The School of Greatness

Overthinking starts the moment one bad thought gets stuck on a loop and refuses to leave.
Dr. Ethan Kross, a University of Michigan psychologist who has studied chatter for over 20 years, sat down with Lewis to explain why your inner voice spirals and how to pull it back. His book, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It, lays out 26 tools, and he walks through a handful of them here.
The simplest one sounds strange at first. You coach yourself silently, using your own name, the way LeBron James and Jennifer Lawrence both did in interviews. Ethan's team texted people five times a day for two weeks to track this kind of self-talk and found no link to narcissism at all.
He also explains why venting to a friend can turn into co-rumination and leave you just as upset as when you started. A moment of awe in nature can shrink your problems, and Rafael Nadal lines up his water bottles because the ritual gives him “the order I seek in my head.”
Negative emotions still have a job to do, and the anxiety and stress you feel before a big moment can push you to prepare. When Lewis asked for his three truths, Ethan ended on a phrase he grew up with: “Be a mensch.”
Shift: Managing Your Emotions--So They Don't Manage You
Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It
Ethan's Website
In this episode you will:
Silence spiraling overthinking by coaching yourself with your own name, the way Dr. Ethan Kross does
Use mental time travel to shrink today's crisis by picturing yourself years from now
Stop venting sessions that turn into co-rumination and leave you more upset
Pick a small board of chatter advisors who actually help you move forward
Calm anxious chatter with rituals, awe in nature and a tidier space
Reframe stress as your body rising to meet the challenge
For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/2006
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Manifestation only works when you stop doubting, and sometimes what you end up manifesting is peace.
Lil Jon, the award-winning producer behind Yeah and Turn Down for What, sat down with Lewis to talk about turning 50 and realizing he could not name a single thing that made him happy except doing things for other people.
He shares how his daily affirmations inside a copper pyramid carried him through a divorce after 18 years, and why he finally called his old mentor Paul Lewis to apologize 25 years too late. He goes deeper in his book I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me, along with the meditation and gratitude habits that rebuilt his happiness.
You also hear how his album Crunk Rock flopped without a single song landing. He kept producing anyway, and the next thing he made was Turn Down for What.
After a therapy session helped him see his son's side of a tense call, Lil Jon phoned him back and said, “I'm sorry. I hear you and I see you.” His son was gone the next morning.
Pre-Order: I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me
Lil Jon's Instagram
Lil Jon's Facebook
In this episode you will:
Hear the apology call Lil Jon made to his son the day before he died
Learn how to make the hard call today instead of assuming you have time later
Build a daily affirmation practice that clears out bad energy
Manifest what you have never had by refusing to let doubt in
Bounce back from a flop the way Lil Jon did before Turn Down for What
Find peace through acceptance when life takes what you cannot control
For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/2005
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You can save a million dollars and still feel broke if the fear behind your money never got the message that you're safe.
Tiffany Aliche, a former preschool teacher who built The Budgetnista and wrote Get Good With Money, sat down with Lewis to tell how a friend she calls “Jake the thief” talked her into $35,000 in credit card cash advances. The recession took her teaching job soon after, and at 30 she was almost $300,000 in debt and back in her middle school bed.
Her first year in business grossed $8,000. Years later she brought in $10 million in a single year and felt worse than ever. A nurse took her blood pressure twice while she kept typing on her laptop in the exam room.
She calls it post-traumatic broke syndrome. With Lewis she gets into how shame keeps your debt hidden and why she named her older self Wanda, the woman she budgets for today.
Then her husband had a terrible headache on a Monday and was gone by Friday. What came after is something her therapist calls “the gift of grief.”
Made Whole: The Practical Guide to Reaching Your Financial Goals
Get Good with Money: Ten Simple Steps to Becoming Financially Whole
Live Richer Challenge: Homebuying Edition: Learn how to how to prepare for, finance and purchase your home in 22 days.
Live Richer Challenge: Savings Edition: Learn how to save your money and make more money in 22 days!
Get Good With Money Quiz
TheBudgetnista.com
Tiffany on Instagram
In this episode you will:
Break free from post-traumatic broke syndrome, the fear that keeps you hoarding cash while life passes by
Discover how Tiffany Aliche climbed out of $300,000 in debt after losing her job
Silence the shame that blocks your money solutions by finding your own Linda
Write a plan for every dollar before it arrives so money stops bossing you around
Protect your older self by giving your future self a name and a budget
Stop chasing eight figures at the cost of your health and the people you love
For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/2004
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Two small words and one pause cut a restaurant’s no-shows by 67%, and the science of persuasion behind that will change how you ask for things.
Dr. Robert Cialdini, a research psychologist who wrote Influence: The New and Expanded Psychology of Persuasion, sat down with Lewis to walk through the seven principles he found after secretly training in sales programs. Lewis credits the book with turning his broke, couch-surfing years into a business that took off within months.
Kids handed a balloon at the door led their parents to buy 25% more food, and asking “Do you support the Boy Scouts?” lifted popcorn sales from 15% to 55%. Cialdini shares why you should ask for advice instead of feedback, and why “Congratulations on your commitment” beats praising progress.
He also gets honest about his own struggle to say praise out loud, a habit he picked up from parents who held it back. Now he makes himself say it, which costs nothing and changes the mood of any room he walks into.
Your next email or sales pitch will look different after this, and so might your next hard talk with someone you love. Start by giving first and pointing to what is already true.
Influence, New and Expanded: The Essential Guide to the Psychology of Influence and Persuasion in Everyday Life
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
In this episode you will:
Triple your yes rate by asking one pre-suasion question before your request
Master the seven principles of influence Robert Cialdini uncovered training undercover
Turn cold outreach into replies using similarity and genuine praise in your first line
Harness reciprocity by giving something meaningful first, before you ever ask
Discover how unity builds a “we” that makes compromise easier
Use loss aversion ethically so people act now instead of drifting away
For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/2003
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Your voice feels like who you are, but it might just be a habit you picked up as a kid.
Vinh Giang, a communication coach with more than 17 million followers, sat down with Lewis to talk about public speaking and confidence, and why the way you sound can change faster than you think. He changed his own name at 14 to break free of being the bullied, stone-faced kid who barely spoke English.
He gives you a 15 minute exercise: record yourself talking for five minutes, then review it with the sound only, then with the picture only, then as a transcript. Pick one fix from each pass. One of his students just spoke louder, used their hands and dropped the ums, and came across like a different person.
Then it gets personal. Vinh tells the story of his uncle Yibet, who captained the family's boat out of Vietnam and left the love of his life behind, a story he only found the courage to write in Before We Forget How to Connect.
The next time something feels fake when you try it, you might hear Vinh's reminder that it is just unfamiliar.
Pre-Order: Before We Forget How to Connect: Be Heard, Be Seen, and Communicate with Confidence
Vinh's Instagram
Vinh's YouTube
Vinh's Website
In this episode you will:
Spot the invisible speaking habits you've repeated for decades and start changing them
Use Vinh Giang's look, feel and sound review to fix your delivery fast
Build gripping stories with the spark, point and link storytelling method
Find your natural voice again after years of speaking in a habitual one
Quiet stage nerves by shifting your focus from yourself to your audience
Turn a story of shame into one you proudly open with
For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/2002
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