⁠Lewis Howes: The Scarcity Belief That’s Blocking You from Making Money & How to Feel Rich Even When You’re Broke

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(00:25):
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Speaker 2 (00:45):
Irrelevant of whether you have money or not, when you
are poor, when you're broke, when you're struggling financially, it
feels really hard to feel abundant and rich. But in
order to get out of it, it's not feeling worse
about it. It's starting to feel better about me, better
about my values, my character, my kindness, my generosity, and
seeing how can I add value to others? How can

(01:07):
I get into a richness inside of me to serve
and take care of me at the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
The number one health and wellness podcast, Jay Sety Jay
Setty sly set. The world in which we're living today
doesn't seem to distribute wealth in a way that allows
people to access it. Some people have been set up
really badly. They had poor access to education, They didn't

(01:34):
really know what jobs were available. People are working really
really hard and not taking that much home. People are
coming at it from a place of pain, of desperation,
of stress. So everyone already knows that money is stressful.
And your first point here is make money easy. Yes,
And so I want to ask you when someone's coming
at money. Our relationship with money is already at a

(01:56):
place kind of like finding love. We're desperate for it,
we're stressed by it, we're paralyzed by it, we feel
the pressure for it. What do you do when you're
feeling all of that? What's the first thing you need
to do?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
The step one is you need awareness. And again you
probably say this so often, and people have probably heard
this so frequently, but if you don't have awareness on
your attachment style towards money and how your nervous system
is when you receive money or when money leaves you
when you have to pay your bills or give money away.
I want people to create just a scenario of awareness

(02:31):
around how you feel and how you think when you
receive money, when you pay money, when you look at
your bank account, when you open your purse, your wallet,
and just notice how do I feel? Do I have
shallow breathing? Do I feel relaxed? Do I feel anxious?
Do I feel scarce? Do I feel abundant? Just Step
one is have awareness on how do I feel and

(02:53):
how do I think about my money? The money I have,
the money that's coming in and the money that's going out.
That's step one. And when you can just have awareness
around it, you can start to say, is my relationship
the one that I want to be having? Do I
feel really secure around money? If not, okay, what's something
I can think about? First? Let me think about my

(03:15):
money story, the story of my life around money. We
grow up as kids and we watch our parents in
their relationship, and we tend to develop the relationship style
of our parents. Unless we learn how to heal as
a teenager and have some type of breakthrough. We're creating
some type of attachment style based on what we see

(03:35):
with our parents. But think about all the conversations your
parents had around money, and if your parents didn't have
a secure relationship, if they fought, did they fight about money?
Were you involved in the conversation about how expensive things
were about your school or sports or programs that they
had to pay for they can afford. Did they argue,
did they have challenges? Did they get divorced? Money is

(03:57):
one of the biggest reasons people get divorced. It's one
of the biggest arguments in marriage as well. So just notice,
is my nervous system, is my body? Is my energy?
Are my thoughts stressed out around money? Do I feel
scarce or do I feel abundant? That's kind of step one,
And then step two is understanding your money's story, because
when you can reflect on your money's story, you can

(04:20):
see what your money personality style is today and for
many years, and we can talk about both of us
thinking about our past. For many years, I didn't understand
money growing up. We didn't have a lot growing up.
We weren't completely poor, but I wasn't as well off
as the other kids in my class, So I always
felt a little bit beneath everyone else, and so my

(04:41):
belief system was around that I'm just a little bit
under everyone else. Everyone else is doing a little bit
better than us. Sure we have a home and I'm
going to school, but everyone's got rollerblades, I'm in sneakers.
People have Nintendo. I don't have one. I'm reading a book,
whatever it is. It was like I was a little
bit beneath and that started to shape my story in
my personality style. So I felt very insecure around money.

(05:01):
And when I got it, I got really excited, but
I didn't know what to do with it. So I
was also afraid I was insecure and I was just
unsure of it, and it really started to shape my
personality style. Now. When I was in my teen years,
my dad started to make more money and started to
teach me a little bit, but I was still like,
just I want to be a teenager. I don't want
to think about this stuff. It seems confusing. I just

(05:23):
want to have fun. In my twenties, when I got
done playing football, I went to go pursue football, got
injured and I was on my sister's couch for a
year and a half and I had no money, and
I just felt like, how am I going to make
this work. How am I going to make money? I
don't know what my skills are. I don't know what
my talents are. This is in two thousand and eight
when the economy was crashing, so it kind of felt

(05:45):
like it is right now with inflation going up so
much right now and people worried about money in the future.
I didn't understand, and I needed to find money mentors
to start teaching me how to learn about how I
can receive money and spend it in a more efficient way.
And that was kind of the journey of me starting
to figure this out. But if we don't have the

(06:06):
tools or the money knowledge, then we're always going to
be stuck in our money story as our money personality style.
And so it's getting to understand awareness. How does it
feel when I receive money and I spend money? What
is the history of the story around money for me?
Did my parents fight that I feel anxious around money?
I used to steal a lot when I was a kid,

(06:27):
so I had some wounds around money. I had people
steal from me as well. So I just had all
these different wounds that I had to address and get
clear on, and I had to learn how to start
healing those money wounds. And again, I know this is
the place to come to create more wholeness, to be
healthier in your life, and to become more healed. And
that's what I want for people to start to reflect

(06:47):
on their money story, write down some of these things
so you have awareness first off, on why you think
and feel the way you do around money. Then you
can start to see how your personality style towards money
now is either helping you create more abundance or keeping
you in scarcity, in lack. And from there we can
start to have some breakthroughs.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, let's talk about all three because as I'm listening
to you, I'm thinking that for most of us, when
we get aware, we actually realize we don't even want
to look at our finances now, right, That's how we
all feel because we're so scared and there's been such
a fear built around money that it's like I don't

(07:27):
even want to know because I'm so scared. Now when
I get my paycheck, I'm thinking, oh God, I hope
this covers my rent, my groceries, my bills, whatever else
I've got to cover. And then that becomes your stress point,
and then you're thinking oh gosh, I haven't got enough
to spend on this thing that I really wanted to do,
or I wanted to do something for my kids, or
whatever it may be. So now there's stress. And so

(07:48):
I think for most people, when you actually get awareenes
you start realizing it's stress.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
And it's never enough, and it's never enough, never making enough.
And also, I've got one hundred thousand in student loan debt.
I have this other credit because I wanted to go
on a trip, or I had a medical expense that
unexpected that came up. Like so many people are struggling
to be figuring out how to get out of debt.
They have this weight that's carrying them back. But they
still want to feel like they're free to live a

(08:14):
life of their dreams. They want to be able to
go on a trip with a friend a few times
a year. They want to go to those expensive concerts.
They want to have fun still, but they're unfortunately in
a lot of debt. So there's something that's pulling them
back as they're trying to go forward, and they feel
like there's no way to break free. They think about
the rising costs of eggs, the inflation, how everything is

(08:34):
just constant. You can't afford a home anymore. All these
things seem impossible to break through. But people want to
feel free, but they don't feel emotionally free because of
all the baggage they have in their life. And that's
what I want people to start to feel, is how
can you feel emotionally free so that your money can
come to you effortlessly and when it leaves you, it's

(08:57):
not a bad thing. And the more we relax, more
we can receive. And so if I'm tight and I'm
always anxious, or I'm not willing to look at my
bank account because I'm afraid of what's in there, how
are we able to receive more and spend more freely?
And I think for many years I was able to.
I learned how to make money, but I didn't learn

(09:18):
how to spend money, and so I just hoarded it
because I was afraid to go back being broken my
sister's couch. I didn't want to go be broke again,
so I just stashed it away into my bank account
and just like okay, I would have just wait for
it to grow so I feel safe. But that was
almost like a prison in a sense. Emotionally because I
didn't feel free to spend it. I was still sleeping
on friends couches. I had a million dollars in the bank,

(09:39):
and I was sleeping on friends couches. I was sitting
in the middle seat, the cheapest seat I could on
buses or on planes, and I'd always be like, man,
I'm so uncomfortable. The next day, like my back hurts,
like I'm just I'm not feeling free because I was afraid.
I was anxious to lose money, and that is not
emotional freedom, that is not healing. And I remember thinking

(10:02):
to myself, God, I've got that. I'm starting to make money.
It was like years into my business. I was like,
I'm financially free, but I'm still trapped. What is holding
me back? And I realized a lot of it was
my money story and my money personality style that I
need to start working on. And I don't know if
it's the thing that you ever like, I've arrived and
I'm perfect and now I'm like this zen master at money.

(10:23):
It's a constant back to awareness. It's a constant practice
of awareness and breaking through those limitations.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, I think what I'm thinking about when I'm hearing
you is if me and you went back to a
place in our life where we really didn't have money. Yes,
And you think about someone who's in that position, who's
listening to us right now, and in their head they're thinking,
but how do I become abundant when I don't have well,
Like my natural thing is like I'm just struggling to

(10:51):
pay my next bill, and me and you have both
been in those situations. I remember when I was growing up.
I grew up in a house where we had just enough.
That was the language my parents used. We have just enough,
and my parents would often argue about money. I remember
I wasn't allowed to buy cool shoes and stuff I'd
have like the knockoff, cheapest brand from whatever, which was.

(11:11):
I actually didn't have an issue with that. I didn't
have an issue with any of it because we had
food and that was my normality. But it's really interesting
because the amount of times growing up. I started working
when I was fourteen, and I think that gave me
a really interesting sense of how hard it was to
make money. Because I started working at fourteen, I used
to get paid two pounds per street that I delivered newspapers,

(11:36):
So imagine there's a hundred houses, it's going to take me.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Like not per house, no, no, no street, per street.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
So I did five streets, and so I'd get ten
pounds at the end of the week if I did
five streets and each street would take me at least
an hour. Maybe I don't know, something like that. And
so I'd walk around, I'd pull this thing and I'd
deliver it, and I got an understanding of how hard
it was to make money. But then that became a
story for me, going to your point, making money is hard,

(12:04):
making money is hard, and that there's only a certain
amount of money you're allowed to make at this level,
like you're a fourteen year old. Then I worked in retail.
I stacked shelves at a grocery store. I worked at
a store called Morrison's, which is like working at Walmart.
And there I remember, I got paid like five pounds
an hour, and then you get like time and a

(12:24):
half if you work the weekends in the evenings. All
of this to say that I probably spent my whole
life only seeing zero in my bank account because everything
that would come in would pay for my phone bill,
my car insurance that I paid for whatever it was
that I was taking care of so I wasn't relying
on my parents apart from I lived in their home obviously,

(12:45):
But I always felt like money came in, money went out,
And my story around money was people who have money
are doing something bad. So I lived in a home.
Whenever we went to a friend's home and they had
a nice home, my family would always say, oh, yeah,
but they do dodgy stuff to make money. All the
language around money was people with money are doing bad stuff.

(13:05):
So in my head it was like, Oh, if you
have money, then you must be doing shady stuff because
we don't have money and we're not doing anything right.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
You must be hurting people to make.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Money correct in some way, exploiting advantage, Yeah, take your
advantage whatever. So everything you're saying is so true because
then when I got to a point in my life
where I was just trying to do good and I
had something like one hundred and fifty two hundred million
views on content and you have no money, I was
four months away from being I I met you around
this time this time, and it was really interesting to

(13:36):
me because that was the time that I was actually
doing this work, which is why this book so powerful,
Because I realized that I couldn't even with one hundred
and fifty two hundred million views. It wasn't that that
made money because my story and my personality style was anxious.
I felt like it was wrong to make money, Like

(13:57):
that's actually what it was. I felt like making money
was bad. And so until I got to that, did you.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Believe you're worthy of making more money?

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I believed I was worthy, but I believe that you
had to be bad to make money.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Wow. So you didn't want to be bad. You don't
want to have a lot of money and associate I
have a lot of money, and now I'm bad.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Correct, I'm bad and wrong.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
And I'm hurting others in order to tell it myself.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Correct because good people are poor wow. Right, Like to
be a good person of good character means to not
have money.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Wow. And that was based on a belief system that you.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Developed over time that I didn't even know, Like if
you would have told me about this eight years ago,
to me, I don't know, which is why I think
these reflections are so important. People. So when you're in
that place, taking your story as well, taking my story,
how do we start to rewrite that story now that
we're aware.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Well's so powerful that you said that. And I remember
this vividly because I met you on Halloween twenty seventeen,
right eight years ago, and I said, like, cancel the day,
Let's just hang out all day.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, you had a book coming out of that.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
I had a book of that about that day on Halloween,
which is called the Basket Masculinity. Anyways, how do we
rewire our brain around money to create more abundance.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
When you have nothing, when you have lack?

Speaker 2 (15:10):
How do we rewire our brain to create abundance when
you have nothing and you don't know how to earn
more money. The first thing I think you need to
be aware of is that your beliefs dictate your behaviors.
So if you believe that money is bad or people
who make a lot of money are bad and take
advantage of others, and therefore me having lack right now

(15:32):
means I'm a good person and I don't want to
become a bad person, then that belief is going to
dictate your behaviors and you're going to stay in lack.
You're going to stay in scarcity, and you're going to
see opportunities that only give you just enough as opposed
to opportunities that could create incredible wealth for yourself financially,
but also an emotional wealth that you've never had before.

(15:52):
So that's one of the things you want to understand.
It's first that your beliefs dictate your behaviors.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
That's a big one, by the way, That's huge. Yeah,
like that. I just want to plant that out for people,
like that's so.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
True because your belief. Your belief got you to a
place of I am impacting hundreds of millions of people
from these videos that I created with my talents, but
I don't know how to make money with them, and
I don't know if I actually should because then I
could be bad and wrong or people could perceive me
as I did something bad to make this money correct

(16:21):
And I'm a spiritual person, I'm a monk, I've done
all these things. I don't want to have that life,
but I want to make an impact and I don't
want to be poor. So I think a lot of
people are struggling with that mindset.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
What are the other ones you hear? What are the
other focusing on that belief?

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Spherit?

Speaker 1 (16:35):
What are you hearing from people about there? But that's
my belief and that's very much my history and story.
As you said, what other stuff do you hear from people?

Speaker 2 (16:44):
The biggest shift that will create abundance in your life
is a mindset habit in unlocking wealth for yourself. And
one of the big lies, one of the big blocks
that holds people back from financial opportunity is that I
I cannot be generous with my time, my wisdom, my knowledge,
or my secrets to others because if I am, they

(17:08):
will take it and run with it and I will
be left with nothing. So therefore I'm going to hoard
my energy. I'm going to hold my time, my knowledge
and only keep it to me so that others don't
have good ideas or have my health. And from all
the different billionaires and millionaires and financial leaders in the
world that I've interviewed, I know you've interviewed a lot

(17:28):
of them, there is a question. I would always ask
individuals who've made incredible amounts of money and that keeps
helping them create more wealth year after year, and they
all say the same thing, those who have had a
sustainably good heart in the process, is that you have
to have a generous mindset. So the mindset habit is

(17:48):
the first thing that you have to think about when
creating abundance with your money, but also feeling abundant internally,
and it's coming with generosity. So if you feel like
you're stuck right now, if you feel like you have nothing,
this was what you were at eight years ago when
I met you. This was where I was at fifteen
years ago, when I was on my sister's couch. I
had no money, I was in student loan debt. I

(18:09):
was sleeping on her couch. I didn't think I had
any skills. I didn't have a college degree yet. I
was like, how am I going to make money if
I don't know how to make money and I don't
have any talent or skill and I'm in debt. It
didn't understand it. It felt impossible. And the thing that
I shifted when I started meeting money mentors is I
needed to learn the first habit, which is the mindset habit,
which is a habit of generosity and gratitude.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
What did that look like then? What was the practical step?

Speaker 2 (18:35):
What it looks like was how do I meet money people.
People who have money, people who have success, people can
teach me knowledge. I needed to come with a sense
of energy, of curiosity, of possibilities, and of joy. I
literally wrote a list down of all these different things
that I thought were my talents. I go, how can
I make money? I don't have any skills. I played

(18:55):
football and now I'm injured. What can I do for people?
But I was like, well, I'm really curious. Maybe I
can just ask people questions. And never did I think
in a million years that I could have a twelve
year old podcast just asking questions and make millions of
dollars a year. I never thought that was possible. I
was in my early twenties and I was like, you
know what, I've got a lot of energy. I've got
a lot of passion, So let me bring passion and

(19:18):
energy to other people and excitement. And that energy was infectious.
And there's a currency that's tied to that energy of passion, joy, excitement, curiosity.
That currency may not look like money, but for those
who are older, who have no more passion, they're burnt out,
they're exhausted, it is the highest form of currency. They

(19:39):
want that. They crave that energy. They've burned themselves out
for decades. They want to feel young again, they want
to feel curious, again. They want to feel excited again.
And when you come to someone with that energy, you
are bringing a different mindset. So the mindset of curiosity, joy, passion, presence,
like just connecting with someone and ask them a question,

(20:00):
is such a valuable currency. So we have to look
into these untapped skills talents inside of us that are
hidden to others, but inside of us they can create magic.
That's one of them. Another one is just being generous
with your time, with your resources, with your ideas and
helping others succeed.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
I love that because I didn't even know that then,
but I was doing it unconsciously. Yes, you were so
I really wanted to interview incredible people, but I didn't
have a platform at the time when I met you,
and so I'd partner it up with Nasdak. And by
the way, just to be really clear with everyone, I
didn't get paid to do this. So Nasdak had something
where everyone's using Facebook Live and I said, Hey, could

(20:43):
I have an hour in the Nasdak building whenever I
have an amazing guest that says yes, so that I
can interview them on Nasdak Live. And they would put
the picture up on the middle of Times Square on
a billboard, So now I could reach out to people
I look it up to.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
That's the reason why I'm on the show.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
I didn't know who you were until I saw, hey,
I can get you on a billboard on Times Square.
I go, that's value to value.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Right now, I'm being generous and I'm trying to find
a way because I don't have anything to offer. But
I admire you. And it was all people I admired.
It was yourself, it was Ryan Holiday said yes, Me
and Ryan had met maybe once before that, but Ryan
came on that show, and there were a bunch of
other authors. Deepak Choper came on that show with me,
and it was all people that I'd admired, looked up
to for a long time, and exactly that that's first

(21:28):
of all, we became great friends off of it. But
the point is, it's exactly what you're saying that even
though I felt I had nothing to offer, I had
to find a way to create something to offer someone
of value. I didn't get paid for it for that show,
I didn't get paid to run it. I didn't make
any money from it, but it created an opportunity for
me to connect with friends to connect with people that

(21:49):
were doing incredible things. Yes, and of course allowed me
to showcase my talents so that then I could show
it to other people. I remember I had Ryan Harwood
on the show who founded Pure Wow, and he just
sold it to Gary Vee. That's how I met Gary.
So Ryan came on my show and he was just like, Jay,
I love you. You're a great interviewer, Like you have
such great energy. He really liked my passion and he said,

(22:11):
you got to come meet Gary. And I was like,
no way, Like I love Gary. And so he took
me to meet Gary for the first time. We had
a meeting in his office, and that's how I built
my relationship with him. It was all thanks to Ryan.
And so when you think about it now, I've never
thought about it until what you're saying now. When I
look back, Ryan's been on the podcast like four times
now whatever. I love his books. So many relationships came

(22:32):
out of that. And so I think when you live
in a world of I have nothing to offer and
I don't have anything, it becomes really hard to create.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
And most people think when I have nothing, I need
to take from someone else. Yes, I don't have anything,
So I can't give anything if I don't have it.
So I need someone to give me money right now
because I'm broke, I'm poor, I'm stuck, I'm stressed, I'm anxious.
I can't think out of myself. And this first habit
is really gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance.

(23:03):
And it may not mean you're gonna make money right away.
You didn't make money by having me on the show
right away, but we became friends. I helped you, you
helped me. Over time, we helped each other create more
abundance together, not only financially, which we've done together, but
a type of richness that isn't about money. And this

(23:23):
book again it's it's a money book, but it's really like,
it doesn't matter how much money you have if you
don't feel like you have a rich life inside of you,
that's real. It does not matter how much is in
your bank account, how big your net worth is. If
you don't feel like you have an abundant life, if
you're stressed, if you're overwhelmed, if you're anxious, if you're
constantly in drama, that is not abundance. A high net

(23:47):
worth does not mean you are free, and the goal
is for us to feel free every moment of our
lives as often as possible and allow money to be
a tool to create in credible opportunities, memories, moments where
you can be generous with it with the people you
care about, the cause you care about, the institutions you

(24:08):
care about, to serve more people and feel good about
doing it, not feel bad about doing it. And that's
part of this process. Most people, when they lack money,
they want to take from others. They want someone to
help them, and you need to flip it on its
head and say, how can I help others even when
I have nothing? That is the time to be more

(24:29):
generous and more gratitude and say thank you for this opportunity,
even if you have to just lie to yourself for
a moment and say I'm stuck, I'm on my sister's couch,
i have no money, I'm four months and four months
I'm going to be out of an apartment and I
don't know where the money is coming. Just say thank
you God, thank you your nervous for this opportunity to learn,
this opportunity to grow, because I'll never be here again.

(24:50):
Interview I don't know if you've had Ken Honda on,
but he really and he's so cool. I love this
approach to this and he's talking similar style about how
do you just live a rich life irrelevant of whether
you have money or not. And again, this is what
I want people to get to. When you are poor,
when you're broke, when you're struggling financially, it feels really
hard to feel abundant and rich, and we want to

(25:13):
start shifting our thoughts or emotions and our energy on. Okay,
I know I'm in this financial situation. It doesn't feel good,
But in order to get out of it, it's not
feeling worse about it. It's starting to feel better about me,
better about my values, my character, my kindness, my generosity,
and seeing how can I add value to others. And

(25:35):
that's the first thing we need to be thinking about.
How can I get into a richness inside of me
to serve others and take care of me at the
same time. And one of the practices or these social
experiments or exercises similar to you that Ken has is
that whenever money comes to him, whether it's a check,
whether it's a Venmo payment, whatever might be, he just

(25:55):
says thank you to that money. He looks at that number.
If it's a penny, if it's a million dollars, if
it's your normal check you get coming in in the
mail every two weeks, he looks at it and says
thank you, and literally opens his heart and loves that
money that comes to him. He says, thank you. Where
do you want to go? Do you want to go
to my bank account? Do you want to go to

(26:17):
my savings? Do you want to go to investments? Do
you want to go towards paying off debt? Do you
want me to give you away? And it might be
a weird kind of like exercise, but I love this
approach to just being mindful of money when it comes,
say thank you. And then when you pay bills, when
you pay off debt, say thank you as well. Thank
you for allowing me to pay off this debt. Thank

(26:37):
you for paying myself on bill so I can call
my friends and family that I love. Thank you for
the ability to live a richer life. And when we
start to approach money in that way, it doesn't mean
money's going to fall from the sky and come to
us abundantly, but we're going to start to feel more
rich and abundant internally, which that energy is what will

(26:59):
act more opportunities. Those opportunities could lead to millions. This
hostess that came to you, she brought that thankful energy,
that present energy, that loving, joyful, curious energy, and it
created an abundance of opportunities and connection.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
You've reminded me of two really amazing things that I
love that I want to throw out because they're not us,
it's about other people. Last night, I was at a
premiere of a new show coming out in Hulu called
Deli Boys. It's a full South Asian cast. I was
really excited to be just at the premiere and just
seeing my friends, like, you know, do this amazing thing.
And it was fascinating because me and Lily Sing were together,

(27:39):
you know Lily, and so me and Lily were together
and were hanging out and this guy said, hey, can
I film you for two seconds? He was working at
the event, and I believe this is what he does
on his own. I don't know his name, but I'll
have to find it. And he took a quick swipe
of Lily like one show and she was like, oh
my god, Jay, you got to do this. He took
a quick side with me. He edited it on the
spot and he created this amazing real of the event,

(28:02):
like and he was just doing it with quick and
he was taking like two seconds of our time. I
merely both turn around and go, is this what you do?
Like how can we work with her? And like, you know,
because it was it was such a great skill and
he was showcasing his talent. He didn't ask us, he
didn't charge us, he didn't ask for us or anything.
He showed us his talent, and all of a sudden
both of us were like this. A few months ago,
I went to a restaurant that I had never been

(28:22):
to with some friends. This wasn't like a fancy restaurant
just you know, it was a great restaurant, but it
wasn't like fancy or anything like that. The lady who
was hosting, she had so much energy and so much passion.
She was like taking our order. But then when we
asked her for a recommendation, she knew every detail and
like she got three job offers at that table, Me

(28:45):
and my friend and everyone like what do you do?
What do you want to do? Like, yeah, let's hire you.
Because we just there was such an energy, And so
what you're saying is so true because I'm now looking
back at my own life and thinking about moments where
I've had that visceral reaction to someone. And she was
like this what I want to do? This my dream?
And one of my mates was like, all right, well

(29:06):
let's connect, Like you know, he thinks she could work
with him. But it was again the same thing you're saying.
It was just energy and passion.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Energy she didn't have any other she didn't have. It
didn't matter about her college. It doesn't matter what skill
other skills you have. If you have energy, passion, and
a curiosity to care about someone, you can go so
far in that potential relationship. Speaking about you know, hostess
or waiters or waitresses, there were studies that psychologists did

(29:33):
around tipping and waiters, and I don't know the exact statistic.
I know is over a certain amount, but I don't
know the exact percentage. But there are three things that
you can do as a waiter to make more money.
It is higher tips based on psychology and these studies.
One is just introducing yourself and saying your name. My
name is Lewis Howes, what's your name? Thanks for being

(29:54):
here today. Saying your name creates a deeper connection. I
agree making a recommend of something you said. She was
making recommendations, and you know, making a recommendation, Hey, I
really recommend this if you're into this or these are
the best two options I would recommend gets you a
higher chance of getting a better tip and complimenting the
person on their food choice. I'll have the burger or

(30:17):
the vegan burger. That's a great choice. Those three things
will increase your ability to earn more tips. And it's
not like you had some other skill. You just created
connection with someone and you were trying to bring that
energy to them. And money is an energy and how
we think and how we feel will dictate the energy

(30:38):
we have towards it. And also you create money through
your energy. And so she had a certain energy with you,
and you're like, man, this is amazing. You're recommending it
to millions of people about this person that you just
met for the first time. It's like you could create
so many opportunities for not only financial abundance, but spiritual
abundance by bringing generosity, curiosity, energy, joy and love to

(31:04):
someone's life. And it doesn't have to take hours. This
was five minutes of this person's time. She got three
job offers over that night. Yeah, she could have had
a different energy and said okay, here's your table, sit down,
and she would have had nothing. But she could have
went to Harvard and had all these other skills, and
none of that would have mattered without the energy she brought.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
People who don't know this story or have forgotten about it,
like de Rock and Gary Vee, like that's their journey, right,
Like de Rock basically went up to Gary and was like, Hey,
I'll just edit videos for you for free. And now
he's been traveling the world with Gary for the last
god knows how long they work.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, and he's such a great guy and he's awesome
and it's just but it all came from that, the
idea of hey, I'm just going to edit these videos
for you and doing.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
That and again going back to what we said before,
when you have no money, when you're broke, when you
feel stressed, out, overwhelmed, burnt out, you lost your job,
you feel like you need help, and you may need help,
and the best way to abundance is to go from
help lessness to help fullness. So instead of saying I

(32:07):
feel helpless. I don't know what to do. You've got
to flip in and say, how can I be helpful?
How can I help myself but by also helping someone else?
How can I shift out of this negative energy into
an energy of abundance, which is so hard to do
when you have nothing. I remember for a year and
a half feeling trapped on my sister's couch with no money,
thinking how am I going to do this? And there's

(32:28):
just guys to be a decision where you say, I'm
going to get up and I'm going to get out
of this funk, out of this energy and choose and
decide to bring energy to someone else without asking for
anything return. And when you do that, you'll start to
build momentum, and that's what's going to help you get
to the next level.

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(34:11):
day after I realized I was four months away from
being broke. I must have emailed a thousand people saying,
I will do anything. Here are my skills. I would
edit it, I would edit videos, I will consult, I'll
run your social media. Those weren't things I wanted to
do with my life, but I needed to create a
foundation from which I could then invest that into what

(34:32):
I wanted to do. And actually that year, everything I
made I invested in the start in this podcast. So
everything I made this year went into launching on purpose
because that's not what I wanted to do. I didn't
want to edit other people's videos, I didn't want to
launch social media profiles. I didn't want to coach and consult.
But I had those skills. And I think this is

(34:53):
one of the things sometimes is that we all have
skills that are valuable somewhere, and they may not be
the skills that you want to do for the rest
of your.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Life, but the season of life.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
And the season of life, and I think there's something
to be said for that, because we all want to
be paid for what we love doing. But even my
life today, there's a lot of things I have to do,
and there's a lot of things I love to do,
and that's life.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, and like you said, the seasonal side of things,
Like when I was just getting started making money. This
is in two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine,
twenty ten. I was using LinkedIn as a platform and
a tool to meet CEOs, executives and business leaders, and
I was helping them originally with their LinkedIn profile and
it's just saying, hey, how can I help you optimize
your profile? I see that it's missing some things here,

(35:39):
I'll do it for free. And I did this to
build relationships with them, and through that they just all
wanted to help me and give back to me. And
then eventually someone said, hey, i'll pay you for this.
This is really helpful. And I was like, oh, I
can make money on LinkedIn. It's not what I wanted
to do, but I had a skill to do it
right then. So I did that for a few years,
and once I had that foundation, I used that money

(35:59):
to launch this School of Greatness as well, because I
had a couple of years of runway now and I
didn't want to do that forever, but I did it
for the season. I got skills, I made money, and
I created a sense of freedom for myself to do
what I really wanted to do later.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, what do you have to say to people who
are saying that you can manifest money? Do you agree
with that idea of It's an interesting story.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
I was in New York last week and I said
to myself, and I have a lot of these different
exercises and games in the book to just give people
as social experiments. I think it's really powerful to give
yourself experiment because I think when you experiment, you allow
yourself to explore possibilities. And when you create an experiment
for yourself, you allow for the idea of magic to

(36:41):
enter your life. So I want you to just as
you're watching or listening, I want you to say, I
allow for magic and abundance to manifest in my life.
I'm going to create a possibility that this can happen
in my life, a moment, a synchronicity, someone might call
me out of the blue, someone might hand me money randomly.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
I'm going to allow for.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
This moment to happen, in this magic to happen. So
I said to myself, I want to follow my own
practices right. And I went to see our friend Mel
Robbins in Boston, and then I was in New York
for a few days and I just said to myself,
money comes to me abundantly and freely, and I see
it everywhere. I just said this to myself every morning
when I woke up and when I went out of
the hotel, I said, money comes to me abundantly and freely,

(37:22):
and I see it everywhere. And I'm a magnet for money.
I'm a magnet for money. I just kept saying this energy.
I'm a magnet for money. I was just playful, this
social experiment. And when I was at Mel's, a penny
dropped on the floor. Someone was carrying a box and
a penny fell and I said, oh, look, money comes
to me. I see it everywhere. It's a penny, and
there's a point to this story. And I pick it

(37:43):
up and I say, Mel, do you want this? And
she goes, no, it's yours. And I go, thank you.
I receive because when I relax, I receive, and I'm
a magnet for money. Even it was a penny, I
could notice it, and I was like, all right, it
came to me. See here's a win, here's a little win.
Let me do this again. The next day, go to
a New York City and I'm in the subway and
it's freezing right now in New York. It's like fifteen degrees.

(38:05):
And I'm just saying this to myself in the subway,
and I was like, get off the subway. I go
up the stairs and it's freaking filthy in the New
York subway, right and the stairs are dirty. And I
see a penny heads up, and I thought to myself,
this is filthy, this is dirty. It's not valuable, it's
not enough money. I don't need to pick this up.
But I was like, no, I'm doing this experiment. Money
comes to me abundantly and freely. I'm a magnet for money,

(38:28):
and I'm gonna manifest money, right And so I see
it's heads up, I pick it up, put it in
my pocket, and I just say, thank you, money for
coming to me. The next day, I put it on
my bedside table. I don't think anything of it. The
next day, I wake up and I look at this penny,
and I said, because I'm doing this experiment every day,
I'm a magnet for money. Money comes from me abundantly
and freely. And I look at it as a reminder.

(38:48):
These two pennies. Look, this is a reminder that money
came to me. Maybe it's not thousands of dollars or
millions of dollars. It's not something that's magically right here,
but it's a reminder that something is possible. And I
flipped over this one penn.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
No.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
I looked at the penny because it was heads up,
and I noticed something. I go, oh, that's really interesting.
It said nineteen forty five on this penny. That's an
eighty year old penny. And I go, huh, that's unique.
I haven't seen a penny that old in a long time.
And I flip it over and I noticed something and
I get chills thinking about it. I notice it's a
wheat penny. I don't know if you know what a
wheat penny is. So a wheat penny looks different than

(39:26):
a normal penny. It's got like two stalks of wheat
on the outside of the penny. It says old penny.
And I look it up and I google nineteen forty
five wheat penny value and one just sold. I kid,
you know, I get chills thinking about it. One just
sold guess for how much? I have no idea four
thousand dollars. No online one sold for four thousand dollars.

(39:50):
Now it's all based on the condition and all these
different things like who knows. Maybe it's worth twenty dollars,
maybe it's worth five thousand dollars, maybe it's worth one
hundred dollars. But the idea is that there was more
value inside of that penny than what met the eye originally,
and the experiment of let me be open to possibilities
for money to come to me, and what I thought

(40:12):
was two pennies might be two thousand dollars and all
I had to do was be willing to look for it,
be willing to pick it up and say I receive
thank you. If I didn't look for if I didn't
set that intention, if I didn't see the possibilities in
front of me, I may not have received that penny
that could have been worth thousands. And it's the same

(40:32):
thing in life. We may not see the opportunity in
front of us right now. We may not reach out
to the people we already know and say, hey, this
is what I'm looking to create in my life. I
have these skills, I have these talents. Is there anything
that you need right now that I can be of
service for you with? And that's for that first year.
How you created multiple six figures in that first year

(40:53):
when you had nothing was reaching out to hundreds of people.
That was you either setting the intention, seeing that there
might be possibilities, and doing the work to manifest hundreds
of thousands that first six months. So by doing that effort,
setting the intention by saying I'm open to possibilities, I'm
open to receiving opportunities that come to me, but I

(41:14):
have to be willing to look for them. I have
to be willing to ask for them. I have to
be willing to put myself out there and receive and say, yes,
thank you, I will do this work. And that's what
I think people need to be thinking about. Can you
manifest millions? Yes, if you're willing to set a clear intention,
if you're willing to reach out and say here's what
I'm willing to offer and add value in I want
to help you achieve these goals, you're creating more potential

(41:37):
to manifest money.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yeah, I love that Penny story because I'll tell you
a bit about what I do, and I do a
similar thing and it comes from my tradition.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
So do you have a money mantra?

Speaker 1 (41:47):
No? I don't say something, but I'll tell you about it. Yeah.
So in our tradition, there's a god or a goddess
for each aspect of society money and so there is
God and there's there's one God, but then there's loads
of different gods for different departments of society, kind of
like you have a president or a prime minister, and

(42:08):
then you have like the cabinet and that who's the
money god. So it's a goddess called Luxhmi. That's lu me, yeah,
and lux me means wealth or fortunes.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
It's like luxury almost luxury.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Maybe that's where it comes from. But luxury is the
goddess of fortune or the goddess of wealth, and so
you would never ever put your foot on a goddess.
So whenever you're walking the streets and you see pennies around,
you're never meant to just walk past them. You actually
meant to pick them up and put them to your head.
So that's kind of like part of our culture. And
so whenever I'm walking around the streets of New York

(42:38):
or La wherever I am, or subways, I do the
same thing. Interesting, I'll always pick it up and it's
really funny because someone who's with me will be like,
what are you doing? Like, you know, like, why are
you doing that? I'm like, because I'm showing respect. I'm
actually showing respect to the goddess of fortunes. And so
that's what it is, is like, I'm showing respect to
the goddess of fortune by picking it up and usually
give that money to charity or whatever it may be.

(42:58):
It's not it's not trying to keep on it. You
may give it away whatever. But the point is you're saying,
I'm not disrespecting the goddess of fortune. Wherever I see it,
that's beautiful because I want to have a respectful relationship
with money. I actually really love practices like that because
I think it goes back to the point you're making
that we have a relationship with everything. Every time you

(43:19):
have a relationship with your body, you have relationship with
your mind, you have a relationship with your partner, and
you have a relationship with money. And so speaking to
money and speaking about money is something you have to
do if you want to love that thing and you
want it to love you back. Right, if you never
talk about your partner and you never talk to your partner.
How are they going to love you? And how are
you going to love this?

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Imagine you're you know, Rody for the next month. You
never say thank you, Yeah, you never look her in
the eyes, you never speak to her, you avoid her constantly.
Imagine like your relationship's going to suffer. You know, I'm
sure you guys will figure it out, but imagine if
that's a lifetime of a relationship, it cannot survive. And
here's a great question that I want everyone to ask

(43:59):
themselves and another exercise that I want everyone to think
about right now, whether you're watching or listening, I want
you to comment on the YouTube below what opened up
for you during this moment. And I'm going to give
you the exercise Jay. So imagine this door opens and
it's a person, and this person is money. It's the

(44:20):
idea of money. It's a person that walks in, right
is money. And could you as an example for people
to imagine this as well, what does that person look
like when they come in? What would you do? What
would you say or not say? Could you share kind
of what that would be like for you? Money? A

(44:42):
person walks in, they are money, They're the representation of
your relationship with money, how would you show up and react?

Speaker 1 (44:48):
So in our culture because it would be luxury walking
and I'll show you a visual. Ever afterwards, you would
actually bow down, like you'd have that, and that's a
sign of respect, not a sign of surrender or sebjugation,
but a sign of respect, Like you'd bow you'd offer
her whatever she wanted, Like you'd be like, what what
do you need? Like, what would you like?

Speaker 2 (45:07):
What would you would you like?

Speaker 1 (45:08):
A place to sit, kind of like a guest in
your like a generous home. You treat them like a
guest in your home. Yeah, like what would you like?
Can you can I get you somebody to drink? You know,
whatever it may be. Obviously she's the godess, she don't
need anything, but the point is that's how the hospitality
would still be carried through.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
That's cool.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
And then you'd thank her as well. Like there you'd
start every connection with the with the god or goddess
with gratitude, and it'd be like a genuine appreciation and
an ability to share how you feel, like I think
being vulnerable and saying hey, like it's been really tough
this month, Like I'm really struggling right now, like, this
is what I'm going through. I need your help, like

(45:44):
a prayer almost interesting of sorts.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
That's beautiful. And I asked I've been asking a lot
of people this, and so I love to hear people's
responses and be honest. And the YouTube comments below of
your relationship with money? I asked someone close to me,
someone younger, probably in the late twenties. I asked them,
you know, if money walked in and you were at
a party, how would you respond? And they said, I

(46:07):
would run to the bar, I would not make eye contact.
I would gossip behind their back to other people there
about money. I would look down at them, but then
I would use them and abuse them because I would
really need money, and I would ghost them afterwards. And
I go and I go wow, And they were like, yeah,
I know it's really bad, but they're being honest. So
I want people to be honest, like what is your

(46:29):
relationship with money? And just imagine if you were money
and someone treated you that way. If they wanted to
look at you, they avoid you, they speak poorly behind
your back. They would use and abuse you when they
wanted you, and then they ghost you when they didn't
want to talk to you do you think money would
want to keep showing me up in your life if
they were a person, If they were a person, would
they want to be in your life? Or they feel, Ah,

(46:52):
this isn't a good relationship for me. And your show
is all about helping people get healed, healthy and whole.
And if you want to create a richer, more a
bunch in life, you have to create a healthy relationship
with money in your life. And look at it as
if this was a love of my life, not in
a worshiping like I worship it no matter what, but

(47:13):
more of like this is like a person that I
love and I want to treat them with care. I
want to be a great host. How can I show up?
And it doesn't mean it's always going to be perfect,
but how can I show up and be generous, be kind,
be patient, listen, be aware and be of service to it?

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah? I didn't make a huge difference.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Huge difference. I'm not saying you haven't had a beautiful, abundant,
peaceful life as well with money, but I would bet
to say that you've also experienced stress and overwhelm with
money for sure, more than having no money. And a
lot of people get blocked because they know that like, oh,
more money, more problems is another like money lie right,

(47:54):
or money like wound that people might have, Like I
don't want to make more money because I see people
who do have money, they're constantly stressed. They're not generous
with it, they're stingy, they don't even tip it all.
They're even more stingy with it and they have it.
So what's the point of having it if they're not generous.
I don't want to be like that. And there can
be money traps or money wounds when you have money
if you haven't learned how to heal that relationship. And

(48:16):
so it's learning how to heal the red relationship so
that when you grow your net worth, you also increase
your self worth inside and feel peaceful about it. You
expand your nervous system, your container to receive abundantly, so
that it's not scary, it's not stressful. You can receive more,
and you can give more because you know that the

(48:37):
more you relax, the more you receive, and when you give,
it's going to come back in some way. I struggled
with that my first six, seven, eight years of making money.
I hoarded money because I was afraid to go broke again,
and it limited me in certain ways, and it made
me feel stressful, and it made me feel like people
were trying to take advantage of me and take my money.
It doesn't feel rich having money and living in scarcity.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Still, there was a beautiful thing that we'd always repeat
in the monastery. It was like God doesn't see what
you give, God sees what you hold back. And so
there's not this you know, because we can sometimes become
egotistical about how much we give, and it's like you
got one hand behind your back, and that's you just
made that point. It's that it's that pinch, it's that
are you giving where there's a challenge to give? Yeah,

(49:24):
because that's where we're healing. Because you can get really egotistical, like, hey,
if you were worth a billion and you signed a
million dollar check, like I know people that are making
three million in interest a day, Like, so you writing
a million dollar check is not the same. This also
applies when you have very little. So my parents, who
didn't make a lot when they were giving, felt it

(49:46):
felt like a lot. And so like what we're saying
is that that this thought of being a giver has
to be care to us.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
You know, my dad was a lot like that too.
He had strangers knocking on the door that somehow convinced
him to to stay with us for like three months
in the summer. Who are ah? And he just opened
his doors and said yes, like okay. And so he
was just like like your parents, like okay, you need
a place to stay for a week, a month, two months. Cool,
We'll figure it out. We'll feed you, We'll do this

(50:14):
as long as we feel like you're doing something good
and we're trying to support you. And I think it's
don't have to give money to feel rich. Yes, you
can be vandor your generous with your time, with your resources,
in other ways, with your food. It's like you can
give in other ways and create a richness of life.
And that's the key is to feel rich and abundant

(50:35):
and free. And if you feel that, when you start
making money, you're going to continue to feel free. The
biggest trap is when you feel scarce and you start
making money and you still feel trapped, you still don't
feel free. That isn't even greater prison in my mind,
that you're living in scarcity when you have money.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
I mean there's so many people right now that have
the pressure to save money because we've been doing my
making money. Yes, but they're espressure to save money. And
how do you find that balance between spending comfortably if
you have the ability, versus like saving for your future
or your family. How do you think about that version?

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Well, I think when you can live beneath your means
and feel abundant, you've won. So when you live beneath
your means and you don't need extra stuff, you've won.
I just watched The Count of Monte Cristo the other nights.
It's an incredible movie of a guy who has nothing,
who was born by you know, back in the I

(51:33):
don't know, seventeen hundreds or something at a period piece.
He was born of like a clerk, a guy who
makes no money, and his friend was born of like
some general who had a lot of money or something.
And this poor kid that grew up friends didn't have anything,
but he had the world. He had no money, no possessions,

(51:54):
but he just approached life was like, man, but here's
a piece of string, here's a rock that I can
play with. I can just imagine the beauty of the world.
And he appreciated everything even though he had no money.
And I think in some ways it's so hard to
look at that when we see Instagram and TikTok where
everyone has things. When you see everyone else having fun

(52:15):
with money and going on that trip with their girlfriends,
or buying that expensive car to show after their guy friends,
or getting the nice watches or having the cool shoes,
and you're thinking, oh, if I could really have money,
then I could have these things that would make me
feel cool or feel better. But if we can approach
life and just be like man, life is so good

(52:36):
with what I have. That is true wealth, that is
true abundance and happiness. And it doesn't mean you shouldn't
strive to create more. If you want more, if you
want to have nice shoes or a nice watch cool,
You've got to learn how to make money, and you
want to learn how to make money easy, not make
money hard. And that is a process in developing these skills,
these talents within you and seeing how you can monetize

(52:59):
those skills. And I'm not saying don't splurge on certain
things if you want to, but you have to understand
the consequences if you're going to splurge on something to
have fun with friends or go on trips and spend
this money that you maybe don't have, just know there
might be a consequence to that later. If you have
to use a credit card, you have to pay that
debt with interest later. So just know there's a cost

(53:23):
to splurging or spending when you don't have it. I'm
a big fan of saving and investing so that you
can have freedom in the future and feel rich continually
and not needing to buy things to feel richer.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Yeah, what about this idea of I want to make
money quick, Like I just want to make a million
dollars in a week. I want to find that hack
that solves my money problems. Like, what's your take on that?
Is that possible?

Speaker 2 (53:51):
I've got money wounds, and it's because I wanted to
make easy money in my past, not make money easy.
And I don't know anyone that doesn't want to make
easy money, Like our ego wants it to come to
us now. And you want to find the quick hack
or the quick investment that's got a ten X in
two months. Sure, there's always outliers that figure out a

(54:12):
way to do that. But every time I've tried to
do that. I've lost my money and it's been painful,
and I'm like, Okay, I think I've learned that lesson,
But there's this new quick, easy money opportunity, and every
time I do it again, I'm like, what was I thinking?
You see that Others act like there's a way to
do it so easy. If you just invest in crypto,
if you just invest in this, if you just do

(54:34):
this thing, you're gonna make quick and easy money. I
don't know anyone who's made hundreds of millions, millions or
billions who's lived that way. They might have invested and
gone all in on one business and created generational wealth,
or maybe they went all in on investing in one
main stock that ended up ten or twenty x thing

(54:55):
over time, but going to quick make easy money way
doesn't usually work, and it's painful lessons you have to
live afterwards. So I don't know if you ever made
quick easy money.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
No, No, I haven't for sure, And I probably made
mistakes when I had a bad relationship with money.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
I remember my one of my mentors in like twenty
thirteen told me to invest in crypto, and at the
time I thought to myself. It was a scale I've
only got like I only like at that time in
my life, I probably had one thousand dollars right saved
because I'd just come out, I just started working. I

(55:35):
didn't have the money, so I was thinking thousand dollars,
what's it going to do? Obviously I was stupid.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
I know that.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Also one of them been quick, it would have been
taking fifteen years.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Yeah, that's the thing. It's like we can always look
back and say, oh, our friend told us to invest
in this thing ten years ago, and if I imagine
if I did a ten year Yeah, just like any stock, Yeah,
in wait ten years, it should go up if the
company continues to do well.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
No, I've never made easy money.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Well here's that. Actually, you actually have made easy money
after putting in a decade plus of work, a decade
of developing skills, of monetizing your skills, and following the
seven habits we talk about in this book, which is, yeah,
you can make easy money. Now you can get paid
hundreds of thousands of dollars to speak for sixty minutes
because you've added so much value in the world for

(56:22):
the past decade plus and even a decade before that
of spiritual practice before you even learn how to make money.
So two decades, two decades of how do I develop
skills within me to serve people, whether it be one
on one, one to ten one to ten thousand, How
do I develop those skills to serve and give generously?

(56:44):
You have followed this mindset perfectly, which is a mindset
of generosity and gratitude, and that's all you did for
essentially the last two decades. How can I learn how
to become a better human? How can I give generously?
And how can I be appreciative and grateful for the
life that I have? And you had no money for
almost four years as a monk, but I would bet

(57:07):
that you lived a beautifully rich life. You didn't need
the money to feel rich. You felt provided for, You
had nature, you had community, you were learning, you got
to be on purpose, you got to serve, and what
a beautiful gift to receive. And you had no money
in your bank account, but you were probably one of

(57:28):
the richest people that you knew. And that is beautiful,
That is abundant.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
And that's something that definitely doesn't change with the financial change.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
If I have no money right now, how can I
get to a place where you were at where I
had the richest, most abundant life because I was working
on me. I was a giver. I was generous with
my time and my energy and my resources with whatever
I had. And then how can I start to earn
more money? Make money easy by feeling effortless internally expanding

(57:59):
my nervous system so that it can receive more and
feel safe. That is a rich upond in life.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
And that's what we're all really looking for.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
And me and you both know people who have hundreds
of million dollars that they've exited companies and they're not happy.
It doesn't mean having more money equals happiness. You start
to learn how to heal you and have a healthy
relationship with yourself and money even when you have it.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
When you're looking for a quick fix and a quick win,
the problem is the speed at which you win is
the speed of which you lose. Yes, right, So if
you think i'll put money into this now, I'll make
something in a week, chances are, like you said, you
lose it immediately. You lose it a day, You lose
it in the day. And the reason that happens is

(58:44):
because you actually don't know why you're putting your money there.
So it goes back to your first point of awareness.
It goes back to something you call the mapping habit,
the plan, because what's going on is you're saying, I
want this stab and now I want this step in immediately,
I want this step quickly. So I know zero about
this crypto. I know zero about this property. I've had

(59:06):
friends literally gamble away their life savings because they heard
all their friends were making money through crypto. When people
say to me, I've got this much funny, what should
I invest? And I'm like, what do you know about
invest in that? What do you actually know about? What
do you actually have experienced knowledge wisdom in because guess what,
because of that, you'll make money on it, because you
actually understand it. Again, it goes back to the point

(59:28):
of respect. If we don't respect our audience, it doesn't grow.
If you don't respect your community, it doesn't grow. If
you don't respect your clients, it doesn't grow. By us
saying I want to make money, but I know nothing
about this industry, it means I'm disrespecting the industry. And sure,
there may be one person who had some lucky story
that they tell you about. But the truth is most
of us are not going to get there. So if

(59:49):
you have a little bit of money and you're like Jay,
I've only got one hundred dollars to invest, Lewis have
only got a thousand dollars to invest, and you ask
me where to put it, put it in what you know?
Put it in yourself if that's all you know, who
is yourself and your skills. And I think so many
of us are looking for that ticket. But actually that
investment in yourself will pay so many dividends.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Is this is why I'm glad you said this, because
a week ago someone literally asked me, if I have
a thousand dollars right now to invest, where should I
invest in? And everyone says, put it in crypto, put
it in real estate funds, put in all these things.
Don't listen to any of that. When I had no money,
there was two things that I needed to create more
of a currency within me, and that was courage and confidence.

(01:00:29):
I lacked the courage to develop certain skills. When I
had courage to go all in on learning public speaking
or learning how to write, I didn't know those skills.
Actually lacked those skills and I was afraid to be
a failure at those things by trying them, but by
having the courage to invest my time and energy in
a public speaking class, in a writing coach. I didn't

(01:00:50):
have the skills, but I developed the courage. That courage
created the actions to create confidence. That confidence created a
currency within me of that belief dictated my behaviors to
start charging more, to go out there and ask for more,
to put myself out there in bigger ways. And so,
if you have one thousand dollars or five thousand dollars

(01:01:11):
right now and you want to figure out where to
invest it, invested in courage to learn new skills that
will give you confidence, that would be an incredible currency
that you'll have forever.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
I mean, Lewis, I'm so excited for people to read
this book. Honestly, I love this conversation because we're both
sitting here as people who, like you said, not finished
our money journey either where where you know I've got
so many years left to learn so much more. The
reason why I empathize with it is I never ever
thought I'd be financially abundant, mentally or physically, and I

(01:01:42):
know you feel the same way.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
I never never figured out how to make money same.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
I've really empathized with everyone who's listening, going I'm stuck.
I'm trying to figure this out. But I really do
believe it starts with this, because this is the work
you'll have to do whether you make money tomorrow or
in ten years. And no matter how what you make,
you're still going to have to do this work. Yes,
in this book, because even if you find a way
to make money and you become really, really financially successful,

(01:02:08):
you will never feel free in that financial success without
doing this work. And you'll still feel anxious, and you
still feel stressed, and you still feel all of that right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
I tell a story in the book about I used
to live in an apartment building here in La It's
really sad. There's a lot of wealthy people in this
building that I lived in, a lot of celebrities and billionaires.
I was the poorest person there. Which is another lesson,
which is to put yourself in rooms. Always be where
you can mastermind with people, and be around proximity about
people who have more so you can learn from them.

(01:02:39):
But I was on a trip and I came back
from a trip, driving back into the valet of my building,
and there was a tent in the valet, like in
the driveway, and I kind of jokingly said to the
valley attendant as I pulled into the building, I said,
someone didn't jump, did they, kind of like joking, And
the guy looked at me with like a serious face, like, yeah,
it just happened like minutes ago, and I was I

(01:03:01):
was like, this can't be real. It was like, what,
there's billionaires in here, there's millionaires in here, there's celebrities
in here. Is like, why would anyone in this building
take their own life? And it was kind of like
just this shock to me because I learned later who
this person was. Someone did jump off the building right
before I came back, and he was worth hundreds of

(01:03:23):
millions of dollars net worth if you just googled his name.
And I was just thinking, why would someone worth so
much money take their life? And I don't want to
assume what really happened, But it doesn't mean having all
the money in the world is going to solve all
your problems, and you're going to feel like you can
love and accept yourself, that you have self worth. So,
like you said, you may learn how to make a

(01:03:44):
lot of money. But if you haven't learned how to
heal your relationship with you, then all the money in
the world can't save your life and can't make you
feel rich, can't make you feel abundant, can't make you
have beautiful relationships with friends, family, colleagues. And that's real.
Real wealth comes in life when you have deep, meaningful relationships.
And something I want to acknowledge that you do really

(01:04:06):
well is you follow this first habit, the mindset habit
so well, which is how can I be generous with
my time, my energy, my love for friends, family, colleagues,
your community. This community feels it. Everyone listening and watching
right now feel your generosity you're giving hearts and your

(01:04:27):
gratitude for them, whether it be individually or collectively, they
feel it. And most people, they want to make more money,
but they don't have that generosity, that grateful spirits, and
they want the quick fix. They want to make easy
money quick, not make money easy. And the billionaires that

(01:04:50):
I know, you know, and the millionaires that we know,
we've interviewed and I'll ask them this question, what do
you think the key to creating more financial abundance every year?
After year is for you. Every billionaire or mega millionaire
will say giving more. I make more when I give
more that year, whether it be giving more to charities,

(01:05:11):
whether it be giving to people in my life, whether
it be giving back to my community, giving back to
my employees, my business, finding ways to give more and
almost give where it feels a little uncomfortable, like, oh,
that was a big check. I just wrote. Oh man,
I care about this cause, this charity. I feel safe
giving this amount, but what really would make it uncomfortable?

(01:05:34):
Or I go to church every week and I typically
give this, but what would make me feel a little uncomfortable.
Most of these people say the more they give when
it's the most uncomfortable. Somehow they just keep earning more.
And I'm not saying you should give all your money
away and you're going to earn more back, but having
that mindset of generosity, and you do this very well
where you give your community. Whenever there's some type of

(01:05:57):
breakdown in the world, you're one of the first people say,
how can we give? How can we rally the troops?
You give first, You rally the troops. They let's give back.
The fires happened, stuff happened, in India a couple of
years ago. Stuff's always happening, and you say we're gonna give.
I don't know if that seems something conscious you think about, like, oh,
by giving more every year, it helps me make more,

(01:06:20):
but also I feel richer. And when you do that
with everyone in your life, whether you're the hostess and
you give curiosity, love, passion, fun, playfulness, you're giving something
in that moment. If you can write a check for
something that is a cause and you give, it's because
you can, and you do it generously, it's just going

(01:06:42):
to make you richer inside, and you're creating an energy
of abundance to attract more.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
I think for me it was watching my parents. So
for all the other things I said about just enough
and everything, my parents always gave in charity. A home
was always a home where everyone was welcome, would happily
cook dinner for everyone, even though you know, we didn't
have everything, and so my parents had this generous heart.
At the same.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
Time, they probably felt rich in that for sure, generally.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Sure, and they did it when we didn't have a
lot like my parents. Now, when I realized how much
my parents made and how much the game and charity.
The proportions were pretty off, and I think for me,
I just felt so fortunate and I feel so lucky,
and I feel so grateful that I have been able
to find abundance in my life that I feel like
the only natural reaction to that has to be to give.

(01:07:35):
When I came back to LA with the fires and everything,
I was just grateful to come back to a home.
But not everyone I know came back to a home,
and so I felt grateful that I had a home,
and so I was like, Okay, what can we do?
And so I think it comes from a place of gratitude. Again,
it comes from a place of seeing my parents be
so generous even though they had nothing to give. Actually,

(01:07:56):
and it ultimately comes to me because I just feel
like there's no better use for it in the long
run than that, And I do believe it will come
back in its own way. I don't give it because
I want it back. I give it because I believe
there's a need. But I do deeply believe that it
will come back in its own way, and it always has.
The book's called Make Money Easy, Create Financial Freedom, and

(01:08:18):
live a richer life. Lewis hows Lewis, I'm so grateful,
genuinely for this conversation. It's left me feeling so rich.
I've always felt rich in our friendship, and I'm really
glad that you wrote about it in this way because
I think there's lots of great money experts out there
who are growing really good sound financial advice.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
Yeah that's not.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
That's not what this is, and I think we need
all of it. But I think this is a deep
part because I know for me personally, this has been
really deep work, and you put it into a book,
and so I'm so grateful. Let people get to exercise. Brother,
Thank you for doing this. Everyone who's been listening or
watching read the book, learn the Habits. Tag me and
Lewis on Instagram on TikTok. Let me know what's resonating

(01:08:56):
with you, what's connected with you. I want to hear
your stories. I want to hear what skill you invested in.
I want you to turn up at your job, even
if you hate it. I want you to turn up
to it with all the love that you possibly have.
See whose mind you blow, who gets impressed by what
you're doing. Someone's gonna be able to shift your life
at some point. And it's going to start with you.
But just don't underestimate the value of these things that

(01:09:19):
sound simple and they sound like I've got to figure
out something more complex. No, no, no, this is where
it starts, and this will mean that at the end
of it, you'll be happy. So thank you to Lewis,
thank you to each and every one of you. And yeah,
make money easy, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
I love you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
If you love this episode, you love my conversation with
Dr Joe Dispenser on why stressing overthinking negatively impacts your
brain and heart and how to change your habits that
are on autopilot. Listen to it right now.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
How many times do we have to forget until we
stop forgetting and start remembering. That's the moment of change.
Who cares how many times you fell off the bicycle?
If you ride the bicycle, now you're right the bike

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Jay Shetty

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}⁠Lewis Howes: The Scarcity Belief That’s Blocking You from Making Money & How to Feel Rich Even When You’re Broke