ERIC THOMAS ｜ Ignite Your Power and Purpose
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Summary
Eric Thomas aka The Hip Hop Preacher has been helping millions of people around the world ignite their power and purpose. Today, E.T. and I talk about overcoming the passive boy, becoming more of who you are, not a clone of someone else, why you don t need the world to approve to succeed, the battle between the two yous, and finding immense opportunity in crisis. You re a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated. This is your life, this is who you will become at the end of the day, and after all, you can call yourself a man.
Transcript
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I think most of us believe there's a reason that we're here on this planet, but I personally
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know how hard it can be to uncover and discover the reason that is. It seems daunting considering
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how easily we can become consumed with trivial matters and the distractions of modern culture
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and society. But my guest today, Eric Thomas, aka The Hip Hop Preacher, has been helping
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millions of people around the world ignite their power and purpose. Today, ET and I talk about
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overcoming the quote unquote passive boy, becoming more of who you are, not a clone of someone
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else, why you don't need the world to approve, to succeed, the battle between the two yous
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and finding immense opportunity in crisis. You're a man of action. You live life to the
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fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you
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get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged,
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resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become
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at the end of the day. And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler. I'm the host and the founder
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of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here. Welcome back. Glad you're tuned in with
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us today. I've got a very important one for you with Eric Thomas, again, the hip hop preacher.
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We're going to get into it in just a minute. Before we do, I want to let you know that the
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Iron Council, our exclusive brotherhood, opens up this week on the 15th. So that's Thursday of this
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week. We open back up. If you want to know what that's about, go to orderofman.com slash iron
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council, orderofman.com slash iron council. You can learn more and you get enrolled and signed up for a
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very short period of time. Again, orderofman.com slash iron council. Now guys, let me get to my
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conversation today. It is with, as I said earlier, Eric Thomas. He's a PhD. He's an author, including
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the author of his latest book, UOU, and an incredibly powerful speaker, pastor, so much more. His
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incredibly unique and powerful approach to personal performance has made him one of the most highly
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sought after public speakers in the world. And really, really just a powerful voice, motivation,
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and inspiration on social media, and obviously in person too. As CEO of his consulting firm,
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he's worked with dozens of hugely successful organizations and Fortune 500 companies,
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including General Electric, AT&T, Nike, Under Armour, UPS, and many other franchises with
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Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL. So you're going to hear exactly why that is in this powerful
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conversation. Enjoy. E.T., what's up, man? Glad to have you on the podcast.
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Man, good to be on the podcast. So thank you for giving me this platform and thank you for putting me in
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front of your people. Yeah. I mean, look, I got to say thank you as well. I've been following you
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for years and I've always been motivated and inspired by what you're doing and the way that
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you share it, which is so powerful. There's a lot of leadership, motivational, inspirational type
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stuff up there, but the way that you communicate your message, it just speaks to me. So this is
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awesome. Hey, I'm glad to hear that because it was funny, right? I was in L.A., you know,
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just driving up the street. And, you know, it's weird, man, because, you know, I'm from the Midwest,
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so, you know, it's all about hard hats, you know, steel-toed boots, you know what I'm saying? So we
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don't really do the celebrity kind of fame stuff, right? But I've gotten there some kind of way,
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you know what I'm saying? Through social media. So I'm in L.A., I'm driving up the street. I'm
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forgetting that, you know, to some people I'm recognizable, you know what I'm saying? So I
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got the window down and this African-American dude screams out the window, like, E.T., you know?
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And so normally I would be, you know, taken aback a little bit because for me, the fame thing is
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still, you know, it's just not something I'm still comfortable with, right? So, but when he said E.T.,
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I'm like, oh, okay, he comes in peace. He knows me. And so he's just like, yo, bro, you changed my life,
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whatever. But it was funny because he was saying, yo, in the beginning when I got like accidentally
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saw you, it was the voice. You was loud. You was screaming and it was a turnoff, you know? But he
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was like, I don't know what happened. He was going through something or something. And so he started
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watching it again. And he was like, yo, when I watched it the second time, like it was passion.
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It was, you know, like you arrested my attention. And I think it's so funny, man, because, you know,
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I'll come across people who are like, you're screaming and hollering. And I'm like, you know,
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it's so funny. We live in a world where there are certain things that whether it be like entertainment
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or whatever it is, we take it as it is. Like it may not be beneficial. It may not be, you know,
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it could be hard, whatever, but we take it as it is. But when it comes to somebody challenging us,
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you know, somebody getting in our face, not cheerleading, but really pushing us to greatness,
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you know, it's just funny that some people see it in a negative and it doesn't bother me.
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But when I hear you say like, yo, E, the way you push, the way you deliver, the way you,
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it's like, yo, I'm trying to rest your attention because I'm competing with entertainment. I'm
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competing with all of the vices that are on social media. You feel me? And so for me, it's like,
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yo, we got to get after it. We got to make it happen. And so I'm grateful that I do get to hear
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not as much as you screaming and hollering. I get to hear those sometimes, A, I understand that you
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understand the delivery. You understand the importance of passion. You understand the
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importance of energy. So yeah, that means a lot. I think a lot of the times when people are
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critical of the way somebody delivers a message, especially how you do with so much passion and
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intensity and fire that that's what I see it as anyways, is they misinterpret it as insecurity.
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But I think that's a mirror actually. I think it's that they're insecure and they don't like
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the way you're doing it because it, it draws out them a feeling of inadequacy in, in our own lives.
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And so I don't want to confront it. I don't want to deal with it because you're calling me out
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and that's not comfortable. So you're delivering the message wrong. Not, I got some things I need to
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work on myself. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And I, I agree 100%. Like I said, though, I'm just at a
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place in my life where I love my audience enough where I'm not even really tripping on what you
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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
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me? I want you to see me as a positive. I'm not on that. Like I love humans enough to understand that
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when Michael Jordan got to do what Michael Jordan wanted to do, Michael Jordan never won championships
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bottom line. But when Michael Jordan was confronted by Phil Jackson, like, you know, Phil Jackson wasn't
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like, what do you want? What do you want to do? You feel me? Now the coach before that, he was like
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everything around Michael Jordan, you know, the ball, Michael Jordan, the camera, Michael Jordan,
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the plays around Michael Jordan. Phil Jackson was like, bro, I'm not interested. Like I'm not,
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I'm not here for Michael Jordan. We're here for basketball. We're here to win championships.
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I won a championship. I know what it takes to win a championship. I'm not trying to be your friend.
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I'm not interested. You said that you wanted Chicago Bulls to be a franchise, a dynasty like Boston,
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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
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not going to get the ball all the time and you're not, you know? And so I look at Kobe, Phil Jackson,
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you know, but no disrespect. And I don't want people to take this the wrong way,
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but I truly believe that if LeBron had a coach, LeBron probably would have seven or eight
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championships right now, you know? And so I can't get into, cause I'm not LeBron.
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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
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know, but I do know that oftentimes we want things a certain way, but it doesn't mean that if you get it
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that way, you're also going to get the outcomes that you want. And sometimes we have to get it
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the way we don't want to get it, or we're not comfortable with receiving it, but it's going
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to get us the outcomes we want. So for me, at the end of the day, studying history and seeing what
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makes people great, the passive boy ain't it. Now there are times that, you know, the passive thing
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is helpful, like passive income. You know what I'm saying? Sure. Sure. We love it. I love passive
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income, but, but being a passive leader, you know, and being passive as it relates to taking action,
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I don't see where that works a lot. You know, I don't see where there's a high probability of success
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when one is being passive with the people that they're encouraging, you know? So for me to your
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point, yeah, I just believe I'm going to give it to you the way I know that if you, I've done this
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for NFL players, I've done this for D1 and won championships. I've done this for corporate and
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see them take off. I've done this for individuals and they take off. So I'm going to do it in a way
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where I'm going to help you and bless you and not necessarily be worried about how you receive it,
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if that makes sense. It does make sense. I'm wondering how a guy who knows that he wants to
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take life, you know, by, by, by the balls, if you will, can get to a point where he has that level
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of confidence, uh, that level of assertiveness where he's not so concerned with what other people
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think, because that's what gets in the way, uh, and, and cares more about serving, helping,
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fulfilling a mission and just isn't wrapped up in the, in the, in the persona of it and more
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interested in the, the deeper, more significant meaning behind it. Yeah. No, you know, here's,
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here's what I think. I think when you can get more internal and less external is when you blow
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up and you have confidence. You feel me? I feel that when you're worried about what other people
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think, or let me say this, when your start is outward, you know, you're not going to have
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confidence because you're going to have a hundred people who critique you in a hundred different ways.
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And I put this up, uh, on a post not too long ago, you know, and I, and I said, listen to me,
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you're not going to get talkers to coach doers. You know what I'm saying? Like it's just not going
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to happen, bro. You're not going to have a bunch of talkers that's going to sit there and be like,
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all right, we about to help doers do. It's just not going to happen. And what a lot of you are doing
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wrong is you're listening to people who sound phenomenal, but they haven't accomplished much.
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They haven't done much. Like they, they haven't even made their own dreams become a reality.
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So, so for me, it's like, yo, if you want to be confident, you got to start from within.
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And what do I mean by that? I, you know, being a kid coming up from the Midwest, Chicago, Detroit,
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I noticed that, whoa, people paying more for the Cadillac. Okay. Why are they paying more for the
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Cadillac? Okay. People pay way more for Rolls Royce truck for Bentley car. Like why are they
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paying that much? Wow. She spent all that on a diamond. And I started realizing that people respect
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value and pay more for something that's rare. I started realizing like, so yo E, the last thing
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you want to do is be a carbon copy of everybody else. That don't seem like it works. What's what
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seems that it works is really being your own individual, which you are automatically. The
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only way you become a carbon copy of somebody else is when you start losing or devaluing your own
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uniqueness because you're trying to fit in and do what everybody else is doing. Like I tell people
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all the time, man, mad respect, Jim Rohn, mad respect, Les Brown, mad respect. One of my favorites,
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Zig Ziglar, mad respect, Tony Robbins. Like, yo bro, these individuals, you know,
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Ogman Dino, like you could go on and on. Um, uh, Napoleon Hill, you know what I'm saying? The
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greats, bro. I wouldn't be where I am without them, but you have to understand the reason why I'm
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considered the number one motivational speaker in the world. And the reason why I'll, I'll, I'll,
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I will put, you know, my footprint in this genre is because I'm not trying to act like Les Brown.
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I'm not trying to be like Tony Robbins. Like, just honestly, when you look at me,
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I never even did the shirt and the top boy. Like that wasn't even my thing. Why?
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Because the majority of us, bruh, aren't shirt and tie. Like most of us don't even come from
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corporate. Like most humans don't have the opportunity to work for a fortune 500 company.
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We have McDonald's, Burger King, Ford, GM, Chrysler. Like we working at a printing company
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in Detroit. You're not, you're not, you, you're not white collar. Most of us are identified as blue
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collar. So when I came out, I was like, yeah, I already know people are going to go.
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Why are you dressed like that? Why you look like that? Well, because I'm not trying to be Tony Robbins.
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And here's the reality. If I try to do Tony, if I try to do Zig, if I try to do Napoleon,
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if I try to do Les Brown, I'm going to fail miserably. Why? Because I'm not them.
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And I can't be Tony Robbins. I can't be Les Brown, but Eric Thomas, man, I could be Eric Thomas
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effortlessly. He'll feel me. Like I could be E.T. without even trying. I'm just E.T. when I wake
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up in the morning. So what I had to do to dominate in my space is to say, yo, bro, you can't be
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listening to them. Like, it's not that you're being arrogant. It's not that you're like, that you don't
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value other humans, but they don't know about this rare model because they're not you. So you can learn
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in terms of some of the principles you can learn in terms of the methodology, you know, or the
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philosophy of motivation. You can learn from them about the psychology of humans, but how you do what
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you do, you can't mimic them. You got to be yourself. And every day I was myself, I gained more confidence
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and it actually became easier. You know, so I would say to people, stop starting going outward in and go
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in without. And I just think most humans start out and go in. And what you should do is go in
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and then you go out after you've gone in. So I have a couple of questions on that. A couple of
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comments. The first is that one of the things I've noticed that makes this very hard is social media.
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Social media is amazing. Like we probably wouldn't be having this conversation together if it weren't
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for social media, the people that listen to you, the people that listen to me.
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But it promotes conform, uh, conforming, or at least really taking into consideration the way
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other people view you. And we spend, you know, I get that report on my phone and it says you spent
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five hours on your screen per day or whatever it is. And I'm like, that was five hours of my day
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trying to impress other people and be somebody that I'm really not.
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Yeah. So let me say this to you. You said it, you use the word perception. That is the perception.
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The perception is I have to be like them, but you know what I listen to me, bro. I spent a lot of time
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alone. I spent a lot of time doing those self-help books and, you know, watching, you know, the Michael
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Jordans, the Kobe Bryans, the whatever. And I said, wow, there are two, there are, there are two
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powers, you know, two influences in this earth. There's the influence of the, of the average and
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there's the influence of the great. And the average is, yo, we got to do what everybody else is doing
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to be affirmed. And let's just, can we just keep it all the way 1,000? Like we all want to be in
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community. We all, you know, we all a sense of belonging. I think it was, uh, uh, Maslow, uh,
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Maslow, uh, uh, hierarchy needs. Um, he said, you know, one of the things is of course, safety,
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you know, and security. Um, there are, there are the, you know, just basic needs, water, food,
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whatever shelter, you know, but then there was that sense of belonging. And I believe that most humans
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get trapped at the sense of belonging because that is the first, that's the lowest hanging fruit
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of being in community, of not being by yourself, of not being alone, but having a place where,
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you know, the song, we all want to go where everybody knows our name and they're always
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glad you came. You want to be where trouble is free. You want to be where everybody knows your name.
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We all want that. But Maslow also says there's another level of community and it's called self
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actualization. And it's actually at the peak of the mountain. That's the peak of the mountain.
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And when you get there, you're, you're, what you're going to find is that more people are going to
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follow you when you get there, then they're going to tolerate you when you are at just a sense of
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belonging that people got to realize when you had a sense of belonging, oftentimes you just tolerate
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it. It's just like, yo, we got to be together. Cause we humans, we, we won't do well alone,
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but when you get to the top self actualization, you, you actually, and please forgive this term.
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I don't, I don't mean it, you know, in his, in his, in his base, but you actually get worshiped.
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You know, when you read self actualization, you actually get to a, another level of humanness
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because most humans will never read self actualization. So they actually worship you
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and look up to you in a way that they don't look up to you when they just tolerate you.
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When you get to self actualization, they actually celebrate you. Like it's a whole,
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it's another level. So I was just with the LA Rams and I was with the LA Rams as myself,
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dressed like I dress. I think I had on a, uh, captain America shirt. You feel me? Um, some Nike,
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uh, jogging pants and some, uh, cool gray, Michael Jordan, uh, 11s right with the baseball cap.
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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.
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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
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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
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here. Oh no. I'm wearing your Jersey and I want to take pictures with the whole squad. I took a picture
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with Stafford because I'm from Detroit and I rock with Stafford for 12 years. Super excited. He went
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and won a Superbowl. Jalen Ramsey is a player that has been in touch with me for years, following my
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stuff. So I wanted to spend time with him and the picture with coach was just like, yo coach,
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you brought me in. You okay. Sure. But what, you know what I'm saying? Like respect. You feel me?
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Matter of fact, coach wasn't even in the room. Coach was taking care of business. So when I put up
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a post with two of, other than AD Donaldson, you know, other than him, three of the players on
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their team that's probably ranked top 10, you know, if not top 20 players in the NFL. So, so what I'm
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showing people is one, I'm following my passion, my dreams. I'm actually number one in the world.
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So, so it's not ironic that I'm attracting number one in the world. You feel me? Um, and, and, and
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people are going to go, yo E now I can show you a car, but anybody can go to dealership and buy a
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car. Everybody's not going to be invited by the number one team, by the world champions to come
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and teach the world champ. Everybody's not going to get that. So now when I go, yo, I charge 200,000.
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What corporations are going to want to pay it? Why? Because I'm with the world champions. And
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we'll be at the football game. You'll see me on the field. So, you know, like, yo, E, E, E,
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E is not, uh, uh, uh, worried about what other people think about it. E is not, you know, where
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again, nothing wrong. You got a Rolex watch. Uh, you know what I'm saying? You got a, whatever kind
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of truck you live in a certain kind of house. Okay. Whatever. You can Airbnb that and act like it's
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yours. You can, uh, two row somebody car and act like you can't act like you can't act like you
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speaking to the LA Rams. You can't, you can't fake it. Like you speak it to the Rams. You can't fake
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it. Like, uh, you are not only, uh, at a game that you paid for and you were Stafford. You can't fake
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it. Like you're training Stafford. You can't fake it. Like Stafford is upfront listening. You can't
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fake that. So actually by getting to self-actualization and, and not pretending,
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but really living life to its fullest, I am able to have people
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celebrate me and not just tolerate me. So to your, to, to the point is just like, yo,
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when you figure out who you are and you're not trying to, you're trying to feed the masses
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and not be led by the masses, you're leading the masses and adding value to the masses.
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That's the way that you use social media and not, I got to do what they telling me to do.
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I got to follow. I got to, I got to, bro. I've been blessed financially. I don't feel the need
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to wear a Rolex watch. I'm not mad at the dude that got a Rolex. I like the hat. I like, I'm,
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you might see me sometimes with the fatigue, like you might see me with like, you're not going
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necessarily see me. And I do drive an Escalade. I'm from Detroit. I do drive Escalade. You're not
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going to see any pictures of me with the Escalade. You're not going to see me in the car doing a video
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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,
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I haven't needed to be in my truck doing a video. I don't need the world to approve. I'm actually
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helping the world. And so it's like, yo, you got two options. You can follow social media or you
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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.
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
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check your relationships in order and your finances squared away. But most importantly, you're going to
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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,
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
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
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
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,
00:36:00.860
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,
00:36:40.020
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.
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
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
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,
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
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.