Gabriel Iglesias Opens Up About MENTAL HEALTH, Moving On From RELATIONSHIPS, & Why He Almost RETIRED

Gabriel Iglesias 0:00 I just shared a lot with you.

Lewis Howes 0:01 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 0:01 And you don't realize how much I've shared.

Lewis Howes 0:03 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 0:04 Being vulnerable's hard to do, and it's scary.

Lewis Howes 0:08 The first comedian to sell out Dodger Stadium. One of the world's most successful and popular stand-up comedians, Gabriel Iglesias, who is known as Fluffy.

Gabriel Iglesias 0:19 I got to a place where you wanna talk about not feeling good. I talked about retiring, especially right after Dodger Stadium, because that put me in a different place mentally, because it's not every day you can say that you saw your peak. We allow certain behavior to continue because we're trying to keep certain people in our lives.

Lewis Howes 0:38 Mm. Mm. Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 0:39 And unfortunately, some people should not be in our lives. I took on the pain and the frustration and the issues because I didn't wanna be the bad person who said, "Let me hit the stop button."

Lewis Howes 0:49 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 0:50 All, all that stuff I just shared with you about struggles and the relationships and stuff like that, I haven't talked about that on stage yet.

Lewis Howes 0:56 Mm. Who is Fluffy versus who is Gabriel, in your mind?

Gabriel Iglesias 1:00 Gabriel does have bad days.

Lewis Howes 1:02 Really? Fluffy can't have bad days.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:04 He's not supposed to. And...

Lewis Howes 1:09 Welcome back, everyone, to The School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Gabriel Iglesias in the house. Good to see you, sir. Thank you so much for being here.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:16 Hola, señor. Hola. Mucho gusto. ¿Cómo estás? Uh, Mexicans hate it when white people try to speak Spanish to them.

Lewis Howes 1:22 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 1:23 Uh, out the gate, just so you know. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 1:24 Yeah. Especially when they're not fluent. Yeah, exactly. So good to, uh, connect with you, and congrats on everything, man. It's been inspiring to see the journey, and to, um... And the thing that I really appreciate about you is how vulnerable and honest you are with your message, with your work, and with the interactions you have. Obviously, you're, you're extremely funny, and you've amassed this massive audience of 25 million people globally that are consistently consuming or watching you, but I love how real and authentic you are with your comedy. And so I just wanted to acknowledge you for the journey you've been on, the impact you've made, and the joy you bring to so many people in the world.

Gabriel Iglesias 2:07 Thank you.

Lewis Howes 2:08 And I'm curious, as someone at your level who is always on the road, with a lot of success over the last, you know, 15-plus, 18-plus years now, how do you manage fame, success, while also being happy and finding inner peace?

Gabriel Iglesias 2:29 I think you gotta go through all the same issues that normal people go through, you know? You gotta go through the, the moments of heartache. Uh, you know, I, I cry. I have my good days, my bad days. I have my, my days where I just wanna scream into a pillow, uh, wanna throw something, you know? But, you know, you, you, you, you find a way to get through it. Uh, I'm very fortunate that I

Gabriel Iglesias 2:49 get to air out a lot of my issues-

Lewis Howes 2:50 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 2:50 ... onstage, because I do. I will take things that bother me, and I will go onstage, and I will vent about 'em. And I find that by doing that, um, people can relate. People can relate to when you're frustrated. People can relate to when you're not having the best of days, and you share a moment, you know, whether it's, like, me dealing with issues, uh, as a parent, or me dealing with issues as, you know, "Oh, man, something happened today where, you know, I, I s- you know, I, I, I hit my knee."

Lewis Howes 3:17 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 3:18 Or I'm dealing with a friend that's just bugging the hell out of me because they keep this, they have a certain way of thinking, and I'm trying to explain something, or just dealing with, you know, trying to get through the day. Everybody has problems, and when you can relate to people's problems, it, for some reason, it helps me, you know? I went to therapy for two years after my last breakup trying to figure out what I did wrong, and I realized-

Lewis Howes 3:43 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 3:43 ... you know what? It wasn't all me. Uh, 'cause I, in the beginning, I thought it was, and, uh, going, you know, doing that actually helped out a lot. It, it taught me how to listen. It taught me how to ask myself questions and have a better understanding.

Lewis Howes 3:57 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 3:57 And I think that, uh, for many years, I, I f- I thought I knew it all, and clearly I didn't, and that's one thing I appreciate about the fact that as I'm getting older, I'm realizing, all right, now we're finally getting into a good groove. We're finally understanding, and things are starting to make sense.

Lewis Howes 4:15 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 4:15 Inner peace, first of all, you gotta know what not having peace is to really understand peace. So, uh, unfortunately, I've h- I have had some, some rough moments where I'm like, "I am miserable."

Lewis Howes 4:28 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 4:29 "I am freaking miserable." And not because of my work. I love what I do. It is the greatest feeling in the world. But there are things in life, not just your career. There's, you know, regular everyday life, the people that you engage with. And, uh, yeah, there have been serious moments where I'm like, "I am so unhappy right now." So once those things are taken care of or they're gone, when you talk about having peace and feeling good, knowing what true misery is helps you really understand what peace is.

Lewis Howes 5:05 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 5:05 And I don't think you can have one without the other. And so you gotta, you gotta know. You gotta, you gotta be able to bleed to know what it's like to feel good.

Lewis Howes 5:14 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 5:15 And I think that, uh, starting off this year, uh, 2024, I feel so good, and I haven't said that in so long. I feel really, really good, and I feel happy, and I feel like, um, I'm, I'm in a good direction.

Lewis Howes 5:28 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 5:28 And I'm in a good place in life right now.

Lewis Howes 5:29 Congrats, man.

Gabriel Iglesias 5:30 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 5:30 What's the, what do you think has been the darkest or most miserable moments you've had?

Gabriel Iglesias 5:35 Um, you know, I think that feeling confused is, is something that i- it definitely is, is, is painful. Not knowing, uh, living in a, in

Gabriel Iglesias 5:50 a gray area of confusion.

Lewis Howes 5:51 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 5:51 Not being able to have clarity and understanding, um, especially in relationships, not knowing where you stand. And, and a lot of times, I, I think we're the, the ones responsible for that because we allow certain behavior to continue because we're trying to keep certain people in our lives

Lewis Howes 6:11 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 6:11 And unfortunately, some people should not be in our lives

Lewis Howes 6:15 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 6:15 And, uh, that is a hard pill to swallow as well because as much as, whether it's friends, family or business acquaintances, some people do not belong in your life

Lewis Howes 6:26 Ugh

Gabriel Iglesias 6:27 And the sooner you can get them out, the better you're gonna be. And unfortunately, there was times when I didn't just have days or months or a year. I've, I've allowed, uh, situations to go on for a very long time because I didn't wanna be the bad guy to pull the plug.

Lewis Howes 6:44 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 6:45 And so I, I took on the pain-

Lewis Howes 6:48 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 6:48 ... and the frustration and the issues because I didn't wanna be the bad person who, who said, "Let me hit the stop button."

Lewis Howes 6:54 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 6:55 Because I didn't wanna be that person.

Lewis Howes 6:57 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 6:57 But at the same time, I wasn't doing myself any favors by not stopping or correcting certain things that were happening.

Lewis Howes 7:04 Yeah. I can relate to that because I've been in... I, I'm, I'm a slow learner sometimes, and I have to go through a lot of pain in order to learn lessons, and I had many long-term relationships, intimate relationships that I should have been out of much, years before I got out of them, and dealt with a lot of pain by trying to people please, by trying to change myself to keep someone happy that was just never gonna be happy with me.

Gabriel Iglesias 7:28 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 7:29 And, uh, so I can relate to that feeling. When, when did you feel like you learned that lesson or what, what shifted inside of you that allowed you to say, "Okay, I can no longer be this way anymore with this person or these people in my life"?

Gabriel Iglesias 7:43 I'm still learning, and it's, it's one of those things where maybe this period of time was, was good and helpful and it, and it allowed growth and joy and happiness, but then maybe, you know, uh, letting it go this long just kinda like, ah. Like it, it's, now it's going down and now it's going in the opposite direction. So I'm still learning and I'm still adjusting and, uh, the people that I've started with are not the people that are, you know, always the ones... The ones you start with are not always the ones you end with. And fortunately, there have been, uh, many people that are still in my life that, that I've been on this quest with for so many years. For example, like my, my team, the team of people that I have, I, I still have the, the, the same manager and agent that I've had for, God, oh, like 20 years now.

Lewis Howes 8:33 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 8:34 You know, and it's, it's awesome. And, and the fact that we've all grown together-

Lewis Howes 8:38 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 8:39 ... has, has been awe- The same promoter as well.

Lewis Howes 8:41 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 8:42 So I've, I've

Gabriel Iglesias 8:43 been very... In, in a business of show business, uh, you're always jumping around. It's always go, go, this way, this way, whatever works and, and, you know, it's very cutthroat.

Lewis Howes 8:51 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 8:51 So the fact that I've been able to maintain and have this same group of people, it's, it's huge-

Lewis Howes 8:57 Wow

Gabriel Iglesias 8:57 ... because the trust is there. And going back to that whole thing of having the wrong person in place, I had people in place that was, that were making me question are these the best people for me.

Lewis Howes 9:09 Interesting.

Gabriel Iglesias 9:10 And I feel like loyalty is one of the strongest, biggest things that people take for granted because they're thinking about the money, they're thinking about this or that. But loyalty's so huge. Being able to trust someone is so huge and I think that, uh, a lot of people just kinda go, "Eh, you know, whatever," and like, ugh. And that, and that's why for me to let people go is really, really hard because I'm like, "Am I gonna make a mistake? Am I gonna regret this? You know, what's gonna happen?" And so sometimes I will overthink, but being able to trust somebody and being able to have the right people in your corner is, is really huge, and it is a big key to happiness and joy and peace.

Lewis Howes 9:50 Wow. That's powerful, man. I, I love that you talked about therapy, and I know you've talked about this in different interviews. Uh, I speak about it a lot, uh, on this show, just my journey of healing and therapy and lessons I've learned and mistakes I've made, and I feel like it's been so beneficial to creating more clarity and peace inside of me by having a place to talk about challenges, pains, frustrations, upsets, things like that. What would you say are the three most powerful things you've learned through the therapy that you've done?

Gabriel Iglesias 10:22 Again, being able to question myself.

Lewis Howes 10:25 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 10:26 Um, I know I'm not always right, and I will never claim to always be right, and that's one thing that I had to learn, uh, by going that, you know what, mm, just because you're, you're popular, just 'cause people like you-

Lewis Howes 10:39 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 10:39 ... doesn't mean you're always right. And uh, I was riding that for a minute, and I had to come with the, uh, reality that, you know what, dude, no, you're not. You're not always right. And, uh, you know, that's a, that's a tough one to swallow right there. And-

Lewis Howes 10:53 Especially when you're selling out arenas and people are laughing at everything you say and-

Gabriel Iglesias 10:57 It's, it's hard to... Yeah. It, it's hard to, uh, admit that, yeah, because when you're doing all these great things, like are you kidding? You're in magazines. You're in, uh, top Forbes, uh, you know, uh, maker of the year type of thing. You're, you're, you're selling out stadiums. You're doing all kinds of crazy... You know, you got a freaking car collection that, you know, that Jay Leno's like, "Wow." Like you're doing all these amazing things. So to be able to, to feel like, really, I'm wrong, you know, that's... it's hard. It,

Gabriel Iglesias 11:26 it took me a minute to really, to get that. But, um, yeah, I admit it all the time now. Man, yeah, that was stupid. I shouldn't have done that. So, uh, yeah, I, I definitely feel like that, that was huge, being able to learn that 'cause I feel like I did need to learn. And nobody would tell me.

Lewis Howes 11:43 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 11:43 That's another thing. Once you're at a certain place where-

Lewis Howes 11:46 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 11:46 ... the wheels are moving really well and money is, is good at keeping people, "Hey, let's keep this going here, you know, don't nobody tell him anything. Don't, don't ruffle feathers. Don't upset him because if we, we mess this up, you know..." So who's gonna tell me I'm wrong? And that's a tough one. I had to figure that one out. Nobody said, "You're wrong."

Lewis Howes 12:09 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 12:09 Because they're not... None of this, we're not gonna mess any of this up.

Lewis Howes 12:12 Right. We don't wanna stop the money machine-

Gabriel Iglesias 12:14 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 12:14 ... that's coming in right now.

Gabriel Iglesias 12:15 And everything that's happening.

Lewis Howes 12:16 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 12:16 So yeah. But, uh, I can be wrong in business, I can be wrong in relationships, and, and I've been wrong in both.

Lewis Howes 12:23 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 12:23 I've made decisions where I'm like, "Oh, okay."

Lewis Howes 12:26 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 12:26 "That, maybe that didn't work out right."

Lewis Howes 12:27 Right, right. So when you're going on a, you know, if it's not a special, but you're just going out to a local comedy club to work out some, some material, are you going on stage thinking about, "Okay, I had this thing that happened last week that I wanna vent"-

Gabriel Iglesias 12:41 Yeah

Lewis Howes 12:41 ... "that I wanna talk about"? Have you already pre-planned the interpretation of it? Or is it more I'm just gonna wing it out there and see what comes up for me in the flow?

Gabriel Iglesias 12:51 I have the idea of what I wanna talk about, but I don't know the verbiage yet.

Lewis Howes 12:55 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 12:55 I don't know the-

Lewis Howes 12:56 Wow

Gabriel Iglesias 12:57 ... you know. I'm just gonna go and, and every single bit starts off with me just f- literally free styling it. Let's see how it goes. And then-

Lewis Howes 13:05 Wow

Gabriel Iglesias 13:06 ... go back and you listen, and you're like, "Okay, that doesn't sound right. Maybe we, you know, I should..." And so the first time it's just here's what we got, and then you go back and then you start shaving off this or adding that and moving stuff around. But everything just starts off with the first let's just throw it at the wall and see what happens. Okay.

Lewis Howes 13:23 What if people don't laugh?

Gabriel Iglesias 13:25 Then I make fun of the fact that they didn't laugh.

Lewis Howes 13:27 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 13:27 I'm in a very good place now because of so many years of doing standup. The trust is there.

Lewis Howes 13:34 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 13:35 The trust is there from the crowd, so if I say something that's not the, the funniest or it just, it doesn't get the... I, I, I feel pretty confident. So if something doesn't get a laugh, I'm gonna find something to make f- I'm gonna find something to make fun of. You know? Or, you know, "Hey, you guys, th- they, they all can't be funny." Or if I'm at a-

Lewis Howes 13:57 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 13:57 If I'm at a club-

Lewis Howes 13:58 Or they'll laugh. Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 13:58 ... if I'm at a club and I just popped in and people are like, "Oh my God," you know. Like, you know, the, if I get a reaction when I walk in the room and I do a bit that doesn't fly a- and I just look around

Gabriel Iglesias 14:09 and I go, "Yeah, see? That's what happens when you don't pay for the show. This is what you get for free, people." [laughs]

Lewis Howes 14:15 Right. You've got so much years of experience with this.

Gabriel Iglesias 14:18 This... Yeah.

Lewis Howes 14:19 You know how, you know how to spin something. Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 14:20 And I'm not uncomfortable. If they don't laugh, they don't laugh.

Lewis Howes 14:22 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 14:22 You know? If they're, if they're quiet. I always say this, if the audience is dead quiet and you can hear a pin drop, that's a good thing because that means they're listening.

Lewis Howes 14:32 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 14:33 A lot of people are afraid of silence, and I'm not. I'm more afraid of heckling and, and, and distractions in the room.

Lewis Howes 14:40 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 14:40 So whether there's a ceiling fan on or the air conditioner's making a weird sound, or you hear glasses and clinking of... St- you know, you're trying to talk and you hear little noises in the room. Uh. [coughs] "That'll be $4.50."

Lewis Howes 14:55 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 14:55 "Hey, you got this, you got a credit card?" You know? Sometimes I'll have servers that right in the front row, right?

Lewis Howes 15:01 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 15:01 A big old plate with eight burgers on it, you know, "Here you go." And I'm like, "You couldn't do this half hour ago with the opening acts?"

Lewis Howes 15:09 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 15:09 "With anybody? You had to put like eight burgers and bring them right here in the front?" You know, "The kitchen's backed up." I'm like, "Oh my God. All right." And that's funny to people, to see me in that situation. I'm like, "You want me to perform and you got all this food right here in the front."

Lewis Howes 15:23 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 15:24 All right. You wonder why bears attack.

Lewis Howes 15:26 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 15:27 You know, at the circus, so.

Lewis Howes 15:28 Sure. That's funny, man. Uh, do you ever feel insecure on stage?

Gabriel Iglesias 15:33 I'm always insecure.

Lewis Howes 15:34 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 15:34 Yeah. I'm always insecure like, "Ah, man, how's it gonna go?" Like, "Oh, did they like that?" You know, "Was it okay? Was it funny enough? Are they gonna come back? Are they gonna tell their friends?" You know, that's always in, in, in my head. I feel confident going up on stage every time, but there, uh, the insecurities are always there. That's part of it. Um, I think that if the insecurities go away, it's gonna keep me from working hard to make people laugh.

Lewis Howes 16:00 Hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 16:01 They always say, once you think you're the , that's when you become .

Lewis Howes 16:04 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 16:07 So, you know.

Lewis Howes 16:08 So-

Gabriel Iglesias 16:08 I, I, I embrace the insecurities. I embrace the fact that, you know, it's, you're working without a net. You know? When you go up on stage, you are the writer, the producer, the director. You are the everything. And so it's, you know, it all falls on you.

Lewis Howes 16:22 Wow, man, this is crazy. So you have confidence, but you also have a sense of insecurity or uncertainty.

Gabriel Iglesias 16:28 I know that standup is the thing that I do better than, than... That's the best thing I can do. That's, that's what I'm, I'm, I'm good at. Um, you know, I'm not, I'm not a good hiker. Uh, I'm not a good... [laughs] You know? I, I, I don't know how to, I don't know how to code. I don't know how... [laughs] There's a lot of things I don't

Gabriel Iglesias 16:46 know how to do, but I feel very confident when I, when I'm going, when I'm going on stage, I know that I'm, I'm doing something that I love to do, and I know how to do it well. But that doesn't mean that I can't have a bad moment-

Lewis Howes 16:58 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 16:58 ... or I can't have something that's not gonna go the way it should.

Lewis Howes 17:01 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 17:02 Remember earlier, you know, just because I'm doing, like, he's doing all this, I can have a bad time on stage. You know? I can f- I can be wrong. You know? An idea just, eh, might not fly.

Lewis Howes 17:13 Right. How do you separate your intimate personal breakdowns in life that you might be having or from the past, if maybe a relationship isn't working the way you want to that day or that week, or you're going through some challenges with a friend or someone in your personal life? How do you disassociate that by going on stage and bringing this joy and passion and creativity, while not letting that affect you emotionally? While also you might be talking about some of those things as well from your personal life. How do you manage that to still bring that into it?

Gabriel Iglesias 17:52 I, I incorporate it. I have to put it in the set somehow. I have to, I have to decompress a little bit by, by putting it in there. And, uh, you know, so whether it's me venting about it for a couple seconds-

Lewis Howes 18:03 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 18:03 ... just maybe a little blip- Or, um, maybe it's something on social media, you know? Uh, I, and I... And that's a dangerous one too-

Lewis Howes 18:12 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 18:12 ... because that's, that's out there forever. Um, it's either... Ah, it's, that's, it's a hard one because-

Lewis Howes 18:19 Like if you're not feeling good about you

Gabriel Iglesias 18:21 ... I don't... If, if I'm not feeling good, it's really hard to share that with, with, uh, you know, I have a very small circle, so it's like, it's hard to share because as much as, you know, y- you wanna trust that people are gonna keep things-

Lewis Howes 18:35 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 18:35 ... to themselves-

Lewis Howes 18:36 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 18:36 ... sometimes they don't, and then it's like, "Ah," then that, that becomes... The problem becomes worse. And so sometimes I do find myself, you know, talking to strangers-

Lewis Howes 18:47 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 18:47 ... about certain things, and e- a lot of people say, "Really, with strangers?" Yeah, yeah. Uh, uh, I'm good at talking to strangers, you know, no problem, es- especially 'cause they, they don't know all the inner workings. They just see me as this, which is why sometimes when I'm having a drink, you know, I'm like, "Yeah, you know, and you just, oh, I, yeah, yeah, it's whatever. Yeah." You know, I can't do that all the time, and it's hard for me to go places, but every now and then-

Lewis Howes 19:08 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 19:08 ... just, you know, shooting the [censored] with somebody. This is cool-

Lewis Howes 19:13 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 19:13 ... because you don't know everything about my inner workings, and I just shared a lot with you.

Lewis Howes 19:16 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 19:17 And, uh, you don't realize how much I've shared.

Lewis Howes 19:20 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 19:22 But I feel good doing it. I was like, "Yeah."

Lewis Howes 19:23 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 19:24 You know? Like that whole talk about the whole inner peace thing, I'm like, "Wow, look at me saying stuff out loud."

Lewis Howes 19:28 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 19:30 Conversations like that-

Lewis Howes 19:31 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 19:31 ... are very helpful.

Lewis Howes 19:32 They are.

Gabriel Iglesias 19:32 Um, and again, being able to talk

Gabriel Iglesias 19:35 to people that are not gonna flip it on you and-

Lewis Howes 19:38 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 19:38 ... use it against you. Being vulnerable's hard to do, and it's scary. You know, when you, when you show weakness, man, you know, people can just take that and, and, you know, mess up your day.

Lewis Howes 19:52 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 19:52 And so sometimes you wanna just keep it to yourself, but if you keep it to yourself, then you get a, get to a point where you might, you might explode.

Lewis Howes 19:59 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 19:59 And that's not gonna be good either.

Lewis Howes 20:01 Yeah. I ask this question to a lot of people, and I'm curious your, your answer on this. It's a, it's a self-assessment. On a scale of one to 10, I call it the self-love scale, the inner peace and self-love scale, where would you say that you're currently at, you know, this season of life, from a s- from one being you have zero self-love and zero inner peace, to 10 being a lot of self-love and all peace inside of you, where would you say you're currently on that scale, one to 10?

Gabriel Iglesias 20:32 One to 10, I'm probably about a six, five, maybe close to a seven.

Lewis Howes 20:36 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 20:37 Um, I feel good, but I know that there are so many things that I could do to improve my quality of life, so many things that I could be doing to make myself happier.

Lewis Howes 20:47 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 20:47 So many things I could be doing to just give myself a, a, a better, a better place, if that makes sense. Like, you know, I know that if I was to wake up every morning and go, just go take a walk, that would improve my health. I know that if I didn't drink, that could help, you know, certain things with like, you know, uh, make organs feel better-

Lewis Howes 21:09 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 21:09 ... or maybe m- you know, the skin will be... You know? I know that if I made certain choices, it would improve. And so it's, you know, as far as self-love, like I feel pretty good right now.

Lewis Howes 21:21 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 21:22 Um, but, you know, the, the week is young. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 21:26 When do you feel like, when do you feel like you've been on the lowest on that scale, if you can reflect back?

Gabriel Iglesias 21:31 Lowest on that scale is when I was trying to make people happy that weren't gonna, that weren't gonna be happy and definitely weren't gonna be making me happy.

Lewis Howes 21:41 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 21:42 Killing yourself trying to please others is one of those things that I'm guilty of doing so many times, and I've given so many of the wrong people my time, energy, and love when I should've been giving that to myself.

Lewis Howes 21:55 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 21:56 And so, um, I'm guilty of giving till it hurts and-

Lewis Howes 21:59 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 21:59 ... giving till I hurt myself.

Lewis Howes 22:00 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 22:01 And I, I definitely would like to... 'Cause I'm not gonna get that time and that, all that back, and so the, the, the, the goal is to try to turn all of that and start doing more for me.

Lewis Howes 22:13 Mm. Wow, that's beautiful, man. I can relate to that so much because growing up I just-

Gabriel Iglesias 22:18 Don't cry, bro. I, man.

Lewis Howes 22:18 [fake cries]

Gabriel Iglesias 22:19 I felt it, man. I felt it. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 22:21 But I, I mean, shoot, I, I cry a lot on here, man. Um, but I relate to that just because growing up I felt very alone. I felt very alone. I felt very abandoned and abused. Now, that doesn't mean that's the total truth,

Lewis Howes 22:36 but there were certain moments and memories that caused me to feel, um, not enough.

Gabriel Iglesias 22:41 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 22:42 Often. I was sexually abused when I was five by a man that I don't know. I've talked about this openly many times here. Uh, my brother was in prison when I was eight years old for four and a half years, so I wasn't allowed to have friends in the neighborhood because my older brother was bad and wrong, and therefore parents wouldn't let their kids hang out with me. I was in special needs classes. It was really hard for me to read and write and just remember what I was learning in school. So I was in those special classes with like three or four kids, getting made fun of, getting picked on. And, um, you know, I just never felt enough. I never felt like I was good enough. And so th- that, I guess those memories, that, that, those experiences, those wounds caused me to people please a lot in my 20s and early 30s.

Gabriel Iglesias 23:27 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 23:27 Until it felt like it was gonna kill me. Until I had heart palpitations, pain in my chest. I was making a lot of money to prove people wrong and succeeding externally, but feeling very insignificant, lonely, and sad internally. And it wasn't until I started to wake, really break down, get some support, go to therapy, start to transform, heal, that's when I started to have more clarity and more peace. Do you feel like you know where a lot of that people-pleasing came from for you?

Gabriel Iglesias 24:02 Uh, first of all, I'm, I'm sorry for, for what you went through, and I, I, like I relate a lot to what you just said.

Lewis Howes 24:08 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 24:08 Especially the, you know, the people-pleasing and just trying to- You know, you, you, you figure if you're, if you're making people happy, then, then hopefully you'll feel happy, and maybe they'll make you happy. And that's a, that's a tough one. It really is. Um, I don't know where that came from, uh, because I do feel like, you know, even though I didn't grow up with both parents, I had my mom-

Lewis Howes 24:32 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 24:32 ... um, who was an incredible person. I, I miss her very much. She gave me everything I, I needed in life to, you know, to, to be okay. You know, I, I didn't have all the toys, but, you know, my Christmases were not horrible, you know? And, um, even though we lived in a rough area, she still protected me and, and kept me from becoming the environment. So I don't know where, uh, that comes from. I mean, I, I basically grew up an only child because my sister and... my sisters and my brother were all much older. You know, there's like 14 years between my sister and I.

Lewis Howes 25:08 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 25:08 I wanna say 13, about roughly, yeah.

Lewis Howes 25:10 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 25:10 So by the time I showed up, everybody was already gone. They're all out of the house. So it's like it was just my mom and I. So, you know-

Lewis Howes 25:18 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 25:18 ... I, I don't know where this comes from.

Lewis Howes 25:20 Interesting. Yeah. But it sounds like you've realized this was something you were doing, you've stopped doing it, and now you're starting to give back to you.

Gabriel Iglesias 25:28 I... And this is very recent, 'cause I... I mean, I'm still guilty of it, and I still-

Lewis Howes 25:32 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 25:32 ... unfortunately, I still allow certain people to have behaviors that are not, not good for them and definitely not good for me.

Lewis Howes 25:39 Really? Why do you think you allow that still?

Gabriel Iglesias 25:42 Uh, because I love them. Because I don't want to hurt their feelings. I don't want to, uh... I don't wanna feel bad for making them feel bad, even though I know that-

Lewis Howes 25:54 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 25:54 ... this is not, not, not benefiting either one. I, I don't, I don't like the idea of knowing that the... what I'm about to do is gonna cause ripples of unhappiness-

Lewis Howes 26:06 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 26:06 ... even though it's, it's sometimes necessary to correct what's going on. And, and that's why it's like, ugh, you know? It's almost like, all right, maybe... And you always wanna hope that they see it.

Lewis Howes 26:20 Mm. [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 26:20 They get it. They understand it. They'll change on their own.

Lewis Howes 26:24 [laughs] Yeah, right.

Gabriel Iglesias 26:25 And, man, some people just...

Lewis Howes 26:29 Yeah, man.

Gabriel Iglesias 26:29 And, uh, yeah. So because of how close they are and how long-

Lewis Howes 26:35 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 26:35 ... they've, you know, they've been part of everything, it's, it's really hard.

Lewis Howes 26:40 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 26:40 It's really hard. And so that's why I haven't, I haven't, you know... 'Cause this year started off so good.

Lewis Howes 26:45 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 26:46 You know? I'm like, man, I should've done that last year. This way it wouldn't have carried over. But no. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 26:50 [laughs] Well, now you have the opportunity. I'm curious, you know, on this show, I really love to talk about living our best lives and what's, what's possible for us, the things that we can have control over, the things that we can learn and can develop, and, and sharing that with anyone watching or listening around the world. I'm curious, you said, you know, five, six, six and a half, maybe seven at this point on the self-love inner peace scale. What do you think it would take from you to get to a eight, nine, or maybe 10 sometimes? I'm not saying you have to be perfect all the time, but what would it take to, from you, to be a little bit higher consistently on that scale?

Gabriel Iglesias 27:29 A little bit higher consistently? Definitely on the physical side, uh, you know, um, I think that, you know, again, limiting and, uh, the, the drinking, limiting the-

Lewis Howes 27:42 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 27:42 You know, 'cause I, I, I, I bi- I will binge eat if I'm not feeling good, and I'll just... You know, not, I'm not like my 600-pound life or anything-

Lewis Howes 27:49 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 27:49 ... but I might have more than one burger.

Lewis Howes 27:51 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 27:51 You know? And so I think that, uh, if I changed some of my, um, habits, I think that would, that would definitely help. Um, but I use these habits as crutches too whenever I'm dealing. You know, sometimes it's easier to just drink and fall asleep than freaking having to, you know, get into a situation that's very uncomfortable.

Lewis Howes 28:10 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 28:11 And, and I'm, I'm guilty of doing that. So I think that if I were to... I know, and I know that if I did certain things, I would be in a better place.

Lewis Howes 28:19 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 28:19 Um, I'm very comfortable,

Gabriel Iglesias 28:21 and that's a, that's a problem too.

Lewis Howes 28:23 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 28:23 I don't like feeling uncomfortable.

Lewis Howes 28:25 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 28:25 And by changing certain, you know, ways that you do things, it's like, ugh. And developing new habits is really hard, so I know that. But I do know that it would be beneficial. I know that every day I walk by a gym that I have-

Lewis Howes 28:41 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 28:41 ... at home. I have a home gym. Nice one. A really nice one.

Lewis Howes 28:44 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 28:45 A nice one.

Lewis Howes 28:46 Expensive one.

Gabriel Iglesias 28:47 Yes. Yes.

Lewis Howes 28:47 How often do you use it?

Gabriel Iglesias 28:48 I don't.

Lewis Howes 28:49 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 28:49 And I haven't used it in a long time. Um, and that's something that I'm like, every time I walk by it, I'm like, "Ah, God, it's still there. It's still... I should freaking go lift something."

Lewis Howes 28:59 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 29:00 And I, I do feel guilty for not doing it, and then what I wind up doing, I wind up eating.

Lewis Howes 29:04 I know.

Gabriel Iglesias 29:04 I'm like, I'm doing the complete opposite.

Lewis Howes 29:05 I feel guilty myself. I know.

Gabriel Iglesias 29:06 I'm like, "What am I..." And now I'm laying there, I'm full, I feel good, but then I feel guilty, and I'm like, "Ugh." So as far as the self-love, it feels like love at the moment, and I-

Lewis Howes 29:15 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 29:15 But I'm hurting myself.

Lewis Howes 29:16 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 29:17 So I, I know that there's a lot of things that I could be doing. Also, uh, limiting the amount of time that I give to people that, that don't make me feel good-

Lewis Howes 29:28 Mm. Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 29:28 ... I think is, is a tough one.

Lewis Howes 29:30 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 29:30 You know, back to that. That would, that would improve the, the self-love.

Lewis Howes 29:33 Sure. I'm curious about identity. Um, you know, I used to use a lot of words growing up about myself to myself and to others. I would say, "I'm an idiot. I'm stupid. I'll never learn these things. I'm not smart." I was in the bottom of my class, bottom of four in my class. They used to grade us, or rank us in our, in our, uh, classes where I was in school. So I could always see that I was in the bottom four consistently all through middle school and high school. So it just always... I was just like, "I'm never gonna be good enough. I'm never gonna learn like you guys." I would say these words, and built an identity about me to self that would limit me and to others that would limit me. How much does the identity you've built for yourself- Empower you or hold you back, would you say?

Gabriel Iglesias 30:20 I know that, um, you know, when people see me on the streets, uh, I'm Fluffy.

Lewis Howes 30:27 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 30:27 "Hey, Fluffy." You know? It's very rare that I'll get, you know, uh, "Gabriel."

Lewis Howes 30:32 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 30:33 They'll say, "Fluffy," and then they'll like, "Who is it? It's Gabriel Iglesias." You know what I mean? It's all tied together-

Lewis Howes 30:37 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 30:37 ... but it's so much easier to call somebody by the nickname. It's, it's an easy nickname, and it's not like it's a different person. It's just, it's a nickname that's, you know, it's me. But, um, I am seen a certain way because of the shows and the consistency that, oh, you know, he's the guy that talks about his son. He's the guy that talks about his friend. He's the guy that... So I'm limited in the sense that if I was to all of a sudden start talking about politics or become, you know, start venting and being very vulgar, being-

Lewis Howes 31:08 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 31:08 ... you know that, you know. And then there

Gabriel Iglesias 31:10 are times when I do wanna vent, and I can't onstage-

Lewis Howes 31:15 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 31:15 ... because it's not something that goes with, with what I've created, and, and it's not gonna be well-received by everyone. I might hit a few... There might be some people that will relate to what I'm saying, but I'm gonna ruffle a lot of feathers in the process.

Lewis Howes 31:31 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 31:31 And so I have to remind myself this is not the place to do that.

Lewis Howes 31:34 Right.

Gabriel Iglesias 31:35 So by, because of what I built there, I can't, you know-

Lewis Howes 31:39 Sure

Gabriel Iglesias 31:39 ... I can't be 100 right here.

Lewis Howes 31:42 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 31:42 This is not gonna go well. Um-

Lewis Howes 31:43 But what about the identity? What, what about the identity with Fluffy?

Gabriel Iglesias 31:48 The identity with Fluffy? Oh, always happy.

Lewis Howes 31:51 Uh-huh.

Gabriel Iglesias 31:51 And that's not always the case.

Lewis Howes 31:53 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 31:53 You know? Uh, always happy, always in a good mood. I- I'm not always in a good mood. And I, every time I go out in public, I always, I'm afraid that people are gonna... Like, I don't wanna meet somebody, run into somebody if I'm not having the best of days.

Lewis Howes 32:12 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 32:13 So I try not to, not to put myself in environments where I'm gonna run into people. Um, I'm not one who's gonna be like, "No, I don't wanna take a picture." I'm not gonna snap on somebody, and, and photos is, is a, it's part of the deal.

Lewis Howes 32:25 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 32:25 Uh, if I can do it and there's time for it, absolutely, no problem. Uh, but there are times when I'm dealing with issues, problems, and I'm just like, "Oh, I just wanna go to the drive-through, get something to eat-

Lewis Howes 32:36 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 32:36 ... and just go back home." But, you know, uh, because of the fact that I'm seen a certain way-

Lewis Howes 32:41 Yes

Gabriel Iglesias 32:41 ... it's like you gotta always be smiling, you gotta always be happy, you gotta always be that, and, and that, that is hard.

Lewis Howes 32:47 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 32:48 Because sometimes you just wanna be a, a normal person.

Lewis Howes 32:50 I understand that, yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 32:51 You know? You're just, you know, like, "Well, how's he doing?" "Ah, he's, he's, eh."

Lewis Howes 32:55 Yeah. "Don't talk to him right now." Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 32:56 "He's in one of them moments." [laughs]

Lewis Howes 32:58 [laughs] I'm, I'm a big believer that our, that our habits and our identity will shape our, our lives, and our goals and the way we feel about ourselves will naturally take care of the, of themselves based on the consistency of our habits and on the identity that we give ourselves. And so I guess I just wanted to ask about the, the identity of Fluffy. You mentioned this, how, you know, people call you Fluffy. Do you think that supports your success but holds you back in other ways? Or do you feel like that is an empowering thing for you with your identity and where you wanna be?

Gabriel Iglesias 33:36 There are so many more pros than there are cons. The cons are-

Lewis Howes 33:39 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 33:40 ... are very small. They're very small. Um, no, man, let me tell you. When people... When you get recognized, you know, I, I, I have other friends that are, you know, c- other comics, and I know a lot of people that are, that are famous, and I don't know, man. I g- g- [laughs] I don't, I don't wanna say that mine is, is better, but for some reason when I get recognized, it's... I'm not seen like,

Gabriel Iglesias 34:06 like, "Oh, it's, it's Sugar Sweet" kind of a thing.

Lewis Howes 34:08 Uh-huh.

Gabriel Iglesias 34:08 You know? The recognition I get from people, the, the, the look is almost like, "Hey, man. This guy's like a, like..." It's like seeing a, a family member you haven't seen in a long time.

Lewis Howes 34:19 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 34:19 And I feel, I feel that from people when I, when I get recognized. It's not-

Lewis Howes 34:24 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 34:24 It's very different. I see how other people get recognized, and I'm like, "Wow, okay." With, with me it's a lot, it's a lot different. I get people right away that are like, like the, the glow and the energy-

Lewis Howes 34:35 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 34:35 ... is very... It's like, it feels like family. It, like a, like a moment, like a real sweet, sweet thing, and, um, I love that. It's, it's... it tells me that what I'm doing is making a difference. What I'm doing... 'Cause I get a lot of people also that will open up. You know, "Hey, man. I was going through this-

Lewis Howes 34:52 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 34:52 ... and I was watching." And, "Hey, man. Uh, just so you know, you... I've heard you've helped me get through" so many times, and it's, that's an incredible feeling.

Lewis Howes 35:02 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 35:02 And that's a game-changer.

Lewis Howes 35:03 That's beautiful.

Gabriel Iglesias 35:03 So when I hear something like that, it changes the, whatever mood I'm in, it, it corrects it. I'm like, "You know what? So stop, uh, stop thinking like that, you know? And you're, you're... Whatever you're dealing with is, is nothing. This dude is like-

Lewis Howes 35:15 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 35:15 ... he, he just, you know, put things into perspective."

Lewis Howes 35:17 Sure.

Gabriel Iglesias 35:18 So being Fluffy is, is very much a, uh, it's a good thing. And-

Lewis Howes 35:24 A lot of pros to it, yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 35:25 ... a lot of pros. Do I wish I could vent about certain things? Of course I do.

Lewis Howes 35:29 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 35:30 But, uh, I think that it's, it's part of the deal. You have to sacrifice. This is part of the sacrifice to be where I'm at.

Lewis Howes 35:37 You mentioned some people will just say, "Hey, Fluffy," on the streets or whatever, and they'll be like, "Oh, it's Gabriel Iglesias." You know? W- who is Fluffy versus who is Gabriel in your mind?

Gabriel Iglesias 35:47 They're, they're, they're pretty much like this. But, you know, Gabriel does have bad days.

Lewis Howes 35:52 Really? Fluffy can't have bad days.

Gabriel Iglesias 35:54 He's not supposed to.

Lewis Howes 35:55 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 35:56 And if I do, I try to find a way to push it into the show. Like, for example, in my, in my show right now, without giving too much away, because I have a new special coming out, one of the things I'm talking about is I'm, I'm talking about things that happened to me that weren't great, weren't fun, weren't awesome. I'm starting to incorporate more- Of, you know, a- after so many years, and now I'm almost, I'm coming up on 50 pretty soon.

Lewis Howes 36:20 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 36:20 You know, there's more things that have happened. For example, I'm talking about the fact that I almost died in a plane crash that made the news.

Lewis Howes 36:26 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 36:26 I'm talking about the fact that, um, they broke into my house, you know? Someone broke into my house and went through my things, and just, you know, a bad situation. I'm talking about that I, I reunited with my father, who I haven't seen in 15 years, and how awkward that was. And so there's, there's now moments where I'm like, "Okay," you know? So it's not all like, "Hey," rainbows and unicorns type of thing. It's like, okay, you know. So the challenge now is making those situations

Gabriel Iglesias 36:53 funny. Near death, how can you make that funny? That's, you know, that's a challenge.

Lewis Howes 36:57 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 36:57 But I am, I am talking more about things that aren't as fun-

Lewis Howes 37:01 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 37:02 ... and pleasant.

Lewis Howes 37:02 It seems like there's so many people, you mentioned this earlier, about how people think that it's overnight, uh, the success that you've had, or they might say that. But you've been doing this for 25 plus years now, and it seems like the, the younger generation wants this type of success very fast. They wanna be able to sell out arenas, they wanna be able to have 25 million followers on social media, like you, overnight. They want people to walk around the streets and call out their name. What is the dark side to all of this? What's the dark side of being famous and successful, of having these arenas sold out, to, you know, all these different things that are happening in a good way? What's the, the challenge for people wanting that maybe for the wrong reasons?

Gabriel Iglesias 37:47 I think that now, any time, uh, like, new, new comedians, uh, definitely don't have patience.

Lewis Howes 37:56 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 37:56 Um, I think that one thing that's missing is struggle.

Lewis Howes 37:59 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 38:00 Nobody wants to struggle. Nobody wants to take the time. Everybody does want everything right now, and I appreciate the fact that when I first started doing this, there was no social media. The internet was brand new. You know, you didn't even know what to do with it back then. I feel very fortunate that I, I know that life without it, and I know the life with it, and I know all-

Lewis Howes 38:22 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 38:22 ... the years that it took to get to this point. So I, it's, it's one of those things where I, you know... When, when new comics, uh, say, "Hey, what advice do you have?" I said, "I wish I could give you advice that would, um, benefit you in these times." I go, "But my advice is old advice for, you know-

Lewis Howes 38:44 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 38:44 ... a, a kid that started in 1997, not someone who's starting right now." And I don't wanna sound like, you know, "Back in my day, you know, this is how you gotta do it, and these kids don't know..." I don't wanna be that guy, so I d- I just say, "Well, you know, just have as much fun as, as you can." I go, "Do you wanna do comedy as a hobby? Do you wanna do it as a business? Uh, what, what is, what is the reason you wanna do this? Is it 'cause you wanna be popular, you want people to like you? What is it you want?" And I go, "If you wanna, uh, if you wanna make it a business, then treat it like a business. Respect it like a business. Understand that there's things that need to happen in order for this to, to work. If you wanna just do it-"

Lewis Howes 39:27 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 39:27 ... "as a hobby, hey, then, you know, go to the comedy store on a Sunday night, get in the potluck, sign up, whatever. Just go and have fun, and do your thing, and just, just enjoy it. It is what it is, and then you're back to work on Monday."

Lewis Howes 39:37 Right.

Gabriel Iglesias 39:38 You know, and if you wanna be popular and, you know, then that's a different

Gabriel Iglesias 39:42 thing. You wanna go jump on TikTok? I am pretty savvy with social media, but I also know that there's certain things I don't know, and there's, there's, you know, people out there now that can sell out clubs-

Lewis Howes 39:53 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 39:54 ... and theaters and, and, and do shows because of what they did on social media. And it did take much less than my journey, but when they do their show, you can see in the performance that, ugh, this is not somebody who's been doing it for a long time.

Lewis Howes 40:09 Yes.

Gabriel Iglesias 40:10 So you might be able to sell that ticket one time, but can you sell it again?

Lewis Howes 40:14 Mm-hmm. Consistency is key.

Gabriel Iglesias 40:16 Yeah. So, uh, it's, it's different, man. I, I, you know, again, I, I appreciate the fact that I, I know the struggle. So because I know the struggle, I respect what I do more.

Lewis Howes 40:26 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 40:28 You know? And it wasn't handed to me. It wasn't like, oh, he just jumped in. It's, this took a long time.

Lewis Howes 40:34 You weren't an industry plant?

Gabriel Iglesias 40:35 Yeah, no.

Lewis Howes 40:36 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 40:36 I know, right? I'm glad I, I'm glad I'm on Katt Williams' good side.

Lewis Howes 40:40 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 40:40 We're, we're friends. We're cool. We're cool. We're cool.

Lewis Howes 40:44 If you could go back, I guess, 25, 30 years ago, before you started to take off, and b- before this journey really began for you, what three pieces of advice would you give that younger version of you right before you're about to take off, on the business of comedy, on your personal life, on everything? What three things would you say to your younger self?

Gabriel Iglesias 41:06 It's funny, because I've had this thought a million times and, uh, as much as I would love to tell the younger version of me, "Hey, don't eat all of it."

Lewis Howes 41:16 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 41:17 "All right? Uh, hey, you know what? [laughs] You know, don't, don't trust everyone."

Lewis Howes 41:23 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 41:24 Um, you know, a- and, and, "Don't date her." [laughs]

Lewis Howes 41:28 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 41:30 I, I, I can't, because everything that has happened, uh, from day one, ev- it all has to happen in order for me to be here right now.

Lewis Howes 41:38 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 41:39 Any little change would send me in a completely different direction. And, you know, that's me watching Back to the Future way too many times.

Lewis Howes 41:46 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 41:47 Um, now, things that I do wish I would've done, not advice as far as career, but things I wish I would've done more of, um, back then, is I, I wish I would've spent more time with my mom. I wish I would've asked her, her for more life advice, and just, just had more, more conversations about things. Uh, but back then, you know, I was a kid. I thought I knew everything. And so a- as an adult, I'm like, "Man, I didn't know sh-" And, uh, again, because I miss her so much, I just wish I would've spent more time with her. My siblings got to have my mom way longer than me, and, uh, so it was one of those.

Lewis Howes 42:30 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 42:31 That's, that's definitely one thing. Um, I had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun, uh, early on in my career, and I, um, I learned the business, you know,

Gabriel Iglesias 42:48 trial and error, you know, whether it's with management or with, you know, uh, you know, doing this show versus doing that show. Um, you know, how you got booked, while things you decided to do, things I decided not to do. Um, so I, I mean, you know, there's, there's a lot of, a lot, lot... I wanna, I wanna say that I, I, I, I could have made better decisions.

Lewis Howes 43:12 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 43:13 But again, things, things worked out pretty good.

Lewis Howes 43:15 Right. [laughs] You're in a good spot.

Gabriel Iglesias 43:16 Um, I do wish I could get some of that time back from, from those people.

Lewis Howes 43:20 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 43:20 But I do think also I appreciate and I respect the amount of pain I was put through, because I am enjoying the peace I have right now.

Lewis Howes 43:32 Yeah, that's beautiful.

Gabriel Iglesias 43:32 I, I feel really good right now. Like, my head is so clear, and it, it just, it feels, it feels good.

Lewis Howes 43:39 You made a reference of, uh, Back to the Future, and I'm gonna try to connect the dots here for, for what I was thinking.

Gabriel Iglesias 43:46 The space-time continuum. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 43:48 [laughs] I've had, um, a number of different, I guess, inner painful challenges in my life, especially in my 20s and 30s from previous relationships I was in that were, were not in the right alignment. Nothing wrong with them. I choose poorly, and I stayed in those things too long, right? And I remember just feeling a lot of pain and sadness when I was in those relationships, and the aftermath of the breakup and the pain and sadness there, all that different stuff. And I remember I was going through a breakup one time about, I don't know, five years ago, and I was feeling one of those painful moments, and I had a guest on who I was telling him about what I was going through. And he told me, "A bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul."

Gabriel Iglesias 44:33 Mm.

Lewis Howes 44:33 And he said, "Think about all the past experiences you've had where you've had pain, and maybe you wouldn't wish that anyone would go through them, or you didn't wish you had to go through them, but you also know you wouldn't take those things back because of what you learned through them." You just mentioned this, right? The lesson that they gave you.

Gabriel Iglesias 44:52 Yes.

Lewis Howes 44:52 The peace, you have clarity now. You- It's like feeling that misery, now you can have peace 'cause you know what that felt like. And so I started to travel in time in the future since that moment about five years ago when I've gone through challenging moments to think, "How is this happening in my benefit f- my- for my future self? How is this painful moment, this season of life, going to benefit me in the future?" And that's really helped me navigate these kind of painful moments easier, knowing that everything in the past that I've been through, although it was hard and I didn't like it, I'm using it for my benefit now today, and it makes these other moments of beauty that much more beautiful. So it sounds like you've been doing that

Lewis Howes 45:34 also-

Gabriel Iglesias 45:34 Oh, yeah

Lewis Howes 45:34 ... which is really cool to, to see. Um, if you could go into the future and see yourself 30, 40 years in the future, what advice would you give yourself now? If you are in that future, 30, 40 years ahead, and you're reflecting back on everything you've created now, and you can speak to your current self, what would you say?

Gabriel Iglesias 46:01 Stop drinking, start eating better-

Lewis Howes 46:05 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 46:05 ... start working out, and start enjoying the fruits of your labor.

Lewis Howes 46:10 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 46:11 Stop saving all that money for who? Start enjoying life. Start taking some, some breaks. Start taking some trips. Start having some fun.

Lewis Howes 46:21 What's it gonna take for you to a- to do those things?

Gabriel Iglesias 46:24 Uh.

Lewis Howes 46:25 Like, what, uh, what's it-

Gabriel Iglesias 46:26 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 46:26 ... actually gonna take for you to do that, though, and not just, you know, another year go by-

Gabriel Iglesias 46:31 Yeah

Lewis Howes 46:31 ... and say, "Well, I, you know, I should start doing more of these things that my future self is telling me." What, what do you think it's gonna take?

Gabriel Iglesias 46:35 What's it gonna take? I, I don't know what it's gonna take, but I'm saying it out loud, and that's not something I've done before.

Lewis Howes 46:41 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 46:42 You know, I've not said this out loud back to back to back. So, you know, cons- if it does happen, then consider this the first step-

Lewis Howes 46:51 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 46:51 ... to saying it out loud.

Lewis Howes 46:53 That's great.

Gabriel Iglesias 46:54 You know? 'Cause I've acknowledged publicly this is the issue.

Lewis Howes 46:57 That's great, man. I, I wanna see you follow through on all of what your future self tells you to do. I think that'd be inspiring to watch. Um, I got a few final questions for you. This has been really, really inspiring, Gabriel. I appreciate it. How can people best support and serve you? You give so much to the world. You give so much to your team, to your friends, to your community. How can people best support and serve you?

Gabriel Iglesias 47:24 Uh, if, if they like what I do and, and I, I bring joy to their lives, tell somebody.

Lewis Howes 47:31 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 47:31 You know, let people know, "Hey, you know..." I'm only doing this because people still come to the shows. If people stop coming, then I stop doing this.

Lewis Howes 47:38 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 47:39 So as long as people come out to the shows, and that's, that's gonna keep me going. Uh, I got to a place where you wanna talk about feeling, not feeling good, not feeling, uh, positive about what I was doing. Uh, I talked about retiring. I talked about retiring because I wasn't sure that this was giving me what I needed. You know? I didn't, I wasn't feeling good, and it wasn't, it wasn't the stage that was hurting me. It was how I was feeling in just my everyday life, and I felt like a lot of it was coming from that.

Lewis Howes 48:18 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 48:18 And it wasn't. It was just me not dealing with certain issues in my life, and I'm like, "You know- You know, what am I doing this for? I'm still on the road. It's been so many years. And I was reminded by my publicist

Gabriel Iglesias 48:30 yesterday. He goes, "You know what? You, you kinda brought up the retirement thing a couple times." I go, "Yeah, you're right, I did. I did, I did. I said that." Um, 'cause, you know, at this point I'm like, "What am I supposed to do?" But I think that I'm clearly missing the fact that I do have a, uh, more of an impact than I thought I did-

Lewis Howes 48:49 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 48:49 ... on people's lives. And, and it helps more than it hurts, and I should continue to do this-

Lewis Howes 48:56 Mm-hmm

Gabriel Iglesias 48:56 ... as long as I can.

Lewis Howes 48:57 Yeah. I mean-

Gabriel Iglesias 48:59 And so the best way people could support me, just keep coming out.

Lewis Howes 49:02 There you go.

Gabriel Iglesias 49:02 You know?

Lewis Howes 49:03 What-

Gabriel Iglesias 49:03 Like, "Your prices are too expensive."

Lewis Howes 49:05 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 49:05 Everybody else got more expensive tickets. Look online.

Lewis Howes 49:08 [laughs] Exactly.

Gabriel Iglesias 49:09 Look, look online. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 49:10 Now, why do you think... So you mentioned you wanted to retire a multiple times. Is that, was that a, a season of life?

Gabriel Iglesias 49:16 Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, especially right after Dodger Stadium, because that put me in a different place mentally, because it's not every day you can say that you saw your peak.

Lewis Howes 49:29 Phew.

Gabriel Iglesias 49:29 You know? And it's hard to argue that one, 'cause it's like, uh, okay, this is the biggest... It's the biggest show that's ever happened in, in, on the West Coast that I know of.

Lewis Howes 49:38 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 49:39 I don't know of any other show that's been that big for comedy.

Lewis Howes 49:42 How many people were there?

Gabriel Iglesias 49:43 For, uh, almost 50,000.

Lewis Howes 49:44 Holy cow.

Gabriel Iglesias 49:46 Yeah. So, you know, uh, so w- how do you set a new goal?

Lewis Howes 49:50 Interesting.

Gabriel Iglesias 49:51 You know what I mean? It's like, okay, what am I supposed to do now? You're on the other side of that, and it's like, ugh. You know, you freaking jump, jumped the shark, man. You're, you're... You know? So, like, in a perfect world, like if it was a movie, I, I looked at it like a movie, like the best way would be to, to finish that night, and thank you, here's the end of the career.

Lewis Howes 50:09 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 50:10 You know? And it was literally, uh, I wanna say, May, May, April, May, like three weeks, uh, after my 25th anniversary of being a comic.

Lewis Howes 50:19 Holy cow.

Gabriel Iglesias 50:20 So I like numbers like that.

Lewis Howes 50:21 Oh, I know.

Gabriel Iglesias 50:22 Oh, after 25 years, like this is how, biggest show ever done. But I still love it. But at the same time, I, again, you know, uh, dealing, having certain situations in life, and then trying to do this. That night, everything just fell into place. It felt so good.

Lewis Howes 50:37 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 50:37 Best night of my life.

Lewis Howes 50:38 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 50:39 Hands down, best night of my life. But then the next day, it's like, all right, now we're back to reality.

Lewis Howes 50:44 Really? Did you kinda have like a, a hangover?

Gabriel Iglesias 50:47 That was the crash.

Lewis Howes 50:47 Emotional hangover?

Gabriel Iglesias 50:48 I had a emotional and a physical one, 'cause I drank on stage that night. So I killed a bottle in front of... And what I thought was really cool was that everybody that... Well, I didn't see anybody leave, but it felt like even after my show was over, I stayed on stage and I just started telling random stories. I brought my friends out on stage, and we're drinking, and they're playing music. We had them playing Vicente Fernández-

Lewis Howes 51:07 Oh, man

Gabriel Iglesias 51:07 ... over and over, and we're taking shots and just drinking and... Oh, God. Uh, I wanna say that it was, uh,

Gabriel Iglesias 51:15 almost $200,000 for the fine for going over.

Lewis Howes 51:21 Oh.

Gabriel Iglesias 51:21 Yeah. When you rent out a stadium-

Lewis Howes 51:23 Oh, you gotta be out at the time

Gabriel Iglesias 51:24 ... yeah, you gotta... There's a cutoff time. We went way past that. And so, yeah, I got fined. Best fine I've ever paid.

Lewis Howes 51:31 [laughs] Yeah. Well, you're willing to pay it.

Gabriel Iglesias 51:32 You know, again, uh, you know, it's not every day you can say that this was hands down, no question, best night of my life. But then, you know, all right, now what?

Lewis Howes 51:42 If you were to take a year off, let's say, not completely off, but maybe you pulled back on touring, maybe you weren't doing a special, maybe, you know... And I don't think anyone on your team wants me to even say this, but if you were just to pull back, what would you do with your time to take care of you?

Gabriel Iglesias 51:58 That's an easy one. Uh, COVID. COVID kept me home for a year.

Lewis Howes 52:02 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 52:02 And in that time that I was home for a year, I started eating better.

Lewis Howes 52:06 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 52:06 I didn't drink as much.

Lewis Howes 52:07 Really?

Gabriel Iglesias 52:08 I probably didn't drink at all. And, uh, I started working out, so I probably lost 70 pounds that year.

Lewis Howes 52:13 Come on.

Gabriel Iglesias 52:14 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 52:15 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 52:15 Because I was able to be consistent. I wasn't on the road, so I was home. I was able to get into a, a routine.

Lewis Howes 52:19 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 52:20 You know? My friend, personal trainer, we were hanging out all the time, so it was just like we would hang out and work out. So it was just-

Lewis Howes 52:26 Literally walking, working out, yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 52:27 Yeah. So it was just, you know... That whole year I dropped, I dropped 70 pounds.

Lewis Howes 52:30 Wow.

Gabriel Iglesias 52:31 Wow. And then as soon as I went back to work, uh, gained back about 40 of that. So fortunately, I still kept a little bit of that, you know, progress off, but yeah, I'm not where I was-

Lewis Howes 52:41 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 52:41 ... in 2020. 2020 when everybody was kinda, yeah, getting sick, I actually got-

Lewis Howes 52:46 Getting healthy

Gabriel Iglesias 52:46 ... I actually got better.

Lewis Howes 52:47 Interesting.

Gabriel Iglesias 52:48 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 52:49 Man, well, I know you've s- you-

Gabriel Iglesias 52:50 So if I was to take a year off... And that's another reason, too. I says, "Well, you know, if I keep grinding it out there, I, all I'm doing on the road is making bad decisions." I'm drinking, I'm eating, I'm just... I'm not sleeping the way I should. I'm just... I'm, it's, it's taxing. You know? It's go, go, go. Travel, travel, travel. You're just, it's, you're all over the place, and I'm not doing myself any good. And so that's another reason where I was like, "Oh, this isn't... You know, I should probably go away from this." You know? So that was one of the things about the retirement-

Lewis Howes 53:22 Interesting

Gabriel Iglesias 53:22 ... and then everything else that was happening.

Lewis Howes 53:25 Yeah. I mean, I mean, I'm not saying you retire, because you bring so much joy to the world. But you can do stuff at home. You could work at home. You could, you know, do TV shows. You could do other things-

Gabriel Iglesias 53:34 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 53:34 ... with a routine, in your bed, you know, in your space, with the right support around you, and still work. Maybe just a little less.

Gabriel Iglesias 53:42 Oh, I know I could.

Lewis Howes 53:43 Yeah. [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 53:43 And it's so much easier to make excuses.

Lewis Howes 53:46 Uh-huh.

Gabriel Iglesias 53:46 And the problem I have is I'm really, really good at making excuses.

Lewis Howes 53:52 Mm. Oh, I have to go do this tour, or they need me, or...

Gabriel Iglesias 53:55 Yeah. Oh, I wish I could, but, you know.

Lewis Howes 53:58 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 53:58 Ugh. Yeah. And, and the problem is that I believe my own excuses.

Lewis Howes 54:03 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 54:04 You know? And that's a tough one, man. I know that half the time I'm full of [censored] . Like, come on, man. Really? You know?

Lewis Howes 54:09 I mean, I know we just met each other, and I know we're having, you know, this type of conversation here, but- How could I support you in stopping the excuses for yourself?

Gabriel Iglesias 54:18 Um, well again, having the conversation. I don't have these conversations. People in my circle aren't gonna pull me aside and go, "You know, you really should stop eating so much and drinking so much, and you know, it wouldn't kill you to lift a freaking weight. Uh, you know, you wanna go for a walk?" [laughs] It is an uncomfortable conversation because I'm, I'm being very vulnerable about the fact that this is a problem I have-

Lewis Howes 54:41 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 54:41 ... that I haven't addressed, and, uh, it... I don't... I can make a million, I can make a million excuses, but in reality it's, it's just, it's just me.

Lewis Howes 54:50 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 54:51 You know?

Lewis Howes 54:51 Yeah.

Gabriel Iglesias 54:52 So the best way to support me is the fact that we're having this conversation.

Lewis Howes 54:54 Having this conversation. Yeah, and, and I'm not trying to, you know, get you upset at me if we just met each other and everything. [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 54:59 Oh, I'm not mad. I'm not mad.

Lewis Howes 55:00 But my, my, my thing is, from an outside perspective, I see the talent that you have. I see the success you have. I see the career you've made, that wh- people would dream of having, right? Other comics are like, look at you as this, the career is like a, a dream career, right? But I think about your 80-year-old self and what he wants for you. That's what I, what I think about, is what is your 80-year-old you want for, for you at 80, at 50, at 60, at 70, you know? And he wants you happy, he wants you healthy, and he wants you feeling good. That's what I think from an outside perspective. So I, I have this conversation with you 'cause I w- I wanna see you continue to bring joy to so many people in the world for a long time, and I wanna see you bring joy to yourself for a long time. So that's why I have the uncomfortable conversation with you, risking you getting frustrated at me. [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 55:56 Nice.

Lewis Howes 55:57 But I wanna see, I wanna see, uh, how I can support, so I'm gonna follow up with you afterwards, man, and see how I can support you eliminate these excuses. 'Cause it's not easy. You know, I have excuses for myself with different things as well that I need coaching, I need accountability, I need to... You know, it's-

Gabriel Iglesias 56:11 Oh, yeah

Lewis Howes 56:12 ... I gotta invest in-

Gabriel Iglesias 56:12 Those are, those are word- those are tough words.

Lewis Howes 56:13 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 56:14 I had to learn a lot of those words in therapy. Accountability.

Lewis Howes 56:17 Oh, man.

Gabriel Iglesias 56:18 Yeah, that's a big one right there.

Lewis Howes 56:19 Oh, man.

Gabriel Iglesias 56:20 Yeah, no one wants to be responsible.

Lewis Howes 56:21 No, man.

Gabriel Iglesias 56:22 And accountable, that's a tough one right there.

Lewis Howes 56:23 It's not. It's not, especially when you've created so much for yourse- you worked so hard.

Gabriel Iglesias 56:27 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 56:27 You worked your butt off your butt for so long, um, and you wanna enjoy some of it too, so I get it. I get it, man. Um, I'll stop with the uncomfortable conversations. I wanted to ask you a question. This is what I, uh, ask

Lewis Howes 56:40 everyone at the end of our conversations. This is called the three truths.

Gabriel Iglesias 56:45 The three truths.

Lewis Howes 56:45 Three truths.

Gabriel Iglesias 56:46 Okay.

Lewis Howes 56:46 So it's a hypothetical scenario. Um, but I do want you to think about you going to the very end of your life, and you get to live as long as you want. Live as long as you want, but eventually it's the last day for you, and you get to create, accomplish, experience all the things you want for the rest of your life from this moment until then. Friends, love, success, whatever it might be, you create. But for whatever reason on this final day, you have to take all of your work with you. This interview is gone, all your specials, everything you create from here moving forward, we don't have access to it in this world anymore. You gotta take it with you somewhere. But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true, and this is all we would have to remember you by, these three truths or your top three lessons. What would you say would be those three truths for you?

Gabriel Iglesias 57:41 The three things to leave behind. But you said, you just said right now that-

Lewis Howes 57:45 Three truths

Gabriel Iglesias 57:46 ... Three truths. Uh, three truths as far as just...

Lewis Howes 57:48 Your life lessons. This is all you'd want people to have access to are these three things, because everything would be taken with you. All your content, jokes, this interview, anything you created-

Gabriel Iglesias 57:59 But if I get to leave three things behind, couldn't I leave behind my content?

Lewis Howes 58:03 If you wanted to. I mean, three, three lessons that you could share. That's it.

Gabriel Iglesias 58:07 Oh, man. Three lessons.

Lewis Howes 58:08 Hypothetical scenario.

Gabriel Iglesias 58:10 Definitely, uh, the one about struggle, you know?

Lewis Howes 58:13 Mm-hmm.

Gabriel Iglesias 58:14 Uh, 'cause I don't think that y- you can't appreciate things until you know what it's like to have to work for them.

Lewis Howes 58:23 Mm. Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 58:23 To earn them, to, to have to, to get some sweat on your brow, to get some dirt under your fingernails. Um, so respecting and understanding struggle. I, I, I don't think that there's enough of that.

Lewis Howes 58:35 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 58:36 You know? Uh, that's definitely one, 'cause to appreciate something, you have to know what it's like to not have it and what it takes to get to that. You know? And I, that's why, you know, when, when people have certain things handed to them, it's like, ugh, man, you're gonna... Uh, it's cool.

Lewis Howes 58:54 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 58:55 What do you mean it's cool? I was like, oh my God. So-

Lewis Howes 58:58 That's number one

Gabriel Iglesias 58:59 ... okay. One. Two, uh, I guess patience. Um, you know, uh, not- nothing comes quick in life that, that's worth anything. Um, this is a tough one, 'cause I, I wanna just say, I w- I want people to remember the content because I feel like, you know, are you mad?

Lewis Howes 59:18 Yeah, I do too.

Gabriel Iglesias 59:19 Uh, so three truths. Patience and, um, I don't know. That's a, that's a good one. What have people said in the past? Just so I have an, an, an i- a, a, an idea of the, uh...

Lewis Howes 59:30 I mean, my, mine have shifted over time, but currently they would be to live in gratitude.

Gabriel Iglesias 59:38 Okay.

Lewis Howes 59:38 Because I feel like

Lewis Howes 59:40 when we live in gratitude, it's hard to be angry, resentful, frustrated, resent- uh, you know, pissed off. There's all these other different challenging things that we might have. When we live in gratitude, we can appreciate the things we do have and as opposed to the things we're lacking. The second one f- for me would be to honor your health, because I... And that's spiritual, physical, emotional health. Because, um, when we don't honor it, it's gonna cause more pain on us, and it's gonna create more sadness and suffering. We, you know, we could be completely physically fit, but mentally- ... in a horrible place with ourselves and still be suffering, but look fit.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:00:22 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 1:00:22 But, but emotionally, mentally, or spiritually lacking. So we've gotta focus on all those aspects of health. The third truth for me would be to live in service. Something I think you do really well. You get up on stage and you serve people with your talents and your gifts. And when we learn what our talents and gifts are by developing them, by trying things, by trying to master them, and then using them in the service of helping others in whatever way that is, I feel like that's a great life. So living in gratitude, really protecting and honoring our health, and living in service would be my three truths.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:01:00 That's pretty awesome. I don't know. I feel like a [censored] for saying, "Yeah, I live behind my DVD collection."

Lewis Howes 1:01:04 [laughs] No.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:01:05 I just feel so much my collection.

Lewis Howes 1:01:07 No, but I think your, your first two-

Gabriel Iglesias 1:01:08 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 1:01:09 ... your first two about, you know, kind of honoring the struggle, not having everything handed to you.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:01:14 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:01:14 Living with patience. All great things come in pa- in times through patience. Uh, what would you say would be the third one that-

Gabriel Iglesias 1:01:22 Man

Lewis Howes 1:01:22 ... speaks to you?

Gabriel Iglesias 1:01:23 And I, and I wish I could do this myself. Uh, don't overthink. It's not worth it.

Lewis Howes 1:01:27 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:01:29 You know? But I'm guilty of it myself, so-

Lewis Howes 1:01:31 Right

Gabriel Iglesias 1:01:31 ... it's a kind of a hypocritical one.

Lewis Howes 1:01:33 We all say the last thing we usually need the most, you know, and hopefully we can learn that on our journey. So, uh, I think you'll be able to get there. Uh, Gabriel, I'm really grateful for you. Again, I wanna acknowledge you for the consistency you've done in your life to serve people with your talent and your gifts, to bring joy, humor. You bring families together. You bring people together. You allow people to relax, reflect, release, you know, have fun, and be themselves. You're, you're able to share your life story so people can relate and know that they're not alone.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:02:11 Mm.

Lewis Howes 1:02:11 So I really wanna acknowledge you for the talent, the gifts that you've had-

Gabriel Iglesias 1:02:15 Thank you

Lewis Howes 1:02:15 ... for the last 25-plus years, and I'm sure for many more years to come. Um, and I have two final questions-

Gabriel Iglesias 1:02:24 Okay

Lewis Howes 1:02:24 ... really quickly 'cause I have a, a hard out, and I think your team is probably telling me I gotta get, wrap this up. What is the thing that you are most proud of that most

Lewis Howes 1:02:34 people don't know about you? Maybe that's not really out there publicly or things that they don't see. What's the thing you're most proud of that most people don't know about?

Gabriel Iglesias 1:02:44 I, uh, [laughs] I have, uh, given two little dogs an incredible life-

Lewis Howes 1:02:52 Mm. [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 1:02:53 ... that [laughs] and I, I, I've, uh, I've gone to the ends of the earth to try to make these two little dogs the happiest dogs.

Lewis Howes 1:03:01 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:01 Like, I really love my, my dogs.

Lewis Howes 1:03:03 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:04 They've, uh... I've done... I've worked really hard to make it so that I can take them, have them around me at all times because they bring me so much joy, and so I, I, I'm a big, you know... I love, I love dogs. Um, and I'm, I feel good for all the time. I don't ever regret any time that I've spent with them or just, you know-

Lewis Howes 1:03:25 Mm. Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:25 ... whatever it is to, to try to make them happy. And, I love, um, doing things for them.

Lewis Howes 1:03:32 Well, that's beautiful.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:33 And, um, my pets, uh, you know, my babies.

Lewis Howes 1:03:35 That's cool, man. Yeah, I gotta-

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:36 And so I-

Lewis Howes 1:03:36 ... gotta meet them

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:37 ... I enjoy, yeah, I enjoy the, the fact that I do that, and people find out, "Oh, you got your..." And I'm, I'm one of those [censored] at the airport, "Hey, look at this. This is my dog."

Lewis Howes 1:03:45 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:46 Just show me your dogs. Oh.

Lewis Howes 1:03:47 There you go. On your screensaver, yeah, yeah. [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:49 You know, uh, you know, loving, loving animals. Loving-

Lewis Howes 1:03:51 Yeah

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:51 ... you know?

Lewis Howes 1:03:52 That's beautiful, man.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:52 It's, it's one of those things where it's, it's... You know, dogs don't care what's in the bank. They don't care what you drive.

Lewis Howes 1:03:58 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:03:58 They don't care what you do. You know? They just care that you love them, that you, you know, you're around them, and, and that's, that's so pure. It's just like, man, look. Just, you know. So I, I love that.

Lewis Howes 1:04:09 That's beautiful.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:04:09 I love that.

Lewis Howes 1:04:10 That's beautiful. Final question for you, Gabriel. What's your definition of greatness?

Gabriel Iglesias 1:04:15 Ooh. Um, I guess it all depends on what the, what we're describing. It's the, is it the greatest table, the greatest coffee mug, the greatest, you know, uh, singer, dancer, songwriter, you know? Um, when you... The definition of greatness is when it's far surpasses the expectation.

Lewis Howes 1:04:41 Mm.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:04:43 You know? Something that just is like, "Are you kidding me?" You know? So if you're like, "The greatest coffee mug." You're like, "Oh, so you touch it, it plays music-

Lewis Howes 1:04:53 [laughs]

Gabriel Iglesias 1:04:53 ... lights come out of it. It pours itself." You know what I mean? Like, "This is the greatest coffee..." [laughs] You know? Everything could be like... 'Cause I just expect this to hold whatever liquid is-

Lewis Howes 1:05:03 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 1:05:03 ... in it, and the, the handle to work. But if there's, you know, whatever it is is more, way more than what you hoped for, that I think is, is-

Lewis Howes 1:05:12 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 1:05:12 ... what greatness is. So whether it's, you know, you just hope that this person was decent, and then you found out not only are they a decent person, man, but this person just goes above and beyond to try to make others happy. They, they, they give their time. They, they donate. They s- they, you know, uh, they help. Uh, you know what I mean? It's like there's, there's expectations, and then there's, you know-

Lewis Howes 1:05:34 Mm

Gabriel Iglesias 1:05:34 ... things that supersede that. And that's, I

Gabriel Iglesias 1:05:36 think, what greatness is.

Lewis Howes 1:05:37 Mm. Gabriel, thanks for coming on, man. Appreciate you.

Gabriel Iglesias 1:05:39 Thank you.

1:05:40 I was 11, and my dad's like, "Have fun water-skiing. That is the perfect size for a gator to fit you in its mouth." [laughs] Wait a minute. We can't even do... Our lightning's so bad we can't even have giraffes in our zoo. [laughs] Are you serious? No, I'm being serious. Like, but imagine how scary that would be though