Jim Kwik: How To Fix Your Brain Health to Unlock Limitless Memory

What this episode is about

Jim Kwik, a renowned brain coach and expert in memory improvement, shares insights on enhancing brain health to unlock limitless memory and learning potential. He discusses practical strategies for boosting mental energy, improving focus, and overcoming digital distractions, based on his personal journey and extensive research in the science of learning.

Key takeaways

• Your brain isn't broken; it's just been misled. It's time to retrain those neural pathways!
• Struggling with focus? Blame the system, not yourself. Schools teach facts, not brain mastery.
• Knowledge is power, but remember: applied knowledge transforms it into profit, both financial and personal.
• Limits are learned! Challenge your self-talk and unleash the untapped potential lurking in your mind.
• Got distractions? You're not alone. The average person checks their phone 96 times a day—let's rethink that!

Who speaks in this episode?

• Hala Taha (Host) · 26 min speaking
• Jim Kwik (Guest) · 40 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Limitless, Jim Quick, Young and Profiting Podcast
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Limitless, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Napoleon Hill
3. 20:00 – 30:00: Limitless, Jim Rohn
4. 30:00 – 40:00: Limitless
5. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Limitless, Google LLC
6. 1:00:00 – 1:06:07: Limitless, Ghana, Guatemala

Notable quotes from "Jim Kwik: How To Fix Your Brain Health to Unlock Limitless Memory"

• You. I've been wanting to have you on the show for like two years now. And for those who don't know, Jim has been spending the last three decades dissecting the science of…

  about Jim Quick · at 1:19

• 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.

  about SiriusXM · at 5:10

• At the titles and there are these biographies of some incredible women and men in history and some very early personal growth books. I mean the classics Norman Vincent Peele…

  about Napoleon Hill · at 11:22

• Purpose. And I thought, well, and it's interesting because I just I didn't know what to do. And the nurse came in with a mug of tea and it had a picture of Albert Einstein and…

  about Albert Einstein · at 13:36

• 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 Ran has this quote that you're rewarded in public…

  about Jim Rohn · at 21:03

• Yeah. And so we're drowning in information. 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.

  about Google LLC · at 56:09

• 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…

  about Limitless · at 1:02:38

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Jim Quick — Person · Main guest · 1 mention · first at 0:23
  Primary interview subject; shares his traumatic brain injury story and teaches his 'Limitless' framework for learning, memory, focus, and motivation.
• Albert Einstein — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at 13:46
  Referenced via a famous quote on problem-solving that catalyzes Jim’s shift to studying how to learn faster after his hospital incident.
• Napoleon Hill — Person · Referenced author · 1 mention · first at 11:26
  Mentioned as the author of a classic personal development book recommended by Jim’s mentor figure, reinforcing the 'leaders are readers' theme.
• Mark Twain — Person · Referenced author · 1 mention · first at 11:54
  Credited (in retrospect) for the quote Jim hears from his mentor: 'Don't let school get in the way of your education,' supporting the episode’s learning-how-to-learn message.
  And I didn't realize it was a Mark Twain quote at the time, but I was wow, that's really profound. And I can't promise to read a book a week. and then very smart man, he reaches into his.
• Jim Rohn — Person · Referenced motivational speaker · 1 mention · first at 21:11
  Referenced for a quote about being rewarded publicly for private work, reinforcing discipline and consistency themes for entrepreneurs.

Books & papers

• Limitless — Book · Primary recommendation · 14 mentions · first at 0:44
  Jim Kwik's book on brain optimization and accelerated learning, frequently referenced throughout the episode.

Companies & orgs

• Google LLC — Company · Referenced company · 1 mention · first at 55:43
  Mentioned in the context of a program Jim Kwik did at Google, highlighting the rapid creation of information.
• SiriusXM — Company · Referenced company · 2 mentions
  Mentioned in passing, no specific context provided.

Places & events

• Ghana — Place · Charity location · 1 mention · first at 1:03:23
  One of the locations where proceeds from Jim Kwik's book Limitless were donated to build schools.
  Train your nervous system, your brain that there's there's more than enough. We gave away 100% of the proceeds to Limitless to charity to build schools everywhere from Ghana to…
• Guatemala — Place · Charity location · 1 mention · first at 1:03:23
  One of the locations where proceeds from Jim Kwik's book Limitless were donated to build schools.
  Train your nervous system, your brain that there's there's more than enough. We gave away 100% of the proceeds to Limitless to charity to build schools everywhere from Ghana to…

Media & podcasts

• Young and Profiting Podcast — Media · Host platform · 1 mention · first at 1:12
  The podcast where the conversation with Jim Kwik took place, hosted by Hala Taha.
  Remember the conversation like it was yesterday, and I learned so much. So, if you're ready to train your brain, improve your memory, and become truly limitless, sit back, take…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 What's up, Yap fam? If you've ever told yourself you're 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 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. 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

0:48 mental energy, and strategies to beat digital distractions that can quietly steal your focus every day. Now, this conversation is just as powerful today as when it first aired. I still remember the conversation like it was yesterday, and I learned so much. So, if you're ready to train your brain, improve your memory, and become truly limitless, sit back, take notes, and enjoy. Let's get right into it. Hey Jim, thanks so much for joining us on Young and Profiting Podcast. Oh, it's so good to be here. Congratulations on your show.

1:17 Thank you. I am super excited to have you. I've been wanting to have you on the show for like two years now. And for those who don't know, Jim has been spending the last three decades dissecting the science of learning and memory. He's now an internationally renowned expert in memory improvement, brain optimization, and accelerated learning. He's worked with huge names, politicians, celebrities, and his latest book, Limitless, has become an instant New York Times bestseller. And considering all that you've accomplished, I think a lot of our young and profiters would be surprised to hear that you actually had a traumatic brain injury when you were in kindergarten. 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."

2:03 And that was a defining moment for you and 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 the 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 and tell us about this boy you were before you started your transformation.

2:29 Wow. Okay. Let's let's go back. Um, you mentioned my traumatic brain injury when I was in kindergarten and uh, 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

2:55 a few years longer just to learn how to read. And now those are really there's a lot of anxiety and stress for for a kid. You remember sitting in those reading circles, they would pass around a book and you you know you have to read out loud when you came to you and I just I would look at the page and the words meant nothing and

3:11 yeah I thought I had the broken brain and every single time I did badly on a test or wasn't picked for sports in school which was a very often I would always say oh cuz I have the broken brain and uh yeah adults have to be very careful with their external words because they become a child's internal words and that became my selft 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. More in the past 10 years than the previous thousand years combined that we found is we're grossly underestimating

3:56 our own capabilities. That really it's not even the sky's the limit. It's really our minds are the limit. And um and so my mission really is to build better, brighter brains. No brain left behind. And you know, I know what it's like to struggle, to be distracted, to not feel confident in your own mind. And I really feel that uh 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.

4:24 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 can work your brain and and when you can learn and uh and focus and remember and apply you could apply that towards anything money management martial arts, music, Mandarin, everything in your life gets so much easier. And so my my message to everybody really is that uh limits are learned and that it's just our school system didn't 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?

5:08 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 is learning how to learn.

5:20 And and that's really really what focus on. Yeah. And I I really relate to you and I was so excited to bring you on because I think this is such an important topic 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. You know what I mean? And it's 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 one thing happened and we go on believing forever that that's just who we are, right?

6:05 And and you you you the word you use is absolutely I use that in the book Limitless Lie. You know, we believe these lies and a lie for me is stands everything's kind of turned into an acronym or some kind of pneummonic to make it easy to recall. 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 know that you're not smart enough or that you're not you don't have the resourcefulness. Um and so it's really about transcending. I think the nature of

6:37 personal growth is about transcending. It's about ending the trance, ending this mass hypnosis maybe through we got in our from our parents or marketing or media that somehow that we're we're broken somehow that u that somehow we could only you know have only a small amount or be a small amount or or share you know a small amount and we found that that it's that we shouldn't be I find especially of recent that the big mistake people make is they 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.

7:14 I love that. So, let's fast forward to your college years. Your label became your limit from your your age of 5 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.

7:28 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. It was your friend's dad. He gave you new direction and it was a very pivotal point in your life. I'd love for you to share that story with us and and why that moment in time was so eyeopening for you.

7:48 So, as you mentioned, I I I thought getting into school would give me a reset. Like I thought freshman meant fresh start you know as I took all these classes and

7:58 I wanted to show the world and you know show myself really made me make people around me proud you know and uh 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 uh so I was ready to quit and when I had that thought I was talking to friends and a friend said hey you know that's a big life decision why don't you get some perspective and he invites me to visit 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 the this person's home it's it's it's beautiful didn't kind of the water and the father walks me around his property and before dinner and ask me a very innocent 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

8:47 because it's um I I didn't that was the worst question you could ask me and I start balling ing in front of this stranger because I have so much pressure that you know I haven't told anybody and you know I told him my whole story about having my brain injury and not feeling enough and like school's not for me and I'm ready to quit. I don't know how to tell my folks. And he said, Jim, you know, and this question, 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?

9:18 And completely completely honest, I didn't have any answer cuz I didn't know why I was in school. I just thought that's what you do, right? Holl, it's like,

9:26 you know, I was on that path. And when I when I start thinking about it, I go to answer him and he says, "Stop." He he reaches out in his back pocket, takes out um a notepad and he just asks me to write down, you know, tears out a couple sheets, make me write down, you know, all the things I want, you know, if anything's possible and if you can't fail, what would you what would you do? And I start writing these things down

9:46 and I don't know how much 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 them. And I've never shared, you know, these things, my dreams or my desires, my goals with anybody. And u I didn't even realize some of these things I wanted until he I went through this exercise. And I'm freaking out because I'm afraid of being judged like like anybody, you know, 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 you know, when he's done, he starts um he looks at me, he says, Jim, you are this close to everything on this list. And he's, if for those of you watching on video, he's spreading my index fingers about a foot apart. And I was like, "No way." You know, I'm not that close. Give

10:35 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,

10:43 meaning what's in between is the is the key that would unlock th those those achievements and meaning my brain. And he walks me into a his home that into a room I've never seen before. It is wallto-wall, ceiling to floor, covered in books. And you know, at this point, I've never read a book cover to cover. Um, I still have, you know, 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, anxiety around something. And what makes it worse is he starts going to the shelves and grabbing and grabs these snakes, if you will, and starts handing them to me. And, uh, 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 early personal growth books. I mean the classics Norman Vincent Peele, The Power of Positive Thinking, Think and Grow

11:34 Rich, Mary Napoleon Hill. And he says, "Jim says, leaders are 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 school work. And when I said I have so much school work, he said, Jim, don't let school get in the way of your education.

11:59 And I didn't realize it was a Mark Twain quote at the time, but I was like, wow, that's really profound. And I can't promise to read a book a week. Um, 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 hollow about hearing like your goals and your deepest desires said by a stranger like encanted out into the world and mess with my mind and my my my my spirit honestly some something fierce and a lot of things on that list were things I wanted to do for my parents things that they can never they would even if they could afford to they would do for themselves and with that motivation you know and 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

12:50 books I promise to read and I already couldn't get through 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.

13:03 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 I I was hooked with all these IVs, these, you know, I was malnourished, dehydrated. I was down to 117 pounds. I was I was wasting away cuz I was just taking care of myself.

13:25 And it was the darkest point in my life. And um and at that point when when I woke up, something else woke up inside of me also. And you know, kind of renewed sense of like, you know, purpose. And I thought, you know, well, and it's interesting because I I just I didn't know what to do. And the nurse came in with a mug of uh of tea and it had a picture of Albert Einstein and uh 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.

14:01 What's my real problem? And my problem is I'm 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 started studying the art and science around learning. 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 does focus work? You know um I started studying ancient methodologies of what did ancient civilizations do before there were printing presses? how do they remember things and you know new brain science and after a couple of months of studying this I 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 and um interest in learning I started uh to be able to read be able to retain and do better my grades shot up and then but not only

14:51 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 watch movies like the Matrix or you know superhero whatever

15:07 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 but bring back you know things and I started sharing some of the things I was doing with friends and I started tutoring and one of my very first students I was teaching her I was speedreading she read 30 books in 30 days can you can you imagine ine so many people are

15:30 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 and I start um I wanted to know not how she did it, but why. And I found out that her motivation was um 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 6 months later, she calls and she's crying and crying. And when she stops crying, I find out they're tears of joy that her mother not only survived, but it's getting better.

16:07 Doctors don't know how or why. The doctors were calling it a miracle, but her mother attributed the great advice she got from her daughter who learned from all these books. And um and it just in that moment I found my 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 realized it's the most important superpower and it's a power we all have inside of us. Yeah. 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 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? Yes. And I remember like all my friends I actually

16:55 had a my dad was a doctor but even though my dad was a doctor, nobody helped me with homework when I was a kid. Like really I 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 or better guidance. like you had that conversation with you when you were 18 and nobody ever told you to write your goals down before, right? Cuz 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 a kid. So, talk to us about that.

17:42 Does that ring any bells for you or I'd love to hear your thoughts. Yeah, let's go there. Um.

17:47 Uhhuh. Yeah. [clears throat] My my my dad came to the United States when he was 13. He lost both his parents. And so um didn't speak the language, didn't have any money, came and lived with uh his uh his aunt who I knew as my grandmother. And um mother grew up they they lived in the back of a laundry mat that my mom my my grandmother worked at. And so it was kind of that environment. Didn't speak the language. And you know, it's interesting cuz sometimes we think about resources and growing up, you know, we didn't have any network or connections or money or education or those kind of things, but I I feel like a lot of it comes to the resources we have inside.

18:27 And I think again most important is the resource of our own mind. It's really truly limitless. And so I think

18:34 within every disadvantage there's there's that word advantage, right? With with challenge comes change. My two biggest challenges growing up were learning for the long for a decade and a half and because of it my 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, you know, what what the solution was. And so I've always felt like uh it would highlight I never wanted the spotlight and my insecurities and my inadequacies kind of like seen by everybody. And so my superpower was being invisible. And um

19:14 and and the universe has a sense of humor because what do I do? My like for a living all I do is public speak on this thing called learning. And so I really think that our disadvantages can be an advantage that through our struggles lead to strengths. you know, that through through challenge leads to change. And um but my parents, they they're remarkable. I I attribute it. I think that

19:37 in all fairness 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. You know, I I take that responsibility because, you know, they're they're the reason why, you know, I learned to to to do what I say that I'm going to do. you know, discipline, kindness, working hard, you know, and I really do think that if somebody, you know, they they do the right things for the right reasons, they're they're kind, they're willing to learn and make mistakes. And then I then I feel like there are results will speak for themselves. You know, my my 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, you know, and and so I feel like it's it's so important that especially if somebody's

20:28 on the path of building wealth, they're starting a business. In the beginning, it's it's really hard, right? Because you've never done this before. There's a learning curve.

20:37 Um the results don't show up right away, right? It it tests your persistence, your patience, um your your commitment also. And you have to feed your dreams. you have to feed your business until

20:49 your business or your dreams feed you back, you know, and in the beginning you're you're grossly underpaid if anything, you know, but if you're consistent and you know, you you work hard, you're always learning, then I feel like at some point it switches and

21:02 Oh, yeah. 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 Ran has this quote that you're rewarded in in public, which you know, for the work you do in private. And I 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 and we hear this all the time. For me, believing in myself is like I go for a run every every morning, right? My my last name really is quick and so I had to be a runner. Um, but I I have a fear of heights a little bit and because I've fallen three times and you know I've had three traumatic brain injuries, fallen off rooftops and and the such. I wasn't very my parents had like multiple jobs and I wasn't very well supervised if you

21:48 will. Um, and so I I I I do this mind experiment where I just see things from other people's point of view because as an introvert and being so shy, I would just study people in school, right? because I was always in, you know, my own mind and wondering why other people were so bright and geniuses and doing so well in school and so popular and so on. But I I saw this bird the other day and I I realized that if if I was that bird, I'd be so scared being that high up in the tree. And I realized, you know, while it's singing its song and its calm and its confidence, its calm and its confidence doesn't come from putting its trust in the tree branch. The bird's calm and confidence comes putting its trust in its own wings. And I feel like that you know when we we have to know oursel and have the curiosity to know oursel but then also trust oursel and then and then having the courage to be oursel also you know it's a different

22:42 it's a it's a different practice. Totally. I couldn't agree with more with everything that you said. I'm totally on the same page. Young and profits this year I'm all about not missing opportunities. And for me, that starts with not missing any calls. Because a missed call is money walking out the door. Quo, spelled quo, is a business phone system that helps you and your team handle calls and texts from one shared number. Think of it as an email inbox, but for your phone. Everything stays in one place, so no conversation gets lost and no customer gets ignored.

23:15 I've seen how much calmer things feel when everybody in your company can see the full thread. All the calls, texts, voicemails, all together in one place. Replies are faster. Customers feel heard and taken care of, and the team stays aligned. Quo even uses AI to log calls, summarize conversations, and flag next steps, which takes a lot off your mental load. It works right from your phone or computer, lets you keep your existing numbers, and grows with your business. That kind of setup makes a real difference. Make this a year where no opportunity and no customer slips away.

23:48 Try Quo for free. Plus, get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com/profiting. That's quo.com/profiting. Quo. No missed calls, no missed customers. Yeah, fam. Starting a business is exciting, but it can also feel really overwhelming. There's so much you need to figure out from operating agreements and compliance paperwork to legal stuff and more. And I don't know about you, but I am not an expert on the legal stuff. I actually hate doing that kind of stuff. But that's exactly why Northregistered agent is so helpful. That's what they're built for. Northwest Registered agent is a registered agent and LLC service that helps you build your complete business identity in one place. They've been helping entrepreneurs for nearly 30 years, and they're the largest registered agent and LLC service in the US. When I started my company, I wish I had known about them. In fact, I'm going to be switching to Northwest Registered

24:42 Agent because as your company gets bigger, your registered agent, and it was actually really, really important, and I actually found that out the hard way recently. What sets Northwest Registered agent apart is that they don't just help you form your business. They give you everything you need after you form it. You get access to thousands of free guides, tools, legal forms, and even creating an account. When you do sign up for free, you get a lawyer drafted operating agreement, bylaws, and meeting minutes, all at no cost. This is such a great solution for somebody who's just starting their business, who doesn't know how to start a business, and it's they make it so easy for you.

25:17 And they also just make your business super legit. You need to do this to have a legit business. So, don't wait. Protect your privacy, build your brand, and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/yapfree yapfree and start building something amazing again. Get more with northwestregistered agent at northwestregistered aagent.com/yapfree. So let's talk about the ability to unlimit ourselves. Right. So I think that's really important being able to believe in yourself like you were just saying and so I'd love to understand the importance of motivation related to believing in yourself.

25:55 So motivation for me is not something that's abstract. It's something very very tangible. Um this actually came from I 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 turn into a little master class. I I encourage everyone to take notes. Um it's P * E* S3. Three factors for limitless motivation. So if you struggle with getting yourself to do what you know you should do because knowledge by itself is not power. It only gets power when we apply it when we implement it. Right?

26:31 P * E * S3. 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.

26:43 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 like without reasons, you won't get the result. 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 careful 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 if they just, you know, had a reason to remember their names, right? Like ask yourself, why do I want to remember the person's name?

27:22 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, uh KPIs, whatever in your head, and you're not acting consistently with your head, check in with your hands. Check in with the second H which is our heart right and the heart is a symbol of emotions right the because we are not logical even people don't buy logically we know that people buy

27:54 emotionally right because we are not logical we are biological you think we're not logical we're biological you think about dopamine and oxytocin serotonin endorphins we are this chemical feeling soup

28:06 and but we don't do things unless 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, right? 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. But information when it's combined with emotions become unforgettable because that part of your middle brain that's uh your amydala 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. 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

28:51 sensations of who's counting on you to play your agame. You know, what are the the rewards you're going to be able to to to enjoy if you're be able to follow through, right? So purpose.

29:02 Now, like let's say it's to to do something like reading each day. You know, leaders are readers. If anyone's seen me on social media with Elon or Oprah or Bill Gates or, you know, whoever we 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 could download decades into days. That that's the biggest advantage there is in the world.

29:25 Yep. Best ROI on your time. Yeah, 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 and still not read each day because they need the E and the P * E time 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.

29:58 It's it's something you do. And like one of the principles I subscribe to for accelerated learning is get in the habit of taking your your nouns and transferring them into verbs. Transforming them into verbs. Meaning we we hypnotize oursel with the language we're using on a regular basis, right? And your brain is this incredible supercomput and your self-t talk is the program it will run. So if you tell yourself I'm not good at remembering people's names, you will not remember the name of 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, that's my problem. I have no focus. You don't have focus, 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

30:45 being creative. Right? Even you don't even have a memory, there's a three-step process for memorizing something. And the benefit of taking some a noun and turning them into a verb is all of a sudden you turn into a process, right? It's a strategy now that you could execute on. And so that's really my goal is 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 random numbers or a shuffle deck of cards or whatever. There's there's a I there's a time obviously I couldn't do that, right? I was 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 trained memory and untrained memory. Just like there's no such thing as a good or bad brain.

31:31 There's a trained brain and an untrained brain. So the second part for motivation is not just having purpose. Yes, you have 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 you're waiting to read at when you're most tired in the day and you haven't slept, you know, and so you're depleted and you can't get yourself to act right because you lack the energy. [clears throat]

31:56 And so, you know, we talk a lot in our podcast and and in the books, you know, 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 and lots of energy, and you're still not following through, working out, you know, or reading or whatever, making those sales calls, whatever. Then S3, the final part,

32:25 three S's, small, simple steps. Small, simple steps. So, here's the thing. So, a lot of times people are not motivated because this thing is too abstract, you know, 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 into small simple steps that they could see themselves following through on. So maybe working out an hour a day is too hard for someone that's not what they normally do.

32:55 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 them to floss one tooth or clean their room is too difficult. It's too intimidating, right? It's like, you know, climbing a mountain, but maybe putting one sock in the hamper, right? So, inch by inch, it's a cinch. Yard by yard, it's way too hard. And my my thing is, how do you find the small simple step? I asked myself simple question. What is the tiniest action? And people could write this down. What is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal where I can't fail? 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 right because you eliminate the friction right so then you can create that positive momentum so for me

33:45 you don't have motivation you do it and the process is purpose energy and small simple steps

33:52 yeah 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 there 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, right? 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 the years about learning and our brain.

34:27 Yeah. Let's let's name a few of them. the the lies or the BS the BS stands for belief systems. So the limited ideas entertained one of them is exactly what you mentioned that we use 10% of our brain.

34:40 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% of their bodies throughout the day, right? Um, 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 I metaphorically it's more like a muscle is is the mind and it's 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 what would happen to that muscle? It would it would just atrophy.

35:22 It would get weaker. Mhm. That's a lot what that's what happens with our our mental muscles. We're not utilizing them. And so we actually use 100% of our of our brain just so we use 100% of our body. But if somebody needed to climb, you know, 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.

35:53 There's a trained brain and an untrained brain. That that's the truth. Another myth is that genius is, as you mentioned, genius is born. You're either born with it or or you're not born with it, right? It's it's just like, and the truth is that it's not how smart you are, it's how are you smart. So, there's a there's a story in Limitless, and I don't want to go and get all audible right now, but um maybe I could read this anecdote. I talk about how genius is uh is actually built. So the story that I 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 godgiven talent. But a wise counselor said to the king, "My lord genius is bil.

36:47 My lord genius is built, not born. 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 challenged and 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 could have two of your kind to keep you company. You shall have two piglets as cellmates." From the very first day of his imprisonment, the wise counselor practiced 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

37:36 into sturdy bores. 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 of powerful physique, carrying a boar on each arm. The king exclaimed, "What a gift this man has, a god-given talent." The wise counselor replied, "My lord, genius is built, not born. My skill is the result of discipline and practice. These talents have been learned and honed over time with determination and discipline.

38:13 Oh, 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, you know, what you've done for to build your business, to build your brand, you know, they don't 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 they are actually with genius. it actually be built. And I believe genius leaves clues that when somebody's exceptional and you've had so many of these guests, you know, that are exceptional in certain areas that and you're helping them to deconstruct what 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 their fast track, right? You know, their shortcuts, if you will.

38:58 And so, um, yeah, I really do believe genius is something that's available to all of us.

39:02 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 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.

39:40 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.

39:51 I forgot that conversation. You know, I I forgot that person's name. Every single time we have that those thoughts, we we could lose time. We could lose trust. We could lose we could hurt a 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

40:12 talking points, product information, client information, right? And you have it at your mental fingertips because everybody who's listening here,

40:19 nobody, it's not like it was 100 years ago or generations ago when it's not like you're compensated for your your brute strength, right? Today it's your brain strength. It's not like it was, you know, agricultural age where you're paid for your your muscle power. Today it's your mind power.

40:36 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 R. Reading, writing, arithmetic, but what about retention? What about recall?

40:48 What about remembering? And so there are certain things we could do to be able to improve our memory. And so a lot of times people come to me and say, um, Jim, I I want to get better at my memory. And I say that's like saying, I want to be better at sports. What what area specifically? What sports specifically?

41:06 So let's say um let's go back to remembering names, right? Yeah, I love that. Yeah. So I think there there are three keys to remembering names. The first one I mentioned already um and I use I use the acronym mom 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, right? And 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. And you

41:47 hiring managers, right? Exly. And you could ask yourself, you could connect with that again by asking yourself why. Why do I remember this person's name? And come up with just one reason. Because if you came up with one reason, you won't remember. The O in 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?

42:14 A name. But most people, what are they doing? They're thinking about how they're going to reply or 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 u and if you're writing this down, write the word listen. And here's a brain exercise. It's kind of like a wordle 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.

42:46 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 reasons. And then just be silent. Right? One of my uh favorite books by one of my mentors, Dr. Steven Cvy. 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? That curiosity and and and get seek first to understand and it starts with the person's name, right?

43:28 Because how are you going to again show you're going to care if you don't care enough just to remember their name because people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care,

43:36 you know? And so that's so important. So just pay attention. And then the final 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. Something simple like be suave. So six steps on how to remember names and faces. If you see me do this in at a live event or on video

43:56 be suave. Very very simple. The B believe. Because if you believe you can or believe you can't either way you're right. And you want so you want to limit the negative selft talk because remember I said your brain's like a supercomputer. Your selft talk is the program it will run. 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 they talk to me about their lies. They say I'm too old. I'm not smart enough. And I say stop.

44:20 If you fight for your limitations you get to keep them. If you fight for your limitations you get to keep them. And so we want to

44:26 that's so good. If people truly understood how powerful their mind is, they wouldn't say or think something they didn't want to be true,

44:34 you know, and so you want to be able to keep it encouraging. And so the B and B suave believe

44:39 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 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. Great for learning. Um, but I don't mean exercise. [clears throat] I mean practice because practice makes progress. Practice makes progress. And so I'm very good at remembering names.

45:10 But after the first month or two of learning how to do it, I haven't improved a whole lot more because once 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,

45:23 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. And so, I would say practice, you know, and you don't have to go out there and practice remembering 50 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.

45:43 What's up, Yap Gang? When you start a business, nobody really tells you how many hats you're about to wear. One minute you're the creator, the next you're the marketer, then you're the finance team and customer support. Before you know it, it can feel like way too much on your shoulders. But that's why I love Shopify and what it does for entrepreneurs. Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform that helps you sell online. It's been a real business partner for me as I've grown Yap Media and launched products like my LinkedIn secrets masterass and my LinkedIn Mastermind. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide and 10% of all e-commerce in the US. Whether you're a household name or just getting started, Shopify has got you covered. What I appreciate most is how everything lives in one place on Shopify. You can design your store, market your products, and track performance without juggling a

46:33 dozen tools. And you definitely do not need to be techsavvy. Shopify is so easy to use. And if you ever do hit a wall, Shopify's award-winning 247 support is there to help you think things through. You don't have to do this alone. You can do it with Shopify. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com/halla. That's h a la. Go to shopify.com/halla. All lowercase. Again, that's shopify.com/halla. Yap, bam, let's be real. Growing a creator-led business can feel incredibly lonely. It's a constant game of guessing what to post, when to post, and if any of it is actually working. You're trying to figure out what will help you grow your following and what will actually monetize your business. I feel you. I lived that for years. And the biggest shift didn't come from just consuming more and more content. It came from

47:28 being where the action is, being in the right room with people doing real work in my field. That's exactly why I built my new Yap Academy School community. This is an all-in-one space for creator entrepreneurs who are serious about scaling their business across every channel. LinkedIn, YouTube, email, newsletter, short form content, podcasts, you name it. And we're not only going to talk about how to grow on social. A large focus of this group is monetizing at every stage. But here, you don't get theories, you get exact templates, swipe files, and on demand trainings that I use at Yap Media for me and my clients. You'll also get exclusive monthly webinars hosted by me on tactics that move the needle from going viral on social to offer creation.

48:09 And most importantly, you get co-working sessions and direct access to me and a curated group of builders who are in the trenches with you. No more guessing in the dark. No more going at it alone. If you're ready to replace the solo hustle with built-in support systems and a proven playbook, Yap Academy on School is your new home. I'm officially opening the doors to Yapacademy onSchool and this is for founding members who will shape the community. To apply and join us at Yapacademy on School, go to school.com/yapacademy.

48:38 That's skol.com/wyapacademy. Again, that's school.com/yapacademy. If you're growing a creatorled business, don't grow it alone. Let's profit together. There's one part that I want to stick on and that's the the fact that it's not about about retention or it's not a retention problem. It's an observation problem, right? You need to actually pay attention and and care. I'm actually really happy that you brought up the the name recognition thing because I was at podcast movement. You probably have heard of it. It's like a big conference, right?

49:10 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, um, 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 I felt so silly. And 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 cuz that guy is forever going to remember that I embarrassed him in front of the other people, calling him the wrong name and

49:41 like, and then it just seemed like I didn't pay attention. Right. Yeah. And it happens. So shout out to Chase. Um but the but the second half of B Suave will help you do that. The S and swavs say the name.

49:54 So when [clears throat] you when somebody introduces themsel say the name back to them and just literally just repeat it,

49:59 right? Chase, it's nice to meet you. And just by hearing it again will boost your retention, right? Because you get to hear it from them. You get to hear it from yourself. The U in suave stands for use it.

50:09 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 somebody and you know and just meet them. Chase, Chase, it's nice to meet you. Chase, do you want to grab a bite? Chase, you know, how's work? You know, that would be an abuse. But using it, planting it three or four times will help you retain it. Um the A in B suave, 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, you know, spelled with a Y or an I? Uh especially for names that are unusual that you haven't heard before, right?

50:43 Like like your own. Have you like Mhm. Does it does your name um does you have an origin like for for the name where you

50:50 Yeah. So my name Yeah. It's Arabic and it actually means welcome. Oh. So in Arabic you pronounce my name Hela and it means welcome which is I'm a like a podcaster. I think it's fitting.

51:00 Oh that's and so you get to and then you can ask somebody how they spell it and the origin and what's where is it from and all of a sudden asking about a person's name right? They say a name is the sweetest sound in a person's ears, right? It automatically a name will automatically trigger someone's reticular activating system. I know you've done shows on that also and had guests talk about the RA and RAS,

51:19 but that that's one of the things that are programmed. It's a suite of sound, right? So it gets your attention automatically. And so um calling people by name, asking about their name. So that's the the A. And finally, the V and the E in Suave, the V is visualize. And here's the thing. So many people are better with faces than they are with names because they could see it. Right? You go to someone and say, "I recognize your face, but I forgot your name." You never go to someone and say the opposite. You never go to someone and say, "I remember your name, but I forgot your face." Right? That would make a lot of sense. But we tend to remember what we see. Um, and because more of our nervous system, our brain is dedicated to real estate towards visual processing. And so, um, 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.

52:05 I heard the name, I forgot it. What I see, I remember. I saw your face. I'll always remember your face. And going back to what I do, I understand. You know, through practice make makes progress. So, I would say for the if you tend to remember what you see, visualize, then try seeing what you want to remember. So, if you meet somebody, name chase, right? Then all of a sudden, you can imagine that for a split second that they might be chasing you, right? Or something like that. Or if someone named Ben, right, imagine and they maybe they have a, you know, great head of hair and you imagine that their head is like somehow associated with Big Ben, right? Or something like and then all of a sudden and it sounds childish,

52:43 but how fast are our children and learning, right? They they make these images and and it adds feeling to it too. We already said that information when times emotion become a long-term memory. 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 named Mike, right? You just imagine them jumping on the the table and singing karaoke on a microphone.

53:11 And again, and these are temporary. It's it's to overcome what I call the six-cond syndrome. Somebody tells you their name, you have six seconds to do something with that. Otherwise, what happens?

53:22 It's just flies out. It's gone. As soon as the handshake breaks, it like falls right through the floor. And so it grabs it. It forces you to focus on the person and it forces you to focus on the name. And that focus will lead to remembrance.

53:36 And so remember what you want to see by seeing what you want to remember. That's the V. And then finally the E and B suave is end.

53:43 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, right? I think one of the easiest ways to stand out in a room is remembering people.

54:13 I 100% agree. Like this is such a good hack. I feel like everyone should rewind, take some notes down, 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 some issues like this. So, I'd love to move on to that as we start to close out the the interview. So you call these super villains 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.

55:01 So these are the four horsemen of the mental apocalypse. And it's one of those things where

55:06 uh 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 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 uh you know, the ability to learn how to swim, right, in in a world flooded with information and data. So, the amount of information is doubling at dizzying speeds. They say that um you know that it's the amount of information it when you graduate school it get the half-life information is getting shorter and shorter because it could be outdated and it's it's insane because like it's upbeat. I was doing a program at Google and I heard somebody say there that the chairman said that the amount of information that's been created from the dawn of humanity to the year 2003 just a couple decades ago.

55:55 That amount of information, think about like the Library of Congress. That amount of information was created every 48 hours online.

56:03 48 hours. That's crazy. Think about all the podcasts and all the social media and a lot of

56:08 That's insane to think about. Yeah. And so we're drowning in information. 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 information fatigue syndrome higher blood pressure compression of leisure time more sleeplessness I think we'd all identify so the goal is you upgrade your learning skills to keep up with that overload and 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 I and again I'm pro technology. It allows it allows us to do this right allows us to inspire, to empower, to entertain. Um, and there's there's the other side of the coin or the sword where it's driving us to distraction. You know, with every like,

56:57 share, comment, cat video, whatever. We're getting this this dopamine flood. And uh, 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

57:24 um we have digital deduction and that's a term I just coined basically I read this study where children when they're tested this generation they're not they're not showing the 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 um apply logic and as you suggest it's because of the technology is doing the thinking for us. Remember like even like uh like GPS like how would we know to get from here to there? You'd have to use some some kind of visual spatial intelligence. But here we're just kind of on autopilot and technology with algorithms would just teach you not just um like it'll teach you not how to think but teach you what to think right based on things. And so that's digital deduction. And and I feel like it's so important for school not only to teach us you know what to learn but how to learn not what to think but

58:18 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 Lift 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 and, you know, and just think about something simple like,

58:45 I don't know, phone numbers. Like, how many phone numbers did you used to know like growing up?

58:51 Like, yeah, so many. And now I don't even know my best friend's phone number. I couldn't tell you my best friend's phone number.

58:57 And you're communicating with that person every single day, right? Yeah. And so then that's digital dementia. And 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 the our hotel room, our credit, whatever it happens to be. And so your memory is a muscle. let's use it or lose it, you know, just like the rest of our mind. And and again, technology is not good or bad.

59:24 Just like fire. Fire is technology. It could cook your food or it could burn down your your home, right? It's just how how it's applied. And you know, I would just say just like with anything there there's a quote in Limitless that says life is the C between B and D.

59:40 Life is C between B and D. B stands for birth. D stands for death. Life C choice. that that our life is a sum total of all the choices we made up to this point and that 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. And um and I want to remind people that we always have that ability to decide to just uh 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.

1:00:22 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.

1:00:31 Yeah. 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 and profiters can do today to become more profiting tomorrow.

1:00:58 So I would say one of the most important things you do for is to love your brain. And what do I mean by that is just asking like if you were born,

1:01:07 let's say when you reached the age of driving, you were given a car and but this was just like the one car that you had for the rest of your life. How well would you take care of that car

1:01:16 and 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 with which is our body and part of our body is our brain. So I would ask everybody the one one thing that you could do um to be able to do that have more purpose and and profitability is to love your brain. And 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 or bad for eating this good for my brain or is bad for my brain? And not that you have to be absolutely perfect, right?

1:01:46 But the goal is progress. And so love love your brain because your brain your brain controls everything. It's your number one wealth buildinging asset.

1:01:54 I think that's super smart. 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.

1:02:06 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 then your brain has to grow. And and I say this because I always wear a brain on my shirt. I'm always seeing on social media pointing to my brain. And I see 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 the human brain. And so I would say that you want to be able to just like with technology we hear about you know you upgrade your apps you upgrade your phone you get they upgrade your software your computers but when's the last time we upgrade the most important technology that has created all that other technology which which is the human mind. And so I would say the fastest way to grow to get that area is

1:02:48 you reach and then you rest and then you repeat right you stretch you stabilize right you're kind of climbing a mountain you stretch yourself 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 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 your brain that there's there's more than enough. We gave away 100% of the proceeds to to Limitless to charity to um to build schools everywhere from Ghana to Guatemala to to for teachers to school buildings to healthcare, clean water for the children and also Alzheimer's research for for women because women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer's than men. And I lost my careg my my grandmother to

1:03:39 Alzheimer's. So, we do it in 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 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 and I think it's better to make a difference. And so um you know when you can do both I I think it's remarkable. Be do have and then share.

1:04:08 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?

1:04:16 Yeah, if you like this conversation, we have a podcast. It's 20 minutes long and um links are in my my Instagram profile, so it's hard not to find us. Um and then our our book, Limitless, limitlessbook.com. You can find it uh anywhere you buy books. And you know, I'm really passionate and I and I just want to thank you so much. I'm glad we can make this happen after after the past couple years.

1:04:36 So happy. Um, I I I really respect how much energy and effort you put into preparation. I I respect the expertise

1:04:45 and I and you know, you and I've listened to your show. Remarkable that you could have, you know, that you have these conversations with these experts and and pull out the information you do, but also make it so much fun, you know, and memorable for for people. So, congratulations on on all that. But I would challenge everyone actually take a screenshot of this episode in in whatever form you're consuming it, you know, whether it's, you know, on iTunes, whatever, YouTube, and um tag us both there. And I would love um 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.

1:05:20 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? And um I'll actually repost um some of my favorites when it goes live and I'll actually gift um a few copies of Limitless List to um some random people.

1:05:37 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.

1:05:49 Jim, this was honestly such a great conversation. Thank you so much for the the lovely compliment. It is 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 and profiting guest and just so happy we could make this happen as well.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Jim Kwik: How To Fix Your Brain Health to Unlock Limitless Memory"?

Hala Taha (Host), Jim Kwik (Guest).

What is "Jim Kwik: How To Fix Your Brain Health to Unlock Limitless Memory" about?

Jim Kwik, a renowned brain coach and expert in memory improvement, shares insights on enhancing brain health to unlock limitless memory and learning potential. He discusses practical strategies for boosting mental energy, improving focus, and overcoming digital distractions, based on his personal journey and extensive research in the science of learning.

What is mentioned in this Young and Profiting episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Jim Quick, Limitless, Young and Profiting Podcast, Albert Einstein, Google LLC, Napoleon Hill. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Jim Kwik: How To Fix Your Brain Health to Unlock Limitless Memory"?

The episode runs 1 h 6 min; the transcript is about 13,742 words in 146 timestamped sections.

More from Young and Profiting

• All analyzed episodes
• Books mentioned on Young and Profiting
• People mentioned on Young and Profiting
• Sponsors mentioned on Young and Profiting
• Topics mentioned on Young and Profiting