Jeezy: Escaping the Streets, Building a Music Empire & Manifesting Lessons from Jay Z, Kanye West & Rihanna! EP 1480

The Summit of Greatness is back! Buy your tickets today – summitofgreatness.com – With more than a dozen RIAA gold, platinum, and multi-platinum hits to his credit, JEEZY, the Atlanta pioneer of hip-hop’s dominant trap genre, has amassed over 6.5 billion catalog streams, and over 960 million YouTube channel views. 2020 marked the 15th anniversary of Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, his seminal RIAA platinum Def Jam label debut LP. It entered the Rap and R&B charts at #1 (#2 on the pop side), and immortalized trap music with the double-platinum #1 hit “Soul Survivor” featuring Akon. In this episode you will learn,Overcoming self-doubt and finding one's unique voice as an aspiring artist. Maintaining courage to share unique ideas despite the fear of judgment and criticism. Drawing parallels between creative expression in art and innovation in business. Embracing failure as a natural part of the creative process and learning from it. The power of collaboration with other artists in pushing creative boundaries. Buy Jeezy’s book: https://amzn.to/3Ku4WdIFor more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1480For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960Want more School of Greatness episodes like this one? Bruce Lipton on Manifestation: https://link.chtbl.com/1312-podJoe Dispenza on the Law of Attraction: https://link.chtbl.com/1312-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.

• 0:01Lewis Howes?

  Calling all conscious achievers who are seeking more community and connection. I've got an invitation for you. Join me at this year's Summit of Greatness, this September 7th through 9th, in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, to unleash your true greatness. This is the one time a year that I gather the greatness community together in person for a powerful transformative weekend. People come from all over the world and you can expect to hear from inspiring speakers like Inky Johnson, Josprey Singh, Vanessa Van Edwards, Jen Sincero, and many more. You'll also be able to dance your heart out to live music, get your body moving with group workouts, and connect with others at our evening socials.

• 0:44Lewis Howes?

  So if you're ready to learn, heal, and grow alongside other incredible individuals in the greatness community, then you can learn more at lewishouse.com/summit2023. Make sure to grab your ticket, invite your friends, and I'll see you there.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  The new rich is peace. You know, because you can put somebody in a Rolls Royce, he's still gonna have the same problems. He's gonna have those problems in a Rolls Royce. And I think, once you become in this place where you just had peace with who you are, I had to work so hard and do so much work on myself just to even get a taste of that.

• 1:19Lewis 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.

• 1:43Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Jay Jeezy Jenkins in the house.

• 1:49Speaker 01

  How you feeling?

• 1:50Lewis Howes?

  Good to see you, man. Excited about this. We've connected on social media for a while. You have an amazing new book out called Adversity for Sale that everyone needs to get. But you've been on the scene for a while, a couple of decades, even in the music scene, multi-platinum, award-winning, all the different things that have happened for the success that the world has seen. But what I think is interesting is, most people we were just talking about don't see the darkness and don't see the failures necessarily. They see the money, they see maybe the success, they see who you're working with, all the talented people you get to collaborate with.

• 2:27Lewis Howes?

  But I don't think everyone gets to know about the adversity.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:30Lewis Howes?

  That got you to where you're at and actually how it's the failures that give us the most information on how to be successful.

• 2:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:39Lewis Howes?

  We're talking about your younger years where you went through different adversity. Um, grew up, your parents were separated, you're in and out of boot camp style institutions. And you had some darkness early on.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot of it.

• 2:57Lewis Howes?

  Now, were you successful before in terms of the music world? Were you doing music and having stuff out there before a lot of the darkness came?

• 3:05Speaker 01

  Oh, no. Um, let me give you a little.

• 3:12Speaker 01

  So, uh, my father was in the military.

• 3:15Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  Um, my, my, my mother, my fa- father married young. I have a sister, my older brother died and me and my family were abroad. So I lived in Japan.

• 3:28Lewis Howes?

  And Hawaii too.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  Hawaii, yeah. So that was the beginning. My parents got divorced because, you know, my mom was, you know, she, my mom was a little spicy at the time, you know what I mean? My dad was how he was and I, I don't think they can put it together because I don't think there was therapy, all those things back then. Uh, that, that I know of and they just divorced. And it was like, one day we was living this life and the next day I was back in the hood with my grandmother. Living with my grandmother and then I tried to live with my grandmother for a while and there was a lot of people in the house. Um, so I ended up moving with my mother and when I moved with my mother, uh, it was a, a really a little dysfunctional because I looked just like my father.

• 4:12Lewis Howes?

  She didn't like your father?

• 4:13Speaker 01

  No.

• 4:14Lewis Howes?

  So she didn't like you?

• 4:15Speaker 01

  No.

• 4:16Lewis Howes?

  At all.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  And so we just kept bumping heads and one day I was supposed to go to school. And this is around the time I was getting in the streets and I was just like, I ain't going. And she was like, oh, you going to school? And I'll never forget it. Uh, we got this big, the biggest argument we ever had and I looked up and she had her, she had a little 25, it was like a chrome with a, uh, a little pearl handle. She put it in my face. She said, you gonna go to school, you gonna, she said, you gotta go to school, you gonna go to hospital. And I just.

• 4:43Lewis Howes?

  Put the gun in your face?

• 4:44Speaker 01

  Yes, I looked at her.

• 4:46Lewis Howes?

  Your mom?

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 4:47Lewis Howes?

  How old were you?

• 4:48Speaker 01

  Uh, maybe about. Fourteen, fifteen? Holy cow. Yeah, maybe about fourteen, I couldn't have been sixteen. I just wanted to make sure I get the time right. Sure, so she puts the gun like right in your face, like closer? Yep, tells me, you gonna go to school, you gonna die today. Oh my gosh, man. And I believed it too, my mom wasn't in the play with it. Like she was serious, she was serious business and um, I knew what it was, I was, I was out of control. This, by this time, I'm, I'm thirteen, fourteen years old, I'm selling drugs, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm into a lot of things that kids shouldn't be into, right? But because, this is where I felt like I had a place, you know, because they treated me different. You felt more accepted there?

• 5:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, so that was, that was, yeah, in the streets. Than at home? Right. Really? And so when I left her, I went back to stay with my grandmother and um, that's why I say I relate to you on the sofa thing, because I slept on the sofa a lot of nights. Your whole childhood, yeah, yeah. You know, and uh, the thing about my grandmother, she kind of let me do what I wanted to do. Cause there was so many grandkids in the house, like she didn't really have any controls. I would go out, stay out as long as I wanted to and come in. And so I was able to start, you know, building my, uh, building my foundation to be what I was becoming, if you will, because I didn't have any restraints. Right. I was, it was, it was game on and, you know. That's not a good thing.

• 6:13Speaker 01

  You know, it's crazy, I, I say that all the time, because my grandmother lived right across the street from this basketball court, right? And every Sunday, everybody would come to this court from all the towns around. And they would play basketball, and it'd be like all the hustlers and all the cars and, you know, all the women and you just like, and I used to be so tired because I was up hustling all night, that I used to sleep on the sofa. So I would be asleep while they're playing ball, right? But I would listen to everything, the conversations and everything I could hear. Cause I didn't, I had FOMO, I didn't want to miss out, right? And that was like my thing, just laying on that sofa and just listening to everything. And then one day I was just like, man, you know, I can't wait till I can pull up in front of this park in a yellow Testa roaster and hop out and be this big guy and all that.

• 6:58Speaker 01

  And the crazy thing, that, that was mine. Vision again, you know, of course, it wasn't a big vision.

• 7:03Lewis Howes?

  That was the dream.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  You were there you go. And I ended up doing that, but my grandmother passed before she got a chance to see it. So my point in case is everything that she thought that was gonna, you know, send me to prison and get me killed, actually gave me the foundation to be who I was. And that's why I relate when you're saying about your brother.

• 7:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:21Speaker 01

  It's like you have to go through things to start to understand why you're here. And for me, it was like, I could do this. But it was a real game because it's like this ain't Pac-Man or something you playing because if you lose, you know, it's death of jail.

• 7:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, man.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  So now, now I'm picking up skills because what do you have to have if the consequences are dire? Now I got discipline.

• 7:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  You know, I'm smart and I'm thinking things out and problem solving.

• 7:51Lewis Howes?

  You learned this from the streets?

• 7:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:52Lewis Howes?

  What were the three most powerful skills you learned hustling in the streets that you still use today?

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Oh, sure. Discipline is, discipline is real. Like, it's like you can do anything in the world with discipline. And if you don't have it, the world can do anything to you. You know, discipline is key. Um, the second one I was thinking would be is problem solving. Like, it can be chaotic. I'm the calmest person in the room and in my head, I'm already putting together how I'm gonna solve the problem. Right? And the second thing would be, I mean, the third thing would be, um, understanding that

• 8:35Speaker 01

  you don't need anything to make something, right? You just gotta have the drive to do it. You, you feel what I'm saying?

• 8:41Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  It's like, it's like you don't need a product to make money.

• 8:46Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  You just need an idea and the drive to get it across.

• 8:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  And I learned that in the streets like really quick, you know, because if your personality is good and you're a good person, people will do things for you that they wouldn't do for somebody that they feel like might try to take your man as a rabble.

• 9:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  Take something is almost like, I really like you, I want to help you.

• 9:05Lewis Howes?

  But could you fully trust everyone or anyone in the streets as a sixteen, eighteen year old kid?

• 9:11Speaker 01

  I'm going to tell you some real. I I I ain't never trusted nobody in my life. Even today? No. Today, you don't trust anyone? No. Not even your wife or kids? My wife, but like, nobody I know. Wow. But let me say this, from my past. From your past, okay. But what I had to learn and earn was to get only quality people around. Yes. Because I just kind of brought what I had with me to the table.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  And everybody got the proper etiquette. Sure, sure. So it's like, it wasn't the right table. Right. And as I started to lose people, on one front, I had this very dark space where I was trying to figure out who I was. Because these are the people that made me feel like this is my support system. They accepted you on the streets, they were there for you when you were struggling, when your parents weren't there. Right. So this is like. They brought you in. This is my support system. Man, that's so tough. Right. And then now, I'm getting to this space where I'm making different decisions. And my support system is like, and then by the way, my support system is not like, it's almost like having a pack of wild wolves. You know what I'm saying? I'm just being honest. Like, you feed them every day. And then when the food starts sloated, they start looking at you. They get hungry.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  You know what I'm saying? So, so now I'm having to navigate this. And I'm having to, uh, you know, separate myself, so to speak. But as I'm separating myself, I'm losing my power. How so? Because I don't have control over anything else. I got control over the streets. I'm not in corporate America yet. I can't make any decisions or moves. I'm, I'm, I'm not. Right. Over here, I'm nobody. How old are you at this time, this time? This is actually after I put out my, my second album. Okay. You know what I'm saying? And, and I just started to see things happen. And, and I talk a lot about it in the book. Um, this was my, my, my saying, like, you graded what you do, right? And you know all these people in this community. So you got resources, but if I just took you and put you in the White House, you might be a little like. What do I know?

• 11:14Speaker 01

  So it was a lot of that, and, um. As I started to transition.

• 11:20Lewis Howes?

  So you brought your crew with you as you started to do music?

• 11:22Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 11:23Lewis Howes?

  Right?

• 11:23Speaker 01

  You started. I didn't really have a choice.

• 11:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it was all you knew.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  Well, no, because I was still doing what I wasn't supposed to be doing.

• 11:31Lewis Howes?

  You were still in the streets.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  This is my corporate.

• 11:32Lewis Howes?

  While you were trying to be, while you were trying to be credible.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 11:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So this is my, this is my company, right? This is how the bills are being paid.

• 11:40Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  This is how we're staying afloat. This is how I'm paying for the music.

• 11:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  But once I go like, okay, this ain't really working. I gotta lean more towards the music. And I never forget, I went cold turkey. I like, I just kinda like, one of my friends said something to me about it. And I'm like, you know what? I don't wanna go prison because I'm not a prison type. I'm keeping it real. Like, I'm, it just ain't, I'm too fly of a guy for that. I ain't got time to be wasting my time. You know what I mean? So.

• 12:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:05Speaker 01

  And I didn't wanna get killed because it was like, you know, I was losing, you know, thirty, forty, fifty friends a year, like, like clockwork.

• 12:12Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 12:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, still to this day, right now, right now.

• 12:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  I just lost three people that I know that I'm affiliated with. So all three people in the last two days.

• 12:20Lewis Howes?

  Do you know anyone who can be successful doing hustling the streets?

• 12:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 12:29Lewis Howes?

  While staying alive?

• 12:30Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:31Lewis Howes?

  Not, not going to prison after ten, twenty, thirty years and feeling peace in their heart?

• 12:37Speaker 01

  No.

• 12:38Lewis Howes?

  Then why do people do it for so long? I get it when you're like a teenager and there's, you know, you're getting, you're getting brought up in it, but why keep doing it?

• 12:46Speaker 01

  Because in their eyes, that's the closest they ever been to success. In my eyes, it's the closest I've ever been to success. I pay for, just to put, just to put a understanding of it, like this room we in. When, when, right before my mom kicked me out, I bought a trailer, double wide or a, a single wide trailer. As big as it's wrong. That's that's as big as it was. Me, my mom, my sister stayed in a space like this for years until she kicked me out. That I paid thirty five hundred dollars for.

• 13:16Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  When you think I got the thirty five hundred dollars in the streets.

• 13:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:20Speaker 01

  So just like, how how is that not?

• 13:21Lewis Howes?

  That's how you made it. Yeah, yeah.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  How's that not success, right? This this I'm doing something for my family, I'm doing something for my mom. I'm not even thinking about the consequences.

• 13:29Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  Right? I'm not thinking about what could happen. I need to eat now.

• 13:33Lewis Howes?

  Right? But when you but let's say, you know, for those that stay in that game for five, ten years and they see three to five, ten friends.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:43Lewis Howes?

  A year die or go to jail.

• 13:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:45Lewis Howes?

  Every year.

• 13:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:47Lewis Howes?

  What's the motivation for saying, oh, it's not going to be me. I'm going to be fine or I can outsmart the law or outsmart the bullets.

• 13:56Speaker 01

  Okay, so.

• 13:59Speaker 01

  That's why I'm doing what I'm doing.

• 14:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  Because I'm I'm I'm the one.

• 14:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  I'm the only one that made it from what I know. Right? And that's why I'm telling my story because I had to make a lot of decisions that weren't favorable, that wasn't cruel, that wasn't like what you're supposed to do when you're in my position. I had to go against the grain. And that's when I realized that I'm a disruptor and I'm a visionary because I see, I could tell you in ten years what I want to be like.

• 14:29Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 14:29Speaker 01

  When I could tell you in twenty years where I want to live at, you know what I mean? I could see it, right? And then I can tell you what I'm not scared to go up against to get there, right? And that's why I wrote the book because this success is is is like we equate success with money.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  And I don't care how much it is. You know what I'm saying? If I got more than I had yesterday, I'm successful.

• 14:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:55Speaker 01

  But that's that's not the truth.

• 14:56Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. What is success for you?

• 14:58Speaker 01

  Success to me is peace. Is is peace of mind. Um, it's it's.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  Being able to get up every day and live your life, you know, to the fullest with making memories,

• 15:13Speaker 01

  doing things that you love to do without, you know, having to be told what to do. Because you you earn that and you put yourself in a position where you're able to go do something that you actually love. Right. And it has it has purpose for you, right? Because this this book and what I do is because a lot of people get caught up in the jeezy like the rap. I ain't never been a rapper, really. No, I'm him. I ain't his mother, his daddy, his brother, his cousin. I'm him. I'm the guy who walked out of the streets and so all these kids in this generation coming up that you can meet for a while from. I'm gonna leave the back door open for you. You just gotta get in there. That's the first part. You gotta be disciplined to make those decisions, yeah. Right. But that's not where the game start.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Where it's start, now you gotta stay alive. Now you gotta stay free. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, man. Because you see what's going on with culture and entertainment. These kids are going to jail like it's nothing. They're dying like it's like like like they in Vietnam or something. You feel what I'm saying? So that's my purpose and why I'm here and why I tell my story because I had to make some painful decisions to get here and I'm still thriving and trying to get to the next level. But this is bigger than me because I'm gonna have to sit down with somebody one day and tell them, hey, man, you know, you might wanna try it this way, you know, because it it missed so many calls where

• 16:34Speaker 01

  I've had some kids where I wouldn't call them kids, but young guys that I really respected. And I would go talk to them about certain things. And they'd be like, yeah, I could see that. And then next week they're gone. They don't take it. They don't listen to you. They don't take action. Well, the thing is, you have to package it right. You see what I'm saying? Because if I'm coming to you and I'm looking clean and buttoned up, I don't look like one of you because you know how I used to look. You know how I used to be. You know what used to be around me. Yeah. You know, you you respected what was around me because you felt like I was leading men that you respect. Now that that's no longer around, you kind of second guess what I'm saying because that ain't the idea you got for yourself, right? Until you start to get in that place where you start to get things that you actually really care about. Kids, white, family, career, you know what I'm saying? Sure.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  Right. And now you're like, oh, what do I do? Because now you have to start making those and and the thing is you have to evolve. If you don't evolve, even in the streets, I knew that going in, it's just like, I'm not staying here. I just need this to be, you know, the vessel because music is my talent, which I stumbled on, but business has always been my passion. Hmm. I always always saw myself with a plain Jane watch, wedding band, three piece suit. Really? Yeah, that's me. That's who I am. Clean cut, good skin. Smelling good. Right, that's me. And and that's what I I strive for. Wow.

• 17:59Speaker 01

  So I was never caught up in the stigma of the streets. Like, I understood it, but I understood what it was too. You know what I mean? So I'm like, I can't come from the streets and walk straight into the boardroom. So how do I get there? And then I started to map out this plan. The plan was to go from where I was to figure some things out, to establish myself, establish my credibility. And starting to get into this music, I started as a CEO at first. I spent a lot of money. That didn't work. My artists went to jail. One of them got killed. And now I'm stuck with all this studio equipment. I'm like, I gotta do it myself. Now I do it myself. It takes me 10 years to build it. Boom, now I'm a success. But then I got all these bad things that are coming with me because now nobody ever cut the water off. You know what I mean? Wow.

• 18:39Speaker 01

  I gotta start transitioning that. But this is the thing, they don't understand. I already got a vision. I'm already going where I'm going. You hear what I'm saying? Absolutely. I'm going there. So as you start to get closer to where you're going, people start to fall back and they're like, I don't really like what he's doing anymore. I don't like the music he's listening to. Why is he eating clean food? What are we doing? Right. So it's that. And and and the thing is, you know, I think the sad part about it is, you know, everybody's supposed to have their own vision. And my vision and your vision is supposed to align so we can get to where we're going together. Whatever I could do to help you, like we talked about earlier, and whatever you could do to help me, that's when the visions align. When everybody's just kind of walking behind you just to see where you gotta go and they're not knowing you're going there, as you get closer to it, they go, I don't, I don't,

• 19:22Speaker 01

  I wanna be over here. This is where I'm good at. But I'm like, we can be good here today, but I don't know about tomorrow. Right? And that's what happens when you have people that get into the streets and stay in it. They don't have a vision. They just they just needed what they needed right then. And as you get more comfortable. With getting what you get, then you get this thing that I talk about in the book. This this mindset of I'm I'm glad it ain't me. So you hear about somebody getting murdered, I'm glad it ain't me. Here's somebody go about somebody going to prison, I'm glad it ain't me. But the whole time you rolling the dice.

• 19:55Lewis Howes?

  Could be you any moment, yeah.

• 19:57Speaker 01

  Tomorrow.

• 19:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  You know, and and and I'm not trying to paint it like this dark cloud because I learned so much in the streets. Like I give the streets everything. And I mean that, like even to this day when I'm out, I see people. And and you got to understand, like by far, I'm not the biggest rap star, not the biggest. But in the streets, I'm everything.

• 20:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  I'm everything.

• 20:18Lewis Howes?

  Today.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  It don't get no bigger.

• 20:20Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 20:21Speaker 01

  Because they all, either their fathers, maybe their older brother that's in prison, their cousin from the block that. Somebody got a cheesy story about why they love me.

• 20:33Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 20:33Speaker 01

  It's almost like Bob Marley. You go to Jamaica, Seven Mile where he's from, everybody's gonna tell you a story about how he helped him fight the bully at school. How he helped somebody jump their car off, how he gave somebody bail money, how he paid for kids' Christmas. That's that's who I am.

• 20:48Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 20:49Speaker 01

  And I've been that. And like for me, you know, that's what it's about. And and throughout the streets, the streets taught me about integrity, right? And that's like the the the the big one to me because it's almost like if you ain't a man of your word, you're not a man. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, you want to keep your word when you playing with people that are just as dangerous as you are.

• 21:12Lewis Howes?

  They're not gonna play.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  You know, right?

• 21:13Lewis Howes?

  They're not gonna play around.

• 21:14Speaker 01

  I'm trying to tell you.

• 21:15Lewis Howes?

  Break your word, they're gonna break you.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  You're right.

• 21:18Lewis Howes?

  So you mentioned.

• 21:21Lewis Howes?

  You mentioned your mom, I mean this, I shouldn't be laughing about this, but it's just kind of crazy to think about. You mentioned your mom put a gun in your face.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:28Lewis Howes?

  When you were fourteen, fifteen.

• 21:31Lewis Howes?

  How many times have you had a gun in your face since then?

• 21:33Speaker 01

  I got pretty slick after that.

• 21:36Speaker 01

  I got pretty good at like seeing the energy and knowing like.

• 21:39Lewis Howes?

  Escaping it.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, not putting yourself in there. And I was telling somebody this other day, like, I think in my mind, I just built up this superpower of just not getting caught up in it.

• 21:51Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 21:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've just been so good at that. You know what I'm saying? Like, my whole life, like, people will tell you right now, I still move militant. Like, I moved militant before Barack Obama.

• 22:01Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 22:01Speaker 01

  Oh, yes. Because I'm not exempt from anything. I'm not. You know, we just lost Limpsey Hustle, we just lost this one now. Like, you're not exempt.

• 22:09Lewis Howes?

  Even if you've had a good track record for a certain amount of time, and even if you're being in integrity to the right things and being of service and.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  One thing about it, if you have a top of Guzmah, you still have a top of Guzmah. You know what I'm saying?

• 22:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  It doesn't go away. The people don't go away.

• 22:24Lewis Howes?

  Something from 10, 20 years ago might still catch up to you.

• 22:27Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 22:27Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 22:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's real, and I don't mean it in the sense of, I mean, you're still dealing with individuals. You're dealing with people.

• 22:34Lewis Howes?

  Emotions.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're dealing with.

• 22:36Lewis Howes?

  People holding on to stuff.

• 22:37Speaker 01

  And people see you moving differently, right? And they see you enjoying your life.

• 22:40Lewis Howes?

  And they think, oh, I should be getting a piece.

• 22:42Speaker 01

  Right. Or not even just that, or just like, oh, he ain't the way he used to be. Therefore, he's not, you know.

• 22:48Lewis Howes?

  Or he thinks he's better than her or whatever.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  Right. And just jealousy in my culture is the real deal.

• 22:54Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 22:55Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, you can lose your life about that easy. I mean, that's nothing.

• 22:59Lewis Howes?

  Even if you didn't do anything to someone, but just that you came from somewhere, you made it, and they didn't.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  The craziest thing, you ain't gotta even make it.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  You just gotta be there when the energy's off, and they jealous, and they mad, or they upset.

• 23:13Lewis Howes?

  They got nothing to lose.

• 23:14Speaker 01

  That's it. And I got nothing to prove.

• 23:17Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right.

• 23:18Speaker 01

  So, I know better. And I think that, you know, I carry those list of. Rules and morals as I continue to navigate the world. And I think people that are around me don't understand why I still think that way.

• 23:32Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 23:33Speaker 01

  You know what I'm saying? But I just know better and it's not like I'm scared or worried, but I'm not gonna go nowhere I shouldn't be. I'm not gonna hang around. I ain't going to Roscoe's, I'll tell you that.

• 23:43Lewis Howes?

  2 a.m. Roscoe's, you're not jumping in?

• 23:45Speaker 01

  I'm not doing that.

• 23:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man.

• 23:47Speaker 01

  I'm missing my assistant, you know?

• 23:48Lewis Howes?

  So you're very, you're very intentional and mindful about your environment, people you're surrounding with.

• 23:54Speaker 01

  And that came when I trusted anyone.

• 23:56Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 23:56Speaker 01

  You know what I'm saying? Because I couldn't, you know, and, and, and, and people around me might look at you and might tell you if they sat down with you like, that's not true because this is like, nah, I didn't. I know how to play the game. I love you. I still love you.

• 24:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  But I know what you're capable of, right? And at the same time.

• 24:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  I know what's going on with the dynamic. You see me moving in a different direction. You don't like that. You're never gonna like that. How could you possibly like that? You know what I'm saying? So now it's like the love I have for you, I can't allow that to let, you know, me be vulnerable in a certain sense. And I know it sounds like.

• 24:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, sure.

• 24:31Speaker 01

  But, but it's like.

• 24:32Lewis Howes?

  How do you have peace, inner peace, emotional peace and self-belief and self-confidence? While also knowing that people that you grew up with or, you know, you're losing friends to death or jail or, and still happening today. How do you feel peace, calm and confident?

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:54Lewis Howes?

  Running a business, running your life, traveling with your wife, whatever it might be. How do you feel those things?

• 25:01Speaker 01

  I feel peace because I know that when it's all said and done, my kids gonna know that their father was a great man. I feel peace in knowing that there's no better husband in the world than me. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm that guy. You know what I'm saying? Um, because, because this is something I strive for. Like, I, I wanted these things. I know that when it comes down to my culture, there's nobody that's realer than me because I'm not. A rapper, like I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm a prophet in my mind. I mean, I'm here to share what I've learned and to share what I know in hoping that it can change lives. Wow. Right, and save lives because that's the only thing I can do at this point.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  You can give me a billion dollars, I'm gonna live the same life. Of course, I want it. Right, right, right, right. More people, but I'm gonna still be the same person. And for me, it's like I get peace in knowing that I got good friends now and I can build with. You know, I just had my homie lost one of his nephews and the other one lost his cousin. And, but it was a time where as black men, we couldn't even talk to each other about how we felt. I'm in a circle of people now, I can tell them like, man, I'm, man, I don't know how my, and we all come together. Right. We talk about this and I ain't judging you. Yeah. It didn't used to be like that. I used to have to keep all my feelings and everything that I was feeling balled up inside and deal with it myself, you know? Which caused me to go outside of my comfort zone to find the answers, which was a great thing.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. But now I can call, you know, one of my brothers or somebody and say, hey, look, man, well, you know, my, my man, I finally his nephew died. And the next day, my other man's cousin died and it's just like, now I gotta make these calls. And but then I, but the calls are like, they're, they're intentional. Hey, bro, if you need to process this, you know, you need to just sit down, like you wanna smoke a cigar, let's just talk. You know, and, and, and that's a different type of peace. Yeah. Right? Because now I got an outlet. And then what gives me peace is I started getting mentors, whether it was my, uh, cause I had a- The TD, a mentor of yours and Bishop Jakes as a mentor? Yeah, Bishop Jakes is one of my mentors, John Maxwell. Oh, yeah, I just had John on, he's great. Robert Green. Oh, Robert's amazing. Uh, Tony Roberts. Yeah, man.

• 27:16Speaker 01

  Uh, you, you name it, you know, these, these are my, this is my circle. It's me dial. Wow. And, um, and for me, it's like, uh-

• 27:25Speaker 01

  These are people that I can reach out to to even help me process stuff I need to process for the people that I love. I want to help, right? Because now we all got this. You know what I'm saying? It's not just mine, right? And what brings me peace is knowing that, you know, my decisions can change lives, right? Because my decisions have took lives, meaning like I've been a part of things that, you know, but now it's not like I just turned this new leaf and I'm just in a different space. It's like this is who I am. This is who I was evolving to be. I just had to go through the fire.

• 27:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  Right? Just to understand because I can't look at you with a straight face and go, I wouldn't do that. I don't think that's good and I never did it. I'm gonna be like, yo, I'm like, yo, man, like, I've been there. And that's why when my brothers come to me, if they going through something or whatever, I could sit down and have an intentional conversation about, you know, processing it and understanding where we at. And then we can, and here's that street sense kicks in again. Oh, you ever thought about this? You should sit down with such and such and y'all figure that out.

• 28:30Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 28:31Speaker 01

  And that's how it works.

• 28:32Lewis Howes?

  How old were you when you started to be able to open up and have these types of conversations about your emotions, about your feelings, about your thoughts as opposed to just with yourself? Because I never spoke about any of my emotions till I was about 10 years ago when I had 30. It's when I started to process and heal and be able to talk about these things that I was like, no one could ever know this stuff.

• 28:54Speaker 01

  I would say when I was 40.

• 28:56Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 28:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's less than five years ago.

• 28:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's when you started to be able to say, all right, let me start processing or opening up?

• 29:03Speaker 01

  Well, what happened was I was living in Malibu and my music was changing. Louis Farrakhan hit me, Brother Farrakhan. He was like, Jeezy, brother, Jeezy, your music is changing, the enemy is coming. I'm just like, my enemy is in my neighborhood. He ain't coming where I'm, I'm in Malibu. He's like, I'm just telling you. Get off the phone with him. Next week I'm on tour with Khalifa. Young man gets killed by my tour bus and they locked me and my crew up. So now I'm sitting in uh LA County Jail, ten million dollars in bail. Oof. You know what I'm saying, cause of ten people on the bus. Oh. I didn't do anything. First time in my life, I didn't do anything. And I'm sitting. You're on the bus. Well, actually, I got off the bus. Oh, wow.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  And went to a hotel room, and then I came. But it was your bus. On the bus the next morning, they followed us to the next venue. Oh, man. That's where they got me at. Holy cow. And now I'm sitting in jail, ten people in jail, million dollars apiece, ten million dollars. Um, and my team came to get me out the first day, right? And I go, I can't leave them in LA, in jail. I cannot, you know what I'm saying? So let me figure out how to get everybody out, and then we'll get out together. So I got everybody out on bail, cause we still had to go to court, I had to pay for all that. Wow. Flying everybody back and forth, fear the court, whatever. Um, shout out to my lawyer, Blair, Blair Brad, she, she killed it. But um, the thing was, that one last time,

• 30:30Speaker 01

  I was depending on the people that was my people to make sure that my family and my people were straight. And when I got home, when I finally got out, nobody did anything. Really? And I was, cause I've been to bed for everybody, I don't pay for things that ain't got nothing to do, it ain't even my business. Right? And I was just so devastated, cause I'm like, yo, what if I, what if this would have been it? What if I would have passed? Like, you're not gonna make sure my kids, I'm not gonna check on my daughters, mother, y'all are gonna do these things. And it's just like, I've done that for y'all, right? And I'm not pointing any fingers, I'm just saying, like, I know what I would do, right? And that's when I started to learn, I can't put my expectations on anybody. Right. Right? So now, I gotta do what's best for me, because now I feel like I'm all alone. Wow.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  So I was it. I cut everything, and then that's when I went on my mission to just start. And, and, and um, one of my business partners, we used to always just sit down and talk, have a bottle of wine, smoke a cigar. And he like, what do you wanna do? I was like, I wanna do real estate. And it just went to real estate, I started doing real estate, that did well for me. I wanna do spirits, so this is all what we did. So I'm like, why don't I just do that in life? Yeah. So I, Robert Green, I called Robert Green, we go to the LA Athletic Club, sit down, have tea. I asked him seven questions, and he started giving me this game. Wow. John Maxwell, who came to marry me and my wife. Wow. You know, in my backyard. That's amazing. Right. And one of my best friends, and me and John talking, he gives me this insight, and I just started to move. Towards the light, you know what I'm saying?

• 31:58Speaker 01

  Because I just wanted to get a different perspective because I didn't have anybody around me.

• 32:02Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 32:03Speaker 01

  To give me their perspective and T D Jakes same thing. And I'm not just saying it because these are established people. These are men that have done well in their lives and their community.

• 32:12Lewis Howes?

  And their relationships.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Their relationships, they want to share something with me that I didn't have any access to.

• 32:17Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 32:18Speaker 01

  And that was, that's what made me start to open up and start to understand and start to be in peace. And started to do all these things because now I know it's okay.

• 32:28Lewis Howes?

  Holy cow.

• 32:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:29Lewis Howes?

  So before five years ago, when you would face a challenge or adversity.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  Let me say this too, though. And I met my wife on set when I went to do her show. Uh, cause she works in television to promote an album I was working on. And I told my publicist, I said, yo, I'm gonna marry that woman. But I knew that I had to do some work on myself.

• 32:52Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 32:52Speaker 01

  So this is the five years that I would have got myself together. Then I came back and I was like, yo, you know, I'm actually ready for you like.

• 32:58Lewis Howes?

  Holy cow.

• 32:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:59Lewis Howes?

  So you met her right around that time, five years ago or whatever.

• 33:01Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 33:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:03Lewis Howes?

  So this is fascinating because did you kind of let go of all those people in your, your life around that time? That was.

• 33:12Speaker 01

  I mean, I want to say let go because it wasn't that easy, but I just think we, we grew apart.

• 33:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  And things just started to happen differently.

• 33:19Lewis Howes?

  They didn't want to go on the same path as you.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:21Lewis Howes?

  So naturally they're not going to be spending as much time as you.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then it just, you know, it got a little crazy for a while.

• 33:26Lewis Howes?

  The imagination, people don't like watching someone else change and doing things differently. Especially if you've known for a long time.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:34Lewis Howes?

  And you're used to doing certain things with them.

• 33:35Speaker 01

  Well, they want you to be the old you because it makes them be uncomfortable.

• 33:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:39Speaker 01

  The new you makes people be uncomfortable. And for me, I just kind of felt like the hardest decision I ever made in my life. Hardest decision I ever made in my life. And I made some hard decisions.

• 33:48Lewis Howes?

  Was what?

• 33:49Speaker 01

  Was, was to walk alone. Hardest decision I ever made in my life. It was like, I mean, for the first, I wait, the motivation came.

• 34:01Speaker 01

  For the first three albums up until my album The Recession, I had so much survivor's remorse and I was so like in a bad place, like I was drinking like you wouldn't believe. Really? Oh my God, I was two hundred and sixty pounds. Uh, skin was bad. I was just like, you know, I, cause I thought I was going to prison. The whole time, I'm just, cause everybody around me started to get indicted. So I'm like, just waiting. It's coming. Like if me and you hanging out and you get indicted, and I'm like, yeah, they got Lewis, that's my man. Right. Right. You know what I'm going, yeah. And it was just like the whole thing. So a lot of the music, why it was so, so strong and direct was it, cause I just wanted to be heard. In my mind, I'm just like, like I'm gonna be gone, so this is my only chance.

• 34:44Speaker 01

  So I really focused on the music, put everything in the music, cause I was just like, I just wanna leave this behind if, if I'm not gonna make it out this. And I was in such a, and, and this is the thing. I didn't have the verbiage for all these things I was going through. The language, you didn't have it communicated yet. I didn't know what depression was. I didn't know what anxiety was. Like, I didn't know these things. I didn't have, well, you think I can go to the next room, one of my homeboys be like, I'm feeling crazy. I think, I think it's anxiety. Like, yo, man. Drink this, smoke this. Hey, chill out, bro. You, you fucking. And on top of paranoia. On top of paranoia. One of the cops coming in, once someone come with a gun. Everybody I would see, I would just think, you know, that the agents, the this and that, and all these things were going on. I'm trying to make music. And I was just so depressed. I was just drinking so much. And I, I was like, waiting.

• 35:28Speaker 01

  Waiting to the day. Like, I would just go to sleep sometimes. Like, okay, if it's the day, I'm prepared. And they, they mind you, the whole time this is going on, because I'm, I'm built the way that I'm built.

• 35:42Speaker 01

  I'm distancing myself farther away from my family. My sisters, you know, my, my cousins, my dad, my mom at the time before she passed, because I'm, I'm preparing. Right? Because if I go, I don't wanna be like, I can't be a weak link. Wow. You know, cause I missed the outside of my mom, my family. So I'm mentally distancing myself from them, cause I don't want that to affect me if I gotta go to prison. Holy cow. All that's going on. And it was, one day, I'll never forget, I started to work on The Recession and, um, I was dealing with this young lady. We had this, this breakup. She, it was public. She was a public person. We had a breakup. And I just went in the studio the same night and I didn't come out until I worked The Recession. And I, what I was doing was,

• 36:27Speaker 01

  I was, um, I was reading, reading books. This is something new for me. What year is this? This is oh. Oh eight? Eight, oh seven, going into oh eight, right? Reading books, I was watching the news, I was working out. Now I'm in the gym. I mean, I don't know how to work out, so, cause I don't like to be told what to do, so I ain't wanna go with a trainer. So, now I'm YouTubeing videos, you know what I'm saying? You know, YouTube is my best friend and I learned how to eat clean, you know, how to stay hydrated, cause I wasn't drinking water for like, I, I go months without water. Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah, it was Cristal. Oh my gosh, man. Cristal and Waffle House, that was it, that was my diet. And I was like, that, and, and I lost sixty pounds.

• 37:10Speaker 01

  And I wrote The Recession, which was one of the best albums in, in my opinion that I've ever written, right? Because it was dealing with politics, the world, the things were going on. I wrote My President Is Black before Barack Obama won. Wow. Right? This is before he won. This was like six months before he won. And then he won, so that made that song go even crazier. I had put on with Kanye West, this was the first verse that he did since his mom passed. And now, I'm going to do shows, and when I used to do my shows, it used to be like all the gangsters and gang members and the drug dealers in the front row. Now I'm down, I'm like one ninety, one eighty-five, right? And I'm doing shows and it's all women in the front. Really? Yeah, and I go do my first show on the, uh, recession tour. They think they're looking at Asher or what? Right, yeah.

• 37:56Speaker 01

  And, um, I'm doing the show and, uh, uh, I come out on the stage and all stuff, stuff start flying on the stage. I'm looking at my security guard, like, yo, what you gonna do with this? He said, boss. I said, what's going on? He said, it's bras and stuff. I was like, oh my god. Panties and bras. Right, you know what I mean? And from that standpoint on, I was like, oh, I can be better. I can look better, I can be better. And this is when I came into stardom. This is when I gave myself, yeah, this is the first time, my third album was the first time in my whole career where I said, you are bona fide star. You have to go out here and you gotta do what you gotta do. And you can't worry about your past. You have to be what you become. And that's when I fell into like cheesy, right? Wow.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  That was the first time I felt like I was worthy and then. Really? Yeah, cause before then, I'm like, I'm thinking it's a fluke. You know, I'm like, huh, you know, I'm selling a few records, but. It ain't the type of money I'm used to. Let's talk about that. I'm saying, and how long was it really gonna last? You know what I'm saying? And you're not even really an artist. So, you know, you can write a hit album and be talented and can't write another one.

• 39:04Lewis Howes?

  Right. A lot of people did that.

• 39:06Speaker 01

  Right. So now I'm, I'm, I'm starting the process there. Cause I'm like, okay, I got one. What happens now? You know? So now I'm trying to stay in the studio, but I'm not living the same life that I was when I was writing these records. Right? Cause I'm on the, I'm transitioning. So I'm seeing things different and you know, nobody wants to hear that. So what are you gonna do?

• 39:26Lewis Howes?

  Right. How many, how many people in, in the, the music business that you interact with truly believe that they're worthy of love and peace and success?

• 39:37Speaker 01

  I can't really speak because

• 39:41Speaker 01

  I know for me, I just feel like, I just feel like I'm just a grown man. I don't group myself in that.

• 39:50Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 39:51Speaker 01

  Not that I have any disrespect for it.

• 39:52Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  But it's just like, you know, it's like if I go to a golf club and everybody there is, you know, well off, I might want to play golf, but I don't want to be in their group.

• 40:02Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:02Speaker 01

  Right. And I think that it's hard to get to know somebody when they don't know themselves.

• 40:08Lewis Howes?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 40:09Speaker 01

  Like it's hard, you know, cause they, they're, they're living out who they think they are, who people told them they are.

• 40:15Lewis Howes?

  A false identity.

• 40:16Speaker 01

  Yeah. You know, you know, you, you can't, you can't get to know them because they're going by a name that they made up and that it's who they are. And, and that's how people perceive them in the world. Right? And you know, not to say that anybody's a bad person, but it's almost like you go to a wrestling match, you gotta know the Undertaker ain't the Undertaker at home.

• 40:36Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right, right.

• 40:37Speaker 01

  You know what I'm saying? You gotta know that, right? But I think that's the difference because I'm Gen Z at home. I'm Gen Z every day. Like it ain't, it ain't got nothing to do with the music. The music just happened to be a part of what I'm doing.

• 40:47Lewis Howes?

  So, I mean, the music, you said this earlier, you weren't never, you never trying to be an artist. You were never trying to be a musician or artist or rapper. You weren't trying to.

• 40:55Speaker 01

  I love the music though. That, that was the thing because I learned, and I talk about that a lot in the book. I learned a lot from like Tupac's core. Because he had morals and values before I knew what they were. He stood for something. He was a revolutionary. I didn't know that you can even have an opinion about this stuff. You see what I'm saying? Sure. He stood on that. He died for it. He's like, you know, what's the difference between him and anybody else that was assassinated? He died for what he believed in, right? And the things that he believed in gave people like myself s- some type of moral compass. Cause I knew I couldn't do that, cause Poggs said you couldn't do that, right? And then I knew I shouldn't do that, cause he said somebody did this to him. And that's how I was starting to pull things out of the music.

• 41:37Speaker 01

  So I loved the music. So I was listening to like the Poggs and the Master Peas and the A-Ball, MJG. I didn't listen to the music just to hear it and enjoy it. I listened to the music like sermons. Wow. I'm trying to find the, the word in there. The message. The message. And that's why I love music so much. And it was like. But you weren't trying to be a musician. No, I was trying to be, honestly, I was trying to be an entrepreneur before I knew what entrepreneurship was. Because the guys that I saw that was doing it on a major level was the Master Peas and the Cash Monies. You know, they were living this crazy life and I was hustling, trying to get the stuff that they was getting. Like I bought Lexuses and Rolex watches and all this stuff at that time. Like I, I, I was known for that. You know what I mean?

• 42:22Speaker 01

  Like I, people know if you know me, I had the latest car, I had the best watch I did. And this is before music, right? But these were the entrepreneurs. I'm like, well, I can, I can do this. I just gotta go find some talent. So I was. So you're trying to be the label. You were trying to find the talent. I was dealing with some guys out of Florida that I was kinda getting some money with and, uh, in the streets. And they, um, they, uh, they had a record company that they was building, right? And we went like to this Black Spring break in Daytona or something. They had like the Winnebago's and the cars with their stuff on their t-shirts. And I was just like.

• 43:00Speaker 01

  I could do that. So I went back to Georgia, bought a studio, went to the neighborhood, got some artists. There wasn't artists, there was the homies, you know what I'm saying? Got artists. And, you know, put everybody down. My man was with me as well. And, and we put everybody in the studio and we was trying to make records. And we was trying to get our name out there and it just didn't go that way. And then the charges came down, people started getting real time. Yeah. So on and so forth. And now we stuck with this studio with no artists. And everybody like, well, look, you really lived the life, you might as well talk about it. Wow. I was a little reserved because I'm already, again, good over here. The last thing I want to do is go over here and look corny. Right.

• 43:42Speaker 01

  Or, because I don't really truly have talent. Like, I'm not writing songs every day. However, when I went back to my childhood, I had to realize, my wife is gonna kill me about this, but. There was a girl in my class when I went to school in Hawaii, right? And she was, uh, she was different than this or whatever. And I was just like, wow, you know, because I had never seen, this is my first time out of the hood. Like, I've never seen this. Right. So I'm like, so I started writing her poems. Mm-hmm. And then the more I wrote her poems, my dad would come in like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm writing another poem. He's like, nah, come on. So I wrote her poems like every day and then she ended up becoming best friends and close girlfriend with her.

• 44:21Speaker 01

  But I realized that the way I can articulate myself when I write was something special there because you're feeling what I want you to feel. Yeah, I'm getting the result. Right. I'm with you now. Right. You know what I'm saying? I can see, we're connected, right? And I, I just remember that. And then when I started to understand how to put my life into words, it started to be therapeutic for me because now it's like, oh, I did deal with that. Oh, that is trauma. Wow, I did go through that. How did I overcome that? And now I'm putting it in my music and that's why my music has always been about motivation. It's been about inspiration. It's been about how can I help you with my pain? Hmm.

• 45:03Speaker 01

  How can I prevent you from feeling what I felt? And even if you do, how do I make you feel like you're not alone in this? Right. That's where the music came from. Because if you go back to Pac, Thug Life was a movement, but if you listen to it, you think it's about killing and robbing, it's not. It's about standing for something, right? He just made it make sense to us. Sure. Cause we all feel like we're living the thug life, right? Wow. So I came back and my first album was Thug Motivation. Because I wanted to set it up like a class. That's cool. This is something you sit down and you, and then my second album was The Inspiration. Right? And then my third album was The Recession. So look at the, you know what I'm saying? And the crazy thing is I got the recession from being in a room with these guys. I went to this little private dinner. I'm in a room with all these guys that got all this money and they were so concerned. It was like, you know, the recession is coming.

• 45:49Speaker 01

  I'm thinking about selling this and doing that and I gotta get rid of this business. And I'm going like, you guys got a lot of money. Like, what are you worried about? And he's like, do you know what a recession is? I'm like, yeah, but I didn't. So I went back and Googled it and I'm like, huh. So I'm asking questions now. What happens with this? How does that happen? So when I wrote The Recession, that was me running back to tell the culture what I just learned. Because we know what a drought is. A drought on the street, meaning there ain't nobody working. Yeah. But a drought on the money is totally different. So that means there's no money nowhere. Wow. Right? So if you think you're living bad now, you're gonna live even worse, right? So that was my intention is when I wrote The Recession to tell people what was going on. And, and I just caught that moment in time where it hit and that music was like the soundtrack for what everybody was going through.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  And it was the recession. Right. And it just, right when I dropped it, that's when they announced it. And it was huge. When I say huge, it was crazy. And every interview I did after that, I started to really notice again, hear those words. Because now I'm writing about what I'm learning instead of just what I'm doing. And I'm putting it together. And now my interviews are different. Like people asking me real questions and I actually be like, what's up with Lil Ray Ray and everything. It's like now, like, so what do you think about the president? Have you ever met him before? Right? And I gotta tell you a crazy story about that too. So my past, um, so after I did my president is black, he won the first time, right? So he invites me to a correspondence dinner. Really? In New York.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  Go by Tom Ford, Suits from a crew, get myself together. And I fly back to New York and I go to the correspondence dinner. I'm watching my peers go in, the correspondence dinner. And I'm getting out of the car and I see my security talking to Secret Service. And they're just like, no, no, he can't, he cannot. I'm like, can't be around you. Right. And, yeah. So he invited you, but he couldn't. His team invited me. Right, right. I couldn't get in. Most embarrassing day in my life. Really? Cause I'm told everybody I'm going. Like, I'm telling everybody, right? And now I'm sitting in this hotel room, in this hotel called London, in New York, and I'm just sitting there and I'm going like, all the good I do, all the things I'm trying to like, how you, like, I'm, I'm a good dude, like, how you gonna, like, you, like, this ain't even

• 48:01Speaker 01

  real, like, you know what I mean, my past is my past, but I saw to understand how big and deep my past was, and if they would have dug into it, what they would have found, right? And I'll never forget, I was on tour, maybe like, uh, so it was year one, so this is like, maybe like, three years before he got back in the office again. And my mom called me, I'm in London, on the tour bus, she said, hey, baby, uh, you, uh, see what the president talking about you? I was like, what? She's like, yeah, the president was just talking about you. I said, no, no way. She said, yes. As he talking about me, she said, yes. I said, okay, she had my sister send me the clip. He was at the next correspondent dinner. He said, my first term, I went with Al Green. My second term, I'm going with Young Jeezy. Wow.

• 48:46Speaker 01

  Like, plain as day, and he looked at Michelle, he said, she likes when I sing that to her. And that's when I was just like, okay, I get it, he got some ice in his veins, he see me. I can't feel no way, right? Right, he gave you a shout out, he gave you props, yeah, yeah. But, but, here we go, here go that life again.

• 49:03Speaker 01

  I had people like that too. Hmm. I'm in my own light, I'm doing my thing, you can't be right beside me. You still in the things that, that, that don't. You know what I'm saying? So that was his way of showing me, I see you, you know? But I can't be. I can't be. You know, it's gonna be a little while before we able to sit down and just have a cocktail, bro, but I see you. And to me, that acknowledgement, not just because he was the president, and because he saw me, right? Publicly. Right. That made me. Wow. You know, I was just like, okay, cool. Which I took a page out of that, and even guys that I know from the streets, that, you know, we have some history. I make sure, if it's still that type of terms, that I still see them. Uh huh. Cause sometimes people just wanna be acknowledged. Absolutely, man. Wow, have you got a chance to sit down with him?

• 49:47Speaker 01

  No, actually, he came to Atlanta to do a, uh, A rally for Stacey Abrams. We got a chance to chop it up right quick.

• 49:53Lewis Howes?

  I'll have to go.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  I don't think the Secret Service still trusts me yet. It was like looking at me up and down.

• 50:01Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man. This is fascinating. So how did you get the confidence, knowing that you weren't a rapper or an artist or musician? How did you get the confidence to? Obviously, you're writing down your, your thoughts, what are really poetry in your way and sermons in your way, motivation and teaching. And you're putting it into an album. How'd you sell so many records and get your name out there coming from the streets? How did you promote yourself and build a brand? Record after record. When you didn't know what you were doing?

• 50:30Speaker 01

  That's the thing. That's the good thing. That's the golden thing about the streets. You don't gotta know what you got. You don't gotta know what you doing. As long as you do it. Cause there's no, and that's, like I say, back to the book, there's no straight path. That we trying to get through. You gotta navigate these things. I think what gave me the confidence was survival. And that I knew that I was studying before.

• 50:51Speaker 01

  Like say, for instance, when. Again, when people just be listening to the music, I be listening for the word. Or I would be a young guy to go sit around a bunch of old guys and just listen to them talk to see what I can learn from them. And that just kinda was my school. It kinda gave me confidence because I knew more than the average kid my age. Right? And I was learning how to move because my older cousins was in the streets before me and it was pretty big. So I watched a lot what they was doing, a lot of people that was around them and I was like, okay, and I'm just, I'm a sponge.

• 51:19Lewis Howes?

  Your brother was performing in the streets.

• 51:21Speaker 01

  No, no, my cousin was in the streets. They was doing this. Yeah, they were the guys and I was just watching what they was doing.

• 51:28Lewis Howes?

  So you observed and then you.

• 51:29Speaker 01

  He was a sponge, a sponge, a sponge. And that's what gave me confidence because I just felt like I knew more than everybody else, right? And then I wasn't scared to go ask the questions. And then going about building a brand. I watched and studied how music worked. And even from the Cash Money era to Master P. You know, Master P and them had the tanks on and all that stuff. I'm just like, what, what, what is that for me? And I had this mechanism with this big diamond encrusted snowman on it, right? And, and it was like. It was the craziest thing ever because it started as a chain, right? And then people start calling me Snowman, right? And now I got a brand.

• 52:10Speaker 01

  And then when I put out my first album, they took the snowman and put it, shout out to Shana Ayers, she was helping me with it. They took the snowman and put it on the CD cover. It immortalized it and now this snowman is everywhere. And everyone wants to wear a snowman. So the shirts were made for branding and marketing and I gotta go back to how I branded and marketed myself. The shirts was made for branding and marketing and we only made a hundred. It blew up so much, we ordered a thousand more. Then it out of nowhere, I promise you I don't know what happened. It went from some shirts that we were sending out to you go anywhere on Harlem, anywhere on one twenty fifth, whatever. Every store got a different version of the snowman shirt. This was all around the world. Wow.

• 52:54Speaker 01

  So now Jay-Z calls me because he's the president of Def Jam. He's like, I'm going to the Magic Show, you should come with me. So this is the Magic Show out there, the clothing show in Vegas. So they got the rock, Rockaware booth out there. Yeah, yeah. And he like, yo, let's just walk through it. So me and Jay-Z walk around the, the, the Magic Show. What year is this? This is like oh, six, seven, oh six. And um, we just walking around it and people keep running up to me going cheesy. No, I'm with Jay-Z. They like cheesy, man, thank you so much. We love you, man. You're the realist. This is great. And I'm just like, so after the first, fifth person, I look at him, he look at me. He's like, what's going on? No one's saying anything to Jay-Z. Yeah, but not even just that though. We both looking at each other like, what's going on? Cause I don't know what they're talking about. You know what I'm saying? Right.

• 53:39Speaker 01

  And I asked the guy, I said, yo, what, what, what you mean? He's like, yo, everybody's making money off these snowman shirts. Cause now they're selling them in bulk. Oh, man. You know what I'm saying? Like, cause they're selling them to all the mom and pop stores. So we went to one guy's shop, he had them to the ceiling. And one of my guys back then told me when I first did it, I should trademark it. Yeah. But I'm still thinking like that. I'm like, nah, this is whatever. And I never trademarked it. Craziest thing ever and. The crazy thing was, but it's a double edged sword, so I didn't trademark it. However, I think that made my brand bigger than life. Wow. Because everybody had access to it and they were selling it and they were making money, which means that I was helping them help me. Yeah, and they were probably getting out there faster than you could.

• 54:24Speaker 01

  About one thousand percent. Wow. Now it goes back to how I started branding myself. So what I would do when I was first trying to figure out, um, where I was going, I was doing these mixtapes with DJ Drama. He's like a, you know, big deal in the culture as far as like street tapes. So what I would do, when people would do street tapes and like put them in stores and sell them, you know, five, $10. Oh, what I did was I pressed up like a hundred thousand and gave them all out. Wow. I went to this club every week on the east side and I gave them out. Then we were around town, gave them out beauty supply stores, beauty salons, barber shops. And I did that. That was the first tape. I started to need to move a little bit. In Georgia. In Georgia. Atlanta, yeah. Then my second tape was Trap or Die, right? So I pressed up 500,000 of these.

• 55:09Speaker 01

  Oh, man. And I just started giving them out, giving them out. Best thing I ever done, because my grandmother always told me if you want something from somebody else, give them something first. Right. Best thing I ever did. I could still do those songs right now, any stage. Wow. Because it was like, it was like grassroots. And now I'm getting, everybody's starting to know who I am. And then I put this DVD of all the footage of me just running around with the Trap or Die tape. And when I knew it was real is when I used to walk into my, we, we call them trap houses. Sure, sure, sure. So I'd go to my friends' trap houses, whatever, like my homies or whatever. And I'd go like, you know, just go through there, holler and whatever. And they would be watching my DVD. Wow. In the living room, it'd be like 10 people in there looking at DVD and you're looking like, y'all know me. It's like, oh, this is crazy. You know what I'm saying? They're watching me.

• 55:54Speaker 01

  And that's how I knew. And then it went from there to, because I used to hang out a lot, it's been all the premier clubs, wherever. Because I just went to my jury, drama cause, because that was my, that was my marketing. Like I just looked like the guy who was already successful, who was trying to be successful. And I'll never forget when Trap or Die came out, um. I was walking in the club, I mean, mind you, I'm a street guy, so I'm not used to people just walking up on me. And this is back before you can like just take pictures of anybody and anything. And people come up on me like, yo, cheesy man, I love what you do, man. Like the six times somebody came to me, it just felt like somebody was paying them to say this, you know what I'm saying? Cause it was weird. I never. Sure. You know, and it just started happening more and more. And I'm like, oh, oh, oh, I'm on to something. Interesting.

• 56:38Speaker 01

  This is, this is, this is real. And then I started to be like, go out like the malls or whatever, be just doing regular stuff. People come up to me, yo, man, I really love you, man. I love what you're doing. I'm just sitting there and I'm going like, this is it. I gotta focus now. Wow. And I started recording my debut album. And while I'm recording my debut album, I'm paying for it myself.

• 57:01Speaker 01

  And they, they come to me about a deal, so I take the deal uh with Def Jam. And when I'm taking the deal and working on the album that I'm paying for, that they're gonna reimburse me my money. I don't know how to perform and I'm not taking care of myself. And so now I do this show in Jacksonville and uh at the Super Bowl, like in a club nightclub. And the system is terrible and I had polyps on my vocal cords already. And I tore my vocal cords. Oh, man. So now I'm one foot in the street, one foot out, I got some buzz as an artist. And I gotta get surgery. Oh, man. And I don't know if I'm, and the whole conversation is, we don't even know if he's gonna sound the same or how he's gonna sound.

• 57:45Speaker 01

  So now, I'm like, it's, it's going down. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know what to do, you know, and it was probably one of the scariest moments of my life because now I gotta go in there behind you. I don't even have his shirt. Oh, right, right. My surgery with a brown paper bag. Oh, my gosh.

• 58:05Speaker 01

  So I paid for my surgery with a brown paper bag. And um, so I made it through that. And then right after that, I wanna make sure I say this word right, cause somebody said I did say it right last time. I got hit with Bell's palsy. Uh huh. And, and now. Wow. My mouth is crooked and my face is. This is like the second thing. After the surgery. After the surgery. Holy cow. So now I'm like, I'm hiding. Cause I look crazy. And um, I was scared. I remember talking to my mom. I was just like, mama, I don't, I don't know what to do. But then I realized quickly too, that I wasn't taking care of myself, right? And at the same time, you don't have people around you that are taking care of themselves. They're not. Drinking, you're eating bad, yeah, not sleeping, yeah.

• 58:48Speaker 01

  And you can, he was too paranoid. Like I couldn't, I, man, I, I can go off. Before these days, I can go off like an hour and a half of sleep. Oh my gosh. Any day. That was my thing. I sleep when I die. Right, yeah. Because you couldn't sleep, you know what I mean? Because you got so many things going on and your mind is in so many different places, but you're trying to navigate it. And that's why I say, you know, the new rich is peace. It is. You know, because, you know, you can have a billion dollars, you know, like my mom used to say, you can put somebody in a Rolls Royce, he's still gonna have the same problems. He's gonna have those problems in a Rolls Royce. And I think, once you become in this place where you just had peace with who you are, and who you're becoming, and like I said again, I had to give myself permission to evolve. Wow.

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Because it was almost like, I, I wanted to grow, but I couldn't grow because of my surroundings. These weeds and these things that will hold me back. And when I started to clean that out, I started to like grow and, and bloom and blossom. And I just started to understand like, wow, like the, the air is different up here. Like, you know, the, the, the, the, the thought process is different. Yeah. You know, like I like getting up at five AM in the morning. I used to be a time, I wouldn't go to sleep until six AM. Up all night, yeah. Wake up at two PM, yeah. But I love it now because it's like, and, and even some of my friends, they ask me like, what are you doing now? And it's crazy because people ask me a lot of things about life and I'm surprised because they're older than me. Right? And they're like, yo, so what are you doing now? I'm getting up at five, I'm doing this. What book you reading? I'm reading this book, I'm reading that. And they come over to my house, I give them a copy of the book.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  It's weird, it's jeezy. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. You know, this guy used to pass you the blunt, now he giving you books, he's like, uh.

• 1:00:25Speaker 01

  But, I, I take pride in that because that's my peace. I, I love when I go through my phone and one of my guys hit me like, oh my, chapter 10. Oh my God, it's mind blowing. You know, I'm like, yeah, where did you get chapter 12? Right. In my mind, that's my peace. Wow, man. And, and, and I had to work. So hard and do so much work on myself just to even get a taste of that.

• 1:00:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. How did you get, I mean, how did you get to a taste of peace? How did you start to even heal your thoughts, your emotions, your body? Because I'm assuming forty years of some type of psychological or physical trauma, whether it be not sure where you're sleeping at night, mom's pointing a gun in your face, on the streets, who knows what's gonna happen every day, sleeping an hour a night, doing that for forty years.

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:01:10Lewis Howes?

  You know, seeing friends die, seeing friends go to jail, doing that for that long.

• 1:01:15Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:01:15Lewis Howes?

  Having surgery.

• 1:01:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:01:17Lewis Howes?

  There is no peace. There's no healing. There's no time to think about, let my nervous system calm and relax. Let me process these memories of my past from parents to childhood friends to other stuff that maybe you haven't talked about and really allow my body to feel whole.

• 1:01:37Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:01:38Lewis Howes?

  When did that start to happen and is that still a journey for you?

• 1:01:41Speaker 01

  Yes, still a journey. I I learned that when my mom passed. I didn't grieve right.

• 1:01:45Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:01:46Speaker 01

  Cause I'm numb.

• 1:01:47Lewis Howes?

  When was this?

• 1:01:48Speaker 01

  My mom passed three years ago.

• 1:01:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:49Speaker 01

  I'm numb. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm been through it so much, I don't feel that part. Like, I gotta be honest. Like, I don't know how to connect with that. Right? And that's something that I'm working on every day because it's like when you going through all these things, you just become, it becomes normal life to you. Right? And then you have to understand this is what's gonna happen. You gotta deal with it, you gotta keep moving. Right? And when my mom passed, I knew that I didn't grieve right. I was just like, something's not right. Was sending me on another mission. So to answer your question is, how do you get to that? I'm still working on that now and that's why I'm even opening up and being transparent about what I'm going through. But I think at some point, as black men, we all in that space, bro. We didn't come from a certain type of life.

• 1:02:34Speaker 01

  And for me, it took me to get around other people to understand that everybody's went through something, right? And it gotta be different outlets of how you can, um, you know, just start to dump some of that stuff off. And the craziest thing is, you know, and, and, and I'm not just saying that, even when I start listening to your podcast, John Maxwell's and. You know, just different people, I just respected their perspective. I started to get a lot of information about how to deal with those things and who I should reach out to. Which is why I'm so passionate about the book because there's information in there, right? There's information in these shows and these episodes that you do that you wouldn't even expect. People to pull that from and go, man, maybe I need to, or maybe I should sit down with somebody.

• 1:03:19Speaker 01

  And like, I didn't know what processing mean. Right. You know what I'm saying? I didn't know that something from my childhood could affect me worse in my forties. Right? I didn't, I didn't know all these things, but I'm working on those things every day. I'm working on trust. Wow, man. You know, I'm working on emotions, like I love my kids, right? And I'm, I'm just making sure I'm intentional about connecting with them. Cause I know there's some times with me where I get caught up in my world and I'm thinking about everything that I got going on. That I might not be present, but then I didn't know there was a such thing of being present. So now I gotta check myself on that. You could be present, you're always hustling for the next thing, probably. So now it's checks and balances. Wow, man. And, and, and it's in, it's in the information. And that's one thing I do like about social media these days. I hate all the, like, it's terrible.

• 1:04:04Speaker 01

  But there's a lot of information there. If you know how to sort through it, like YouTube's, like books, like podcasts. There's information that we need that we just can't get from people that are around us because they're searching for the same thing. And, and, and I think that's what helped me get on the mission of healing because it's the thing. I didn't know I needed to heal. I feel like I was Iron Man, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm good. Like, it came, nothing hurt me, came, I felt like that. And then when I started peeling back the layers, I'm like, like, wow. Like, you know, like, like how somebody gonna feel your devotion if they can't, if you're not, you know, it's how, how people gonna feel you if you're not even being? Cause you know, by the way, this is, I would never talk this much, just to go back and look at my first interviews. I'm like, yeah, nah, it was like interrogation. Yes or no?

• 1:04:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was interrogation. It was like, nah, I don't know about that. But now I feel like, you know, it's, it's, it's my purpose and, and, and my responsibilities are open up. Yeah, it's beautiful, man. Because we don't make it to our forties. In fifties, you know what I'm saying? And we don't make it there being us and still being cool and still being successful. And still being like, you know, if it's a black man, you get over a certain age, nobody cares about you. Not even your kids, really? We can't give them no money or do nothing for them. It's like, you know, you know, you just get to a certain age, it's so hard for us, right? So you have to put things around you and put things in place to keep you held accountable and and and that fulfill you so that you can go out here and be the best that you can be. And for me, that's what keeps me going, keeps me on the journey of healing.

• 1:05:34Speaker 01

  I don't got a problem saying that now because I got my friends and people that tell me, you know, things like, yeah, I'm really going through this. I'm like, well, I mean, I'm here, like, we, what can I do?

• 1:05:45Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:05:45Speaker 01

  So I'm already knowing they need to heal, right? And I, I, I can understand that. So now I give them space to heal, right? Checking in, you know, let's go have dinner or something. Let's just get out for a minute. And because the thing for my culture is when you go through things, you isolate yourself. You know, and that's like the worst thing ever because now you, you know, you, you, you in this, you know, in a wall, it's for real.

• 1:06:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, man.

• 1:06:12Speaker 01

  You know, a wall can keep people out, but it can also keep you in. You know what I'm saying? So it can keep the bad things out, but it blocks the blessings as well.

• 1:06:20Lewis Howes?

  It does.

• 1:06:20Speaker 01

  You know, and I think, you know, we, I had a wall up for, you know, my first probably, you know, thirty some years of my life.

• 1:06:26Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:06:27Speaker 01

  Oh, a big one. I'm talking about like, I'm talking like, no, nothing wouldn't get past that wall. Because that's how I would survive it. Like, it's different to live for love and to live for survival. And if you ask me, you know, what was the difference? I was living for survival here. Now I'm living for love.

• 1:06:46Lewis Howes?

  Did you, were you able to experience love up until the last five years with that wall?

• 1:06:51Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:06:52Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:06:52Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:06:53Lewis Howes?

  What does love feel like now that you have the wall coming down or at least?

• 1:06:57Speaker 01

  It feels.

• 1:06:57Lewis Howes?

  Partial wall, you know, maybe.

• 1:06:59Speaker 01

  It feels like trust.

• 1:07:00Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:07:01Speaker 01

  It feels like a village, it feels like community, feel like support, feel like understanding, it feels like grace. It feels like those things because again, you never had it. And not to say that it wasn't there, but I wouldn't let anybody in.

• 1:07:14Lewis Howes?

  You weren't allowing yourself to experience it.

• 1:07:15Speaker 01

  So now it's just like. Knowing people, because you know, for a while, you just feel like nobody really like, really is down with you. Because when you go through like, a lot of the stuff I talk about in the book, you realize how people go left and right, not really down. You kind of just build that up in your head. You're kind of like, okay, all my interactions are like, you know, they one offs. I'm not looking to build with you. You know what I'm saying? They're not deep, yeah. Yeah, I already know at some point it's gonna go left and you're gonna feel away about something, and there's that, right? But what I had to learn is, like, you know, even when I was wrong, you know, I could still go back and have a conversation with somebody who's mentally on the same level as me and be like, you know what, man? I just had a bad day, bro. Like, I was doing this and that and going through, and you said this, and I just kind of feel like I wasn't there.

• 1:08:00Speaker 01

  You know what I'm saying? And you're like, no, it's all good. That's how two men talk. When you're coming from a culture where if we don't agree, somebody gotta go. Wow. You know what I'm saying? Sure, sure. Oh, yeah, somebody gotta go. And I ain't talking about just leaving. Right. You know what I'm saying? Right. That ain't how we Go forever. Yes. Holy, and that's how, that's how it's set up. And that's, and, and, and the thing about it is, what I learned in this world, in this world is there's no conflict resolution in, in this world. We, we don't have conflict resolution. We don't have an understanding of how this is supposed to go. There's a resolution, it's just not a healthy one. Right. Right, right. And, and, and in this world, there, there's conflict resolution. There's, there's, I'm wrong, you're right. You know, there's, you know what, next time,

• 1:08:45Speaker 01

  I try this, there's, you know, uh, you know, you lose somebody, we there for you. You know what I'm saying? You going through something, you got help. You know what I'm saying? If you, you, you feeling depressed, I won't be the one to call and make you laugh, or tell you something crazy. You know what I'm saying? Or if you got some issues with your business, I want to introduce you to my lawyers, and my friends, and their friends, and so on and so forth. You know, if I went on a vacation somewhere, like, man, you know, you should go there, I'm gonna set you up with the people. So now you're like, building this, this, this community of we all we got. Right? And in this community, you all you got. Right. You know what I'm saying? Wow. You know, ain't no way around it. With all the experience you have now, from

• 1:09:31Lewis Howes?

  All the stuff and the trauma you went through growing up and and the process of healing and the process of trusting in the last five years and processing and all these different things. What would you say is your greatest superpower now? And maybe it's not what people would think it is. And also, what is your biggest weakness still that you're working to overcome that you want to become better at overcoming?

• 1:09:54Speaker 01

  My biggest weakness would be dealing with a lot of my childhood trauma. Because there's sometimes a little J still comes out. You know what I mean? I have to work on that because EB feels slighted. And again, what I had to kind of come to grips with is that what served me then doesn't serve me now. You know what I mean? And it's like, you know, a violent behavior would serve me then.

• 1:10:22Lewis Howes?

  It protected you, it guarded you.

• 1:10:25Speaker 01

  You know, tough demeanor is like, ah, you know. And was it the next one you asked, what am I working on now?

• 1:10:32Lewis Howes?

  The greatest superpower.

• 1:10:33Speaker 01

  Superpower.

• 1:10:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:34Speaker 01

  I say the greatest superpower to me is having a good heart. You know what I'm saying? Because I always had it. You know what I'm saying? And just doing things for people makes me feel like it fulfills me. Like, it's almost like, you know, when somebody call me and be like, yo, thank you for introducing me such and such, or telling such and such, you know, stop by my business. I'm like, oh, no, I love what you do, whatever. That's a good thing for me. And then also, my superpower is problem solving. Like, I love that. Like, you can put a hundred problems on this desk. Scan through them, okay, this is what we're gonna do.

• 1:11:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:16Speaker 01

  That's my thing. And just to add something on to that, I think my biggest super, superpower is integrity.

• 1:11:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:11:23Speaker 01

  I just, I have to move correctly because I have to be able to look at myself in the mirror. And there's been some times that I couldn't. Right. Because I didn't move correctly.

• 1:11:32Lewis Howes?

  Your past.

• 1:11:33Speaker 01

  My past, definitely. I mean, you know, and based off, like, you know, I would lie if I felt like it was gonna benefit me or get me out of trouble. I don't think I can do that today. So I try not to get in trouble because I'm gonna be like, yeah, I did it.

• 1:11:47Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right, right. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:11:48Speaker 01

  But I had learned that a man, this real man, doesn't lie under any circumstance. He doesn't.

• 1:11:54Lewis Howes?

  Wow. When did you learn that? When did you start that switch of?

• 1:11:57Speaker 01

  I started that around.

• 1:12:01Speaker 01

  About my late thirties.

• 1:12:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:12:02Speaker 01

  Because I was still trying to figure it out then. And I wouldn't like say nothing crazy, but if you asked me something that was like some pressure behind it, like meaning like I could be in a situation or it might not go my way, then I might lean towards what's gonna work for me. But now I couldn't, I couldn't do that. Like I couldn't look somebody.

• 1:12:20Lewis Howes?

  There's no peace. When you're, when you're always telling a white lie or hiding something, you know.

• 1:12:26Speaker 01

  Well, also what I learned too, that it, it, it, it worked for me because you have to be covert, right? You coming from this world, you gotta, you can't tell people everything you're doing. You're supposed to tell me your next step because they could be there waiting for you, right? So that was how I lived. But when I started to be more transparent, I started to notice that these quality people that I was bringing to my life became closer to me. They embraced me more. Cause you gotta think, like I was the guy that talking about coming over to your house for dinner. Oh, no.

• 1:12:58Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:12:59Speaker 01

  It was.

• 1:12:59Lewis Howes?

  But the more vulnerable and open and honest and integrity and your word that you are consistently, the more people want to support you who have the same values.

• 1:13:08Speaker 01

  And the more, and the more they want to, um, you know, uh, even give you a lot of the knowledge that they have.

• 1:13:17Lewis Howes?

  Hundred percent.

• 1:13:17Speaker 01

  You know what I'm saying? It's just like, and, and, and, and not even, you know, like really pour into you, like really lean into you. And at first, you know, that was a little weird to me because nobody had ever helped me before. So now I'm trying to figure out what's the catch.

• 1:13:33Lewis Howes?

  Right. What they trying to get out of it? Yeah, yeah.

• 1:13:35Speaker 01

  Right. So now I'm trying to figure out what's the catch.

• 1:13:36Lewis Howes?

  Trying to use me? Trying to get something from me?

• 1:13:38Speaker 01

  Right. And it took a while and I'm just like, wait, wait, so. And then, you know, I'm not good with time. Like I remember the trauma stuff, but like, cause of course I lived a crazy life in and out here and there. So you meet people and see people. But then when you see people, you haven't seen them in a while and they kind of greet you with their love and they tell you like, I just really love you. Like at first I couldn't believe it, right? But over time it started to be like, yo, maybe, you know, it's, that's, that's, you know, that's genuine. That's, that's, that's real. Cause where we come from, if somebody tell you they love you, you gotta be watching your back freely.

• 1:14:11Lewis Howes?

  Yes, absolutely.

• 1:14:13Speaker 01

  One thousand percent.

• 1:14:13Lewis Howes?

  With them.

• 1:14:14Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:14:16Speaker 01

  You in, you out at nightclub, somebody get in your ear, you know, that's, that's, that's it. That's, you don't want that.

• 1:14:22Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:14:23Speaker 01

  Yes, you don't want that.

• 1:14:24Lewis Howes?

  Why? They could be shooting you the next day or something.

• 1:14:26Speaker 01

  One thousand percent.

• 1:14:27Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh, man.

• 1:14:27Speaker 01

  I seen it happen more times than you can think. I, I've seen it firsthand, you know?

• 1:14:33Lewis Howes?

  What is the biggest lesson your wife has taught you?

• 1:14:36Speaker 01

  The biggest lesson she taught me, um, in life is that having a partner is, is, is having somebody that is on the same wavelength as you and you guys are building the better. The building together is the best thing in the whole world.

• 1:14:55Lewis Howes?

  Man.

• 1:14:56Speaker 01

  My wife is smart, super smart, super savvy, um, you know, fly, let me say that. And it's just like, that's my partner. Like, we can talk about things and she's there with me, right? And then she can also tell me things that I wouldn't take from anybody else. Cause there's been times I've been in a situation where my wife is like, have you ever thought about? I'm like, no, I have not. Let me get into that. And we sit down, we politic and we talk and it's just like, we're coming with a plan. And, and I love that. And she can hold her own and that's what I really respect about her. Like she has just as many resources and things as I have and we always put them together to do things.

• 1:15:33Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing.

• 1:15:33Speaker 01

  And she's very, uh, well-traveled and I love that. Like we can go anywhere, she's, she, she's plugged in and we, we, we never live together that we both sit down. And I mean, the first like couple of months we was together, we sat down, we did a vision board and it was like this big vision board. It was in the living room in my, in my condo. And we're just doing all these, uh, uh, you know, it's all these ideas and, and we looked up maybe like, maybe like a year later, we had done everything.

• 1:15:58Lewis Howes?

  That's so cool, man.

• 1:15:59Speaker 01

  We gotta do another board.

• 1:16:01Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:16:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:02Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing, man. Um, I've got a few more questions for you, that's okay? This has been inspiring, man. I could hear your stories.

• 1:16:08Speaker 01

  Thank you so much, brother.

• 1:16:09Lewis Howes?

  I could hear this stuff for a long time, but, um, I want to ask, I mean, you mentioned Jay-Z briefly. Um, but you've worked with a lot of big artists.

• 1:16:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:20Lewis Howes?

  Over the years, right? I mean, who are some of the names that you've worked with or either been on tracks with, that they've been on your album or you worked with?

• 1:16:26Speaker 01

  Kanye West, to Rihanna, to, uh, Mariah Carey, to.

• 1:16:32Speaker 01

  Wow, and this goes on. I'm only for people I ain't worked with that I ever wanted to work with is Sade and Tupac. I think everything else I got covered.

• 1:16:41Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:16:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:43Lewis Howes?

  How did you go, I mean, from not being an artist, not being a rapper, not knowing anything really about music, to working with the biggest names in the world?

• 1:16:52Speaker 01

  I think it's my connection to the streets and the people and the culture. Because, again, like, you have your community and you have some leadership there. By connecting and collabing, you get to get these people ears that you never would have got because they don't know you or believe you, but they believe me.

• 1:17:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:13Speaker 01

  Right? So that's the key to it. Because that's the most reason why people do collabs is to tap into whatever you got, right? And it's just like, you know, when you got people like Rihanna, we done records, you got Kanye West, we done plenty of records. You got people like Jay-Z. I got more records with Jay-Z than he has with Biggie Smalls. Like, just think about that.

• 1:17:31Lewis Howes?

  Holy cow.

• 1:17:32Speaker 01

  Right. But that's what I'm saying. So for me, I think we just tap into what each other has. And for me, my stronghold has been the culture, the people. Like, I am the people's champ, you know? And it's way beyond the music. Like, the music is just the vessel and the connection to the people. But I think it's more life things to have because you can track and see where I was in a bad space. You can see where I was trying to figure it out. You can see when I started to come out of my rut. You can see when I started to think different. You can see when I started to eat different. You can see when I started to dress different. So you're seeing that evolution and you're starting to go, hold up.

• 1:18:13Speaker 01

  I'm from where he's from. I can do that. He's doing like, you know, real estate in Atlanta. Like, we're really over the world. I'm healing right now. Something I always loved. I mean, it reminds me of my old life.

• 1:18:25Speaker 01

  But, um... Is my thing and I got business people coming to me talking to me about real estate. These are people in the culture that's really excited about going out here and doing these things that they probably wouldn't have ever thought that they can do. But they're seeing what I'm doing and they'll go in like, wow, like, and now I'm getting these calls from people that, you know, that I used to know in a whole nother life, like, man, I just bought this duplex, man, like, who can I talk to about managing for me or whatever, whatever. And it's like, these are the conversations I want to have with you. I don't want to have conversations with you. That, uh, you know, that, uh, The old one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not good.

• 1:18:57Lewis Howes?

  I got, I got three final questions for, I feel like I could ask you tons of stuff, but I want people to get your book, Adversity For Sale.

• 1:19:04Speaker 01

  Yes, sir.

• 1:19:04Lewis Howes?

  You gotta believe.

• 1:19:05Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 1:19:06Lewis Howes?

  Make sure you guys get a few copies of the book, give them to your friends from J. Jeezy Jenkins. This question is what I ask all my guests at the end of our conversations. It's called the three truths. So it's a hypothetical question, hypothetical scenario. Imagine you get to live as long as you want to live.

• 1:19:27Lewis Howes?

  You know, you can extend your life for as long as you want, but eventually it's the last day. But you've created so many vision boards, you've accomplished all your dreams a thousandfold, right? For the rest of your life, you've lived exactly where you want to live.

• 1:19:45Lewis Howes?

  But for whatever reason, in this hypothetical world, no one has access to your content, your information, your music, your books, this conversation is gone. Everything you've ever put out is gone. But in the last day, you get to leave behind three lessons. And this is all we have access of your information, the three lessons that you would share with the world. I call them the three truths. What would be those three truths for you?

• 1:20:08Speaker 01

  First truth would be karma is real.

• 1:20:16Speaker 01

  I've done some pretty bad things in my life and I tell you, man, the man upstairs, big G O D, he made me, he made me pay. He made me pay and I, I'll never go back down that road again. So do right by people and do right by yourself. You know, because karma is real. That would be my first truth.

• 1:20:39Speaker 01

  My second truth would be it's never too late for anything. Like you can be how old or you can be in the worst situation in the world. It's just never too late. They're turning all around. It's never too late. Like you, you, you, if you get started today, you're on your way tomorrow, no matter when. And my last truth would be evolve or die.

• 1:21:07Speaker 01

  And I don't mean in the sense of the word, but if you're not evolving, you're not living. And the last thing you want to do is take that with you. And they say, you know, the richest place in the world is a cemetery. Cause everybody take all these great things with them and it's just like, you might lose a lot evolving, but you'll gain so much more, right? And you'll have a whole different respect for yourself because we only got one life. And your life has to affect more than what you can see or touch. Your life has to affect. I can never thought the end of my life would affect millions, right?

• 1:21:48Speaker 01

  And I'm still continuing to, to, to chip away at that, right? And again, when, when I'm no longer here, I want my kids to know that their father was a great man. He stood for something and he wanted to help people the best way he could. He didn't actually come in the best way.

• 1:22:04Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 1:22:05Speaker 01

  But he wanted to help people as much as he could. And I hope and I pray by people seeing me evolve and giving myself the permission to do so on my own terms and my own time, that that helps them understand that there's no judgment. If you want to do and become better for yourself, your family, your peers, your community, your culture, your people, you got that right. Because when this life is over, it's a wrap. It's, it's done. And what you didn't do, never get a chance to do that, ever.

• 1:22:40Lewis Howes?

  Jeezy, I want to acknowledge you before I ask the final question for your, really your ability to look within over the last, you know, three to five years and say, you know what? I'm gonna start talking about things that I never thought I was able to talk about. I'm gonna start opening up and being vulnerable, even though I would have been laughed at, made fun of, kicked out of the house, whatever, growing up, if I would have done these things then. And I acknowledge you for allowing yourself to start to heal and transform and transmit the message that you've learned from, you know, the karma that you've had to deal with in the past from wrongdoings and mistakes and things that you did that were out of integrity to

• 1:23:19Lewis Howes?

  being the best human you can be. And obviously still, no one's perfect, but being on that, that process of service, adding value where you can, creating, bringing people together, collaborating. So I acknowledge you for the man you're continuing to be coming.

• 1:23:36Speaker 01

  I received that.

• 1:23:36Lewis Howes?

  The man you're, you're, you're, you're healing into a beautiful man I look like. And I hope we get to play some golf sometime, hang out sometime more. And I want people again to get the book. Before I ask the final question, is there anything else we can do to serve you today?

• 1:23:52Speaker 01

  Oh, man, just to make sure we spread this message and, um, you know, and let's just continue to build, brother. Like everything and, and I want to let you know as well, like you, you really, I've turned a lot of my friends and my peers on to you and it's like, they call me the next day like, it's amazing. Cause you just like different episode of what you going through in life, you can just kind of go through it and pick what you going through and listen to it. And I listen to your stuff every morning, man. And just for me, what you can do for me is continue to do what you're doing, man. Cause you're affecting more people than you know.

• 1:24:20Lewis Howes?

  My man, I appreciate it. The final question, Jeezy, what is your definition of greatness?

• 1:24:25Speaker 01

  My definition of greatness

• 1:24:29Speaker 01

  is to be.

• 1:24:33Speaker 01

  The best version of yourself by any means is greatness to me. That means win, lose, draw. Just be the best version you can be of you. And that's all you got to give is there's, there's, there's, there's, there's nothing else. Like if you get up every day and you're doing the best you can do and you're being the best that you can be, that's greatness. You're already walking in the path. It only gets better. You know, they say good habits, good things come out of that. Bad habits, bad things come out of that. So at the end of the day, if you got a habit of being the best version of yourself, you're only gonna get better at that and that's greatness to me.

• 1:25:11Lewis Howes?

  I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend, leave us a review over on Apple podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter

• 1:25:55Lewis Howes?

  and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com/newsletter. And if no one has told you today, 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.