Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Jim Kwik: Fix Your Brain Health to Unlock Limitless Memory | Mental Health | YAPClassic

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Jim Kwik’s brain health suffered a major setback after a traumatic injury in kindergarten. Labeled "the boy with the broken brain," he believed his intelligence was permanently limited due to learni...ng difficulties, poor focus, and memory issues. This mindset shifted when he discovered a new way to learn and train his brain. In this episode, Jim reveals how he improved his memory, transformed his brain health, and reframed limiting beliefs to unlock limitless potential. In this episode, Hala and Jim will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:20) Overcoming the “Broken Brain” Label (07:11) The Shift That Changed How He Learned (16:12) Immigrant Mindset and Inner Strength (21:20) The Science Behind Motivation and Learning (29:36) Myths About Brain Health and Intelligence (34:33) Training Your Memory for Real-World Success (40:46) The B-SUAVE Method for Remembering Names (46:05) How Technology Weakens Brain Performance (52:03) Loving and Training Your Brain Jim Kwik is a world-renowned brain coach, memory expert, and author of the New York Times bestselling book Limitless. With over three decades of experience, he teaches high performers how to improve learning, focus, and brain optimization. Jim is also the host of the top-ranked Kwik Brain podcast, where he explores brain health, cognitive wellness, and mental performance. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/profiting Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Spectrum Business - Keep your business connected seamlessly with fast, reliable Internet, Advanced WiFi, Phone, TV, and Mobile services. Visit https://spectrum.com/Business to learn more. Northwest Registered Agent - Build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes at northwestregisteredagent.com/paidyap Framer - Publish beautiful and production-ready websites. Go to Framer.com/profiting and get 30% off their Framer Pro annual plan. Quo - Run your business communications the smart way. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/profiting Working Genius - Take the Working Genius assessment and discover your natural gifts and thrive at work. Go to workinggenius.com and get 20% off with code PROFITING Experian - Manage and cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reduce your bills. Get started now with the Experian App and let your Big Financial Friend do the work for you. See experian.com for details. Huel -  Get all the daily nutrients you need with Huel. Grab Huel today and get 15% OFF with my code PROFITING at huel.com/PROFITING. Resources Mentioned: Jim's Book, Limitless: bit.ly/-Limitles  Jim’s Podcast, Kwik Brain: bit.ly/KB-apple  Jim’s YouTube: youtube.com/c/JimKwik  Jim’s Instagram: instagram.com/jimkwik/?hl=en  YAP E385 with Jim Kwik: youngandprofiting.co/E385  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey: bit.ly/-7Habits  The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale: bit.ly/TPoPT  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: bit.ly/-TaGR  Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals  Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Newsletter - youngandprofiting.co/newsletter  LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new  Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Biohacking, Manifestation, Life Balance, Self-Healing, Positivity, Happiness, Sleep, Diet

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Starting point is 00:00:01 What's up, Yap, Bam? If you've ever told yourself your bad at remembering names, staying focused, or learning new things, this Yap Classic is about to change the way you think about your brain. Because the truth is, your brain isn't broken. It's just been trained that way. Today, I'm revisiting my conversation with Jim Quick. This was my first conversation with Jim. I actually interviewed him for the second time.
Starting point is 00:00:31 If you guys want to hear that episode, go check out Monday's episode. And Jim Quick, if you don't know him, he's widely known as the world's number one brain coach. And after overcoming a childhood traumatic brain injury, Jim turned his biggest struggle into a mission to help millions learn faster, think sharper, and unlock their full mental potential. Now, Jim is the real deal. And in this episode, we dove deep on his limitless framework. We covered practical memory hacks, ways to boost mental energy and strategies to beat digital distractions that can quietly steal your focus every day. This was such an awesome conversation. I remember it just like it was yesterday. It's just as powerful today as when it first aired. So if you're ready
Starting point is 00:01:11 to train your brain and become truly limitless, sit back, take notes, and enjoy. Let's get into it. I think a lot of our young improfitors would be surprised to hear that you actually had a traumatic brain injury. It left you learning challenged. And when you were nine, one of your teachers came to your defense while others were teasing you and said, that's the boy with the broken brain, leave him alone. And that was a defining moment for you in that your brain was broken. It actually became your limit until the age of 18. Today, you're known for your incredible brain and your ability to do this seemingly impossible, like memorizing everyone's name in a room filled with hundreds of people. So let's begin here. Talk to us about those early years when you were the boy with a broken brain
Starting point is 00:01:58 and tell us about this boy you were before you started your transformation. Wow. Okay, let's go back. You mentioned my traumatic brain injury when I was in kindergarten, and I was rushed to the emergency room, and where I really showed up, the effects was in school. I had trouble learning. I couldn't focus. I had a horrible memory. I couldn't process information like everybody else. Teachers would repeat themselves over and over again, and I learned to pretend to understand, but I really didn't understand anything. It took me a few years longer just to learn how to read. And now those are really, there's a lot of anxiety and stress for a kid. you remember sitting in those reading circles, they would pass around a book and you don't have to read out loud when you came to you and I just have a look at the page and the words meant nothing. Yeah, I thought I had the broken brain and every single time I did badly on a test or wasn't picked for
Starting point is 00:02:47 sports in school, which was very often, I would always say, oh, because I have the broken brain. And adults have to be very careful with their external words because they become a child's internal words. That became myself talk. Even when at events, when people see me do these demonstrations, I never do it to impress them. I really do them to just to express to them what's possible because the truth is every single one of your listeners could do that and a whole lot more. We just weren't taught. If anything, we're taught a lie that somehow our potential, our intelligence is somehow fixed, like maybe our shoe size. And we've discovered more about the human brain. Here's the exciting news. And we're in the past 10 years than the previous thousand years combined that we found is we're grossly underestimating
Starting point is 00:03:25 our own capabilities. That really is not even the sky's the limit. It's really our minds are the limit. And so my mission really is to build better, brighter brains, no brain left behind. I know what it's like to struggle, to be distracted, to not feel confident in your own mind. And I really feel that, you know, your brain is your number one wealth-building asset. And the faster you can learn, the faster you can earn. Because today, knowledge is not only power, knowledge is a lot of what your show is about. It's about profit. And I don't just mean financial profit. I mean, all the treasures of your life gets better. When you understand how your brain works, you could work your brain. And when you can learn and focus and remember and apply,
Starting point is 00:04:05 you could apply that towards anything, money, management, martial arts, music, Mandarin, everything in your life gets so much easier. And so my message to everybody really is that limits are learned and that it's just our school system that really teach us how our brain works. There's no class on focus or memory. And so when we beat ourselves up because we can't concentrate or we can't understand something. It's not, I realized after years of doing this, it's not how smart we are. It's really how are we smart?
Starting point is 00:04:36 And we're all smart in different ways. And I think the most important skill for entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs or people who really want to get to the next level is learning how to learn. And that's really, really would focus on. Yeah. I really relate to you and I was so excited to bring you on because I think this is such an important topic.
Starting point is 00:04:54 And I think a lot of people have been through a similar struggle. I remember, like, I wasn't always good at math. They would always put me in the poor math class when I was younger. And then I had this stigma that I was like always terrible at math. Then I get to college and I'm great at math. And you just kind of have this transformation once you realize that these are actually just labels and limitations. And you can get over it as an adult. But so many of us spend years believing this lie that adults told us when we were little or like,
Starting point is 00:05:24 thing happened and we go on believing forever that that's just who we are. The word you use is absolutely, I use it in the book, Limitless, lie. You know, we believe these lies and a lie for me stands, everything's kind of turned into an acronym or some kind of demonic to make it easy to recall, but lies for me stands for a limited idea entertained. It's not true that you're not smart enough. It's just a limited idea that we're entertaining. It's not true that you're not smart enough or that you're not, you don't have the resourcefulness. And so it's really about transcending. I think the nature of personal growth is about transcending.
Starting point is 00:06:01 It's about ending the transcending this mass hypnosis, maybe through, we got from our parents or marketing or media that somehow that we're broken, somehow that somehow we could only have only a small amount or be a small amount or share, you know, a small amount. And we found that we shouldn't be, I find, especially of recent, that the big mistake people make is they shrink all that's possible to fit their minds when maybe we should explore expanding our minds to fit all that's really possible. I love that. So let's fast forward to your college years.
Starting point is 00:06:40 So your label became your limit from your age of five to 18. You were sort of put in this box. You didn't believe you could be better necessarily or you didn't have the tools. and you were a freshman in college, you still had a difficult time learning, like your peers, and you were actually ready to drop out of school, but you ended up meeting a mentor.
Starting point is 00:06:59 It was your friend's dad. He gave you a new direction, and it was a very pivotal point in your life. I'd love for you to share that story with us and why that moment in time was so eye-opening for you. So as you mentioned, I thought getting into school would give me a reset. Like, I thought freshman meant fresh start
Starting point is 00:07:17 as I took all these classes, and I wanted to show the world and show myself really, made me make people around me proud. And I did worse. And it was so difficult for me. And I didn't have the money to be in school to begin with. And so I was ready to quit. And when I had that thought, I was talking to friends.
Starting point is 00:07:35 And a friend said, hey, that's a big life decision. Why don't you get some perspective? And he invites me to visit his home over the weekend where he was going to just kind of get some time off. And I agree. And, you know, when I get to this person's home, it's beautiful. It's kind of down the water. And the father walks me around his property and before dinner and asked me a very innocent
Starting point is 00:07:58 question. And the question is, how's school? And that is, I mean, I'm just getting choked up even like thinking about it right now because it's, I didn't, that was the worst question you could ask me. And I start bawling in front of this stranger because I have so much pressure that, you know, I haven't told anybody. and I told him my whole story about having my brain injury and not feeling enough and school's not for me and I'm ready to quit. I don't know how to tell my folks. And he said, Jim, and this question,
Starting point is 00:08:27 one question changes everything, right? He said, why are you in school? What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have? What do you want to share? And completely, completely honest, I didn't have any answer because I didn't know why I was in school. I just thought that's what you do, right, Holly, it's like, you know, I was on that path. And when I start thinking about it, I go to answer him and he says, stop. He reaches out in his back pocket. It takes out, no, I'm a notepad and he just asked me to write down, you know, Tara's had a couple sheets, make me write down, you know, all the things I want, you know, if anything is possible. And if you can't fail, what would you, what would you do? And I start writing these things down. And I don't know how much
Starting point is 00:09:04 time goes by, I kind of lose track of time. And when I'm done, though, I start folding in the sheets of paper to put in my pocket, and he rips them out of my hands. And I'm freaking out because he starts reading him. And I've never shared these things, my dreams or my desires, my goals with anybody. I didn't even realize some of these things I wanted until I went through his exercise. And I'm freaking out because I'm afraid of being judged, like anybody. You don't want to be judged. You don't want to feel like, you know, that, oh, that you're not good enough for all these things. And when he's done, he starts, he looks at me and he says, Jim, you are this close to everything on this list. And he's, for those of all watching on video, he's spreading my index fingers about a foot apart.
Starting point is 00:09:49 And I was like, no way. You know, I'm not that close. Give me 10 lifetimes. I'm not going to crack that list. And he takes his index fingers and he puts them to the side of my head, meaning what's in between is the key that would unlock those achievements and meaning my brain. He walks me into his home, then into a room I've never seen before. It is wall-to-wall sealing the floor covered in books. And at this point, I've never read a book cover-to-cover.
Starting point is 00:10:17 I still have some reading issues, ability issues, and I'm freaking out. It's like being in a room full of snakes, you know, for people who are phobic of, you know, and I have anxiety around something. And what makes it worse is he starts going to the shelves and grabs these snakes, if you will and starts handing them to me. And just book after book. And I started looking at the titles. And there are these biographies of some incredible women and men in history and some very
Starting point is 00:10:43 early personal growth books. I mean, the classics. Norman Vincent Peel, the power of positive thinking, thinking grow rich, Napoleon Hill. And he says, Jim, says leaders or readers, I want you to read one book a week. And my honest reaction was, have you not heard anything I've said to you this entire time? I have learning disabilities. I have challenges. I can't read very well. I have so much schoolwork. And when I said I have so much school work, he said, Jim, don't let school get in the way of your education. And I didn't realize it was a Mark Twain quote at the time, but I was like, wow, it's really profound. And I can't promise to read a book a week. And then very smart man, he reaches into his pocket and he takes out my goals, like my bucket list. And he starts reading every single one of my goals out loud. And something about hearing like your goal. and your deepest desires said by a stranger, like encanted out into the world, and mess with my mind
Starting point is 00:11:39 and my spirit, honestly, something fierce. And a lot of things on that list were things I wanted to do for my parents, things that they could never, even if they could afford to, they wouldn't do for themselves. And with that motivation, you know, in those reasons, I promised to read one book a week. Well, fast forward, now I'm back at school and I have all these midterms. I'm sitting at my desk. I have a pile of books. I have to read for school and a pile of books I promised to read. And I already couldn't get through
Starting point is 00:12:05 pile A. So what, you know, where do I find the time? So I don't eat, I don't sleep, I don't socialize, I don't work out. I don't do anything. I just live in the library day and night for weeks and weeks. And one night I pass out at the library 2 a.m. I fall down a flight of stairs. I hit my head again and I woke up two full days later in the hospital. And at this point, I was hooked up to all these IVs, these, you know, that was malnourished, dehydrated. I was down to 117 pounds. I was wasted away because I'm just taking care of myself. And it was the darkest point in my life. And at that point, when I woke up, something else woke up inside of me also. And, you know, I kind of renewed sense of like purpose. And I thought, and it's interesting because I just, I didn't know what to do.
Starting point is 00:12:52 And the nurse came in with a mug of tea and had a picture of Albert Einstein and, you know, a genius. But the words, the quote, was one you've heard before. It said the same level of thinking that has created your problem won't solve your problem. And it made me ask a new question, the power of questions again, what's my real problem? My problem is I'm a slow learner. And I was like, how do I think differently about it? Maybe I can learn how to learn faster. So I put my schoolwork aside and I just start studying the art and science around learning.
Starting point is 00:13:22 I want to understand how my brain works so I can work my brain. How does my memory work so I can work my memory better? How's focus work? I started studying ancient methodologies of what did ancient civilizations do before there were printing presses, how do they remember things and new brain science? And after a couple of months of studying this, a light switch just flipped on. And I started in school understanding things for the very first time in my life. I started to have this renewed focus and interest in learning.
Starting point is 00:13:52 I started to be able to read, be able to retain and do better. my grades shot up and then, but not only that, but my life got better. And, you know, the reason why I'm still here 30 years later, plus years later, is because I started, you know, it's funny. When you learn something, like you go watch movies, like The Matrix or, you know, your favorite superhero, whatever, it's always, you kind of go from this Joseph Campbell's work, you go from this ordinary world to this extraordinary world, and then you can't help it bring back, you know, things. And I started sharing some the things I was doing with friends and I started tutoring. And one of my very first students, I was teaching her how I was speed reading. She read 30 books and 30 days. Can you imagine?
Starting point is 00:14:34 It's a lot. So many people are really good at buying books and that's a different skill set than reading those books. People buy books. They sit on your shelf. It become shelf help, not self-help. And I started, I wanted to know not how she did it, but why. And I found out that her motivation was her mom. Her mom was diagnosed with terminal. cancer, doctors gave her mom maybe two months to live. And the books she was reading were books on health and wellness, books to save her mom's life. And I find out six months later, she calls and she's crying and crying. And when she stops crying, I find out their tears of joy that her mother not only survived, but it's getting better. Doctors don't know how or why. The doctors were calling
Starting point is 00:15:14 it a miracle. But her mother attributed the great advice she got from her daughter who lindered from all these books. Wow. In that moment, I found my mission in life because I realized in that moment if knowledge is power, we hear that a lot. Then reading and learning is our superpower. And I realize it's the most important superpower and it's a power we all have inside of us. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that incredible story. So I'm going to take us down a rabbit hole. I wasn't originally planning this. But as you were telling your story, I couldn't help but start thinking about immigrant parents and sort of like the pros and the cons of immigrant parents. So I came from immigrant parents. I'm assuming you came from immigrant parents, am I correct?
Starting point is 00:15:54 Yes. And I remember like all my friends, I actually had a sick. My dad was a doctor. But even though my dad was a doctor, nobody helped me with homework when I was a kid. Like I remember like I, it was kind of like on my own because my mom didn't speak that great of English. My dad was busy at work providing for the family. So I felt like I was always alone where I feel like other people, peers that might have had American parents probably got help with their homework. and things like that or better guidance.
Starting point is 00:16:23 Like, you had that conversation with you when you were 18 and nobody ever told you to write your goals down before. Because when you have immigrant parents, they're kind of figuring out how to navigate the world and provide and they're kind of on this lower rung than everyone else trying to figure it out. I feel like sometimes you don't get the advice that you need when you're kids. Talk to us about that. Does that ring any bells for you or I'd love to hear your thoughts?
Starting point is 00:16:48 Let's go there. My dad came to the United States when he was 13. He lost both his parents. And so I didn't speak the language and have any money. Came and lived with his aunt, who I knew as my grandmother. And the mother grew up. They lived in the back of a laundromat that my grandmother worked at. And so it was kind of that environment and speak the language. And, you know, it's interesting because sometimes we think about resources. and growing up, we didn't have any network or connections or money or education or those kind of things. But I feel like a lot of it comes to the resources we have inside. And I think, again, most important is the resource of our own mind is really truly limitless. And so I think within every disadvantage, there's that word advantage. With challenge comes change.
Starting point is 00:17:38 My two biggest challenges growing up were learning for a long, for a decade and a half. And because of it, other challenge was public speaking because my superpower growing up was shrinking down. I didn't want to be seen because I never had the answer. Never. If I was ever called on in class, I would never know what the right, what the solution was. I never wanted the spotlight and my insecurities, my inadequacies kind of like seen by everybody. And so my superpower was being invisible. And the universe has a sense of humor because what do I do? For a living, all I do is public speak on this thing called learning. I really think that our disadvantages can be an advantage that through our struggles lead the strengths, that through challenge leads to change. My parents, they're remarkable. I attribute it in all fairness
Starting point is 00:18:26 that anything that's good that's come out of me has come from them and anything that's fallen short is really on me. I take that responsibility because they're the reason why I learned to do what I say that I'm going to do, discipline, kindness, working hard. And I really really, I really do think that if somebody is, they do the right things for the right reasons, they're kind, they're willing to learn and make mistakes. And then I feel like there are results will speak for themselves. My challenge is sometimes where we give up our power outside of us. We give up our agency by making an excuse or complaining. And the truth is, we can't be upset by the results we didn't get from the work we didn't do. And so I feel like it's so important that especially if somebody's on
Starting point is 00:19:12 the path, like building wealth or starting a business. In the beginning, it's really hard because you've never done this before. There's a learning curve. The results don't show up right away. It tests your persistence, your patience, your commitment also, and you have to feed your dreams. You have to feed your business until your business or your dreams feed you back. And then in the beginning, you're grossly underpaid, if anything. But if you're consistent and, you know, you work hard. You're always learning. Then I feel like it's, you're, you're, you're always learning. then I feel like at some point it switches. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:44 And you get overpaid for the things that you do because of all the work that you did before that. And so I feel like Jim Rohn has this quote that what you do, what you're rewarded in public, which, you know, for the work you do in private. And I feel like everybody right now that's struggling, that's putting in the hours and the early mornings or the late nights, you know, I just feel like part of it is just taking care of yourself and believing in yourself. And we hear this all the time. For me, believing myself is, I saw this bird the other day, and I realized, you know, while it's singing its song and it's calm and its confidence, it's calm and its confidence doesn't
Starting point is 00:20:18 come from putting its trust in the tree branch. The bird's calm and confidence comes to putting its trust in its own wings. And I feel like that, you know, when we have to know ourselves and have the curiosity to know ourselves, but then also trust ourselves and then having the courage to be ourselves also. It's different practice. there are certain services you don't think about until they stop working. And internet and mobile are at the top of that list. When connectivity is slow and unreliable, everything from work to content creation to just basic communication gets so much harder. And that's why spectrum business focuses
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Starting point is 00:23:10 Not all bills or subscriptions are eligible. Savings not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. See Experian.com for details. Yap, gang, I have become obsessed with the working genius assessment. It was created by Patrick Lensione. He came on my podcast about two years ago and taught me about working genius. I took the assessment then and it was a game changer for me individually.
Starting point is 00:23:35 But this year, I'm taking it to the next level and I've basically implemented a working genius across my entire company. This is not a personality test. It's an actual test that helps you understand the way that you work best. There are six types of working geniuses. Everybody has two geniuses. It's a type of work that gives them energy. Two competencies. It's the type of work that you may be good at, but over time it actually drains you.
Starting point is 00:23:57 And then you have two working frustrations. It's the work you don't like to do, and it drains your energy. I uncovered that my two geniuses are invention and galvanizing. My two competencies are discerations. discernment and tenacity. And then my working frustrations are enablement and wonder. So once I found this out, everything just like clicked for me. Number one, I realized why I was budding heads with my executive team, because wonder is the frustration for me, whereas my business partner has wonder as a strength. I wanted to get things done, rally the group, keep things moving. He wanted to think
Starting point is 00:24:35 about the big picture and if this was the right direction at all. And so once we figured out, these are our geniuses. We realize we can't build this company without each other and our strengths, and it helped us work better together. And it also helped me uncover gaps within my organization. Turns out that I'm the only person who has galvanizing as a core strength. So I'm always rallying the team and sometimes that can come off as pushy or aggressive, but now that my team knows that this is a gap, we need to hire people who have more of this
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Starting point is 00:26:02 And so I'd love to understand the importance of motivation related to believing in yourself. So motivation for me is not something that's abstract. It's something very, very tangible. This actually came from, I have a formula that I use to motivate myself and motivate clients that I get to work with. And it's very simple. And people, it turns a little masterclass. I encourage everyone to take notes. It's P times E times S3, three factors for limitless motivation. So if you struggle with getting yourself to do what you know you should do, because not by itself, it's not power, only because power when we apply it, when we implemented, right? P times E times S3.
Starting point is 00:26:43 And so, well, we could do a thought experiment. Everyone, think about something that you're not motivated to do. You know, something that you know you should do, but you're not doing it. Maybe it's in meditation, or maybe it's working out, maybe it's reading each day, whatever it happens to be. So the P stands for purpose. And I don't mean our life's purpose. We could talk about that, but I mean the reasons. without reasons, you won't get the result.
Starting point is 00:27:09 Even if you want to remember names, which I think is one of the most important skills, networking, business skills, business etiquette skills, because how are you going to show somebody you're in care for their future, their family, their health, their finances, whatever it is you sell them. If you don't care enough, just to remember their name, a lot of people will remember names better
Starting point is 00:27:25 if they just had a reason to remember their names. Like ask yourself, why do I want to remember the person's name? Maybe it's to show the person respect. Maybe it's to practice these things I learned from this podcast, right? And so it has to go from your head to your heart to your hands, meaning if you could have visualization, if you visualize in your head, you have goals in your head, a bucket list,
Starting point is 00:27:45 uh, KPI's, whatever in your head. And you're not acting consistently with your head. Check in with your hands. Check in with the second age, which is our heart. And the heart is a symbol of emotions.
Starting point is 00:27:57 Because we are not logical. Even people don't buy logically. We know that. People buy emotionally, right? Because we are not logical. We are biological. You think we're not logical or biological. You think about dopamine and oxytocin, seroton, and endorphins.
Starting point is 00:28:11 We are this chemical-feeling soup. But we don't do things unless we feel it. And that's really the key to a long-term memory. We tend to remember things that are charged with emotions. There's a song you could hear that could take you back to when you're a teenager, or a fragrance or a food that could take you back to when you're a child, right? Because information by itself is very forgettable. When information when it's combined with emotions become unforgettable.
Starting point is 00:28:33 because that part of your middle brain that's your amygdala is processing all these emotions and it's connected to your hippocampus, which is your memory. And so we remember things that make us feel a certain way and when it comes to motivation, we have to start with that feeling.
Starting point is 00:28:47 So when I say purpose, it's not intellectual purpose. We all know we should do these things, but common sense is not common practice unless we feel it. And so allow yourself to feel the sensations of who's counting on you to play your A game. What are the reward
Starting point is 00:29:02 you're going to be able to enjoy if you'll be able to follow through. So purpose. Now, like, let's say it's to do something like reading each day. You know leaders or readers. If anyone see me on social media with Elon or Oprah or Bill Gates or, you know, whoever, be bonded over books, you know, because you read to succeed. If somebody has decades of experience and they put into a book and you can sit down in a few days and read that book, you can download decades in the days. That's the biggest advantage there is in the world. Yep. Best ROI on your time. Yep. Absolutely. And so people intellectually know that, but if they're not doing it, part of it is they might not feel the benefits of doing it. After that, though, somebody could have limitless purpose
Starting point is 00:29:41 and still not read each day because they need the E and the P times E times S3, the E stands for energy. Such an important component and element of sustained motivation is sustained energy. And here's the thing, here's a trick when it comes to energy. Energy is not something you have. And people are listening, you're right, Jim, I have no energy. it's something you do. One of the principles that I subscribe to for accelerated learning is getting the habit of taking your nouns
Starting point is 00:30:11 and transferring them into verbs, transforming them into verbs, meaning we hypnotize ourselves with the language we're using on a regular basis, right? And your brain is this incredible supercomputer and your self-talk is the program that will run. So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering people's names.
Starting point is 00:30:27 You will not remember the name in the next person you meet because you program your supercomputer not to. Same thing with saying, I don't have energy. Because you don't have energy, you do energy. Just like you don't have focus, you're like, Jim, yes, this is my problem. I have no focus. You don't have focus.
Starting point is 00:30:42 You do focus. There's a process for focusing. There's a process for generating energy. You don't have creativity. There's a process for being creative. You don't even have a memory. There's a three-step process for memorizing something. And the benefit of taking a noun and turning them into a verb is all of a sudden you turn
Starting point is 00:31:01 into a process, right? It's a strategy now that you could execute on. And so that's really my goal is to take these processes and show people there's a method behind what looks like magic. When I can memorize and in front of an audience 50 people's names or 100 people's names that pass around a microphone, 100 random words, or random numbers or shuffle deck of cards or whatever, there's a time, obviously, I couldn't do that, right? I was worse off than most people who are listening. But there's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's a train memory and untrained memory. Just like there's no such thing as a good or bad brain. There's a trained brain and an untrained brain. So the second part for motivation is not just having purpose. Yes, you have
Starting point is 00:31:40 purpose to read, to succeed, to make more money, to have greater impact. But if you're not doing it, maybe you lack energy. Maybe you ate a big processed meal and you're in a food coma. Maybe you're waiting to read when you're most tired in the day and you haven't slept. And so you're depleted and you can't get yourself to act, right, because you lack the energy. And so, you know, we talk about in our podcast, in the books, 10 different ways you could optimize. Like, what are the best brain foods? What's the best way to reduce stress? Because stress uses up a whole lot of energy. How do you optimize your sleep? Now, after purpose and energy, let's say you have limitless purpose, you feel it, and you have lots of lots of energy, and you're still not following
Starting point is 00:32:19 through, working out, you know, or reading or whatever, making those sales calls, whatever. Then S3, the final part, three S's, small, simple steps. Here's the thing. So a lot of times people are not motivated because this thing is too abstract. And a confused mind doesn't do anything. Just like even if you're marketing to somebody, right, and if you make it too intimidating, they're not going to do anything because you have to break it down in the small, simple steps that they could see themselves following through on.
Starting point is 00:32:48 So maybe working out an hour a day is too hard for someone. That's not what they normally do. So maybe it's putting on their running shoes. Maybe it's getting them getting to the gym. That's a small, simple step. Maybe if you can't get a kid to floss their teeth, maybe it's getting the floss one tooth. Or clean their room is too difficult. It's too intimidating.
Starting point is 00:33:09 It's like climbing a mountain, but maybe putting one sock in the hamper. So inch by inch, it's a cinch. Yard by yard, it's way too hard. And my thing is, how do you find a small, simple step? I ask myself simple question, what is the tiniest action? People can write this down. What is the tiniest action I can take right now that will give me progress towards this goal, where I can't fail.
Starting point is 00:33:30 What is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal so tiny that I can't fail because you eliminate the friction so then you can create that positive momentum. So for me, you don't have motivation, you do it, and the process is purpose, energy, and small simple steps.
Starting point is 00:33:49 I love that because I feel like you're giving people ownership over their brain. A lot of people feel like they're born a genius, right? that you've got to like have these smarts and you're born with it or you're not, you know, they're living with these labels. So I think everything you're saying is really impactful and also really practical. You're giving us steps that we can take to actually improve our brain. So let's talk about myths because a lot of people think that we only use 10% of our brain. You say that's not true. I've heard that a thousand times. And I'd love to hear some of the myths that you've heard over
Starting point is 00:34:20 the years about learning and our brain. Yeah, let's let's name a few of them. The lie. or the BS, the BS stands for our belief systems. So the limited ideas entertain. One of them is exactly what you mentioned, that we use 10% of our brain. The truth is that we actually use 100% of our brain. And it's just, but here's the caveat. Some people use that 100% differently than other people. It's kind of like we use 100% of our body. Most people use 100% other bodies throughout the day. But some people are just more physically fit. They have endurance. They have flexibility. They have a level of agility and strength because they've trained those muscles. Well, I think the most important muscle, which is an organ, but metaphorically it's more like a muscle is the mind. And it's
Starting point is 00:35:07 use it or lose it. But if I put my arm in a sling for a year, it wouldn't grow stronger. It wouldn't even stay the same. What would happen to muscle? It would just atrophy. It would care weaker. That's a lot of what happens with our mental muscles. We're not utilizing them. And so we actually use 100% of our brain, just so we use 100% of our body. But if somebody needed to climb, go for a hike, and it's a pretty steep incline, some people are just going to navigate that easier than others. And same thing when people are reading. Some people will navigate through a book with greater speed, efficiency, focus, understanding, retention, enjoyment, because they're just mentally fit. And so, again, there's no such thing as a good or bad brain. There's a
Starting point is 00:35:46 trained brain and an untrained brain. That's the truth. Another myth is that genius, is is, as you mentioned, genius is born. You're either born with it or you're not born with it. And the truth is that it's not how smart you are. It's how are you smart. There's a story in Limitless, and I don't want to go and get audible right now, but maybe I could read this anecdote.
Starting point is 00:36:09 I talk about how genius is actually built. So the story that I share in here says, The king was watching a great magician perform his act. The crowd was enthralled, and so was the king. At the end, the audience roared with approval, and the king said, what a gift this man has, a God-given talent. But a wise counselor said to the king, My lord, genius is built, not born.
Starting point is 00:36:35 This magician's skill is the result of discipline and practice. These talents have been learned and honed over time with determination and discipline. The king was troubled by this message. The counselor's challenge had spoiled his pleasure in the magician's arts. Limited and spiteful man, how dare you criticize a true, genius. As I said, you either have it or you don't, and you most certainly don't. The king turned to his bodyguard and said, throw this man into the deepest dungeon, and he added for the counselor's benefits, so you won't be lonely. You can have two of your kind to keep you company. You shall have
Starting point is 00:37:07 two piglets as cellmates. From the very first day of his imprisonment, the wise counselor practice running up the stairs of his cell to the prison door carrying in each hand a piglet. As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, the piglets steadily grew into sturdy boars, and with every day of practice, the wise counselor increased in power and strength. One day, the king remembered the wise counselor and was curious to see how imprisonment has humbled him. He had the wise counselor summoned. When the prisoner appeared, he was a man a powerful physique, carrying a boar on each arm. The king exclaimed, what a gift this man has, a God-given talent.
Starting point is 00:37:44 The wise counselor replied, my lord, genius is built, not born. My skills have resulted discipline and practice. These talents have been learned and honed over time with determination and discipline. I love that story. It's one of those ideas that people don't see, as we were talking about earlier, the work that goes on behind the scenes, what you've done for to build your business, to build your brand. They don't see that. And so it's the tip of the iceberg kind of theory. But the idea here is that people aren't born, that they're actually with Genius. It'd actually be built. And I believe Genius leaves clues that when somebody's exceptional,
Starting point is 00:38:23 and you've had so many of these guests, you know, that are exceptional in certain areas, that you're helping them to deconstruct what they do and making it, you know, the methods more clear, you know, conscious for people who are listening and helps them develop their fast track, their shortcuts, if you will. And so, yeah, I really do believe Genius is something that's available to all of us. Yeah, 100%. And doing is so important. Like you're saying, the reps, the repetition, the consistency. I feel like that's really the key to everything. I feel like so I always talk about this on my podcast. Like get the skills, get the experiences, do the things. And like you said, it's not an overnight success ever. It's years and years. And then people just see the tip of that iceberg usually. So let's talk about memory. I love this. Memory is so foundational to everything that you say. You actually have said in the past, that no learning is happening without memory. So talk to us about how memory plays into everything that you teach.
Starting point is 00:39:21 So I believe, two of the most costly words in life are, I forgot. Like, how often do we say these words? Like, I forgot to do it. I forgot to bring it. I forgot that meeting. I forgot what I was going to say. I forgot that conversation. I forgot that person's name.
Starting point is 00:39:35 Every single time we have those thoughts, we could lose time. We could lose trust. We could lose a sale even. And so I believe on the other side, that memory will actually make you money when you could easily remember facts and figures and talking points, product information, client information, right? And you have it at your mental fingertips because everybody who's listening here, nobody, it's not like it was 100 years ago or generations ago. It's not like you're compensated for your brute strength. Today it's your brain strength. It's not like it was agricultural age where you're paid for your muscle power.
Starting point is 00:40:11 today, it's your mind power. And so memory is foundational. Socrates said learning is remembering. The challenge is memory wasn't a class back in school, right? I always thought it should have been the fourth hour, reading, writing, arithmetic, but what about retention? What about recall? What about remembering? And so there's certain things we could do to be able to improve our memory. And so a lot times people come to me and say, Jim, I want to get better at my memory. And I say, that's like saying, I want to be better at sports. What area specifically what sports? specifically. So let's say, let's go back to remembering names. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. So I think there are three keys to remembering names. The first one I mentioned already. And I use the acronym
Starting point is 00:40:54 mom, M-O-M and is like the mother of all, you know, memory techniques. The M stands for motivation. So just a reminder, when we forget something, we usually aren't connected to the reason why we want to remember it. And here's the thing. We don't remember all names, but nobody listening to this forgets all names either. And remember I said, genius leaves clues. And you're probably motivated to remember those names that you did remember. Maybe you're attracted to that person. Maybe that person could be good for your business or something. Hiring manager or something, right? Exactly. And you could ask yourself, you could connect with that again by asking yourself, why. Why do I want to remember this person's name and come up with just one reason? Because if you came up with one reason, you won't remember.
Starting point is 00:41:33 The O and Mom stands for observation. And this is, this is so simple, but it's usually the simple stuff that people forget to do. Observation means your attention. A lot of people aren't forgetting a name. They're just not paying attention. You could remember one or two words, right, a name. But most people, what are they doing? They're thinking about how they're going to reply or what they're going to say in response or waiting for their turn to speak. And so a lot of people, they're not forgetting. They're just not listening. And the art of memory is the art of attention. So I would remind you, imagine, And if you're writing this down, write the word, listen. And here's a brain exercise.
Starting point is 00:42:11 It's kind of like wordal. Like change the letters around, scramble the letters, and what word does it spell perfectly? Also, like if you scramble the letters and listen, it spells another word. Silent. Silent. And that's all I would ask people to do, if you want to improve their memory, remembering names, ask yourself why. Come up with a couple of reasons and then just be silent. Right.
Starting point is 00:42:30 One of my favorite books by my mentor is Dr. Stephen Covey. He wrote seven habits of highly effective people. And one of the habits is seek first to understand, then to be understood. Seek first to understand then to be understood. That we don't have to be the most interesting person in the room. But I think to have greater impact, have greater income, certainly have greater influence. Instead of being the most interesting person in the room, try to be the most interested person in the room, right?
Starting point is 00:42:58 That curiosity and get to seek first to understand. And it starts with the person's name, right? Because how are you going to, again, show you're going to care if you don't care enough just remember their name? Because people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And so that's so important. So just pay attention. And the final I'm and mom are the methods, you know, the things that we have in our podcast and our book. And we can talk about some of them for remembering name.
Starting point is 00:43:20 Something simple like be suave. So six steps on how to remember names and faces. If you see me do this and they had a live event or on video, be suave. Very, very simple. The be, believe. Because if you believe you can or believe you can, either way you're right. And you want to say you want to limit the negative self-talk. Because remember I said your brain is like a supercomputer or yourself,
Starting point is 00:43:41 or your self-talk is the program we're on. So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering names, you won't remember the name of the next person you meet. So many people at events come to me and they talk to me about their lives. They say, I'm too old, I'm not smart enough. And I say, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. That's so good.
Starting point is 00:43:57 If people truly understood how powerful their mind is, they wouldn't say or think something they didn't want to be true. So you want to be able to keep it encouraging. And so the B and B-Swave believe. The E, exercise. And I don't mean physical exercise, although people who are more physically active, like if you're listening to this podcast right now
Starting point is 00:44:16 and you're on an elliptical or you're going for a brisk walk, you'll probably learn it better. Because as your body moves, your brain grooves. When you move your body, you create brain-derived, neurotropic factors, BDNF, which is like fertilizer for neuroplasticity.
Starting point is 00:44:28 Great for learning. But I don't mean exercise. I mean practice, because practice makes progress. Practice makes progress. And so I'm very good at remembering names, but after the first month or two of learning how to do it, I haven't improved a whole lot more.
Starting point is 00:44:43 Because once you know how to do something, you know how to tie your shoes, then you just know how to tie your shoes, right? You know how to type, you know how to drive a car, and after 30 or 60 days, it's a skill. So I just want to just reaffirm that it's not a, you don't have a good or bad memory. There's a trained memory and untrained memory.
Starting point is 00:45:00 And so I would say practice. You don't have to go out there and practice remembering 15 people's names, but just start with one. You know, and then one becomes two. And little by little, a little becomes a whole lot. I love that. Be suave. And yeah, fam, 2026 is a year I'm fully focused on growing my personal brand. I'm taking it to the next level. For years, I was focused on my company. Now I'm focused on building my brand. I'm launching a book. And I'm upgrading and updating my website. My website has not been top of mind for years. and it drastically needs an upgrade. And when I was talking to my team about what we're going to do,
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Starting point is 00:47:22 I'm trying to get into the best shave of my life. I recently had Dr. Amy Shaw on the podcast. And we played this ranking game where basically I had her stack rank, the number one way to get energy in the day. and I gave her all the common things that we've hear about. Cold plunges, saunas, sunlight, walks. And she talks about this 30 grams of protein breakfast. So I threw that in the mix. And it was the number one way that people get energy in the day
Starting point is 00:47:47 is having 30 grams of protein in the morning. Now, I was like, okay, I've got to do this for 2026. It's part of my New Year's resolutions. But I'm not really a breakfast person. There's no way I'm sitting down and making a 30 gram protein breakfast. I don't have any time. And that's where Hewle makes it easy. They've got their black edition, ready to drink, plant-based meal.
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Starting point is 00:50:17 the name recognition thing because I was at podcast movement. You probably have heard of it. It's like a big conference, right? And I met some new friends and like at the end of the night, and I'm like one of the bigger podcasters there, right? And at the end of the night, I said, bye to this guy that we were hanging out with all night. I'm like, bye, Ben. And he's like, holla, my name is Chase. And I was like, oh, and I was like, damn. And then I felt so silly. And then, you know, when I saw this, I was like, how important is it to remember names? Like, it is one of the key foundations of networking, because that guy is forever going to remember that I embarrass him in front of other people, calling him the wrong name. And like, and then it just seemed like I didn't
Starting point is 00:50:54 pay attention, right? Yeah. And it happens. So shout out to Chase. Then the second half of B-Swave will help you do that. The S and Swabs say the name. So when somebody introduces themselves, say the name back to them and just literally just repeat it. Right. Chase, it's nice to meet you.
Starting point is 00:51:11 And just by hearing it again, it won't boost your retention, right? Because you get to hear it from them. You get to hear it from yourself. The U and Swab stands for Use It. Now you want to use it, you don't want to abuse it. So three or four times in the context of the conversation, wonderful. But you don't go to someone. somebody in, you know, and just meet them. Chase, it's nice to meet you. Chase, you want to grab a bite,
Starting point is 00:51:30 chase, you know, that would be an abuse. But using it, planting it three or four times, we'll help you retain it. The A in B-s-Swav, ask. And you could ask all kinds of things about a person's name, you know, who are you named after? How do you, is that spelled with a Y or an I? Especially for names that are unusual that you haven't heard before, like your own. Where to come from? It's Arabic and it actually means welcome. Oh, that's beautiful. And then you can ask somebody how they spell it and the origin and what's it where it's it from. And all of a sudden asking about a person's name, right?
Starting point is 00:52:03 They say a name is a sweetest sound of person's ears. The name will automatically trigger someone's reticular activating system. I know you've done shows on that also and had guests talk about the RAS and RAS. But that's one of the things that are programmed. It's a sweetest sound, right? So it gets your attention automatically. And so I'm calling people by name, asking about their name. So that's the A.
Starting point is 00:52:22 And finally, the V and the E in swab. the V is visualize. And here's a thing, so many people are better with faces than they are with names because they could see it. You go to someone and say, I recognize your face,
Starting point is 00:52:34 but I forgot your name. You never go to someone and say the opposite. You never go to someone say, I remember your name, but I forgot your face, right? So true. I wouldn't make a lot of sense. But we tend to remember what we see
Starting point is 00:52:46 and because more of our nervous system, our brain, is dedicated to real estate towards visual processing. And so there's a proverb that says what I hear I forget, what I see, I remember, what I do I understand. What I hear, I forget, I heard the name, I forgot it. What I see, I remember. I saw your face.
Starting point is 00:53:03 I'll always remember your face. And going back to what I do, I understand, you know, through practice, makes progress. So I would say if you tend to remember what you see, visualize, then try seeing what you want to remember. So if you meet somebody, name chase, then all of a sudden you can imagine it for a split second that they might be chasing you, right, or something like that. or if someone named Ben, imagine, and maybe they have a great head of hair,
Starting point is 00:53:29 and you imagine that their head is somehow associated with Big Ben or something like that. And then all of a sudden, and it sounds childish, but how fast are children and learning? They make these images, and then adds feeling to it too. We already said that information, when times emotion, become a long-term memory.
Starting point is 00:53:48 And so how can you visualize a person's name to make it more memorable? A person's name is Mary. imagine them carrying two lambs or getting married to them, right? And someone's name Mike, right? You just imagine them jumping on the table and singing karaoke on a microphone. And again, and these are temporary, it's to overcome what I call the six second syndrome. Somebody tells you their name. You have six seconds to do something with that. Otherwise, what happens? As soon as a handshake breaks, it like falls right through the floor. So it grabs it, it forces you to focus on the person and it forces
Starting point is 00:54:21 you to focus on the name. And that focus will lead to remembrance. And so remember what you want to see by seeing what you want to remember. That's the B. And then finally, the E and B suave is end. You know, when you leave somebody, you use their name saying goodbye using their name. Because if you could walk into a room of strangers and like 20 people and then leave saying goodbye to every single one of them by name, who are they all going to remember? They're all going to remember you, right? And that's a standout skill in a world where a lot of services are commoditized and you need to be able to stand out and become unforgettable. I think one of the easiest ways to stand out in a room is remembering people. I 100% agree. This is such a good hack. I feel like everyone should rewind, take some notes down
Starting point is 00:55:07 and give yourself a homework assignment, start to practice be suave when you're at your next networking event or party or whatever it is and see if you can remember every single person's name and give it a try. I think it's really cool. And you know what? Based on your work, I found out that we're actually getting worse at stuff like this because of digital dementia and some issues like this. So I'd love to move on to that as we start to close out the interview. So you call these supervillains. And this is all related to our relationship with technology. You have four drivers of the digital age that reduce brain performance, digital deluge, digital distraction, digital deduction, and digital dementia. So I'd love to learn a little. bit about those areas. So these are the four horsemen of the mental apocalypse. And it's one of those things where, let's start with digital deluge. It's one of those things where it's overload, information overload. And how many people listening feel like there's too much information and not a lot of time, right, to go through it all that we're drowning in information, but we're starving for that practical wisdom, if you will, or the ability to learn how to swim, right? In a world
Starting point is 00:56:13 flooded with information and data. So the amount of information is doubling at dizzying speeds. say that, you know, that it's the amount information when you graduate school, the half-life information is getting shorter and shorter because it could be outdated. And it's insane because it's up deep. I was doing a program at Google, and I heard somebody say there that the chairman said that the amount information that's been created from the dawn of humanity to the year 2003, just a couple decades ago, that amount of information, think about like the Library of Congress, that amount of information that was created every 48 hours online. Oh my God, that's crazy.
Starting point is 00:56:51 Think about all the podcasts and all the social media and all blogs. That's insane to think about. So the amount of information is doubling, but how we learn it and read it and retain it, that hasn't changed a whole lot. But that growing gap creates digital deluge, information anxiety. And that's an actual, like they call it information fatigue syndrome, higher blood pressure, compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness. I think we'd all identify.
Starting point is 00:57:14 So the goal is you upgrade your learning skills to keep up with that overload. Then you have digital distraction. And how do you maintain your concentration in a world full of rings and pings and dings and app notifications, social media alerts? And I think, again, I'm pro technology. It allows us to do this, right? It allows us to inspire, to empower, to entertain. And there's the other side of the coin or the sword where it's driving us to distraction.
Starting point is 00:57:40 You know, with every like, share, comment, CAD video, whatever, we're going to just this dopamine flood. And we wonder why we can't concentrate when we're on doing our screen time with work or just having a conversation with somebody and our mind wanders. And part of it is I feel like it's, our brain has been just distracted and overloaded and it's going all different ways. So that's why we train in limitless chapters on focus and flow. And then besides digital deluge and digital distraction, we have digital deduction.
Starting point is 00:58:09 And that's the term I just coined. Basically, I read the study where children, when they're tested, this generation, they're not showing the scores and the same kind of results as previous generations. In fact, it's lower in their ability to deduce and to rationalize to apply logic. And the studies suggest it's because of the technology is doing the thinking for us. Remember even like GPS? How would we know to get from here to there? we'd have to use some kind of visual spatial intelligence,
Starting point is 00:58:41 but here we're just kind of on autopilot. And technology with algorithms, like it'll teach you not how to think, but teach you what to think based on things. And so that's digital deduction. And I feel like it's so important for school not only to teach us what to learn, but how to learn, not what to think,
Starting point is 00:58:57 but how to think ourselves. And then finally, the last one, as you mentioned, is this one called digital dementia. And that's the equivalent of us physically, if we just took Uber and Lyft just to go five blocks and we didn't walk it, then there's a physical, it's convenient, but it could be crippling to our body. If we rely on taking an elevator just to go to our apartment on the third floor every day, then we lose an opportunity to exercise, you know, our muscles.
Starting point is 00:59:21 And just think about something simple like, I don't know, phone numbers. Like how many phone numbers did you used to know growing up? Yeah, so many. Now I don't even know my best friend's phone number, but I couldn't tell you my best friend's phone number by heart hurt cell phone. And your community came with that person every single day. Yeah. And so then that's digital dementia.
Starting point is 00:59:40 And I have to say, again, I don't want to memorize 500 phone numbers, but it should be concerning we've lost the ability to remember one phone number, or a passcode, or a pin number, or a seed phrase, or, you know, like our hotel room or whatever it happens to be. And so your memory is a muscle. It's use it or lose it, just like the rest of our mind. And again, technology is not good or bad. It's just like fire.
Starting point is 01:00:03 Fire is technology. It could cook your food or it could burn down your, your home. It's just how it's applied. And I would just say, just like with anything, there's a quote in Lemon List that says, life is the C between B and D. Life is C between B and D. B stands for birth, D stands for death, life C, choice. That our life is a sum total of all the choices we made up to this point. And these difficult times, they can define us. These difficult times can distract us. these difficult times can diminish us or these difficult times they actually can develop us. We ultimately decide, you know, every single day.
Starting point is 01:00:42 And I want to remind people that we always have that ability to decide to just to show up for ourselves, right? Because I think we're all on this journey to reveal and realize our fullest potential. I really do believe there's a version of every single person who's listening to this. There's a version of yourself that you haven't met yet. There's a version of your brain you haven't met yet. There's a version of your business that you haven't met yet. And the goal is we show up every single day until we're introduced. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:01:07 And like you said, technology is not good or bad. We just need to evolve with that technology and learn how to learn better. And what a great conversation we had today about building a better brain. So, Jim, the way that we close out our show is I give two questions that I ask all my guests at the end of the show. We do something fun at the end of the year with them. So the first one is what is one actionable thing our young improfitors can do today to become more profit? tomorrow. So I would say one of the most important things you do is to love your brain. And what do I mean by that? Let's say when you reach the age of driving, you were given a car, but this was just like the
Starting point is 01:01:44 one car that you had for the rest of your life. How well would you take care of that car? Keep it spotless. I would take it to service. I would do everything right. And we have this vehicle that we're going through life and, you know, which is our body and part of our body is our brain. So I would ask everybody the one thing that you could do to be able to do that, have more purpose, and profitability is to love your brain. And then just a simple thing you could do is ask yourself, is this good for my brain or is this bad for my brain? You know, is watching this good for my brain
Starting point is 01:02:12 or is watching this good for my brain or eating this good for my brain or it's bad for my brain? And not that you have to be absolutely perfect, but the goal is progress. And so love your brain. Because your brain controls everything. It's your number one wealth-building asset. I think that's super smart.
Starting point is 01:02:26 A lot of people concentrate on their bodies and they forget about their brain. So I think that's great. All right. What is your secret to profiting in life? And profiting does not have to mean money. So I think if you want your business to grow, your brand to grow, your book sales to grow, your bank account to grow, then your brain has to grow.
Starting point is 01:02:44 And I say this because I always wear a brain on my shirt. I'm always seen on social media pointing to my brain. And I think what you see you take care of. You see your car. You take care of it. You see your hair you take care of it. Your clothes you take care of. But we don't see the thing that controls everything, which is the human brain.
Starting point is 01:02:58 And so I would say that you want to be able to, just like with tech. technology. We hear about, you know, you upgrade your apps, you upgrade your phone, you get to upgrade your software, your computers. But when's last time we upgraded the most important technology that has created all that other technology, which is the human mind. And so I would say the fastest way to grow, to get that area is you reach and then you rest and then you repeat, right? You stretch, you stabilize, right? You climb in a mountain. You stretch yourself and then you stabilize. And then you stretch some more and then you stabilize. And so I think that would be it that you learn to earn to return. You learn because the more you learn, the more you earn,
Starting point is 01:03:37 and the more you earn, the more you have the ability to return. And I think that return is really important because that sense of contribution, you train your nervous system, your brain, that there's more than enough. We gave away 100% of the proceeds to limitless to charity, to build schools, everywhere from Ghana to Guatemala, for teachers, the school buildings, to health care, clean water for the children, and also Alzheimer's research for, for women, as women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer's than men. And I lost my care of my grandmother to Alzheimer's, so we do it in her memory. But I would say one of the best things you could do, chronic stress shrinks your brain. And one of the best ways to get out of stress is
Starting point is 01:04:17 to contribute, you know, is focus on somebody else. And so how can you invest some of your time, your talent, your treasure to making a difference? Because it's nice to make a dollar. I think it's better to make a difference. And so, you know, when you could do both, I think it's remarkable. B, do, have, and then share. What a great way to end the interview. That was so powerful, Jim. Thank you so much. Where can our listeners learn about you and everything that you do? Yeah, if you like this conversation, we have a podcast that's 20 minutes long and links are in my Instagram profile, so it's hard not to find us. And then our book, limitless, limitless book.com. You can find it anywhere you buy books and, you know, I'm really passionate.
Starting point is 01:05:00 And I just want to thank you so much. I'm glad we can make this happen after the past couple of years. Yeah, I'm so happy. I really respect how much energy and effort you put into preparation. I respect expertise. Oh, thank you so much. And I've listened to your show. Remarkable that you could have, you know, that you have these conversations with these
Starting point is 01:05:19 experts and pull out the information you do, but also make it so much fun, you know, and memorable for people. So congratulations. Oh, thank you so much. I would challenge everyone to actually take a screenshot of this episode in whatever form you're consuming it, whether it's an iTunes, whatever, YouTube, and tag us both there.
Starting point is 01:05:41 And I would love as you post that and share it because I think the fastest way to learn something is to share it with somebody else. You teach it because when you teach it, you get to learn it twice. And post it so we get to see it because if you tag us, we'll see it. And then share one thing you're going to do for a better brain. what's one thing you're going to do for a better brain.
Starting point is 01:05:58 And I'll actually repost some of my favorites when it goes live. And I'll actually gift a few copies on limit list to some random people. Oh, perfect. I would love to do a book giveaway. We could definitely do that. And I'm going to stick all of your links in my show notes. So don't worry. We're going to make it super easy for everyone to follow you on social media to get your book.
Starting point is 01:06:19 Jim, this was honestly such a great conversation. Thank you so much for the lovely compliment. And it makes my job very easy when I have an expert like you on the show. So thank you so much for your wisdom and your time. You are the ideal young improfiting guests. And just so happy we could make this happen as well. Amazing. Be limitless, everybody.

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