How To Embrace Your True Strength, Turn Your Pain Into Power & Create A Legacy

Speaker 2 I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy.

Speaker 2 And if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you want to make it easier, you want to make it flow, you want to feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy.

Speaker 2 I really think this is going to help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up.

Speaker 2 Make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode on the school of greatness.

Speaker 2 The Kia Sportage Turbo Hybrid has a bold design, a spacious interior with 232 horsepower and a 12.3 inch panoramic display to keep the adventure going and fit with the way you live.

Speaker 2 And with Sirius XM, every drive comes alive, bringing you closer to the music, the sports, talk, and podcasts that you love right in your vehicle or on the Sirius XM app.

Speaker 2 Every Sirius XM equipped Kia Sportage Turbo Hybrid includes a three-month trial, so the experience begins the moment you drive. Learn more at kia.com slash sportage dash hybrid.

Speaker 2 Kia, movement that inspires. Scamming has grown into a trillion-dollar industry with no signs of slowing down.

Speaker 2 And with AI, scammers are exploiting our instinct to trust by using technology to duplicate the voices of people we love.

Speaker 2 Bit Defender helps protect your family's devices, data, and identities from those threats.

Speaker 2 Choose Bit Defender Premium Security, which includes Scam Copilot, the first AI-powered platform designed to safeguard you against scams in real time. Ready to make your digital life safer?

Speaker 2 Visit bitdefender.com and download BitDefender Premium Security for families.

Speaker 2 It's time for Black Friday, Dell Technologies' biggest sale of the year. Enjoy huge savings on select PCs like the Dell 16 Plus, featuring Intel Core Ultra processors.

Speaker 2 And with built-in advanced features, it's the PC that helps you do more faster. Plus, earn Dell rewards and enjoy many other benefits like free shipping, price match guarantee, and expert support.

Speaker 2 They also have huge deals on accessories that pair perfectly with your Dell PC PC and make perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Shop now at dell.com slash deals.

Speaker 2 This episode is brought to you by Facebook. Facebook is where real connections happen, a place to find your people, rediscover old friends, and build new relationships that actually matter.

Speaker 2 From alumni groups and local events to marketplace and shared memories, Facebook helps bring people closer in meaningful ways.

Speaker 2 It's where nostalgia meets possibility, reminding us that the smallest interactions can spark lasting connections. Let's reconnect this holiday season.
Explore more with Facebook today.

Speaker 2 Where do you think your life would have been in that year had you not had the loving, committed relationship, child as well, first child? Where do you think

Speaker 2 temptation would have led you or do you think you would have made the same decision with the sand on the ground?

Speaker 2 Or was it having a committed, conscious, loving relationship and partner and teammate that allowed you to have the courage to act with that line in the sand?

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 the only reason I pause here is because I'm trying to wonder

Speaker 1 how

Speaker 1 little of credit to give the relationship. Because I'm not going to say it's 100%, but it's up there.

Speaker 1 The relationship, having her and now about to become a father, which was the only thing I ever wanted to be, had great resonance for me.

Speaker 1 I, one, had a relationship which gave me, just singularly with Camilla, gave me more

Speaker 1 license and courage to fly. But now I'm going to become immortal, so to speak, with a child coming into the world.
It's the one thing I ever dreamed of being, become a father.

Speaker 1 That was at the top of my list since I was a kid. Now I'm like, well, this is what I'm doing.
This part of life has always taken precedent before anything I did since got famous,

Speaker 1 won this or won that. My career was always in front of a Hollywood career.
Always. That's what I mean by J.K.
Living. That's why Jake, just keep living has always been sort of a mantra.

Speaker 1 At the end of the day, argue with that one. At the end of the day, that wins out.
I've always wanted to have

Speaker 1 a life that I'm leading first.

Speaker 1 And I became an actor and a movie star and famous, but not, oh, I'm an actor, a movie star, I'm famous. So now, what do I do? How do I live my life according to that?

Speaker 1 No, I wanted to keep those in order.

Speaker 2 If you didn't have that relationship at that time, what do you think would have happened?

Speaker 1 That's a good question. What would have happened?

Speaker 2 Do you think it would have been more tempting to take the money?

Speaker 2 Let me just.

Speaker 1 I mean, yeah, the nights would have been even longer.

Speaker 1 I think it would have definitely got more wobbly.

Speaker 1 I would have really had to.

Speaker 1 I mean, I believe I could have pulled it off. I'm glad I didn't have to find out.
I could have pulled it off on my own.

Speaker 1 I might have run off to the monastery

Speaker 1 and still be there.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 I had very

Speaker 1 somewhat reliable temptation from people very close to me going,

Speaker 1 what's your malfunction, bro? My brothers and family were like, what is your major malfunction?

Speaker 1 What are you doing? You own this landing and the rom, but why are you making a straight line crooked? Which is the line we always use. Why are you making this complicated?

Speaker 1 Do you know how many people would

Speaker 1 dream to even be doing this? And so

Speaker 1 I did have that understanding, which I bring up in the book about being less impressed and more involved. I was very thankful.
I was never disrespecting the rom-com. I was just like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 I didn't make this up, this feeling in me.

Speaker 2 You're in a new season.

Speaker 1 Well, I want more, and there's a new chapter to come. So,

Speaker 1 what would I be doing now if I didn't have Melana and she she we didn't have our first child on the way

Speaker 1 I don't know that to that eight that 20 months would have felt like 20 years if I'd if I'd have stuck with it and

Speaker 1 would I have had the patience would I had the fortitude would I have been able to stay still

Speaker 1 in the long lonely nights where I didn't feel like I had purpose where I didn't feel significant where I didn't have a newborn child in a relationship to look at and go because because I knew then, I was like, you put time into that, you cannot go wrong.

Speaker 1 I looked at my newborn child, I looked at him, I was like, you put time into this, you are in the black.

Speaker 1 There is no debit, no matter how much, you can't overdo that. So that gave me something.
If I didn't have that,

Speaker 1 no, no, no, no, no, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 I'm not sure. 16 years you said you've been together, right? Yeah, 16 years.

Speaker 2 There's a lot of men that are driven men.

Speaker 2 I'm in LA, so I see this in LA where they feel like they need to be single for a long time, or they need to jump from partner to partner, or have multiple partners at the same time, all these different things.

Speaker 2 No judgment, no right or wrong here, but I'm curious: what have you learned about 16 years in a relationship that has taught you about how much more successful you can be in other areas of life versus single life when you were also extremely successful, but maybe there was something missing, you know, emotionally or spiritually?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm gonna

Speaker 1 piggyback on where you first started. I don't, I've got friends that are poly and I've got friends that are perpetually single.
And

Speaker 1 to see them,

Speaker 1 when they do pull it off and still have a healthy spirit and a healthy body and a healthy mind, I applaud it. I'm going right on.

Speaker 1 I have seen a lot of them have to, oh, I got to recalibrate. I got,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 I got off. I got spread too thin.
Energy everywhere. You know, a bunch of little campfires, but no bonfires, right?

Speaker 1 You can do it.

Speaker 1 I think a person can do it on their own.

Speaker 1 I think a person can do it in solitude. I think a person can do it even with a relationship with just themselves, if you

Speaker 1 think can be done.

Speaker 1 But when you have a relationship that you're committed to, that you want to make work, that it's part of your decision.

Speaker 1 And especially when you have a child that is not only you're committed to, you is dependent on you,

Speaker 1 That goes to the top of the value system.

Speaker 1 And so career choices can go into the two-hole or maybe the three-hole.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 I would argue that I got better at my career

Speaker 1 when it went to the two and three hole and wasn't in the one hole.

Speaker 2 Really?

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 I didn't,

Speaker 1 and I feared this. I was like,

Speaker 1 whoa, I was having a family and the fact that when we had kids, my wife said, if we have kids on one condition, Matthew, when you go, we go.

Speaker 1 So my family comes with me when she said that to me i remember going through my mind wait a minute i'm an artist i'm a lone wolf when i go to work i'm in my airstream all alone it's me and my dog maybe

Speaker 1 but nobody else and as i'm saying that in my head this other little smarter voice comes in and goes nod your head and say yes ma'am and i said yes ma'am it was the greatest decision i've ever made right because seeing my kids or leaving before they woke up and seeing them when i got home after work

Speaker 1 was the was a beautiful energizing reset for me at the end of the day that filled me up with real life and made me more more creative

Speaker 1 going into work the next day. To tell a child when you're doing something like True Detective and they go, what was the scene about today?

Speaker 1 And you go, I better tell a good parable because I can't tell them the real thing. It's some heavy R stuff, right? So I became a better storyteller and how I'd make it a nursery ride or something.

Speaker 1 But you're living for something,

Speaker 1 for someone else and something more.

Speaker 1 And you know, for Camille and I, living for the covenant that for her and I

Speaker 1 to do what we can to stay together and keep promoting each other and ourselves in a relationship and then to have the kids. I'm living, you're living for something else.
And that empowered me.

Speaker 1 It made me better as an individual. Really? And when I go out the door, I have more courage

Speaker 1 because I know I've got that stability at home. Wow.

Speaker 2 Where do you think you would have been if you'd have been in a relationship, you know, five, 10 years prior? Yeah. And it'd be 25 years as opposed to 16.

Speaker 2 Do you think you would have been better in your career or you'd have made that shift sooner? Or do you feel like

Speaker 2 being the lone wolf, you had its time and its place, and it's time.

Speaker 1 I think it had its time and its place. I'm not arrogant enough to say, oh, if I go back and change time.

Speaker 1 I mean, I've thought about that.

Speaker 1 I was with and dated seriously some wonderful women before I met Camilla.

Speaker 1 I think it wasn't the time for me, and it wasn't the time for them for us to take it further, to take it as far as, say, getting married or something. But,

Speaker 1 you know, I often wonder,

Speaker 1 what if I felt like it was time that early? I never did. What if I did?

Speaker 1 You know, do we meet the right person sometimes, but it's just not the time for us.

Speaker 2 Interesting.

Speaker 1 Do we,

Speaker 1 or is it,

Speaker 1 the two plays, got to be the right person and the right time for each person. But

Speaker 1 I cannot go back,

Speaker 1 you know, going forward to mystery, looking back to science. When I connect the dots, I don't dare to go back and go, if I had changed 10 years earlier, I'm thinking about who I was dating.

Speaker 1 If we'd have got married, I mean,

Speaker 1 who knows?

Speaker 1 I don't think it would have been the same realization 10 years earlier. I was a different man.

Speaker 1 I was seeing the world differently.

Speaker 1 And we'll never know, but I think it was the right time for me when this happened. And my single years were the right amount of time for me when I was there.

Speaker 1 And those relationships before that that ultimately ended, that was the right time

Speaker 1 for them to end.

Speaker 2 So how old were were you when you met your wife?

Speaker 1 16, 53, 40, 37.

Speaker 2 37. So when you were 37, before the moment you met her, which I think you met her at a bar on Sunset.
Club on Sunset. SARS Club on Sunset.
Club. Let's call it that morning.

Speaker 1 Don't go to many clubs.

Speaker 1 Glad I went to the club this night. Yeah, it was good.

Speaker 2 Let's call it that morning or that season right before you met her.

Speaker 1 What was it that made you feel loved then?

Speaker 2 And what is it today that makes makes you feel the most loved today?

Speaker 1 Okay. What is it that made me feel the most loved before? Yes.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 When I was spiritually strong.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 look, I was,

Speaker 1 I had some relationships that were loving relationships that, or I loved the woman, she loved and cared for me. And those were real.
Yes.

Speaker 1 I also had

Speaker 1 a season where

Speaker 1 it was just affairs. It wasn't about love.
It was lust. It's fun, yeah.
It was fun, and it was

Speaker 1 healthily, it was a healthy, fun transaction. We laughed and kept it light, and that was all it was ever going to be.
And we're not even, you know, and that was okay, too.

Speaker 1 I am happy to say that through most, most of that, I was able to keep somewhat spiritually strong. Really?

Speaker 1 How did you say that? And had no, and didn't really have trouble sleeping alone in my own bed.

Speaker 1 Because I've had those times, I think we all have, if we've had this single life, where there's times where if you're rolling like that, especially if it's like affairs and flirt popping around here and there, boy, all of a sudden you end up in bed alone.

Speaker 1 You can't sleep. And you're like, whoa,

Speaker 1 wait a minute. Now I'm the company I can't stand being with.
If it's only me, that would always be a trigger for me. Like, you better bend a knee and go

Speaker 1 inward. Catch your breath and go inward inward here.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 2 what made you feel the most loved before you met her?

Speaker 1 What was it? I mean,

Speaker 2 was it the success or the failure? No, I didn't. Was it the chase? Was it the, you know.

Speaker 1 No, it wasn't the chase and

Speaker 1 catch.

Speaker 1 I knew what that was. That always felt like a stop and not a stay.

Speaker 1 To me, it was a season. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I understood it to be a season.

Speaker 1 And I gave myself freedom and license to have that season as healthily as i as as i could um

Speaker 1 i don't think i was any more shallow right right

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 i didn't think

Speaker 1 oh this is all there is

Speaker 1 i did have

Speaker 1 a dream where i thought

Speaker 1 Where I was 80, an 88-year-old bachelor, but had a lot of children. You did.
Yeah, and it wasn't a nightmare.

Speaker 2 88-year-old bachelor, and you had a lot of children, and that wasn't sitting on our porch, and it wasn't a nightmare.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 1 And I woke up from that dream, not going, yippee, that's what I'll do. I did wake up with it going,

Speaker 1 that's possible.

Speaker 1 And as soon as I said,

Speaker 1 that's possible,

Speaker 2 I did quit looking so hard. And when I quit looking for her so hard,

Speaker 1 that's when she came.

Speaker 1 Because before that, I will say, in my thought of, I do want to find someone to fall in love with and start a family.

Speaker 1 I mean, every red light, bro.

Speaker 1 LA. Possible, possible.
Produce section. You know what I mean? Possible, possible.

Speaker 1 Going to class, Whole Foods,

Speaker 1 checking, you know, everywhere. And

Speaker 1 I was looking. I was leaning in, leaning in.
And so, well, Matt, maybe that could work. Like that script, well, maybe that could work, you know.

Speaker 1 And then when I had that dream, it did, it was like, oh, on a spiritual sense, I was like, well, you might end up being an ADRO bachelor.

Speaker 1 And if you've got spiritually, if you're spiritually strong, your relationship with God's strong, that's okay. It didn't make me go, that's what I want to do.

Speaker 1 But just saying, that could be a reality for you.

Speaker 1 Let me exhale and I quit looking everywhere at everybody's life. I quit looking in the prototype.
I was like, and I, what happens when you do that? You become more attractive.

Speaker 1 You allow yourself to be loved. You allow yourself to see someone who actually you might love.

Speaker 1 But mainly you allow yourself to be someone that can be loved. And you're not selling, you're not soliciting yourself.

Speaker 1 You're not in a rush about anything. You want to meet somebody.
You also, what you look at, you want to see how they move, how far back are the shoulders, how do they talk?

Speaker 1 What do they say in between the lines?

Speaker 3 Not what they say, what do they say in between the lines?

Speaker 1 And I remember when I saw Camilla walk across the club that night, it was the way she moved.

Speaker 1 I saw history. I saw dignity.
I saw somebody that was not for sale. I saw somebody

Speaker 1 that didn't need,

Speaker 1 that when I called her over, was not happy to meet me, but

Speaker 1 wasn't impressed with my vocation. And she knew who I was.
Wasn't impressed with that. She was about a lot more than that.

Speaker 1 So.

Speaker 1 My eyes were open to seeing

Speaker 1 what I wanted and needed. And I also

Speaker 1 was able to, in that moment, completely be myself, not oversell myself,

Speaker 1 not undersell myself.

Speaker 2 Did you feel like you needed to oversell yourself before then? Even though you had all the success and the fame and the hits and the money and the,

Speaker 1 I think when

Speaker 1 just

Speaker 1 a sped up process, you know, especially if you're like...

Speaker 1 And, you know,

Speaker 1 if it's

Speaker 1 more of a string of short-term relationships, it's like,

Speaker 1 it's not overselling. It's just like, let's skip the,

Speaker 1 let's skip a lot of the real stuff. Let's skip a lot of the, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 TikTok, come on. We're just here.
We're laughing. We're having a good time.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 And that's all we're both in this for. So, you know,

Speaker 1 so you speed up the process a little bit.

Speaker 1 So I don't know. When you say, what did I love? It wasn't my fame.

Speaker 1 Did I feel more loved if my movie did well and more people came up and was like, that was great? Sure. Sure.

Speaker 1 But that was never my

Speaker 1 top source of affirmation of feeling love.

Speaker 1 Did I feel less loved if the movie bombed or people were like,

Speaker 1 sure. But that was never my

Speaker 1 source of my lack of confidence or lack of significance. It was maybe I was spiritual.
And then I always had, look, I always had family at this time, being my brothers and my mom and stuff.

Speaker 1 There was always that

Speaker 1 that i knew was 100 reliable

Speaker 1 but maybe i say spiritual and then your follow-up question to what makes you feel more loved now yeah when do you feel the most loved now

Speaker 1 oh the

Speaker 1 good night group hug with my three kids and my my wife after we've just talked about what her day was like what we're looking forward to tomorrow And we've had a few fun disagreements and somebody said something real honest that they didn't have the courage to say maybe a week before.

Speaker 1 And for the first time notice that if they shared that, they weren't going to get in trouble,

Speaker 1 that they were just going

Speaker 1 and to see them grow and going, you got the courage.

Speaker 1 Me and tend to feel like a dad, you know, me and your mother are giving you a place to feel like you can go.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I did like her, and

Speaker 1 my heart hurts because she doesn't like me. To be able to, for your child to be able to say that to you, It's like, okay, we're doing something right.
There we go. That's a feeling of love.

Speaker 1 To have an honest talk, not just about all the happy times, but about the stuff that sucks in my kids' lives as well. And even from my wife, to share it and it not be like, dun-dun-da-da-da.

Speaker 1 Right, right. To be like, yep, we're going through this.
And one thing we know is we're going through it together.

Speaker 1 That, that, that's right. That's beautiful.
That's cool.

Speaker 2 That's beautiful. One of the things that you talked about

Speaker 2 in the book, in the last couple pages, was this list of goals that you wrote down.

Speaker 2 One of them

Speaker 1 isn't

Speaker 2 10 goals in life, 1992. 92.
One of them, becoming a father, and number two, finding and keeping the woman for me, the woman for me.

Speaker 2 And you had 10 of them. I'm curious,

Speaker 2 how important is it to write down our visions, our dreams, our goals in order to manifest what we want in our lives? Because this whole book is a journal of you writing down everything.

Speaker 2 And all 10 of these, you've accomplished all of them. And you're still accomplishing them, living into them.

Speaker 2 So how important is it to write down our dreams, our goals, our values in order to manifest and attract them?

Speaker 1 I think it's a lot more important than we give it credit for. Look, writing things down, it seems like this old-fashioned sort of archaic names.

Speaker 1 Type it. It's on the screen,

Speaker 1 put it on a Word doc, save it, put it in a folder.

Speaker 1 It can be lost. back there to actually write it with the hand

Speaker 1 does is a different kind of objectivity you get because it's come out if you've put it down now you're looking at it's outside of you it's freed up now it's alive it's moving now

Speaker 1 more so than having that goal by your bedside every night

Speaker 1 which is can be good

Speaker 1 but to write it down

Speaker 1 if you're writing down true goals

Speaker 1 they become written in your lineage. They become written in your body, whether you know it or not, in your subconscious.

Speaker 1 It's a way to get it into your subconscious, to write it down. Now it's out of me.
It's on a page. I'm objectifying it now.
I'm looking at it.

Speaker 1 So now I'm having a dialogue where before it was just Socratic, but now I'm having a dialogue and it starts to reciprocate.

Speaker 1 Those 10 goals, I wrote those down in the top bunk in the Dell House, University of Texas, 1992. My roommate was Monty Wills.
I remember the night I wrote them down. Wow.

Speaker 1 I never looked at them again.

Speaker 1 I found those in writing this book and found out that, oh my gosh, all 10 you you actually did and four you're still doing.

Speaker 2 That's crazy.

Speaker 2 They never looked at it. 30 years later you found them.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 That's crazy.

Speaker 2 But they all happened.

Speaker 1 They all happened.

Speaker 1 I don't think they happen if I don't write them down. I don't think they do.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 that practice of writing something down.

Speaker 1 That you into or that you want or that you yearn for

Speaker 1 and to add to it or subtract from it along the the way if you want to or just write it down fold it up tuck it away so you can find it 30 years later when you go want to

Speaker 1 share a journal or write something about it

Speaker 2 the school of greatness is brought to you in partnership with airbnb fall always feels like the perfect time to travel a chance to explore reset and spend time with family before the year wraps up and martha and i both travel often especially with her family in mexico and mine spread across the u.s so we're always on the go a lot and some of the best parts of traveling come from discovering new places, trying local foods, and experiencing different cultures.

Speaker 2 But when people are away, their homes often just sit empty.

Speaker 2 Hosting on Airbnb can be a practical way to make use of that space and share what makes your community special with travelers passing through.

Speaker 2 From our experience, hosting has always been easy and straightforward. And whether you're on the road often or only once in a while, it can be a simple way to earn a little extra while you're away.

Speaker 2 Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

Speaker 2 This message is brought to you by Apple Card. It's a great time to apply for an Apple Card.
You'll love earning up to 3% unlimited daily cash back on every purchase and no fees, period.

Speaker 2 Through this special referral offer, when you get a new Apple Card, you can earn bonus daily cash. To qualify, you must apply at apple.co/slash get daily cash.

Speaker 4 Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA, Salt Lake City Branch. Variable APRs for Apple Card range from 17.99% to 28.24% based on credit worthiness.
Rates as of October 1st, 2025.

Speaker 4 Offer may not be available elsewhere. Terms and limitations apply.

Speaker 2 If you're a small business owner, you already wear a dozen hats. CEO, HR, marketing, janitor, the last thing you need is to stress about insurance.
That's where the Hartford comes in.

Speaker 2 They've been helping small businesses for over 200 years, and they ensure over 1 million small business owners across the country.

Speaker 2 They know your time is precious, and they've made it easy to get the coverage you need without the hassle. Visit thehartford.com slash small business to learn more and get a quote today

Speaker 1 like i did um i don't think it happens but then just go back and see the invisible contract i made with myself my gosh i love that

Speaker 1 because obviously i did because i mean i those 10 people go you've done all 10 i said well no i'm in the middle i'm still i have to make i'm still maintaining four but i have engaged some of them i've just done

Speaker 1 but i have engaged i am in full engagement with all of them

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 2 well it's an invisible contract until it becomes a physical written contract right you know and it's with yourself and you

Speaker 1 it becomes there's an invisible way it becomes subconsciously non-negotiable with yourself and here's the interesting thing on this i don't know is this the exact image or is this a recreated image no that's it this is the photo of it or

Speaker 2 you signed it yeah and that's what i think is actually really important because you did create a contract with self right you signed the goals at the bottom you have 10 goals in life 91 92.

Speaker 2 And at the bottom, you signed it. And I think that's really important in creating a,

Speaker 2 you know, this contract with self is putting your name on something that you write down from the ideas in your mind into paper so that you can actualize this in life.

Speaker 2 And I think that's what's beautiful. And you were like, what, 20 years old when you did this?

Speaker 1 20, 21. And folks, anyone who thinks so that sounds like, you know, Mike Tyson talking about Mike Tyson when he's himself coming to the third person, do it.
Don't worry. Sign your stuff to yourself.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Write to yourself and sign it. It's a great practice to do.

Speaker 1 You are then getting a third person objective view of yourself.

Speaker 1 Where, so you will have a better chance of subjectively creating those and activating those things and having them happen.

Speaker 2 One of the things in here,

Speaker 2 number seven, stay close to mom and family. I know there was a period, I think you said six or eight years, where you pulled away from your mom.

Speaker 2 I think you're still close with your brother, but you pulled back because she was kind of

Speaker 2 loving the fame, and it was making it about her as opposed to supporting your son.

Speaker 2 So that was something that kind of came and went, and you danced with, but you know, now it seems like you guys are, you know, in a great place.

Speaker 1 She's living with us four years now. She's 91.

Speaker 2 And then also, you had number eight, win an Oscar for the best actor. How do you, at 20, 21,

Speaker 2 write down a goal of winning an Oscar when I think.

Speaker 1 And I wasn't even acting at that time. That's nuts.
You didn't even do the first movie yet? No.

Speaker 2 Why did that come in in your mind? Why was that even a thought, a dream, a goal?

Speaker 1 So this is, I believe, right after I had, soon after I had called, my father said, don't want to go to law school anymore.

Speaker 2 I want to go to film school.

Speaker 1 Now, I'm looking back.

Speaker 2 And he said a great line back, too. He said a great line.
He said, don't half-ass it. Don't half-ass it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Which was three, whatever, four, however many words is the best words I've ever heard. from the man who I ultimately really wanted my ultimate approval from.

Speaker 1 And he didn't give me, he gave me a lot more than approval with that line. He made kick in the backside, privilege, freedom, responsibility, kick, go do it.

Speaker 1 And I suppose,

Speaker 1 I know consciously, but probably subconsciously too, there's things that I've done where I wanted to let something slide and those words came in my mind. I was like, uh-uh, no way.
Uh-uh.

Speaker 1 That'd be half accident. So those words have lived with me.

Speaker 1 I decided I want to go to film school.

Speaker 1 And I went back through these journals and I find something like that I was like

Speaker 2 dude you always wanted to be an actor interesting like you just wouldn't admit it

Speaker 1 and I remember

Speaker 1 always being sheepish about someone got like well you just want to why don't you perform

Speaker 1 something about it in my head felt fraudulent then

Speaker 1 something about being behind the camera to go to director school learning story felt like well that's my

Speaker 1 I'll sneak in the back door to the acting right? But that's the better way. And I, I'm glad I went that path.

Speaker 1 But I think I wanted to, and I've talked with my buddy Rob Bindler, who I bring up often in this book about it. And he was like, yeah, you were wanting to.

Speaker 1 He reminded me of talks we'd have late night. And he was already at NYU film school.
He was like, reminding me of, yeah, you were already wanting to

Speaker 1 at this time when you first went to film school. So

Speaker 1 I write that down to myself.

Speaker 1 I'm not afraid to write it down to myself, but I'm afraid to say anything like that out loud. I'm afraid to even say I'm interested in going into acting at this point.
Wow.

Speaker 1 But yet, I write down, I want to win an Oscar. That's why it's crazy.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 So, when you saw this paper, you had already won

Speaker 2 these goals. Yes.
You know, for the first time after, I guess,

Speaker 2 close to 30 years. You'd won it, I think, I don't know, six, seven years prior to that.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 What did that feel like when you read this and you saw win an Oscar for best actor?

Speaker 1 I I read it. I was like,

Speaker 1 are you kidding? Get out of here. Camilla, check this out.

Speaker 1 Are you kidding me? Wow.

Speaker 1 And then I went

Speaker 1 right back to the night. And I remember sitting in the top bunk.

Speaker 1 We'd just come from the arcade. Me and Monty Wills, a roommate.
He was in the bottom bunk. I was in the top bunk.
Like a two Thursday night.

Speaker 1 I've been journaling. I wrote in this little journal.
And I remember

Speaker 1 that night.

Speaker 1 Other people were actually going out for a labor. We'd been out, kind of party, and other people went to the next party.
And I decided to come home and sort of mine.

Speaker 1 Hot all the top punk. I brushed my teeth, went out, put him shorts, got in bed, kind of covers, sat up there, and I had a little window right here.

Speaker 1 And I had my little diary on the little window seal with a pen. Bunk bed.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That we made.
We made these bunk beds. We were the first bunk beds in the Dell House.
And

Speaker 1 pulled over and I wrote it. And I think I had it, I think I even

Speaker 1 a form of a headlamp, if they even had a headlamps, I loved headlamps, still do love headlamps,

Speaker 1 and written that, and I wrote that down. Wow.

Speaker 2 Curious, if you didn't create this contract for yourself, do you think you would have accomplished all 10 of these goals and dreams for your life?

Speaker 2 Or would some of them maybe fallen through the cracks because you didn't create that, turn the invisible contract into a physical written contract and make it real?

Speaker 1 I don't know. I mean, I have to believe that writing them down

Speaker 1 subconsciously led to me actually,

Speaker 1 I knew what they were. I couldn't recite them to you because I never looked at them again, but I knew what they were.

Speaker 2 Who was more influential for you, your father or mother?

Speaker 2 Both were influential at different points. Yeah.

Speaker 2 My mom was there on a daily basis.

Speaker 2 My father was really influential at a really critical time where I had a summer where I played basketball when I was like 10 or 11 years old in a very prominent summer league in Philadelphia called the Sunny Hill League.

Speaker 2 Where my father played, my uncle played, and they were like all-time greats. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Will Chamberlain played in the league, you know, Earl of Promon Row played in the league. And here I come playing, and I don't score one point the entire summer.
Really? Not one. How old were you?

Speaker 2 11, 10, 11. And you're playing against other 10, 11 year olds? You didn't score once? Not one.
Were you in the game?

Speaker 1 I was in the game.

Speaker 2 How did you not score? Because I was terrible.

Speaker 1 Really? Yeah,

Speaker 2 that happened. 1011 years old.
You were that terrible. Awful.
I mean, you know, and I had these big knee pads on because I was growing really fast. I have socks all the way up here.

Speaker 2 And I had like the pie top skinny,

Speaker 2 like skinny as hell. And I scored not a free throw, not a nothing, not a lucky shot, not a breakaway layup, zero points.
And I remember crying about it, being upset about it.

Speaker 2 And my father just gave me a hug and said, Listen, whether you score zero or score 60, I'm going to love you no matter what. Wow.
Now, that is the most important thing that you can say to a child.

Speaker 2 Because from there, I was like, okay, that gives me all the confidence in the world to fail. I have the security there.
But to hell with that, I'm scoring 60.

Speaker 1 Let's go, right, right.

Speaker 2 And from there, I just went to work. I just stayed with it.
I kept practicing, kept practicing, kept practicing.

Speaker 2 Is that when you think the mentality of hard work started to come in for you at that age when you failed so miserably, I guess, that summer?

Speaker 2 I think that's when the idea of understanding a long-term view became important because I wasn't going to catch these kids in a week. I wasn't going to catch them in a year, right?

Speaker 2 So that's when I sat down and said, okay, this is going to take some thought. All right.
What do I want to work on first? All right. Shooting.
All right. Let's knock this out.
Let's focus on this.

Speaker 2 Half a year, six months, do nothing but shoot. Right.
After that, all right, creating your own shot. And you focus.
So you start, I started creating a menu of things.

Speaker 2 When I came back the next summer, I was a little bit better. Right.
The menu being like, I've got my jump shot from 15. I've got my.
Yeah, I got my jump shot from 15. I got my three-point shot.

Speaker 2 Like, just open shots, not miss open shots, right? Be able to shoot it with speed because those kids are so much more athletic.

Speaker 2 And then the next summer came back, it was a little better. And the summer came back, next summer, it was a little better.

Speaker 1 I scored.

Speaker 2 It wasn't much, but I scored. Missed 12, 13.
12, 13. And then 14 came around, back half of 13, 14 years old.
And then I was just killing everyone. And it happened in two years.

Speaker 2 And I wasn't expecting it to happen in two years, but it did because what I had to do was work on the basics and the fundamentals. Well, they relied on their athleticism and their natural ability.

Speaker 2 And because I stick to the fundamentals, it just caught up to them. And then my body, you know, my knees stopped hurting.
I grew into my frame.

Speaker 2 And then your athleticism, once you have the fundamentals,

Speaker 2 the hard work, the mindset, and you tack on the athleticism. It did gamble.
Then it was gaming.

Speaker 2 Wow. So from 13, you're good, average, still.

Speaker 2 I was good. I was good.

Speaker 2 And then about the like the end of my third like right when I was turning 14 I became the best player in the state at 14 at 14 so from 12 to 14 you went from scoring zero to being the best in the state of all ages yep but it's it's simple like if you do the math on this right like if you if you're thinking about how often kids are playing

Speaker 2 right I'll tell this to my to my daughter and my daughter's team as well that I coach it's a simple thing of math if you want to be a great player if you play every single day two three hours every single day over a course of a year how much better are are you getting most kids will play maybe you know an hour and a half two days a week

Speaker 2 right put a math on that season it's not going it's not gonna get it done it's not gonna get it done right so if you're obsessive obsessive obsessively training two three hours every single day over a year over two years You're already accelerating.

Speaker 2 You make quantum leaps, man. Just doing a summer camp for two weeks, you see a difference.
I remember playing basketball with the game.

Speaker 1 You see it.

Speaker 2 You get a lot better.

Speaker 2 You come back more confident playing on the playground with guys who used to beat you yeah and I like I tell the parents on my team I said it's it's when I say your kids are going to become great basketball players and they're like really like yeah it's not there's no math it's it show up every single day show up every single day do the work

Speaker 2 you ever walk out of the grocery store or fill up your tank and just think how is everything this expensive feels like prices are going up everywhere and how great would it be if just once something actually just went down in price well at metro that's exactly what's happening.

Speaker 2 They've lowered their prices and are giving you a five-year price guarantee on talk, text, and data. One line, now 20% lower.
Family plans, also lowered.

Speaker 2 Oh, and you also get a free 5G phone, all with no ID required and no activation fees. Stop by your neighborhood Metro store, visit metro by t-mobile.com or call to find out about their amazing offers.

Speaker 2 Bring your number, not available if currently at T-Mobile or with Metro in the past 180 days.

Speaker 2 Guarantee covers monthly price of on-network talk, text, and 5G data for customers activating on an eligible plan. Exclusions apply.
Details at metro by t-mobile.com.

Speaker 2 Every business owner knows that hiring the right person can completely change your company's trajectory because hiring just isn't about filling a seat.

Speaker 2 It's about finding someone with the right skills, mindset, and experience to actually move your business forward.

Speaker 2 The wrong hire slows you down, but the right one can transform your culture, your productivity, and your results. That's where Indeed Sponsored Jobs comes in.

Speaker 2 If you've been struggling to get the right eyes on your job posts, Indeed makes it easier than ever.

Speaker 2 With sponsored jobs, your post gets boosted so the most qualified people see it first, helping you reach the exact candidates you want faster.

Speaker 2 Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results now with Indeed sponsored jobs.

Speaker 2 And listeners of the show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com slash greatness.

Speaker 2 Just go to indeed.com slash greatness right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash greatness.
Terms and conditions apply.

Speaker 2 Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed.

Speaker 2 There's a beautiful story that I love from Jay Williams.

Speaker 2 I don't know if you remember Jason Williams, where he did an interview a while back and he talked about how when he played you, I think the first time or one of the first times he played against you,

Speaker 2 he was like, I'm going to show up so early to the court to warm up and practice like before anyone. And he shows up at the court.

Speaker 2 I don't know if it was in LA or where it was, and you were the only one there, already shooting free throws, already doing your fundamentals. And he goes, I'm going to stay here until Kobe leaves.

Speaker 2 And then he was like, gosh, an hour and a half, two hours later, I got to go.

Speaker 1 I'm tired.

Speaker 2 And Kobe's still shooting free throws, scoring, like just going over the fundamentals. And he goes, and then we played that game and you were lights out.

Speaker 2 And he came up to you afterwards and said, Dude, why were you in there for so long? And how'd you do it? And he said, This is what he said, you said.

Speaker 2 He said, I knew you were watching, and I wanted to show you that I was willing to outwork you. Right.
Something along those lines. Yeah, yeah.
I don't know if you remember this. I remember it.

Speaker 1 You remember, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 And I thought that was so powerful that you have this mindset, but how did you develop that?

Speaker 2 And I don't know if that's what you call the mamba mindset, but how did you develop that?

Speaker 2 And when did it start?

Speaker 2 It started in middle school and high school because a lot of the kids that I was playing against were inner city kids. And so they're looking at me as if, okay, this kid's soft.

Speaker 2 He's from the suburbs of Philadelphia. His father played in the NBA, played professionally.
He got it easy. Got it easy, born on second, you know, all this other stuff.

Speaker 2 And so it felt like they could try to be physical or try to intimidate me and do all this other stuff, which they couldn't.

Speaker 2 But now I'm saying, okay, well, you're trying to attack me. How am I going to attack you? How can I mentally figure out ways to break you down? How can I show you that, no, I I have the edge, right?

Speaker 2 And so that's when it first started for me is figuring out how to get the upper hand on an opponent that way. And what would you do to mentally break people down then? Well, I mean, you know, like

Speaker 2 we used to have an all-American camp that I used to go to. And, you know, at the time, when I first showed, I was a sophomore.
And

Speaker 2 one of the things I would do is everybody would be at the cafeteria work, you know, eating and doing all sorts of stuff. I'd just go back to the gym.
I just go back to the gym.

Speaker 2 They'd be resting.

Speaker 2 And they'd see me leave. Right.
But now you're in a tough position because you're like, okay, I want to be like, I'm following the kid to go work out. But I know he's working.

Speaker 2 He's up early and he's doing all this other stuff. And so that was my way of showing them,

Speaker 2 yeah, I may be from the suburbs, but you're not going to outwork me. Wow.
And I'm mentally going to.

Speaker 2 Did someone teach you that? Was that just a thing that you decided, like, I'm going to get in people's minds?

Speaker 2 I think it's just figuring out ways to

Speaker 2 be better

Speaker 2 and to win win the game. And it started as a defense mechanism because they were the ones talking trash to me and kid from Italy, blah, blah, blah, and all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 2 And it was like, okay, I can't let them, I got to defend myself here. And then it became, okay,

Speaker 2 I'm pretty witty. I can say some pretty witty things.

Speaker 1 And an Italian. And an Italian.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's interesting.
You know, I never was physically gifted to an extreme level. I was always really good, but I was never like the fastest or biggest or strongest.

Speaker 2 But I remember my edge was I'm not going to go party and I'm not going to drink alcohol.

Speaker 2 So I've never been drunk still because I was like, I need every edge when guys were out partying late at night who are better than me and drinking and showing up hungover.

Speaker 2 I was like, I'm going to be more focused and have clearer vision.

Speaker 2 But I wasn't waking up at 4 a.m. like you.
Well,

Speaker 2 that's interesting because

Speaker 1 when I played,

Speaker 2 one of the things I had to learn is how to get the best out of my teammates.

Speaker 2 And most people think it's a simple thing, you know, passing the ball, you know, but that's not how you make guys better. You have to really affect their behavior.
How do you do that?

Speaker 2 So, you know, like I would tell guys, you know, we got it back-to-backs. You know, I don't care if we're in Miami.
I don't care if we're in a great city of Chicago. You can't go out.

Speaker 2 We got to get rest.

Speaker 2 Back-to-back games. Back-to-back games, right? Monday, Tuesday.
You play Monday and play again Tuesday. But guys aren't going to listen, right?

Speaker 2 So a few times say, all right, we'll all go out. We'll go out together.
Really? I'll drink with you right but the next morning i'm banging on your door at five in the morning

Speaker 2 let's go

Speaker 2 they're not getting where are we going i hung out with you now you come hang out with me this is what we do all right let's go and you're at the gym we're working out right we hit the bus we go to practice we play that night and they're dead and they're dead and they're like lesson learned

Speaker 2 lesson learned take them out once listen if you're gonna do that do that But don't let that compromise what we're here to do.

Speaker 2 This is why we're here. This is why you're here in the first place.
Yeah, right. And if we're going to win a championship, we have to have that championship mentality work ethic.
That's it.

Speaker 2 So you got to show them: no, Cobe can do that and still has the energy to get up and do this. So either I got to meet that same energy or I got to keep my button.

Speaker 1 Go to bed early. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Wow. What are some other things you did to rise the level of your teammates? What are some other ways you can

Speaker 2 and what do you think people can do in general with a business team or any sports team? I think

Speaker 2 you have to listen and you have to pay attention to

Speaker 2 what your colleagues or teammates are saying and what are certain things that drive them, certain things that motivate them, that trigger them.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 one of my favorite ones, Pal hates it every time I tell this story. He hates it.
He hates it. But we lost to the Celtics in 08.

Speaker 2 And it was a physical series. I mean, they beat the crap out of us.

Speaker 2 And so we go into the Olympic year that year. We wound up playing Spain for the gold medal match.
And we beat them.

Speaker 2 And so now we come back to start training camp. And Pal shows up the first day of training camp.
I have my gold medal hanging in his locker. Oh, no.

Speaker 2 And he, I mean, like the one thing that he truly, truly loves is his country. Of course.
That is like everything to him. So it just drove him crazy.
I'm like, pal, listen. He said, you're an asshole.

Speaker 2 He said, listen, pal, you lost to the Celtics. You lost to us in a gold medal match.
Let's not make this three in a row this year.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 Let's win this thing. And that was it for him.
And he probably stepped up at a whole other level. Well,

Speaker 2 Powell was a phenomenon to begin with. And then for him, it was just stepping up to a level of physicality that we needed him to get to, which he did.
And we went on to win back-to-back championships.

Speaker 1 My man.

Speaker 2 How important is understanding human psychology and human behavior to work with a team as opposed to just relying on your gifts and talents? It's probably the most important thing.

Speaker 2 You know, when you're in this culture, in our society, you can do some phenomenal things individually, but they'll never reach their full potential unless you do them collectively.

Speaker 2 And you have to figure out how to do that. And, you know, Phil Jackson was great at that.
Phil,

Speaker 2 he wouldn't just coach the team or coach the game, but he'd read everything about every single player. He'd learn about your history, how you grew up,

Speaker 2 how you were raised,

Speaker 2 where were you raised. He'll read every interview and he'll learn about you and gives him a better understanding of what's motivating you or what your insecurities are, right?

Speaker 2 And then it just helps him communicate with you better or even push a button here if he needs to.

Speaker 2 When did you learn that it was important to understand who your teammates are, what their likes or dislikes are? Was that in high school for you or more? No,

Speaker 2 I learned it from Phil. There was a stretch

Speaker 1 in 03

Speaker 2 where Shaq was out with an injury. And Phil called me up to his office and said, okay, we need you to really turn on the afterburners and start scoring them all if we have to win.

Speaker 2 So I did, and I wound up scoring, I think it was nine straight games with 40 plus points. Nine straight.
Nine straight games. And then Shaq comes back

Speaker 2 second to last game of that.

Speaker 2 And then Phil calls me up to his office and says, Coke,

Speaker 2 okay, I need you to dial it back. I'm like,

Speaker 2 why? Like, we're winning one. I don't understand.
It's because our goal is to win a championship.

Speaker 2 And we can get through the Western Conference with you playing this way. But in the East, you know, we can dominate them inside with Shaq in the post.
But if you continue to do this, we'll lose Shaq.

Speaker 2 We'll lose him. His motivation, his excitement.
What triggers him, right?

Speaker 2 So I need you to pull back so we can pull Shaq forward for June. Wow.
And I just looked at him like,

Speaker 2 this is a smart dude.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 He's one smart dude, man. So I pulled.

Speaker 1 Pulled it back. Wow.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 What do you think has been the greatest challenge you've had since leaving the game?

Speaker 2 The greatest challenge.

Speaker 2 I think it's, you know, I mean, you've won an Oscar, you're launching podcasts and shows and you got a book coming out.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 it's different, though. Like, you know,

Speaker 2 we were just talking about it here in the office the other day.

Speaker 2 You know, when you play the game, you hit a game-winning shot, you miss a shot, the reaction's there you can see how people responding to it right you can feel it the energy is there the energy is there what i do now you don't like i don't see how people are affected by deer basketball or you know creating the punies and you put it out there like i wish i could see a car ride of a family the first time their daughter hears lily's lemonade and what she's doing you know she's singing along to it that's not there right so that's the the challenge that's the one thing that i miss is being able to feed that off of the energy The instant feedback that you get from missing or scoring a shot, winning or losing a game.

Speaker 1 It's like either way, you're getting a result, right? Yes.

Speaker 2 Yes. Yes.
That's the one thing. And I went to, because I spent a lot of time with mentors as well up at Pixar and Disney Studios.
They've been absolutely wonderful animation, Disney animation.

Speaker 2 And I've talked to them about Frozen and Moana and how our kids love them. And they're always like, oh, that's awesome.
And they want to hear it because they don't ever get a chance to truly see it.

Speaker 2 Not sitting in a movie theater.

Speaker 2 No, no, and they don't have time to go to Disneyland and walk around the park and see how many families are enjoying the content that they've created because they're busy making the next one.

Speaker 2 Creating. Yes, yes.
So that's the one thing. What do you think the biggest challenge is for most athletes after they retire? I think it's the fear of starting anew.

Speaker 2 And that was certainly present for me as well.

Speaker 1 Really? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Like identity, you mean? Well, it's starting from scratch. Right? Because when you play for 20 years, I play for 20 years, you reach a certain level.
You're like, okay, wait a minute.

Speaker 2 i have to start again at the base of a mountain and try to climb the top of this mountain first of all what mountain am i climbing i don't even know like what the hell am i going to be doing and it's very it's very scary it's very scary even for you oh absolutely absolutely and the thing that helped me actually was hurting my achilles because that forced me to sit there and say okay

Speaker 2 the day could be today

Speaker 2 that your career is over at any time when you were playing you mean yeah now what do you do you have these ideas about doing something with your life after basketball, but what if today is the day that you, they said, now what do you do?

Speaker 2 So I had all this time sitting there with my Achilles injury and contemplating and thinking. And I said, I better get to work.

Speaker 1 Wow. And that was that.

Speaker 2 What was the vision for you afterwards then? Was it to do what you're doing now? Or did you have other ideas? Or what's the vision for you? I struggled with it at first.

Speaker 2 Because the first question I asked, which is the wrong question, is what's the biggest industry I can get into?

Speaker 2 Was it more money thinking?

Speaker 2 Money thinking. Saying, okay, athletes are saying you can't make more revenue when you retire.
This is your source of your income. It's here.
Saying, okay, that's a challenge. What can I do?

Speaker 2 And I remember going for a while. Didn't you launch a fund or something? I did.
I did. And so

Speaker 2 I went for a ride and I said, okay, stop thinking of it that way. You're thinking of it the wrong way.
Why'd you start playing basketball?

Speaker 1 Because I loved it.

Speaker 2 All right, what do you love to do?

Speaker 2 Well, I'd love to tell stories.

Speaker 2 All right, let's do that. And then that's where it started for me.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 2 then on top of that, it became things like, you know, you started learning more about the financial industry and about players going broke once they retire and saying, okay,

Speaker 2 how can I minimize the chances of that happening? What are things that I can do

Speaker 2 to invest my money smartly? Also help control some of that outcome to a certain extent.

Speaker 2 And that's when I called Mike Rapoli. Mike Rapoli was an entrepreneur who built vitamin water, pirates food, and some other companies and started learning from them.

Speaker 2 With Martha and I now bringing our twin girls home, the thought of adding meal prep every night on top of our already busy lifestyles sounds unrealistic.

Speaker 2 Life is busy for everyone else right now, also. So meet the new Blue Apron.

Speaker 2 Now with no subscription, it's easier than ever to get delicious, high-quality meals delivered right to your door without the commitment because greatness starts with taking care of yourself, even in small ways.

Speaker 2 Blue Apron has shipped over 600 million meal kits, and now it's more convenient than ever. Shop a la carte and order what you want when you want.

Speaker 2 Discover low-prep recipes and pre-made meals that make dinner fast, fresh, and stress-free. Try assemble and bake meals with pre-prepped ingredients.

Speaker 2 Minimal cleanup, perfect for family nights or busy days. And I'll admit, it's so nice to not have to add another subscription in order to get access to these meals.

Speaker 2 My schedule is always changing, and sometimes I have last-minute travels. So it's such a relief knowing I can order when it fits my life without any commitment.

Speaker 2 Try the new Blue Apron today and get 40% off and free shipping on your first two orders at blueapron.com with code greatness40. Terms and conditions apply.
Visit blueapron.com slash terms for more.

Speaker 2 Today's show is brought to you by Apple Watch. Apple Watch is designed to move with you and built to know you.

Speaker 2 The new Apple Watch Series 11 helps reveal critical insights about your body, including one of the most important aspects of your health, sleep.

Speaker 2 Knowing how you sleep is a game changer when it comes to overall well-being. But for many, sleep and sleep quality are a mystery.

Speaker 2 The sleep score on Apple Watch helps you better understand your sleep routine and how to make it more restorative.

Speaker 2 Dive into factors like sleep duration, bedtime consistency, how often you wake up, and time spent in each sleep stage. Apple Watch takes you from not knowing to knowing.

Speaker 2 Find out more at apple.com/slash Apple Watch Series 11. iPhone 11 or later required.

Speaker 2 And then from that came the opportunity to invest in body armor.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And which, yeah, which

Speaker 1 is delicious.

Speaker 2 But all that came from the injury and really having to self-assess and

Speaker 2 face that really dark room of what comes next. Storytelling is something you're really passionate about.
What's a story

Speaker 2 over your life that's been a constant theme that you go back to? Is there something you heard as a kid that really resonates with you, or a book, or a movie that just feels like this is me?

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's funny um

Speaker 2 movies there are plenty but there's a quote from one of my english teachers at lower marion named uh mr fisk he had a great quote that said rest at the end not in the middle

Speaker 2 and that's something i always live by you know i'm not going to rest i'm going to keep on pushing now there are a lot of answers that i don't have even questions that i don't have but i'm just going to keep going i'm just going to keep going and i'll figure these things out as you go right and you just continue to build that that way so that i try to live by that all the time rest at the end rest at the end what's the question that eats you alive the most that you haven't answered yet

Speaker 2 the question that eats me alive that i haven't answered yet that you're still looking for the answer i'm still looking for the answer uh how to tell a good story

Speaker 1 I don't think

Speaker 1 anybody has that answer.

Speaker 2 You know, like when I sat down to write dear basketball, I was like, okay, what do I want to say?

Speaker 1 And,

Speaker 2 you know, you have certain acts and how you can structure certain things, right? The ebbs and flows of story,

Speaker 2 certain formulas that have been there since the beginning of time. But it's such an in that inexact so challenging, yeah.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 And so

Speaker 2 that one question is really interesting. Why do you want to tell a great story? I think stories is what moves the world.

Speaker 2 Whether it's an inspirational story, it's an informational one. nothing in this world moves without story.

Speaker 2 You know, be it from the political world, sports world, nothing that we have moves without story.

Speaker 2 And so I think that is the root of everything. And if we're going to try to make the world a better place,

Speaker 2 story is the right place to start.

Speaker 2 You were the epitome of the tough, strong bodybuilder football guy for a long time. And you portrayed this image in movies, TV, and all these different things.

Speaker 2 Why do you feel like you had that anger inside of you? And when did you realize that you needed to let it go?

Speaker 1 Well, wow, that's a great, great question, man. You know, for me,

Speaker 1 you know, my world was designed around competition. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, growing up in Flint, Michigan, it was in the middle when

Speaker 1 the auto industry imploded.

Speaker 1 You know, I was around 10 years old. And then the crack epidemic happened at the same time.
So you're talking about a double whammy on a city.

Speaker 1 And so it was very violent. You know, lots of crime, lots of drugs, lots of gangs, lots of

Speaker 1 powerlessness is what I like to call it.

Speaker 1 People felt powerless.

Speaker 1 Especially me. Okay.
Because you couldn't do anything about it. You know, one thing that people didn't know or forgot is around that time in the city, there would be smokestacks around the city.

Speaker 1 And what they were doing were burning foreign cars. Really? And I remember just seeing, you walked to school and you go across a...

Speaker 1 a parking lot in the factory and they'd be burning a car and effigy and throwing rocks at it and you know we ain't gonna have them damn, you know, Toyotas up in here, you know, because it was sporadic.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it just hit me about how,

Speaker 1 you know, the problem was the city was very resistant to change, but change is inevitable.

Speaker 1 And this is what I was going through. But it was also about competition.
It was always about, okay, it's got to be me versus this dope man.

Speaker 1 It's got to be me versus this gang initiation that they're trying to bring me into. It's got to be me versus, you know, the

Speaker 1 grown men in my neighborhood and in my area that were always challenging me as a young man. So you had to come up.

Speaker 1 And it made me very mad. Really? And growing up with an alcoholic father on top of all that.
Big Terry. Whitney, Big Terry.
Yeah, I was little Terry. He was Big Terry.

Speaker 1 And, you know, one of my earliest memories is him knocking my mother out. And I was like, got it, man.
You run the world right now until I do.

Speaker 1 I'm going to tell you now. How old were you then? Oh, I was five.
Oh, man. I was five.
But I have to tell you,

Speaker 1 one of the things I knew that my desire to get strong and my desire to have power and to be really, really just,

Speaker 1 I was obsessed with muscle even as a little kid. because I knew one day I might have to kill my father.

Speaker 2 Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 He was that dude.

Speaker 1 He was just, he was

Speaker 1 unending, never bending, just constant intimidation. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Fear, intimidation.

Speaker 1 You just didn't, you know, you didn't, you never felt comfortable. You never felt like he accepted you.
You always felt like something was wrong, you doing it wrong. You didn't iron your pants enough.

Speaker 1 You didn't do something enough. You didn't clean enough.

Speaker 1 You just felt always inadequate. And that was

Speaker 1 the mindset of a lot of men in that culture, in the city at the time I was growing up. And it wasn't going to let you, they weren't going to let you off easy.

Speaker 1 But when you asked them questions, they would never answer you.

Speaker 1 Why not?

Speaker 1 I don't know. See, that blew my mind.
Because I was like, okay, just tell me what you want. And they're like, well, one day you're going to find out.
Let me tell you, one day, one day you'll get it.

Speaker 1 And you're like, but I'm 12.

Speaker 1 Can you give me a clue? Yeah. Like, and man, it was, I mean,

Speaker 1 it was only after I grew up when I realized that they didn't know.

Speaker 1 So that was a kind of a cop out.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 it, it made me, I had a, a vow with my best friend and we were about 13, 14 years old. Because this was such a big problem.
Like his dad would never talk to him. And my dad would never talk to me.

Speaker 1 And the older adults wouldn't tell, you know, they would, only thing they would tell you about is how to be a pimp. You know, like, man, you want two or three girls, let me tell you how to do it.

Speaker 1 You know, this is the game you got to run. You know, like, that's the only thing they would volunteer.
But any of the other life stuff, like, what does this mean?

Speaker 1 What does life mean? What's the true meaning of this? And you ain't getting that. Go to church for that.

Speaker 1 And the whole concept with a lot of men in that world was that if you're scared, go to church. Like, you know, church was for scare people.
Interesting. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, no, no, we're too, we're too tough for that, you know?

Speaker 1 And what was so wild is

Speaker 1 we made a vow and we made a vow, me and my best friend, that, you know, we would, if you, I said, if you find out something before I do,

Speaker 1 promise me that you'll tell me. And if I find out anything that you need to know before you do, I'll tell you.
And we literally shook on it. I'll never forget it.
I'll never forget the day we did it.

Speaker 2 Did you guys start telling each other advice?

Speaker 1 We weren't just trying to find out stuff like oh man check this out about this is in school and this is this and this is this will this will get you to this level and man we got to start working out and man we got to do this you know because we were just alone yeah i mean this is in the early days of even fitness yeah there was no there were no information on fitness really about how to build your build your muscles really no yeah no we would get i remember ordering the books at the back of comic books where did you ever get can't sand kicked in your face and you know and i would get this little book and it had like drawings of people exercising.

Speaker 1 And then it had an old exerciser thing that was like a, it looked like a

Speaker 1 bow and arrow. And then we would just push it together and had a string and you just do that.
It was like

Speaker 1 primitive. But we were like eating anything up just to improve our lives.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it was a really, the competitive culture. created in me

Speaker 1 this thing.

Speaker 1 And when we talk about rage, what we're talking about is an attempt to control things you can't control.

Speaker 2 Because what couldn't you control at that time?

Speaker 1 Nothing.

Speaker 1 Outside, I just looked and it was like I had to do what everyone told me. And, you know, my father was addicted to alcohol, but my mother was addicted to religion.

Speaker 1 And he despised that, you know, because again, it was weak to him.

Speaker 2 But she was living in fear.

Speaker 1 And she was living in fear and so she's like hey we got to run under the protection of the church but it was a basically that's what christian cult i grew up in a church called the uh church of god in christ and it was so it was what you would call holy roller you know it was a lot of speaking in tongues and a lot of music and and shouting and bawling out and people running around and the whole thing.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I remember just feeling like I wanted that. I wanted to be close to that.
Like I said, okay, this is what God is,

Speaker 1 but I never felt it. Like I was going, when is it going to take me?

Speaker 1 Because I'd see everybody jumping and running and shouting. And I was like, it was like, well, you just got to feel it.
And I was like, but I don't feel it. And no one would tell me what was going on.

Speaker 1 And I mean, no one. My mother, my

Speaker 1 people in the church, I would be asking, like, when do you know how this feels? Like, is it supposed to grab you?

Speaker 1 And they were like, oh, if you don't, let me tell you, the day it freaked me out is what my pastor looked at me and he said, if you don't feel nothing, you must not have nothing.

Speaker 1 Oh, man, that's not fair. I went, what?

Speaker 2 So it's like forces you to try to act like you feel something to fit in or belong or.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. And now I'm bad.

Speaker 2 Oh, man.

Speaker 1 And so I learned real quick. I said, man, you got to have two lives.
You got to be this way in church. You got to be this.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 my father and mother fought constantly because of that. Yeah.
You know what I mean? But it was all about, listen, everything that I do now, I couldn't do as a kid. I couldn't play sports.

Speaker 1 I couldn't go to secular movies. I couldn't listen to secular music.
I couldn't dance. I couldn't do anything.
When I say nothing, I mean, I remember, I was like, what can I do?

Speaker 1 And they were like, sit down and shut up is what you can do. Wow.
And what I would do is listen to kids at school talk about the movies.

Speaker 1 They would talk about all the stuff that they saw and all this stuff. And I remember going home and drawing what I thought the movie was about.
And that's where my art

Speaker 1 ability came. I mean, it was hours of like, like imagining what this movie was.

Speaker 2 How old were you when you started drawing and being, you know, I was probably

Speaker 1 probably six, seven years old, but I remember kids talking about things that I couldn't experience.

Speaker 2 Did anyone teach you how to draw?

Speaker 1 I learned off comic books.

Speaker 2 You're so talented. I was doing your stuff.
But see, you got to understand. So you would see it and then you would kind of mimic what you're...

Speaker 1 Exactly.

Speaker 1 An Eve comic book or anything I saw, I would just try to, and let me tell you, I had the most frustrating experiences because nothing would look the same.

Speaker 1 And it was the desire for me to make things extremely real. And I wanted it to really come to life.

Speaker 1 And what would happen is I would be satisfied with the drawing like oh man this is good and then I go to bed and wake up and it would look bad again and you're talking about this for a young kid and then it just continued where this drive and this this whole thing because it had to look better than this and it's got to look better than yours when you're talking about a world of competition it created this excuse for your age.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 And now, I'm going to tell you, man, what happened for me, and especially once once I hit my teen years, I started living my life like I was in a revenge movie.

Speaker 1 Trying to get back at everyone, everything, the world, your dad. Remember the vow I made with my best friend? I made a lot of vows.

Speaker 1 And I vowed that I was going to get every person who ever doubted me,

Speaker 1 whoever...

Speaker 1 insulted me, whoever

Speaker 1 made me feel slightly uncomfortable. I was going to get you back.
Wow. And I was going to show you.
Now, let me tell you something.

Speaker 1 That

Speaker 1 is a recipe for tremendous success.

Speaker 1 You understand what I mean? Like, people expect you, oh no, it's going to fucking no.

Speaker 2 And also a lack of fulfillment, a lack of joy, a lack of peace inside of you. Now.
Because I was so similar.

Speaker 2 I wanted to prove everyone wrong. And I accomplished all these goals.
And I was like, but why am I still unfulfilled and angry?

Speaker 1 Listen, why am I so angry? You get a lot done. A lot and you're obsessed.
Extra energy. You know what I mean? Because I'm like, I was fully out.

Speaker 1 You got to understand, man. I would go in.
I remember I would do this stuff where I would go work out and then I would work out until I couldn't move.

Speaker 1 And then I would rest up and then I would go and I would flex my muscles until they cramped. And I would force my muscles into cramps.

Speaker 1 It was sadistic. It was masochistic.

Speaker 1 But I said, no one, I want this. Like, I will never stop doing sit-ups.
I will never stop.

Speaker 1 You know, again, I sit-ups and push-ups until my stomach, until I was curled over in tears.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 And then I'd go do more.

Speaker 1 Because I said, no one's going to beat me. Wow.
Never, ever, ever beat me. And listen, understand this, man.
You know what's so crazy? I didn't even like football. Really?

Speaker 1 Didn't like it at all. But it was my way out of Flint.

Speaker 1 It was also my way to code black.

Speaker 1 And this is what I mean. To code what? Code black.
Meaning in the black culture, sports coded like

Speaker 1 hard sports. And it was the way the drug dealers, the gang members, everybody would leave you alone if they knew you were an athlete.
Why is that?

Speaker 1 Because they said this man, he might go somewhere.

Speaker 1 He might do something. He might be, because you gotta understand, walking to school,

Speaker 1 here they come. I had to fight my way into school because it was like, who do you think you are? Who you okay? Oh, Mr.
Smart, you smart now, huh? And you're like, man, I'm

Speaker 1 why you talk so white.

Speaker 1 So, what I did, I remember developing a whole nother personality when I was out in the street. It was like, ah, man, what's up, man? Ah, you know, I don't even,

Speaker 1 you know me, yeah, boy.

Speaker 1 Right. And I would mimic that

Speaker 1 just so I couldn't. You fit in for it, right? Yeah.
You wouldn't get, you have ideas, you had I, you had goals, you had things you wanted, and all of a sudden you knew you didn't dumb down. Wow.

Speaker 1 They were like, wait, man,

Speaker 1 who you think you are?

Speaker 1 Remember, everything's a competition. Yeah.
So you think you're smarter than me? No, man.

Speaker 1 No, I'm just...

Speaker 1 But here I was, this artist drawing, really trying to excel, had ideas, I had visions, being a creative person.

Speaker 1 All in music too, right? Yeah, I was a flautist. It's crazy.
I hid that.

Speaker 1 I was able to do that in church. However, man.

Speaker 1 But see, this is another thing about the religion thing, which was nuts, is that, you know, here I was just, you know, I was a pleaser. I became a pleaser.

Speaker 1 It was like, all right, please my mom, whatever, please the alcoholic dad, whatever you want. Here's another beer, whatever.

Speaker 1 And my mother, what I decided was, I was going to be the best, you know, kid in the church.

Speaker 1 But then my church was a cult. It was crazy

Speaker 1 because a lot of it didn't make any sense. And it really hit the fan when my pastor, you know, we found out my pastor was selling drugs and using drugs out of the pulpit.

Speaker 1 He had several girlfriends in the church. I mean, everything imploded, you know, and everyone thought this guy who was so upstanding,

Speaker 1 you know, because this thing, even with religion, is that, you know, everybody starts out with great intentions, you know.

Speaker 2 And then power and success and money and people praising you. You got to learn to really stay humble in the face of success or fame.

Speaker 1 Exactly. How have you managed that?

Speaker 2 I mean.

Speaker 1 Well, for a long time I didn't. Really? I'm just being real.

Speaker 1 You know, there's two Terry Cruises and there's two experiences.

Speaker 1 You know, the competitive Terry Cruise was not humble. The competitive Terry Cruise would look humble so that you could be lulled into sleep so that I could destroy you.
Wow.

Speaker 1 I'm just telling you, man.

Speaker 2 When was this up until?

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. I mean, we're talking 2010.
Okay, wow. You know?

Speaker 1 And I was intense, dude, man. You understand? I knew, I said, this is how to work.
you were intense or still i'm still intense i'm still intense but i'm a different level

Speaker 1 you know uh my thing was man i

Speaker 1 i knew how to manipulate really what was the strategy what was the strategy well i would look at us whatever scene it was and what the rules were

Speaker 1 and i knew how to play the game wow but it was always to beat people to tell them to be number one to be a little bit better than or always i mean it got me to the nfl of course i mean dude, it goes a long way.

Speaker 1 Like I said, I didn't even like football, but that way of life, the NFL is like, come here.

Speaker 1 We like you.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Oh,

Speaker 1 you're going to be good. You know, they say the phrase I've heard before is that,

Speaker 1 you know, the best soldiers know how to check their morality. Like, to decide, like, keep it away.
Because you're a good soldier. Don't think about what's right or wrong.
Right.

Speaker 1 Don't really get that out

Speaker 2 of your psychology. What's good and bad.

Speaker 1 Now, yeah, now you can do whatever we need. And

Speaker 1 I determined that I was going to be that dude, like whatever it took.

Speaker 1 And you got to understand is that this kind of mindset is very rewarded.

Speaker 2 Of course.

Speaker 1 It's very, you know, I was tough. I was

Speaker 1 You know, and this rage would also, I could turn it on to the point where I could beat people up. Like

Speaker 1 I could start, I started to defend myself. You know, I got from being a little kid to being a big teenager to being, you know, what they say, he's got a little neck.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like when you get some traps and you get like, whoa, okay.

Speaker 1 Gang members think twice. You know what I mean? They're like, all right, all right, because again, everything's a challenge, man.
Yeah. To an exhausting level.
Was there ever a point where

Speaker 2 you felt like like you were strong enough and big enough to beat up your dad?

Speaker 1 Well, I did. How old were you? I was 30 years old.
Really?

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 got to understand the context of what happened. My father, you know, I was already, I just started my acting career and I just got a show.
It was a TV show called Battle Dome.

Speaker 1 And I retired from the NFL.

Speaker 1 And I think I was around 29, 30 years. No, I was 30 years old.
So I took my family home for Christmas and I told my father

Speaker 1 back to Flint from LA and I told my father, do not act up, man. Because this is the thing about holidays for alcoholics.
Oh, man.

Speaker 1 It's the worst, man. I mean, they go right back.
It's all the bad memories and they need to placate and they need to medicate with alcohol. And I said, man, look, my kids have never seen this.

Speaker 1 My kids never came up in this. And at the time, I had three girls.
And I said, dude, do not act up. Okay.

Speaker 1 he said no I ain't gonna do nothing man ain't nothing wrong with you you know I don't know what you're talking about so I take him home and me and we all over there everything's going fine and my wife and I are headed to Detroit to hang out with some friends so it's about a 45 minute drive we're about 10 minutes into the drive and I get this call from my aunt and she's like Terry your father hit your mother oh I said, what?

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 1 And what happened, he knocked her tooth sideways. Like, it was hanging out of her mouth.
And I mean, he hit her right in the mouth. Oh, man.
And then I found out, Lewis, he did it in front of my kids.

Speaker 1 Oh, no.

Speaker 1 And they were all privy to this.

Speaker 1 Something that I vowed to. The trigger went in deep.

Speaker 2 I said, take the kids

Speaker 1 over to aunt's house. I said, just leave them there.

Speaker 1 I dropped my wife off. I drove over the house.
And I'm looking at him. And I met with him.
I'm like, hey, dude, didn't I tell you? And he was like, oh, that's you.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 And I mean, let me tell you something, man. I don't know how long the beating happened.

Speaker 2 Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 2 Because you black out. I black out.

Speaker 1 And when you get to that level of rage, I know that feeling.

Speaker 2 You don't feel anything. You don't think anything.

Speaker 1 It's a.

Speaker 1 You know what? Even.

Speaker 1 Ooh, I'm getting. It's

Speaker 1 just thinking about it,

Speaker 1 it was so like, because all I could remember was being like five years old

Speaker 1 and feeling so weak and powerless as he was doing this to my mother. And we just had to take it.
I was, I was like, I can't, what can I do? Right. He's a giant.
Yeah. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 I can't do anything. And

Speaker 1 man, now I'm 30 years old.

Speaker 2 You're big, you're strong.

Speaker 1 Post-NFL.

Speaker 1 I've never had an injury. I'm ready to go.

Speaker 2 And you've got 30 years of pent-up rage.

Speaker 1 30 years.

Speaker 2 And resentment.

Speaker 1 And I beat his ass

Speaker 1 all over that house. Wow.
And Lewis, let me tell you, man, I felt nothing. At the end, I thought this was it.
I thought,

Speaker 1 this is the revenge I've been waiting for. I told you not to do it.
This is it. Now,

Speaker 1 you're going to get everything full for

Speaker 1 all Terry Cruz is going to blast you.

Speaker 1 And when I was done, I remember I beat him from the bottom, all the way, bottom of the house, all the way up to his room because he was trying to run from me.

Speaker 1 And he was trying, he ran into his room, and I busted the door down, man, and still kept beating him, right?

Speaker 1 He's on the ground in tears, bleeding, tears, the whole thing.

Speaker 1 I'm sitting on this bed.

Speaker 1 I just look at my hands and I'm like,

Speaker 1 I'm just like you.

Speaker 1 It didn't work.

Speaker 1 It didn't work, man. It was supposed to work.

Speaker 2 What were you hoping to feel?

Speaker 1 I mean, release. Like, there it is.
I said it right. You're supposed to feel justice.
You're supposed to feel like this is this. Now the score has been settled.

Speaker 1 And when I say living life like a revenge movie, I mean it. But you got to understand, that stuff is better than sex.
Right. You look at a movie like that, you're like, man, yes, get them valuable.

Speaker 1 It feels one at a time. Like, yes.

Speaker 1 And here I was, I was living it. I was like, this is man on fire live.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying? This is like get back city. This is the payback.

Speaker 1 And I was like, nothing.

Speaker 1 Nothing.

Speaker 1 And I was like,

Speaker 1 I'm done. And I left.

Speaker 1 And I never went home for 10 years. Really? 10 years.
And my mom went right back to him.

Speaker 1 Didn't change any of the home situation.

Speaker 1 Didn't fix not one thing.

Speaker 1 And I was,

Speaker 1 I just remember going through all these issues and all this stuff. Like, oh my God.

Speaker 1 I lost it, man. And I couldn't go home.
I couldn't even deal with it.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 that was the thing that I said, that rage, it was uncontrollable.

Speaker 1 But I took it out on other people.

Speaker 1 And I never, like, even though I didn't beat him up again and didn't go back home, that rage was still inside. It was still inside of you.
And I was doing that to various people in the street.

Speaker 1 There's a long list of people. who've been knocked out by me.

Speaker 1 And what's so crazy is that a lot of people go, oh no, Terry, no.

Speaker 1 You're funny funny and you're so nice.

Speaker 1 My wife would be like, he's not on even you. Y'all have no idea.

Speaker 2 He wasn't so nice back then.

Speaker 1 Because I could flip. Of course.
Oh, no. You have to understand, you know, being two people

Speaker 1 and learning how to manipulate and move, you know, that's why it would shock everybody. Right.

Speaker 2 Because you could be the lovable, fun, energetic, passionate guy, but if there was a wound that was being triggered,

Speaker 2 the other Terry came out.

Speaker 1 It would be a nuclear bomb. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.

Speaker 2 Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links.

Speaker 2 And if you want weekly, exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 2 Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review.

Speaker 2 I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward.

Speaker 2 And I want to remind you of no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something

Speaker 2 great.

Speaker 2 The School of Greatness is sponsored by Capital One.

Speaker 2 Nowadays, most people subscribe to everything, music, TV, even dog food, and it rocks until you have to manage it all, which is where Capital One comes in.

Speaker 2 Capital One credit card holders can easily track, block, or cancel reoccurring charges right from the Capital One mobile app at no additional cost.

Speaker 2 With one sign-in, you can manage all your subscriptions all in one place. Learn more at capital1.com/slash subscriptions.
Terms and conditions apply.

Speaker 5 Hey, it's Parker Posey. How did I get here? I love improvisation when it comes to acting, but when it comes to a real-life plan, I stick to a script.
Cue the music.

Speaker 3 Invest in your story with DIA, the only ETF that tracks the DAO from State Street.

Speaker 1 Getting there starts here.

Speaker 3 Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Visit state street.com/slash IM for a prospectus containing this and other information.
Read it carefully.

Speaker 3 DIA is subject to risks similar to those of stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal.
Alps Distributors, Inc. Distributor.