The School of Greatness

Ryan Leak spent the last day of his twenties at a speaking event where a woman told him his documentary had pulled a young man off the floor of a crack house and back into life, and that single moment changed how he decided to spend the next decade of his career.

What makes this conversation surprising is how openly Ryan admits he is still working through his own lies, like the belief that the only value he brings to the world is what people see on a stage or a screen.

He talks directly to anyone who has ever burned energy on relationships that were never really friendships, anyone who has reacted to a difficult person and become someone they did not recognize in the process, and anyone who keeps saying yes when everything inside them is asking them to pause.

Ryan lays out a practical case for why becoming proactive instead of reactive is the only real solution to handling difficult people, and why the most generous thing you can give someone is not money but a path to make their own.

The episode closes with a question every listener deserves to sit with: if you stayed on the exact same path for another decade, would you look back knowing you truly went for it, or would you realize you were playing it safe inside something that felt comfortable?

The Greatness Playbook: The Self-Trust Edition

Ryan's Website

Ryan’s books:

How to Work with Complicated People: Strategies for Effective Collaboration with (Nearly) Anyone

How to Work with Complicated People: A Survival Guide

Leveling Up: 12 Questions to Elevate Your Personal and Professional Development

UnOffendable

Chasing Failure: How Falling Short Sets You Up for Success

In this episode you will:

Discover why reacting to difficult people is the one habit guaranteed to turn you into someone you do not want to be, and what to do instead

Learn how to identify the difference between a good opportunity and the right one, using a simple prayer practice that cuts through the noise

Uncover the lies you have been telling yourself about your potential and why the story that starts with "I can't" is the one costing you the most

Recognize which relationships in your life are real friendships and which ones are draining you with the illusion of closeness

Understand why generosity at its highest level has nothing to do with money and everything to do with putting people in a position to grow

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1920

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:

Lewis Howes Solo [STOP Letting People Walk All Over You]

Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts

Tabitha Brown

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Pastor Michael Todd reveals something most high achievers refuse to admit: the drive fueling their rise is often rooted in a wound they have never faced.

He shares the moment he realized his obsession with greatness traced back to a 12-year-old boy sitting on a maroon chair, told he wasn't good enough to play drums in the big church, and how that single unprocessed moment shaped decades of his life.

That pattern lives in so many of us: we build careers, relationships, and whole identities on top of old damage without ever treating the root. Michael breaks down why people struggle to love and be loved, how unhealed trauma quietly transfers to the people closest to you, and what it actually means to bring your full self to a relationship instead of a defended version.

Whether you're healing inside a committed relationship or doing the work alone, this conversation gives you language and tools to start going to the root. So what you build from here can actually last.

Michael’s books:

Damaged but Not Destroyed

Crazy Faith

Relationship Goals

Transformation Church

In this episode you will:

Discover why your relationships reflect the level of love you have for yourself and how to raise that floor

Learn how to identify the root wound beneath your most self-destructive patterns before it costs you everything you've built

Understand how to heal inside a committed relationship rather than waiting until you feel ready on your own

Recognize the moment your drive for success stops serving you and starts threatening your legacy

Gain a framework for choosing the right partner by getting clear on purpose before chasing chemistry

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1919

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:

Lewis Howes Solo [Start Taking Care of Yourself]

Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts

Andrew Huberman

Get more from Lewis!
Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!
Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on Spotify
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Amy Purdy walked into an operating room at 19 about to lose both legs, and instead of collapsing into fear, she gave herself three goals before the anesthesia took hold.

You know that feeling when life pulls the ground out from under you and every identity you had disappears overnight? Amy has lived that more than once, and what she discovered is that the challenges you most want to escape are actually moving you closer to your purpose, not away from it.

The key is learning to lean into problems rather than run, to find the smallest sliver of possibility and let it grow.

In this conversation, you will walk away with practical tools for building a new identity after loss, understanding why your struggles are not obstacles but doorways, and discovering how staying present transforms the way you compete, create, and connect.

Amy’s books:

Bounce Forward: 21 Tools to Live a Life Beyond Limits

On My Own Two Feet

Amy on Instagram

In this episode you will:

Learn how to set a north star in the middle of crisis so fear does not get to make your decisions

Discover why leaning into your problems instead of avoiding them is the only way to find real strength

Understand how to step into a new identity after loss without pretending the old one did not matter

Recognize the hidden reason so many high achievers crash after reaching their biggest goals

Find out how shifting your focus from outcome to contribution changes everything about why you show up

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1918

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:

Shaun White

Mikaela Shiffrin

Lindsey Vonn

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Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!
Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on Spotify
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Dr Joe Dispenza drops a finding that most people are not ready for: a seven-day meditation retreat produces measurably greater healing than most pharmaceutical drugs, with 80% of participants expressing the same healing genes by the end.

If you have ever tried to think positive and felt nothing shift, Dr Joe explains why that happens and what your body is actually doing instead. Most of us are unknowingly running 95% of our lives from subconscious programs rooted in the past, and our bodies quite literally cannot accept thoughts that contradict what they have already been conditioned to feel.

The path forward is not more willpower or better affirmations. It is learning to match your thoughts with a new feeling so completely that your biology has no choice but to change.

The Greatness Playbook: The Future Self Edition

Dr Joe’s books:

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself

Becoming Supernatural

You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter

Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind

Dr Joe’s website

Dr Joe’s retreats

Dr Joe’s retreat testimony

The Breastmilk Study

In this episode you will:

Understand why positive thinking alone fails and what your body actually needs to accept a new belief as real

Learn how your brain's default mode network traps you in predictable patterns and what seven days of focused practice can do to rewire it

Discover how advanced meditators are producing factors in their blood that stop cancer cells from multiplying and moving

Explore the quantum field science behind how focused intention can influence healing in people who are not in the same room or even the same country

Identify the one emotional shift required to move from survival mode into the kind of creative energy that makes transformation possible

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1917

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:

Lewis Howes Solo [Stop Blocking the Life You Want]

Eckhart Tolle

Price Pritchett

Get more from Lewis!
Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!
Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on Spotify
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Michael Pollan cuts through nutrition confusion and exposes the uncomfortable truth: ultra processed foods now make up more than 60% of the American diet, and they're engineered to manipulate your body and brain.

Most foods you think are healthy, like plant-based burgers with 21 synthetic ingredients and diet sodas that trick your metabolism, are actually sabotaging your health and creating cravings that trap you in a cycle of poor eating. Your gut microbiome holds the key to everything from your weight to your mental health, and it's starving without the 30 different plants per week it needs to thrive.

By understanding how food companies exploit your evolutionary instincts for sweetness and fat, you can reclaim control and use Pollan's seven-word mantra to make choices that honor both pleasure and nutrition. The transformation begins when you stop lying to your body about what you're eating and start thinking of food as medicine rather than entertainment.

Michael’s books:

This Is Your Mind on Plants

How to Change Your Mind

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Botany of Desire

In this episode you will:

Identify the hidden ingredients in "healthy" foods that are actually toxic to your body

Learn why diet sodas sabotage weight loss faster than regular soda

Discover the 10 trillion organisms in your gut that control your mood and metabolism

Master Michael Pollan's seven-word mantra for eating real food

Understand how to retrain your appetite signals to stop overeating at every meal

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1916

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness

More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:

Dr. David Perlmutter

Glucose Goddess

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Get more from Lewis!
Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!
Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on Spotify
Text Lewis AI
YouTube
Instagram
Website
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Facebook
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