We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP590: Lifelong Learning w/ Jim Kwik

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to TIP. On today's episode, I'm joined by brain expert Jim Quick to discuss his updated book, Limitless Expanded. As value investors, we are on this journey of lifelong learning. One of the things that many people overlook is this idea of learning how to learn. Imagine if you could increase your reading speed by 25 to 50% while also increasing your retention. Over the course of years, this would make a massive difference. And this is exactly why. we brought Jim Quick onto the show. Jim is a New York Times bestselling author, brain coach, and the host of the Quick Brain Podcast. He has served as the brain enhancement in high-performance coach and trainer to many of the world's most admired Fortune 500 CEOs in a variety of public

Starting point is 00:00:46 figures, including Bill Gates, Tom Brady, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk's team at SpaceX. When it comes to thinking better and upgrading our reading skills, Jim is our guide to turn to. During this chat, we cover why we should reconsider the practices we use to learn, why all behavior is belief-driven, the framework Jim uses to stay motivated, Arnold Schwarzenegger's advice to Jim on what it takes to be the very best in your field, how we can reach flow state, ways in which we can improve our focus and concentration, the mental benefits of reading, how you can increase your reading retention, and much more. I'm already in the works of rereading Jim's book because there's just so much great info in it, so I really think you're going to enjoy

Starting point is 00:01:29 this discussion. Also, I'm recording this intro just after we heard about the passing of Charlie Munger. Munger has certainly made his mark on TIP over the years. The We Study Billionaire Show was founded in 2014, and it was started out with studying the world's greatest investors, which obviously led us to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Munger has been a cornerstone of making Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate it is today. Upon his passing, Buffett stated, Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie's inspiration, wisdom, and participation. TIP is forever indebted for Charlie Munger's contributions to the value investing community. I've linked a couple of episodes we've done on Charlie Munger in the show notes, and we're going

Starting point is 00:02:16 to be releasing a special episode dedicated solely to Charlie on January 4th, 2024, which is just after what would have been his 100th birthday. It's only fitting that today's episode is titled Lifelong Learning. And this is a key idea that Charlie has continuously shared and is obviously a key part of his own success. I'm reminded of two quotes that Godumbade put at the start of his bestselling book, The Joys of Compounding. The first is the very first quote in his book, which states, The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being no more. And that quote brings out so much gratitude for me and hopefully making some sort of positive mark with you, the listener, in helping you in this continuous journey of lifelong learning. The second quote is at the start

Starting point is 00:03:03 of chapter one of his book, I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than when they got up and boy, does that help particularly when you have a long run ahead of you. Charlie has helped teach me that the best investment I can ever make is not in anyone company or any particular investment, but it's in myself. Investing in yourself is the gift that keeps on giving and the ultimate form of self-improvement. And it's one of those things where you don't see much of the results initially, but when you add it up and you compound it over years, it's like every year or two, you start to become a totally different person. It's very

Starting point is 00:03:48 miraculous seeing it happen to various individuals. Lastly, I want to extend a personal thank you on behalf of TIP to you, the listener, each and every one of you listening. We know that there are plenty of ways that you can spend your time, and we're forever grateful that you have chosen to spend some of that time with us. We certainly don't take it for granted, and we're pleased to have you with us in this journey of lifelong learning. We hope that at least some of these episodes have helped you become a little bit wiser and maybe a little bit less stupid, as Charlie would put it. Rest in peace to the one and only Charlie Munger. On that note, I bring you today's episode with Jim Quick. You are listening to The Investors Podcast, where we study the financial markets and read the

Starting point is 00:04:39 books that influence self-made billionaires the most. We keep you informed and prepared for the unexpected. Welcome to the Investors podcast. I'm your host, Clay Fink. And today I am joined by Jim Quick. Jim, such a pleasure to have you here. Thanks for having me on, Clay. Thank you, everybody who's taking some of your time and your focus to join us for this episode. We're going to get real brainy on this one, I know.

Starting point is 00:05:11 Well, today we're going to be chatting about your book I just discovered. You just released your expanded version of a book called Limitless. I got to say, I really, really enjoyed going through this and super excited. to dive into this because we have a lot of readers in our audience, Jim, and a lot of our listeners are part of the value investing community in the Warren Buffett School of Thought. And, you know, it's really just a journey of continuous learning, learning about the world, learning about new businesses, learning about history. The list goes on. And there are just so many practical takeaways in this book, so super, super excited to dive in. So the first question here I had for you, Jim,

Starting point is 00:05:46 towards the start of your book, you talk about how school is full of classes telling you what to learn, but not very often is someone teaching you how to learn. So talk to us about this idea of learning how to learn. So growing up, people seeing the final product in terms of if they're familiar with my work. They know I read every day and for four years I read a book a day. I do these mental feats on stage when I speak at like Inc. 5,000 are these investing conferences. And I always tell people it's funny. I didn't start out this way. I grew up with traumatic brain injury when I was five. I had learning disabilities. I had focusing. I couldn't read for three years, talk about the power of reading. That was very frustrating and embarrassing. When I was nine, I was slowing down to class being teased

Starting point is 00:06:29 for it. And teacher came to my defense. She pointed to me in front of the whole class and said, leave that kid alone. He's the boy with the broken brain. And that really kind of, that label became my limit. And it's interesting, my teachers back then, this wasn't just elementary school. This was middle school, junior high, high school, the number of times I was about to fail high school English. They would have been surprised if I read a book, much less wrote books. And so I always thought it was interesting in school. They teach you what to learn, like math and history, science, Spanish. But there was literally zero classes of me growing up on how to learn those things.

Starting point is 00:07:02 And I realized that when you point to somebody, maybe it's your child or a teammate, say, hey, you got to just really study and prepare for this or focus or remember this. That's like going to somebody saying, play the didgeridoo or the ukulele, who's never had any kind of training or a class on how to do that. And I always think that if there's one skill to master the 21st century, whether you're an investor, an entrepreneur, or anybody, really, it's our ability to learn rapidly. Our ability to learn rapidly and translate that learning into action is the ultimate competitive advantage, you know, and obviously, you know, with you mentioned Warren Buffett, he reads five,

Starting point is 00:07:37 and I validated this. I had an opportunity at one of his annual shareholder meetings to play bridge with him, actually, at a mall during one of the breaks. And he really does read 500 pages a day. I don't know if he's currently doing that. But today, knowledge is not only power, knowledge is profit. If somebody has decades of experience and they put it into a book and somebody can sit down in a few days and absorb and read that book, that you can download decades of wisdom into days, which I still believe is the number one advantage somebody could have today. Because the faster you learn, the faster you could earn.

Starting point is 00:08:09 And so, yes, it's a whole area of science that we write about in Limitless Expanded called meta learning. Meta-learning is the art and science of learning how to learn, learning how to focus, learning how to not only read faster, but understand more, learning how to remember things, learning how to think critically about a subject, be able to retain it and also speed of implementation is so very important in a fast-paced data-driven world nowadays. And so I believe our brains are the number one wealth-building asset that we have. And if you want your bank account to grow, your business to grow, your brand to grow, then we need to grow. Yet your brain doesn't come with an owner's manual, and we weren't taught

Starting point is 00:08:48 how to use it in school, and it's not very user-friendly. So that's why I wrote Limitless Expanded to be an owner's manual for her reader's brain. So very, very practical, where we take very heady neuroscience and meta-learning skills and make it very fun, very, very simple, and something that they could incorporate very easily into day-to-day life for greater productivity, greater performance, greater peace of mind, and certainly greater profitability. In reading your books and listening to some of your talks, you kind of open up people's mind to what is possible. You mentioned some of the stuff you've done up on stage. I believe it was 30 numbers where you had the audience members just say the numbers and then you essentially

Starting point is 00:09:26 memorize them right off the bat and then you said all the numbers backwards. I was just kind of blown away and you tell some similar stories in your book. And it reminds me of one of the things that Preston on our team always mentions when I tune into some of his chats. And he says, very often be careful what you tell yourself because you may just realize it. And that's what I'm reminded of when I read your book of so many of us just tell ourselves these stories or, you know, we have these limiting beliefs where people tell themselves, I'm just not a great reader, or I'm not a great public speaker. The list goes on on some of the things we tell ourselves. So talk to us more about this idea of, you know, trying to reframe and rewire the way we think

Starting point is 00:10:05 and the beliefs we have and open ourselves up to what it is we can set out to achieve. No doubt, Clay. The first 25% of the book is based on our mindset. The significant part of the book is all methodology, how to read faster, how to improve your memory, how to remember names and faces in business, client information, product information, statistics, everything. But I realize that common sense is not common practice. A lot of your listeners have probably forgotten more about personal growth and success investing than most of their friends and family will ever learn. But are they implementing it? And I think part of it is if we self-sabotage, if we take a step forward and maybe two steps back. It's because we really have to get our mindset, right? It's the foundation for everything. I mean, the classic books, I mean, you think about thinking for a rich and how to win friends and influence people and psychosiberetics. These classics all talk about the power of the mind. And so we give people very practical strategies to reframe their limiting beliefs because I believe all behavior is belief driven. That if your listeners want to create a new result in their life, right? Maybe it's a new level of wealth. They need to do a new behavior. That's

Starting point is 00:11:09 kind of obvious, right? But in order to do that new behavior, you need a belief that says that's even possible at events where they know I'm a memory coach. Often they'll pull me aside in the lobby before I go on stage and say, I'm so glad you're here. I know you're a brain coach. I have a horrible brain or I have a horrible memory. I just, I'm not that smart or what are you fill in the blanks, right? And I always say, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. You know, if you fight for your limits, they're yours. Our brains, we've discovered more about the human brain the past 20 years than the previous, probably 2,000 years combined.

Starting point is 00:11:40 And we found is we're grossly underestimating our own capabilities. And our mind is always eavesdropping on our self-talk, right? That old Henry Ford quote, if you believe you can or believe you can, either way, you're right. And that's the power of our mind. As an example, I believe our brains are this incredible supercomputer and our self-talk and our belief system are the programs it will run. So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering people's names. you won't remember the name and the next person you meet because you program your supercomputer not to, right?

Starting point is 00:12:07 And so even if you say find yourself in simple check, like the awareness of the fact that we have this negative self-talk. And I'm not saying like be totally positive, right, either. I think it's important to be realistic. But if you have one negative thought, it doesn't ruin your life any more than eating that donut ruins your life. But if you ate that donut 20 times a day every single day, then there's going to be a consequence. Same thing with the reinforcing beliefs. Because most beliefs are exactly that. They're BS.

Starting point is 00:12:34 There are belief systems, right? And so I believe that your brain is incredible superfuge. So you say, if you can't remember, whatever, you'll remember the name of the next person you meet. Again, you could just check yourself. You sound yourself, I'm not good at remembering names. Just add a little word at the end when you catch yourself being negative. Like a word like yet. I'm not great at remember names yet.

Starting point is 00:12:52 And it just keeps the possibility open for all of us. You mentioned one of my favorite quotes from you or favorite ideas is that all behavior. is belief driven. And it also reminds me of an interaction you shared that you had with Quincy Jones, where you asked him about his problems and his struggles in life. And he told you that he doesn't have, he doesn't have problems. He has puzzles. And that's very much the way I sort of view the investing world and, you know, many aspects in my life is like, it's so much more helpful when you think of it as a puzzle and not something that's just like a total burden. Yeah. It's just another way of reframing beliefs. We do an annual brain power conference every year. And,

Starting point is 00:13:31 Quincy at this event was in the audience and I couldn't help but pull him on stage kind of impromptu because he's one of the most amazing music producers of all time. And when we're having this fireside chat in front of this audience and we had in the audience, we had like the founder of WordPress. I mean, it was a very, it was interesting group of attendees. I was asking him as like, everyone knows about your successes, right? We are the world and thriller and all these. But I wanted to know about your problems. And exactly he said that. He said, I don't have any problems. I'm like, well, we were human. We all have problems. And he's like, no, I have puzzles. And think about the association. They're like, words that we choose to use have an effect on

Starting point is 00:14:11 our nervous system. And problems just for me, at least, it just seems like this is something that's daunting. I have to deal with it. It's something that's negative. But a puzzle, I mean, who doesn't love a good, like, puzzle? And the thing with the puzzle, it could be fun. And there's always a solution, too, also as well. So a challenge to audit our self-talk, even when you say things, like, oh, I got to read today or I got to work out. I got to pick up my kids. Even changing like a word got to get, you change that O to an E. I get to work out today. I get to, I get to meditate. I get to take some time off and just 10 minutes, just be quiet. I get to study and learn from these amazing financial wizards or what have you. It just changes our attitudes about something.

Starting point is 00:14:54 You know, often the problem is not the problem. Often the problem is our attitudes and assumptions. we have about that problem. And so I feel like that, again, coming from the place where our minds are number one wealth-building asset, everybody listening to us right now, it's not like it was hundreds of years ago, like an agricultural age

Starting point is 00:15:10 or the dawn of the industrial age where it was your brute strength that was your value to society. Today it's your brain strength. It's not your muscle power. Today it's your mind power. But when's the last time we've upgraded that incredible wealth-creating device?

Starting point is 00:15:22 We upgrade technology all the time. Everyone always rushes out to get the new iPhone or update their apps or new television or computer, but when's last time we upgraded the most important well is technology that has created all the other technology in the world.

Starting point is 00:15:35 And so, yeah, that's why I'm so passionate about this. I feel like if there's a gap, clay, between where someone is listening to this and where they want to go, I feel like a big part of that, if they're watching us on video, I'm spreading my index fingers like a foot apart. I think a big part of that is here.

Starting point is 00:15:51 I'm putting my fingers to the side of my head, meaning in between is really, I want people to know their brain. And we give people really, easy ways to understand their brain, but I also want people to really trust their brain and love their brain again and use their brain most important. And part of figuring out this puzzle is creating a level of motivation that gets you to want to go out and solve the puzzle. And you put together this really insightful framework that I

Starting point is 00:16:19 found really useful. You refer to as P times E times S3. So walk us through what this means. So the second section, the first 25% of the book is all am mastering your mindset in reframing these limiting beliefs that hold us back. The second 25% is all about the second M. We go from mindset to motivation. Because if anyone's listening to this limitless, which is the title of my book, it's not about being perfect. It's about advancing and progressing. But if you feel like you're in a box and you feel stuck, you're not advancing or progressing beyond what you're currently demonstrating, that box is three-dimensional. So the three-forces that contain that box. And the same three-fours, that will liberate you and give you freedom, financial freedom and freedom of expression,

Starting point is 00:17:00 freedom of the things that you want in life lie outside that box. So the first dimension is mindset. The second dimension is motivation. So let's make this very practical. If people want to read, right, we know leaders are readers, if people have seen pictures of me with Gates or Elon or Oprah or whoever, I know this is themed around stunning billionaires, which has been a big focus of my work, because I believe genius leaves clues is, let's say, they all read. Because if people have asked me how I bonded with them, connected with them, went deeper, is we bonded over books. Because you read to succeed, right? And we talked about the power of reading. I think I'm preaching to the choir. So if you're not reading every day, you're not motivated, talking about this formula, then you need

Starting point is 00:17:43 P times E times S3. You need three things in place. Or if you want to motivate somebody else to invest in your company or your idea or to influence them, they need three things to be motivated. The P stands for purpose. And purpose for me is not something in your head, it's something in your heart. I believe when we're talking about mindset, that's your head. Purpose, then when we're talking about motivation, is the second H, which is your heart. It goes from head to your heart, your hands. But if you're not acting with your hands, i.e. you're procrastinating.

Starting point is 00:18:10 You're not motivated, which is the theme of this question. And you have to check in with the second H, which is the heart, which is the emotions, right, the symbol of emotions. Because we're not logical. We are more biological. Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and. endorphins, these neurotransmitters, these are, these is what made me feel certain things. And so you need to, it has to go from your head to your heart. And so what I mean by that is without reasons, you won't get the reward. Even if you want to do something simple like remembering

Starting point is 00:18:36 people's name and you want to be motivated to remember someone's name, which is so important to business, right? How are you going to show somebody, I think it's the number one business etiquette, networking skill there is, is how are you going to show somebody you're going to care for their future, their finances, their family, whatever you have to offer them if we don't care enough just to remember their name, right? It's finding purpose. So that's where you ask yourself why. I'm going to mention a number of books, which I'm sure your readers have.

Starting point is 00:18:59 My question is, do you have them on your shelf on read and become shelf help, not self-help? Because a lot of people are really good at buying books, but they don't read it. Limitless Expand is the one book, the testimony we get all the time on Amazon. And for the original book, we did over a million copies sold in just three years and 18,000 ratings reviews. The reviews, though, it's always like, hey, this book helped me with all other books. because if you can learn how to focus, read faster, understand what you read, retain what you read, it's like a lead domino.

Starting point is 00:19:25 We have our own podcast called QuickBrain. It's all about those lead dominoes. We recently had Jay on who co-wrote the one thing. And he talks about the lead domino, that one thing you hit and all other dominoes fall in the place. And that's the nature of becoming more limitless. But it really starts after your mindset finding purpose. And so if someone's not reading on a regular basis, do they have not only they know in their mind they should, but a lot of people don't do it because knowledge is not power. It's potential power.

Starting point is 00:19:53 Only this power when we feel the emotions to have the impetus to do something about it, right? And so what are all the benefits that come? So start with why by Simon Sinek is the book I'll recommend in this subject. But what are all the benefits that come from following through on this thing? Or what are all the consequences of not following through? I remember years ago there was a big boxing match. It was probably the biggest one in history at that time. It was Mayweather versus Pacio. And I feel a little mixed with some of these sports because I love seeing people who are just top mental performers, right? Because it's not just their physical training. It's their mental training.

Starting point is 00:20:29 And I got a call from Sylvester Stallone, right? I'm going to drop a few names because I find that sometimes if I talk, if I just talk about John Smith, like no one's going to really know who that is, won't stick in your mind. But next time you see, you know, his documentary or a Rocky movie or whatever, it'll just expendables. It'll just bring back the story, right, as memory aid. and he says, hey, do you want to watch the fight together? I'm like, I can't make it to Vegas. He was like, no, you want to come to my home.

Starting point is 00:20:51 I'm watching it. I'm like, yeah, I totally want to watch it with Rocky. I mean, who don't want to do that? So we're sitting, I'm sitting on the couch. It's me. To my left is Sly, and to his left is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And if somebody took a picture, Clay, of that couch, people would be like, who Photoshop that Asian dude, like on that couch?

Starting point is 00:21:07 Because that's literally what it was. But afterwards, I was like, hey, I went to Arnold and Sly, I was like, what does it take to be like, They're winning a $300 million and like, what does it take to be the best of the best? And Arnold said, hey, the difference between a champion and an amateur is a champion's willing to push past the pain period. And I was like, wow, that's very, that makes sense to me, right? To build your body or bank out, you have to do certain things that other people won't do. And when you do what other people won't do, you'll get the live a life.

Starting point is 00:21:33 Other people can't live, right? And then I had this life choice I had to make. And I was asking, because I'm very familiar with Sylvester Stallone's origin story, how he created Rocky. and he couldn't even pay the bills and he had to sell his dog and he was living in the library. And I was like, I presented my situation and he was like, what do you think I should do? And he said, hey, Jim, will the gain be worth the pain? And I'm like, wow, will the pleasure be worth like the discomfort going through and doing what you need to do? And the answer is yes, then you do it, right?

Starting point is 00:22:02 And I thought that was interesting because that's coming back to purpose. So when I say P, I feel like people need to find out what the pain and also the pleasure that they'll gain. from doing it or not doing it and really allowing them to feel. And then if you feel all the benefits from reading that book in advance, then I feel like you're more likely to follow through. Even a simple question, like, who's counting on me? If your values are like family or something, like in your value structure, we talk about that in the book, how to find your purpose and what's most important to you

Starting point is 00:22:29 in life and the kind of probing dominant questions that you ask. And if it's family, then link that act to your family. Like, who's counting on you to be at your best and play at your A game? So that's purpose. But then I realized, Clay, that somebody could have limitless purpose and still not be motivated because they need the E, P times E times S3, and the E stands for energy. I realize that if people aren't reading, maybe it's because they had a big processed meal and they're in a food coma or, you know, we have a 10-month-old and I'm not getting a whole lot

Starting point is 00:22:56 of sleep of late the past X amount of months and maybe I'm just depleted and I'm not really motivated to work out, right? So exhaustion will make us procrastinate more than anything. And that's why in the book, we talk about 10 keys to have like limitless mental energy for people who suffer from mental fatigue and brain fog, how to optimize your sleep, what are the best foods to give your brain energy and best neutropics, how to manage your stress and so much more. And then finally, somebody could have limitless purpose and limitless energy and still not follow through because maybe they need S3. S3 stands for small, simple steps.

Starting point is 00:23:32 Because I realize that not only lack of purpose will lead to procrastination or if you lack energy, you'll procrastinate, but also if that thing we're going for is too big or too abstract or too intimidating for something that we're not used to doing, we're not going to do it. So the best thing you could do is to break it down into small, simple steps. So maybe reading for 30 minutes a day is too hard of a task for someone who just, that's not part of their lifestyle. And a small simple step is opening up the book or reading one line in a book. If you want to get your kids, in our podcast recently, we had one of the top biological dentist talking about beyond brushing, what you could do for good oral health, at least good brain health.

Starting point is 00:24:09 We're talking about flossing and we're talking about how you get your kids to floss. That might be too big for somebody who doesn't do that. Maybe flossing one tooth is a small, simple step. Because nobody's going to stop with what's one tooth. You're not going to stop by reading one line. You're going to continue. Or if you can't get yourself to go to the gym, working out is so good for your brain. And you go through all the science and the research.

Starting point is 00:24:27 And maybe that's too big for somebody who's just not in the habit of doing it. Maybe putting on your running shoes or getting yourself to the gym is a small, simple step. And so that's the limitless formula. Purpose times energy times small, simple steps. It allows you to be motivated when you need to because you don't have motivation. You do it. It's a process of purpose, energy, and small, simple steps. And also, if you want to motivate somebody else, because we know people don't buy logically,

Starting point is 00:24:51 they buy emotionally, so tap into that purpose. And then do they have the means and the energy? The capital is a form of energy, right, to move forward. And maybe they don't invest in you because you have to break it down into small, simple steps to make it so easy and frictionless for them. And how you find your small, simple step, and this is the kind of the magic question everyone could write down, what is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal where I can't fail? And I ask myself this, Clay, like a dozen times a day, every single day. Whenever I feel stalled or I feel like I'm not

Starting point is 00:25:23 being productive, I ask, what is the tiniest action I could take right now? Operative word now, that will give me progress towards this goal. I'm going towards the goal as opposed to somewhere else, where I can't fail. It's so small and simple. It takes very little energy and I can mess this up. And so I think it's a magic question that we could ask ourselves on a daily to really unlock new levels of motivation. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. All right. I want you guys to imagine spending three days in Oslo at the height of the summer. You've got long days of daylight, incredible food, floating saunas on the Oslo Fjord, and every conversation you have is with people who are actually shaping the future. That's what the Oslo Freedom Forum is.

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Starting point is 00:29:55 I wanted to comment on the purpose aspect. It reminds me of on the show, we talk all about, you know, just having that long-term mindset. And it's like, in our head, we know what it is we want to go out and do and achieve. But I think being in touch with that purpose really sort of anchors you into like, okay, why am I taking these small, simple steps? Because it's so easy to just skip the little things. today in sacrifice of that longer term. And I think that purpose is like really powerful in anchoring you

Starting point is 00:30:26 in why you need to do what it is you need to do today. I agree. I mean, there's this marshmallow test that they did that's very famous in terms of they took kids and give them the option and said, you know, in this room, they say, hey, you can have this marshmallow now or you could wait a little bit longer and then you'll get like two or three marshmallows and they followed those kids that didn't have this state regulation or the impulse control they just wanted the quick fix right now as opposed to just waiting just like they would within investments kind of long-term vision and they followed them through and by far the more successful ones were the ones that could delay gratification you know i believe with this where no matter who's listening to us whatever age or stage you are

Starting point is 00:31:07 in life and also in business and finance that a long-term approach is so important that you shouldn't sacrifice what you want now for what you really want in the future. It's always some kind of a balance, but it's a choice. Like in Limitless, there's a quote that gets tweeted a whole lot that says life is the letter C between B and D. Life is C between B and D. Where B stands for birth and D stands for death, life C, choice. And we always have these choices that everyone who's listening right now, your life is a sum total of all the choices you made up to this point, you know, good, bad, or indifferent. What are you going to focus on? What are you going to feed your mind? What are you going to feed your body where you're going to live, you're going to spend time with, all these different things.

Starting point is 00:31:46 So I believe these difficult times, they could distract you, or these difficult times they could diminish you, or these difficult times, they could develop you. We ultimately decide with the choices that we make. And so, you know, I'm a big believer that even if you, you know, you could have your job and then work your side hustle or investments in the evening because you have to feed your business until it feeds you back, right? So it's always a kind of like allocation resources where you know, with your time, your talent, your treasure at that given moment. And yeah, but just like compounding, which is just absolute magic investing, it's also

Starting point is 00:32:19 little by little, a little becomes a lot. So when you're reading something each day for 30 minutes, you're compounding, right? You're getting like 1% better every single day and 1% compounded over the course of a year. It's not a little bit. It's a lot. Like if we took 1.01, which is 1%, times 1.0.1. and did it 365 times over a course of a year, you would get 37 times multiple, which is just improving some area, maybe your health, your happiness, and obviously doesn't equate just like

Starting point is 00:32:48 that, but the idea of what compounding and exponential thinking and actions could do, it's like, seems like magic to everybody else, but there's always a method behind what looks like magic. In the Motivation section, you also have a chapter on flow. It's one of those things where people know what flow is, but a lot of people don't know, seem to know, like, how to achieve flow, how to stay in it. So since you're the brain expert, talk to us about flow. Yeah, so flow is a state, and I guess many people could relate to. It's where you feel your best and you perform at your best. And some people will call it, they're in the zone. If you, and the markers for it are three things. You lose your sense of self, your ego. You're just kind of like, you're not really thinking

Starting point is 00:33:31 about yourself, you lose your sense of time. You don't know if like five hours or five minutes pass by, there's this time distortion. And it also feels almost effortless. And one of the ways of getting into these flow states is to just look at your, it's the challenge and the capabilities that have to be in a certain ratio, meaning if something is too challenging and your capability is too low, right? So you have high challenge, low capability or competence, you're not going to get into flow because you're going to be stressed because the challenge is much bigger than and your capabilities. And you've reversed it and your challenge is so low,

Starting point is 00:34:05 but your capability is so high, you're not going to get in flow because you're going to be bored. You're going to be checked out because it's just too easy, right? And so it's this balance where you're kind of stretched, and so it forces you to focus and be alert, but it's not so stretching and stressful that it puts you in that kind of like anxiety, fight or flight kind of response. But flow states is a state, again, whether it's your work

Starting point is 00:34:28 or whether you want to get in state of like in your, you know, playing a certain sport or in anything else. It's kind of, or maybe you're surfing. You just kind of lose a sense of time. You lose your sense of self and you're just kind of in the moment. And that's, again, not only where we're feeling the best, though I can be very healing in general, but also it's where you're performing your best. And just like with motivation, the purpose of the book, because we have chapters on habit design and flow states and, you know, motivation is that we don't have to wait and just hope it happens. we could actually design it. So the principle behind this with our teaching is

Starting point is 00:35:01 getting the habit of taking the nouns in our life and turning them into verbs. Where you don't have motivation, you do it. You don't have focus. Like people say, like, I hope I have focus today so I could do what I need to do for work. You don't have focus, you do it. You don't even have a memory.

Starting point is 00:35:17 There's a process for remembering. And the benefit of taking the nouns in your life and turn them into verbs is it gives you your power back. It gives you your agency back. Because if you ever are stalled or you're not making progress, you could say like, hey, I don't have to hope, because hope's not, it's a horrible strategy, right? But then you can say, oh, how do I do this? How do I remember this? Or how do I focus better? And then it just opens, you don't even have energy. You do it. There's a process for generating more energy in your mind and your body. So, you know, Flo is a wonderful place. That's why we wanted to document a lot of the research done from Mihai, Michechi, and his work. And I just wanted to bring it present in the book, because I mean, part of being limitless is accessing those states. Yeah, you sort of just made me realize why I liked your book so much. It's just so easy in this world to just, like, be a victim.

Starting point is 00:36:07 You know, you have all these pressures. And there's so many pressures you have to fight and you're thrown into the world. And you kind of have to figure a lot of stuff out on your own. And then you run across a book like this. And you just kind of have a tool to add to your toolkit and add all these frameworks for, if you want to achieve flow state, then here's a framework to do that. And there's just so many examples of reading, learning, focusing. And again, how we open the conversation, a lot of these, I really think every chapter in this

Starting point is 00:36:34 book should have been taught back in school, how to reframe your limiting beliefs, right? How to motivate yourself, how to find more purpose, how to have more, you know, mental energy, how to access, how to access, how to access, how to access, flow. That would have been a fun class to take and certainly more practical because you could apply towards everything. When somebody can learn how to learn, they can find it. focus, remember, read, understand. They could apply it towards money, management, marketing, medicine, martial arts, Mandarin, music. Everything gets so much easier when you can learn how to learn.

Starting point is 00:37:06 I'm reminded of a story. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates were once together, and they were asked to share one word that was most essential to their success, and they both wrote down the word focus. And we all know that you need to focus if you want to succeed or achieve, whatever it is you want to achieve. And I'm just reminded that technology has made it more and more difficult for us to focus with the notifications, the emails, the social media, the list goes on. So talk to us about how we can improve our focus and improve our concentration muscle. I've had this conversation with Bill Gates. We've had the opportunity to meet a number of times and share stages. And I ask about always about the power of reading and how it's a wonderful way to just learn from other

Starting point is 00:37:52 experts, right, the shortcut, everything. And focus is definitely a big issue, even when it comes to reading. If you ever read a page in a book, got to the end and just forgot what you just read, and you reread it and you still don't know, remember what you just read. A lot of it's not our memory, it's our paying attention because sometimes people read so slowly that when you're reading, and we have the largest online accelerated learning academy in the world and where we teach this, and we have students in every country, so we have a lot of data. We actually found that the faster readers actually had better comprehension because they had better focus. Because when you're learning too slow, you're feeding, let's say you're reading and you're

Starting point is 00:38:26 feeding this amazing supercomputer, right, 86 billion neurons and each one has up towards of 10,000 synaptic connections, more connections than there are stars in this universe, right? We're feeding this incredible supercomputer one word at a time. Metaphorically, we're starving our brain. And if I was to talk that slowly during this conversation, people would lose their focus. Their mind would wander somewhere else or they would fall asleep. But that's what they're doing when they're reading. They're reading too slowly.

Starting point is 00:38:56 And so we talk a lot about focus. There's a whole chapter dedicated to it. And it's interesting because I don't know, Clay, but when you were a kid, do you ever play with like a magnifying glass on a sunny day outside and maybe burn like leaves or something like that? And so they can burn like, well, not other toys or ants or stuff, but you could burn like leaves or stuff. But at that point that's doing the burning is very sharp.

Starting point is 00:39:15 It's very bright. And it's interesting the words that we choose to use, going back to the vocabulary when we're talking about earlier, about got to get or adding the word yet. We use the word sharp and bright to describe people who are smart. They're intelligent. But maybe they're not smarter or more intelligent. Maybe they're better focused, right?

Starting point is 00:39:34 And that's the power of focus. And one of the things people could do to improve their focus, think about your brain as a, it's mostly a deletion device. And what I mean by that is there's a billion stimuli you could pay attention to at any given time, especially with our phones. Every ring, ping, ding, app notification, social media alert is driving us to distraction, right? What we decide to let in, there's like a gatekeeper. And that gatekeeper is a part of your brain called the RAS, reticular activating system.

Starting point is 00:40:00 It lets in the things that are important to you. And it's really driven. One of the tools to access more of it is by asking better questions. As we talked about, you know, the power of questions and how questions can lead to better answers. And when you ask a different question, you'll get a new answer. And so when you ask questions, a lot of times it shines a spotlight on something that you weren't really paying attention to before. And so I have something in the book called your dominant question theory where we have about 60,000 thoughts a day.

Starting point is 00:40:29 And a lot of those thoughts come in the form of questions that we ask ourselves. And it's my theory that there's one question that we ask more than any other question in a day. And some of it is conscious, some of it's unconscious. So, for example, a friend of mine looked at it and said, you know, if you figure out her dominant question was, how do I get people to like me? How do I get this person to like me? Now, people listening, they don't know this person. They don't know what they look like or what their job is or where they live or anything.

Starting point is 00:40:55 But you would know a lot about a person if 100 times a day they ask myself, how do I get people to like me? She's signing a spotlight on answers. So what would you guess, Clay, is like some of the facets of her personality. What would you think her day to day? and if somebody was just obsessed with, how do I get this person to like me? Yeah, it's a very external viewpoint,

Starting point is 00:41:16 very worried about, you know, what's going on externally. Very much so. And her personality changes depending who she's spending time with because she wants a person to like them, right? And she ends up people pleasing. She's a sycophant. She's a martyr. People take advantage of her all the time.

Starting point is 00:41:31 And you know all this stuff about her, and you only know one question that she asks herself, her dominant question. And so my question for everyone who's listening, obviously, is, what do you think your dominant question is? What do you think the question that is that you're asking all the time, like when you're stressed or in certain situations or even when you're calm? What's the question that always comes up and percolates up to the top? And for me, growing up with a traumatic brain injury, I had like migraines every day when I was a kid. I thought that was normal.

Starting point is 00:41:59 I had balance issues and I never knew the answer. So my dominant question was like, how do I not get noticed? how do I become invisible? Because I don't want to be called on in school. And I don't be bullied out in the schoolyards. And that informed my behavior. I was shrinking down and collapsing. I would always sit behind the tall kid in school.

Starting point is 00:42:17 So that dominant question, I would get answers, answer, answers. If people are asking, like, why am I so dumb? Or why does this always happen to me? They're going to get a certain quality of answer. As opposed to, like, for me, my question shifted over time is like, I have a broken brain. So I started asking, how do I fix this? Right. I'm a very slow learner.

Starting point is 00:42:33 How do I learn better? And I started getting answers, answers, and answers. And so even when you read something going back to focus, if you read something, forget what you just read, are you asking enough questions about what you're reading? Because if you did, you would say, oh, there's an answer, there's an answer, there's an answer. So I do believe that, you know, it's not just about time management, it's about mind management. And part of mind management is controlling not only our negative self-taught, but also the questions that we ask on the repeat.

Starting point is 00:42:59 And so it might be fun for people to kind of just kind of meditate and think about the questions and just be self-aware when you're facing a challenge, where does your mind go? What do you ask yourself? Because that's what thinking is. It's just always asking and answering your own questions. And another tip you shared that I found quite useful. You talked about how your mind is pretty good at remembering the beginning and end of a reading session. And we forget quite a bit of what's in the middle.

Starting point is 00:43:27 And then you also combined sort of this idea of our concentration tends to wane anywhere between 10 to, to 40 minutes into a reading session. So I found it helpful just to have sort of the science and framework to back up, oh, we should probably read in like a 25 minute session, something like that, give or take depending on the person. And we're able to take advantage of that retention curve and then naturally, you know, give our brains a break when the distractions and the concentration start to fade away. So it's, there are three things that your ball,

Starting point is 00:43:59 I'll mention the science because everything we, we want to anchor it back into the brain science. because this is obviously what's doing all the thinking and learning is our brain. So there's something called primacy and recency. And primacy says that we tend to remember things in the beginning of something. So if I gave you a list of 30 words to memorize, like people who challenged me or 100 words or 100 names, you probably remember the first few. That's primacy, prime, like one first, right? Recency says you tend to remember things at the end of something.

Starting point is 00:44:27 So if I gave you a grocery list of 30 things, you probably remember the last few things, too, the things that are most recent. or if you went to a party, met 20 strangers, probably remember the first people there and the last people that you met there, right, primacy, recency. What does that mean? The challenges when we're studying, I don't know about you back in school, but a lot of people crammed, right? They didn't study for weeks and then they six hours straight without taking a break. The problem with studying for six hours straight is you remember things in the beginning and at the end, and there's a big dip in the middle. And so how you pick up that retention and understanding in the middle is you take a little brain breaks, like maybe every, 30 minutes, maybe max every hour, right? And what you do is you create more stops and starts, so you create more primacy and recency, and that allows you to do it. And the technique is called the Pomodaro technique.

Starting point is 00:45:14 The Pomodaro technique is, and I actually, Pomodaro means tomato, actually. So people watch this on the video, I have a tomato cooking timer for the kitchen. And I just set this when I want to do like focused work. I'll set it for like 45 minutes, you know, or 40 minutes. And then when I'm done, then I'll take a five-minute brain break. and what do I do during that brain break?

Starting point is 00:45:33 I'll do three things. I will move my body because I think they say sitting is a new smoking and we're sitting all day behind screens and all the blood's pulling to our legs away from our brain, which was where we need it. You move your body. I also will get some fresh air because sometimes we're tired when we're talking about leaders or readers.

Starting point is 00:45:50 Some people don't read because they put them asleep and part of it is their posture. It's like when they're reading something, they're collapsed and the lower one-third of your lungs absorbs two-thirds of the oxygen. So a lot of people are just getting exhausted because they're not getting enough air and oxygen to their blood flow to their brain. And then finally, I will hydrate. You'll notice like if you're watching this in the video, I'm just always drinking because your brain is 75% water.

Starting point is 00:46:13 And on our podcast recently, we had a neuroscientist, nutritionist, Dr. Lisa Moscone. And she was like, even a 2% dip in your hydration. You're like, your dehydrate, just 2% could affect your cognitive performance. And just staying hydrated could boost your reaction time, your thinking speed, upwards of 30%. So it's so very important. So I'll do that for like, I'll move, I'll do some deep breathing exercises and then to kind of clear the mental cobwebs. And then I will, uh, to hydrate and I'll come back refreshed and I'll start another Pomadaro, another 25, 30, 40 minutes of dedicated work and focus. And I feel like my energy levels are really, really peaked, you know, throughout the day. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. No, it's not your imagination. Risk and regulation are rampant. up, and customers now expect proof of security just to do business. That's why VANTA is a game changer. VANTA automates your compliance process and brings compliance, risk, and customer trust together

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Starting point is 00:50:17 more about reading. You know, our listeners generally just love reading. Obviously, there's the benefits of what you learn. And you talk about also just the extreme benefits it gives to our mind and our longevity. You think about how retirees, you know, once they retire, many of them just kind of have this tendency to sort of wither away because they aren't keeping their brains active. And I pulled this quote from your book where he said, reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. So I'd love for you to expand more. on this and expand on the benefits of reading. I'm a big, obviously, fan.

Starting point is 00:50:52 I didn't read a book throughout school, all through high school, never came close to finishing a book. And so, again, my teachers would have been surprised if I read a book, much less wrote a book. What I would say about reading is the through line, as your show talks about with all these successful investors and entrepreneurs that if for them, their business to grow, that they need to grow. And I think it's the best way.

Starting point is 00:51:16 So reading is to your mind would exercise your body. What I mean by that is the reason why everything is possible for all of us is this thing called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the phenomenon that says that our brains are malleable like plastic in a good way. That when we're exposed to new ideas, a person's mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. Right. Oliver went to home, said that. And so I think reading is a wonderful way to get new ideas, new facts, new insights. and your brain cells that fire together, they wire together.

Starting point is 00:51:48 And so when you're reading something, so you grow through, your brain grows like your body grows. If you want to build a muscle, you give it two things are required. You have to give it novelty and you have to give it nutrition, right? You give it novelty, you work it out,

Starting point is 00:52:00 you exercise it, and then you give it nutrition so it could nourish, right? And what you nourish, flourishes. The same thing with your mental muscles. And I'm not a big fan, a lot of brain training apps,

Starting point is 00:52:12 like matching colors and shapes, because I don't see the, it's not shown to be able to actually go from that to other things that you need to for your work or anything else like that. That's why we focus on areas that are highly relevant and measurable, like remembering names or learning a language or improving your business vocabulary, giving speeches without notes, remember client information, product information, reading three times faster. Because all that stuff is measurable, right? You can measure someone's reading, comprehension, their focus and everything. But going back to the power of reading, it gives you that novelty constantly. And I'm a big believer also in doing nonfiction and fiction. When I first learned these scales, I was reading every nonfiction book you could imagine.

Starting point is 00:52:49 And over the years, I really, I saw starting research and just also personal satisfaction from reading fiction reading. Fiction reading, where nonfiction you learn through information, fiction you learn through imagination. And fiction reading actually has been shown to improve your EQ, your emotional quotient. It builds higher levels of empathy and fostering curiosity and perceptual positions because You get to, through the narrative of fiction, you get to see things from other people's point of view, which is so important in business and so important in life. The big challenge, though, is like people aren't scheduling their reading.

Starting point is 00:53:22 And I think to read a book a week, let's, so we triple everyone's reading speed with better comprehension through our academy. And you could still read a book a week, which is 52 books a year when the average person is reading two books a year and somebody's reading 50 books a year. I mean, that person is reading 50 books has just a clear advantage. I don't think anyone would debate that. because once you know something, you can make better decisions because you're based on, it's like this gap between, yes, there's some people who have and those who have not, but there's also a gap between those who know stuff and those who don't know. And those who know stuff can make better choices, right, with their finances, their investments,

Starting point is 00:53:54 their health, whatever. Right. And so one of the things I would say is when you're reading something, you're building these new connections, is to you also have to schedule it because one of the most important productivity tools we have is our calendar. And so people will schedule investor meetings or Zoom, meetings or PTA meetings with, you know, for their kids, but they're not scheduling their personal growth. And I also think you don't have to just schedule like your learning, but you should also

Starting point is 00:54:18 be scheduling your execution. I think for every hour someone spends listening to a podcast or reading a book or an audio book or something else, they should spend an equal hour applying what they learned and get in the habit of learning something saying, how can I use this? Why must I use this? When will I use this? And then things to really take care of itself. The one stipulation I would say is I do all my nonfiction reading during the day and my fiction reading at night because I, when I'm at night and I have a whole evening routine, millions of people could see it on YouTube, I've viewed it. It's just, I want to get in that sleep, parasympathetic, rest and digest so I can restore and then be refreshed the next day. And I don't want to read nonfiction because it gets me in my

Starting point is 00:54:57 kind of my executive brain and I want to get more in that kind of relax. And so fiction reading does that really well for me. I've met a number of people that consume a lot of audio, especially at high speeds. Do you have a view on reading versus audiobooks? Yeah, I do. And again, I've been doing this for 32 years, so we have a lot of data. Most people actually, if they're reading properly, they'll get more out of reading a book and then they will listening to it. And one of the reasons why is a lot of times when people are watching TV or listening to something, they're not active in doing it. But reading, you really have to be active. And so we don't just teach speed reading. We teach smart reading.

Starting point is 00:55:37 But that aside, a lot of times when people listen to a podcast or listen to an audiobook, when they're tested, they don't do as well if they read the physical book, usually because one of the obvious, kind of the elusive obvious is usually when they're listening to something, they're doing something else. like they're working out and changing plates or, you know, working on their treadmill, you know what I mean? Or they're driving. So they're multitasking. Or they're cleaning the house. They're doing something other than just listening to that book. But if you're reading a book, you're not driving. If you're reading a book, you're not working out in doing like, you're bench pressing and stuff. So one of the reasons why, if you're going to listen to an audiobook and you're doing it for the study and the information, it's best to just not multitask and just do that one task. But it's interesting that people could, going back to your point, they can listen. into it at like faster speeds, 1.25 or 1.5 or 2x, because we can understand that fast, but most people can't read that fast. But I'll tell you why, though, it's because there's something called sub vocalization. You ever notice Clay, when you're reading something, you hear that inner voice inside your head reading along with you? Hopefully it's your own voice. It's not like somebody else's voice in there. If you have to say the words in order to understand

Starting point is 00:56:43 them, that means your reading speed is limited to your talking speed, but not your thinking speed. Now the question becomes, do you have to say computer or New York City in order to understand what those words mean? And the answer is absolutely not. It's like when you're driving and you see a stop sign on the corner, you don't say to yourself, stop. Nobody listening says themselves stop. But do they understand what it means? 100%. So 95% of what you're reading every single day are like that stop sign. They're what they call sight words. You know by sight. You don't have to pronounce them by sound in order to understand them. And so like leaders or readers, which is, you know, a big theme of your show, John F. Kennedy, President Kennedy, was a very fast reader. He was said,

Starting point is 00:57:22 the average person reads 200, 250 words per minute. He was said to read 600 to, you know, upwards of 1,200 plus words per minute. And he also is on record as having one of the fastest speeches in American history. But if he could talk at 300 words per minute, but read at, let's say, 1,000 words per minute, there are 700 words per minute he's not pronouncing. And think about most of the words. Like, it's like Reading something, you don't pronounce like the punctuation marks. You don't say when you're reading question mark or semicolon or period or exclamation point, but you understand what they mean. They're symbols, all those other words and there, but because of this.

Starting point is 00:57:56 They're all these symbols. So we don't have to take the time to pronounce those words, but we had to do it back in school when we first learned how to read because the teacher needed to know you're pronouncing the words correctly. So you had to read out loud. But then the teacher said, okay, class, read quietly to yourself or read silently. lead to yourself. And that's where you learn, well, if I had to say it out loud, if I'm not saying it out loud, I have to whisper it or say it inside my own head. But, you know, that's why people are such

Starting point is 00:58:20 poor readers, because the last time they upgraded their skills, we took a last time you took a reading class, most people were six or seven. So the demand has increased a lot. The difficulty has increased a lot, but how we're reading it is exactly the same as when we last were trained. And that's why I feel like you're not born with the ability to read. And so how do you develop any skill? You do it through proper training. Earlier, you mentioned the idea of reading a page and not remembering what it is you just read. And I think another issue is just people read books and, you know, tend to forget, you know,

Starting point is 00:58:53 so much of what they just read, which is, I feel like it's normal to some degree just because there's so much content in a book. So what do you usually teach in terms of retention and increasing retention? I'll give you two quick tips. I mean, and obviously the book goes way more into detail. and our courses are 21 to 30 days. So it's the difference between a tip and a training, right? You get a little tip to kind of move the needle a little bit.

Starting point is 00:59:15 Training is where it's just, how much you know how to type, you know how to type, right? It takes just a few weeks, 15 minutes a day. But if you want greater comprehension and speed, first, use a visual pacer and ask everyone to test it. Don't trust everything I'm saying. Pick up where you left off. Put a little mark in the margin where you left off of your latest book. And then read, set your timer to go off in 60 seconds. And then when you're done, the alarm goes off, put a little mark in the margin.

Starting point is 00:59:40 And then count the number of lines you read in 60 seconds. So that'll give you a base rate, right? Now, when you pick up where you finished, I want you to do just continue reading for 60 seconds, but this time underline the words with your finger. You don't have to touch the screen on your ebook or you don't have to touch the paper. Just going margin to margin. Don't skip anything. And count the number of lines you read in the second 60 seconds.

Starting point is 01:00:01 That number is usually 25 to 50 percent greater. So, and that's not a small amount. Improving anything 25, 50% is a huge amount because, you know, time is money and reading takes time. And the average person, the reason why we do all this training at Facebook, Nike, Google, SpaceX, these companies is the average person reads four hours a day just to keep up. I mean, think about everything you read in the media or emails or research, whatever you have to read, right? If you could just double your reading speed, save two hours a day. I mean, goodness, two hours a day over the course of a year. Even if you save one hour a day over the course of a year is 365 hours.

Starting point is 01:00:34 If you divide that by a 40-hour work week, that's more than nine weeks you get back every single year, two months you get back every single year on something ubiquitous like reading. So that's why reading is such a needle mover, not just to exercise your brain, not just for learning new information and knowledge that you could turn into profit, but to save you time. But going back to this, using your finger while you read, just going left to right or a pen or a highlighter or a mouse on a computer, our eyes are attracted to that motion. It helps us to focus.

Starting point is 01:00:59 And because we have better focus, we have better comprehension. Literally, people using their finger will say, I feel more in touch with my heart reading. But the second thing, going back to the power of questions that will help your comprehension is to ask more questions. Even when you're reading something, the three questions I ask myself all the time is, how can I use this? If I'm listening to this podcast, I'm like, how can I use this? How can I apply this? Why must I? Going back to motivation and purpose so I could feel it, all the benefits. And then when will I? And I'll put it into my schedule and my notes and I'll put something in saying, I'm going to apply this one idea with the team on this day and time. Right. And so if I'm in greater speed,

Starting point is 01:01:33 use your finger while you read. If you want better comprehension, ask more questions. That's why even when we do like test prep, people read like pages of paragraphs and then reading comprehension questions at the end. But what if you read those questions first? And then you go through and you're like,

Starting point is 01:01:49 oh, there's an answer, there's an answer, there's an answer. That's why every single chapter of limitless, it's not just teaching you accelerated learning, it's doing it. Every chapter opens up with three questions. So it gets you priming that reticular activating system. So it's yours, you're looking for those answers when you go through it.

Starting point is 01:02:05 And then we do at the end a summary of it and how we can apply it and throughout every page or every other page or something called quick starts, my last name, quick starts, something you do in 60 seconds to apply it, right? Because we want to get it ingrained. So it's not only a book on accelerated learning, it's a book that's actually design and written to learn faster just because that's how our brain works. I know you work a lot with organizations and working with groups, but I believe you've also worked with investors and wealth managers as well. I'm curious if there's anything that's stuck out

Starting point is 01:02:36 and working with them that seems to be a common theme because each group or each profession is going to be a unique bunch. This is a new chapter in the book is all about cognitive types. And it's a new model that I introduced. I've always used it with our one-on-one clients for years. And this is the first time we've opened it to the public. And this is an interesting thing that allow everybody to have greater productivity and performance throughout the year because I realized after three decades of as a brain coach everybody learns a little bit differently right and just like with our diet everyone's a little bio individual some people you know certain foods and they thrive on it other foods they're not because they're microbiome so just like there's personalized medicine based on

Starting point is 01:03:19 your genetics like a test for your genetics or there's a test for your microbiome that would inform personalized nutrition we created a personalized assessment for your brain type and we realized that are about four buckets, and I use animals for each of these. And you could see the leaders, kind of these individuals that are big investors, they run big companies or their founders, what animals they exhibit. So just to make it really simple, remember the word code, C-O-D-E. Maybe you could kind of see yourself at one of these. They're the animals. So the C stands for a cheetah. So this quick assessment, you can go to mybrainanimal.com. You can take it for free with the release of the new book. We're just making it available complementary. And you'll get personalized

Starting point is 01:03:59 instruction on how to read faster, improve your memory, make better decisions, hire, better, parent, better based on your brain type, okay? Mybrainimal.com, and you get a whole track, a follow-up in terms of based on your brain type. So the first animal, the C, is the Cheetah. And the defining characteristic is they are fast implementers. Okay. So these are people who are known for their speed, their agility, they're quick to make decisions, they have very strong intuition. They adapt very quickly. They thrive in fast-paced environments. The O in code are your owls, and their defining trait is logic. They love data. They love facts. They love figures. They love research. They're very studious. The D encode are your dolphins, and their defining characteristic is

Starting point is 01:04:43 creativity. And so these are individuals that are great pattern recognizers. These are often your founders that have a vision for something maybe other people can't yet see, right? Like a Walt Disney. The E, finally, are your elephants, and your elephants, the defining trade is empathy. And they have high EQ. And they're very compassionate. They're very loyal. These are your community builders. These are individuals that support others.

Starting point is 01:05:08 They want people to feel seen. They want them to feel understood and feel valued, right? So once you take the quiz, you'll see what your primary and secondary is. It doesn't mean you don't have other characteristics. But it's just like if you're right-handed, doesn't mean you don't use your left. It's just you're more productive with your right-hand. But often somebody, if you're trying to learn something, often your brain animal is different than the teacher's brain animal. And it's like your two ships in the night and you pass each other.

Starting point is 01:05:32 You don't even recognize the other ones there. There's no connection. It's kind of like love languages if you're familiar with that. If somebody use words for affirmation and their partner happens to be acts of kindness, right? They're speaking a different language. And so maybe they don't feel value to recognize or the communication is different. So going back to answer your question, a lot of these leaders, they've leaned into their brain animal. If I was to, like even our team, we had everybody on our team take this assessment in four minutes. A hundred percent of our customer service team, they're elephants. They have high levels of empathy. They are community builders. They're very supportive and loyal. Our CFO, our financial person, is an owl. Just loves the data and

Starting point is 01:06:12 loves the numbers, right? Our CEO, my business partner, she's a creative dolphin. She's a visionary. And so it's interesting. If you go through this, you can even look at friends. If you watch the television show Friends, it would be like the owl and the show would be Ross. Scientists, professor, loves a lot of research. Cheetah would be Joey who just acts. Doesn't think about it, just acts, right? Phoebe would be the dolphin, the creativity, the creative one.

Starting point is 01:06:37 Monica would be the one that just always brings people together at her apartment. She wants to host everything. She's the elephant. But, you know, if you go through it, and not everybody is one thing, right? But there is definitely a dominant trait. Like, Jeff Bezos could be the fast Cheetah, right? Cheetahs are known for their speed and their agility. He's quick decision-making, the rapid growth of Amazon reflects these characteristics. Elon would be, I would say, is more of a creative dolphin.

Starting point is 01:07:00 You know, dolphins symbolize creativity and intelligence and work in creating groundbreaking companies that he can envision, like, you know, rockets that are going to Mars. Warren Buffett, 100% would be a logical owl. You know, wisdom, logical thinking, his investment strategy are highly analytical. They're based on long-term predictions and body a logical owl, right? Zuckerberg could be a cheetah. So you can kind of go through, but if people fall in the, and then once you know your brain type, because here's the bottom line, Clay, it's not how smart you are. It's how smart your kids are, your team is.

Starting point is 01:07:33 It's how are they smart. It allows people to kind of design their life and takes the judgment off of others because they're just working from their brain type and they're communicating through their brain type. Like cheetahs, even their communication styles and their parent, They're very fast to the point. They don't beat around the bush, right, because they don't want to waste time, cheetahs. Owls speak in a more logical, linear fashion.

Starting point is 01:07:54 They're very organized with their thought. They take more time before they make a decision because they want to get all the facts, right? Creative dolphins would communicate more in pictures and envisions. And they would read that way, too. A dolphin would read and imagine everything that they're reading. An owl will take more time and be more deliberate. A cheetah would skim and scan getting through the information. An elephant would read as if they're more empathetic.

Starting point is 01:08:17 They want to see what the author's point of view is, you know, and see things from other people's perspective and have high-level empathy. So it informs everything, parenting, hiring, managing your team. And so that's a big part of this new book, Limitless Expanded, where we show you different ways to apply it towards your wealth, towards your health, towards your learning, obviously, and so much more. Jim, it was such a pleasure reading your book. having you on the show. I've read it over the past week and kind of, you know, in preparation for

Starting point is 01:08:48 this conversation, but definitely going to be revisiting it and giving it more of a, you know, in-depth, deep dive. So thank you for joining me. Really, really appreciate it. For those in the audience, I want to get connected with you and check out the book. Where Should They Head? Thank you. If you go to Limitlessbook.com or anywhere where you buy books, we're donating the proceeds, the author proceeds, the charities, built schools. For the last book, we built schools in Kana, Guatemala, Kenya, also Alzheimer's Research in Memory of My grandmother who I lost when I was a child also. So it's just, I believe part of the process is you learn to earn to return. And so I would challenge everybody actually take a screenshot wherever you're

Starting point is 01:09:24 consuming this right now and tag us both in it. I'm at Jim Quick, KWIK and share your brain animal. After you get the book or you go at mybrainimal.com, you'll get some AI art for each animal. If you watch us on video, we have like, we have the cheetah and we have the different animals represented, but you could post it at Tagas so we get to see it and I'll repost some. And I just, I want to thank you. But yeah, social media, limitlessbook.com, mybrainanimal.com. 95% of what we publish out there is absolutely free. We're on a mission to build better, brighter brains.

Starting point is 01:09:57 No brain left behind. So this is a fun conversation. I appreciate it, Clay. My final words really are that there's a version, I'm talking to the listener, that there's a version of yourself that's patiently waiting. And the goal is we show up every single day until, were introduced. And so every single day, small, simple steps, little by little, a little becomes a whole lot. I love it. That's a good place to end it. Thanks so much, Jim. Thanks, Clay.

Starting point is 01:10:23 Thank you for listening to TIP. Make sure to subscribe to millennial investing by the Investors Podcast Network and learn how to achieve financial independence. To access our show notes, transcripts, or courses, go to the investorspodcast.com. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any decision consult a professional, this show is copyrighted by the Investors Podcast Network. Written permission must be granted before syndication or rebroadcasting.

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