 Welcome to the Peak Performance Humans podcast and the Alcohol Free Lifestyle podcast. I am James Swanik and I am Naeem Mahmood. Welcome. If you're on the Peak Performance Humans podcast, you're probably wondering, why does Naeem sound like an Australian? That's a big word. I am a guest on your podcast today. Thank you so much, Naeem. And Naeem is a guest on my podcast, the Alcohol Free Lifestyle. We're doing the same podcast episode, which is going to air on our respective podcast shows, which is kind of amazing, right? Yeah. James has invaded my podcast and I like it. I always wanted an Australian voice. I always thought Australians had cool voices, so I'm happy that you did that. It's like a podcast takeover. They call it Instagram takeovers. This is going to be fun. We're going to talk about Peak Performance. We're going to talk about Mindset. And just for my listeners, Naeem is a new friend of mine. We got to hang out in the Surfside Village of Rincon on the west coast of Puerto Rico a couple of weeks ago. We were introduced by a mutual friend and Naeem couldn't have been nicer and we had a wonderful dinner and conversation about life and mindset and peak performance. And Naeem was a top national speaker and trainer at the Tony Robbins organization. So you can imagine how good at public speaking and performance and mindset you have to be to be able to work with Tony Robbins. And of course, when we were chatting over dinner, I picked up on that right away. You were so well presented. That's not the right way of saying it, but you were so confident and so well spoken and articulate. Oh, yeah, this is someone who's really, really good energy. Oh, thanks, man. I appreciate that. Yeah. Well, and I'm invading the Alcohol Free Lifestyle podcast. And I'm going to give my intro about James to my listeners too real quick. Yeah. So Jay, and likewise, I was really super stoked to meet. Let me tell my side of the story actually. Yeah. So our friend, Josephina, she's like, hey, my friend James is in Puerto Rico. And I'm like, oh, cool. He must be a cool guy. All of Josephina's friends are cool. So, and then we met at the, what was the name of the restaurant? La Cambija. It's a really nice restaurant here. And James is awesome, man. Like I really appreciated your energy and your authenticity and the way you showed up. And you're also a mindset master too, right? So I'm glad that we got to connect on similar experiences and kind of genres of what we do. Yeah. For those of the people that don't know who James is, I'll give you a quick little biography. So he, he coached thousands of people to improve their lives and performance by adopting an alcohol free lifestyle. So, and he's also the author of the 30 day no alcohol challenge, which is really a simple guide to easily reduce or quit alcohol. And he's also the creator of project 90, which is an online program providing support and coaching for individuals that are limiting alcohol from their lives. And his podcast is great too. I was listening to some episodes before and the thing I liked about your podcast lot James is it's, it's a lot of the things people don't really get to hear, right? It's a little bit against the status quo, but from what I've studied and learned from working with Tony Robbins and all the work I've been doing and obviously you too. It's, it's unfortunately not this information is as prevalent as I wish it was, right? Because when I first started learning it, it helped me change so much, so many things in my life. So I'm so happy you're putting out to the world and help people with alcohol, which is such a big challenge for a lot of people. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. You don't drink much, right? You drink occasionally, but you're not really a big drinker at all, correct? Yeah, not much. Like maybe two or three drinks a month, honestly, right? And that's really just if I'm out with friends or, yeah, it's really just how friends honestly, maybe a glass of wine or that's it really. And how did that come to be? Like, was that a conscious choice? So you just never really got into it? Or did you drink too much one day? And you were like, why this back in? I did have experiences where I drank too much. And this is the crazy thing, which is why I love what you're doing, man. Because I only used to drink a lot because I felt like I should drink a lot. How crazy is that, right? Like I was in high school and college and like, I have to fit in and like get drunk. Like how dumb is that, right? And I got, I know it wasn't just me, right? I know I had other friends that like, like, why are we doing this? Why do I hangover? Like that's the stupidest thing. So part of it was just silly peer pressure trying to fit in because you think that's everybody's doing. But not everybody is doing that for people listening. Like there's a lot of really, and not that people that drink aren't cool, but there's a lot of really awesome people that don't drink that are just like you. If you're somebody that doesn't want to drink or do other substances, right? So, so part of it was, I did have a bad experience or two. Part of it was the rails raised. Like my family, my parents always never really, they said, don't drink, which was helpful. And then part of it was I never really, even when I did drink, like, again, I'm not going to lie. Sometimes I enjoy a glass of wine if I do it the right way, right? I think a lot of this stuff is doing it the right way, just like eating, right? Like not overeating or just at the right times. But I also don't really feel the need to drink too much just because I'm not really too keen on it. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the work I do is not necessarily helping people quit alcohol forever. Although a lot of people who I've worked with have chosen to quit alcohol forever and that they're living alcohol free life. A lot of the work I do is really helping people get power over alcohol. So they are free to choose if or when they have a drink. Alcohol no longer has power over them. And I would imagine you being a peak performance and mindset coach and especially working in the Tony Robbins organization that you would have seen and you would know that if you are, you know, relieving yourself of stress by drinking or by shopping or by scrolling on the internet or by porn or by love addiction or whatever. That's really going to compromise your quality of life. Did you see that when you were working in that organization? Did you see how people were compromising areas of their life through some kind of addiction or some kind of stress relief that wasn't serving them? Oh, from our clients for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Not within the organization, right? Make me quiet, sorry, yeah. Right, yeah. But that was just, I just thought that might be a funny joke if I threw in there like some alcoholics, coaches for Tony, right? But yeah, for sure, man, that was a big one, right? A lot of people have troubles with alcohol and other things, but alcohol is a big one. And I like how you said it though. It's a habit, it's a pattern, but it's also a habit and a pattern that we can have power over as well, you know? Yeah, when you were coaching clients in that organization, what were some of the more common mental blocks that you saw from folks? From alcohol specifically or just now? Just in general, just, you know, we're studying human beings in general. I'm imagining that you came across lots of different personalities and heard lots of different stories. Was there a pattern of behavior or misbehavior and, you know, what came up? Well, the crazy thing with Tony, right, because he reaches so many people. So there wasn't, like there was, there's so many stories, right? Like from the most tragic hearing ones, like suicide and rape and sexual abuse and things like that. And like death, of course, like murder and crazy stuff, and then up to like a little less extreme. But I'd say, so like lots of varying like surface level stories, but kind of the, I'd say the pattern of like a core kind of theme was really, it comes down. And again, this is going to sound basic. And this is a big thing Tony talks about. It's called a law of familiarity just because we know it like intellectually, a lot of times you like dismiss it and like, oh, I know that. And then we just don't, it still has power over us. Right. So I just want to preface it before I say it because I don't want people to be like, oh, that's so basic. But it's really comes down to our belief systems. Right. And we're always telling ourselves stories and a lot of the people that have are stuck and we all get stuck. That's the other thing that I love hearing you talk about. It's like, we all get stuck and it's not, it doesn't have power over us unless we'd let it have power over us. We just want to rewrite the story. So a big thing I would do when I worked for Tony is I go to organizations, whether it was business wise or in a personal context. And I'd really kind of help them uncover their story because they'd have excuse like excuses. And we call them their BS and not the BS you might be thinking about. We call them their belief systems. Right. Like, oh, I don't have the money or I can't do it. Or if it's an alcohol story, it's like whatever it is, maybe their parents are abusive. Maybe they lost their business. Maybe they grew up with an alcoholic mom or dad. And that's true and that sucks. And my heart goes out to the people for that, but we all have stories. And if we let that story kind of take our life over, then we'll buy into that story. So we got to sell ourselves on a new story. So I'd say that was kind of the core thing that I was helping people with is really uncovering. Hey, okay, you don't have the money, you know, the time you're an alcoholic, whatever it might be. That's the story. And again, it might be, I'm not saying it's true or not, but the thing that is the thing is the meaning behind the story. So like somebody might have been raped. Somebody might have had an alcoholic mom or dad, but the meaning you gave it is what makes the difference. So maybe two brothers, two sisters grow up in the same experience with an alcoholic parent. One says, I should be drunk like my mom or dad so I can get love. The other one says, fuck that. I'm going to become an amazing example of a human being live healthy and vital and show other people what's possible. Yeah. It's fascinating. And it's funny as well. Stories can actually change our genetics. There's a book called inheritance by Dr. Let me just Google it while I'm talking. I want to make sure I get the author's name. Correct. But he actually, he actually, they looked at twins. Here we go. Sharon Mollum. Inheritance, how our genes change our lives and our lives change our genes. It's a book by Sharon Mollum. I read it about seven years ago. And they looked at a set of twins, identical twins. And one of them was bullied at school and the other one was not bullied at school. And they looked at the genetics and they looked at, they followed the twins lives over time. And the one who was bullied became obese and very unhealthy. And they determined that the stress from being bullied raised his cortisol levels. And of course too much cortisol, cortisol is the stressful mode. It puts a lot of stress on our body. And he didn't have a particularly healthy physical or mental life. The other twin was absolutely fine. Just kind of like normal, wasn't overweight, wasn't like a high achiever either. He just kind of lived his life. So it's fascinating how something like bullying in this instance, this person who was bullied when he was a child, probably created a story that I'm not good enough or my other twin is better. I mean, I'm just assuming here and that led. And in his meaning was completely different to his brother's meaning. And that has fundamentally changed the course of his life. And you know, like you said, there's also something can happen to you or some situation can happen. And you can look at it through two different lens. Well, you actually can look at it through thousands of different lenses, right? Here's a great example. I'll say the exact same words two different ways, right? So if I said to you, Naeem, you're an idiot, right? Let's just look at the words, you're an idiot. So here's two examples. Here's example one, Naeem, you're an idiot. Here's example number two, Naeem, you're an idiot. Exactly the same words, two completely different meanings, right? Absolutely. And I felt it, right? Even though I kind of know what you're doing and I knew it, you can't, your nervous system can't help but feel it. So I felt the difference in my body when you did it. Same words, same English language, but completely different, completely different meaning. As we're recording this, cryptocurrency took a beating in the last 24 hours. So the same thing happened, cryptocurrency, a lot of cryptocurrency stocks or coins went from being quite high to quite low. That's what happened. Some people look at that and go, disaster, I've lost thousands. Other people look at that and go, opportunity, I've lost thousands. Now I'm going to buy in at the dip so I can make more. That's the meaning that we're talking about, right? Yep, exactly. You spot on, yeah. And I love what you said about literally epigenetics, right? We could literally reprogram our genes just through our thoughts, right? Because it literally triggers the biochemical response in our body which activates our genes, right? So that's such a great point. Yeah. I'm getting married. Let's celebrate with champagne. Or I'm getting married. Let's celebrate. No champagne required. Yep. It's just, it's like a mindset, isn't it? It's fascinating. Yep. And I'd say, what about, like, you do a lot of this work with your clients too, right? Like you help them, because I remember when we were talking, you told me during dinner when you were here in Puerto Rico, some of the work you were doing and helping them uncover their stories and kind of break through them. So is there any kind of approach you do in a unique way or something that you find useful to help people kind of uncover, because first it's the awareness. A lot of people aren't even aware of it. So maybe uncovering it and then, like, breaking through or getting up a new one. Well, as it relates to drinking, most of society have been conditioned to believe that alcohol is something desirable. Yeah. See it in the marketing. We see it on TV commercials. It's associated with romance. Alcohol is associated with celebration. It's associated with relaxation. It's associated with celebration and stress relief. And so we've been conditioned to believe that this attractively packaged poison, which is what I call it, because alcohol literally is a poison, is something desirable. And we start to be conditioned when we're children and we see mom and dad have a glass of wine at night and they say to you, oh, no, you can't drink. You're a child. You've got to wait until you're 16 or you're 18. And then you can have a drink. And so straight away, they're conditioning us that, oh, that's something to look forward to. That's something that the adults get to do. And I'll get to do that when I'm older. Yeah. And so that conditioning begins. And then later on, it progresses with 18th birthday parties. Oh, let's get drunk. And then it's 21st birthday parties. And then let's watch the football and have a few drinks. Let's catch up with the girls and let's all do a cheers. And now let's take an Instagram photo and everybody's got not everybody, but lots of people have got that they hold their glass of alcohol or their beer as this prop for a photo is if to signify this is living life. Oh, yeah. Here's me proudly showing off my alcoholic drink as if to display. Oh, yeah. This is what living is all about. Right. And it festers. This has been going on for most of our lives. And so a lot of the work I do in terms of rewiring the brain is to look at alcohol through a completely different lens. And that lens can be certain lenses including, hey, would you like a glass of Paul Sleep tonight? Hey, would you like about 20 extra pounds over the next six months? I get you started with a lovely glass of shoulder fat. Hey, would you like a glass of irritability with your husband tonight? Yeah, that's because that's what happens when you drink. So it's just it's kind of flipping the story a little bit and looking at alcohol for what it actually is and what it actually does. Yeah, I love that. One is it's telling the truth, right? But two is it's adding the humor and the playfulness to it. It's a really powerful way to interrupt patterns. Right? So I love that you make it like funny and playful, right? Because that's what makes people remember it and stick to it. Yeah. How what are some other ways that you do pattern interrupts with some of your your clients? I think those are probably the most I'd say funny and like humor is probably one of the most powerful. Then other times like just like really intense sometimes, right? Just like like sometimes even scary, right? And again, if you think about something that's mean to be scary, you know, it's like if it's going to stop drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes, like, yeah, scare the crap out of them, right? So sometimes like, don't do this if you're listening, right? Try try the humor, right? But I've heard Tony tell me some humorous stories about some crazy like kind of ways you would shock like even his kids or clients that were having challenges. But but the best one, honestly, for people listening is humor, right? Or like weirdness or like grossness, right? Like, I like what you said about, would you like to drink shoulder of fat or something, right? When you said that, would you like a glass of shoulder fat? Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of women clients in particular, they worry about fat around their shoulders or their arms or and guys are worried about the beer bellies and things like that. So, yeah. Yep. How did you get into like what made you decide to like quit alcohol and kind of live this career to kind of promote kind of go on this mission? Well, I was a societally acceptable drinker up until my mid 30s in the sense that I drank couple drinks most nights on weekends. I drink a bit more. I very rarely got drunk. But I was just a consistent socially acceptable drinker. But in my mid 30s, I woke up one morning looked in the mirror and realized that I was about 20 pounds overweight. I wasn't sleeping great. I was just kind of meandering along. I described myself as feeling like a five or a six out of 10. So I wasn't rock bottom. I wasn't getting arrested, getting DUIs or waking up in ditches or anything like that. It was just like this almost invisible drift of mediocrity. That's kind of people. What's that? Sorry? Kind of like most people, right? People have it together, but they're just kind of drifting with it. Yeah, it's the drift. It's the drift. It just kind of takes you. And yeah, I just, I was in Austin, Texas. I've had two gin and tonics the night before on a Friday night. And the next morning I just said, you know what? I'm just going to take a little break and see what happens. And I took a 30 day break and I lost 13 pounds in those 30 days. And I thought, well, I'll just keep going and see what happens. And I got to 40 days and 60 and 90. And I got to a year. And in a year I looked back and I went, wow, I got this, you know, from sleeping better, looking better, feeling better. I also got my dream job hosting a TV show, Sports Center on ESPN. And I credit the clarity and focus that I got from being alcohol free to helping me get that job. I attracted higher caliber friendships and acquaintances. I was just on a higher energetic frequency, I guess. You know, I just, I was less irritable and friendlier and more open. I wasn't so rigid or stuck in my ways. I was more flexible. I just noticed all these benefits. And so I thought, you know what? I'll just keep going. And I haven't drunk since. I haven't had a drink since 2010. And 2015 I got, I got a little tired of people asking me to say, hey, why, why are you not drinking? So I thought, you know what? I'm going to, I'm going to build a program to help people quit drinking. And that's where it really started. And that's how I created this business. That's awesome. I love that. And you're, and you're kind of original roots. You're a journalist and you're in like, kind of, I know you, you sit and you started out working for Rupert Murdoch and you worked with celebrities. Like you're in like, that's like alcohol world. Right. That's what you do. Right. So yeah. In another life, I was a, I was a celebrity journalist in the sense that I interviewed movie stars and things like that. So I interviewed Tom Cruise and Hugh Gaffner and Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and all of those kind of folks in Hollywood when I moved there before 2010. And I remember I, I, I've been to the Playboy mansion three times and I went there as a drinker and I went there as a non-drinker. And I tell you, I had a much better time as a non-drinker, which is kind of crazy because everyone thinks that the Playboy mansion would be the most hedonistic, wonderful time. But I drank so heavily the first time when I was there pre 2010 that I couldn't remember much of it. And I felt sick the next day. But the next time I really got to savor it and, and party and have fun and dance and meet lots of people take it all in. That was a much more enjoyable experience. But you're right. I mean, I was living in Hollywood pre 2010, going to Oscar parties and MTV parties and Elton John's Oscars parties and open bars. And, you know, I mean, I drank a lot at those open bars and had a lot of fun came at a cost though. But then after 2010, I still did that. Like I still went to the Super Bowl parties, the Maxim party, open bars, celebrities, fast living, but just drinking soda, water, ice and a piece of lime or some other kind of, you know, alcohol free drink. It was a wonderful time, so much better, more energy and clarity and better conversations. And the next morning you're like, that was amazing as opposed to, oh, I feel awful. Yeah. And did you still find that there's still people at those parties that aren't necessarily drinking and you can still have conversation with? Yeah. I mean, most of the celebrities weren't drinking. Yep. Most of the celebrities were alcohol free. Yeah. I remember I interviewed Bradley Cooper. Uh-huh. He was promoting the film The Hangover. And it was probably about 2007 or 2008 or somewhere around there. And I remember I was interviewing him at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. And I asked him, what's your favorite drink, alcoholic drink? And he said, oh, yeah, I don't drink. And I said, what? He said, yeah, I don't drink. And I remember thinking, ugh, this guy's not someone that I'd be friends with because I was a drinker at this time. And anyway, he went on to tell me that he drank too much and he just decided to quit. And he's still alcohol free to this day. Yeah. But as soon as I went alcohol free, I remember looking back going, oh, now I get it. Like, you know, like he's a successful person in his field, in his art, in his creative endeavors. He doesn't need alcohol. He's adored by women all over the world. He's respected by men all over the world. He's got a child. He's an Oscar nominated actor. And he's alcohol free. So that was Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, the rock band Coldplay. He doesn't seem to need alcohol to have business success or creative success. And so yeah, it's, you know, when you kind of wake up a little bit, you realize, wow, I can choose to be in the drifts and just have alcohol compromise areas in my life, or I can go alcohol free for, you know, mostly alcohol free and just open up all different areas of my life. You know? Yep. I love that. I was just going to ask, was there a, was there a defining moment, nothing to do with alcohol, but was there any defining moment or phase in your life where you made a shift from say a sub high performance mindset to a high performance mindset? Like what led you to that point? That's a good question. I was always a top performer. No, I'm joking. Let me think about that. I'd say probably like one period, one moment was in college. Well, in college. Yeah. Or even in high school. It was weird. I would like slack off a little bit and then I like, all right, I'm going to get this on and get good grades and do better. So that happened. I'd say a big one was when I started working for Tony, because I still had stories from like people I loved and cared about where it's like, don't try too hard. And I was kind of the achiever in my family. And I was always like, just want to be the best. And then some, just people I loved would be like, dude, chill, enjoy life. Right. And I'm like, Oh, maybe I shouldn't try so hard. So, but then working for Tony is like, bro, like that's all BS. Like, like that's how you enjoy more life. And that's how you give more and serve more and help more and be an example. Right. So that was really cool. Cause that, that's kind of unleashed my permission for myself to just be the most badass person I want to be and can be. And I'm still on that path. So I'd say going through that whole experience working for Tony was probably the one where it just kind of helped me just unleash some of those shackles. How did you think to actually work for Tony? Because I'm, because that must have taken some level of awareness to make the choice to actually try to work for Tony. Yeah, it's a good question. So it's funny. So I went on. So it's cool cause I could literally track the whole, all the dots that I've kind of been on one of my personal kind of development path. I quit my job into hedge fund. Then I was like, all right, I'm going to figure my life out. And then I remembered like every, not everyone, but like the defining moments that kind of led me to where I even am today. But I started reading like the Jack can fields book, which is really helpful for me. He wrote, he wrote the book success principles. Again, it's basic, but it's really powerful, fundamental stuff that you can use. And he's a really smart guy. He went to Harvard and so I liked his style. But that eventually led me like studying NLP. That eventually got me to go to Tony Robbins and the event, which was the best event I've ever been to. And then that, I also hired Jarek Robbins as my coach. And Jarek, who was again, probably one of the most impactful people in my life. He just told me with so many things with my mindset and beliefs and starting my business and traveling and things I wanted to do. But he actually suggested to me, Hey, he's like, if you love this work so much, why don't you go apply for a job with Tony Robbins? And I was like, hmm, maybe that's the way I should do that. And then I did it. And I was waiting for like four months. I didn't hear back from them. I was literally ready to move on to like the next thing. And then they finally reached out to me. I was like, oh, cool. And then I just went through the process and I ended up working there. Wow. That was it. Yep. Just for clarity is Jarek Robbins is Tony Robbins' son. Yes. Yep. Yeah. And what was impactful about Jarek? He's your business partner now in one of your business. Maybe just for my listeners, give a little bit of context as to the business that you do with Jarek. Yeah, totally. So Jarek is just amazing at what he does. And you would like a lot of times you would think, oh, the son or daughter of an icon is automatic and be great, but it's not true. Right. Like there's a lot of examples of sons or daughters of amazing people that didn't kind of perform at that same level that Jarek does. And he's very humble about it and very modest about it. He's a totally different kind of vibe than his dad. Tony's like, go, go, go. Unstoppable. Right. Like Jarek is more about fulfilling Tony is too, of course, but fulfillment and quality of life and very modest and very humble. And he's not trying to like achieve the impossible. He really just cares about humans and like every, and Tony does too, of course. Right. But like Jarek, that's like his thing and he just, we have a company called performance coach university that trains and certifies people that want to become coaches and either build the coaching business or already are business owners that want to get more of that skill set to just influence people and help people at a higher level, whether that's their team or their clients, of course, to just get better results with their products and services. Yeah. Amazing. And so is it, is it mostly a first time business owners or is it people who are a little bit more experienced? So who's like the perfect demographic of person that you can help create the most impact for? Yeah. I'd say probably the, the main core is people that are like transitioning, like want to become coaches. Right. Like, okay. I either am a coach and want more skill set because we have a certification that's really recognized and reputable. We have two of them actually. And then also our brand is pretty powerful as well, obviously. But I'd say people that are either coaches or want to become coaches and like build their business and kind of just get out there and start helping people and serving people. And then, yeah, business owners, but then that's a whole, it's just really any business owner that wants to be better at their craft of leading their team and leading their clients. Right. So some are really successful, if you want to call it right, doing seven, 10, eight figures in their business and some are kind of doing a one man or woman show and still just hungry to become better at what they do. I know that in my business, when a new client begins, I, 99% of my clients achieve the result that they want. We've had a few people over the years who haven't quite got there. Amazing. But one, sorry. That's amazing. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. But getting them to say yes to join the program in the first place often feels like a real struggle because there's so much resistance from say a prospect before they step into their power and say yes and invest in themselves and become a client and then get the result. So I'm curious, how do you get people to take action, to take that action where it's scary, there's so much resistance, but how do you get them to take the action anyway? Yeah, that's a great question and a great point. It's so ironic, right? And same with me. I think it's because it's such a, the work we do and you do, of course, is so transformational. So it's like a lot of times there's a lot of resistance for the person because it's fear, right? It's like, oh my God, what's the unknown? But when they do it, it's like, that's why it's so powerful and they're so grateful for you to do it with them. But I would say, and it was the same when I worked for Tony, man. It's like, even people said, I want to go see Tony. I love Tony. It's still like pulling teeth, dragging them, calling them 20 times, knocking on their door and getting them to come and grab them and take them to go see Tony. So I think it's that mindset because they're not just buying a water bottle or a pillow or a supplement, right? It's literally going to change their life at a super high level. There's obviously a whole gradation to that. But I'd say what you do really well, which I didn't mention in the beginning when we were at dinner, is ask good questions because I'm not going to convince or sell anybody to do it. They got to sell themself. And the best way to do it is to really be present and listen and ask really thoughtful questions to help them get better awareness and kind of come to the answer themself and make the decision themself. Because you can logically explain to them, hey, James, if you keep drinking alcohol, you're going to lose your job and be broke. But no matter how many times you tell somebody that, they're going to keep doing it, right? But if you ask them a really thoughtful question and they get the insight, like, oh, it's like my mom or my dad might hurt them or you never know. You also got to be curious and experimental with that, too. But I'd say what you were doing the other night when we met was probably a really core foundation to what we do is ask really solid questions to people, thoughtful questions. I think if I was to thank you for your feedback on that, I think if I was to give myself a pat on the back or something I'm quite proud of is that I consider myself to be a master questioner. And it was trained in me because I was a newspaper reporter very young and so, you know, my entire job really was to get strangers to open up and share with me. And I think now in later life, I just I've done a pretty good job at that. But it's interesting. I'm also a very logical, I also have a very logical mind and it's funny because just to back up what you were saying, I can have the greatest logical argument in the world. Why somebody should take action from the point of it's costing you a hundred thousand dollars a year and lost opportunities for you to continue the way you're doing. And they still and like I have the best logical and they still won't take action. They still won't do it. And because I'm a logical logical mind, I don't understand. One plus one is two. One plus one is two. And it feels like the person that I'm trying to convince which I shouldn't be trying to convince it feels like they're saying, yeah, but three minus two plus seven minus five and zero equals I don't really I'm not sure that's the right question. So, yeah, let me think about it. I really, really, really want to want to get to one plus one equals two. Just not sure probably not right not the right time. And logically, like it's not the right time to stop feeling like crap and having a bad relationship and leaving a hundred thousand dollars on the table. You want more time to think about that. I'm like, what are you doing? But I but it's just people and myself included we seem to mostly take action from from emotion. I mean, even the word emotion has the word motion in it. Isn't it like emotion? Is that what you found? Absolutely. Yeah, like 100% we take action like from emotion right emotion is energy and motion and people whether people believe it or not it's like we make most of our decisions based on emotion not on logic. Yeah. Another way you said what you were talking about before is breaking patterns too. And that's that's shifting their emotional state right because if they're a certain that they're kind of an emotional kind of pattern when they're like objecting to it or not or not seeing the logic. So it's like a good one could be to break their pattern with humor or something like that to kind of just break their emotional state. Yeah, and it's funny. I had a a new client joined our project 90 program just two days ago and I was on a call with him which must have been for 45 minutes and he talked himself out of it. I think three times. Yeah. Well, he finally talked himself into it and he enrolled and then I spoke with him only an hour ago and he was loving everything so far as I made the right choice. But what was funny is he was saying to me when he'd first said no a couple times to joining. He said I just I feel uneasy. I don't know you. I've only just come across you. I guess I've got this fear that you're an online scam artist and that you're going to take my money and and you know I guess I've got that fear and so I did what you suggest what you are saying like using humor. I said, yeah, I get it. You know, I'm going to get your credit card and I'm going to get the money and I'm going to get out of the beach and drink pina coladas all day and drunk and laugh hysterically and the fact that people give me money to help them quit drinking while I'm lying on a beach drinking pina coladas and I kind of slid it in a joking way and he laughed as well and he said, okay I'm in and then he enrolled so I love that. That's so great. Yeah. So that's one of the ways you do it too. It sounds like yeah you use like humorous pattern interrupts with people. Yeah. Nice. And I needed myself. Yeah. It's funny as much as I some often get frustrated at people not getting the logic to take action. I'm guilty of it as well. Yeah. I really am. I'm guilty of it all the time. I make choices based on emotion and throw logic out the window. Me too. I'm the same. Yeah. I want to ask you about sleep because I know you're a master of sleep and I talk a lot about sleep and really I talk about a lot of our rituals with my clients and people on the podcast and it's such an underrated thing. Now it's slowly I think or maybe just because the bubble I live in but now it's slowly being talked about more but like sleep is such a powerful important tool to recover to think better to perform better to just have a better life and a lot of people think it's like let me sleep when I'm dead and just work all the time or not sleep or whatever so. I mean what got you into sleep and kind of I know you have your glasses by the way too we'll talk about but what got you into sleep? Yeah. I mean I have a sleep company called Swanix Sleep and we produce these blue light blocking glasses which if you're watching a video of this episode I'm wearing right now the orange lens blue blockers essentially. My product's name is Swanis and by the way for the people that aren't watching he's like in celebrity mode here. Thank you. Yeah I was in Palm Springs California 2015 and a friend of mine was wearing a really unsightly pair of safety goggles to dinner in a hotel restaurant and I was thinking to myself man he looks ridiculous and he's making me look ridiculous by association but he went on to explain he said no I'm trying to block the blue light and I said block the blue light what are you talking about and he went on to explain that artificial light from lights and mobile phones and screens and kitchen lights and refrigerator lights and microwave lights and traffic lights and car seat lights and all kinds of lights artificial light at night has blue light which at nighttime tricks our body and brain into thinking that it's still daytime. Yeah. Which means we don't produce as much melatonin and means that we don't naturally start to prepare for sleep and means that we don't fall asleep as quickly as we might and it means we don't sleep as well as we might. So I went home to my West Hollywood apartment at the time and I had a pair of old ski goggles that I used to wear when I went skiing each year in Park City, Utah and started watching reruns of the TV show Mad Men on AMC and what I noticed through these ridiculous looking ski goggles which had a kind of like a yellow tinge to it was that I got sleepier quicker and when I finally removed the goggles turned off the light and went to sleep when I woke up the next morning I was like oh actually I noticed that I fell asleep a little quicker and feel a little bit better. My sleep was actually a little bit better. The only problem was I had to wear a ridiculous pair of ski goggles in order to block the blue light and so I came up with this idea of creating a stylish pair of blue light blocking glasses and that's how Swanies was born it was literally like kind of take a Ray Van kind of cool looking stylish pair of sunglasses make them make blue blockers out of them so people don't look like a meth chemist every time they wear orange lens safety goggles and really inspire and encourage and motivate people to wear cool looking blue light blocking glasses which will have the end result of helping them sleep better so that's how it came to be they look really cool about it that's like something Bono would wear it's like the tint and the orange and the frames are cool too you know those are great. Yeah. How's your sleep? Mine's good because I'm excited to get the glasses you sent me by the way super stoked for that but it's better because I started wearing blue blockers and I started I also track it with this whoop wristband which is really nice so now I see my REM sleep and my deep sleep and things like that so it's something I've been conscious of getting better at for probably like the last two years now so and I noticed the difference. Yeah amazing so do you what's your sleep hygiene how do you prepare for sleep what do you do first thing in the morning yeah there's a great question so I'd say ideally I try to be asleep by 10 so I try to like start getting into bed by like 9.30 because I know how I am but if I'm not right it's just super hard IPMs I gotta slow down so try to like maybe have a glass cup of tea maybe read a book get in bed and just kind of kind of get into it and then eventually fall asleep probably within I like to read and drink tea for 15 minutes and then go to sleep and then when I wake up I and then I also like to I like to have the lights off all the time at night because I still want all the UV light going on but I'm also definitely wearing those glasses the orange tint at night then I have the yellow ones during the day and then in the morning I try to get about 5 and then I meditate or I journal or I go to the gym or I do a cool Tony Robbins priming exercise or I do some yoga I kind of give myself a little smorgasbord of choice depending on how I feel back in the day it used to be like very anal about it but now I like the flow and sometimes I just read a book too so but I usually take probably an hour or two to just really ramp up my mind my body and everything else hmm any other performance hacks if you like or performance techniques that you utilize throughout your day not just for sleep but for living an optimal life yeah I'd say well breath work is always powerful just maybe throughout the day whenever I feel I need to calm down a little bit doing some breathing patterns I love the cold plunges I don't have one here and it's too hot here in Puerto Rico to get really cold water but I do want to get like a big cold plunge tub so I can start doing that more juicing I love juicing man green juice juicing is a big one for me that's probably another really powerful thing I've been doing for that's been like 10 years now but that's just for energy and cleansing and all that that's been really powerful too yeah the cold plunge has been shown like cold water therapy has been shown to reduce levels of stress anxiety and depression I've read it does yeah and inflammation as well and it's really powerful and then breath work I was doing some Tony Robins desk kind of priming you know where you breathe in like yeah 20 times and then I breathe in really deeply held my breath and clenched my fists in my body and I actually passed out I fell off the chair I kind of came to and I realized that I'd fallen off the chair because my head had hit the ground and I had a little bruise on the thing so I like obviously I didn't know that I'd fainted or passed out until I came to so now I make sure that when I do the breath work I sit on a very comfy couch with like cushions all around me with no way to actually fall hold it and a helmet yeah and a helmet yeah but how does the breath work help you well it's true by the way like that happens right and that's why it is that shows how powerful it is right people passing out because it's so powerful it's literally playing with your whole your nervous system your brain your blood obviously and your oxygen so but I'd say how's it help me I kind of use it on a basic level like the Wim Hof stuff is I've done Wim Hof right like to kind of like the deeper stuff and I've done my friends are like really into breath work but I just I like to do the 80-20 with a lot of things right just as long as I'm consistent doing it like so I just do sometimes I do box breathing other times I do it like a one Tony taught me which is and for those of you that don't know box breathing you can just Google it real quick and it's very simple exercise you can do just for two minutes in the middle of your day to relax a little bit and then one Tony taught me was to stimulate your lymphatic system so I do that in the morning and kind of maybe in the afternoon and night usually and that's like a ratio of two what is it no one for two right so I breathe in so if I breathe in for four seconds I hold it for 16 and then I exhale for eight and I try that 10 times and the purpose that's really and you want to breathe into your diaphragm most people I'd say the big benefit if to answer your question that now I think that most people we breathe in our chest and a lot that's the big reason why a lot of people are anxious a lot but most people aren't really breathing in their belly so the cool thing about this it really just reminds me and trains me to breathe deep into my belly as well because that's where your diaphragm is and when your diaphragm is activated it stimulates the lymph system to do the duty work the work does and for those of you that don't know your lymph system does your lymph system cleanses your body of toxins and it's the only system in your body that isn't self activated every other one their circulatory system your obviously your musculoskeletal system all the other ones your respiratory or digestive there are all this automatically going subconsciously but your lymph system needs to be stimulated so that breath work is one way to stimulate it pretty powerfully so interesting yeah yeah do you have any do you have any other ways you like to yeah I mean my big thing is gratitude so I write down 20 things I'm grateful for every morning I'm just about to launch a new business called positive shift journal which is a daily gratitude journal and it rewires my brain into seeing all the opportunity and all the things to be grateful for and all of the neuroscience and studies shows us that when you live a life of appreciation instead of expectation stress reduces feelings of joy increase so I have this little thing where I don't wake up to the alarm in my phone I wake up to a little $5 alarm and when my alarm goes off I put my hand on the $5 alarm and not on my phone and I'm not allowed to put my hand on my phone until I've completed my daily 20 gratitude so only then am I allowed to go to my phone, turn it off airplane mode and start to do incessant scrolling which I'm guilty of as the next person but it's just a nice little hack that I have there to ensure that I'm starting the day in gratitude. That's great yeah that's gratitude man yeah there was like one thing that's gratitude is really the there isn't really one but gratitude is so powerful so core. How can people connect with you more about like your your challenges or your programs or yeah yeah thank you if you're interested in quitting alcohol, alcoholfreelifestyle.com the podcast is the alcohol free lifestyle podcast which you can find an apple podcast or on Spotify and if you're interested in the blue light blocking glasses you can go to swanwicksleep.com and you can get a pair of swannies which Naeem will be rocking very soon. How about you how can my listeners learn more about you Naeem? Yeah they can go to my website which is my name it's naeemmammoud.com and you could also if you ever have any questions you could reach out across social media I'm all over social media and also if you want to learn more about coaching go to performancecoachuniversity.com or you could reach out about that as well you could reach out to me about that if you have questions about coaching or interested in learning more about it fantastic yeah for my listeners if you a lot of people ask me about sleep if you want to sleep better and get the glasses check out the swanies because they're really gonna I remember the first time I got blue blockers I wore them I was so excited I wore them in the daytime and like 30 minutes later I was like why am I so tired and I just like had like the best sleep I had in like five years I was like knocked out for like five hours in the middle of the day amazing I love it thanks for the feedback on that Naeem this has been fun the little podcast takeover thanks for being a great guest and wealth of knowledge and expertise for my listeners I appreciate you absolutely James same here man I appreciate you jumping on and sharing your wisdom and your insights and it was great thank you yeah catch you on the next one absolutely thanks for listening to the alcohol free lifestyle podcast I want to load you up with some free stuff right now so if you want to go to jameswanick.com slash guide I will send you my quit alcohol guide which has helped six figure entrepreneurs professionals reduce or quit drinking you can also text the word quit guide to the number 44222 if you're in the US of course it doesn't really work anywhere outside of the US but if you're in the US on your mobile phone and you'd like that guide text the word quit guide to the number 44222 or you can go to jameswanick.com slash guide if you'd like to schedule a free 15 minute call with one of my top coaches just an exploratory call to see if or how we can help you then you can go to jameswanick.com slash schedule or you can text the word project 90 to the number 44222 if you're listening in the US on a mobile phone that's jameswanick.com slash schedule or you can text the word project 90 that's one word project 90 to the number 44222 feel free to send me a direct message over on my instagram account which is at jameswanick you can also watch video episodes of this podcast and a series of other educational videos on my youtube channel which is jameswanick one or you can direct message me on facebook at jameswanick official and finally a request would you please now write a short review of the podcast inside of the apple podcast app on your phone or on iTunes on your desktop computer would you please give the show 5 stars and write a quick one or two sentence review this will help the show get in front of even more listeners potentially transforming someone's life you can rate and review the show inside of your apple podcast app on your phone or over on iTunes on your desktop thank you so much and i'll catch you next time