The School of Greatness

You can win four Super Bowls and still spend every game afraid of losing.

Terry Bradshaw, a Pro Football Hall of Famer and longtime host of Fox NFL Sunday, sat down with Lewis and admitted he was never confident as an NFL quarterback. Fear cost him his throwing motion, and he completed just 51.9% of his passes. Underneath it all were his mother’s words when he was eight: you’ll never amount to anything.

He talks openly about depression and ADHD, which he didn’t learn about until after football. He also talks about three divorces, and the moment it hit him that the common factor was him. Three years of counseling and a hard look in the mirror later, he married his best friend, a woman who makes him talk about what he’d rather bury.

In his memoir Looking for Terry, and in this conversation, he explains why he sobbed over his dog but not his mother, and how his wife taught him to say no. He also shares how his faith held through cancer twice in one year, and why he cares more about kindness than greatness.

You’ll come away gentler with your own fear, and maybe ready to ask for the help you’ve been putting off.

 Looking for Terry: A Memoir

The Bradshaw Family Cookbook: Our Favorite Recipes for Game Days, Weekdays, and Any Day

Keep It Simple

It's Only a Game

Terry on Instagram

Terry on Facebook

In this episode you will:

• Discover how Terry Bradshaw turned childhood criticism and harsh coaching into fuel instead of letting it define him
• Break the relationship pattern that repeats when you finally admit the common factor is you
• Practice mirror evaluation, the self-honesty exercise Terry uses to see himself clearly without inflating or tearing himself down
• Recognize depression and ADD as manageable conditions by talking them out rather than hiding them
• Build a marriage grounded in friendship, where saying no is allowed and hard conversations happen
• Redefine greatness around kindness and hope rather than trophies or money

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1989

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Four out of ten people can't put their hands on $400 in an emergency, and almost none of them know why.

David Bach, who spent nine years at Morgan Stanley and co-founded an advisory firm with more than $7 billion on its platform, sat down with Lewis and made the case that budgets fail everyone while automation quietly works. His book The Latte Factor tells the story through a broke travel editor in Brooklyn who works 70 hours a week and never goes anywhere. He also explains the Rule of 72, why a new car payment eats three months of your year, and how selling a home you live in can hand you a quarter million dollars the government never touches.

The part that will stay with you has nothing to do with money. His grandmother was broke at 30, saved 50 cents a week in a coffee can, and helped him buy his first share of McDonald's stock when he was seven. On her deathbed at 86, he asked her about regrets. Every single one was a fork in the road where she chose the safe path.

Then Lewis puts his own finances on the table and gets told what he's still missing. David talks about sitting in a hospital waiting room days before this conversation, sure his wife was having a stroke, and what that did to his sense of what actually matters. His last piece of advice is about forgiving someone you stopped speaking to.

You will pull out your phone and look at your subscriptions. You may also call someone you've been avoiding for years.

The Automatic Millionaire, 20th Anniversary Edition: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich

The Latte Factor: Why You Don't Have to Be Rich to Live Rich

Debt Free for Life: The Finish Rich Plan for Financial Freedom

David's Website

David's Instagram

In this episode you will:

• Automate your wealth so money grows while you sleep, instead of relying on a budget you will abandon within a month
• Discover the Latte Factor with David Bach and see how small daily spending quietly costs you a million dollars
• Apply the Rule of 72 to know exactly how long your money takes to double
• Escape the paycheck to paycheck trap that traps seven out of ten Americans who cannot find four hundred dollars in an emergency
• Reject get rich quick thinking and build real wealth over decades by owning quality assets you never touch
• Forgive the people you resent before that stored pain turns into the regret you carry to the end

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1988

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The questions you ask on autopilot might be the reason you feel lonely in a room full of people.

Vanessa Van Edwards, a behavioral researcher who has studied master conversationalists for two decades, sat down with Lewis to talk about why so much of our talking leaves us empty. One in six people worldwide are affected by loneliness, and she believes the way we talk to AI is quietly changing the way we talk to each other.

In her book Conversation, she lays out three levels of connection, from basic facts all the way up to the private story you tell yourself about yourself. She explains why “Been busy?” is the single worst question in small talk, and why asking for stories beats asking for facts every time.

The most honest moment comes when Lewis asks what she still struggles with. Her answer is charging for her own work, a belief she traces back to her early twenties, and you get to hear a level three conversation happen live.

You will walk into your next dinner or team call ready to say “tell me more” and actually mean it. Pick one person you love and ask them a better question tonight. You might be surprised how deep your relationships can go.

Pre-Order: Conversation: How to Connect with Anyone & Make Every Interaction Count

Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication

Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People

Vanessa on Instagram

Vanessa on YouTube

Vanessa's Website

In this episode you will:

• Replace dead end small talk like “Been busy?” with questions that invite stories instead of facts
• Discover Dr. Dan McAdams’ three levels of connection to move any conversation past surface chatter
• Become a dream builder who adds energy to other people’s ideas instead of poking holes in them
• Signal warmth and competence through your body language and voice so people believe what you bring
• Rewrite the self narrative holding you back by shifting from contamination stories to redemption stories
• Break the loneliness cycle by practicing real conversation skills that AI can never replace

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1987

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every stage you never took is the only real failure. The rest is just data.

Jo Koy, the comedian who has sold out SoFi Stadium and won Showtime at the Apollo, sat down with Lewis and told the story of driving Vegas to LA with a broken taillight for a $40 set, getting a ticket both ways. He rode a Greyhound nine hours home from an unpaid audition. He walked to the front of a line wrapped around a building with a fake resume and a headshot his dad took, and asked a promoter for five minutes she did not have to give him.

She gave it to him anyway. Three weeks after crawling through a curtain as an unannounced warm-up act at Def Comedy Jam, he won the Apollo. Years later, when Netflix passed on him, he paid for the special himself, shot it, and brought it back to them. They bought it, and then he broke Mariah Carey's attendance record in Hawaii with 22,000 tickets.

He still prints flyers. Ten thousand of them, for sold-out shows, put on windshields by hand. He talks about his mom rolling lumpia to sell at work during her divorce, about his stepdad teaching him that a messy bed is a messy head, about hugging his son on stage in the same arena where he watched Eddie Murphy at fifteen.

This one will make you uncomfortable in the best way, because you will start counting the lines you did not walk to the front of. Jo's definition of greatness is doing what you love for absolutely nothing, and he says he is still asleep, still dreaming the thing he dreamed at nine.

Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo

Jo's Website

Jo's Instagram

Jo's YouTube

Watch Jo Koy: Blue in the Face

In this episode you will:

• Hear how Jo Koy talked his way backstage with a fake resume and turned one stolen set into a career
• Reframe bombing as proof you showed up, because you win the moment you accept the challenge and fail
• Overcome the insecurity of broken teeth and hair loss that shadowed him for decades
• Bet on yourself the way Jo Koy did when Netflix passed and he funded his own special anyway
• Redefine greatness as doing what you love when nobody is paying you a dime for it

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1986

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You already know where to start. What scares you is finding out you might not be good enough once you do.

Lewis goes solo here on the fear that hides inside preparation. He read every page of a 500-page book before his first Tony Robbins interview and still walked in nervous, and that nervousness never actually went away.

Then there was Kobe Bryant. A 5pm phone call the night before, an interview the next morning, 20 minutes, a publicist handing over a list of banned topics, other crews waiting in the hallway. With almost no prep time, it became one of the best conversations Lewis has ever recorded, because he stopped performing his homework and just stayed present and curious.

He gets honest about launching The School of Greatness with an iPhone and no idea what he was doing, asking questions he thought were basic and dumb. Confidence came after the action, never before it. Perfectionism and procrastination wear the same costume, and self-trust only gets built by surviving the attempt.

Ask yourself the uncomfortable question: are you still preparing because the work requires it, or because preparing feels safer than beginning? Whatever you have been circling for months, you will want to take one real step on it today.

Make Money Easy

The School of Greatness

The Greatness Mindset

The Mask of Masculinity

In this episode you will:

• Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects.
• Spot the moment preparation quietly turns into a sophisticated form of procrastination
• Move through the terror of not feeling ready by understanding that confidence arrives after the action, not before it
• Steal the mindset that let Lewis turn a Kobe Bryant interview booked the night before into one of his best conversations ever
• Answer the question underneath your stalling: what are you actually waiting for
• Build real self trust by proving to yourself that failure never gets the final word

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if your body is already telling you the work you do every day is wrong for you?

Jonathan Fields, founder of Good Life Project and a former securities lawyer, sat down with Lewis to answer the question so many of us carry around: what should I do with my life? He shares how 100 hour weeks at a big law firm ended with an infection eating a hole through his intestine and a trip to emergency surgery.

From there you hear why burnout keeps climbing, why an existential crisis is really a crisis of meaning, and how collapsed boundaries between home and work make it worse. Lewis opens up about eczema that cleared within days once he stopped abandoning himself in his relationships and career.

Jonathan walks through the ideas in his book Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work That Makes You Come Alive, and Lewis learns he is a Maven who hates Essentialist work. You also get Jonathan’s blunt question for finding purpose: what should I just stop doing entirely?

You will finish this one ready to take the free Sparketype assessment and finally chase the work that makes you feel alive.

Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive

How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love

Jonathan's Website

Take the Sparktype test

In this episode you will:

• Discover your Sparketype to uncover the unique imprint for work that makes you come alive
• Recognize the physical warning signs your body sends when your work or relationships fall out of alignment
• Break free from burnout by rebuilding the boundaries between work and home that have collapsed
• Question the hidden assumptions that keep you stuck in a rut using Katie Byron's The Work
• Eliminate the tasks that drain you so you can focus on what truly matters
• Close the gap between your felt and expressed potential without sabotaging yourself once you finally align

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1985

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are seven quiet signals that show up in your life long before the money does, and most of them feel like losing.

In this solo episode, Lewis walks you through the money mindset shifts he lived from his sister's couch to a life where his investing runs on autopilot. He tells you about the networking event where he stuffed cheese and crackers into his pockets with a full arm cast on, because he had no idea where his next meal was coming from.

Then comes the number that stops you cold: 48% of people earning over $250,000 a year are still living paycheck to paycheck. A raise was never the answer. Lewis walks through why rich is a number and free is a length of time, and why saying no to a $20,000 sponsorship or a $10,000 coaching call felt like losing his mind right up until it felt like peace.

You will hear how one conversation at a salsa club sent him to Toastmasters and rewired what he could charge, and how he bought a life insurance policy in his twenties for a wife and kids who did not exist yet.

By the end you will have one small assignment: take what you have, divide it by what you spend in a month, and look at the number without flinching. Then start adding months.

Make Money Easy

The School of Greatness

The Greatness Mindset

The Mask of Masculinity

In this episode you will:

• Spot the seven quiet signs that wealth is already arriving before anyone else confirms it
• Climb Myron Golden's Four Levels of Value so you get paid for deciding and imagining instead of grinding harder
• Dismantle the scarcity habits that keep hardworking people stuck, including judging the rich and hoarding out of fear
• Reclaim your peace by saying no to real money that violates your values, the way Lewis Howes turned down millions in sponsorships
• Measure your runway in months rather than chasing a net worth number, so freedom becomes something you can count
• Break the paycheck to paycheck trap that still swallows nearly half of people earning over $250,000 a year

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1984

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if the grind you think makes you successful is the very thing keeping you broke and exhausted?

Codie Sanchez, a former Goldman Sachs employee who has run 1,621 businesses through her company’s systems, sat down with Lewis to talk about money, freedom, and why most entrepreneurs across the US earn less than California’s $78,000 minimum wage. Her book Own or Be Owned is built on one uncomfortable question: do you own a business, or does it own you?

She tells the story of walking into a bank for a loan and finding the account she thought held a million dollars almost empty. That night she sat in the dark and called her dad, who told her you are not really in the game until you have had a night like that. She never ran a business without systems again.

The fixes she shares are simpler than you expect. Most businesses are underpriced by 30 to 300 percent, fewer than a third have recurring revenue, and hard work has almost nothing to do with how much money you make. She also explains why more than 80 percent of kids want nothing to do with their parents’ business.

You will finish this one ready to raise your prices and build a life where work fits around the people you love.

Pre-Order: Own or Be Owned: Build a Business So Good It Doesn't Need You

Main Street Millionaire: How to Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying Ordinary Businesses

Codie's Instagram

Codie's YouTube

Big Deal Podcast

Codie's Website

In this episode you will:

• Learn the OWN system of 12 profit levers Codie Sanchez uses to build a business that runs without you
• Raise your prices with confidence once you see why most businesses are underpriced by 30 to 300%
• Escape key man risk by building systems and hiring people who can outperform you
• Test real market demand before you build, so your next venture doesn’t start from your pain
• Break the money beliefs that keep you living paycheck to paycheck
• Pay yourself first and add recurring revenue so your profits turn into lasting freedom

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1983

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You have been trained to reach for your phone the second you get bored, and it is quietly costing you the ability to think.

Cal Newport, a computer science professor and the author of Deep Work, sat down with Lewis and explained why he has never once had a social media account. He also wrote Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, and to test the idea he ran a 30-day declutter with about 1,600 readers who sent back reports on what happened when they stepped away.

The results are hard to shake. Roughly half found no real value in social media and dropped it for good. Of the half who did find value, like visual artists who needed Instagram to see other people's work, about 95% moved it off their phones entirely and onto a scheduled desktop session, sometimes twenty minutes on a Sunday night. Cal also points to college mental health centers that saw anxiety cases jump around fivefold the same year students started arriving on campus with smartphones.

Lewis tells his own story here too. Fifteen straight years with a phone on him every single day, then a trip to Hawaii where he left it at home. He got lost, asked strangers for directions at a gas station, and by day two he was floating in the ocean with zero anxiety. Cal calls that the baseline, not a breakthrough.

Listen and you will start noticing the small reach for your pocket at dinner, in line, on a walk. Then you will try leaving the thing at home once, and find out what your own thoughts sound like again.

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

Cal's YouTube

In this episode you will:

• Reclaim the ability to focus deeply at a moment when concentration is becoming rare and therefore economically valuable
• Confront the hard personal questions your phone lets you escape, instead of numbing boredom with a constant digital companion
• Understand why campus anxiety disorders spiked once students arrived carrying smartphones, and what that means for your own mental health
• Practice productive meditation, the walking based cognitive pull ups that train your brain to think through problems without a screen
• Rebuild real connection by trading likes for sacrificed time and attention, the only currency that makes relationships deepen

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1982

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You can have every fact, every plan, and still quit by Thursday, because the story underneath never changed.

Dr. Kim Foster, a family physician who practiced for twenty years, sat down with Lewis after a patient with rising blood pressure told her, “I'm just not an exercise person.” That one line reframed everything: behavior change is an identity problem wearing an information costume. Her book, Redesigning You, turns that into a three-step method of recognizing the old story, redesigning it, and then going out to collect proof.

She talks about the bridge identity, the small believable stretch your brain will actually accept instead of a mirror affirmation it answers with, “Interesting. Based on what?” Habit stacking is the app. Identity is the operating system, and glitchy apps on an old system crash on the hard days.

Then she tells on herself. She walked into the woods behind her clinic after stitching a patient's hand, realized she never wanted to go back, wrote her resignation letter, and then stayed through an entire pandemic wave anyway rather than leave at the worst moment. Her last day came in her birthday month, and she sat in her car and cried for fifteen minutes before driving home with the windows down, free.

Listen for the moment a senior resident nodded at her to keep going while ribs cracked under her hands, and for what that taught her about self-doubt. You'll start catching your own identity statement, about money, sleep, confidence, relationships, the ones you say like they're just facts. Then you get to argue back.

Redesigning You: Change Your Inner Story, Transform Your Health

Dr. Kim's Website

Dr. Kim's YouTube

Dr. Kim's Instagram

In this episode you will:

• Discover with Dr. Kim Foster why lasting change fails as an identity problem rather than an information problem
• Apply the Recognize, Redesign, Ritualize framework to build an identity your brain actually believes
• Build a bridge identity that gives your mind proof instead of forcing affirmations you secretly reject
• Overcome the fear that keeps you loyal to a role you have outgrown, even a prestigious one
• Reframe self doubt as useful data and stop letting shame drive your attempts to improve
• Become genuinely magnetic in conversation without slipping into performance

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1981

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love!

Get More From Lewis!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.