Order of Man - ERIC THOMAS ｜ Ignite Your Power and Purpose

00:00:00.000 I think most of us believe there's a reason that we're here on this planet, but I personally

00:00:04.220 know how hard it can be to uncover and discover the reason that is. It seems daunting considering

00:00:09.540 how easily we can become consumed with trivial matters and the distractions of modern culture

00:00:14.720 and society. But my guest today, Eric Thomas, aka The Hip Hop Preacher, has been helping

00:00:19.760 millions of people around the world ignite their power and purpose. Today, ET and I talk about

00:00:24.620 overcoming the quote unquote passive boy, becoming more of who you are, not a clone of someone

00:00:29.840 else, why you don't need the world to approve, to succeed, the battle between the two yous

00:00:35.980 and finding immense opportunity in crisis. You're a man of action. You live life to the

00:00:41.440 fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you

00:00:46.480 get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged,

00:00:52.000 resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become

00:00:58.200 at the end of the day. And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:01:04.040 Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler. I'm the host and the founder

00:01:07.660 of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here. Welcome back. Glad you're tuned in with

00:01:13.580 us today. I've got a very important one for you with Eric Thomas, again, the hip hop preacher.

00:01:20.120 We're going to get into it in just a minute. Before we do, I want to let you know that the

00:01:24.620 Iron Council, our exclusive brotherhood, opens up this week on the 15th. So that's Thursday of this

00:01:30.200 week. We open back up. If you want to know what that's about, go to orderofman.com slash iron

00:01:36.000 council, orderofman.com slash iron council. You can learn more and you get enrolled and signed up for a

00:01:42.060 very short period of time. Again, orderofman.com slash iron council. Now guys, let me get to my

00:01:47.720 conversation today. It is with, as I said earlier, Eric Thomas. He's a PhD. He's an author, including

00:01:53.940 the author of his latest book, UOU, and an incredibly powerful speaker, pastor, so much more. His

00:02:00.680 incredibly unique and powerful approach to personal performance has made him one of the most highly

00:02:05.420 sought after public speakers in the world. And really, really just a powerful voice, motivation,

00:02:10.260 and inspiration on social media, and obviously in person too. As CEO of his consulting firm,

00:02:16.080 he's worked with dozens of hugely successful organizations and Fortune 500 companies,

00:02:21.280 including General Electric, AT&T, Nike, Under Armour, UPS, and many other franchises with

00:02:28.420 Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL. So you're going to hear exactly why that is in this powerful

00:02:33.280 conversation. Enjoy. E.T., what's up, man? Glad to have you on the podcast.

00:02:39.120 Man, good to be on the podcast. So thank you for giving me this platform and thank you for putting me in

00:02:46.020 front of your people. Yeah. I mean, look, I got to say thank you as well. I've been following you

00:02:50.440 for years and I've always been motivated and inspired by what you're doing and the way that

00:02:56.160 you share it, which is so powerful. There's a lot of leadership, motivational, inspirational type

00:03:03.560 stuff up there, but the way that you communicate your message, it just speaks to me. So this is

00:03:09.140 awesome. Hey, I'm glad to hear that because it was funny, right? I was in L.A., you know,

00:03:15.860 just driving up the street. And, you know, it's weird, man, because, you know, I'm from the Midwest,

00:03:20.640 so, you know, it's all about hard hats, you know, steel-toed boots, you know what I'm saying? So we

00:03:25.540 don't really do the celebrity kind of fame stuff, right? But I've gotten there some kind of way,

00:03:29.980 you know what I'm saying? Through social media. So I'm in L.A., I'm driving up the street. I'm

00:03:34.080 forgetting that, you know, to some people I'm recognizable, you know what I'm saying? So I

00:03:39.080 got the window down and this African-American dude screams out the window, like, E.T., you know? 0.90

00:03:47.140 And so normally I would be, you know, taken aback a little bit because for me, the fame thing is

00:03:52.000 still, you know, it's just not something I'm still comfortable with, right? So, but when he said E.T.,

00:03:57.920 I'm like, oh, okay, he comes in peace. He knows me. And so he's just like, yo, bro, you changed my life,

00:04:02.580 whatever. But it was funny because he was saying, yo, in the beginning when I got like accidentally

00:04:08.320 saw you, it was the voice. You was loud. You was screaming and it was a turnoff, you know? But he

00:04:13.840 was like, I don't know what happened. He was going through something or something. And so he started

00:04:17.740 watching it again. And he was like, yo, when I watched it the second time, like it was passion.

00:04:22.700 It was, you know, like you arrested my attention. And I think it's so funny, man, because, you know,

00:04:29.140 I'll come across people who are like, you're screaming and hollering. And I'm like, you know,

00:04:34.420 it's so funny. We live in a world where there are certain things that whether it be like entertainment

00:04:40.540 or whatever it is, we take it as it is. Like it may not be beneficial. It may not be, you know,

00:04:46.120 it could be hard, whatever, but we take it as it is. But when it comes to somebody challenging us,

00:04:51.560 you know, somebody getting in our face, not cheerleading, but really pushing us to greatness,

00:04:55.960 you know, it's just funny that some people see it in a negative and it doesn't bother me.

00:05:00.540 But when I hear you say like, yo, E, the way you push, the way you deliver, the way you,

00:05:07.420 it's like, yo, I'm trying to rest your attention because I'm competing with entertainment. I'm

00:05:12.080 competing with all of the vices that are on social media. You feel me? And so for me, it's like,

00:05:17.520 yo, we got to get after it. We got to make it happen. And so I'm grateful that I do get to hear

00:05:24.920 not as much as you screaming and hollering. I get to hear those sometimes, A, I understand that you

00:05:32.080 understand the delivery. You understand the importance of passion. You understand the

00:05:36.300 importance of energy. So yeah, that means a lot. I think a lot of the times when people are

00:05:44.480 critical of the way somebody delivers a message, especially how you do with so much passion and

00:05:49.680 intensity and fire that that's what I see it as anyways, is they misinterpret it as insecurity.

00:05:55.440 But I think that's a mirror actually. I think it's that they're insecure and they don't like

00:06:01.040 the way you're doing it because it, it draws out them a feeling of inadequacy in, in our own lives.

00:06:07.740 And so I don't want to confront it. I don't want to deal with it because you're calling me out

00:06:11.560 and that's not comfortable. So you're delivering the message wrong. Not, I got some things I need to

00:06:15.880 work on myself. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And I, I agree 100%. Like I said, though, I'm just at a

00:06:22.340 place in my life where I love my audience enough where I'm not even really tripping on what you

00:06:28.040 think about me. Like it's not, it's not a personal thing. You feel me? So I'm not like, how do you see

00:06:33.740 me? I want you to see me as a positive. I'm not on that. Like I love humans enough to understand that

00:06:41.080 when Michael Jordan got to do what Michael Jordan wanted to do, Michael Jordan never won championships

00:06:46.860 bottom line. But when Michael Jordan was confronted by Phil Jackson, like, you know, Phil Jackson wasn't

00:06:53.200 like, what do you want? What do you want to do? You feel me? Now the coach before that, he was like

00:06:58.680 everything around Michael Jordan, you know, the ball, Michael Jordan, the camera, Michael Jordan,

00:07:04.100 the plays around Michael Jordan. Phil Jackson was like, bro, I'm not interested. Like I'm not,

00:07:07.860 I'm not here for Michael Jordan. We're here for basketball. We're here to win championships.

00:07:12.640 I won a championship. I know what it takes to win a championship. I'm not trying to be your friend.

00:07:17.660 I'm not interested. You said that you wanted Chicago Bulls to be a franchise, a dynasty like Boston,

00:07:26.960 like the Lakers. And so that's what we're going to do. So you're not going to score 60 points and you're

00:07:32.760 not going to get the ball all the time and you're not, you know? And so I look at Kobe, Phil Jackson,

00:07:37.860 you know, but no disrespect. And I don't want people to take this the wrong way,

00:07:41.620 but I truly believe that if LeBron had a coach, LeBron probably would have seven or eight

00:07:47.760 championships right now, you know? And so I can't get into, cause I'm not LeBron.

00:07:51.880 So I can't, and I'm not in the NBA. So I can't get into why he never had a Phil Jackson. I don't

00:07:58.440 know, but I do know that oftentimes we want things a certain way, but it doesn't mean that if you get it

00:08:06.300 that way, you're also going to get the outcomes that you want. And sometimes we have to get it

00:08:11.940 the way we don't want to get it, or we're not comfortable with receiving it, but it's going

00:08:16.880 to get us the outcomes we want. So for me, at the end of the day, studying history and seeing what

00:08:22.280 makes people great, the passive boy ain't it. Now there are times that, you know, the passive thing

00:08:28.280 is helpful, like passive income. You know what I'm saying? Sure. Sure. We love it. I love passive

00:08:34.300 income, but, but being a passive leader, you know, and being passive as it relates to taking action,

00:08:42.280 I don't see where that works a lot. You know, I don't see where there's a high probability of success

00:08:48.540 when one is being passive with the people that they're encouraging, you know? So for me to your

00:08:55.140 point, yeah, I just believe I'm going to give it to you the way I know that if you, I've done this

00:09:00.060 for NFL players, I've done this for D1 and won championships. I've done this for corporate and

00:09:05.480 see them take off. I've done this for individuals and they take off. So I'm going to do it in a way

00:09:09.920 where I'm going to help you and bless you and not necessarily be worried about how you receive it,

00:09:15.680 if that makes sense. It does make sense. I'm wondering how a guy who knows that he wants to

00:09:21.100 take life, you know, by, by, by the balls, if you will, can get to a point where he has that level 0.77

00:09:27.620 of confidence, uh, that level of assertiveness where he's not so concerned with what other people

00:09:33.960 think, because that's what gets in the way, uh, and, and cares more about serving, helping,

00:09:40.000 fulfilling a mission and just isn't wrapped up in the, in the, in the persona of it and more

00:09:44.500 interested in the, the deeper, more significant meaning behind it. Yeah. No, you know, here's,

00:09:49.560 here's what I think. I think when you can get more internal and less external is when you blow

00:09:56.500 up and you have confidence. You feel me? I feel that when you're worried about what other people

00:10:02.320 think, or let me say this, when your start is outward, you know, you're not going to have

00:10:08.640 confidence because you're going to have a hundred people who critique you in a hundred different ways.

00:10:13.940 And I put this up, uh, on a post not too long ago, you know, and I, and I said, listen to me,

00:10:21.000 you're not going to get talkers to coach doers. You know what I'm saying? Like it's just not going

00:10:28.720 to happen, bro. You're not going to have a bunch of talkers that's going to sit there and be like,

00:10:32.540 all right, we about to help doers do. It's just not going to happen. And what a lot of you are doing

00:10:37.680 wrong is you're listening to people who sound phenomenal, but they haven't accomplished much.

00:10:42.800 They haven't done much. Like they, they haven't even made their own dreams become a reality.

00:10:46.780 So, so for me, it's like, yo, if you want to be confident, you got to start from within.

00:10:50.840 And what do I mean by that? I, you know, being a kid coming up from the Midwest, Chicago, Detroit,

00:10:56.360 I noticed that, whoa, people paying more for the Cadillac. Okay. Why are they paying more for the

00:11:03.180 Cadillac? Okay. People pay way more for Rolls Royce truck for Bentley car. Like why are they

00:11:08.560 paying that much? Wow. She spent all that on a diamond. And I started realizing that people respect

00:11:15.420 value and pay more for something that's rare. I started realizing like, so yo E, the last thing

00:11:23.100 you want to do is be a carbon copy of everybody else. That don't seem like it works. What's what

00:11:28.620 seems that it works is really being your own individual, which you are automatically. The

00:11:36.060 only way you become a carbon copy of somebody else is when you start losing or devaluing your own

00:11:42.620 uniqueness because you're trying to fit in and do what everybody else is doing. Like I tell people

00:11:46.900 all the time, man, mad respect, Jim Rohn, mad respect, Les Brown, mad respect. One of my favorites,

00:11:53.340 Zig Ziglar, mad respect, Tony Robbins. Like, yo bro, these individuals, you know,

00:11:58.460 Ogman Dino, like you could go on and on. Um, uh, Napoleon Hill, you know what I'm saying? The

00:12:04.940 greats, bro. I wouldn't be where I am without them, but you have to understand the reason why I'm

00:12:10.380 considered the number one motivational speaker in the world. And the reason why I'll, I'll, I'll,

00:12:15.100 I will put, you know, my footprint in this genre is because I'm not trying to act like Les Brown.

00:12:21.820 I'm not trying to be like Tony Robbins. Like, just honestly, when you look at me,

00:12:25.740 I never even did the shirt and the top boy. Like that wasn't even my thing. Why?

00:12:31.420 Because the majority of us, bruh, aren't shirt and tie. Like most of us don't even come from

00:12:36.540 corporate. Like most humans don't have the opportunity to work for a fortune 500 company.

00:12:41.220 We have McDonald's, Burger King, Ford, GM, Chrysler. Like we working at a printing company

00:12:46.540 in Detroit. You're not, you're not, you, you're not white collar. Most of us are identified as blue

00:12:52.140 collar. So when I came out, I was like, yeah, I already know people are going to go.

00:12:56.220 Why are you dressed like that? Why you look like that? Well, because I'm not trying to be Tony Robbins.

00:13:02.540 And here's the reality. If I try to do Tony, if I try to do Zig, if I try to do Napoleon,

00:13:07.660 if I try to do Les Brown, I'm going to fail miserably. Why? Because I'm not them.

00:13:12.460 And I can't be Tony Robbins. I can't be Les Brown, but Eric Thomas, man, I could be Eric Thomas

00:13:17.580 effortlessly. He'll feel me. Like I could be E.T. without even trying. I'm just E.T. when I wake

00:13:24.140 up in the morning. So what I had to do to dominate in my space is to say, yo, bro, you can't be

00:13:30.120 listening to them. Like, it's not that you're being arrogant. It's not that you're like, that you don't

00:13:36.480 value other humans, but they don't know about this rare model because they're not you. So you can learn

00:13:43.980 in terms of some of the principles you can learn in terms of the methodology, you know, or the

00:13:50.320 philosophy of motivation. You can learn from them about the psychology of humans, but how you do what

00:13:58.800 you do, you can't mimic them. You got to be yourself. And every day I was myself, I gained more confidence

00:14:05.960 and it actually became easier. You know, so I would say to people, stop starting going outward in and go

00:14:13.320 in without. And I just think most humans start out and go in. And what you should do is go in

00:14:19.280 and then you go out after you've gone in. So I have a couple of questions on that. A couple of

00:14:24.940 comments. The first is that one of the things I've noticed that makes this very hard is social media.

00:14:33.140 Social media is amazing. Like we probably wouldn't be having this conversation together if it weren't

00:14:36.820 for social media, the people that listen to you, the people that listen to me.

00:14:39.960 But it promotes conform, uh, conforming, or at least really taking into consideration the way

00:14:49.540 other people view you. And we spend, you know, I get that report on my phone and it says you spent

00:14:54.720 five hours on your screen per day or whatever it is. And I'm like, that was five hours of my day

00:15:00.180 trying to impress other people and be somebody that I'm really not.

00:15:04.420 Yeah. So let me say this to you. You said it, you use the word perception. That is the perception.

00:15:11.060 The perception is I have to be like them, but you know what I listen to me, bro. I spent a lot of time

00:15:17.720 alone. I spent a lot of time doing those self-help books and, you know, watching, you know, the Michael

00:15:24.120 Jordans, the Kobe Bryans, the whatever. And I said, wow, there are two, there are, there are two

00:15:31.460 powers, you know, two influences in this earth. There's the influence of the, of the average and

00:15:39.380 there's the influence of the great. And the average is, yo, we got to do what everybody else is doing

00:15:45.560 to be affirmed. And let's just, can we just keep it all the way 1,000? Like we all want to be in

00:15:52.720 community. We all, you know, we all a sense of belonging. I think it was, uh, uh, Maslow, uh,

00:15:59.120 Maslow, uh, uh, hierarchy needs. Um, he said, you know, one of the things is of course, safety,

00:16:06.400 you know, and security. Um, there are, there are the, you know, just basic needs, water, food,

00:16:12.120 whatever shelter, you know, but then there was that sense of belonging. And I believe that most humans

00:16:17.980 get trapped at the sense of belonging because that is the first, that's the lowest hanging fruit

00:16:23.100 of being in community, of not being by yourself, of not being alone, but having a place where,

00:16:30.260 you know, the song, we all want to go where everybody knows our name and they're always

00:16:33.600 glad you came. You want to be where trouble is free. You want to be where everybody knows your name.

00:16:37.440 We all want that. But Maslow also says there's another level of community and it's called self

00:16:44.760 actualization. And it's actually at the peak of the mountain. That's the peak of the mountain.

00:16:49.980 And when you get there, you're, you're, what you're going to find is that more people are going to

00:16:56.280 follow you when you get there, then they're going to tolerate you when you are at just a sense of

00:17:02.160 belonging that people got to realize when you had a sense of belonging, oftentimes you just tolerate

00:17:05.660 it. It's just like, yo, we got to be together. Cause we humans, we, we won't do well alone,

00:17:10.440 but when you get to the top self actualization, you, you actually, and please forgive this term.

00:17:16.500 I don't, I don't mean it, you know, in his, in his, in his base, but you actually get worshiped.

00:17:23.120 You know, when you read self actualization, you actually get to a, another level of humanness

00:17:30.300 because most humans will never read self actualization. So they actually worship you

00:17:34.840 and look up to you in a way that they don't look up to you when they just tolerate you.

00:17:38.700 When you get to self actualization, they actually celebrate you. Like it's a whole,

00:17:43.380 it's another level. So I was just with the LA Rams and I was with the LA Rams as myself,

00:17:49.840 dressed like I dress. I think I had on a, uh, captain America shirt. You feel me? Um, some Nike,

00:17:56.240 uh, jogging pants and some, uh, cool gray, Michael Jordan, uh, 11s right with the baseball cap.

00:18:03.200 And I'm in there on common talk. I'm, you know, I'm, I'm not trying to be deep. They won the Superbowl.

00:18:09.180 I'm not trying to be deep, but what I am trying to say is, all right, fellas, I'm just going to be real

00:18:13.320 with y'all. I'm not coming in here. The LA Rams. I'm not coming in here to belong. I'm not coming in

00:18:21.160 here. Oh no. I'm wearing your Jersey and I want to take pictures with the whole squad. I took a picture

00:18:27.180 with Stafford because I'm from Detroit and I rock with Stafford for 12 years. Super excited. He went

00:18:31.880 and won a Superbowl. Jalen Ramsey is a player that has been in touch with me for years, following my

00:18:36.900 stuff. So I wanted to spend time with him and the picture with coach was just like, yo coach,

00:18:41.380 you brought me in. You okay. Sure. But what, you know what I'm saying? Like respect. You feel me?

00:18:46.220 Matter of fact, coach wasn't even in the room. Coach was taking care of business. So when I put up

00:18:50.980 a post with two of, other than AD Donaldson, you know, other than him, three of the players on

00:19:02.700 their team that's probably ranked top 10, you know, if not top 20 players in the NFL. So, so what I'm

00:19:09.280 showing people is one, I'm following my passion, my dreams. I'm actually number one in the world.

00:19:16.020 So, so it's not ironic that I'm attracting number one in the world. You feel me? Um, and, and, and

00:19:23.940 people are going to go, yo E now I can show you a car, but anybody can go to dealership and buy a

00:19:30.520 car. Everybody's not going to be invited by the number one team, by the world champions to come

00:19:35.160 and teach the world champ. Everybody's not going to get that. So now when I go, yo, I charge 200,000.

00:19:41.020 What corporations are going to want to pay it? Why? Because I'm with the world champions. And

00:19:45.800 we'll be at the football game. You'll see me on the field. So, you know, like, yo, E, E, E,

00:19:51.260 E is not, uh, uh, uh, worried about what other people think about it. E is not, you know, where

00:19:57.680 again, nothing wrong. You got a Rolex watch. Uh, you know what I'm saying? You got a, whatever kind

00:20:02.620 of truck you live in a certain kind of house. Okay. Whatever. You can Airbnb that and act like it's

00:20:07.040 yours. You can, uh, two row somebody car and act like you can't act like you can't act like you

00:20:12.860 speaking to the LA Rams. You can't, you can't fake it. Like you speak it to the Rams. You can't fake

00:20:17.920 it. Like, uh, you are not only, uh, at a game that you paid for and you were Stafford. You can't fake

00:20:24.480 it. Like you're training Stafford. You can't fake it. Like Stafford is upfront listening. You can't

00:20:29.900 fake that. So actually by getting to self-actualization and, and not pretending,

00:20:37.300 but really living life to its fullest, I am able to have people

00:20:43.760 celebrate me and not just tolerate me. So to your, to, to the point is just like, yo,

00:20:50.580 when you figure out who you are and you're not trying to, you're trying to feed the masses

00:20:55.980 and not be led by the masses, you're leading the masses and adding value to the masses.

00:21:01.360 That's the way that you use social media and not, I got to do what they telling me to do.

00:21:05.640 I got to follow. I got to, I got to, bro. I've been blessed financially. I don't feel the need

00:21:10.500 to wear a Rolex watch. I'm not mad at the dude that got a Rolex. I like the hat. I like, I'm,

00:21:16.840 you might see me sometimes with the fatigue, like you might see me with like, you're not going

00:21:21.380 necessarily see me. And I do drive an Escalade. I'm from Detroit. I do drive Escalade. You're not

00:21:25.640 going to see any pictures of me with the Escalade. You're not going to see me in the car doing a video

00:21:30.160 so you can see I got the car. Now I happen to do a video because I need to do it. But up to this point,

00:21:35.020 I haven't needed to be in my truck doing a video. I don't need the world to approve. I'm actually

00:21:41.060 helping the world. And so it's like, yo, you got two options. You can follow social media or you

00:21:45.380 can lead social media. I'm trying to tell you from personal experience, it's way, it's way less

00:21:50.960 stressful to lead social media than it is to follow them and have to wake up every single day and do what

00:21:58.560 they tell you to do when they tell you to do it. And my, may I add, I probably could be worth

00:22:04.580 probably 150 million or more. I had an opportunity, man, maybe 10 years ago to sit down with one of the

00:22:14.440 most influential people in the world who said to me, if I put you on my show, I'm going to blow you

00:22:20.860 up. And I said to myself, if I got to be in LA and Hollywood and I got to be in the studio

00:22:28.420 recording all day, every day, to me, it's like 150 mil, but I don't have my freedom.

00:22:34.900 Like that's not what self-actualization looks like to me. So right now I might be, you know,

00:22:39.800 valued at, you know, anywhere from seven mil to 10 mil, which to me is 150 mil. Why? Because I own my

00:22:46.280 own life. Like I can get up when I want to get up, you know what I'm saying? Go to bed when I want to

00:22:50.360 go to bed, vacation when I want a vacation. So to me, money doesn't necessarily mean self-actualization.

00:22:55.840 You could make millions and millions and millions of dollars and still be a slave to something.

00:23:01.500 I want freedom. You feel me? And so for me, I don't want to, I got to get on social media and do

00:23:07.420 this. I got to get on something. No, I don't want to do that. Or I got to say this. I got, I don't want

00:23:11.480 to do that. You know, um, my podcast, we could probably make more money from the podcast,

00:23:16.280 if we had a, um, you know, a big sponsor, but the big sponsor might be like, don't talk about that.

00:23:23.000 Don't say this. Don't say that. I'm like, yo, bro, I'm good. Like I would rather make what I make

00:23:28.100 organically and be able to own my own voice to own what I'm able to say. That's a part of being in this

00:23:35.660 country. You feel me as a freedom of speech, but you telling me because you paying me eight mil,

00:23:41.460 I can't talk about this. I can't talk about that. I got to talk about this. I'm like,

00:23:46.100 I'm good. Matter of fact, I was talking to my guy and we got like some, you know, no disrespect,

00:23:50.760 but like, let's say baby sponsorships. And I never listened to the podcast. And I was listening to it

00:23:56.240 the other day when I was in the car with him and it stopped and it was an ad. Come on. I was like,

00:24:00.620 bro, kill the ads. It's in the middle of, I'm like, yo, bro, I'm waxing deep. We don't make money. 0.95

00:24:05.820 Like I make money speaking, like kill the ads. As a matter of fact, if you need ad that bad,

00:24:10.240 use one of the companies that I have and let's do an ad with that company. And we can do it on

00:24:15.160 the front end, on the back end, but the middle, like you taking away. Cause here's the deal. It's

00:24:19.500 not that the ads are bad, but they're intentionally putting the ad in right at the peak. And then the

00:24:25.120 ad comes in at the peak and it messes up, you know, you know, so at the end of the day, whatever

00:24:29.880 self-actualization means to you, that that's what it means to you. But some kind of way when we just

00:24:35.880 belong, when we're tolerated and we're not celebrated, it's just that people treat you

00:24:41.820 differently when they tolerate you than they do when they celebrate you.

00:24:45.780 Well, it's ironic too, because what I've noticed is as I've tried to, you know, impress other people,

00:24:51.700 they're less impressed. And when I care less about what they think, then they're more impressed.

00:24:56.820 It's just, it's a dichotomy that's really hard to wrap your head around. And, and like you said,

00:25:02.760 it all starts with you, but most people want to do that outside work because they can get the quick

00:25:06.780 accolades and the notoriety and the attention or the income. Hey guys, I got to take a quick pause

00:25:13.760 from the conversation. Now I know that we had talked about it in the, in the podcast today with

00:25:19.260 ET about taking a break, but I do want to let you know that the day is finally here that the Iron

00:25:24.680 Council, our exclusive brotherhood is finally back open after being closed for the last several months.

00:25:29.580 So if you're not familiar with what we do in the Iron Council, you can head to

00:25:32.620 order a man.com slash iron council to watch a quick video and learn more. But for now I can

00:25:38.020 tell you that it has become one of the most powerful men's brotherhoods out there. When you

00:25:42.920 band with us, you're going to unlock all the tools, resources, and accountability to get your fitness in

00:25:47.980 check your relationships in order and your finances squared away. But most importantly, you're going to

00:25:53.800 learn how to start where the real work begins with you. So if you're ready to learn more and walk

00:26:00.300 shoulder to shoulder, brother to brother with nearly 1500 men, we invite you to band with us

00:26:04.960 at order a man.com slash iron council. Again, that's order a man.com slash iron council. You can do that

00:26:11.800 right after the show for now. Let's get back to it with ET. You said, um, they worship you and I know

00:26:19.160 what you mean by that. You weren't, you weren't trying to be like blasphemous or anything, you know,

00:26:22.700 anything like that. But I am very curious about your take on a higher power. Is that, is that

00:26:29.200 something you believe in? Is there something greater than yourself or is it just, you know,

00:26:33.500 purpose-driven? Cause obviously you're trying to serve people, but I'm very curious with your take

00:26:37.260 on that. Yeah. You know, I, um, you know, when I was eight years old, my mom sent me now, we didn't

00:26:43.900 grow up, we didn't grow up in church. So I didn't grow up seeing my parents pray or we weren't reading

00:26:49.040 the Bible and nothing like that. But when I was eight years old, my mom didn't want me to get,

00:26:55.260 uh, consumed by, you know, um, just the stuff that happens in, you know, cities in the summer.

00:27:01.940 You feel what I'm saying? Yeah, sure. I didn't want me to get caught up in the drugs and gangs or

00:27:07.520 whatever. So she sent me to a camp. Now, my mom didn't send me to the camp per se, because it was

00:27:12.440 a religious camp. She sent me because she saw it as a way, you know, to keep me from, you know, 0.99

00:27:20.700 the streets. And she thought that it was super productive. So I ended up going there and it

00:27:26.760 turned out, you know, they were talking about, you know, like Bible stories and stuff. Like I said,

00:27:30.580 I didn't grow up in church. So Noah and David, all that, I know nothing about that stuff. But what was

00:27:35.940 cool about it was it was a safe environment. It was a progressive environment. So I literally got

00:27:44.480 turned on to, you know, um, you know, what we would call in, you know, the Western world Christianity,

00:27:51.140 you know, and this, and I think because I wasn't, I didn't grow up in church, so I didn't do religion.

00:27:57.600 So from an early age, I just really did, you know, a relationship with the creator. Like I was just,

00:28:04.080 they taught me how to pray. So I'm talking to the creator and I know how to pray. I was a kid.

00:28:08.360 So I'm singing like songs to the creator, Anita Baker, uh, sweet love. I want that same love

00:28:13.280 365 days a year. You know what I'm saying? Like, don't you ever go away? You know, so I established

00:28:18.360 a relationship when I was about eight, but when I was homeless is where I really, really, really,

00:28:24.700 really got into a deep prayer life, you know, really got into my Bible, start going to church,

00:28:30.480 got baptized, you know, um, went to college, a religious college. Um, and then I eventually

00:28:37.860 by the age of, you know, maybe 19, 20, 21, uh, became, um, you know, maybe a bootleg minister,

00:28:45.680 but eventually became an ordained minister. So I am a pastor. Uh, I don't talk about that stuff

00:28:51.520 and it's not that I'm ashamed or anything. I just feel like a relationship with God is so intimate

00:28:59.120 that it's not something I just like just throwing out there just randomly at people. You know, I kind

00:29:05.200 of feel like when you get to know me and you hear me, you kind of know, yo, he got a fuel that's

00:29:11.160 different. Like he, he engine is different. Like sum up with he, I don't know exactly what it is,

00:29:16.180 but like, he definitely not in his own strength. Like, where's he getting this from? And then when

00:29:21.120 people inquire, I share my experience with God, not necessarily church because church has hurt people.

00:29:28.740 Church could be confusing. It's not that I don't have a church. Even people go like, yo,

00:29:33.340 I never knew you had a church intentionally when you needed to know, you would know. So again,

00:29:38.700 it's not that I hide my wife. It's not that I hide my baby girl, you know, but I don't,

00:29:46.420 you're not going to have access to my daughter like that. I don't like, it's not that I hide her 0.68

00:29:53.900 or I'm private. Like people know I got a daughter, but I'm not going to give you access

00:29:58.740 to something that's that precious to me. Unless I know you mean her well, and you're going to try

00:30:05.400 as much as you can to build her up and not tear down. It's the same thing with God. I'm not just

00:30:09.940 throwing out. You need to, it's like, yo, if you trying to get to another level and you need support

00:30:14.900 and you want to get to know the creator, go for it. So super spiritual, super spiritual guy,

00:30:20.820 not really religious though. Yeah, that makes sense. That's something I've been wrestling

00:30:24.800 with specifically over the past month or so is, you know, even within our organization,

00:30:28.820 very much the same way as you is, you know, spiritual. I am religious as well, but I don't

00:30:35.680 really talk about it a whole lot, but over this past month, I'm like, man, maybe I should talk about

00:30:39.260 it more because that is not, not to game it. I think it could come across that way, but just because

00:30:46.940 that's where I'm trying to derive a lot of my strength from. And a lot of the men who listen

00:30:53.140 are inquiring about strength and how to improve their lives. And I'm like, well, this is a source

00:30:58.020 of, of strength and growth for me. Like, well, I feel like maybe I'm at a crossing point where it's

00:31:05.300 like, man, maybe I should talk more about that because that's a place I think these guys can get

00:31:10.100 a lot of strength. Absolutely. And you know what? I love that you're saying that, you know,

00:31:14.380 no shameless plug, but in UOU, I can't not talk about it because it happened to me. You feel me?

00:31:24.440 Like God was what changed everything. And you'll see that common thread throughout the book. But

00:31:30.320 here's what I'm learning. What you just said, when somebody needs it, I'm not about, I'm not going to

00:31:37.300 hide it. I'm going to give it out, you know, in multitude, but I'm not going to throw my pearls

00:31:42.100 at swine anymore. You know what I'm saying? So I'm not going to just get randomly, walk up to

00:31:46.880 somebody and just say, as much as I wouldn't, some of the gyms that I have, I always don't walk up on

00:31:52.580 the street and be like, Hey, you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe? No, he may, no, he

00:31:57.660 may not. Once my daughter was like, dad, that guy's homeless. And I'm like, why are you saying it like

00:32:02.380 that? And she's like, I feel sorry for him. I was like, why would you say you feel sorry for him?

00:32:06.740 You don't feel sorry for the person that live in a mansion. There's somebody that's living in a

00:32:10.540 mansion. You should feel sorry for everybody's not out here because of why you think they're here.

00:32:16.000 And so you think that this person needs your food and they need your sympathy. No, there's somebody in

00:32:24.380 a mansion whose marriage is tore up from the floor, who kids can't stand their guts, who, who, when they're 0.96

00:32:31.760 at home is not a heaven, it's not a haven that there, that person is in greater need, but you're looking

00:32:39.360 at money and going. So what I've learned to do is go a E when somebody needs you and they need to know

00:32:47.040 how, how important God is in your life and what he's done for you, that opportunity would present

00:32:53.820 itself. And when that opportunity presents itself, go for it. But what you don't do is you don't go

00:33:01.460 and beat people up or bully people or chase people or force what you know to be your truth on somebody

00:33:10.220 else. But I promise you what you just said, I'll have men come to me all the time and they're like,

00:33:15.760 yo, it ain't working. I'm making a lot of money. It ain't working. I'm like, that's because money can

00:33:19.720 only money has its purpose. You know, like money can't do everything. And so when people say to me,

00:33:25.400 well, how do you see it? God or money? I say, get as much as both of them as you can. Get as much

00:33:32.240 God as you can get as much money as you can. Why? Because you can't go to the gas tank and go,

00:33:38.340 I pray that my gas tank gets filled. You can't do that. It takes money. But when your wife is 0.97

00:33:44.360 diagnosed like my wife, I can't go to the bank and take out my money and put it in the living room

00:33:49.480 and have her roll over it and she gets healed. That's prayer. That's pleading to God to have

00:33:55.040 mercy on my wife, to fix her condition, to heal her. That's when I need God. So I think God is

00:34:02.400 important. I think money is important, but I don't chase anybody. I let opportunities present itself.

00:34:09.880 And once I see, oh, this person wants and needs this, then man, I'm gonna give you my whole heart,

00:34:16.240 my whole mind, you know, my whole soul, but never embarrassed, never ashamed. And if you're around

00:34:21.600 me more than an hour, I'm going to talk about my wife. I'm going to talk about my God. I'm going

00:34:27.680 to talk about my babies. Like you, you go, you go know Jalen, you go know Jada, you're going to hear

00:34:32.100 about Didi. You're going to hear about my mom, Vanessa. You're going to hear about my God. It just,

00:34:37.180 I can't, I can't go without talking about those things because they mean that much to me.

00:34:41.560 I think it's powerful. I like that idea, you know, not casting the pearls before swine,

00:34:46.700 obviously that's a biblical principle. And I like the idea of not offering unsolicited feedback

00:34:53.020 because I can't think of a single time in human history that's that that's even though it might

00:34:57.320 be needed, that that's ever been appreciated and accepted. You know, I told a lady the other day,

00:35:02.860 she's like, she goes to my church, a wonderful lady, but people run when they see her coming,

00:35:09.120 you know, and I sat her down the other day and I was like, yo, I'm not trying to be funny.

00:35:13.660 You love to hug. Everybody's not comfortable with that. Everybody's not comfortable with people

00:35:19.200 being in a space like that, holding on to them like that. Like some people have been physically

00:35:24.800 abused, you know, sexually abused, mentally abused that they, they got some stuff to overcome.

00:35:31.360 So you getting that close to that space is trauma. And then I said to them, you're like me,

00:35:36.740 very opinionated, but here's the deal. Opinionated only works when somebody asked for it.

00:35:43.980 Like, right. Like, you know, I promise you, like, I don't give my opinion out no more,

00:35:48.220 but when people ask me for it and I give it to them, oh, the reaction is unbelievable.

00:35:53.420 But when I just run up on somebody and say, you know what I was thinking, they were like,

00:35:57.300 I never asked you what you were thinking.

00:35:58.820 I don't care what you were thinking.

00:36:00.460 Exactly.

00:36:00.860 Yeah. So I'm just learning, man, that, um, just because you can, doesn't mean you should

00:36:06.960 and timing and timing is, man, you get a touchdown, you know, in the fourth quarter with seconds

00:36:15.080 left versus you getting a touchdown in the first quarter and you give, I'm a lion fan, right?

00:36:21.380 Every time we score in the first, second, third quarter, I'm not impressed. I'm like,

00:36:24.760 Hey guys, it's not, it's not, it's not meaningful. You need to score. I, I need a touchdown in the

00:36:32.060 fourth quarter when the clock go off so we can, we can win. I, you know, and so timing also, man,

00:36:38.140 is everything.

00:36:40.020 Talk to me about the book. Cause I know you've got the book launching in a couple of weeks,

00:36:43.740 but we're going to release this on the day it launches. So talk to me about UOU. Cause I I've

00:36:47.940 read through it. I haven't read the book, but I've read through the synopsis of it and gone

00:36:51.780 through the headings and the chapters and all that. I'm very excited to get into that.

00:36:54.760 You know what, bro? Like as both of us are coaches, we're teachers, you know, and, and we try as much

00:37:04.340 as we can to make it stick, to make it meaningful, to make it apply. Right. And so when I literally

00:37:11.020 simplify my life and say, Hey, you got 30 seconds, bro, you got 30 seconds to help somebody in the

00:37:18.700 elevator, somebody at a school, somebody in the hospital, what do you tell them? You owe you.

00:37:24.760 You know, you owe you. Like, yo, I was just like, yo, E, when you think about everything you've done

00:37:30.560 and all the early things you did to really help you to get to like, God, like we talked earlier,

00:37:36.120 bro, God always wanted me to be here. My wife wanted me to be here long before. My mom used to

00:37:41.680 say, yo, it's two U's. And I was always hoping that this U would shine and outdo that other Eric.

00:37:48.020 You know what I'm saying? That was killing you. So I said, what changed for me? It was the day that

00:37:54.000 I said, E, you owe you. Your mama don't owe you, bro. She brought you in this world. She don't owe you

00:37:59.380 no more. You're not eight years old. Your biological father wasn't in your life. So what? He doesn't owe

00:38:06.480 you nothing. Now, maybe he owed you to be in your life when you would, when you would do, when you were

00:38:11.340 four, maybe he should have been responsible. Bro, you a grown man. You in your twenties

00:38:16.260 and you homeless. That don't have nothing to do with your mom or your biological father. You got

00:38:21.280 kicked out of school. That don't have nothing to do with your mom and your, that bro, you got pulled

00:38:26.620 over by the police because you was in a stolen car and your boy had a substance in the car. You got

00:38:34.040 arrested, bro. Your teacher don't know the cop. The cop don't know your mama. The teacher don't know

00:38:39.920 but they all know you. You're the common denominator in this story. You owe you. Your mama don't owe

00:38:47.140 you that. The boss don't owe you. Nobody owes you. Nobody owes you to live the life you want to live

00:38:53.700 or the drink. You owe you. And so, man, I call the book You Owe You because I said, yo, isn't it ironic

00:39:00.540 you would crucify another human for promising you something and didn't do it or picking you up late

00:39:08.720 and you missed the opportunity. You'd be so mad at them, but you get to get away with murder. 0.84

00:39:13.260 You don't have to hold yourself accountable. You don't owe you some push-ups when you late.

00:39:19.580 You don't owe you no TV. I'm not watching the game. Like, you hold other people to the fire,

00:39:25.440 but you don't hold yourself to the fire. I'm like, no, bro. You owe you, Eric. Don't nobody else owe you.

00:39:30.880 And the day I took full responsibility for my life, the day, you know, CJ said something funny.

00:39:35.880 C was like, yo, E, I think you kind of obsessed with this thing. I was like, what do you mean by

00:39:40.260 that? He's like, yo, you take responsibility for stuff that you didn't even do. Like, why do you do

00:39:46.220 that? It doesn't even make sense. I said, here's what I realized, C, that as long as I'm involved in

00:39:51.800 it, I still need to take responsibility. Like, if I'm involved in it, even if it's not, even if I didn't

00:39:58.520 mess up, even if it was my man who didn't deliver the package to FedEx and we didn't get the mail

00:40:05.580 to the contract in time, so we lost the deal. Yo, bro, even though it was my man's fault that

00:40:11.200 he didn't take the FedEx, it's my fault that I gave him the FedEx to take in the first place.

00:40:16.300 Why did I, what made me think he was trustworthy enough to take the doggo FedEx could take?

00:40:21.900 I, what, no, Eric, you should have taken it or you should have chosen somebody. Like, you chose

00:40:27.980 your top five. You did the draft pick. You selected these individuals. Like, you made this person the

00:40:33.880 CEO, the CFO. You made this person the CEO. Like, you, you, you played a part in it, so you got to

00:40:39.920 take responsibility that you chose your boy because you like him, not because he was qualified. You chose

00:40:45.560 your boy because you trust him, not because he was qualified. Stop picking, stop hiring people

00:40:50.600 because you like him and you trust him. Stop. Pick people who are qualified, people who can get

00:40:56.360 the job done. So, yeah, when I took full ownership of my life, um, everything changed. And in the book,

00:41:03.240 I chronicle how to do that, like how to stop putting the blame on somebody else. Look, man,

00:41:10.000 I tell people this all the time, you know, do I believe racism exists? 1000% I do. Do I believe

00:41:16.720 they're bad cops? 1000% I do. Do I believe they're great cops? 100%. My next door neighbor,

00:41:22.680 um, Erica and Mike, I don't know where they come from. I don't know if they're people from Ireland.

00:41:27.720 I don't know if they're from England. I don't know the best human beings, bro, that I've ever met in

00:41:33.340 my life. Let me tell you something. I'm rocking with Erica and, um, uh, uh, and Mike more than I,

00:41:39.720 across from me and, and, uh, uh, uh, Karen, Karen is her husband, bro. Some of the best bill

00:41:46.420 live across bill, bro. White male, best humans in the, on the planet, bro. So do I believe in

00:41:53.020 racism? I actually do believe in racism. Do I believe that racism is going to stop me? Absolutely

00:41:58.480 not. I can't be upset. Cause some dude got trained when he was a kid by his grandfather or

00:42:04.840 great grandfather that you should judge people by the color of their skin. That don't got nothing to do

00:42:09.020 with me. I owe it to myself to make my life great. And guess what? All the hate and racism that he

00:42:15.240 has, it can't stop me. He, his life has nothing to do with my life, bro. So when people sit here and

00:42:21.620 go, what about this trial? And what about this tribulation? I believe that the success of my

00:42:26.100 life has more to do with what I owe me than what somebody else, some policy, bro. I'm not trying to

00:42:31.840 be funny. I don't care if it's Bush, Ronald Reagan. Uh, I don't care if it's Bill Clinton, if it's

00:42:37.900 Obama, if it's Donald Trump at the end of the day, ain't none of those dudes came to my house

00:42:42.740 and cook the meal. Not one of them came to my house and cook the meal, bro. Not one of them

00:42:47.540 came to my house and changed my son Jalen when his diapers need to be changed. Not one of them

00:42:51.500 fixed my oil when my oil need to be changed. Do they play a part in American society? A thousand

00:42:57.240 percent, but they don't, they don't play the biggest role in my life. Somebody was like,

00:43:03.440 what'd you think about Obama? The same thing I thought I think about Bush and same thing I think

00:43:07.840 about Clinton and the same thing I thought about Trump. I call them all president. I ain't called

00:43:12.580 none of them by their first name. Now I'll be honest with you of, of the four opportunities that I got

00:43:18.640 to vote. Of course, I didn't get to vote for each candidate. Like I didn't get to vote. Like I didn't

00:43:23.600 get to vote for both of them every time I voted and I voted differently every time. Like bruh, who I was

00:43:29.500 when I was homeless and who I was as the number one motivation to speak in the world and the policies

00:43:34.280 that was on it, bruh. But none of the politicians came to my house and cut my grass. None of them.

00:43:40.140 When my electricity went out, none of them went to the box and opened the box and look for the kill

00:43:45.540 switch and kick like that one got tripped. None of them, none of them fixed the power in my crib,

00:43:50.640 bruh. You owe you. And when I got to the point where I was like, there's no evil in the world that

00:43:56.940 can stop me. And there's no good in the world. If I don't want to handle my business, that can help

00:44:02.220 me. I'm going to say that one more time. We'll try to catch that one. There's no evil in the world

00:44:06.220 that can stop me when my mind is made up, but there's no good in the world that can help you

00:44:10.500 when you lazy. There's no good in the world that can help you when you're not trying, when you're not

00:44:15.740 putting forth effort. And so for me, I woke up one day and I realized like, yo E, you got, you got the

00:44:21.980 power E you have the power. And once I made up in my mind, I owe myself, man, everything changed for

00:44:28.480 me. I'm writing some of these things down. I like that about no evil can, can, can stop you when

00:44:33.680 your mind's to it, but no good can do you when you're, when you're lazy. I wrote that down.

00:44:37.700 That, that also reminds me of something that you talk about in the book. I know as well. And you've

00:44:41.940 talked about in the past is writing your own script, you know, and you talked about it with

00:44:46.620 learning, for example, racism from your dad or your granddad or, or, or learning how to treat

00:44:52.120 other people by what you've seen around you as a young child. But at some point you, you, you kind

00:44:57.900 of have not kind of, you do have to outgrow your excuses and we all have them, right? My dad wasn't

00:45:02.520 around. My mom was this, my boss is that the president, this, the economy, that, but you talk

00:45:07.040 about writing your own script. And I'd love to hear more about that. You know, you know what I realized,

00:45:11.660 man, this is crazy. Like one man's excuses is one man's opportunity, you know? And, and,

00:45:19.940 and I'll never forget the opportunity that Dan Gilbert gave me to sit in the room with

00:45:24.800 a bunch of billionaires and Warren Buffett was one of them. And I will never forget being

00:45:30.840 in a room here and dudes talk about a recession. Like it was going to a Superbowl. I was like,

00:45:40.680 what am I hearing? What's going on here? I'm like, bro, what am I hearing? Like everybody

00:45:45.320 that I know when they hear the recession is coming, the recession is coming. It's like

00:45:50.080 Paul Revere. You know what I'm saying? The recession is coming. The recession is coming. Everybody get

00:45:54.360 in your house and shut the door, bro. They were talking, the recession is coming. They were

00:45:58.940 like, yo, we about to capitalize off of this. I was like, unbelievable. You about to do what?

00:46:05.680 They were like, yeah, the economy about to crash. So houses are going to be cheap. So we're going to

00:46:10.660 get them. Stocks is going to be low. So we're going to buy them. I was like, what am I hearing?

00:46:15.960 You know? And so it was some people see the same situation and they look at it externally. What is

00:46:24.540 the news saying? What is the paper saying? What are the people saying? Then there are people who

00:46:29.060 are inward saying, what are the facts and what are the opportunities right now? Not the threats,

00:46:35.320 not the weaknesses. What are the strengths? What are the opportunities? And I literally watched

00:46:40.500 StockX start during that timeframe. I literally was there when Dan Gilbert's sons and the staff

00:46:46.740 was doing StockX and they asked me what I thought. And I was like, I don't know, bro.

00:46:50.480 My community, they like to stand in line and try their shoes on. I'm not really sure they're

00:46:54.840 going to buy shoes on the internet, bro. It's a multi, multi-million dollar industry right now,

00:47:01.320 bro. I'm like, I sat, I was there. I sat there. I was in the conception. Like I was in the room.

00:47:07.720 I was one of the ones that when they were talking about ideas, sitting in there, giving my stupid 1.00

00:47:13.100 2% at that time that now that I look back was like, eat dumb. But what I did learn was what I 0.99

00:47:18.920 shouldn't do the next time a crisis happened, how I should look at it. And I'm going to look at it as

00:47:24.560 Warren Buffett. Why? Because I want to make the kind of money Warren Buffett is making. So I got

00:47:28.700 to look at situations the way Warren Buffett is looking at situations. And I can't look at it

00:47:32.400 as people who are in the working class look at it. Not that working class people are bad humans.

00:47:36.580 They just aren't going to take advantage of America resources the way that entrepreneurs

00:47:41.420 and billionaires going to take advantage of it. So I learned that day, you can call it excuse if you

00:47:46.580 want to, you can name it that, and that's what it's going to be. Or you can name it opportunity

00:47:51.260 and define it as opportunity. And that's what it's going to be, period. So for me,

00:47:56.440 there is no such thing of an excuse. A man defines it as excuse. Therefore, it becomes an excuse.

00:48:02.620 There are opportunities. A man defines it as an opportunity, and thus it becomes an opportunity.

00:48:08.660 Well, I was in a meeting years ago, maybe 10 years ago now or so. And I was a financial advisor in my

00:48:14.880 past life. And the guys that were presenting were high, high producers, way, way outside of my realm at

00:48:20.920 that point. And one of the guys was talking about it. And he was talking about some of the numbers

00:48:26.080 he was putting up and the investments he was managing and this and that. And I started to

00:48:29.960 tune it out a little bit because it was so far out of my realm that I was like, dad, I didn't even hear

00:48:35.520 it. And well, what I did hear is that as soon as I dismissed it, he said, and I bet that there's

00:48:42.160 some of you right now who are hearing the numbers I'm putting up and are completely dismissing that

00:48:47.000 because you don't think it's possible for you. Like he was speaking directly to me because that's

00:48:51.800 exactly what I was thinking and caused me to start looking at what high producers, high performers are

00:48:57.140 doing and start actually looking. And what I used to do is make excuses like, well, you know, that guy,

00:49:04.160 yeah, that guy did this because, uh, you know, he's connected or somebody gave him an opportunity or

00:49:11.740 he's lucky. And what I started doing instead, and I haven't always been great is all right, how does

00:49:16.600 ET get to where he's at? Number one, motivational speaker in the world, not what did you do to like,

00:49:21.500 who did you, who did you screw over to get there? But what specifically did you do and what can I do

00:49:26.600 in my life to duplicate those results? Yeah. Let me tell you something. I had to write that down,

00:49:32.040 what you said, because, and you said it, um, you said it, I believed I did. When I sat in that room

00:49:39.640 and Warren Buffett, I believed that he was a human who's a billionaire. So I could be one.

00:49:44.760 Dan Gilbert is a human who's a billionaire. So I could be one. I, I, I literally, I mean,

00:49:50.200 you said, I just took the words out your mouth and wrote them down. Matter of fact, let me text it to

00:49:53.820 myself. I believed like I walked out of that room going, yo, I can do it. As a matter of fact,

00:50:01.800 Irvin magic Johnson says something deep. He says it doesn't take any more effort to be a millionaire

00:50:09.280 than a multimillionaire than a billionaire. He was like, yo, for real, that effort isn't

00:50:14.320 different. You feel me? I've read something where Steve Harvey said he, he made $25 telling

00:50:20.400 the joke. He made $2,500 telling the same joke. He made 25,000 telling the same joke. He made 250,000

00:50:28.640 telling the same joke. He made 200, he made 58 million telling the same joke. Now he told the same

00:50:36.380 joke. It doesn't change, but what he believed he could make and what he believed he could do was

00:50:43.100 different. So he went from telling it maybe, you know, in a small little, you know, um, building

00:50:48.940 somewhere with a group of people to eventually doing it on family feud or doing it on one of his shows

00:50:55.580 or doing it on the Steve Harvey show or one of his sitcoms or whatever, you know, doing it on the,

00:51:01.900 when he traveled and did, uh, what was that called? Uh, Kings of comedy, but he said it was the same

00:51:07.200 effort. Magic said it's the same effort. So for me, I said to myself, yo, look at what these people

00:51:12.960 are doing. E, if you do what they're doing, you could do the same thing they're doing. Like if you

00:51:19.120 do. And so what is it? It's not making excuses, meaning not seeing the threat only in it. And when

00:51:27.560 you see the threat, you don't see the threat to paralyze you. You see the threat as, Oh, I need

00:51:33.460 to make some adjustments in my, in my algorithm. I need to make some adjustment in the system.

00:51:39.820 Not I need to quit, give up, surrender. It's, I need to make an adjustment, but you see the

00:51:45.480 opportunity and you see your personal strength and how to make it happen. So for me, to your point,

00:51:50.040 I'm not looking at those individuals, asking myself, what are they doing? Whatever they're doing,

00:51:55.480 they're humans doing it. They're humans doing it. So if another human can do it, I have the capacity

00:52:01.900 to do it as well. And I'm doing it. That's the thing I want to say. I'm doing it. Like I'm

00:52:07.480 literally, I'm literally doing it. Like I was like, wow, I was with Ohio state. I'll be working with

00:52:13.340 them this year. They're ranked number two in the nation. The number one team, Alabama, I've worked

00:52:17.780 with Alabama. I'm working with the world champion LA Rams. I worked with the 49ers that made it to the

00:52:23.980 NFC, you know, championship game who lost because, you know, the guy missed the interception that

00:52:30.600 could have changed the whole game. Right? So I just say that to say, if another human is doing it,

00:52:37.080 we can do it. If we believe we can do it and we put the effort and the energy toward it and we execute,

00:52:43.460 there's nothing we can't accomplish, but you owe you to do that. Nobody else owes you that.

00:52:48.420 Nobody else owes you that. Brother, tell us how we, uh, how we connect with you, where to,

00:52:53.760 where the best place to pick up a copy of the book and all that stuff is.

00:52:56.780 Well, I can honestly tell you for the first time in my life, I did three other books that

00:53:02.460 were self-published. This is the book that you can go wherever books are sold. You feel me like

00:53:07.700 you don't got to wait on Eric no more. A lot of bonuses though, if I remember right. Cause I was

00:53:12.600 going through and there's like a lot of bonus opportunities on et inspires.com, a lot of

00:53:17.360 bonuses. So if you're that person that, you know, you want to go through the website and get it and

00:53:22.600 get the bonuses phenomenal. You just want to go to Amazon. You want to go to Barnes and Nobles,

00:53:27.520 the local mom and pop shop. You want to support them. You can go to them. Hey, if you catching a

00:53:32.440 flight and you want to get it at the airport, you can get it at the airport. I don't know if Greyhound

00:53:37.000 has it yet. Uh, I got to make some phone calls to see if they got it at Greyhound. Uh,

00:53:42.080 but everywhere else where books are sold, it's there. And, uh, to stay in touch with me,

00:53:47.300 you know, you got Eric thomas.com or et inspires.com, but Eric thomas.com, you know,

00:53:53.000 you can go and figure out, you know, everything that's ET, um, the hip hop preacher. But, uh, yeah,

00:53:58.380 I do want to say this to you guys again, grateful for the platform, but what I'm hoping that you will

00:54:04.400 get out of this is not just inspiration. I want you to be inspired. I tell people all the time,

00:54:09.740 people who create this false narrative that is just motivation. Don't, don't lie to yourself.

00:54:17.440 It's not, it's not just gas. Okay. It's not just, I just put gas in my car. It's not just gas. I

00:54:23.720 don't care what kind of car you have without gas or electricity. That vehicle is going nowhere.

00:54:27.900 You need gas to move the vehicle, period. Don't fool yourself and say, it's just motivation.

00:54:32.980 Ask a married man, ask a married woman who's no more, who's no longer motivated by their marriage, 1.00

00:54:38.680 who no longer likes their husband or their wife. I promise you, if they're not in love,

00:54:45.460 if they're not, it changes how they treat each other. It changes. If they still going to be

00:54:49.080 together, ask a man who has a business that he's no longer motivated by. It's not the same an NFL

00:54:55.040 player who's no longer motivated to play the game as Megatron as Megatron best player who walked out

00:55:02.040 as Barry Sanders, who just walked away from the game. Motivation, my friend is critical. It's not

00:55:09.240 everything, but it's the start. So I want you to be inspired. I want you to be motivated. I want you

00:55:14.880 to have hope, but more importantly, I want you to hear that anything you want and anything you want

00:55:22.700 to do or be, you have the power to do it. You're looking at a high school dropout turned PhD,

00:55:28.760 not with phenomenal skill, but phenomenal will. And I'm telling you, when you take ownership of

00:55:35.540 your life, whatever you big, bad, bold enough to believe can happen for you. You're the only one

00:55:41.840 stopping you from making it happen. I promise you, if you do what you say you want to do,

00:55:47.060 you're going to look, I'm on a podcast, y'all. You're going to promote my book. You're going to get

00:55:51.780 people. Am I going to be on every podcast in the world? Absolutely not. But I'm on some bad

00:55:56.860 mamma jammas. I'm on some bad podcasts that are going to help me. Why? Because I helped myself

00:56:02.700 first. Nobody is going to help you. If you don't help yourself first, nobody's going to invest in

00:56:07.660 you. If you don't invest in yourself first, nobody's going to put you on your platform. If

00:56:11.140 you don't create your own first. So I just want you guys two things, motivation. Yes. But more

00:56:16.920 importantly, application execution. And I'll say this as we closed people treat you differently

00:56:23.280 when you get things done versus when you talk about getting things done. So get it done and

00:56:30.240 the right people will help you to come and elevate it. The Phil Jacksons will come out of nowhere for

00:56:35.000 you. You know what I'm saying? They'll find you once you operate at a high level. So again, love you

00:56:40.020 guys. Appreciate you guys who are podcasters, who spend the type of time you spend with us, who believe

00:56:47.320 in us and support us, man. Thank y'all for supporting this podcast and get the book. And

00:56:53.220 and I promise you, you'll, you will thank yourself. Or if you have somebody in your family that's

00:56:58.480 struggling and you give it to them, they'll thank you for giving it to them. Thank you, man. I

00:57:04.260 appreciate it. Like I said, always been motivated, inspired by what you're doing. And like you said,

00:57:08.280 application and execution. It's huge. So you helped me with all of those. I appreciate you. Thanks,

00:57:13.280 brother. And appreciate you. And if you don't mind, I always want my mom to know, and I don't

00:57:18.460 know if you're going to be able to give it to me, but I'm going to take a pic so my mom could see

00:57:21.960 I'm doing the right thing these days. I struggle as a teenager, but I'm doing the right thing. So

00:57:27.660 thank you for the platform, man. Many blessings to you and whatever your heart's desires are. If

00:57:33.220 there's anything I could do to support you, you know, I'm here for you. Thank you, man. Thank you very

00:57:38.140 much. All right. All right. There you go, guys. My conversation with Eric Thomas,

00:57:43.880 obviously the man brings a ton of passion, ton of energy. And I know you felt that. Make sure you

00:57:49.000 pick up a copy of his book, You O U. It's a great book. And obviously his message of inspiration and

00:57:55.580 motivation and getting you guys fired up and active towards your own pursuits is something that all of

00:58:00.600 us need. So I hope you enjoyed the conversation. If you did just take a screen, not a screen,

00:58:05.620 a screenshot very quickly and make sure you tag me and ET on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

00:58:13.680 wherever you're doing the social media thing. Let's get the word out because more men need 1.00

00:58:16.800 messages like this. Clearly more men need messages like this, the world and men in general are really

00:58:22.620 struggling right now. So we can, we can be a big help in that. If we put this out there and get this

00:58:27.680 word out. Okay. All right, guys, that's all I've got. Make sure again, you check out the iron council

00:58:32.580 order of man.com slash iron council. We open up on Thursday and I hope to see you inside our

00:58:37.400 exclusive brotherhood and we'll be back tomorrow for our ask me anything until then go out there,

00:58:42.540 take action and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man

00:58:47.400 podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:58:52.120 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - September 13, 2022

ERIC THOMAS ｜ Ignite Your Power and Purpose

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