The Fastest Way To Make $10,000 A Month | Chris Koerner

23:26Now, a couple of times I screwed up and I remember I put a screwdriver through someone's screen. I broke their screen. I was fixing the battery, but I broke the screen and it was a$700 brand new iPhone four. And I had to go to the Verizon store and spend like a week's worth of sales revenue on a new iPhone. And she was okay. But like, had I waited six months to learn and perfect, A, I'm going to lose momentum. Probably. I'm probably going to lose steam. I never even open. Who knows where I am? Never. Right. Or B, if I do end up opening, I miss out on tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sales waiting six months to open.

24:05So net of net, the 2 ,000 I had to spend in broken iPhones made me an extra six figures because I opened that much sooner and I didn't lose the momentum. them.

24:14Lewis Howes:So that's one example of doing it right and wrong. It's like learning on the fly instead of waiting till you feel like you're perfectly mastered the skill. A lot of people wait until they feel like I need to get more degrees, more education, more training until I can launch. They play the perfection game and they never make any money or they never launch something because they need it to be perfect first before just launching. Whereas you launched, made mistakes, lost money, but learned through the mistakes and then kept earning on, on the way. Yes. And that is the difference between someone who's a perfectionist and someone who's an entrepreneur willing to get dirty and messy right away.

24:55Lewis Howes:I'm the opposite of a perfectionist. You could use more of that in your life, probably like, okay, let's try to optimize this. But look, I look at it as tuition. Yes, of course. We'll go to university and spend$8 ,000 a semester, but we won't be willing to lose a couple hundred bucks on a couch on Facebook Marketplace. But if we make a couple hundred bucks, we're being paid to learn. It's like going to a state school and they're paying you to go there. That doesn't happen. But in business, if we're willing to learn as we do the thing, worst case, we lose a little money, but we learn. It's just tuition.

25:28Or we get paid to learn and we have a little extra stress along the way.

25:35Lewis Howes:When it comes to your health and wellness, it really comes down to feeling confident in the choices you make every day. Being able to trust what you put in your body matters. Whether you're tackling fitness goals, building a wellness routine, or just picking up everyday essentials for your family, having everything in one place makes it easier to stay consistent. That's where iHerb comes in. They offer vitamins, supplements, sports nutrition, personal care, and even grocery, baby, and pet products. For nearly 30 years, iHerb has delivered authentic wellness products sourced directly from trusted brands and authorized partners to more than 15 million customers worldwide.

26:12Lewis Howes:And if something doesn't meet your expectations, they make it right with easy returns and simple refunds. Visit iHerb.com and use code GREATNESS for 20 % off your order. The School of Greatness is brought to you in partnership with Airbnb. And there's something really meaningful about creating a space where people can come in, they can feel comfortable and make memories in a new city. And I've experienced this firsthand through a space that I share on Airbnb. It's a place where people come into town for something special like a concert, a big game, or a fun weekend. And it's a moment they've been looking forward to.

26:49Lewis Howes:And I love putting thought into that experience for others, making it feel clean, calm, and welcoming and adding those little touches that make someone feel like they're cared for when they walk in, it's really special. That's one of the things I appreciate about sharing a space on Airbnb because it gives you a chance to create a great experience for someone else while also earning extra money. Listing your space on Airbnb is a great way to make extra money during those moments. And if you've ever thought about hosting, consider planning around major events in your city. Your home might be worth more than you think.

27:28Lewis Howes:Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. You know those moments when you're ordering everything to your house? From groceries, gear, random things you didn't even realize you needed until the last minute? It just makes life a little easier. And now you can add internet to that list. Get same-day delivery for T-Mobile 5G home internet powered by DoorDash. No store visits, no waiting around for a technician. It shows up, you plug it in, and you're online in about 15 minutes with one cord. T-Mobile has the fastest 5G home internet. For me, working from home on the podcast, that simplicity matters a lot.

28:08Lewis Howes:I'm on video calls, uploading episodes, researching guests, and sending emails. And when everything just works and I don't have to think about it, I stay focused on what actually matters. It fits right into my workflow and it keeps things moving throughout the day. Visit t-mobile.com slash home internet to check availability and get your home internet delivered today. Same day delivery for most internet eligible customers. See if it's an option during checkout. Fastest according to Ookla speed test intelligence data, second half 2025, all rights reserved. Why do so many people lack the mindset to learn and make money rather than pay to learn.

28:57Lewis Howes:You know what I mean? So many people feel like they have to spend 200 grand on a degree until they can start making money. Whereas you started saying, even though you went to school and paid tuition, but you said, all right, I'm gonna not go to business school. I'm just going to start running a business and learn while I get paid. and I might make mistakes and lose money along the way, but that's my price of admission to learning. Yeah. I think people create artificial stakes for themselves because they think if I pay to learn this thing, I'm going to be more likely to do it because they look back on their life in a negative way.

29:37They're like, you didn't do this, Chris. You were supposed to do this. You didn't follow through. So if I pay 2000 for this thing, I'm actually going to do it. It's going to kick my butt into gear. what I've noticed is there's zero correlation between how much you pay to learn the thing or to learn the skill and you actually following through and doing it. There's no correlation. So just do it.

29:59Lewis Howes:Just go watch YouTube. Right. But why are people afraid of launching something? Why are they afraid to start the business? Is it the fear of failing and it not working out? Is it the fear of what other people say about them when it doesn't work out? Is it the fear of success? What if it does work out and I make all this money and now I have all this people and team and taxes and problems that, you know, come with that as well. What is the greatest fear about being able to launch something and make money around it? I don't think that fear of failure is real. I don't think that exists. I don't think anyone has an actual fear of failure.

30:38Here's my analogy. You're stranded on a desert island and you know that the mainland is like 30 miles away, but you got to get there. So are you going to be too afraid to fail at building your boat to not even build your boat? No, you're going to try to build a boat. If you fail, you know, you get a mile out and it fails, you have to swim back and build a better version. Fine. Who cares? You have to do it. But if you were, if someone was live streaming you to the whole world or to your 300, you know, Facebook friends or to the six people that you played high school football with, you would approach that completely differently.

31:15You would really want to perfect that raft because you're embarrassed. You don't want to be put on the spot. So what you said is the absolute truth. It's the fear of the perception of failure from others. That's the only thing we're afraid of. It's not one of the things. It's not the fear of failure. It's what will people think about me if I fail. The thing is, if you do fail, they're probably not going to think anything about you. Maybe for a moment and then they move on. It doesn't matter. Yeah. It doesn't matter at all.

31:46Lewis Howes:Which business did you think this is going to be a home run? And when I launched this, that you're like, man, these other people are doing this. It's working. Like, this is going to be a home run. It's going to be easy. That was actually kind of like a dud or a failure for you. Which one did I not think that? I am the most delusional optimist ever. I got tested for ADHD in college and she said, you don't have ADHD. You have delusions of grandeur. I was like, wow, I paid 1800 bucks as a poor college student to learn that. Thank you so much. So I'm just, uh, I'm just an optimist, unashamed optimist.

32:24Right. So I launched businesses because I believe they'll be successful. And I truly believe that any business could be successful with the right distribution. I can tell you the dumbest idea in the world right now, objectively dumb, right? And if Elon Musk tweeted about it, he'd sell thousands of units. Distribution. Distribution. So with the internet, that's the asterisk, 4 billion people are on the internet. With that, if you can find the right message, the right offer, the right pricing, the right audience, the right channel, is it Facebook ads? Is it Google ads? Whatever. If you can find it, you can sell anything.

32:59And I firmly believe that. So with that framework in mind, I love every business idea. Even with a horrible product, you can sell, you can sell it well online, you think? Yeah. Because you could position it as a meme or as like a, I mean, this guy makes a million bucks shipping potatoes to people. Really? Like it's like a prank potato or like vulgar things to people or glitter bombs. Like if you can make it a meme, like if you can make someone like sell farts on a bottle or something, it's like crazy. rock made millions of dollars that's true that was like one of the first meme products that's true so i think anything i start uh will be successful because i know that it can be what thing hasn't been successful under your most of them really like i'm i forget i i forget all negativity like

33:44Lewis Howes:i just i just like on to the next on to the next how long will you you create launch and try to market something until you say, oh, it's either not working. And is it because it's not working or you haven't found the right distribution yet? It always comes down to distribution. So if I pivot it all to a different business, it comes down to opportunity costs for me. You want to keep working on this one until you find it. That might be months. It might be years. Who knows? It might cost a lot more money for the distribution. There's a lot of people out there saying that you should focus, focus, focus.

34:16And there's a lot of truth to that, but no one's talking about opportunity cost. I was trying back in 2016. I was really trying to focus on my business. I had a good business. It was doing millions of dollars a year. I had no reason to be distracted. Then I started learning about Bitcoin, right? Bitcoin. And I was just like, and my business started to slip because you were putting more time and energy on Bitcoin. Like what is this? Why? And I bought a bunch of Bitcoin and I still own it today. And net of net, I did much better being distracted by Bitcoin. But it could have been worse. You could have lost it all.

34:50But you either win or you learn, right? I would have, you know, learnings compound just like money does. So if I would have lost it all, then those learnings would have compounded for the better in some other weird random way that might seem uncorrelated on the surface. So I, I don't launch something that I'm not excited about, but I don't launch everything I'm excited about because I'm excited about everything.

35:16Lewis Howes:So you're excited about everything. Yeah. What is the thing that launched in the last three years? That was the easiest to make money with that you did. It always comes down to like product market fit, the right pricing, the right offer to the right person and the right time. And that doesn't usually last forever. it might be a six month window or something, right? Yes. So in a few years ago, four or five years ago, I went to this gas station called Bucky's and there's only 50 locations. It's a huge gas station. There's biggest grocery stores and they did not sell any of their products online.

35:52And that seemed like a missed opportunity to me. So this is one of those business ideas. I'm like, these guys, they're a billion dollar company. They don't sell anything online. They have shirts. They have, they're like the redneck Disney. It's like a cult cult following. It's mostly Texas or where is this? Yeah. They started there, but now they're everywhere. They're in Utah. They're, they're going to Washington, DC. They're all over. And so my business partner and I launched a store to get their attention and it worked. And it was just like an online store. We launched a Shopify store to get their attention with their stuff and sold.

36:24I went to their store with my four kids and wife. We bought one of everything. I hired a photographer. One of everything. One of everything. and I just started cold emailing reporters. I just did what anyone in the world could do. I used my Gmail account. I went to Southern Living, Eater, Texas Monthly and I just found, oh, who wrote this? So-and-so at texasmonthly.com. I started emailing, hey, I like Buc-ee's. I launched a store for them. I thought you would find this interesting. And they need stuff to write about. So they did and it went mega viral. We did hundreds of thousands of dollars our first 30 days.

36:56Selling their products. Their products, just marking it up. Did they sue you for this or no? No. They just wanted us to make sure it wasn't confusing to the customer. They didn't want us to look like them. It's called first sale doctrine. Like I can go sell a Nike t-shirt. I just can't pretend to be Nike. Sure. Right? Yeah. It's no different. So we did that. We started that six years ago and it does millions of dollars a year. Still. Still. Yeah.

37:19Lewis Howes:And we have a ton of competitors too. And you're selling their gear and you don't have a partnership with them. You just do it on their own. Correct. Wow. Yeah. That's interesting. and is still doing millions in sales a year. Yeah. And I think it's important to talk about opportunity costs and distraction and all that because the backstory behind that was my partner and I had a fulfillment company. And part of the reason for us launching this e-commerce brand was to generate attention to get more customers for our fulfillment brand. At the end of the day, that fulfillment company was doing$300 ,000 a month in revenue, wasn't very profitable.

37:55We ended up shutting it down to focus on this full-time. So at the time we had every justification in the world to say, okay, that, okay, cute. We're going to viral marketing stunt. Cool. But like, we've got, we're doing 300 ,000 a month. Let's keep our eye on the prize. You don't realize that business is going to fail a year later, even though we kept staying focused on it. So had I not been distracted, this business today would never, would never exist.

38:20Lewis Howes:It would be someone else's story to tell. In the last year, I feel like I've seen so many different individuals launch side hustles, businesses online specifically that are bringing them six figures a month or seven figures a year what are a couple of things that you've seen that anyone with a small audience has been able to be successful with if they really focus their attention on that i'm going to say small audience is like 400 followers okay so anyone this could apply to anyone um ai consulting that's it everyone needs it everyone needs ai it's so ai is is not like the mobile wave or the internet or crypto or nfts or web 3 a large percentage of people on all of those things thought that they were fads right nobody rational thinks ai is a fad nobody thinks like ai is just going to go away and fizzle out nobody it's here to stay they've done surveys of small business owners and 85 of them know they need to use AI and like 12 % of them are in any meaningful way.

39:26And of those 12%, they're like getting chat GPT's help with emails. So there's this massive disconnect between what it's like cognitive dissonance. Like we know we should be doing something and we're not. And so all we need are individuals with a chat GPT account, a cloud account, grok, whatever it is to just learn some skills, learn how to prompt, um, 10 % of all adults are business owners. Okay. So there's 350 million Americans, 35 million business owners. Um, which means that if you have 400 Facebook friends, 40 of them are business owners. You sit down with your friend, go to Starbucks with them, open the voice memos app on your phone, hit record and just say, tell me about your business.

40:07Well, you know, okay. What sucks about your business? Oh man. Hiring is, can't find customers. And then just keep peeling back the layers. Why? Like, why is it hard? Like just get to the heart of what they're struggling with in their business. And the framework for having this meeting is like, I'm trying to learn AI, but I need something to learn with. Like I need something to hold on to that I can learn AI with. I'm not going to charge you anything. I just want to like learn AI skills around your business. You go back to ChadGPT or Cloud or whatever, upload the transcript of that conversation and just simply say, my friend needs AI in their business.

40:45They want to it. Make more money or save more money. What suggestions do you have? Here's 13 suggestions. Okay. Number six sounds really interesting. Tell me step-by-step, how can I do that for them? Because I don't know what any of those words mean. Okay. Start here, download this tool, do this. Then have another meeting at Starbucks with them and say, dude, look at what I learned. You could be doing this. This guy over here has the same type of business and he's doing this. And they're going to look at to you now as like the AI God, you now know more about AI than anyone in their life and they're going to say, take my money.

41:16Like, how do we do this? And you don't have to go learn how to find customers. You just have to let go of your pride and your ego and be willing to talk to a friend about things that they're struggling with. Be willing to serve your friend, be willing to help them. We're not talking about a multi-level marketing scheme here. We're talking about helping our loved ones by solving problems with them for AI. But how does someone develop a more resilient mindset when they launch something, they get laughed at and they lose money and they fail?

41:48Lewis Howes:Yeah. How do they not let that insecurity or that self-doubt stop them from trying again? Post and ghost. What does that mean? Post something to social media. Don't look at the comments. Like, hey, DM me if you want to learn more. Stay in the DMs. what they'll find is if they do look in the comments, there's not going to be much there. Yeah. Right. Anyway, but just psychologically, sometimes it's just ignorance can be bliss. It's an overly simplistic answer, but we just have to get over it. And we have to get, we, we have to get to our own personal rock bottom with regards to anything, right? If I'm an alcoholic, I've got to get to my rock bottom before I start going to AA and turning my life around.

42:31If I want to start a business and I'm just not able to get it together, I need to hit my rock bottom in that area of my life. And so if I'm not willing to get over that mental block, then I'm just not, I'm not ready to start a business, but maybe something happens. I, heaven forbid, I lose my job or something. This bill comes up and unexpected emergency. That's going to be my rock bottom. And then I post about it and it doesn't have to be on social media, but I just start talking about it. I'm willing to open myself up and put myself out there. Sometimes that's what it takes for us to step out of our shell like that.

43:02Lewis Howes:What would you say then is the number one skill that successful entrepreneurs have over those that aren't successful? Bias for action. They just have to be impatient with action, but patient with results. Both of those at the same time. How does that look? So we're all curious to an extent. We all have questions about the world. The question is, what do we do with that curiosity? So if I'm, I was on a walk with my daughter. we were walking down these railroad tracks and I see that some of the railroad ties are wood and some are concrete. I'm like, what railroad ties? It's 2026. Why are we using these?

43:42Why not? Why are they all concrete? So it's like, I pull out chat GPT and I just started like, what are the wood? Why the concrete? What are the cost differences? And at the end of it's like, oh, that's really interesting. Okay, cool. Something that simple. We, when we have a question about anything, not just business or money related. We got to get an answer to it as soon as possible. Even if we're mid conversation and it's rude, it's like, hold on, I got to figure this out. Right. The more we train that bias for action muscle and we start answering these questions about the world and about ourselves immediately, the more we do it, the more it snowballs and it compounds.

44:17And then the answer to the question turns into action. If I'm at a restaurant and I love making tacos and I'm at a taco restaurant and I see this place has a line out the door and everyone is there for these beeria tacos. And it's like, Oh, I love, I make really good beer. I wonder how much money this place makes. Well, don't just go onto the conversation, go outside, look at the line. Okay. 86 people in line. Look at the menu, $7 for two tacos, 86 times seven. Oh my gosh. Okay. Throughout the rest of this hour, I'm going to see how many wow the line got even longer okay this is a tuesday if they're this busy on a tuesday they're going to be way busier on a friday okay wow they're doing 3.6 million a year just in barria tacos that's not including drinks and you're just doing all this mid conversation and it's like if their margins are this and okay what oh okay then go home and like make tacos and give them out to your friends like that night yeah do like take action now now like compress That's the time frame.

45:20Because we talk a lot about focus. We don't talk about momentum. We are human. And if we're going to lose excitement, we're going to lose momentum over a thing. So we need to be impatient with that.

45:30Lewis Howes:So there's something you do that I don't know if I could ever do, because I also like to think about the time, the attention I put on certain things. And I feel like I did a lot of different businesses, products, programs, things like that to make a lot of money and revenue streams for many years. And then I felt like my time was stretched thin. I felt a little burnt out. I felt overwhelmed. I felt like I was putting lower energy in lots of places and nothing really was building exponentially. Where does making money, making a profit and using your time, energy talents with your purpose tie into building a business versus here's an opportunity that I see you can make tacos, million dollars a year with tacos or selling toothbrushes.

46:15Lewis Howes:but is that the best use of my time and talent and purpose towards launching that business for a profit? What are your thoughts on that? Is it kind of like the passion versus profit question? I guess it's just merging both of them. Just because I can launch a shoe company doesn't mean I should launch a shoe company. Just because I can make money in an iPhone repair shop doesn't mean it's the best use of my time for me personally. But sure, there's a million dollars to be made there. There's a hundred grand to be made here. There's, and there's time managing a people and starting the business and taxes and breakdowns that you have to manage of those things as well.

46:53Lewis Howes:So how do you navigate that? Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I like to say, chase the profit until you can afford to chase the passion. So I'm in love with business. So if it's iPhone screens, you know, Texas snacks, whatever, I just, it doesn't matter. Most people won't have the luxury of loving business that much to where they're agnostic about what they go after. But to answer your question, people should chase the energy. They should go to where the energy is. The excitement, the joy, the rush. Yes, because that's what's going to be sustainable for them. So let's say they love watercolors, but the market is telling them that people want these tacos.

47:37You don't have to choose one or the other. Number one, your passion doesn't have to be your profession. They can be two separate things. Number two, there's enough time in the day to do both and to even test both as a business concept. Have you ever seen a taco shop where you can paint watercolor at the same time? Might be because it's a bad idea. It might be because it's a great idea that no one's thought to put together yet, right? So what are you trying to optimize for in that moment of your life? If it's making more money, then you should put the passion on the back burner for now, because if you can develop first principle skills around making money, then you can direct that at whatever you want in the future on your passion later,

48:16Lewis Howes:right on your hobbies or your side projects that you're like really love. Yes. But if you have a full-time job and you're making good money, then you might have the luxury of being able to chase your passion right now. And then finding out later could, or should you even monetize that? Yeah. What do you think is the biggest problem that people make once they start making a lot more money it's almost like the same problem of playing business they play the role of someone who makes more money and lifestyle creep creeps in it's happened to me spending more and yeah because they have it um and i don't want to contradict myself because i do think that can be a good thing but if it keeps you away from your kids your family more because you want that second or third home then i don't think that's a good thing people they contribute less and less as a percentage of their income to charitable causes, which I don't like.

49:09Like, let's say you're used to giving a thousand a month to charity and you make, you know, $10 ,000 a month. You start making$50 ,000 a month and you give 2000 to charity. If you give 5 ,000, it's the same percentage, but you have 45 ,000 to work with. You're, you're able to afford much, much more. You're able to be, to do much more good with that money. It doesn't have to be a percentage or a real dollar value. So I think that's a mistake on how much people give. I don't like at the end of the day, we're not going to bring any of it with us anyway. I don't want my kids to be hyper wealthy from stuff they inherit from me when they're 50 or 60.

49:48So I don't think at all about my second or third generation or how much money they'll have. I don't care. I want them to work for it too, right? So I think that's a mistake people make. And I think that people are likely to get prideful and to treat people on a lower socioeconomic status than them as lesser than them. And I think it should go the opposite direction. I think they should get even more empathetic because they've been there before as well.

50:18Lewis Howes:As a loyal listener of this show, you're always challenging yourself to grow, to be better, to keep learning. And Southern New Hampshire University can help. Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 career-focused degree programs online. Plus, Southern New Hampshire University has some of the lowest online tuition rates in the U.S., so balancing school, work, and life actually feels achievable and affordable, too. Find your degree at snhu.edu slash greatness. That's snhu.edu slash greatness. With the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card, you earn an unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase.

50:55Lewis Howes:No quarterly activations, no categories to track, just unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase. Think about those bigger everyday purchases, travel, groceries, things for the house, where afterward you realize, I could have earned cash back on that. That's the kind of opportunity that adds up over time. Visit usbank.com slash smartlycard to learn more. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from Visa USA, Inc. Some restrictions may apply. What's your thoughts on the more you give, the more you are able to earn? Of your money, time, resources, have you experienced that personally as someone who gives?

51:40Lewis Howes:Oh, yeah. And what's your philosophy on how much you give every year? Yeah. So that's just a quote. I'm gonna try to remember it. He who gives his money gives some, he who gives his time gives all, right? Something like that. I try to give even more. I pay tithing to my church 10 % as like a baseline. And then I look for other charitable causes on top of that to donate as well. But more importantly, I try to give of my time to younger people trying to start businesses in ways that don't necessarily scale. um and yeah mission trips our kids are going to go on mission trips i went on a mission trip i plan to go on more over two years right where'd you go hungry hungry yeah very good yeah yep well you're 18 20 how old are you 19 to 21 did you learn the language too what did that mission trip teach you about life business relationships every year that goes by I realized that it was everything to me.

52:43When I got home, it was just like, you know, first of all, I got home with a ton of confidence. I got rejected tens of thousands of times. I felt like I was able to run through a wall and do anything, which was huge because I was not much at all in high school. I was very average and I was not like the valedictorian type, the freak athlete type. I was playing video games, delivering pizzas, waiting tables. I was very average. the mission fundamentally changed. It rewired me at my core.

53:10Lewis Howes:Really? Yeah. What shifted about your identity after two years of being rejected over and over and over again in a language that you didn't know, how did your identity shift afterwards? Just resilience. Like I don't talk about this much, but I knocked on tens of thousands of doors and I flew all the way there to teach people about the gospel. Even so I'm an introvert. I don't like talking to people. I don't. And so I would knock on a door. And even though I flew there to do that, I would silently hope that they would never open the door. Of course. Who wants to be rejected? Who wants to deal with that fear?

53:47Yeah. But it's like, I felt guilty too. Cause I, I also genuinely wanted to teach them. If they did open the door, it's not like I was bummed. It's like, all right, let's do this. But if they didn't, I kind of had to skip my step to the next door. Yeah. No rejection. Right. But then shortly after my mission, I got a job, a calling, an unpaid calling in my church to teach early morning seminary to high schoolers at six in the morning every single day and i'm not a teacher i don't like teaching i don't that's not my thing i don't like waking up early and it was the calling that i always dreaded always dread that's why you had it yeah so i got it and every single night i would just dread having to plan my lesson and then every morning my alarm would go off at 5 25 and i was just dread i've got to stand in front of 30 kids who are like exhausted exhausted they're like looking at their phone some of them would have their phone sideways with headphones in like playing games and i would dread it every day right how old were you 28 yeah i did it for four years oh every day there's yeah you got every school day oh wow five days a week yeah four years four years holy unpaid but what i realized is those moments in our lives where we're just like, I don't want to do this, but I will, right?

55:04That's what I would summarize this. I don't want to do this, but I will. I'm dreading this, but I'm doing this anyway. Some people, you know, they'll do that hundreds of times in their life or tens of times, maybe low thousands of times. Like we go run a 5k, we go to the gym. But if you do that tens of thousands of times, I don't want to do this, but I will. I'm dreading this, but I will. it changes you you can do anything and to this day if i got that calling again i would still dread it i enjoyed i loved it it's like this very weird thing like my mission was the best ever i loved it my calling with those youth i i loved it like i look back and i don't think of the negative i think of the positive at the end of the lesson i would be like uplifted so i don't want to say it was all negative but i would still dread it just like you might go to the gym yeah it's like You don't want to get on there, but then afterwards you're like, I feel better.

55:55Right. And that's a more practical way of approaching this. Running at five in the morning, like those things change you. It's cliche. We've all heard it. It's nothing new. But if you do that thousands, tens of thousands of times, you can do anything, anything. Did I also read that you had a kidney transplant? How did that come about? My daughter was born with a rare lung disease, pulmonary hypertension. It's high blood pressure in the lungs, which is very dangerous because it forces your heart to pump really fast and really hard to get the blood through your arteries. Right. There's no cure for it.

56:30So we had her on medication from three to nine. Three years old or three months? From three years old to nine. And she was just constantly worsening. She had an oxygen tank. She had blue lips. It was mostly an invisible disease other than the blue lips. People thought she wore purple lipstick. Um, so it was tough because she had this disability, but people couldn't see it, you know? And so she was nine and the doctor's like, you, she, she's going to be gone within a year unless you get her double lung transplant. Really? Yeah. And double lung transplants happen. That is intense. Yeah. Invasive.

57:07It's as invasive of a transplant as you get. So lungs are the only transplantable organ that are exposed to the outside air. Everything else is protected. liver kidney all that bone marrow but the lungs get all of this air 24 7 and so they're they're fragile oh so open up your chest yep yep so they did they did the surgery yeah so they said basically you don't have a choice you got to move to houston we were in dallas four hours away because it's the best pediatric hospital for lung transplants to keep in mind there's only like i I might get this wrong, but I think there's only like eight to 15 lung transplants a month nationwide or worldwide.

57:50They're very rare. Wow. Very rare. So we moved to Houston as a family with no notice right before Christmas. And we got her on the transplant list. We rented a house and we got a call at 10 p.m. one night. And they said, hey, we got we got some lungs. We think they're going to work. The doctor's on a private jet flying to Nebraska. He's going to inspect him personally. it sounds like they're good so we need you to the hospital like no so that was a call we're waiting for and there's no guarantees she wakes up afterwards right no it's like it doesn't mean

58:23Lewis Howes:it's gonna work no no but they were but they were saying hey you don't do this next year we didn't have a choice she's like yeah she's gonna die yeah so we went to hospital and i had to sign these papers and it was like the chance of death is low double digit percent wow but what do you do? So, um, they took her back. We said goodbye. And holy cow. What was that like for your daughter goes into surgery? Oh man. It was like, did you think this might be the last time I heard her? Oh my gosh. Yeah. That is rough. It was rough. And you had three other kids at the same time or three other kids. Wow.

59:03Lewis Howes:Yep. Three boys, three boys and one girl. Yep. She the oldest Second oldest. Holy cow. That must've been emotional. Yeah. And then what happens? She goes into the operating room. So she goes back there. My wife and I are in the waiting room and it was like a 12 hour procedure. So we're sitting there and I had my Mac book out and someone on Facebook, a stranger shared a post of me, uh, in my DMS and the doctor had told me the lungs were coming from Nebraska. Keep in mind, there's like 10 a month of these nationwide. Okay. And I see this Facebook post that a stranger messages me and says, you know, our boy, Sam woke up unresponsive.

59:45We think he had a seizure in his sleep and he didn't make it. And so we're donating all of his organs. This was not his lungs. Yeah, it was his. And I learned that as she was under the knife, which is like not normal. Like there's HIPAA laws, like you're not supposed to know. I didn't go looking for it. This was sent to me. Wow. And so I'm like, either this is a weird coincidence, but I think they, they even said in the post, um, his lungs are going to a girl in Texas or something. Oh my gosh. That's crazy. Yeah. So I just, I remember where I was and I was like, I showed my wife and like, we just start crying and like, and I just started like looking through pictures of Sam, this boy.

1:00:26Oh my gosh. I felt like he was my son. Oh my gosh. Like my, my long lost son. And so I just had like this profound gratitude for him. even though like he didn't choose you know like his parents did but like surely he would have chosen to give up his lungs so i'm like man that kid i love that kid immediately never heard of him you know an hour before i was at home you know watching netflix and i'm like oh how do i pay that kid back so long story short she gets out of surgery and um it was amazing they were like his lungs were perfect everything went perfectly she's great the freak one freaky side note was you know her chest had swollen so much from the incision that was like this long yeah that they couldn't sew it all the way back together so i could literally see her heart beating it was open still they put like like a plastic sheeting over it oh my gosh i could see her heart oh my gosh man

1:01:26Lewis Howes:yeah that is intense yeah but she woke up and she was fine like yeah i mean i'm sure it was a recovery period long period like a year probably almost like six months to a year of like full recovery right or but now she's fine yeah so she woke up and she's supposed to be in the hospital six weeks it was like four so we came home they wanted us to stay in houston for a couple months for like almost daily appointments everything went great and so the chest finally closed yeah staple it or whatever yeah holy cow and so we had always said if if this surgery goes well we want to see all 50 states as a family in 60 days so this was 2022 so in the summer of 2022 we bought an rv we saw all 48 lower 48 and we parked it in seattle flew to alaska flew to white in 60 days we saw all oh my gosh that's cool family but throughout this process you know i was thinking about sam sam I'm Sam.

1:02:20And I learned about living kidney donation where, or altruistic kidney donation, where you can, you can donate your kidney to a stranger. And that's not me. I've never been admitted to a hospital. I'm afraid of needles. I'm afraid of blood. And in fact, my brother-in-law needed a kidney a couple of years prior. And I was too afraid to get tested for him. Like I would have. You're like, I don't want it to know that I could work. Right. I was waiting to be the very last to be tested. Thankfully, my other brother-in-law who's braver than me got tested and And he donated his kidney to my other brother-in-law.

1:02:50And so that just kind of bothered me that I wasn't first to raise my hand. But I started doing research. And A, I don't want to sacrifice. I got to be there for my kids. I didn't want to go through a surgery that was going to be a serious risk. Even to say thanks, it seemed like too much. But the chance of death is 3 in 10 ,000, which is about the same as childbirth for a mom. and increasingly safer than childbirth. So I'm like, okay, half of the humans that have ever lived have taken even more risk than this to give birth, to create a life, but I can't do it to save a life. And I kept researching.

1:03:31I'm like, all right, what about like long-term complications? Almost zero. Any pills I have to take for the rest of my life? None. Dietary changes. No, just be like generally healthy. Already planning on that. All these things. What about like, how painful is it? How risky is it? Okay. Well, what if my kids need a kidney? What if I give away my kidney and my kids? Well, there's a program called the, uh, it's the national kidney foundation. They have a voucher program where you give one, you get one, you get to the top of the list. Wow. You or five people. So I have five people in my family. So I put them all on the list.

1:04:05So now I have an insurance policy if they need a kidney. So I'm even better off. right so so i keep researching and then it's like well what if i need a kidney for myself then what kidneys rarely go bad alone they always go bad together really so it's like it's i'm not i'm no worse off if i only have one kidney and it goes bad because the other one would have gone bad and so i'm just doing all this learning and i'm a very logical person and i'm like there's no reason for me to not donate my kidney other than being like a little sissy and that's not a good reason so i just i just did i donated my kidney to a stranger do you know who got it i found out shut up yeah so i donated on the uh i donated my kidney on the anniversary of sam's death uh the next year when he would have turned nine i think and then my wife i was telling her all this i'm like dude there's three and ten thousand chance of death like yeah this and this And like, you can get your hospital.

1:05:00Like there's, you don't have to pay anything. Like if I had a job, they would pay for my time off work because it saves insurance companies a lot of money. Right. Yeah. So my wife's like, Hmm, maybe I should look into this. So three months later, she donated her kidney. Holy cow. Uh, to a stranger. She never found out who they were on the anniversary of, uh, on his birthday. What would have been his birthday? May 10th. Wow. So we both donated our kidneys to a stranger recently. Yeah.

1:05:25Lewis Howes:20 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And I I've run ultra marathon since before and since. Wow. I almost never think about it. I have the same energy. There's been zero changes. I would do it all over again. And it was, it was the best decision I could have made. Wow, man. That's crazy. I found out who got my kidney the morning that my wife did hers. Wow. Cause I went to the hospital and they're like, Chris, we have a letter from your donor. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Was it, who was it? Like it was a, it was a young person, old person, older person in San Francisco. So. Wow. Yeah. And they wrote a letter saying, thank you.

1:05:58Yep. Man. Here's the stat. If one in 10 ,000 healthy adults donated their kidney to a stranger, no one would die waiting for a kidney. But today, like 5 ,000 people a year die waiting for a kidney. Man. But it's needless. Like it's, it's literally needless. That number could go to zero. One in 10 ,000 people.

1:06:21Lewis Howes:This podcast is supported by Ring. With Ring, it's protected. You know those moments when you're expecting a package and you're not home and you're thinking about it all day, wondering if it's just sitting out there. That's something I think about, especially with how often we're ordering things for the house. And this is where Ring comes in. Keep track of packages and see more at the front door with battery doorbell. And honestly, Ring has been a game changer for me. I like being able to quickly check and see where my package shows up and just know it's there. And beyond that, I'm also keeping an eye out on the yard.

1:06:49Lewis Howes:With the Outdoor Cam Plus, you get a wide field of view and clear retinal 2K video so you can see what's happening around your home, even at night. You can also upgrade to 4K cameras and doorbells with retinal vision, which gives you ultra clear footage and lets you zoom in without losing important details. And for me, it's that extra peace of mind, whether it's making sure a delivery arrived or just checking in on things outside, it's simple and easy. Your door, your yard, your home. With Ring, it's protected. Shop cameras, doorbells, and more right now at ring.com. so you've always wanted to have a backyard oasis here's the thing if you get smart with your money you can do things like that with empower you can start making the most of your money so you can go out and live a little isn't that why we work so hard to have some fun with our money like treating yourself to something special or spontaneously doing something extra for a loved one so use empower and get good at money so you can be a little bad.

1:07:50Lewis Howes:Join their 20 million customers today at empower.com. Not an empower client paid or sponsored. Where's the kidney business that you need to start? That's the next thing. Launch a kizzy business. That is. I mean, that is kind of one thing I would like to do as a nonprofit is advocate for that. Yeah, that's cool. There's a couple other countries that allow the government to pay people to donate their kidney. And I think that should be legal. You can make a business. You think it should be legal or illegal? I think it should be legal for people to be paid to donate their kidney, assuming safeguards were in place.

1:08:28Like in other countries where they do it, they interview them like, are you addicted to drugs? Gambling, like, is this like just to pay off a debt? If they pass all these things and it's not like exploiting the poor, it's a beautiful thing. And their kidney dust went to zero. That's cool. Yeah. But there needs to be an incentive. It's not enough to just like say, you'll feel really good, you know, cause most people don't have my story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But wow.

1:08:51Lewis Howes:Like how much is, I don't know, how much is someone willing to pay for a kidney? Yeah. How much is that? Tens of thousands. Really? Yeah. 30, 50 ,000 something. But it's like what insurance pays for this through the hospitals or how does that even work? Well, insurance companies come out of pocket, like one to 2 million bucks for a kidney. Yeah. Like for all of that procedure and aftercare. So if they can pay someone 50 grand, they would gladly do it. But everyone wins. Wow. This is wild, man. This is wild. What did donating your kidney to a stranger you didn't know teach you about life and money?

1:09:30I don't know if it taught me anything about money, but about life, it told me that we're here for others. We're here to serve other people. And serving other people is one of the most selfish things you can do because it serves us so much. Like if you're miserable, go serve someone else and you'll be happy. Period. It doesn't have to look like a kidney, but thinking about others is the best thing we could do for ourselves. When we have two kidneys and we only need one of them, what are we doing?

1:09:57Lewis Howes:That's for a reason. How has life shifted for you around making money since donating your kidney? Well, I don't know if, you know, correlation is causation, but I mean, it's funny you ask because i've never really correlated it to the time frame but my financial life has never been better really yeah ever since donating so call it what you want i believe in god but i don't know if it's correlated but i'm not complaining yeah what is the what does the bible teach us about making money that you apply to your daily life well the verse is not you know money is the root of all evil. It's the love of money is the root of all evil.

1:10:42So in the Bible, they worship golden calves and idols, false idols. Today we worship other idols, technology, money. So it has to be the fuel that helps us to do more good and not the fuel to help us consume more. And that's hard.

1:11:02Lewis Howes:It's something you have to be cognizant of every day. What is the biggest money trap you find yourself getting into lifestyle creep the buying more things or toys or cars or oh yeah whatever i find it every day my wife's a lot better at it than me i want to fly first class and she's like why like it's an extra thousand dollars for that ticket we could donate that i'm like yeah but like we have it we work hard for she's better than i am but i fight that every day but isn't i mean if you work hard for it and you earn it and you do it with integrity and you make a you make a great product that serves people, why not spend it on yourself?

1:11:39Lewis Howes:Why not spend it on something new for yourself that you want? Why not spend it on first class or a nice hotel? Why not spend it on a trip for your family to enjoy memories? Why be poor when you're creating wealth? Yeah. Yeah. I think it just has to come with balance, you know, and I think a lot of it has to do with raising your children. I would love a private chef. We can afford a private chef. we will not have one until my kids are out of the house. Period. End of story. Like my kids need to do the dishes themselves. They have a chore chart. They need to help us cook food. They need to go mow the lawn.

1:12:16Like I can hire a lawn guy. We do it ourselves. So I'm more concerned about our approach to money with regards to raising our kids in a normal environment that teaches them healthy habits about money and teaches them that we live in a bubble that is not representative of the real world. So we send them on, on mission trips, humanitarian trips, and we'll go on them with them. And we try to teach them that stuff, but, um, it just has to be something that you're always aware of. What is the one skill if mastered that makes every other business skill unnecessary?

1:12:47Lewis Howes:Like resilience, which comes from being rejected sales bias for action. Before you were financially successful, what was the thing you were hiding or struggling through that most people didn't see? I would call it income consistency. A lack of it? Yeah. Income volatility. It's like I've had for the majority of my career. Yeah. Even still? No. Oh yeah. But for some months big and some months nothing. Yeah. I mean, until my mid thirties. Really? Yeah. And I'm in my late thirties now. Yeah. But just like feast or famine, I've had more$0 income years than I've had positive income. Really? Why is that?

1:13:29It comes with the territory nature of the, just, Being an entrepreneur, it's unpredictable. There's been a dozen times where I've told my wife, babe, this is it. This thing, this is it. This, I know I've said this every time. She's like, okay, babe. This is the thing that's going to make us like. This is the last thing we'll have to do. Okay. All right. I believe you. How many times you've said that? So many times. And genuinely believing it. But the fat years have more than made up for the lean years or the zero years. Right? So we've lived in our dream house since our late 20s. But there's been a lot of times that we've had to sell assets just to pay the mortgage.

1:14:10Yeah. Not recently, but in 20s and early 30s, we had some rental homes we had to sell. We were forced to sell. And I'm not making big, risky decisions. It's just things always take longer than you think, and they're harder than you think, and it costs more money than you think, always. is um and i'm learning that still but so from the outside looking in we've been in our dream house since our 20s everything's awesome but it's been very volatile really yeah what do you think is going to be the thing that actually makes it for you when you say to your wife no this is the thing

1:14:44Lewis Howes:what is going to be that thing do you think is it going to be the sexy new ai thing or is it going to be something more like basic and consistent that just serves a need over and over that people don't want to do. Yeah. I don't know. Or a combination of like 50 businesses all doing it together. Maybe a combination. Like I could retire now if I wanted. Um, like I could just stop doing anything and have enough money. So in that sense, it's different than that conversation has been in the past. Like this is the thing. It's probably something that I have just no idea about. Cause I've been in so many industries.

1:15:21I just, I never know what I'm going to get my hands into. Um, I don't know, but I love, I genuinely love what I do. I can be honest about that.

1:15:30Lewis Howes:That's cool. If you could only teach your kids three things about money, what would it be? First would be to be generous with it, especially to, I try to teach them to treat service workers as if they're volunteers, right? Like if I had someone that was my servant, like serving just me all day unpaid, I would be so grateful for them. But like, if you get an Uber, like, Hey, thank you for picking me up. Thank you for getting here so fast. Like they're getting paid, but like, they've got a hard life. So I would, I do, I teach them that like specifically service workers, treat them as if they're unpaid volunteers and be more generous with them than you think you should be.

1:16:17Um, the second thing I would teach them is no one's coming to save you. Like you, nothing is guaranteed. I don't care if you have a job, a pension, you know, you work for a great company, nothing is guaranteed. No one is coming to save you. You have to be self-sufficient. You, I look at, um, entrepreneurial skills like food storage in our church, the LDS church, we're encouraged to have a year's worth of food storage. Okay. And we do. Well, we used to before we had as many kids. We need to stock up. I don't want to be dishonest here, but I look at like reselling stuff like that. I think people, everyone should have those skills just in case the crap hits the fan and they can sell some old iPhones or something just to make ends meet.

1:17:03So I'm not like pushing my kids toward entrepreneurship, but I want them to develop those skills in case they need them. So treat entrepreneurial skills like, like food storage. so you can use it in emergency. And the third one is to convert your liabilities to assets, right? Which is kind of like a derivative of number two. So if you have a car, have the skill to make income from that car. If it's DoorDash or Toro or whatever. If you have a house, learn how to rent out a room on Airbnb because any liability could be turned into an asset with the right skills. So I'm actively, I guess, passively trying to teach them how to do that in just the way that we live.

1:17:49I went and drove for DoorDash last week. Really? Yeah. Just to see. Just to try it out. Yeah. Cause I delivered pizzas for pizza out in high school and I loved it and I just wanted to see how much money I can make. And it was a lot of fun. Did you try it for like a few hours or something? Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was a lot of fun actually. Really? Yeah. Just picking up orders, dropping them off. I would like send goofy pictures to them, like dropping them off, like just like praying over it and it got me extra tips. Like I learned I was actually able to influence my tips more than you might think.

1:18:16Wow. More than just going through the motions.

1:18:18Lewis Howes:So I read some like article online years ago about how if you're a service person, how you can like 10 X your tips just by saying the person's order or their name back to them. Interesting. Like if you're a waiter and someone gives you the order and you say it back to them and say, that's a great order. and you ask them their name and you say their name like you know chris that's a great order that's a great choice you made yeah just doing that making them feel good about their order yeah and saying their name like gets you 10x the tips or something crazy like they're 10 % more the tips and like there's all these different strategies of being a a good service worker to increase tips and it's not always about being the best at what you do it's being best with people in how you do it.

1:19:06Lewis Howes:Yeah. And it sounds like the way you just added joy for a moment of like taking a photo, praying over the food or like a smiley face. You brought joy to the service. Yeah. Which then they said, oh, I'm going to give 20 % rather than 10. Yeah. Or maybe I'll give 40%. Yeah. Well, and you stand out because no one else is doing that. But it's so simple. So easy. Like the ROI, the hourly rate on taking an extra 20 seconds to do that is immeasurable. Yeah. You can make 10 extra bucks just like that. Yes. By taking one little different photo. Yeah. And I actually brought my kids with me to do DoorDash.

1:19:39Lewis Howes:That's cool. Just to like teach them. That's cool. A couple of final questions for you before we get to them. I want people to check out your podcast, the Kerner office, TKO pod.com at the Kerner office on social media, K O E R N E R on social media as well, where every day you're just sharing new side hustle business ideas that people could launch with little or no money and start making money right away. A lot of great ideas. So if people are looking for side hustle ideas or business ideas, they can go check it out there. This is a question I ask everyone at the end called the three truths. So hypothetical scenario, imagine you get to live as long as you want to live in this earth and create everything you want to create, do whatever you want to do.

1:20:23Lewis Howes:But in the last day, you have to take all of your work with you. this content, your podcast, whatever you make in the future, it's gone from this world. But you get to leave behind three truths, three lessons that you would leave with the world. You just shared kind of three money truths, but what would be your three life principles that you would leave behind? Impatience with action, patience with results. That's one. In anything you do, people are much more likely to be not bold enough. It's very rare that someone is too bold, right? So be more bold, like with what you believe, like, just, just don't, don't care about what people think.

1:21:05Like, just stop. People don't think about you. And that's not a, that's not a pessimistic or negative thing. They're thinking about their family, their loved ones, their wife, like, just do your own thing. Um, and the third one, do things for the story. For sure. like when you do things, if for no other reason, just to have a good story out of it, you will be wealthy and happy and you'll be interesting and rich. Yes. Rich and heart. Yes. Yes. That's what, with the Bucky story, it was like, this is going to be a great story. And you're still telling it today. Still telling it, but it's just that one thing has made me wealthy.

1:21:45Lewis Howes:Wow. That's cool. Chris, I want to acknowledge you, man, for being of service to so many people, not only with your intellect and your skills around entrepreneurship and business, but also your service around giving an organ to a stranger and saving a life, literally. So what you're doing is making a difference, and I appreciate it, man. It's really inspiring. Thank you. Of course. Final question, what's your definition of greatness? Greatness is simply being a net positive to the world. Net positive. Oh, man. Thanks, Chris. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.

1:22:25Lewis Howes:Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. 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. 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. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy and you matter.

1:23:04Lewis Howes:And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

1:23:15Lewis Howes:There's a fire inside you. You can't ignore. Stand still? Not a chance. You're a lifelong learner who's come this far. Now, we're here to help you keep going further. Capella University. What can't you do? Visit capella.edu to learn more. Sleep is so critical, especially that deep, comforting sleep. But oftentimes, it's hard to find the right mattress for that deep sleep without trying it in person. That's why Helix and Steinhoffels have come together, combining their years of mattress knowledge and technology to bring you your best night's sleep. Helix Sleep's award-winning mattresses are now available to try and purchase at 13 Steinhoffel's locations, an in-store opportunity you won't find just anywhere.

1:23:58Lewis Howes:Plus, Helix and Steinhoffel's are offering 20 % off all mattress orders for our listeners. Please visit helixsleep.com to find your nearest location. Remember to ask a team member about their selection of award-winning Helix Sleep mattresses. Eligible items are in stock and available for free local delivery. That's helixsleep.com to find the store nearest you and ask about Helix Sleep. With Helix and Steinhoffel's, better sleep starts now.