#1136 Jon Gordon On Becoming Mentally Tough With These Secrets

Jon Gordon is a 14 time best selling author with 26 published books. In this conversation, we discuss positivity, leadership, walks of gratitude, high state of mind vs. low state of mind, how to think differently, the “energy bus” and why it’s important, eating a clean diet, and the physiological and psychological ways to get into better mental shape. ======================= Exodus is the world’s leading browser, desktop, mobile, and hardware crypto wallet with support for over 230 cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2015 to empower people to control their wealth, Exodus has delivered a multichain Web3 Wallet – connecting you to Ethereum, Solana, and Algorand Web3 apps directly in your browser, with more networks on the way. Visit exodus.com/pomp today to download. ======================= The number one name in NFT domains and the world’s most powerful wallet are teaming up to bring something new to the crypto and Web3 world: Either sign up for a free blockchain.wallet or visit Unstoppabledomains.com to buy your domain today. ================== With a Messari Pro subscription, you gain access to exclusive industry-leading long-form daily research reports, daily crypto news & insights in your inbox, advanced asset screeners, curated sets of charts and metrics and so much more. Try Messari Pro today! Get up to 25% off their Messari Pro membership by visiting www.messari.io/pro and entering promo code "POMP" at checkout. ======================= Arculus is the next generation crypto & NFT cold storage wallet that combines one of the world’s strongest security protocols with the easiest to use form factor and app. Arculus requires 3-Factor Authentication to ensure only you have access to your digital assets – something you know – a PIN, something you have – the Arculus Key Card, and biometrics. Learn more and buy it now on getarculus.com. Use promo code POMP to save 15%. Remember, with Arculus, it’s your keys, your crypto. ======================= Compass Mining is the world's first online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware and hosting. Compass was founded with the goal of making it easy for everyone to mine bitcoin. Visit https://compassmining.io/ to start mining bitcoin today! ======================= This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. The Eight Sleep Pod is a tech layer that fits onto your mattress like a fitted sheet. The Pod dynamically cools and heats each side of the bed, to maintain the optimal sleeping temperature for what your body needs. With the Pod, you can start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. The result: Clinical data shows that Eight Sleep users experience up to 34% more deep sleep. Go to eightsleep.com/pomp for exclusive holiday savings and ring in the most wonderful time of night. Eight Sleep currently ships within the USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and Australia. =======================

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. John Gordon is a bestselling author. He's got 26 different books out there and 12 of them hit different bestseller lists. In this conversation, we talk about positivity, leadership, walks of gratitude, high state of mind versus low state of mind, how to think differently, what the energy bus is, why eating wild salmon could save your life, and the physiological and psychological ways to get in a better mental shape. I really enjoyed this conversation with John, and I hope you guys enjoy it as well. Before we get into this episode, though, I first want to talk about our sponsors. This episode is brought

• 0:44Anthony Pompliano?

  to you by Exodus. Accessing Web3 across multiple networks just got a hell of a lot easier. Exodus is one of the most popular crypto wallets for mobile and desktop, and they just added Chrome and Brave web browsers to the lineup. The new Exodus Web3 Wallet is a multi-chain browser extension that lets you safely navigate Web3 and DeFi apps on Ethereum, Solana, and Algorand from one wallet. Manage Mint and Sell NFTs on multiple networks in one wallet. You can swap Solana and ETH tokens natively right within the extension. And if you ever hit a snag, world-class customer service is available 24/7. More of your favorite chains are on the way, so run, don't walk. Over to exodus.com/pomp to download the Exodus Web3 Wallet right now. Again, exodus.com/pomp. Go check them out today.

• 1:30Anthony Pompliano?

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• 2:13Anthony Pompliano?

  This episode is brought to you by Messari. Your days of spending hours scouring the internet for quality crypto insights are over. Messari is your one stop shop for all your crypto data and research needs. With Messari Pro, you can gain access to exclusive, industry leading, long form, daily research reports, daily crypto news, advanced asset screeners, and curated sets of charts and protocol metrics. If you try Messari Pro today, listeners of the Pomp Podcast can get up to 25% off their Messari Pro membership by visiting www.messari.io/pomp or enter promo code POMP at checkout. That's www.messari.io/pomp and use promo code POMP.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs Pomp Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 3:19Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, guys. Bang, bang. I'm here with John. John, you've got a bunch of education and experience in teaching people mindset, how to be positive, and how to change their lives and their organizations. One of your most popular concepts is this idea of an energy bus. I see you even got the shirt on right now. Talk to us a little bit, what the hell is an energy bus? And why is it so important for people to understand this inside of these organizations?

• 3:41Speaker 02

  It's really funny. People asked that many years ago when I wrote the book, like, what is an energy bus? Got rejected by over 30 publishers because no one understood it and could get it. And then eventually it came out, started to get out there, got popularized, and now a lot of organizations, businesses, and sports teams use it. It's all about staying positive in the face of negativity. There are 10 rules for the ride of your life. So life is like an energy bus. You're the driver of your bus. You choose the kind of ride it's going to be. And the energy you bring to your life, to your work, to your team, will determine the success of that. And a big part of the energy bus is negativity, energy vampires that will sabotage your journey. And we have to deal with the negativity. That exists on our teams and our organizations and also in the world.

• 4:26Speaker 02

  Just look at social media. Look at what everyone is dealing with right now with negativity. How do we overcome that negativity to create our business, to build our team, to ultimately have this new idea that we're launching and get it off the ground, overcome and build something amazing? Every entrepreneur has dealt with negativity that will sabotage their team. This is how we overcome it with these rules from the energy bus.

• 4:49Anthony Pompliano?

  So if we dig a little deeper here on this, these energy vampires, I think most people are able to identify them at some point. It may not be obvious at first, but over time they identify. How do people overcome it? Is it something where you try to convince an energy vampire to stop and actually start contributing positive energy? Is it just go around them? Is it get them out of your life? Like, how do you deal with an energy vampire?

• 5:10Speaker 02

  There are many ways and many possibilities based on the situation. First and foremost, it starts with you. What is your energy? And how do you deal with the energy that you're facing and dealing with? For instance, you gotta be more positive than the negativity that you face. Gandhi said, "I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet." So think about that. So when you deal with the negativity, you have to be more positive than the negativity. I remember telling my dad, my dad was a New York City police officer, undercover narcotics. "Hey dad, I want to be a writer and speaker." I found my calling. His response, "What the heck you want to do that for? That's a load of junk. That won't amount to anything." He was this, again, Italian New York City police officer, tough guy, fighting the drug cartels in the streets of New York, like positivity, like writer, speaker, like who does that?

• 5:55Speaker 02

  He didn't see that. Several years later, I get on the Today Show and the show was called Get Energized Today. It was a four-week series. Did this series, I impacted people. It actually went really well. But first, first episode, I walk out of the studio. My dad calls me on the phone. He's like, "Your mother, I saw you on TV. You really made a difference. We're so proud of you. We always knew you could do it." You know, he remembered being negative. And I think that's a great lesson. I didn't listen to him. I had to be more positive. I had to have a greater vision of what I want to build, what I wanted to create. So first and foremost, it starts with you knowing you have to be more positive. But then, you got a team, you're leading others, Nick Nurse. To the Toronto Raptors, friend of mine, he put an elephant on his desk. It was a reminder that we're going to deal with the elephant in the room.

• 6:40Speaker 02

  Like, we're going to have the hard conversations. We're going to deal with the issues that exist. We're not going to let anything get unchecked or unnoticed or undealt with. And as a result of that, I know the team that year, when he did this, they had some really hard conversations. If they don't have that conversation or those conversations, they don't win a championship. But they did, and they won the NBA championship that year. I've worked with the Dodgers, the Rams, and every team along the journey has to have those kind of conversations. The US women's soccer team, a few years ago, when they won the World Cup, they would meet after every game and they would talk about who messed up, who needed to play better, who needed to improve. And I was talking to Ali Long on the team, I had her on my podcast, and I said, no one took it personal? She said, no, we all wanted to be great together.

• 7:24Speaker 02

  Small ego, big mission. So they were dealing with this at the cultural level, at the team level. So a lot of times, like I worked with Mark Rick years ago, University of Georgia, like, he put a, he put a sign on the wall of the meeting room that said, no energy vampires allowed. Like, we're not going to allow negativity to sabotage this team. And if you're an energy vampire, this is not the place for you. So he was dealing with that also, head on, confronting it at the cultural level and the team level. I have guys still from that team that remember that, that have gotten to be very successful in the business world. And it's so funny, they said, you know what, John, I was a vampire. I walked into coach's office, I said, Coach, I'm not going to be one anymore. I'm going to be more positive. And I watched that player, because Coach actually told me about the story of the player who went and said that,

• 8:09Speaker 02

  watched him play, made several key plays during that year that took them to the SCC Championship game as a result of that, and now they're successful leaders. So you're helping people when you do this at the team level, at the cultural level. I also work with a lot of schools, and there's a lot of negativity in schools. I work with districts at the district level, trying to help leaders get rid of the negativity that exists. And again, this works where You also are dealing with the cultural level, but then you may have to coach someone. So someone is being a vampire. You have to coach them. You have to mentor them. You have to guide them. You have to talk to them to help them get better. But then the ultimate rule is this, if they're not willing to get better and they're sabotaging the culture and they're sabotaging the team. One person can't make a team, but one person could break a team. You have to get rid of that person and let them go. You give them a chance to get on.

• 8:55Speaker 02

  But if they don't, you gotta let them off the bus. And wherever I go speak, whatever company, whether it's, for instance, Snapchat had to, you know, deal with this with, with some of their negativity. And Evan Spiegel told me when they dealt with this, they said, we're going to focus on positive leadership and positivity. Some people got off the bus, but it's always a good thing because those who are meant to be on it will be successful. Those who don't, won't. And Doug Conan, when he turned around Campbell's Soup, same thing. He had a lot of pessimists that was hurting Campbell's Soup and they were, they were almost going to be a bankruptcy case. They were a takeover target. He turned them around with positive leadership, addressing the negativity. They got rid of the vampires, brought in positive people and literally turned around the company as a result of that.

• 9:35Anthony Pompliano?

  What is the science behind positivity? Like, why is this so powerful? What is going on when you have this positive mindset versus a negative mindset?

• 9:43Speaker 02

  We know from the, from the scientific level, like at the health level, it actually increases your longevity. It builds up your immune system. It allows you to, to live longer and a, and a healthier life. We also know at the leadership level, you're better able to garner support and people to you when you're more positive. You attract people. At the scientific level, the frequency level, positivity is a higher frequency than negativity, which is a lower frequency. The thing is, there's a lot more negativity in the world. So it seems like it's more powerful because there's more of it. But actually it's at a weaker frequency or weaker energy, but positivity is a, is a higher frequency. And we're talking about real positivity, of course. And also positivity unites, whereas negativity divides.

• 10:28Speaker 02

  And think about a team that is a united team. They're a stronger team. They are a more powerful team. Think about a team that has division or negativity. They're a weaker team. So you can look and see how positivity will be the glue that makes a team stronger. Whereas negativity will weaken and divide a team at, at every level. We also know that You're stronger, believe it or not, when you're thinking more positive thoughts. They've done research on people who actually think loving thoughts versus fear-based thoughts. And you actually lift more weight when you're actually thinking higher thoughts and loving thoughts versus fear. Think about fear. Fear is a negative emotion, but love is a positive, powerful emotion. Love is more powerful than fear. We know that. And so, again, it seems like fear is powerful, but love is even more powerful than fear.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  So if you look at it every single level from a scientific perspective, positivity is better able to bring people to you, help you lead in a more positive way, and also get people to perform at a higher level. Are you going to perform better when you're positive or negative? I've never seen anyone say, you know, I need to be more negative to perform better. Like, no, I need more positivity to be at my best because negativity is always coming in and we have to learn how to overcome the negativity to reach our highest level. But I think too many people in this world equate positivity with fluff. Like, oh, they roll their eyes. Oh, Mr. Positive, fake positivity. This is not about seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Like, this is no one that you have the power to overcome the thorns. It's not about ignoring reality. Like, it's okay to say, this sucks. This stinks.

• 11:55Speaker 02

  Like, right now during COVID, it was a really tough time where we might be heading into a recession. Like, this is tough what we're dealing with, or inflation. What are we going to deal with that? How are we going to deal with this? Like crypto, for instance, you know, the collapse. Okay, this is not good right now, but how do we find a way forward? I think that is the key. Alan Mulley, who turned around Ford years ago during the Great Recession, they were losing $14 billion. He had been profitable in a few short years. It was like one of the greatest leadership feats in history. And he defined his leadership style as positive leadership. And what he said was, positive leaders bring the team together, they rally the team, and they always find a way forward through the adversity, through the challenge, and through the setback. That's the kind of positivity I'm talking about.

• 12:37Anthony Pompliano?

  What is positive leadership? You've mentioned that a couple of times now. What exactly does that entail? Does that just mean showing up to work with a smile on your face, saying rah rah and getting people excited, or is there something else?

• 12:47Speaker 02

  So I wrote a book, The Power of Positive Leadership. And what positive leadership is, it's a way of thinking. It's a way of leading. It's a leadership style. But we really shouldn't say positive in leadership in the same sentence. Because if you're a great leader, you will be a positive leader. So what do positive leaders do? They they set the vision. Where are we going? And why are we going there? So there's a vision that everyone is moving towards and everyone's hopeful about. You do have to have a hopeful vision as a leader. You also have to have a purpose. Like, why are we going there? We don't get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do it. So like, what is that why? So positive leaders lead with that vision and purpose. They also lead with optimism and belief.

• 13:29Speaker 02

  I work with Dabo Sweeney in Clemson football for the past 11 years. He has built that program on optimism and belief. So a leader will believe in their team more than they believe in themselves. And as a positive leader, leadership is a transfer of belief. So you believe, but does your team believe? I mean, Steve Jobs wouldn't be defined necessarily as a positive leader in every category. But in this category of optimism, of belief, of vision, of what he was building, it was pure optimism. It was pure belief of creating the future. We know how he distorted the reality of the people that worked for him, saying, Steve, there's no way we're going to be able to create this software, this hardware in this amount of time. You'd say, get your head around it. And everyone who worked with him said he was able to distort their reality

• 14:13Speaker 02

  from from negative or pessimistic or even realistic, I'm just being a realist, to to optimist, to believing what they can create and what they could do. And they said every time they believed and created what they never thought was possible. So that's what that's what positive leaders do. They believe in their team. They transfer that belief to others. And they have this optimism of what they're creating. And also that positivity and belief, as we said earlier, helps them overcome the negativity that they face. Positive leaders also. Deal with the negativity that exists. So that's the other thing like this is not Pollyanna positive. Like we're going to deal with the real issues. A lot of leaders ignore the negativity that exists and it winds up sabotaging the culture, sabotaging the team. But positive leaders, they don't attack.

• 14:57Speaker 02

  They don't attack people, they attack problems. And that's a big difference here. Like, we're not going to attack you. We're going to attack the problem. I'm not going to criticize you. I'm going to shout praise and whisper criticism to help you get better. But we're going to address the energy vampires that exist. We're going to have the hard and difficult conversations in order to get better. So that's a big part of positive leadership. And then it's about relationships, like building relationship as a team. It's not about just a state of mind that makes you feel better or think better, like mentally tough, like resilience, mental toughness, big part of positive leadership. But it's not just that. How do I build relationships so that we can, so that we can take action together and create more success? And we share four Cs in that framework. Communication, connection, commitment and caring.

• 15:41Speaker 02

  So I got to communicate with you. Where there's avoiding communication, negativity will fill it. I got to connect with you, develop a relationship. I got to show commitment to you. Think about this, you'll never have commitment without connection. So the more connected you are as a leader and as a team, the more committed you will be. Essential, essential for leadership. And then caring, do I care about you? And if I care about you, guess what? I'm going to practice love and accountability. This is like the hallmark of positive leadership. Love and accountability. Alan O'Leary said, you know, John, told my team, I got to love you up. But I got to hold you accountable to the culture, the values, the principles and the standards that we have created. We got the standard. And if you're not meeting the standard, we're going to have conversations about you not meeting the standard. But I'm going to support you and encourage you along the way to meet that standard.

• 16:26Speaker 02

  Love and accountability is like essential for leadership.

• 16:29Anthony Pompliano?

  One of the words that comes to mind as you're talking is enthusiasm. And in the military, there was two things that I always heard that just resonated with me. The first was enthusiasm is contagious. And the second is that enthusiasm can overcome pain. And the quintessential example would be the drill sergeant asking somebody to do something and they take off running and screaming with enthusiasm, even though it may be fake enthusiasm. This ability to trick your mind into a certain state that would then allow you to accomplish the goal or to endure the pain. How do you think about enthusiasm and this ability to actually use enthusiasm to either create positivity or to go ahead and trick your mind into being in a certain state where it can accomplish things that it might not otherwise be able to accomplish?

• 17:09Speaker 02

  In my mind, it's not about faking it till you make it. It's about acting like you belong because you do. It's about getting into the desired state that you truly want to have by getting excited about life. Like, the more you get excited about life, you will get a life that is exciting. When you're taking on a tough task and a tough challenge, it's your perspective. I think this goes to perspective, like how we see the world determines the world that we see. Is it a challenge or is it an opportunity? Do I focus on the challenge or the opportunity? Every challenge is an opportunity to learn, to grow, to improve, to get better. When I arrived at the Tampa Bay Lightning a few years ago, they had just lost in the first round of the playoffs. And so they were reeling, they were picked to win the Stanley Cup and they lose the first round. So they're like, what's going on? What's wrong? They're trying to figure things out.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  And there I am, and they constantly were talking about last year. I said, listen, we can't talk about last year. Let's talk about this year. Let's not look backwards. Let's look forward. Let's not be bitter. Let's get better. And then I gave them research that shows that teams that feel like they're defending something don't do very well. But teams that feel like they're attacking a new opportunity do great. And so they began to attack a new opportunity. It changed everything, changed their mindset, their perspective, how they were seeing their season and their plan. Because they were so focused on defending this status of an elite team and we have to live up to that. Now it's like, no, we don't have to defend anything. We're going to attack an opportunity every game to win.

• 18:37Speaker 02

  As we know, they won the Stanley Cup, won the next year and made it to the finals this past year. So they changed their perspective and mindset. That changed everything. So whether you want to call it trick in your mind or we're changing your perspective and changing your approach, that is the key in terms of how we have to have a positive mindset sometimes through our toughest times. I tell people all the time, like, I learned this from Chad Wright, a former Navy SEAL. And he was telling me, a lot of guys, you know, don't make it to be a Navy SEAL because they don't make it through hell week. He said, they don't make it through hell week because they're dreaming for it to end. They're long enough to be over. He said, the guys, the guys who make it just want to make it to breakfast. And I realized what he was telling me that like, that's the key to getting through that challenging time or any challenging time. It's not worry about. Tomorrow like it's win today.

• 19:21Speaker 02

  How am I going to win today and show up and win each day? And what does that mean for me? Like, how do I identify what winning today means to me? And you got to choose that approach and that perspective. Like, for me, it's I'm going to stay positive. I'm not going to allow negativity to get the best of me. I'm going to get better every day. I'm going to find ways to improve and grow. I'm going to find ways to encourage people. So to me, enthusiasm is you are passionate about something. There's a entheos, right? Filled with the divine. There's a spirit that is moving through you. And you have this perspective first, this thought process that then leads to the energy and the emotions that you have as a result of the perspective and the thought process. And then from there, that manifests itself in that physical form of ultimately what we build.

• 20:06Speaker 02

  And a big part of this, you got to know that you create from the inside out, not the outside. And I think, like, I always go back to the root of things. Like, what's the root that causes someone to be successful? And we live in a world that loves to focus on the outside. They focus on the numbers. They focus on the challenges. They focus on the expectations. But we never create from them. We always create from the inside out. Your spirit, your passion, your love, your joy, your work ethic, your drive. So you're always creating from within you, creating the world outside of you. A great analogy of this is like, is um, the carrot, the egg, and the coffee bean. Think about the carrot. You put that in the boiling hot water and it gets soft and it gets weakened. Put that egg in the boiling hot water. What happens to the egg? It gets hardened. So when life is like a big pot of boiling hot water

• 20:50Speaker 02

  or you're dealing with hell week, for instance, and it feels like you just want to give up, you could be like, yeah, I get a hardened heart and just no longer care. Or be bitter, angry, and frustrated. Could be like that carrot where you get weakened, fearful, stressed, and anxious. Don't want to be the carrot. I've been the carrot in my life, by the way. I have failed at times in my life when I've I've fallen. Like during the dot com crash, I lost my job during the dot com crash. That's a whole other story. And I learned a lot about overcoming challenges like that. I've become a coffee bean in my life now, especially during COVID. Learned so much during the dot com crash that when the COVID hit, I was prepared for that. The coffee bean, when it's put into hot water, think about that. It transforms. The water, it makes coffee. It's not defined by its circumstance. It defines its circumstance.

• 21:34Speaker 02

  It's not impacted by its environment. That coffee bean transforms its environment. And that's what world leaders do. That's what game changers do. Pop, this is what you do. Like you're, you're a coffee bean. You're changing the world by what you do by this podcast, by how you interact with people. Every world leader is ultimately a coffee bean impacting the environment, not defined by it.

• 21:53Anthony Pompliano?

  One of the most interesting concepts that you've talked about is this idea of a high state of mind. I know you're writing a book on it now. Talk to us a little bit. What is a high state of mind and how does it differ from a low state of mind?

• 22:03Speaker 02

  Okay, one day you're in traffic and it bothers you. The next day you're in the same traffic and it doesn't. Is it the traffic that's making you feel a certain way?

• 22:13Anthony Pompliano?

  No, of course not.

• 22:14Speaker 02

  Right. It's not the traffic. Two kids grew up in the same neighborhood. One kid comes out a neurosurgeon. The other kid comes out living a life of crime. We often blame the neighborhood though. We say it's a neighbor that caused that kid to be a certain way. Or think about, remember when you were in school and you had a paper or project due? I hated those papers or projects and you couldn't get your head around it. But then all of a sudden you had a moment of clarity and you banged the paper out. Was it the paper that was making you feel that way? No, it's always our state of mind. So when our state of mind is high, the circumstance happens and you know, we rise above it. We move forward. When our state of mind is low, the same circumstance happens and we, we don't move on. We get crushed by it. We get affected by it. So it's always our state

• 22:56Speaker 02

  of mind. So what characterizes a high state of mind? A lot of clarity, a lot of focus, a lot of positive energy. When we've been in the zone where we're just flowing, that's the high state of mind. The low state of mind, a lot of clutter, a lot of thought, a lot of worry, a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety, a lot of doubt. If I drew two circles, one with a thousand dots and one with three dots, which mind will perform at a higher level? Almost everyone knows and everyone gets this, the one with just a few dots. Think about it. Less clutter, higher state of mind. So we have to understand that these thoughts in life are always affecting our state of mind, but we have to maintain a high state of mind. So the next question people ask is, okay, how do you get to a, a high state

• 23:41Speaker 02

  of mind? And that's what the teaching and that's what the book is all about. Understanding there's an ebb and flow to thought. And once you understand how thoughts work, you can actually return to a higher state of mind. It's like the roller coaster. You're on this roller coaster all the time. And the roller coaster is going down, for instance. And first time they've ever on a roller coaster. And you think the roller coaster is going to crash because you don't know the roller coaster goes back up. So as you're going down, you're going to crash. What would you want to do on that roller coaster? You would want to jump off. And a lot of times when people are in a low state of mind, they want to jump off the roller coaster. They want to escape. That's why people play video games. It's why they drink. It's why they do drugs. They're trying to escape the feeling that they have. It's why people have addictions. We're trying to get to a feeling.

• 24:26Speaker 02

  And we're in this low state of mind. So we do all these things to try to feel better because we really want that higher state of mind. Or you're in that roller coaster and you're going down and you're at that low state. You think you're going to crash. Now you're searching for answers. You're trying to fix things. You're trying to figure things out. Like a baseball batter goes 0 for 4, 0 for 3, and then 0 for 4 again. That baseball batter now starts to think a lot more. They start to have revved up thinking. Or a quarterback right now, and a lot of quarterbacks work with a lot of quarterbacks. They make a couple of bad passes. They start to think too much as a result of this. And so now they're thinking a lot. Instead of just playing, they start thinking, affects their play, more clutter, lower state of mind, more insecurity, more doubt. And now the circumstance happens and they get crushed by the circumstance.

• 25:10Speaker 02

  So it's never the circumstance. It's always our state of mind. The key is don't jump off. Understand what's going on. And then ride that wave right back up. That's one of the techniques. And there are many more that I share in terms of how to have a high state of mind. Mindfulness is great for a high state of mind. Meditation is great. The new book I'm writing explains why meditation and mindfulness actually work. Because they lower the amount of thoughts that we have that give us a higher state of mind. And then there's fear and negativity and all those negative thoughts that we have actually always lower our state of mind. So you have to understand that every day this is a battle between these negative thoughts that are lowering your state of mind and how you confront it, how you overcome it, to have that higher state of mind so you can perform at a higher level, so you can lead better, so you can have more clarity,

• 25:54Speaker 02

  more confidence, more courage. And the key is to get to a place where I have connection. Where I have confidence, clarity, and then that leads to courage. So that's really the key. Does that make sense?

• 26:05Anthony Pompliano?

  It makes a ton of sense. And I guess one aspect of life that has changed drastically over the last, you know, couple of decades or even centuries is we are addicted to our phones, our computers, our tablets, and it's awesome. We're getting these dopamine hits and there's notifications and there's doom scrolling on various news feeds and things like that. At the same time, most of the content that we are engaging with or that we are consuming is negative or is something that puts us in this negative, low state of mind. How do you think about combating that? Is it just put down the phone, put down the computer? Or are there other tricks or hacks that you have to kind of share with people that can really help them just avoid so much of that negativity and low state of mind activity, which is just our electronic devices?

• 26:47Speaker 02

  Such a great question because everything that we do from, you know, the social media, from the media, from what we're reading, it could affect us. But remember, it's an outside circumstance. It really has no power over you if you truly understand this. So the key is to be a Jedi and really get to that point where you understand none of this could actually impact how I feel. Let me give you a little story. I'm speaking to the Oklahoma City Thunder. There's Russell Westbrook, Billy Donovan. I'm walking across the court. I'm about to speak to the team and Billy says, hey, John, we were just wondering what has a bigger impact on the team? Home field advantage in baseball or home court advantage in basketball? What has a bigger impact on the opposing team? Thought for a moment, I said, neither. When you know the outside is just noise and we don't create from the outside in, we create it from the inside out.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  I talked about inside out, talked about the coffee bean. The power is on the inside. That's how we create. It shouldn't matter what's happening on the outside. And Russell said, that's what I think. He said, 98% of the guys in the league believe in home court advantage. So it affects them. He goes, I know it isn't true. So I just go do what I do and play my game. And that's really the key, knowing that, having that understanding. Now, I'm sure there's been times when he's been playing where he is affected by the noise because he's in that lower state. The circumstance happens and it affects them. But it's always remembering the truth. Strategy is important, but remembering the truth is even more powerful when you understand that. So I should be able to look at social media. And as I'm starting to get this feeling of feeling divided, and by the way, the word anxious

• 28:16Speaker 02

  literally means divided at its Greek root word. So the more anxious I feel, the more divide I feel. Where the more divide I feel, the more anxious I feel. Okay, so now I'm feeling divide. I'm feel feeling separate from everybody, everything, myself, right? I don't feel connected. I don't feel that oneness. I feel divided, anxious, nervous and secure. So I'm reading the social media. I have to return to the truth of oneness and maybe do something that that gets me back to that. People do yoga. People do meditation. People do prayer. I take walks of gratitude every morning because the research shows you can't be stressed and thankful at the same time. So I truly believe it's about having practices that help you get back to that state. Once you keep on remembering the truth that this outside force can't affect you. We gotta remember when you compare, you despair.

• 29:00Speaker 02

  So the more we compare on social media as well, we're gonna feel like we have this despair because we want their life or we want their success. And that's the other thing. That's causing you to feel separate. You're not looking at your own life. You're not living from inside out. Now you're focusing on outside in. I talk about, you know, Simone Biles a lot when I speak to, you know, athletes or Naomi Osaka. And I have nothing against them whatsoever. I think it was really wrong the way people ridiculed them when they were going through their their mental health challenges. Deciding, for instance, you know, Simone decided not to compete. But what really happened, if you think about it, was she was looking outside the noise. She was looking at the pressure, the expectation. That caused her to have a lot of thought, a lot of fear.

• 29:41Speaker 02

  And that revved up thinking, that caused a lot more clutter, then led to the lower state of mind. And then her wanting to jump off the roller coaster and escaping. And you don't want the ball in the middle of the game when you're when you're playing an NBA game, for instance, when you're in a low state of mind. You don't want the ball. We don't want that sales call. We're in a low state of mind. It's it's how we feel. We have to understand that. And so we shouldn't celebrate them for saying the outside is affecting me. We need to tell the truth that it's not. But we have to remind people to get back to the inside out and see what really happens when we're going through that. So we know what's happening. Now I gotta take action to get back to oneness. And it's discipline practices. It's basically for me, it's it's walking each day. It's gratitude. It might be

• 30:26Speaker 02

  You know, taking some time to reflect and think every single day, or read something encouraging and inspirational. Or as Elon Musk said the other day, he wants to bring more positivity to Twitter, which I think is a great idea, wants to amplify the positive. So which positive sources can I tune into as a result of all the negative sources? Because if I'm tuning into negativity every day, how is that going to affect me? Think of again, we're talking about energy. Everything is energy. There's the energetic structure of the brain. We see patterns. We hear and relate to the world in terms of frequencies. Sounds are vibrations. Think about wavelengths and colors. So everything is energy and you're always tuning into the world. And am I always tuning into the negative or the positive? Think of a plant.

• 31:10Speaker 02

  You feed that plant love and nourishment and life. That plant's going to flourish. Your brain is like a plant. Think of that plant that you feed a lot of negativity every single day. You feed a lot of fear and jealousy and anger, right? And frustration. You feed that every day to that plant. You talk negatively to a plant every day. It starts to wither. Your brain literally will wither by doing that. Your brain is an antenna. We have to remember that. The brain is an antenna tuning into different frequencies. And so if you tune into that higher frequency of love, of joy, of peace, of positivity, you're going to nourish that antenna. That antenna is going to thrive. It's going to tune into the higher frequency. You tune into a lot of lower frequencies. It starts to damage the antenna. And then you tune into more and more negative frequencies.

• 31:54Speaker 02

  This is why people go down downward spirals. I am convinced. Again, I don't have research to prove this. I want scientists to start doing research on this. Because I am convinced, once we understand that brain is an antenna, we can actually start tuning into more positive frequencies. And we literally could have training programs. And I already have one in terms of these positive programs I create in terms of how we continually tune into a higher frequency and better information and more positivity. Like I can give you a pump. I can give you one strategy that I just love that I think everybody should do. This has been a game changer in my life. And also all the people that we teach through our leadership training. And it's from Dr. James Gillis. Like he's the only person on the planet to complete six

• 32:35Speaker 02

  Double Ironman triathlons. That's a double Ironman, which means you do an Ironman, a day later do another one. And the last time he did it, he was fifty nine years old. So he was asked how he did it. He said this. I've learned to talk to myself instead of listen to myself. He said, if I listen, I hear all the fear, the negativity, the doubt, all the reasons why I can't finish this race. But if I talk to myself, I could feed myself with the words and the encouragement that I need to keep on moving forward. So talking to yourself instead of listening to those negative voices is essential. Like when I work with professional athletes, I always ask them, do your negative thoughts come from you? And they're always like, yeah, of course. Well, here's my next question. If you believe your negative thoughts come from you, who would ever choose to have a negative thought?

• 33:18Speaker 02

  Like, would you ever choose a negative thought? Would you ever choose a negative thought that says you don't have it today? The future's hopeless. Business is gonna be successful. I'm gonna lose everything. You would never choose a thought like that. So thoughts are always coming in and we have to understand that they come in from consciousness. No one has ever found a thought inside of a brain. I've asked neuroscientists. Like, hey, have you ever found a thought inside of a brain? No, we haven't, John. No, we haven't found thoughts inside of a brain because they exist in consciousness. The brain is the hardware. It's where activation happens. So that antenna is tuning into consciousness. The thought comes in and

• 33:54Speaker 02

  and then we have the activation in our brain. And often those thoughts are negative. And when those thoughts are negative, they start to tell us things about ourselves and our future that just aren't true. They start to sabotage us. They make us feel insecure. They weaken us. They divide us. And this is what every champion athlete has to deal with, these negative thoughts that are coming in saying you're not great. You're not gonna win. You're not gonna succeed with the knowing inside them that, no, no, I am here for something great. I do have this great greatness within me. I prepared. I trained. I wanna create this. I have this vision. I know what I wanna build. I know what I wanna be. So we get this tension always going on. The battle, right, of the positive and the negative, the ultimate battle. And this is how you win the battle of your mind by understanding, I'm not gonna listen to those negative thoughts.

• 34:36Speaker 02

  No, I'm gonna speak truth and words of encouragement to those lies when I go into that battle every day. And that battle might be a boxing ring like Jake Paul said he had him on, right? It might be that boxing ring. It might be the battle of the business world of of this of this new venture that you're creating in a new market. I gotta win this battle. It might be the battle in a school where we're trying to educate kids and equip kids and make a difference in their lives. Whatever it may be, you're gonna face the battle, especially as you're trying to build a successful business, you're gonna deal with this battle.

• 35:07Anthony Pompliano?

  You mentioned walk of gratitude or gratitude walk. What is that?

• 35:10Speaker 02

  So again, the research shows you can't be stressed and thankful at the same time. So while you're walking, you're practicing gratitude. And we know the power of gratitude, it's ability to boost happiness and increase positivity and literally uplift you with the right positive emotions that start to to affect you in a positive way. So you combine gratitude with this positive walk. So while you're walking, you're just saying, well, you're thankful for it. And what happens is you get a double boost of energy. You're flooding your brain and body with these positive emotions that uplift you, you know, rather than the stress hormones that slowly drain you and over time actually will slowly kill us if we let them. So every day you create this fertile mind that is ready for great things to happen by practicing gratitude.

• 35:54Speaker 02

  I've been doing it now for almost 20 years, changed my life. I was so negative. My wife was literally ready to leave me because I was so negative. I'm 31 years old. I lose my job in a dot com crash. How am I gonna pay the bills with second mortgage or home, $20,000 in credit cards? I'm opening a Mo's Southwest Grille franchise, trying to make it work. I'm crumbling from the fear, the pressure, the stress. I have two little kids and man, she had enough. She said, if you don't change, like we're over. She threatened to leave me and I had to change. I wanted to stay married. And so I agreed to change. And that began this journey of, okay, how can I be more positive? And I found this latest research in positive psychology and that changed everything.

• 36:35Anthony Pompliano?

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• 37:15Anthony Pompliano?

  bankruptcies and hacks with Arculus. Save 20% through December 10th with promo code POMP. Go to Arculus and use promo code POMP today. This episode is brought to you by Compass Mining, the world's largest marketplace for mining hardware and hosting. With Compass, everyone can mine Bitcoin. You can do it at home or in one of their 23 hosting facilities around the world. All you need to do to start mining your own Bitcoin is go to compassmining.io today. Again, if you want to get into Bitcoin mining, go check out compassmining.io today. This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. The holiday season is here, so give the never-ending gift of deeper sleep. About two years ago, I started to sleep on the Eight Sleep, and I sleep on it every single night. It quite literally changed my life. I get deeper and

• 38:00Anthony Pompliano?

  better sleep, but don't just listen to me. Clinical data shows that Eight Sleep users experience up to 34% more deep sleep. It is not a holiday miracle, even though it sounds like one. If better sleep is on your wish list, look no further than the new Pod 3. You can go to eightsleep.com/pomp for exclusive holiday savings and ring in the most wonderful time of the year. Eight Sleep currently ships with the US, Canada, the UK, and select countries in the EU and Australia. Go check them out, eightsleep.com/pomp today. One of the most interesting academic studies I've ever seen is that if you were to wake up in the morning and read three positive headlines, you're much more likely to say you had a better day at the end of the day than if you had woken up and read three negative headlines. What are some other studies or pieces of data around this positive psychology that really

• 38:45Anthony Pompliano?

  sticks out to you or that you've kind of incorporated into a lot of the work that you do on the training side with various people?

• 38:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, Martin Seligman talks about the gratitude visit. So go visit someone and actually tell them what you're thankful for about them. And then read the letter to them. People who do that have a remarkable boost in happiness by practicing gratitude. And appreciating someone else, like when you appreciate, you elevate, you elevate your mood, you elevate your performance. And you elevate the people around you. So appreciation is really powerful. Robert Evans, you know, professor out of, out of Cal, he also, you know, has done UC Davis, California. He does amazing work in terms of gratitude and has identified a lot of the key things that we've talked about in terms of how gratitude boosts happiness and starting a gratitude journal. I believe he was the first person to come up with that idea.

• 39:33Speaker 02

  To do a gratitude journal. But I really believe also, one of the key things is, is doing a success to the day. So at the end of the day, instead of going through all the things that went bad that day, all the things that went wrong, why don't you talk about what went right? Like come up with the one great thing that happened to you that day. I call it the one great golf shot theory. Because think about golf, we play a round of golf and we have a lot of bad shots, but then you have this one great shot. And that one great shot makes you want to come back and play golf again and again. Well, think about life. Always focus on all the bad things. We don't want to go towards the life. We don't want to attack it. We want to retreat from it when it's always negative. No, let's focus on the one great thing.

• 40:12Speaker 02

  And every day you go to bed a success, you wake up feeling like a success and now you're ready to take on the day instead of run from it. I've done this a lot with my kids. I've seen it firsthand with them. I've shared it a lot. We have schools doing it all over the country. And so that's a really powerful exercise to do. So research out of University of Michigan, also talking about in terms of positivity, like positive teams outperform negative teams. So the more positive interactions we have as a team versus negative interactions, like three to one or greater positive to negative, that team performs at a higher level. But the interesting thing here is if you get to 13 to one, 13 to positive to one negative, the team actually doesn't do as well. They start to fall apart. Why is that?

• 40:55Speaker 02

  Because we're not dealing with the real issues. It's too much positivity. We have to have some construction. In there, we have to have some improvement. We have to have some feedback. We have to have some truth, right? Love and accountability that makes us better along the way. Otherwise, what happens is you have this loving team that loves each other, these great feelings, but we're not actually becoming great together. So that's another key research. And for those who are married or in a relationship, the ratio from John Gottman's research shows five to one. We want five positive to one negative interaction. So don't get too confused. Three to one is not enough. We got to get to five to one. And that means that the couples that have a five to one positive to negative ratio, those couples are much more likely to be happier and to stay

• 41:38Speaker 02

  together as a result of more positive interactions. So saying you and your wife are fighting a bunch recently, and you're having a lot of negative reactions, maybe it's five to one the other way. P is, okay, we got to get back to some positivity. Let's take a walk together. Let's share what we appreciate about each other. Let's talk about our hopeful future together. Let's talk about what we're thankful for right now. Let's talk about a highlight in our past, our favorite moment. Let's talk about things that uplift us. Start to get back to some positivity in your relationship to increase that connection. My wife and I wrote a book called Relationship Grit, and it's about our ups and downs in our relationship, and how we almost got divorced twice, but how we stuck together through those challenging times. And as a result of that, like

• 42:20Speaker 02

  you have grit, that grit that makes you stronger and better together, and the connection piece, and the appreciation piece, that gratitude piece, is a big part of relationships being together and being stronger together.

• 42:30Anthony Pompliano?

  I love that. What about physiological or psychological kind of tips and tricks? So there's a lot of folks who will talk about breathing exercises. There were people who would talk about meditation. There's a whole bunch of these. What are the things that you've seen your clients or your colleagues go ahead and pursue that actually had a positive impact and were able to put them into kind of a better mindset?

• 42:50Speaker 02

  Let's talk about busyness and stress and how it affects your mind, affects your life, affects your brain. When you are busy and stressed, what happens is this signal from from your heart, this busyness and stress signal sends a signal to your brain, to your amygdala, to the reptile part of your brain. If you know anything about a reptile, a reptile will never love you, right? Reptile is all about survival. So when you're busy and stressed, you're activating the reptile and you don't care about relationships at that point. You don't care about love. You don't care about positivity. You're thinking, how could I just get through the day? So you can't be a great leader when you're activating the reptile. You can't be a great teammate. And a lot of times what you'll see is people in traffic, people on social media, people in the investment worlds, they are reptiles going

• 43:33Speaker 02

  for for the kill, which sometimes might be good for short term success, but not really good for long term success and happiness. So just know we're activating the reptile in those moments. Well, thankfully, we have this part of the brain right here. This is the neocortex part of the brain. And when you are positive, when you're practicing unconditional love, mindfulness, meditation, prayer, you're activating this part of the brain. This is the part of the brain that's the rational part. This is where you make decisions and research shows we have a quarter second to override the reptile with what I call the positive dog, the love and unconditional nature of dogs. So the positive dog can override the reptile quarter second if you're aware of it and you're intentional about it.

• 44:16Speaker 02

  But if you've ever said something you wish you didn't say, or acted in a way that you didn't want to act, or told someone they were number one in traffic, or maybe even just hurried through a meeting. What happened was your reptile, it ate your positive dog. Think about that. It's called cortical inhibition. This part of the brain hijacks the rational and that's why we say things sometimes under pressure. It's why we act like a jerk sometimes. It's why I remember Alec Baldwin years ago, right? Went off on his daughter on the phone and acted irrationally. We've all been there because right, busyness and stress. But the good news is the more intentional you are,

• 44:54Speaker 02

  the more you breathe rhythmic breathing. Also with practicing appreciation and gratitude helps you get into that more positive state and activate that part of the brain by activating actually the coherency in your heart. The heart is 5,000 times more powerful than the brain. Think about that 5,000 times. And so it is the emotional conductor. This is why if you try to practice meditation while you're standing Over a cliff, like literally about to fall, you won't be able to do it because your heart is racing. It's why some people can't meditate because they've got to actually regulate the heart in addition to the brain and the mind. And so it starts with the heart and the mind and the heart are really connected in a big way.

• 45:36Speaker 02

  This is research from HeartMath, by the way, heartmath.org if people want to know more about this. They are so cutting edge. I went to visit them in the Santa Cruz Mountains years ago when they were doing pioneering research. Before anyone was talking about any of this stuff, it was so powerful to be there to see it. And it's something that has played out ever since, seeing how this this technology works. They also work with the Ryder Cup European team. It's one of the secret weapons of the Ryder Cup European team, helping them emotionally regulate through breathing and appreciation. So you more are in the zone and you're able to perform at a higher level. So I'm a big fan of breathing, a big fan of gratitude, of meditation that helps physiologically.

• 46:15Speaker 02

  And then understanding that everything ultimately comes down to the coherence and the energy that we have that we're now putting out there into the world. And anything that does that is really key from a mental, mental toughness standpoint, resilient standpoint, and also just happiness standpoint. So think about this for a second, like this, this, this, we often talk about body language, right? Everyone talks about body language. We have to, so body language, yes, it helps when you get into a certain body language state. It helps you to, for instance, have more confidence when you get into a power pose. But before you get into that pose, there's an intention of thought and energy that comes before you actually move into the pose.

• 46:58Speaker 02

  So it's not the pose that gives you the power, it's the energy and intention that moves you into the position that allows you to experience the emotion that you're now experiencing. So always remember, it's always energy that creates the physical. It's our state of mind that creates ultimately the reality that we're dealing with. It's always energy before physical. And if you think of it in terms of that way, you'll start to see the world in a more powerful way. Does that make sense?

• 47:23Anthony Pompliano?

  It makes a ton of sense. What about diet? How does the food that we consume or the liquids that we consume actually impact our, our mental state and our positivity or versus negativity?

• 47:33Speaker 02

  We know, for instance, research shows that the more we eat wild salmon, we actually have better brain function and less depression. It's a great, great resource and, and.

• 47:45Speaker 02

  And key for me, for instance, like years ago, when my wife almost left me, I literally started to eat salmon every single day, wild. And then I also changed around because you don't want to eat the same fish all the time. I always believe in having a healthy, diverse diet to have a healthy ecosystem within your body. The more diversity, the healthier the ecosystem. So don't eat the same foods all the time. I believe in even changing up your water all the time. You don't want to have the same water, the same thing coming in, in case there are contaminants or things that are not good in what you're eating. So I was eating a lot of wild salmon. I truly believe it's one of the key ways that I was able to reduce the depression that I was having during that time. And so wild salmon is key. People talk about fish oil is essential, obviously, leafy greens, an anti-inflammatory diet is key

• 48:30Speaker 02

  for brain health and brain body. So I was talking to an NFL player who, you know, had CTE, had, had pretty bad concussions and, and brain damage. And he started to do hyperbaric chamber, you know, therapy, oxygen therapy, and that helped a lot. Also changed up his diet, which was huge. And he brought up a great point with concussions. Okay, you get the hit and the hit happens. But for some people, you get hit and there's not a lot of inflammation. So you don't really have a big issue with the concussion or any, any brain damage issue. But other people, you get the hit and then there's a lot of inflammation and that causes the brain damage and causes the issue. It's not about the hit. It's about the inflammation that happens from the hit. And how do we have less inflammation? A big

• 49:14Speaker 02

  part of it is by being, by eating a anti-inflammatory diet where we eat more salmon, blueberries, wild leafy greens and pineapple and anti-inflammatory foods and turmeric. Key for lowering the amount of inflammation that we experience and have. And so the more you do that, I believe it works the same way with the brain, right? The brain and the body, the more you have less inflammation in the body, the more the body is able to heal and recover faster. So think about it. When you play a sport, you put stress on your body, you get hit in your head, inflammation happens from that. The more we can remove the inflammation or have less inflammation.

• 49:55Speaker 02

  The body heals faster. So this is key and it has huge implications in, in everything we do. And if we look at COVID, for instance, the COVID issue was it was an inflammation issue. Long COVID, I'm convinced is an inflammation issue. You have a virus, you have a foreign substance come in or some outer body come into your body, it infects it and that you body responds through inflammation, remove the inflammation and the body will heal. Does that make sense?

• 50:24Anthony Pompliano?

  It makes a lot of sense. My last question-

• 50:25Speaker 02

  Diet's a huge part of that. Diet, diet is everything. I don't think people pay enough attention to their diet. Again, I'm not an expert in diet, but I do a lot of research on diet. And also, I almost died from a flu shot years ago, way back in about 2001, 2002. As a result of almost dying from that flu shot, I started to have a lot of autoimmune issues. As a result of that, I could only eat certain foods. And one of those foods I could really only eat was salmon. So, so that actually helped by eating, eating it for my brain health. But it turned out it was all I could eat eventually with some white rice and some organic steamed vegetables. I had such poor diet and poor digestion. So I suffered like that for about 12 to 14 years. And then I, I started to research

• 51:10Speaker 02

  all the ways I can improve my diet. And so I started to research inflammation and everything, gut health, became an expert in it for my own health to get better, healed my gut about, about four years ago, finally. And it's been incredible how much better I feel now, but I still make sure I eat healthier, even though I could still eat the bad foods if I want to.

• 51:31Anthony Pompliano?

  I love that. Uh, my last question for you, Tim Grover wrote one of my favorite books called Relentless, and he talks about this, uh, concept of a cleaner, basically somebody who is so good, who has such a different mindset, they stand out from everyone else. You've had the benefit and pleasure of working with tons of, uh, people who are on a different level, whether through a competition, in business, or their chosen field of study, uh, and kind of work. What sets them apart in your mind? What have you found are the things that actually set these people on another level mentally and keep them operating at the top of their game and allow them to kind of separate themselves from people who are obviously very good, but just may not be able to accomplish what these very few individuals are able to accomplish?

• 52:14Speaker 02

  It's what we talked about earlier. It's that high state of mind. It's inside out. And it's in those moments, they're not worried about what anyone else is thinking. They're not experiencing fear in that moment. They're engaged in the moment. They have a lot of faith in that moment, wherever that faith comes from. For some, it's God. For others, it's just faith in themselves. And it's that incredible belief in that moment that they're going to create the shot. They're going to make the shot. They're going to have the win. They're going to experience it, whatever it may be. They're not worried about failing in those moments. Also, I'm convinced, I'm convinced, they have the ultimate high state of mind because they're loving the battle instead of fearing the outcome. I was with the Chicago Bulls the other day speaking and John Paxson was there.

• 52:59Speaker 02

  John Paxson was Michael Jordan's teammate. He said, you know, I was so fortunate to be Michael Jordan's teammate. I said, I think he was fortunate to be yours because if you don't hit some of those shots, he doesn't win as many rings and has as many championships. So we laughed about that. And then he said, you know, Michael Jordan loved the competition. He loved the battle. He loved to beat you. Like, he just didn't want to beat you. He also wanted to destroy you and take away your heart and soul. So he was so focused, and he still is whenever he plays anything else. He still wants to, you know, beat you in everything. So he had that mindset when he was playing. And think about it, when Michael's playing, he's not worried about failing. It's not even a thought in his mind. And now think about other guys. They're worried about the outcome. What is social media going to say?

• 53:45Speaker 02

  What is the media saying right now? What happens if I miss a shot? What are my teammates going to say? I tell guys all the time when they're playing. I don't want you to think about what coach is thinking in this moment. Your coach doesn't want you to be thinking about him in this moment. Your coach wants you to think about what you're doing, being engaged in the moment, loving the battle and loving the competition. It's amazing when you do. I was talking to a minor league hockey player. It was a friend of mine's son. He was really struggling. He wants to make it to the NHL, but he is struggling. So he hadn't scored a goal in like six games. So he's at his wits' end. He's on the roller coaster. And he literally is getting ready to jump off that roller coaster. You could tell, like, he was at the end of his rope. And so I started talking about high state of mind, low state of mind, helped him understand

• 54:27Speaker 02

  his negative thoughts were not coming from him, choose positive thoughts. And I helped him understand that that this fear that he had was was revving up the amount of thoughts he had. It was now dividing him, making him weaker, making him anxious, causing that low state of mind, creating that clutter. And I said, all you gotta do is get back to loving playing. Love the competition. Love the battle. Just go for it. You got nothing to lose. We had this great talk. I said, okay, what do you have to do now? He goes, man, I just gotta love playing again like I used to when I was younger. I wasn't worried about making it the pros. I just loved playing. I said, exactly. Get back to that. So he does. Next thing you know, boom, six goals in three games that's called up to the NHL, scores a goal in each

• 55:10Speaker 02

  one of his NHL games. It was like so awesome to see this play out in his mind, how he was performing at a higher level. I've also shared this teaching with Dak Prescott, Damian Lillard. We have had great conversations about this. And it's cool when they can actually equate it to the real world and see how it helps them perform in that real world. So, so the great ones, again, they're gonna have moments, they're gonna be moments of fear, they're gonna be moments of concern, moments of maybe I don't have it today, that, that today, but they have incredible mindset, relentlessness is a great part of it, but I would also say it's grit, like the ability to overcome, to persevere, to keep moving forward in the face of rejection, failure, adversity and obstacles. And what is the ultimate driver

• 55:54Speaker 02

  of grit? It is love. Because if you don't love it, you will never be great at it. If you're not loving the battle, right? You won't be great in the battle. You gotta love the competition. I played lacrosse at Cornell University. And so I also shared this with the Cornell lacrosse team this year before their quarterfinals game and shared this with them. And next thing you know, they chose to love the battle, it became their rallying cry. Because this team would always start slow. Why? They're cerebral. They're Cornell guys. So they're thinking a lot, of course. They get all these thoughts going in. So in the beginning of the game, you watch them, they're like hesitant, they're slow, they're not taking to the cage, they're playing horrible. They start to lose by the fourth quarter. They're like, hey, we're losing. Let's just go for it. We got nothing to lose. Now they just go balls to the wall.

• 56:38Speaker 02

  Next year, they start crushing the game. They come back and they either would always win by a goal or lose by a goal. I said, guys, this is what's happening. Explain to them the ebb and flow. Once they saw this, it became so clear. Go love the battle, love the competition from the very beginning and just go for it. They did, made to the finals, took Maryland to the finals and the championship. Maryland had so much more talent and yet they battled like you would not believe. Again, another example of seeing this play out.

• 57:04Anthony Pompliano?

  It's absolutely amazing to kind of hear how much these principles cross throughout industries, whether it's business, whether it's sport, different sports, or just even in your relationships or your daily life. It's taught me a lot and I know that you've taught millions and millions of other people as well. Where can we send people to find you on the internet, find some of the books that you've written or other work that you're doing?

• 57:28Speaker 02

  Thanks, Pop. I appreciate you doing this interview and just really had a blast talking to you about it. They can go to johngordon.com, J O N Gordon.com or Twitter, Instagram. I'm at J O N Gordon 11, at John Gordon 11 and you can reach me there, find out about my books there. I recommend you start with the energy bus. If you're an entrepreneur, start with the carpenter. It's all about building greatness with yourself and your team. And I love that you said these same principles apply. So that's what I really love. Like I have five children's books too. So my books also are reaching kids now to help them with this mindset so that they can actually deal with bullies, deal with the negativity, deal with all the anxiety that they're facing. We know so many teens today that are really struggling.

• 58:11Speaker 02

  And by the way, I shared these principles, high state of mind, low state of mind with two teenagers this summer. Two were suicidal, both turned around completely, like 180 sharing this. So it's why I'm so passionate about like this teaching. And that's the book I'm writing now to be able to get that out there so that people can actually use this, help them with their business, their life, but also for their kids, because so many are struggling.

• 58:32Anthony Pompliano?

  I love it, man. All right. Thank you so much for doing this. We definitely will do it again in the future.

• 58:36Speaker 02

  Hey, thanks, Pop.

• 58:38Anthony Pompliano?

  Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. I really hope you enjoyed this one. Make sure you're subscribed on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. And if you're looking to transition into a brand new job in the Bitcoin or crypto industry, we've got you covered. Head over to thecryptoacademy.io. My team and I have been working with the top HR teams in the industry to develop an intensive three-week training program with over 50 live events. We teach you exactly what you need to know to break into the industry, including live interview prep and resume review. Our students have been hired at over 75 of the world's best Bitcoin and crypto companies. Go to thecryptoacademy.io to learn more. Again, that's thecryptoacademy.io. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure you share it with your friends and I'll see you all for the next episode.