How to Create a Life of Greatness with Lewis Howes

I could barely contain my enthusiasm as I walked into the well-furnished penthouse overlooking the Hollywood hills. But my excitement was justifiable. I was about to have a one of the most real conversations of my life with an ex-pro athlete who turned his life around to become serial entrepreneur, speaker, and author.

Lewis Howes has the ability to connect with anybody. His hit podcast The School of Greatness gets a million downloads a month and is consistently ranked in the Top 100 on itunes overall, and even the Top 5 in the Health and Fitness category. As we took a seat in his home office, Lewis slid an advance copy of his new book across the table to me. I’ve since underlined his book, also named The School of Greatness, dozens of times over and dogeared it front to back —a sign of a book containing true greatness.

Maybe it’s because I’m a frequent listener to The School of Greatness podcast, or maybe it’s Howes’s sheer charisma and ability to connect, but our conversation that afternoon went deeper than I had anticipated. I sat there for nearly an hour, entranced in conversation and surrounded by hundreds of his personal collection of books. I recognize most of the authors—former guests of of his show—including billionaire business leaders, best-selling authors, and professional athletes. With only the room of best-selling paperback as our audience, we dove in…

In this interview, Lewis and I talk about some interesting topics like growing profitable businesses online, writing best-selling books, and performance psychology. But my favorite part of this interview is when we get personal and real about some of the challenge of building a life of greatness while building a business.

You’re going to love this…

Listen to Lewis Howes on Greatness:

Selected Links from the Interview:

• The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes
• Periscope
• Virtual Freedom by Chris Ducker
• People Over Profit by Dale Partridge
• The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
• Music by Frequency Ghost

Show Notes:

• On starting his first company while living on his sister’s couch [3:40]
• How to take action and stay motivated [5:15]
• What to do when you don’t see eye-to-eye with your business partner (and insight into selling your company) [8:05]
• How to use Periscope to make money and grow your audience [9:00]
• Creating a unique and differentiated podcast [11:32]
• How to prepare for any big event with Lewis’s “grounding” technique [13:05]
• Why you should have a business coach [15:03]
• What qualities to look for in a good business coach [16:15]
• The important role of emotions in business [18:10]
• Dealing with breakups and other emotional trauma while growing your business [21:35]
• How to feel deeply and remain open to the world [23:00]
• The journey to writing a best-selling book [26:00]
• Why it’s important to write a book [31:20]
• Lewis Howes’s new book The School of Greatness (plus how to get your free copy) [33:00]
• What does the Greatness mean, and how can we achieve it? [34:15]

More About Lewis Howes:

People Mentioned:

• Chris Ducker
• Christian Howes
• Tim Ferriss
• Dale Partridge

You may also like these interviews:

• Haters Gonna Hate: How Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Deals with Critics (from UberFacts)
• From Broke to Breakthrough: Peter Voogd and 6 Months to 6 Figures
• How Monthly Investor Updates Scored $10 Million in Funding for WedPics

Did you like this podcast?

What is your motivating force? What’s your purpose and inspiration? Drop a comment below and let us know what you learned from the interview with Lewis Howes.

The first 10 comments will get a free copy of Lewis Howes’s new book, The School of Greatness. PLUS we’ll include you on a private Verge-only call with Lewis, so you can learn from from Lewis live and ask him YOUR questions about greatness.

And hey, I’m feeling generous. Even if you’re not one of the first 10 people to comment, but you still comment within the first week of this post, I’ll hook you up with access to the call if you go out and buy your own copy of the The School of Greatness (just email your receipt to matt [at] VergeHQ [dot] com) Yes, that’s my direct line.

While you’re at it, I would LOVE to know what you thought about this podcast-eque format. It’s something we’re playing with here at Verge and we have some pretty killer interviews lined up. But maybe you prefer a different format. Maybe you prefer a different type of guest. Let me know!