Jim Kwik - Memory & Focus Expert | The Brain Hack That Will Transform Your Life in 30 Days

My inspiration was my desperation. I would have my greens every day when I was five and six. I just thought it was normal. As we're going on this path, our struggles can become strengths. What if being called the boy with the broken brain was exactly what it took to unlock the world's smartest minds? Jim Quick turned a childhood brain injury and the struggles that followed into a mission to help millions upgrade how they learn, think, and live. We live in a culture where they say sitting is a new smoking. They were buying screens all day. We have to move our bodies in order to be able to fit and healthy, but also for your brain. Your brain is only 2% of your body mass, but it requires 20% of nutrients. And our community upwards of 70% have or have had sleep issues. Best ways of getting consistent, good sleep over time is sticking to a schedule. As the founder of Quick Learning, a top-rated podcast host and author of the best-selling book, Limitless, Jim has coached everyone from students at Harvard to execs at Google, Nike, and Virgin. Don't touch your phone the first 30 minutes a day in last 30 minutes a day. If you're on your devices at night, the blue light from your device on the screen pours your mind in it thinking it's still daylight. But behind the techniques and hacks is a deeper message. Your brain isn't broken. It's just waiting to be trained. In this episode, we explore how Jim rewired his own story and how you can too. Imagine you're taking your final breaths. At that moment, none of other people's opinions are going to matter. What's going to really matter in that moment? Things like how you laughed, how you learned, how you lived. Know yourself, trust yourself, be yourself. Welcome to success story. I'm your host, Scott Clary. The success story podcast is part of the HubSpot podcast network. Now HubSpot doesn't just have great podcasts. They also have great tools for entrepreneurs. Let me tell you a story. I'm sure you've all heard of the Angel City football club. Well, you don't just become the world's most valuable women sports franchise by accident. Angel City football club did it. The little help from HubSpot. When they started, data was housed across multiple systems. In HubSpot, unified their website, their email marketing, and fan experience in one platform. This allowed their small team of three to build an entire website in just three days. The result were nearly 350 new fan signups a week and a 300% database growth in just two years. Sure, you can be a great team in the arena. But if you truly want to build a legacy, a franchise and a dynasty, you have to build a community outside of the arena and HubSpot helped Angel City football club do just that. If you want to learn about how HubSpot can help your business, visit HubSpot.com. There's some other great case studies and you'll learn how HubSpot can help your business grow better. And one quick ask. Before we dive into today's episode, I need your help with something important. I've just launched a quick survey to better understand what you guys want from the show. And your feedback is going to directly shape our upcoming content. It's only going to take a few minutes of your time and I made it super easy to find. Just head over to scottdclary.com slash survey. And as a thank you for helping me out, I'm giving away a free gift card to one lucky responded chosen at random. Once we hit 100 responses. So not only will your feedback help make this show even better, you might score something cool just for sharing your thought. I really appreciate your help with this one. Jim, I'm excited you're on. It's going to be a lot of fun. You went from being labeled the boy with the broken brain to becoming one of the world's leading brain coaches. So talk to me about what that means for you, what that journey means for you about human potential. You know, I appreciate this cod. But so my inspiration was my my desperation. When people see me at stages, you know, I speak every single week. I travel to muppers of 70 plus countries, teaching people how to have the best brain possible, how to learn faster speed read, improve their memory. If there's time, I'll do this demonstration where we'll pass around a microphone in an audience and we'll have like 50, 60, 70 people introduce themselves and memorize all their names, which is a very useful skill in business for sure. I think it's number one business etiquette skill there is or networking skill. But afterwards, I always tell people, I don't do this impressed you. I do this to express to you what's possible because the truth is every single one of you watching listening this, you could do that too. And so much more, we just weren't taught, you know, if anything, we're taught a lie that somehow our memory or potential is fixed like our shoe size. And the reason I know it's possible is because I grew up with some severe learning difficulties. Probably more than most people is watching this listening right now. When I was five years old, I had an unfortunate accident where some people would say a fortunate accident. In kindergarten class, I fell and hit my head on a window pane and then we ricocheted into a radiator. I was rushed to the hospital, covered in blood and it was just a good snucked out. And we were really showed up as in school, poor focus, poor memory. It took me over three years just to learn how to read like the other kids. So I dealt with a lot of self-confidence issues, a lot of self-esteem issues, a lot of self-worth issues, a lot of doubt. I would have migraines every day when I was five and six. I just thought it was normal. When I was seven, I lost my super heroes, my grandmother to Alzheimer's. And that was really kind of hard. But it kind of put me out of path, right? When I was nine years old, I was slowing down a class and I was being teased really bad that day. Because I just didn't understand the lessons and teacher would have to repeat herself and then being teased because I was so slow and my last name is quick. And the teacher came from my defense. She pointed to me from the whole class and said, leave that kid alone. That's the boy with a broken brain. And, you know, in that moment, it really changed things. Because I didn't realize how it was broken. And adults have to be careful. They're external words. Because they often become a child's internal words. So every single time I didn't do well in school, which was every day. Every time I was in pick for sports, which was every day, I would always say, oh, because I have the broken brain. And, you know, I talk about the power of the mind and the beliefs that we have. You know, whether someone wants to start a business or they want to, you know, get super healthy. I want to learn how to read three times faster, learn languages, whatever. You know, we always have to be conscious of our inner dialogue. You know, at these same events, people come to me and say, I'm so glad you're here. And they'll pull me aside very quietly. I know your memory coach. You know, I'm just not that smart. I have a horrible memory. And I always say the same thing. I always say, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. Be fight for your limits there. They're yours, right? Your brains are just incredible. Super computer, our beliefs are self-talk, our program will run. So you tell yourself all the time, like I'm not good at remembering people's names. You won't remember the name and the expression you meet because you program your computer not to. And so, you know, the nature of my work, I struggled all through school. My feet big fear in school of not learning the public speaking, because I never wanted to be, you know, called on in class, because I never knew the answer. You know, I was that slow kid. Which is ironic, right? Because my two biggest challenges were learning and public speaking, growing up. And life has a sense of humor, because all I do is public speak on this thing called learning. But just a reminder to anyone on this, you know, on this path. And I think we're all of us collectively on this path to realize and reveal our fullest potential, right? And, you know, as we're going on this path, which challenges come change. That our struggles can become strengths, right? And so, at the age of 18, I met a mentor that introduced me to a certain work and research around the power of the mind. And I started studying that like voraciously. And I, once I learned how to read and remember and all the things that aren't taught in school, I started to tutor. And one of my very first students get this, she was a college freshman. She read 30 books in 30 days. I mean, that, I mean, just think about that Scott going online buying 30 books and then reading a book a day, right? Not skimmers can, but really read it. And I wanted to find out not how, I wanted, because I taught her how. I wanted to know why. I'm always interested in what motivates people. And I found out her mother was dying of terminal cancer. And the books she was reading were books to save her mom's life. And I wish her love prayers. And six months goes by and every hear from her and then I get a call one day. And this is young lady and she's crying, crying on the other line profusely. And when she stops, I find out their tears of joy that her mother not only survived but is really getting better. The doctors, it's like a mystery. They don't know how or why. They were calling it a miracle. But her mother chewed it 100% to the creative bike she got from her daughter who had learned it from all these books. And in that moment, I realized two things that if knowledge is power, then learning is our super power. And it's a power we all have. And the other thing I learned was my mission in life. So I'm going to be 52. I've been doing this for 33 years. Every single day of my life, it's our mission to build better, brighter brains. No, no brain left behind. I was going to ask what your inflection point was that prompted you, but it was really just you trying to fix yourself. And that's what led you down that road. Yeah, I think the life we live or the lessons we teach. Sometimes we teach the things that we need to learn the most. But yeah, I would say yes, that my path, my inspiration, again, was my desperation. I turn my mess and turn it into my message. And now we train, we serve half of the Fortune 500 companies doing their mental fitness, speed reading, memory training, Facebook, Nike, Google, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, BMW. We have a podcast and we have the largest online academy of accelerated learning in the world. Students in every single country and we're just proud of helping people like showing them that they can be geniuses. Schooled, but those taught us what to learn. You think about classes you took in school, like math, history, science, but there are no classes on what? Like these are classes on what to learn, but not how to learn. How awesome would have been to have classes on flow states or classes on focus or concentration or memory, right? I think memory is an incredible multiplier for entrepreneurs because on the other side, two of the most costly words for entrepreneurs or someone looking to start a business, I forgot. I mean, just think about the consequences of saying I forgot to do it. I forgot to bring it. I forgot what I was going to say. I forgot that conversation. You know, I forgot the go to that meeting. I forgot what I just read. I forgot that person's name. You know, we lose time. We make mistakes. We lose trust. And we could hurt a relationship. And on the other side, memory will make you all money. It's the ultimate magnifier. It's a forced multiplier, like they call it in the military. When you take the same amount input, get multiple outputs or rewards. When you can easily remember as an entrepreneur client information or remember product information, you could give a sales speech or make sales videos without teleprompter or give a public presentation without notes or remember names and faces. It just puts you at a total level, totally different level because we live in a knowledge economy where knowledge is not only power, it's profit and the faster you learn, the faster you earn. But we are. So that's an interesting point because we are in a knowledge economy. Yet I find that people signal that they're smart by trying to consume as much as possible. But I don't feel like we're in a retention of knowledge economy. We just try and read as many books as possible and listen to as many podcasts and watch as many YouTube videos because the X factor in consuming is understanding it, comprehending it, applying it. And I love that. That's the way that you're attitude towards it because I feel like it is a myth that knowledge by itself is power and has the potential to be a lot of power. It only comes power when we utilize it. I mean, the truth is, as a coach, I have to call people on their BS. You know, their belief systems. And I feel like the truth is all the podcasts, all the books, all the conferences. None of it works unless we work. Right? I mean, but how many people go out there and buy books, and they only read it even, you know, much as applied. And it sits on their shelf unread and it becomes shelf help, but not real stuff. Because all they did is they posted it on their Instagram story when they were on the way back home from Barnes and Noble. Exactly. And I would love it if people practice what they post, you know. And that, for me, the big part of success is that alignment, you know. And even if you have people in your lives that don't believe in you, as you mean you say, you're going to start this new venture or whatever, you know, I feel like we can't change people, but we can inspire them. We can be an example for them. But yeah, I believe I've a general rule for every hour I spend learning something. I schedule an hour putting it into interaction, applying it. So I feel like that's such an important thing, you know, because I feel like we can't, we don't know unless we could do it. I agree. I mean, talk to me about what you discovered about yourself, about human potential, about the human brain, about memory, about focus, when you first started on that journey. So when I was 18 years old, I, you know, so I did badly all through school up to that age. And I was lucky enough to get into a local, a local college. And I thought freshman meant you can make a fresh start. So I took all these classes, and I was like, I'm going to show the world and make my parents proud, show myself that I could do this. And I did worse. So I was ready to quit, because my parents immigrated to the States, and you know, they had many jobs. We live in the back of a laundry mat that my mom worked at. We didn't have the money for me to be in school. And if I wasn't going to be able to pass, there was no reason for me to be there. But I didn't know how to tell my parents, because, you know, I'm the oldest of three kids, and I want to be a good role model, a lot of pressure, right? So I had all those angst, and a friend was like, hey, just wait a few days. I'm visiting my family this weekend. Why don't you come with me to get some perspective, and just, you know, and I think it's important when you're facing a dilemma or a big decision to get perspective. You change the place where the people you're spending time went to get a different point of view, right? So I go, and the family's pretty well off. A lot different than, you know, I lived. It was in this beautiful home on the water, and the father walks me around the property, and before dinner, and asked me a very simple question, which was the worst question you could ask me. He says, Jim, how's school? And I was just like, I just start bawling in front of this complete stranger. And I'm very, you know, introverted, very shy, but I just like break down and tell my whole story, broken brain, can't make it cut it in school. Don't know how to tell my parents, whatever. And he's like, Jim, why are you in school? And honestly, I didn't have an answer. Nobody's ever asked me that question. I just thought, you know, you go to school, get good grades, get a grad school, whatever, get a good job, whatever, right? But I never know. And because somebody asked me a new question, I had to come up in the answer, and I would put that, I would posit that out to your audience that you ask a new question, you could change your, in your reticular activators, starts focusing on spotlight on different answers, right? So I go to answer him, and he puts his hand out, and he reaches into his back pocket, takes out journal, rips out a couple of blank sheets of paper, hands it to me, and he makes me write it down. And after I don't know how long I have like a bucket list of everything I want to be, do have, contribute in the world, right? And I start folding the sheets up to put in my pocket, he reaches out and grabs those sheets, and he starts reading my dreams. And I'm never sharing any of this with anybody, right? And I didn't even know a lot of this, you know, even minutes ago. So I'm very insecure, and I am, and he looks up to me, and this is the lesson, right? In terms of where I, what I focused on, in terms of reading, he says, you're this close, Jim, you're this close to everything on that list, and he sprints his index fingers like a foot apart, and I'm thinking, no way, give me 10 lifetimes, I'm not going to crack that list. And he, very, and wise man, he takes his index fingers, and he puts them to the side of my head, you know, in between my head, meaning, you know, I'm the sides, meaning what's in between my brain is like the key that's going to unlock these dreams. And he takes me into a room of his home that I've never been in before. It's wall-to-wall, ceiling the floor, covered in books, like I've never been in a library in somebody's home, right? And remember, I'm a horrible reader, I've never read a book, you know, ever, and so it's like being in a room full of snakes, but it makes it worse. He starts going in the shells and pulling snakes off the shelves and handing them to me. And I'm looking at these titles of these books, and they're these biographies of some incredible men and women in history, and some very early personal growth books like that you've read, right? Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends Influence People, Thinking Grow Away, Rich, Riding Pulling Hill, like all the classics. And he says, Jim, you know, you have to read to succeed. I want you to read one book, you know, every single week. And I automatically go to my limitations. I'm like, have you not heard anything I've just said? Like, I'm really bad reader. I have all this schoolwork. When I said schoolwork, he looked right at me and he said, Jim, don't let school get in the way of your education. And this was over 30 years ago. I didn't realize it was a Mark Twain quote, right? But I was like, yeah, that's very true, but I can't commit to doing this. And he's a very smart man, and I hope this is relevant to everybody. He reaches into his pocket and he takes out my dreamless. And he starts reading line by line, all of the things, my goals, my fantasies, the things I imagine and hope for the most in life out loud. And I don't know, imagine being an 18-year-old, very insecure kid, and there's someone obviously very successful. And you hear your dreams, and he'd be horrifying. It would be, yeah. And I was just like, but a lot of things, honestly, on that list, were things I wanted to do for my parents, that they can never afford, or even if they had the money, they would never do for themselves, because they've always had sacrifice, right? And with that motivation, or that leverage, I agreed to read one book a week. So that's when I go back to school, and I couldn't get, I'm not saying my desk, pilot books from midterms, pilot books, I promised to read, I really couldn't get through, Palais. So what do I do? I don't eat, I don't sleep, I don't exercise, I don't socialize, I just live in the library all the time. And after weeks of doing that, I end up passing out at 2 a.m. in the library, fall down a flight of stairs, out of sheer exhaustion, I hit my head again, and I woke up in the hospital, two days later. And at this point, I was down, I lost all its weight, I was down to 117 pounds, I soaked up to these IVs, and I thought I'd die, and it was the darkest time in my life. And then when I, I thought there had to be a better way, and when I'd had that, I swear, the nurse came in with a mug of tea, and had a picture of Albert Einstein, on a pretty smart guy, and I had a quote that said the same level of thinking that's created a problem won't solve your problem. And it made me think, like, what's my problem? Well, I have a broken brain, I'm a very slow learner, so I was like, how do I think differently about it? Well, maybe I could fix my brain, maybe I could learn how to learn faster, right? And then so, to answer your question, just this, because it's hard to have foreground without background and context, you know, I studied those pile of books, you know, I was reading those books about Einstein, and about Leonardo da Vinci, and Nellie's amazing thinkers, and then I started studying the art of learning, like, you know, about like, what did people do before there were computers? How do they remember things in ancient times? Like, thousands of years ago, and I started studying brain science, supply towards learning, and adult learning theory, and multiple intelligence theory. I got introduced to speed reading, not just skimmy or scanning, but really understanding, and retaining what you read. And that was my focus, and then my grades just shot up, and then I couldn't help other people, and this young lady was one of those people that read 30 books in 30 days, and helped her mom, you know, not only survive, but really thrive, you know, with her per situation. Lingoda is a partner of success story. Look, I'll be real with you. My French used to be solid. I learned it in school. I even had decent pronunciation, but when I booked trip to France last year, it was a total blank. I could barely order a croissant without sounding like a tourist. So I jumped into the Lingoda Sprint Challenge, and man, it changed everything. I'd take live classes late at night after podcasting, only five students max, real teachers, real conversations. And in just two months, I went from a bonjour to holding full conversations at a Paris cafe. Confidence unlocked. Now here's the play. 30 or 60 classes in 60 days. And if you finish them all, you get 50% cash back. 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So you're going to join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian, Korra, and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. And don't miss this. For a limited time only, my listeners can get $1,000 off Vanta. That's real money back in your pocket. Visit vanta.com slash Scott right now before the software expires. That is v-a-n-t-a.com slash Scott. When you look at where people struggle with focus, concentration, memory, speed reading, is there one universal part of the brain that's responsible for all of these different memory problems or concerns? When I'm speaking to you, if I forget a word, is that the same part of my brain that doesn't allow me to retain information as much when I'm reading it for the first time or is there multiple levers that you're tapping into? So it's definitely a whole brain process. And we're learning more about the brain. I mean, we discovered more about the brain in the past 20 years than the previous 2000 years combined. And one of the things we've learned is we're grossly underestimating our own capabilities. Your brain is the most amazing wealth-building device that we have. Everybody who's listening to this, nobody's paid for their, like what's thousands of years ago, their brute strength, it's your brain strength. It's not your muscle power, it's your mind power, and the faster you learn, the faster you earn. But knowing about the brain, the 86 billion neurons, with the 10,000 each have upwards of 10,000 synaptic connections, there are more connections that are stars in the known universe. And we wonder why we forget the keys or something we just read or something we can't focus on a Zoom meeting or whatever it is. I mean, there are different parts of the brain. There's a triune brain. So the brain's broken into three different parts. It's a reptilian brain. And if you're watching some video, I'm making a fist. So if you make a fist, your wrist is the reptilian brain. And this is more of the primal brain that controls your core body temperature, your breathing, things you don't have to think about, right? Your fist is your middle brain. And this middle brain is things there for learning. You have something in your middle brain, called your hippocampus, which looks like a horseshoe. Or a seahorse. And the function is memory, right? So we know a lot of memory happens there. A connected to it is a different part of your brain. That looks like an almond. And this almond shaped part of your brain is your amygdala. And I'm sure a lot of people are hearing about them. The amygdala, it's like the switching station for emotions. But isn't interesting just a side note that your hippocampus and your amygdala memory and emotions are connected in the brimital brain. Because we tend to remember things that we have feelings about, right? And then if you put your hand over your other hand over your fist, that's your neocortex. And your neocortex, that's when they say you have a left brain right brain, that's happening in this neocortex. Neocortex means new. So this is like your new brain. And this is where a lot of higher level thinking happens. You know, it's much more complicated than left is logic and right is imagination. But it's really, and one of the myths that people have is that we use like 10% of our brain. And it's absolutely not true. We use all our brain to do all these different things, just like we, everybody uses, you know, all their bodies, right? Like if you're, if you're, if you're, you and I are going to be hiking up a hill or with a bunch of people, the break where you all using 100% of our body to do that activity. But some people, though, have a trained body and they have technique and on their fit and healthy and they could do it easier. And, you know, my, my goal here is for, you know, really people to prioritize their mental fitness. You know, even on, on, yeah, during this conversation or on stage, I'm always wearing a brain on my shirt because I feel like what you see you take care of, right? I'm pictures, I'm always pointing to my brain because, you know, the things you don't, the things you see, you see your skin, you take care of it, your hair, you take care of it, your car, your clothes, whatever, because, you know, when it's deteriorating, it's not up to par, but we don't see the thing that takes care of us, which is, which is our brain. And so, I wrote this book limitless, you know, as a way of giving people an owner's manual for their brain. Just like any technology, he has some kind of instructions on how to use it, right? But our brain doesn't come with that and it's not user-friendly. And so, again, I think our brains are a number one wealth building device because we're paid for the, you know, our ability to solve problems, our ability as an entrepreneur to create value, to be able to create opportunities and jobs, solve these puzzles, and also, there's two parts. You have to do the software and the hardware. So, I teach people the software, the processes for reading faster, giving speeches without knowing how to focus, get in flow, change their habits, and then also, but you'll take care of the hardware, which is the brain itself, the three-pound organ between our ears. And so, we do a lot with that also as well. So, I want to talk about how to take care of your brain because I think that's a great place to start. And we can talk about different brain types and how to optimize your playbook for each type of brain. But when I think about taking care of your brain, I think most people have, again, have no idea outside of the people that have read your book, how to take care of their brain, and just going through their career if they're constantly moving into more difficult roles or taking on new challenges or starting something new. You feel like you're always training your brain and working your brain, and you feel like you're getting a little bit quicker and a little bit smarter. But then, I've noticed even in my own career, if I've been doing something for too long, I don't feel as sharp. Or if I've taken an extended break from work, I feel like I'm just not as with it as I was six months ago. Or if you look at people that have been retired for years, you hear them on a podcast when they're at the peak of their career versus when you hear them on a podcast 10 years after they've retired. And it's not like they are, they're not stupid people, but the intellect, the ideas and the thoughts and the insights that they bring to the table, I feel like it's just at the same parts when they're at the peak of the career doing new innovative things every single day. And then on the extreme end of it, I mean, this is something that I'm personally interested in because I've done tests and DNA tests that have told me that I'm predisposed to Alzheimer's dementia. And that is like the epitome of degradation of the brain. And that's something that, you know, that my grandpa had it as well. So if we think about peak performance versus the worst possible outcome, which is Alzheimer's dementia, what is going on there that is maintaining our brain health or not maintaining it if we aren't actively participating in difficult tasks and thinking about difficult things every single day? Yeah, your brain is like a muscle. It's an organ, but it acts more like a muscle. And so one of the principles, obviously, is use it or lose it. And the challenges is if you put your arm in a cast for a year or two, it wouldn't grow stronger. It wouldn't say the same, right? It would atrophy. And a lot of that's happening with our brain, especially at the high reliance on technology, which we could talk about, the dependence on technology to do a lot of thinking, remembering for us. It's a term in healthcare called digital dementia where you're outsourcing your memory to devices. It keeps you to do, is your calendars. And just phone numbers, all the things that we used to have to remember. So our brain doesn't get the exercise. And I'm not, I'm very pro-technology. It allows this conversation to happen, right? But technology is a tool for us to use. But if it's using us, then we become the tool. Like an elevator is a form of technology. And if you live on the fifth floor, your offices on the fifth floor, the elevator is a tool. It's a technology. It makes it very convenient. But you don't want to cripple you because then you don't get your steps in. If the bank is eight blocks away and you take the car or a ride share or whatever, very convenient technology is a car is a technology. But then we don't get our steps in, you know. So it's always balancing that convenience with being crippled. Limitless, we donated all the proceeds to Alzheimer's research in memory of my grandmother. In the first few years, we sold over a million copies. And we've also built schools in Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya. You know, for children that don't have access to, so I believe you learn as an entrepreneur, you learn to earn to return, to be able to give this kind of my perspective on it. The book is endorsed by the highest love that the out of Harvard, the number one Alzheimer's researcher, you know, in the country, Dr. Rudy Tanzi, the book is endorsed, the limitless is endorsed by the founding director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health. And when I speak at these institutions, they approximate that about one third of our brain is predetermined by genetics and biology, but two thirds is in our direct influence. So that's the good news, right? That we can do more than we think we could do. And there's actually, you know, in our podcast, we've done over 400 episodes, and we've covered a lot about brain aging and Alzheimer's and various protocols and research that gives people not only, like, hope and real help, that you could actually turn the tide, right? And obviously, this has conversations on them and to diagnose or treat any kind of disease, talk to your health practitioner. So knowing that one third might be predetermined by genetics and two thirds in your influence, and some people say 100% in your influence, you know, people study epigenetics, right? That Alzheimer's, like, your DNA loads the gun, but it's your lifestyle that will fire it off. And that, you know, which, and hopefully, we have a lot of control over if we're mindful about it. Some of the things that will move the needle, I'll give you six things. I want to remind people, I'm going to use acronyms just as a shortcut for people to remember if they're driving or working out and they can't take notes. Remember to take your pharmaceuticals, and I don't mean real drugs, but meds are x, meds are x, all right? It's an acronym. The M is meditation. So what will shrink your brain is chronic stress? That's been shown, chronic stress, when you're in fight or flight, cortisol, adrenaline has been shown to shrink the human brain. And so, meditation is my kind of go to, to alleviate that stress. There's also huge amounts of benefit, you know, healing factors that happen when you're meditating. Also, accelerating learning. You know, if you're studying something, you take some time, even 10 minutes, to just, you know, be quiet and close your eyes. It helps you integrate, and you start reviewing this content unconsciously. So it's very beneficial. And meditation for me is not to get enlightened. That was never my goal, but it's also great exercise and focus. That like you're, you're sitting or standing or lying down, and invariably your thoughts go to something, right, clients or your business, or whatever. And then when you bring it back with your breath, or you bring it back with, let's say, a mantra, like a saying or a word, then you're exercising your focus muscles, right? And again, how you do anything, how you do everything, you train yourself to, when you're distracted, to bring back to something important, or bring back to the present. And so when you need to be present with your kids, or when you're learning something, or when you're at a conference, and your thoughts go somewhere else, you have a practice to bring it back, right? And so the brain is not meant to go 100 miles an hour all day. You have to make these little pit stops. So, you know, a few times a day, I'll take a brain break to hydrate, to move, to do the things that's good for my brain. And, you know, a few minutes of meditation goes a long way. And people say, like, oh, man, I don't have 20 minutes to meditate. If you're so busy, like you can't even spend 20 minutes to meditate, then you probably should meditate for like two hours. Yeah, right. You have bigger problems. Exactly. And then you don't meditate to get good at just sitting down quietly. You do it because it'll help you get better at life, right? Like, it's not very useful skill, just to be able to necessarily close your eyes and very practical value, but the idea is getting center, relieving stress, you know, mastering your focus. The E and meds are X is exercise. And I have this phrase, it's just insane for a few, you know, a few decades, as your body moves, your brain grows. The number one reason we have a brain is in control or movement. And the thing is, even when babies crawl and everything, it's important because it helps them to develop their brain. When you exercise, which is what the E stands for in meds are X, you create something called brain-derived, neurotropic factors, B, D, N, F. And what is it? It's fertilizer for your brain. It's fertilizer for neuroplasticity, which is the brain's amazing phenomenon to be able to make new connections as we grow older, right? And how it happens, your brain is neuroplastic, plastic in a good way, where it's malleable, right? But how it makes new connections, novelty and nutrition. Just like if you want to build your physical muscles, you go to the gym, you give it novelty, some kind of stimulus, right? You work it out, you exercise it, novelty, and then you give it nutrition, so it could grow, right? And same thing with your mental muscles. The two big dips in cognitive performance, going back to your question, is that we've seen. And again, we have a lot of data because we have students everywhere when people graduate school. Because there's some part of the population that associates school with their education. And when their education is done, they're done like learning, right? And so the user will lose it. And when people retire, because often when people retire, they stop using their minds, right? And unfortunately, their body is not far behind that. So the E is exercise. And I don't just mean going to the gym and doing Pilates or CrossFit three times a week. I mean, moving throughout the day. You know, we live in a culture where they say sitting is a new smoking. And we're buying screens all day. And so we have to move our bodies in order to be able to be able to be fit and healthy, but also for your brain. And so when you when you move your body, exercise, you create dopamine, serotonin endorphins. This is this neurochemical, neurotransmitter soup that is very important for cognitive health and your cognitive performance. So people could just kind of think about how they can move and take a little brain breaks, you know, even getting, even if there have been studies that show that when people doing something rhythmic, like they're on a liptical or going for a walk and they're listening to your podcast, or mine, they'll actually understand it better and retain it better. So movement is very key. So it's exercise. The D in meds Rx stands for diet. And this is kind of obvious, but I'll put a different spin on it. You know, what you eat matters, especially for your brain matter. And your brain is only 2% of your body mass, approximately, but it requires like 20% of nutrients. And so it's an energy hog. And, you know, doing activity all day. You know, D burns a lot of calories and having the right calories. Now, we've done a number of episodes with functional medicine doctors and neuro-nutritionists that, you know, everybody has a different kind of diet, right? Because everybody has different food sensitivities and people could take a microbiome test because your microbiome changes, nutrient profile of allergy tests. But some of the foods that are kind of my go-to and they kind of work for me. But again, talk to your practitioner. Avocados, the monounsaturated fat, and avocados, your brain is mostly fat. Blueberries like the colon brain berries. High nutrients, antioxidants, very neuroprotective, broccoli. Has something called sulfurophane, which is very good for cognitive health. Olive oil has been shown to be good for your brain. If you're not allowed to eggs, the colon in eggs is a precursor for acetylcholine, which is very important for cognitive health and performance. For those who could tolerate it, green leafy vegetables, kale and spinach, salmon, like a wild salmon, especially from a clean source, or sardines for your omega-3s, your DHAs, which is so very important. And again, if you're not getting the sulfurophane from broccoli, you could supplement it with sulfurophane, right? If you're not getting the, you know, the, you're not eating eggs, you can supplement with colon. And then, I would say, just a few more, you could also get some omega-3s from flax. Tumoric is, there's an active ingredient called curcumin, which helps the lower systemic inflammation, which is good for your brain, walnuts. It's good for your brain, high in vitamin A, neuroprotective, dark chocolate, great for the brain, in moderation. Not milk chocolate, not high sugar, you know, obviously. But, yeah, so just having a, what do we matters? And so these are choices that we make that can make a difference over time. Obviously on the other side is like, that we stay, we reduce dramatically as a process for what all the aditives and neurotoxins, the high sugars, you get those glucose spikes and really messes with your insulin resistance. The S and meds, everyone can guess is sleep. I mean, just, I mean, I forget pretty much end there, like when you get a bad night's sleep, how's your brain functioning the next day? How's your concentration? Your brain fog, you can't remember things, you can, you know, solve your way out of a paper bag. I'll give you three reasons why it's important to sleep for your brain. Number one, it's where you can solid a short to long-term memory. So if anyone listening has long-term memory issues, it's worth doing a sleep study. And you no longer have to go into a stale, sterile, like sleep clinic. They could, your doctor could prescribe a home, home sleep study at home, and you can just do it from the comfort area of your own bed. Number two, when you sleep the sewage system and your brain kicks in, and it helps to clean out that bad amyloid plaque that could lead to potentially brain aging challenges like dementia and Alzheimer's of hormone dementia. Also, when you sleep, you dream. And for entrepreneurs, you know, big part of our creativity comes from our ability to dream while we're awake, but also when we sleep. People don't realize that a lot of amazing works of our literature science invention came from dream states. Like Mary Shelley created Frankenstein and her dream. Paul McCartney wrote the song yesterday in his dreams. You know, Elias Howe created a sewing machine in his dream, a chemist created the periodic table and you know, in his dreams. So that requires you sleep. Some of my favorite sleep, how's your sleep? It's not bad. I'm about seven hours a day, but I can directly equate my cognitive performance, my ability, like you mentioned, to think through any problem to the amount of sleep that I get. And actually, because I do this podcast, I've stopped drinking as much because of drinking interrupts my sleep and then that just rooms the next day as well. So I'm not somebody that's a no alcohol person, but I've just found that for the work that I do, where I jump into the lives of these incredible people that have been domain experts for the past 30 years and I try and have some semblance of an intelligent conversation with them when I'm not the expert in their field. If I don't have sleep, I don't even want to do the podcast because I just feel it's such a cognitive lift for me. In our community, when we pull them upwards of 70%, you know, have had have or have had sleep issues, you know, which is a bit big challenge. My and drinking, by the way, people think it helps them to sleep, but really what it more likely does is knock them out, which is not the same as getting restorative REM sleep and deep sleep. And it's not just the quantity, it's the quality of those slow brain waves stage sleeps. Some of my favorite things for sleep and there's all chapter and limitless because when we study this extensively, you want to get sunlight first thing in the morning if you can, like 10 minutes. Your eyes are the only part of your brain that's outside your skull and that makes sense and being exposed even when it's hazy or foggy, you'll still get the benefit. It resets your circadian rhythms. So you're sleep better that night, but not through a window because the window will filter out a certain spectrum of light. But if you could go outside for just 10 minutes and up the resetters for your embryo, let me sleep better at night. Second tip, if you use an alarm to wake up, highly recommend you use an alarm to go to sleep. One of the best ways of getting consistent good sleep over time is sticking to a schedule, waking up at the same time and going to bed at the same time. And nobody gets as perfect, even on weekends and everything, I certainly don't. But to the degree you could stay on a schedule, your sleep better long term. And then the big ones, I would say, if you are sensitive to caffeine, which I am, I can't do caffeine past noon. It could stay in your system over 10 hours. If so, if you're highly sensitive, be conscious of that. But the two big things to think about, thousands of years ago, we would know it'd be time to go to sleep because the environment would tell us there would be a decrease in two environmental factors, temperature and light. It would get cooler and it would get darker. But with modern conveniences, it doesn't have to get dark. It doesn't have to get cold, right, with a thermostat and, you know, overhead lighting and whatever. So what I would suggest is two things. You sleep better when it's colder and darker. Now we're at so cold you're shivering, right, because I'll keep you up. But cooler bedroom, if you can take a hot shower, hot bath, especially with epsom salt, the magnesium in the epsom salt will help you relax, because you absorb it transparently. But when you leave that hot shower, bath, sauna even, your core body temperature will drop and that's a signal to create melatonin, which is the hormone to help you relax, right. And then the second thing when it comes to light as dark as possible, some people use blackout curtains. They've been studies showing that even a little bit of light can affect the quality of your sleep. But the big culprit in the bill in there is your devices, right. I have a video with Simon Sinek. It's like from 10 years ago on Facebook, I just saw it as a memory. It has 38 million views and just says, all I'm saying is don't touch your phone the first 30 minutes a day and last 30 minutes a day. Because if you're on your devices at night, you've all heard this. You know, then the blue light from your device on the screen fools your mind and I think it's still daylight. So you don't create melatonin. So as best we could do to manage that, you know, the better. Besides the fact that when you're scrolling, doom scrolling, the content could also stimulate you and keep you awake also with all the news and everything that's going on in the world. So that's sleep. And then finally the simple ones, RX, meds RX, are relationships. We had on our podcast the director of the largest happiness longevity study at Harvard over 80 years. They've been doing this study following this group of people and they see the key. Why they say diet is important, exercise is important. What trumps that is the relationships, you know, who you spend time with is who you become. And I'll give you the science. I'll give you one aspect of the science behind it. We have something in our nervous system called mirror neurons, mirror like your reflection on a mirror. And we tend to imitate people we spend the most time with. So when you hear this phrase, you're the average of the five people you spend time with, who you spend time with is who you become, it's because we start imitating what I use another acronym. We don't take a lot of notes here. Watch W-A-T-C-H. We tend to use the W words. We start speaking the same way as the people around us. Using the same language, right? The A in watch stands for actions. We tend to behave the same as the people we spend the most time with. If they're eating a certain way, we're probably going to eat the same way. If they're exercising, we're probably exercising, right? That's the A, the T in watch thoughts. We start to model the, we start thinking the same way as the people around us. You know about politics, about health, about relationships, whatever. The C is character. We tend to have like almost the same moral compass as the people. We spend the time with the same level of integrity. And then finally, the H are habits. We tend to model the habits of the people around us. Like it has less to do with your neurological networks, whether you smoke and more your social networks. If you're friends, friends smoke, you're more likely to smoke, right? And with habits, remember the rule there. First, you create your habits. And then your habits create you. You create your habits of sleeping, you know, like, of reading every day, of working out, and exercising, eating the best foods. And then that's habits create you back. And so, yeah, for relationships, and it doesn't mean you have to be in a dedicated relationship. It's the depth of the relationships that you have. We'll make you happier and help you live longer. And then finally, the X in meds are X are the extras. And I put that last, because really everything before that, it's really the most important things. But the X are like the things, you know, the cold showers in the morning, or the cold plunges, you know, is the Neutropics, you know, that have been proven. In the book, we have a whole chapter on Neutropics. And like, this is not for cognitive health. You could take for cognitive health, the omega-3s and your creatine, and everything else for good cognitive health. For cognitive performance, there are set of substances with human studies that have been shown to enhance focus, memory, mood, and mental energy. We have all the 30, my favorites with the studies, you can see it at brainnutrition.com free. Just like, if you're not going to get the book, it's just, we just, people are asking so much about it, so we put it there, because we call this. Well, your book is called Limitless, right? And everybody watch that movie, and then they want to find their own limitless pill. And I know there's a lot out there, and some you can buy at a CVS. Some are, there's a wild west of Neutropics as well, and I think people just want to understand what's going to help them, what's not going to hurt them. And it gets confusing, because this is not what mainstream medicine, you can't go to your GP and ask which Neutropics they recommend. I mean, you can't go to your GP and ask them for most things related to your health. But in terms of diet, memory, focus, anything. But I think that's it really. And those extras give an entrepreneur. Yeah, an entrepreneur and an advantage. You know, if you want to be able to catch up, keep up, get ahead. It's healthier versions, we're just taking out our all. Right, maybe go that way. A big thank you to indeed for supporting success story, because hiring people is one of the hardest things you're ever going to have to do as an entrepreneur as a founder, as somebody who's trying to build a business. It's important to hire well and find the right person, but it takes so much time and it's so labor intensive, because like most entrepreneurs, you have a thousand things going on, and there's a good chance that you just realized your business needed to hire somebody yesterday. So how can you find that great, amazing, right, fit candidate fast? It's easy. Just use indeed, because you don't have to waste time struggling to get your job post seen on all these other job sites. If you're using indeed, you can just use their sponsored jobs to help you stand out and hire fast. Your post jumps right to the top of the page for relevant candidates, so you can reach out to exactly who you're looking for faster, and the results really speak for themselves. According to indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non-sponsored jobs. And you know what I love most about indeed? It really just makes hiring so fast, because everything is streamlined in one place. No more juggling multiple platforms or waiting weeks for the right candidate, and how fast is indeed, and the minute I've been talking to you, 23 hires were made on indeed, according to indeed data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with indeed, and listeners of success story will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash clary. In terms of conditions, do apply, just go to indeed.com slash clary. A huge thank you to Netsuite for supporting today's episode. Now, what does the future hold for business? If you ask nine experts, you're going to get 10 answers, bull market, bear market, inflation up, inflation down. 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This is the playbook for understanding how to use AI for your business. The guide is free. That is netsuite.com slash scott clary. I just want to take a quick second to thank HabSpot for supporting today's episode. Now, success story is one of the many podcasts in the HabSpot podcast network, which is the audio destination for business professionals. If you like success story, you're also going to like billion-dollar moves another incredible podcast hosted by Sarah Chen Spelling. Sarah is an incredible interviewer. She asks the hard questions on her show. You're going to learn about the triumphs, failures of all her guests, the hard lessons of the best and brightest in business so that you too can make billion-dollar moves in venture, in investing, in business, and in life. I want you to go listen to billion-dollar moves wherever you get your podcasts. It is one of my favorite. Sarah is one of my favorite hosts. If you like success story, you're going to love this show. And a quick pause. If you haven't had a chance yet, I'd love your input on our listener survey at scott declary.com slash survey. It takes just a few minutes and one lucky respondent when a gift card once we hit 100 responses. Your feedback directly impacts what we cover on the show. I really appreciate it. Now that's amazing. I appreciate the breakdown. I do want to the other acronym. And by the way, acronyms are very useful. So don't ever apologize for dropping endless acronyms who does help people remember. But the acronym that I think will be useful is code. So I want to understand that acronym and what it means. This is, yeah, yeah, this is a big one. Okay, so we recently updated limitless and because limitless, the first version came out in more April 2020 right at the start of the pandemic. And it was an interesting time for me to launch a book, right? At 34 speaking engagements, every single one of them was canceled. And I had in-person podcasts to do every single one canceled, national media canceled, a book tour canceled. So it was just like, what happened? Fun time. Yeah, so let's talk about it. But we were very fortunate. The book swept the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and all the best therapists. And I was happy about it because it was also a big philanthropy effort for us in terms of the, you know, in Wintonia and the proceeds. That being said, we recently updated the book and people ask why. And I tell them for two reasons. Number one, the world has changed. Being a post-pandemic, people working, you get in their brain online from working from home or remote or some kind of hybrid. AI, you know, is really, you know, has become more more used in everything. So how do you, there's a whole chapter on how do you say I didn't answer H.I. You're human intelligence. And I show you how to take the principles and limitless and apply it into AI programs to get faster, smarter. AI for me is not artificial intelligence more practically. It's augmented intelligence. It's like a partner, you know, creative partner that you could take all the principles here and, you know, have it give you reviews and tests and everything else like that. But the thing that caught on the most was this assessment that we've used for years with our private coaching clients. And for the first time, we made it available to the public and for free. So people could take this assessment at mybrainanimal.com. It only takes four minutes and it's multiple choice. Just pick the answer that resonates with you. And here's how this is the power in it. After 33 years of teaching this and by the way, going back to age, I'm in my 50s. The good thing about what I teach is everything is measurable. You can measure focus. You can measure reading speed. You can measure reading comprehension. I could test myself, names, you know, faces, the speed, counting cards, all that stuff, right? And so I'm faster and better in every single category across the board. So it's just, we can get older, you know, because I'm also a fearful of, you know, brain aging challenges. Having, you know, my grandmother going through what she went through. But there's so many things you do to stay off just like people could do amazing things, you know, as they age with their bodies, you know, as long as they do the right things at the right time. But that being said, I think the thing that really is a game changer and that's worth the price of the book alone, but you know, you get it for free, you can just take the assessment. You know how there's personalized medicines got based on an assessment, like someone takes a genetic test, like you're mentioning, or a DNA test, and then it gives them protocols, you know, to be able to help you based on your genetics assessment. Just there's personalized nutrition based on a microbiome test or a stool sample or a mar, you know, can kind of, you could personalize in the nutrition or in the foods for you. We created a personalized learning or personalized performance assessment. So it identifies your brain type, and we've identified four major brain types. And it took me years to put this together. I pulled from personality tests, like Myers-Briggs, Introvert, Extrovert, Left Brain, Right Brain, Learning Styles, Multiple Intelligence Theory, like, and we create this assessment and what it does, and this is the reward everyone gets for this, it informs your behavior, because all assessments and data should, you know, help you make better decisions, right? And there's a quote in Limitless, that's probably the most highlighted quote. It's not for me. It's from a French philosopher that says, Life is a letter C between the letters B and D. And I have this on the wall. Life is C between B and D, or B stands for Birth, D stands for Death, Life's C, Choice. That our lives are in some total of all the choices we've made up to this point, right? What we're going to study, what we're going to live, what we're going to spend time with, what we're going to eat, what we're going to do for a career, all that stuff, right? What do you feed our minds? And I believe these difficult times, they could distract you, these difficult times, they could diminish you, or these difficult times, they could develop you. We always decide. Because if you're listening to this still, I bet you're a thermostat, and you're not a thermometer. Like, the one of the ways we learn faster is using analogies or metaphors. We compare something that we don't understand yet to something we understand, right? And so, at thermometer, you think about the function of a thermometer. It only reacts the environment. That's 100% its job. It just reacts to whatever the environment's given, you know, the temperature, right? But thermostat doesn't do that, right? The thermostat gauges and knows what's going on. So, you as an entrepreneur can know what's going on in your market in the world and everything, but it does something different, right? It sets the temperature and what happens in the environment, the environment reacts to it, right, to you. And as entrepreneurs, I mean, that's really the name of the game, taking the invisible and making invisible, right? And it's not that so much you'll believe it when you see it. It's been my observations, the opposite. You'll start seeing it when you start believing it. But we set that internal temperature in our minds, goals, dreams, visions, KPIs, whatever it is, right? And then we make it like we see it. And some people have this vision in their mind, like you may have with your business, or, you know, with SaaS or with your podcast, or whatever, people might not see it yet. But that would be a strength of a dolphin. So, here's here the four brain types. Code is the brain code. So, the C stands for Cheetahs. And I'll give you, and this is going to help not only help you read faster, improve your memory, but you can use this to hire, to train, to get angel investors, to do sales, to parents, also. So, a cheetah's dominant trait, and you'll get this all in a report, because I'm going to give you personalized, as free, for listening to the podcast, how to speed read, improve your memory based on your brain type. Because I realize this is the biggest, less heck learned, Scott, over the past few decades. It's not how smart you are. It's how are you smart? It's not how smart you are. It's how are you smart? So, how smart your partner is, your significant other, your kids. It's how are they smart? And we all are genius, but it just comes in different forms. So, if you're a cheetah, your dominant trait is action. Because what a cheetahs do. They go fast, right? They implement. These are your implementers. These are people that thrive in fast pace environments. They have strong intuition, and they adjust accordingly. Right? The O in code are your owls. And your owls, as you think about an owl, very logical. So, their dominant trait is logic. So, they make decisions different than a cheetah. They buy different than a cheetah. Right? They even read differently than a cheetah would read. Where a cheetah would go skimming and scanning, because speed, you know, an owl is going through the detail on looking up those references. Right? Not sure how that applies. But an owl is very logical. They love facts. They love figures. They love data. The D in code are your dolphins. And your dolphins, a lot of entrepreneurs fall in the area of dolphins. Dolphins, their dominant trait is their visionaries. They have strong creative imagination. They're great pattern recognizers. Right? Sometimes they could see something like Disney who would be a dolphin. You know, they would, Disney would actually take perspective, employees out to this orange grove and say, this is where the magic kingdom is going to be. This is where Tomorrowland's going to be. This is where Adventureland. And if those who couldn't see it, he wouldn't hire them, because he was looking for dreamers. Right? But that's what a dolphin is. And then in E, finally, there are your elephants. And your elephant's dominant trait is empathy. These are your people, people. Like, you know, these are people that have strong interpersonal skills. They have strong levels of empathy. So, they're very compassionate. These are individuals that want people to feel seen. They want them to feel heard. Right? And so, how do you use this as an entrepreneur, or just as a human, that just wants to be better in all these things? I'll give you a couple of ways. First of all, we had our entire team take this assessment. And when we put it online, and we found some interesting things. And we didn't intentionally hire for them this way. But our customer service team is 100% them. What animal would you guess they are out of all elephants? Yeah, they're 100%. Yeah. They're all elephants. And we didn't hire for them that way. But people will go to their strengths. Right? They want to be in their elements. And so, where they're, where they're most powerful and purposeful. So, 100% of their elements are elephants because they are community builders. Right? They want people to feel seen and understood and heard and supported. Right? So, those are elephant. My business partner of 20 years almost. She's our CEO. She's, she's, she's a dolphin. She has this vision of a billion brains that were impacting. Right? And so, she holds that constant. Our CFO is the owl. Every day, we have to report all the numbers, you know, and he just needs that data. So, it's interesting like, you could hire for different roles. And then, you know, it's interesting also to parent, you know, when your kids are certain animals, you could, you treat them differently. And you would sell differently. So, like, if somebody is an owl, that's where you're given in the case studies. That's where you show them the research, right? You know, the data to back it up. But if somebody isn't, is a dolphin, like, and you're selling to that dolphin, you show them how their vision of their life, how your product or service fits into their future vision, or, you know, of their life, and what's most important to them. If you're, if you're selling to an elephant, nias, case studies, and social proof is good, you know, and having the visions all good, but what's most important is that relationship itself, you know, they want to feel that they could trust you. They want to, you know, feel that you understand them, they feel seen above anything else. And those elephants would do business with people who might not be, you know, have the best product or service, but they, they're trustworthy, right? And so, and you see this in pop culture too. Like, if you watch friends, right? Like, if you take Joey, Joey is your cheetah. Doesn't think ever just does, right? No filter just does an axe, right? Ross was a scientist professor. He's your owl, right? Everything is about the, about a very factual. You have Phoebe, the artist musician, who's your creative dolphin, and you have Monica who had to host everything, be the, you know, bring, house to all the parties, had to be at her apartment, she's the community builder or the, or the elephant. But you could do this for Star Trek next generation. You know, John Luke Picard is, you know, is that owl? Will Rikers, that cheetah? Data is that owl? Councilor Deanna Troy is that elephant, you know, it's just, it's just everywhere. And so, if people go to my brain animal, they could take form an assessment. And then we give you strategies, because again, people, a crew, like a dolphin when they're reading, they're in a visualize more of what they read. Well, that shows going to be my question. So, this is, you're framing it through the lens of, if I'm interacting with people in my work or my life, but what does this actually mean? If I learn, I'm this animal, and how do I learn, and how does this impact how I, you know, how I take on a new task, or how I go through life, or how I want to memorize more information, or whatever it is. And that's, and that's when you understand how your brain works, you could work your brain. When you understand how your brain works, you could work your brain. And so, if you know you're a cheetah, and you're fast, you're, you know, instinctual, and you're action-based, you're learning styles, and you would be cheetahs are best, they learn by doing, right? By rolling up their sleeves, they favor hands-on experience, they're quick decision-makers. They may dislike over-analysing and prefer to act and adjust as they go, you know? And then a cheetah would know their best environment, because that would require environments of rapid problem solving, fast execution. What are their challenges? They struggle with long-term projects that require patients, deep and deeper analysis, you know? So even productivity, if you're a cheetah, you can look up in, you know, because one of my favorite movies in Matrix, like many people, and I got to meet the counter reuse recently, and when he was playing outside of Toronto, he has a band, and he's very, very creative. He has great books and comic books. A lot of people don't see that, no, see that part of him. But I got to see him backstage afterwards, and in Matrix, when Neo is going to see the Oracle, the all-knowing Oracle and Inter Kitchen, there's a sign above the door that most people miss, but it says, know thyself, you know? And I think as an entrepreneur of my whole life, and to everyone who is an aspiring or established entrepreneur, I feel like success comes from having the curiosity and know yourself, right? That's what you take assessments, that's what you journal, you go to therapy, you do plant medicine, you do whatever, just to get to know yourself, what you believe in, what you stand for, your values. And then, the other part, and once you have the curiosity and know yourself is having the courage to be yourself. That's how many people know who they are, but they're not acting like that, because they're afraid of other people's opinions or expectations. I spend in an inordinate amount of time and senior centers nursing homes because I lost all four grandparents when I was very young. And I go there to help them polish off their memories, right, that's my job. But I also go there for the wisdom that I get in return, because I feel like, again, and these individuals have been on roast for so long, longer than me, I can learn something. But I also hear, it's got a lot of regret. And they always come in recently, I did this, and this woman, she was talking about her regrets, like she didn't pursue this relationship, that she felt like it was her soulmate, but because, well, the people that thought would think about that relationship, I saw this other guy that picked a career path, it was only because his parents expected it up him, right, you know, it's different. And so I just want to remind everyone, it's not very positive, but a thought experiment. Imagine you're taking your final breaths. It's the end of your, you know, this life. And at that moment, I just want people to presence this, none of other people's opinions are going to matter. None of other people's expectations are going to matter at that moment. What's going to really matter in that moment? Things like how you laughed, how you learned, how you loved, how you lived, right. And so I feel like it's not just about time management, who knows how much time we have, we all have 24 hours in a day, but it is about mind management and priority management. And I think the most important thing is to keep the most important thing, the most important thing. All right, the most important things, keep the most important things, the most important things, because you don't want to spend your time, a lot of people, they feel burnt out, right. Let's just get really rare. Or like a lot of people are starting their, their raw, a lot of people are starting their businesses, you know, after their job, right. They work nine to five, and they do, and they do their side hustles. And the truth is, it's not always a glorious, you know, thing, right? Usually is it, yeah. More often than with private planes and then, you know, all these things. And again, whatever floats people's boats, but I do believe people's early mornings and late nights will pay off for them, but first you have to feed your business until that business feeds you, right. And first you feed your business until it feeds you. Same thing with all this learning that we do, all the books that we buy, we have to feed our minds until our mind's feed us back, right. And I have a respect for entrepreneurs as they are the ones that are solving the real problems, they're the ones creating jobs, they're the ones that move in the economy. And, you know, going back to one of the challenges entrepreneurs come to us is burnout, right. People feel mentally, emotionally, physically burned out. And I just, I don't know who I'm talking to right now, you know, and use like notes or anything, but sometimes we're burnt out, because we're not burnt out because we're doing too much, because people identify burnout with doing too much and grants it sometimes that it's the case, but sometimes we're burnt out, not because we're doing too much, sometimes we're burned out because we're doing too little of the things that matter, you know, too little, the things that light us up, too little, the things that bring us joy, too little, the things that also care for us also, because self care is not selfish. So I feel like understanding who we are is very important and not limiting ourselves, that we could redraw the borders and boundaries of what's possible, especially, because if we give so much energy and priority to other people's expectations of us, if you fuel your life on other people's opinions and expectations, then we're gonna run out of gas. Even if they're positive or negative, right? If you're relying on something outside of yourself, because I do believe in entrepreneur, the reason why we take this path is we have agency, right? We realize that it, nobody's gonna come and save us, that if our dreams would never mean anything to us, then we have to work for it, you know, and there's a version of yourself and your business that's patiently waiting. And the goal is we show up every single day until we're introduced. And here's the thing that I like, I'm in coaching motor right now, I can't help it. Like it's hard, like change is hard, right? Like growth is scary, but nothing is hard as scary as being stuck somewhere you don't belong. And so again, wherever you are in your life, I know we're going through this process and at different stages, it's not always a straight line, but you know, change is scary. Growth can be hard, but nothing is as hard and scary as being stuck somewhere you don't belong because it's tough to do those hard things. But life is hard for one of two reasons, only one of two reasons. Life is hard because you're leaving your comfort zone, you're studying something new, you're meeting those people, you're getting airy comfort zone, you're starting a business, all this stuff, like life is hard because you're leaving your comfort zone. Or life is very hard if you're staying in your comfort zone. All right, that kind of plays, because the comfort zone is nice place to visit every once in a while, but nothing grows there, you know, at all. So going back to knowing yourself, the sign above the door in the matrix, I just feel like this assessment will give you an idea of how you work and then you could work better. Like again, when I'm back to that cheetah, they could take larger tasks and they could break it down into small sprints to maintain momentum, right? An owl is very analytical, logical, detail oriented. So they love solving problems and doing that research. So their learning style is often, they would excel in developing an environment where they can gather information, analyze, plan, their best for even like the roles that they would choose for a job or a new business. You know, everyone wants to get the right people on the bus, get the wrong people off the bus and make sure the right people are sitting in the right seats, right? So, you know, they would excel or project, it would require extensive research analysis, critical thinking, but where do they get stuck? Analysis paralysis, you know, overthinking, like thinking is good, but overthinking when everything would be perfect is never, you know, that would stop any kind of progress there is. So you could do this for dolphins, you know, they excel in open, flexible environments where they could explore new ideas, they can indeed really enjoy brainstorming and creative problem solving. So they'd be created certain roles that you can imagine. But their challenge, they might struggle with highly structured or rigid environments that limit their creativity, right? And so they would have to be able to develop things, the exercises to keep ideas flowing, prevent stagnation. And to do this for all of this, but, you know, we'll send reports on how to speed read and improve your memory focused on your brain animal type, you know, just when people do them, mybrainanimal.com and it's just, again, it's liberating for yourself because it takes the judgment we have over ourselves. But then also when you have your friends, your family, your team do it, then you know how to relate to them better, right? And then their behavior becomes like, oh, that's why, you know, because you understand how their brain, which is their control center, is making their choices. You know what I love about all of your work? I love a lot of different things about your work, but I think that the thing that stands out the most is you're talking to an entrepreneurial audience that does believe in that, thermostat analogy and does believe in self-agency. But that's difficult work. It's very difficult work to have self-agency. And I mean, like the more, I guess, technical term for that, because I've spoken about it a bit on this show would be internal locus of control. And believing that, you know, you have extreme ownership and agency over everything that happens in your life. But that's difficult because it's every single day there's a new problem to figure out and you know that you have to take ownership of that problem. But what all your work does is it just removes a little bit of the friction. It allows you to learn a little bit quicker. It allows you to focus your energy a little bit more appropriately if you know your brain type or if you know the people that you're dealing with their brain type. So I think that, again, the whole point of this podcast is to make it so that all the problems that you're solving in your life right now have already been solved to some capacity. And the information and insight and wisdom out of all the people that I bring on is really just to give you the tools to allow you to solve those problems quicker and more efficiently easier. And like at the end of the day, you have like a playbook for doing that regardless of what problem you're trying to solve. That's what I really appreciate. So thank you. No, I appreciate that very, very much. And I appreciate also not only what you do, but the manner you do it. You know, I was looking at some of your episodes and looking at the comments. You have a lot of love here. Apparently what you do, but the manner you do it. Going on agency. So I got to introduce this isn't what nails it down for me for agency. I got to introduce two of my favorite entrepreneurs together years ago, because they both happened to mention they wanted to meet each other. So I arranged a dinner and it was Richard Branson and Stanley, not Stanley, but Stanley, you know, the comic book legend. And I have an affinity for superheroes because I mentioned I couldn't read. So how did I learn how to read? I learned by reading comic books. I had like two comic books as a kid. And I would be underneath the covers when you know, everyone thought I was sleeping. And there's something about the art brought the words to life, right? And that's how I learned. But also something about the stories really made me feel like a superhero's not someone with just super powers because you could have a strength, a trait, you know, a skill base, but if you're not using that power for good, you're not a superhero. So they offer hope and help. So I really resonated with me as a kid. So I got to introduce the two of them. We're going to dinner and I, and I'm in the car and I asked Stan, I was so nervous, because I had this idea. I wanted to have so curious like, and I asked Stan, I got the guts to ask him, I was like, who's your favorite superhero? He created, you know, all of them. And he looked at me and he's like, Jim, my favorite superhero is Iron Man. And he said, Jim, who's your favorite superhero? And I post this on Instagram, he had a picture. He had a Spider-Man tie going to dinner. And I saw his at Spider-Man, because I was just really frozen, just that I was just, you know, having this conversation with him. And I said, when I said Spider-Man, it's God. In his iconic, Stanley voice, his cameo, I feel like he goes with great power, comes great, you know, responsibility. Everybody knows that. They don't even remember when they learned it, but it's in like in our DNA. And truth be told, I have had three head injuries before age 12, because again, my parents were, you know, working and I was very well supervised. But sometimes when I read and I hear something, I flip it, like some other people do also, like a form into a selexia. And I heard something different. I was like, you stand, you're right. Great power comes great responsibility. And the opposite is also true. With great responsibility comes great power. When we take responsibility for something, we have great power to make things better. And it's just, I say this, and I drop these names more so that when, you know, you're on a virgin flight or you're just looking at comic book and it reminds you of the lesson, right? These are anchors, memory triggers, right? That we kind of place out there, but it's just a reminder that, you know, when we're going on this, that we have more power than we realize that we have to influence. And I feel like we have a responsibility to use it, you know, wisely, in the area of service. I love it. Jim, where should people, I mean, you've dropped a couple of resources for the listeners. Are there any other, I mean, your social website, anything else that people want to go learn more, they can go to? Yeah, everywhere at JimQuick. Kid, use of the spelled right. That's my last name, his mother's name, my grandfather, I didn't change it to do what I do. The name, like, quick, you know, my life was pretty much planned out. But I would challenge everyone to do one thing. Like, if you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed, remember this, small, simple steps, literally the big changes, you know, the journey to success isn't about leaping to the top right away. It's about creating momentum with small, intentional actions. And little by little, a little becomes a lot. And so, yeah, if you're going to connect on social media, I would post, um, post your brain animal. Or post one thing you're going to do from whether it's the meditation, the exercise, the diet, the sleep, the relationships, the notropics, whatever. We did a lot of acronyms here. But post one thing you're going to do for better brain or post your brain animal, because I'm curious of what your community is, dominantly. I am too. Yeah. So if you listen to this and if you watch the episode, like, maybe tag on Instagram or something with your brain animal, that would be very good. Yeah, and you'll get this AI art also and a bunch of follow-up, you know, like PDFs with exact instructions on what you could do. The how is always easy. It's getting our mindset, our motivation, you know, set in, because so many people, I really feel like out of fear, people downgrade their dreams to meet the current situation. When we could, on the other side, upgrade our mindset, our motivation, our methods to meet our destiny. So I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me on the... No, my pleasure, my pleasure. I end with this. It's just one last thought, and I ask everybody the same question. If you could tell your 20-year-old self one thing after your life, your career, all the different seasons you've gone through, one last word of wisdom, what would it be? I would tell my younger self that life is like an egg, that if an egg is broken by an outside force, that life ends, but if an egg is broken by an inside force, life begins and great things begin on the inside. So stop seeking all the validation or other people's opinions and expectations. And I would say, know yourself, trust yourself, love yourself, and most importantly, be yourself.