--:-- Mel Robbins: Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast.
--:-- Mel Robbins: The other day I was on YouTube and I was watching this random video. I'm almost embarrassed to tell you what it was. I was trying to figure out how I could take a cutting from a hydrangea plant and get it to root up so that I could turn that little cutting from someone else's plant into my own hydrangea bush. And I'm watching this video and I'm all engrossed in this. And you know how when the video's over, YouTube serves you up another video? Well, the next video that YouTube served up was super intriguing. Had nothing to do with hydrangeas. It was about billionaires. And check the title out: "The number one habit billionaires run daily." Now, I don't know what "run daily" means, but I want to know what the number one habit of billionaires is. Don't you? Plus the video had over 12 million views. And so I thought, "Ooh, this is gonna be so good." And I went clicky click. It was a video of me. I was like, "What? I'm not a billionaire. What is this?" Turns out they had ripped off 10 minutes of an online course that I had created where I was talking and teaching all about mindset. And it got me thinking: if 12 million people are interested in this topic, the habits of billionaires, and I'm interested in that topic, I thought, why don't you and I check out the habits of billionaires?
--:-- Mel Robbins: And so that's what I've done. I've done the research. I've looked at the six habits of billionaires. We're gonna be taking a look at Warren Buffett, Taylor Swift, LeBron James, Jamie Kern Lima, who's the billion-dollar founder of It Cosmetics, Sarah Blakely of Spanx, and so many more. And today, after our conversation, you're not only gonna know how to think like a billionaire, you're gonna know how to act like one.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Hey, it's your friend Mel. I'm so glad you're here. We're gonna have so much fun today. Welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I am always excited to be able to spend some time together with you, and today I'm really excited for the topic. So I want to thank you for taking time to listen to something that could truly help you be happier and improve your life. And if you're brand new, I just want to take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins Podcast family and say it is so great to have you here. And also a huge thank you to whomever it was in your life that sent you this episode.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And today, what you and I are going to talk about are the simple life hacks and daily habits that you can copy from billionaires. Don't you want to know what those are? I sure do. And what I love about everything that you're about to learn, it's all free. And so let's jump right in to number one with the first billionaire who is probably, he might even be like the first well-known billionaire that everyone knew about. I'm talking about none other than the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.
--:-- Mel Robbins: When you do an episode about the habits of billionaires, you have got to start off with the OG Warren Buffett. And Warren Buffett is famous for being one of the most successful investors in the entire world. He's the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is also world renowned for his philanthropic efforts. He is worth $145 billion. Aren't you curious to know what his daily habits are? Well, the first one may surprise you. And I want you to hear it straight from him. Warren Buffett did an interview with Professor Jeff Cunningham as part of this iconic lecture series at Arizona State University in 2015, where he describes one of his most important daily habits. Take a listen.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Jeff Cunningham: What's your media routine?
--:-- Warren Buffett: I just read and read and read. I probably read five to six hours a day. I don't read as fast now as when I was younger, but I read five daily newspapers. I read a fair number of magazines. I read 10-Ks. I read annual reports and I read a lot of other things too. So I've always enjoyed reading. I love reading biographies, for example.
--:-- Jeff Cunningham: And you process information very quickly.
--:-- Warren Buffett: Well, I have some filters in my mind.
--:-- Mel Robbins: I just love that. He reads for hours every single day. No wonder he's so smart. No wonder he knows so much about so many things. And there's two other things I want to point out. First of all, this habit, it's free. There is nothing stopping you from dedicating time every day to reading and learning. It's free to do. Go to a library, log online, and you can read for free. And the other thing I want to point out is at the very end, did you notice he says that this daily habit of reading every single day has created a filter in his mind? And one of the things about Warren Buffett is that he is known and respected for making extremely decisive and fast decisions. And I was really curious about that.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And so the next part of what you're about to hear him talking about is that his decision making and the reason why he's able to be like, "Yep, I'm in, I'm out. It's not happening fast." It's actually happening because of the slow buildup of information that has now been filtering into his brain from the years and years of his daily reading habit. And this is how he explains it.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Warren Buffett: If somebody calls me about an investment in the business or an investment in securities, I usually know in two or three minutes whether I have an interest. And I don't waste any time with the ones in which I don't have an interest. I always worry a little bit about even appearing rude because I can tell very, very, very quickly whether it's going to be something that will lead to something.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Isn't that so cool? And just stop and think. If you're worth $145 billion, everybody and their mother is pitching you their business idea. So he is hearing business ideas of the most wide-ranging industries and inventions and problems that people are trying to solve. And this guy knows within two or three minutes whether or not this specific investment opportunity is unique and meaningful. How does he do that? He does it because of this first habit of billionaires: daily reading. He has leaned into learning through reading every single day, and that has allowed him to filter through information quickly and tap into a lifetime of investing in this knowledge in his brain.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And when I really reflect on this, I'm not a billionaire, obviously, but one of the things that people have said to me over and over and over again, especially since launching this podcast, is that I have this innate ability to synthesize very complicated information. Like you and I might be talking to a neuroscientist or a medical researcher or somebody that has this really dense and intellectual thing that they're trying to explain to you and me here on this podcast. And I just seem to have this ability to listen and then go and distill it down to the simplest thing that you can take away from this complicated stuff that they are teaching us on this podcast. And as I listen to Warren Buffett, I'm realizing for the last 14 years, I have been heads down reading every single day and researching the topic of psychology and happiness and human behavior. It all began because I was trying to help myself out of a very dark hole that I was in 14 years ago. And it's just spiraled into this habit of learning and reading every day.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And the reason why I'm sharing this with you is because this is available to you. If you make it a habit to feed your brain information every single day in any category or any field that you wanna learn more about, you're going to build a knowledge bank. You're gonna create filters in your mind just like Warren Buffett has done, just like I've done over these last 14 years that helps you synthesize information, draw connections, and like Warren Buffett, make faster decisions.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And by the way, one more thing you can learn from Warren Buffett as a habit is make it a habit to do things that you're scared to do, that you know are going to improve you. They're going to help you achieve your goals. And one of those things for Warren Buffett was public speaking. He talked about this in that same Arizona State interview. I want you to hear it straight from him.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Warren Buffett: I was terrified of speaking in public when I was in high school. I avoided any class that would require it and in college. And then I finally signed up for a Dale Carnegie course. When I got out of school, I realized I had to talk to people and I spent a hundred bucks. I got this little diploma. I proposed to my wife during the term of the course. So I really got my money's worth there. But in terms of public speaking, I really had to force myself on that.
--:-- Mel Robbins: He's such an eloquent speaker and he's just so comfortable and relaxed as he's speaking. You just kind of feel like you're talking to an uncle or somebody that you're related to. He's so relatable and he's worth $145 billion. That's pretty amazing. You would never think this guy was terrified of public speaking when he was younger. That doesn't make sense, but actually it does. And here's why. Learning how to speak in public is one of the most important life skills that you can force yourself to get better at. And I use the word "force yourself" because the number one fear for most people is speaking in public. You want to know the number two fear? Dying. So for most people, the idea of getting up on a stage or holding a microphone or speaking in front of other people is terrifying. However, you can learn how to do this because it's a skill and you do want to get better at public speaking. And so borrow this habit from Warren Buffett: force yourself to do it. Because the more that you force yourself to speak in public, the more that you force yourself to just speak up with your friends, with your family, with your roommates, speaking at work, the more comfortable you will become. And if you're really terrified, you need to do what Warren Buffett did. Sign up for a class because the class is going to make you do it. The class is going to make you stand in front of other people and actually learn the skill of speaking.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Now, I don't know if it's going to lead to you proposing to somebody. It sure could, and it'll definitely make that proposal better. But the second that you realize that these skills, the skills of gaining knowledge, the skills of becoming a good public speaker so that you can advocate for yourself, you can express yourself, you can walk into a room, whether it's at work or home or giving a toast at somebody's wedding and feel comfortable doing it, that is a life skill that will make your life better.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Alrighty, thank you, Warren Buffett. Let's move on to the second billionaire, the one and only T-Swizz, man, let's go. I love Taylor Swift. I'm a huge fan of Taylor Swift. I'm so excited. I took our daughters to see the Eras Tour. It was worth every single penny that we paid to go see it. I love her. She is one of the most successful and famous musicians of all time. And the thing about Taylor Swift is she's not just a songwriter. She's a prolific songwriter and so highly regarded for this. And I'll just give you an example. The latest album she released, The Tortured Poets Department, came with 16 songs and three bonus tracks. But she wasn't done there. Boom. She dropped a surprise anthology containing songs 17 through 31. So plus the bonus tracks, we're talking 34 songs all of a sudden within two years dropped out. And check this out: all 31 songs debuted on the Billboard 100 and she took over the top 14 spots. This was the first time this had happened in Billboard history.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And I want to share with you a habit that Taylor Swift has. This is all about how she writes her songs. And to set this up, you're going to hear a clip from an interview that she did in 2015 with singer-songwriter Ryan Adams about her songwriting process. And Ryan asked her this question: "Taylor, how do you keep all this information in one place?" And this is what she said.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Taylor Swift: When I'm pre-writing, which is what I'm always doing, like right now, like I'm not actively making an album, but if I get an idea that I feel like is a cool observation and it's a cool lyric thing, I just write it, I type it into this endless notepad on my phone.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Here's what I want you to take away from that. Anything that you want to be better at, make it a daily practice. So if you notice, Warren Buffett said he was reading daily because he was interested in building more knowledge and constantly learning. Taylor Swift, even when she is not actively writing an album, she has a daily habit of capturing ideas in one place. And she's using this notepad on her phone. This is genius. And the reason why this is genius is because I'm sure you've had the experience probably every day where you have this great idea and you tell yourself, "I got to write that down. I got to remember that." And a minute later, you don't remember it at all. She has made it a habit to every single day, "I got an idea. Boom. I take it out of my head and I make it real and I ground it in the real world by typing it into my phone." I freaking love this.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And that's not all that she talked about. She then goes on in this interview to explain now that she's got this long just sort of word thing of ideas, random stuff that she's just been putting into her phone every single day. Here she is taking a step further in this interview with Ryan Adams, talking about the second stage of the song process.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Taylor Swift: When I was writing "Blank Space," I wrote the chorus, and I was like, "All right, I need to search through all my lyrics that I've thought of in the last year that have to do with this overdramatic, luxe visual that I want to paint." And so I would go through and cherry pick, like, "Darling, I'm a Nightmare Dressed Like a Daydream," things like that. Those were things that I had thought of maybe anytime throughout the year.
--:-- Mel Robbins: How cool. Now, let's just stop and think about how smart this is and how that sets you up as a habit for profound success. Because she has made it a habit to take the ideas that jump into her head and yank them out of the subconscious and ground them in the real world by writing them down, she now has an ongoing library that she can access in the future. If a year from now, she were in the middle of writing a song, she was like, "Oh gosh, I had that epiphany that one day I was walking the door. What was the thing that I thought?" The idea is gone. It's gone. And the same is true for you. If you try to hold on to all the amazing ideas that pop into your head, you're just going to forget them. They're going to come and they're going to go.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And so I want you to steal this habit. And here's one way that you can put this to work right now. You're going to steal something that my husband does. My husband has this little notebook that is probably, I don't know, maybe it's like three and a half inches wide. Like it's a tiny little notebook that can sit in the back pocket of a pair of khakis. The man always has it on him. If we're driving in the car, it's out of his back pocket and it's sitting there right in between us in his truck. And every day if he has an idea, whether he's walking in the woods or he's sitting at a stop sign or he's cooking dinner, he has this billionaire habit: he pulls the notebook out, he pulls it out of his head, and he writes it down. And this has been since I've known the man, and we've been together for 30 years. He has probably 50 of these things if I come to think of it now.
--:-- Mel Robbins: For me, I'm really inspired by this. And I don't know if it's the ADHD or the dyslexia or just complete disorganization. I'm going to own all that. I have tried notebooks. I've tried those Moleskine journals. Right now, I'm working on a system where I'm using three by five note cards, and they're all over the freaking place. I have on my Instagram, I don't know if you do this on Instagram, but I've organized all these folders that I can save things into. I don't have a system yet. But here's what I do know. This is 1,000% a habit of billionaires: to take your great ideas and get them out of your head and get them on paper so that you're building a resource that you can come back to. And you know what? I guess I'm gonna try the Notes app, just like Taylor Swift.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Alrighty, you're ready for habit number three from billionaires? Let's move on to LeBron James. Now, LeBron James is famous not only for being one of the greatest basketball players of all time, but what I love is he is one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and he's also one of the oldest. What's remarkable about LeBron James is the longevity and maintaining this elite level of performance across two decades in the NBA. And not just playing in the NBA, dominating, and also launching all these other businesses that have turned him into a billionaire. How does he do it? What is the habit for LeBron James that really helps him show up and just peak performance?
--:-- Mel Robbins: And I love this interview that you're about to hear because this is an interview that I found that he did on a podcast at the I Promise School. Now, you may not be aware of this, but one of the cool things that LeBron James has done is that he is the founder of the I Promise School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. It's dedicated to educating kids at a high risk of slipping through the cracks of the education system. And LeBron's involvement goes way beyond funding. He actively participates in shaping the school's mission and programs. And one of the things that I also love is that there's a lot of kids in this school that have learning disabilities and language-based learning differences, which is something I struggle with. Our son went to a school like this. And so I just love that he has given back and founded this school and is really involved in it. And one of the things that he's involved in is this podcast that is hosted by the students. And so here's LeBron James. Just imagine he's literally sitting across from one of the students in the school. He's in a little chair and he's got a little microphone and the kid who's interviewing him has bright headphones on, kind of like the color that a kid would wear. And on this podcast, one of the kids asked him, "What's one specific thing that you do, LeBron James, to practice self-care?" Check his answer out.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Student: What's one specific thing that you do to practice self-care?
--:-- LeBron James: What I do to practice self-care is I sleep. I love to sleep. I have to get my eight hours of sleep, eight hours plus. I think that's the best way to re-energize your body, re-energize your mind, re-energize your spirit, re-energize everything. When you sleep, you have great dreams, you come up with great ideas. And at the same time, you're giving your body an opportunity to rest. So you're killing a lot of birds with one stone at the same time. So I think sleeping is something that's very, very important on a day-to-day basis.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Would you ever think that one of the top habits for billionaire LeBron James is prioritizing sleep? When he's on the road for games, he has talked about this in several clips. He tries to get 10 to 12 hours of sleep at night. And you know what? That's not the only time that LeBron James has talked about the importance of sleep in an interview. I found the most amazing clip of him in a post-game interview in December of 2021. Wait till you hear it. I'm going to set it up and play it for you after we hear a short word from our sponsors. Don't you dare go anywhere because that clip from LeBron James is coming up next. Stay with me.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Welcome back. It's your buddy, Mel Robbins. You and I are talking about six habits that we can steal from billionaires that will help us create a better life. They're free. I love these things. We've already covered Warren Buffett, who has talked all about his daily habit of reading and forcing himself to build the important life skill of public speaking. We also talked about Taylor Swift and learned about her songwriting habit and the fact that she is constantly pulling ideas and these sparks of inspiration from her brain and boom, putting them into a physical space, the notes app on her phone. Why is this important? It's important because you have incredible ideas every single day and they pop in your mind and then you're like, "I gotta remember that." And then you don't remember it. And when you make it a habit to put it in a notes app or a notebook, you are validating your ideas. You're making it a habit to be creative. You're honoring all of this genius inside you. And more importantly, it's gonna be there. So you have it when you wanna look at it, when you're ready to do something with it. How freaking cool is that?
--:-- Mel Robbins: And now we're in the middle of learning from LeBron James. And one of the things that we've talked about with LeBron James is he's not only a billionaire and a remarkable businessman, but he has been dominating in the NBA for decades. He's one of the oldest athletes. He's at the top of his game. And that brings me to this clip about the importance of sleep. This is from a post-game interview in December of 2021. And this is after a huge week where he has been flying all over the country, playing several games. He is just dominating in his career. He has just dominated all week. He's 37 years old. He's at the top of the game. And this reporter asks him, aside from the decades of practice that you've been doing and just all of this talent that you have, what is the secret for your stamina? Check out LeBron's answer. I freaking love this.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Reporter: Just because it's so obvious, how much energy are you playing with? How many hours of sleep are we talking about? What's a good night of sleep for you?
--:-- LeBron James: Sleep, sleep, and inspiration for my son and his team. I got some pretty good sleep in OKC the night we got in and then the day of the game. Yesterday I was pretty tired flying and things of that nature, but watching those guys and watching my son and his team play, I got some energy from that. And then I got some more sleep today and was able to come in with some energy and put it on the floor.
--:-- Reporter: How many hours of sleep are we talking about?
--:-- LeBron James: I slept last night from 12 to 8. I got up, ate breakfast, and then I went back to sleep from 8:30 to 12:30. That's pretty good, right?
--:-- Mel Robbins: I love that. And you know what I need? I need to send that clip to my husband because the next time he gets up at 5:30 in the morning and he comes back in our bedroom and I'm still laying there at 7 a.m., I'm going to be like, "Dude, I'm working on my stamina. Habit LeBron James. Sleeping is for winners. I'm working on my stamina, Chris Robbins." I love that.
--:-- Mel Robbins: And this is genius because one of the things that you and I have learned together on the Mel Robbins Podcast is how important sleep is. We've had two incredible, world-renowned sleep experts on this show, Dr. Poe out on the West Coast, Dr. Robbins here on the East Coast. And what we have learned is amazing: that sleep really is the free superpower habit. We know that sleeping helps you clean out your brain, that while you're sleeping, you get all the junk out of your brain so that you're ready to start fresh the next day. It's like that Zamboni that's cleaning off the ice. We also know that if you don't sleep, you don't clean out the junk in your brain and you can't be as sharp as you otherwise might be. It also helps repair and boost your immune system. A full night's sleep helps your body recover from stress and illness. And the other thing that we've learned is muscle memory and neuropathways. All of the learning during the day, whether you're learning how to be a better basketball player or you're reading like Warren Buffett does about investing, all of that learning actually takes hold in your brain and your body while you're sleeping. You've not only learned this from the world's leading researchers on sleep, now one of the top athletes in the world is telling you that the habit of sleeping is a superpower and it's free. Yet another habit from a billionaire that I want you to steal.
--:-- Mel Robbins: The fourth habit of billionaires comes from none other than Sarah Blakely. Sarah Blakely is famous for founding Spanx. Spanx is the OG. Spanx was the first shapewear brand that revolutionized the fashion industry by creating shapewear, the suck-you-in kind of shapewear that was comfortable. No corsets and cinching up and pinchy stuff that you got to wear. We're talking body slimming, hold it all together while still smooth and comfy and you can breathe. Now, I've never met Sarah. I have admired her from afar. I follow her online. Her story is so inspiring. We got to get her on the Mel Robbins Podcast because she is a fantastic storyteller.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Now, Sarah started Spanx with just $5,000 in savings. And her journey to becoming a self-made billionaire is absolutely jaw-dropping and entertaining. And there is a habit in her story that you are going to steal. Because she got her big break with her product because she got her product into Neiman Marcus. I mean, talk about starting at the top. Holy cow. And she reflected on how this happened in this interview. Check this out.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Sarah Blakely: Neiman Marcus was my first account. And two things about that that are just something that I reflect back on. One is everybody in the industry, after I landed Neiman's, came up to me and said, "How in the world did you land Neiman Marcus?" And I would look at them and I'd say, "I called them."
--:-- Mel Robbins: Yeah. This is why I love Sarah. It's so obvious, isn't it? I called them. And sometimes the most obvious thing to do isn't so obvious, is it? And in fact, she reflected in this interview on why simply picking up the phone and calling the account, the dream account that she wanted, was so unusual.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Sarah Blakely: And I would look at them and I'd say, "I called them."
--:-- Sarah Blakely: And they'd say, "Oh my God, we go to trade shows and we set up a booth and we've been doing it for seven years. And everybody says around year six or seven that you get a chance with Neiman's." I didn't even know there were trade shows. So I often say what you don't know can be your greatest asset if you let it, if you're not intimidated by the self-talk of, "I have no idea what I'm doing" and that shuts you down. So if you can power through the "I have no idea what I'm doing" and actually see it as a positive and go, "That means I'm going to do it different."
--:-- Mel Robbins: I 1000% agree. You know, it's such a shame is that you talk yourself out of doing so many things because you say, "I don't know how to do this." And what Sarah is telling you is her success came because she didn't know any better. Because she didn't follow what everybody else was doing. She's like, "Okay, if I want to be at Neiman Marcus, why not just pick up the phone, figure out who the buyer is, and start cold calling them?" And if you don't know any better, you might just do better than everybody else that thinks they know what to do.
--:-- This is so important of a habit: make the call. This is the habit from Sarah Blakely. You don't get what you don't ask for. You have to make the call. You have to send the DM. You have to show up. You have to send the letter. You don't get what you don't ask for.
--:-- And what I love about Sarah is that she didn't sit around at a trade show and hope that somebody walked by. She put herself on a collision course with the thing that she wanted. She asked for what she wanted. She made the call. That is a habit of a billionaire. That is something you can do starting today.
--:-- There is a person that you want to ask out. Make the call. There is something that you want to do at work. Have the conversation. There is someone that you want to pitch. DM them. Send them a FedEx. Figure it out. Find out who the buyer is and make the call. Because you don't get what you're not willing to ask for.
--:-- And she reflected a little bit more and I want you to hear this, because the only thing that's preventing you from making the call and asking for what you want is your own self-talk. You're the one that is telling yourself you can't do this. You're the one that's telling yourself you don't know. You're the one that's telling yourself you're not ready. It's complete garbage. You don't get what you're not willing to ask for.
--:-- And by the way, if there's somebody in your life that you're like, "Oh boy, they need to hear this," send them this and let Sarah Blakely and Mel Robbins give them the pep talk and the habits of billionaires that they need to institute in their life.
--:-- And I want to go back into Sarah's story about how exactly she got into Neiman Marcus, because it's one thing to make the phone call. I mean, that is a great move because you don't get what you don't ask for. But now she's got one chance to go from that cold call to Neiman Marcus to actually getting this buyer to put her product in Neiman Marcus. So you're about to hear Sarah tell the story about walking into the intimidating headquarters of Neiman Marcus in Dallas. She's flown there from Atlanta. Here's Sarah.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Sarah Blakely: I got a chance to go and cold call Neiman Marcus. I flew on a plane from Atlanta where I live to Dallas and I met with the buyer and she was impeccably dressed. I'm in the intimidating Neiman's headquarters. I had my lucky red backpack from college. I had the prototype in a Ziploc bag from my kitchen and a color copy of the packaging that I had created on my friend's computer.
--:-- And halfway through my pitch, I was telling her what it is and I could tell I was losing her. You know, after seven years of cold calling and trying to sell things to people, you get really good at reading non-verbals. And I always say non-verbals tell you way more than the verbal.
--:-- Mel Robbins: She goes on in the story. She knew she was losing this woman because you can always tell when you're losing somebody. They start looking around or they look at their phone or they say, "That sounds great," but they're shaking their head no. And so she was picking up on all these clues.
--:-- And I want to ask you something. What would you do in that situation? Because I'll tell you what most people would do. They would panic. Not Sarah Blakely. What is the habit that Sarah is teaching you? You have to make the call. You have to make the ask because you don't get what you're not willing to ask for. And so what did Sarah do? She asked for what she wanted.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Sarah Blakely: And I just stopped and said, "You know what, Diane, will you come to the bathroom with me?" And she literally was like, "Excuse me?" I'm like, "I know it's a little weird, but can you just follow me to the bathroom and I'm going to actually show you what my product can do. I'm going to go in the stall." And she was like, "Oh, okay." And she walked down the hall and I went in the stall and I put it on under my white pants and I came out. So I showed her before and then I showed her with the product on and she just sat there and she goes, "I get it. It's brilliant. And I'm going to try it in seven stores."
--:-- Mel Robbins: Boom. Go Sarah. She went from $5,000 and her red backpack from college, her product in a Ziploc bag and a printout from a friend's computer of the sample of the packaging to getting into seven stores in Neiman Marcus, and that went all the way to a $1.2 billion company. That's how you do it.
--:-- First of all, make the call, because you don't get what you don't ask for. And the second thing is stop talking yourself out of it. Doing things differently differentiates you.
--:-- All right, we got two more to go, and for all of my gamers out there, you're going to freaking love who this next habit comes from. It is amazing. And after we hear a word from our sponsors, I'm going to be right back to tell you what habit number five is. I cannot wait. I'll be waiting for you after a short break. Stay with me.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Welcome back. It's your buddy Mel Robbins. You and I are learning from billionaires today. I'm loving this topic. We've already covered four of the habits of billionaires and I want to jump right now into habit number five, which comes from legendary video game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto.
--:-- Now, Shigeru Miyamoto is not technically a billionaire, but in my book, he should be. Why? Because Miyamoto is the legendary video game designer behind some of the most iconic gaming franchises in history. Ever heard of Super Mario? The Legend of Zelda? And the game that I spent my entire childhood playing, Donkey Kong. He is referred to as the father of modern video games and is celebrated for his innovative contributions that have shaped the video game industry and popular culture. And personally, since gaming is a gajillion dollar industry and he's the father of it, I'm just going to crown him an official billionaire.
--:-- What is his habit that you're going to steal? His habit is that he regularly just wanders city streets and parks and allows himself to observe people and environments. And this habit of wandering and people watching has inspired all of the game worlds and the characters that he's created, and it helps him to be creative.
--:-- Now, I don't have any audio from Shigeru Miyamoto, but we do have something from the acclaimed neuroscientist from MIT and King's College London, Dr. Tali Sharot, who told us all about why this habit of wandering and changing your routine and stepping into new environments or learning new things, why this matters so much.
--:-- Dr. Sharot runs the Effective Brain Lab at University College London and MIT. She's known as one of the most renowned psychology researchers that are out there in the world today. And one thing that she researches is this concept called habituation. That's just a fancy word that explains that your brain and my brain, it gets used to the things that you do over and over. And in order to be creative, in order to be inspired, in order to think outside of the box, you have to put yourself in different situations.
--:-- In fact, she explained it this way when she appeared on the Mel Robbins Podcast.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Dr. Tali Sharot: Whatever kind of life you have, you can actually shake things up a little bit. It can be something small, like how do you commute to work? What route do you take to work? It could be small like that. Or it could be like maybe take a course. And it doesn't have to be something expensive. Maybe you don't have the money to pay for a new class, but take up a new skill or a new podcast, right? So try to change things. Or maybe start talking to someone or befriend someone who's different from the normal kind of people that you tend to interact with. Their personality is not the type that you usually are interacting with. And by diversifying, we are doing a few things. We are dishabituating because now we have different inputs that we're not used to.
--:-- Mel Robbins: So just like Shigeru Miyamoto is dehabituating his own creative process by wandering through new neighborhoods, which then allows him to make new connections, you can do the same thing. And as Dr. Sharot just explained, you can do it by stepping into a new environment. You can do it by creating new habits. You can do it by taking a class that has you learn new things, which creates new inputs and ways of thinking. You can do it by simply hanging out with people that aren't exactly like you. All of these things create new connections in your mind that help stimulate creativity, which is one of the habits of billionaires.
--:-- And there are so many examples of successful and inspiring people that are doing this out in the world. In fact, one of the most acclaimed and celebrated writers of our time, Maya Angelou, whenever she would write, she would rent a small hotel room to write in. Why? Because of all this research that you just heard Dr. Sharot talk about. She believed the unfamiliar environment and the lack of distractions helped her focus entirely on her work. So she'd rent the small room. What would she bring? A dictionary, a Bible, a deck of cards, and check out the last one: a bottle of sherry. Freaking love that.
--:-- In fact, Christopher Robbins does the same thing. He is getting his master's right now, and he's also working on his first book. So three days a week, he goes down to a local coffee shop, and he says that getting out of our house and his office and into a different environment where there's all kinds of people coming in and out, and it's got different sounds, it just is a place where he's way more creative.
--:-- You can steal this idea too. This habit of getting out of your routine, wandering, putting yourself in environments that open up new ideas and new experiences that bring new connections and energy into your life. I freaking love this. And again, I'm just going to keep on pointing out, these are free. Every one of these habits are free. The only thing that's going to keep you from doing these habits is you. And you already heard Sarah Blakely say, do not do that, do not listen to the self-talk.
--:-- Whether it is a habit of reading every day and forcing yourself to learn a skill that you're scared to learn like public speaking, or whether it is getting more sleep because you know it's going to help you perform better, whether you make it a habit to take all those creative ideas that you're going to get from the habit of wandering around and you get them on paper or you get them on a notes app or you put them on a note card so that you establish this library of ideas to come back to, or whether you're going to be like Sarah Blakely and the habit is make the call because you don't get what you don't ask for.
--:-- And that brings me to habit number six of billionaires. And this one comes from my dear friend, Jamie Kern Lima. Jamie became a billionaire for co-founding IT Cosmetics, which she sold to L'Oreal for $1.2 billion. That made her the first female CEO of the L'Oreal brand in history. And she is well-known for her inspirational journey as an entrepreneur and for just this relentless ability to trust her gut. In her words, she calls that the difference between your knowing in your heart versus the no's that you're going to get from the outside world.
--:-- Now, Jamie has appeared twice on the Mel Robbins Podcast. She is one of your favorite guests to listen to and her habit is very simple: listen to your knowing. Here's Jamie.
--:-- [Audio clip begins]
--:-- Jamie Kern Lima: Inside, in our gut, if we get still, if we listen to our soul, right, we get a knowing, an intuition, a still small voice, a gut feeling. Every single moment in your life, in your friendships, in your joy, in your goals and dreams and ambitions, I believe, Mel, they come down to which one you listen to. Do you listen to the no's or do you listen to your knowing?
--:-- And this is the most important thing because our self-doubt will lie to us all day long. It will lie to us all day long. And when we get still and ask ourselves, "Is that the truth?" right? And you tune into your gut, your gut will tell you the right answer. I don't believe your gut is ever wrong. I believe that it either leads you to the next right step or the next right lesson.
--:-- Mel Robbins: I am going to repeat that. Your gut is not wrong because your gut is leading you where you are meant to go. And oftentimes, your gut does lead you to a rejection or a no. Why? Because you need that lesson. You need that in order to know the next right step. It is all ordered for you. And your job is to trust your knowing, to tune into your gut, and to take action based on what you know to be true in your heart.
--:-- And here's what I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you that all six of the habits that you and I have learned today are things that I think you know in your gut these are true. Not just because of the example of these extraordinarily successful and inspiring people, but because you know in your soul that this is how you do remarkable things. It's how you tap into your own potential. And it's how you create things in your life that truly surprise you.
--:-- I mean, I do this podcast because I do see a bigger future for you. And you and I can be inspired by and borrow from the habits of these extraordinary billionaires. And so let me just make sure you got them all tucked underneath your arm and you're going to take them with you today. And you're going to share these with the people that you care about.
--:-- That first habit is from Warren Buffett. Read every day to improve your mind, to make yourself smarter, to build these filters of knowledge that will help you be a better decision maker, that will help you be smarter in life. That is something you can start doing today. And he also wanted to remind you to push yourself, to do things that you're scared of so that you build skills in life that are important like public speaking. And you don't have to do this on your own. There are so many classes out there that will create the container where you can learn the skill, but it's on you to push yourself through that fear and do it. And let today's episode be the thing that does it. Go sign up.
--:-- Second habit that you learned: get those amazing ideas that you have out of your head and get them down on paper or in a notes app so that they live in reality. So that when you have that brain space and that time to come back and check out all the things that you've been thinking of, you've created this amazing library of inspiration for yourself. And the other thing that I love about this habit is every time you do that, you are honoring your own wisdom. You are saying, "This idea and this insight is worthy of me remembering it," and you're doing it through your action of getting it in the notes app or this little notebook or the note card. However your system is, just get it in the physical space.
--:-- The third habit that you've learned is from the one and only LeBron James and it's about the power of sleep. How has he dominated in the NBA? Yes, it's about talent. Yes, it's about decades of excruciatingly hard work. But how does he keep going? It's about at least eight hours of sleep a night. And if he doesn't get that, he goes back to bed. How freaking amazing.
--:-- The fourth habit that you're going to steal: Sarah Blakely. Make the call because you don't get what you don't ask for in life. And don't you dare be sitting there listening to that self-doubt. "I don't know what I'm doing. Is this different?" When you do it differently, it differentiates you. Make the call.
--:-- The fifth habit that you learned about from Shigeru Miyamoto, the grandfather of the video gaming industry. Change up your environment. Shake things up. Meet people that aren't like you. Purposefully wander around and seek out new knowledge or different classes or different people. Why? Because it shakes up all the stuff in your head. It shakes up all the stuff in your nervous system. And it shakes loose all of these genius things that are inside of you that are trapped by the mundane, habitual nature of your day. This is free, by the way. Free for you to do. Habits of billionaires.
--:-- And finally, the sixth habit that you and I are going to take today from none other than Jamie Kern Lima: listen to your knowing. Even if you take the risk and you fail, you're never going to regret it because you're going to be proud of yourself for listening to your gut. And what I have learned, what Jamie's learned, what anybody who is successful or remotely has themselves together is going to tell you is that it's in the hard stuff. It's in the rejection. It's in the no's that you learn the most important lessons that you need that lead to the greatest successes and happiness in your life. It just is the way that life is. And the hardest thing about it is you have to trust it and you have to go through it.
--:-- But what I'm excited about is now you and I have six super simple, achievable daily habits that the billionaires themselves have told you work for them. And I guarantee you they're going to work for you.
--:-- And one more thing. I wanted to be sure to tell you that I love you and I believe in you and I believe in your ability to create a better life. And there is no doubt in my mind, if you were to make these six things a habit, your life will get better.
--:-- Alrighty, I'm going to be waiting for you in the very next episode. I'll see you there.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Between the heating pad that I'm wearing, the high-waisted pants and the lady hump, this could be really bad from the waist down on video. How do I look? Oh, are you ready? Okay, let's have some fun. Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. Great. So just like Shigeru Miyamoto... Shigeru Miyamoto... Miyamoto... How do you say his name? Is that good?
--:-- Trace: I love it, Mel. It's really fun. It's great.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Okay, great. Thanks, Jesse. Yeah, keep going. This is perfect. Boom. That's stunning. Okay, good job, Trace. Great job, you guys. That was really good.
--:-- Mel Robbins: Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper. This is the legal language. You know, what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist. And this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode.
