What if the “alpha” you’ve been chasing was never something you had to become… but something you had to remember?

In this interview-season episode of the Alpha Male Coach Podcast, I sit down with a brother who’s close to my heart: Salu “Lu” Smith - a fellow Projector, a long-time student in the Academy, a graduate of Tribe Class 002, and a mentor who returned to support Tribe Class 003. This is not a surface-level conversation about tactics, dominance, or performance. This is an initiation story. A seven-year transformation. A real example of what happens when a man stops outsourcing his power and starts listening to the voice inside him that already knows the truth.

Lou takes us back to the beginning: 2018 in California, a relationship that exposed the “nice guy” conditioning, and the pressure he felt to become harder, stronger, more masculine - not from alignment, but from insecurity. Like a lot of men, he got pulled into the mainstream “alpha male” content and the idea that being an alpha was about getting women, gaining status, and proving something. But underneath that drive was something deeper: a craving to finally feel enough.

That search eventually brought him to this podcast and to the Model of Alignment - the simple but life-changing understanding that your circumstances don’t create your results… your thoughts do. Lou shares how he would come in and out of coaching at first, trying to “figure it out” on his own, until life humbled him into a deeper commitment. And that commitment became the turning point: not because the answers were outside of him, but because having a coach helped him see what he couldn’t yet see in himself.

We go deep on what it really means to invest in your inner world - especially when money fear, doubt, and ego resistance rise up. Lou explains how the leap always feels risky in the moment, but once the decision is made, reality starts rearranging around it. The money figures itself out. The mind quiets down. The path opens.

From there, we talk about Tribe - not just as coach training, but as a high-accountability brotherhood container where men hold space for each other to grow, awaken, and lead. Lou shares what it was like to experience Tribe first as a student in Class 002, then to return as a mentor in Class 003. Watching other men rise didn’t just inspire him - it expanded him. It sharpened his understanding. It brought new layers of wisdom online.

And then we go to the hardest question of all: How do you explain “the lights being on” to someone who’s never had the lights on before? How do you describe awakening to a man still living inside the program?

Lou’s answer is simple and profound: you don’t convince the mind. You invite the feeling. You listen for resonance. You trust the signal. And you take the leap - even when it scares you - because that fear is often the ego trying to keep the old identity alive.

If you’ve been feeling that pull inside you… this episode is for you.

Elevate Your Alpha.