Lewis Howes is an ex professional football player turned entrepreneur.
He’s host of the School of Greatness Podcast and just released a New York Times bestseller, The School of Greatness: A Real World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy. He has also built numerous multi-million dollar online empires and has a rapidly growing online following.
As in evident by his podcast and book, Lewis Howes has some great advice, especially when it comes to making money podcasting.
Howes makes a living by helping people tap into their true greatness. He speaks on living with intention, creating effective routines, the power of connection, the positive effects of a clean diet and much more.
In this interview with Chase Jarvis, Howes touches on how to create a profitable value loop for your business, the importance of working with a team, and the connection between sports and creativity.
Creating a Profitable Value Loop
Howes has an interesting story in that he became a very successful entrepreneur only after suffering from an injury that ended his professional football career and sent him to sleeping on his sister’s couch, flat broke.
A profitable value loop is Howes’ terms for developing a skill, adding value and then charging for that skill. It’s a “loop” because you should always be refining your skills, adding more value and increasing your prices as you become better and better at it.
The first step in creating a profitable value loop is defining and mastering a skill. Figure out what you’re good at (or what you like to do) and master it. Make sure that with this skill, you can add value to a very specific community, and that the skill is first in demand.
Then, add value. Adding value means to offer your expertise without necessarily asking for anything in return. This could be starting a blog, answering questions in forums, speaking at an event, offering a free eBook, etc. This builds both your exposure as an expert and trust with your audience.
“I see how to add value and get results for people because that’s all that matters at first. Then I see how to position it and package it, so that people understand the value they’re getting, and the results they’re going to get,” Howes explains.
Of course, to make the “profitable” part of the value loop, you need to charge for your services. This can be a tricky one to figure out, but you’ll get there over time. Ask around, see what competitors are charging for similar services and never sell yourself short. If ALL of your clients can afford you, you’re not charging enough.
It’s Not Fun Creating Something Meaningful on Your Own
Humans were born to connect. We derive joy out of sharing it with others, and it’s true in business as well. No matter what we do in business, there will be obstacles to overcome and victories to celebrate. It’s much better for both the head and the heart to have a team to share the burden and to celebrate with.
Even if you’re a freelancer and going at it on your own, make sure to surround yourself with people that inspire you and keep you on your creative toes. Join an accountability group and check in with them once a week, or attend meet-ups at your local co-working space.
If you’re working alone, it can get too easy to fall into your own little rabbit hole and feel like no one else can relate to what you’re doing. This only adds to the stress, and solutions are hard to come by if nobody knows how to help you.
When you surround yourself with likeminded people, you have the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other, hear different points of view that you may not have thought of and receive constructive criticism. And not only are they there to help you, but you provide the same for them; another set of eyes, ears, a brain.
Plus, when you achieve success, it’s that much sweeter to be able to celebrate it with someone else. Being congratulated never hurt either.
The Connection Between Sports and Creativity
Athletes have an advantage in the business world because they’ve been exposed to a structured world that allows for creativity. Basically what this means, is that sports provide you with a specific structure and routine that develops your ability to make better, creative choices on the spot.
For example, Howes mentions that his football coach used a big chalkboard to write down the team’s “dream”; what they wanted to achieve at the end of the season. Then every day, the team would show up for practice and work towards that dream.
Some days would be weights, some days would be game film and so on, but the idea was that they showed up every day. Then each week, the football game would provide feedback to what they’d been working towards.
In each game, the players know the plays, but there is room for improvisation. By abiding such a rigorous structure, it allows for the ability to improvise and create on the spot to improve. The team relies on you to make good decisions in the heat of the moment, and without that structure as a backbone, you might not be able to do it as well.
Tune into 30 Days of Genius and watch the full, hour-long interview with Lewis Howes.
