 This is mine pump today's episode. We brought back Jim quick to the podcast. I remember he had a severe head injury as a child was told he would never succeed But figured out how to maximize his memory his fluency and his brainpower brought it to the masses This guy is a brain coach. In fact, he works with some of the biggest celebrities ever a rod Jim Carrey will Smith This guy will blow your mind with how he can improve Your mind also he has this free quiz right now online. It's pretty cool. I found out I was a dolphin I believe Justin was a dolphin can't remember what Adam was. I think he was a cheetah pretty interesting quiz You can go to quick brain quick as spelled with a K So quick brain comm forward slash animal dash quiz Find out what you are and then it's pretty illuminating helps direct you on how you should operate. It's pretty cool stuff By the way, his book is the limitless expanded edition. So limitless went crazy gangbusters Well, this is the expanded edition. Make sure you check out his book today's giveaway is the Super Bundle That's a lot of programs if you want to win that here's what you got to do Leave a comment below this video the first 24 hours that we drop it subscribe this channel and Turn on notifications if you win, we'll let you know in the comments section We also have a sale going on this month the beginner strength training program maps resistance is half off and then maps prime pro This is great for correctional exercise great for trainers and coaches by the way is also 50% off So if you're interested just click on the link at the top of the description below. All right back to the show Jim welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me back guys always one of our favorite guests It's been a little while it wasn't been four years. No, we didn't we did we did it over the phone for when limitless first So that was like a how long ago was it? It's been three years. Yeah Wow, yeah, so I want to ask you because before you came on yeah, your team sent us a Quiz to take yeah to tell us what kind of like Brain type you have brain type and then it used an animal to represent our brain type So which ironically matches Sal's lower back tattoos I'm happy about this I was a dolphin Justin was a dolphin Doug was dolphin Adam was a cheetah. What is all the like? What is the quiz? Why don't we take that one? So, uh, yeah So after 30 years of being a brain coach I realized that everybody learns a little bit different and everyone's brain is a little bit Has a different type in terms of how they think how they lead how they communicate How they buy how they how they invest all these different things and we found that they primarily found there are four buckets four different animals types that your brain could Could like represent and once you know your your brain animal Then you know how to study better focus better improve your memory and it's kind of like like personalized medicine based on your genetics or personalized nutrition based on your That's in your microbiome. This is like personalized learning So we created an assessment that I've been using with clients one-on-one for a few years And now we've offered it out to the public. It's a four minute quiz Kind of like a witch Harry Potter or game of thrones character. Are you kind of thing? And yeah, it's very telling because once people go through it They get a detailed report on how they could learn and lead and live just just with greater ease and Effectiveness so I could go through it Yeah, yeah, yeah people could take the quiz. It's at mybrainanimal.com There's nothing to buy but it's and then you get a detailed report but so it's a brain code C O D E and We'll turn us into a little master class for our brain fitness the So the C is the cheetah and these are your fast actors And you probably could you can think about everyone listening right now could think of like which one you identify with most These are people who thrive in fast-paced environments. They adapt very quickly. They have very strong intuition And they they are very direct. They may they make things happen. Say they they implement The oh are your owls and your owls if you think about them, they're just very logical, right? These are people who love data. They love facts. They love figures formulas these are people that You know would make decisions based on on things like logic, right? And even if you just just based on those two those two people would act differently, right? They would relate differently. They would they would buy differently invest differently. The D are your dolphins Which I'm surrounded by them here here. Yeah, these are your creative visionaries These are people who have very strong pattern recognition These are individuals that have a vision for something a project or a business. Maybe others Dolphins can relate to or they can't see it quite quite as clearly And then finally the E are your elephants and these are your your collaborators. They're extremely loyal They hold groups together. They have high levels of deep empathy and interpersonal skills and so once you understand your brain type it allows you to kind of you know changes the way you Could work and learn and kind of operate throughout the world because it informs certain behaviors and even when I mentioned this you could take any I don't know Let's take like James Bond, right? You know James Bond would be would be a cheetah, right? Very fast actor Yeah, you're very very intuitive You know thrives and fast-paced environments stay handle difficulty Let's say you would have M right who's head of my six that she would be logical, you know extremely logical organized Rational makes decisions based on her left brain Somebody like her right hand Would be Let's say let's say Q Q is the creative visionary. He's the one that makes all the invent the inventions, right? So, you know a lot of people believe the future belongs to those creators, but you could take anything like Star Wars I love how this the studio has evolved But but Luke Skywalker would be a cheetah, right? You know the Chewbacca would be would be an elephant, you know very loyal keeps people together You know Obi-Wan, I think would be an owl You know Leia would definitely be a creative visionary would be more like a dolphin So you could kind of be kind of people could see themselves in this now when I took the the quiz I definitely did find I don't know maybe half of them I could have went either or I tried my best to like just make the first reaction Yeah, now which is exactly what a cheetah would do Good point. Good point. I didn't want to overthink it because I figured my gut instinct is probably what I'll be most like But I mean do you find in the years that you've been coaching people and helping people that you've also had to figure out like oh They're a little bit of this and a little bit of that and therefore Certain strategies I would use on them versus without a doubt. So nobody's any one one animal, right? We're composite of all of them. Just like if you use your right hand doesn't mean you don't use your left hand Just when you're you know when you're using it. It just feels more natural Sometimes when people learn The way the person teaches is different than the way the learner prefers to learn and it's like two ships in the night You pass each other and you don't even recognize that the other ones there You know the kind of experience before and there's no connection, right? But we have we all have a primary and a secondary, you know for for me, you know I'm a strong elephant maybe because I grew up my learning difficulties And I developed this kind of empathy of people suffering around me because I knew what it felt like You know kind of being marginalized and you know with my learning disabilities and everything but um and then I mean I've also grown to be a strong owl like I love data. I love research. I love reading white papers But yeah, and you know, but when my team took it we found that it's interesting how people find their element in their life He's especially roles and work like our customers support team They're like nearly all elephants because they're there they're there. They have high levels of empathy Interpersonal skills they're there to be able to serve and keep the community together, you know We have a we have an accountant who took it and he sees purely an owl and you want your Financial person to be an owl, right? You don't want them to be creative or maybe you do and I'm not really sure but You know and my my business partner our CEO the Lexus. She's she's a dolphin She has a creative vision for our business that you know, it's she it's very clear, right? You know to impact it. I mean make it better brighter brains, you know, no brain left behind We want to we want to impact a billion brains So I actually see where this could be a really cool like interview strategy like to if I wish we had this tool Before we hired a lot of people because I think it makes sense That you would like on every representation of every animal in a business like this where you kind of need all those different personalities and What a what a cool idea to how did you how did you put this together because you created this? Yeah, I I drove, you know, I realized that people are asking the same question But and when I give people protocols and I don't know if it's the same in fitness, but you know, not everybody Embraces everything right not everything for everybody just see whether it's it with me It's diet or workout strategies same thing with reading memory Everyone wants like this is the process, but I realized that it worked for a handful of people But not everybody and so this was my way of personalized learning for for people So I drew on Psychologies and sciences like personality types like Myers-Briggs. It was an inspiration left-brain right-brain lateralization dominance like, you know, you know, we built that in introvert extrovert ambivert Pulled from multiple intelligence theory Harvard Howard Gardner's work out of Harvard University So we pulled from a lot of different disciplines and just made it incredibly simple You know, I think one of our superpowers is taking very complex information and make it very relatable and usable and effective You know for people who who use it introvert extrovert ambivert is that it's kind of like a combo of like for me I'm very Introverted, you know, and then I became painfully shy with my learning disability not be able to read like all the kids My mom became a special ed teacher in the public school system just to help me with my my learning difficulties But yeah, I'm very introverted, but there's some people I was interesting I was having a conversation with Susan Kane who wrote Quiet and this is like the book for introverts and Simon Sinek, you know, start with Yeah, and and they were saying, you know, we're we're having this meal and she was saying that Introverts are people that wake up with five gold coins like energy coins and every single time they interact with somebody They give up one of their coins that person until they're depleted and they have to get by themselves and recharge But extroverts they wake up with no gold energy coins and they're they just they want to interact with people so they could get energy Right, they could collect coins and it's kind of interesting But and before it's kind of like a combination of the two somebody who could express like an extrovert But also they recharge like an introvert. That's me. Yeah. Yeah people when they meet me or they see me on the show They think I'm an extrovert. Yeah, I'm extroverted in Certain situations that also introverted in other situations. So like if I'm doing this very extroverted, especially when I'm talking about things I'm passionate about. Yeah, otherwise, I you know, I'd rather not be around lots of people Yeah, me on stage is the same thing, you know, I'm in front of a good 250,000 people a year It's just speaking I can be on three continents, but I do it It's just not my nature, you know, my two biggest challenges who are learning and public speaking when I was a kid Like life has a sense of humor cuz that's like It's wild to me because you wouldn't guess that if you only caught you on like your YouTube Like you wouldn't realize because I know if I would an introvert on stage. I'm not gonna be very effective, right? Yeah, you had to bring, you know, a certain level of of energy a certain level of interactivity kind of to get people's attention How did you work through that because public speaking is always top three number one fear? Yeah, depending on different things I've heard it's you know, I've heard a rating where it's number one is fear of public speaking Number two is fire number three is death You know, which is you know pretty pretty crazy, you know The old joke is that if you're at a funeral, you know Somebody rather be in the box and then give me the eulogy because they're so fear if you're both speaking I think it came from those you know where I think it came from I think it came from those book reading circles. I don't know when you first learned how to read The teacher made you do You had to pass around the book and then you had to read out loud like a paragraph or a page When I had my head injury when I was five years old It took me three years to learn how to read and that was very embarrassing, right? And so every single time that thing got closer, you know when I would be even talking about it messes me up right now I could feel like my heart rate going up and like my mouth getting dry just thinking about it But I would get the book and I the words didn't mean anything and I just You know I was so embarrassed and had someone shame. I just passed the book on I think that association got associated to public speaking I think that's why because who's really good at that, you know in the beginning, you know, right? And so um, yeah, and so what my superpower I talk about superpowers a lot is because I learned how to read by reading comic books You know, I'm you know an uncle gave me a comic book when I was a kid and you know I would have this one comic book, you know My parents the emigrated estates, you know, we live in the back of a laundry mat I didn't have a lot of like resources and at night I would be like underneath the covers reading this comic book and something about the illustrations like brought the story to life But that's why I talked about superpowers my superpower growing up as a kid really was being invisible You know, it was because I never had the answers. I don't want to get called on So think about how that informed my behavior. I would sit behind the tall kid I'd sit all the way in the back I would shrink down all the time and When I was nine years old I was slowing down the class pretty more than usual and I was being teased more than usual and a teacher came to my defense Pointed to me in front of the whole class and said leave that kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain and That that label became my my limit, you know, I remember I was failing freshman high school English and I They pulled they caught they're so embarrassing because they they brought my parents in from work and they had that parent-teacher meeting and You know, she laid it out for us and saying I was gonna fail this class and gave me an opportunity to do a book report To you know pass and it was on Albert Einstein She chose, you know, this genius and I spent weeks and weeks at the library before there was internet, right? And and the day it was due I actually felt proud for the first time, you know being what when I'm 14 years old or whatever and My parents had it professionally bound and surprised me with it So I couldn't wait to hand it in the day it was due. I'm sitting in class towards the end of class. I can't wait to hand it I'm so excited to show her my work and The teacher said hey class. We have a surprise Jim come to the front of class and give your book report and I Freak the heck out. You had no idea. I know I she never said I had to like present So I am like dying inside and I can't even catch my breath and I like Stutter out. I didn't do it. I just I just looked her In the eyes and I lied to her because I just that was so terrified and you could see the disappointment in her face But after the class let out and I was the only one in the class because I couldn't even get up I I got up and then what went into my book bag took out the this professionally bound book report I spent weeks on and on the way out. I Bought the door. There was a trash can I just threw it out. Oh shit. You give it to her No, because I just you know, that's how bad I was, you know so how I got over it though was You know after I learned these skills when I was 18 years old to read two or three times faster improve their memory all that Stuff that I teach I just felt a moral obligation, you know to help other people because it's kind of like shame on Shame on you if you know something that could help somebody who's suffering and then you know offer that You know available and so I started to teach and one of my very first students She read 30 books in 30 days like how crazy is that not scan skin but read him and I wanted to find out not how I know how I taught her but I want to know why I'm always curious Like why people do what they're supposed to do what they know they should do and why some people don't most people don't right? His common sense is not common practice and I found out that her motivation Her mom I get choked up thinking about it Her mom was dying of terminal cancer was given two months to live and the books she was reading were books to save her mom's life You know and that's a big drive, right? And so I wish her luck prayers six months goes by I don't hear from her I get a call one morning and She's crying hysterically like just for I don't know how long but when she stops I find out their tears of joy that her mother not only survived But is really getting better doctors don't know how they don't know why they called it a miracle But her mother attributed a hundred percent to great advice she got from her daughter who learned it from all these books You know and in that moment I was only 18 years old in that moment I realized that if that if knowledge is power than learning is our superpower and it's a superpower we all have you know And that really gives me the confidence the end of the moral conviction to go on stage and do things that are difficult even being on video because it's very The opposite of like what's comfortable for me Jim when you look at the way that we Teach children conventionally in schools. Do you see a lot of things wrong in the way that we do it? Yeah, so You know, I've had conversations with people on a high level in government here They use our our systems and you know in school systems and some of the top school systems like Finland in In South Korea, you know things are slow to change and I don't think it's teachers so much as the system like my mother against school Teacher she recently, you know, she dedicated her whole life to public school system and recently retired But the world has changed so much, but this this classrooms haven't they say have ripped Van Winkle You know that guy slept for like decades. Yeah, if he woke up today, the only thing he would recognize are our schools You know, we live in an age of autonomous electric cars just going out right around here, right? spaceships that are going to Mars but our vehicle choice when it comes to learning and education is more like Like a horse and carriage, you know And so I do see some issue I mean, they didn't even teach, you know, a lot of you know, like what a lot of your guests speak on You know with you know, whether whether it's health and wellness You know fitness I can I can speak personally to this gym because I mean I got diagnosed with ADHD as an adult So neurodivergent. Yeah, love learning. I love learning. I consume information Like crazy. It's one of my favorite things to do. I know it's one of the things I bring to the show but I hated school this is the place where I'm supposed to learn where I'm supposed to get information and it was painfully unstimulating and boring Which is sad when I look back because I was a kid that loved learning you would think That in a place like that I would thrive, but it was the way they delivered it It was how it was put together that not only made it challenging for me It made it so that I couldn't wait to get out of there I can't wait to get out of here so I could go learn on my own is actually what I used to do I'd go and read things. I want to read and learn things. I want to learn So I know this I know it's first hand and I wonder how many Thankfully I grew up with good parents and I you know developed a good work ethic And I was able to become an entrepreneur and develop my own success outside of that system But how many kids do you think we're yeah, we're screwing up or just they just believe that they're not smart You know, yeah, I mean that was definitely me every single time You know, I was labeled broken every single time. I did badly in school. I would always say which was all the time I would say oh cuz I have the broken brain, you know, every time I was in pick for sports Which was often as though I would say go cuz I have the broken brain So, you know, and the adult has to be very careful their external words because they often become a child's internal words You know, but going back to the school system. Yes school Teaches you a lot about what to learn like math and history and science Spanish But there are zero classes on how to learn those subjects There's no class called focus, right or like go into a kid and saying focus or study That's like going to somebody say play the ukulele Who's never taken any kind of training or class on how to do that. It's just kind of expected So I feel like, you know schools, you know, they teach you what to learn but not how to learn and I think The how is more important than the what because the world's always changing the half-life of information new research You know keeping current with everything You know, there's no class called memory even right they teach you three hours in school in traditional education What is reading writing? Rhythmic, obviously spelling is now it's not one of them. Yeah, but what about retention, right? Socrates said learning is remembering and going back to your example. So like it's There's this Mark Twain quote that said don't let school get in the way of your education, you know So like you left school and then you started doing your own, you know a personal education I think now it's more important than ever that people are always learning listening to podcasts like yours and ours and you know Reading books, you know getting their education to kind of complement what they're not getting in traditional education Now didn't you develop a curriculum around this in terms of how to learn how to retain information how to read? You know a little more effectively And when did you start that and how did you put all that together? So when I was 18, okay, I don't I haven't shared this I don't show this very often But when I was 18, I was lucky enough to get into a local College, you know and I chose one that I knew other people from my school wasn't going to so because part of that Keeps you stuck is like the expectations of others and if they see you in a certain way You kind of feel like you have to stay in that kind of box to see yourself that way Yeah, very much so and I knew I knew I was self-aware enough to know that I didn't want that influence, right? I want to start fresh. I thought being a freshman meant I could make a fresh start I took all these classes and I did worse Like like really worse because the university is a lot harder than than high school, right? So much is on your own And uh, so I was ready to quit Because I didn't have the money to be in school My family didn't have that and and I'm the oldest of three kids and I want to be a good example And I'd rather them use the money honestly for my my younger siblings And because I felt like I was just too dumb And so I said this to my friend and he was like, well, you know tell your parents you're going to quit That's a big life decision. Why don't you come home with me this weekend? I'm going to visit my folks get some perspective So I do and the family is pretty well off nice home on the on the water And the father's walking me around the property before dinner and asked me a very simple question He's like jim worst question How school And I just start balling in front of this complete stranger because I have all this pent up angst, right and shame And tell him my whole story broken brain quit school. He was like, well, why are you in school? What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have chair? And I honestly no one's ever asked me that question before I thought, you know, like I'm in school because that that's what you're supposed to do, right? I didn't know and when I start to come up with some answers about what my goals would be He stops me and takes out a piece of paper out of his back pocket and makes me write him down Like, uh, I don't know if you guys write your goals down or like a bucket list, right? And it's my first time doing that exercise when I'm done I start folding it up to put in my pocket and he rips it out of my hand this list And he starts reading it and I'm freaking out because this guy's obviously pretty successful And he's looking at my goals that I haven't shared with anybody and you know, I'm afraid of being judged I'm an 18 year old, you know kid And very insecure and he says jim when he's done He's like you are this close to everything on that list And if you're not, you know, watching this on youtube or somewhere I'm spreading my index fingers like a foot apart and then I was like no way give me 10 lifetimes I'm not going to crack that list and then he puts his fingers to the side of my head Meaning what was in between was the key and he takes me into a room A little bit bigger than this and it's wall to wall sealing the floor carbon and books And remember, I've never read a book, you know at all, right? And so like it's like being a room full of snakes, right? That's how intimidated I am But what makes it worse, he starts grabbing snakes and handing them to me And I started looking at these titles of these books and there are these books of amazing men and women in history And some very early personal development books that you guys are familiar with Norman Vincent Peele the power of positive thinking thinking we're rich Napoleon Hill, you know, Zig Ziglar those kind of things and he's like jim. He said leaders are readers I want you to read one book a week And I'm like what like I was like and I'm telling him like I can't I have all the schoolwork And then he said that that mark twain quote, don't let school get in the way of your education And I was like, wow, that's so inspiring and I can't I can't do this Like if I say I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it But I can't I don't know that ability and he's very smart. He takes out my Bucket list and he starts reading every single goal and dream of mine out loud And I don't know guys like it's like imagine you're like very insecure 18 years old And like you hear your dreams and another person's voice like out in the you know It just mess with my mind and my spirit something fierce and a lot Honestly, a lot of things on that list were things I wanted to do for my for my folks Things they would never do for themselves even if they had the resources So with that motivation and I talk a lot about more human motivation and how to design and overcome procrastination Personally and also with other people around you, you know in in the book, but it I say, okay, I'll do it and I that and then fast forward. I'm back at school I'm at say in my desk. I have a pile of books. I have to read and a pile of books I promise to read right I want to read and I already couldn't get through a palet So where do I get the time? I don't eat. I don't sleep. I don't work out. I don't go out with friends I just live at the library and For a couple months and not very sustainable I ended up passing out two o'clock in the morning in the library. I fall down a flight of stairs I hit my head again Oh, and I woke up in the hospital like two days later And I was I was down to 100 and like 17 pounds. I had lost all this weight You know, I was hooked up to all these IVs. I thought I died the scariest time of my life And at that time the nurse came in with a mug of tea And on it was a picture of Albert Einstein, you know, the guy I did the book report on Which is interesting because he had learning difficulties also He didn't learn like everybody else. So I identified with him But the quote on the mug was The same level of thinking that has created your problem won't solve your problem And made me say like, what's my problem? Well, I have a broken brain I'm a very slow learner. Well, I was like, well, how do I think differently about it? Well, maybe I could fix my brain. Maybe I can learn how to learn and then I dive into these books You know, you know, then ancient mnemonics, you know speed reading all these different areas 60 days into it a light switch flipped on and I just started to Just understand things for the first time sitting in class My grades shut up and then my life got so much better Did it really feel like that? Like a light switch like one moment Struggling through a treading water and then all of a sudden boom Yeah, it's it was because I felt like my brain was like kind of dormant the entire time And then after a couple of months, just things just started come to me with ease You know, I don't know if the same thing happens with people's bodies after they work out a certain amount And they kind of get to work on some more second nature and they start kind of owning it You know and you know recognizing, you know, their strengths and what they could develop with their discipline And then I couldn't help but help other people. But how I did it and this goes back to the public speaking because I was very fearful of it I was broke right and I wanted to help people So I was like, okay, I'm gonna tutor right and this is bold for me because I was always being tutor But I was never like how could I tutor right because my friends I was helping my sweet mates and they were doing better They're like you could make money doing this and help people and I was like, I don't know how but I When I was having that thought there was a classroom that wasn't being used on a Thursday night And I was like, okay next week. I'm gonna put five or 10 people in that room Teach them free for a couple hours and maybe afterwards one or two of them want to be tutoring I could help them. This is 18 19 years old. 18 years old. Wow. Yeah, so I'm I'm 50 now, so I'm 32 years ago so I go and Back to my dorm room. I take a magic marker I put on a like simple piece of paper free speed reading memory class get better grades less time Thursday seven o'clock that room right and then next morning I make some photocopies put around campus not a lot Fast forward to next Thursday seven o'clock. I'm just walking down the halls to lecture center And I just I hope just like five people show up and I turn the corner and I swear to you there's a whole crowd outside the classroom And my honest reaction was like, oh shoot I hope whatever is going on and soon so I could do my thing Right, this is because this is my mindset, right? And then I can't even get in because there's people on the doorway I was like what's going on inside and there's this tall kid. He was like, there's a speed reading class And I was like, wow What a coincidence. What are the odds? Yeah, what are the odds the same room the same night the same time? There's another speed reading class, right? That's how slow I am because I realize in life If you don't believe it, you just can't see it. Yeah, you know, and so I go in and every seat is taken people standing in the back And then I realized how why they're all there because there's nobody teaching And then I freaked the heck out because I'm 18 years old. I look really young t-shirt shorts I'm nothing prepared to talk about Because I was just gonna have a conversation with like four or five people And and I'm phobic of public speaking and I do a head count instead of five or 10 people There's 110 people 110 people showed up first time. Wow. And then so I'm so terrified I'm gonna bop. I'm gonna pass out from hyperventile. I leave Because I would love to say it's different but I just leave right and I go buy these fountains because I can't even go back to my dorm room because I know my My sweet mates are gonna make fun of me and everything And I just kind of meditate kind of call my heart rate And I hear this voice and it's my mom's voice in my head And I won't tell you exactly what she said, but it's the essence is 100 people came out You promised to help them disappointing them you're disappointing me kind of message And I'm doing this walking meditation back to my dorm room And I take a step I stop and I take a step back to the classroom And I go back and I I realize That one step in another direction in our life can completely change our destination Right, you know when we say yes to something, you know Like a little bit of courage to do something to take us, you know into some some new area And I talked for a couple hours and I apologize and I honestly don't remember what I said As some memory expert. I have no idea but afterwards I come out of this kind of flow state You know, I kind of felt like I was just channeling I don't know if you guys like just kind of cups through you and then I was like, I don't know how to help you But I just need like 10 hours to teach you what I know And you know, I just made this up. I was like I get $30 an hour if you want to be tutored I'll be in the student center tomorrow at noon. I can answer your questions And I swear 100 people get up and they all leave not one person talks to me that night And I'm 10 o'clock at night or whatever in this classroom. I'm all alone and I'm so exhausted I ended up falling asleep on the carpet, you know Because even when you do something you never thought you could face before and I feel mentally emotionally just spent Yeah, and I ended up waking up from the class coming in the next morning at 8 o'clock in the morning I'm like on the ground drooling on myself and I run. I've startled. I run back to my room shower go to breakfast Go to class 12 o'clock comes up. I was like, oh shoot. I supposed to meet, you know, anyone at the student center I run there hoping just one person. I'm validated by one person being there And that same crowd of people are waiting for me and at the end of two hours 71 of the 100 kids Signed up for a course that didn't even exist and I didn't even do the math beforehand 30 dollars an hour for 10 hours 300 bucks Because I didn't realize kids could go to an ATM machine and take because I didn't have an ATM card or anything And so 300 times I have so I'm not even 19 and I have 21 000 cash In my pockets in my book bag And um, and I go back to my mentor thinking like what am I gonna do with this besides eat? You know, and you know not letting school get in the way of my education I use all of it nearly all of it to buy a whip education. No, you didn't buy a whip I travel around I buy all these audio cassette tapes and everything and learn You know what I now teach and um, and I've been in one of those 71 kids was this Freshman who read 30 books in 30 days. Did you um, at that point, did you finish school? Or were you like, did you get the did you like get the message like Yeah, I'm serious the man here. Yeah, that seems like to me. That's like a clear message. Like this is what I need Yeah, I didn't I didn't quit but I um, I ended up going to school to school with other, you know other people posting me to speak and Started doing this at universities. So we started we did it dozens and dozens I would go to UCLA and Harvard and bought BU and Fordham NYU Just doing these courses and then I self published something back then which was just like You know taking money orders and going to it sending to a p.o. Box There's there's no email or you know, you know websites to you know to send people to and I created a like a manual You know, it's very passionate and what happened with these kids get amazing results I imagine having this these tools back when you were in school And the parents took note and some of them were like, you know found out about me and I started doing the company trainings Wow for for where they worked. Wow, you know, and then eventually You know, I I I met my co-founder Alexis, you know, 17 whatever years ago and then we took everything online because we had a full-time learning center and You know was trying to figure out how we could reach more people, you know, and that was Jim I'm I'm the I'm the son of poor immigrants. So I know the the The feeling that you have where you really want to make them proud You really wanted, you know, you know what they sacrificed to to bring you to a new place and speaking language They worked really hard did everything for you. How proud are your parents? Yeah, I wrote the original book of limitless really dedicated to them You know, I realized that, you know, their sacrifice was you know, all you know, all our ancestors their sacrifices are blessings, right? You know, and that that's a big motivator I updated the book the new book that just came out because I had a son this year my first Oh, congratulations. Thank you. So, um, you know at 50 having a baby, you know now But I want it's deep in our commitment, you know, our team and especially mine For the next generation so they feel prepared. So the book really gives You know all the essentials from the first one and then so much more on momentum Like especially in a post-pandemic AI rich world Yeah, but that's that's the big that's a big impetus like, you know, being a good uh Being a good good good good parent. What was what was the first thing you did for them? I know at one point you reached a level success that you could do something for them. Did you do something for them? Yeah, um, even when I wrote the original book. I um, You know years later I brought them to Greece the largest chapter in the book is on memory enhancement And I found out that um, there's a goddess of memory And nemonides and she's the the mother of the nine muses Of science literature and art and I was like, wow And then I you know, I found out that what did ancient Greeks do to memorize things 2500 years ago before there were Computers and printing presses and I found all these amazing tools And so I took them for a month to to Greece And that's where I wrote, you know, most of the book I was very inspired there and you know, they never really they don't know haven't really traveled a whole lot I find it interesting because we outsource so much of our Ability to find information to remember things like I don't remember anybody's phone number anymore because it's all on my phone Where as a kid I knew everybody's phone number Um, and the ways that they learned thousands of years ago, um, I think there's a lot of Hints in terms of what works with our memory. Yeah, what works with our ability to learn for example Before we really did a good job of recording things We sang stories because what role does music play In our ability to retain information and to just learn. Yeah huge. I mean Perfect example. I mean how many lyrics to songs do you guys know? Oh, yeah How many did you go to class and really study all nighters to learn none none, right? So music has an amazing ability to enhance learning. We had um We do an annual brain power conference and we had quincy jones attending in the audience You know the famous music producer and I couldn't help but pull them on stage because like I mean come on There's what what what are the opportunities? Driller. Come on. Yeah, and yeah, exactly And that was one of the questions I asked. I was like everybody knows your achievements Thriller, we are the world, you know, so all the stuff I want to know like about your problems Like what are the big problems you're facing now or in the past and how did you overcome them? Good question And he literally looked at me. It's like I don't have any problems That this is quincy jones and I'm like and he's like 90 years old now But you know back in this is like 11 years ago and I was like everybody has problems So I mean what are you talking about? He's like, no, I don't have problems. He's like jim. I have puzzles And I was like, wow, he like reframes problems into puzzles and I was like, wow, that's so elegant because Often the problem is not the problem Often the problem we're facing is our attitudes and assumptions about the problem itself And the fact that he calls them puzzles that for some reason it just makes it more Fun it makes it like there's a solution, you know to it and that's how he's approached his whole life But the reason I bring it up is he also speaks no joke 23 plus languages Yeah, people don't know this and you know and he always says you have to go to know So he travels a whole lot, you know with what he does and he says he can learn, you know things from their food their art And you know their language their music And and I think there's a correlate between going back to music because obviously he's like, you know One of the most iconic music producers in the world and language learning also as well But even think about like We talk about lyrics and how we know hundreds of songs after just hearing a couple notes Like the abc's right? Yeah, you go ab like can you say it without without it's hard without the music Right like in your head And I think it's like twinkle twinkle little stars like it's the same it's the same notes But um, but yeah, absolutely. There's so many different ways We actually we we talk about in the book using various music like um when you're studying now some people It's distracting. So like again going back to your brain animal. Some people, you know, everybody learns a little bit differently Um, but having music that doesn't have lyrics to it Especially classical music could help you get into a brainwave state called alpha And alpha is the state or of a relaxed awareness where you just absorb information more easily where your conscious mind is not critiquing you and it's kind of set aside specifically From the baroque era the valdi handal Because it's it's 60 beats per minute The notes and that's it harmonizes with the resting heart rate 60 beats per minute So research has shown that using listening to baroque classical music in the background when you're studying Let's say you want to prepare a presentation, you know, you're going on stage or You know, you're learning some facts or a language Jim, have you ever listened to what it sounds like because you're making me think of this I wonder if this is a connection. Maybe this is there you ever hear what it sounds like in the womb What babies here on the womb they hear the mother's heartbeat Yeah, do you think maybe that's what primed us to learn to maybe music that kind of induces that effect on us I would imagine that the place a Significant role. I mean, I don't know any research that packs that up, but that would anecdotally I would imagine that that makes sense to me. Yeah I don't know that either Well, speaking of the okay, let's go back to the the the four types animal types that how we started this conversation Off the top of your head, like what are some strategies for each one of those animal types? Let's say to learn like how since they're dolphins. I'm a cheetah like is there a different reading strategy for me compared to them Yeah, so cheetahs tend to read in Inspirants because they're they're really fast So so one of the things and by the way, remember that I believe genius Is is built. It's not so much born, right? And genius can be learned because genius leaves clues So I also believe with the animals that yes, we can switch our animals through dedication and training, right? So anybody can become more of an owl by leaning into You know a critical thinking and rational like, you know any kind of training and books around you know around that um So you're not limited to that but most people stay in that what's interesting is seeing people Is like having your significant other take the quiz because it also informs your communication styles also as well Which you'll which you'll see in the report. But um, yeah Cheetahs tend to scan and skim. I recommend using a visual pacer while you read It'll help maintain your focus through the information because your eyes are naturally attracted to motion If somebody just like walks which they are outside there I naturally look because it's if you're a hunter-gatherer And you're hunting you're in a bush and you're hunting lunch in front of you Like say it's a rabbit or a carrot, you know, depending on your diet, right? It's probably a rabbit But the the bush next to you moves you have to look because number one You know, it could be lunch or number two. You could be yeah, you could be lunch So your eyes are naturally attracted to motion So when you're underlining the words or even the screen Using a highlighter or your finger not touching the screen or the book You'll actually read better because your focus is on there, you know, even with creatives You know, they remember stuff very well like dolphins using Visualization, right? They they they think a lot of times in pictures So using a memory palace, which we talk about which is the ancient greeks are attributed. So 2,500 years ago in ancient Greece The story goes Simonides was a poet and he gave a poetry reading in this building and when he left And when he was done something really tragic happened the building collapsed and killed all the attendees And because he's the lone survivor, he was responsible For helping family members identify their loved ones, right? And they didn't have like DNA testing and stuff like that But he was able to because he remembered where each and every one of them were sitting And the that's to go back to your brain We remember things based on where things are because the context gives us the content Even when you forget someone's name You probably ask yourself where do I know this person from? Right and think about as hunter-gatherer is going back to, you know, evolutionary like How things develop we didn't need to remember a lot of numbers and you know definitions and stuff What we needed to remember where was where things were Where's the enemy tribe? Where's the fertile soil? Where's the clean water, right? That's everything So the technique, you know, and so everything's in context of that Yes, very much so and so we remember things based in space, you know, even, you know, and even how we code the past Like if everyone's listening to this like if it's safe and you could you're not, you know, you're not lifting something You're not driving Just kind of close your eyes and just You could humor me with this Um, I haven't done this on a podcast before but if you can remember something in your past Like a past memory as you're just kind of thinking you get a sense of where that where that is Around 360 around you just point in that direction. Where does that feel like? That specific incident that happened a week ago years ago Maybe you could just kind of point a finger in that direction Where do you feel intuitively? Just it's different for every person, right and then Think about something in the future that you hasn't happened, but you know will happen So then this is another way of coding a future memory where, um Think about something that you know, it's going to happen a week from now You're going to get on a plane. You're going to go to london. You're going to do something and if you may have a presence of that image point in that direction It's like where does that feel like that is And so for most people it's a different direction, right? And so we learned to even store time Based on like we understand time based on where we have these memories You know, there's something called timeline therapy where if you connect those two points Let's say your past was this way and your future was this way that line becomes your timeline Or some people their past is behind them and literally if something is going on the future is in front of them And that's their timeline And then what that allows them to do is in their timeline kind of put their goals That they want to achieve or maybe even the back Like put things in the past that they want to kind of forget Or kind of fix the past like maybe even change some of their thoughts that they're back there Not just what the thoughts are but how they're thinking about it Like how they're seeing it maybe making it smaller bigger those kind of things But the idea here is we remember things in space. So, you know, the dolphins in the room, which Definitely i'm outnumbered by you know, they would remember things really well using this memory palace You know, like uh, Sherlock Holmes talks about it in his writings And if you ever watched like elementary or some of the some of the movies and television shows Where he would take on an enormous amount of information and data And he would just store it in different places in his living room So he would think about like his kitchen like imagine your kitchen, right? Let's say if you're going clockwise in your kitchen and you have going clockwise the microwave the stovetop the refrigerator I'm making this up the dishwasher and the sink, right? And you needed to remember five points to a speech or five things you need to do that day Dolphins tend to think really well in pictures and images the picture is worth a thousand words So a lot of people are better with faces than they are with names because you see the face and you heard the name And then so all you do is come up with an image of that thing You want to remember to do or say or whatever and put it in that first place And oh like in the order of the kitchen Yeah, so let's say we were talking about how to have the best brain possible and I talked about some of the best brain foods Right. I'd start talking about bone broth and I started talking about blueberries and avocados whatever Eggs, which is like the most one of the most amazing brain foods And I put all that in my first place in the microwave, right? And that that's if I'm going to give a TEDx talk and my first point is brain foods I could see that I'm in the first place of my home then I go to the second place Which is my stovetop and let's say the second key to a better brain is killing ants I had this conversation on our podcast with dr. Daniel Aiman, you know, like the brain doctor And he talks about killing ants automatic negative thoughts. That's what ants stands for You know, so I just imagine I'm killing ants on my stovetop and that's my second point to my speech Right. The third thing that's really good for your brain is exercise You know, and I look forward to having you on my show and talking about the power of fitness, right? Bdnf lowering systemic inflammation, right? All the all these blood flow all these amazing benefits that come, you know, helping with your Insulin sensitivity, right? All the benefits that come to your brain from working out So my third place is my refrigerator And I imagine I open it up and I'm working out with the four of you guys, right in the refrigerator And I don't have to rehearse it many times because that's so ludicrous If I could see it. Yeah, and that's that's what's going on the refrigerator, right? And if I want to talk about brain nutrients, which I talk about in the book like all the Neutropics and supplementation potentially if you're not getting from your whole food diet Then I put all those supplements in the fourth place in my dishwasher So I my dishwasher is all clogged up because it has lines made in there and has cretin in there and it has You know, Bacopa, you know, right? I mean and then my fifth place in my In my kitchen going clockwise is my sink and let's say the fifth place The fifth key to a better brain a limitless mind is a positive peer group So I just imagine like all my positive friends doing dishes there You know cheerleading on and then if I want to go into the next room adjacent room like the dining room I'll do that for six seven eight nine ten for my six to ten points of a talk Wow So it's it's it takes more time to explain it but we are a lot of times visual creatures and You know, we tend what we remember what we see and what we feel what we hear The challenges most of the time we're learning by what we hear and that's only using one of our senses But if you could also see it in your mind and feel it emotionally Like killing ants on a stove to kind of, you know, get a chuckle or like a little cringe You're going to remember it because we remember things that make us feel, you know, a certain way It's so brilliant because you're attaching it to something that You see every single day 50 times so everybody can memorize Parts of their house where a piece of furniture is where the television is at where is this and so You can start to string together 15 20 points that you have to cover a speech or something unless you're living in like a studio apartment in your city And you have like one room But then you could also go to your past homes that you or yeah work or your favorite place to go The mall, you know, whatever any place because and then just using this and that's what a mind palace is You know for for people want to pump up their mind. Yeah, that's awesome I I I've done that with um, I'll I have a really good long-term memory maybe not short-term but long-term and Um, when I remember a study or something to bring up on the show, I always picture it Yeah, I'll literally picture the the study the web page or the place that I read it Um, and it makes it very easy for me to recite and talk about yeah And and also because you're in your element, you know as a dolphin, you know, a lot of dolphins thinking pictures You know, if I was asking you to describe your car to me, right? Right? Like tell me about your car Yeah, well, it's blue. It's suv right and you probably don't see the words blue suv You see an image of it, right? Even when you you're on airplanes, right? You don't no longer to say no smoking or You know fasten your seatbelts. There's just an image, right? Well, you know, original writing was we're really pictures representing objects, um, I don't I don't think people appreciate just how Abstract modern writing is to create letters that represent sounds put the sounds together to make words and So I'm very abstract like, you know breakthrough of being able to record things. But um, really it's representing pictures Very very much. So if you think about hieroglyphics or Yeah, a lot of the even uh ancient languages. Yeah, even a lot of ancient languages the characters represent This is what a house looks like and you said genius is not innate but rather cool to explain that Yeah, because I think genius. I think well, there's like, you know, like there's athletes that are at the top of the level Of one percent genetics play a big role, right? Certainly. Yeah, I feel like for the most part genius can be It can be built and it's not always born I mean, certainly when it comes to our brain research suggests about one third of it is predetermined by genetics and biology So that leaves a majority of it But two-thirds is in your in your control at least influence, you know the five things that I mentioned You know move the needle, but so does a clean environment, you know, that that would be number six for me You know a meaning Clean environment, you know, when you organize your computer or you just have clarity of thought You know, so your external worlds are a reflection of your internal world You know another thing that would fall underneath those two-thirds. Um, if that's number six, I'm just going through my home right now Um, number seven would be would be sleep Right, you know, just like I mean, how's your brain functioning on a poor night's sleep? How's your ability to focus? You have a you have a baby. Well, how old is your kid now? Nine months. Okay. So you you just got through the toughest part, but yeah, what's it like? We're still going through it. Yeah, how much does that affect your thinking? Yeah, exactly Yeah, so any tips you guys have Nightnanny good investment. Yeah, very good investment Yeah, it's better But then that's the thing like and then I talk about human motivation a big part of human motivation Besides having purpose is having energy if somebody to eat a big process meal and they want to motivate themselves to Study or to read right then they're probably not going to be very motivated if someone has a slept in Four nights for me with with the baby, but I'm not it lowers your motivation creates friction for you working out Right. So the energy is a big deal But sleep, you know, I don't know your favorite sleep tips, but you know for me Getting sunlight first thing in the morning is so very important. You know, I go outside I I need 15 minutes outside as soon as I wake up. I try to get the elements I don't talk about this whole lot But you know while there's fancy biohacking and I had you know, I had the sauna and the coal plunge and the flow tanks and everything Um, you know for me I when I was talking about ancient Greece, I realized when I was doing a lot of study there A lot of ancient cultures believe that everything was made up of four elements Babylonian times greek times air water fire earth, right? So I just it's just nurturing for me to have the mindset is like, okay when I wake up I want to get those four elements in my life. So I'll go outside. I'll get grounded on the earth Some people say there's an electron exchange helps you feel grounded Reduce stress and so on For me, it just feels anecdotally just feels like I feel solid Number two, I'm getting the the fire from this from the sun, right? You know, your eyes are the only part of your brain that's outside of your skull It helps to reset your circadian rhythm helps you sleep better at night The third thing I'll do is hydrate because we can lose up to a pound of water when we sleep Through respiration and perspiration even a 2 dip like a dehydration could have could dramatically affect your cognitive performance So, you know, we're all you know, did you drink that water? Your brain is mostly water I I read I had somebody on our podcast dr. Lisa Moscone. She's a neuroscientist and nutritionist And she said that upwards of you know, staying hydrated will boost your reaction time The thing is beat upwards of 30 percent. Wow, you know, which is amazing. So that's water So I have earth I fire I have water and then air I just do some breathing to get rid of the kind of mental cobwebs You know, if I feel excited to take, you know, a little bit of stuff to tell me sleep at night and just kind of low groggy I find the breathing helps. You know what I like about what you're doing Is that you you're marrying wisdom with uh, uh Current science and technology. Yeah, because I think that uh, there's there's a lot in both I think there's a lot of value in both and I think sometimes you brought one of them up one of them up grounding The the trade of electrons I think we know that studies show that walking barefoot on like grass or dirt seems to have this positive effect But then when I think what happens is we try to explain it With you know, there's really okay. Well, it's a trade of electrons. You know what it probably is It's probably like there's a lot of nerves on the bottom of your foot They're covered by shoes all the it's like having gloves on all the time So then you take your socks off and you walk on a On a grass or dirt, which I mean that's you think it's just your foot that's getting stimulated It's your brain that's getting stimulated. So so I feel like it's a lot more simple than We try to go so far. Oh, well, there's a little Yeah, there's all this weird stuff. Like no, I think honestly your feet just we cover them all the time Yeah, no, I like that. I mean, there's this whole kind of grounding culture or just our barefoot culture Yeah, for me. I I love it. It just even anecdotally. It just makes me feel good And that's kind of where I go and and and this stuff also, I mean, I'm talking about like 12 minutes in the morning It's not like a three hour biohacking, you know routine and it costs nothing For anybody who's listening to this right now you mentioned eutropics our audience Of course, they're gonna get mad if we don't ask you about this So talk let's talk about the the tropics that you know That seemed to actually have an effect and how much of an effect do they have in comparison to lifestyle changes Yeah, I mean for me, I'm I'm a big Get it for my diet kind kind of person and and again, there's a quote in limit list from a french philosopher And he says life is the letter c between b and d Where b stands for birth d stands for death life c choice Right and you know, it always our lives are the sum total of all the choices we've made up to this point, right? Who are we gonna marry who are we gonna spend time with where we gonna live? What are we gonna do what are we gonna eat what are you feed our mind all that stuff? Um, you know, and so I believe these difficult times they could diminish us these difficult times can develop us or Or you know or or diminish us, right? And it's just how we decide Um, including the choices we make what we put in our body So, you know, but the problem is a lot of stuff we can't get through food Like but you could supplement somebody could supplement with choline, which is really good for cognitive health But I'd rather people get it from their eggs or or somewhere else another source I mean my my go-to's for This I want to make sure the foundations there, you know that I have my omega-3s my dha Is my vitamin d levels or our check and everyone could also go to a functional medicine doctor and you know Have these you can do a nutrient profile and see which might be lacking Um, you know, but all the assent all the essentials um The choline and eggs the precursor for acetyl choline, which um, which is very important So if that people can eat eggs then they could supplement with it also as well Some of my go-tos I mentioned cretin You know, um, you know, obviously it's it's very very popular for people who do Do who I exercise on a regular? Incredible cognitive effects. Oh, yeah, you guys notice that also. Oh, no We talk about all the ultimate longevity supplement in fact Yes, so yeah, so the some of the things that we highlight there are some basic nutrients and then some of the The natropics would be some things like Bacopa, right? Ashwagandha Some things also that that come through my my go to my go-tos like especially if you want to get in For performance alpha gpc. Um, and you know, we put a whole bunch In the book also, we're gonna put that actually put by time this airs We'll put all those recommendations on on our website for free brain nutrition dot com What are the what are the things that you expanded on because your first book was a hit? Yeah, this expanded edition. So what did you add? What did you change or yeah? So it's really all about momentum. So like once you that the three sections of the book When I was first writing the book, it was all methodology 100% methodology how to read three times faster How to learn languages how to remember speeches build your business vocabulary, whatever And before I hit send to my publisher, I asked myself this question. I don't know where it came from but I was like Will everyone who reads this book get what they're hoping for? And my honest answer was no because a lot of people know methods Right. I don't know how you guys with your listeners with your clients. It seems like a lot of people know what to do You know, especially your listeners. They've probably forgotten more about You know personal transformation and fitness that most their friends and family, right? But are they doing what they learn all the time? Why aren't they doing it? Yeah, and I really think for every hour you spend listening to a podcast or reading a book We should dedicate an equal hour to putting into play Otherwise, you know, somebody reading a book someone who has decades of experience you put into a book and somebody can Sit down and read that book in a few days. They could download decades into days That that's the biggest advantage besides the benefits of reading, right? Reading is your mind. What exercise is your body? I mean if you're looking for, you know, brain training reading is especially the way we teach it is very active and And and it's so very important But going back to the You know, what we're talking about here in the context of reading in the context of what's new There's three areas the two areas that have to come before methodology and there's three m's mindset first Right. So the mindset is your set of assumptions and attitudes about something So somebody learns a great method for making money But their mindset is money is the root of all evil or I have to hurt people to make money They're still going to be stuck in that box So mindset has to be addressed people. I just did this talk at google two days ago You know and somebody before I went on stage like I was glad you're here your memory expert I'm really stupid like I I don't even like this person had a lot of imposter syndrome for being there And I was like, wait, wait, stop if you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them You know, like if you fight for your limits, they're yours I don't know if you have clients or people talking about what they can't do Right and they're trying to sell you on it Because I believe your brain is this incredible supercomputer and your self-talk is a program that will run So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering people's names You won't remember the name of the next person you meet because you program your supercomputer or not to So mindset has to be addressed. So that's the first section. The second section is motivation We've talked about that throughout this conversation. It's like, what was that young ladies who were at 30 books in 30 days? What was her motivation? Right is then you don't have to use willpower or pump yourself up because you're tapping into a deep purpose For me motivation is three things if you want to motivate yourself If you want to have motivate somebody else The formula is p times e times s3. You need purpose. You need energy and you need small simple steps Like somebody could have if you don't have purpose You feel because a lot of people they they have a purpose here in their head But not in their heart and they're not going to follow through because it's just intellectual because we are You know, we are not logical. We're we're biological. You think about dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins We are this chemical feeling soup, right? So you have to feel it But someone can have purpose to work out and still not do it because they lack the energy because they're not sleeping or whatever That's why we talk about so many tips on how to optimize your energy because I don't believe you have energy You Generate energy. You don't have focus. You do focus. You don't even have a memory There's a process three stage process for remembering something So sometimes we trick ourselves into submission by what we say You know and if when you take the nouns in your life and you turn them into verbs, you have power So you don't have energy or you don't have creativity. You do it. There's a process for creating. There's a process for energizing yourself It's also empowering Incredible because it gives you back your agency, right? Like so you're not waiting You're not waking waking up and hoping. Oh, I hope I have creativity to make videos today and write my book Exactly and you turn into a verb and then you have your power So this book is full of the methodologies the processes Right. So you don't you don't have focus. You do it. You don't have a memory. You do it And so that that's the purpose but I realize that post Pandemic ai world and then with the impetus with you know turning 50 and having my firstborn You know, I realize the importance of the fourth m which is momentum And so the book is really the core of the book this new version The updated version not only does have lots of new science and case studies from our previous readers So you could kind of follow their track going through their hero's journey like star wars, but also There's new chapters. So it's chapters on new tropics, which everything is human studies and every If you like to nerd out over that stuff, it's highly referenced Um, the chapter we talked about on my brain animal, right? Like, you know, your cognitive types and I walk you through examples of how teams play out and how they communicate In how they learn differently, you know and how to create a learning organization Um, so that that's very powerful that another chapter is brand new is learning agility Like how do you With people working hybrid in offices remotely How do you make like you teach people how to you know, you have an amazing gym outside You know to be more physically agile, right? They're fast and flexible. They're pliable Um, but I also want people to be mentally agile Right. I want I want their thoughts to be faster, right? They're they're they're they're problem solving to be quicker more agile They're thinking to be more pliable And so we we talk a lot about that in the workplace specifically Um, and then you know chapters on ai uh on how to use ai to enhance your hi That's my driving question when it comes to ai. I don't see it as artificial intelligence I see it more as augmented intelligence is there to augment you. It's there to serve and support you So how do you use ai to improve your hi your human intelligence? So in there are are a series of prompts how we work with coaching clients on how to learn anything faster utilizing ai like so for example We have a podcast Sometimes I don't get the book in time mailed to me and I don't like reading stuff on screens because I'm looking for I don't even know the reason to be on a screen And because also visual fatigue leads to mental fatigue, right? And sometimes screen time could do that But also, you know, so I'll go on and you know on on on an ai chat program and say Hey summarize this book for this right or give me some thoughtful questions You know that this author hasn't been asked before that would that our audience would appreciate, right? You know something like that and I don't always use it verbatim I rarely do but it gives me a some kind of spark or foundation You know, I'll go through it and you know ai could help you with that be an incredible learning buddy It could not only summarize books, right? But you say like hey jim mentioned this thing neuroplasticity you go in there and say Explain to me neuroplasticity as if I'm eight years old And you'll get this nice little summary comparing it to a tree or something else like that that you just get this aha, right? Um, I'll go through it and it could rate your reading speed your reading comprehension You know every principle that we talk about in limitless. We show you how to use it using ai So if I talk about retrieval practice, right? You see when you learn something brand new you encode it you store it you retrieve it But also testing yourself and asking questions to see if you know it So we could ask very thoughtful questions to see how much Information you really retained, you know on a subject and it goes on and on So we have like dozens of different strategies to use ai to enhance your you know your human intelligence and all these Neutropics understanding your brain type, you know ai all that could help you have greater momentum Greater velocity, you know with less effort and more certainly a whole lot more enjoyment Just to back you up on the energy thing. Um, you know when you say you have energy logically you would think Like a machine, right? You have a car you put gas in it. Yeah anytime I turn it on Anytime I drive it. I'm gonna waste gas. I'm gonna waste energy. Yeah human body doesn't work that way if you sit still Uh, you don't necessarily conserve energy if anything you start to produce less of it So this is why moving an exercise makes you more energetic You're not wasting the energy that you have you're creating energy So just to kind of back you up to you know, kind of what you're saying. Yeah No, I want I want I want to geek out over that on my podcast Because this is what everyone wants, right? Yeah, you know And so you know exercise one of the most important things that people could do for their brain performance You know with them on that note, I'm sure I know Obviously, you've probably spoken to a lot of high performing Executives and business people people in academics I wonder if uh, high level athletes have reached out to you to talk because I mean, there's We know this now, but your ability to think Is such an important aspect of high level athletic performance Have you worked with athletes? Have they come to you to say hey, I need to get better at this whatever Can your can your techniques help me? Yeah, um, the book is endorsed by a number of athletes Gold medalists, you know from um, Apollo ono to to to Novak Chakravich to to others, you know, I'm just very blessed You know, I help athletes with everything from post concussions, you know for in terms of not only bouncing back but bouncing forward Uh, you could help them to be able to remember playbooks, you know at rapid fires Also reaction time thinking speed focus memory all of all of this It doesn't matter where your your stadium or your arena Is right, it could be it could be in a classroom or it could be in an office Or it could be on a field somewhere on a court somewhere carry toward everything. Yeah your your brain I just want to remind people who are listening, you know, I I just I love the the name of your podcast. I just I I wish I could thought of it My mind pump honestly, but if you want to pump up your mind, you know It's a reminder that you are the pilot of your Your brain, you're not the passenger, right? And so many people act is sometimes that they're on the receiving end and they're they're a victim or it's happening to them You know, I just want to remind people I told I mentioned this on a previous podcast that that I was on your show with You know, I got to spend some time with stan lee and we're going to dinner Stan lee who created you know all the the marvel universe co-created it and I was like I need to know this I'm so nervous to ask him, but I end up like hey stan I've always wanted to know you created all my favorite characters. Which one's your favorite? And he goes iron man and he's like jim who's your favorite character? And he had this stan lee time this like spider-man tie, right? And he said and I say spider-man and without a pause in his iconic voice He goes with great power comes great And we all know that everyone listening knows that and it's amazing because I sometimes reverse things when I hear it maybe because I had a few head injuries when I was a kid and Sometimes when I read I reverse things and I heard something different I was like stan, you're right with great power comes great responsibility and the opposite is also true with great responsibility comes great power You know when we take responsibility for something we have great power to to make it better, right? And I feel like sometimes You know in this culture, there's a lot of people making excuses a lot of people that complain And and my thing is as a coach Complain it literally complaining waste time. It wastes energy and nothing changes, right? We can't be upset by the results. We didn't get from the work. We didn't do It's just it's just a truth, right? And so what I would rather people do is to take ownership You know and we hear like, you know, jaco, you know Discipline equals freedom and be able to get yourself to do these things But you know and we hear people say all the time that you have to choose your heart Right not knowing is hard and knowing is hard. Yeah, we choose our heart being broke is hard making money. It could be hard You know, we choose it being sick is very hard You know working out eating right sleep is hard But we have to make that but I really think life is difficult for two reasons Either because we're leaving our comfort zone Or because we're staying in our comfort zone, you know, that's why I love your community You know, I was engaged like in all your social media and listened to your shows We can you know, listen to what people call in and talk about Because they're they're leaving their comfort zone, right? They're not settling They don't want to just have mediocrity and it's a choice that we always have so awesome jim. It's been Nine months. How has fatherhood changed you? Besides the lack of sleep Yeah, this is it's been the biggest it's been the biggest blessing, you know, this is something um I'll say this like it was interesting going through it because as a man, you know, you I don't have to do Nearly as much work or effort or anything. You know, you know, I wasn't pregnant I was there to be able to support my wife and but you know, even post because she's absolutely amazing But I will say I went in with the attitude. I was like, oh, I'm a totally like Educate this kid. I'm gonna bio hack the heck out Again, I'm training do all the stuff and reading it and while I still plan to do a lot of that, um It's been the opposite instead of teaching. I've been learning so much You know, I'll tell you the biggest growth I've had in my life With all the influence that books have had and people I've had the opportunity to meet it's come from three things, you know, number one intimate relationships Right and we can go down a whole rabbit hole about how they're a mirror and how vulnerable you are and how everything comes up And it's reflection so that that's been a big growth for me. Um number two entrepreneurship I don't know how you guys feel but I feel like you guys own your business and You know, it's different than just relying on, you know, a paycheck And so everything falls on your shoulder in our team. They're payroll everything just your responsibility And I just feel like I've grown a lot as an entrepreneur Through entrepreneurship and the then the third area is now just, you know, being being a father You know in terms of growth you uh You wait, I I waited long. I would tell us 40 Um, you waited till 50. Yeah, why? um It's it's been a you know, my my career is is pretty intense You know, and I want my my parents worked a whole lot as immigrant parents do many jobs And um, you know, I really want to be be there and be be more readily available Also, you know with the focus with our team. It's really on the mission You know, we feel like that the world is in a little bit is very there's a lot of Crazy going on the world and we feel like we get that value I feel like limitless, you know, this book the original book overtook obama's book for six straight days to be the number one Book of all non-fiction. Awesome globally on amazon But I feel like it was be it was in here, you know This was in the beginning of the pandemic and people felt the opposite. They felt limited Right, so I think limitless was something that was inspiring for them And I believe we also live in the millennial of the mind And you know, but nobody shows us how to do that So then we wrote the book to be an owner's manual for your mind You know, because once you understand how your brain works, you could work your brain, you know incredibly You know, and so, you know, a lot of it was my my own, you know, career and everything But um, but um, um Things are happening at the right time with immigrant parents. Let me guess like your success making money mom and dad are like So proud of you, but they're probably like when you have a baby Yeah, for her my wife's siblings and my sibling. They all have their kids or yeah, so we were really the last ones Like oh, jim does a good job. Were you were you miss under? I felt like I was misunderstood about that Were you misunderstood about that? People thought I was Scared of commitment and all these things had nothing to do with that. No, no had nothing not not not for me I've I've always known Wanted wanted wanted that to grow the family. Yeah, me too. That's why I mean I was misunderstood by that's what people other people thought Were you misunderstood like people? Yeah I'm sure, you know And that that that doesn't have so much of effect, you know for me just because I'm very my my My values are you know people ask is a great question to ask You know everybody is and I've been loved for people to post it and maybe tag us all in as we get to see it What's most important to you and in life? Because once you understand your values going back to motivation purpose energy small simple step purpose I want you to understand what motivates you in your life Like for me, it's love growth contribution Adventure which I added just recently because I just want to enjoy this process too You know, but I I would do anything for the people that I care about And you know and so I feel like you know and all the other noise and expectations and opinions The other thing is I have references like my dad lost his both his parents when he was 13 So that's why he came to this country because he was in poverty and they couldn't afford You know to feed him and everything so I grew up with this mantra that family is most important So it was like, you know, and then my mom lost her mom when she was a teenager and it was just this whole thing So, you know, it formed who we are and I honestly I respect, you know, so so many people that are strong Because I've never met one strong person that had an easy life You know, and you know, this is I just I just want to remind people if they're struggling right now You know, there's some things we can only learn in a storm Right, you know and some storms come because they clear our way And I just want to say whoever's going through that right now that you inspire people Around you whether they acknowledge it or not with your with your grit, you know, and your grace But I spent a lot of time with senior centers because I lost my grandparents never really got to know them And my grandma died of alzheimer's and so I'm just very conscious and we donate the proceeds in my author proceeds to build schools for children In Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya for alzheimer's research, you know in memory of my grandmother, but um Spending time in senior centers. I helped polish off their memories But I also hear a lot of great story and a lot of wisdom that because previous generations like they had I mean, we just don't have it tough no matter what's going on. We just don't have what they And so I like I learn a lot selfishly, but also I hear a lot of regret You know, somehow this person You know, they didn't pursue this relationship because what other people would think about that Or they pursued a career because it was expected of their parents or whatever And you know, I just want to remind people And while we're taking our final breaths, it's not like a fun conversation, you know, but when we're at the end None of other people's opinions and expectations Are going to matter none of our fears are going to matter. What's going to matter Is the things that matter to us, you know, I always say the most important thing is to keep the most important things The most important things Right and so those are your values the things that you hold and it's different for every person Some people value freedom some people whatever, you know safety or whatever it happens to be You know, but I would just say sometimes we feel burnt out not because we're doing too much Sometimes we feel burnt out because we're doing too little of the things that make us come alive Right the things that light us up, you know, and so I just maybe it's just kind of a you know For me, it was a wake-up call like I I got into a car accident like I this this limitless in 2020 was my first book Out of a 30 to you know, a 30 year career people think I have like a dozen books but I waited to do my I'm my opus here for my work, but It was part of I didn't want to be Famous like I like I don't think I'm famous now, but it's tough when you want to help people And not be known for it and I was in this car accident and I should have died And it gave me perspective right about legacy And so, you know that week I signed the book deal that was I've had for years, you know offered, you know, because it just makes me think So yeah, this is a this is a big year 50 newborn New book, you know, but I just um Yeah, I just want I want to I want to be useful while I'm here. Yeah, you're doing a great job You're your your interviews to do really well with our audience way. They take a lot And your book is they we get messages from people saying they got a lot from your book. So thank you I I let our whole audience read read his book. It's exceptional. We'll definitely improve your life Yeah, take the animal quiz too Mybrainanimal.com is a great place to start and then post your animal You get this nice AI art that we made and then tag us all in this we get to see it I'll repost a few and then gift a bunch of signed copies out to your audience And then the books at limitlessbook.com. Thank you. And if you like podcasts, you know ours is 15 minutes long Wait, wait, wait, wait different. I think you're doing sour after this, right? You guys For 15 minutes 15 20 minutes. You ever heard me talk? Good luck God bless. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you guys so much. Thank you