The Secret To Success with CJ, Karl, Jemal & Eric Thomas

Is your team really the problem, or are you? This is the last S2S before We Is Greater Than Me drops, and CJ opens with a line ET preached the day before: if the we ain't strong, it's the me's fault. CJ reads the Nick Saban story from page 97 of the book. Down late in a game, young Saban asked his head coach what play to call and got told: don't think of plays, think of players. CJ explains why he stopped caring about being a famous speaker and started building himself for the we instead, down to dropping 120 pounds, because a right hand man has to look like the message. ET takes it back to Adam. God said it was not good for man to be alone, but only after Adam spent real time alone with Him. Jesus did not start his ministry until 30. Everybody wants to jump into a we before the me is straight. ET also shares the conversation with his daughter Jada that changed how he leads: stop being outcome driven and start trusting the process. Then the playbook. Chick-fil-A has one and Taco Bell does not. Jesus had a tax man, a doctor and a fisherman, not twelve carpenters. And the big one from the book: the lion has a 20 percent kill rate, the African wild dog hits 80 to 90 percent, because the dogs run a system together. JOIN US LIVE ON PATREON New audio every Tuesday, video every Wednesday, plus live recordings and Q&A with the S2S fam. https://www.patreon.com/c/S2SPodcast120 CHAPTERS 00:00:00 Cold Open: The Lion vs the African Wild Dog 00:01:41 Welcome: The Last Episode Before the Book 00:03:21 If the We Ain't Strong, It's the Me's Fault 00:04:16 The Nick Saban Lesson on Page 97 00:05:51 There's No Such Thing as a Good Idea 00:06:47 Why CJ Built Himself for the We 00:10:03 You Blame the We When the Me Is Broken 00:11:18 Why God Let Adam Be Alone First 00:13:46 You Can Hide on a Great Team 00:14:47 Jesus Developed for 18 More Years 00:16:24 How to Spot Potential Before It's Ready 00:18:37 Jada's Lesson: Process Over Outcome 00:20:50 First, Get a Playbook 00:22:47 Figure Out Who You're Not 00:25:30 We Is Greater Summit, November 16 to 18 00:26:52 Why This Book Feels Different 00:30:08 Faith Without a Framework 00:32:40 Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally 00:34:20 The Lion vs the African Wild Dog 00:37:03 Talent to Win, No System to Scale 00:39:35 Recognize, Release, Reorganize 00:41:16 Baylor, the Family and the Incredibles 00:43:16 Get the Book, Join the Summit 00:44:36 Outro PRE-ORDER WE IS GREATER THAN ME The new book from Eric Thomas and CJ Quinney. Pre-order now and get $346 in free bonuses. Get one for you and one for your team. https://www.weisgreater.com WE IS GREATER SUMMIT Three nights, live and virtual, with Eric Thomas and CJ Quinney, November 16, 17 and 18. Yourself, your home and your teams, plus the book launch party. https://www.weisgreater.com/summit WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION https://www.youtube.com/@S2SPodcastChannel RATE AND REVIEW If this one hit home, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more people find the show. LISTEN ANYWHERE Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secret-to-success-with-cj-karl-jemal-eric-thomas/id844102142 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GrMsi1Cxj3nipnI9HR1QX FOLLOW Instagram: @s2spodcast

What do you do when the dream is real, but the rent is due? Fresh off the Forever Forward weekend, with a couple of weeks left before their new book We Is Greater Than Me drops, CJ and Eric Thomas go back to the one season CJ almost folded. Money was so tight that CJ, the first in his family to get a degree, master's in hand, was calling his blue collar parents to borrow five hundred dollars. So he started substitute teaching on the side. By the end of his first day he had a struggling classroom singing, the principal asked him to come back every day, and the district wanted to offer him a role worth close to six figures. Then ET found out, and told him to quit. ET explains why. CJ had already turned down Western Michigan. ET had already watched people from Detroit make enough to survive but never enough to thrive. And the calls coming into their office at Michigan State, from Reggie Bush to Puff, told him the needle was moving. You can't half do this. Then the real reason CJ took the job comes out, and it involves the Cheesecake Factory. They go back even further. ET had one rule for the team, no dating, and Candis of Detroit broke right through it. CJ remembers ET calling with his wife Dede in the background, asking how long this was going to last, and the Michigan State staff meetings where ET stared out a tiny window like he was in prison. ET shares what God told him to do with Dede's need for stability. It all lands on the story ET preached this weekend: why God let David lose everything right after he beat Goliath. You can't stay a champion off the last battle you won. JOIN US LIVE ON PATREON New audio every Tuesday, video every Wednesday, plus live recordings and Q&A with the S2S fam. https://www.patreon.com/c/S2SPodcast120 CHAPTERS Chapters 00:00:00 Cold Open: You Can't Stay Champion Off One Win 00:01:34 Welcome: Fresh Off Forever Forward 00:02:58 Countdown to We Is Greater Than Me 00:04:50 Why CJ Struggles to Promote Himself 00:06:02 Why Now Was the Time for This Book 00:11:55 Was There Ever a Time You Doubted? 00:13:39 The Substitute Teaching Story 00:17:58 Why ET Told CJ to Quit 00:20:01 The Evidence: When Reggie Bush and Puff Called 00:22:04 You Can't Be Here One Week and Gone the Next 00:24:18 Western Michigan or the Cheesecake Factory 00:26:53 Candis of Detroit Broke the Rule Book 00:30:53 Five Grand a Speech and Dede's Big Question 00:33:12 Suffocating in the Staff Meeting 00:35:30 Turn Your Dream Into a Job 00:37:05 Want It as Bad as You Want to Breathe 00:39:21 We Is Greater Summit, November 16 to 18 00:40:27 Get the Book, Bring Your Team PRE-ORDER WE IS GREATER THAN ME The new book from Eric Thomas and CJ Quinney. Pre-order now and get $346 in free bonuses. Get one for you and one for your team. https://www.weisgreater.com WE IS GREATER SUMMIT Three nights, live and virtual, with Eric Thomas and CJ Quinney, November 16, 17 and 18. Self, family and teams, plus the book launch party. https://www.weisgreater.com/summit WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION https://www.youtube.com/@S2SPodcastChannel RATE AND REVIEW If this one hit home, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more people find the show. LISTEN ANYWHERE Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secret-to-success-with-cj-karl-jemal-eric-thomas/id844102142 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GrMsi1Cxj3nipnI9HR1QX FOLLOW Instagram: @s2spodcast

What if the person you keep picking is not the problem? What if it is the version of you doing the picking? With CJ and Jemal out this week, Moose takes the host chair next to Eric Thomas and Karl and drives the whole conversation around one idea from ET and CJ's new book, We Is Greater Than Me. Moose grew up an only child, born in Egypt and raised in New York after 9/11, and learned early that the only way to get ahead was to look out for yourself. So he asks ET straight up: how does we benefit me? ET flips the question. Me is not real. He has never eaten, played, gambled or made it through a day without somebody else making it possible, and he walks you through his grandmother's projects in Detroit to prove it. Then it gets uncomfortable. ET says there is no enemy. Nobody outside your marriage is running your marriage, so whatever is tearing it down, you are holding the hammer. And if you leave one bad situation just to find the next one, you will tear that one down too. You might not be in the wrong we. You might be the wrong me. Karl shares the commandment he wrote this week, and it sounds backwards until it clicks: the most selfish thing you can do is give. Moose opens up about his grandmother's final moments in Egypt. ET explains how CJ and Karl turned an hour of raw ET into the three minutes the world saw, and why he never once did it on a solo. And a random comment someone sent about his kids, Jalin and Jayda, made ET realize he had been raising them in the zoo. It closes with a text Candis sent about Dede, and ET says no sermon can top what Dede did that day. JOIN US LIVE ON PATREON New audio every Tuesday, video every Wednesday, plus live recordings and Q&A with the S2S fam. https://www.patreon.com/c/S2SPodcast120 CHAPTERS Chapters 00:00:00 Cold Open: They Grow From Chasing It Down 00:01:34 Welcome: Moose Takes the Host Chair 00:03:22 Karl's Birthday Shift: Think and Train, Don't Just Do 00:04:59 FOMO Is the Negative Side of We 00:09:12 New York, Boston and Vancouver in 72 Hours 00:11:43 Let Us Create: Why Nothing Gets Built Alone 00:17:29 Moose: Raised to Look Out for Me 00:18:54 Me Is Not Real 00:24:26 What Have You Done for Me Lately 00:25:39 How to Undo It: Stop Group Thinking 00:28:12 When You Worship the Group 00:29:45 There Is No Enemy 00:31:04 The Most Selfish Thing You Can Do Is Give 00:35:04 Coach Scott Drew on Healthy Teams 00:40:11 Study How You're Wired 00:44:09 Moose's Grandmother's Final Words 00:46:13 Roots: No One Greater Than Thee 00:48:26 Wrong We or Wrong Me? 00:49:48 Don't Cut It, Reset It 00:56:33 Out of the Zoo: ET's Kids Go to Work 01:00:41 Distributed Leadership: How ET Really Blew Up 01:06:54 You Can't Make Money Without a Tribe 01:09:02 What Dede Did When Nobody Was Watching 01:13:27 Get the Book, Bring Your We PRE-ORDER WE IS GREATER THAN ME The new book from Eric Thomas and CJ Quinney. Pre-order now and get $346 in free bonuses. Get one for you and two for your we. https://www.weisgreater.com WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION https://www.youtube.com/@S2SPodcastChannel RATE AND REVIEW If this one hit home, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more people find the show. LISTEN ANYWHERE Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secret-to-success-with-cj-karl-jemal-eric-thomas/id844102142 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GrMsi1Cxj3nipnI9HR1QX FOLLOW Instagram: @s2spodcast

How many times are you going to let somebody overdraft your life before you close the account? Eric Thomas and CJ go deep on relationships, boundaries and building the right team. E says it plain: God never told you to stay in a relationship that only takes. If people keep withdrawing more than they deposit, at some point you have to be strong enough to say, I have to let you go. It starts with CJ asking E how you know you are building on bedrock and not in vain. E gives three rules. Repeat the behaviors that get your best results, the same way a 24 hour fast finally moved his scale. Reproduce your best, even if it is the in your face voice Dede is tired of hearing. And select people who share your values, because access is not the same thing as love. Then CJ asks if there is ever a "me season." E tells the story of Dede asking the family for 18 months so she could get her master's, and why that was me for the sake of we. He explains why so many people quit on we after a bad partnership: they never prayed about it, they came for the money. The back half is a live Q&A with the S2S Patreon fam. E answers when the we is worth the sacrifice of me, why some of your me is sick and only spends in your own house, how to get volunteers to join what you are building, and why you can win a lot by yourself but you cannot win the big one alone. He also tells the story of how God gave him the title We Is Greater Than Me in prayer. JOIN US LIVE ON PATREON Hear every episode first and ask your questions live. New audio every Tuesday, video every Wednesday. https://www.patreon.com/c/S2SPodcast120 PRE-ORDER WE IS GREATER THAN ME The new book from Eric Thomas and CJ Quinney. Help us hit the New York Times Best Seller list. https://www.weisgreater.com EXTREME EXECUTION CERTIFICATION Live, October 24 and 25. Only happens once a year. https://www.extremeexecution.com CHAPTERS 00:00:00 Cold Open: I Need You to Produce Something 00:01:28 Welcome: We Costs More Up Front 00:02:43 NBA Coaches, Receipts and the Power of We 00:05:28 Who This Podcast Is Really For 00:07:46 How Do You Know You're Building on Bedrock? 00:08:31 Rule 1: Repeat What Gets You Results 00:13:21 Rule 2: Reproduce Your Best 00:15:46 Rule 3: Pick People Who Share Your Values 00:18:40 Is There Ever a Me Season? 00:19:05 Dede's 18 Months 00:21:32 Why Your Last We Failed 00:25:48 Why We Need You at WeIsGreater.com 00:27:12 Patreon Live Q&A: What E Is Most Excited About 00:30:06 When Is the We Worth the Sacrifice of Me? 00:31:17 Deposits, Withdrawals and Overdrafts 00:35:00 Why the Book Is Called We Is Greater Than Me 00:37:33 Does We Cost You Part of Me? Your Me Might Be Sick 00:41:45 How to Get People to Join Your We 00:43:07 You Can't Win the Big One Alone 00:46:16 How God Gave E the Title 00:47:34 Do You Stay With People Who Won't Grow? 00:49:53 Closing WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION https://www.youtube.com/@S2SPodcastChannel RATE AND REVIEW If this episode hit home, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share it with somebody in your circle. It helps more people find the show. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secret-to-success-with-cj-karl-jemal-eric-thomas/id844102142 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GrMsi1Cxj3nipnI9HR1QX FOLLOW Instagram: @s2spodcast

Eric Thomas thought he was a people pleaser. Then he looked around his own company and noticed something. Nobody was pleased. Payroll was astronomical. Every month was a prayer just to cover it. Morale was low. And every time the money ran short, ET had the same answer: get back on the road and go make more. This conversation starts with one sentence. CJ told someone who wanted in, "I don't trust you in the we right now." Not with his wallet. With the mission. Because CJ had already watched a people pleasing spirit up close. He watched E people please his way into that payroll. So CJ turns to E and asks him to talk to the people pleasers. What comes next is ET at his most honest: "I lied to you about what we was." He tells you why he did it, and it goes all the way back to being a kid watching Roots. He tells you what one conversation with TJ about the NFL finally made him see. And he gives you the one question that exposes whether you are really people pleasing or just worried about what people think. Then it gets personal. ET grew up in the Serengeti, but he raised his kids in the safari, where the meat gets thrown out to you right on schedule. So he made a decision about his son Jalin that most parents will not make. Then Jalin got COVID, missed four days of work, and opened his check. What he said to his dad after that is the whole point of this episode. Also in this one: why ET says workers don't get paid in this country, what a fourth and inches call has to do with your life, what being "half and half" gave CJ that E never had, and the phone call ET made to the father who raised him to apologize for something that made him mad as a kid. So be honest. The people you keep taking care of. Are they actually pleased? JOIN US LIVE ON PATREON New audio every Tuesday, video every Wednesday, plus live recordings with the S2S fam. https://www.patreon.com/c/S2SPodcast120 CHAPTERS 00:00:00 Cold Open: You Can't Say It's Bad When You're Part of What's Making It Bad 00:02:08 Welcome: AI, Water, and the End of the World 00:04:42 Chat GPT Turned E Into a Handyman 00:12:36 The AI Water Crisis: Chat vs Coca-Cola 00:18:06 Pre-Order We Is Greater Than Me 00:19:15 The People Pleasing Problem: When You're Really Self-Pleasing 00:22:08 The Payroll Crisis: When E Created a False World 00:23:39 Fourth and Inches: The Dan Campbell Philosophy 00:25:05 You're Not People Pleasing If They're Not Pleased 00:29:31 TJ and the NFL Reality Check 00:31:49 Workers Don't Get Paid: The Real World vs The Safari 00:34:07 If You Made Me, Make Another One: The Hov Principle 00:40:02 CJ's Half and Half Advantage: The Power of We 00:41:59 The Safari vs The Serengeti: Raising Kids in Reality 00:45:19 The Hidden Coke Story: Why Parents Hide Their Stuff 00:47:07 Jalin's COVID Check: When Reality Hits 00:48:32 Real People Pleasing: Standards That Set People Free PRE ORDER WE IS GREATER THAN ME The new book from Eric Thomas and CJ Quinney. Help us hit the New York Times Best Seller list. Buy one for you and one for your squad. https://www.weisgreater.com WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION https://www.youtube.com/@S2SPodcastChannel?sub_confirmation=1 RATE AND REVIEW If this episode helped you, leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more people find the show. LISTEN ANYWHERE Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secret-to-success-with-cj-karl-jemal-eric-thomas/id844102142 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GrMsi1Cxj3nipnI9HR1QX FOLLOW Instagram: @s2spodcast