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Language: en
We are with none other than Jim Quick is
in the house. If you guys haven't seen
his episode of Impact Theory yet, watch
it. Watch it. Watch it. It was amazing.
And for those of you that have seen the
um Inside Quest episode that Jim and I
did together, this one was radically
different. It was amazing. I was so
grateful. You want to talk about being
grateful for stuff? Um I was very sick
on the day that we recorded our episode
and you came in and saved my ass and
absolutely crushed it. I think I I only
had to ask like two or three questions.
It was amazing, man. And I really really
am very grateful. I don't know if people
knew that. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I talked
about it for sure. So Okay, cool. Um
really really incredible and it gave
such a totally different interview than
we had done the first time, which is
always my thing. Like doing a second
interview is actually surprisingly
hard. Like the first one is easy, but
then the second one you want to tread
new water. And so, um, you showed up and
played to win and I was very grateful.
Well, congratulations to you and the
entire team. It's always, it blows me
away. And, and Lisa, oh my god, the
podcast is so awesome. Shoic podcast lit
the world on fire. Their very first day,
they went to number one in the health
category. It was nuts. So, yeah, we're
all pretty jazzed up around here. So,
very exciting. All right, I want to
invite Mr.
Agent Smith himself, Jared, to join us
and we're going to be doing Yay. We're
going to be doing a little bit of uh
brain training. And uh yeah, so here we
are. Let's do this. Excited. Thank you.
So, for those of you that are meeting
Jim for the first time, I think it needs
to be said that Jim is an expert in
learning, like the actual fundamental
building blocks of what it takes to
learn. His story is incredible, and if
you want to see more about the story, we
definitely cover that uh in the episode.
So, be sure to watch the full Impact
Theory episode um that launched last
Tuesday. Uh really, really fantastic.
You'll get to hear all about his early
brain trauma, how he overcame it. It's
an absolutely miraculous story. I never
get tired of hearing about it. And
because of that, he's developed all
kinds of amazing techniques that he's
turned into his company, Quick Learning.
And with that, Mr. a quick learning
himself. What are what are some tips
that you have that you can show us in
real time here with Jared so we can
figure out how this hot seat learning
works? Yeah, I'm in the hot seat. I
don't know what's going to happen here.
We did not prepare in advance. I didn't
I haven't I'm seeing like three chairs
up here. So, this is very cool. Yeah. To
us as well. Um okay. So, I think a lot
of people who are watching this want to
um what they'll say is they want to
improve their memory, you know, and
they're looking for some quick brain
hacks, something they could do apply
towards their studies, something they
could apply towards work or just
everyday kind of thing. And um I
mentioned it briefly in um in one of our
episodes. This one of this this 2500y
old technique, which I know you're
familiar with. It's um this this loy
memory basically saying that we tend to
store information in our location. And
that's uh and because the reason why is
because when we're hunter gatherers, we
didn't need to need to memorize maybe
numbers and definitions, stuff like
that. Well, we needed to remember where
where things were for our own survival,
right? And so it's um like we need to
know where the clean water was, where
the good food is, the soil, enemy
tribes, and that was really um
everything. And so we learn to store
information in our environment. In fact,
when you forget someone's name, what's
the first question you ask yourself?
You're like, where where do I know this
person? Where did I meet this person?
Because the context gives you the con a
lot of the content. And I I really do
believe that if um if content is king,
then then context is the kingdom, right?
And so the place really gives you the
information. And so we learn to be able
to store information around us in uh
places. And so the idea behind this is
take a place that you're very familiar
with and store information that you need
to remember as a filing system around
your environment. Probably the one that
most people are most familiar with is
like their home, right? Because they
could imagine themselves in the kitchen.
They could see all this stuff and then
what you're doing is you're creating
landmarks saying, "Okay, the um the
microwave is is the first place. This
the stove is the second place. The
refrigerator is the third place. The the
dishwasher is the fourth place and maybe
the sink is the fifth place." But what
the trick is though is turning the
information you want to learn into a
picture because we tend to think in
pictures because we're very visual,
right? Um even when you're traveling, it
doesn't no longer and I know you've been
on the road for past couple weeks,
right? It doesn't say on the airplane,
"Fasten your seatelt or no smoking."
What what do you see? You see like
icons, right? Those icons, right?
Because we think in icons, we think in
symbols. We think in pictures. um
because a picture is worth a thousand
words no matter what language people are
are are in. And so that sometimes we
talk more more quickly when we're in
that visual mode because you know you
have to keep up with all the pictures
and and you can tell us how fast someone
uh thinks by how fast they're they're
they're speaking also as well. Um
anyway, so you're taking the information
you need to learn and you're putting it
the first bit in the first place, the
second bit in the second place, the
third bit in the third place. And if
you've ever found yourself saying that
um like in the you're arguing with
someone saying in the first place this
and the second place that and third
place that languaging came from that
technique that technique is 2500 years
old but the languaging is still here
right because that's how people used to
remember like large bits of information
and so what we're going to do is um just
for practice uh for people at home is um
we'll take another place that we're all
familiar with because we all live in
different homes um is your body right
you could create a your body use it as a
And we could store information we want
to remember on our body. And I had a
student um this is great. Like I I work
I love working with children because
children if they can learn how to learn
earlier, learn how to think, learn how
to focus, learn how to read faster,
learn how to remember more, they have
such a such an advantage, right? And so
this child um he was struggling in um in
school and he would work work work and I
was helping his parents out with
something and they asked me to come in
during dinner time and I guess showed
him a few things on this exact technique
and the next exam he took he took he got
an A on it which is extraordinary. And
and his parents are like how do you do
it? This is amazing. And he was like I
cheated. He was like I did what Jim
said. I cheated. And I was like whoa
wait I didn't tell you anything about
cheating on your test. Um, and you know,
it's a little boy and he's like, "Yeah,
I I had all my notes with me." And I'm
like, "Whoa." I'm like, "Explain to your
parents how you had your notes." He was
like, "No, it's not out in the outside.
Notes were on the inside." Wow. And he
was storing the things that he needed to
remember on his body and in his home in
his bedroom. And so, um, a simple
example we could do is is take, um, 10
places on our body. And these are the 10
places that I like to use because I I
think we have this kinesthetic
intelligence. And so, we could do it
together. Just we're going to name 10
places. And I I encourage people who are
watching at home to do this with me. Um
this is something you could use to
memorize a speech without um notes. You
know, when you're public speaking, um
sometimes you don't need to remember
things verbatim. Um with actors, they
need to remember things like word for
word for word. But sometimes you just
need to know, oh, what are the six
points I need to go through? Um but it's
what's important is the order of it
because sometimes as a as a speaker, you
know this, somebody interrupts you and
asks a question and then you get
sidetracked and you're like, "Oh, where
did I leave off?" And you try to
remember where that is. So the seek
syntax is very important. So what we're
going to do is 10 places in our body.
The first place is the top of our head.
So number one is top. So just kind of
touch the top of your head. This is
going to be kind of number one is top.
We got it. Number two is nose. Nose.
Three is your mouth. Mouth. And four are
your ears. Ears. There you go. Five is
your larynx. Like your throat area. So
that's one through five. Six is your
shoulders. Okay. Shoulders. Seven is
your collar. Collar. Eight are your
fingers. Nine is your belly. Belly. And
10 is your seat, like your rear end.
Right? So, we're going to go through it
really fast one more time. One is your
top. Top. Two is your nose. Nose. Three
is your mouth. Mouth. And four are your
ears. Ears. Good. Five is your larynx.
Larynx. Six is shoulders. Shoulders.
Seven is your collar. Collar. Eight are
your fingers. Nine is your belly. And
then 10 is your your seat. So, we have
10 places on your body. So, here's a
trick, right? This is the brain hack.
Since we tend to remember things in
different locations, these become filing
systems. It's just like if you were um
you're going to a party and there's like
these hooks or these pegs outside of the
outside of the living room, you hang up
your coat. You know when you leave where
your coat is, you just go to where the
the filing system is, right? So these
are filing systems on your body. So
let's say we need to memorize something
very simple. Let's say we're going to do
um Impact Theory barbecue. It's going to
be awesome. It's going to be a big meet
up with with fans and and guests and um
and Tom calls you up say, you know, hey,
can you stop by? Um can you stop by uh
the the the grocery store and pick up
these 10 things? And maybe you're in a
place where you can't write them down.
Like maybe you're driving or you're in
the shower and I don't know why you
would answer the phone in the shower,
but he's like rattles off these 10
things. So what you're going to do with
these 10 things instead of now most
people in our traditional school system,
it's wrote memory, right? It's
repetition and that's how people
memorize things there. There was no
creativity. There was no imagination. It
was just hard push it into your head.
Oh, I got to get avocados and just
repeat it 50 times. And do you know the
difference in the in what's going on in
the brain between a loy form and just
brute force memorization? We we do
because okay so a lot of the way we
could accelerate learning whether it's
reading faster or like remembering
something in 20% of the time like we do
this thing where we teach students how
to memorize 10 words a day in 10 minutes
a day like literally 300 new words a
month I mean it's pretty extraordinary
state capitals um you know the periodic
table in in literally in almost like
it's almost not an exaggeration seconds
and because it's possible for them
especially because the problem with rote
learning is it's very leftrain leftrain
is logical it's words, it sounds um like
even when we talked about you and I we
talked about speed reading, like what
what is what how do you read something
faster when you want to read faster? And
one of the big obstacles is
subvocalization, which is that inner
talk. Um and the reason why it's an
obstacle to effective reading is because
if you have to say all the words inside
your mind, you know that voice you hear
inside when you're reading to yourself,
yeah, hopefully it's your own voice.
It's not like somebody else's voice. Um
the reason I use Jared sometimes just
cuz it's better. I hear like two or
three voices in there. you you actually
hear like a Agent Smith like voice
that's awesome. Um the reason why it's
an obstacle to effective reading is you
have to say all the words inside your
mind. You can only read as fast as you
could speak. That means your reading
speed is limited to your talking speed
and not your thinking speed. That's why
a lot of us when we're listening to
podcasts um or you know audio um the
audible or something we're listening at
1.5 or 2 because we can think a lot
faster, right? And that's a trick also
for speed reading not to go off on a
tangent but people think if they read
faster they would not understand as much
as they read. But in actuality, you'll
actually understand more if it's done
properly. Because when you read too
slow, you're starving your brain for the
the stimulus. So it starts distracting.
You know, when people read, they'll read
a page in a book and get to the end just
forget what they just read cuz their
mind is not there. It's because it's
like driving slow. You know, you're
doing like five different things when
you're driving slow. But if you're
racing cars, all your focus is on what's
in front of you. Same thing with
reading. But going back to the sub
vocalization, when you're saying the
words, you don't have to pronounce the
words to actually understand what those
what those words are. And so I would say
when people read mostly it's a left
brain process much like wrote learning.
It's just um you know the sounds which
is like on the left side. Now it's a lot
more complicated than that. Um because
it's it's more metaphor because it's
more than just left and right brain
obviously. Um but if you were to if you
were hook up to a brain sensing device
when people are reading a lot of your
left side will be um lit up when people
are are going through repetition
learning basically you know this because
it's neuroplasticity every time you
learn a fact um it's kind of like a
little thread between two brain cells
and when you repeat it it becomes you
know a little bit thicker a little bit
thicker after 50 times your brain
registers okay this must be important
and then it but the only problem with it
though is through repetition um is it
takes time and that's the thing and it's
it's mind dulling, you know, for a lot
of people just to sit there and not know
relevancy, not have context. But
meanwhile, your creative side, your
imaginative side, your experiential side
is not getting entertained. So, it tends
to go out there and think about other
things that are going on. And so, I
would always think there's there's
actually three three factors. There's um
even when you're working out your body
or even when you're talking about
marketing, I mean, I'm thinking about
frequency, duration, and intensity. So,
frequency is like you're going to the
gym, you want to build your body, you go
more frequently, right? or duration is
like you spend more time on the
treadmill, right? More more more more
time holding that pose duration. And
then there's intensity um which could
shortcut it because you could get you
know some pretty magnificent fitness um
achievements um by making because if you
go to the you frequency and duration but
you're not using any intensity you're
not going to get the results also. So
the goal here is I focus on when it
comes to your memory and learning fully
immersive, fully um intense meaning
using as much of your brain, as much of
your senses and this thing called
sesthesia where there's this like
overlapping of senses together and then
it becomes more emotional um more more
more creative and you're more likely to
remember it. And so that's intense as
opposed to frequency and duration
because the problem with frequency
duration is they both take time. It's
saying whether it's building your body
or building a business, marketing too,
right? Marketing could be frequency, see
the ad a lot, right? Or duration. It
could be like a really long ad or, you
know, infomercial. But intensity is like
something that grabs your attention. It
goes viral right away because it's just
so intense and gets shared and all that
good stuff. Um, so going back to to the
the difference between like wrote memory
and using like more of a whole brain
method, just like whole brain
note-taking, a lot of people take Larry
leftrain notes which is outline one
little a Roman numeral stuff like that.
And you could have something more
important on page six than it's on page
one. But you know, the way it's set up,
you don't really see that as opposed to
like wholeb brain note takingaking
something like like mind mapping, right?
or some kind of visual mapping where you
have the main idea in the center like a
the center of a tree and then the
branches are coming out that show you
how things are related. So all of a
sudden you could have this thing called
health in between like the main trunk
and then have something like a branch
coming out say nutrition branch coming
out saying exercise and so on. But then
nutrition you could break down into what
kind of nutrition? Okay, I get nutrition
through here's my diet and another
branch coming off of that branch and
another branch coming off nutrition
called supplements. And then all of a
sudden you could go down to some, you
know, rare like, you know, wild salmon
that leads to this, leads to this to
fish to protein to to your diet to
nutrition back to health and it's like
embedded, you know, together and go to
exercise. You could do the same thing.
But that would be a whole brain way of
taking notes using colors and images
that not only is it going to help people
remember it better, but it is also it'll
help you make notes where a lot of
people, you know, I know you're very
prolific, right, with all your ideas and
such. And so you could actually use this
way of not only just capturing
information but making new connections
that you haven't seen before. And that's
more right brain. And so so just like
with with with speed reading for
example, left brain is more words and
everything. But what I like to get
people to do is not say the words but
just really experience the words. It's
kind of like um I remember seeing one of
our students. He was on our online speed
reading course and he was like Jim I saw
him on that on the street. He was like,
"Jim, I have a funny story for you. I
recently reread a book that I haven't um
read since your course and it was
totally different the second time. I was
like, "What do you mean?" I was like,
"What book was it?" He was like, "It was
the Old Man in the Sea." And I was like,
"Well, how is it different? I don't
think Hemingway updated the book
recently." He was like, "The second time
though, after training, you know, the
reading, I felt like I was in the book,
you know, like I could hear the ocean
waves. I could feel the sand beneath my
toes." He said the one thing I didn't
like was the smell of the fish. But
that's like a whole right brain
experience rather than or more whole
brain experience than just hearing the
words. Right? And so everything that I'm
talking about even like showing going
through this grocery list, right? So
people are just joining us. We're I'm
going to give a tip on how to how to
remember facts and um give a speech
without notes, maybe even a grocery
list. And so what we did was it's using
your your creative side and we so we put
10 places on our body and for people
just tuning in really fast. Number one
is your top of your head. Number two is
your nose. And we're just going down the
body. Three is your mouth. Four is your
ears. Five is your larynx like your
throat. Um six are your shoulders. Seven
is your collar. Eight is your fingers.
Nine is your belly. And then 10 is your
seat. So we have 10 places on your body.
And this is a 2500 year old memory
technique. It's so cool. It gets me so
excited when I when I started studying
this. It's it's attributed to Simonades
and Simonades is a Greek order and he um
he was giving a poetry reading. Um and
after he was done, something really u
tragic happened. The building collapsed
and killed everyone there. And he being
the sole survivor had the responsibility
of coming back and helping family
members identify their loved ones. But
back then, you know, it wasn't made out
of sheetrock and wood. Buildings were
like stone, right? And so he had to he
was able to remember where um who
everyone was based on where they were
sitting. And you could do that too. I
think everyone at home could remember
last time they went out for dinner or or
conference and remember who's sitting
around their table because again we
store information in our environment. Um
which is really interesting. Um one one
tangent I would just love to to kind of
test this on you. Um if you um and
people could do this if they're not like
driving or operating heavy machinery. I
know a lot of people listen to your show
like when they're like while operating
heavy machinery or or they're on a
treadmill or something like this. Put
that back hoe down for a second. So, uh
so like um so if you take a deep breath
and just exhale um and a Smith, you
could do this with me. I want you to
think about some and everyone at home
who can do this do this. Eyes closed.
Eyes closed. Ideally, helps you focus.
Ideally, I want you to imagine um
imagine somebody that um that you really
like. Just imagine if their presence was
here. just point in that direction.
There's no right or wrong, but if
depending on what kind of, you know,
rhythm that you're in right now in terms
of your your brain, if you could get a
sense of somebody that that you care
about, just point in that direction.
Just any any direction. There's no right
or wrong. Just point in direction of
somebody that you have, you know,
generally if you get a sense of where
they are, just point in that direction.
Good. Now, I want you to think about
somebody. Now, take another breath. And
now, exhale. And just think about
someone you necessarily don't really
like very much. Not that we hate
anybody, but just like somebody that Oh,
we do, Jim. Somebody we maybe don't have
a really positive feelings about. Get a
sense of where that person is and point
in that direction. Wow.
Interesting. And so what I would say is
like, okay, open your eyes, just
breathe. Isn't it interesting that I ask
you to imagine somebody that you like
and you point in one direction and then
I ask you somebody who you don't like,
you point in a different direction
because we store, this is like our
coding system. We store information in
our environment and it also it's like a
shortcut to teach us how to feel about
things. Um just one more time just humor
me this. Take a deep breath. Exhale. And
people do this at home. Um point in the
direction of something that's um point
in direction of something that's uh in
your past. Just point in the direction.
Where does the past feel like for you
when you think about past memories?
Point in that direction. Interesting.
And now um erase that. Now I want you to
think about something that's going to
happen in the future. It's going to
happen in the future at some point. It's
a memory. It's a future memory, if you
will. You know what's going to happen.
You're going to brush your teeth tonight
or there's a birthday party, whatever it
is. Future memory, point in that
direction.
Interesting. So, open your eyes. Isn't
it interesting that you that you point
in two separate directions? Like some
people when I ask what's in your past,
they point to the left and what's in
your future, they point to the right.
And I ask you what's, you know, or some
people point behind them like the two of
you did. And I said, what's you know,
what's your future look like? And it's
somewhere else. And that's how we that's
our timeline. That's our imaginary
timeline that we have. So there's this
thing like this timeline therapy where
if you connected the dots between where
your past is, where your future is, you
could actually, you know, when we talk
about imagine your goals and vision your
goals, what if you actually put those
right in your timeline, you know what I
mean? And when you're looking to make
changes in what happened in the past,
what if you actually go in the past and
you not not to forget about what
happened in the past, but just take the
angst out of it, right? And you could
kind of change your associations to
that. So my my point in bringing this up
is we store emotions and feelings and
sensations and people all around us, our
memories. So it's it's kind of it's kind
of that was more of an experiential
thing. So now we have our 10 places in
our body and what we're going to do is
so Simonades realized that he could
remember things based on where things
were. So he came up with this technique
of memorizing speeches like the 10
points to a speech, you know, like the
10 places in his living room and he
would put all that stuff or when you're
giving a presentation, which I know you
do a lot in these keynotes. And I know
you're you're amazing with your Q&A, by
the way. The fact that you stay until
every single question is answered. Like
that's that's grit. I mean, it's
passion, too. Like I for me, I'm more of
an introvert, so it's it's it's it's
amazing. I just I was just blown away
because I have so many people tell me
recently that that they saw you over the
Anyway. Wow. Thank you. big big props.
But but if you need to give a
presentation, you store the information
those 10 places and those are your key
points for your speech. So let's say um
you get a call saying, "Okay, we're
going to have an impact theory meetup
and everyone's going to get together.
Pick up these please pick up these 10
things at the grocery store. Now what
you're going to do instead of writing
down or putting in your phone, you know,
we talked about digital dementia and how
we're outsourcing our smart, you know,
our our smarts to our devices, our
memory, and we're losing that potential
to memorize things oursel like just put
the first thing in the first place,
second thing." So, what I'm going to do
is um I'm going to give you my fi my 10
favorite uh brain foods. You know, these
are these are like what I it's like the
staple for my diet because, you know,
there's some foods out there that really
wreck your brain, right? That make you
more hyperactive, that make you
distracted. It's not good for your
memory, that really drain your energy.
So, these are my these are my top 10
favorite. They're not the most powerful
brain foods, but they're up there and
they taste great, right? All right. So,
what we're going to do is I'm going to
name all 10. The first thing you're
going to put in the first place, the
second thing you're going to put in the
second place, and so on. Okay. All
right. You ready? Yeah. Yeah, I'm going
to test you afterwards. That's it. All
right. So, and here's the glue. What
you're going to do is you're going to
put it there, but you have want to use
exaggeration. You want to make it funny.
You want to make it humorous because
what glues it is here's here's the key
to memory. Information combined with
emotion becomes a long-term memory.
Information alone is not memorable
because it's ordinary. And that's just
there's so much stimulus. And you know
this, there's billion of stim stimulus
coming into our senses right now. And
primarily our nervous system is there to
delete information because if it wasn't
we would just go start crazy, right? And
so um the goal is like there's any all
these stimulus out there and so where do
we focus it on? What we're going to
focus on is we're going to make it
extraordinary. And so what makes it
extraordinary for me is emotion. So you
want to make it humorous. You make you
make it violent or whatever. But the
thing is what do I see and what do I
feel? Because you're already hearing it.
So you already have the auditory
component. But if you want to hit all
three learning styles, you want to make
sure like what do I see and how does
that make me feel? All right. So the
first one on the what's the what's your
first place? Uh top. The top. And I want
you to imagine avocados. Avocados.
Avocados on the top of your head. All
right. So what are you doing? Just like
pretend you're like 8 years old. I would
just imagine that my head is a giant
avocado. There you go. Perfect. Top of
the head. Avocado. Or maybe somebody's
coming. Maybe Tom's making some like
guacamole on on your on your head,
right? Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. So like
whatever. And that like what would an
8-year-old do? And now all of a sudden
it's more memorable as opposed to just
repeating. Okay, avocados. Avocados. All
right, the second place. What's the
second place on your body? It's your
nose. And I want you to remember uh
blueberries, right? Blueberries. Good
for the brain. Blueberries. I call them
brain berries. So I just want you to
imagine blueberries coming out of your
nose, right? You're sneezing.
Blueberries everywhere. It's really
gross. Blueberries stuck in your nose.
There you go. That's what I That's And
here's the thing. That's the goal for
things to be unforgettable. Cuz if that
ever happened, would you ever forget
that? No. Would you have to repeat it
100 times to memorize it? No. It happens
once. If someone actually make guacamole
in your head, you be you'd remember that
50 years from now. You'd be telling, you
know, your grandchildren all about that,
right? So that's what's making it
intense. But that's the difference
between frequency, you know, frequency,
duration and intensity, right? You don't
have to study 5 hours, you know, for it
to be there. The third place is what?
Mouth. Your mouth. I want you to imagine
broccoli. Broccoli. Let me use some
broccoli in your teeth. But here's the
thing. If you make it too ordinary,
you're not going to remember it because
we forget the ordinary, right? We
remember the extraordinary. So, how do
you make it? See, that's the thing with
memory. It's a representation. It's a
representation inside your mind. So, you
can make it however you want, right?
Yep. And so, broccoli,
uh, broccoli is just there's just a
giant bulb of broccoli in my mouth.
That's all I can think about. Yeah. You
can taste it, too, right? I know how
broccoli tastes. It's not the best, but
the fourth place is what? Ears. Is your
ears is the fourth place on your body.
And I want you to remember coconut oil.
Coconut oil. This has been in the news a
little bit, okay? Okay. So, this would
be a little controversial, but coconut
oil coming out of your ears. Coming out
of my ears. I don't know. Coconut
something. Or maybe you're cleaning your
your ears with coconut. Coconut oil
spewing out of my ears like in streams.
Tasted smell. It's kind of crazy, right?
Okay. The fifth place is your what? It's
your larynx. All right. And the fifth
place I want you to remember eggs. So,
just eggs. Okay. Eggs. Good. If that
happens to be someone's diet, the eggs
could be good for you for your brain.
Eggs. What's the movie where um he
swallow he eats all the eggs? Was it uh
cooland Luke? Is that right? Yeah. Eats
all the eggs. So that's what I'm going
to say. Like an egg stuck there. Like
perfect. So by the way, now like let's
just just test this to see. We're
halfway there. This is five. What was
the first what was the first place? So
avocado. Avocado. That's the second
place. Second place is blueberries in my
nose. Very You're really good. Three is
what? That's going to be broccoli in my
nose. And then what's four? Uh coconut
oil. Very cool. And number five. Uh
that's going to be the eggs. Very nice.
We're halfway there. So six is your
what? Shoulders. Your shoulders. And I
want you just to imagine green leafy
vegetables. Green leafy vegetables.
Spinach. Okay. I'm thinking about the
jolly green giant for some reason. Okay.
There you go. Because he's Isn't he in
like a vegetable shroud? So that's he's
like hanging out on your shoulders. You
have like a good one like a saint one
like the devil one. I think that's you
would describe it like that. It's 100%
accurate by the way, but nobody else's
vegetable shroud. That's right. It's
good. There's green leafy vegetables.
Green leafy vegetables. Perfect. Seventh
place is what? Your color. And I want
you to remember uh salmon. Okay? Right?
Certain fish is really tasty. That's
easy because uh collar the collar of a
fish is like their neck essentially,
right? Really tasty. Here's the thing.
Don't make make sure you don't make it
too logical. So make what do you see?
What what can you see? Cuz that's what
you're going to remember. So wearing a
necklace of salmon colors. Oh, nice. So
it would be salmon. Um also good are you
know the small fish like sardines and
and all that stuff cuz you have your
fish oils and everything. All right. So
that's seven. Eight is your what?
Fingers. Your fingers. um superfood um
that I've started to incorporate in my
diet is tumeric. Tumeric because um same
reason I do a lot some cold therapy and
stuff like that to lower inflammation.
So uh so turmeric you know what do you
do like I don't know what turmeric is
what it looks like tastes like nothing
so like how would I really simple you go
to grocery store and they actually sell
turmeric powder so it's a seasoning and
so it's like this golden yellow orange
advice though like do you suggest to use
a pneumonic like let's say I was hearing
the word turmeric for the first time so
now I have to remember two things one
that it's my fingers actually three it's
position eight it's my fingers good it's
called turmeric
which is turmeric, right? And then I
have to remember that it's like a
seasoning. So, how do I Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Hold on. Let's let's unpack
that. So, if somebody is watching this
and they don't know what turmeric is,
right? And so, um we we learn best.
Everyone's a little bit different. You
know, I know you're very um auditory,
right? Because you like to have
discussions and you like to listen to
things. Um everyone is different for the
for more than most people are are more
visual because if they see it, they tend
to remember it a little bit better.
Also, um it's only because the way your
your brain is more more more space is
being taken up by the visual cortex and
such. Um there's a Chinese proverb that
goes, "What I hear, I forget. What I
see, I remember. What I do, I
understand." Like like it's like people
with names. That's really good, by the
way. Yeah. It's like with like names and
faces, right? People always remember the
face. They don't remember the name,
right? You go to someone and say, "Hey,
I I remember your face, but I forgot
your name." You never go to someone and
say the opposite. You never go, "Timmy,
I don't recognize your face at all. your
name though. Totally. Um, so that mean
it's like so the Chinese proverb is like
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 the name. What I see I remember.
I saw the face. I remember the face. And
what I do going back to practice, you
know, cuz I feel like people don't
really understand something unless they
could do it, right? It's like
intellectually they might get it, but
now if they're not doing it, I don't
feel like they really understand it. Um,
so for the for example here, my goal
with some take something like tumeric.
Now, your your auditory memory will your
true memory will know it because it
could remember so much information. You
just need a prompt to help remind you a
lot of the times. And a lot of stuff we
teach with quick learning um is like a
shortcut to overcome what I call the
six-second syndrome. It's like somebody
gives you their name, you better do
something with that name cuz you have 6
seconds cuz what happens after 6
seconds? It's like gone in the ether of
the of the universe, right? You break
you break the handshake and it just
falls right to the ground and you can't
remember it. So you want something to
capture in your working memory. And so
lots of times what I'll ask people to do
because we knew we've had this
conversation before about observation
skills and attention taking like with u
like President Clinton and and all that
being powerfully present is putting your
attention to the person's name and
trying to turn take that thing and turn
it into a picture, right? Because if you
could turn into a picture, you're more
likely to remember because we think of
pictures. We dream in pictures, right? I
don't think anybody has dreams and sees
like closed caption on the bottom like
scrolling down and stuff like in words,
right? But we think in pictures, we
dream in pictures and images, you know,
in the kind of video screen. Um, so I
would say one of the things that I would
ask people to do just to because they
already heard it through auditory is I
would ask them to picture it. And it's
like playing Pictionary like you
remember that game. You ever play
Pictionary where you have like a like a
like a whiteboard or something like
that? You had to get people to to say,
"Okay, this is like you know movie, you
know, it has this many words like
breakfast at Tiffany's." And you would
actually draw like breakfast eggs and
bacon and stuff like that. like
Tiffany's like a little blue Tiffany's
you know jewelry box and stuff like that
and people would know but if you don't
know what something is you would draw
like a little um ear because ear means
what sounds like sounds like right so if
you don't know what turmeric is then you
would you're right you would come up one
of the methods would be coming up with a
word or a picture that sounds like it
and people inherently do this because
when people forget people's names right
and um what do they do they sometimes
they go through the alphabet does it
start with an A does it start with a
doesn't start with and you nobody's ever
learned that everybody organically comes
up with the idea because you you know oh
you know D you know like you reminds you
because that little thing because your
true memory it's stored there you just
need to retrieve it out but there's
three parts to your memory is there
three stages it encodes it stores and
then retrieval a lot of times you could
people it's in there but you can't get
it out because the way you encoded it
and if you can encode it with more
senses right imagination you see it feel
it taste it then it's going to store a
lot better so when you need to pull it
out you have more connections to it. Um,
so all really fast. I'm going to
interrupt you. Are you doing what I'm
doing? Are you like cycling through to
make sure you don't forget? Um, no. But
really, yeah. I mean, but I am thinking
about how we're now going far away from
the list and then it's going to get
harder. I can't tell if he's doing it to
with us or like, you know, like he
just wants to see how far can I go. But
I have my tumeric uh picture already.
And and the point is yes I am because I
like to practice under real conditions
because one of the things that messes
with people's memories you know this is
is um is this distortion like we tend to
generalize and delete and distort and
there's always distractions going on
right so we might as well learn under
ideal situations just like if you're
practicing uh anything in real life in
business or in martial arts or fighting
like you want to practice under you know
real collective conditions like when we
practice speed reading and stuff like
that I want people doing it in the real
world because when is it ever completely
quiet and no distractions and that's
where you build the muscle. So, so
turmeric right we would all we would do
here is like so tumeric is this yellow
orangey powder everything. So just
imagine turmeric on your fingers like
finger painting. And so by the way, I
use it to make a and this is going to be
one cool really cool, you know, impact
theory like barbecue with the turmeric
and I but actually for for people I just
did a podcast on like on my my morning
routines, right? And tumeric tea is
really good for you like you mix
turmeric. So tumeric helps to lower
inflammation in your body which could
lead to a lot of challenges, you know,
even inflammation in different parts of
your systems, your organs and stuff. But
turmeric and then put a little pepper in
there because it helps you absorb it and
it's just delicious. You can put some
almond milk. Great. Um they called it
like a golden milk tumeric all over your
fingers right and finally nine and 10
the ninth thing um ninth place is what
the your belly and I want you to
remember walnuts just imagine walnuts on
I don't know walnuts coming out of your
belly button right like it takes the
reason why intensity works is you don't
have to repeat it you could just see it
once or feel it and you're like done
right and so walnuts and not notice how
walnuts look like the brain there's this
thing like the signature of of foods
like literally a sign signature sign the
sign of nature. And so like you know
when you cut into a carrot and you see
like you know the side of it you see the
inside you see it looks like an eye
because it looks like like the organ
that it's serving right same thing with
um with walnuts because it looks like
the brain. Avocado is good for like
female reproductive all all this there
this whole thing right it's kind of
interesting how food kind of look like
what the place is helping. Um, so
imagine walnuts coming out your belly
buttons. And finally, the 10th place is
your what? Seat. Your seat. And um, dark
chocolate. I don't even need I don't
even know. I don't even want to know
what image you're picturing and stuff.
But well, that makes that easy. Okay.
Dark chocolate. Um, could be sugar-free,
whatever. Um, but it's good for it's
good for your brain, right? Just
endorphins, put you in a good mood,
which is which is great also as well.
Yep. So, that's the 10. So, now check
this out. We haven't even gone through
it. I distracted you cuz I went on this
whole tangent for 15 minutes. put a lot
of distractions in there. Yes. So, but
now you're at you're at the grocery
store, right? And we have this Impact
Theory meetup. Are are you doing
meetups? Yeah, we just did one in
London, sub London, and we did one here
in LA, which sadly I wasn't here for,
but that's awesome. So, now you have the
10 things you need to buy for the party.
So, now you're at the grocery store.
Now, as you're walking down the aisles,
you're just looking up and down your
body saying, "What do I need to buy?"
Cuz, you know, have you ever gone to the
grocery store or gone to the store, you
had one thing to buy? Yeah. And you
literally went to the mall for one thing
or the booktoart sauce and you come back
with like a bag full of stuff or two
bags of stuff with everything but the
one thing that you need to buy, right?
So now and some people write it on a
list and they forget their list or it's
on their phone. Their phone dies or
whatever. Um so now you don't need your
grocery list in triplicates, right? You
have it with you. What's the first thing
you need to buy? Avocados. Avocados. Top
of my head. Yeah. And I want people like
it'd be cool if they could people could
post like their answers down on the on
the chat and stuff like that. Um, people
are watching. Yeah. I want to see if
they remember. I'm trying to like in my
head silently see if I can get it to
before you say it. The second is what?
The second is my nose. And those are
going to be blueberries. Blueberries.
Those are blueberries or brain berries.
Number three is What else do you need to
buy? The mouth. And I need to get
broccoli. Broccoli. Very good. Yep.
Next. Fourth is the ears, and that's
going to be coconut oil. Dude, Agent
Smith's like crushing this. Number five
is what? Uh, the larynx, and that's
eggs. Eggs. Very good. Six. Um, six is
is that shoulders? Yeah. Okay. So, leafy
greens. Yeah. Your green. Leafy green.
Perfect. Number seven. Number seven is
going to be the collar. That's salmon.
Salmon. You got it. Eight. Eight is
turmeric. Tumeric on your fingers. Nine
is nine is walnuts on the belly and then
uh chocolate on the seat. Let's just
give him a hand. That's just like That
was good. That was good. Respect. It
takes so much more time to explain it,
right? you know, than actually to do it
because then actually when you did it,
it just takes like a couple of seconds,
right? But it's kind of nice also
because your memory gets better because
you're also training your focus. How
often do you use this in real life?
That's what I want to know. No kidding.
Daily. Really? What's something you did
today? So, so here's the thing. And do
you use those 10 things? Okay, so this
is this is great cuz I I love I love
rolling up my sleeves and doing like
getting into into the micro of this. So,
I have to answer your question, I have
multiple lists. Um, and this is just
something this is just based on
different physical things. So, one's the
body, one's the kitchen, that kind of
thing. This is also I use it when it's
when it's practical, right? I mean, I'm
still not a I mean, I don't want to
memorize like, you know, people have
seen me memorize like numbers and
forwards and pi, you know, all that
stuff. Um, and they use the same
methods. It's just different. It's, you
know, tweaked towards whatever the
outcome is. Um, but I use it to the
degree for two things. I use it for
convenience because I it's there, right?
But number two, I do it also for
training because I also feel like you do
things for two reasons. I think mental
intelligence is good to be able to to
know stuff and know facts and figures
and foreign languages and formulas and
all that stuff. But I I'm even more
interested in besides mental intellig
and intelligence you could define many
different ways, but just say like you
know a lot of stuff, right? You are in
jeopardy, you're crushing it. Um but
equal to mental intelligence is mental
fitness. You know what I mean? Like I I
just want like a youthful mind, you
know? I want one that that's sharp,
that's focused, that has its imagination
intact. Sometimes when people go through
life, sometimes they they dumb it down a
little bit because they're not
challenging themselves in new ways. This
is my like my practice and this is just
one of the practice and I find that when
I'm remembering someone's name, like I
use the method every single time when
I'm people's names really. Now, now
after a while when you get really good
at it, you start doing it and you start
remembering names because that's just
who you are. We talked about in our
episode, you know, these levels, logical
levels of change everywhere from
identity to environment. You start
seeing yourself as somebody who is
capable, that's smart and so on. But
even when I need to remember like 50
people's names at an event, I'll
actually use the same method that we
teach, you know, in in in these kind of
conversations that we're having because
it focuses my my attention. It gets me
present with somebody, gets me focused
on the Have you read Moonwalking with
Einstein? I do. Okay. So do you so for
anybody watching the book is about a guy
who starts cold and decides to become a
memory champion and actually does and he
learns all these techniques using
pneumonic devices the like crazy intense
imagery like we just did with
blueberries flying out of our nose etc.
Um, and I wonder do you like so in that
they'll they'll assign like numbers like
it's always like 13 is always a clown
and so and it got me thinking when you
said you've how how many digits of pi
have you memorized? Well, I mean I I
train a lot more people on how to do
this kind of stuff cuz a lot of people
who like so I was there um I was invited
to go to um to many times to go to the
these championships, right? and uh and
the judge and that kind of stuff. And I
was actually with Josh um that day when
he won his full name Josh Josh for so
Josh for wrote this book and he was
basically a journalist and he was so you
know interested in this that he he
learned the stuff came back a year later
and won. Exactly what you said. And so
he and I have a picture of us having
lunch the day, you know, he did a
morning session competition. We had
lunch together just the two of us and
then he won it that afternoon. It's one
day in New York City. Really, really
great. But they all use some kind of
these methods, 100% of them. And I've
spent a lot of time and you know most a
lot of them are my students and such and
they buy our programs and I could tell
you that 100% of them and I like 99% of
them will all say if you ask them that
they weren't born with this ability to
memorize like you know like that like
hundreds of digits of like binary
numbers or or or you know faces or
anything else like that. But do you do
you personally like predetermine
numbers or names as things? Yeah. So I
have a I so for for for pictures yes. So
one of the methods that so sorry so for
for certain things I turn to pictures
always so names and numbers 100% because
and they're like pre-established so
every time you meet a Tom it's 100%
100%
and some of those came very early in my
career because here's the thing like a
lot of people forget people's names
because they it's abstract like a name
is abstract just like a number like what
does 1792 even what is how is that any
different than 1787 like people like
let's say it's a pin number for your for
your ATM, you know, machine or anything
that you need to or maybe it's your
hotel room are all the things that we
need to memorize all the time. The
problem is with numbers and names,
they're abstract and so it's not
tangible for us to be able to remember.
So the idea here is that the ultimate
tip tip is turn into picture like
because if you can imagine it, you could
remember it, right? And so for example,
when you're meeting someone for the
first time, you would pick a point on
their body, right? So I I teach this
thing called pi p I E. And I say
learning names or memory is just as easy
as pi, right? So the P stands for place.
Remember, you need a place to store the
information. The I is you imagine the
information. And then the E is you
entwine the information together. So
really simple. So that's exactly what we
did here, right? You picked a place on
the top of your head. You imagine the
avocado and then you entwined the two
together. And then all of a sudden
memorable. And I promise you like 5 days
from now I'll be like, you remember that
list? And it's going to I'm actually
really curious to see if that's true. I
would I would love that. I'm one of
those dumb asses that you talk about
that say over and over they have a bad
memory and so they have a bad memory
because they keep saying they have a bad
memory. So I'm really curious to see.
We'll have to test it out. We'll go live
real quick on Friday. We should. You
should totally do that. Let's do that. I
really want to see it from the grocery
store. Am I supposed to practice? No.
No. No. So don't practice. Is that what
we're testing? I'm saying you don't even
have you won't have to review it. That's
the whole thing with frequency, you
know, duration intensity. So you really
believe if I believe and I'll I'll flip
a switch. I'm going to remember these.
So I'm go without needing to rehearse
it. Yeah. If if you if you encoded it
right like if you know those 10 right
now I could give them to you right now.
Yeah. I think 80% of it you'll you'll
have 80% fidelity as opposed to the
forgetting curve and this is just
research based within 48 hours 80% is
gone. So most people when they go to
learn something we know there's a
learning curve right and so my work is
about cutting that learning curve.
There's also a forgetting curve that you
could learn something and study it and
then within two days 80% of it could be
gone. That's how I feel about most of my
college career. Right. Exactly. So
people don't study, they cram all night,
they take the test and what happens if
they take the test? It's like gone,
right? Because there's difference
between studying to remember and really,
you know, you know, cramming to forget,
right? And so I would say, yeah, without
reviewing it, if you have the intention
to remember it, because here's the
thing, I could use this list every
single day and you'll find that you can
too. You can even give yourself another
list tomorrow. But if you don't need to
if you don't if you don't have a need to
remember the list, just like some of the
things you don't need to remember in
your life, you'll you'll you'll you'll
prune it out. You know what I mean?
It'll because your intention is
important. There's no motivation to keep
it. No relevancy. Then it would just But
it's 10 superfoods. So now you have that
in my body. All right. So really fast.
I'm gonna interrupt us. Do we have
questions coming in? All right. How
what's our plan to get those? I'm right
here. All right. Boom. Let's open those
up. I want to hear what people think.
This is fun. Well, so I'm expecting
Dude, you and me both. So, I never, for
anybody that's ever watched uh Impact
Theory, you will notice I never ever
ever do like And now walk me through
your skill, right? Never. And so, I've
had you on twice. I never ask you. Of
all the things I ask, I never ask about
what the actual techniques are. I don't
want that to be the show. I feel like
other people do that. like my
fascination is more with the sort of
architectural belief system and I love
that. Thank you. That's why your show is
so unique. Thank you. Thank you. But
this is really fun. Like I'm so curious
to see like if people are typing, all
right, we get it. Like
move on. Or if they're like, "Oh my god,
this is revolutionary. I'm super curious
cuz that was really interesting for me."
Yeah. And it only takes a little bit
more time cuz we're expounding on we're
having this, you know, we're going and
having this conversation and going with
a little bit of of everything. Well,
here's a question from Robbie D'Angelo.
He says, "How do you maintain a balance
between learning the new versus
retaining the old?" That's fair. That is
a fair question. And so, I would love
especially if you're using locations,
like at some point you sort of run out
of location. And so, here's the thing,
like the goal with these techniques,
even as they were developed, it was more
to be able to shortcut this working this
loss because you can't have long-term
memory if you don't at least have
short-term memory, right? like you can't
no one can remember anything longterm if
they can't even remember it for the next
10 minutes or the next you know 10 10 10
hours 10 days and such and so I would
say that the point of these techniques
and these aren't the the breath of the
toolbox right but the the point of these
techniques is to get it into your into
your short term so you can move it into
your longterm memory um but it also
still has to just like in the matrix
right it still has to abide by certain
rules and so this is a way of getting it
there and So if you're not interested
like if some people if somebody doesn't
have I think intent matters just in like
our life intent matters motivation
matters. So if people don't see the
relevancy I think a lot of times in
school people don't remember things long
term like the old because
the sign cosine tangent x like who like
what's the point really for for 99% of
the population. So I feel like that gets
lost because um your memories you're not
going to keep that information readily
available because you're not number one
you're not using it on a regular basis
and number two you don't see the the
relevancy around it. So, I would say to
answer your question, um, I would say
that it helps to have different places.
Remember, it's a shortcut because your
real memory knows the difference because
here's the thing. After I meet somebody
and their name is Tom and I see a tom
cat sitting on their head or whatever it
is. That's where Now, now it's funny
when I sit at a conference, I literally
see all this stuff, right? Mary's
holding like lambs underneath her under
her arm like David. I use a slingshot
because David and Goliath, right? And I
just do it and I don't, this is in the
privacy of my own mind. I'm not telling
David what I'm doing to him or putting
like a mark a check mark on his forehead
and it sounds so third grade but you
know children I mean they that's how
they how many what was the check mark
right like a check mark someone named
Mark yeah so so the idea here is like
for Bob I use bobbing for apples what do
you use for Jared so so here's the thing
right well I mean some well what do you
think some people would use for Jared I
literally have no idea subway um
diamonds
okay Jared subway Jared diamonds yeah
yeah and so so so here's the thing so
people can't come up Like so a lot of
people would I think they would think um
Subway and or have different
associations whatever or diamonds is a
really good one or if they don't have an
direct association for it you come up
with something that sounds like it just
like that letter reminds you of the
whole word imagine if something just
spelled out like part of that word and
the whole idea here though my point in
this is once you know the person's name
is Tom or Jared or Lisa then the
pictures disappear the all it is is a
shortcut it's a means to an end the end
is to know the person's name right is to
get to that point and so this allows you
a bridge to kind of get there and then
once you get there the bridge
disappears. So you're saying the cuz
what his original question was how do
you balance the new and the old and
you're saying that the old sort of gets
solidified into that long-term memory
where you don't have to think about it
anymore. You're not using it becomes
part of what they call your schema. your
schema is like your your your knowledge
base, your background, right? And that
that's part of all learning because all
a lot of what learning is, especially
when it comes to memory, is you're
associating something on the outside to
something that's on the inside. You're
like connecting something you don't know
to something that you already know.
That's why people learn so well use even
with with film and they use metaphors,
right? Because metaphor allows you to
connect to something you already know
because you can't connect two things on
the outside that you don't know both of
them because they're not connecting
here. Right? So it one of the ways that
would help like for example if
somebody's here and they're explaining
like some kind of like social marketing
or something that I might not
understand. I was like that's that's
awesome. And how do you compare that to
like you know this pineapple here? You
know what I mean? Or this or that spider
in the corner there. And then all of a
sudden they'll make associations.
they'll learn something too. And that's
one of the things for for like like a
little for me for creativity like I'll
I'll I'll I'll try to see something
through the lens of of different people
and then I'll I'll be able to pay
attention to things I would normally pay
attention to if that makes sense. So a
lot of the things that we're talking
about is so for example um you could
have multiple lists. So you have your
body list that's there and you could
reuse it but you'd also have your home
list right? You have different rooms of
your home and you could go from your
kitchen to your bedroom to XYZ. And
again, I don't you don't people have to
do this all the time. I'm just saying
where just like with speed reading, you
don't have to speedread everything all
the time. It's what your outcome is.
Always going back to like what your goal
or your outcome is. Like sometimes it
helps to read something fast because
that your goal is to get very critical
information. You know what you're
looking for. You go and you get it and
that's it. Other people want to read
something because they want the nuance
of the of the the sound and they want
that whole experience. Then that's fine
for them to do. Same thing with learning
these techniques. I find though my
experience and this this is so this is
my 25th year of teaching. My experience
with doing this with people is by by
doing this, it exercises their focus,
their level of attention as opposed to
where most of our attention is being
pulled apart everywhere. Right? When
you're learning something for the first
time, it helps to be able to to focus,
take the name, turn into a picture. Cuz
at the very least, what I'm doing when I
see the tom cat and I see the person,
I'm paying attention to the name. I'm
paying attention to the person, which is
that alone, that awareness alone is
going to help me. Even if I don't
remember the picture, it just forces my
attention. It creates a focal point for
me. Like I really think focus is the big
thing that people want. Like people ask
yeah motivation is important and create
all that stuff but focus on the
different areas of your life everything.
It's kind of the metaphor I use is like
it's a sunny day out right? If you put a
magnifying glass out there what happens?
It creates this really bright point that
you could burn you know leaves and stuff
like that. And bright is the word. It's
kind of interesting. Like bright is how
we that's what we that's the word we use
to explain people are really smart
right? That person's really bright. But
maybe they're not smarter. maybe they're
just focused, right? And that that would
be the goal. And so what I'm saying even
with these techniques for remembering um
names or remembering grocery list or
whatever, it gets you to focus on what
you need to learn. And that's a good
exercise and good practice. Whereas I
think a lot of us, and we've talked this
on the episode about people checking
their phone first thing in the morning
and training themselves, rewiring their
brain for distraction. This is an
exercise you could do to harness your
concentration just like a meditation.
Well, here's a real world uh need from
Steve Kane in the comments. He says,
"I'm currently training for a new job
and have tons to memorize. How could I
apply this to my training when it's not
in a list format?" Yeah. So, I would say
this to to Steve. I would say all So,
for example, um I would do I would still
come up with location. So, location is
what helps a lot of people store
information anywhere. So, it's it's it's
the most I would say out of everything
that is out there in you know, in terms
of memory training that has the the e
the least fixed cost. Like so for
example um I have pictures for numbers
also and decks of cards and all that
stuff and it's just and the great thing
about these I don't know what decks of
cards are. I mean like like um different
um 52 cards in a deck and stuff like
there's pictures decks of cards like
when memorizing decks of cards um like
memorizing like like multiple decks of
cards and stuff. But for example, for
names, it's great because if you could
come up with a picture for just you go
at the US Census Bureau for here, people
in the United States here, see the top
hundred names. You could you could just
do 10 a day. Come up with a picture for
each of those. Picture for John, a
picture for Mike, a picture for I I mean
do it like Can I really with you
for a second? Let's make this really
hard because I think if you can answer
the hard question, you've really got
something. So, I'm going to guess he's
got like I don't know what he needs to
memorize, but the example of something
that I heard that I thought, how the
hell would you do that is do you know
Sound Garden? Sound Garden. Sound
Garden, the band. Yeah. Okay. So,
recently, um, Chris Cornell passed away.
It was one of my favorite artists
growing up. I'm absolutely mortified.
But the story is the drummer for um,
Sound Garden actually now is the drummer
for Pearl Jam. Who would have guessed?
Um, and he had to learn in like 2 weeks
he had to learn something like 87 songs
or just something ridiculous to be able
to go on tour with Pearl Jam. And I
thought how how like the sometimes the
opening beat alone would be shades of
another song, right? So it wouldn't be
like radically different, but how do you
memorize like something that complex? So
if he had come to you and you know his
job let's say he's a musician and he's
got to memorize 87 songs which are so
abstract like is there a tool for that?
Yeah. I mean so there's no Okay. So my
answer would be that there's no magic
pill. Like there's no magic literally
ginkoa pill that's going to fix
anything. There's no one technique
that's going to be so perfect for that.
That's So what would Jim Quick do if you
Okay. So So and I do this a lot with not
not so much in music, but it usually
comes up with actors a lot on a on a
literally weekly basis where people need
to memorize lines or there'll be in a
situation where an actress came to me
recently that you you know who it is say
they they memorize all these lines for
the TV show. And can we just say, have
you ever checked out this guy's
Instagram feed? knows everybody.
Like, even internally, and we all know
you. We're like, how the is he
hanging out with this person? Like, what
is going on? It's Jim, the number of
people that you hang out with at a high
level is ridiculous. But sorry, your
story. So I would say like an actress
recently came up to me and she's in a
prominent TV show and she had memorized
these lines to preform and the writers
change it all off of her course and and
then the next day she was like how do I
forget all this and how do I relearn all
these pages in like you know a couple
hours kind of thing and so there's
there's there is no easy like
necessarily and and music's definitely
not one of my my superpowers but I would
say there are certain things that a
person do to accelerate that process
right and so pulling back macro into
into micro the actual techniques. Um, so
I would always focus on the 10 things
that we've talked about in the past. And
so part of having part of it is taking
care of the hardware, right? And so
well, but what did you tell her to do?
You can't leave me on a cliffhanger.
You come back to the next Facebook live.
We'll talk about that also. Um, no, but
here let me let me go through the 10
things real fast. So So I I would always
focus on a healthy quick brain like
superhero brain lifestyle, right? And so
there's certain things that would just
always enhance no matter what you're
tackling. And I'll get to the actual
technique in a moment. I would always
focus on the hardware first. So make
sure you give your brain what it needs.
Right? So the 10 things really fast. And
I actually these are the 10 things your
brain needs to be optimized for. Here's
here's the thing. When people talking
about their memory, onethird of your
memory is predetermined by genetics and
biology according to research. 2/3 is in
your control. um which which is nice
because when people are saying I'm
getting too old or this runs in my
family or whatever it's like hey let's
contextualize this about onethird of
it's going to come through your genetics
or your bi bio biology but two/3 let's
let's make let's focus on the two-thirds
that can make a difference right um now
of course some people believe that they
could you know affect their epigenetics
and everything else with certain things
I mean who knows what what's possible
right so like like that that's the stuff
that I would I want to geek out about
you know like like in terms of what the
future could look like in terms of power
of the mind to affect longevity and
health and I mean you know you had me at
hello but you know like when people
multiple personalities right when they
switch personalities some of them their
eyes colors will switch I'm calling
really I would have to see that
100% I want to see that too I've only
I've only read about but have you heard
about like but okay so I don't even know
like like when people like one
personality is allergic to bees and
another one's not that that I could
actually buy cuz be so the eye color
thing like I don't understand the
pigmentation where it's coming from well
enough to to believe that it can be
changed like that shades of color. But
like um with your immune system, you can
like you can hypnotize people and give
them welts and all kinds of because
so that's just like mobilizing. And I
love which when you talk about like the
power of the subconscious mind because
that that's really that's where a lot of
learning is happening when you don't
even realize you're learning in music
also, right? Like think about how many
people watching this how many lyrics to
songs people know. Like a lot. Like a
lot. Like a lot a lot and how many
people at home actually studied those
actual lyrics like actually formal.
Exactly. So I think a lot of learning I
mean going back to the songs a lot of it
happens when we don't even realize we're
learning cuz if we were if we were
regulated just to learn everything we
just learned in school because that's
actually when people feel like they're
learning is and that that's a travesty
right when people feel like that's when
they graduate school they're done with
learning or whatever that whole ideology
is. Um, so I would say that there are 10
keys and you can put it on your I
actually walk people through my office.
Really I I've got to ask and and I'm
like creating the problem myself here,
but do you ever like I've seen you be so
absurd and go down like these like
tangents on tangents on tangents and
then you just come back like you never
left and that how the hell do you do
that? Okay, so I don't I don't do it. I
I think also by the way I have to
commend you the past couple years since
we've been friends and we spent a good
amount of time together and I I watch
all your stuff like like I don't I don't
get to listen to a lot of podcasts and
and and you know for because we're both
busy right but your stuff besides like
the production of what you're doing and
your team is doing you the way you
integrate knowledge is something
profound. Wow. But you feel it, right?
Like even like what the difference
between our conversation now and like it
like was like a year ago and such like
you're like you're like the Borg. You're
like totally like you're like
assimilating this stuff matrix style.
Well, thank you. Um and so I would say
part of it is um part of this is is this
dialogue. I do believe also um you know
when we're talking about things all the
time that we integrate it even more that
we learn a lot when we're when we're
talking and we could see nested loops.
For me, I could I just follow tracks.
It's similar to
the chess players maybe that play
multiple games and they kind of see open
loops because I know like about chunking
and all that stuff like walk me through
because so it of all the things I really
want to get good at and that I practice
every interview I do and it's totally
invisible and people don't realize I'm
doing it right in front of their face.
Like I'm practicing how far can I go and
I feel a bit like a free diver, right?
where it's like if you go too far, you
die. And it's happened a couple
times where I've gone a little too far
down a tangent. Oh, it's all gone. And
then the rabbit hole and you can't get
get Exactly. I can't get back. I can't
remember where I started. Do you have a
technique for that? That I would say.
Okay. And I know we need to get back to
the 10 things, but I have no doubt you
will run out of that. I think um Okay.
So, I think you could I think you go
further and further the more you
practice doing it. Um so I believe that
I there's something called the zygarnic
effect and the zygarnic effect zeonic is
um Dr. like she's a she was a a
psychiatrist in Europe and she was
monitor she was noticing when she was
going out um for uh coffee at at the at
the local cafe that the weight staff
would remember everyone's order that was
there and you wonder how they could do
that right I still wonder that yeah and
but here's so she called it's actually
termed the ziggarnic effect because what
happens is when you interview the weight
staff they'll remember every single
person's order until they deliver it and
then it's gone. Right? And what they
found is this thing with open loops that
the that the mind loves closure. And
they actually use this memory phenomenon
to u to explain uh to help to overcome
procrastination. Because the idea here
is if you can't get yourself to do
something, one of the ways of actually
overcoming procrastination is to break
things down into tiny little bits and
start somewhere anywhere in the process.
Because the the idea here is if you
start somewhere, you're more it
increases your probability of finishing
much more than if you don't start
anything at all because your mind needs
that kind of closure. It's it's
equivalent. Sometimes I'll take a a
coin. I'll be like, which hand is it in?
And I'll and and like half the class
will be like they'll see me move micro
movements here and unconsciously. say
it's my right hand and and and it's
actually I did you know kind of slight
hand or no hands but they make an
investment in something and there's this
open loop and they need there's this
pulse this response potential where they
need to kind of get that kiss good night
or whatever gives them closure right um
and so I think it could be exercised I'd
be I'd love to have a conversation about
that you know and do some research
because I you know because just like
with you I get to a certain level of
understanding where it just kind of
reach the limits but I know you and I
like to play at that
like you know where we're literally
we're dancing on the edge of like those
limits of what we know we don't know but
are you just good at nested loops I've
never so I'll just state it really
emphatically I've never met anyone as
good at getting back to where they
started as you okay do you use a
technique that you can teach me right or
are you just good at it okay so
I would say that my my my general belief
is that there's always a method behind
the magic for this one particularly
I would think that a lot of it's
unconscious and it came through training
because my my goal is I've never had an
ounce not one minute of public speaking
experience or media training or
anything, right? Like I I I came about
this totally different. Like I never
even wanted this to be a business,
right? I'm like I feel like I'm an
artist or a teacher that got involved in
business to help maybe scale the art a
little bit. What? You consider yourself
an artist? No, in a way that like a
transformation No, sorry. in a way that
it's like a like a transformation artist
where I'm looking to where where there's
a science part to it, right? That's
structured, but I also when I'm on stage
and I'm doing my thing, I'm not wrote or
I don't have anything predetermined to
talk about and I'm looking at subjects.
Yeah. Like I actually I thrive in this
kind of environment similar to you. No,
like you are with Q&As's how how Gary
Vee is like this like let's you know he
doesn't he wants to teach but let's
let's get to some questions. I look at
it because I got over like I still have
a little bit of a fear of public
speaking because that's more my nature.
Sure. Right. Because it's just I'm just
kind of, you know, shy and introverted
anyway and I don't like the attention on
myself. But how I get over it is I look
at people and I and I I focus on them
and it gets me over my selfless, you
know, my selfishness and stuff. But I I
look at it more as, hey, this is an art
and I'm painting on the canvas of
someone's mind and I want to be able to
move someone from here to here and I'm
listening for it. But because I haven't
had the training in there, I'm looking
at it from a learning perspective. And
so storytelling is a is, as you know,
even better than I do. I mean, that's
why I've moved to Los Angeles to
understand more of
storytelling and how people communicate
and educate and empower people through
the use of stories, which that's why I'm
so excited about what you're doing and
what's to come because I just feel like,
yeah, this this to you totally be the
next Disney, you know what I mean? And
it's just like and I and anyway, so so I
guess I don't know what I'm consciously
doing as much and I'd be cur I'm gonna
deep dive in this so we could have a
conversation about this you and I or in
a future episode. Man, if you could help
me with that, that would be insane. But
but I also am interested in opening
loops purposely for people so that they
stick around to get it closed. And I
know by doing that, people are more
likely to to tune in. Um, not not tune
in to next show or next podcast. They're
tuning in and paying attention. All
right. So I need my kiss good night on
the 10 things. What are the 10 things?
So so the 10 things really fast and
these are so if I'm working with a
client I just make sure these 10 things
are aligned because if any one of them
is isn't is not out of place that
they're going to be working on a
deficit. That's all when it comes to
memorizing something. So good diet we
just cover the 10 things right because
you are what you eat. Number two just
just just to monitor their selft talk.
And I you know I understand that I'm not
saying people have to be positive all
the time. In fact I'm I'm I'm totally
cool people who are skeptical. They say
they're skeptical about something
because that all that just means they
want to know the truth. A lot of people
say will hide behind being skeptical and
they're just really nothing works.
They're just negative. No possibility.
So, but I like I think it's important to
not talk your out your way out of
things. So, monitor selft talk. Three is
exercise because we know if people are
going to study like even music and they
exercise beforehand, they're going to
have a huge lift like a sizable lift by
doing movement. Like you know when
people do they get on their treadmill,
they go in the gym and everything and
they start they study right after it
that they're going to get better
performance across the board, right?
Anything good for your heart is going to
be good for your head. So that's just a
brain hack, right? People exercise
before they study simple to do. Um after
that brain nutrients, you know,
supplementing and stuff that they
they're diet have because you could have
not be able to remember this like this
performer whether it's Savage or
whatever or or if if they're just
deficient in vitamin B's, right? or
omegas three you know what I think it's
important number five clean environment
because your external world is
reflection your internal world clean
like tidy like six is like sorry so five
I would actually let me backtrack five I
would say is positive peer group so I
think that who you spend time with like
um I love like our relationship off
camera right like and just cuz it's
exactly as it is on camera like we
literally could be at at a at a you know
a burger place this is exactly what we
like doing Facebook live we' be having
the same exact conversation
And it's the same exact thing. And so,
um, I think a positive peer group is
really important for people, um, for
their brain and just health in general.
Six is a clean environment. And so, this
is,
you know, when people clean their office
or they clean their desktop, they have a
little bit more focus and clarity
because things are organized. They seem
mentally ill to me. Yeah. And if it
weren't for my wife, this place would be
a mess. And here's the thing. But here's
the thing, like creative people, it's
the exact opposite. So, so in terms of
having be like like clearer thinking or
be able to remember things when it's
organized in chunks it tends to be there
but some people same thing with nested
loops they could be in a complete mess
but it's organized chaos. Yes. Like I
like I went to the like Fox Fox Studios
right and um and I was looking at where
they make all the uh the sounds, you
know, cuz they have they have this whole
room with all this random stuff cuz
whenever they have a movie and
somebody's running in the grass, they
need to be able to duplicate those
sounds. They have everything. And you
guys Yes. Exactly. They're crazy. They
look like junkyards. Exactly. But they
know where every single thing is because
it's organized in a way. Like if you
move something, they would know exactly
where it is. But for me, it doesn't have
a trained eye exper like I just like
this place is a freaking mess. But
here's a here's the caveat though. So it
would help with thinking, clarity of
thought because your external world so
on. But um for creatives, creatives
actually flourish with lots of stimulus
in their environment. So it'd be almost
the exact opposite because if they like
Einstein was definitely not clean,
definitely not super organized, but he
had a lot of stimulus around which
fostered you know his creativity and
stuff like that. Um that's number six is
monitor your empire. Maybe it's
conducive to whatever your outcome is.
Seven is sleep and that's you know
that's big personal issue for for a lot
of people and so I maximize your sleep
because it doesn't matter if you cram
and cram and cram. If you're not getting
sleep, you're not consolidating, you're
not learning and everything else. Nine
is brain uh nine is eight is eight is
brain protection you know because I've
had a lot of head trauma so protect your
brain nine is new learnings always you
know uh growing and then stress
management which is a big deal because
we tend to overlook stress management
because we tend to be busy and we wear
the badge of honor that we're busy
because we're important and we design
our whole life to be busy and you wonder
why because we're reinforcing being busy
but I also feel like we're under an
immense amount of stress from whatever
whatever the stress is emotional
financial whatever and I feel like
that's inhibiting a lot of people's
memories and they don't even realize it
because they're living because you guess
because because fish don't realize that
water is there and everything else like
that. That being said, um I just did a a
podcast on this on study hacks and for
anyone learning anything, it doesn't
matter what it is. I'll tell you what
people are doing right and what they're
doing wrong. First of all, if they're
looking to do a lot of like m whether
it's memorizing lines or music or
anything, like I'm not an expert at the
content, but I'm expert at that process,
right? That meta level. And I'm saying a
lot of people make the mistake first of
all they study for too long a period of
time without taking a break. And I'm
just saying going right into like hacks
is that the problem with that is when
you're studying for long periods of
time. We know that after 25 30 minutes
people's attentions take they take a
dive, right? Because a lot of people
can't sustain it. There's this time
management technique called the pomodoro
technique, right? You set an alarm for
25 30 minutes or whatever and then
that's your focus time and you're
studying it and then after that 2 3 4 5
minute break stretch, hydrate, breathe,
whatever you need to do and then you go
back to whatever you need to do. The
other reason why that's powerful also is
because um not only there's this there's
me this memory phenomenon called primacy
and recency where it says you'll tend to
remember primacy is prime first, right?
You tend to remember stuff in the
beginning, recency says you tend to
remember stuff at the end. Meaning, if
you go to a party and you uh you meet,
you know, 30 strangers, you probably
remember the first people you met when
you got to the party and the last people
you meet. Unless there's things that
spike it up, like things are unique and
different, outstanding or emotional or,
you know, self- serving that'll spike
up. But the problem is that um let's say
you're studying for 5 hours. Primacy
says you remember stuff at the
beginning, recency at the end, and then
there's this like dive here and you lose
all that information. So the reason why
you take breaks every 30, 45 minutes or
every hour is because by doing that you
create more beginnings and ends, right?
And so it allows you to pick up a whole
chunk of information that we normally
would lose. And so I'm saying that
cramming doesn't work. Take breaks
methodically, right? Because number one,
because you can't focus past 30 or 40
minutes, you know, effectively because,
you know, we get fatigued and everything
else like that. And you create more
privacy and recency. The other thing is
a lot of people when they're trying to
learn something they they multitask,
right? And we know and so we we talked
about that in the private previous
conversation. Multitasking doesn't work.
And so a lot of people even if they're
not directly multitasking, their mind is
still on other things that's going on in
their life. And you can't you can't
study the music or the sheet music or
what or the the the script or whatever
if part of your brain is being occupied.
It's like closing down like you're on
your you're in your laptop and you're
like minimizing different you know sites
and everything else. It's still taking
up space and and attention and such like
that. So I'd be I would be very u
mindful of that. Also as well when it
comes to scripts actually what we'll do
this is a total brain hack and I'm not
saying that this works in every occasion
but we definitely see a lift is the what
do you think is the strongest uh sense
in terms of tied to your memory? Smell.
Smell. Smell. Yeah. Right. And so you
know this so there's certain brain hacks
that will say that when you're studying
anything whether it's music or words or
anything for your meetings or anything
that people need to at home is to
introduce a new scent there because when
you introduce that scent and actually
need to recall it have that same scent
because there all these studies where
the environment unconsciously gets
linked to the information and they
they've proven this where in multiple
times where even the the example I use
in past conversation where they put
people they submerge them under water
give them words to memorize, take them
out of the water, see how they memorize,
recall, put them back under the water,
see how much they recall, which in what
environment do they remember more in the
water, right? Because it got
unconsciously linked, right? And so in a
perfect world, people would be studying
the music or studying the the script or
whatever in where they need to perform
it, right? Or like like let's say
they're studying for a test, studying
the lecture center, what's not being
used because it'll unconsciously get
anchored there. But that's not practical
for the most part. So then you bring the
environment in with it. So you chew a
gum with unique flavor, essential oil,
cologne, perfume, or whatever it is.
That's unique because that that's like
um does Pavlov ring a bell? Oh, of
course. Yeah, of course. Does he ring a
bell?
But notice notice what's happening
though. It's like the dog, they bring in
the the meat, salivate, salivates, ring
the bells, right? Bring in the meat,
salivate, salivates, ring the bell, and
so on. Take out the meat, all of a
sudden dog's not really hungry. Ring the
bell. It'll produce this exact amount of
saliva, right? with the with the
stimulus out because it got associated
to the bell. And the whole idea here is
you could that's a learning a new
association, right? Where they took the
meat out of the equation. And I'm saying
that that smell could be that stimulus
that brings back that state and that the
information that's attached to that
state. And so, and also there's certain
smells, by the way, essential oils that
just help boost memory and focus like
peppermint, you know, like rosemary.
There's certain things that actually
stimulate Yeah. parts of your brain to
help you pay better attention and people
will actually do better on mental acuity
tests and such. So I would say do people
like what do you do just all of it and I
don't think there's one thing that does
it and I know we spend we're going we
could spend another hour on this. We
have a lot we have a lot of questions in
the comments here so I want to get to a
few more. This one this one's for Tom
and Jim from Sarah at the Singer
Academy. My question is how do we
retrain our brains from everything the
education systems have have taught us?
So many people live in fear of not
pursuing their dreams because because
schools teach us to follow along with
status quo. How do we break that mold?
Well, I'll just give you a really fast
answer on my side. Um I everything in
your life should be goal oriented. So if
your goals allow you to stay in that
same like rope memorization, be a good
student, stay in line, all that, then do
it. Uh my gut instinct is that it won't
and therefore you need to break out of
it. And that's one of those things we
could do a whole show on it. Um, yeah,
it people either get it or they don't.
Like it should all be determined by your
goals. Your goals mandate your behavior
in my opinion. Yeah, that's such a good
answer. I don't even know if I could top
that. Um Sarah Sarah's very active on
social. So we we we definitely
appreciate her tuning into that. So in
terms of just the the quick of it, I
think that a lot of what we need to do
is take personal responsibility to that
education. You know, the whole idea is
sometimes we feel like we're going to
school and it's happening to us. It's
nice if we play our role and and
responsibility because a lot of actually
our work is is like helping people
unlearn bad habits. You know what I
mean? And seeing going from a goal
approach saying this is my outcome. Does
this process step into a common common
sense corner of your brain and
re-evaluate be able to say from that
perspective saying does this still make
sense in my life? Does this still serve
me? And uh I think it takes a lot of
self-awareness too because I think you
know what what's what what impressed me
with with people um who achieve a lot
with yourself or Gary Vee or some of the
people let's talk about superpowers and
self-awareness like to really know
yourself. I think people got to get
really curious um about who they are.
And I think that curiosity I think I
think success for me I was thinking
about this the other day. I was thinking
um like for success is I think it's like
to be curious enough to know yourself
and then be be courageous enough to be
able to be yourself like once you know a
little bit you know more about who you
are. Here's a question from David Bruno
about habits. It's what is the best way
to replace bad habits with good habits?
Maybe we can get tactical here. Yeah.
You want to take it? You want first? So
to replace um bad habits with good
habits to me starts with I mean
depending on what it is I almost
everything for me starts with identity.
So I'm going to say okay I'm the type of
person that this so let's say that you
let's just write to the hardest one on
the face of the planet food. So
people eat bad food. They know it's bad.
They feel bad. They look bad. It's just
horrific. But it's a drug and so it's
very difficult for them. So, um, what
you have to start doing is saying, "I'm
the type of person that, right?" So, I'm
the type of person that only eats things
that are good for me, um, 6 days a week
and I leave one cheat day. Okay, great.
So, 6 days a week, I'm going to tell
anybody and everybody who will listen.
And then the reason that I do that is I
want to, um, be the person that I say
that I am. And the inongruity of telling
people that you're one way and then
secretly acting another is going to make
them feel really uncomfortable. Unless
they're a sociopath, in which case I
can't help them. Um, but if you're not a
sociopath, you feel like a liar
when you're like, "Hey, I do this." And
then, but for real, you don't. And then
certainly with um eating, there's such a
physiological response. Like, you can
see over a month, let's say, if you
really switched your eating habits
dramatically, there would be a physical
result. You'd be able to see it. So,
people are just going to know that
you're BSing. So, start with identity
and then start acting in accordance with
that identity. So that that to me is the
biggest thing that you could do with
food. I'll give you one more thing. You
need to learn how to reward and punish
yourself. So the times where you make
the right decision, you need to reward
yourself. Like there needs to be some
like gratification in and of yourself.
You don't need it externally. Just like,
hey, I said I was going to do it. I did
it. I love that. And then also finding a
way to deal with the suffering because
the reason they're not doing in the
first place is it creates some sort of
psychic suffering. I don't mean psychic
and like I need a better word for this
cuz during the interview today with um
Vanessa Van Edwards she actually thought
I meant psychic like I can read your
mind psychic um just like mental energy.
Uh people need to figure out their tool
and tactic for dealing with the
suffering. So what I do particularly
with food is I welcome it as an old
friend and I remind myself that the
suffering that I'm going through now not
eating like right now I'm starving at
this very second I'm starving and I just
remind myself welcome old friend. Thank
you so much for coming. I know that
you're oxidizing my fat. Like I'm very
grateful for that. And in doing that,
like I actually get comfortable and I
begin to reassociate the pain as
pleasure. And I'll stop there. That's
amazing. I mean, identity. I I I think
you hit it on the head. Like if somebody
thinks they're a smoker, it's just
really hard to change that behavior. Um
but um in in the episode, I would refer
back to the episode that we just did um
about the logical levels of change
there. there's identity and beliefs and
values and your your your habits and
your cap your um your behaviors and your
uh your environment. Um I just did two
episodes on habit change. So it's kind
of fresh for me. I would say that um
there's this guy named BJ Fog out of
Stanford University, a researcher and
actually that's where Instagram came
from, one of his students and think
about habits and addictions, right? He
um and um and they want to make it so
habitual, right? where you're picking I
think somebody said 54 times you're open
up an Instagram 54 times a day. I'd be
surprised if it wasn't more for me to be
honest. So here's the thing that that's
the thing and I know reply man. No I
know I know I know you're like cuz
there's some people that only open once
or twice. So there must be people that
are opening it 100 times or whatever. Um
but that's and so he has a formula
called B equals mat. And so the behavior
you want to change equals motivation
ability and trigger. And I'm not break
it down. Can you tell me what we're
saying? Yeah. So BMAT behavior which is
the habit equals motivation right um
ability and trigger meaning that
according to him over at Stanford that
these three ingredients is what so for
example if somebody wants to stop um
stop eating a certain food right um the
motivation you you need to figure out
ways to lower that motivation because if
that motivation is really high then it's
it's it's going to be very difficult
because that's it's emotionally charged
right the ability that's there um is
somebody like for example I like to
teach people new habits like reading and
stuff but they need to have that ability
to compensate and the trigger is
actually one of us the biggest the one
overlooked because usually what is if
you want to break a habit you have to
look at the trigger that's forcing that
that habit and so in memory that that's
my whole work is based on triggers it's
like something is reminding you of
something else in fact even if I'm not
teaching you that consciously a lot of
people right now with their memory they
forget somebody or name or whatever it
is, but then then something, you know, h
half a day later later that day triggers
it and they remember it all of a sudden.
Oh, that's the actor's name is or I got
to go to the whatever triggers them,
right? And so I think a big part of
breaking habits is looking at I'll just
mention that trigger point is what's
triggering you to want to do that? And I
would say like from a good habit
standpoint, for example, I have triggers
that just set me up. Like every time I
get into an elevator and if I'm alone,
I'll do squats. It's so silly, but I
train myself to do that because I just
figure like, hey, I'm I'm not getting
the movement I used to because I'm
always writing and, you know, doing all
this stuff that I'll trigger that. Um,
you know, certain triggers could be also
setting up the triggers in the
environment. Like a lot of people I tell
people like in the last episode, don't
touch your phone the first hour of the
day, right? You know, that that's a
trigger. Having the phone in the room is
your trigger. So, remove change the
environment. You remove the trigger, you
remove the behavior, right? So, ideally,
you kind of be able to set it up. But
there there's so many different ways.
The other thing also um I I don't know
how accurate I I was I was reading um an
article about self-compassion like the
research on self-compassion and they're
saying that um actually yes you want to
reward good behavior and punish behavior
but when it comes to an identity issue
you don't if if you if you fail to eat
that right or meditate that day or
whatever um studies in self-compassion
actually suggest not to be super super
hard on yourself and just and also but
but because our a lot of us we want to
plow through it is saying to to be kind
with yourself is more likely that you're
going to follow through on that behavior
rather than beat yourself up about it.
And really fast for those of you just
joining us um we're here with Jim Quick,
learning expert, quick learning, and
really want to bring attention to what I
think is a fantastic episode of Impact
Theory, which was the one that just went
live last Tuesday. So, be sure to check
it out. Jim absolutely crushed it. Was a
lot of fun. And for those of you that
saw the first interview that we did a
yearish ago, year and a half ago,
whatever it was, um, this is all new
ground, so uh, be sure to check it out.
All right, questions. We have a comment
from Kate Carpenter. She says, "Amazing.
My 10-year-old son who struggles with
learning just did the list that we were
doing earlier." That's awesome. He was
so excited that he was able to remember
the 10 items. He's actually excited to
try to learn other things using this
method. Dude, thank you for this. I'll
definitely look into Jim and his methods
to help my kids with school. That is so
cool, Kate. I love that. That is
amazing. I live for stuff like that.
Lisa and I were just talking about this
on our trip. Like when you get a comment
where somebody was legitimately impacted
by what you're putting out in the world.
That is so rad, dude. So, I love that.
That's the title of your show. Thank
you. Make an impact cuz what else is it?
What else is it for? Exactly. Cool. All
right. Here's a quick question. What
books do you recommend?
Well, it's easy for me. Yeah, I don't
know that the question is aimed at me,
though. So, why don't you uh give us
some learning uh books on learning and
memory and Yeah, I'll pretty much just
list all the people that have been on
your show the past, you know, this this
this season so far. Um I think uh we're
talking about uh getting into focus and
everything else. I think Flow I think uh
Stealing Fire is a great book. Did you
read Steen Coller's book? Yeah, Stephen
Coller and Jamie Wheel. I think that's a
personal favorite. I know you had uh our
friend Peter Deandas here. Yeah. And I'm
not plugging just I think you should
watch all the interviews because
honestly I love reading books and I read
a lot of books but I think a a really
good conversation like over a meal or
something like that could be as valuable
if not more valuable than reading the
book. But Stephen uh um uh Peter Deandis
Bold um I know you're super involved in
that prize and everything. Um I don't
know. I I I Any books on memory
specifically? Um, Moonwalking with
Einstein is the kind of the seminal
book. I don't know how much practical
information is in there. Not much
because it's it's more story intriguing,
but yeah. Um, but that's like the book
that ever, you know, like I don't think
anyone could ever quote another book.
Um, there is a there's a good book on
thinking styles. I like um historical
figures like um Leonardo da Vinci. So,
how to think like Leonardo da Vinci by
Michael Gelb is a great book. talks
about different ways that Leonardo
thought about things, how he took notes,
how he used his body in different ways
because he's not only just an artist,
but also, you know, incredible inventor.
You know, he was a juggler. He spoke all
these languages. Was a juggler. Yeah.
It's kind of crazy. Yeah. You do a deep
dive into some of the in some of these
individes.
He was the one that used to get
kadaavvers, right, and dissect them to
figure out how the muscles were. That I
thought that was impressive. I thought,
okay, that's when you take your drawing
seriously, when you're like, I need to
know what's under the skin. Yeah, I'm
very interested right now. Like, I'm I'm
I'm writing a lot cuz Yeah. When does
your book come out? Um, I'm hoping to
submit it the end of this summer, so
it'll it'll be over this next year. But
this is the book I wish I had when I
was, you know, labeled The Boy with a
Broken Brain, but it's it's uh I'm I'm
excited about it. But I'm basically
putting everything in there that I wish
like anything like your podcast, it will
become the seminal book on memory. Your
podcast is wicked. Thank you. So I'm way
into that. Super byite-size, super
actionable. Really really great. Yeah,
we did we had Steven Cer actually in the
last in the last episode. Nice. He spoke
at our event and we put um like the the
hottest the four points on getting into
flow and it's really it's really getting
in the zone. Nice. Good stuff.
All right, here's a question from
Matthew Barry. I read that both exercise
Yeah, I read that both exercise and
meditation can stimulate memory. In one
case, the brain is firing and in the
other case the brain is essentially
turned off. Are both cases true and
which is more efficient?
Okay, Matthew. Um, so I live I live in
both extremes. So I meditate once or
twice a day religiously. Part of it is
because of the sleep apnea I talked
about in the last episode. Um I don't
necessarily agree that I mean somebody
they cite these studies how you know 20
minutes of meditation is equal four
hours of sleep. I don't quite think that
would be like no but you could if you
Google that it's like it's pretty
prolific out there but I don't feel that
in my experience. That's because you're
not crazy. Um but meditation definitely
does help me with that because for me
it's um when I get to go into
parasympathetic mode and I get to read
the rejuvenation effects of that. Um,
float tanks are something that do it do
it for me also. It's pretty extreme.
It's not easily acceptable for
everybody, but in most major cities,
they have these kind of float centers.
Um, so I like to slow down to speed up.
I feel like that's when I'm in those
places, that's where I'm integrating
what I know. Um, also as well. That
being said, I'm, you know, I live, you
know, in a place where and know me and
neuroplasticity, I just need that new
learnings all the time. I need my those
firing those neurons to be firing to at
the same time so they get wired
together. So I get to, you know, I never
want to put my head down on the pillow,
you know, being the same person as I
was, you know, at least everything that
I know. And so I'm it's it's kind of
it's easy answer, but I I would say
they're equally important because I
stretch, I stabilize, I stretch, I
stabilize, and I don't want to live on
either extreme. I don't want to be just
so frantic just firing all the time
because that's a lot of learning
challenges but I also don't want it to
be completely turned off either.
That's my easy answer. Nice. Uh we'll do
one or two more I think. So here's one
from Carol. From a learning and strategy
point of view other than trauma special
trauma specialized psychological care,
what can you recommend for people
struggling with PTSD and also for
partners and family members supporting
those with PTSD?
Well, I'm going to take this one
aggressively. So, you're carving out
probably the only thing that matters.
Like you, if it is legitimate PTSD,
understand that this is a neurological
wiring problem and you're going to have
to unwire that And it's very
difficult. And because like, so this is
becoming a thing. You guys are going to
hear me start talking about this a lot.
I'm thinking about content around this.
Like, the more content that that I put
out, the more people that write to me
saying, "I'm contemplating suicide. this
episode stopped me from committing
suicide, like it's it like I take that
so seriously. I can can't say that
enough. And the reason at one point
during um what was going on in
Afghanistan in Iraq, there were more
people dying, more vets dying of suicide
than were dying of um in combat is
because of PTSD. So the the just
absolute um domino effect that happens
when somebody has PTSD like immediately
immediately immediately you want to see
seek professional help if you want to
know one area like I'm totally afraid of
psychedelics. If I had PTSD that day, I
would go and try it. Like the the number
of studies coming out that say that
psychedelics help that are utterly
transformative for PTSD. It's so crazy.
Like I would do whatever I had to do. If
I had to go to a foreign country to get
it. If I had to like climb the mountains
in Peru to go chill with a shaman, like
whatever the it took. If I had
PTSD, I promise you I'm captain
psychedelic until I no longer believe
that that would be like useful. Um, so
immediately do that. Everything else is
the world's slowest boat to China. And
PTSD is so high risk from the
perspective of uh getting lost in deep
depression, um, just not being able to
function in life and possibly then it
being the lead domino that leads to
suicide. you you have to be ultra
aggressive with this one. So, um yeah, I
would say don't pass go, don't collect
$200. Go straight to cutting edge
research where they're having 60 to 80%
success rates. Like whatever that is,
find that. I can't say that aggressively
enough.
All right,
all right. Uh one more here. This is
about brain supplements. Are there any
that you would suggest for first-time
users? Would
you like to go? Um, I have another
aggressive stance. So, um, and I think
you and I are different, so it'll be
good for them to hear from both of us. I
don't supplement, and I don't think
supplements are necessary. I think
supplements are what happens when you're
not eating the right diet or exercising
or getting your hands dirty or whatever.
So, I've made every mistake you can ever
make, both from a diet perspective, from
like I'm going hard in the microbiome to
learn about that now. And um because for
those of you that have heard um my wife
struggles with the microbiome in a way
that is it is almost unimaginable for
somebody who hasn't gone through it. So
my life was on hold for an entire year
because we couldn't even go out to eat.
She had you're going to think I'm
kidding. Roughly four flexcks of pepper.
Okay? So think about you shake pepper in
your hand. Imagine there are four little
flexcks. Maybe there was six. Certainly
wasn't more than eight flexcks of
pepper. and I almost had to take my wife
to the emergency room. It was insanity.
That whole year was just insanity. And
it wasn't until we began to learn about
the microbiome and realized that was her
problem. Years of taking antibiotics
just wre havoc on her microbiome. So now
I'm going hard in the microbiome. Things
like don't sanitize your hands, don't
wash your hands too much, actually get
your hands dirty. like it the amount of
things eating fermented foods like
yogurt by the way from and I am at the
beginning of a very long journey so
please know that I will continually
update my belief system on this but
yogurt probably isn't as effective as
most people think. Oddly enough, uh I
guess kid alert, this is mildly weird.
Um the bacteria in yogurt is better for
your vagina than it is for your gut. And
so if you're having an imbalance there,
it may be better to to apply topically
than to eat it. It's probably not doing
much else for you. But there's a whole
list. I just read a book called The
Human Superorganism. It goes into detail
on all the much more effective um
fermented foods. So that's interesting.
Uh, so yeah, I would say like, hey, how
much sun are you getting? Instead of
supplementing with vitamin D, you should
actually be out in the sun. How much
exercise are you doing? Are you getting
enough fat in your diet? Undamaged fats.
So, avoiding damaged fats. Are you
fasting, which is like practically
sacrilege? People get so weird when I
bring up fasting, but you should
probably be fasting occasionally. So,
there are all these things like your
diet should be cyclical. You shouldn't
be eating the same thing all the time,
which I'm horrible at because it's so
easy. Um, but yeah, that's that is a
huge topic. The moral of it is I don't
with supplements.
Um, so I' I've never actually talked
publicly about neurotropics or anything.
So I that's not something that I've at
this point of where I'm at feel because
you do them like a fiend, but you don't
want to talk about them or what? No, I
don't I don't I don't actually
supplement for that way. I mean, I
always I would always rather go
food-based. Um, so that's why, you know,
I don't have any podcast episodes on,
you know, neutropics. People must hit
you up every day. You could make so much
money if you just said, "I don't care
about people anymore. I'm going to lie."
Every day I get product. Every literal
every single day do I get samples from?
And you know, cuz it'd be nice to do a
memory demonstration and be like, "Yes,
let's take this pill." I don't think
there's a magic pill. I think that
there's processes that we have to do the
work for. I give you mad respect right
now because you there is so much money
in neutropics. You're like the poster
child for this. You could get 2% of like
10 different companies right now. So I I
think Jim Quick endorsed so I haven't
publicly ever talked about this stuff.
So that that's just my my stance right
now. And and I I know we all involve
everything and I'm not saying there's
not things that help people's focus and
their their retention on stuff um you
know pharmaceutical and and otherwise.
Um, I rather get it from food always.
Um, I for me I just I I take blood tests
and I want to know like what what like
food sensitivities I have because I
think a lot of challenges could be
coming from like our diet in certain
ways for me. And again, I'm not an
expert. I'm not a nutritionist. So I
don't that's that's why I'm hesitant to
weigh in on this kind of stuff. But I I
you know I want to know nutrient density
what I'm lacking you know and I always
want to be able to get it through
through food. I agree. Al and also food
sensitivity, right? You know, like the
the green, yellow, red kind of the foods
to stay away from, the foods that I
could eat healthfully because, god
forbid, you're feeding, you know, your
your kids foods that might be not good
for them that are the best ever. Um, I
do second the the microbiome. Like I'm
I'm really big about the gut being the
second brain and taking care of that
because you have the second concent most
concentration of uh of nerve cells like
you know like in terms of you know
neurons and stuff like that in that area
and when people like trust take care of
your gut because without that that's you
don't have anything and so I would I
would weigh in on that.
Cool word. I think that's it. Yeah. All
right guys, thank you so much for
joining us. This was way more. I knew
this was going to be fun. I didn't know
I was going to enjoy it this much. So,
this was awesome. Special episode with
Jim Quick. If you haven't already
watched his Impact Theory episode, go
check that out. It is amazing and he
goes through a lot of really cool stuff
that I have not heard him talk about a
lot other places. It was awesome. He was
truly in a flow state. So, be sure to
check out that episode. And if you're
not already, by the way, subscribe to
his podcast, QuickBrain. It's awesome.
It's short, it's punchy, it is really
useful information that you'll be able
to take away and apply immediately to
your life. Um, and I will just say this,
of all the people that I've interviewed,
I'm going to say you're off camera the
person I've gotten the closest to, so I
can just vouch for the fact he's a good
dude. Um, so check him out. Subscribe.
I'm supposed to be talking to this
camera. Hey. Uh, don't ask me how I got
convinced that that was the one since
this is always the one. Hi. Uh, and I
will work on my memory since that would
have been good. Uh, so yeah, guys, I
hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
If you haven't already, be sure to
subscribe. And until next time, my
friends, be legendary. Take care.