile at that.

• 39:13Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful.

• 39:14Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And, yeah, and I, I think it's, that one, I think that's a, that is a life-changing relationship thing, you know, I think with yourself, if you can do that. And, but again, yeah, I, I mean, I, I had no language for this until I was, after.

• 39:29Lewis Howes?

  A few years ago.

• 39:30Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, until a couple of years ago. So I'm still, why, my reluctance also to speak too much on it is because I'm so early in it, you know?

• 39:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Wow, man, this is beautiful. I'm so happy you're talking about this, though.

• 39:40Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 39:40Lewis Howes?

  Uh, and don't feel, and, and, you know, don't feel like you need to open up about things here or anywhere until you feel you've processed things enough. And you may never need to do that publicly either. It's just.

• 39:51Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I appreciate.

• 39:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, it's not a, it's not a pressure here for that in any way. Um, but it sounds like you are in a journey of creating a healthy relationship with self. That's what I'm hearing you say.

• 40:04Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, I think, I think so. I think so. I'm also, I'm realizing that it's, it's also imperative for the work I want to make. And it's also, it's like, it's in, it's like to not do it, I think, whenever, when you start on, on that, by the time you're ready to sort of do your own little work on yourself, you're ready to realize that not doing this isn't an option, you know, or not, you know, or it's an option, but you've done that, you know what I mean? Or, or for, for what, what's ahead of you and what it is that you want for your life and you feel.

• 40:35Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  The the experience of living that you would like to get to, it's like you realize, okay, I just kind of have to do this.

• 40:43Lewis Howes?

  What do you think Andrew is available for you emotionally, internally and externally in the world as you continue to navigate this healing journey for yourself? What do you feel like is available for you or your mission?

• 40:57Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think it's, this is maybe net just necessary for the for the work as well too, for being creative. I just want to walk in step with myself and in a way that that feels aligned with myself and aligned with the work.

• 41:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:11Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And and to to, I guess, to feel at peace in in whatever the the work is that needs to be made.

• 41:20Lewis Howes?

  Have you ever been out of alignment with yourself in this last decade with anything you've created or opportunities you've said yes to where you fall afterwards? Uh, that's not really what I wanted to do or but I did it for ego or because whatever reason.

• 41:34Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It happens. I won't give examples.

• 41:36Lewis Howes?

  Sure, yeah.

• 41:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It happens or you catch yourself, you catch yourself in a thought of like, um, yeah, there's always this sort of one more stone to turn, you know? It's like I always approached things with like, leave no stone unturned. It's like, you know, just.

• 41:51Lewis Howes?

  Do everything.

• 41:51Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 41:52Lewis Howes?

  Every opportunity.

• 41:54Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, a little bit, yeah. Or.

• 41:55Lewis Howes?

  That can be draining and exhausting, right?

• 41:57Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It can be draining, yeah. And it's learning to say no to stuff is something that I'm still cultivating a relationship with.

• 42:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:03Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Or a habit of, I think, um, yeah, or I'm I'm a real, and I think this is an, I'm proud of this trait in myself, but that extra hour that I'll put in or that extra 30 minutes or that extra hour, um, I can, I can focus, hyper focus on something in that in those last few, you know, but but what happens is sometimes I'll agree to to do something. I'll be fully in my mind of like, I do want to do this. It's like, would you do a little bit extra here and add more rather than take this break? Well, I use this time to work and it's like, yeah, I'll do that, I'll do that. And then in afterwards, I realize, okay, why am I, why am I feeling exhausted?

• 42:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  You know, when I'm burnt out and now I can't function, you know, I can't work as I want to work.

• 42:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:48Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So I I do want to, I do want to address, you know, hopefully.

• 42:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:54Lewis Howes?

  This has been a powerful section, so I'm grateful we're talking about this. But I have a question about a couple of other things around your performance experience.

• 43:07Lewis Howes?

  I feel like, I hope they get to come watch you perform live sometime because I feel like it's a spiritual experience for the audience to watch what you do.

• 43:18Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious for you, what has been the most spiritual experience you've had while performing onstage? Where you felt like something is different here, I'm feeling something different. There's an energy that is elevated at a different level than I've ever been to. Or maybe I'm seeing myself from a different place, or I'm forgetting the words, but I'm singing the word. Like, was there ever a spiritual experience for you that was so big and awe inspiring while performing?

• 43:46Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  There's definitely moving, moving experiences. I was gonna joke that I think the spiritual experiences for, to be in the crowd. I've been in shows and I've, and I've, I've been in such elation. I've been like so ecstatic and kind of lifted by being in crowd energy and all enjoying the same thing. And maybe, I was gonna make a joke, it's like, it's like, the preacher is the least spiritual of all people. The person at the top, it's everyone else is engaging in a spiritual experience.

• 44:19Lewis Howes?

  The half preacher is, I'm just kidding.

• 44:21Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  But I think when I'm onstage, there's a kind of a flow state, you know, that you hope to come into. And that's another thing where it's like calming mind lane. And this is all connected, it's all connected with mental health, it's all connected with like wellness, but then also like mindfulness as well too. And mindfulness was a big change for me, was realizing how many conversations were going on, how un-present my mind was, you know, even sometimes when I was onstage and wanting to just... Yeah, it would, it can happen, it can happen and realizing I, you know, remaining grounded onstage, remaining present onstage, so you're not...

• 45:07Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So so meditating before shows, I find really, really helpful.

• 45:10Lewis Howes?

  And. How would you get distracted on stage before?

• 45:13Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It can happen where, again, if I'm releasing music, and there's a lot of emails that I haven't unanswered. I swear to God.

• 45:20Lewis Howes?

  Right before you're like, oh, thinking about it or?

• 45:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, but you could be onstage in the middle of a song, playing a chord and singing lyrics. And in your mind, I'm not present in that, I'm thinking, it's happened where I'm like, I didn't email back.

• 45:35Lewis Howes?

  Come on, really?

• 45:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 45:36Lewis Howes?

  Holy cow.

• 45:37Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, oh no, you're doing laundry lists in your head while you're in the middle of like, singing a song and the crowd are doing their thing and.

• 45:44Lewis Howes?

  How is that even possible? How do you stay, I mean, how can you create a performance while thinking about the email you gotta send to Larry?

• 45:51Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 45:51Lewis Howes?

  And and management or something like?

• 45:53Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It's it's not great, it's like, and I don't, I think that, I think the show, potentially, my worry is that the show, I think because it's muscle memory. That you just can do it. And. But it's, it's, it doesn't, you don't feel great about the, about the show, you don't, because you weren't present in it, you know? So it's been a while now since I would, there's also, that's kind of before, that's when my mind was totally just like haywire. And so mindfulness, you know, meditation and stuff, and I'm super happy.

• 46:24Lewis Howes?

  That helps you keep, keep you present now on stage.

• 46:26Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  On stage, yeah. So as for spiritual experience, definitely, I mean, I was in Mexico recently. I just did a show in Mexico.

• 46:35Lewis Howes?

  Where, which city?

• 46:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Uh, Mexico City, so.

• 46:38Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man, I've been going back, my fiance is Mexican, so I've been going back and forth a lot, yeah.

• 46:42Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yes, yeah, congratulations also.

• 46:43Lewis Howes?

  Thanks, man, thanks.

• 46:44Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And it's, I mean, it's, Mexico's beautiful.

• 46:47Lewis Howes?

  I love it, man, Mexico City is incredible, right?

• 46:49Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yes, yeah, it really is beautiful and the people are just so wonderful, you know, and and I have never. You know, no disrespect to any other audience, but I like, there is something special about a Mexican audience like that now, we have a tour, I've never toured South America. Here, that Central and South America are incredible audiences, I mean, you know, but then.

• 47:08Lewis Howes?

  We have a, we have a YouTube channel in Spanish.

• 47:11Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yes.

• 47:11Lewis Howes?

  With over a million subscribers.

• 47:13Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  No way.

• 47:13Lewis Howes?

  In Spanish, that this will be dubbed in Spanish as well.

• 47:16Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Oh, really?

• 47:17Lewis Howes?

  And Portuguese.

• 47:18Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Oh, wow.

• 47:18Lewis Howes?

  So the Spanish channel watching or listening right now, I'm sure they're like, all typing in the chat, this is incredible, you know? They're gonna love you saying like, Mexico's amazing.

• 47:27Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Delighted, and it's absolutely true, and I, I think I said it on, on. There's something special. There's a like, there is a passion. There is a, there is a, an energy.

• 47:38Lewis Howes?

  There is.

• 47:39Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And but to be in a, a, a city or a country that is not primarily English speaking. And to hear your words, to be so far from home and hear your words sang back to you. My first gig in, in, in Mexico City was very, very same in that songs were being sang to me. And louder than, than had ever been sang in other primarily English speaking territories. Yeah, yeah. And I was stunned by it. I was absolutely.

• 48:07Lewis Howes?

  And it's not their first language.

• 48:08Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And yeah, yeah. And so when I'm, when I, my first gig in Mexico, I was like, this is nuts. This is, I've never heard a crowd singing this song. I can't remember which song it was, but songs that just crowds, some, some songs crowds will sing it to, some they're not, you know, some not so much. And I was staggered by it. And then, so this time around, it was just a few days ago, like last week.

• 48:29Lewis Howes?

  Man, I should have, I thought I'd know it, I would have gone to it.

• 48:31Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Oh my God, not at all. Oh, but performing a song called Cherry Wine and then. The crowd had like done something really sweet. They'd, they'd handed out these red pieces of paper to put in front of their phone lights. So. Songs called Cherry Wine. So they had all these kind of cherry red kind of cards that they lit the auditorium with and, and then. With their phones and, and just, they were just singing the song back like louder than really I'd ever heard it. And I just had one of those moments where I was absolutely present and I, I, I sort of, at the same time was. Just like, this is nuts. Like I wrote this song. I think I brought myself back to, I was maybe twenty two when I wrote that song. And.

• 49:11Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 49:12Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And I just kind of reminding myself, it's like, I wrote this once and I played it like to. You know, a little barn. I remember the first time playing this live, like, like. I just was brought back to, you know, I, I was present in two moments of like, of. The beginning of that song and writing it first and performing it first and just now and, and. And I was just, I was really moved by it. I kind of had to, you know, I, I was, I was quite touched. And by that support and that love and, and so, yeah, there's moments where, I don't know if you'd call it spiritual necessarily, but. And just overwhelmingly fulfilling, you know, overwhelmingly.

• 49:53Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Good.

• 49:54Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful. That's that seems like a spiritual experience for me, man. You almost like leaped in time fourteen years, I guess, thinking about when you were writing this in your parents attic or wherever you were at the time, playing it at a pub for seventeen people.

• 50:08Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 50:08Lewis Howes?

  And now people screaming it across the world back at you.

• 50:12Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, I I was grateful also after the fact that I still I still could be that that that feeling was still fresh for me, you know, that and and then I was I could allow myself into going, you know what? This is really sweet and I'm really enjoying this and.

• 50:30Lewis Howes?

  How do you keep it fresh when you're, you know, doing a hundred, two hundred tour nights a year, singing the same songs over and over for over a decade? How do you stay present when it's not new for you, even though it might be new for someone else?

• 50:45Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, I think the the challenge is staying present and honestly, if you can stay present, this is it's like the same where your morning, all of us have to get up out of bed. All of us probably get up, brush our teeth, will make coffee, will whatever, get in the car and go to work. Whatever, you know what I mean? Or like go about our day, you know? I don't I don't commute necessarily, but like we all have that little, you know? We all have that thing where it's like those parts of the day which are so commonplace to us that we do them in auto in auto mode, you know?

• 51:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And if you can, if you can steer the brain into presence and your experience of that drive to work, wherever your appointment, your errands is gonna be like so much more engaging. It's going to be an experience in and of itself. You'll actually experience the world around you. This is so easy. It's so much easier said than done, you know, and when you're talking about mindfulness. But I think on stage, if I can be present in a song, doesn't matter if I and I'm truly present in that moment and I'm letting the energy kind of of the crowd kind of come through to me and through me and and the energy of of the song, whatever, if I'm kind of.

• 52:07Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Allowing a flow of that and I'm present in it. It doesn't really matter if I've sang that, you know, a hundred times or a thousand times or whatever, five times. It's like I'm just present in it and I think that's it's a challenge.

• 52:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow. We had Rick Rubin on recently, who is a big producer.

• 52:31Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  He's Rick Rubin, yeah.

• 52:32Lewis Howes?

  Wrote a big book on creativity and.

• 52:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I listened to the episode as well.

• 52:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, he's inspiring.

• 52:38Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I mean, Rick Rubin is.

• 52:39Lewis Howes?

  Have you met him?

• 52:40Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I have never met Rick Rubin.

• 52:41Lewis Howes?

  He's an aspiring man. What a force.

• 52:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 52:44Lewis Howes?

  But he was mentioning something about, you know, an artist should really be thinking about writing art for themselves as if it was their own diary, their own journal. And not writing art or making art for an audience, but making it for themselves and being willing to reveal it to the audience without the insecurity or concern of their own intimate thoughts and feelings around their piece of art, which is probably one of the hardest things to do is like putting out your soul that you're really making for you, but wanting others to experience it without being worried about criticism.

• 53:25Lewis Howes?

  How do you navigate putting art out there and being like, oh, I hope people like this and they don't give me negative feedback versus people are going to like it or hate it or whatever they're going to respond to it? How do you navigate you feeling good about it, no matter what happens to it in the world?

• 53:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I will say before releasing, it's not so much a fear, but there's this sort of, there's this, maybe I don't experience actually where the fear was coming from, but there's a terrible unease. And I think usually before releasing an album, there's this awful purge of like cortisol that happens and like, you know, I've talked to a lot of artists about this where like you're in tears before the, before it happens and you're exhausted and the catharsis that you'd hoped you would get from it never arrives, you know?

• 54:13Lewis Howes?

  Oh.

• 54:15Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So there is that. I think there has to be.

• 54:24Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Maybe there's just, there is some resource that you pull from that brings you to a place where you are in

• 54:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  absolute

• 54:39Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  commitment to

• 54:43Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  the fact that the, that the, the work needs to exist. You know, that it is, it doesn't matter what anybody has to say. Something, the song wants to be written. The song has, in some ways, and I sometimes think of it like this when an idea comes through. The song is asking to be written. It feels ready to be, to be worked on. And, and to deny that is, is kind of, it's, it's, it's going against your nature, what you know, you kind of have to do, what you have decided you're here to do. And so there's something that is willing to be made. It's, it's willing itself to be made through you. And it's like you either do it or don't.

• 55:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 55:20Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  But don't, sorry, excuse me, don't get annoyed when somebody else has the idea. Cause a lot of parallel thinking in the world as well too.

• 55:26Lewis Howes?

  And someone else is going to put something similar out.

• 55:27Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Exactly, yeah. And that, that actually happened. I mean, artists talk about this, I've certainly experienced it. You have an idea for a song and six months later, you hear it on the radio. And somebody else, somebody else has played with the, the themes that you were thinking of. And it's, we're all living in the same, similar societies or, or, you know, so it's a lot of parallel thinking comes in because we're all very similar, similar, whatever it is. And but you have to, there has to, I don't know, but there is a, there's a resource that you pull from that, that is just, you know, this needs to be made. And

• 55:58Lewis Howes?

  Like what was it like, you know, when you came out with your first song? That was a mega hit. What was the feeling before that launched?

• 56:05Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Mm hmm.

• 56:06Lewis Howes?

  Versus, you know, the most recent Unreal on Earth. You know, is the feeling still the same? You know, 12 years later, is there a different feeling at this season of life of an artist? Um, you know, before you launched the, the recent album.

• 56:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And the feeling on the first song, I was so like, I was such an unknown and that I just was watching its, its uptake slowly, but surely there was these moments where, okay, it was reaching another audience. So it's like, oh my God, it's like, that's a video that's been seen by 10,000 people. Oh my God, that was a huge deal for me at the time. And I think it was like, it got, it was like on the first page of Reddit or something, which at the time was like, you know.

• 56:48Lewis Howes?

  Huge.

• 56:48Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  It was huge, you know, and then it was, then it was starting to be played, I think some of the earliest, I think the first, one of the first radio stations that played it in the States was like Alabama Mountain Radio. And I'm like, it was being shazamed and we were watching, like, somebody was telling me, oh yeah, it's just been shazamed in like, parts of the world, parts of the States that I had never been to the States.

• 57:07Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 57:08Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I'd never thought that it would, I would be where the music would be heard. At this, at this point, people in Ireland didn't know that I was an Irish artist, you know?

• 57:16Lewis Howes?

  Oh, really?

• 57:17Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, honestly, they, they, I think the song had started to be played on Irish radio, but they, they assumed that I was an, like an American import, you know, that I wasn't, they didn't know that I was from Ireland because I, I hadn't been releasing music all that long. And then there was this kind of, this kind of dark sort of gospel rock sound, you know, on, in that song, this kind of swampy sort of vibe. And then, yeah, so, so it's different, you know, I think that you, there's, there's sometimes you miss being the underdog a little bit, you know, there's, there's a lot to be said for having.

• 57:48Lewis Howes?

  Some to that feeling, right?

• 57:49Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, having nothing to lose.

• 57:50Lewis Howes?

  The naive, like, oh, this is really exciting. It just.

• 57:53Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, and feeling like every, every inch you gain is, is, is, is a huge deal and is a big win and you've nothing to lose and you, you have, you can prove everything, but also if nothing happens, it's like, it's okay, you know, go away, come back when you're, when you're ready, you know what I mean? But it's, so it's trying to maintain that, maybe there's, there's something to be, you can still maintain that sort of mindset a little bit of like, of, I think when you.

• 58:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And this is also maybe something that you can, it's good to to to practice or to to to investigate or think about is when the stakes seem higher or you've like on your second or third release, you feel like if it doesn't do something for you that it's somehow, you know, it could be a success by the metrics of what you would think beforehand or of anyone else's, but we hadn't, you create this idea of like. I don't know, you just, you want more from it or you know, so that's.

• 58:54Lewis Howes?

  How do you navigate that? Like when you launch, you know, an album and it doesn't do the numbers in your mind? Like, well, I hope it does this many downloads or streams in the first month or year.

• 59:03Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 59:04Lewis Howes?

  If it doesn't do that, or if it does do that, how do you navigate that expectation?

• 59:09Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think it's always just about, I try to just bring myself right back to, because you you do and you you look, you work with, you partner up with business, like labels and stuff like that.

• 59:20Lewis Howes?

  And they want it to win.

• 59:21Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  You know, yeah, and they're they're competitive by nature and and and it's great that you have a team that that that thinks like that, that wants to bring your work to to to a large audience. And and there's a lot of different ways that different artists will think about this, independent artists, maybe, you know. And and what I have settled on is that if I believe in the work, I want to give it every chance that it can, it can reach as many ears as possible and let those ears decide. And and I just try to bring it back to the work. Do I believe in it? If I believe in it and I love it enough that I feel it's it's worth releasing, it's worth being out in the world. I'm at peace with it, whether somebody listens to it or it doesn't.

• 1:00:05Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I'm at peace with it if nobody listens to it. There's some songs that I'm quite proud of, such that if they were, if they were heard by a hundred people, I I would say that song is still of the quality and that I wanted it to be on. The quality of the work doesn't change whether it's listened to, listened by a million people or a billion billion times, or it's listened by a thousand thousand people or a hundred people or 10 people. The quality of the work doesn't change.

• 1:00:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:00:31Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So I just try to bring it down to, am I happy with the with its quality?

• 1:00:35Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful. I think that's a good lesson for any artist.

• 1:00:39Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:39Lewis Howes?

  Or author or anyone. It's like, are you happy with the quality? Yes. If you have a career or business around it, sure, you want to figure a way to make money and survive. But I think you have to be proud of the quality of work, no matter if it sells millions of copies or one copy.

• 1:00:56Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Totally, totally. Does it represent you?

• 1:00:59Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful.

• 1:01:00Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:01Lewis Howes?

  Man, Andrew, there's a lot I would love to talk more about with you. We'll have to have you back on another time. But I want people to check out your, your new album, Unreal on Earth. I want them to, to come to, uh, watch you live on tour, man, which I'm gonna do one of these days.

• 1:01:16Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Please do.

• 1:01:17Lewis Howes?

  They can, they can go to hosier.com for your tour dates and everything like that, is right?

• 1:01:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yes, yeah, tour dates. Unfortunately, not many shows left.

• 1:01:26Lewis Howes?

  Left. They can get notified when you do do more.

• 1:01:29Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Exactly, exactly.

• 1:01:31Lewis Howes?

  But they can listen to music. Uh, you're on, you're on YouTube, Instagram, social media everywhere, Hozier everywhere. How else can we be of service to you and support you today?

• 1:01:41Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Oh, my goodness. Um, I think you've been of, of great, you've given me a huge amount to think about and, um, offered, offered wonderful space for reflection, um, but not, not at all, no. Uh, like you've just been, been your wonderful self.

• 1:01:55Lewis Howes?

  Thanks.

• 1:01:56Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Thank you for, yeah, thank you for inviting me in.

• 1:01:58Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 1:01:59Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Leading always with a very, very open heart.

• 1:02:01Lewis Howes?

  Of course, man. We're doing it together, man. Um, I've got two final questions for you. But I want people to go to your website. Where, where, where's the best place to listen to your music? Is it Spotify? Is it on your website? Is it?

• 1:02:12Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Um.

• 1:02:13Lewis Howes?

  Where do you recommend people listen?

• 1:02:15Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I mean, they can, they can listen on Spotify and listen on Tidal, um, you know.

• 1:02:21Lewis Howes?

  Where's your preferred place?

• 1:02:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Um.

• 1:02:23Lewis Howes?

  What's it matter?

• 1:02:24Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I mean, it's, I mean, the, the sound quality on Tidal is better. I'm sorry, Spotify, look, it just is. And, uh, and, you know, like vinyl is obviously gonna be the, the, the best. I mean, honestly, I don't really mind, I think, uh, anywhere that people wanna listen to it. If they enjoy it, if they're vibing with it, I'm thrilled.

• 1:02:42Lewis Howes?

  Anyway, yeah, yeah. Share with your friends, listen to, share with your kids. Before I ask these final two questions, Andrew, I want to acknowledge you because I know it's hard for you to receive compliments. But I want to acknowledge you for the journey you're on. I think.

• 1:02:56Lewis Howes?

  I think artists have a big opportunity to inspire and impact, but I also think there's a lot of pressure for artists to be the perfect role model and say all the perfect things all the time, especially at younger ages. So I want to acknowledge you for your journey of being true to yourself and sharing your art with the world, having the courage to make art and put it out there. Even if it's nervous for you, even if you get scared before you go on stage, and you keep showing up for the little Andrew in you, the current Andrew in you, and for the audiences that love the art that you've created for yourself. So I want to acknowledge you for your journey and being willing to reflect and look within over these last few years for yourself, and allowing yourself to heal or navigate whatever emotions you're feeling.

• 1:03:41Lewis Howes?

  So hopefully you can continue to serve in a bigger way to humanity and yourself and your friends for many years to come. So I acknowledge you for all of it, Andrew, and just really, really great to meet you and pleasure to have you on.

• 1:03:53Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  You too, you too.

• 1:03:54Lewis Howes?

  Of course. Okay, two final questions. This is called the three truths. It's a hypothetical scenario. Imagine you get to live as long as you want, but it's your last day on earth.

• 1:04:04Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Live as long as I want, but it's the last day on earth?

• 1:04:06Lewis Howes?

  So you're a hundred, you're two hundred, how old do you want to be?

• 1:04:09Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Okay.

• 1:04:09Lewis Howes?

  We're going into the future. And you get to create all your dreams. They all come true. You make the art, you have the family, the lifestyle, whatever it is you want to have, you create it. But for whatever reason, on this final day of life, you have to take all of your work with you. So all of your music, we don't have access to it anymore. This conversation, gone, hypothetical. Anything you create, for whatever reason, you gotta take it with you to the next place when you pass on. Hypothetical scenario.

• 1:04:43Lewis Howes?

  But you get to leave behind on this final day, three lessons. And three things you know to be true, you feel is true for you, that you would leave with the world. And this is all we have to remember you by, your content. If you can, like you went back in time when you're on stage, thinking of that song that you wrote ten, twelve years prior, and you felt that time playing it in the pub for the first time onstage twelve years later, when everyone's screaming it back to you. If you can jump forward seventy, eighty, a hundred years to the final day and think about all the lessons you'll have learned, what would be those three lessons or truths for you?

• 1:05:22Lewis Howes?

  I want to finish with an easy question.

• 1:05:26Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, so easy. Oh, my God. I was like, um, three lessons or three truths.

• 1:05:38Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I would say one is

• 1:05:45Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  is to, and this is difficult for a lot of people, I think, in in the kind of hyper real spaces or the or the with like spaces like social media and stuff like that, you know, um, is is remembering that each human being that you are witnessing, their lived experience is as is as authentic and as and as deep and as real as your own, you know, and that their suffering and their and their internal narrative, whatever, whether they're whether they've done their healing or they haven't done their healing yet, that they are they're experiencing it.

• 1:06:25Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  A a lived experience that is as as as deep, at times as dark and as frightening as as as your own.

• 1:06:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And the reality of that.

• 1:06:39Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, it's just, yeah, just to remind yourself of the reality of that. I would like to say

• 1:06:48Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  that at the same time, and this is something I I I kind of borrow from this Seamus Heaney's Nobel, when he won the Nobel Prize in his speech, it's a beautiful lecture. And it's called Crediting Poetry. And he references a mass, he was from Northern Ireland. And in this, he's referencing a massacre that took took place.

• 1:07:15Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  But and he talks about a poem and how, what the poem knows essentially like so what in the same way that the poem can credit, it bears witness to, in this one instance, it can bear witness to, bears witness to and knows a massacre is going to happen in its telling of this story. It also must and can at the same time bear witness to and credit the gentleness, in this instance, of the comforting of one person, the squeeze of a hand. And in this instance, I encourage anybody to read his crediting poetry lecture.

• 1:07:56Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  This "I will not abandon you" squeeze of the hand that happens between these two coworkers just before the massacre takes place. Wow. And, and so he, he describes this beautifully, is at the same time that the work can credit, and we often do, we credit and we, and we bear witness to, and we represent and we tell the story of, of the horror and the hatred and the massacre. At the same time, we can, and maybe it's imperative that we credit that there is the squeeze of the hand, there is the tear that is, that comes from a place of love and comes from a place of

• 1:08:35Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  compassion and empathy. So it's, it's, it's, you know, I would say, the actuality of love, the actuality of solidarity, not in any sort of wishy washy, sort of airy fairy type thing, is that there is, there is. We, we, we don't question the actuality of violence, we don't question the actuality of hatred, but we don't really take seriously the actuality of solidarity that we, we think of it in this sort of lofty political terms, but it's like the love that you have for your fucking neighbor, or your, or your spouse, or your child, or your best friend, that's showing up for people, that, "I won't abandon you

• 1:09:19Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  in this", you know. So it's, and in the same way that a work can credit one, it can and must credit the other. And that's, that's a beautiful thought that I would say that there's a truth in that. We're in a limited space, you know, we're on a limited rock here, you know, I think, I think, I often think that the ways that we go about and look at, we deal in business, we work with different people in business and there is in this moment, a kind of a perpetual.

• 1:09:53Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And look, I don't want to get too, too, too political, but we sometimes think in terms of the, this sort of secular trance of the perpetual growth model. We're on a limited space here. We, we, there is a commons that we all share in, in the world that it is. And I think, and I just think it's, it's a, there is a huge amount still of investigation and really in like investment into the thinking of, of viewing the world as a, as a commons, as a shared space that we just have to, have to, that we can't just extract from, that we'll

• 1:10:32Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  have to arrive at some point to some sustainability practice, be that sustainable economics, sustainable resource management, et cetera. That's something that really, and again, it's in the abstract, increasingly not in the abstract, but I get so sad at the idea of, for what humanity is and have far, the chance of, of this earth becoming what it's become and like what us as human beings, us evolving into this, to have awareness, to have meaning, to have a sense. And the fact that we could actually be at risk of, of, potentially of the point where, you know, we, we, we consume ourselves or we, we into some sort of, into some dark

• 1:11:15Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  age or into an extinction event, you know, it's like really very sad.

• 1:11:19Lewis Howes?

  Overconsumption over the year, yeah.

• 1:11:20Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah, it just makes me very, very sad that we could lose, yeah, the progress of, of, you know, of society as, as we know it, you know.

• 1:11:29Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:11:30Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  So, yeah, I think that was one other thing. I probably had something far more nice.

• 1:11:36Lewis Howes?

  It's all good.

• 1:11:36Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  More artistic to say than that, but yeah, that's.

• 1:11:38Lewis Howes?

  It's all good. It's beautiful, man.

• 1:11:40Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:40Lewis Howes?

  Uh, Andrew, final question for you. What is your definition of greatness?

• 1:11:44Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think, and it's, it's again, it's a tricky one for me. And it is a commitment to.

• 1:11:56Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  One's mode of being, that is, it's a mode of being, it's a, it's a, and it's a commitment to an alignment of, of the heart and the mind and the spirit in, in either the work that you make, in the, in the, in the ways that you deal with people, in the way that you engage with your community.

• 1:12:22Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  And be, you know, and I think it's, it's one that is, to me, there's, I've no sheer definition, but it's one that is marked with a, a, a mode of grace and good faith, you know. And, but if you, look, it's not always easy, but I think if you can bring that to the work that you're making, or the engagements that you have in the day to day, good faith and good grace with, with, with people around you. Oh. Yeah, and in some form of alignment with, with your, your heart, mind and body, great.

• 1:12:57Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  I think that, that is, if you can maintain that mode of being, I think, I think, well, I think we all know people who've managed to do that, and there's people in our lives that we, that we witness sometimes, and we're like, you know what, that's a really great person. Oh. And it may not be that they're, that they're, that they are, you know, on the way to some sort of what we imagine to be success, or something like that, or some sort of like global or international sense of, you know, it's not that they're achieving some outrageous monetary or financial success, or but, but there, there is in there being something that we just, we can't help but admire.

• 1:13:37Andrew Hozier-Byrne?

  That they are either in their community, or in their family, to their friends, in their place of work, that there is something undeniably great about that person. And then. I think those to me are some of the markers of it. There you go, my man Andrew, thanks for being here, brother. Thank you very much, really appreciate it. Powerful man.

• 1:13:54Lewis Howes?

  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 episode with all the important links. If you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel exclusively on Apple podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.