The Mello Millionaire with Tommy Mello - The Genius Shortcut: How to Hack Focus, Memory, and Brainpower with Jim Kwik

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Jim Kwik is the world’s leading expert in memory, brain performance, and accelerated learning. Once known as “the boy with the broken brain” after a childhood injury, he turned his greatest challenge into a lifelong mission: to help people unlock their full mental potential. Today, he’s a sought-after brain coach to top CEOs, athletes, and Hollywood stars, and the best-selling author of Limitless. Through his podcast, courses, and global speaking events, Jim teaches practical tools to boost focus, improve memory, and learn anything faster. His methods aren’t just theory — they’re the same techniques he’s used to rebuild his own mind and empower millions worldwide. Whether you're a student, leader, or lifelong learner, Jim’s message is simple: your brain is your greatest asset — train it like it matters.00:00 Unlocking the Power of the Brain02:46 Overcoming Learning Disabilities and Finding Purpose05:58 The Art of Meta-Learning08:44 Mastering Memory Techniques11:51 Cultivating a Love for Reading14:54 The Importance of Sleep for Brain Function18:03 Investing in Knowledge and LegacyMeet me at Home Service Freedom 2025 ⟶ https://homeservicefreedom.com/Check Out My Social Media:Tiktok  ⟶ https://www.tiktok.com/@officialtommymelloInstagram ⟶ https://www.instagram.com/officialtommymello/Facebook ⟶https://www.facebook.com/thomasmello/My other podcast:Home Service Expert ⟶ https://open.spotify.com/show/4WHQ3ldGThHsP1cfzNF33GLive Q&A submission form:https://homeserviceexpert.com/questionsLearn more about Jim Kwik:Braintype quiz ⟶ https://start.kwikbrain.com/quizWebsite ⟶ https://www.kwiklearningonline.com/Topics:Ability to learn and focus, Entrepreneurs, Building better, brighter brains, The faster you learn, the faster you earn, Meta-learning, learning how to learn, unlocking genius, Memory techniques, remembering names and information effectively, enhancing knowledge, Discipline, commitment, following through, Sleep, memory consolidation, brain function, Investing knowledge, lasting legacy

Nobody's paid like it was thousands of years ago where our value in society was our brute strengths. You know, today is our brain strengths to teach people how to learn faster, which I think is the number one skill for entrepreneurs, your ability to learn and focus, read, understand, remember, think. Can you apply that to anything in business? Brilliant. Curious. Limitless. Our guest today is a world-renowned brain coach who empowers people to rewire their minds and redefine what's possible. Our mission is to build better, brighter brains, no brain left behind.

Jim Quick is the founder of Quick Learning, a program which has helped millions of people around the globe to upgrade their memory focus and mental performance. How many of you would like to have a better brain, raise your hand? He's worked with top performers, including CEOs, athletes, and Hollywood actors. And his client list spans companies like Virgin SpaceX and Marvel. Quick, Jim Quick, Jim Quick. Jim quick. His bestselling book limitless is a global phenomenon, offering.

science-backed techniques to break free from perceived limitations. Jim is also the host of the Quick Brain podcast, which ranks among the top education shows worldwide through his powerful techniques and dynamic energy. He's proving that intelligence isn't fixed. It's trained, strengthened, and expanded. Get ready. This conversation will elevate the way you think, learn, and live.

All right, guys, welcome back to the Mellow Millionaire. Today I got Jim Quick, who is the world's leading expert in accelerated learning and memory improvement. and is the co-founder of Quick Learning, a global leader and optimal brain performance. You devoted your life to creating strategies to enhance mental performance. Some of your clients include the top CEOs and celebrities as well as organizations like Virgin Zappos and Harvard University. Can you just tell us a little bit more of the audience get to know you a little bit in your mission statement? Yeah, absolutely, Tommy.

Thanks for having me. And thank you everyone to turning into this brainy conversation. I know we're going to talk about how to improve your memory, how to focus best. better, just had to be more effective with your brain. And the reason why I know it's possible is because I grew up with some severe learning disabilities. I had a traumatic brain injury when I was five years old. I was rush to the emergency room. I mean, the short of it was I would have these processing issues, you know, because my last name really is quick. I would be teased all the time. I would be called slow, which is kind of ironic teachers would have to repeat themselves over and over again.

It took me three and a half years, just learned how to read. I remember when I was nine years old, I remember like it was yesterday. I even get choked up thinking about it. I was slowing down the class and was being teased pretty harshly by the other kids. And a teacher came to my defense. She pointed to me in from the whole class and said, leave that kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain.

And that became my moniker in school. Everyone called me the boy with the broken brain. That label became my limit, and that became my belief. I mean, you can imagine where my level of self-esteem was, my little self-confidence, my self-worth. I mean, I struggled with every single day until I was about 18 years old, and I found a mentor, which is one of the fastest ways to upgrade your learning and your life. Really wanted to understand how does my brain work so I can work my brain. and I started studying brain science, adult learning theory, mindset, ancient memory, pneumonics, speed reading.

And about 60 days, light switch flipped on, and I just started to crush it in school. The other thing I learned at that time was my mission in life. You know, as the boy with the broken brain, I want to build better, brighter brains to teach people how to learn faster, which I think is the number one skill for entrepreneurs, your ability to learn and focus, read, understand, remember, and think, what can you apply that to anything in business? You can apply that to machine learning, to marketing, to management, to money. We've all heard about personalized medicine based on a test like a DNA test or personalized nutrition

based on, let's say, a nutrient profile or microbiome test. We created a four-minute assessment to discover your dominant brain type. And we use a code based on animals. You either have a cheetah brain. an owl brain, a dolphin brain, or an elephant brain. And based on your dominant brain type, we prescribe as a gift for your listeners how to read faster, how to remember more, how to sell better based on brain types. So, for example, a cheetah is quick-daction.

That's their dominant trait. An owl is very logical. So they need the dat of the dolphin. Their dominant trait is creativity. And the E-en code is your elephant, which is. their domenetre's empathy. So it's interesting. So for example, if you were selling, now in you're reading, cheetahs would skim, scan, right? Dolphins would visualize what they read. You know, owls would go for the facts and everything. We'll gift them, you know, strategies

when they take the assessment, how to do these things, how to focus, you know, and if you think about like a sitcom like friends, Joey would be your cheetah. Fast act, nothing, right? Ross was the professor, scientist is your owl, all logic. You know, Phoebe was the musician, artist, she's your dolphin. Monica would always host everything. She was your elephant. I always wanted to bring the community together. So you'll see this in Star Wars. You see it's in Harry Potter. You'll see this in Star Trek. You know, it's just, these are the common ones. So people can take that assessment at mybrainimal.com. I love this. Very important. powerful. You know, I find myself sometimes where it's kind of hard to remember something,

like a name. And I've always said I'm just not good at names. I believe everybody listening has genius inside of them. And they need to study genius in the area what's called meta-learning. So meta-learning is the art and science of learning how to learn. It is the most important skill, bar none because everything after that you can apply towards sales towards public speaking towards your health towards everything and so the through line with some of the most amazing individuals that I get to work with they're always learning and they always want to get one percent better every single day so I would say in terms of habits learn how to learn I've been doing this for 34 years and so we have we have a You know, a top podcast on it, close to 100 million downloads, and we put it on YouTube.

We write books on the subject. Limitless is the number one book on brain optimization of accelerated learning in the world. You know, a couple million copies sold. We donate all the proceeds to charities. We built schools in Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya. You know, nowadays, most of your listeners, whether they're entrepreneurs or in business development or, you know, whatever their profession happens to be. Nobody's paid like it was thousands of years ago where our value in society was our brute

strengths. You know, today is our brain strengths. It's not just our muscle power. Today is our mind power. And the faster you learn, the faster you earn, like people will update their technology. They'll get the latest iPhone. They'll update their apps. They'll get a new computer.

But when's last time we took time to upgrade the most important technology, which is that three-pound matter between our ears, you know, called our brain? And so, you know, it's fascinating. what it can do. And so let's give us a crash course on memory. Let's do it. It's not true that you can't remember names. Your brain has 86 billion brain cells, right?

And then neurons and each one has upwards of 10,000 synapses. So if you extrapolate that, that's more connections than there are stars in the known universe, right? We can remember a name. Let's say you're bad at names, but time. Tommy has a suitcase for you, Philbuck Cash for you or your favorite charity. Let's say it's a million dollars tax-free. If you just remember the name of the next stranger you meet today, who's going to remember that person's name for a million dollars?

Everyone. Everyone, right? Why do you want to remember this person's name? Maybe to get a referral, maybe to make a sale, maybe to practice these things I learned on Tommy's podcast. Reasons reap results. It has to go from your head to your heart, your hand. So a very simple thing.

In a dozen different ways strategically on how to remember names, it could be something simple like the word swab. And again, I'm using acronyms because some people might be driving that you can't take notes. So it's an easy way to remember it. S, say the name. You meet somebody, you repeat the name right away. And it also helps because it means you heard it right.

You don't want to have a 20-minute conversation with Ted and say goodbye, Ed, right? Just because you didn't hear the name correctly. The U in Swab, you use the name. Use it three or four times in the context of the conversation. And I think I do this just naturally. I've addressed you by name a handful of times. But yeah, so you say the name, the U in Swab, you use the name. Don't abuse it.

Tommy, thank you so much for having me on your show. I've been really looking for this. Tommy, what do you want to talk about? Tommy, what do you question? Yeah, that would be an abuse, right? But you want to use it three or four times in the context of the conversation. The A in suave, the A is ask. It's a great quick tip to remember names you haven't heard before, like unusual names.

Abzah, Riddiger. So what can you ask about a person's name? What are some of the things that we could ask? You know, things like how do you spell it? What is it mean? You know, who are you named after? And so A is ask. And then finally, the V and the E.

So you have say it, use it, ask about it. The V, visualize. And I bet a lot of your listeners are better with faces, they are with names. You go to someone and say, hey, I remember your face, but I forgot your name. You never go to someone and say the opposite. So you meet somebody and their name is Carol, just for a split second, imagine them singing Christmas carols. And then finally, the Ian Swab end.

I always, always end the conversation saying goodbye using their name. Because imagine this, you walk into a room, you meet 15, 20 strangers, and you leave saying goodbye to every single one of them by name, who are they all going to remember? They're going to remember you, right? And that's a standout skill. Unfortunately, it's a standout skill. You know, I got a question. I remember 2007, my CPA, it wasn't my CPA. He only worked with 10 clients and they were like, I guess 2007, I'm 23, 20.

24 years old. And he said, look, Tommy, I'll tell you what, I like you. But you got to prove me one thing. He hands me this book. It's called the E-Mith Revisited Michael Gerber. And he says, I want you to take this home and read it. He goes, actually, what's the last book you read? And I said, it was either to kill a mocking bird or Lord of the Flies. And it was a love in the crate. So he said, so you haven't read since then. I said, I've read. I just not read a book. and he said, I think you'll like this book. So I devoured this book a day later. He hands me the ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes.

Day later I come back, he hands me the richest man of Babylon. And after that, I was done. I was done. I'm like, boom. Then I was like, just give me a list now. Don't hand me anymore. And then I read, you know, Robert. Well, you know, Robert Chidey was just in my office, influence.

And I started reading books like Robert Kiyosaki. But so many people, they haven't found a lot. love for knowledge and a thirst for knowledge or enjoy reading. So how do you build the thirst that my buddy helped me so many years ago? Number one, read until you find something you love, right? You read something you love until you love read reading. The second thing I would say is, like I really think all of us should be reading 30 minutes a day. I honestly would rather go a day without food than a day without reading something that would better some area of my life. Let's say you want to read 30 minutes a day. You have purpose. You know how it's going to add your

income and help you create your dream life, whatever. It's like maybe reading is too big, intimidating. Opening up the book is a small simple step. Reading one line is a small simple step because nobody's going to stop at one line. This is the magic question. I ask myself this. Anytime I feel stalled. What is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal where I can't fail. I would love to know to you, what's the difference between motivation and discipline? So for me, I think one of the most important things, if I can install something into my younger self, I feel like the through line is our ability to me to to follow through on our commitments. I believe that that's what integrity is. Like integrity,

I saw this recently, so I can't take credit. I don't know who it attributed to, but I saw this quote saying integrity is measured by the distance between your lips and your life. Integrity is measured between the distance between your lips and your life. And I believe for me, discipline is doing the things you know you should do, right? You take care. your, as Tony Robbins talks about, you take your shoulds, you turn them into musts. And those are your standards. And keeping our commitment to ourselves, when we say we're going to do something, like we're going to work out and we stick to it, I feel like that's how we build

self-worth, a level of self-esteem. Because there's, I don't know anything more important than keeping your commitments to yourself, that you trust yourself, that you follow through. Change can be scary. Growth can be hard. But nothing is as scary and hard as being stuck somewhere you don't belong, right? Being broke is hard and going out there and building a business is hard, right? And you heard this.

It's like so in the zeit guys that we sometimes just, you know, we don't. We're deaf to it. But, you know, we choose our heart, right? Yeah. Wake up is hard. Choose your hard. Yeah. It's hard to be single.

It's hard to be married. Choose your hard. Yeah. It's hard to be sick. And it's hard, you know, to be able to work out and eat right and be disciplined like that. But we choose our heart, you know, every single day. I'll tell you what I believe is the most important thing in life is that sleep because if you're not sleeping, you're not fully aware.

Your brain's not working correct. It's weird that I said that, but it's been an obsession of mine these last couple of years. So good for your brain, Ray, when you, I mean, just think about it. When you get one bad night's sleep, how's your focus the next day? How's your ability to study what your mental fortitude like? your ability to make good decisions, your ability to remember things. When you sleep, a couple of few things happen for your brain. Number one, you consolidate short to long-term memory.

And so if you have long-term memory issues, check your sleep. And I'm going to tell you, like, people think the brain shuts off at night. It doesn't. In some ways, your brain is more active when you sleep. And it's doing those things, cleaning it out. It's, you know, forming long-term memories. But it's also coming up with ideas and solutions for what you focused on that day. Even I do a ritual before I go to sleep and I do this installation, I think about, like, you know, set the intention of what I want to dream about.

Did you know, like, Mary Shelley came up with Frankenstein in her dream? Paul McCartney came up with the song yesterday in his dream. A chemist created a periodic table in his dream. Elias Howe created the sewing machine in his dream, right? There's all these examples. If you want to watch an interesting video, you can search my name, Jim Quick, KWIK, How to Remember Dreams. because a lot of people forget their dreams. Like, what are you dreaming about at night?

That could be a solution to what you're focusing on all day. But that requires, though, that you sleep. Oh, my gosh, I love this podcast. So tell me about some of your projects. All I do Angel invest. I do it in projects and passions that are aligned with what we do. That if I feel like it's not dependent on me, but I can move the needle either with our content or capital, our connections,

or we can amplify and magnify. But I would put it back into we get greater returns investing in our business than anything else. So the book, Limitless came out in 2020. It was my first book. People think I had like 12 books, right? I got into a car accident in 2018 and I almost died. And maybe I should have. but it gave me some perspective.

And the next day, I signed the book deal that was sitting on my desk for 10 years. Because, like, I want to help people, Tommy, but I don't, I'm kind of very introverted. Maybe just kind of growing up with a brain injury and just kind of being just kind of alone. But I want to help people. So I, but I didn't need to be known for it. But I realized that when I was in this car accident and then I almost died, I was thinking about what I leave behind. And it made me think about, you know, legacy, which is kind of an overused word, but I signed the book deal next day. And, you know, I really feel that passion for everyone listening, for me, functionally, it's what lights you up.

Teaching people how to learn, lights them up. So that's my purpose. So I just very cognizant in terms of, yeah, I would put everything back into the mission. Mr. Jim quick, this is phenomenal. I'm going to listen to this one over and over again. I always tell people, if you look at your inner circle and you don't get motivated, it's a cage. And I do believe getting into the right rooms has kind of been my superpower. It's for some reason, somebody asked me earlier, they said, how do you do it?

How do you get in the right rooms? I said, you show respect, you study the person. When they tell you to do something, you do it before you go back to them. You know, if they're going to teach you something and take the time, they like to work with people that pay it forward. two that recognize them on a stage and say this person brought me this. And that's one of the things that I pride myself on is I like to be, it's not hard for me to be the dumbest guy in the room, by the way. But I love to get in new rooms because I like to go to the base camp of that mountain

and say, how do you get to the top the quickest? And then they tell me. And like with you, I'm sure I'm going to be reaching out to you shortly because this is the first time of my life I have more books on my shelf than I've read. And it's kind of embarrassing. but people send me books. I just ordered 14 books yesterday. So now I've got to like,

I got to dive in and go hardcore again. So this has been amazing. Very simple things people could do. Even if people go to my Instagram and the profile, the link, there's a master class for free that people get to a one hour and everyone will double their reading speed with better comprehension, just going through it.

And they can find it, you know, in the link in my, in my bio, yeah. But I want to thank you for the good work. You know, I know we've met in the past, and I'm looking forward to being in an event and being in the, you know,

because if I'm an event with you, I know I'll be in the bright room. Well, Jam, I'm going to go take that master class today and applying it right away. So I appreciate your time today. Thank you also for everyone who's listening still, because if you are, you're self-selected, that you're as part of that group that follows through.

and I want to remind you that there's a version of yourself and your business that's patiently waiting and the goal is we show up every single day until October introduce. So it's great to be on this journey with all of you. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you. All right, guys, thanks so much for listening to this episode. Like always, we're going to close it out with the Tommy Truth,

which is a little slice of wisdom from me to you that can help guide you in whatever you're striving towards right now. You don't need a million-dollar idea. You just need a million-dollar habit. I've been around a lot of people with 500 million to over a billion dollars of net worth. People with six packs, people that are spiritual, people that have the best relationships with their wife and kids, they all have million dollar habits. What's a million dollar habit? It's studying.

It's being curious. It's implementing quickly. So focus on habits that'll make you money over time. That'll make you better husband or wife. It'll make you a better father or mother. Focus on things that's great for you. That'll make you healthier. That'll make you happier.

The best one to start with is a sleeping habit. I thought I was amazing. I was getting five hours of sleep and I was saying, man, big mistake. I get eight hours of sleep now. I'm happier. I make better decisions. I can work out harder. I eat better.

I'm just a better person for everybody around me. Build these small little habits. Let them compound. And watch what happens in your life. And that's it, guys. We'll talk to you next week.