Javier ❤️ The School of Greatness

In this episode of Pod, Actually, Catherine speaks with Javier, a startup investor and innovator based in Murcia in southeastern Spain, about his favorite podcast, The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes.

Javier listens for the personal development, the long and curious interviews, and the way Lewis approaches guests with openness rather than instant judgment. For Javier, the show is not really about work, even if it sometimes feeds his work with clients. It is more about the phase of life he is in now, and his ongoing interest in growth, self-care, finance, longevity, curiosity, and becoming a better person.

The conversation touches on what it means to admire a podcast host, whether we should meet our heroes, the danger of discovering that openness might be a performance, and why staying curious matters in a polarized world. Javier also reflects on his father, who taught him the value of openness, and realizes during the conversation that Lewis Howes reminds him of his father in ways he had not previously considered.

Learn more about Javier here:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/javierfernandezgallardo/

🎙 Javier's Top 5 Podcasts:

1.  The School of Greatness
2.  Morning Brew Daily
3.  Bob Baker Affirmation Meditation Podcast 
4.  Lateral
5.  The Rest is Classified

🔗 Links

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hello, I'm Catherine and welcome to Pod Actually, a podcast about people's favorite podcasts. On today's program, I'm speaking with Javier, a startup investor and innovator based in Murcia in the southeast of Spain. Let's jump in. Javier, what is your favorite podcast?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Well, my favorite podcast is the School of Greatness by Luis Howes. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, and I'm a New York Times best-selling author.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Can you describe the podcast for people who may not have heard it?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Okay, it's a podcast about personal development. It started out with uh mostly interviews, but now there are some episodes in which Lewis has the leading voice. He also does uh summaries of longer interviews, but it's basically about interviews about personal development, growth, finance, manifestation, self-care, longevity, so all these things. And I love the way he he communicates, how transparent, open he is, uh how curious he is in the way he does his interviews. It's fantastic. And it's so fun to listen to, so I enjoy it a lot. I never miss one.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Do you know when the podcast started?

SPEAKER_00 1:36

I think it started with YouTube. I think it was in 2013. I don't know when he started doing the podcast as well, but he started, yeah, he still has the YouTube channel, but I I mostly listen to the podcast. So it's it's been there for at least 10 years or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Is it a weekly podcast or more frequent? How often does he put out new episodes?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

It's at least uh weekly, and there are sometimes two in a week or something like that. So it's mainly weekly, yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

And you listen to it as soon as it comes out?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Basically, yeah, it depends because they are longer, and I also need to be like kind of in the mood. Sometimes I want to listen to them and take notes. So if it starts and I really get hooked, maybe I listen to it on the car or while I'm running or or walking, and then I come back to it and listen to it with the iPad so I can take that notes. But basically, it's interviews, I can listen to them anytime. So there's a time in the morning when I'm only doing meditation podcasts, and there are also times that I also only want like something which is fun, like the lateral or some other podcasts. But these ones, yes, uh, I listen to them straight away.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

How long is each episode usually? Give or take?

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Yeah, it's one hour, give or take, but it the some of them are like 20 minutes, some of them are almost two hours, so it's it's not very regular in that because there are interviews, and also he has this uh the ones that he's on his own talking about things, and maybe they take 20 to 30 minutes. So it depends. The interviews are longer, usually in the hour plus range.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Do you remember how you discovered the podcast?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

I don't actually exactly know how I got to this one. I think it was probably because I interviewed someone that I follow. And because I was following this person, I found out the interview. I think that was some that was that was it. I was he in he does very interesting interviews, and he interviewed someone. I don't know who, but he interviewed someone whom I was following around. And I said, okay, this is interesting. And then I listened to the format of the interview and I got hooked on on this one.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

This relates to a question I wanted to ask you about why you're interested in the podcast. Does it relate to your work in some way? Because you were saying you've interviewed someone. Can you join those dots for me?

SPEAKER_00 4:05

It does relate to my work, but I but it's not really. There are some podcasts that I listen to that are really, really focus on my work, like via politics or entrepreneurship or innovation. But this one is about my life and it's about a phase I'm in. I'm 54, and I'm very uh interested in personal development, personal growth. So I came across this one and I'm hooked. I do use it sometimes with my work with clients because I get so many ideas and stuff, and I recommend books that I learned through the podcast, etc. But it's mainly a personal interest.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

So you said that you really like Lewis Howe's curiosity and how open he is. What's an example of the way that he demonstrates his curiosity?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

He's very good asking questions. And when he's never rejecting any idea straight ahead, or he's always open to the other people's mindset or view or opinion. I find myself questioning the people some of the things that people say in his podcast. He never does. He's always open, he's always listening, he's always trying to understand: okay, why is this person telling me this? How does this person come to this? And he does make this seemingly out of the blue, very personal and very relevant questions in the middle of like someone is talking, answering a previous question, and then he comes with this, oh, and why did that happen to you? Or why did you suppose do you relate to that? So that's the that's the thing. The way he asks questions.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Is he someone that you would be friends with if you could?

SPEAKER_00 5:51

I think so. I actually in September, my wife and I we went to California just to go attend his uh summit. He's been doing this for 19 years. Uh, it's called the Summit of Greatness, and it's a two-day event in the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. And we went there and we had the the chance to be there with him, and there were also a few hundred of people there, but we did that, and I think that I really relate to his strive for greatness in a broader term than just making money or just being a successful entrepreneur? He's a family man, he's a sportsman, and he's a very ambitious person in the best way. And I think I would be very comfortable hanging out with him on a weekly or monthly basis, other than just listening to him. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Is his demeanor also a style that you like to emulate? Is the way that he conducts himself something that you lean towards for yourself, the way that you move through the world?

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Absolutely. He's very open, uh, very kind. There are some things that I know that I share with him, or I think I share, and there are some things that even though I I I I don't think I share them, but I would I would love to have them. So he's very, very open, he's very straightforward, he's very calm, he's very candid. So there are many, many things that I like about him.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Which qualities would you like to have that he has that you feel that you maybe don't?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Well, he's younger than me, so he has this stamina. So that's fantastic the way he he thinks about that. Also, sometimes I envy the way that he his uh sense of I can do anything and I I belong anywhere I want to belong. That's something that's um it's amazing the way he but he's very humble also when he talks about the way he when he started doing business, and he thought, you know, you hang out with people and then you think you're friends, and maybe you're not, and how choosing your friends and choosing the people around you configures your life, your business. That's something that here in Murcia, it's uh we're it's uh this is uh midtown, which is the seventh largest in Spain, so it's uh it's not like Madrid or Barcelona. So we we usually hang out in the same kind of uh group of friends and people, etc. The way he's so focused on combining his personal like his business life, that's something that uh, for instance, I I know that I can do better.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Why is openness important to you?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Well, it's something so necessary in the world. In this world where asking questions and being open to listen to different points of view, it's so important. And finding someone who's doing this out in the public, helping people question things and think for themselves and not just follow the crowd or or your crowd versus the other crowd. In this so polarized world, having someone who's really, really open to learning, if we were just open to learning, the world would be so much different. So that's something I think we all need. And that's something my father taught me, and uh he was an example in that way. So now that you say this, there are some things of Louis that being younger than me, he reminds me of my father a lot. That's a very interesting thing. I never I never thought of that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Let's say Lewis hears about you and decides to invite you over to his house for a dinner party. He's welcoming you into his private life, and then you sit down there with him and you find out that uh-oh, he's actually not that open. It's a bit of a performance. Would that change how you feel about the podcast?

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Well, the podcast is very personal, so I think it would. Probably I would still listen to it, but I would take it probably with uh with a grain of salt in that respect. It would be such a huge surprise if that were the case. That it's it was all just a performance or uh it would be a bit of a shock.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Well, let's say never meet your heroes.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Do you listen to the podcast at normal speed, or do you speed it up, or do you speed it up sometimes?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yes, the sometimes, depending on the person he's interviewing. Some people are a bit too slow for me. But most of the podcasts I never speed them up, just a few of them. And it also depends on the day. But uh I like the natural voice of people, so I'd rather skip some parts. If I think if a question or something they're talking about is not so relevant, I'd rather fast forward one minute to two minutes rather than speed up the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Have you had that experience where you've speeded it up and then you've realized you've cut off something that you think might be interesting, so then you have to back up 15 seconds and then you all the time.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

All the time. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

If the podcast stopped tomorrow, how quickly would you notice?

SPEAKER_00 11:16

I think I would I would notice in less than a week, for sure. Yeah. I do have some some podcasts on the iPhone that I come back to. Most of them are not from this are from this podcast, because the ones that use it for meditation purposes, so I use them like every day. But there are a few of there's always one with Louis that I'm listening to every few days. So maybe I'm hooked with that one, which is from two weeks ago, something like that, and I'm not listening to the new ones, and then on the weekend I listen to a couple of the new ones. But yeah, I think in less than a week I will be aware that the podcast is not available or they're not producing anything anymore.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Does your wife also listen to this podcast?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Uh she does, not as often as I do, but she does, yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Do you talk about it together?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we do all the time. We are always exchanging recommendations for books, articles, podcasts, everything. And this one, because we we know the guy from for a long time, but we'll be there in California, etc., whenever there's something, I'm usually ahead of her in this one. So if there's something really, really that I think is gonna strike a chord with her, so I share it immediately.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

If you recommended this podcast to a friend and the friend listened and then came back to you and said, You're crazy, I don't like it at all. Do you think you could still be friends with that person?

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Yeah, why not? Absolutely. I mean, I'm a musician, so you know, music is everyone has a different taste, so absolutely no problem. I would ask why, you know, maybe uh there's something I'm missing. Uh, what didn't you like it? Sometimes, you know, these things are very personal, like the voice or the attitude of the person, or there are you know, sometimes it has chemistry and but no, I don't I I wouldn't have any problem with that.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Has someone ever recommended a podcast to you that you haven't liked? And then has it made you look at that person slightly differently?

SPEAKER_00 13:22

I don't know. I I I would say with music, yes. If if you tell me you like some some certain type music, I say how how can you know I think my the people I know are really um usually we usually have friends and people that we share interests with. So whenever we we share interests, we really really need sometimes at being surprised, yes. They kind of oh are you into this? More like uh surprise rather than but yeah, yeah. Sometimes you can be surprised by what other people listen to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Is it hard to stay open when someone's tastes don't line up with yours?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, I mean, but that's something coming back to my father who's coming very often on this podcast today. Uh I really try to very much respect uh everybody's tastes, opinions, and uh individual freedom is very important for me. So I try to be not very judgmental in that respect. And uh sometimes I I I try to think maybe I okay, let's listen to this. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is something different or there's another perspective. Someone actually recommended this week an interview of our president, Pedro Sanchez, which I'm not very fond of. And this person said, You have to listen to this person who's interviewed in this podcast, which is the rest is politics, which I follow, but I haven't come to that podcast yet. And I was like, okay, this is interesting. This is a very good podcast that I like a lot, and they are going to interview, they are interviewing my president, which I don't like. So I'm very curious about and I want to listen to that one when I have the time. This was like a couple of days ago, and maybe uh there's there's something I I need to review on on my president, or my my opinion on the president. Yeah, it's it's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Final question.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Do you think liking this podcast says something about you? And if so, what is that?

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Well, I I think it just says that I'm striving to be a better person. And I think that's something to be proud of. As simple as that. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I enjoyed so much. The time flew, so anytime, thank you, Catherine.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

And that's the show. Pod Actually is produced and hosted by me, Catherine Harris. If you like the program, please tell a friend. And you can also support us over at Patreon at Pod Actually or on Sunday. Thanks for listening. See you soon.