7 Feb, 2023

Pete Cohen  0:01

Happy beautiful, amazing day. It's Pete Cohen. It's the Future Self Podcast. today's podcast episode is called Eminem’s Number One Success secret. I will see you after the theme tune.

Happy beautiful day. Thank you for joining me for the podcasts. I'm really excited to share this episode with you. I think there's some great examples in the world of people who have done some amazing things and people that I think are great examples to other people. And Eminem is definitely one of those people. I'm not sure just how much of a role music has played in your life. But I have to say music was probably my salvation. As a child. It was just one of those things that I could just lose myself. And it was one of those things that I could literally immerse myself in and forget some of the reality of where I found myself in because like many people there were times I just wanted to escape. There were times where I didn't feel particularly good about myself. And music was that thing that just made a huge difference to me. I remember I was nine years old, it was coming up to my 10th birthday. And my parents had asked me a few months before what I wanted for Christmas and I said what I wanted was, you know, a stereo stereo that I could play music so they didn't ask me again and I just thought okay, well, maybe maybe this year, they'll give me this now I wasn't the best behaved children. And I remember being extremely naughty and getting in trouble at school. And on Christmas Eve my parents sat me down and basically said that they had changed their mind because I'd been so naughty and they weren't going to give me what they said they were going to give me which was the stereo. So I was really disappointed but I agreed with them. I thought you know what? You've made a good point there. I have been pretty I've been pretty difficult. So you know, I was upset. I went to sleep. Woke up in the morning Christmas Day. And my dad said to me, Hey, listen, can you just come into this room, which was our spare room and lifted up this box? And he said, Can you just bring this box and he said and I thought I was taking into their bedroom? And he said no take it into your room and then I looked at the box and it wasn't wrapped. And it was a stereo. It was a stereo with a record player, a tape recorder and a radio. And it was just the best thing I ever had. It was just the thing I just loved. And I spent so much time with that. Playing records. The first record was echo beach by Martha and the muffins. I'm turning Japanese by the vapors my perfect cousin by the undertones. And of course I'd already had the album thriller by Michael Jackson because my brother had been given that and he didn't like it so he gave it to me. And, you know, my life with music began. And I just think music is you know, I used to I ended up being a DJ. I just used to love playing music to people but actually most of the time I liked just playing the music that I wanted to hear that I wanted to dance to while I was playing it. And I just think that music really does make a difference. But what's awesome about music is how musicians are often able to express themselves. And I don't know exactly when I came across Eminem, but he definitely had an impact on me. There was definitely something in his voice and in what he was saying. And this song that many people know is a song that Wow. When Eminem performed this think it was the Oscars. In 2020. I mean, you literally could see so many people in the audience just resonating with this, because the song was speaking to them. All these other performers who've had to step up and do things that are difficult

would you seriously and I think that he was obviously singing about his own experience for those of you that have seen the film eight mile you know, this is a guy who came from a very difficult you know, background. He grew up there. Was a lot of turbulence and trauma and abuse and violence

loads of insecurity, but then he found something he found some he found rap music, hip hop. And he found a way to just do something very cathartic, which was writing writing and then saying his words

and I think that you know, when you when you look at him and you and you learn if you want to, you know which I want to what I want to share with you today, some of what I've learned from him is all of our ability to do things that are difficult to take the opportunities that are out there for us step into fear

because when you look at his story in real life, you see that he found music, he he was massively insecure, hugely insecure person didn't think he was good enough thought he was worthless, but literally found a way to do something that he was getting something back. You know, he was getting something back in the fact that he enjoyed doing it. And the fact that people were telling him that there's a story of the rapper Olympics, right. Can you believe it? They were rapper Olympics. And he was had been kicked out of where he was living. And they the people that had come to because he hadn't paid his rent, they'd all come and they taken everything out and thrown out on the lawn. And it was all locked up. But he found a way to actually break into the place. He was living in sleep that night. And the next day he traveled to the rapper Olympics. And the first prize was $500. And guess what? He came second. He was absolutely devastated. Devastated. And this guy came up to him and said, Listen, I really like your music. Do you have a tape? And he had one tape. He actually collects tapes. He's a massive tape collector. And he gave this guy a tape. And guess who this guy gave the tape to? Probably won't surprise you. He gave it to Dr. Dre. And you couldn't say the rest is history. And this whole song of you know you only get one shot. We never just know just how close we actually are. It has so many secrets. I mean the podcast is called the number one success secret. And it's up to you. You can take as many secrets from him as you want. But perhaps one of them is just never giving up. Because you just don't know

Are you ready? And I just look at everyone I meet in life and I just see potential. I see possibilities. I see people having to face difficult things every single day. But I see the capabilities that people have to rise up and do difficult different, difficult things.

And when I worked with Ronnie O'Sullivan, you know over 20 years ago, who's now seven times snooker world champion. We used to listen to this before we used to go out and perform in front of millions of people and then I found just an instrumental of this with no Eminem, just the song and I made a like a track just for him of talking to him and hit me he was an easy person to hypnotize. You know, that's one of the things I studied hypnosis I used to hypnotize lots of the world champions and Olympic champions I worked with because these guys are very open to suggestion. They're very open. You can because they're very good at getting into the flow. Athletes are really good at getting into a space where there is no future there is no past there's just now because when they're performing at their best, that's where they are. And if you can put them in their space and that space by giving them suggestions. You can hypnotize them, you can give them suggestions that they then to start to accept and that's one of the things that I did with Ronnie O'Sullivan. And even though I don't do too much hypnosis today, I'm trying to hypnotize people. I'm trying to hypnotize people to hypnotize themselves to believe in themselves. Because most people do not and most people are giving themselves messages that literally do not support them do not support their growth. I'm not this I'm not that. And a real growth mindset is when you know the person that you want to grow into an m&m. For me his number one success secret is how he has reinvented himself. I mean, this is a guy, Marshall Bruce Mathis, the third born in 1972, rapper, record producer, actor, best selling artists. He had a turbulent childhood. It was marked with, you know, with poverty and allegations of abuse. This is someone who found music as a way of expressing himself, right. He found a way of just doing something getting out of the gutter that he was in getting out of his situation. But he still struggled. He still still still tried to he still struggled. Like so many of us struggle in life, but it's what we do with this struggle. This is where things start to get really interesting. Look, take a listen. Take a listen to this. This is Eminem, because he doesn't do many interviews is really hard to find out much about this guy. He's a very reserved person. But this was an interview that he did with Mike Tyson. And just have a listen to what he says here.

Buy something there it's funny because Mike Tyson is like in the interview, in total agreement with him, because Mike Tyson felt the same. You know, like many of us have grown up in a world where we don't feel enough and we're looking for something and many people are looking for acceptance, and looking just to fit in. But then some people like Mike Tyson, or an m&m. Find something that they're really really good at and they get a coach they get a mentor they get someone with Tyson it was customer was Eminem. It was Dre was a couple of people with Eminem. But what's truly awesome is that, you know, just the recognition that even though you find something you're good at it doesn't get rid of the trauma. It doesn't get rid of the the feeling of not being enough of not feeling good enough. That feeling is still there. And that's not surprising that so many people then go into the world of drugs and alcohol and that was the world I grew up in. I mean I'm listen, I'm very fortunate person to have grown up in a very beautiful part of, of London. Great parents, but I still grew up around, you know, drugs, alcohol, and, and abusive behavior. You know, even football violence I saw so much of that. I saw people that were just looking for something to be a part of, but I do admire people that find something creative that they can do. But Eminem, had to seriously got into drugs. And I really admire him because in 2000 He went into rehab, he was massively overweight. And he came out and he's number one six, you know, I say came out. I don't mean he came out with sexuality. He just when he came out, he really changed his life and he's been sober for years. And I really, really admire that I really admire someone who has addiction. I think we all have addictions to certain things, but being able to say no, I'm reinventing myself. And I would say that was his number one success secret, but I also think he's number one success secret, but I'll come to that in a minute. Because I just want to play you just a little bit more of what he said in this interview. Take a listen to this because when you get stuff, just imagine this right you find something you're good at, and then you start getting paid for it, but paid for it in a way. There's so much money, so much money more money than you could ever possibly imagine. But just take a look at what he says about money otherwise

and that was that was my case and literally putting a you know, a pretend gun to his head or his fingers to his head. You know that he's saying that that's why a lot of people take their lives because they they have all of this stuff. And then they think well hang on. Is this all there is this is terrible. And then they take their life and that's why a lot of people who are very successful actors, artists, they're twisted up inside because they've never really made peace with themselves. And that's what I think Eminem really, really worked hard at doing. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, that what he found was exercise, you know? Often people talk about swapping one addiction for another addiction

Guess who's back guys? Who's back? Come on. The reinvention of Eminem, the reinvention of you. Let me ask you a question. What will be the greatest thing that you ever do?

Maybe it will be the reinvention of you who you actually choose to become. This is what I love when you see people that have overcome their past overcome their trauma, how they've done that, whether it's through therapy or talking. Eminem has never had any therapy, but he's never stopped writing. He's never stopped writing about how he's been thinking and how he's been feeling. And I'm sure that's part of his reinvention to get it out to be able to share this is me. This is one of the great qualities I've observed with many of the incredible people that I've worked with. Is it just open and say, You know what, I've got this feeling. I've got this situation I've had this happen to me, but people that want to become more and do more and that's what the Future Self Podcast is all about. It's all about giving you a perspective of the possibilities that exist for you. You know, when I asked you, what's the greatest thing that you're ever going to do? Is it could it be who you're going to become? Is that possible? Is it possible? That is who you choose to become? And maybe you stop lying to yourself? Maybe Maybe it's time to face the truth. And that's what one of the guys who started Alcoholics Anonymous said it's so important to start start with the truth.

So Eminem really got into running. That was his way of kind of running away maybe from his addiction and he was running like 17 miles a day and then he got injured because he was doing too much like many people do. That's one of the things I've done. I was definitely addicted to exercise. When I stopped taking drugs and drinking. Exercise really was where I kind of really lost myself. I became addicted to exercise. I'm still addicted, but just in a healthy way, even though I'm injured at the moment. So you know, it's all a learning process. It's all this Getting to Know thyself, as Greek philosophers said the importance of to know thyself to become aware of thyself to realize just to take ownership of self in a world that is so crazy, where it's hard for people to stop and switch off and look at oneself, and to realize what you're doing and where that's going to take you. Because one of our key messages and what we say is that I believe that most people today are living a future they don't want and most of us are fortunate enough to not that we have a choice, some people are in really difficult situations right now. And they're facing the biggest headwinds of their life. As a good friend of mine, yesterday, shared that with me, and I just thought, what can I do to help you especially as I've just been through the biggest headwind of my life, and I can't believe that we've come through this I can't believe that my wife is so much better thinking that she was dying and thinking that was it and she's alive. And it's it's blown my mind. And I've still got to do some work on myself to accept the fact that it's happening, that she's better than she's probably ever been. Because working on oneself is a lifetime journey. It's not a destination. That's how I look at it. But it's a lot easier to move through the difficulties that we face when we do it with other people who are supporting us on that journey. What do you reckon? Because there's a Superman and a superwoman in all of us, when you agree, so for me the number one success secret of Eminem there are there are definitely a few. But I would say one of them, without doubt, is definitely the reinvention of oneself, to look at oneself, to own the processes of being yourself, your rituals, to own your excuses, your ruminations, your distractions, and really to think about who you being and who do you want to be. Exercise was massively important to him. And it still is because life is motion. There's no question about that. Life is motion and what he's found isn't something on the outside, looking for validation from the world. He's found through the joy of movement and now he's massively into what some people call like hit training. You know, getting really getting working hard, working your body hard, just being strong, because the greatest rewards in life, I think, are delayed in a world where everyone wants everything right here, right now. Right? To wake up to the fact that you know what, if you really want something, it's probably going to take some work. So I want to thank Eminem for inspiring me.

I went to school with this lady's brother. It's a small world and this lady's brother is another half of a group called faithless. Why am I telling you this? We're all connected. There is a connection between us all. You know, he's touched people with his music, his words. And who do you want to touch with your words? Who do you want to touch with what you have? What is the difference that you want to make in your life? Because the way I see it, ladies and gentlemen, this is your shot. This is your opportunity. This is your time. And today, I stepped on a plane traveled to Dubai to present to be the keynote speaker, the key note speaker, I gotta step up, I gotta deliver. Will there be fear? Will there be doubt? Of course. But what's that got to do with it? When you know your message

would you take it? Would you capture it? I would and I encourage you to do the same thing. We know a great life. It doesn't happen by chance. It happens by design. It actually happens by redesign. I want to thank you for listening to the Future Self Podcast. I know that we've got 400 episodes now we've only just got started as we continue to inspire people with their stories and their journeys.

Thank you so much for listening. What's your biggest takeaway? Your biggest takeaway from this podcast? Tell us reach out to us. subscribe to the podcast but tell us send me a message drop me a line tell me.

Take care. Happy beautiful day, and we'll see you next time.