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Lewis HowesStop Asking for Money (Ask God for THIS Instead) | Katt Williams
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CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 4:32
Leaving home at 13: a risky decision, faith, and taking responsibility for change
Lewis Howes and Katt Williams connect over both leaving home at 13, then Katt explains why he did it and why he wouldn’t recommend it to others. He frames the choice through religious and cultural context, and describes believing God wouldn’t let him fail even while recognizing how unqualified a 13-year-old is for that decision.
- •Katt says leaving home at 13 was a terrible situation and not something he glamorizes or suggests for others
- •He references Jesus leaving home at 13 and the idea that Jewish culture treats 13 as adulthood
- •He explains deciding he had a right to change a circumstance he didn’t agree with
- •He describes a long-held belief in God that created a sense he wouldn’t be allowed to fail
- •He says his story can communicate the power of belief in God even to readers who don’t believe
- 4:32 – 7:13
Feeling “favored by God”: reading, endurance through dark seasons, and realizing you’re already enough
Lewis asks about Katt’s belief that he’s favored by God, and Katt describes trying to put himself in position to be “qualified” for favor. He explains how stories and books taught him that darkness isn’t infinite, effort matters, and people often don’t realize who they are until the story unfolds.
- •Katt says he believed he could be favored and worked to be “qualified” for it
- •He describes stories as showing trials that become “worth it” by the end
- •He repeats that it gets darkest before the dawn, but only to a limit before “light has to show up”
- •He says he never read stories where the hardest worker didn’t end up most successful
- •He frames the universal story arc as discovering you were “already enough”
- 7:13 – 9:30
Meeting Prince at 12: accepting reality, self-worth, and trusting a bigger “entity” to pull you through
Katt recounts meeting Prince in Dayton when he was 12, at a moment when he expected a growth spurt and worried about size. Seeing Prince thriving despite being shorter helped him accept that some things might not change—and reinforced his sense that he needed to do his portion while relying on something bigger than himself.
- •Katt says meeting Prince made him accept his growth spurt might never come
- •He describes Prince as a real-life example that success wasn’t limited by height
- •He says he never fully counted on himself alone—he counted on doing his portion
- •He emphasizes trusting a larger force to “pull” him through life
- •Lewis presses on whether this was a daily thought process of effort plus divine opportunity
- 9:30 – 13:47
Stop asking for money—ask for purpose: staying moral, rejecting crime, and requesting a specific path
Katt describes being financially poor and worried he’d bend his morals to survive, so he prayed for a way to live well without compromising. He explains being specific in prayer so he could recognize what was God versus chance, and he shares how drug dealing tempted him before he asked God to show him his purpose.
- •Katt says poverty made him willing to do whatever it took, which raised moral concerns
- •He explains why he asks for specific things so he won’t confuse God with coincidence
- •He references the Prodigal Son story to frame God as understanding human imperfection
- •He describes being introduced to drug dealing as a fast, profitable option he didn’t want spiritually
- •He recounts praying: show me something I can do, be a good guy, and still get what I need out of life
- 13:47 – 15:03
Comedy as the answer to prayer: connection with people, sharing what he learns, and refusing mediocrity
Katt says God gave him something he already loved—laughing—and opened the door to comedy. He describes wanting a real connection with audiences and using stand-up to talk about meaningful topics and spread what he learns, concluding that if the calling is real, he can’t be a “mediocre comedian.”
- •Katt says he already loved laughter, making comedy feel like a fitting gift
- •He describes a goal of real connection with people through stand-up
- •He wants the work to help him share new insights broadly when he learns something
- •He frames the craft as requiring a clear outcome: be great or be one of the worst, but not mediocre
- •Lewis connects this to Katt’s work as a truth-teller in comedy and culture
- 15:03 – 21:15
The cost and reward of being a “voice of truth”: separating energy, hitting nerves, and embracing the audience that wants honesty
Lewis asks what truth-telling has cost Katt, and Katt says exposing deception brings backlash from people who profit from it. He explains how he protects himself by not mixing energy and treating truth-telling as his job—like a surgeon—while finding it deeply rewarding when people actively want the truth.
- •Katt says unfavorable reactions come from those making a living off deception being exposed
- •He says he doesn’t mix his energy and doesn’t put his soul in question over the work
- •He compares his role to a surgeon who dissects, removes what’s needed, and closes up
- •He says the work only functions if he’s telling the truth and hitting the nerve
- •He calls it rewarding to discover a large audience wants truth about “everything”
- 21:15 – 25:03
Building character over a lifetime: knowing strengths and weaknesses, working through flaws, and learning patience
After a sponsor break, Lewis asks about strengths and weaknesses, and Katt describes lifelong self-work and imperfection. He compares personal development to going to the gym—consistent effort produces results—and explains his recent lesson in patience as learning to trust the process like a farmer waiting for crops.
- •Katt says he’ll work on himself until the end and has a long list of flaws
- •He describes trying to work through the Ten Commandments and seeing consistent rewards from the effort
- •He compares self-improvement to the gym: it works no matter where you start
- •He says fixing even a couple flaws can make you a “whole different creature”
- •He describes patience as learned through long periods of disgruntlement and trusting the process
- 25:03 – 28:24
Obstacles as blessings: reframing hurdles, gratitude, and the hard-work mindset
Lewis cites a line from Katt’s book about embracing what’s meant for you, then Katt explains how he reframes obstacles like a hurdler—each one is a chance to jump higher. He also reflects on believing tomorrow can be better than today and observing that, in many situations, the hardest worker wins.
- •Katt says a hurdler doesn’t see obstacles the same way—each hurdle is an opportunity to jump higher
- •He describes training his mindset to not see the negative first
- •He says obstacles prevent complacency and keep you reaching higher
- •Lewis asks about scarcity versus abundance thinking; Katt describes belief in improvement and effort
- •Katt says he learned early that in many situations, the hardest worker wins
- 28:24 – 32:20
Door-to-door sales: collecting “no’s,” valuing “yes’s,” and using rejection as performance feedback
Katt explains how selling taught him it’s a numbers game and made rejection feel like part of the job rather than a personal blow. He says it increased his appreciation for “yeses,” helped him detach self-worth from a single “no,” and later informed how he listens to audiences in comedy.
- •Katt frames sales as needing many “no’s” to get a smaller number of “yeses,” which didn’t discourage him
- •He says sales taught him to appreciate yeses more, changing how he views rejection
- •He explains he didn’t tie self-worth to rejection because he attached worth to the eventual yes
- •He says his perspective changed when he saw “no” as meaning he didn’t do a good enough job—actionable feedback
- •He connects this to comedy: the audience is never wrong; if it were funny, they would laugh
- 32:20 – 39:00
Mastering comedy craft: mirror work, formulas, touring insights, and making material global
Katt describes intense preparation—rehearsing until it’s funny to him—so he isn’t surprised on stage. He argues comedy has formulas (words, cadence, structure), explains building sets with city-specific openings, and says his special material is designed to work broadly and still “have legs” months later.
- •Katt says if he can’t make a joke funny to the audience, that’s his responsibility
- •He describes practicing a joke repeatedly (including in the mirror) until it’s deliverable
- •He says comedy has formulas: certain words and cadences are funnier than others, and the writer controls the magic
- •He explains a long-standing approach of tailoring the first part of his act to the city and local context
- •He says for specials he chooses material that works across regions and remains relevant over time because he’s tested it widely
- 39:00 – 44:57
Defending against spiritual warfare: seeing opposition as a sign, daily dependence on God, and asking better questions
Lewis asks about spiritual attacks, and Katt says opposition is real and should be expected when truth threatens powerful interests. He argues spiritual warfare reveals weak opposition and can signal you’re doing the right thing, then explains his prayer life as daily need—and urges people to ask better questions when answers aren’t coming.
- •Katt says the risks to whistleblowers are well documented and shouldn’t be ignored
- •He says if nobody is trying to stop you, it can be hard to know you’re on the right track
- •He describes feeling “worthy” when targeted spiritually because it means you’re on the radar
- •He says he talks to God every day because he needs help in all circumstances
- •He says unanswered prayers can be an answer—sometimes you’re not supposed to do that—and you should ask better questions and try something else
- 44:57 – 50:48
Service in Haiti: witnessing poverty, resilience, pride, and the immediate impact of sharing practical knowledge
Lewis asks about Katt’s time doing missionary work in Haiti in his late teens, and Katt describes culture shock from seeing abject poverty and hunger at a village scale. He says many people were still joyful and proud, and he recounts how sharing simple health information created immediate benefits—showing him why service work is so meaningful.
- •Katt says he hadn’t seen abject poverty before and was shocked by widespread hunger without nearby resources
- •He says most people he encountered were happy because they made it their business to be happy
- •He contrasts Haitian pride and independence with his own background, describing “a warrior starving” and “someone free starving”
- •He describes helping mothers by sharing information about dehydration and diarrhea relief involving salt and good water
- •He says seeing immediate results helped him understand why people do missionary work and how helping blesses the helper too
- 50:48 – 54:30
Three truths, defining greatness, and a final note on stand-up as confidence
Lewis closes with his “Three Truths” question, and Katt shares three core lessons about learning, being perfectly made, and making small personal improvements. He defines greatness as the quality of your last effort and urges urgency—“now is the time”—before the conversation ends with a brief extra exchange about insecurity and how stand-up gave him confidence.
- •Katt’s first truth: you can never read enough, learn enough, or ask enough questions
- •Second truth: you were perfectly made by a perfect God in a perfect universe, “do with that as you will”
- •Third truth: start small by improving meals and beverages, recreation time, and sleep to be in a better position
- •Katt defines greatness by evaluating your last effort and treating each moment as closer to the last
- •In a brief post-close moment, Katt says he was insecure and that stand-up was the thing that gave him confidence
